A.G. Gancarski
On Tuesday morning, Doyle Carter joined John Crescimbeni, Aaron Bowman, and Matt Schellenberg in the Jacksonville City Council vice president race.
The public notice meeting he called to this effect had plenty of room for whomever, though.
No one showed except the councilman, his assistant, a staffer from the mayor’s office, and this reporter.
During the half hour meeting, Carter discussed what made him stand out among the other candidates.
One distinguishing factor: while he has experience, being on his third term. Carter’s not an “in your face type of person.”
“Getting along with everybody” is key for the “calm and open minded Carter,” who sees disagreements on issues as inevitable opportunities to “come out with a better product.”
Carter, 60, cites his “common sense” approach to issues and problem solving as particularly noteworthy.
As well, his experience in retail, including “controlling employees” and “making payroll” is also noteworthy in a leadership position in a diverse city.
“We represent 989,000 people out there,” Carter said about the process, and councilmembers “come out with the best you can come out with.”
Carter believes that business recruitment is essential to the city’s solvency, citing revenue brought in by big companies like General Electric; the revenue would help solve issues like the unfunded liability and ongoing crises in infrastructure and public safety.
“We have a great mayor,” Carter said, “and the economy’s coming back.”
When asked about the competition posed by John Crescimbeni, who seems to be emerging as the establishment candidate with key endorsements from Bill Gulliford, Council President Greg Anderson, and others to come, Carter answered in a spiritual vein.
“I always do prayer,” he said, as he did before he launched his Council runs in 1999 and 2001.
“If it’s His will,” Carter said, “I get it.”
If Carter is successful, he wants to “get everybody moving in the same direction” by “plugging people into positions they’re best at.”
“I don’t think anyone here is better or smarter than anyone else,” Carter said, a seeming allusion to the tier system in Council that some perceive, which elevates some people to leadership positions more than others.
“I believe everyone’s doing this for the right reasons. It’s all about just plugging people in the place they’re best at,” Carter added.
Carter, a self-made man with an old-style Jacksonville accent, started his business (Cycle Accessories West) years ago with just $5,000. From there, he “had a good time” supporting himself and his family, and providing employment and an economic engine for others.
He didn’t run again after winning election in 1999, he said, because God told him to raise his kids and run his business.
Carter noted that while he believed that the vice president race should start after the first of the year, he felt a sense of urgency because Schellenberg launched in October.
Noting the nature of competitive people vying for one spot, Carter noted that “sometimes it does divide and give pressure.”
One divisive issue: the Human Rights Ordinance.
Carter, along with Bill Gulliford, is sponsoring a bill designed to make a fully-inclusive HRO a ballot measure.
Carter, who doesn’t believe that “anything’s changed” regarding the views of people who voted on the measure in 2012, noted that “both sides (of the issue have) people who are mean.”
I then asked him about Roy Bay, who asserted that he was a serial child molester by way of proclaiming opposition to HRO.
Carter was, he said, “reading an email” when he realized what he had just heard.
“I popped up and I said ‘dang, did he just say that?” councilman Carter recalled. “I looked around,” Carter added, and “yep, he did.”
(One of Carter’s campaign consultants, Raymond Johnson of Biblical Concepts Ministries, endorsed the testimony Bay offered on Tuesday night as a cautionary tale. Johnson has routinely attacked the LGBT community during this HRO process, from blaming AIDS patients on World AIDS Day to questioning the ability of “the most pro-Homosexual Council” in Jacksonville’s history to decide on this bill.)
Carter was expecting Garrett Dennis and Reggie Brown to sign his letter on Tuesday; neither showed up, though Brown walked by the meeting twice a few minutes before it wrapped.
Brown was blunt when we caught up to him.
“I don’t commit to none of them,” Brown said, adding that they were all great candidates and that he desired an “inclusive process.”
Councilman Brown noted that Crescimbeni may face difficulty as a Democrat on a Republican council, noting his own perennial difficulty in getting on Finance or Rules.
“I wish all the guys well in their journey for leadership,” Brown said.
It’s a journey that four men have embarked on, yet only one will complete.
