Has the Jax NICE Committee failed?

An interesting narrative has been the decline in utility of the Jacksonville City Council Neighborhood Improvement and Community Enhancement (formerly Blight) committee.

When Denise Lee was on City Council, Blight was a long meeting, but generally an effective if powerless committee.

Since Lee has moved into the mayor’s office, NICE has gotten nasty. Clashes between Lee and NICE Chair Garrett Dennis have not been unheard of. Councilmen on the committee have been known to grouse about the “circling the drain” nature of the conclave. And regulars, as evidenced by an email from one that is circulating throughout city government, have taken note.

“This current iteration of the Blight Committee is not working and effective. My suggestion-disband the NICE Committee and make this a job descriptor for Ms. Lee. Let her do her thing. Bring back the old Blight Committee. Your time as Council Members is valuable.  City employee’s time in the audience is valuable,” writes a man going by simply “Mark.”

“I have been attending the Blight meetings for almost 2 years. After [last week’s] meeting,” Mark wrote, “I went home and thought I was living in an alternative universe.” [Bold in original].

Mark took issue with the plans for a Spring Cleanup, which is a new initiative of the committee that Mark doesn’t believe is thought out properly.

Dumpsters and roll offs can not just be placed around the City and then have people come and fill them up.  It is more complicated then that.  Hazardous waste is involved-paints, TVs, electronics, flourescent bulbs which contain mercury, asbestos-containing building materials which are very common.  Put a load of asbestos containing house siding into a roll off and the entire roll off becomes contaminated with hazardous waste and the cost to dispose of the entire roll off becomes thousands, plus fines to the City. Where is your City Environmental person? Should Regulatory Compliance have spoken up at yesterday’s meeting?

“In the old Blight Committee,” Mark adds, “there used to be overflow audiences and citizens were always willing to talk and offer suggestions. In my opinion, not many audience people feel comfortable speaking up at NICE meetings.”

Blight remediation was and is Denise Lee’s passion. Current Chair Garrett Dennis purposefully rebranded the committee, as the term blight was deemed by some to be too pejorative. What is clear, though, is that even though NICE is sporadically covered, there is at least one citizen who notices.