A.G. Gancarski
[Update: It appears that the aforementioned Scott O’Connor and Mayor Curry’s Chief of Staff, Kerri Stewart, had a meeting: “We certainly appreciate the gracious amount of time you allowed to discuss the CPAC matter. Your candor and information about CPAC and Neighborhood Services gives us some vision going forward. We are grateful that the Mayor’s office felt it important to open this line of direct communication to our particular neighborhood association,” O’Connor wrote in a Friday email to Stewart.]
Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry, a Republican, and former Democratic City Council candidate Lisa King were both endorsed by the Jax Chamber. And King’s input was actually taken into consideration during Curry’s “transition team” preparations for his assumption of office.
Since then, however, what relationship there might have been has deteriorated.
King was removed from the Planning Commission, her public protests and those of a few Council members notwithstanding. And more recently, King was put up for a spot on her neighborhood Citizens Planning Advisory Committee, one that required mayoral approval.
It didn’t come. Jessica Laird, who handles boards and commissions, sent King an economically worded email saying that “the Mayor will not be appointing you to this committee.”
This “really disappointed,” said CPAC Chairman Rex Neidlinger, a Curry supporter in the 2015 election along with other CPAC heads.
Neidlinger speculated that a “vendetta” existed from Curry to King, who is in a leadership role in the local Hillary Clinton campaign.
Neidlinger’s position was backed up by another King partisan, Scott O’Connor, in a two-page letter to City Hall this month.
O’Connor, the Heckscher Drive Community Club President, expressed “sincere disappointment” in Curry’s action, saying it “belittles our choice for representation.”
King, said O’Connor, “speaks with an articulate voice about community affairs” and is “not afraid of advocacy on the community’s behalf.”
O’Connor requested reconsideration of King’s nomination. However, it’s hard to see that happening.
Curry’s spokeswoman, Marsha Oliver, wrote this response to media inquiries last week: “Please see the correspondence sent to Ms. King. There are no additional statements or information to share about the non-appointment to this Committee.”
