A.G. Gancarski
Earlier Wednesday, we reported on the Northeast Florida LGBT Leadership PAC‘s slate of endorsements for the March Jacksonville Unitary Election. In doing so, we have uncovered differing recollections of a 2012 meeting between PAC Vice Chairman Jimmy Midyette and Mayor Alvin Brown‘s Chief of Staff Chris Hand.
Midyette said at Tuesday’s press conference that “before the bill was introduced, members of the LGBT community met with Mayor Brown’s staff in an effort to coordinate the effort, as was promised during the 2011 election cycle.” However, “instead of assisting with our efforts, many of our elected leaders failed to deliver on campaign promises made to the LGBT community. Despite months of public testimony and comments outlining horrendous instances of discrimination against LGBT people, the mayor and council were unmoved.”
I asked Midyette for more details on the meeting.
“It was Chris Hand, Michelle Barth, myself, and Dan Merkan.”
Midyette and Hand concur as to who was at the meeting. And that’s about it.
In a detailed email response to my questions on the matter, Hand fleshed out the narrative, after consulting with others to ensure his recollection was reliable.
“At no point did members of the LGBT community meet with me or then-City Policy Director (our City Council liaison) Jessica Deal to coordinate any legislative effort before the bill was introduced in May 2012. I just spoke to Jessica and confirmed that with her,” Hand wrote.
“Frankly, since I knew some of the organizers personally, I was surprised at the lack of outreach as they were preparing their legislative effort. But I learned of the introduction of the legislation in late April 2012 when the news media reported that Warren Jones was planning to file a bill,” Hand continued.
“The only meeting I had was in the first few months of the administration (Jan. 4, 2012), when Deputy Chief of Staff Michelle Barth and I met with Jimmy Midyette and Dan Merkan to catch up on issues in general,” Hand wrote. “I knew Jimmy and Michelle knew Dan, and we’re always interested in hearing from citizens.”
The meeting, Hand wrote, lasted 30 minutes.
“’Coordination of the effort’ was not discussed at that meeting,” Hand asserted. “I just checked with Michelle and she confirms that it was not discussed. While Jimmy and Dan expressed the general hope that City Council would expand the Human Rights Ordinance, they did not indicate if or when legislation was forthcoming or ask us to introduce any legislation. We also discussed a variety of other matters such as appointments to City Boards and Commissions, and other issues they were tracking.
“I remember that Jimmy and Dan thanked us for taking the time to meet. As part of that thanks, Jimmy made a comment that the previous administration would never have agreed to meet with them. I found that comment surprising since my experience with the Peyton Administration was positive during the transition to the Brown Administration,” Hand added.
“That was the last time I saw Jimmy before the news broke of the impending bill introduction in late April. As best as I can remember, the only time I have seen him since that January 4, 2012 meeting is when I ran into him at a JCCI event in November 2012,” the mayor’s chief of staff wrote.
