A.G. Gancarski
The final mayoral candidate interview heading up to Tuesday’s election happened Thursday morning, when Omega Allen appeared on First Coast Connect on WJCT-FM. The previous time Allen was on the show, she made news by claiming that “homosexuality is a choice,” a statement she seemingly has been walking back since.
Allen also held a press conference a week ago in front of WJCT, protesting her exclusion from the first televised mayoral debate for not polling above 5% in the University of North Florida poll. So her recent history with the station has been less than memorable.
The first question was about the debate. What did she want to say that she didn’t?
“I realized that I said absolutely nothing about the fact that I have the academic credentials to run the city,” she said, pointing out that she has an MBA and a doctorate, and then running through her résumé to prove “I know how the city works.”
The conversation pivoted to the HRO expansion.
“Yes, but not just yes. I believe that everyone deserves the right to have housing and employment,” she said, adding that it “may very well be” different than an expansion of the HRO itself. She would hire an LGBT applicant for a job, if one emerged that was qualified.
Then, the discussion turned to the Northside — specifically, the “economic development” promised to the Northside that has not been delivered. Northside residents deserve a “return on their investment” of taxes, and that would come with a “liaison to keep their finger on the pulse of what’s happening in Northwest Jacksonville,” she said, reiterating forum comments from earlier this week.
“I would have the tax appraiser give me the numbers” of how much money is generated in Northwest Jax, and “use those numbers to direct commerce into those areas … No one is selling the Northside of Jacksonville, which is Jacksonville’s best-kept secret.”
Listeners called in to endorse Allen, including one who described her as an alternative to “Southern conservative know-it-all” male mayoral candidates.
“Women have a certain intuition. We are sensitive. We’ve been trusted to take care of the empires of men,” Allen said, pointing out the unique value add that a female candidate brings that the other three do not. “And we don’t have testosterone issues where we’re butting heads with each other because women are nurturers.”
That’s something that “women have going for us kind of innately.”
The conversation moved to economic development, which Allen believes has been stalled in certain areas of the city because of a lack of dialogue with key power brokers. Allen reiterated her criticism of the mayor for hiring an economic development director from out of town at $210,000 for 3 1/2 years. But she could not remember that person’s name.
A caller from Riverside lauded Allen for being a “very professional, well spoken woman,” but she has a “concern” regarding Allen’s comment on homosexuality last time on the show, which she called “cringeworthy.”
“I feel like you need to evolve toward a fuller understanding for voting for this,” the caller said.
Allen doesn’t “believe that anyone should be discriminated against regardless of things going on in their lives,” with regard to “employment and lodging.”
Allen has “not read the document (the HRO) in its entirety,” so her position, as yet, is not fully formed. Lets hope she can get to it in the few days before the election.
