Peter Schorsch
The Big Payback: For locals, SaintPetersBlog buried the lede of this story: Ballard Partners is opening an office in Washington, D.C.
And Jacksonville managing partner Susie Wiles, one of Jacksonville’s leading political strategists, will be there at least part-time, providing clients with what she calls “critical access to the happenings at the federal level.”
The political world would look different in the 904, and beyond, without Wiles, who had a fantastic 2016.
She led the Donald Trump campaign to a Florida win.
She also helped (bigly) with the sale of the Jacksonville pension reform referendum.
And she also showed Rep. Al Lawson around Jacksonville, which helped him get local support and buy-in to blunt the home field advantage of Rep. Corrine Brown.
Will Wiles help advance Jacksonville’s priorities with the White House? Reasonable bet … especially since Ballard already has a city of Jacksonville contract in Tallahassee.
Those frustrated with Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry for supporting the Trump Administration may need to develop some perspective.
Curry has a unique opportunity, as a GOP mayor, to get White House buy in on federal largess.
He has a president who will commit to creating liquidity to rebuild infrastructure.
The window is open for Jacksonville to get serious money for its priorities.
Don’t expect this mayor to ignore that.
As he likes to say, it’s a “relationship business.”
Orange Jumpsuit Apparatus: Those who have missed Corrine Brown and Reggie Fullwood will have opportunities to catch them in separate engagements at Jacksonville’s federal courthouse next week.
Brown and her former chief of staff Ronnie Simmons have a motion hearing Thursday at 2 p.m.
The co-defendants in the One Door for Education trial looked poised to have separate trials for a few days last year.
Simmons had filed for it then changed his mind, but not before expressing qualms about Brown’s notoriety prejudicing a jury against him.
We are curious about when Simmons completes his turn against his former boss.
Fullwood, meanwhile, faces a sentencing Tuesday, having pleaded guilty to two counts of wire fraud for misappropriation of campaign funds.
Fullwood spent the money on personal expenses.
In the plea deal struck in late September in his fraud case involving the Jacksonville Democrat using campaign funds for personal expenses, Fullwood agreed to a forfeiture money judgment of $60,000.
Fullwood could face 21 years in prison — 20 for a count of wire fraud, and another year for failure to properly report income.
The sentencing judge — Henry Lee Adams — is new to the case, as former judge Marcia Morales Howard recused herself last year before the sentencing phase began.
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It’s Free Speech, Man: Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry walks a tightrope from news cycle to news cycle, balancing his partisan Republican inclinations with the realities of running a city in which party label often doesn’t matter.
Curry took a position for Donald Trump’s refugee-and-travel moratorium from seven destabilized majority-Muslim countries earlier this week.
“When the federal government moves to protect [American citizens], that’s the right move. The Trump administration is trying to protect [Americans] from terrorism,” Curry told FloridaPolitics.com.
On Tuesday, roughly 200 protesters marched to City Hall to voice their disagreement with Curry’s position and to offer support for Muslim refugees.
Curry addressed that opposition Wednesday, defending their right to make their positions known.
“Free speech, man. That’s the beauty of our country — exercised right here in our city. People have the right to express themselves and their views. That’s how we operate in civilized democratic society,” Curry said.
“I don’t know how they organized. I don’t know how they got here. Regardless,” Curry said, “it’s free speech. I always encourage people to exercise their right to express themselves in a peaceful manner.”
HRO Update: The proposed expansion of Jacksonville’s Human Rights Ordinance hits committees Monday.
And that first committee stop, in the Neighborhoods, Community Investments and Services Committee, could bear watching.
Councilman Bill Gulliford is in the Neighborhoods, Community Investments and Services Committee.
And he has been floating the idea of introducing a measure calling for a referendum on the bill.
It “could be,” he said, an amendment to the currently proposed ordinance.
The proposed ordinance adds protections on the grounds of sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression in the realm of public accommodations, housing and the workplace.
NCIS is generally a back burner committee.
However, Monday will ensure it’s must-see TV.
Magical Realism: There has been some quiet criticism of particular big asks from Jacksonville lately.
We saw it with the hot shotted attempt to get the Duval County Legislative Delegation to go all in on a Shad Khan friendly proposal to tear down the Hart Bridge off-ramps.
Mayor Curry said it was public safety. No one bought that. The ramps look like something out of a Kraftwerk video: barely utilitarian, ugly-as-sin slopes that hail from a different era. But the ramps still worked, and the idea of asking a bunch of rookies with no stroke to get the $50M Curry wanted was fanciful at best.
Now the mayor’s office wants money for septic tank removal: an ask that the city estimates needing anywhere from $300M to $1B for.
Jumping on the bandwagon: Councilman Matt Schellenberg.
WJCT reported on Schellenberg’s visit to the Duval Delegation meeting this week (for more on that whole meeting, including local bills and what Melissa Nelson had to say about reforms in her office, go here).
Schellenberg just wants a “little bit of money” to help with removal.
“The biggest one right now is cleanup on Hogan’s Creek, as well as the bill for the septic tanks is close to $400 million and I think that would help substantially getting us moving,” he said. “You can’t do it every year, but a little bit of money — $20, $30, and $40 million — to help remove contaminated septic tanks.”
$40 million here, $40 million there, then you might have a big bit of money.
State money won’t come for this purpose in the sums Schellenberg wants — not this year, not next.
Richard Corcoran is one reason. Another reason: the state’s budget forecast is clouding up with each passing quarter.
The delegation is better off filing school prayer bills, a la Kim Daniels, than trying to get sums like Schellenberg’s ask in this climate.
Intentional Grounding: As Andrew Pantazi notes in the Florida Times-Union, the “Stand Your Ground” debate is back in the Legislature, with Sen. Rob Bradley looking to shift the burden of proving self-defense to the prosecution.
That’s a hard sell for some.
Opposed to the Bradley change: Lucia McBath, the mother of Jordan Davis, who was gunned down at a Jacksonville gas station in a purported act of self-defense by Michael Dunn.
McBath, a prominent Democratic political activist, believes a specious claim of self-defense was used to justify the murder of her son.
An open question: what would happen the next time a man killed another man in the street, and he could successfully invoke a claim of self-defense, rooted in reasonable doubt?
Sen. Bradley told us this week, before the Clay County Legislative Delegation meeting, that’s not what his bill would allow
“If I thought that by filing this bill an individual who was otherwise guilty would go free, I would never have filed the bill,” Bradley said.
Bradley understands McBath’s “passion,” especially as a father of three himself, and “can’t imagine the grief [she’s] had to experience.”
Bradley noted even if his current bill were law, Michael Dunn would “still be convicted and spend his life in prison.”
“This bill corrects a decision in the 2015 Breathritt case that held, in an immunity hearing, that the burden of proof is with the defendant, not the government,” Bradley said.
“The Constitution has protections,” said Bradley, for “self-defense,” and the “burden of proof should be with the government.”
No News Is No News: Last weekend, Tia Mitchell offered a “read the tea leaves” look at the race for the 2022 Florida House Speaker in the Florida Times-Union.
The race isn’t exactly coverable by traditional means – new rules from House Speaker Richard Corcoran have created conditions where the principals won’t talk to the press about their interest in the job.
The bright hope locally: Paul Renner, the Palm Coast Republican with Jacksonville ties.
We interviewed him last month at a county delegation meeting. He wasn’t able to talk about the Speaker’s race.
Unfortunate, given the currents undermining his candidacy.
Quietly, some Jacksonville people grouse Renner wasn’t as aggressive as he could have been in helping out allies and potential allies in the 2016 primary.
Will that factor into the race?
It’s one of those scenarios where even the people who are willing to speak off the record insist their comments are received on background.
If Renner is serious about a bid for speaker, it follows he’s going to have to wear out some tires traveling the state, and maybe wear out a pen or two writing some checks.
Matthew’s Backwash: Much of the coverage of the aftermath of Hurricane Matthew in St. Augustine has revolved around flooding, devastated buildings, and other FEMA-worthy damage.
Less covered, but still salient: A hit the city took in parking revenues.
Sheldon Gardner of the St. Augustine Record reports year over year declines in parking and marina fees totaling $177,000, when comparing October 2016 to October 2015.
Fee collections recovered in the months since October, more or less.
An upcoming concern, though: lost ad valorem from the 30 or so severely damaged properties in the storm.
Reassessments of these properties are underway.
Meanwhile, a bill from State Sen. Travis Hutson would compel reassessment of properties Matthew rendered uninhabitable.
Academy Fight Song: Speaking of Hutson, the St. Augustine Record reports the Elkton Republican would like to export the career academy model used in St. Johns County to the rest of the state.
“This is ground zero for how to do things right,” Hutson said during his visit to the district Tuesday.
Hutson toured 12 Career Academies in five high schools, offering engineering, architecture, hospitality, media and various other career-structured elective courses to 14,000 students.
Hutson sees SJC as a model for the entire state with its academies and may file a bill to incentivize roll outs of similar models in other smaller counties.
Though with 200,000 people in St. Johns, can we still call it smaller?
Huguenot Park Re-Opens: After substantial damage from Hurricane Matthew forced a four-month closure, Huguenot Memorial Park has reopened to day visitors.
As of 8 a.m. Jan. 31, Huguenot Memorial Park – 10980 Heckscher Drive – opened to the public. While the park is open, ongoing repairs require modified hours. Currently, the park will be open daily, 8 a.m. – 4 p.m. Camping and shelter rentals are not available at this time.
During the storm, the park sustained damage to its main access road, office building, dunes and shelters. Initially, the park was scheduled to reopen by spring, diligent work by park officials to address immediate needs led to an earlier than expected opening. Further repairs will continue through the next several months. For more current information on park access, call (904) 255-4255.
Night for Heroes at UF Health: Brian Lynn, the patient honoree at the 2017 A Night for Heroes gala, is the subject of an article for University of Florida Health Jacksonville, which he credits for saving his life after a traumatic brain injury.
Lynn doesn’t remember the helicopter ride to UF Health Jacksonville April 24, 2016. He has no memory of the trauma surgeons or nurses who rushed to stabilize him after he arrived. He can’t recall having his brain scanned or being prepped for the emergency surgeries that would ultimately save his life.
The 43-year-old father spent 17 days in the Neuro Intensive Care Unit, but can only remember the last six. Brian relies on his family to fill in the blanks. Although he can’t account for a single second of his blackout, he believes the lifesaving care he received immediately following his traumatic brain injury is the only reason he is alive today.
“It is not lost on me that had it not been for UF Health Jacksonville, I wouldn’t be here right now,” Brian said. “I owe my recovery, I owe my existence to UF Health.”
A Night for Heroes is the annual event benefiting UF Health TraumaOne, the region’s only adult and pediatric Level I trauma center.
Get registered: Registration is now open for the 2017 JAXPORT Logistics Intermodal Conference. The biennial conference, which attracts logistics and transportation professionals from around the world, gives industry officials a unique change to network with leaders in the field of logistics, shipping and port management.
Speakers this year include former Speaker Tom Feeney; Heather Gilhuly, the senior manager of port operations and metrics at the Volkswagen Group of America, Inc.; Anthony McAuley, director of global logistics for Wal-Mart; and Matt Tillman, the founder and CEO of Haven.
The conference will also feature a session called “The Shake Out from Shifting Ocean Carrier Alliances.” The panel will be moderated by Jim Prior, the division vice president, transportation at Coach, and panelists will be Fabio Santucci, president of Mediterranean Shipping Co.; Dick Craig, president and CEO of MOL; Charlie Cunnion, the director of global transportation at International Forest Products; and Carter Noland, director of supply chain at GP Cellulose.
The conference is scheduled for March 20-22 at the World Golf Village Renaissance St. Augustine Resort.
