A.G. Gancarski
In a sense, Jacksonville’s City Hall these days is like an extended game of poker between Mayor Lenny Curry and Finance Chair Garrett Dennis.
We have seen a few examples of jousting between the GOP Mayor and the Democratic Councilman of late.
Dennis’ play for $200,000 of emergency money for swim lessons earlier this summer fell, in part because Dennis had no fixed plan for deployment, and in part because the Curry administration worked behind the scenes to destroy the bill. Then, Curry allocated $1.7M in the new budget for a year round program.
This week, when Curry held a presser to promote the new Kids’ Hope Alliance, a radical reorg of the current Jax Journey and Jacksonville Children’s Commission, fourteen Councilors showed up and vowed to co-sponsor.
Not Dennis, however; he had a meeting.
And, in response to an appropriation made this week for $1.071M additional afterschool program money from the Curry administration, Dennis approached it like a poker player, essentially saying: “I’ll see you, and I’ll raise you.”
On Monday evening in Jacksonville City Council chambers, Dennis will say that Curry’s allocation isn’t nearly enough.
“With the Mayor’s support, an additional $1.8 million has been identified to expand accessibility of afterschool services to more youth and their families,” Dennis contends in a Friday press release, adding that “there remains a need for approximately $1.7 million to fund an additional twenty (20) sites.”
Dennis told us that he and the mayor were on “two different pages” regarding this extra funding.
We reached out to Curry, and spokesperson Tia Ford offered the following response on his behalf Friday afternoon.
“The Councilman is entitled to his opinion and legislative priorities in his role as a legislator. Mayor Curry has no comment on the Councilman’s day to day business and will evaluate any legislation that passes council at that time,” Ford wrote.
The chess game starts up again Monday.
