Peter Schorsch
With Jacksonville’s City Council on its “fifth-week” break and many of the city’s power brokers on a Chamber trip to Toronto, Bold is a bit light on City Hall content this week.
No matter, since we are entering the political season — you’ll notice a lot of entries focused on Florida’s 5th Congressional District — a Jacksonville-area seat held currently by Tallahassee Democrat Al Lawson.
Someone will run against Lawson — the question is who.
Let’s look at former Jacksonville Mayor Alvin Brown — the topic of conversation locally this week, after he told local Dems he’d soon be on a ballot.
Brown is trimmer now, spending the last two years out of the spotlight. But those familiar with his thinking say he looks like a candidate.
If so — and nothing is officially confirmed — it will make for interesting choices for local donors, pols and activists.
The critique our Jacksonville correspondent hears over and over: Alvin burned too many bridges.
Brown, who came within three percentage points of re-election, is going to have to make an affirmative case as to why he should replace Lawson. That will need to include attacks on Lawson to erode his credibility.
Can he do that? Does he see that he needs to do to the incumbent exactly what Lenny Curry did to him in 2015?
The future of Congressional District 5 rests on that — as does Brown’s own political future.
Lawson stiffs Tallahassee in Amazon hunt
While Rep. Lawson joined fellow Jacksonville Congressman John Rutherford in writing a letter of support for Duval’s long shot bid for an Amazon HQ last week, the Tallahassee Democrat apparently didn’t take care of his home base.
Tallahassee.com reports that Lawson was surprised to hear that another city in his district is pursuing Amazon.
“I never heard anything at all,” Lawson told his hometown paper, noting that the Jacksonville Chamber of Commerce was among the groups making a sale.
Lawson is gearing up for a (potential) primary challenge from former Jacksonville Mayor Alvin Brown.
Current Mayor Curry meanwhile has no great enthusiasm for his predecessor’s challenge to Lawson, saying he and Lawson have a “great working relationship.”
Prison can wait, sez Corrine Brown
Halloween saw former U.S. Rep. Brown deliver a trick-or-treat message to the federal court in Jacksonville.
She wants to delay her sentencing, she said in a filing, and she believes probation is the appropriate punishment for 18 felony counts of fraud and tax evasion.
The “defendant is still undergoing testing and evaluation by physicians at a local facility mentioned therein, for which additional suspected medical conditions have not yet been fully diagnosed. It is probable that the anticipated findings and evaluation are significant.”
So, in other words, a mystery malady, one with “certain abnormalities.”
However, the “status of the effects of those abnormalities on her mental and emotional condition” remains unknown.
The court already spiked one motion to forestall sentencing just days after filing.
If Brown’s motion is unsuccessful, sentencing is slated for Nov. 16.
Bill Clinton reviews Jax projects
In a non-political capacity, former President Clinton visited Jacksonville this week, reviewing projects that address food scarcity and the opioid crisis.
Action News Jax reported that Clinton offered words of inspiration for opioid addicts.
“Don’t be scared to admit it. Nobody is going to try and put you in jail. We are going to try and make you well,” Clinton said.
Clinton, who presided over a historic expansion of the prison industry while in office, one predicated on criminalizing drug users, has “evolved” on this issue like many pols of his generation.
The low-wattage trip also saw Clinton offer scintillating remarks on food scarcity.
Clinton watched students pack uneaten foods from the University’s cafeteria into individual meals for a local HIV network.
“Never forget that you were here on this day, watching this when you see this become a global trend,” he said.
Rick Scott pushes ‘historic funding’ in new budget
Gov. Scott returned to Jacksonville Monday afternoon to highlight his new budget’s environmental proposals at the Jacksonville Zoo.
Scott’s final budget boosts environmental funding up to $1.7 billion: $220 million over the current year’s levels.
The budget proposal has something for most constituencies: $50 million for “the best state parks system in the country”; $55 million for springs, adding to what Scott bills as “record funding for our springs”; $100 million for beaches, which got “hurt during Irma and Matthew”; $355 million for Everglades restoration, including $50 million for the dike at Lake Okeechobee; $50 million for Florida Forever.
“The big thing today is we have the money to do these things,” Scott said Monday. “It’s $1.7 billion for the environment.”
“The money we invest in our environment is important for our children and our grandchildren,” Scott added. “The environment’s important to us. All of us have to call our House and Senate members and let them know.”
One possible oversight noted by the Florida Times-Union: current proposals offer nothing for the St. Johns River and its tributaries.
Adam Putnam stumps in Fleming Island
Comfort food was on the menu at Clark’s Fish Camp, where Agriculture Secretary Putnam stumped to voters this week.
Putnam carries himself like the presumptive GOP nominee in next year’s race for governor — and why not?
His major declared opponent, Sen. Jack Latvala, has been hit hard this week in POLITICO, after reportage on alleged dalliances with female lobbyists.
In Clay County, Putnam didn’t want to talk about that, punting on the question when asked a couple of different ways. Nor did he say anything quotable about Rep. Ron DeSantis, who is eyeballing a November entry to the governor’s race.
The checklist of Putnam’s right-of-center talking points: an aversion to sanctuary cities, support for Rule of Law, parental involvement in schools — they were all there, as reliable in his speeches as the left-of-center bromides were in the 2016 presidential campaign speeches of Hillary Clinton.
Putnam also extolled Clay County — and St. Johns County — for not having the pressures that Duval County, a largely metropolitan region with the kind of legacy costs facing older, larger cities.
He said the bedroom communities are “taking parents because the schools are so outstanding,” with people “voting with their feet.”
Gwen Graham slates Jax fundraising trip next week
Save the date, centrist Jacksonville Dems — and bring your checkbook.
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Graham has a Jacksonville fundraising junket slated for Monday evening at the Haskell Building in Riverside.
Suggested contribution levels range from $100 to $1,000.
Host committee includes Ambassador Nancy Soderberg and former State Attorney Harry Shorstein.
Graham is leading the Democratic fundraising race in polls, but she will almost certainly face a cash crunch if Putnam gets the GOP nod.
Audrey Gibson to lead Senate Dems?
Scandalized state Sen. Jeff Clemens is out — and it looks like Jacksonville’s Gibson is in.
Reported by News Service of Florida, Gibson believes she has a “simple majority” of pledges supporting her to replace Clemens as the leader of the Senate Democrats.
Gibson is excited about growing the party’s presence in the upper house.
“There’s no doubt that we can recover. I think the swiftness with which things happened enables us to be able to do that. If it had dragged on, if he stayed and things kept trickling out, that’s one thing,” Gibson said. “He technically wasn’t leader yet, anyway. He was leader-designate.
Gibson was in the discussion for a potential run for Congress against Rep. Lawson.
A move to Senate leadership for the chair of the Duval Democrats would seemingly forestall that, clearing the way for a potential run from former Jacksonville Mayor Brown.
Gibson outlines North Florida vision, rebukes Jax mayor
We caught up with Gibson after a meeting of the Duval County Legislative Delegation — and she gave us some insight into what she would bring to the table as caucus leader of the Senate Dems (as expected).
Gibson stressed the importance of ensuring that all caucus members are able to have their priorities heard, while noting that environmental and educational issues are key.
Also important: North Florida. As Gibson noted, the conversation for years in Tallahassee has prioritized South Florida; even as the leader of the minority party in the Senate, Gibson believes she can move priorities — especially regarding JAXPORT’s dredging process.
She had an ask from the city of Jacksonville though: for Curry to be more involved in dialoguing with the Delegation and expounding on priorities.
While Gibson has met with Curry senior staffer Ali Korman Shelton before recent Legislative Sessions, she has been frustrated in attempts to “meet with the mayor directly.”
“There should also be that personal conversation with the Delegation. We’re making the case here,” Gibson remarked.
Other delegation members have made this case — especially about the Hart Bridge offramp change proposal pushed at last year’s Delegation meeting.
But none of them put it quite like this.
“They just walked in with that map, and I thought ‘what is that?’, and that is not how you relate to the delegation that you want to carry your water at the state level,” Gibson said. “It just shouldn’t be done that way.”
Rep. Jay Fant was going to carry that project last year, on public safety grounds; noting that the rationale for the project has changed, Fant said that it is a “heavy lift” and it is incumbent on the city to make a “really good case.”
State Rep. invokes Irma to stall foreclosure
In the wake of Hurricane Irma last month, State Rep. Kim Daniels distinguished herself by asserting that “prophets” saw the storm coming.
“Nothing happens except God reveal it to prophets first,” Daniels observed as the death-dealing superstorm enveloped the peninsula.
God’s revelation apparently has limits, however, and those limits extend to a property owned by one of Daniels’ businesses, “Spoken Word Ministries.”
Motions to cancel a sale date have been filed four times — the most recent one, a cancellation of an October sale due to Hurricane Irma, resetting the event to Nov. 8.
Spoken Word Ministries seeks one more cancellation — and, despite the impeccable foresight of prophets in Daniels’ orbit, that cancellation is related to Hurricane Irma.
Spoken Word Ministries needs “time to review damage that the subject property may have sustained,” as well as “potential property insurance issues,” and “eligibility for loss mitigation and other foreclosure avoidance opportunities.”
Curry’s ‘kids hope’ vision
One of the signature legislative pushes of Curry‘s administration — the Kids Hope Alliance (KHA) — passed by the City Council last month.
The KHA, a new seven-person board that will replace the Jacksonville Children’s Commission and the Jacksonville Journey, will command a roughly $35 million budget for services the mayor calls “at-hope kids,” handling oversight of various programs.
The board members are still being selected. But when they are in place, Curry wants a group of “at-hope kids” from Jacksonville’s Lee High School — the EVAC Movement — to address them and let them know what is needed,
“Come and talk to them,” Curry said. “Be real with them and tell it like it is.”
What it is, of course, is an everyday struggle: one of trying to walk a path toward success that requires sidestepping myriad hazards, the kind seen in many Jacksonville communities.
“We are going to invest money into young people,” Curry said, and the mayor wanted the young men to provide insight into how those investments are to be programmed.
JEA still interested in Puerto Rican power gig
We reported weeks back on concerns with Whitefish Holdings assuming the massive task of reconstructing Puerto Rico’s storm-ravaged power grid.
In the weeks since, the story of Whitefish went from obscurity to the global spotlight, with media outlets from cable news on down raising concerns that were originally floated in our reporting — concerns that were not taken as seriously as they should have been early on.
The narrative finally has assumed critical mass: The New York Times and other outlets are reporting on Puerto Rico’s decision to cancel the $300 million contract.
For Jacksonville, this issue hits closer to home than some places — 41 JEA workers are on the island, along with trucks and supplies.
JEA, despite the Whitefish deal going belly up, wants to be there too, they told Florida Politics this week.
“On behalf of JEA, we are dedicated to the task at hand — making a meaningful contribution to the people of Puerto Rico by helping to get their electric system up and running as soon as possible. Our very talented and hardworking JEA crew members are in Puerto Rico now and working hard every day,” JEA asserted Monday morning.
“Whitefish was the available contracting vehicle when we extended the offer for our professionals to work. As that circumstance changes, we will work with PREPA and anyone else that may be assigned to make this devastating situation better,” JEA added.
Clay County Sheriff backs Ashley Moody for Attorney General
When it comes to being Attorney General, Jacksonville Republican Fant can’t — but Moody can, per Clay County Sheriff Darryl Daniels.
“Our community cannot play politics with public safety. We need an Attorney General who doesn’t need to learn the job on the job. Ashley Moody is the only candidate who has a proven track record of putting criminals behind bars. She is an experienced leader in criminal justice and I’m proud to endorse her for Attorney General,” Daniels said in a statement Monday.
Jacksonville Sheriff Mike Williams already endorsed Moody, and the Daniels dis raises more questions about whether Fant is losing the race in his own backyard.
Moody and Fant were joined recently in the race by Rep. Frank White, a Pensacola Republican cut from the Federalist Society mold.
Moody, thus far, has the most momentum — having amassed a lot of law enforcement endorsements and raised over a million dollars.
New facilities, security leaders at JAXPORT
JAXPORT added two experienced and respected local executives to its leadership team.
Transportation management professional James Bennett will join JAXPORT as Senior Director, Facilities Development. Bennett will direct the port’s marine and landside infrastructure development and operations related to capital improvements. In addition, he will work on JAXPORT’s major growth projects, including harbor deepening.
Bennett is a licensed professional engineer with extensive experience in senior transportation positions, including a decade as Planning Manager for the Florida Department of Transportation’s District Two. He most recently served as the project director for JAXPORT’s general engineering contractor, working directly with port personnel on the engineering, planning, design and permitting of major development initiatives. Bennett currently serves on the five-member Baker County Board of Commissioners.
Retired Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office Sergeant Tammy Brown joins JAXPORT as Director, Public Safety and Security. Brown will direct all law enforcement, physical security, safety, and emergency management and preparedness services in support of more than 25,000 port employees, tenants and customers.
Brown, a 21-year veteran of the sheriff’s department most recently as Seaport Unit Liaison. In addition, she was responsible for coordinating and implementing seaport security initiatives in compliance with Federal Maritime Regulatory requirements.
“Many of us have been fortunate to work closely with James and Tammy in their previous roles,” said JAXPORT CEO Eric Green. “They are both dynamic, experienced leaders who will help us innovate and excel during this important time in the port’s history.”
Crowley expands, adds airfreight partnership
Crowley Logistics, part of Jacksonville-based Crowley Holdings, has entered a joint agreement with airfreight company Air Menzies International.
As reported by the Jacksonville Business Journal, Crowley’s 40,000 square-foot CrowleyFresh facility in Medley will be the consolidation hub for AMI’s Miami Gateway, connecting Central and South America, with the U.S. and other countries.
Crowley will receive and validate cargo, setting up pallets and daily truck deliveries with Miami International Airport.
“We are very happy to be working with Crowley, and gaining access to their impressive infrastructure here in Miami,” AMI Vice President for the U.S. Mike Pattinson said in a statement this week. “Our capabilities are complementary, and will enable both companies to enhance the quality and scope of services to their customers while preserving AMI’s precious neutrality.”
The Crowley facility will serve as AMI’s first temperature-controlled, wholesale warehouse. An on-site U.S. Transportation Security Administration Certified Cargo Screening Facility will also allow AMI to bypass the higher-cost screening process at Miami International.
In return, Crowley will have access to AMI wholesale airfreight services in Europe, South America, Africa, Asia and Australia. This expansion will boost Crowley’s capacity and frequency.
“Our new collaboration with AMI represents a significant enhancement to our airfreight service offerings,” Crowley senior vice president and general manager Frank Larkin said in a statement. “For the first time, we will be able to offer customers spot moves from AMI’s other key U.S. gateways in Chicago, Los Angeles and New York, into our key markets in Central America and the Caribbean.”
UF Health Jax shuttle works overtime before Hurricane Irma
UF Health Jacksonville shuttles hundreds of hospital employees and patients daily to work, meetings and appointments. But Saturday, Sept. 9, the route was longer — and rougher — as Hurricane Irma began bearing down on the area.
“Without our shuttle service, there would have been no way for us to properly discharge patients that weekend,” said Allison Martin, senior manager for Case Management and Palliative Care at UF Health Jacksonville. “They were truly a lifesaver.”
UFHealthJax.org notes that Martin was among 16 case managers at UF Health Jacksonville and UF Health North staying on-site during Irma between Saturday, Sept. 9, through Tuesday, Sept. 12.
Workers discharged as many patients as possible before the storm, to make room for patients expected arrive afterward.
“This storm added a challenge for us. Public transportation and private taxis all stopped running late Saturday,” Martin said. “It left many of our patients stranded.”
Since 2015, Kelly Tours has operated shuttle services for the hospital since 2015. On the weekend of Irma, Kelly provided employees transportation to and from the Pavilion and Clinical Center safely.
Lester DuBose, one of the weekend UF Health drivers, stepped up in a big way for patients.
“Each day, Lester and his shuttles drove 15 to 20 patients to safety,” Martin said. “He drove our patients from the downtown and north campus home and to disaster shelters. He did this every night up until midnight, even on the day of the storm.”
Jacksonville Zoo’s Teddy Bear Affair
Sponsored by Nemours Children’s Specialty Care, kids can bring in their favorite plush animal Saturday, Nov. 4, for free admission to the Jacksonville Zoo & Gardens. No coupon needed.
Nemours will be performing ‘checkups’ for plush friends in the Range of the Jaguar.
The Teddy Bear Affair will be from 10 a.m. — 3 p.m.
