Staff Reports
Is Jacksonville a major league sports city? Can it be?
The answers to both these questions for many locals is an unconditional yes. However, the reality on the ground is a bit more sobering.
A Florida Times-Union sports columnist laid it out earlier this week: the Gator Bowl needs more than the Jaguars taking over operations to survive.
The Gator was a big deal once, decades back when Jacksonville itself held an outsize influence compared to now in the state.
CEO Rick Catlett said that it’s either move it or lose it time: either the bowl steps up, or it fades into the ether. The Gator won’t become the Poulan Weedwacker bowl.
However, it might as well be. It’s not a draw for locals anymore. The lightning in a bottle is when FSU or UF has a down year and have to come here.
On the pro football front, the message is clear: the city needs to ante up and needs to do so while 12th-man Lenny Curry is Mayor.
USA Today notes that “research on some recent renovations around the league and found that the Jags would be eyeing renovations between $400-$500 million, and … Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry is ready to go into negotiations to find a solution for the Jags’ $500 million Lot J plans.”
So, things look good for Jags’ money, goes the thinking.
Can the city absorb two big hits at the Sports Complex and get anything else of note done?
That’s the question here.
The bet is on athletics, as it has been.
But these investments are not guaranteed. Consider the Miami Marlins, who solved their stadium problem but too late for the gates.
Cruise control
Some may worry about what the economy may hold. However, as the Jax Daily Record reports, a regional Fed President who spoke locally is not among them.
“Let the economy just cruise anyway it wants to go,” asserted Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta President Raphael Bostic.
Bostic, addressing the local Economic Roundtable, apparently goes out of his way not to be quotable.
“If I say words, there’s some possibility they may be repeated in the media. In this job,” he said. “I never have an anonymous moment.”
Bostic also recommended that the city develop a vibrant downtown.
Clay clout
The Florida Times-Union featured Sen. Rob Bradley and Rep. Travis Cummings, budget chairs for their respective bodies, in a story this week.
Timing is notable here, as the two are principal players in budget negotiations, and the T-U hasn’t gone particularly deep into coverage of the Legislative Session this year.
Cummings noted the balancing act between Clay County’s “unmet needs” and having to handle appropriations for the entire state.
While the budget chairs hail from Clay, there is considerable regional representation in various budget conference committees.
Rep. Cord Byrd takes the long view, lauding the “very strong” Northeast Florida delegation.
Among local priorities: $8 million for downtown workforce housing, $5 million for renovations at the University of North Florida, and various road projects.
Rest of the story
Florida Trend writer Jason Garcia pointed out an early win for Rep. Jason Fischer on Twitter this week.
An early budget winner: Vestor, the Jacksonville-based apartment developer.
The House has agreed with the Senate to spend $8 million on an affordable housing project in downtown Jacksonville. It's a Vestcor project known as "The Lofts at Cathedral" https://t.co/9qg04bJXEg
— Jason Garcia (@Jason_Garcia) April 24, 2019
“The House has agreed with the Senate to spend $8 million on an affordable housing project in downtown Jacksonville. It’s a Vestcor project known as ‘The Lofts at Cathedral,’” Garcia tweeted.
This project was, as we reported, floated in the districts of Sen. Audrey Gibson and Rep. Tracie Davis, who wondered why the Mayor’s Office didn’t loop them in.
Ballard Partners is handling the lobbying on this project, which the appropriations request describes in vague terms: “The purpose of the project is to develop a large Workforce Housing multi-family apartment complex in the City of Jacksonville’s Urban Core.”
Davis added that an “$8 million project in the heart of the Urban Core should have resulted in a conversation or some input.”
It looks like this project is happening, another example of the Curry administration working the process in ways that some in the process strongly dislikes.
As the saying goes, a win is a win.
Dedication
This week. Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill to rename a stretch of Interstate 295 after Lance C. Whitaker, a police officer who died in a one-car crash last year while responding to a call.
Whitaker, 48, served with the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office for 17 years.
Senate Minority Leader Gibson and Republican counterpart Aaron Bean carried the legislation in the Senate.
In the House, Reps. Davis and Byrd carried the bill.
Selling the school tax
Duval County’s school facilities are looking the worse for wear. And a tax hike is the answer the School Board seeks to push.
The Florida Times-Union reports that the Duval County School Board seeks a referendum to push a half-cent sales tax to upgrade facilities.
Superintendent Diana Greene says the district is at a “crossroads” regarding funding, and that this would be a reactive move.
The board expects to ratify this officially May 7, after which the Jacksonville City Council will mull legislation.
There is a recent regional precedent for this: a couple of years back, St. Johns County voters approved their own referendum to raise school taxes.
The campaign was now not through osmosis.
Kevin Sweeny, who directed the referendum effort, attributed the victory to political fundamentals: an intense ground game months ahead of the vote with sharp mailpieces.
“You’ve got to get out there and sweat,” Sweeny said, “and knock on doors.”
When asked for more strategy details, Sweeny said that “we won this election early” by “going after people we knew, past early voters in the last four elections,” knocking on those doors multiple times.
Jacksonville has seen two successful referendums of its own in recent years.
Bestbet spent $2 million to convince Duval County voters to expand gambling operations, getting 57 percent of the vote. And the Curry machine spent big to authorize pension reform, scoring 65 percent of the vote.
The marketing operation behind the bestbet referendum was multifaceted, with intentionally non-aggressive television ads positioning the measure as “something we can all agree on.” As well, there were aggressive field efforts at early voting locations in Northwest Jacksonville over the weekend, to build the GOP-backed measure’s strength with Democrats in the area.
The “Yes for Jacksonville” pension reform effort saw a variety of donors, mostly institutional stakeholders, pushing the pension reform referendum’s coffers over the $2.1 million mark.
That referendum required considerable voter education, as voters in tax-averse Duval County needed convincing of the wisdom of extending a 1/2-cent infrastructure sales tax past its expected sunset date of 2030.
So what will it take to sell a school tax?
A few million bucks, and buy-in from the donor class, and the machine behind it.
Bahama breeze
The Jacksonville Town Center drives shoppers to drink, often. But, reports the Jacksonville Daily Record, locals will have one more spot to wet their whistles … and it will be unique in this area.
Clothing/lifestyle brand Tommy Bahama will open one of just three of its “Marlin” bars at the Southside shopping center later this year.
Plans are for the bar abutting the Tommy Bahama store.
One analyst lauded what appears to be a brand extension by the clothier.
“From a financial perspective, we like the lower-capital, lower-rent, lower-labor Marlin Bar model. From a guest experience perspective, the upscale, fast-casual style is aligned with the way many people increasingly want to eat out.”
Construction time again
Building in Jacksonville may be modernized — if work done by the city’s Resiliency Committee on new construction standards pays off.
WJCT reports the appointed group is “putting together proposals they think will help prepare the city for sea level rise and flooding.”
“I wasn’t ready to jump in the water yet until I understood how deep the waters were, where the deep waters were, where the shallow waters were,” committee head Sam Mousa told WJCT.
“It’s just how I tackle anything – understand the issue before you start solving the issue,” Mousa added.
Among the potential solutions workshopped: raising the buildable floor of a structure to 2 feet above sea level and improving drainage criteria.
This group stays together until June, at which they will formalize point recommendations.
Quid pro quo
The Jacksonville Business Journal brought the story of a former local CEO, bounced for “internal complaints of financial impropriety,” who donated to Curry’s campaign while pushing for incentives.
SharedLabs Inc. (a “Jacksonville giant on the global stage”) threatened to move, the JBJ reports, if it didn’t get incentives to stay in town.
Incentive negotiations began in January 2018. Within months, former CEO Jason Cory had routed $10,000 into Curry’s campaign and political committee.
If the Jacksonville mayoral race had featured a Democrat … had gone to a runoff … this narrative may have legs.
As it is, Curry’s political enemies likely won’t exploit it; they are still loath as ever to take him on.
DOA
Speaking of political enemies, one of Curry’s adversaries filed a bill targeting his campaign’s use of uniformed police officers in television ads.
Not that it matters at this point.
WJXT reports that Councilman Garrett Dennis filed a bill that would ban uniformed cops or other city employees from endorsing while wearing their work clothes.
Dennis has “concern” about the use of “city resources.” No friend of the Westside Democrat, police union head Steve Zona notes Dennis was never endorsed by public safety officials, so his concern is misplaced.
It’s worth noting that the bill is on Curry’s radar; a senior staffer described it as “DOA.”
And, in something of an irony, the only candidate using uniformed officers in television ads right now is Dennis ally Lisa King, running for an at-large seat.
King’s first broadcast buy is $13,000.
The campaign will be over before they hear this bill in committee.
Gettinger on TV
Running in Jacksonville City Council District 14, Democrat Sunny Gettinger is on television with what her campaign calls a “five-figure ad buy.”
“I am proud this talks about the future I see in Jacksonville,” said Gettinger. “As a former chair of the Riverside Arts Market, I believe in the power of a good idea. It’s not just about getting something new launched, but about maintaining the life and quality of a project over time.”
“I know when Jacksonville gets to work there is nothing we cannot achieve. We have a lot of work to do to fulfill our promises and meet our promise as a city. On city council, I will work hard to improve our infrastructure, protect our community and reduce crime,” Gettinger added.
DeFoor, who secured 40 percent of the vote in a four-way March race, is the favorite of the Lenny Curry machine. And the favorite, at least in the most recent week, of donors, as she brought in over $24,000 in hard money during that period.
Among the donors of note: former Gov. Bob Martinez, Mike Hightower, Councilman Bill Gulliford, and a political committee associated with state Rep. Wyman Duggan.
DeFoor has nearly $72,000 in hard money on hand and an additional $1,800 in a state-level political committee.
Gettinger, who has kept pace financially for most of this campaign, now finds herself in a closing sprint against the Mayor’s machine.
The Democrat raised under $8,000 in the week, giving her just under $65,000 on hand.
To view the ad, click on the image below:
Daily Record to move
Citing a need for space consolidation and closer proximity to City Hall, the Jacksonville Daily Record announced this week its move to a building on Forsyth Street.
It signed a seven-year lease at 121 W. Forsyth St., with a move slated for next year.
The Record has been on Bay Street for 47 years, nearly the entire consolidated era.
Time moves on, though.
“I have to say it will be sad to drive on Bay Street and not see ‘The Daily Record’ signage on the side of this sturdy old building. But as we all know, times change, and in business, you have to do what makes sense,” Observer Media Group Publisher Matt Walsh said.
Former Daily Record Publisher Jim Bailey, who sold out to Walsh in 2017, sold the building that houses the paper for $915,000.
This move follows a recent relocation downtown by the Florida Times-Union, now in the Wells Fargo building.
JTA’s ‘impressive progress’
“JTA on the move” sounds like a slogan, says a new op-ed at the Florida Times-Union, but in Jacksonville — it’s a reality.
In a new report to the City Council shows Jacksonville Transportation Authority is making progress “on multiple fronts.”
Most notably, finances. GTA is producing more revenue than expected, with fewer expenses.
“Now that’s a healthy bottom line,” the T-U writes.
On the plus side, as well: 13 road construction projects — at $100 million — funded with a gas tax. Among those projects planned but never completed, long overdue road expansions such as at Kernan Boulevard and Girvin Road.
Another success is the St. Johns River Ferry at Mayport, which started off as “nothing but trouble.” Once JTA took the reins, however, ridership in the 2018 fiscal year passed 400,000 trips.
There have been improvements at both the docks and fender systems, with further upgrades to slip walls and safety — thanks to federal grant money.
And considering bus ridership, reworking bus routes has brought more efficient service and a “no drama” changes, courtesy of better communication with riders. Although bus ridership is down nationwide, JTA is performing better than many others.
While other cities look toward fixed rail systems, JTA’s innovation in driverless cars is proving more affordable and flexible, which caught the eye of the U.S. Department of Transportation.
JTA’s driverless vehicles could be used in the many mid-sized cities that have little fixed rail, CEO Nat Ford, told the Council.
Voluntary?
Tom Coughlin has been in the final stages of working with the Jaguars’ brain trust preparing for this week’s NFL draft. He was sidetracked for days when he spoke his mind about a desire for a total commitment to the team and teammates.
Coughlin expressed his displeasure that two members of the Jaguars, whom he did not name, were absent from the team’s recent voluntary workouts. As the draft drew closer, many were more focused on what Coughlin said instead of who the team might select with their first pick.
“We’re close to 100 percent attendance — and quite frankly all of our players should be here,” Coughlin said during the team’s state-of-the-franchise presentation last week.
He was referring to all-pro cornerback Jalen Ramsey and linebacker Telvin Smith, neither of whom immediately responded, but everyone knew that would be temporary, especially for Ramsey. Coughlin’s words brought intense blowback.
Ramsey’s agent, David Mulugheta, said Ramsey was “exactly where Jalen should be” by being with family and working out. Mulugheta also said the Jaguars were “fully aware” of Ramsey’s status.
The National Football League Players Association (NFLPA) responded with a message describing the meaning of “voluntary.” Ramsey finally weighed in as only he can with a tweet reiterating both “voluntary” and “fully aware.”
Coughlin is no stranger to calling out players. Last year he castigated running backs Leonard Fournette and T. J. Yeldon for being “disrespectful” and “selfish.”
Instead of keeping the controversy alive, Coughlin took steps to try to calm the waters. When asked for further comment, he said: “there’s no need for me to speak further on that.”
Instead, his focus turned to the Jaguars’ draft picks as they began to roll in.
