Jacksonville City Council cancels meeting after member tests positive for coronavirus

coronavirus
America crossed 10,000,000 virus cases Monday, and at least one is on the Jacksonville City Council.

The Jacksonville City Council meeting Tuesday night will be cancelled, after a member confirmed his positive diagnosis for the coronavirus.

Former Jacksonville City Council President Scott Wilson revealed Monday he is the latest northeast Florida politico to have caught a case of COVID-19.

Current President Tommy Hazouri summarily decided to cancel Tuesday’s regularly scheduled meeting of the 19-person legislative body. Current guidelines from the state would require at least fourteen of the Council’s nineteen members to attend in person.

The meeting will be rescheduled.

In an illustration of the virus’ staying power, Wilson is the second City Councilman to come up COVID-19 positive since the beginning of the pandemic.

Way back in March, current City Council Vice President Samuel Newby contracted coronavirus.

As a measure of how naive the city’s policymakers were at that point about this virus, a City Council colleague visited Newby in the hospital, but he ultimately did not contract the virus despite that exposure.

Wilson is the latest Northeast Florida politician to present a positive test for COVID-19.

U.S. Rep. Michael Waltz also tested positive for the coronavirus last week, as first reported by the Daytona Beach News-Journal.

Others preceded him.

Rob Bradley, who was replaced in the Senate in this year’s election by his wife Jennifer Bradley, contracted the virus as July came to a close. Bradley has since recovered from the coronavirus.

Paul Waldron, a St. Johns County Commissioner who voted against a mask mandate when those were a matter of hot debate, was hospitalized this summer, and has since recovered from his own bout with COVID-19.

“It’s been a long road,” he told the St. Augustine Record.

Angie Nixon, a Jacksonville Democrat who capsized Kim Daniels in Northwest Jacksonville’s House District 14, also contracted the virus over the summer. She has since recovered as well.

A.G. Gancarski

A.G. Gancarski has been the Northeast Florida correspondent for Florida Politics since 2014. His work also can be seen in the Washington Post, the New York Post, the Washington Times, and National Review, among other publications. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter: @AGGancarski



#FlaPol

Florida Politics is a statewide, new media platform covering campaigns, elections, government, policy, and lobbying in Florida. This platform and all of its content are owned by Extensive Enterprises Media.

Publisher: Peter Schorsch @PeterSchorschFL

Contributors & reporters: Phil Ammann, Drew Dixon, Roseanne Dunkelberger, A.G. Gancarski, Ryan Nicol, Jacob Ogles, Cole Pepper, Jesse Scheckner, Drew Wilson, and Mike Wright.

Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @PeterSchorschFL
Phone: (727) 642-3162
Address: 204 37th Avenue North #182
St. Petersburg, Florida 33704