Jacksonville City Council rejects Elizabeth Andersen for library board

As expected, the City Council has rejected the nomination of Elizabeth Andersen to the Jacksonville Public Library Board of Trustees.

But not before proponents of the Donna Deegan pick attempted to turn the tide against the “partisan, political nonsense,” as Democrat Jimmy Peluso put it in discussion.

“This is such a non-controversial thing,” Peluso said of the former Duval County School Board member and the current CEO of OneJax.

Republican Matt Carlucci noted Andersen’s work to pass a half-cent sales tax onto the ballot in 2020, a measure that boosted infrastructure funding for the school system’s aged building stock.

“Does she have any felonies? Does she have any criminal record? No,” Carlucci said, adding that Andersen “gave to this community even when it didn’t help her district out.”

Indeed, she lost re-election in 2022.

And she was rejected Tuesday by a 13-5 vote, with no one speaking against her nomination.

But it didn’t matter.

Members of the audience jeered after the Council expressed its will, a repudiation of a Mayor who didn’t count votes and of a nominee who didn’t acknowledge the writing on the wall, as made clear when Andersen’s nomination was rejected by the Rules Committee the week before.

The jeers were short-lived, though public comment offered an opportunity for people to express their animus.