Florida Politics - Campaigns & Elections. Lobbying & Government.

A.G. GancarskiAugust 14, 2015

Hot on the heels of Ernest Isaac being denied his “last hurrah” on the Jacksonville Aviation Authority, another Alvin Brown board appointee is bidding farewell as of the end of September. Local attorney Edward Booth, appointed by Brown in 2013, on August 12 “was advised by Jordan Elsbury of Mayor Curry’s office that my services would no […]

A.G. GancarskiAugust 14, 2015

Earlier this summer, the Jacksonville City Council passed, without any significant debate or public notice, a emergency moratorium on the dispensing and cultivation of Charlotte’s Web. The bill was rushed through Land Use and Zoning, and presented as an addendum item at the end of a packed Council meeting. The media, rushing to file stories […]

A.G. GancarskiAugust 14, 2015

On Tuesday, the St. Johns Riverkeeper filed a notice of intent to sue the Army Corps of Engineers over the proposed St. Johns River harbor deepening project. The grievances are fourfold. There is, the Riverkeeper contends, “a failure to provide appropriate in-kind mitigation for the environmental damage that will result from the dredging,” as well […]

A.G. GancarskiAugust 12, 2015

During the 2015 Jacksonville campaign, District 7 Councilman Reggie Gaffney was identified by the Florida Family Action PAC as opposing the Human Rights Ordinance applying to LGBT people. Turns out the PAC got it wrong. “On the issue of the HRO Councilman Gaffney believes in equality,” Gaffney posted to his Facebook page on Monday. “The mailer […]

A.G. GancarskiAugust 10, 2015

Back in May, Bishop John Guns, his Save Our Sons organization, and a group of local pastors made a call for 1,000 men to join them in Duval County Public Schools during the last week. The idea was to get men to be in the halls at the start and the end of the school day, […]

A.G. GancarskiAugust 4, 2015

10903884_1377369782571879_940179360091474229_o-1024x1024.jpg

In some ways, northwest Jacksonville Councilman Reggie Brown is the most interesting member of the Jacksonville City Council right now. For one thing, talk that he might run for a State House seat (the gossip says HD 14, where the only competition at the moment is Leslie Scott Jean-Bart) persist. Brown, for his part, isn’t saying that […]

A.G. GancarskiJuly 31, 2015

11201182_660481747422486_2446576573855531870_n-1024x1024.jpg

In a conference room in the suite of offices for Jacksonville’s City Council members, there is a distinctive picture of President Andrew Jackson that I had seen many times, yet I didn’t know any background about until I interviewed Councilman Tommy Hazouri on Friday. Hazouri casually remarked that he had been interning for former Jacksonville mayor Lou Ritter […]

A.G. GancarskiJuly 29, 2015

One of the affiliations that Jacksonville Mayor Alvin Brown pointed to with pride: his membership in the United States Conference of Mayors. Brown, as David Bauerlein reported in the Florida Times-Union, flew to 14 US Conference of Mayors meetings during his term. The number is actually 15, if you count the one he went to during his lame duck period […]

A.G. GancarskiJuly 28, 2015

If Jacksonville’s score on the Human Rights Campaign’s municipal equality index were a dated slang term, it would be 23 Skidoo. But 23 isn’t just Michael Jordan’s old number; rather, it is the score Jacksonville got on a draft version of the MEI, I reckon there are cities that do worse on this metric. Nairobi, […]

A.G. GancarskiJuly 24, 2015

One of the many hot-button issues during the Jacksonville mayoral campaign between Lenny Curry and Alvin Brown was whether or not Mayor Brown would take a pension from the Florida Retirement System. As Nate Monroe of the Florida Times-Union reported in March, Mayor Brown’s office had said that he had “enrolled in the plan without realizing that taxpayers” […]

Tag: Alvin Brown

Another Alvin Brown appointee bounced from Jax Aviation board

Charlotte’s Web workshop on Tuesday in Jax

Why St Johns Riverkeeper decided to sue Army Corps of Engineers

Reggie Gaffney declares support for Jax HRO

John Guns renews call for 1,000 men

Reggie Brown questions nature of consolidation

Tommy Hazouri talks Jax City Council, HRO, Alvin Brown’s loss, and more

For Jacksonville mayors, membership in US Conference of Mayors a pricy affair

How Jacksonville could solve its HRO problem

Alvin Brown fulfills promise, reimburses FRS pension