Florida Politics - Campaigns & Elections. Lobbying & Government.

A.G. GancarskiMarch 16, 2018

Physical violence will be expressly prohibited on city property in Jacksonville if a resolution filed by Councilman Garrett Dennis this week to the City Council passes. Resolution 2018-171 would support policy designating city property “hit free zones.” This would create “areas in which no adult shall hit another adult, no adult shall hit a child, no child […]

A.G. GancarskiMarch 16, 2018

On Thursday, a Jacksonville City Council panel again delved into the relative merits of selling JEA, the local utility. As has been the case throughout this discussion, flashpoints of tension abounded, kicked off by a familiar antagonist of the Mayor’s Office. The tension led to not one but two witnesses refusing to testify, given the committee […]

A.G. GancarskiMarch 14, 2018

Wednesday saw a Jacksonville City Council committee delve deeper into the concept of using local inmate work crews to clean up city streets. The concept is not a new one. A Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office undersheriff noted just last year that there were plenty of inmates, but a surfeit of supervisors in the budget. At the […]

A.G. GancarskiFebruary 27, 2018

Not for the first time in recent months, Jacksonville City Council members again discussed septic tank woes in the Northwest Quadrant. This time, however, a potential legislative remedy is in play. Budget hearings in August saw multiple members, including Council members Katrina Brown and Reggie Brown, lament the slow pace of septic phaseout. $6 million a year […]

A.G. GancarskiFebruary 22, 2018

For the second straight week, Jacksonville City Council members mulled ongoing efforts to privatize JEA. The narrative has gotten rockier for the administration of Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry in recent weeks, with poison pills preceding each Council conclave. Just as the meeting to discuss the valuation report was presaged with the Council President saying Curry’s chief of […]

A.G. GancarskiFebruary 22, 2018

Did the mayor’s office move toward a sale of Jacksonville’s utility before Council had a chance to weigh in? And what does that mean for the process going forward? A profound rift has emerged between Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry and the City Council on the question of JEA privatization. And, say some Councilors, existential questions loom […]

A.G. GancarskiFebruary 21, 2018

Democratic Jacksonville City Councilman Garrett Dennis may have been talking about a unified party in the constant struggle against GOP Mayor Lenny Curry when he said “We cannot turn the gun on each other. We must point the gun at the enemy.” But at least part of his reported comments Monday was interpreted/spun differently by the Duval County […]

A.G. GancarskiFebruary 20, 2018

Privatization of JEA, which could net the city $3 to $6 billion, is still a hard sell to the Jacksonville City Council. That’s why a special committee was formed Tuesday by Council President Anna Brosche, who roiled tempers in the Mayor’s Office and the Florida Times-Union editorial page when she didn’t allow Curry to speak “out of turn” […]

A.G. GancarskiFebruary 19, 2018

Jacksonville City Councilman Garrett Dennis might have been considered by some to be a political “walking dead man” after his showdown at the Soul Food Bistro with Mayor Lenny Curry. But Dennis sees it differently. “That was a wake-up call for our mayor,” Dennis said. As he told a crowd of Jacksonville Democrats Monday evening, the Duval Democrats […]

A.G. GancarskiFebruary 17, 2018

Jacksonville politicos are currently talking about a poll in the local market asking about two weighty political matters. The first series of questions has to do with Mayor Lenny Curry and a number of politicians that are being discussed as potential political competition for him on the 2019 ballot. Among those would-be candidates: City Council President Anna Brosche; Council […]

Tag: Garrett Dennis
Kristen Arrington, Anna Eskamani, Jason Brodeur, Keith Truenow, David Smith, Geraldine Thompson at Tiger Bay. Image by Jacob Ogles

Jacksonville to mull making city property a hit free zone

Jacksonville City Council panel to subpoena JEA CEO Paul McElroy

Jacksonville Council panel seeks inmates to beautify neighborhoods

Jacksonville City Councilors link septic woes to business relocation, blight

Jacksonville City Council moves to ensure voter input into any JEA sale

Latest JEA sale revelations roil Jacksonville City Council

Duval GOP pushes back on Garrett Dennis’s call to ‘point the gun at’ Lenny Curry

Privatization skeptics fill out Jacksonville JEA special committee

Garrett Dennis talks ‘bounty’ on Jax Council members, filing JEA straw ballot bill

Jacksonville poll pushes JEA sale, probes weaknesses of Anna Brosche