Florida Politics - Campaigns & Elections. Lobbying & Government.

A.G. GancarskiJune 12, 2017

Three bills that had been expected to highlight the Tuesday evening agenda of the Jacksonville City Council won’t. The end result: an anticlimactic meeting, mostly because the committee process weeded out three bills that may have been sound policy, but were inconvenient politics – at best. Extra Pension Payment? No Thanks! Councilman Danny Becton had […]

A.G. GancarskiJune 7, 2017

In a meeting of the Jacksonville City Council Finance Committee Wednesday, Council Auditor Kyle Billy presented a report on the local Police and Fire Pension Fund‘s bank account. That report revealed myriad governance issues with the fund throughout 2016, including dubious purchases and questionable accounting practices. Checks without signature, checks without documentation, delayed check endorsements, questionable […]

A.G. GancarskiJune 6, 2017

The Jacksonville City Council Rules Committee mulled a bill that the committee itself introduced on Tuesday, a measure requiring Jacksonville Ethics Commission nominees to be confirmed by the City Council before serving on the commission. Then the committee moved to withdraw its own bill, which itself was the result of a nomination that was pulled. […]

Phil AmmannJune 4, 2017

It’s June, finally. And despite the Jacksonville City Council taking a week off, the political scene in Northeast Florida is heating up. One congressional incumbent launched his re-election campaign, while a former Clintonista is mulling her own run in a district just south of Duval County. Sen. Bill Nelson came through the region to talk […]

A.G. GancarskiJune 2, 2017

An issue among Jacksonville City Council members in recent weeks: how to get the funding needed for summer camps for at-risk youth? A “major announcement” was delivered by Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry Friday on that subject, with 24 more sites being funded (bringing the total to 72 citywide, down from 98 previously), $958,000 more being allocated, and […]

A.G. GancarskiMay 25, 2017

The political career of Jacksonville City Council President-Designate Anna Brosche hasn’t been all that long, but has been characterized by a triumph per year. In 2015, Brosche shocked some observers by defeating the iconoclastic Kim Daniels in the pastor’s re-election bid to the City Council. In 2016, Brosche – a CPA and a managing partner at […]

A.G. GancarskiMay 24, 2017

Stakes were high in the Jacksonville City Council Leadership Elections, and no one besides the candidates bet as big as Bill Gulliford. When pledging support for the runner-up in Tuesday’s vote for Council President months back, Gulliford said that he wouldn’t accept a standing committee assignment in an Anna Brosche administration. Gulliford walked that back Wednesday in an email […]

A.G. GancarskiMay 24, 2017

The Jacksonville City Council Officer Elections have wrapped, and now comes the inevitable post-game analysis…. ____ PROLOGUE A year ago, the Jacksonville City Council – like Jacksonville itself – was in a different place. Pension reform was a concept, ethereal on some distant horizon. And you couldn’t go a week without a thinkpiece on the […]

A.G. GancarskiMay 24, 2017

On Tuesday, the Jacksonville City Council elected its new President and new Vice-President. For those seeking “Chamber friendly” officials, the vote couldn’t have gone better. Elected President: Anna Brosche. Elected Vice-President: Aaron Bowman. There are those who say the Jax Chamber and former Mayor John Peyton swayed the outcome of the vote. If that was their intention, they […]

A.G. GancarskiMay 23, 2017

With Jacksonville City Council members preparing to vote Tuesday on their next President, the outcome is starting to look clearer hours from the 3 p.m. vote to decide who will assume the lead in Council starting July. Right now, Finance Committee Chair Anna Brosche leads current VP John Crescimbeni 9-7 in the pledge count. Three councilors, meanwhile, remain officially undecided. […]

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TALLAHASSEE, FLA. 3/3/22-Sen. Joe Gruters, R-Sarasota, during discussion of his bill on the dissolution of marriage, Thursday at the Capitol in Tallahassee. COLIN HACKLEY PHOTO

The bills Jacksonville’s City Council won’t consider this week

Jax Council Auditor spotlights PFPF governance issues

Jax Council panel withdraws its own bill reforming Ethics Commission appointment process

Jacksonville Bold for 6.2.17 — Summer Slam

More summer camp money provided for ‘at-hope’ Jacksonville kids

Anna Brosche discusses how she won the Jacksonville City Council Presidency

Jax Councilman Bill Gulliford mulls ‘year in exile’, ‘lesser committees’

Winners and losers emerging from the 2017 Jax Council leadership elections

Anna Brosche wins Jacksonville City Council President’s race; Aaron Bowman takes VP

Danny Becton pledges to Anna Brosche as she closes in on Jax Council presidency