Florida Politics - Campaigns & Elections. Lobbying & Government.

A.G. GancarskiSeptember 13, 2016

Will the third time be the charm for the efforts to expand Jacksonville’s Human Rights Ordinance? In 2012, a fully inclusive bill fell by a margin of 17 to 2. A modified bill lost by a much-smaller margin of 10 to 9, with a councilman — Johnny Gaffney — saying he’d gotten confused when he voted. Gaffney […]

A.G. GancarskiSeptember 1, 2016

Something had to give. And it did. Jacksonville City Councilman Matt Schellenberg, citing the pressures of running a business outside of the council with serving on three standing committees, cut his workload last month by resigning from one of those committees. The casualty: his position on a new standing committee, Neighborhoods, Community Investment, and Services. The Mandarin […]

A.G. GancarskiAugust 23, 2016

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On Tuesday, the Friends of Hemming Park group got more capital for its operations when the Jacksonville City Council appropriated $132,618. Of that total, $74,618 went into a council contingency account, related to the Southwest Airlines allocated earlier this year, with the expectation a stage would be built. Meanwhile, $58,000 was allocated for August and September, to close […]

A.G. GancarskiAugust 11, 2016

Spending will go up on public safety, stay flat in most other areas. Revenue will be up, though millage collection still isn’t back to where it was before the crash of 2008, and business tax collection is down almost 10 percent. These insights and others were to be heard in council chambers Thursday morning, as […]

A.G. GancarskiAugust 4, 2016

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A surprisingly common thread in coverage of Wednesday’s Donald Trump rally in Jacksonville media was the disconnect between his description of Jacksonville’s post-industrial economic devastation and the message put forth by local politicians and the business community. Among Trump’s assertions: “This area has been devastated by the loss of industrial jobs …. As you stand here thinking […]

A.G. GancarskiAugust 2, 2016

Addressing a Jacksonville City Council committee Tuesday, Sheriff Mike Williams signaled his department’s commitment to a pilot program for body cameras “sooner than later,” even as major questions remain about hardware costs, capabilities of cameras, and time frame of deployment. Williams expects to have the program begun “no later than the spring,” he told the […]

A.G. GancarskiJuly 26, 2016

Tuesday evening saw the first Jacksonville City Council meeting of the Lori Boyer presidency. Though the agenda was light, it wasn’t empty. For starters, there was bill to make animal cruelty complaints more enforceable. Time limits for permissible noise were cut to 20 minutes. And instead of requiring two corroborating witnesses, one witness, whose testimony was bolstered by […]

A.G. GancarskiJuly 25, 2016

Jacksonville City Council President Lori Boyer sees her “lunch and learn” meetings as “conversations,” and Monday’s addressed August’s budget hearings in the Finance Committee. The meeting began with former Council President Greg Anderson offering a rundown on budget, based on his five years on the council. Anderson noted 50 percent of city revenue comes through real estate […]

A.G. GancarskiJuly 25, 2016

On Monday, an emphatic Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry pushed back against the untimely release of a draft version of a sheriff’s task force report saying County Referendum 1 — extending the current half-cent sales tax to address pension costs — wasn’t going far enough without a millage hike accompanying it. The genesis of the Monday morning presser […]

A.G. GancarskiJuly 20, 2016

On Wednesday, the Jacksonville City Council Finance Committee discussed a council auditor report, which contended the Friends of Hemming Park was “insolvent” as recently as May. Concomitant to that discussion: a deferred $150,000 allocation bill to cede new money to Hemming Park. And Mayor Lenny Curry seeking in his new budget to cut the appropriation to […]

Tag: Lori Boyer

Why Jax HRO expansion advocates feel optimistic

Matt Schellenberg leaves Jax Council NCIS committee

Friends with benefits: Hemming Park group gets more cash

Jax City Council begins budget deliberations

Jax leaders demur in addressing Donald Trump’s description of local economic devastation

Jax Sheriff: body camera pilot program to roll out ‘sooner than later’

Jacksonville City Council gets tough on animal cruelty

Jax Council ‘lunch and learn’ guides members through budget process

Lenny Curry describes leak of task force draft report panning pension tax as ‘purely political’

Friends of Hemming Park scrutinized by Jax Council Finance Committee