Although the government lags when it comes to accessibility, Jacksonville is seeing support for its claims at every level.
Consider Duval County Public Schools. They're closing in on the district's latest superintendent appointment, but they're not trying to take away the sunshine and transparency.
In setting up last week's questioning of superintendent candidates at the Schultz Center, a district spokesperson asked the media to withhold publication of Monday's questions until Wednesday.
The goal was clearly to ensure that neither of the superintendent finalists plagiarized each other's answers.
By noon Monday, the district had relented on that condition. That's a good thing, since it's clearly illegal to try to ban statements that go on the public record.
The Mayor's Office is guilty of a similar crime regarding the stadium proposal, which was an unnecessary blunder considering the city's initial cost was well below the original estimate of about $1 billion.
With $625 million in renovations, an additional $150 million in deferred maintenance, and an additional $150 million included in the “community benefit” portion of the contract, the cost of financing in this high interest rate environment is separate. As such, the long-term obligation represents just over a year and a half of the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office's budget.
The numbers sell themselves, at least as long as you don't accept the argument that this investment is the embodiment of privatized profits and socialized costs, and don't look too closely at the risk of pension taxes being deferred next year. Extend the Better Jacksonville Plan to take care of the stadium's capital costs for several years (leaving more than $3 billion in pension debt in a high interest rate environment for several years).
However, the administration's stubbornness in disclosing the numbers suggested that there was something hidden. The labyrinthine three-person presentation between Deegan, Jaguars president Mark Lamping and negotiator Mike Weinstein, who the previous administration had kept off the microphone, at least according to some very high-level members. So was the need to insist on numbers. As much as possible.
Deegan also did not stay on to take questions from city council members after his PowerPoint presentation at the city council meeting.
she should have done that.
At least in advance of the infamous “ex parte” communications that the Jags and others, including Daniel Davis' Jags Chamber of Commerce, will have with the Legislature between now and the July vote. It would have been interesting to hear what they actually think about this agreement. .
History shows that, with the exception of the fateful Lot J deal, which fell just one vote short of the necessary supermajority, even the loudest fiscal conservatives at the dais become government bigwigs when stadium money is spent. teach.
Of course, “community meetings” to gather public input are ongoing and provide something close to feedback from voters.
But for better or worse, the Deegan administration is privileging the platform of the Mayor's Office to create showmanship and consent, rather than following established rules.
As one highly placed former mayoral aide put it, the general rule is to field questions from the Legislature and respond in good faith to fourth estate public records requests. He says it's a good idea. But this administration, which relies most on local media and has many alumni in high positions, seems keenly aware that previous norms matter little.
As I write this article, reporters are still waiting for more details than were shown in the presentation, including what the actual term sheet and details will be.
Beyond the sunshine issue in a Democratic-controlled executive branch, the City Council's choices are questionable when it comes to listening to constituents, especially when public comments turned out to be bogus.
At the last City Council meeting, participants were given just 60 seconds to express their opinions, far less than the three minutes previously given. Many noted that by the time they had given their name and address, they had run out of time to speak. And even though Deegan was greeted with applause at the same meeting, City Council President Ron Salem and others used the police presence to allow “demonstrators” to applaud speakers they agreed with. He threatened to praise her.
If Mr. Deegan can get applause, why can't others speak up?
In reality, some might argue, none of this matters and that people can make their feelings known at the voting booth.
But recent history in the region shows that elections often do not present meaningful options.
Consider the 2019 mayoral election. At the time, the Democratic Party, fearful of Lenny Curry's political machine, did not nominate a candidate, but some supported the current chief financial officer, Anna Brochet, a Republican, to no avail.
One could argue that this lack of political courage gave Curry and his cronies the runway to push through the JEA sale, but if Aaron Zahn had been more subtle than a soap opera villain, perhaps this effort would have been more successful. It would be.
Although JEA was not sold, Curry's second term was in many ways a miasma, hampered on the back end by the pandemic, leading to scenes such as people dropping recyclables in local parks. There was a tragic failure of city services.
At this point, there is a good chance that Mr. Deegan will serve a second term. She will definitely have the support of Shad Khan, and there doesn't seem to be any Republican in her current position who has the momentum to defeat her in 2027. If the stadium deal goes through as expected, she'll have something to fall back on to the disadvantaged public. We don't really care about social uplift, fixing broken promises of integration, and all the other campaign issues that repeat every four years because they haven't been addressed.
Similarly, it is extremely rare for city council members to lose reelection unless they are hit by a scandal. The relationships built during the first four years are too strong for political neophytes to overcome.
Ideally, mayors, city councils, and school boards could act less like guardians of political territory and more like stewards of a public trust who understand the temporary nature of their work. is.
And to do that, the government needs to be in the sun and make sure the voices of its most passionate voters are heard whenever the opportunity arises.
