In case you’ve forgotten, we’ve moved to our own domain: http://jaxpoliticsonline.com. Please make sure you visit us there for thoughtful analysis of the issues facing Jacksonville and the State of Florida.
Filed under: Uncategorized
July 15, 2009 • 11:04 pm Comments Off on We’ve Moved!
In case you’ve forgotten, we’ve moved to our own domain: http://jaxpoliticsonline.com. Please make sure you visit us there for thoughtful analysis of the issues facing Jacksonville and the State of Florida.
Filed under: Uncategorized
July 14, 2009 • 8:40 pm Comments Off on Crist Too Busy Fundraising To Govern?
Last November 5, the FBI swooped into sleepy Levy County and stunned everyone by arresting two Levy County Commissioners, Sammy Yearty and Tony Parker. Both men were charged with accepting bribes. Yearty’s arrest, in particular was shocking. He had served on the Levy County Commission since 1978—just five years after my family moved from neighboring Alachua County. His father and grandfather had both served on the Commission. Everyone in Levy County knows the Yearty family.
Visit our new site located at http://jaxpoliticsonline.com for the full article.
Filed under: Uncategorized
July 14, 2009 • 4:27 am Comments Off on City Pushed Through Union Contracts Month Before Budget Crisis
Despite declarations by elected officials in the City of Jacksonville that the city is in the midst of a budget crisis, the City Council rushed through legislation in June which the Mayor requested be heard as an emergency that approved new collective bargaining agreements with City employees represented by two different unions. The legislation, 2009-477 and 2009-478, was backdated as the city was operating under an expired contract with one of the unions.
Visit our new site at http://jaxpoliticsonline.com for the full story.
Filed under: Jacksonville
July 12, 2009 • 5:38 pm Comments Off on New Website: Visit JaxPoliticsOnline.com
For our traditional Sunday Night Detour, visit our new website: http://jaxpoliticsonline.com
Filed under: Sunday Night Detour
July 10, 2009 • 10:13 pm Comments Off on Weekend Respite…
JaxPoliticsOnline.com will not be available this weekend as we undergo several upgrades. Please be patient during this time and re-visit us next week as we delve deeper into the city’s ongoing budget battle.
-Abel
Filed under: Uncategorized
July 9, 2009 • 10:45 am Comments Off on Godbold Meets With Fire Union, Scolds Police Union Chief
According to News4Jax.com, former Mayor Jake Godbold met with members of the Duval County Fireman’s Union on Wednesday to express his disappointment in the Police Union Chief’s call for a Gate boycott. Godbold also encouraged the fire union to refrain from resorting to the similar tactics as the Mayor prepares to address pension reform with the city’s unions.
Goldbold told News4Jax that he had never seen personal threats of this kind in all of his years in Jacksonville politics.
Nelson Cuba, the police union chief, has since backed down from his earlier calls for a union-wide boycott.
The full article can be read here.
Filed under: Jacksonville, Jacksonville City Council, Mayor of Jacksonville, Gate, Herb Peyton, Jake Godbold, John Peyton, Nelson Cuba
July 9, 2009 • 6:43 am Comments Off on School Board Hikes Taxes, Public Silent
The Duval County School Board voted to raise the millage rate a quarter Tuesday night with nary a complaint from Jacksonville residents. In contrast to the outpouring of e-mails flooding into City Hall mailboxes and the online and organized protests over the Mayor’s proposed increase—only a handful of residents turned up to voice concerns over an increase in the portion of the millage rate used to fund education. To be sure, the increase levied by the School Board was smaller than the City’s proposal, but nevertheless, in a town known for its anti-tax sentiments, it is surprising that the increase received such little notice from taxpayers.
While public support for education is certainly strong, many have expressed concerns in the past over the expenditure of taxpayer dollars by the school board. In fact, one of the most widely-read JaxPoliticsOnline.com columns over the past year was written by one of our former contributors who had expressed reservations over the size and expense of the administration housed on Prudential Drive.
Board members W. C. Gentry and Stan Jordan expressed their opposition to a tax hike without specifically designating the increased revenue raised be directed towards reserves. The Times-Union article on the meeting can be read here.
Filed under: Jacksonville, Duval County School Board, Stan Jordan, W. C. Gentry
July 8, 2009 • 11:41 am Comments Off on Folio Weekly Profiles Clay Yarborough
In this week’s Folio Weekly, Owen Holmes returns with a compelling profile of Jacksonville City Councilman Clay Yarborough.
The article—“How an unelectable Bible Boy became a Jacksonville City Council force majeure”—is a must read.
You can find it here.
The article includes a quote from an article first published here.
Filed under: Jacksonville, Jacksonville City Council, Clay Yarborough, Folio Weekly, Owen Holmes
July 7, 2009 • 8:23 pm Comments Off on Police Union Threatens Gate Boycott
The news broke just before lunch—Police Union President Nelson Cuba was announcing his intentions to call for a boycott of Gate Petroleum, the family business owned by Mayor John Peyton’s father, in retaliation of the Mayor’s plan to call for pension reforms and salary freezes. Nelson accused the mayor of threatening to take away the “basic necessities” police officers have become accustomed to.
The Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 5-30 is one of the most powerful unions in the city and home to over 2,500 officers. The union has long wielded considerable influence in city elections, including endorsing John Peyton and many of the current members of the city council. Nelson’s call to members of the union to “send [their] own message and hit the Mayor in his pocket” is therefore not only a monetary threat—it is something designed to discourage any council member from supporting reforms that the union does not agree to.
UNF Political Science Professor Matthew Corrigan told David Hunt of The Florida Times-Union that the move by Nelson could backfire. Corrigan said that, while the union is well-respected in the city, they risk losing that respect by refusing to share in budget cuts.
The full Times-Union article can be found here. For breaking news on the Jacksonville political scene, follow us on Twitter.
Filed under: Jacksonville, Jacksonville City Council, Mayor of Jacksonville, FOP 5-30, FOP 530, Fraternal Order of Police, Jacksonville, Jacksonville Sheriff's Office, John Peyton, JSO, Matthew Corrigan, Nelson Cuba