Quick….name 2 City Council members

According to the JCCI report released yesterday, only 27% of Jacksonville’s citizens can name 2 City Council members.  And only 26% of them feel like they can influence local government.  Just another testament to the average citizen’s view that many of our Council members live in ivory towers and the citizens’ feelings of powerlessness to change Jacksonville for the better. 

Of course, what else would one expect when citizens continually see special deals given for special friends over the past year or so - like Scott Teagle (ProLogics) and Sheila Green (GreenBean Corporate Solutions) – and the grand jury investigations into both the Mayor’s administration and Council members. 

The sad part is that even after all of that, people like the Mayor’s good buddy, Paul Harden, continue to get special deals – i.e., the Waste Management no-bid contract to run Trail Ridge Landfill that is up for City Council consideration next week.  Couple that with the Jacksonville Journey requirements that eliminate most small non-profits from participating and the City’s high crime rate and you have one big depressing mess.

But our government was not the only low point in the report.

According to the Times Union,

- Only 31 percent of Duval County residents said they were satisfied with public education, a drop from 34 percent in 2007.

- Building permits throughout Northeast Florida dropped by about 3,000 in 2007 – even before the housing market tanked.

- The number of food stamp recipients in Northeast Florida grew by about 13,000 in 2008.

- Only 50 percent of Duval County residents feel safe walking alone at night in their neighborhoods, down from 58 percent in 2007.

- Sixty percent of Duval County residents reported racism is a problem.

- In Duval County, there were 334 newly reported HIV cases, 240 of them in the black population, and a more than 10 percent jump in documented sexually transmitted diseases throughout Northeast Florida.

There were some bright spots in the report, however.

- More third- and 10th-graders are reading at grade level, according to FCAT scores released by the state in May.

- Northeast Florida’s graduation rate increased by about 3 percent as the Duval County dropout rate decreased by about 2 percent.

- Cargo tonnage showed slight growth at Jaxport.

- Cigarette sales figures, compared to the population, show a drop of 10 packs per person throughout Northeast Florida.

- There was a slight decline in lung cancer deaths.

Here’s the complete report.

Filed under: Jacksonville, Jacksonville City Council, Mayor of Jacksonville, City of Jacksonville, GreenBean Corporate Solutions, Jacksonville City Council, Paul Harden, ProLogic, Scott Teagle, Sheila Green, Trail Ridge Landfill, Waste Management

“Local Business” Proposal Put on Hold

City Councilman Daniel Davis’ proposal that would give “local” companies preference when bidding on City projects has been put on hold for the time being. The legislation, which has been widely criticized as protectionist and something that could be more expensive for the City, will be placed on hold while more research is conducted. According to the Daily Record:

The committee requested that the Procurement Division research who had received contracts in the past and how other cities were setting policy in trying to encourage local businesses to compete for contracts.

“We just can’t compare ourselves to ourselves,” said Stephen Joost, City Council member and committee member. “I’d like to see a comparison to similar cities. We are not alone in this, other cities are having problems like this.”

The proposed ordinance seeks to amend the Professional Services Evaluation Committee (PESC) procedure of the Procurement Code. The PESC reviews the qualifications of the companies that submit bids for City contracts. One of the criteria is “proximity to the project involved.”

As has been previously discussed, some of the more controversial recent contracts, including the no-bid IT contract involving former Peyton Chief of Staff Scott Teagle and the Auchter contract for the construction of the Duval County Courthouse, were with local companies.

Filed under: Jacksonville, Jacksonville City Council, Auchter, Daniel Davis, Duval County Courthouse, John Peyton, Scott Teagle

LOL! Russia visits Jax to learn about “transparency”

A priceless headline, with a bit of irony to it. Yes, according to the Daily Record, a delegation from Russia is visiting Jacksonville to learn how to operate a transparent government.

Perhaps we can share with a country under the control of a dictator how a “transparent” government allows the executive of our little airport to pull in a higher salary than his peers in Tampa, Miami, Orlando or Atlanta. Perhaps we can explain how to reward unilateral contracts to your closest friends. Perhaps we could explain how a Vice Chairman (and former Chairman) of the Port Authority can personally benefit from Port business he voted on. We can cap it all off by simply pointing to today’s headline in The Florida Times-Union—how to spend over $60 million on a courthouse with absolutely nothing to show for it.

How about a leader that complains about media questions, referring to the Jacksonville media as “the worst?”

Yup, even Putin’s Russia could probably pick up a few tips from Jacksonville, don’t you think?

Filed under: Uncategorized, Jacksonville Airport Authority, Jacksonville Port Authority, John Clark, Putin, Russia, Scott Teagle, Tony Nelson, Vladimir Putin

You think Illinois is bad?

With House Speaker Ray Sansom’s sweetheart deal, House Democratic Leader Franklin Sands’ donations for legislative committee appointments, an ongoing FBI investigation into Jaxport, a grand jury investigation into the Duval County Courthouse, Mayor John Peyton’s no-bid contracts to friends Scott Teagle (Prologic), Shelia Green (GreenBean Corporate Solutions), and Paul Harden (Waste Management), and certain City Council members inability to comply with the Sunshine Laws, this seemed like a timely and appropriate article from the St. Pete Times:

Florida wears U.S. corruption crown

By Adam C. Smith, Times Political Editor

Tired of seeing Florida constantly at the bottom of national rankings? Take heart. The Department of Justice says we’re No. 1 in one category: corruption.

Compiling federal corruption convictions over the past decade, Florida topped every other state with 824 convictions of local, state and federal officials — even Rod Blagojevich’s Illinois and even Louisiana, where politicians are said to be so crooked they are screwed into the ground at burial.

Of course, Florida is more populous than all but three other states, so perhaps a fairer way to look at it would be per capita corruption cases. In that case, North Dakota can take a bow as numero uno, and Florida ranks a mere 11th. Rest assured we have strong potential to move up the list.

Filed under: Florida Legislature, Florida Politics, Jacksonville, Jacksonville City Council, Mayor of Jacksonville, Duval County Courthouse, Florida, Franklin Sands, GreenBean Corporate Solutions, House Democratic Leader, Illinois, Jacksonville City Council, Jaxport, Mayor John Peyton, Paul Harden, ProLogic, Ray Sansom, Rod Blagojevich, Scott Teagle, Sheila Green, Speaker of the House, Waste Management

More bad press for Waste Management no-bid contract

Is it just me, or does the Mayor’s Office just not get it? 

Repeated bad press has appeared about the folly of entering into a no-bid contract with Waste Management to operate the Trail Ridge landfill, yet the Mayor presses on.  This time, Folio has written a piece on this bad idea – wondering what’s behind this controversial contract and raising some new issues.

Is it just about friends and money?  Folio seems to think so.  Well, so much for the Mayor’s promise in August of 2007 to raise the bar after the Teagle and GreenBean mess that was the subject of a State Attorney investigation and even an FBI inquiry. But Folio raises new issues as well.

Republic Services would like the opportunity to bid on the landfill contract and has hired an attorney to represent them.  If you recall, Republic tried to hire the City’s former general counsel, Dan Richardson, who had negotiated the original landfill contract with Waste Management.  But the General Counsel’s Office pulled the  waiver they had given Mr. Richardson, just as soon as he was quoted saying that it was not the intent of the original contract with Waste Management to cover the entire Trail Ridge site, only the operating portion of the landfill.  Republic has now hired Tom Ingram, a well respected attorney at the law firm of Pappas Metcalf Jenks & Miller.

According to the Folio article, Mr. Ingram has raised new concerns surrounding the no-bid contract.  His concerns center around the Mayor’s attempted use of an exemption clause found in the City’s procurement code.  The exemption allows the city to waive bid requirements IF a piece of legislation authorizes the waiver AND sets aside money for the contract.  It seems that General Counsel’s Office put together a two page list of contracts where the City has availed itself of the exemption provision of the procurement code.  Every single one of the contracts on this two-page list appropriated money, unlike the proposed no-bid contract for the Trail Ridge landfill. 

Mr. Ingram’s position is that without appropriating money, the no bid contract doesn’t qualify for the exemption in the procurement code.  It’s entirely another matter as to whether or not the exemption is good public policy in the first place. I (and many others) would argue that it isn’t.  Folio asserts that the city’s use of the exemption is the sort of fact that Mr. Ingram is likely to bring up in his client’s lawsuit against the city, should the City Council approve the no-bid contract. 

Mr. Ingram also questions whether the City can legally waive the purchasing code in order to award the contract to a specific contractor.  It seems that the First District Court of Appeals ruled in 1992 that the city can’t waive code in order to help a particular recipient get a contract.  In that case, the court ruled such a waiver “would render the competitive bidding process a nullity.”  Interestingly enough, the case in which this ruling was made stemmed from a lawsuit over the City’s original contract with Waste Management, according to Folio.

As previously noted, Council President Fussell has scheduled a meeting on December 4th with city representatives to discuss the no-bid contract.   Unfortunately, the meeting is not public since apparently no other council members were invited. 

Business as usual for this administration.

A final question to ponder: 

How many of us would be okay with the City awarding a contract to a company to build the courthouse (a project half the price of the landfill agreement) without putting it out to bid?

Filed under: Jacksonville, Jacksonville City Council, Mayor of Jacksonville, City Council, City of Jacksonville, Dan Richardson, Folio, General Counsel's Office, GreenBean Coporate Solutions, Mayor John Peyton, ProLogic, Republic Services, Scott Teagle, Tom Ingram, Trail Ridge, Waste Management