Fragmentation of government services is a problem
Potential changes in the consolidation charter were suggested recently that might have provided a different way to resolve the impasse between the School Board and city over a sales tax referendum. The Charter Revision Commission heard a presentation from Mike...
Is JEA hiring or not?
Just curious. JEA advertised on LinkedIn and stated, "If you're looking for a rewarding career with a team that values growth, excellent benefits and training, check out JEA. We are always looking for candidates with a variety of skills and backgrounds." I decided to...
Debate on the JEA sale should stick to the facts
As the debate over selling the JEA rages on, inaccurate information continues to permeate the arguments on both sides. Fact-checking one post on Facebook illustrates the point: “JEA answers to the citizens which owns the water rights and electricity. If sold you would...
While Jacksonville burns, city leaders fiddle around
Last night the City Council met to discuss a bill that would put a tax referendum requested by the School Board on a ballot. What happened next was a joke. A joke on us. Some members of the audience booed when they didn't like what they heard. Instead of throwing...
Taking a close look at police work at night in the city
While Jacksonville residents are watching TV and retiring for the night there is a lot going on in the streets. The police are out there taking care of business. But what exactly do cops do while patrolling at night? You might imagine they run from a murder to a...
Costly consequences will happen without The Landing
Free events and no permits when The Landing was in use Now that The Landing has fencing around it and her future is heading to the dump, we can all agree she will be missed. Missed for so many reasons and the biggest one for me is the fact she served a purpose no...
New biography on former mayor Jake Godbold is a worthwhile summer read
Jacksonville residents with an interest in history and politics would find it worth their time to read a new biography of a former mayor: Jake! The number of important events that took place in the city during Jake Godbold’s eight years as mayor of Jacksonville –...
Jacksonville has racial injustice, too
No Justice for Stephen Anthony Orlando You hear a lot in the fake news industry about “white supremacy” and injustice but Jacksonville is where one of the great injustices is being done, and it was based on the notion of black supremacy. In 1974, an 18-year-old boy’s...
Is Mayor Curry leading or others pulling his strings?
I have worked with CEOs for more than 35 years as an Executive Coach. It's a wonderful profession and I find great joy in being around decisive leaders who fire up their staff and gather support for their vision. There is nothing more exciting than seeing a team led...
Breaking Development: Mayor Curry’s office silences dissent and shouldn’t they be suspended too?
Yesterday we wrote an article about cronyism and corruption in Lenny Curry's Administration. See that article here: https://eyeonjacksonville.com/eye-requests-an-investigation-of-the-mayors-administration/ Tonight we were shocked by a tweet sent out by Melissa Ross...
Preparing to defend Jacksonville from higher property values
I could hardly believe what I was seeing in a recent media report on the sea level rise task force in Jacksonville, formally known as the Adaptation Action Area Working Group. This temporary committee is supposed to disband later this month -- and that may be a good...
Eye requests an investigation of the Mayor’s Administration
Eye on Jacksonville has been watching political cronyism in our city government for the last year and while we didn’t like what we saw, we knew it was the game of politics. We shed light on issues and wrote opinion pieces about our dislike of this...
JEA: Local utility’s privatization plan is worldwide news
Plans to privatize the JEA obviously are of interest to residents of Jacksonville but why are they news in a publication written for socialists around the world? A story about JEA appeared in the World Socialist Web site this week. The site is published by the...
High school students have taken a greater interest in politics than ever before
As the school year quickly approaches for middle and high school students, hundreds of thousands of American men and women are learning how to solve complex problems, initiate change in a small community, and work proactively with other individuals. These skills,...
Appointing School Board members – an old idea is revived
Jason Fischer State Rep. Jason Fischer is getting a lot of heat for his bill to consider changes in how the School Board is constituted but it is not an idea he invented or necessarily even supports. As I read it, Fischer simply is frustrated at how the board operates...
Does the City need a Snake Charmer?
This Thursday, August 8, at 10:00 a.m. in the Ed Ball Building on the 8th Floor in Conference Room 851 you can hear about a new Consultant hire for the Mayor. While there -- watch for snakes in the grass. A recent "retirement" on June 28th by the Chief Administration...
Duval County Schools: Why not sell your tax increase & let the people decide?
People who want higher taxes are pushing hard to get the school tax on the ballot immediately. A little too hard. It is a little too much when they let a problem grow over many years and then demand a tax as the only solution and insist upon it being passed...
Curry makes a pitch for selling JEA, but it isn’t quite convincing
Attempts to make the sale of JEA seem like a bonanza may run aground on the hard rocks of reality. After two years of denying that he sought the sale of the city-owned utility – an idea that is wildly unpopular – Mayor Lenny Curry now seems to be advocate No. 1. With...
Dark times in Jacksonville? Is it time to investigate?
Yesterday was a dark day for our City. I had the following calls and/or text messages regarding these subject matters: -- JEA: My son works at JEA and has a top level position. He's telling us some crazy stuff happening over there. Can all this be true and what's...
Excluding the public from public meetings is the payoff for accepting handouts
Politicians and bureaucrats in Jacksonville have all but erased the idea of government in the sunshine, the latest example being the brazen act of JEA executives holding a public meeting in a public place and shutting out the media. The media has no one to blame but...
Tear Down Lenny’s Legacy: Insane politics.
Young couple in love on the banks of the St. Johns River eyeing the Landing. I've just returned from a trip to Traverse City, Michigan. It's a small town with a lot of spunk! We just missed the Cherry Festival they put on every year and next week begins the Film...
JEA: Are the ratepayers in the dark and being tricked?
As a former consultant to the Board of JEA, I am in shock at their decision yesterday to proclaim two major deals: --- Give the unqualified, friend of the Mayor's, who was handed this lucrative job a few months ago, a huge raise to more than $520,000 because that's...
JEA leadership and government regulations failed employees and customers.
JEA is drawing up a list of people to be fired as it continues downsizing. Possibilities to be discussed at a board meeting today are a 26 percent rate increase and firing 500 employees. Three things are contributing to the shrinkage of the city-owned electric and...
Mayor Curry bullies a citizen and gets hammered
Yesterday Mayor Curry set off a firestorm on Twitter. It started with an article posted on Jacksonville.com by Nate Monroe. He stated, "City Council members have no idea of which of @lennycurry's proposed capital construction projects will start first, or last, or...
Nose pressing and Cronyism. It’s real friends.
In a recent article by the Jax Daily Record I was stunned to see this statement by the new DIA Director, Lori Boyer, regarding the Landing plans AFTER IT IS DEMOLISHED: "Boyer said the 2015 Landing plan coordinated by the DIA board and drafted by Wakefield Beasley...
Want to be smarter than the average bear? You can for FREE!
There is a ton of misinformation on social media and even from the mouths of some Congressmen and Congresswomen regarding our country, our laws and our rights. And the worst culprit of all is the media. The media has become a mouthpiece for the far left extremists and...
It’s no picnic being a police officer in Jacksonville
Criminals continue to conduct violence, as they always have and always will. Jacksonville is employing one new approach designed to limit the violence. Will is work? That remains to be seen. Proponents claim it has helped elsewhere. Cure Violence has worked in places...
Lobbyists are not the enemy the media portrays them to be
Media’s fascination with lobbyists continues, most recently with the Jacksonville Business Journal reporting breathlessly on the amount spent by lobbyists. This is “news” only by a stretch of the imagination. It could more accurately be called a conflict of interest....
Letting perverts off the hook. A big cultural change!
Lloyd "Scoop" Brown has been writing on Eye on Jacksonville about the lack of arrests locally. It's a big issue and one that we hope Sheriff Mike Williams will look into. Today I read that men are "having fun" with themselves in the library and many incidents have...
Too much crime and not enough arrests, latest crime stats show
Jacksonville is not the crime capital of Florida, despite the occasional hysteria in the local media, but it could do better. That conclusion comes from examining the 2018 crime statistics now available from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Duval County was...
Lack of Leadership at JEA: Your bill reflects the lack!!
Every person reading this post has something to do with JEA. If you consume any electricity at all, you need to pay attention to JEA. Since we began Eye on Jacksonville over a year ago, we have kept an Eye on this important municipal utility. It's important because...
No Rhyme or Reason
Jacksonville is a town which engages, supports and educates. Up until now it has been a town using good judgement when hosting events. But Saturday June 29th the Museum of Science and History (MOSH) is scheduled to host a Gay Pride event complete with performances by...
Schools: Raise our taxes or raise questions – it’s your choice.
One former School Board member is challenging those supporting a new tax to build schools to take a straight approach that addresses all concerns while trying to sell the idea to the public. Seven of the district’s 160 school buildings, all elementary schools, are...
Rising sea levels: Inciting Panic in Florida?
Depending on whose number you wish to use, Florida has 1,197 miles of coastline. Or 1,350. Or 8,436. In any case, any rise in the sea level would mean a reduction in the land area of the state - which is 54,252 square miles according to the governor’s...
Good teachers deserve higher pay yet Unions say “No.”
Florida legislators continue trying to reward good teachers with higher pay. Powerful union bosses continue to try to block those efforts. Why would they try to prevent good teachers from being rewarded? In Jacksonville, about half the teachers in the public schools...
They’re back!!! Once-hated toll roads.
Tolls are coming back. The Florida Dept. of Transportation will begin collecting tolls on the First Coast Expressway in a few weeks. This is sure to ignite grumbling by motorists, especially those who remember and disliked the tolls that were once common in...
Tax Collector’s Office: Finally making our lives better and that’s a WINK
Duval County Tax Collector, Jim Overton And the WINK of the week goes to: Jim Overton of the Duval County Tax Collector's Office. We've all been there. We walk into the Tax Collector's office to pay a parking ticket, register your new vehicle, renew your drivers...
If I had a dream…
I have a dream! It is a dream for a Jacksonville leadership team who cares more about serving the community than their own self elevation. It is a dream that infuses servanthood ingredients throughout the phrase “public servant.” It is a dream where leaders model...
“Price Gouging Narrative Season” begins
Hurricane season began June 1, so Florida residents can brace themselves for the annual storm of “price gouging” accusations. This great bogeyman comes into play every year, and one highlight of it is the loud promises by politicians to protect Floridians from the...
Duval County has its share of turkeys.
Yesterday the organization Florida Tax Watch in Tallahassee published its report "The 2019 Budget Turkey Watch Report: An Analysis of the Transparency and Accountability of the Budget Process." Per their wording on the report they state: "The report started in 1983,...
