Speak Eye: Baby Daddy, Revenge Sex, Duval County Homework Assignment
Meet Speak Eye. This is our newest EYE and this one calls for Action. When you see this EYE — read and take note of the Action we hope you will take. Here’s our first one. Last week there was a huge issue in our Duval County Schools. Review the issue here: Baby Daddy, Revenge […]
JEA: Stop spending $ to find the value. It’s already been found.
While the JEA, City Council and Jacksonville Civic Council labor to determine the value of the JEA, one government agency apparently has it figured out. From the city’s website, under the Office of the General Counsel: “Clients include a $8.6 billion dollar public utility (JEA)….” Now we know. See how easy that was. […]
Mayor’s Administration: Talking Trash & Raising Fees? Pushing little guys out?
Maybe the City Council should have a rule that any proposed bill must include a reason WHY the bill is needed. A new fee is being considered for local trash haulers. All it does on its face is heap new costs on local residents when they call one of about 300 local haulers to take […]
JEA: The Saga Continues. Who started this mess and who’s in charge of it?
Mayor Lenny Curry has issued a statement that seems to deny he is the impetus for any sale of the JEA and to turn the matter over to the City Council. He says, however, that he supports anything that would be covered by a responsibility to lower costs. “Since 1999, there has been a mandate […]
Shad Khan to buy Wembley Stadium. Go Jags but not to London!
A few months ago, I had a conversation with someone in the top leadership of our state government. We were talking about the situation with the Jaguars in London and how they kneeled for our National Anthem on foreign soil. This person could not understand why the Jaguar owner would do that. It made no […]
District Deal: Asking tough questions as only a Banker can. Councilman Anderson gets a Wink!
I popped into a meeting today at City Hall. I wanted to hear the questions City Councilman Greg Anderson had regarding The Big District Deal. I was intrigued because Mr. Anderson is a banker with a very good reputation for digging into numbers and this deal is filled with numbers…lots of numbers. Specifically big taxpayer […]
Ain’t no Sun-Shine anymore at the Strange School Board Meetings
Today another good guy decided he had enough and withdrew his re-election bid for his seat on the Duval County School Board. Scott Shine’s statement speaks volumes and once again…a good guy just couldn’t take it anymore. It’s hard to try to make a difference, change things for the better and bring good business sense […]
Wink to TU: We love it when you agree with our Stink! Common ground!
Eye on Jacksonville’s Mission is: Promoting Integrity & Transparency. Exposing Corruption & Cronyism We are very proud of our mission and we appreciate the local newspaper, The Florida Times Union, agreeing with us. Every city entity serving its citizens needs to be held accountable to how they behave and most especially…how they spend our money. […]
800 lb Gorilla: Empowerment, Opportunity, Enterprise, Renewal. Words, just words.
In a recent Florida Trend article, we read that Governor Rick Scott had identified “low tax opportunity zones” statewide to encourage investment. Debbie G went into research mode and delved into what this meant. Here is Part 1 of what she uncovered. Influence: Part 1 There are many things that influence the environment in which […]
Is it fair some developers get our tax incentives and others don’t. What’s up with that?
Our City should follow Town Center Model. It seems to draw the crowds and they didn’t use any of our money. I’ve confirmed there were no city or state incentives for the St. Johns Town Center development in southside. The developer did it the old-fashioned way. He developed a plan, he used his own […]
Coincidence? Conspiracy? Cronyism? JEA. The District. The Shipyards. What say you?
It can be difficult to distinguish between coincidence, conspiracy and crony capitalism. Having never been much of a conspiracy theorist, I still have to note an amazing coincidence. Two big-time developers want to make big bucks via “partnerships” with the city and – suddenly out of the blue – local politicians develop an interest in […]
Clay County High School Principal should be disciplined for violating student rights.
This is a video from a student at Fleming Island High School in Clay County. She participated in a counter-protest to the 4/20/18 “March for our Lives” walkout. She believes everyone should try to prevent the tragedy of school shootings from continuing by strengthening mental health programs and local police departments vs disarming the public […]
JEA Sale: What a tangled web. When it’s this confusing, something stinks.
With events cascading in the JEA sale controversy, new JEA interim CEO Aaron Zahn’s plea to stop talking about it is understandable, although unlikely to have any effect. The City Council is moving ahead with deliberation to pin a value on the city-owned utility. Likewise, the private Jacksonville Civic Council shows no signs of dropping […]
Wink, Stink & now meet “Think” — EYE appreciates your support and advice
We opened our “online doors” this week and the response has been wonderful. Thank you to all who emailed, called and texted to state they were looking forward to watching us grow and being a part of this important and needed outlet. I wanted to state that we will be learning and growing along with […]
Jaguars unveil uniforms, dog park, and yep … a big request for more money from us over & above Shipyards
Eye on Jacksonville doesn’t want to come across as being “against” all development. We are “All In” for development and moving a city forward. We do not believe, however, our tax dollars should be handed out like candy to wealthy developers. But if we do… we believe the following should be considered: Billionaires should pay […]
JEA Sale: Get the popcorn. This thing is getting good. The suspense builds. What next at JEA?
Former mayor Jake Godbold has written current Mayor Lenny Curry, offering his thoughts on the sale of the JEA. Godbold has been through the discussion before and you could summarize his position thus: No. It is rather interesting, however, why and how Godbold wrote the letter. For starters, he marked it “personal and confidential” when […]