Month: June 2019

  • 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 the rate payers (those who pay JEA…

  • 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 drag queens and lectures called Trans 101, Bisexual 101,…

  • 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 more than a century old. Scott Shine said new 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 office, or 54,136 square miles according to…

  • 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 are rated either “effective” or “highly effective” and are rewarded with bigger paychecks.…

  • 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 Jacksonville. Jacksonville’s expressway system pre-dated the Interstate Highway System and its bridges…

  • Tax Collector’s Office: Finally making our lives better and that’s a WINK

    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 license, pay your property taxes and numerous other services they provide. When we open the…

  • 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 authentic compassion and empathy for hurting communities, not childish visions…

  • “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 supposed ravages of a free market. Years ago, one champion was 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, and having been published annually since 1986, promotes additional oversight and integrity in the…

  • Bleak future for the JEA is forecast and that is not good news for local residents

    Is the JEA preparing to hold a “going out of business” sale? It almost sounds like it from the dire alarms the utility is putting out. Rates could be going through the roof and the huge pile of cash it hands over to the city each year might shrivel up and disappear. It could all…