Mayor’s office taking lessons from Nancy Pelosi?
One of our readers sent me this picture. Eye thanks our readers for keeping us in the loop on news worthy items. We can't be everywhere so having your "Eyes" out there helps us. When we saw this picture and posting by City Council Vice President Tommy Hazouri - our...
How Jacksonville compares may be revealed in new government report card
There is a bill pending in the Florida Legislature that could help residents compare their local government against others in the Sunshine State. Called the Local Government Report Card act and sponsored by Rep. Blaise Ingoglia, R-Spring Hill, it has passed the House...
Need a weapon for self defense? Fox pee is the answer!
This is a new way for Eye on Jacksonville to serve the community. We will be posting weekly Local Business WINKS and our first one had to be controversial -- of course! Eye ran into the founder of Pee Pistol and as he described how fox pee can elicit a strong,...
Florida students once were required to learn about a subject that is relevant today
With a socialist who praises communism running for president of the United States, it is worth noting that government schools in Florida once taught students about communism – thanks to a Jacksonville legislator. In 1961, Rep. George B. Stallings, R-Jacksonville, got...
Is justice fair in our city government? You decide.
Before anyone starts screaming at me that I don't support this new bill placing tougher regulations on strip clubs and establishing the Sex Trafficking Survivors Leadership Council in Jacksonville, hear me out. I can speak to this issue because I have a family member...
JEA: The Virus of Manipulation. We beat it!
We are all watching the news about the "latest" world wide pandemic -- the Coronavirus. I'm in my 60s and I've seen this played over and over again. It has been proven that just before elections, suddenly a world crisis occurs and a new disease is spreading. The...
Students should be allowed to take time off to protest, School Board member thinks
One local politician has come up with an idea that is so bad it deserves to be shouted down before it goes anywhere. Elizabeth Andersen, a member of the School Board, thinks kids in the government schools should get a day off so they can go out in the streets and...
Wrong-headed decision demonstrates the point: Every shack is not worth saving
Taxpayers should be outraged that the plans of First Baptist Church to continue improving downtown Jacksonville were thwarted, at least temporarily, by the Jacksonville Historic Preservation Commission. By a 5-2 vote to deny a necessary permit, the church’s plans to...
Food deserts and other neighborhood problems are the result of individual actions, not a failure of the free enterprise system
There is more to the “food deserts” story than meets the Eye on Jacksonville. Eye addressed this alleged problem recently, questioning whether it made sense for the city to hand $850,000 to Winn-Dixie to replace a Publix in Gateway Shopping Center. We subsequently...
JEA: Manipulation. Deception. Lies. Justice must be served.
Here are a few JEA headlines that sucker punched me as they pushed their way into my inbox in the last few days: Attorneys tell JEA investigative committee that executives misled board about utility’s financial picture Councilman Diamond Says JEA Attempted ‘Swindle’...
Jacksonville hopes to have a new Tide Czar. What?
Jacksonville politicians want to go along with the crowd. Because almost every other county in the state has jumped on the bandwagon, the City Council now is considering a bill to create a “resiliency” office, at an initial cost of $300,000 a year. The new “tide czar”...
Jacksonville’s voting process is secure
One of the reasons foreign nations are constantly trying to hack into computers in the U.S. that contain elections data is to sow distrust in our voting process and election integrity. The entire Russian Collusion Delusion was based on this false premise. There are...
Mired in Scandals, Mayor Curry is Riding the GOP Mascot Again After Ignoring it for Years
By the way he has behaved over the past few weeks, the casual observer would think that Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry was a dyed-in-the-wool, MAGA hat wearing Trump supporter. In a tweet just this weekend he said he was “pinching himself” that he saw President Trump...
Black History Month: A big Wink to our hometown hero, Former Lt. Jennifer Carroll
North Florida is the home of Jennifer Carroll and we could not be more proud. Jennifer was the first woman and the first black person to be elected to the position of Lieutenant Governor of Florida. She is one of our heroes and we salute her during Black History...
Food deserts, Camelot, Bigfoot and other flights of fancy
It has gotten way too easy for politicians to lead the media around by the nose. There are plenty of examples at the national level but there are some in Jacksonville, too. One classic example: Local media faithfully report on the mythical phenomenon of “food...
Eye Scoop: Former JEA money manager on the colossal blunders & the pot of gold left on the table
$4 Billion left on the table at JEA? It is possible the taxpayers missed out on a big opportunity when they nixed the sale of the JEA, based on an analysis of the situation by a former employee of the city-owned utility company. In his estimation, the sale could have...
Part 2 – $56 Million Tax Dollars: Are city officials to blame for the mounting cost on the downtown parking garages?
It appears that the parking garage fiasco may have been brought on by city officials many years ago. As usually is the case in government, those who created the mess are gone, leaving the taxpayers to clean up. Three parking garages were built about 16 years ago, two...
Thanks for the memories Jacksonville. I’m needed across the pond. xoxo Jaxson
In January 2017 when the Jaguars took a knee in London and the city went crazy-mad over it, a well-known politician reached out to me. He was trying to understand why Shad Khan would do that. He was confused because he's also a businessman and he thought the customer...
Finally, someone is taking action on a sweetheart deal city officials made 16 years ago
$56 Million Parking Garage - Honey of a Deal and Jax's next big scandaL Differences over financial information related to the operation of downtown parking garages may land the city in court with its partners, Metropolitan Parking Solutions. The company operates...
What’s next for JEA? A turnaround expert.
There were a few times in my career when one of my CEO clients got into a situation that required a Turnaround Expert to be called in to help. Sometimes that situation was their own doing and other times, it was someone within the organization that had messed things...
Want to zip around Jacksonville on a rented electric vehicle? Your chance may be coming
Jacksonville continues to move into mass transit, hoping to interest a public that has not embraced it in the past. Some of the earliest efforts did work well – under private operation. The old trolley system ran into Ortega and Springfield about a century ago. Later,...
Amid questions about the effort to sell the JEA, pertinent questions are not being asked
Details of how a public relations company prepared opinion pieces for a local newspaper that ran under the names of a JEA official and another person have been provided by News4Jax. Dalton Agency employees recruited Henry Brown, who is on the JEA board, and HCI Group...
Everyone in Jacksonville will miss Jake Godbold
Former Mayor Jake Godbold Jake Godbold, one of Jacksonville’s outstanding political figures, has died at the age of 86. He was the second mayor of the consolidated government, following Hans Tanzler. Before that he was a city councilman and served as a council...
Wink Alert: Scott Wilson forms special committee to investigate the mess at JEA!
Scott Wilson, City Council President City Council President Scott Wilson has formed a committee to investigate JEA. This committee will have subpoena power and will work independently of the Federal investigation into JEA. The difference between the two investigations...
Eye Report: School officials provide answers to questions about the need for new schools
Questions raised by Eye on Jacksonville concerning the proposed tax for new school buildings got a response from school officials. The school district says on its Web site that the district has been affected by state funding cuts and it acknowledged that Eye was...
Can downtown be saved? Lori Boyer is trying
It must be tough to be Lori Boyer right now. Lori is a former City Council Member and now runs the Downtown Investment Authority (DIA). Downtown development is not easy and has been a thorn in Jacksonville's side for many, many years. Jacksonville is in a messy...
City trampling all over the Request for Proposal process and we need your help
While the Feds are in Jacksonville looking at the JEA sales process, we believe they will stumble upon some unfair business practices...specifically the Request for Proposal process. A Request for Proposal (RFP) allows our government entities to compare various...
JEA Board: It’s time to Admit. Apologize. Act.
The headlines in the local newspapers created head-shaking. But I wasn't surprised. All the fingers are pointing and those who made poor decisions are looking for others to blame. It's pretty typical of weak leadership. And at this point in time, the JEA Board is weak...
Local schools want more money for new buildings, but how badly are they needed?
Government schools in Jacksonville are conducting a sales campaign in favor of a half-cent sales tax they hope local taxpayers will approve. But their main sales point is a little suspect. The school system says it needs to build new schools because it has not kept up...
Care about our city? Join this group
OurJax is a newly formed group of concerned citizens who care deeply about the governance of our beloved City of Jacksonville. Sounds like our kind of people!! Because of the recent JEA debacle and some other issues that have raised red flags about our city...
BREAKING NEWS: Two Melissa’s do the right thing for our city today!
It is not a great day in Jacksonville yet it's a great day in Jacksonville.What was great? Two very strong leaders in our community, Melissa Nelson and Melissa Dykes, both did the right thing today. Melissa #1: State Attorney Melissa Nelson announced she...
Crime rates are not as malleable as the media seems to think
The local media in Jacksonville is going through another spate of hand-wringing over the crime rate and looking for someone to blame. The usual remedy is to hire more police. That decreases response times, which means police get to a crime scene quicker. But it does...
Fight over 5G wireless technology is heating up in Jax
Residents of Jacksonville who are concerned about the new 5G technology are continuing to press the City Council over proposed changes in local law that would enable its rollout in Jacksonville. Last week at a workshop, city laws provided a comparison of what the...
Mayor Curry’s legacy: The toxicity of our City
I’ve seen Mayor Curry’s “leadership” traits before. Sadly many of you have seen similar leadership in the workforce. His leadership style is toxic. Books have been written about toxic leadership and in an article in Psychology Today, dated July 6, 2016, it...
All the Mayor’s Men have made a mess again
Over the weekend another news outlet uncovered information about the men around Mayor Curry. According to the Florida Times Union, Mayor Curry's political strategist, Tim Baker, sat in on numerous JEA "closed-door" meetings at the insistence of Aaron Zahn - now the...
2019 didn’t work out too well for the Great JEA Sale Caper
Demolition of the Jacksonville Landing produced a large pile of rubble but the debris was small compared to the wreckage of the JEA sale scheme. In what probably was the biggest local story of 2019, an effort to sell the city’s water and utility company took off and...
Jacksonville Leaders: It’s time for some mirror reflecting work.
In 2018, Eye on Jacksonville was formed to Promote Integrity and Transparency and Expose Corruption and Cronyism in our city leadership. There were signs forming that an entity such as Eye was needed. With the help of a former Editor of the Florida Times Union, Lloyd...
City Council listening to telecom lobbyists and refuse to listen to concerned Moms. Wrong!
A letter submitted by Lauren Galvin, a concerned mom, to the Editor of Eye on Jacksonville has some great questions for our City Council. Parents MUST pay attention. Read and response please. ------------ Is City Council showing favor to the interests of...
Zahn is leaving JEA post but many questions remain behind him
Aaron Zahn Aaron Zahn is out, but hold back your tears. He was named CEO of JEA last year, despite having no qualifications other than being a friend of Mayor Lenny Curry. He pretty much screwed up what apparently was his No. 1 job – selling the JEA. Despite that, he...
Mayor Curry Table Slapping. Cue: He’s stressed. Rightly so.
Mayor Lenny Curry I heard Mayor Curry speak last week at a special event. I was concerned with his demeanor and he appeared to be rattled a little. I can understand why. There is a lot of chaos going on downtown and JEA is certainly one of the biggest issues he is...
