Comment

Comment by CJ on June 10, 2011 at 12:32pm

I have been and will continue to research City Council Recalls across the country. During the Ethics Law meeting for the Jacksonville Charter I touched base with a few red shirts and others in Chambers and liked the response I received.

 

I have reached my peak in being made a fool by city officials and the cloud of embarrassment brought upon the city of Jacksonville by this administration.  I feel the time has never been better to pursue a recall especially between the two administrations. Not only will the cages be rattled in everyone currently serving but it will also serve as a an example for the incoming group.

 

The breaking of laws is not needed, this will be won by voter discontent over existing records of failed and no bid contracts (SMG, Trail Ridge, others), fiscal irresponsibility, Jaguars, Ruth Chris, soccer fields, fee's on publicly owned Authority's, past tax raises, Double Dipping, rubber stamping Ord.'s, consent agenda's, etc. There are enough voter discontent reasons to choose from. You need only registered voter signatures for a recall and with the numbers are in our favor.

 

Had elections been different I would not pursue this route. Some sitting there doing nothing but filling space adding to their benefits, others sitting there completely unopposed, twice!  All with votes against the wishes of the people.

 

Regardless of the make up of the incoming Administration ALL must know NOW what once was will never be again. They MUST know "We the people" are running the City and not the other way around.

 

I have what is needed from the Elections Office to start the process and this is definitely doable with just cause. So to me and some others it is not a matter of "if", it is a matter of when.

 

This is not a covert operation "the powers that be" should be well aware of my intension's. If not they or anyone only look no further than City Council Meeting films.

 

 

JEDC and EverBank can want what they want but it is Council that makes the vote. I will fight a good fight prior to the vote but will assume Council will vote as they have always.  While they sit on their laurels in their big comfy chairs I am working Plan B, the counter attack.  We go in to it knowing we can appeal if all feel it is worth the cause.  To me the power of appeal is in our favor, for one reason it will be with new council. 

In the mean time I have in my sights at least two Councilmen I would like gone.  By law we must wait 180 days for them to serve before recall can commence But I would so love to be ready to hit the streets with petitions on day 181.  This would have to be accomplished by a flash mob as by law we have only 30 days to collect signatures and must hit the ground running. Whats needed is 5% of the registered voters in a given precinct or county wide for "at Large" for the recall. 

The new General Council will responcible for teaching the new and old council members and will be accountable for his leadership under trial by fire.  Striking while the iron is hot will serve a purpose to the new administration they and others will not soon forget.

I live in Mandarin so I will gladly volunteer to gather signatures from dusk to dawn for 30 days straight along with others if we can convey through recall  "We are the "New Bold City of the South" and the people are running it."        

 

       

Comment by Patricia M. McBride on June 10, 2011 at 12:22pm

Jim, and probably if they lowered the cost of the tickets so most "regular" people could attend, they would fill the stadium.  You are right, there are all sorts of entertainers, sports teams etc that could be scheduled and would pull a good crowd!

 

Comment by Jim Ryan on June 10, 2011 at 12:19pm

Let the Jaguars leave.  Bring in International Football.   How about Man U vs Real Madrid,  Argentina vs.

Brazil,  US vs Mexico,  Ireland vs  Germany,  sell the 1/2 the tv broadcast rights and revenues back to the the participants.  Next motor sports in the stadium once a month in the Fall.  These events always draw big crowds.    Lacrosse championships, Women's sporting events, Olympic track and field competition,   Concerts with big multi state and national draws.  Jimmy Buffett stuff.   Basically you have to look to replace 9 - 10 weekend dates.   I think it can be done.

Comment by Patricia M. McBride on June 10, 2011 at 12:16pm

JR, you are preaching to the choir on this one:  Also, Patricia, Mayor Peyton got away with it because he appointed commission members He appointed the foxes to guard the henhouses.

 

Here is part of the letter I just sent to all city council members this past week:

In the city council’s efforts to gain control over who sits on this commission, you have constantly attempted to group these 3 commissions as being alike or all the same, and the ethics commission was to stand on its own and was not meant to be politicized as you have now amended it to be. From where I sit, if the city council, as a group, had done their job, this commission would not be necessary to start with, so putting all of you in charge of the commission is certainly not going to improve it. It will be rather like putting the wolf in charge of the hen house...................................You seem not to understand that elected officials means all elected officials which also includes you and your colleagues on the city council and the mayor (any mayor).

Comment by Patricia M. McBride on June 10, 2011 at 12:06pm

JEDC Commissioners

Chair - Zimmerman (Zim) Boulos, President, Office Environments and Services, Inc. the company Mr. Boulos is the chair and president of: specify, procure and support a full line of contract and home office furniture including panel systems, seating, freestanding steel and wooden case goods, and modular architectural interiors including raised floor systems, plug-and-play technology, moveable walls, energy-efficient lighting and ceiling systems. Recent projects for the company: Modus Professional Services, Vistakon, Inc, Gate Petroleum, Jacksonville Jaguars, Fidelity National Financial, Bank of America - Florida, PSS/World Medical, Florida Times Union

Florida State Contract; Participating Dealers: Office Products

Contract #: 420-590-07-1 Library Furniture Contract Period: February 21, 2007 through February 20, 2012 Product: Office Storage Products OE & S 1524 SAN MARCO BLVD. JACKSONVILLE, FL 32207-2906 CONTACT: E. ZIMMERMAN BOULOS PHONE: 904-398-9761 FAX: 904-398-5095 1/2010......Executive and Board Changes at American Forests, Washington, DC-based conservation organization, Gerry Gray to be acting executive director. Gray is a board member of the Sierra Institute for Environment and Community, In January, Lynda Webster of Washington, D.C., became chair of the board of directors of AMERICAN FORESTS and welcomed five new members to the board: F. Zimmerman (Zim) Boulos, Jacksonville, Fla. was one of them, American Forests is a leader in planting trees to slow climate change and heal the planet through its Global ReLeaf program. Board Bios F. Zimmerman (Zim) Boulos The owner of OES (Office Environments and Services), a family and Jacksonville based office products supplier, since 1981. OES is a $15 million business with 40 employees. Zim is also currently the Chairman of the City of Jacksonville Economic Development Council. Over 20 years ago, he started Greenscape Jacksonville, a not for profit tree planting initiative, as well as the annual Flowering Tree Sale, a spring event that sells thousands of small trees at huge discounts to the public. He was the force behind the renovation of San Marco Square, a neighborhood business district near downtown Jacksonville that has become a crown jewel in the rebirth of an aging neighborhood.

Commissioners

• Cleveland Ferguson, Professor of Law, Florida Coastal School of Law

  EXPERTISE

  • Constitutional Law
  • Commercial Law & Transactions
  • Human Rights Law
  • Nonprofit Organizations
• George Gabel, Partner, Holland & Knight is the national litigation practice development partner and deputy section leader of Holland & Knight's National Litigation Section, which has more than 400 lawyers in more than 20 practice groups. He previously served on the firm's Directors Committee and as executive partner of the Jacksonville office.
• Craig A. Gibbs, Attorney, The Law Office of Craig Gibbs Jacksonville FL Personal Injury and Workers Compensation Attorneys
• Robert W. Helms, CEO (retired), Wachovia Bank of Florida recently retired as the Florida CEO of Wachovia Bank of Florida. Mr. Helms joined First Union National Bank in 1969 and has served in a variety of capacities including General Bank Executive, First Union, Mid-Atlantic Region; regional executive for both the Western and Piedmont regions in North Carolina; and city executive for Wilmington and Asheville, North Carolina. Mr. Helms has served as chair of United Way of Northeast Florida, WJCT-TV Public Broadcasting and the Florida Chamber Foundation and has worked on the boards of the Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens and the FCCJ Foundation. Mr. Helms receive his bachelor’s degree in business and psychology from Western Carolina University and completed the Executive Management Program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
• Jack L. Meeks, President, Jack Meeks & Associates, CPAs, LLC a CPA, a Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE), still serves clients as a tax advisor, but his area of emphasis since 1988 has been expert witnessing – analyzing the financial aspects of, and giving testimony in legal cases involving business or personal damages, eminent domain and fraud. He has been called to witness in court more than 25 times, has been deposed more than 60 times. He is ready to assist litigators representing individuals, businesses, and corporate or government entities in any financial dispute. Jack is also trained and practiced in assessing business values for the purpose of sale or purchase.
• Barbara Moore, Division President, Lennar Is a builder of new homes
• Helen Rowan, Vice President, Strategic Planning, Rayonier, Inc. Real Estate Investment Trusts
• Randle P. Shoemaker-Crump, Major Claims Counsel, Senior Vice President, Fidelity National Title Group Title insurance and other related services

Twelve ex-officio advisors support the commission and a 17-member group of technical advisors are available. Educational issues are represented through appointed advisors.

The JEDC Commissioners meet every second Thursday of each month at
9 a.m. The public is welcome to attend.

Comment by J.R. on June 10, 2011 at 12:04pm

Below this comment is an article that shows us a scam against taxpayers being pulled off, in local government jurisdictions in many states. The scam involves forcing taxpayers in those local government jurisdictions to subsidize privately-owned franchise sports teams... just like the Weavers' Jaguars franchise here in Jacksonville.

These anti-taxpayer scams enable owners of those franchises to get huge tax breaks to go along with the forced perks they enjoy at the expense of county taxpayers. The continuation of those tax breaks and forced perks is able to be maintained, for the franchise owners have a velvet hammer to hold over the heads of local government officials and taxpayers---one that allows them to continue their parasitic corporate welfare paid by taxpayers. All they have to do is imply or threaten that they might or will move their franchise/team to another city or state if things don't go their way. This appears to me to be institutionalized extortion, and it has been facilitated by local government officials who put the scheme in place---and those who have kept it there.

The sports franchise owners know full well that no city wants to be left with an empty, unused stadium that has little or no market value, except for the land it sits on, and that the huge forced-taxpayer funded investment---which was little more than a bet on an insecure and risky boondoggle designed by franchise owners and elected city fools that didn't have the common sense to consider all opportunity costs for the open-ended "investment" they forced unwitting taxpayers to fund into perpetuity.

This is nothing more than an extortive con and the Duval County taxpayers have been had. And the Weavers' Jaguars franchise is the big, expensive elephant in the City of Jacksonville. It is a prime example of a beneficiary of forced public subsidy and it must be gotten off the taxpayers' backs. Taxpayers didn't have an opportunity to vote for or against it and it serves no government functions, operations, or services for which taxpayers are required by statute to pay.

Taxpayers are required by law to pay taxes on their own property to which they hold title. Taxpayers are not required by statute to pay to subsidize a private business owned by private individuals other than themselves. And, there is no justification for taxpayers being made to suffer financially as a result of financial speculation engaged in by elected officials. Just because those elected officials control the public purse, they are not at liberty to place the public's money---and it is all the public's money---at risk. They don't get to speculate or gamble with the people's money.

Everbank is another prime example, for Everbank has not abided by all the terms of its first contract with the City of Jacksonville, for they failed to add the contracted-for number of jobs. If they were willing to breach that contract, only fools and idiots would sign another contract with them.

Everbank is an international, multi-billion dollar enterprise that can well afford to support their own property deals, but they apparently have discovered---like the wealthy owners of sports franchises have---that they can game the system and have taxpayers in local governments subsidize them, while they further increase their own net worth through tax write-offs and additional funding by qualifying for empowerment zone and Brownfield status to obtain grants/subsidies. Meanwhile, the taxpayers get screwed.
*********
"The Public Dollars Fueling the NFL Dispute"

http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_ID=20755&utm_sour...

"Through rich stadium subsidies and cartel powers granted to professional football by our representatives in Congress, we have helped to bankroll the gains in revenues that are now at issue in the NFL players-owners clash. In particular, as Vanderbilt University economist John Vrooman argues in a chapter from a forthcoming book about the NFL, increases in local revenues spurred by government-subsidized stadiums lie at the heart of the dispute, says Steven Malanga, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute.

The NFL and the players' union negotiated a collective bargaining agreement in 1993 that set the stage for the current impasse. The players gained free agency, but in exchange the league won the right to cap salaries at 64 percent of revenues. But those revenues included in the cap are calculated in a complex formula that allows teams to exclude certain local income from the shared pool.

Over time, team owners naturally have tried to maximize those revenues that are unshared, including lucrative income from luxury boxes and club seats.

Taxpayers enabled much of this. Shortly after the 1993 bargaining agreement, the NFL embarked on an aggressive era of local expansion that included adding new teams in cities where politicians were desperate for a franchise. The end result was an addition of 25 new venues each boasting on average some 150 luxury suites and between 8,000 and 9,000 premium club seats.

The first group of 13 stadiums, built before the NFL created its own loan fund to help finance new stadiums, cost $3.3 billion, of which only $888 million, or 27 percent, was private financing.
Stadiums in St. Louis, Oakland (which was renovated, not constructed, for $128 million), Baltimore, Tampa Bay, Cleveland and Cincinnati were among those built primarily with public funds."

Source: Steven Malanga, "The Public Dollars Fueling the NFL Dispute," Real Clear Markets, June 1, 2011.

For text:
http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2011/06/01/the_public_doll...

For more on Tax and Spending Issues:
http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_Category=25

Comment by Patricia M. McBride on June 10, 2011 at 12:00pm

JR, you have asked me that question at least twice now.  I just got a stack of paperwork about 3/4" think yesterday and am going through it as quickly as I can as well as looking up information about the members of the JEDC (which I will also post as some of them certainly are interesting and tied by $$$$).

 

According to the JEDC the approval the state has to give is from something called OTTED, and I don't have time to look it up for you right now.  I suspect you may find out more about it on the JEDC web site, but in going through the booklet I have on the commission this is the state approval most mentioned as being required.  Given the JEDC through their own requirements out the window on this, I don't know if the state requirements have been met, but someone was definitely there from the state yesterday and stayed and heard everything that was said.

Comment by Jim Ryan on June 10, 2011 at 11:40am

What do you know about Philadelphia, Pa.???  Maybe a look towards the future for Jacksonville, Florida???   Remember this is the city where the New Black Panther Party intimidated voters at the polls and Attorney General Holder decided to do nothing.     Read this conservative reporters perspective.  It's long but worth it.

In 1979, Chicago Mayor Michael Bilandic didn’t effectively plow the streets after a snowstorm — and as a direct result, he lost his primary election several months later. After similar snowstorms in
Philadelphia this past winter, the streets were in deplorable shape — and that’s
being generous.

The result? Almost 80 percent of voters just told Mayor Nutter “job well done” in last month’s primary.

That’s the difference. Chicago is “the town that works.” Philadelphia is completely dysfunctional.

Apathy gets you what you deserve. That passive neglect by city residents has led to Philly’s very deserved reputation as a city of colossal failure, with virtually no promise of a renaissance-like turnaround. And the numbers bear that out.

A recent study by the Pew Charitable Trust says it all: those who have the means to leave the city do so — as evidenced by 263,000 white residents (one-third of that population) who fled over the last 20 years. Those who can’t flee get further crushed by an abusive and incompetent government.

Since voters keep sending leaders like Mayor Michael Nutter back to City Hall by overwhelming margins, the rest of the state — particularly non-city state legislators — have increasingly been sending a message to Philadelphia: “We don’t care about your problems any more. You’ve
made your bed — now lie in it.”   It’s about time.

Up until the ’50s, Philadelphia was the last major city to be run by Republicans. The GOP had become wildly corrupt and eventually lost power to the Democrats reformers, who have been calling the shots ever since.  The transformation can be summed up this way: Philadelphia went from competent but corrupt Republicans, to incompetent and corrupt Democrats, to what we have today: just incompetent Democrats.

Sure, there is still corruption, but, to be fair, Nutter seems to be cleaner than some of his predecessors.  That’s simply not good enough. Truth be told, it’s probably a safe bet that the majority of residents would rather have corruption and competence than just plain incompetence.
Nothing works in the city. Services are poor and unpredictable, despite the staggering costs that residents and businesses pay for them. Opening a business is fraught with bureaucracy, red
tape, and, many privately say, extortion — both “legal” and otherwise.

The education system not only is in the hole $600 million, despite 70,000 vacancies in the school district’s capacity, but violence is commonplace, making it a deathtrap for many students. Year after
year, its “product” is so bad that a huge number drop out of school, and the rest have virtually no skills to perform even the most menial jobs after graduation. Only about one-third of its 11th graders are proficient in math, and slightly more than 40 percent proficient in reading, according to standardized tests. Yet those dismal figures were “earned” despite massive educational
spending and smaller class size. The truth is, the percentages are significantly lower, since the dropouts are not included in the scores.

The pension is catastrophically underfunded, so much that the Nutter has deferred payments for two years, promising to make it up by stroking a check — after his reelection — for $800 million. There is simply no money for that, so, sooner than later, it is a mathematical certainty that pensioners will begin to receive reduced payments, and, possibly, no payments at all.

Crime is still rampant, yet the Mayor acceded to the Police Commissioner’s implied threat to leave, giving him a $60,000 raise — making him the highest-paid employee in the city.

But rather than embark on a course that would clean up the city and reduce the tax and regulatory burden so that businesses and families would actually want to locate in Philadelphia — thus increasing tax revenue — the Mayor and City Council have done what they always do: put the
screws to the residents who can’t afford to vote with their feet.

Philadelphia is, cumulatively, one of the highest-taxed cities in the nation. From the job-killing wage tax to the 100 percent increase in the city portion of the state sales tax, and from the
(“temporary”) 10 percent hike in property taxes to the business gross receipts tax, taking more of the residents’ money is the only solution known to Philadelphia’s leaders.

And yet, it’s still not enough. So Nutter has gone back to the tax well yet again, this time resurrecting his soda tax proposal and pushing for big fee increases in parking rates. Oh, and he’s lobbying for
another 10 percent property tax increase. Remember, that would be in addition to the 10 percent increase passed last year.  Good move. That’s sure to bring in new businesses.

Mayor Nutter’s governing strategy is predicated upon only one thing: handouts from the federal and state government. In fact, he admitted that the city would have been unable to pay its bills last year without federal stimulus dollars.

Up until now, his feeding at the public trough has paid off, as the state always came to the rescue with big bucks. But the game has changed, as neither the state nor the feds have any money left to give. And now that those welfare checks to the city have dried up, the Mayor doesn’t have
a clue how to govern.

This should come as no surprise, though, as he has virtually no experience in the private sector. How often has he ever had to meet a payroll, or navigate the bureaucratic minefield when trying to open or expand a business? When was the last time he stayed up at night, worrying about covering his employees’ health care costs? And has he ever had to look someone in the face while handing him a pink slip — because the city tax burden was simply too great to keep that valued employee on board?

Career politicians who sit in their ivory towers, insulated from reality, govern from the only “experience” they know: academic theory. And as the exodus of Philadelphians shows, that simply doesn’t cut it.

Philadelphia doesn’t have the luxury of being Washington or New York, where being downtown is a necessity. Very few businesses have to be in the city, so the margin of error for Philly’s leaders is extremely small. And for those empty nesters and white-collar types who enjoy living in
Center City, they are one mugging away from packing it up and moving back to the
suburbs.

The lesson is simple: a government that overreaches yet remains incompetent results in a vastly reduced tax base — which in turn leads to a death spiral. It’s a concept any high schooler could grasp, but tragically, is completely lost on this deer-in-the-headlights Mayor.

After years of misguided policies, there are no easy answers, but the future is easy to predict because there is absolutely no political will to affect real change. Contrary to the fairy-tale fluff spewed
forth at nauseating press conferences, nothing will improve, more folks will leave, Philadelphia will continue its sad decline — and the Mayor will retire on an enviably-large pension.

Perhaps only then will he finally reap the whirlwind of his disastrous policies — when his own pension check bounces.   What a legacy.

Chris Freind is an independent columnist,
television commentator, and investigative reporter who operates his own news
bureau, www.FreindlyFireZone.com

Comment by CJ on June 10, 2011 at 11:26am

This Everbank deal could not have worked out better for us. 

 

I smell recall in the air

 

 I will explain fully soon.  

 

 

 

 

Comment by J.R. on June 10, 2011 at 11:18am

Also, Patricia, Mayor Peyton got away with it because he appointed commission members He appointed the foxes to guard the henhouses. Now, agencies whose ethics could be called into question appoint them. Neither way is effective. Ethics commission members should be elected, not appointed and the public needs to be watchdogs to make sure they operate ethically, no matter how they get the job. If they are elected, they can be recalled if they don't behave ethically themselves.
Seems to me the State Legislature should enact a state law that all counties would have to follow in this regard. Or, better still, the citizens could do a petition ballot initiative to get a proposed amendment added to the FL Constitution by way of Amendment. It could be voted on in the 2012 election if the required registered voter signatures could be obtained by the cut-off date for getting it on the 2012 national election ballot. Amendments to the FL Constitution have to be voted on in a national election.

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