Jacksonville City Council

Don't send me a therapy bill when I tell you this.

Recently, I ran for vice president of the Jacksonville City Council.

It was an unprecedented move.

It was a lot of work.

And I did not, and I'm not going to say I lost, I did not become the vice president of the Jacksonville City Council, but I did not lose.

Some of y'all will get that on Sunday morning.

And in running, I challenged how the system was done.

You've done more work than we have.

And that included Cleveland Ferguson as well.

the current interim CEO, who's actually received a lot of praise from other board members as well as the city council, Jacksonville City Council, handling all of this fallout.

And then also, too, it laid out a list of questions and really said, look, we were not told as a board that we were pulling from JTA's reserves at the level that they were in order to stay afloat.

in the tune of up to $40 million, just pulling from their financial reserves in order to stay afloat as revenues weren't coming in the way they expected to.

Costs were a lot higher than what the administration had led both the city council and the JTA board to believe.

And then that board member as well also took a little bit of culpability that this particular board member was appointed by Governor Ron DeSantis, the JTA board, is partially appointed by the governor, partially appointed by the mayor of the city of Jacksonville.

And he said, look, if I failed in my duties of oversight, I should have asked more questions.

And if the governor asked for my resignation, I'd give it to him.

But also, too, that same committee wants to hear from all of the CFOs who served during that time.

The Jacksonville City Council Auditor's Office has always been praised as an independent arbiter, an organization or an agency that's based on the numbers.

The issue with JTA is it's a state agency.

So the city council auditor's office doesn't have unfettered access to those numbers.

City officials formally demand answers from former Transportation Chief Nat Ford, and questions surround a controversial proposal that could have resulted in hundreds of thousands of dollars in bonus cash for the Housing Authority CEO.

Here to talk about all that and more, I'm joined by Robin Lum, former Jacksonville City Council member.

Good morning, Robin.

Good morning, Anne.

There is much happening there from a budgetary standpoint, a financial standpoint.

But now from kind of a criminal investigatory standpoint, we have multiple subpoenas from the attorney general to JTA.

And now this week, the Jacksonville City Council voting to subpoena Nat Ford.

He is the outgoing CEO.

All right.

Jacksonville Basketball Hall of Famer Artis Gilmore files for Jacksonville City Council seat.

A basketball legend is stepping off the bench and into politics.

Basketball Hall of Famer and Jacksonville University alumnus Artis Gilmore filed Tuesday to run for Jacksonville City Council at-large group three as a Democrat.

All council seats are up for election in May 2027.

It's Gilmore's first run for elected office.

This is a decision ultimately about money.

The Jacksonville City Council has delayed a vote.

It is wrapped up in a very significant political statewide issue, Amendment 3.

The city council is Finance Committee basically said we're not going to make a vote.

You see a lot of things that concern you.

In this context, what would concern me, for example, is if an issue were put before the Jacksonville City Council, I can tell you without hearing anybody speak what those six people are going to do, what those four people are going to do.

You don't need to hear anything.

You don't need facts.

But officials are warning, or urging residents anyway, to review their hurricane plans and make sure that they have emergency supplies ready to go.

Well, in Jacksonville, the Duval County Republican Party is mourning former Jacksonville City Councilwoman Gwen J. Chandler.

Chandler served on the city council from 1995 through 2003 and was credited by the party as the first black Republican woman to serve on the Jacksonville City Council since consolidation.

Her obituary says that Chandler was a lifelong resident of Okeechobee and she spent 25 years as an educator.