City Council President Tommy Hazouri resumed his duties Sept. 1 more than a month after the 75-year-old had lung transplant surgery.
Hazouri’s office issued a memo released to Council members announcing his return.
Amber Lehman, assistant to Hazouri, said Sept. 2 the memo was required by Council rules to relieve Vice President Sam Newby, who had been presiding over meetings as acting president since July 26.
Hazouri said in an interview Sept. 2 that he will not be meeting with anyone in person to avoid possible exposure to COVID-19, and as doctors at Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville continue to monitor him daily for organ rejection and infection.
“I feel really good. It’s a long process,” Hazouri said. “It’s been a blessing. My lung capacity has improved 200% … I’m thankful to the family, the young man, for the donation. I don’t know much about him, and I may not meet (the family) for a long time. … And I’m thankful for my wife.”
Council’s standing committees resumed an in-person/virtual hybrid model this week as some members began a push Aug. 25 to resume meetings inside chambers that were stopped in March at the onset of the pandemic.
Lehman said Newby executed the hybrid committee meetings at the advice of Hazouri. The next full Council meeting Sept. 8 will remain exclusively on the Zoom videoconferencing platform, she said.
Hazouri’s aide said the hybrid model is allowed under Gov. Ron DeSantis’s executive order clearing the way for public government meetings to be held electronically during the COVID-19 state of emergency.
Hazouri said he has watched and monitored Council meeting since his third day out of surgery.
Before his surgery, Hazouri announced the formation of a Council Social Justice and Community Investment Special Committee to analyze policy decisions and legislation pertaining to social injustices, law enforcement and economic development to ensure a positive impact on all neighborhoods and demographics in Jacksonville.
Hazouri, a Democrat, said that will be his focus now that he has returned to the Council president’s chair.
“My main goal right now is to address my top priority — sidewalks and infrastructure — addressing the promises that haven’t been done so far since consolidation,” Hazouri said. “I think we’ll get that done, and I think we’ll be legendary.”
Hazouri, Jacksonville mayor from 1987-91, underwent the lung transplant surgery July 25 less than a month after he was sworn in as Council president.
He is the first Democrat to hold the Council presidency in nearly 27 years, according to the Duval County Democratic Party.