by Mike Sharkey
Staff Writer
A Who’s Who of the First Coast will convene at Alltel Stadium late this afternoon when the 150 or so members of the Jacksonville Super Bowl Host Committee officially get together for the first time.
“It’s kind of a meet and greet,” said Heather Surface, spokeswoman for the Host Committee. “It’s to bring everyone up to speed about the developments of the Host Committee. We will chart our course and prepare for what lies ahead. For many, it’s their first brush with the Host Committee.”
Membership on the committee was decided by the 2005 Super Bowl leadership, including businessmen Tom Petway and Peter Rummell. The list (see page 6) includes most of the area’s government and civic leaders, and more names are expected to be added.
What lies ahead for the current members of the committee is a lot of work and not much time. Within the next two and a half years, the committee will have to secure everything from floating hotels — several cruise ships — to a temporary entertainment district that will be the foundation for a permanent entertainment district downtown.
Today’s meeting will also be an opportunity for many of the committee members to meet for the first time as well as incoming Host Committee President and COO, Mike Kelly, who is officially taking over for Mike Weinstein on July 1, although he may be on board a couple of weeks earlier. Weinstein is stepping down to concentrate on his mayoral campaign.
Another order of business will be to establish some type of hierarchy for the Host Committee. Although the upper echelon positions have been spoken for, a great deal of the work in preparation for the 2005 Super Bowl will be done by the many committees within the organization.
“The Super Bowl organizational chart includes 10 named committees and 61 subcommittees,” said Surface. “For example, we have a Transportation Committee and under that we have Ground, Air and Marine. Hopefully, we will get an idea which area each person wants to serve and appoint chairs to those committees. We will talk to them about what they want to do, where they want to serve and their top three committee choices.
“What we hope to get is an idea of who will serve where and put them in [organizational] boxes.”
The committee is made up of various community, business and civic leaders from all over the area. In addition to politicians, business owners and CEOs, the committee will also be composed of leaders from chamber of commerces and convention bureaus from Duval, St. Johns, Nassau and Clay counties. Creating such a broad geographical organization was imperative to Jacksonville, actually the First Coast, landing the game in the first place.
“This is a First Coast effort, certainly not just Jacksonville,” said Surface. “Jacksonville could not have done it alone.”
Surface said plans are for the committee to meet on a quarterly basis. By the next meeting, the objective is to have the 10 committee chairs in place and the subcommittees filled out.
Here’s the list of those who have been invited to serve on the Host Committee:
Board
Ed Austin, Carl Cannon, Pete Carpenter, Jim Dahl, Mayor John Delaney, Lawrence DuBow, Tim Finchem, Fred Franklin, Adm. Jan Gaudio, Preston Haskell, Robert Helms, Adam Herbert, Sen. Betty Holzendorf, Anne Hopkins, Jimmy Jenkins, Martha Lanahan, Rev. Fred Newbill, Herb Peyton, Tom Petway, Peter Rummell, Carol Thompson, Ron Townsend, Michael Ward, Wayne Weaver, Mike Weinstein.
Business community
Jay Adams, Ron Austin, H.E. “Buck” Autrey, Jim Bailey, Pete Banaszak, Diane Bess, Dana Birchfield, Karen Bowman, Terrie Brady, Rev. Dennis Bratton, Jeri Brewer, Carter Bryan, Ed Burr, Nancy Burrows, Rhodesia Butler, Michael Cascone, Rick Catlett, Al Chester, Hester Clark, Luther Coggin, Fran Coker, Victor Cora, Toni Crawford, Kitty Crenshaw, Daniel Culleton, Jim Dalton, Richard Danford, Nancy DeCray, Ron Della Porta, Al Denson, Sister DeSales Wisnewski, Derek Dewan, Don Dickhens, Bruce Douglas, Wendy Druce, Michael DuBow, Susan DuBow, Edward Eng, James England, John Falconetti, George Featherston, Paul Fletcher, George Gabel, Richard Garside, W.W. Gay, W.C. Gentry, Deborah Gianoulis, Craig Gibbs, Jack Gillrup, Rev. Darrell Gilyard, Nadine Grambling, John Granby, Hugh Greene, Rich Griffith, Warren Grymes, Rabbi Steve Grundfast, Susan Hartley and Robert Hayes.
Also, Chuck Hedrick, Mac Holley, Robert Jacoby, Larry Jaffe, Leerie Jenkins, Michael Jennings, Earl Johnson Jr., Jennifer Johnson-Duke, Linda King, Joy Korman, Jeff Lageman, Carnell Lake, Dr. Gasper Lazzara, Dr. Torri Lilly, Betsy Lovett, John Maher, Tim Mann, Mac McGriff, Rev. Rudolph McKissick Jr., Elizabeth Means, Ric Morales, Pat Moran, Robert Dale Morgan, Beth Morris, David Mullins, T.C. Newman, Joanie Stein Newton, Ken Nemcovich, Anne Nimnicht, Lee Nutter, Marsha Oliver, Deborah Pass, Pam Paul, Pam Payne and Tim Payne.
Also, Victoria Pennington, Sylvia Perry, Jack Peter, Carol Pitman, Bob Rhodes, Kevin Robbins, Sylvester Robinson, Steve Rosenblum, Allen Rowland, Fred Schultz, Bruce Scott, Ed Seay, Linda Sherrer, Robert Shircliff, Mark Shorstein, David Sellick, Lewis Siplin, Peter Sleiman, Bruce Smathers, Joel Smeenge, David Smith, Laurie Ellen Smith, Jeff Spence, Jonathan Spiller, Jim Stallings, Brooke Stein, David Stein, David Stevens, Otis Story, Frank Surface, Julia Taylor, Debra Thompson, Penny Thompson, John Thrasher, Ken Tonning, Jack Uible, Clark Vargas, Ralph Vick, Hershel Vinyard, Walther Vleigen, Dr. Steven Wallace, Ron Weaver, Michael Weiss, Joseph White, Randy White, Dave Widell, Dick Williams, Ike Williams, Gaile Wingard.
Advisory Committee
Ray Alfred, Al Battle, Michael Blaylock, Janet Brinko, Mayor Dick Brown, Walt Bussells, Matt Carlucci, Grady Carrick, John Clark, Julie Combs, Earline Crews, James Darby, Nick Deonas, Regina Duncan, Rick Ferrin, Mary Freeland, John Fryer, Nat Glover, Adm. Dave Harlow, Glen Hastings, Marc Jacalone, Jimmie Johnson, Larry Lancaster, Wes Larson, Rep. Denise Lee and Wally Lee.
Also, Pat Lockett-Felder, Terry Lorince, Mayor Bob Marsden, Steve McDermaid, Mayor John Meserve, Sharon Mock, Dick Morris, Sam Mousa, Patricia Northey, Brad Purcell, Kitty Ratcliffe, Isiah Rumlin, Ron Salem, Aage Schroeder, Deborah Thompson, Bill Tipton, Ken Tucker, Kirk Wendland, Lyn Westbrook, Henri Goodman and Woody Woodside.