by Mike Sharkey
Staff Writer
One race down, one to go?
Tuesday, City Council member Suzanne Jenkins won a closer-than-expected race against Don Redman and will represent the people of Dist. 4 for another four years. Her next big campaign may be to succeed Jerry Holland as Council president, something that would require challenging current vice president Lad Daniels.
While Jenkins admits interest in the presidency — last year, Holland grabbed enough votes to snatch the job from Jenkins when she was vice president under Matt Carlucci — she will wait until after the May 13 general election before making a decision.
“It will be interesting to see what shakes out,” said Jenkins, who planned to attend Wednesday’s Recreation & Community Development committee meeting before taking a couple of days off after campaigning hard for the past three weeks. “The guy in the seat is in a runoff.”
Jenkins figures there’s no sense in pursuing the vice presidency until she knows whether Daniels defeats Cathy Chadeayne-Goldman in the At-large Group 3 runoff. Also, there are four other Council races going to the runoff. With Sharon Copeland’s defeat of incumbent Mary Ann Southwell in Dist. 6 and Doyle Carter’s decision to not seek reelection in Dist. 12, the next Council could potentially have 10 new members.
(It’s important to note that Ginger Soud, Gwen Chandler, Jim Overton, Alberta Hipps and King Holzendorf are all term-limited and Matt Carlucci ran unsuccessfully for mayor and isn’t eligible to return to Council.)
Even if At-large Group 1 member Faye Rustin and Daniels both win their runoffs, there will be at least eight new members of Council and Jenkins knows the new Council will vote for president and vice president, not the current 19 members. Interestingly, Jenkins said she isn’t surprised by the fact Daniels, who’s head of the First Coast Manufacturing Association, is in a runoff.
“People don’t know who he is,” she said, adding the vice presidency is still enticing, but not at the top of her agenda. “I’m more interested in the dynamics of the new people. I want to see who gets elected and who would make good leaders.”
Vice presidency or not, Jenkins has a list of things she’d like to address over the next year and during her second term.
“I want to have a good year, not for me, but for the city,” said Jenkins who believes the current Council year has been somewhat nondescript. “We haven’t done anything this year. Usually by this time, you can point to a number of things we’ve accomplished.”
Specifically, Jenkins would like to see her Downtown Zoning Overlay plan adopted by Council and the City’s JaxCares program expanded. The zoning overlay would allow a better variety of businesses to set up shop downtown, especially those geared toward the Bay Street Town Center project and other entertainment-based businesses.
“I want to continue to focus on downtown revitalization. I plan to introduce the zoning overlay to Council soon,” said Jenkins. “It’s the economic engine for downtown and there will be issues with it. If we get it done prior [to June 30], that would be better. By then, it will be 18 months to Super Bowl. We need to get this introduced, passed and out. I’ve already gotten approval from the DDA, JEDC and the mayor.”