• Ashton Hudson, the Peyton Transition Team’s Finance and Efficiency subcommittee chair, and team co-chair Walt Bussells spoke with New York investment firm Bear Stearns last week, seeking the firm’s advice about how to translate Jacksonville’s high credit rating and historically low national tax rates into more revenue for the City.
• Beginning July 1, Lottery players will need to turn to Ch. 25 for the winning numbers. Currently, Lottery results are shown on Ch. 47, but the contract was acquired by Ch. 25.
• State Sen. Anthony Hill asked Mayor John Delaney last week to help him call for a moratorium on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test, which Hill said “damages the spirit of high achievement among students and staff.” Hill will host a FCAT meeting tonight from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at FCCJ’s Downtown campus to hear public views about the test.
• The Jacksonville Historical Society will continue offering its City Hall tours after Mayor-elect John Peyton takes office next week. The society has conducted guided tours for children, scouts, church groups and tourists since the St. James Building opened as City Hall in 1997.
• The Peyton Transition Team’s subcommittees will begin this week hearing insider testimony from each of the City’s 12 departments. Chosen for their operational knowledge of the departments, these “subject matter experts” could be department employees, customers or vendors.
• The Lemon Bar, one of the newer neighborhood hangouts in Neptune Beach, is turning out to be quite a hot spot. So hot, in fact, that City Council members Elaine Brown and Art Graham were spotted there last weekend. Brown’s husband Dick, the mayor of Neptune Beach, was also there.
• U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay was in town over the weekend. Played a good game of golf, we hear.
• Speaking of golf, Deerwood member Andy Purnell finished second in the State Amateur over the weekend.
• A San Pablo resident was greeted by an unwelcome guest Tuesday when a 4-foot alligator was spotted swimming in her backyard pond. The woman called City Hall in hopes of having it removed, but the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission in Tallahassee made it clear the gator would have to be considered a nuisance — whether or not it displayed an “absence of fear of humans” — before any action could be taken.
• Things really are winding down for lots of folks at City Hall. They have been asked to return any City property they may have to include phones, pagers, lap tops and City ID badges