• The Chamber’s Leadership Trip this year will be to San Diego. They visited Dallas last year.
• Word from City Hall says Mayor John Peyton will name a permanent chief operating officer today. Lynn Westbrook, who replaced Sam Mousa last summer, has been serving in an interim capacity and will return to the Public Works Department.
• The list of replacements for Michele Querry, Mayor Peyton’s former liaison to the City Council, continues to grow. Possible candidates include Ronnie Fussell, a former director of business and legislative affairs for John Delaney, JEDC director of business development Jeanne Miller, and Mike Miller, the liaison under Delaney who now works for the Jacksonville Transportation Authority.
• G. Stephen Manning has joined Ackerman Senterfitt law firm in the Real Estate Practice Group. His practice will focus on real estate, land use and environmental law.
• The mayor is counting on divine intervention to keep rains away from next year’s Super Bowl. When Council member Pat Lockett–Felder and Council vice president Elaine Brown told Mayor Peyton that Main Street drainage needs to be improved in case of stormy weather during next February’s game, he quickly responded, “That’s not going to happen.” Peyton joked, “that’s going to be a faith–based initiative.”
• U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow will be in town Tuesday for a tour of the Advanced Technology Center at Florida Community College at Jacksonville.
• Randy Fairbanks, most recently with Walker & Fairbanks in Ponte Vedra Beach, starts today with the Brennan, Manna & Diamond law firm. He will be in the business department, handling tax issues, estate planning and asset protection.
• Members of the Florida Nurserymen and Growers Association will take up about 75 rooms at the Omni starting Wednesday while they’re in town for their big show at the Fairgrounds.
• Mayor Peyton will hold his first town hall meeting today at 6 p.m. Peyton will visit the Northwest Citizens Planning Committee in the Raines High School auditorium. Peyton will continue the tradition of hosting a town meeting in each of the City’s six planning districts this year.
• The Bridge of Northeast Florida, Inc. asked for the mayor’s support to use the Ritz
Theater rent–free for an April fundraiser.
The rent would cost $1,025 for the planned Wine and Cheese Reception, which would run from 5:30 to 9 p.m.
• Legal poker is coming. The Best Bet betting facility on U.S. 1 just over the St. Johns County line will open its poker room later this month. It’s low-stakes gambling which was authorized by the legislature a few years ago when the tracks tried (and failed) to get casino gambling.
• The University of Maryland obviously had a good time at the Gator Bowl – the school rented a billboard on I-95 near the Avenues to thanks Jacksonville for the hospitality.