by Fred Seely
Editorial Director
Calling on her fellow City Council members to remember Jacksonville’s accomplishments of the past 50 years, Elaine Brown gave her 18 colleagues a pep talk and a history lesson Tuesday evening as she became the Jacksonville City Council’s 37th president.
“We used to call ourselves the ‘Bold New City’ and we need to remember we are that, indeed,” said the at-large member to an overflow audience in the Council Chambers at City Hall. “We enter a great year, a year when we will have the Super Bowl, and we will work together to show the greatness of Jacksonville.”
Brown recalled the past successes:
• “The 1960’s, the time we were bold enough to change our government” through consolidation of the city and county.
• “The 1970’s, when we were bold enough to make a commitment to clean up the mighty St. Johns River, our prized possession” through a number of initiatives by mayors Hans Tanzler and Jake Godbold.
• “The 1980’s, when we were bold enough to dream that we could have a national Football League team” when Godbold started the efforts that led to the awarding of a franchise here in the mid-1990’s.
• “The 1990’s, when we were bold enough to pledge $2 billion commitment to secure our future” through the Better Jacksonville Plan.
And that brought this decade, she said, when the Super Bowl will bring national attention.
“The real job begins Feb. 7, 2005, the day after the Super Bowl,” she said, “when we must start working to realize the potential of the attention that we’ve received.”
Her speech capped an hour-plus meeting which also saw Kevin Hyde sworn in as vice president, police department veteran George Dandelake receive the award as the top city employee and Warren Alvarez receive the award for the outstanding Council member from outgoing president Lad Daniels.
Brown spoke in generalities but left the Council with a firm impression that her term would get specific about literacy, business development, health care, housing and continued revitalization of Downtown.
The meeting site was a change from the recent past as Brown opted to show off City Hall and party in Hemming Plaza rather than venture into the T-U Center. Over 400 were in the Chamber with another 100 in the atrium watching on a big screen.
Mayor John Peyton was in the front row along with former Jacksonville mayors Ed Austin and Jake Godbold, and the mayors of three of Duval County’s municipalities: Marvin Godbold of Baldwin, Bob Marsden of Jacksonville Beach and John Meserve of Atlantic Beach.
Neptune Beach Mayor Dick Brown had a better seat: he’s the husband of the new Council president and sat with her on the dais.
Legislators, former Council presidents and elected officials also were in the VIP seats including former Council president Tillie Fowler, who later became a U.S representative.
While the location was different, the program followed the same pattern with patriotic songs, lengthy prayers, thank-yous and standing ovations. Despite the lure of food and drink across the street, almost all were polite enough to stay to the last prayer.
The post-meeting party lasted until about 9:30 p.m. (parking garages closed at 10) and the crowd enjoyed a reasonably cool June evening with barbecue, beer, wine and soft drinks as they wandered through the Plaza and inside the adjacent Jacksonville Museum of Modern Art.
“The best thing about this evening is right there,” said Randy Goodwin, president of the PRI production company which coordinated the event, pointing to the sky. “No rain. This could have been a mess.”