• Mayor John Peyton got a $6,958 raise for fiscal year 2006 to bring his annual salary to $166,533. But he’s not keeping a penny of the raise. Peyton is donating all of it to the Community Foundation-Rally Jacksonville fund — his early literacy initiative.
• City Council President Kevin Hyde has canceled three upcoming Council lunch meetings, all for conflicting schedules. One’s personal, one conflicts with the Chamber’s annual Leadership trip and the other was the same day as the last Cornerstone luncheon of the year.
• Speaking of Hyde, he recommended John Falconetti of Drummond Press to Gov. Jeb Bush for appointment to the Jacksonville Aviation Authority Board.
• Apologies to attorney Paola Parra-Harris for not identifying her in a photo in the Legal Notes section of Monday’s paper.
• City Council member Pat Lockett-Felder is on the other side of the world this week — literally. She’s in Tokyo with representatives of the Jacksonville Port Authority meeting with potential shippers and port authority clients.
• The Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department was recognized by mayoral proclamation for its work in the community. For more, see page 5.
• Fourth-quarter finance reports for all 2007 Duval County candidates were due last week and the only significant item to report is the $101,000 loan that City Council Dist. 11 candidate Jack Daniels made to himself. Daniels is running for the seat that Warren Alvarez will have to vacate due to term limits.
• Several City Council members have burrs in their saddles over financing for the Equestrian Center and they expressed frustration at Monday’s Finance Committee meeting over the failure of private fund raisers to raise money as promised to build a pair of permanent barns. But Council member Warren Alvarez was able to find at least one silver lining. “This is still a better deal than the parking garages,” he said. Alvarez has been a frequent critic of a $50 million deal the City made to build three downtown parking garages.
• Later, Alvarez labeled a proposed resolution on Cecil Field a “feel-good resolution.” When Council member Lad Daniels voted against it, Finance Committee Chairman Daniel Davis quipped, “I guess he doesn’t want to feel good.”