• Attorney Charles McBurney will qualify for the vacant Dist. 16 House of Representatives seat today in Tallahassee. According to Teresa Eichner of The McCormick Agency, McBurney will qualify by petition and has more than the required 209 signatures.
• Looks like City Council President Daniel Davis intends for his year’s worth of meetings to go smoothly. Davis recently asked Steve Rohan of the Office of General Counsel for the legal definition of the Council president’s “governance over the conduct and decorum of Council meetings.” Rohan’s response cites both State statute and City rules that in brief, explain the president’s role, limits on public comment and the role of the Sergeant-at-Arms.
• The Jacksonville Waterways Commission subcommittee will meet Tuesday at 3 p.m. in Conference Room A at City Hall. Susan Grandin of The Trust for Public Land chairs the committee.
• Haskell Chairman Preston Haskell is the speaker at Monday’s Downtown Rotary Club of Jacksonville meeting at the Omni. The Meninak Club is having Adm. James Stavridis, United States South Command, as its guest speaker. The Meninak Club meets at the Wyndham.
• Speaking of Meninak, the 74th Annual Meninak Ocean Marathon Swim is next Saturday at the American Red Cross Lifeguard Station in Jacksonville Beach. The swim will start at 10 a.m. 3.5 miles south of the station in front of the Ponte Vedra Inn & Club. Fifty members of the American Red Cross Volunteer Lifesaving Corps are expected to race this year. Only members of the corps are eligible to participate. The record for the event, 1:03:27, was set in 1990 by eight-time winner Cleve Cooney, son of longtime Ch. 4 sportscaster Matt Cooney.
• The City’s Veterans Affairs Office will host a Veterans Resource Fair Aug. 3-4 at the Agricultural Fairgrounds. The annual event is designed to assist Jacksonville’s at-risk veteran population through distribution of food, clothing and welfare and comfort items. Medical service, haircuts and job assistance will also be available. Aug. 3 from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. will be devoted to job assistance and placement with 40 local employers participating to interview job candidates. All other services will be available Aug. 4 from 9 a.m.-3 p.m. For information, call 630-3680.
• Two Council committees — Rules and Finance — will meet jointly Oct. 18 to discuss the City ordinance that deals with the City’s ethics education program. The amended ordinance would require newly-elected Council members to attend the training within 90 days of the election being certified rather than within 90 days of taking office.
“When your house is on fire, you can’t be bothered with the neighbors. Or, as we say in chess, if your king is under attack you don’t worry about losing a pawn on the queen’s side.”
– Gary Kasparov