by Max Marbut
Staff Writer
Looking back on her two terms as she prepares to leave City Council due to term limits, Elaine Brown didn’t have to think very long to come up with the highlight of her last eight years.
“Being selected by my colleagues to serve as Council President when Super Bowl was here was huge, but that doesn’t compare with being able to follow in the footsteps of Tillie Fowler, Ginger Soud and Alberta Hipps as the only women who have held the office since Consolidation,” said Brown.
It wasn’t far into her first term when Brown had what she said could be best described as a “trial by fire.”
“Ginger Soud appointed me chair of the Finance Committee during my first year in office. I had to consult with the City’s auditors and do a lot of homework in order to learn how government finance works.”
After chairing the Finance Committee, Brown moved on to chair the Transportation, Energy, Utilities and Safety Committee for four years. That gave her the chance to learn about some of the other core elements that can determine the county’s future.
“That experience made me a firm believer on how highways and infrastructure can make a city run well and that having adequate mass transit will be a big part of Jacksonville’s future success,” she said. “We saw the plan for the mass transit hub that will someday be Downtown start while I was on TEUS.”
Brown said being an At-large Council member gave her the “privilege to work on issues that affected all the districts. I was able to see how the puzzle pieces fit together to make Duval County the best it can be.”
She also chaired the Workforce and Affordable Housing Task Force, where she said it became obvious to her that something has to be done to stop pricing entire groups of people out of the housing market.
“Teachers are particularly hard hit,” said Brown. “Two teachers who are married can have a combined income of $70,000 and the average price for a home in Duval County is $225,000. Talented teachers are moving out of the state so they can afford to own a home and we can’t afford for them to do that.”
In addition to infrastructure issues, Brown said she always considered protecting the environment to be a public safety issue of sorts.
“Public safety is always government’s number-one priority, followed closely by quality-of-life issues. We were able to make sure the City stayed ahead of the curve in terms of collecting hazardous waste in every district while I served on Council. We were even able to add E-waste like electronics and computers to the program. We now recycle as much as possible and properly dispose of the rest and I think Duval County leads the state in that effort.”
Brown summed up her City Council career by saying, “I’ve enjoyed being able to work for everyone in Duval County,” then added she’s preparing to take on even more territory.
“I’m running for Don Davis’s seat in the state House of Representatives,” she said. “I have been humbled by the reaction of people when I have called them to ask for their support. I want to go to Tallahassee and continue to work to make sure the state supports us when it comes to transportation and education.
“I’m not through yet. I want to continue to serve North Florida.”