• Attorney Bryan Gowdy won The Florida Bar President’s Pro Bono Award for the Fourth Judicial Circuit. The Jacksonville Area Legal Aid board member also had been named “Pro Bono Attorney of the Month” by The Jacksonville Bar Association for November.
• Sen. John Thrasher, chair of the Duval County Legislative Delegation, said the hearing to discuss and vote on local bills is scheduled at 2 p.m. Jan. 21 in City Council chambers.
• Mayor John Peyton’s Chief of Staff Adam Hollingsworth said he plans to return to City Hall in January from his work on Gov.-elect Rick Scott’s transition team. Hollingsworth took an unpaid leave of absence to work on Scott’s campaign.
• Correction: The Florida Bar requires its members to report pro bono service, but said participation in pro bono service “is aspirational rather than mandatory in nature.” A story Monday indicated it was mandatory.
• Sales of single-family homes and condos fell 24.6 percent in November from the year before, said the Northeast Florida Association of Realtors. There were 1,001 sales closed this year, down from 1,327 last year. The group said it wasn’t a surprise in light of the temporary stoppage of foreclosure sales and short sales by large lenders recently. Of the sales, 514 were traditional sales and 487 were lender-mediated.
• The Realtors said while the median price for lender-mediated sales dropped almost 22 percent over the year, the price for traditional sales continues to rise, rising almost 9 percent to $174,250 in November from $160,000 last year. The overall median price fell 3 percent.
• City Council members Jack Webb, Bill Bishop, Dick Brown, Michael Corrigan, Ronnie Fussell, Johnny Gaffney, Ray Holt, Don Redman and Clay Yarborough have volunteered to serve lunch at the Sulzbacher Center Dec. 14.
• Jacksonville University graduate Michael Howland, class of 1976, will return to JU to serve as vice president for University Advancement. In 2008, Howland became president and CEO of the Southeastern Council of Foundations, an association of grantmakers. He starts at JU Feb. 1. He’s been a member of the JU board of trustees since 2003 and his last duty as a board member will be attending fall commencement Saturday.
• Florida State College at Jacksonville President Steve Wallace was voted 2011-12 president-elect of the Rotary Club of Jacksonville at the group’s meeting Monday. Wallace will succeed Howard Dale, who will take office in June and preside over the club’s 100th anniversary.