Early voting starts Monday in Duval County and the general election is May 17. As a reader service, the Daily Record invited mayoral candidates Alvin Brown, a Democrat, and Mike Hogan, a Republican, to consider the condition of seven important issues in Jacksonville and to rate those conditions. Brown and Hogan were asked to rate those conditions on a scale of 1-4, with 1 being weak and 4 being strong. They were invited to provide any comment they thought necessary to explain their ratings. Brown provided ratings and Hogan did not.
Hogan
City Budget
We do not have a revenue problem; we have a spending problem. As Jacksonville’s next mayor, I will take a long hard look at how the City is spending money and take every opportunity to stretch every dollar. It’s that simple. I have a detailed plan to cut more than $62 million in wasteful government spending:
• $30 million savings. Aggregate 5 percent reductions in all department/agency general fund budgets: flatten organization hierarchy, eliminate vacant positions that are funded each year; combine job responsibilities; combine department and division functions.
• $28 million savings. Implement common sense purchasing procedures: harness the purchasing power of state and other local governments; use best and final offer contracting where applicable; eliminate restrictions on Internet and discount store purchasing; implement telecom expense management; evaluate every contract. These steps will save at least 7 percent of the $400 million the City spends in purchasing each year.
• $3 million savings. Reduce mayoral appointees by a third: there are more than 200 paid mayoral appointees in City government at a cost of more than $12 million, and reducing mayoral appointees by a third will save at least $3 million.
• $1 million savings. Downsize public relations office by 50 percent: department heads will work directly with the mayor’s office to ensure timely deliverance of media inquiries and public records requests.
• $300,000 savings. Eliminate use of paid lobbyists: the City of Jacksonville pays Washington lobbyists $300,000 per year to lobby the federal government. I will work closely with our legislative and congressional delegations to advocate for Jacksonville’s best interest in Tallahassee and Washington.
Crime
Public safety is a core function and must be a top priority of City government. Adequate funding of our assets and resources will take precedence.
I am proud to have the support of the men and women in uniform who put their lives on the line every day to protect our families and neighborhoods.
Recognizing our current financial crisis, I have pledged that the sheriff and the state attorney will have the resources necessary to continue the successful path to crime reduction we have experienced in recent years. I am also proud to have the endorsement of Sheriff John Rutherford and State Attorney Angela Corey.
Downtown
I believe in investing in our city. I believe in investing in Downtown. But what I can’t support is further irresponsible spending in the name of ‘economic development’ on the backs of Jacksonville’s hard-working taxpayers.
Like every other neighborhood project in this city, like every other line item in our City’s budget, every purchase you make in your home and decisions you make in your business, Downtown investments will be subject to the same return-on-investment scrutiny smart spenders must use in order to stretch every dollar we have.
Downtown is important and I believe it is a special place in our city. But, expensive downtown projects disguised as a ‘vision’ for our city have to end. The money-sucking People Mover, stalled condo construction and the budget-busting $400 million courthouse are knee-jerk results of ill thought out visions for Downtown that seem to keep repeating themselves and I believe Jacksonville’s taxpayers deserve better. I will prioritize balancing the City’s budget by cutting wasteful spending to free up resources so we can invest in Jacksonville’s future responsibly.
Education
The prosperity of Jacksonville’s economy and our ability to recruit new businesses to our city are dependent upon our commitment to providing each and every one of our students with world-class education opportunities.
As mayor, I will be your child’s greatest advocate in the classroom, demanding results and accountability from the system.
Jacksonville’s taxpayers send their hard-earned tax dollars to Tallahassee each year and I will fight for the fair share our students deserve.
While the financial responsibility of educating our children rests with the state and the school board, I believe the actual responsibility lies with all of us, that we can and will change the trajectory of our children’s education, and that we will do it through good, old-fashioned hard work.
In my first weeks in office, I will create a school adoption program. I will convene a meeting of leaders from our churches, civic groups, and businesses and challenge them to adopt their local schools. It can and it does work. Just look at Ruth N. Upson Elementary School in the Murray Hill neighborhood. The socioeconomic indicators scream to us that this school should be a failure. In fact, 81 percent of the children at Upson receive free or reduced lunch. However, for three straight years this school has received an “A” grade.
Upson has fantastic leaders and teachers, but they also have a luxury that all schools should and can have: a community partner. Out of a spirit of compassion and pride, Murray Hill Baptist Church chose to adopt Upson during a time when it was not an “A” school, when it was not a source of neighborhood pride. They volunteer to read one-on-one with students. They make sure children have the supplies they need. They spend hundreds of hours tutoring.
Their efforts simply augment the tremendous work already taking place by the school’s talented principal, dedicated teachers and hard-working students. Together, they make a difference and in turn, students achieve demonstrable, measureable results.
There are community partners across this city just willing and able to lend a hand, and I will provide the leadership and direction needed.
Jobs
As Jacksonville’s next mayor, I will take a long hard look at how the City is spending your money and take every opportunity to stretch every dollar. It’s that simple.
While cutting spending will be the cornerstone of my administration, I know that creating jobs by energizing the economy is crucial to restoring fiscal order.
I believe that Jacksonville is uniquely positioned to create a business environment unlike any other in America, one that fosters entrepreneurship and small enterprise. Small business entrepreneurs create more jobs and more opportunities than large employers. They tend to be self-starters and less dependent on government assistance.
My administration, like none before, will concentrate efforts on proven fundamentals that are known to help existing small businesses prosper while also attracting new employers. We must reduce burdensome regulations, improve resources and information for small businesses, ensure the availability of a skilled and educated work force in our market, focus on the return on investment for every dollar spent and aggressively expedite crucial improvements at JaxPort.
Port
The river channel must be deepened to attract the post-Panamax vessels and the navigation problems at Mile Point must be resolved. This issue is the port’s largest obstacle to growth because it reduces the port’s competitiveness and prevents its new Asian terminal from handling the cargo it should be handling.
We have in our favor the best geographical and logistics position on the Eastern Seaboard. The wealth the port could provide for this city could be incalculable.
I believe the port should be our primary focus as it relates to economic development. We know that 20,000 jobs are just waiting to be created, and as mayor, I will go after every single one of them.
Race Relations
I want to be mayor for all of Jacksonville. I will lead by example and my administration will reflect the diversity of this great city.
Brown
City Budget (1)
The latest estimate is that the City has a budget shortfall of about $62 million. That’s a significant shortfall that has to be addressed. I’ll balance the budget without raising taxes or fees. A few of the areas I’ll look to for savings are IT, fleet management and procurement.
To take Jacksonville to the next level, our city needs a government that is accountable to the taxpayers and encourages city residents and stakeholders to work together for a shared vision of success. In hard economic times like these, we should not raise taxes or City fees or add any new fees. The unemployment rate in Jacksonville continues to remain in the double digits. Foreclosure rates are at record levels. In a recent report by the Brookings Institution, Jacksonville’s economy ranked among the lowest of 100 U.S. cities.
When so many residents and businesses in our city are having a tough time making ends meet, the focus at City Hall should be on taking concrete steps to stimulate economic growth. Taxes pay for the services we all need, and when we attract businesses to locate in Jacksonville and our economy grows, we build our tax base in the process. What this means is that when commerce grows, there are more sources of revenue and more efficient use of City resources and, in effect, there are simply more sources of money to work with, so what does get spent for the services we all need and use become more cost-effective.
Crime (2)
Jacksonville has had the highest or second-highest murder rate in Florida for the last 20 years. In serving as board chair of Families of Slain Children, I have met too many parents who have been forced to deal with the pain of losing a child to senseless violence on our city’s streets. We have lived with this for too long, and it must change. As mayor, I would work with city residents, community groups, public safety officers and others by starting with the following steps to improve public safety in Jacksonville:
• Continue to build upon the success of the Jacksonville Journey. The Jacksonville Journey is working, and I would continue to fund the program. The program has helped reduce crime by focusing on high-crime areas and funding after-school programs for 1,700 children.
• Rebuild trust between police and the community. The first step in rebuilding trust is establishing a dialogue between the police and the community. As mayor, I would work closely with the sheriff and the community. It is important to recognize that police officers are members of our community who play a vital role in the well-being of the city. The next step in rebuilding trust is prevention. The police are one part of the solution, but key community groups must work together to rebuild trust and ultimately lower crime.
• Identify best practices in police and fire departments nationwide that can be implemented in Jacksonville. Our police and fire departments have indicated that at present, they have a sufficient number of police officers and firefighters to keep the city safe. As mayor, I would work with the police and fire departments to identify “best practices” of other major metropolitan areas and adapt them for Jacksonville, and aggressively pursue state and federal grants to further increase the efficiency and effectiveness of public safety services.
• Leverage the potential of our city’s parks in crime prevention. Good park programs are more than just a fun diversion for our residents, and especially our city’s youth — they are also effective preventative anti-crime programs. We have about 300 parks in our city, and they are underfunded. Jacksonville spends $42 per person on its parks, compared to $143 per person in Tampa and $155 per person in Orlando. As mayor, I would reach out to the private sector and philanthropic foundations to fund the operation of the parks and encourage more businesses and organizations to adopt-a-park and sponsor park programs.
Downtown (2)
Downtown has been stagnant. The tax base Downtown has shrunk from providing 17 percent to 3 percent of the city’s property taxes; the number of employees working Downtown has dropped from 61,000 years ago to about 50,000 today, and we only have about 2,000 people living Downtown when we need about 10,000 for it to thrive. I will form public-private partnerships to invest in Downtown and I will create an independent downtown development authority to take politics out of the equation and focus solely on creating jobs and developing Downtown into a destination.
The City should add resources to the countywide Economic Development Fund to help finalize deals that bring jobs Downtown. We need to take advantage of new market tax credits and incentives provided by Jacksonville’s Enterprise and Empowerment Zones and overseen by the Jacksonville Economic Development Commission to hire new workers and expand into new areas Downtown.
We need to encourage growth through public-private partnerships, market the city and reach out to investors.
I propose creating a revolving loan program to give small businesses access to capital and credit. We should also consider building a new convention center and working with business owners to develop an entertainment district downtown.
Education (2)
Duval County Public Schools’ reputation currently hurts Jacksonville’s efforts to attract new businesses. Recently, a Pittsburgh company moving to Jacksonville opted to take a reduced incentive package than it could have received by locating Downtown so its employees could live outside the city and send their children to school in St. Johns County. That’s a company that’s moving here. How many companies are we losing because of that reputation? That’s not something we want to happen. We have to change that mindset if we’re going to take Jacksonville to the next level. We must turn around our challenged schools and ensure that all of our students receive a solid education that prepares them to complete in a global economy.
I would start by building a partnership with the business community, faith community and not-for-profit community to hire retired teachers to tutor students at those challenged schools in the areas of math, science, reading and writing. I would also hire a chief education officer who would spearhead after-school programs, summer programs and tutoring programs that would help improve the challenged schools and help every school receive a passing grade, which would improve the reputation of our schools. I would fund it through private investment and grants.
Jobs (2)
The unemployment rate in Jacksonville is still above 10 percent. We have got to put Jacksonville back to work, and that’s what I’ll do. I’ll start by focusing on the port, working with our congressional delegation, state delegation and public-private partnerships to secure the funding we need to deepen our port and improve the terminal facilities.
Jacksonville is fortunate to have several competitive advantages for attracting and growing businesses here, including one of the strongest Chambers of Commerce in the United States. The city features an attractive work force, an excellent geographic position within the Southeast that is ideal for logistics, offers relatively low costs for businesses, and has a good climate that contributes to our quality of life.
However, our city also suffers from obstacles to further success that require our attention. Chief among them is the slowest City government approval process in Florida. As you may know, it takes a minimum of three meetings for anything to get through City Council. Often, prospective clients and partners have to be told that they will be forced to wait at least six weeks – and often eight weeks or more – before the City government will give a green light.
At a time when Jacksonville’s government should be doing everything it can to encourage and support industries, companies and entrepreneurs who are attempting to spur economic growth and create jobs, this overly lengthy process is unacceptable, and, as mayor, I would make every effort to reduce such red tape.
Port (3)
JaxPort is vital to our economic vitality and is part of what defines us as a city. The port has a $19 billion annual economic impact. It generates 65,000 jobs in Jacksonville, with an average salary of $43,980 compared to the average city salary of $27,215. Right now, Jacksonville is competing with 13 other Florida ports for state and federal resources, and JaxPort faces strong competition from strongly backed ports in Charleston and Savannah.
I understand the importance of JaxPort and will boldly champion its potential. I intend to work closely with the state Legislature and Congressional Delegation to ensure that funding for our port is a top priority. I will also seek to create a public-private partnership to accelerate the resources needed to accomplish the following objectives: Channel depth improvements; terminal development and modernization; on or near-dock intermodal rail connections to enhance connectivity to inland markets; efficient highway access and motor carrier support facilities.
Expanding our port will eventually create another 35,000 jobs in Jacksonville after the Panama Canal project is completed. The governor recently approved funding for the port of Miami, and I’m confident that Jacksonville will be able to obtain both state and federal funding.
Race Relations (3)
The most recent Jacksonville Community Council Inc. Race Relations Progress Report notes that Jacksonville has truly become a multicultural community, especially because of rapidly growing Hispanic and Asian populations. The report also noted that trend lines indicate that progress is slow, and the gap between blacks and whites in the perception of racism being a problem in the city widened from 2009 to 2010.
My vision is to unite this city, and we can do that by closing the education gap, closing the economic gap and creating equal opportunity for all in Jacksonville. This city has all the assets it needs to reach the next level, and it has a much better chance of getting there by all of our residents working together. My administration will reflect the diversity of our community and include all in our successes.