• The Anti-Defamation League will present its Jacksonville 2011 Distinguished Service Awards to retired County Judge Morton Kesler, entrepreneur and CEO Delores Kesler and Sheriff John Rutherford. The awards reception and presentation will be 5-7 p.m. March 10 at the Hyatt. Event co-chairs include attorneys Hugh Cotney and Evan Yegelwel and government affairs specialist Mike Hightower. The Keslers will be presented the “Distinguished Community Service Award” and Rutherford will be presented with the “Distinguished Public Service Award.” Cost is $75 a person. For information, call 561-988-2944.
• The Jacksonville Bar Association’s “Super Chili Bowl Charity Cook-Off” has been rescheduled to March 5 on the campus of Florida Coastal School of Law. For information about tickets or entering a team, contact Eric Roberson at 798-2614 or [email protected].
• Gov. Rick Scott announced the reappointments of Art Graham, Eduardo Balbis, Ronald Brisé and Julie Brown to the Florida Public Service Commission. Graham, 46, of Jacksonville Beach, was reappointed for a term that began Friday and ends Jan. 1, 2014, the same as Brisé. The terms for Balbis and Brown end Jan. 1, 2015. Scott also reappointed Lenny Curry to the Florida State Boxing Commission, effective Friday through Sept. 30, 2013.
• University of North Florida President John Delaney, a former mayor and a friend of mayoral candidates Audrey Moran and Rick Mullaney, continues to maintain his neutrality by not endorsing either. He said he didn’t vote in the Jacksonville Regional Chamber of Commerce JaxBiz endorsement process and made a motion to co-endorse Moran and Mullaney. JaxBiz endorsed Moran.
• Speaking of candidates and former mayors, Jake Godbold, a Democrat, joined Republican Moran’s campaign.
• Mullaney was endorsed by the Associated General Contractors of Greater Florida last week during a forum at San Jose Country Club. The organization will be endorsing candidates in other races soon.
• The chamber’s Leadership Trip review meeting Thursday at WJCT studios included some of the JaxBiz endorsed candidates. It was the first time former radio and TV host Tom Patton, a candidate, had returned to the station after parting ways in October 2008. Patton choked up while introducing himself and thanked WJCT President and CEO Michael Boylan for the opportunity of having worked there.
• Former Mayor Delaney, who was succeeded in office by Mayor John Peyton, was asked what he learned on the leadership trip and quipped that he discovered, based on comments at a reception from chamber executive Jerry Mallot and former chamber chair Mike Hightower, that “Mayor Peyton was the greatest mayor in history dating back to Pericles,” the legendary leader of Athens who died in 429 B.C.