by Joe Wilhelm Jr.
Staff Writer
Mayor Alvin Brown announced another public-private partnership Monday with executives on loan to help guide his administration’s economic development efforts.
Jacksonville Regional Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Wally Lee, Chamber Chair Hugh Greene, Cornerstone President Jerry Mallot and Jacksonville Civic Council Executive Director Don Shea will help Brown examine and improve economic policies and procedures for the City, the mayor said.
“The primary theme of my campaign was putting Jacksonville back to work, focusing on creating jobs and employing a public-private partnership to get certain things done better than either the private sector or public sector can do alone,” said Brown.
“Hugh Greene and Wally Lee have agreed to work with me to develop a new paradigm to take job creation efforts to the next level. The goal is the creation of a public-private partnership for job creation that will become a model for our city, our state and our country,” he said.
Brown did not name an executive director for the Jacksonville Economic Development Commission, a position currently held by Ron Barton. Barton did not return a phone call seeking comment.
“I think we have an opportunity to make sure that we leverage and position JEDC in a way that creates jobs and creates best practices. It’s important to see what we can do better and how we do it,” said Brown.
The JEDC will meet Thursday and consider incentives to create 205 jobs. Medtronic Xomed wants to add 175 positions and KCI Aviation proposes 30.
Brown said that while the JEDC will continue to look at the entire city, his proposed new Downtown Community Empowerment Corporation would focus strictly on Downtown.
Mallot will join the mayor’s staff as an “executive on loan” for the next four to five months, spending about 15 hours each week learning the City’s economic development system and processes, said Brown.
Mallot will work with Barton during the transition, said Abel Harding, director of communications for the mayor.
Like Chief Administrative Officer Kevin Hyde and the mayor’s Education Commissioner Donald Horner Jr., Mallot will not receive a salary while working with the mayor’s office.
Shea said he was comfortable with his current job with the Civic Council and was not interested in the JEDC executive director position.
“All I know is that I came to Jacksonville to be the executive director of the Jacksonville Civic Council and I am happy with my job,” said Shea.
Shea is focused on his Downtown assignment for Brown.
“I’m delighted that the mayor ran as strongly as he did on a platform of improving Downtown.
We are going to look at local models as well as national and international models that we can cobble together to make Downtown Jacksonville reach its potential,” said Shea.
Brown asked Shea to lead a small task force that will report to him and City Council about developing a structure for organizing, staffing and financing Downtown development.
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