from staff
Alvin Brown was elected Jacksonville’s next mayor three weeks ago and takes office in less than a month. A Democrat and the first African-American mayor elected in the City, Brown defeated Republican Mike Hogan in the general election. The two edged out front-running Republicans Audrey Moran and Rick Mullaney in the first election in March. Moran is a co-chair of his transition team. Brown earned the support of major Republican fundraiser Peter Rummell and others during his campaign. Brown met with the Daily Record editorial staff Tuesday morning at the Bay Street Café Downtown, near his former campaign headquarters.
Let’s start with Downtown. The Jacksonville Economic Development Commission will meet Thursday. There is opposition to the deal to bring EverBank jobs Downtown. Will you be at the meeting?
I’m not going to be at the meeting, but I do think that Downtown is very important for our city. It speaks to our character, who we are as a community. I believe that we should have a vibrant Downtown that’s thriving. It’s so important to do that. You look at our assets. I think we have a beautiful Downtown. But I want to make sure that we leverage our assets, and it’s a place where we could recruit more companies to locate Downtown, expand Downtown, make it a destination, so I’m excited about that. My headquarters for the campaign was Downtown, and that was an example of me making a point that it’s so important to really make sure that we build on what we already have.
Using public incentives to relocate 1,000 jobs Downtown from the suburbs is drawing opposition. What’s your view on that?
First of all, EverBank is a good community corporate partner. Having their headquarters here in the city speaks volumes. Wanting to expand and grow and be Downtown is great. They’re going to create 200 new additional jobs. I think that’s what you want, the public-private partnership that will allow the city to grow, and increase our tax revenue. Remember, in 1986, Downtown generated 17 percent of our tax revenue. Today it’s only 3 percent. I try to remind people of that.
We have a lot of small businesses Downtown. How do you help small businesses? Having 1,500, 2,000 more people working Downtown, patronizing the restaurants, I think it’s important.
The vision is having more retail Downtown. I would love to have Macy’s Downtown, not at the full scale but at the right scale. Lord & Taylor. Saks Fifth Avenue. People say, wow, that’s far-fetched. You can do it.
You look at the companies and where they’ve come from, where they relocated from. Fidelity, CSX and all those other companies. They’re exposed to the types of retail that Orlando has. We don’t have to be Orlando, but Orlando has a Macy’s, they have a Saks Fifth Avenue.
Having great retail and great restaurants — people who work Downtown should have options. More options. And I think it’s good for business.
So you’re on the record saying there’s going to be a Macy’s Downtown? I’m kidding, but …
The question is, why are the St. Johns Town Center, the River City Marketplace successful? What’s the driving force behind the vision of St. Johns Town Center Southside, and the Airport River City Marketplace?
Leadership, the determination, and at the end of the day it’s economics. The same commitment and conviction we had for those two developments, which were very successful, you can do something like that on a much smaller scale.
But give people options. Great restaurants. I want to give people a really nice movie theater right Downtown, and great retail, so when people are out for lunch, they can go shopping. It’s a place and another destination.
Are there any economic development plans in the next six months that people should be paying attention to?
Clearly within the next six months, there are key priorities. One is a balanced budget, which I have to do within two weeks when I take office, so that’s important. The budget’s going to dictate priorities. One of the things I said I wanted to do is I want to put Jacksonville back to work.
I talked to the governor a couple of weeks ago about the port. He called and congratulated me. I told him I wanted to work with him on the port, to focus on the port and small business.
I had a briefing on the port by (Jacksonville Port Authority CEO) Paul Anderson and the chair. I met with the chamber again this week, making sure that the private sector, the business leaders know that when I’m sworn in, I can hit the ground running. Those things are important.
I got a briefing with the new (City) Council members last week.
Really focusing on the budget, really focusing on jobs, that’s important. Those two things are important. When you do that, I think everything else will come. You can’t cut your way out of this situation, so I’m sticking to my promise in terms of priorities.
A Jacksonville Civic Council task force has been working on the budget. Is that going to be made available to you? They wanted to finish that by the end of June in time to present to the new administration.
Whatever they’re going to produce I’ll have. I’m sure they’re going to make it known to the public. I think it’s great to have JCCI, the Civic Council, the chamber and all these other groups be engaged in trying to make the city better, to make it a livable community, to make it more competitive in the marketplace. I think that’s what you want your leaders to be engaged in.
They also did a report on Downtown development. The concept is good, but there are a couple of things I would do. It would probably be called a Downtown Community Empowerment Corporation. It would be owned by the community. It’s their tax dollars. It’s the community’s. It’s empowering the community, and you want to empower with jobs and opportunities. Two, I wouldn’t have an executive director. I would have a president/CEO.
Any names for that yet?
No. I haven’t focused on personnel. But the significance of it is twofold. One, having a community empowerment development corporation is important because of the word ‘community’ — and you remember I said I wanted to be the mayor for everyone, no matter what side of town they’re on, and that’s important to me, personally. I think good ideas should always come from the bottom up.
It’s a way of empowering communities, get their recommendations, and get all these small businesses and entrepreneurs down here. It’s focused on Downtown, but it’s going to have an impact on the whole city. That’s one thing.
The president/CEO title is significant because one of the things I want to make sure happens is that we are eyeball-to-eyeball with the other presidents and CEOs. That they know that this is going to be a lean, mean development corporation that focuses on leveraging the assets, the tax credits, getting the private sector to put some of their own money into the game up front, and so it’s peer-to-peer. I think that’s important.
It’s not a typical government operation, but more of an organization that is focusing on increasing our tax base, creating jobs, making government more user-friendly, streamlining the processing, operating effectively and efficiently. I’ll give you an example.
I’ve talked to the sheriff about this, but I want to recommend to the Charter Review Commission to change the title from ‘sheriff’ to ‘police commissioner.’ The significance of that is that we’re in the 21st century, and the word ‘sheriff’ has a negative connotation. They think, unfortunately, the perception of sheriff, oh my God, Boss Hogg.
But when you say we elected a police commissioner, it’s a little different. It’s community policing. It’s friendlier. It’s inviting. It’s more than about symbolism, but it’s about 21st century, it’s about making sure that we are going to the next level.
Speaking of going to the next level, one of your key rallying cries was public-private partnerships. One of them being teed up for you is the port authority and CSX. What can you do to assist them in that process?
First of all, I agree with it. I met with CSX Chairman Michael Ward. I met with some of the top executives there. CSX is headquartered here, and I am going to use our corporate partners to focus on public-private partnerships. You’re going to see a big difference in the way I’m going to go after it. This is their home. I know they operate in other cities, but leveraging the talent of CSX, their personnel, their ideas, they’re competency, their relationship, to mitigate our costs, and bringing them to the table at the beginning to help set the agenda, doing the cost-benefit analysis. They’re in the business to make money. The port wants to help. The City wants to help. We all want to be good stewards. We want to make sure the taxpayers get a return on investment.
To me, that return is jobs, sustainable jobs, and the average salary at the port is $44,000 a year. That’s very, very good.
What about the transportation hub proposed Downtown? Where do you stand on that?
It’s a good concept. I was briefed on it. But there are some things they’ve got to do. I think they need to really sit down with CSX, lay out their plan, on the financial side as well. Correct me if I’m wrong, but my question is, you’ve got this regional hub, $180 million, you want to bring in Amtrak and Greyhound. What’s your future value? What is the cost to maintain it? What’s going to be your labor costs? I want to know that.
When you do it, will there be retail, will you generate new revenue, new tax revenue? Is this sustainable? Will it create jobs for the long run? Will it help small businesses and entrepreneurs?
I want to make sure that when we do something that it is sustainable. I don’t want to hear we ran out of money, and we can’t afford the maintenance.
Figure out a way where you’re generating revenues, that it’s a cash cow. You control the parking, you make the money, it pays for itself. That’s what I believe in.
We’re not going to be Union Station. That’s not going to happen. We don’t have the foot traffic. You only have 2,000 people living Downtown, but if you can make it regional where they’re coming from Nassau County, St. Johns County, Clay County and others to do business, shopping and all this other stuff. It goes back to making Downtown a destination.
Another battleground issue right now is the independent Ethics Commission. What do you think?
I feel we should have a commission. It’s how you set it up. The question is why are you setting it up? When you ask why, the ‘how’ will take care of itself. It always does. The goal is to have good government, and really educate your employees to make sure they go through all the ethics briefings, make sure they go through all the training, because most people don’t do things intentionally. Ninety-nine percent of the people are good people.
What is your relationship with Gov. Rick Scott? He said he was ready to make economic development calls for any Florida city, at any time.
I called him and talked about the port. I’d talk about small business, and we’re supposed to be getting together. He said ‘as soon as you get settled in, let’s get together,’ and I’m going to meet with him. I’m going to focus on jobs, economic development, growing the jobs here in Jacksonville.
He wants to put people back to work. I want to work with him in bringing jobs to this city, going on trade missions with him. It’s important to recruit companies, and help our existing businesses. One of the keys is working with small business and existing business. How do we help the businesses that are here, struggling, get access to capital and credit? How do we help them expand their business?
I want to work with the governor to make sure that he knows that we’re open for businesses. I’m going to go on those trade missions, and I’m going to lead a delegation of not just the big companies, but small business. I’m going to make sure that small business is a part of our whole process of growing the economy and jobs.
What happens with the Jacksonville Economic Development Commission?
If you’ve got a downtown community empowerment corporation, JEDC focuses on the whole city. Let’s look at what works and what’s not working, and strengthen JEDC. I served on the JEDC financial task force. We came up with a matrix to quantify, to justify why we give companies incentives. Charlie Appleby, who is one of the co-chairs of my campaign, was one of the commissioners. So I believe in JEDC.
What is your relationship with the incoming City Council?
I think it’s going to be great. I’m sure there’s going to be a lot of fierce debates. They’re going to advocate for what they can support, but I’m just going to lay out the priorities. One thing I know is that I’m going to stick to my promise that I would take a 20 percent pay cut, that I’m not going to take a pension. They’re going to see that. I’m not going to raise taxes or fees. They’re going to see that. They’ll have a budget that they’ll look at, and we’re going to work together. I think that their goal is to make sure that we live within our means, and I’m going to do that, but also we have to remember that we want a good quality of life, so there has to be a balance. I understand that.
During some of the transition meetings you mentioned that you were going to meet with Mike Hogan and that he offered more names for the transition team.
I announced that I was going to go to a meeting with Mike Hogan. Actually, that was a great meeting. I listened to his ideas, and I’m going to follow up with him. He had an interest in the budget. He also talked about crime. He wanted to make sure the neighborhoods were safe. We’re actually going to get out in the community, which I think is going to be great. I’ve reached out to Rick Mullaney as well. He had some great ideas on restructuring our finances. He had some great ideas on procurement.
My position has always been, I don’t care where it comes from, if there are good ideas that make sense, we should be able to do it.
Do you have a lot of people applying for jobs in your administration?
I haven’t been on the website, but I’m sure those resumes are coming in. I haven’t met with anybody.
Are you a two-term mayor?
Let me get in office first. My goodness. You never know what God has in store for you. I always believe in my heart that I was called to run. God gave me a vision and I ran with it. And my message is going to be for young people that when God gives you a vision, you’ve got to go for it, even though other people can’t see it. It’s a testament to how I’ve lived my life, that I’ve always prayed about it, and everything that I set out to achieve has mostly come to pass.
When you want to take Jacksonville to the next level, you’ve got to have vision, you’ve got to have leadership, you’ve got to have conviction. You’ve got to have commitment. You’ve got to have determination. I did a lot of things to get to that point.
When I tell my story, and let people know that people just didn’t believe, part of it is they didn’t believe because you look at things traditionally. Name recognition, money, insiders, all those things. People don’t care about that.
They want to know, will I be able to have a job? Will I live in a safe neighborhood? Will my kids go to good schools? That’s what really matters to people. I did it the old-fashioned way: listening. I listened to those seniors. I listened to those hopeless, the homeless, those who aren’t well-connected.
Listening to people, saying, ‘Alvin, I don’t know you, but I believe in you now. I believe. I want to be a part of your team.’
You’ve got to go back to basics. Why are we here? What is public service all about? Public service is a noble thing. It’s not a game. It’s about people’s lives. It’s about their hopes and aspirations to move into a city to reach their God-given potential.
It’s basic stuff. So I believe when you give people a vision, and get them to just imagine what life would be, with new leadership, it makes a big difference. That’s what we did.
It wasn’t about money. We did everything humanly possible to make the case and then God touched Peter Rummell’s heart and a bunch of other people’s. That’s what happened. To me, he changed the course of history in this city from a leadership perspective, and that is important for people to take note of.