by Max Marbut
Staff Writer
The candidates for mayor of Jacksonville are making the rounds for a series of forums prior to the March 22 first election in Duval County.
At lunchtime Monday, their appointment was with the Rotary Club of Jacksonville.
The panel consisted of Mike Hogan, Steve Irvine, Warren Lee, Audrey Moran and Rick Mullaney. Alvin Brown was unable to attend due to a scheduling conflict.
The forum was moderated by club past President Hank Coxe. Candidates were asked questions submitted in advance by club members, with each question having a time limit for the candidate’s response from five to 90 seconds.
No rebuttals were allowed and the questions were limited to issues affecting the job of mayor of Jacksonville.
“To lead a city of 1 million people, you should be able to give short answers,” said Coxe.
After short introductory remarks from each participant, the order of the first answer was rotated among the candidates.
One of the first questions was about what role the mayor should play in supporting the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Irvine said he thinks the Jaguars have their own public relations effort.
Hogan said he would consider supporting the Jaguars to be part of the mayor’s job. “As mayor, I’ll be one of their champions and advocates.”
Lee responded, “Yes, I’d support the Jaguars at a higher level, short of rolling out another check for $4.5 million.”
Moran said she thinks the stadium has to be maintained at a state-of-the art level. “If we lose the Jaguars, we won’t get another NFL team.”
Mullaney said the Jaguars are “a critical part of what we are.” He also said it’s known that Wayne Weaver will eventually sell the team and the City must be prepared for the new ownership.
On the role of the mayor in public education, Irvine said, “I don’t think there’s anything wrong with our school system. Our problem’s not inside the school system.”
He cited a statistic that 72 percent of public school students live in single-parent homes and Jacksonville needs more after-school programs.
Lee said the next mayor has to help the school superintendent “figure out how to improve the system” and Lee would like to see Jacksonville’s public education system be a model for other cities and states.
“We have good things happening in public education. The problem is they’re not happening for every child in every neighborhood,” said Moran.
Mullaney said he intends to be the first mayor in Jacksonville history to reform public education. “It’s our No. 1 long-term priority.”
Engaging civic clubs and churches to adopt schools was Hogan’s answer. “We need to make sure we get our fair share of funds from Tallahassee,” he also said.
All five candidates said they favor an elected school board over an appointed one and had the same unanimous answer about whether the sheriff should be elected or appointed.
On the topic of pension reform, Moran said she already has had talks with the union representatives and told them the general employees will have to switch to a 401(k) plan and as for public safety unions, they’re going to have to work longer before they can retire. Moran also said she supports current employees being subject to pension reforms.
“We don’t have a revenue problem, we have a spending problem,” said Hogan.
Irvine said, “We’re spending, not investing. It costs $366,000 to care for an AIDS patient. We need prevention programs and put the money we save toward the pension and other issues.”
Mullaney said his plan would include eliminating pension benefits for the mayor and City Council members.
“From day one, I’ll cut the mayor’s and all senior manager’s salaries. We have to reform the FOP (Fraternal Order of Police) and fire pensions. We can’t let the City go bankrupt,” said Lee.
The candidates were divided over whether the City should consider selling land set aside for preservation in order to raise revenue.
Irvine, Mullaney and Moran said they would not support selling preservation land. Lee said, “We need to look at that carefully.” Hogan said, “Everything is on the table.”
All except Hogan said they support maintaining the Jacksonville human rights commission. Hogan said with the state and federal Human Rights Commissions in effect, a local body is redundant and could save $970,000 a years. He said he would support a volunteer commission.
All of the participants agreed the City should financially support nonprofit organizations that provide essential services to citizens. “But we have to fund our core services first,” said Hogan.
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