• Mayor Alvin Brown has appointed Terrance L. Ashanta-Barker to lead the City’s Neighborhoods Department. Ashanta-Barker was managing partner of the Ashanta-Barker Law Group in Cincinnati, as well as chief operations officer and general counsel of the Small & Carter Investments Co. in Detroit. The department oversees the divisions of Environmental Quality, Municipal Code Compliance, Animal Care and Protective Services, Mosquito Control and Housing and Community Development. Ashanta-Barker will earn an annual salary of $130,000.
• At 7 p.m. today, 27 people who walked into the City Rescue Mission about 18 months ago without a home will graduate from the mission’s LifeBuilders program with a full-time job and a place to call home. The graduation ceremony is planned at the mission’s campus at 426 S. McDuff Ave. The keynote speaker is Mayor Alvin Brown.
• The City Rescue Mission also celebrated the opening of The Raymond Henriksen Women’s Center at the mission’s McDuff Avenue campus. It can house 50 women as overnight guests and can accommodate women with children in separate family rooms.
• Gov. Rick Scott appointed Matt Carlucci to the state Commission on Ethics. The owner of the Matthew F. Carlucci Insurance Agency Inc. for 31 years, Carlucci served on the Jacksonville City Council from 1987-94 and from 1999-2003 and was elected council president from 2001-02. His term begins Sunday and ends June 30, 2014. The appointment is subject to confirmation by the Florida Senate.