With his term expiring and an opportunity 2,000 miles away, Mike Saylor is stepping away from the Downtown Investment Authority board.
Saylor was appointed by former City Council President Bill Bishop to the board in January 2013 for a term that expires June 30. He was eligible for re-appointment, but said a possible opportunity to teach and lecture in the urban planning department at the University of Wyoming would make it near impossible to come back.
“I just decided I had done just about enough damage,” Saylor joked Monday.
He has family members and a cabin in Wyoming, but Jacksonville will still be home and has local consulting work to accomplish.
He recommended his replacement, Doris Goldstein, who he says will be a strong voice on the board.
“I think you can count on that,” he said.
Goldstein is an attorney and urban planner who “works toward the creation and effective management of sustainable, pedestrian-friendly mixed-use communities,” according the biography on her firm’s website. The published author on urban development and University of Florida graduate has done work in both the private and public sectors and Saylor says her appointment will bring “some real horsepower to the board.”
“It turns out we have one of the foremost redevelopment planners here in Jacksonville,” he said.
Saylor’s departure isn’t the first for the board.
He replaced Don Shea who left to pursue a job in Louisiana. Inaugural board chair Donald Harris left for a hotel position in Houston and was replaced by Craig Gibbs. Inaugural member Paul Perez left and was replaced by Jack Meeks.
Vice Chair Jim Bailey tendered his resignation in October, but was asked by City Council President Bill Gulliford to remain primarily to finish the authority’s Community Redevelopment Area plan. Bailey, publisher of the Daily Record, was noncommittal on whether he would remain on the board after that. His term is scheduled to end June 30, 2015.
A resolution for Goldstein to replace Saylor was introduced late last week and will proceed through the normal council process.
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