Matt Carlucci: Why I am Supporting Audrey Moran

[Metro Jacksonville]

Matt Carlucci:  Why I am Supporting Audrey Moran



"Audrey Moran is the only candidate who talks about moving Jacksonville forward. That has become her theme. It plays to our hopes for the future and not our fears. I believe that deep inside, the majority of our citizens want our city to prosper again, to progress!  For too long we have sat still, like a sailboat adrift with no wind in her sails. We cannot get there with the status quo or even worse, moving backwards."

This is how Matt Carlucci, one of Jacksonville's most beloved and respected leaders introduces his explanation of Why he is supporting Audrey Moran.  There are many people who feel that Jacksonville would be a better city today if he had been Mayor for the past eight years.  Tune in to hear why he is voting for Audrey Moran to become the next mayor of Jacksonville.

Full Article
http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2011-mar-matt-carlucci-why-i-am-supporting-audrey-moran

[Jimmy]

Well, said, Councilman Carlucci!  For all those reasons, I'm with Audrey, too.

[Cliffs_Daughter]

+1   

Mr. Carlucci, I've always been a fan of yours. Now I'm considering myself an ally.

[Captain Zissou]

Thanks Matt.  That helped me realize a few things and reaffirmed my belief that Audrey is the right candidate.  

People aren't inspired by a 34 point plan.  No one is moved to action by campaigning on damage control.  In order to restore faith in our people, you need to have a vision and convey that to them effectively.  That is what Audrey has done.  While Mullaney and Hogan are trying to tighten our belt and wait out the economic situation, Audrey is saying we should roll up our sleeves and get to work.  In any situation, I would prefer Audrey's strategy to the other candidates.  For mayor, it's a no-brainer.

[urbaknight]

I try to spread the word everywhere I go.

[AdamBeaugh]

Great article.  Audrey is going to win this thing and she's going to get Jacksonville back on track!

[simms3]

Your ideas about Audrey Moran are very well thought out.  Thanks for publicly endorsing the city's only "really good" mayoral candidate in many many years.  Your endorsement will probably mean a lot to many people when they take their considerations to the polls.

[mfc]

I want to thank Stephen Dare for the opportunity to offer our familiy view on this election.  I began public service at age 28. Now I am 55. How time goes by. I know all the candidates and do not want to offend any of them. It's tough to put yourself out there. It really is. So I applaud all of them for that. However, because I am 55 now, I want to taste a little of what Jacksonville can be. Most of all , my wife Karen and i want our adult sons  and daughter in law to benefit from what our city can be. I have served with and know all of the candidates. The best candidate by far at this time in our history is Audrey Moran.  My father, the late senator Joe Carlucci, was one of the fathers of consolidation, so I remember a lot about the citizen spirit  that made consolidation happen. Audrey embodies that spirit and I will go farther to say her election as mayor ranks right up there with our cities bold move to approve this progessive form of government. The growth of her campaign also captures that spirit of renewal!!  I truly enjoy this forum and compliment all the thoughtful participants!!  Matt

[CS Foltz]

Past time for a change and time to change is coming on the 22nd! I have allready voted for Audrey,courtesy of early voting...........wish I could legally vote twice!

[stjr]

Education, quality of life (parks, environment, culture, public safety, social needs, etc.), growth management (zoning and planning with long term vision and teeth, not every day, get-rich-now developer politics), mass transit (Skyway excluded, of course!), and more education!  Add leadership (that means selling voters on the tough issues and solutions for them), good government (clean, efficient, ethical, for the common good) and vision (think 25,50, 100 years down the road).  That will all take Jacksonville forward.  And, the really good jobs will follow.  Decision makers will move jobs to centers of excellence in life quality.  If Moran wins, counting on her to make it all so.

P.S. Matt, wished you had won 8 years ago.  Another missed opportunity for Jax.  Will Jax make another wrong turn?  Hope not.

[mfc]

Thanks stir. I think Audrey will win if we Keep  spreading the word!! A very good chance.

[mfc]

Audrey has a very good chance. Rick mullaney has been running negative tv ads against audrey since last Friday. That is very telling.

[urbaknight]

Past time for a change and time to change is coming on the 22nd! I have allready voted for Audrey,courtesy of early voting...........wish I could legally vote twice!

I'll bet Hogan voters can vote twice. In fact, if he wins, we should research all of the cemetaries. Make sure the dead didn't vote for Hogan.

[Wacca Pilatka]

I'm a fiscal conservative.  That's not semantic wordplay.  I believe in the economic growth benefits of low tax rates.  I've written or edited for a couple of magazines and journals that no one would confuse with being anything other than conservative.

But I also understand that there is a certain point at which exceedingly low tax rates cause quality of life to suffer.  It seems to me that that is occurring in Jacksonville.  I'm not saying that a tax increase is necessary because I'm not qualified to know that for sure.  I'm saying that it'd be fiscally irresponsible to take that option off the table based on what I know, and that simply saying "no new taxes" as the substance of a campaign appears exceptionally myopic in this situation.  There is historical precedent for this with the transition from Burns to Ritter/Tanzler and from Tanzler to Godbold, where Jacksonville was carrying a tax rate that was absurdly low (or was making absurdly low property tax assessments, in the Burns years) and that prevented the provision of basic, quality-of-life services.  It's entirely possible that that is the case right now.

It also seems to me that some of the mayors in recent Jacksonville history who have run heavily on the "fiscal conservative" label are anything BUT that even if they kept taxes low.  Look at how Peyton's administration wasted money on studies with obvious answers (e.g., the convention center), the courthouse, and the obviously poorly conceived Main St. pocket park.  Look at the pension situation with Mullaney (though I do think there is more substance to his campaign and I'd certainly rather him than some of the other candidates in the race).  It appears clear that Hogan will do nothing about the pension liability situation given where his support is coming from.

Simply not raising taxes does not define fiscal conservatism when people are using that as a codpiece for doing nothing to address pension liabilities or are wasting money on studies and overengineered projects all over the place.

I'd also venture that simply creating a program or tax force doesn't constitute wasteful government if it addresses an urgent problem critical to the city's future.  Downtown has suffered mightily without a DDA.  Downtown Vision doesn't seem to be much of an advocate.  If downtown turns into a ghost town it damages Jacksonville's image to businesses and tourists (as well as its self-esteem, I'd argue), leads to the crumbling of its history and its distinctive architectural heritage that is unique in the region, and wastes existing infrastructure in the interest of increasingly wasteful and expensive sprawl.  Allowing an urban core to crumble isn't conservatism, period.  Creating conditions that may permit it to thrive and removing ones that oppress it--and I'm not talking wasteful stimuli or a czar for everything under the sun--is a COMMON SENSE idea, not a liberal or a conservative idea.  The irony is that purported conservatives are creating waste and expense and, I fear, an ultimate age of decline for this city with anti-core or indifferent-to-the-core policies.  If reviving DDA is a necessary step to prevent this decline and waste, then it's the very opposite of what the poster above implied with the uneasy reference to czars and commissions.

So anyway, I'm for Audrey.  But I live in Virginia and can't vote.

[Jimmy]

WP, that was a pleasure to read.