Who becomes the next mayor?

[fieldafm]

and even then Epoch was not considered possible without the serious relaxation of the overturfing of downtown between various government agencies.

Wrong again. Two words: Super Bowl. That was the framework for the regulatory unfurling you are claiming Alvin Brown magically unlocked. That was the same structure Jazz Festival operated within when Peyton's administration so boldly and masterfully moved ito the core of the city... something the Brown administration just undid when they moved most of the festival's footprint to the Shipyards (and dozens of small businesses in downtown suffered from financially as a result).

[Tacachale]

And speaking of which,  the 2005 Super Bowl was pretty terrible for downtown.  It was contained (mostly through government planning and the active interference of politically connected individuals) along Bay Street, with mounted guards keeping the crowd from venturing outside of the approved vendor zone.

Lots of urban core restaurants and nightspots went out of business over preparing for the event, only to find out that the promised crowds were paying street vendors set up on the street and in temporary spaces along the approved route instead.

You mean like what happened when the city moved the Mayor Alvin Brown Jazz Festival to the Shipyards after it had been successful in the core of Downtown?

[Non-RedNeck Westsider]

Wrong again. Two words: Super Bowl. That was the framework for the regulatory unfurling you are claiming Alvin Brown magically unlocked.

You're not talking about that major even that called for and passed a relaxed stance on the open container laws in the core as well as a somewhat easier permitting process for street vendors, including alcohol sales? 

We can't be thinking of the same event.  The Super Bowl was way before every endeavor in the city became a Public Private Partnership and sure as hell before every restaurant not on wheels all of a sudden became a Brick and Mortar... 

[fieldafm]

But lets face it, during the three years that it was directly in the urban core, most of the economic activity went to the food trucks

Wrong again. Food trucks didnt participate in Jazz Fest until last year. When the Jazz Fest was moved into the core of downtown, there were less than ten mobile food vendors (none were food trucks) used throughout the weekend. The VASTLY overwhelming majority of the economic benefits went towards brick and mortar businesses. Why don't you, like I did (much to the consternation of the Brown administration who absolutely hated me for publicizing it), actually talk to the restaurants and retailers downtown that had their sales plummet in May when the Jazz Fest was moved to the Shipyards?

Unfortunatley, you are talking out of your backside, and I'm going to call you out on it. Just like I called out the Brown administration for moving Jazz Fest out of the core of downtown leaving a wake of empty restaurants, art galleries and retailers in their path.

[fieldafm]

But lets face it, during the three years that it was directly in the urban core, most of the economic activity went to the food trucks

Wrong again. Food trucks didnt participate in Jazz Fest until last year. When the Jazz Fest was moved into the core of downtown, there were less than ten mobile food vendors (none were food trucks) used throughout the weekend. The VASTLY overwhelming majority of the economic benefits went towards brick and mortar businesses. Why don't you, like I did (much to the consternation of the Brown administration who absolutely hated me for publicizing it), actually talk to the restaurants and retailers downtown that had their sales plummet in May when the Jazz Fest was moved to the Shipyards?

interestingly, I was in on the planning of the last of the Jazz Festivals downtown with Theresa Price O'Donnel, field.  We were working on establishing a Jazz educators and publishing professionals convention to run simultaneously with the Jazz Festival itself.

Strange how you weren't involved in that process at all, yet know more about it.

Will do a conference call with you and Theresa whenever you like. You are wrong. Period.
And its 'O'Donnell-Price'.

[Tacachale]

interestingly, I was in on the planning of the last of the Jazz Festivals downtown with Theresa Price O'Donnel, field.  We were working on establishing a Jazz educators and publishing professionals convention to run simultaneously with the Jazz Festival itself.

It's Theresa O'Donnell Price, for one. And the Jazz Festival was really something when she was in charge of it. But then, our supremely wise and effective mayor replaced her and most everyone in the administration who had any clue what they were doing.

Here's how the Jazz Festival has gone since then, from a widely respected source:

It was a little terrible compared to previous years actually.

Without Theresa Price and her crew working on the logistics and the media with a decade of experience behind them, things just didnt get done in a timely manner.

Almost no one in the media was able to get the details or communication that they needed in order to get the word out, and they decided to skimp this year on their paid advertisements so they didnt really have a clear communication to the public.  Lots of people simply didnt know that the festival was happening until the day of and they saw it on the news.

My sister and her family at the beaches were the first in their entire group of friends to find out that it was Jazz Festival weekend and they realized it on saturday.

And the VIP section at the Main Stage was ridiculous.  Almost completely empty half the time but at least it forced people to sit more than a block away.

Last years jazz festival was a little nightmarish logistically.

They stonewalled Theresa Price, who actually knew how everything worked and volunteered to help out.

They fired everyone involved with the previous years events, and lost Tiffany Valla Hutto, who spent hella time developing the talent for the event, and then they simply ignored all of her offers to help out.

While most people on the forums might not have noticed, it was a hot mess.  For example, in order to get into the patrons VIP sections, they created these vast cordoned off areas on Main Street, into which there were two entrances with a guard.

But it simply didnt occur to the new team that walking pathways would have to be maintained around the area so that people could get in and out.  It didn't even occur to them that the entrances themselves shouldnt be completely blocked with 25 rows of people sitting on blankets and chairs in front of them and that someone should make sure that there was actual access.. You know,....for the people who paid good money for the patrons area.

It was seriously boneheaded.  There was the gating to prevent people getting in, and then five feet inside the gating there was a door guard checking for passes.  That door guard wasnt instructed to tell people to keep the entrance open, and there wasnt the usual crew driving a golf caddy just around the perimeter to keep the walkway from turning into seating.

We actually had to go and find the organizers and inform them that the VIP area had become completely closed off. 

We were met with blank stares, but one of the off duty cops working the event met us outside, we showed him the problem and then he went over and started fixing it.

There are a lot of moving parts that require thinking the event through, and the team simply did not feel like asking anyone with any experience on how best to do it.

So, I am not at all surprised that they are relocating it to an easily controlled open field where they have very little logistical planning to do.

...

We weren't really kept in the loop this year about the Jazz Festival.  We got no updates, no schedules, no press releases, no nothing really.  Most of the other media had to really work to get information from the Special Events office, so we didn't have much to work with.

Im going to go by there later, I suppose, and we are running a story from EU today about the highlights of the schedule. Maybe it will be better tonight, the Friday night of the festival is usually slow.

Really.  What was the office of Special Events thinking?  Theresa Price ran that place like a tight ship, and now......this.

How hard is it to send an email to the various news groups?  Especially the ones that have covered and supported the festive for years.  It seems like there are just a bunch of amateurs running Special Events these days.

Totally bizarre.

[Tacachale]

To get back to the topic of the thread, this is the process for what to do in a vacancy for mayor:

If the mayor should die, resign, or remove his residence from Duval County during his term of office, or be removed from office, the office of mayor shall become vacant. A vacancy in the office of mayor shall be filled in the following manner:

(a) An incumbent mayor who resigns in order to seek a state or federal office in the general statewide election held in November immediately preceding the last year of his term, shall submit his resignation at least 10 days prior to the first day of the qualifying period for the office to which he seeks election and his resignation shall be effective no later than the date on which the general statewide election is held. A vacancy in the office of mayor shall exist as of the effective date of the resignation. In the event a mayor's resignation should be effective before the date of the general statewide election, then the vacancy in the office of mayor shall be temporarily filled in the following succession. The president of council, the vice president of council, the chairman of the council committee on rules, and the chairman of the council committee on finance are established as successors to the office of mayor for the purpose of filling a vacancy in the office. In the event a vacancy should occur, the president of council shall serve as mayor until a successor mayor is qualified and elected, and, if there is no president of council, then the vice president shall so serve. If there is no vice president, then the chairman of the council committee on rules shall serve, and, if there is no chairman of the council committee on rules, then the chairman of the council committee on finance shall serve. If none of these successors can serve as acting mayor, the council shall by ordinance designate an acting mayor until the office of mayor shall be filled as provided herein. If any elected official in the line of succession should refuse to serve as acting mayor or if any such official who is serving as acting mayor should qualify to run for the office of mayor, then he shall no longer serve as acting mayor and the official next in line of succession shall assume the duties of acting mayor. A candidate seeking election to fill the vacancy created by this resignation of an incumbent mayor seeking other elected office shall qualify to run in a special mayoral election to be held as part of and at the same time as the general statewide election. The time period during which such candidates may qualify to run in this special mayoral election shall commence at the same time as does the qualifying period for candidates seeking office in the general statewide election and shall terminate on noon of the seventh day following the date on which the qualifying period for the general statewide election ends. A mayor elected to fill an unexpired term shall take office and assume and exercise all duties of office immediately as of the date of certification of the election returns by the supervisor of elections as provided by law.

(b) In the event that a vacancy in the office of mayor occurs other than as provided in subsection (a), then such a vacancy shall be filled for the remainder of the unexpired term by election of a mayor at a special election to be called pursuant to resolution of the city council and held on a date no sooner than 1 month and no later than 6 months after the vacancy occurs. This special election shall, if possible, be held in conjunction with any other election scheduled to be held within the county. A resignation by the mayor shall be submitted to the supervisor of elections (with a copy to the secretary of the city council), shall specify the date on which it is effective, and shall be irrevocable. If a mayor submits a resignation which is effective at a date later than that on which it is submitted, the city council may, by resolution, call a special election for the election of a successor, this special election to be held on a date not less than 1 month after the date the resignation is submitted nor more than 6 months prior to the date the resignation is effective; and such special election shall, if possible, be held in conjunction with any other election scheduled to be held within the county. A vacancy in the office of mayor occurring as contemplated in this subsection shall be temporarily filled in the same manner established in subsection (a). The acting mayor shall exercise all the powers of the office of mayor until a successor mayor is qualified, elected, and assumes office. If an acting mayor should qualify to run for the office of mayor at this special election, then he shall no longer serve as acting mayor and the official next in line of succession shall assume the duties of acting mayor. Should a special mayoral election not be held at the same time as any other election scheduled to be held within the county, then the special primary election for nominations of candidates of political parties for the office of mayor to be voted upon in the special election shall be held at the times specified by the council in the resolution calling the special mayoral election, provided that at least 2 weeks shall intervene between the dates set for the first and second primary elections and at least 2 weeks shall intervene between the second special primary election and the special mayoral election. The time period during which candidates may qualify to run in the special primary elections and special mayoral elections shall be specified by the council in the resolution calling the special election, provided that at least 7 calendar days shall be fixed for the qualifying period and that the last date on which candidates may qualify shall occur not less than 3 weeks before the date of the first special primary election.

(Laws of Fla., Ch. 77-576; Ord. 84-1307-754, § 4; Laws of Fla., Ch. 85-433, § 1; Laws of Fla., Ch. 92-341, § 1)

http://jacksonville.eregulations.us/code/coor_apxid175752_ptA_art6_sec6.06

[edjax]

^^I never saw where Field alluded to the SuperBowl being an annual event in dt Jax. He simply alluded that it led to some of the changes making it easier for events. You kind of made that part up?

[Tacachale]

interestingly, I was in on the planning of the last of the Jazz Festivals downtown with Theresa Price O'Donnel, field.  We were working on establishing a Jazz educators and publishing professionals convention to run simultaneously with the Jazz Festival itself.

It's Theresa O'Donnell Price, for one. And the Jazz Festival was really something when she was in charge of it. But then, our supremely wise and effective mayor replaced her and most everyone in the administration who had any clue what they were doing.

Here's how the Jazz Festival has gone since then, from a widely respected source:

It was a little terrible compared to previous years actually.

Without Theresa Price and her crew working on the logistics and the media with a decade of experience behind them, things just didnt get done in a timely manner.

Almost no one in the media was able to get the details or communication that they needed in order to get the word out, and they decided to skimp this year on their paid advertisements so they didnt really have a clear communication to the public.  Lots of people simply didnt know that the festival was happening until the day of and they saw it on the news.

My sister and her family at the beaches were the first in their entire group of friends to find out that it was Jazz Festival weekend and they realized it on saturday.

And the VIP section at the Main Stage was ridiculous.  Almost completely empty half the time but at least it forced people to sit more than a block away.

Last years jazz festival was a little nightmarish logistically.

They stonewalled Theresa Price, who actually knew how everything worked and volunteered to help out.

They fired everyone involved with the previous years events, and lost Tiffany Valla Hutto, who spent hella time developing the talent for the event, and then they simply ignored all of her offers to help out.

While most people on the forums might not have noticed, it was a hot mess.  For example, in order to get into the patrons VIP sections, they created these vast cordoned off areas on Main Street, into which there were two entrances with a guard.

But it simply didnt occur to the new team that walking pathways would have to be maintained around the area so that people could get in and out.  It didn't even occur to them that the entrances themselves shouldnt be completely blocked with 25 rows of people sitting on blankets and chairs in front of them and that someone should make sure that there was actual access.. You know,....for the people who paid good money for the patrons area.

It was seriously boneheaded.  There was the gating to prevent people getting in, and then five feet inside the gating there was a door guard checking for passes.  That door guard wasnt instructed to tell people to keep the entrance open, and there wasnt the usual crew driving a golf caddy just around the perimeter to keep the walkway from turning into seating.

We actually had to go and find the organizers and inform them that the VIP area had become completely closed off. 

We were met with blank stares, but one of the off duty cops working the event met us outside, we showed him the problem and then he went over and started fixing it.

There are a lot of moving parts that require thinking the event through, and the team simply did not feel like asking anyone with any experience on how best to do it.

So, I am not at all surprised that they are relocating it to an easily controlled open field where they have very little logistical planning to do.

...

We weren't really kept in the loop this year about the Jazz Festival.  We got no updates, no schedules, no press releases, no nothing really.  Most of the other media had to really work to get information from the Special Events office, so we didn't have much to work with.

Im going to go by there later, I suppose, and we are running a story from EU today about the highlights of the schedule. Maybe it will be better tonight, the Friday night of the festival is usually slow.

Really.  What was the office of Special Events thinking?  Theresa Price ran that place like a tight ship, and now......this.

How hard is it to send an email to the various news groups?  Especially the ones that have covered and supported the festive for years.  It seems like there are just a bunch of amateurs running Special Events these days.

Totally bizarre.

yup.  Your original point was that the ill effects of moving the jazz festival on downtown were as bad as the ill effects of the Superbowl.

If you remember, you made the point because Field brought up the Super Bowl as one of our many fine annual events here in jacksonville. (which it isn't.  I believe that the Superbowl goes from city to city, and that so far they have been to at least 9 other cities since they were in Jacksonville last.

I pointed out to you that the jazz festival at least has the after hours series, (which is actually hosted in local nightclubs) and then Mike posted a few posts along the lines of 'Mayor Brown invented the Jazz Festival.  He didn't. I talked to actual merchants!  So there!"

Im a bit dyslexic, so I often get the order of names incorrectly. Especially if they are different from the original name that I associate with a person (marriage and divorces usually) thanks for the correction.

Which is about as baffling as any of the nonsense that Ive ever read on the forums.

Actually, my original point was that it's worth considering the fact that Brown may get called up to a cabinet position under Clinton if they both win. One of my later points was that Brown likes to take credit for things that are the result of other peoples' efforts, even when his administration's contributions actually make things worse. Like the Jazz Festival, which was a well run event until his office cut the budget, mismanaged the planning, and moved it away from everything down to the Shipyards.

[Tacachale]

This is my actual first comment here:

Kind of lame, but the question is worth asking considering that Hillary is thought to be a top contender for President, and Brown has been spoken of as a potential cabinet pick if she won. If it went down, we be looking at whoever is council president when she called him up. It would be whoever succeeds Greg Anderson, who will presumably take over this summer as he's the current vice.

And yes, then there would be a special election to finish out the term, most likely, depending on the timing. The last time we had a mayor step down was in 1978, when Hans Tanzler stepped down to run for governor. Jake Godbold was Council President and was appointed to succeed him; there wasn't a special election as there was only 6 months left of the term.

I don't have a time machine, so I have no clue if Clinton will win. But she is considered a strong contender and if she did win, yes, Brown has been talked about as a potential cabinet pick.

I stand by my statement (and yours) that the Jazz Festival was in far better shape before Brown got his hands on it. It's not the only example of that, either.

[Cheshire Cat]

Just catching up on this thread.  If a sitting mayor steps down or is taken out office in Jacksonville, the Council President would take his place and that person would not be able to run for mayor. There would be a special election held to replace the mayor.  After the election they return of their council positions.    I don't see Alvin stepping down if elected to run for Governor.  As far as a cabinet position, if elected Hillary would be in office after Browns next four years and could still place him in a favored position.  Right now the Dems are bankrolling him big time to keep him as Mayor prior to the 2016 race for the White House.

[Cheshire Cat]

Yes. In Jacksonville there is no Deputy Mayor, so it would be Council President, Council Vice President, Chair of the Rules Committee, Chair of the Finance Committee, and then if after that they still can't fill it (would be pretty extraordinary), the Council "picks" a Mayor by vote.

BTW, that would make the current succession after Alvin Brown be Clay Yarborough, Greg Anderson, Bill Gulliford, and Richard Clark.

Thankfully neither Clay Yarborough or Richard Clark will be here after June.  New councilmembers step into office the beginning of July 2015

[tufsu1]

Just a quick thought on the downspin the Jazz Festival has taken over the past few years....

During Peyton's second term, the event grew substantially...both in scope and cost.
Given the budget problems the past few years and Mayor Brown's displeasure for tax increases, the ever increasing costs were not sustainable.
Add to that this new festival called One Spark and the substantial money the City has allocated to it.

So, look at the timetable....the Jazz Festival declined slightly in 2012 (when Theresa Price was replaced), but majorly in 2013 and 2014...at the same time as a major new festival got started.

[Tacachale]

Just a quick thought on the downspin the Jazz Festival has taken over the past few years....

During Peyton's second term, the event grew substantially...both in scope and cost.
Given the budget problems the past few years and Mayor Brown's displeasure for tax increases, the ever increasing costs were not sustainable.
Add to that this new festival called One Spark and the substantial money the City has allocated to it.

So, look at the timetable....the Jazz Festival declined slightly in 2012 (when Theresa Price was replaced), but majorly in 2013 and 2014...at the same time as a major new festival got started.

Thanks for dutifully reporting the position of the Alvin Brown for Mayor campaign, but the Jazz Festival's decline under Brown is plain to see, as is his attempt to hitch his wagon to One Spark despite his office having little to do with its success. Almost all the budget came from private investors, and the city's handling of the traffic, transit and infrastructure has been... underwhelming.

[Tacachale]

Just a quick thought on the downspin the Jazz Festival has taken over the past few years....

During Peyton's second term, the event grew substantially...both in scope and cost.
Given the budget problems the past few years and Mayor Brown's displeasure for tax increases, the ever increasing costs were not sustainable.
Add to that this new festival called One Spark and the substantial money the City has allocated to it.

So, look at the timetable....the Jazz Festival declined slightly in 2012 (when Theresa Price was replaced), but majorly in 2013 and 2014...at the same time as a major new festival got started.

Thanks for dutifully reporting the position of the Alvin Brown for Mayor campaign, but the Jazz Festival's decline under Brown is plain to see, as is his attempt to hitch his wagon to One Spark despite his office having little to do with its success. Almost all the budget came from private investors, and the city's handling of the traffic, transit and infrastructure has been... underwhelming.

and thank you for dutifully injecting Lenny Curry's rhetoric into the conversation as well.  So many gifts.

It ain't rhetoric if it's true. Not *just* rhetoric, anyway.