Board veterans Hightower, Townsend make comeback
http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/060307/met_174498288.shtml
(http://www.pbs.org/newshour/images/politics/july-dec04/1026_fla_hightower.jpg)
By The Times-Union
Two veterans of high-powered Jacksonville boards will be back in the fold as Mayor John Peyton's latest appointments to the JEA board.
Peyton last week introduced bills to appoint Mike Hightower and Ron Townsend to fill two spots on the seven-member board.
Hightower returns to the JEA board, where he served from 1995 to 2003, including two years as chairman. He was the finance chairman for Peyton's re-election bid this spring and last month announced his resignation as chairman of the Duval County Republican Party.
Townsend, former president of Gannett Television Group, served on the former Jacksonville Airport Authority board for more than three years.
Townsend spent one year as chairman and helped pass a hefty pay raise and contract extension for Executive Director John Clark, though Clark's contract wasn't close to expiring. When Townsend left the board, Clark bought him a nearly $900 gift certificate for a foursome of golf at Ocean Hammock Golf Course in Palm Coast.
In a Times-Union story a few months after he left, Townsend said he didn't remember the gift certificate and, if he found it, he wouldn't use it.
Hightower and Townsend replace Ernie Isaac and Leroy Polite.
The JEA board oversees rates and policy for the city-owned electric, water and sewer utility. Both appointments are pending confirmation from the City Council.
Will look good an a resume'.
This is a re-run for both of these guys. Why does it merit such drooling coverage from the T-U?
Cause the TU is not really a newspaper. It's just mostly a publicity shill for the GOBN.
Too bad for the citizens of Jacksonville.