Courthouse Ordinance Option 2004-1339??
Yesterday, Sherry Hall - the new Policy Director for the Peyton administration who is lessening the load on Susie Wiles - emailed a document to the members of the City Council showing the two current financial options for building the new Courthouse. The document was sent as a result of an unveiling meeting, attended by many members of Council, the mayor's staff held the previous night.
Full Article
http://www.metrojacksonville.com/content/view/384
Maybe it should go back to the voters, but first thing's first. The original courthouse was not Peyotn's fault, if anything it was Delaney's who chose Canon Design and came up with the plan that erupted naturally in cost after 9-11. Peyton inherited that problem. I personally hated his original split I guess 2004 plan, and so did Moran for that matter. His new plan could include a 15 floor building, wouldn;t that be a skyscraper like we all want? Besides, with our growth and size and natural national construction price hikes, we cannot go lower than 190 mil. I thought everyone on this board was smart enough to realize that. Also, the majority of the taxpayers are not informed enough to tell the mayor, no, you cannot build this because it is more than 190 mil, and that is all we agreed with. The longer we wait the higher up the costs will go. Obviously Peyton sees this and has said this, and admitted it would not be a popular decision, a plausible sign that he is taking a stand for once, and in my opinion a good one. I am not a fan of Peyton at all, but this board can whine and complain about him a little too much sometimes, Thank God this article is not one of those although it could have been. Nice try, but I am going to have to agree to disagree with you guys on this one.
I'm glad with this news as well. It's something Mayor Peyton mentioned at a Metro Jacksonville meeting a few months ago. Its good to see progress has been made since then. Hopefully, the idea of moving forward with the entire complex will find favor in the rest of the decision maker's minds.
The last paragraph sums it up - it says that "But we have to seize the moment and build this thing already." it says while it sucks that this thing costs nearly cdouble the 190 million that we were promised, let's build the thing.
Yes, Peyton is taking a stand, now that he has nothing to lose.
If he had merely said to the citizenry " Look, I don't like it any more than you do, but the costs have spirally due to uncontrollable circumstances (9/11, China and India industrialization, soars material costs). It will only cost more to wait, we are proceeding forward", construction would be underway and so would the private sector spinoff (construction of new office buildings,etc.). It would have saved 50-100 million too. Not to mention the lost momentum that has permeated the DT area.
Delaney didn't have a crystal ball, but I seriously believe he would have had the fortitude to do the right thing, which was continue with the Cannon design. That's the difference between a politician and a statesman.
Whatever mistakes have been made, are history now. The only logical choice is to take the path Peyton now supports.
Vicupstate, very nice insight and all too true. it is really an extremely sad state of affairs that our "leader" put personal politics ahead of the city's best interest for so long. but now that he has been reassured of 4 more years, he is "Mr. Bravado" again. extremely sad. actually, come to think of it - is it possible to "impeach" a Mayor? I know California had a recall vote on its governor. i'm not saying to do this now, but can we REALLY stand to have 4 more years of weak leadership?
The trouble with the idea of impeaching the mayor is that he nearly ran unopposed. Seems like nobody wants the job, so it's up to him?
The building should be build with function rather than aesthetics in mind. This should bring the cost down!