Lawsuit filed to block move of Duval Elections Center.

[sheclown]

Lawsuit filed to block move of Duval elections center
Posted: August 26, 2013 - 7:52pm  |  Updated: August 27, 2013 - 6:17am

By Steve Patterson   

The owners of Gateway Shopping Center asked a federal court Monday to strike down legislation Jacksonville's City Council approved this month to move the elections center out of the Northside mall.

The council "acted arbitrarily and capriciously and in violation of its code" when it approved a lease with the owners of One Imeson, a warehouse on Imeson Park Boulevard, the suit by Gateway Retail Center LLC argues.

The 10-year Imeson lease the council approved Aug. 13 would allow Duval County Supervisor of Elections Jerry Holland to move the center out of Gateway. The city had been paying $51,000 a month to rent the space Holland said was usually used by three or four employees to stockpile elections equipment.

The suit argues that a 10-year lease Gateway offered would have totaled about $2.8 million, or $83,000 less than a lease with Imeson. Either deal represented a savings of more than $3 million.

Mayor Alvin Brown didn't support the move, and hadn't signed or vetoed the legislation by Monday afternoon, when Gateway attorneys Joseph Goldstein and Jamie Wasserman asked for an injunction blocking the bill (2013-179) from becoming law.

Read more at Jacksonville.com: http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2013-08-26/story/lawsuit-filed-block-move-duval-elections-center#ixzz2dAmuV2GN

[FSBA]

Not unexpected considering who is involved. No chance Gateway would ever get a retail store to pay that kind of rent, if at all.  Hopefully Corrine follows up on her threat to "not deliver" as much. Maybe she'll quit delivering herself a guaranteed spot in Congress.

[Charles Hunter]

Stepping aside from the politics of it ...
Does the City code require RFPs for property leases?  If so, that didn't happen here.
Does the SOE have to be on a bus line, as was stated during Council debate? Currently, only a Community Shuttle serves Imeson Industrial Park.  Not sure how close it gets to the SOE site, and it has headways ranging from one hour to three hours.  And, it doesn't go downtown.  Is that a problem?

[nagrom73]

Based on the article, they are just moving the storage space and a small voting site would remain or be relocated close by. $53, 000 a month is....well..."the rent is too damn high" for that space.

[carpnter]

The federal judge refused to issue an injunction and the next court date is September 23.  It looks like the city can keep moving forward with the planned move.

[mtraininjax]

Seems that Procurement did not initiate the handling of the bids, when I read the paper it sounded like each party kept going back to SOE and offering a better deal. How is that constructive bidding? I see this thing going back out to bid in a structured format, to keep from violating Sunshine laws.

[acme54321]

The fact that Corrine Brown is still in office is baffling to me.  How do people continue to vote for that clown?