Jay Fant

[Flash60]

Ex-CEO of failed bank running for office

By Michael Braga
Herald-Tribune
Published: Wednesday, August 6, 2014 at 1:00 a.m.

Jay Fant ran one of Jacksonville's oldest banks before it was seized by regulators during the Great Recession.

Now, he now wants to represent the people of District 17 in the Florida Legislature.

http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20140806/article/308069991

[Dog Walker]

My father was one of the first depositors in the Five Points Guaranty Bank in 1947.  I did my personal banking there for thirty years.  They were hard nosed, cautious and tight-fisted with their loans.

When Jay took over he started making loans to social friends against the advice of some of his officers.  He lost staff because he started pushing his fundamentalist version of Christianity on them.  His staff called him lazy. Took him just a few years to ruin the solid bank created by his grandfather and father.  The bank was not a victim of the Great Recession, it was a victim of his foolishness and would have failed anyway just not so quickly.

When I saw what was happening and talked to some departing staff, I moved all of my banking affairs out.

Jay Fant isn't capable of running a hot dog cart much less representing us in the state legislature.

[fieldafm]

I am wholeheartedly supporting Paul Renner and look forward to voting for him later this month. Real solid guy.

It's pretty easy to pile on the failings of Fant at First Guaranty. Anyone with a shred of sense knows why the bank failed (and it wasn't because of their rock solid deposit base), why they took so long to try to unwind their balance sheet, why they held out so long to sell, etc. 

[Snaketoz]

I so hope Fant is defeated.  I honestly believe he would take his district and our area back a century or more.

[Dog Walker]

Jay Fant is a wonderful candidate.  Tall, handsome, with a beautiful wife and handsome children.  He would be a disaster as a legislator.  He has been able to afford a bunch of TV ads which are a good venue for him and will avoid anything like a forum or debate where his shortcomings would be very evident.

Entitled, spoiled, arrogant, lazy are all appropriate adjectives.  So are bigoted, misogynistic, narrow minded.

[Sentient]

Jay Fant is a wonderful candidate.  Tall, handsome, with a beautiful wife and handsome children.  He would be a disaster as a legislator.  He has been able to afford a bunch of TV ads which are a good venue for him and will avoid anything like a forum or debate where his shortcomings would be very evident.

Entitled, spoiled, arrogant, lazy are all appropriate adjectives.  So are bigoted, misogynistic, narrow minded.

I bet $100 you have never met him....   It's easy to be anonymous and throw around slander on the interwebz.  what's funny is most posts are mere projection...

fatuous much?

[Sentient]

Jay Fant is a wonderful candidate.  Tall, handsome, with a beautiful wife and handsome children.  He would be a disaster as a legislator.  He has been able to afford a bunch of TV ads which are a good venue for him and will avoid anything like a forum or debate where his shortcomings would be very evident.

Entitled, spoiled, arrogant, lazy are all appropriate adjectives.  So are bigoted, misogynistic, narrow minded.

I bet $100 you have never met him....   It's easy to be anonymous and throw around slander on the interwebz.  what's funny is most posts are mere projection...

fatuous much?

Actually, Dogwalker is hardly anonymous around here Sentient, and is very well known and active in this community, and actually has family history here.

You would lose that 100 dollars, and I hope you have the good sense to withdraw the offer to bet.

appreciate your concern...  I really look forward to his backing up the bigoted statement with some facts.  Let's see if he can.  Can you Mr. D?  That is quite a claim.

[Dog Walker]

Jay Fant is a wonderful candidate.  Tall, handsome, with a beautiful wife and handsome children.  He would be a disaster as a legislator.  He has been able to afford a bunch of TV ads which are a good venue for him and will avoid anything like a forum or debate where his shortcomings would be very evident.

Entitled, spoiled, arrogant, lazy are all appropriate adjectives.  So are bigoted, misogynistic, narrow minded.

I bet $100 you have never met him....   It's easy to be anonymous and throw around slander on the interwebz.  what's funny is most posts are mere projection...

fatuous much?

I've met him on a number of occasions.  I was a major depositor in his bank after all.  I've had lunch with him at Sushi Cafe when it was in the old location after a chance meeting there.  I've sat in his office to work out a mortgage problem that a family member had with the bank.

His father granted me one of the first commercial construction loans and one of the first commercial mortgages that the bank had ever given to anyone.  I've put several million dollars through First Guaranty Bank over the years when I was building my business.

His brother-in-law, Councilman Greg Anderson, is now my banker.  He and his wife lost a chunk of their net worth when the bank failed as she was a shareholder.  Greg started his banker career under Jay's father.

Enough?

[Intuition Ale Works]

Fant has Billie Tucker, of tea party and JEA fame, on his campaign payroll.
He also has Raymond Johnson, very much a bigot, on the payroll.

He also claims that he will work to repeal Obamacare which is a joke. Obamacare is a federal law and someone needs to tell him that he is not running for congress.

Jay Fant may be a nice guy but not someone I want representing my neighborhood in Tally.

[Badfinger]

He also has Raymond Johnson, very much a bigot, on the payroll.

Mr. Johnson's involvement in Jay's campaign has really made me question Jay's judgement.  Johnson has been investigated by the State Attorney's Office for conduct in previous campaigns and he has been shunned by most reasonable people of good will in this city.

[Sentient]

Jay Fant is a wonderful candidate.  Tall, handsome, with a beautiful wife and handsome children.  He would be a disaster as a legislator.  He has been able to afford a bunch of TV ads which are a good venue for him and will avoid anything like a forum or debate where his shortcomings would be very evident.

Entitled, spoiled, arrogant, lazy are all appropriate adjectives.  So are bigoted, misogynistic, narrow minded.

I bet $100 you have never met him....   It's easy to be anonymous and throw around slander on the interwebz.  what's funny is most posts are mere projection...

fatuous much?

I've met him on a number of occasions.  I was a major depositor in his bank after all.  I've had lunch with him at Sushi Cafe when it was in the old location after a chance meeting there.  I've sat in his office to work out a mortgage problem that a family member had with the bank.

His father granted me one of the first commercial construction loans and one of the first commercial mortgages that the bank had ever given to anyone.  I've put several million dollars through First Guaranty Bank over the years when I was building my business.

His brother-in-law, Councilman Greg Anderson, is now my banker.  He and his wife lost a chunk of their net worth when the bank failed as she was a shareholder.  Greg started his banker career under Jay's father.

Enough?

And you say he is a bigot?  Based on what?  You had a chance encounter with him and banked with his family (which is completely irrelevant). How do you explain your statement, your statement sir, that he is a bigot.  I am all ears.

[Sentient]

I think we might have very different ideas on the definition of the word 'bigot'.

And I think if you read up a little further in the thread, you will find that DW actually already outlined the foundation for his opinion.

It would be disheartening to think a real journalist would have a "different" definition of bigot, I hope you are not serious.  How about the word truth, what is your definition of that?  Maybe you should have a Metrojax dictionary link up on here and I can catch up.

I will stick with Webster...

and I do not see where DogWalker outlined any foundation for his libelous statement that Jay Fant is a bigot, please point this out.  And I think he has to prove it.  Or is credibility completely irrelevant here...

[Sentient]

I'd be interested to hear more opinions on these two. I've done some prelim research and I'm leaning to Renner also. But I'm not seeing a while lot of differences other than one appears to be very wealthy and connected. Interested to hear any personal experiences with the men. I also recall reading that Fant was far ahead in some preliminary poll although I can't find where I read that or where the info was gather.

Check this out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ez0ZRMoebsI  from 2009, in the dark of the financial crisis...  And make up your mind. 

The Fant's have ideals and values, lent to local businesses and DID NOT move to foreclose early on their customers - many of which they had done business with and were friends with for years - which would have driven down values of everyone's property faster, hurting their balance sheet in the meantime, and they tried to forestall the collapse of their bank.  But yes they failed.

Failed via remaining true to their ideals and good people.  The only people that were hurt by this idealism were the family.  Their equity was wiped out.  Depositors remained whole the entire time.  And please, there were many of others in seasoned leadership positions in First Guaranty who wanted to grow the bank once Hickory stepped down.  This was not Jay's big idea, if anything he was overly trusting of the staff. 

So the whole "bank failed because of Jay" spiel really lacks a foundation...  success has a thousand fathers, failure stands an orphan...

i would prefer someone in office who walks their talk, everyday, not just come election promise time...

[Sentient]

Ex-CEO of failed bank running for office

By Michael Braga
Herald-Tribune
Published: Wednesday, August 6, 2014 at 1:00 a.m.

Jay Fant ran one of Jacksonville's oldest banks before it was seized by regulators during the Great Recession.

Now, he now wants to represent the people of District 17 in the Florida Legislature.

http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20140806/article/308069991

from the same 'news" article...  Funny the race has been going on since October, but two weeks before the vote this "news" comes to light in the TU...  wonder who they are supporting?

"According to research conducted by the Herald- Tribune for its Breaking the Banks series, First Guaranty failed because it made many of the same mistakes that 69 other Florida banks made during the Great Recession -- and those mistakes were made when Fant held the title of chief executive."

Hey I bet a lot of you guys banked with WACHOVIA... remember them?  Oh yeah...  complete hatchet job, and worse, just poor "journalism".   More disgrace for Jokesonville.

[bill]

Good god Sentimental, settle down. No one with a brain would vote for Fant. When you lose peoples money they tend to get testy.
If you need to know more about Renner do research or I am happy to facilitate a meeting. PM