Bill Killingsworth is Back!

[Steve]

Whoa. Didn't see that one coming:

William Killingsworth returns to Jacksonville to serve as the director of the Planning & Development Department. Killingsworth previously held this position for the City of Jacksonville from 2009 to 2011, after serving for two years as Chief of the Community Planning Division. Most recently, Killingsworth served as director of Community Development for the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity. His salary will be $135,000.

[fsujax]

Good stuff.

[jaxnyc79]

wow, his initiatives were pretty forward-looking and progressive.  is curry clearing out the knuckleheads?

[JeffreyS]

Let me cross the aisle and say Kudos to Curry.

[CityLife]

Great move by Curry. Brown letting go of Killingsworth and replacing him with a person in over his head was a colossal mistake....

Hopefully they also make some reforms and bring the planning department up to par with peer cities. IIRC there were zero people from COJ at the recent state planning conference. Not exactly a good way to stay up to date with trends and best practices...

[sheclown]

YAYAYAYAYAYAYAYA!!!!!!!

[sheclown]

from 5 years ago.

Bill Killingsworth goes for a walk
« on: September 22, 2010, 12:46:22 PM »

An extraordinary night, last night, in Springfield --  3 Layers -- standing room only. Trivia Extravaganza has reached cult status -- (people hyped up on strawberry cake & wine yelling out wrong answers & giggling)

-- but mostly Bill Killingsworth stopped by to take a walk with some of us from Preservation SOS.

Bill is a big dog in the city.  He runs a lot of stuff.  Building codes & inspections, planning & zoning, historic departments.  He's the boss of it all, and yet he took the time to look at this condemned house on Ionia and talk to us about preservation.

He spoke to us about mothballing, surveying and community involvement.  We talked about the formal track and board & secure permits previous policies and new ideas.

He made us feel important and our issues seem significant.

It was all too much for Nicole last week when he called to set up this appointment.  She later told me, when he said he wanted to help, I couldn't help it, I just started crying.

Sometimes when you are driving around on High Bulldozer Alert, with a hammer in one hand and a camera in another, you truly feel alone in the trenches.  Last night, Bill Killingsworth showed us that we are not alone, that the city DOES care what happens in Springfield, and has the intelligence and wisdom to help.

(So, for those of you who saw my earlier post and PMd me, yes, it was Bill Killingsworth, the tall and handsome city official, who went for a walk with us.)

http://www.metrojacksonville.com/forum/index.php/topic,9848.0.html

[jcjohnpaint]

great move is right!  Great to hear.

[Non-RedNeck Westsider]

Honest question:  Does it really matter who's in charge of the Planning Dept. if CC is just going to put a moratorium on the ideas that come out of it anyhow?

[Allan D]

A good and smart man.  I hope they let his work work non-redneck.

[Jumpinjack]

Yahoo!!.
This is a man of definite ideas about revitalizing our city and he wouldn't be back if we were just going to keep doing the same old things.

[sheclown]

Any speculation as to what will happen with the mobility fee now?  Do you think we will see some new energy on that?

[Tacachale]

Welcome back Bill!

[mtraininjax]

is curry clearing out the knuckleheads?

Of course he is, he is fixing the Kangaroo court that Brown left behind. Making Neighborhoods important again.

[Steve]

Honest question:  Does it really matter who's in charge of the Planning Dept. if CC is just going to put a moratorium on the ideas that come out of it anyhow?

At some point if City Council dumps every single thing that comes from Planning, then likely Curry steps in. It does him zero good to have one of his appointees hold zero power.