Investigating JEA: Curry's Role and Community Impact

[00:00:00] Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike

[00:00:04] Mikes on Mic, a conversation about politics, government and Jacksonville with 50 year opinion

[00:00:10] leaders Mike Hightower, Mike Tolbert and award-winning broadcaster and longtime political

[00:00:16] observer Mike Miller.

[00:00:18] Welcome to another episode of Mikes on Mic.

[00:00:20] I'm Mike Miller.

[00:00:21] I'm here in studio today but my colleagues Mike Hightower and Mike Tolbert are both

[00:00:25] in their respective out of state home.

[00:00:27] Well, Tolbert's not really out of state but it seems like if you ever have to drive there.

[00:00:33] But nevertheless they're at their locations and I'm here at mine.

[00:00:35] We have no guests today.

[00:00:36] It's going to be just the three of us talking about some of the issues of the day.

[00:00:40] But we thought we would kind of bring the final chapter of JEA and talk about the

[00:00:46] Aaronson issue and the of course four years of prison that he has now been sentenced

[00:00:52] to.

[00:00:53] One of the questions we want to talk about here today is what role if any did Mayor Lenny

[00:00:58] Curry play in this entire fiasco?

[00:01:01] And with that Mr. Tolbert kick it off for us.

[00:01:04] Well, you know Mikes it does seem like it's been a slow moving train wreck.

[00:01:09] This first started in 2017 and I think the first public knowledge of it or hint

[00:01:19] was when Curry all of a sudden abruptly removed all the members of the JEA board and then

[00:01:26] put his old buddies on there headed by Tom Petway, a big Curry donor, a big Republican

[00:01:33] donor and a community icon.

[00:01:36] And Petway immediately became chair of the board and then served for a year and

[00:01:41] then a year after he got there after his first year he did a mic drop.

[00:01:46] He resigned in a meeting and announced that he thought that the JEA should explore the

[00:01:52] sale of selling itself.

[00:01:57] So that took one year.

[00:02:02] Mayor Curry then put an unknown guy named Aaron Zahn on the board to replace Petway.

[00:02:09] Zahn stayed on the board just a little bit but once Paul McElroy was run off by

[00:02:14] the mayor, then Zahn resigned from the board and decided he wanted to and then applied

[00:02:21] for interim CEO of the JEA and the board made him interim CEO and then later the

[00:02:27] council made him the CEO of the JEA.

[00:02:33] You know Mike, I was thinking about this.

[00:02:37] I can't imagine what it was like for you to be a top executive at JEA during all this.

[00:02:44] You were there senior vice president of governmental affairs.

[00:02:48] You were very close to Paul McElroy and one of his top people and to watch all

[00:02:54] this and see what was going on, it had to be hell on wheels for you.

[00:02:59] Well that's put it mightily and nobody put that in context if y'all remember correctly.

[00:03:04] I spent 16 years as a board member and four of those years as a chair and then

[00:03:10] when I retired from Blue Cross Blue Shield came back to JEA as you just said

[00:03:15] as head of government relations.

[00:03:18] So I was there when Zahn, when the mayor was putting pressure and basically

[00:03:25] let's call it spade to spade.

[00:03:29] Curry ran Paul McElroy off.

[00:03:31] I mean he was, they just put a lot of pressure on him and then all of a sudden

[00:03:35] Paul comes back from a meeting with the mayor and said guys I'm going to retire.

[00:03:40] Anyway he didn't ever said it.

[00:03:42] It was real clear what happened and so to put this in context to show you what

[00:03:47] happened was they made Melissa Dykes the interim.

[00:03:55] So and Zahn was on the board if you remember correctly.

[00:03:59] So on that was a Friday.

[00:04:01] So on Friday of April 13th Zahn resigns on a Friday afternoon after at five o'clock

[00:04:09] he resigns from the board April 13th.

[00:04:12] On April 17th following Tuesday the board comes together and moves Melissa off as

[00:04:20] interim CEO and unanimously puts Zahn on.

[00:04:27] And then it started from there and she said from that point on it just was

[00:04:36] picking up on what Tom Petway said.

[00:04:39] Zahn was made real clear that they wanted to sell GEA.

[00:04:44] There were some of us on senior staff that didn't agree with it,

[00:04:48] didn't think it was going to happen.

[00:04:51] There's at least two of us that raised the issue that kept saying I

[00:04:54] don't think this is going to pass candidly.

[00:04:57] He told me that the mayor told him they had to he said not to worry the mayor

[00:05:02] has got the 10 votes.

[00:05:03] I mean that is a quote which I gave to the law enforcement FPI and all that.

[00:05:10] It was not it was not good.

[00:05:11] Paul McElroy was credible professional that everyone liked him and it started

[00:05:18] downhill downhill from there.

[00:05:21] We'll get into some of the folks that I think were complicit.

[00:05:26] It starts at City Hall all the way through it.

[00:05:28] The one thing that I want to remind everybody that was that's brought in to

[00:05:32] underscore your point Mike when they kept saying how was this happening

[00:05:38] during the last few weeks that I was there when the pine and a couple of

[00:05:41] the folks said I don't think this is going to happen.

[00:05:43] Zahn used to brag that he had a badge and would wear it.

[00:05:48] They got him into the back door of City Hall and Brad that he had been into

[00:05:53] City Hall during this time over 200 times.

[00:06:00] I left on June 10th which was a Monday and on Tuesday June 11th they were

[00:06:06] named senior staff Zahn and the new consultants that they were hired for

[00:06:10] government relations went off site to talk about the plot plan.

[00:06:14] You know, let me put some context around this Mike Hightower.

[00:06:18] People need to also remember back then Curry controlled a great majority of

[00:06:26] the city council members so when he told Zahn he had the votes there was

[00:06:31] no question about it but he had Tim Baker his consultant they control

[00:06:35] City Council there were a lot of City Council members that sat there like

[00:06:39] deaf dumb and blind while this was going on.

[00:06:42] Complicit in some ways I think.

[00:06:44] Yes so it was so when you talk about complicit that's the main word

[00:06:51] throughout this whole thing.

[00:06:53] City Council, the board that he put in that the mayor put in place,

[00:06:58] the senior staff that stayed there that went behind closed doors on that

[00:07:03] Tuesday June 11th and then the lawyers and the consultants that they

[00:07:09] hired in town to pull off it they were all complicit.

[00:07:12] Those are the ones as I talk about that slipped the book.

[00:07:17] The public relations PR campaign for selling JEA really picked up steam

[00:07:23] back in 2019 when Zahn started telling board members that the sky

[00:07:27] was falling and that there would have to be a 29 percent cut in the

[00:07:31] workforce and a 26 percent increase in rates for the utility if they

[00:07:38] were to quote survive.

[00:07:39] The death spiral I believe is the term that was used for it at the

[00:07:44] time then that summer while protesting that he had no plans was

[00:07:48] not involved in the sale of JEA Mayor Curry at the time said he

[00:07:52] would use the sale proceeds to pay off bond debt and invest what

[00:07:56] was left so it certainly sounds to me like while he knew nothing

[00:08:00] about this he was already planning on how he was going to spend the

[00:08:03] dollars that they were going to end up getting for the sale of

[00:08:07] JEA.

[00:08:08] Why do you think Curry was not part of this at least legally?

[00:08:11] Why wasn't he indicted and what do you think will be his legacy as

[00:08:16] a result of this?

[00:08:17] And you guys can go ahead and start Mr. Hightower.

[00:08:20] I think there's a couple there's a couple questions that I

[00:08:22] gather to divide them.

[00:08:25] There is no way possible that Zahn would have proceeded with

[00:08:29] this if Curry had not been.

[00:08:34] Curry was not aware of it.

[00:08:35] Can I interrupt Mike?

[00:08:37] Can I interrupt you just for a question in that?

[00:08:40] Would you say that Petway also had talked perhaps to Curry prior

[00:08:46] to him dropping the mic and leaving the JEA board so that

[00:08:50] this whole plan would be executed in the way that we get to

[00:08:55] what they hope to be the final result?

[00:08:59] That I don't know.

[00:09:00] I you know what I I don't know.

[00:09:05] Yeah probably.

[00:09:06] Yeah yeah it probably because when he said we should consider

[00:09:10] it Paul McElroy had never Paul McElroy was the executive

[00:09:15] director in all those years that I was on the board.

[00:09:18] I never heard Paul talk about that and when I was brought on

[00:09:21] board when Petway dropped the mic Paul had never mentioned

[00:09:26] that to me and I was part of his senior's team.

[00:09:29] So that came out of came out of the blue.

[00:09:31] So I think Mike is probably right on that.

[00:09:36] Curry had to be a part of it.

[00:09:38] Zahn would not have made Zahn would not have gone one step

[00:09:42] without checking with Curry.

[00:09:44] Curry had put him on the board and like I said.

[00:09:49] It was his Curry's board that when Zahn resigned on the

[00:09:55] board on Friday and the board elects makes him

[00:09:58] unanimously on Tuesday the interim CEO there's no way that

[00:10:04] Curry was not a part of all this.

[00:10:07] You know we'll probably we'll probably never know why he

[00:10:11] wasn't didn't get indicted or whatever but there are some

[00:10:15] things we we do know and some of it is you know he

[00:10:18] double-taught he obfuscated and he stretched the truth

[00:10:23] the outright lied.

[00:10:25] Well the J.E.A.

[00:10:27] investigative report done by Steve Busey for the City

[00:10:31] Council really if you go back and look at that it may

[00:10:35] be very clear that Curry and his administration were

[00:10:39] involved from the very get-go wouldn't have happened

[00:10:41] at all without worry.

[00:10:44] And one year after one year after investigating this

[00:10:47] claim for the City Council the report released was

[00:10:51] released by the City Council in January of 2021

[00:10:56] taking a year reviewing six hundred thousand documents

[00:10:59] as I recall and interviewing dozens of witnesses and when

[00:11:03] it was released if you remember it put a bullseye

[00:11:06] right on the mayor.

[00:11:10] Yeah let me let me and let me remind everybody what

[00:11:14] happened they paid they Busey did the report members

[00:11:20] of the City Council were on that special report and if

[00:11:22] you remember Mike Tolbert one of the things that

[00:11:24] was so exasperating about that was that when the

[00:11:28] report came back to the City Council just to show how

[00:11:32] complicit everybody was involved they never

[00:11:35] discussed it guys they never discussed it all they

[00:11:38] did was there was a motion that the Steve Busey

[00:11:41] report should be made a part of the record.

[00:11:45] It was passed unanimously and nothing was ever

[00:11:48] talked about and I was if you remember and at

[00:11:52] that point a lot of us which got to we'll be

[00:11:55] talking about this shortly about our Jax we just

[00:11:58] said this is an inside deal it's totally bait

[00:12:03] but all that went in there and I can just

[00:12:05] remember bringing it up never talked about it all

[00:12:09] the documents all the good work that Steve Busey

[00:12:12] and the committee did nothing it just made part

[00:12:14] of the record.

[00:12:16] Well you know as for Curry's legacy I'm sure

[00:12:20] there are places in Jacksonville where he can

[00:12:23] go and people still think he was a good mayor

[00:12:27] but I'm old enough to remember when Hayden

[00:12:31] Burns was the mayor and the legacy he left and

[00:12:35] in my humble opinion I think Curry is the most

[00:12:38] least perhaps the least respected mayor of

[00:12:41] Jacksonville since Hayden Burns and I think

[00:12:44] that's his at least that's part of his

[00:12:45] legacy.

[00:12:47] Well I think also is Mike is to underscore

[00:12:52] that when you go back to the Hayden Burns

[00:12:54] saying most of those records and the newspaper

[00:12:57] articles aren't there anymore but now all you

[00:12:59] got to do is Google JEA or Lenny Curry

[00:13:02] and I'm not sure anything's going to pop up

[00:13:05] good about Lenny Curry except that he puts

[00:13:08] on on he put a board together.

[00:13:13] He was part of that deal and then he pulled

[00:13:15] plug when there was an outcry.

[00:13:18] His legacy will always be he tried to sell

[00:13:22] JEA and it didn't work out.

[00:13:26] That's his legacy.

[00:13:27] Doesn't matter what he tries to explain it

[00:13:29] that's his legacy.

[00:13:31] Eight years.

[00:13:32] Eight years.

[00:13:32] That's his legacy.

[00:13:34] The both of you were members of R-Jacks

[00:13:36] I think a lot of people watching or

[00:13:38] listening probably remember R-Jacks because

[00:13:41] of a lot J-sale which you were basically

[00:13:46] spearheading the opposition to that.

[00:13:49] I didn't realize what role one J-sale played

[00:13:52] or R-Jacks rather played with the JEA sale.

[00:13:55] Can you go through that a little bit?

[00:13:56] What did you guys do for that and how did

[00:13:58] that come about?

[00:14:00] Mr. Talbert love this is Talbert this

[00:14:02] Mr. Talbert story.

[00:14:03] I love listening to it.

[00:14:04] I'll add to it but he's got it down.

[00:14:07] Well if you go back and remember

[00:14:13] there were a lot of people who were

[00:14:14] concerned about the sale in the community

[00:14:17] but we were mostly talking amongst ourselves.

[00:14:20] Jake was about the only one

[00:14:22] politically raising hell about it

[00:14:25] and I remember him saying to me one day

[00:14:28] why am I out here on this limb by myself?

[00:14:31] Where are the rest of the people

[00:14:33] who should be standing up and raising hell about it?

[00:14:36] And so one day I get a call to come

[00:14:40] to a meeting at Randy DeForest's

[00:14:42] Fidelity office about the JDA

[00:14:46] and I didn't know what it was about.

[00:14:47] I mean what was going on?

[00:14:49] This was in November of 2019 I think Hightower.

[00:14:53] Absolutely.

[00:14:54] And so we go to the meeting

[00:14:55] and there's people like Michael Ward in there

[00:14:58] and David Miller and Mike Hightower

[00:15:00] and Aldrich Moran and Sherry McGill.

[00:15:03] I mean just around the table Bobby Stein

[00:15:06] and I'm thinking what the hell am I doing here?

[00:15:09] Well the train was moving so fast.

[00:15:12] This is November now at 2019.

[00:15:15] There was a plan to have a council vote

[00:15:19] in January just a couple of months later

[00:15:22] put a referendum on the ballot

[00:15:24] to approve the sale of the JDA

[00:15:27] and so I learned that we were there

[00:15:30] to start talking about putting together

[00:15:32] a campaign to oppose it.

[00:15:35] Over a period of time we gained momentum,

[00:15:38] things started happening and so the referendum

[00:15:42] got backed away from.

[00:15:44] So we weren't putting on an election,

[00:15:45] we were now trying to stop the sale of the JDA

[00:15:49] and I remember one of the things I remember Hightower,

[00:15:51] toward the end of that meeting,

[00:15:52] I just sat there listening all

[00:15:55] and toward the end of the meeting I raised my hand

[00:15:59] and I said you know Mayor Godbowl

[00:16:01] is about to send in another guest column

[00:16:05] on the sale of the JDA to the Times Union.

[00:16:09] It would really be stronger and nice

[00:16:11] if there could be a full page ad

[00:16:14] and so Michael Ward immediately said I'll pay for it

[00:16:18] and it was a pretty damn strong ad to be honest.

[00:16:22] It got a lot of attention and I remember

[00:16:26] when we were putting the ad together

[00:16:30] I called Michael Ward and I said

[00:16:33] I'm gonna send you a copy of the ad

[00:16:36] so you can approve it and he said

[00:16:38] you think I'm gonna approve anything

[00:16:39] or change anything that Jay Godbowl wants to do?

[00:16:44] I don't know if he felt the same way after the ad

[00:16:51] and that happened sort of like boom boom.

[00:16:53] The ad came out, got a lot of press on the ad,

[00:16:56] not just being in the newspaper,

[00:16:58] it made headlines and was on the news,

[00:17:01] television news.

[00:17:02] And statewide they paid.

[00:17:04] Yeah, but right after that was the next day

[00:17:09] I think was that city council special,

[00:17:12] the special committee meeting of the city council

[00:17:14] that Michael Bowlin chair and Jake

[00:17:18] and Mike Ward both were there

[00:17:20] and that's what Jake told Bowlin

[00:17:23] he was gonna stalk as long as he wanted to.

[00:17:24] He'd been sitting on his ass for a long time

[00:17:26] and he wasn't coming back if y'all remember that.

[00:17:30] Came out as Walker, remember that.

[00:17:34] Well yeah we picked up momentum

[00:17:37] and you're right Mike Miller

[00:17:39] that once it was determined

[00:17:42] we weren't gonna sell the JEA,

[00:17:46] there was a move, there was conversation

[00:17:49] about disbanding our jacks,

[00:17:50] we had done our job.

[00:17:52] But then all of a sudden a lot of Jay stuck

[00:17:54] it would keep sort of sticking its head up

[00:17:57] and so we used what I guess credibility we had gained.

[00:18:04] I would say star power.

[00:18:06] I would call it star power more than I would have

[00:18:09] to be honest.

[00:18:10] You had some pretty influential

[00:18:11] and very, very, very well known people on that group.

[00:18:15] No question about it.

[00:18:16] I wonder what the hell I was doing there.

[00:18:19] No, no it wasn't.

[00:18:21] We all brought something as a team,

[00:18:22] it was a great team effort.

[00:18:23] It was what you think about it,

[00:18:25] it was an incredible team.

[00:18:27] The thing was we were just doing

[00:18:28] what we thought was right.

[00:18:29] Going back to what Ed Austin said,

[00:18:31] you're never wrong if you do the right thing

[00:18:33] for the right reason, period, Barrett.

[00:18:35] Good point, good point.

[00:18:37] You know there were some good guys

[00:18:38] and heroes in all of this as well

[00:18:40] and we really shouldn't forget them

[00:18:42] because we don't want to paint a picture

[00:18:44] that says that everybody was a villain

[00:18:46] in this deceitful program.

[00:18:48] So let's name a few of those people

[00:18:51] who you guys felt specifically

[00:18:54] were really wearing the white hats on this one.

[00:18:58] Well I would suspect Mike Hightower

[00:19:00] and I will probably agree on most of these.

[00:19:02] I made a little list

[00:19:03] and of course it starts with my friend Jay Godbolt.

[00:19:06] It includes Council President Scott Wilson

[00:19:10] who was really strong.

[00:19:12] I mean if it hadn't been for Scott,

[00:19:14] I don't know if you might not have stole the JEA.

[00:19:19] There was Carla Miller

[00:19:21] whose legacy will forever be defined

[00:19:23] by what she did in Atlanta.

[00:19:27] For people who don't recall, by the way,

[00:19:29] Carla was our ethics officer here in the city.

[00:19:31] Ethics, the city's ethics officer.

[00:19:33] Then you had Kyle Billy, the auditor,

[00:19:35] the councilor who's the first one

[00:19:37] that unveiled the PUP plan

[00:19:39] to give those guys millions of bonus dollars.

[00:19:43] There were some members of the city council.

[00:19:45] Not all of them were under the control

[00:19:46] of Curry and complicit.

[00:19:48] Randy DeFore obviously was not.

[00:19:51] Matt Carlucci and Garrett Dennis

[00:19:54] and Brenda Priestley Jackson.

[00:19:55] There were others who were strong and stood up.

[00:19:58] Of course you had our Jacks,

[00:19:59] the members of our Jacks.

[00:20:03] Just to replace that,

[00:20:05] as Sherri McGill, Audra Moran,

[00:20:08] David Miller, Michael Ward, Talbert, myself.

[00:20:14] The other thing is there was

[00:20:15] the attorney that represented the lineman

[00:20:21] and there was a representative from the lineman.

[00:20:26] It was just an incredible group.

[00:20:31] It was wrong what was going on

[00:20:32] and the other thing was we just kept going back

[00:20:35] and I keep going back to what Mike Talbert said

[00:20:39] when we started getting names

[00:20:44] and we had a website.

[00:20:45] He said, you can't over-communicate with the public

[00:20:49] and that was the driving thing.

[00:20:51] We got to reach out and get more folks involved

[00:20:54] and that was one of the things

[00:20:55] that Mike talks about why he was there.

[00:20:58] Mike brought some skills to it

[00:21:00] and when you throw the reputation

[00:21:02] of those people I just talked about

[00:21:04] and the fact was that we were doing it,

[00:21:06] we thought for the right reason

[00:21:07] because we thought what was going on was wrong.

[00:21:10] There was a lack of transparency

[00:21:12] and we just kind of felt like

[00:21:14] it was being run by a group of people

[00:21:16] that were self-serving

[00:21:17] and it was going to be bad for the city

[00:21:20] and that's what drove us.

[00:21:22] Let me finish my message.

[00:21:22] There were a few others too Mike.

[00:21:24] Talbert there were a few others too

[00:21:26] including some of my former colleagues in the media.

[00:21:29] You've got Nate Monroe and Chris Hong

[00:21:31] and they were all over it

[00:21:34] and other members of the media.

[00:21:35] One of my favorites was my friend Pete Carpenter

[00:21:39] who was a retired CEO of CSX.

[00:21:43] Right after Zahn was hired,

[00:21:47] he went crazy about it

[00:21:50] and he called me and he said

[00:21:51] I want to write a letter to the editor.

[00:21:53] Will you help me?

[00:21:54] And I said Pete if you write it

[00:21:56] it's going to be more than a letter to the editor.

[00:21:58] It's going to be a guest column

[00:22:00] but I'll be happy to write it for you

[00:22:03] and one of the things he insisted on saying

[00:22:06] was that this guy Zahn was nothing

[00:22:08] but a snake oil salesman

[00:22:10] and that was the bottom line of that column

[00:22:13] and boy did he call it right.

[00:22:15] Then you've got the federal prosecutors

[00:22:17] who've got this ball rolling

[00:22:18] and kept it rolling and got the conviction

[00:22:21] and then finally you got Judge Davis

[00:22:24] and I want to know what went through your head

[00:22:28] when you heard the verdict

[00:22:29] that Judge Davis handed down given your experiences?

[00:22:34] The first thought was thank God finally.

[00:22:40] Finally.

[00:22:43] And then my second thought was

[00:22:45] all the ones who we have talked about

[00:22:48] that were complicit or knew what was going on

[00:22:51] or were getting some sort of contract

[00:22:55] or something out of it

[00:22:56] that one said he had slipped the foot

[00:22:58] and then I thought about the three or four

[00:23:00] who got a good lawyer,

[00:23:04] probably turned states or federal witness,

[00:23:07] got off the deal altogether

[00:23:10] but it was finally this nightmare was over

[00:23:13] and I think one of the things

[00:23:15] that we talked about when we first started out

[00:23:18] and when we were talking with the folks

[00:23:19] that represented the JEA was that

[00:23:22] when you think of the JEA's been around

[00:23:24] for almost 125 years,

[00:23:26] it's got great dedicated committed people.

[00:23:31] In the lineman alone,

[00:23:33] there are three generations of linemen there.

[00:23:36] By the way, we now have a woman lineman

[00:23:39] we have a female lineman finally

[00:23:40] but there are three generations of linemen right there.

[00:23:43] It's a family.

[00:23:45] But one thing I wanted to say is

[00:23:48] and I want to take it from the Mark Woods column

[00:23:50] that recently ran

[00:23:53] and this is a quote from the column,

[00:23:54] as assistant US attorney A. Dyson Duva said,

[00:23:57] the crime wasn't the attempting sale,

[00:24:01] it was the effort to fleece the city of Jacksonville.

[00:24:04] Duva summed it up that has been reported

[00:24:07] and investigated and deliberated in the last five years

[00:24:10] by saying that the former CEO came up with a bonus plan.

[00:24:13] That's the PUP plan.

[00:24:15] We really haven't talked much about that today

[00:24:17] but the PUP plan and he said,

[00:24:19] he tried to hide it Zahn,

[00:24:21] but he got caught

[00:24:22] and that really kind of put it all in a circle.

[00:24:26] It looks like we've lost Hightower here Mike

[00:24:28] but let's move on if we can

[00:24:30] and hopefully he'll come back in

[00:24:32] and talking about good guys

[00:24:35] and I think we just had an incredible opportunity last week

[00:24:40] to be able to sit down with mayor Donna Deegan

[00:24:43] and talk with her about her first year.

[00:24:47] And we primarily discussed

[00:24:48] for people who haven't seen the show,

[00:24:50] primarily announced or talked

[00:24:52] about the $1.9 billion budget.

[00:24:57] I had some takeaways.

[00:24:58] I want to hear yours too Tolbert.

[00:24:59] Let me start off if I may,

[00:25:02] by starting with what she said

[00:25:06] was her whole role

[00:25:07] and how she saw herself as the mayor

[00:25:09] and she said,

[00:25:10] changing the culture in city hall

[00:25:13] and made a very important point

[00:25:16] by saying that people desperately want to be a part

[00:25:19] of this city government

[00:25:21] but they have felt like they didn't have a voice

[00:25:23] and she wanted to become the voice

[00:25:26] of the people for city government

[00:25:28] which I think was very poignant for her to say that.

[00:25:33] She also, by the way

[00:25:35] and you may recall this,

[00:25:36] quoted Tampa mayor Bob Buckhorn

[00:25:38] who she admires greatly

[00:25:39] and is a good friend

[00:25:40] by saying that as far as running for office

[00:25:43] the best storyteller wins.

[00:25:46] And Mike Tolbert,

[00:25:48] you personify that as a storyteller for yourself

[00:25:51] as well as for candidates

[00:25:52] that you've worked for

[00:25:54] and helping them form their message

[00:25:56] and be successful in forming that message.

[00:26:00] The last thing that she said

[00:26:01] that I wanted to quote here was

[00:26:04] if we can't be a healthful city,

[00:26:07] we can't be a successful city.

[00:26:09] And I thought that was so very important

[00:26:11] as she was talking about healthcare in the city.

[00:26:14] Mike, what about your thoughts?

[00:26:16] Well, I have several.

[00:26:17] One of them is gonna sound kind of self-serving

[00:26:19] but in a lot of ways to me

[00:26:21] she has channeled Jay Godbow.

[00:26:25] She made it very clear

[00:26:28] that she does not like inaction.

[00:26:31] She likes to get things done.

[00:26:34] I recall right after we got to her office,

[00:26:39] Mike Hightower and I came together

[00:26:40] and we were running a little behind.

[00:26:43] But on the way there,

[00:26:44] I told Hightower,

[00:26:45] I said, don't worry about it

[00:26:46] because I've never known a mayor to be on time.

[00:26:50] And then I looked at him

[00:26:52] and I said, well, I'm not sure about Donna

[00:26:54] because she's been in the news business

[00:26:58] and she's been on deadline all her life.

[00:27:01] So no question,

[00:27:02] but we got there.

[00:27:03] We weren't late.

[00:27:04] We were early.

[00:27:05] But we got there and she was in her office

[00:27:07] waiting on us and wanting to talk

[00:27:09] and before we did anything,

[00:27:11] I told her that story

[00:27:13] and she smiled and she said,

[00:27:15] you know, I tell people

[00:27:17] the 11 o'clock news never starts at 1101.

[00:27:22] And she has impressed me as someone who like Jay

[00:27:27] when there was an issue or a problem

[00:27:28] that needed to be solved

[00:27:30] would put all the players in the room together.

[00:27:34] And then the deal was we're not leaving

[00:27:38] until we get this done.

[00:27:40] I don't care what you got coming up

[00:27:42] or what you think you need to be done

[00:27:44] until we get this solved,

[00:27:46] we're gonna stay right here and make it happen.

[00:27:49] And I think she's an action oriented

[00:27:51] kind of an individual.

[00:27:52] I really do.

[00:27:53] Yeah, I think so too.

[00:27:54] And she seems very pleased with her first year

[00:27:57] and I think she looked very optimistic

[00:27:59] as far as moving forward.

[00:28:01] And you're right, she should be.

[00:28:02] It was audacious as it was quoted

[00:28:07] an audacious first year.

[00:28:09] Well, we're gonna wrap things up a little early

[00:28:11] because we've lost Mr. Hightower

[00:28:13] but we don't wanna wrap up this show

[00:28:15] without mentioning and paying tribute

[00:28:18] to two great citizens that we've lost here

[00:28:21] in the last couple of weeks.

[00:28:23] First one is was Al Cunard.

[00:28:27] I knew Al Cunard when I was working

[00:28:30] for the Jacksonville Economic Development Commission

[00:28:31] before I joined the Delaney administration

[00:28:34] back in the year 2000.

[00:28:36] And became pretty close with Big Al.

[00:28:39] I liked him a lot, he seemed to like me a lot

[00:28:42] but boy, I'll tell you there was nothing

[00:28:44] that anyone could ask of him

[00:28:46] that he wasn't ready to jump in with both feet.

[00:28:49] He would move mountains for anybody that he liked

[00:28:53] and anybody that he thought would be good

[00:28:55] for the city of Jacksonville.

[00:28:57] And that's really the impression I got from Al.

[00:29:00] You guys knew him a lot longer than I did, of course.

[00:29:02] Well, you know Al's reputation was

[00:29:06] he would not say no when something couldn't be done

[00:29:09] and I get a lot of credit

[00:29:12] with things that Jake and I did together.

[00:29:15] But I gotta tell you,

[00:29:16] Cunard was there making it happen for me especially

[00:29:19] and for Jake, he was the go-to guy.

[00:29:22] When I remember the first time I met Al

[00:29:24] when I came to Jacksonville in 69

[00:29:27] as a reporter for the Times-Genium covered city hall

[00:29:30] and Al was in streets and highways.

[00:29:32] He wasn't a department in the hour

[00:29:33] even though he was division chief.

[00:29:35] But I found out very quickly

[00:29:38] that when city council members had an issue

[00:29:41] in their district, particularly at a pothole

[00:29:44] or some water drain or in a main bus or something,

[00:29:48] they went directly to Al Cunard

[00:29:50] who didn't have a lot of authority

[00:29:52] but Al made it, he got it all fixed.

[00:29:54] Well, in doing that,

[00:29:55] Al was getting the chitch from himself

[00:29:57] and Mayor Tansley wasn't.

[00:30:01] And so when I went on Tansley's staff a few years later,

[00:30:04] I tried to explain to the hands,

[00:30:08] let Al keep doing his thing

[00:30:09] but make sure those council members know

[00:30:12] that he's doing it because you want him to do it.

[00:30:15] But Al served five mayors,

[00:30:19] I think almost six decades

[00:30:22] and I've known some really good public servants

[00:30:26] but I've never known anybody like Al Cunard

[00:30:30] and his ever-present cigar.

[00:30:34] Another great leader that we lost here recently

[00:30:36] was David Stein.

[00:30:38] Most people in the community probably know David

[00:30:41] because he was the man to introduce Burger King

[00:30:45] to the city of Jacksonville.

[00:30:46] He had the original franchise with that company.

[00:30:49] Pardon me, would you say Mike Tobin?

[00:30:51] The nation, I am sorry.

[00:30:53] You're right.

[00:30:54] I can tell you that in the Jewish community,

[00:30:56] he's probably best known for being the founder

[00:31:00] of the Jacksonville Community Alliance, the JCA

[00:31:03] and I got a very nice note from Adam Chaskin

[00:31:05] who you may recall was on our program

[00:31:08] as part of the organization Together Without Hate

[00:31:12] that we did here on Mike's on Mike

[00:31:14] but he wrote out and said that the JCA

[00:31:17] stands as a testament of David's commitment

[00:31:19] to fostering unity, cultural enrichment

[00:31:22] and support within the community.

[00:31:24] Without this bold vision, our beloved JCA

[00:31:27] would not be what it is today.

[00:31:29] Those doors opened in 1988 and they continue open

[00:31:32] and they're bigger and better than they ever were before

[00:31:35] and really we have lost two great icons

[00:31:38] in this community in the last couple of weeks

[00:31:40] with Al Cunard and David Stein

[00:31:42] and we wish them well and as we say in our community,

[00:31:47] may their memories be a blessing.

[00:31:49] Gentlemen, we're out of time.

[00:31:51] It's been a great half hour.

[00:31:52] Thank you very much.

[00:31:53] I miss you both.

[00:31:54] It's always more fun when we're all together

[00:31:56] in the same studio.

[00:31:57] That way we can kick each other onto the table

[00:31:59] but just pretend like this is a kick

[00:32:02] to both of you guys and thank you very much

[00:32:04] for joining us and thank you for joining us.

[00:32:07] The Mike's on Mike program brought to you

[00:32:08] by the Jacksonville History Center and the fine donors

[00:32:11] who keep the cameras rolling and the lights on.

[00:32:13] Thanks for joining us and we'll see you again next week.

[00:32:17] Mike's on Mike with Mike Tolbert, Mike Hightower

[00:32:20] and Mike Miller can be found

[00:32:21] on your favorite podcasting platform,

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[00:32:25] Visit the website at Mike's on Mike.com.

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