Jacksonville's Year in Review: Hopes and Surprises for 2025

[00:00:01] Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike's on Mic, a conversation about politics, government and Jacksonville with 50 year opinion leaders, Mike Hightower, Mike Tolbert and award winning broadcaster and longtime political observer, Mike Miller.

[00:00:17] Welcome to another episode of Mike's on Mic. I'm Mike Miller here in studio. My colleagues, Mike Tolbert, Mike Hightower, both in their remote studios. And we're delighted to have you with us.

[00:00:26] The three of us hope that your families have had a wonderful Thanksgiving week. And as we head into the holiday season, we thought today we would do a little looking back at the last 11 months of this past year and maybe do a little forecasting for 2025 to get some things out of our craws, if you will.

[00:00:43] So let's get started. Mr. Tolbert, you can kick it off. Looking back at 2024, what is your takeaway as far as your best memory and why?

[00:00:52] Well, most of my memory, a lot of my memories are tied to us doing this podcast from being with you two guys at least once a week and the great guests that we've had.

[00:01:03] We've had some really tremendous guests come on and it's been amazing.

[00:01:08] And our people, the people who watch and respond to us and let us know that they're watching.

[00:01:12] And then obviously a great memory for me is having the partnership of the Jacksonville History Center, Historical Society and Dr. Bliss.

[00:01:23] You know, when we first started this podcast 16 or 17 months ago, I think we all thought maybe we'd last a month, but we weren't sure about that even.

[00:01:33] And by my count, this is our 71st podcast that we're doing right now, which is kind of unusual and amazing to me.

[00:01:43] But if you're talking about a Jacksonville-focused memory for me, it has to be the sentencing of Aaron Zahn to four years in federal prison after spending four years wondering if he was going to be held accountable for what he tried to do at the JEA by fleecing Jacksonville citizens.

[00:02:03] Mr. Hightower and I, along with a lot of others that worked with our Jacks and people in the community, we worked long and hard to stop the sale of JEA.

[00:02:17] And we finally saw that he was being held accountable.

[00:02:22] And that, to me, stood out to me in 2024.

[00:02:26] Mr. Hightower, you're up.

[00:02:29] Mr. Hightower and I, you know, the only thing that I would add, the guests that we've had on this show have been extraordinary, absolutely extraordinary.

[00:02:49] And, I mean, without trying to, it's just been unbelievable.

[00:02:52] And the fact is that, as Mike just said, we're on our 71st, whatever it is, episode.

[00:02:58] I have to just tell you, the two of you guys, it's memorable.

[00:03:01] I just think the world of you, as much as you rag on me all the time.

[00:03:05] I bet I'm used to it with Talbert.

[00:03:07] But it has been an extraordinary 2024 working with you guys.

[00:03:13] And Scott helping us through this.

[00:03:15] I mean, Scott's really almost making us look, you know, like almost, you know, great.

[00:03:22] Yeah.

[00:03:23] And with Talbert and I, even the Botox hasn't even kicked in and we're still doing okay.

[00:03:29] And then I think the other part, seriously, is working with you two and Scott.

[00:03:34] But I think the relationship that we've got with Dr. Bliss, it's, I didn't know how that was going to turn out.

[00:03:40] And it's really become pretty cool.

[00:03:42] And then on the part, on the design thing, I really go back to when Mike kind of helped us get that group together.

[00:03:52] And, you know, we just thought, go back to what Ed Austin said.

[00:03:56] You're never wrong if you do the right thing.

[00:03:58] Mike Talbert made the comment a long time ago.

[00:04:01] It's over and we got, it was like, finally we can turn the page.

[00:04:05] And I think it, hopefully it has sent a message to people who are in public service and public office.

[00:04:14] Go there at your own risk.

[00:04:15] Because I think as Mike Talbert showed one time, we had at some point over 10,000 people who were on our website that we had gotten out to.

[00:04:23] So that was memorable.

[00:04:25] And then on a personal thing, I've just got to bring it up because you guys talked about it last time.

[00:04:29] And this is the, last night was the last meeting of the emerging leaders, eighth, class eight.

[00:04:37] We will graduate them in January 10th of this thing.

[00:04:41] And so by my calculation is that on that night, there will be 137 emerging leaders in Jacksonville who are going to get the torch and are already beginning to make Jacksonville a better place.

[00:04:54] And it's pretty extraordinary.

[00:04:56] And so those are the two things.

[00:04:57] It really hit me like a ton of books last night.

[00:04:59] I was very emotional seeing the last, the last class, the last class meeting for class eight.

[00:05:06] It was pretty cool.

[00:05:07] So those are my two memorable things.

[00:05:09] And I'll just chime in by, by saying that I never in a million years thought that when I first thought about the idea of putting this program together.

[00:05:21] First of all, being able to attract the two of you to anything that I do is in itself, I think, a hand of God came through to help me get in here.

[00:05:34] I mean, I wouldn't go there.

[00:05:38] My lightning is going to come pay the building.

[00:05:42] Whoa.

[00:05:43] But on a, yeah.

[00:05:46] Watch out for lightning.

[00:05:48] That'd be two weeks in a row considering it was at the temple last week.

[00:05:52] Thank you though.

[00:05:53] But no, I, you know, I, I never in my wildest dreams thought that we would be at this particular point at the end of 2024.

[00:06:03] When I first thought about this back in 2022, we didn't get going until July of 23, but I, it took me that long to really try to put this thing together in my own mind before I even talk with you two about wanting to do it.

[00:06:17] And as, as, as both of you have said, the guests that we have been able to attract to this program.

[00:06:24] And I'll tell you who I like the best giving the attention to local media who don't have an outlet like this to be able to come on, whether it be Mark Woods or Michael Cruz, as we just had on last week or Nate Monroe or, or, or, you know, any of them, the tributary, all of these other.

[00:06:49] Yep. All of these other fine reporters at the beginning, I said, boy, guys, if we could get to the election, that to me would be a miracle.

[00:06:58] Well, we're past the election. We're still gone.

[00:07:00] So, um, this is, this is just fantastic gravy. It's golden gravy to me every Tuesday when we're able to get together and do this.

[00:07:08] So I appreciate you both very, very much. And to be able to hook up with my old friend, Scott Westerman, who I've known ever since I came to town.

[00:07:17] And he said, boy, I've got a house for you. That's only five homes away from where I live.

[00:07:21] Um, both my wife and I at the time were very close to him and to him and Colleen, uh, and they really helped us acclimate to this city.

[00:07:31] So, uh, to all three of you, thank you very, very much for a wonderful year and looking forward to even a better year in 2025.

[00:07:38] Just everybody stay healthy. That's the most important thing. That's the most important thing.

[00:07:43] Thank you, Mark Miller.

[00:07:44] Of course, not everything in 2024 is gone as we had hoped or thought or wanted understanding that.

[00:07:50] What's been your biggest disappointment so far, Mr. Tolbert want to kick us off?

[00:07:57] Well, I guess it's odd. The obvious answers are the failure of the Jaguars one more time.

[00:08:01] Uh, and the, and again, the, and plus you take that and couple it with the inability of developer Steve Atkins, uh, to bring life to the lower street trio and finally get that done.

[00:08:14] And I mean, those are just both tremendous disappointments.

[00:08:18] Yep.

[00:08:18] But I got to tell you, my answer goes back to Aaron Zahn again, because here we are, uh, nearly five, yeah, I think about five years after the fact.

[00:08:28] He's been sentenced to federal prison for four years, but he's still walking around.

[00:08:34] He's still, he's really not held accountable until he goes behind bars.

[00:08:38] And that disappoints me that that has not happened yet.

[00:08:42] Mr. Hightower.

[00:08:44] My biggest disappointment was, uh, the complete failure and ineptness of the federal and the state government of helping these people up here in Western Carolina.

[00:08:56] Uh, y'all probably seen the, the videos and the news, but on Facebook, I mean, thousands of, I mean, we're still missing, we're still missing hundreds of people.

[00:09:06] But if it had not been for literally thousands of people on their own, on their own dime, they came over from all over this country in helicopters, private planes, caravans.

[00:09:19] But that was my biggest disappointment.

[00:09:21] And I guess because having had to be part of it now where we were, as I shared with you guys, we were inconvenienced at best.

[00:09:29] And that's one of the reasons I did my eight, seven days that I went over and volunteered.

[00:09:35] But there's still people who came a week after and are still here on their own dime doing, doing the God's work, helping these people.

[00:09:45] That's great.

[00:09:46] That's great.

[00:09:47] Mine, uh, more contemporary, more political, I'm afraid.

[00:09:50] Uh, but I think my biggest disappointment, uh, aside from the political candidates that were elected, um, I was very disappointed that we weren't able to get amendments three and four past the 60% mark.

[00:10:05] Um, I, I believed in both of them very, very much.

[00:10:09] And, and, uh, while both of them won the plurality, both of them being in the mid fifties, uh, they weren't able of course to reach the 60% level.

[00:10:18] So, uh, they had failed.

[00:10:20] Um, but I'm delighted to see that there's movement already going on to get geared up again, you know, for 2028.

[00:10:27] Uh, and this is not the first time that a good measure has been defeated the first time to turn around

[00:10:33] and end up having it passed the second time.

[00:10:36] So I'm hoping that that's going to be the case in 2028, but that's a long time away from where we are right now.

[00:10:42] Um, but other than that, um, disappointments, not really.

[00:10:49] Um, as Frank Sinatra said, I've had a few, but too few to mention, you know, so.

[00:10:54] Love that song.

[00:10:55] Love that song.

[00:10:56] So do I.

[00:10:57] So do I.

[00:10:58] Love that song.

[00:10:59] What about surprises?

[00:11:00] I don't remember.

[00:11:01] I don't remember Frank Sinatra.

[00:11:05] My biggest surprise was, respect for what he said, was just the suite of Trump all over this country.

[00:11:13] And the people that he put together, given it's my, it's just me.

[00:11:17] It's my personal love.

[00:11:18] Given everything that he's been through.

[00:11:20] And during that whole campaign, the, the depth and the breadth of this thing, um, was,

[00:11:28] I have to just tell you, I was thrilled about it.

[00:11:30] And too, as we talked about earlier, um, I'm not unhappy with the change in the Republican party.

[00:11:36] I can remember back when we, we were sort of viewed as, well, it wasn't me, but we were viewed as kind of blue buds, elitist.

[00:11:44] Uh, and I liked the idea that, you know, that, uh, we look at other people and welcome them and met, met them halfway.

[00:11:53] So I, I will tell you, I, I was thrilled.

[00:11:56] I didn't, I hope is not a strategy, but that's what I hope would happen.

[00:12:01] I just didn't, I didn't really think it would be that big.

[00:12:05] And I, I'm, I'm, I'm more than okay with it.

[00:12:09] I'm excited about it.

[00:12:10] And I'm hopeful.

[00:12:12] Well, now it's my time.

[00:12:14] And I don't know why.

[00:12:16] First of all, Mike is an aside.

[00:12:18] Seeing you on camera right now and seeing where you're sitting meet that oil painting.

[00:12:23] I can't imagine why anybody would think people like you are elite.

[00:12:27] It just doesn't make any sense to me.

[00:12:29] I don't, I don't understand that.

[00:12:31] So share that with me.

[00:12:34] Don't forget the sconces.

[00:12:35] Listen, Mike, you don't know.

[00:12:37] It's a paint by the numbers.

[00:12:38] It's a paint by the numbers.

[00:12:40] I did it when I was a kid and I brought it with me.

[00:12:42] Don't forget the sconces that are on either side of it too to highlight it.

[00:12:46] You know, that was my woodworking project in a high school.

[00:12:50] You know, I, I thought about, I thought about this answer for a good bit.

[00:12:54] And I guess I came away with the fact that I was really surprised, you know, during the,

[00:12:59] during the campaign and after she became mayor, uh, mayor Deegan made it clear that she wanted

[00:13:04] to get the stadium deal done with the Jaguars.

[00:13:07] And she set a timeline for getting that done.

[00:13:10] And I thought that's the dumbest thing I ever heard.

[00:13:12] Cause in no way it's going to happen.

[00:13:14] There's too many things that have to come together that you might not have any control over,

[00:13:19] but by damn, she did it.

[00:13:20] And that shocked me.

[00:13:22] And then it went through the council very smoothly.

[00:13:24] Uh, and that surprised me.

[00:13:26] So I, I guess there's a lot of things, you know, you can be surprised about a lot,

[00:13:31] but that was a good surprise.

[00:13:32] I was just very surprised that that happened like it did now, given the sorry, lousy record

[00:13:38] of the team we got, she's, she's lucky.

[00:13:41] She, that may be what motivated her to do it so fast in the spring.

[00:13:45] Cause I'm not sure she'd get the same outcome today.

[00:13:49] I've been thinking about it and I'm trying to, I'm trying to think what really ended up

[00:13:53] surprising me more than anything else.

[00:13:56] And I'm not sure I have any real surprises.

[00:14:01] Um, obviously the election, I was surprised by that.

[00:14:04] Um, but I will tell you one thing that ended up being a surprise, which also is, is related.

[00:14:11] Um, I think I told you guys that I did exit polling this year, working for the Edison

[00:14:16] research company out of New Jersey, uh, and one of our, one of our precincts.

[00:14:20] And what I was really surprised at was how close the tally was at this one precinct,

[00:14:26] which was at river town church, which is on San Pablo, North of beach Boulevard.

[00:14:31] And for some of our listeners and viewers know where that is and know the makeup of

[00:14:35] the community that is in that precinct.

[00:14:38] But I was surprised at how it mirrored almost exactly what the state and the nation did as

[00:14:45] far as who voted for whom, why they voted for them, uh, and the other aspects of the

[00:14:52] questions that we asked in, in this thing.

[00:14:54] I tell you, I think something we need to look out for when it comes around when 20, yeah,

[00:15:00] going forward when 2025 comes around the next mayoral race, you know, is in 2027.

[00:15:06] Uh, and I, I, I, I'm thinking that we're going to hear more and more conversation from some

[00:15:12] Republicans about running against mayor Deegan after the first of the year, especially now

[00:15:16] that this general election is behind us.

[00:15:19] And we know, we know that, uh, Ron Salem is saying he's going to run councilman Salem.

[00:15:25] Uh, we know that Jerry Holland, their elections, yeah, the elections, uh, right.

[00:15:31] He's saying he's going to run.

[00:15:33] Uh, we're hearing that Wyman Duggan is saying he's going to run.

[00:15:37] So it's, I think that's going to pick up after the first year.

[00:15:39] We're going to hear more and more of that.

[00:15:41] Uh, I still think right now, even though we've got a Republican wave washing everything away,

[00:15:46] I still think she may be difficult to beat if she maintains the popularity she has,

[00:15:52] because she's such a great communicator with people.

[00:15:54] No question about it.

[00:15:55] All right, guys, we're going to wrap it up here, but thank you very much.

[00:15:58] As always, it's good to take a step back sometimes and just think about things that have happened

[00:16:04] and what we expect that will happen or hope will happen or hope it won't happen going forward.

[00:16:09] But it's been a good half hour and I appreciate you coming on and we appreciate you for tuning in.

[00:16:14] And once again, of course, Jacksonville History Center has been our sponsor,

[00:16:18] along with Dr. Alan Bliss and the fine donors who keep the cameras on.

[00:16:21] And once again, thank you all for joining us and we'll see you all again next time.

[00:16:25] Take care.

[00:16:26] Bye-bye.

[00:16:26] Mike's on Mike.

[00:16:27] With Mike Tolbert, Mike Hightower, and Mike Miller can be found on your favorite podcasting platform,

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