Good afternoon, Michael. Boylan, District 6.
Rockman Johnson, District 14. This meeting is about the 26-27 council leadership cycle, and I am so honored to have Councilman Boylan here. I have known you, Michael, for years and years, especially in your leadership with public television. And I guess the other thing, too, is your quest to be council leadership, which I will say on record we would have appreciated with many of the things. I'll say it publicly. You know, it may not have been the best decision that I made to not fight harder for you in leadership. I must say as well I appreciate your leadership with the CQLI, which I was not a part of, but then I also was a part of your leadership under the jail task force, which I led one of those subcommittees. So the first thing I wanted to ask is about your perspective on leadership and direction and what do you see and what you could impart to me about what we need on this council, having served as long as you have.
Well, first let me say how much I appreciate the fact that you put yourself out there. I know it's not an easy decision. I know in some respect the deck is kind of stacked already, and that could have easily discouraged you, but it didn't, and so I think you're to be allotted for that. I think I'm on record being very disappointed with the last four or five elections, such as they were, when not a single notice meeting was happening before it was a done deal, and that was unfortunate, and that's why I was looking at perhaps changing somewhat drastically the process of leadership. But be that as it may, I think what we need in the context of future leadership, and obviously the vice president works hand-in-hand with the president in this process, and whoever, if practice and protocol continues, the vice president likely will be next council president, of which I will no longer be on council. But it's going to be a challenging time. Each year is going to get more and more difficult. We've been blessed, although many challenges over the course of the past seven years. Financial crisis was not one of them in that context, and we see that on the horizon now. It may be more difficult in two years. Well, you and I share a lot in terms of common interests and priorities on the nonprofit sector and quality of life and focusing on those kind of things. I think it's going to be very difficult when we look at the priorities of public works, public safety, and that kind of what people think are the bread-and-butter work of a city government. So I am very much concerned about the prospect of how we continue to support the nonprofit sector as part of our work. I mentioned the other day when I commented about this to one of our colleagues during a committee meeting, and I said, well, if we aren't going to be doing that in the future, you better drastically raise the funding for public safety because it's going to fall back in the laps of them to serve those who are underserved in a very different way, unfortunately.
Well, it's interesting. I just literally am walking out of a meeting with Greg Matavina and the team over at Northeast Florida Habitat for Humanity. We're always going to call them Habajacks, though. You know, they're still always being in our hearts Habajacks. And Greg's a great guy. A really good guy, man. And one of the things we're talking about is, you know, and obviously I've been a part of the nonprofit community here just in raising money and sitting on boards and those kind of things, but I think one of the worst things since I've been here, and I wish I would have been, you know, I had just started, but when we came in, there was that $15 million appropriation that was requested that would have been matched by the Community Foundation to the tune of $30 million. Unfortunate, unfortunate. Which would have made a $45 million impact on this 92,000-plus houses, the number of houses that we need to satisfy the comp plan where we are, and, you know, people need a place to live. Right. Had we made that investment, we would be at a different place now.
I think that's a great point. You know, short-sightedness, you know, for the sake of political expediency, pay me now or pay me later, and it's going to be a whole lot more later. And keeping the private sector engaged with an opportunity like that and then losing that opportunity as a result really is going to cost us down the road. And I hate to see that happen, but that's the way it worked.
Well, that would be my focus on, and I've looked at it. That's why I didn't just come in and try to run for leadership. I wanted to say, how could I be of help? And then, most importantly, how can I be in a place where my colleagues and I, because I look at this as a family. We may not all agree, as I said in my statement when I launched. We may not all agree, but we do want Jacksonville to be better. And so one of the things that I am really big on is ensuring that the right people are in the right places, not because someone's being punished or, and I say it often, Betty Holsendorf taught me, there are no permanent friends or enemies in this space, only permanent causes, like nonprofits and housing. And those are the things that are permanent. And so, to me, I want to be able to look at those people, like yourself, who are superstars at knowing, like CQLI, I look at it now to go back through it. That work, that report is highly academic and highly smart.
Thank you. And what I'm particularly proud of, we were ahead of the curve in terms of recognizing the potential. Now, a lot of that, quite frankly, came out of the public comment at city council meetings. People think we don't listen sometimes. I listened. I understood we had a housing crisis or a pending housing crisis. We had a homelessness issue that we needed to address. And I think because of my work in the nonprofit sector and board leadership on volunteers in medicine in particular, I knew we were on a great track when it came to access to health care. And I wanted to make sure that success continued. So it was a great time to do that. And I think the methodic process by which I brought to the table, which continued then with JSO primary facilities work, I think that's the kind of way we have to work together as a council. We can't have one council member having an agenda and having people sitting around him to move forward that agenda. It wasn't, you know, the information that came out of your committee, the one that came out of Jimmy Peluso's committee, weren't necessarily things that I probably would have embraced given my position in life in terms of politics. But at the same time, we recognize them as part of the process and recognizing the value of your work and the work that Jimmy did on the other transitional component that he worked on. So I think that's what you need to do. You need to have diverse people. I think our challenge this particular year is that, for the most part, the committees were largely stacked. So to get a specific agenda through, and that is unfortunate.
What does, I guess my main question for you is, what does, and you've said it in many ways, but for you, and to me it's a bad thing. I'll go ahead and say it, that you will not be on this council, Michael. You have been a conscience. Thank you. There's been a lot of just goodness. And you know, just personally, even before I was elected, when I was making a decision to run, you were one of the people I called. Right. We had some real conversations. We did.
We did.
What would you say that individual needs to be successful as a vice president and hopefully in moving the council forward?
That's an interesting question to the extent of a couple of things. Obviously, number one, I think you need to sit down with the council president and saying, you know, what can I do to compliment you? Not necessarily do as you want me to do, but to compliment you. Where are your blind spots? I think you may have blind spots that I think I can help you with. Can I bring some of my colleagues along with respect to your priorities and how does that work? I can tell you there was one of the most, probably the only contentious race in the past seven years that I can recall. My decision on who I voted for for vice president and it ended to be an 11 to 10 vote or 9 to 10 vote was the interest of the council president in terms of who he wanted to see as his vice president. And so that plays into that. So if you've not had a conversation, I encourage you to do so with a councilman, Vice President Howland, is to say, let me help you understand how I can compliment your leadership and help you with your priorities. So I think that's where it goes. And then beyond that, begin building that consensus that you can carry forward into your year as president.
It's so interesting how dynamics change. So I have seen since I've been here. But that's what I'm looking to. And I'll tell you, the reason why, if you will recall, I never know. You will be getting an email from me with the hopefully you will commit. But here's the thing. And I've just thought about this. And I was reminded of this. Before I started on this journey, I talked to former council members, right? I wanted to talk to the Eric Smiths and Sam Newbies and Warren Joneses and ask them the question, like, what do you need? And one of the things that they came back and they said, you do realize that the pledge form means absolutely nothing.
Right.
That you can get it. You can share it. You can tell people that they're going to vote for you. But at the end of the day, it's not binding. It is not binding. So while I will send them out, my focus has been on, as I begin to more closely prepare, while I do have what I'm looking for, the only word I could use to come up with was platform.
Sure.
But as I develop how I hope to approach leadership, I wanted to talk to all of the members one-on-one. That's why I've asked for notice meetings. Right. So I could get the feedback to build what I hope will be a platform for me that will allow me to support the president. But also interject, in those meetings that I'm in, those needs of my colleagues. So that's where I'm hoping that my style can be a little bit different.
Well, last year I asked Councilman Howland to introduce me as a candidate. One thing he said is you don't need the title to be a leader. And I think that's something, I did appreciate that. And I think that's probably true here. If, in fact, this doesn't play out for you, it doesn't preclude you from being a leader on this council. So I would keep that in mind. Does it hurt to lose? Absolutely. I've lost a couple of times, so I know they're hurt. But you have to recognize at some point in time you have to keep doing what you're doing because you've been elected to do so. And I think leadership, we all have an opportunity to lead on initiatives that we feel a lot of, you know, have great passions for. And that's kind of where I'm going with this. Again, my only advice to you is to have that conversation with Council Vice President Howland and not so much to say what do you want me to do as this is what I think I can, where I can help you and strengthen your, your, and help you improve the prospects of your success as Council President.
Oh, I appreciate the advice. I'm thankful I wanted, I didn't need a long time. I just wanted to get those questions. You know, what I feel like, and I'm sure you'd appreciate this as a TV guy as well. So I feel like Bryant Gumbel interviewing the stars of, because these conversations I'm having, we don't get to do this very often.
We don't, no. The sunshine laws can be very frustrating. Sometimes you just want to. You just want to just have a conversation. Yeah. Talk about things and where do you, not so much where you stand on a particular issue, just what are your priorities? What do you care about these days? Because that changes from year to year in terms of where you want to put your focus. I mean, this year I assumed from Will Lane and the role of the PSG liaison. Well, so now I'm a champion for the PSG, and I'll be doing that this evening, as a matter of fact. And the JHA, too, for that matter. So, you know, that will change from year to year as to where your priorities are. But, you know, I think it's a great opportunity, and as I started this conversation, I really do appreciate you putting yourself forward. Because I think it's great to see the competition. It's great to see platforms and the forums that we have to help us understand. And giving me this opportunity to say what I'm saying. That means a lot. So I do appreciate that. And I think that's, you know, that's a big part of it. Laurie DeBowen's complimented me, probably the best compliment. He said, you're a great listener. I'm doing a lot of talking right now. I get it. But I understand, and as to you, the importance of listening.
I appreciate you being here. I'm thankful for your leadership, but most importantly, your wisdom that you are bringing to this council.
Only comes of age.
I'm right behind you. And thank you again, and I hope you will consider on May 26th, which the reason I know that date, it just happens to be my 50th birthday. There you go.
Well, as you may know, last year I was celebrating my 50th anniversary. Anniversary. I know. I remember. I remember. I wasn't married at once.
Thank you again. Thanks for being here, and I hope you'll consider voting for me and for Vice President of the City Council.
Appreciate it.
With that, this meeting is adjourned.
Thank you. Thank you.