Yeah, there we go.

Okay.

Good afternoon, Michael Boylan District 6.

Rachman Johnson, District 14.

This meeting is about the 26-27 council leadership cycle.

And I am so honored to have uh Councilman Boylan here.

I've known you, Michael, for years and years, especially in your leadership with public television.

And uh I guess the the other thing too is your quest to be uh council leadership, which I will say on record we would have appreciated with many of the things I I'll say it publicly.

Um, it may not have been the best decision that I made to um not fight harder uh for you in leadership.

I 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.

Uh so the first thing um I wanted to ask is about your perspective on on leadership and direction and 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 see I uh 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, uh, but and and that could have easily discouraged you, but it didn't.

And so I think you're to be lauded for that.

I think I'm on record being uh very disappointed with the last four or five of uh uh you know elections such as they were when not a single notice meeting was happened before um you know it was a done deal.

And I I that was unfortunate, and uh and that's why I was looking at perhaps changing somewhat drastically the process of leadership.

But be that as it may, uh I think what we we need in the context of future leadership.

Now, obviously the vice president works hand in hand with the president in this process, uh and whoever is 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 gonna be a challenging time.

Um each each year is gonna get more and more difficult.

We've been blessed, although many challenges over the course of the past seven years.

Uh financial uh crisis was not one of them uh in that context.

And you know, we see that on the horizon now and maybe more difficult in two years.

Uh while you and I share a lot in terms of common uh interests and and priorities on the nonprofit sector and quality of life and focusing on those kind of things.

I think it's gonna be very difficult uh when we look at the priorities of public works, public safety, and uh and that kind of what people think are the bread and butter work of the uh of a city government.

Um so uh 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 uh commented about this to one of our colleagues during a committee meeting, and I said, well, if we aren't gonna be doing that in the future, you better drastically raise the funding for public safety because it's gonna fall back in the laps uh of them to serve those who are underserved uh in a very different way, unfortunately.

Well, it's interesting.

I just literally am walking out of a meeting with Greg Matevena and uh the team over at the name right, North East Florida Habitat for Humanity.

Gotcha.

We're always gonna call him Habajacs, though.

You know, they're still always being our hearts have a jacks.

And Greg's a great guy.

A really good guy, man.

And one of the things we were talking about is um, you know, and I I obviously I've been a part of the nonprofit community here just in 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 just I had just started, but when we came in, there was that 15 million dollar appropriation that was requested um that would have been matched by the community foundation to the tune of 30 million dollars.

Which would have made a 45 million dollar 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, um, 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.

Uh pay me now or pay me later, and it's gonna be a whole lot more later.

And and and keeping the private sector engaged with an opportunity like that, and then losing that opportunity as a result, uh, is uh really is gonna cost us down the road.

And I hate to see that happen, but uh that's the way it worked.

Well, that would be my focus on, and I've I've looked at it, that's why I didn't just come in and try to work in 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, um, 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 somebody's being punished or um, and I say it often, Betty Holzendorf 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 worked, those were that report is 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.

And a lot of that, quite frankly, it 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 as a and board leadership on volunteers and medicine in particular, I knew we were on a great track and when it came to uh access to health care.

And I wanted to make sure that success continued.

So it was a great time to do that.

I think the methodic process by which I brought to the table that 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.

Uh it wasn't a, you know, the the information that came out of your help, your your committee, the one that came out of Ms.

Jimmy Peluso's committee, weren't necessarily things that I probably would embrace uh given my position on in life and in terms of politics.

But at the same time, uh we recognize them as part of the process and recognizing the value of your work and the work that Jimmy did uh on the uh on the other transitional component that he he worked on.

So uh 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 it and I guess my main question for you is what does and you've said it in many ways, but for you, and and I to me it's a bad thing.

I'll go ahead and say it that you will not be uh on this council, Michael.

I you have been the conscience on this been a lot of just goodness, and you know just personally, even before I was elected, I've when I was making a decision to run.

You were one of the people I called, and we had some real conversations.

We did, we did.

Um 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 a couple of things.

Obviously, number one, I think you want is you need to sit down with the council president and saying, you know, uh 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?

Or I think you have may have blind spots that I think I can help you with.

Uh can I bring some of my colleagues along on your you know uh with respect to your priorities and how does that work?

I I can tell you there was one of the most probably the only contentious race in the past seven years that I can recall.

Uh my decision on who I like uh uh voted for for vice president, and it ended up being an 11 to 10 vote or nine to ten vote was uh 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 I uh if you've not had a conversation, and I encourage you to do so with uh councilman vice president Howland is to say, let me help you understand how I can complement 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 carry that you can carry forward into your year as president.

It's it's so interesting how dynamics change.

So I have seen since I've been here.

Uh, but that's what I'm looking to.

And I'll tell you what the reason why I, 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 and I was reminded this.

I 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 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 and share it.

You can tell people that they're gonna 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.

Um, while I do have what I'm looking for is I don't the only word I could use to come up with was platform.

Sure.

But I'm 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 meeting 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 staff would be a little bit different.

Well, last year when I asked Councilman Howland to introduce me as a candidate, uh one thing he said is you don't need the title to be to be a leader.

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 uh I would keep that in mind.

Does it hurt to lose?

Absolutely.

I've lost a couple of times, so I don't know, 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, uh we all have an opportunity to lead uh on initiatives that we feel uh a lot of you know have great passions for, and that's kind of where I'm going with this.

Again, uh my only advice to you is to have that conversation with council vice president Howland, and not so much to say what what do you want me to do as this is what I think I can where I can help you and strengthen your your uh and help you improve the the prospects of your success as council president.

Oh, I 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 what I feel like, and I'm sure you'd appreciate this as a TV guy as well.

Um, I feel like like Bryant Gumble interviewing like the stars of of because these these conversations I'm having, we don't get to do this very often.

I don't, no.

And it the sunshine laws are can be uh very frustrating.

Uh sometimes you just want to you just want to just have a conversation and talk about things and more do you not so much where do you stand on a particular issue, it's just what are your priorities?

What do you care about these days?

Because that changes from year to year in terms of where you you want to put your focus.

I mean, this year I uh assumed from from Will Lane the the role of PSG layers on.

Well, so now I'm a champion for the PSG, and I'll be doing that this evening, as a matter of fact.

Uh so that and and the JHA too, for that matter.

So uh, you know, that that will change from year to year as to where your priorities are.

But uh, you know, I think it's it's a great opportunity, and I just 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 the form platforms and the forums that we have to help us understand and giving me this opportunity to say what I'm saying.

Yeah, uh that means a lot.

So I do appreciate that, and I think that's you know, that's a big part of it.

Lori Debo once 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 I understand and and as to you, the importance of listening.

I appreciate you being here.

I um 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.

Thank you again, and I hope you will consider.

Uh 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 so.

I wasn't married at once.

Thank you again.

Thanks for being here, and I hope you'll consider voting for me for vice president of the city council.

Appreciate it.

With that, this meeting is adjourned.