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1. What is your vision for the City of Jacksonville?

The current statement adopted by the City Council adequately encapsulates our community’s vision for itself: “A Jacksonville whose abundant natural resources, healthy environment, military presence, and vibrant economy make it the best place to live, work and visit.”  Any vision of success would also necessarily include Jacksonville properly handling its inevitable growth.

2.  What is the most important initiative the City Council can take to attract businesses to Jacksonville?

Jacksonville needs a comprehensive approach to attracting businesses.  This includes reducing the cost of doing business, having available real estate, highlighting amenities, offering incentives and presenting a clear image of who we are (branding) as a community.

The cost of doing business has increased in Jacksonville—most notably with water and sewer fees.  Redefining the burden between residential and commercial property would help in attracting businesses.

Available real estate is mostly a function of the market, but can be addressed through industrial parks, shell buildings, zoning and land use regulations.  For instance, the Downtown Masterplan highlights the need for higher density residential to encourage business development.

While more businesses are looking to amenities, this is not a cost effective way of attracting businesses.  In contrary, incentives can be critical when businesses are choosing between several similarly situated communities.

3.  The City has been authorized to enact a new occupancy tax with a portion of the revenue restricted for promotion and another portion available for projects to attract tourists to the City.  How should the City invest that unrestricted portion of the revenue?

The authorizing statute requires that a Tourism Development Authority be established to determine the use of the funds.  Furthermore the statutes require 2/3 of the funds be used to promote tourism and the remainder be used towards projects related to tourism.  As such, there is limited opportunity for any councilmember to direct the investments.  However, I expect that the funds to help support efforts such as the Museum of the Marine, Vietnam Veterans Memorial and Sturgeon City.

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