THURSDAY January 9, 2020
Mathis Report: Wayfair hiring at Cecil Commerce Center PAGE 3
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Public
legal notices begin on page 1B
Daily Record JACKSONVILLE
Daily Record 2020
A JACKSONVILLE DAILY RECORD AND RECORD & OBSERVER SPECIAL EDITION
JACKSONVILLE
& BEYOND
Leaders form nonprofit to scrutinize JEA
Mike Hightower, Michael Ward and David Miller to lead OurJax focused on transparency in city government.
Daily Record Daily Record JACKSONVILLE
BY MIKE MENDENHALL STAFF WRITER
JACKSONVILLE
THE TOP 20 OF 2020 Could this image of Downtown Jacksonville take shape by 2030? What are the issues and who are the visionaries that will guide the next decade? What’s ahead for Northeast Florida. PAGE 10
Former JEA board member and lobbyist Mike Hightower has joined a group of 20 Jacksonville leaders to create a nonprofit resource addressing transparency at JEA. In an interview Jan. 8, Hightower and OurJax member Mike Tolbert said the group’s website, OurJax.com, is expected to go live Jan. 9. “Mike (Tolbert) and I’ve been doing politics a long time and, candidly, we and the group of us who are Hightower putting this together, we’ve never seen anything like this in our town. We are concerned,” Hightower said. Hightower said OurJax is designed to be a “one-stop shop” for news articles, original documents and information about JEA’s strategic planning process and, eventually, other transparency issues in city government. According to Hightower, the website will be a public portal and the group will provide assistance to people requesting information or documents from JEA and other city government entities. The OurJax nonprofit has three directors: Retired CSX Corp. CEO Michael Ward, Brightway Insurance Executive Chairman David Miller and Hightower. Donor’s names will be confidential. As the registered agent, law firm GrayRobinson filed OurJax SEE OURJAX, PAGE 6
THE BASCH REPORT
The Charter Co. was a signature area firm Plus: Dividends from local firms. PAGE 4 VOLUME 107, NO. 37 • TWO SECTIONS