Daily Record Financial News &
Monday, September 5, 2016
Vol. 103, No. 211 • Three Sections
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Ready to rebuild inside and out
Cofer plans refocused mission for PD’s office
Bruce Anderson, 54, won his election for circuit court judge Tuesday. When he heads to the bench Jan. 1, he will be able to say he checked off every mark on his legal “bucket list.”
Photo by David Chapman
By Marilyn Young, Editor
Last on check bucket list By David Chapman, Staff Writer
The road to becoming a judge was one filled with challenges for Bruce Anderson Jr. Thankfully, he had some guidance along the way. His parents — a Navy father and a seamstress mother — didn’t have a lot of money but raised him to work hard and pursue a solid education. A high school guidance counselor led him toward academic success. A college basketball coach broke a hard but necessary truth. A Sunday school teacher who doubled as a county court judge piqued Anderson’s interest in law. They were public servants in their own right and “all sacrificed to help me get there,” said Anderson. He’s worked at Terrell Hogan for 11 years, checked off his legal “bucket list” and made a healthy living. But as his parents Anderson
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The cracker-style house Anderson called home while attending the University of Florida law school in the mid-1980s was in what was called the student ghetto back then. But, the price was right at $90 a month. He was responsible for updates, such as painting the porch like he did.
While many of his law school friends went to “silk stocking” firms as he calls them, Anderson was able to get courtroom experience immediately at the State Attorney’s Office.
Special to the Daily Record
Judge-elect Anderson’s career spent overcoming challenges
When Charlie Cofer was Downtown on Thursday, he ran into a group of lawyers from the Public Defender’s Office. It was a couple of days after Cofer had trounced their boss, Matt Shirk, by a threeto-one margin in Tuesday’s Republican primary. The lawyers shared what they said the state of affairs had become: Morale was down, nobody knows what’s going on, the office was in turmoil. All things Cofer had heard before he decided to retire as a Duval County judge and run for the chance to lead the office where he had spent 18 years. The lawyers were ecstatic change was coming, Cofer said. “I know you’ve been through very traumatic thing,” he told them. “Let me tell you where I’m heading.” Cofer told them he Cofer will refocus the office’s mission on its clients and helping the lawyers improve. The two go hand-in-hand, he said. He let them know he didn’t demand their loyalty — a criticism many had said about Shirk. Instead, Cofer said, over time, he would earn that loyalty. He consistently told voters during the campaign there were a lot of good people in the office. A point that often got lost after Shirk’s inappropriate behavior with female employees came to light in 2013. Cofer believes that refocused mission is one the 80-or-so lawyers in the office can accept. Many of them were there when he served Cofer
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Shoe Carnival drops on disappointing earnings In a pre-holiday week with little market-moving news, Shoe Carnival Inc. grabbed attention by reporting lower-than-expected sales and earnings. The footwear chain controlled by former Jacksonville Jaguars owner Wayne Weaver reported earnings of 22 cents a share for the second quarter ended July 30, 2 cents lower than last year and also below analysts’ forecasts of 26 cents to 28 cents, according to Thomson Financial. Sales rose 1.8 percent to $231.9 million, lower than the average analysts’ forecast of $237 million.
Public
Comparable-store sales (sales at stores open for more than one year) rose 0.5 percent. Shoe Carnival’s stock reached a record high of $30.13 a week before the earnings report, but the stock dropped $3.48 to $26.18 Thursday after the disappointing results. In the company’s conference call with analysts, CEO Cliff Sifford expressed confidence in Shoe Carnival’s sales trends, noting this was the eighth straight quarter of comparable-store sales increases. Comparable-store sales are considered a key indicator of
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a retailer’s performance. “Even though we fell short of our expectation, we believe the initiatives we have executed over the past several years such as Shoe Perks and our multichannel enhancements will continue to help us drive comparable store sales increases throughout the year” Sifford said.
Shoe Perks is a customer rewards program offered by Shoe Carnival. The company is in the middle of one of its most important periods of the year, as parents buy shoes for students heading back to school. The timing of those purchases affected second-quarter results, Sifford said. “As we entered the key backto-school sales season at the end of the second quarter, we saw a strong trend where our customers shop not only closer to the start of school, but continue to Basch continued on Page A-9
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