The battle for the tax referendum isn't about helping children it's about helping charter owners get paid

First take a look at the chart below composed by the Times Union,

https://www.jacksonville.com/news/20190813/live-blog-duval-county-sales-tax-referendum-discussion

So what are you looking at there?

Notice how only three of the city's charter schools are owned by the charter school? 29 are leased and many of those are leased to a sister entity, a company run by the same people who run the charter school. If the tax referendum was given proportionally to charter schools, those charter school management companies stand to rake in the public money.

This entire fight is to get more money into the pocket's of charter operators.

Friends Lenny Curry and the city council, could not possibly care less about children.

Rory Diamond's per pupil proposal explained. Spoiler it doesn't make him look good.(draft)

Rory, Rory, Rory, your tone deafness is deafening.

Rory wants the money raised by the school referendum to be shared with charter schools on a per pupil, not on a needs basis.

 Council member Rory Diamond:

"The Council hereby requests that the School Board amend its School Capital Outlay Surtax plan to include a clear and specific allocation for charter schools," the draft resolution obtained by the Times-Union said. "While other allocations may be as effective, the council recommends that the School Board modify its plan substantially as follows: In each fiscal year the School Capital Outlay Surtax shall be allocated to traditional and charter schools on a per pupil basis."

https://www.jacksonville.com/news/20190814/jacksonvilles-charter-schools-are-elephant-in-room-for-sales-tax

Sigh, just so we are clear the money raised is for construction and maintenance needs and to my chagrin charters have already been promised a share for security and the ability to get more based on needs, but for Diamond that;s not good enough.

Lets take a second and look at a picture from his latest tweet,

Who's the good dog, who's the good dog.

What a cute pup, if you din't know it Rory's day job for which he is paid over 200 grand a year is paring veterans with PTSD with service dogs. A pretty cool thing.

So Rory should just give that pup, which is going to cost tens of thousands of dollars to train to just anyone right, it doesn't matter if they need him or not are a vet or not, have PTSD or not. Just sigh up and get it and if a vet with real needs gets bumped down the list or doesn't get their needs taken care of well so be it. 

Am I right? Isn't that what he is saying about the tax referendum money? You get it whether you need it or not but the thing is its even worse because most of our charters are for profit, Rory is advocating putting more money in the hands of people and organizations that won't put it into our schools. That is what Rory is fighting for. Do my friends and neighbors at the beach think that is right? What your representative should be fighting for?

Change tax referendum money to dog, and veterans with PTSD and people that want a dog and its the same thing, but Diamond is so blinded by his hatred of public schools he can't see it.   

Diamond has a palpable hatred of our schools built on intellectually dishonesty, and he just smiles as he does it. He is willing to fight against children getting what they need and deserve so the rich can get richer, and he wants the public to pay for it. 

Come on beaches, really, this was the best you could do?

Jason Fischer learned in Lenny Curry's world you are useful until you aren't. (draft)

I don't think there is anybody that Lenny Curry wouldn't throw under the bus if he thought it would benefit him. First it was the city's schools and children, and now Jason Fischer has tread marks. If I was Sam Mousa I would be getting worried.

Jason Fischer introduced the universally panned J-1 bill that wanted to strip voters of the right to vote for the school board and instead make them appointed by the mayor. It is inconceivable that he did so without input from the Mayor, inconceivable.

Curry, I believe looking for cover from one of the scandals currently rocking city hall and seeing how unpopular the proposal was, promptly threw Fischer under the nearest bus.

From Florida Politics,

  In football terms, it would be a quarterback option.

With Jacksonville currently debating a proposed local bill for a mayoral-appointed School Board, Mayor Lenny Curry on Tuesday called for something else.

Keep the School Board elected, Curry said.

Curry ally and state Rep. Jason Fischer proposed a measure last week to bring the School Board under the purview of the Mayor’s Office.

However, Curry denied any input on the bill, and he let Fischer know on Tuesday that he saw it differently.

While Curry recognizes that Fischer “started a conversation about accountability in the Executive Branch,” the Mayor believes voters should ultimately decide.

https://floridapolitics.com/archives/303157-elect-supe-says-curry

Now in the same article Curry did call for electing the superintendent, something he didn't when a white man was super and school bard chair, hmm could we elect the city council president too perhaps from an at large member?  Two also terrible ideas but there can be know doubt the loud ka-dump, ka-dump, ka-dump you just heard was Fisher getting rolled over by a buses three sets of wheels.

Mousa, Sam, get in front of this once one domino falls, more inevitably do. You might be thinking he would never do that to you, well buddy, that's what the city's children thought as well.

Lenny Curry frees us of the notion that we live in a city that cares its citizens and the rule of law (draft)

I would like to thank Lenny Curry and the City Council. They have done the city a great service. They have freed us the citizens of the notion that they work for the people and care about the people of Jacksonville. They have let us know that it's only their political donors that they care about.

Lenny Curry  and the City Council took a no-brainer, a tax referendum to help our schools and they turned it into a bare knuckle brawl on behalf of a handful of super donors.

When they say they are fighting to get charters more money, they aren't. They are fighting for two charters the KIPP school and the Tiger Academy, charter schools with close ties to the civic council to get more money, despite the fact these two charters already get a lot more money than every other school in the city. 

The Tiger Academy got a million extra and the KIPP 2.6 million plus last year alone. This is above their per pupil allotment. This is extra tax payer money. Yet their owners still want more and maybe it is because the KIPP school owes two members on the Civic Council, Tom Baker, and Gary Chartrand over ten million dollars.

Not only are the mayor and city council fighting against the city's children and schools, but they are also fighting against revitalizing neighborhoods, creating jobs, attracting businesses and slowing or reversing the flight to the suburbs, or you know things Mayors and City Councils usually want to do.

Not our mayor, not our city council anyways, no they are only interested in serving their donors, a handful of mostly white and mostly super rich men on the civic council. The group that really runs, sorry, rules our city.

So thank you Lenny Curry and Council President Wilson, thank you majority of the city council, you have let us know where we stand, and we will remember.

The OGC warns city official not to bite the hand, Curry, that feeds him (draft)

I am another story like this away from getting a digital subscription to the Times Union. They have come a long way in a short amount of time.

Christopher Hong broke a story about how two top lieutenants in the Curry administration, cryptically referring to themselves as the family tried to strong arm the director of the Kids Hope Alliance, and how a member of the office of general council had a rather disturbing reaction to it.

This is the set up, from the Times Union

In a detailed memo he emailed to his executive team last September, Kids Hope Alliance CEO Joe Peppers said Mayor Lenny Curry’s two highest ranking officials told him to give certain grant applicants “preferential treatment.”

In the waning hours of a Saturday night last September, the CEO of the Jacksonville Kids Hope Alliance typed on his smartphone a memo leveling an explosive allegation: Mayor Lenny Curry’s office was exerting “undue influence” on him to give preferential treatment to a hand-picked group of organizations that would soon seek grant money from the city agency.

This is the city attorney's reaction, also from the Times Union. 

Peppers shared some of his concerns with Lawsikia Hodges, an attorney with the city’s office of general counsel, after his meeting with Mousa and Hughes. She instructed him to “not make a big deal” about it, according to the memo.

“She stated that the $350k was insignificant compared to the $32 mm we received and that I shouldn’t ‘openly question the mayor.’ That I shouldn’t ‘bite the hand that feeds me,‘” he wrote, referencing the total amount of the grant program and the $32 million KHA received from the city that year. “I didn’t tell her about my conversation with Brian and Sam, but I did ask what I should do if I felt like I was under undue influence. She said ‘we will cross that bridge if we get to it.’”

https://www.jacksonville.com/news/20190814/city-official-mayor-lenny-currys-office-pressured-him-to-steer-grant-money-to-preferred-groups?

That is for $#%^s sake on so many levels.

First 350k is nothing? See how much they care about the tax payers money? Well I guess it is compared to the hundreds of millions the city is trying to extort out of the school district on behalf of charters.

Then it makes it seem like she was blase about it, that it happens all the time and it has happened at least one other time when the mayor instructed the Jacksonville Children's Commission to change its rules to benefit a donor of the mayor.

http://jaxkidsmatter.blogspot.com/2017/05/did-gary-chartrand-pay-politicians-to.html

Worst of all is the bite the hand that feeds you remark because that means that city hall is ruled by fear and not whats right, that employees like the OGC aren't beholden to rule of law or decency and instead are beholden to their boss. Do it his way or don't let the door hit you on the way out and friends that's no way to run a city. No way to run a decent one anyways.

Friends we are not being led we are being ruled. 

Rory Diamond, doubles down on his hatred of public schools.

Rory Diamond had a disastrous performance today during the joint meeting between the school board and city council where he doubled down on his hatred of public schools. 

From Florida Politics,

Republican Councilman Rory Diamond spotlighted inequities and perennially-failing schools, before calling Dr. Jennifer Brown from the KIPP school for the “charter perspective.”

The crowd groaned.

https://floridapolitics.com/archives/303266-charter-fund-duval

The crowd groaned, um first I wonder who told Diamond to have her come up and give the "Charter school perspective"?

Next KIPP is far from the typical charter school. Each year they receive millions, MILLIONS, extra from the state and hundreds of thousands extra from the city, heck last year they got more PECO funds than any school in the city. It's nice to have friends right.  

Diamond represents the beaches which have some of the best schools in the city and the district was less than one percentage point away from an A grade but Diamond talks about the school system like it was before it was decertified and he uses the worst possible charter the KIPP school as an example.

Diamond also said he was going to draft a bill having the district split proportionately any school tax money, you know because needs and equity aren't concept he can wrap his mind around.

Greene explained why Diamond is a moron, wrong about proportional sharing of the sames tax.  

From WJCT,

Councilman Rory Diamond invited KIPP Jacksonville Executive Director Jennifer Brown to give the charter school perspective, and she said the funding should follow students.

But Greene said, if the district funds schools purely based on the size of the student body, Greenland Pines and Waterleaf would both receive about $12 million, even though Greenland Pines needs north of $13 million in maintenance, while Waterleaf needs a little less than $1 million.  

https://news.wjct.org/post/jacksonville-city-council-and-school-board-lock-horns-over-half-cent-sales-tax-referendum

Here is what makes the idea even worse, since so many of our charters are for profit, it just means more money into their owners pockets.

Diamond has been consistently uniformed and shows a palpable hatred of our schools, despite representing some of the best in not just in the city but the state. I hope the beaches are kicking themselves for sending this "censored" to city hall.

And the crowd groaned.

Cheryl Grymes wakes up and drops some knowledge, the school board does not work for the city council.

I had the last half of the meeting on while I was working. Unfortunately my reception was garbled and sporadic.

At the end they gave everyone a chance to speak for a minute and when Grymes spoke it came in crystal clear. 

It was like she had woken from a deep slumber and when she opened her eyes she couldn't believe where she was at and what she was seeing. After a pause she calmly said, 

 “It’s not your job to tell the School Board how to do its work”

She is right too. Using a laughably bad ruling from an incompetent attorney beholden to a corrupt mayor, the door was opened an inch and the city council knocked themselves over to get in. 

They could have laughed at OGC. They could have ignored his self serving and legally dubious ruling. They could have behaved decently but they chose not to.

I wish this would have been the school boards message from the beginning. We might not be where we are now.

To read more, click the link. https://floridapolitics.com/archives/303266-charter-fund-duval

I just saw this on Twitter, Grymes was on fire today

Emily Bloch

@emdrums

Replying to

@emdrums

@DavidBauerlein

and 4 others

Cheryl Grymes says school board doesn't tell the City Council how to do its job. "And it seems like you have a lot on your plate."

Tommy Hazouri encourages the school board to give into extortion

Hazouri said that charter schools were the 800 pound gorilla in the room. That how much funding they received was the sticking point and then he asked the superintendent if their was some wiggle room, the implication was clear, if you gave a bigger chunk or went with a per student ration, this could all be over.

More like 250 million dollar gorilla as that is what the civic council wants charters to receive.

It was casual, his suggestion. He said it like you might haggle with somebody at a flea market but here instead of junk you don't need the future of the district and the fates of the city's school and children hung in the balance.

We all know this is about more money for charters, well make that more money for the mayor's donor's charters.

It's irrelevant that charters and much too much for my taste have already been included in the plan, five dollars per square foot for security off the top and then based on needs, but that's not good enough. They want a proportional cut which is ridiculous but more on that later.

Remember when we had politicians we could be proud of, that we could believe in, that demanded we do things the right way? Well friends they are now far and few between and we have people like Hazouri and as bad as his suggestion was, he was for from the worse who not only shrug their shoulders at extortion but encourage it as if we were a third world country and it was business as usual.

Emily Bloch

@emdrums

Replying to

@emdrums

@DavidBauerlein

and 4 others

Greene: "the proposal I put fwd is based on fairness." Hazouri: "In a good debate, we come back to the things we care about the most ... we need to know if you're willing to make other concessions for charters. I'm not advocating but I think you're bringing the same thing back"

ex·tor·tion

/ikˈstôrSH(ə)n/

Learn to pronounce

noun

1. the practice of obtaining something, especially money, through force or threats.

   
   

   "he used bribery and extortion to build himself a huge, art-stuffed mansion"

   
   

   synonyms:

   demanding money with menaces, exaction, extraction, blackmail; shakedown "he was arrested on a charge of extortion"

To read more, click the link,   https://news.wjct.org/post/jacksonville-city-council-and-school-board-lock-horns-over-half-cent-sales-tax-referendum

CM Rory Diamond says the darnedest and untrue things

Can somebody call councilman Diamond and tell him about google it may prevent him from continuing to make a fool of himself. 

From Florida Politics Diamond commenting on an elected superintendent,

Councilman Rory Diamond, a Republican, said “School board races do not get enough scrutiny from voters … the same kind of energy and focus that City Council races get.”

“Anything that gets more voter participation and focus is a good thing,” Diamond said.

Regarding the elected Superintendent, Diamond urged looking at the structure.

“What’s best for our city over time … ten, twenty, thirty years down the road,” Diamond said.

https://floridapolitics.com/archives/303222-tommy-hazouri-lenny-curry-2

Um, first he ran unopposed something I am sure the beaches are now kicking themselves about, you know because reasons.

Here is a screenshot of four of the five city council races that had to be decided in a general election.

https://enr.electionsfl.org/DUV/Summary/2125/

Now here is a screenshot about Elizabeth Andersen's school board race.

https://ballotpedia.org/Elizabeth_Andersen

Um notice anything? Like more people voted in the school board election than all three district races combined. Now you might be saying Chris but don't two districts on the city council equal one district on the school board and yes, that is true but what else is true is 49K voted in the school board race while around 20 voted in the three city council races or fewer voted than what Andersen got on her own.

Um the hubris and willful ignorance of Diamond, oh they are just school board races nobody cares. I find it stunning that this guy was elected to represent people.

He said we should make decisions whats best for our city, well the best thing I can see is having this guy in our rear view.

Willful ignorance and arrogance are a terrible look for him.

Education Matters EXCLUSIVE, transcript of Curry and Gabriel's conversation about the sales tax referendum

I was sent this by an insider at City Hall and no it wasn't Sam Mousa because who can afford that guy.

It is a transcript of Lenny Curry and Jason Gabriel's conversation about the tax referendum.

Gabriel- What's the matter boss you look down?

Curry- Just trying to figure out how to stop the school board from placing a half cent sales tax on the ballot this November to help with their schools.

Gabriel- Don't they have some of the oldest schools in the state?

Curry- Yes

Gabriel- And don't they have hundreds of millions in maintenance needs?

Curry- Indeed they do.

Gabriel- Then won't a lot of money go to parts of the city that have been historically neglected?

Curry- Again yes but you aren't seeing the big picture.

Gabriel- What is that boss?

Curry- Big Daddy's donors have to get paid.

Gabriel- ohh.

Curry- It's like this, you know how you are beholden to me for your job, and how I could cut you loose at any time for any reason.

Gabriel- gulp, yes.

Curry- well its like that with me and my donors. If I don't make sure they get paid, this may be it for me. Why would Kahn let me on the Jags plane if this is it for me. Unless I can give him hundreds of millions for lot J, anyhoo I digress.

Gabriel, wow boss, you are in a bind, if wish there was something I could do to help but the statutes are pretty clear, the city council "shall" put the referendum on the ballot.

Curry- Maybe you can just say, shall doesn't mean shall.

Gabriel- um what would it mean then?

Curry, how about, maybe, if you want, could? You are the lawyer legalese it up.

Gabriel- Boss there is no amount of legalese I could use to do that.

Curry- you sure about that?

Gabriel- pretty sure?

Curry- do you like your job and its salary?

Gabriel- yes, gulp

Curry- then how sure are you?

Gabriel- not very now that I think about it.

Curry- then you shall do it!

Gabriel- I shall.