User:Simskyl1/Lenny Curry

Career[edit]
From 1994 to 2002, he practiced as a certified public accountant at PricewaterhouseCoopers. In 2002, he co‐founded a Jacksonville-based professional services firm, ICX Group Inc., providing finance and accounting consulting, executive recruiting, and staffing services.

On June 3, 2014, Curry filed to run in the Jacksonville mayoral election in 2015. He said he decided to enter the race because beginning in late 2012 and early 2013, he began hearing about leadership troubles under incumbent Democratic mayor Alvin Brown.

In the blanket primary election on March 24th, 2015, Curry received 38.40% of votes while incumbent mayor Brown received 42.64% of the votes out of a field of other candidates, thus necessitating a runoff election between them as the top two vote receivers. Curry defeated Brown in the runoff election with 51.31% of the vote to Brown's 48.69%.

Leading up to the 2019 mayoral election Lenny Curry contributed a total of $472,730 on campaign finance, with $64,434.92 going to expenditures and distribution. On March 19, 2019, Curry was re-elected to a second term as mayor of Jacksonville in the 2019 election. His major competitor was Anna Brosche, who earned 24% of the vote, while Curry got 58%. He won a majority of the votes in the blanket primary, and was therefore re-elected without a runoff election.

Curry had co-chaired the Jacksonville host committee for the 2020 Republican National Convention, which was, for a period, planned to be held in Jacksonville.

COVID-19 pandemic
Jacksonville/Duval County detected its first case of Covid-19 on March 12, 2020. On June 22nd, 2020, Curry stated that he would not implement a mask mandate in the city of Jacksonville, however, one week later on June 29th, 2020 he did implement a mandate. The city’s mask mandate was in place for nearly a year until it was lifted by Curry on March 26, 2021. Curry also implemented a work from home order on March 23, 2020. The work from home order was lifted only a few months later on May 12, 2020. In a poll conducted in 2020, Curry was given a 70% approval rating by Florida voters for his handling of the pandemic response in Jacksonville. In 2021, again amid rising case numbers, Curry refused to again implement a mask mandate and instead encouraged residents to get the new Covid-19 vaccine to control the spread. Curry himself tested positive for Covid-19 on January 4, 2022, despite being vaccinated.

Public Safety
Part of Curry’s campaign platform includes improving the state of public safety in Jacksonville. Because Duval County and Jacksonville are an integrated city-county government, police duties are carried out by the Jacksonville Sheriff’s office. This has limited Curry’s ability to influence policy as the sheriff is directly elected rather than appointed by the mayor. Curry has claimed to have worked closely with Sheriff Mike Williams throughout his tenure. In 2021 controversy arose on the status of the county residency of Sheriff Williams and Curry refused to comment on the matter. After Williams decided to retire in the face of the controversy, Curry and his wife endorsed two different candidates for sheriff during the 2022 election cycle. In 2018, three years into Curry’s first term, violent crimes were still on the rise in Jacksonville. In 2019, responding to rising crime rates, Curry implemented a new bystander intervention program called Cure Violence. The program was also supported by one of Curry’s opponents in the mayoral election primary that year, though they had concerns over how it would be funded. In 2020, Curry’s budget proposal to the city council suggested adding $6.1 million dollars to the Jackson County Sheriff’s office budget, which was met with backlash from activists in the community. In 2022, Curry was criticized for rising homicide rates in the city despite blaming his predecessor for such high rates during his 2015 campaign.

Property Taxes
In 2015, Mayor Lenny Curry layed out an annual spending plan for the city of Jacksonville with delivering a $1.14 billion budget that he said is financially sound and builds toward the future by investing in neighborhood-based projects. However, his proposed budget would not increase the property tax rate, which would remain at 11.4419 mills.

In July 2022 however, Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry proposed the first property tax cut since 2007 in his budget proposal. This was brought on because of inflation. Here is the current budget plan:


 * Downtown revitalization: $100 million
 * Jacksonville parks: $108 million
 * Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office: $37.5 million
 * Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department: $34.7 million
 * Road resurfacing: $26 million

Environmental Work
As Mayor, Lenny Curry has focused on a couple of environmental issues in Jacksonville. In 2019 due to the high cost of improper recycling, Curry went throughout the city educating residents on how to separate and manage their recyclables. Recyclables curbside pick-up was then suspended in October of 2021, however due to the decrease of more than 80% of recycling and backlash from Jacksonville citizens, curbside pick-up was brought back on April 4th, 2022.

Jacksonville was the last major Florida city without a Chief Resiliency Officer (CRO), the CRO focuses on preparing and equipping the city for the consequences of climate change. After including it in his 2020/2021 budget proposal, the city council approved and established the position. Curry put forward his candidate Anne Coglianse and after approval by city council, she began her position in July of 2021. Coglianse’s new position as CRO will help Jacksonville combat climate change and aim towards environmental sustainability.

In July of 2022, Mayor Curry proposed his $1.5 billion budget for the 2022/2023 fiscal year. $10 million are allocated for preparing and fighting against the effects of climate change through resiliency projects focused on the coast, rising water levels, and flooding. An additional $108 million are to be allocated in repairing and improving parks. His new budget will also focus on creating river walk/park areas which would create public, local spaces for walking, biking and other recreational activities. This budget was approved by city council in September of 2022.

Tourism
The tourism industry in Jacksonville is a $2.2 billion economic powerhouse that generates $180 million in state and local taxes per annum. This industry was not Curry’s main focus as he is more focused on crime and economic development.