I do not understand why City Council is so hell bent on repealing the Law of Supply and Demand.  Throughout history, governments around the world have tried this and they have failed every time.  The closest to succeed were the Communist governments of the Soviet Union and China, but they only managed to drive their free economies underground where supply and demand flourished.  Eventually, even these governments realized the folly of their efforts and returned to at least a partial capitalist free market system.  Now our city government is trying to perpetrate the same foolishness that those governments did.  And this is not their first attempt: It was tried with 2005-091, the seafood Bill, again a couple of years ago with the Local Preferences bill and this past year with the Residency Requirements bill.   All of these bills were ultimately withdrawn.

The Law of Supply and Demand cannot be repealed  because it was not legislated into existence.  The Law of Supply and Demand is manifested by the actions of people who produce, trade and consume goods.   Passage of 2010-856 will be nothing more than a disruption of a working market system, causing higher prices, reduced production, reduced trade and reduced consumption, none of which, does one want in a down economy.  Think about it.

I call on this City Council to abandon this legislation and then advise those constituents who initiated this movement that they are now free to compete.

Joe Andrews
Candidate for City Council, District 12

Second, there are questions of whether city rules and state laws were followed by the property management company Jones Lang LaSalle Americas Inc in the renovation of Jacksonville’s new City Hall annex. There are also possible improprieties when some of the bids for work associated with the renovation went to a company owned by the ex-husband of Jones Lang LaSalle general manager Karla McGraw.  Also, the first phase of the project may not have been advertised as required by law. Finally, bids were accepted from one company at least one month after a deadline it set for another company which is a violation of city competitive bidding rules.

Folks, there is a reason why we should expect competitive bidding for government contracts. Competition is a good thing and in the case of taxpayer money it assures us that we get the best bang for the buck when it comes to government services. We should stand firm against Waste Management of Florida in its attempt to bully the city of Jacksonville into giving it a lucrative contract without competitive bidding and we should expect contract bidding rules and laws to be followed to the letter by all companies receiving taxpayer money. Government officials should never forget that this is our money.

We have to ask if this is standard operating procedure for all houses threatened by rising water or do you need to hold the purse strings to the federal and city money that finances city operations to get this kind of response from the city?  Mayor Peyton seemed oblivious to the implications of the city Public Works Office’s actions when he said that he was “delighted our public works employees were able to help save these homes”.