 First this hour mayor Curry is on the cusp of closing out a second term So we invited him to join us to look back at his time in office and look ahead of what's next for him and Jacksonville A lot of questions for him and we're also taking your calls 549 2937 If you don't want to sit on hold tweet us at FCC on air. That's a new handle Email us at first coast connect at wjct.org or follow us on Facebook All right, first thing first. There's a big rumor out here, and I want you to address this Rumor is people are encouraging you to run for governor in 2026 You know, I'm hearing this one of these many people are saying that they must put their name on it But is this for real? Well, A. G. I'll say well good morning. Good morning. It's good. It's good to be with you I'll say this to that question I don't wake up in the morning with a burning desire to be on a ballot again But I'm not ruling another run out at some point But what it what's really important to me right now is over the last eight years a lot's happened both in the city and personally for me So I need to get back to centering my life kind of reflect on aging My children, you know, I lost my father a few weeks ago Just kind of reset my life And then evaluate whether or not a running again is an option. I'll say this You got to have the fire in the belly to do something like that. I don't have it right now With a reset I may get it And if I get it and I decide to get on a ballot again, I've never lost an election So if you got that hypothetical fire in your belly, why governor and why not CFO? I mean that kind of surprised me because obviously you were in the CFO mix when Rick Scott was governor You could have gotten appointed to that Patronus got that ultimately He's gonna be termed out. So, you know, what would be the calculus? behind the governor's office and not CFO if you're to run well if again I'm not saying that I'm even looking at running for governor what I would say though that my background and my skill set is that of an executive before I was in office and now having been mayor of the city of Jacksonville for eight years and I think if you I believe is you're gonna run for something Truly as a public servant. It ought to be something that you're hungry for not not something that is a Placeholder, I think some people run for office as a placeholder for the next their next thing and that's just not who I am Right. I mean we we've seen that you know people office hop all the time locally statewide have no interest in office hopping, but really to be clear it's it's flattering It that that's in the conversation But it's really important that I reset my life right now and find some balance personally and And with the family evaluate if if another run is in me and the only way I do that is firing the belly and the family says yes Understood. I mean and obviously you've you've had eight years Memento's years in the mayor's office a lot of things have happened and you've had to govern a whole city a lot of Republicans They get to play to the base because they are in a gerrymator district or what have you are plus 15 You don't really have to take any positions But you know, you've been a mayor of a democratic plurality city You didn't have democratic opposition in 2019, but it was still a plurality and those people voted And you've had to do some things that may not play well in a Republican primary HRO expansion. I you let that happen under your watch COVID-19 management, I think you signed the second HRO expansion bill actually, you know, which protects the LGBTQ rights Including transgender, which is a big deal now in the current political climate COVID-19 mitigation and management and Jacksonville opened up earlier than a lot of cities We know with the UFC and things like that, but you've had to do things there You know, so if you were to get the hypothetical fire in the belly and make this run You know, how would you frame these? You know these these moderate moves Well, I would say first of all if I were to be on a ballot again in a Republican primary I'd be selling a vision about where I see us headed and whatever office that would be And you know, I'm about blocking and tackling. You know that so yeah, I would organize behind the scenes I'd make sure I could raise the right Resources I'd make sure that the team understood the vision and you just go hard and you sell it Again, I've never lost an election. That's all hypothetical. I will say on COVID Yeah, it's interesting as I watch how people rewrite the history in the narrative of COVID Every single person that was in leadership positions when COVID hit us. Nobody knew what we were dealing with nobody so everyone and acted some level of mitigation and People that say it everyone did it it would be irresponsible not to do it because we were watching what was happening around the world with hospitals filling up It was a point where the science Scientists were telling us you could get it on a package. You could get it on your countertops All that proved to be untrue, but when we didn't know much It was a responsible and reasonable thing to do the mitigation acts we did here in Jacksonville once we got more facts We opened up pretty fast. So why have we seen this revisionist history? I mean you're framing it pretty honestly I mean there wasn't a lot of information So you did what you had to do and once it was safe to open up things like the beach is so on you did But you know, we we heard in the presidential race for sure Rhonda Santas Donald Trump Um, you know a lot of burying of what they did in office I mean, you know Trump does talk about the vaccines, but to hear Rhonda Santas talk, you know The first year of his COVID mitigation reaction a lot of that happened here, too We you know with the monoclonals and things like that. That doesn't get mentioned Vaccination for seniors first doesn't mention that a lot of Fauci bashing. So why are Republicans running away from their record on this? Well, a g I can't answer how any specific person is is messaging their COVID response I will say it is a fact that Florida was a leader the state of Florida under Rhonda Santas was in fact a leader in The free state of Florida. I mean I believe that Other states were shut down for a very long time when Florida was open and we were we were able to go to work Kids were able to go to school I remember working very closely with the governor in the summer of 2020 To make sure that summer sports were going to be open and that schools were going to be operating in the fall And I'm proud of that record. I'm proud of our state for that Yeah, I mean and and it definitely is something that even those being memory hold I mean there was definitely a lot of careful management of the virus You know for for months really and until Biden was elected. I think you saw kind of a tone shift from the governor Speaking of I got one more 2026 question, I apologize for this but we loaded it up the front with this because we got statewide audience There's interest in this around the state So speaking of blocking and tackling we're kind of seeing that already You know governor sannis. He's traveling a lot. He's got a press conference today, but you know, lieutenant governor Nunez is Doing a lot more of the gubernatorial duties You know, she's almost looking like an incumbent She's getting that kind of platform where she's able to do these press conferences and duties appearances in lieu of the governor You know other people looking to go at the governor's race byron donnells They represented it from Southwest Florida Matt gate suffering up Pensacola area Ashley Muti the AG And the gates would probably have the Trump backing, you know given, you know, how stalwart he's been for Trump You know 16 20 and 24, you know, so with the Trump and the sannis endorsements kind of unlock You know, how would you distinguish yourself in that that field? I mean the last statewide candidate we had from here was Andrew Crenshaw And he finished left fourth and a four-way primer. Well, again, AG that that that is a hypothetical that I'm just not prepared to discuss because When I when we opened I told you my focus is resetting my life right now in my family Excuse me and getting back to private sector business And you know, I've got a year year and a half to evaluate if I want to be on the ballot again And I'll address that then if I have to I think it's it's it's Encouraging the Republicans have such a strong bench of people that could participate in a Republican primary for governor That's not my focus at this point But I will say I'm I'm proud of my record but legislate policy-wise what we've done eight years But I've never lost an election two runs for mayor. The first run as it was in a D plus environment Elected twice Republican the chairman of the Republican Party of Florida multiple elections local local chairman and treasurer So if I ever get back on a ballot you can I can guarantee you the fire will be there and I will be prepared Right on as five four nine two nine three seven. You're listening first coast connect this is the AG in cars here speak with mayor Lenny Curry and We have our first caller Matthew from Washington, DC. I welcome the first coast connect. What do you got from air curry? Good morning gentlemen Let me just start by saying I did not like your term in office Mayor curry, but I will temper that by saying that I do appreciate your efforts as far as the removal of Confederate monuments and signing of the HRO so I Do feel that some of your term there were good benefits there But I wanted to ask you regarding your your perceptions of the national politics With everything happened regarding former president Trump, you know the lies regarding the 2020 election the insurrection on January 6th And now recently his indictment regarding serious breaches of national security Would you still vote for him if he won the Primary for president which is no likelihood. He seems to be the leading candidate. Thank you Thanks, Matthew The answer is yes I think Donald Trump had outstanding policies and our economy was humming National security was our foreign policy was solid So I look I will be I will be voting for the Republican nominee and the presidential election Okay You're fair enough and that's a good answer I want to turn to local issues in the election. We just saw him You know that was a really combative election You you back Daniel Davis heavily support you and succeed you in the election you endorsed them You were you know messaging heavily on Twitter Your political team was engaged. He got through March You got through Atlanta cumbers Al Ferrero but in a JP support didn't come through in May despite the state parties by the local party being involved and You know, he failed where you succeeded twice and you know, if we kind of do an autopsy on the Davis campaign You know, you ran to the hard right, you know, you you debated Alvin Brown three times You challenged him debates in every city council district You know conversely Daniel Davis kept one of the debates, you know for a forum with the sheriff and a blogger who was at the January 6th Demonstrations of the Capitol he you know, whereas you created a lot of earned media opportunities throughout that campaign every day every two days You know, he really didn't do that And so, you know when we look at that Look at that campaign. What advice should he have taken? I mean that his political team You know misunderstand the environment. Did he make those decisions himself? I mean, is the local party to blame? I mean, you know, what what should he've done differently a G? It's really hard for me to do an objective autopsy on that campaign Because Daniel Davis was not just a candidate that I supported. He's a friend Where our families know each other our kids know each other when you run and you put it all on the line In an election, I can imagine when you lose and he lost that it's painful and it's hurtful Because he put everything he had into it So I you know, I don't I'm not going to do an autopsy on that campaign because he's my friend Okay, I care about him. Yeah, I mean you know, so You basically have nothing to say about political strategy that that led up to the May loss Correct. Okay. He's my friend and my focus on him and his family right now is that You know that they they reset their lives as well and they get back to some sense of normal Yeah, cuz I can tell you he worked he worked his butt off. Okay, you can people can debate, you know What this this or that? And he worked hard and it just didn't work out Understood Yeah, I mean, so we look at Deegan's win and it's like, you know Deegan won the mayor's election four points or so You know, we got a Republican, you know, Supermajority on the city council So you've kind of got divided government for first time since 2011 through 2015 You know, what is what does that mean for the city? I mean, it's like is is Jacksonville performing more Democratic? I mean, you know, obviously the council map is drawn a certain way and at large districts favor Republicans But is this really a Democratic city or is Deegan an anomaly who managed to you get crossover support? I Don't know that she's an anomaly She got crossover support based on the campaign that she ran and the message that she had I got crossover support in In 2015 we had a D plus environment So I just think Jacksonville, you know, people try to pigeonhole Jacksonville is either used to say we were red Then they said we were purple some say now we're moving blue I Think in these big elections is that people at Jacksonville are pretty open to Particularly in citywide elections. They're pretty open to crossing party lines. We've seen that more than once So, you know going back to not crossing par lines for a second We got a question from a listener does the outgoing mayor really believe and I'm quoting here That driving businesses and taxpayers out of Florida for being quote-unquote woke is a good idea How do you feel about the war on woke? I don't the question is I don't think we're driving businesses out of the state of Florida. I Will say this. I mean people can have the debate of what woke means or what that means. I don't want my children I don't want my elementary-aged children. They're not anymore. But when they were all my middle school children Being taught about sex in school. I want them to learn reading writing an arithmetic And they get that other stuff at home parents have the right to teach their children expose their children to what? They want to in their homes. Okay. We're about to take another call here We have about 14 minutes left. So by the way my position on that is very reasonable and most Americans Republicans and Democrats and NPAs agree with that position understood the national media would try to have you believe otherwise and that's okay, okay? Yeah, so we got yeah, basically 13 minutes at this point. So I'm gonna take a call here I'm gonna ask callers to keep it to about 30 seconds. Do you not like give a long speech? And we're trying to get quick answers quick questions Susan from Mandarin welcome to First Coast Connect and go ahead. Yes Yes, thank you. I have two questions. Well, make them quick. You got 30 seconds. Okay. Okay What advice do you have for incoming mayor Donna Deegan and to how do you feel about Jason Gabriel's ruling saying that shall mean must and do you think it hurt the school board and having a powerful mayor that uses the General counsel to hurt other parts of the administration. Thank you. Thank you Susan You can go ahead and take those in sequence. Yeah, I would so I'm Gonna be very careful not to give advice to an incoming mayor particularly on policy because I she won the election mayor-elect will be mayor in a week and It's hers at that point, but I would say on a personal level. I would say The schedule of the office can eat you alive if you're not involved in scheduling Make sure that you do not let it Infringe on your time with your family. Make sure you find balance there I figured that out pretty quickly and I think I was pretty successful at it Although not perfect. The other thing is whatever it is that you do to blow off steam. I know that our mayor-elect is a runner Keep running. Do not do not do not let that office take away That would which is good for you and healthy for you. Yeah I mean, I remember you were running through Hemming Park when you first started now people were kind of surprised to see that Alvin Brown didn't do much running through the park You know speaking of the Deegan administration Yeah, I want to talk about the transition very quickly you know Did the her winning change the calculus of your team like how's your administration? Facilitated this transition compared to say and what lessons may you've learned from 2015 with Alvin Brown's transition to you guys Well, I look I'll say in my transition I had a great team around me that you'll remember I had Suzy Wilde Sam Musa, Tom Petway They brought in a team of workers as well to begin working the budget process immediately so I Had no concern When as I was being sworn in as to what budget I would present We have been working my team has been working very closely with Deegan team mayor like Deegan's team And I think that they're gonna be ready to roll July 1 Yeah, and you you actually ran against one of the team members Incoming CFO and a brochure obviously Mike Weinstein's in the job through September but brochure takes over in October You know when you look at her hires Karen bowling brochure Karen bowling is obviously from the Alvin Brown administration Rick Scott alum also You know, how do you evaluate our new team? I mean do you see them as like your team basically workers ready to go? Look, I think I think that The mayor elect has assembled a team that She has the race. She's the mayor. She's going to be the mayor. So I don't think it would be appropriate for people to To criticize her picks Some of mine were criticized in the beginning for various reasons. That's what happens They get the opportunity to be sworn in July 1 and then go prove themselves. That's how this game works And we've seen a history of mayors where some have had a rough first year Some have had a rough couple of years others haven't my rough stuff didn't start till the second term Yeah, yeah, I mean it got it kind of got complicated. I think the privatization effort of jea sort of Come on AG that was a blast. I mean it it overshadowed in 2019 campaign and you know Really kind of overshadowed off your second term and even now you got errands on you got want to make her there They're in a federal court and obviously there's a lot of delay motion. So he knows when actually go to trial Do you regret the errands on hired in retrospect? Well, let's let's talk about the big picture. All right the the conversation around privatization in the value of The asset I believed then and I believe now The process could have been run differently If I had to do it over again, I still would have said we should understand the value And we should understand what the best way for it. Should we monetize it in some way or not? What I would have do what I would do differently now is I would ask a third party Maybe the Civic Council or some other organization. Hey, can you guys take this and study this on your own? Present it publicly and then we can have a discussion. I think there was a lot of Misunderstanding and miscommunication that frankly there were a lot of lies that were told about me and my team Look, I signed up I saw I was on the ballot so people could lie about me. They can criticize me that comes with the job But the lies that were set around the people that work for me that report to me that bust their butt for this city every day That have proven to be lies at this point That just ain't that angers me. Yeah, I'm in their families I understand that people around these families went through a lot of crap because of people that wanted to hurt them Because they had interest in the JAA. They didn't want to privatize for reasons of their own self-interest I understand that said that said look at Aaron's on and the and the pop plan and the kind of enrichment It's kind of like a big scheme and gambling where they were getting 10% off the top I mean, but that had nothing that had nothing to do with the people that thought Understanding the value and privatization of the asset. We should have that conversation That was a separate issue done in the organization of the JAA. So so Zahn basically went rogue That was not part of the privatization. Look, there's gonna be a trial and a jury is gonna make a decision on what happened there Okay Yeah, I want to ask about that pension reform. Obviously, this is an issue that was up in the campaign You know, there's there's momentum to go back to an FRS plan or something like that That seems to be what the public safety unions want Deacon was open to it Davis was also open to it And it feels like there's something where the police union even though they were Leveraged against Deacon during the campaign and if I were you to a lesser extent, you know, they're going to press around this Well, first I would say I don't think there's not a discussion to go back to pensions. Is there well I mean because if they go back to pensions, yeah, they lose the half penny if they lose the half penny The budget is garbage at that point. There's no money to invest Had we not done the pension reform that I did my second year, there would be no money for this There would be no the CIP the infrastructure budget the year before I was in office was 20 million dollars, right? So over 300 million now we would go back to 20 million dollars. You want a stadium deal? There's no stadium deal if you go back to all old-school pensions now FRS I can tell you the legislative and remember we had to take this through the Florida legislature House Republican House Republican Senate Republican governor, right the legislative intent was to go to 401k type plans If I had gone to FRS If I had told them I was going to FRS that would have never gotten through Tallahassee We would have never had pension reform in our city would be broke today. So so basically Your read on the law is that? Once pension reform happened that foreclosed defined benefit plans period. Yes, okay Because there are a lot of people saying well, you could start another plan And basically kind of wriggle around a little bit. Well, hey, look a Jeep Maybe they'll prove me wrong And that's what you know a new mayor and a new team and and the city council get to decide and if they prove me wrong God bless them. It's my my term is over. Yeah, and they get to try to do what they want to do And if they're successful, God bless them. Yeah You know, there's a my understanding is there's a huge cost to that that the city cannot afford Understood we're gonna take another call five four nine two nine three seven. We got Rick from Arlington Rick. You're on the air What's on your mind? I may occur a lot of voters here in Jacksonville who just don't believe that You did not try to sell Jea out from under them and are not convinced by the things that you said I'm wondering if you can help us understand how you were not in favor of that sale Okay, thanks a lot Rick. Yeah, obviously got you got a question here Yeah, thanks for your question. I was in favor of understanding the value of the asset in evaluating whether evaluating whether or not a sale made sense We never got to that point. I think I said that 10 minutes ago. I stand by I stand by that Unfortunately, because if I ugly it got you will not see that discussion in the city for a very long time You know another ugly discussion and it's a smaller dollar sign but Confederate monuments Your administration came out for removal. One is gone. The one in Springfield Park still stands and In this is by having an advantage in city council. You couldn't get through a council Donna Deegan is a anti monument to you. She wants to see them relocated, etc Is this possible with the city council being where it is? I don't know the answer to that question I will say you know in sound bites. It's hard to get the nuance of these policy issues I'm not for a removing history. I'm not against people being able to understand and celebrate their history I simply came to the conclusion personally as the mayor of this city That that that those monuments should not be on on tax funded taxpayer funded property They should just be somewhere else People could disagree with me on that and it's okay to have that disagreement I was elected twice and I got to make that decision I wasn't successful in full removal and we'll see what the next administration does Yeah, and another thing for this administration coming in the Jaguar Stadium deal I mean obviously you're an advocate of it. I understand your administration was talking to Mark Lamping prior to the member man understanding that outline the Roughly billion dollar city commitment they're looking for Does Deegan have room to move on this deal? I mean people are saying well, you know cut down the this the district or you know Why why are we spending 67% of the stadium or things like that? Is there room to negotiate with this ownership or is it something where? They're seriously looking at moving if they don't get a deal in place and ground broken level for 2030 All my experience with the team is they're committed to Jacksonville And I've spent a lot of time with them over the years. I know them personally and a shot and mark personally I do think that yeah, the new mayor the new administration will have room to negotiate But I think people need to be realistic and you need to understand The ownership in the city can just it cannot create a deal and that the deal is done The NFL has to approve this other owners have to approve this deal So it's not necessarily just what Jacksonville wants It's what's the national market for NFL stadiums and what does our market look like? What are recent stadiums? Nashville and Buffalo are the two recent deals, right? Right? They're similar markets, right? Yeah, but there's there's state buy-in on those. Okay forget state buy-in for a minute just look at the finance of it in the The structure of the deal the dollars that's what is a blueprint not that Jacksonville will look exactly like Nashville and Buffalo But I believe that's what the NFL would look to see something like So whether it's state dollars or city dollars, it's government dollars, right? Once you pull it all together. Do we have the bonding capacity do a billion dollars over 30 years? I mean our city is in great financial shape. We've paid off every budget that I presented I made sure my team we paid down debt every year. We've paid down over a half of Over 500 million dollars in debt since I've been in office. Our credit ratings have been upgraded Cities finances aren't our reserves are through the roof We put ton of money in reserves the city of Jacksonville is financially sound and strong How would interest rates address this? I mean, I remember when when Musa was in your administration And he would talk about well, this is free money You're basically because interest rates are so low and you can move like capital budgets right now, you know We're in a more Unforgiving interest rate environment, but we don't know what the Fed's gonna do Would that affect the cost of money down sure sure I think that's why the next presidential election presidential election can be so important in my view understood You know, I did want to ask you about schools because you know, we're you've worked with two superintendents You know, you worked with Nikolai Vidi who the chamber and you know business interests really liked them There were elements who did not like them including Korean Brown at the time Diana Green She had a lot of successes including you know, she worked with you in the school tax the school sales tax, but obviously it ended Rough for her You know, we're we're in a more politicized era statewide You know, Ron Sanis and the board of education. We got low-coaster bird on that Mani Diaz from South Florida as a commissioner It's being superintendent a tougher job now given The scrutiny from social conservatives and mom's for liberty There looks like they're gonna bring back back Addison Davis, which you know, he's been here before He knows how things work here, but you know Are we past the year where we can expect four or five years? There's the next superintendent gonna have to play the culture war game better than Diana Green did I think it's a tough job In fact, you know have an eight years been in public scrutiny whenever I see high-profile elected official under Consistent consistent media attack. I feel for them. I've reached out to Diana Green recently Whether you agree or disagree with their positions you feel for them as a person because I've lived it But it's a tough job the next superintendent. Yes gonna have an incredibly tough job, but that's okay It should be a tough job talking about our kids, but isn't necessarily tough I mean when Rick Scott was governor, you need to get a lot of these the social pressure In fact, you know the Santa's early on his first term didn't care about the AI in fact was positive on the AI now You know, he's the eyes part of his campaign speech AG we talked about this a little bit in the beginning. I don't think I mean like Mike my kids were in public schools at some point. Yeah, but they largely had a good experience There were some things that were happening and that that I once I learned about I would necessarily be an advocate for such In public schools. I'm not gonna get into it. I will get I will go back and say this I don't our children This this attack on Ron DeSantis. They say this don't say gay bill This had no rights in education. This had this had nothing to do with don't say gay That's a media created narrative. This was about not having children Elementary school and middle school children being taught about sex talk. I mean come on. Yeah, this is a reasonable position So so why does he present it in this way that comes off as unreasonable? I Don't know that I agree with that. I mean it seems like he presents in a very strident way who you know sort of going after critics and it seems to polarize the issue, but I think look Messaging aside, everyone chooses to message the way they want to our children our elementary school our middle school children should not be talking about Their sexuality with their teachers. That's a in-home conversation Yeah, speaking of messaging. I want to talk about social media for a little bit and that'll be fun Yeah, and and this is getting closer to last question because in 940 we've got a heart out here, but You know on Twitter, you've been kind of pugnacious over the years You've kind of told people where they could go and what they could do when they crossed you You turn off replies for a long time You know looking back do you wish you had moderated a little bit and are you gonna turn back on replies at some point? Yeah, I wish I would had a mod here's what usually happens when I when I tell it like it is it builds over time Yeah, it's usually a person that's been bam bam bam for months, and I just have had enough So I'll say this I don't tweet things or say things that I don't mean I do wish that sometimes many of those times I had just not said them. I just kept them in my brain So so what was the thing? What was the trigger that made you kind of you know? Take off your seven-second delay and just kind of like you know put it out there and like you know I'm gonna let it fly I've just had enough. Yeah, what are you gonna do to me and then the other side of me is like What are you gonna do to me? It's come on. It's it's it's Twitter It's social media people act like the people talk about getting ratioed like it's painful All right. What a wimpy generation of people you got ratioed that somehow hurts go out and do something hard Get off of the computer man Understand and I've been ratioed once or twice. So I know how it goes no big deal. Yeah You know mayor curry. I mean we we got to a lot of questions here a couple callers are hanging out They're not going to get to them unfortunately because we're ending at 940 In about 30 seconds. Is there anything we didn't get to that you want to mention? Yeah, a couple things I just want to say how grateful I am for the people that serve the city of Jacksonville with me and leadership roles CA a chief of staff CF I mean the list goes on and on all the department heads All the department city people have worked so hard behind the scenes people don't understand how much everyone cared for this city We got this city operating in 2015 and it is it is in good shape for for the next mayor and the next administration And I just want to thank the people of Jacksonville, you know, we talk about social media is ugly when I'm in public I don't I don't think I've had three bad experiences in public since I've been in office people are nice people are kind Democrats Republicans and PAs independence So I'm just I'm honored and grateful to have had this job and I'm ready to rebalance my life and be normal again Hey, I look forward to that and congratulations. Thanks for doing the interview