 But first, Mayor Donna Deegan was the first female mayor of Jacksonville. She was sworn in on July 1st. And she's off to a busy start between presenting her first budget just two weeks into her tenure and welcoming Vice President Kamala Harris to Duvall for a speech on education. In the midst of this ridiculously busy schedule, she made time to join us in the studio this morning. Mayor Deegan, hi. Good to have you back in Jacksonville. Welcome, welcome home. Thank you, thank you, thank you. It is so good to be sitting across from you. And listen, you can join the conversation to call us at 549-2937 or you can tweet us at FCC on air. Email us at First Coast Connect at wjct.org or message us on First Coast Connect's Facebook page. Mayor Deegan, tell me, how's it going so far? So far, so good. I get from a fire hose for sure with that budget the first two weeks, but we're really excited to have it out and ready to roll. That is the thing that I did not know is that when you become mayor, you've got two weeks to turn around your budget, which seems just kind of crazy to me. Seems pretty punitive, doesn't it? Yes, it's like you win and now you're punished by you got to figure out a budget. Now listen, you know, we were looking at it early and I think that it is your budget and it's not your budget. Right. A lot of it is done before you get in, but what we just did is we said, let's go in there and prioritize those things that we told folks during the campaign that we wanted to really focus on infrastructure, health, economy, small business, and that's what we did. So we pulled down projects that were shovel-ready, things that were ready to go and we've told people forever that we believe infrastructure is the way forward and you can see in the budget that that's exactly what we went for. There isn't just good for the health of the community, but it also creates jobs. Absolutely. I mean, that is the one thing that I heard over and over again from mayors in other cities that have in a lot of ways passed us by is that you've got to focus on the public infrastructure and if you build it, they will come basically and that's something that's especially where we are, Al. In a beautiful place with a lot of water, there's a lot of room for deterioration when it comes to infrastructure and so we've really got to deal with that and we have done that in this budget and I'll also say that we've paid for a lot of it and that's something else that we really wanted to do. We had that over $100 million that we had in the budget. We wanted to make sure that we were doing some pay-go there and we increased that by 156%, which I'm really proud of because we have a lot of big projects coming up and we want to make sure that we're paying for things as we go if we can. Yeah. You said something that made me think about some other stuff which you talked about water being a city surrounded by water. I'm curious and I know that it's a little bit limited being the mayor whereas dealing with climate change seems like something that both the governor and the larger the Senate, the federal government has to grapple with but is climate change something that you're having to grapple with with your administration? Well, certainly. We have the most vulnerable city in the state of Florida. It would cost us more than any other city given where our military bases are, given that we are on the river and on the ocean to create barriers hardening our coastline against rising tides. So it's very, very important for us to focus on resilience and to focus on climate. And as you can see really with every year, we have record heat every single year. And so it is going to be very important for us to focus heavily on the things that we can do locally to both mitigate, to respond, but also to mitigate those forces. I want to like go big here and like zoom out a little bit. So we're looking eight years in the future. Mayor Donna Deegan has had two terms. What does the city look like at the end of Mayor Donna Deegan's two terms in Jacksonville? Well, we've focused heavily on infrastructure, especially in our underserved neighborhoods and made sure that everybody has an opportunity to take part in that partnership of Jacksonville. But also we have a very thriving and open and activated riverfront. We have a lot of young people living downtown. We have a lot of workforce downtown. We have a lot of housing and entertainment downtown. We've kept a lot of arts and culture and built that. I think the picture that I see of Jacksonville is that city that we were always destined to be. And we've just sort of let it pass us by in a lot of ways because we haven't focused on fundamentals. So to me, if we end up with a thriving downtown and neighborhoods that are all taking part in our partnership here in Jacksonville, I will consider that and a healthier Jacksonville being a great legacy. Sure. I'm going to go to the phones in a little bit. But before we do, I have a big question for you. What are your thoughts around crime and safety in Jacksonville and how do you plan to address it? Well, I said during the campaign and we're focusing in our task forces on a revised, reimagined Jacksonville journey. And I'm sure you remember the Jacksonville journey. It was a program that was really highly successful in reducing violent crime, which focuses largely on prevention and intervention and community programs in addition to community policing by the sheriff's office. And so we're taking a very, very hard look at that. I think literacy is going to be a very big piece of that. So I have said repeatedly, and I know some people don't agree, that we absolutely have to have enough police officers to keep up with our population growth, which is pretty robust. But also we need to focus heavily on prevention and intervention and reentry programs for folks who are coming back into our society. We're going to take a call. We got Joe from Jack's Beach. Joe, you're on with the mayor. How are you this morning? Oh, thank you so much. And congratulations, Mayor Donna. As a vegan, affordable fruits and vegetables is very important to me. How does your budget address the food deserts? And also thank you for acknowledging the climate crisis. And Mayor Donna, would you be willing to sign the plan based treaty to address the 87% of the greenhouse gas coming from the animals starter industry? Thank you, Mayor Donna. Thanks, Joe. Thanks, Joe. Thank you so much for calling in. One of our committees is focusing heavily on those issues. And I know that it is one of those issues that comes up over and over again. We do have food desert issues. We're looking at that. We've set aside $20 million in the budget for programs that come out of those task forces. And certainly one of those issues is going to be food deserts because we want to make sure we're dealing with that. We got a question from Twitter from Jack's fan, Brian, saying, Brian, I wonder who your favorite football team is. I don't know. I don't know. Go Jacks, Brian. Go Jacks. Go Jacks. What can the mayor's office do to help DCPS as they are, as they have these new standards forced upon them, expanded without funding, even though they are likely unconstitutional? Well, I think we do exactly what we did over the weekend or on Friday. I think we speak out about what we expect to be the standard here in Jacksonville. And I've said this repeatedly throughout the entire campaign. It's not a political issue. This is an issue of recognizing people's humanity. And we're going to continue to do that in Jacksonville. It doesn't make any sense to me that we would educate our children in a way that is not honest to the history of slavery. And I think as with any issue, you look at that and you say, how does that impact students in Jacksonville? And you have to speak out about it. So I think part of being the mayor is to lift those issues that are very important. At the end of the day, we'll see what happens in terms of what the federal government will do and how people around the state react to that. Obviously, the school board is a completely separate entity than is the mayor's office. But I think it's very important to speak out on these issues. This is an issue that affects all of our students, not just our black students, but all of them. So if we want all of our kids to share in a better future, we're going to have to acknowledge the past in its truth. Speaking of that, Vice President Kamala Harris came to Jacksonville to speak specifically on this issue. How was it meeting her and what did you hear from her in her speech? Well, truth be told, I had a family wedding. I was getting ready to fly out for that afternoon. So I wasn't able to attend her speech, but I did meet with her at the airport. And I read her remarks. She was grateful to be able to come here to let the folks in Jacksonville know that they're not alone when it comes to these issues, that they need to speak out and that she will support them in speaking out on these issues. And so I very much appreciated the fact that she came here to highlight Jacksonville. We have, as you know, a large black population here. And I think sometimes Jacksonville can feel forgotten in the bigger picture of the state. And so it was nice that she took the time to come and she had, as you know, a very large and overflow crowd that came to hear her. When I think about like national politics and local politics, you know, the first NPR show I worked on was my show, State of the Union, which was from here, WJCT. But we went all around the country and we told stories about community. And I did that for about eight years. And I think what I learned in doing that, the thing that I think about all the time is that national politics, you can do a lot of grandstanding and say a lot of things and blah, blah, blah. It tends to be like sports, right? Like we have our teams, our politicians that we root for. And we say all kinds of crazy things to justify our love for that sport. Exactly. Exactly. All sorts of crazy stuff. But when it comes to the local politics, like local is where the job gets done. That's right. Local is where you have to roll up your sleeves and actually do things. Because, you know, I mean, Mayor Deegan, you'll run into somebody in publics that like you're accountable to, right? So I'm curious, like what your plan is moving forward, being a Democratic governor, excuse me, Mayor, being a Democratic Mayor in a city that at times is red, at times is blue, maybe is a little purple. I don't know. Like how do you do that? Well, the entire campaign, I ran on the fact that local politics should not be political. That I was going to have Republicans, Democrats and independents in my administration so far. I have made good on that. I have the most diverse group of folks that have ever worked in the Mayor's office here in Jacksonville. But also in terms of not just ethnicity, but in terms of party affiliation. And so my message has been and will continue to be national politics should not play a role in local politics. It's about customer service really is what it comes down to. It's about roads and bridges and sidewalks and potholes and making sure that people in Jacksonville have what they need to be successful. And so I will just tell you that for me, it all comes down to relationships now. You know, you have to build relationships with people. And that's what I've tried to do since I've gotten into office. I've had some great conversations so far with our council folks, with other folks within City Hall. And I'll continue to do that. I'll continue to have Town Hall meetings. I'll continue to reach out to the community. We have a whole task force, which is just focused on community relationships. And I think those types of things are incredibly important. I think you saw in this last election, really a repudiation of the type of politics that is just zero sum, totally focused on destruction of the other person. And people said, you know what? We want our city government to get along with each other and we need to get things done. There's too much potential in this city to continue to have a food fight over politics when really it shouldn't play a role. Yeah. I hear a lot of pundits, thinkers, politicians, bemoan the fact that the populace, a lot of times isn't engaged in politics, isn't engaged in voting. Like there are large swaths of people who just don't vote. And usually when these conversations happen, it comes from a very finger wagging place of like, you have to go out and vote. But my time on the ground with people has taught me that the reason why people don't vote is because they think that politics doesn't matter because nothing ever changes. That's right. Like if I have this issue and I get excited and go out and vote for somebody, and then after the election is done, I never see that person again. And my issue never gets addressed. Then it just takes away my desire to vote in the future. Like because, you know, in certain places in this country voting is a little bit harder. There are people who make it harder all the time. And so like if it's being made harder and you're not seeing any results from actually going out and voting, why should you vote? Yep. I agree with that. And then that's, you know, I have encouraged everyone that I have spoken to within city government to be open to talking with not only the media, but in spending more time and talking to the community. I think there has been a reticence to do that among some. And I think it's so very important to connect with our community. And so that's why I made a pledge during the campaign that we're going to continue to have town hall meetings. We're going to continue to have groups that come into the mayor's office. And we've done that already. We've got several that are already scheduled town hall meetings and we're scheduling them in each council district and all over Jacksonville. And then when we come out with the plan for the Jaguar Stadium, we'll do it again and listen to people's thoughts about what we're doing that way. So it's important to bring people in and make them a part of the process. And if they feel like they're a part of the process, they're a lot more likely to participate. Speaking of, you can join the conversation. Call 549-2937, FCC on air on Twitter. First goes connect at wjct.org and on Facebook. Do you like that transition? That was a good transition. Fabulous, fabulous. That's why you're the press. I don't know about that. We got Mark from the West Side. Mark, you're talking to the mayor. How are you this morning? Very, very good. To that end, mayor, I hope you, once a month, it'd be great to have you do a little question and answer with your constituents on this show. That would be great. My two questions, I have two points, really. First one is, I know you're going through with the Jaguar thing and you're being set upon by all sides, but from my point of view, if the Jaguars were to leave tomorrow, Jacksonville would still be a fine city. So don't worry about that. But my real question was, we spent here recently, the last couple of years, millions and millions and billions of dollars correcting the pseudo-disceptic tank problems we've had in some of the poorer sections of the city. However, contractors and builders continue to put up neighborhoods with septic tanks. And I don't understand that. I mean, it's just something we're going to try to correct or stop or what. Well, I absolutely do think we need to get to a point where septic tanks are not an answer because eventually they fail and we have the same problem all over again. I think that's the issue when sometimes growth outpaces infrastructure, right? And so I think we need to... This is one of the reasons that I've said that I'd like to see us focus heavily on infill and building up the infrastructure in some of our older neighborhoods and historic neighborhoods and the downtown. Not only do we need that increased density there, but I think it makes more sense than creating more septic tanks all over the city. But I think that's... The bottom line is absolutely. I think eventually we need to get away from using septic tanks at all. Thanks, Mark. Great. I'm curious, what's been the biggest surprise since you've taken over the mantle of mayor? Oh, gosh. I don't know that there's been a lot of surprises, to be honest. I came in with a wide open heart and really excited to work with people. And everybody so far has been really, really wonderful. All the council people have been great to meet with so far. I'm sure that there are going to be points of contention along the way, but everybody seems very excited about where we are in Jacksonville and next steps. So I don't know that I've had a lot of surprises, Al. I feel like it's been a lot. I wish we could change the rate at which we had to come up with a budget. I think that is definitely a detriment and something that every mayor has to deal with in the first year. But I don't know that that's possible without changing the time of the election and that's fraught. Right. But beyond that, I've just been really grateful for how smooth the transition has been. What do you think is your biggest challenge in this first four years? Or rather, what do you think the biggest challenge is in your first hundred days? Let's go brass tacks coming up. Well, certainly the budget was a challenge. That was where we had immense focus for that first several weeks. You have to get in and get that done. And I'm really, really pleased with the budget that we came up with. The other thing that we're really focused heavily on in this first hundred days is I took that position of boards and commissions and really elevated it because one of the things I said during the campaign is we have to diversify our boards and commissions so that they look like Jacksonville and so that they reflect everybody across Jacksonville. So Garrett Dennis has come into that position for me and he and Parvez Ahmed who is our new chief of diversity are working hard on taking a look at those boards and fleshing them out and making sure that we have folks in those positions that reflect Jacksonville. But that's a big focus in this first hundred days. But obviously we're going to also start these negotiations with the Jaguars pretty soon and that's going to take up a lot of focus here as well in the first hundred days. Michael, in Duval, you're talking to the mayor, please. How are you? Good morning. I found two things of interest online this morning. One is from the Sentinel which said that Florida has the highest rate in the country of children going to hospital emergency departments for dental care and the highest average charge for these visits. And I also saw a posting in the online Jacksonville Today calendar for the meeting today of the Primary Care and Dental Access Subcommittee. And so what we're talking about here is a kind of a crisis in basic dental care, particularly for our children. And I would like to encourage and ask the mayor if she's going to be able to work with Council President Salem and let's see what we can do. Basic dental care is really a long-run approach to a problem that is very painful and really can be dealt with. So I'd like to hear her comment at least briefly on this. Thank you. Well listen, you're absolutely right. It is dental care and obviously that is key to the health of young people and everybody. That's one of the areas that we really have to look at. I will tell you that it is one of the areas that President Salem and I have great synergy on and that is the health of our community. He's a pharmacist. He's been focused on health care for a long time. It's a major focus for me with our Chief Health Officer. Primary health period is dismal frankly in our area in terms of our numbers. We have horrible numbers in terms of what that gentleman was talking about but really all of our primary health numbers are really poor. Where some of the worst in the state are infant and maternal mortality are absolutely the worst in the state and some of the worst in the country. So what both President Salem and I are focused heavily on is moving the dial on those numbers because obviously we're not expanding Medicaid in this state anytime soon. That puts a huge burden on our hospitals and our health care providers. So whatever that we can do locally to make sure that we increase access even with information, making sure that people know what's available to them. You know we're going to bring in grant writers to make sure we're bringing down more money to feed some of these nonprofit organizations that are doing a lot of the great work in that regard and then we're going to have to educate people and connect them to that. But the other thing is Al is that a lot of people aren't aware that they can sign up for the Affordable Care Act at no cost. And so one of the things we're going to focus on is education just to make sure that people know what's available and make sure they're getting the care that they need. But that's what these subcommittees are looking at. All right. And we got Ian from Orange Park on the line. Ian, you're talking to Mayor Degan. Hey, Donna. This is Ian. Hi, Ian. Yeah. Super inspired by your candidacy and you being Bayer. So I'm really excited to see all that you're doing and your capabilities. You know, my question is about your, the budget that what's being allocated to arts and culture. So I noticed that 8.5 million was being allocated to the cultural council of Greater Jacksonville. And I think that's a great allocation. And I think they're a great organization. My understanding is only 25% of that is being allocated to local artists and talent, though, or at least that's what they're being required to do. You know, I think it's really essential. There's so much talent here in Jacksonville. I think it's essential to use our local talent and our local resources. And I think that's really going to create, you know, a unique future, a unique aesthetic and culture for Jacksonville's future. Ian, we totally agree on that issue. And that is a $3 million increase for the cultural council over what they were allocated last year. But also arts, culture and entertainment is one of the committees that is doing work. I'm not sure it's the first time that a mayor has made those issues a priority, but it's been a while. So I can tell you that we set aside a lot of money for whatever these committees, I believe it was $20 million, we set aside to deal with the initiatives that these committees come up with. And one of the things that has been discussed over and over again, and in fact, Al and I, we're talking about it this morning, is how do we retain our local talent? I think one of the things we really need to do is make sure that we're educating people in Jacksonville about the rich history of incredible talent we have in this city and the people that we, we become donors to other cities with all of our amazing artists and entertainers. And we need to keep those folks in Jacksonville. So I can promise you that will be a big focus of this administration because we also know that it's part of having a thriving downtown and of keeping young people here. So those are going to be focuses as well. And I think if you can keep artists here, it really does speak to our history and our roots here in Jacksonville. And I'm excited about growing that. So tough question. Maybe not necessarily a tough question, but like a question that I've found being here at WJCT that a lot of people don't want to talk about, specifically statues, the Confederate statues. So I'm just curious what your stance is on them and the movement to bring them down. What are your thoughts? That is not a tough question for me. I've been very clear about it the entire time I've been in public life. I believe if we are going to be a community that respect each other's humanity, and we are, that those statues need to come down. I am not against putting them in a place where they can be contextualized. I'm not trying to remove history. I just believe that if you have these monuments to slavery really, that are in places where people have to see them every day in communities where they are just truly hurtful and offensive and do deny people's humanity, I just don't think that is something that is good for the city of Jacksonville. Every business in this city, pretty much, every big business especially, with it tries to recruit people into Jacksonville, will tell you businesses by and large don't want to move to a city that is still fighting the Civil War. So we need to take those things down and that will be a focus of my administration. I know what we're hearing out of Tallahassee. I'm sincerely hoping that that bill meets the same fate that it met last year because it's a bad bill. And it frankly, once again, takes away local government's ability to make their own decisions about what they want to do in their own cities. So I would sincerely hope that the people of Jacksonville would be supportive of getting those monuments down. There's a question from Jane on Facebook. Why not set up some partnerships with universities, medical schools, and medical schools in the area to provide care to children from dental, mental health, and medical care, Indianapolis, with the Chamber of Commerce, commerce, excuse me, set up such a program matching resources with the needs of the community. Sadly, the program ended under Governor Pence, but they worked for many decades. Who is this from? This is from Jane. Jane, listen, I would love for you to attend one of our meetings on these issues because I will say that, for the first time in eight years, we actually attended the Governor's Conference, not Governor's Conference. The Mayor's Conference. See, you got me going there. The Mayor's Conference over. I'm trying to get you to think about it. Yeah, no chance, Al. No chance. The Mayor's Conference that was recently in Ohio, and you get your greatest ideas from what people have had success with in other cities. And so I would love to look at any solution for those issues, but it means bringing those things to the table and making them part of what we're considering. And eventually what will happen is those task forces, I believe in September, will be distilling down everything that they've seen brought to the table there and presenting recommendations for where the city of Jacksonville should go. So I would encourage you to attend and share that or send it to us. I'm going back to the phones. We've got Chad in Miramar. Chad, how are you doing? Fine, how are you guys doing? Hi, good morning, Donna. This is Chad from the Spanish TV Station. Ah, good morning. Wonderful to speak with you. Yeah, it's been a while. I've been finding the meaning to talk to you, but you're busy. But hey, Donna, a few months ago during a campaign, we had a Hispanic-flavored town hall in which you promised me, and I had all those people in the room as witnesses, that you were going to do some set-asides, maybe in the budgets for Hispanic and other minority-owned businesses. Where is that going? What's happening with that? Well, we're taking a look at how we can help minority businesses all the way around in Jacksonville right now. It's one of the things we're very focused on, as you know. It is part of why we want to bring all the voices into the room, and I think it's going to be very important to have representation there, but we're very focused on that. There are certain things that we have to take a look at legally in terms of what we can do, but at the end of the day, I think that when we have more diverse voices that are on those boards, when we have more diverse voices that are part of the process, we're going to come up with creative solutions, but one of the things we are extremely focused on is making Jacksonville the small business capital of the Southeast, and that includes Hispanic businesses. We want to make sure that we are that we're lifting those businesses, and part of that, as we talked about before, comes with lifting the work of some of those businesses, and we'll continue to do that. This is where we're three weeks in, so give us a little bit of time to get those things in place, but we are working on it hard, and I have not forgotten about that at all. Good, good, but I do want to remind you as in mostly all communities, we need to be kind of breached out. Most Hispanics here don't know opportunities might exist for them, so I would hope that part of what you do. In fact, a couple of weeks ago, I went to one of the meetings, one of your committees for local venues and art and concerts and whatever, they were looking for information. I hope you do the same thing for Hispanic businesses, where you want our input as to what we need and what we could use. Absolutely want your input, and again, I hope that you are taking part in some of these meetings. There is time in every single one of these task force meetings for public comment, so either you can take part as a member of the task force or you can take part as a member of the public, but the more we get people involved in these task forces and community meetings and town halls, those are all things that are going to be helpful, but yes, that outreach will continue. Thanks, Chad. We've got Emily in Riverside. Emily, how are you doing? I'm doing great. How are you today? Good. Good. You're talking to the mayor. Go ahead. Hi, Donna Deegan. I just had a couple of questions. How does someone get involved with this transition process? And then again, after we have those reports in, the aftermath of that? Well, I'm going to forget the website now, but I think it was something like Transition 2023 at coj.net. I believe that's the email address to get involved there, but you can always call the mayor's office too and we'll be glad to give you information on that. There are several different transition committees. There are seven different committees that you can get involved in. And then like I said, with every one of them, there is public input. And then what we'll do, we'll come out with what the top recommendations are, and then those will be the focus of the town halls that we have that are coming up. So there'll be all kinds of opportunities all over Jacksonville for you to connect and to share your thoughts. Thank you. Thanks so much for calling in. So we got two minutes left, and I just want to go to maybe what might be the biggest challenge of your first four years, the Jaguars, the stadium, Lat Jay. What are your thoughts about all of that? Well, as I have said many times, I think the Jaguars are really a part of the fabric of this community. I've been going to those games for a long time. I was on the set the night that we got the Jaguars. I remember that actually. I mean, remember what an amazing hand-do moment that was for Jacksonville? We talked earlier about how sometimes, sometimes in this community, we can be sort of hard on ourselves. We don't ever believe good things are going to happen, right? And that was one of those times when we really just, wow, it was an amazing thing. And I think that it is important for us to continue that partnership. I think the Jaguars are great for Jacksonville, and I think they create an enormous amount of community pride. What I suggested to them a year ago was that they make this not only just about a stadium but about economic development, that they continue to try to look at ways to help our communities that have often been left behind. And I think there's elements of that in this plan. I think what we're going to see going forward is just where does that settle in? How much public money are we going to need to commit? And what does that deal look like? But at the end of the day, there will be a deal with the Jaguars, I believe, because we both very much want that to happen. I believe that Shod Khan wants to be part of the renaissance of this community. I know that Jacksonville will be stronger with the Jaguars here, and we'll work it out. Mayor Donna Deegan, thank you so much for coming in and talking to us today. Thank you for having me. Can we get you back? That's the thing. Anytime. All right. Anytime. All right, you guys heard it. Mayor Deegan said she's coming back.