Jack Donovan: Making a Difference!
Twenty Major Areas of City Commission Achievement with Jack's Leadership and Cooperative Efforts
Energy Conservation and Efficiency: Redirected the City’s utility company (GRU) to emphasize energy efficiency and conservation both for internal operations and for utility customers.
Neighborhood Code Enforcement: Improved neighborhood quality of life by increasing code enforcement resources (computers and staffing), police department and code enforcement cooperation, regulations on neighborhood noise, parking and trash, and response to reports of other neighborhood concerns.
Senior Recreation Center: Working on the Community Coalition for Older Adults to establish a multi-service Senior Center in Gainesville and Alachua County.
Green House Gas Reduction: Cancelled GRU’s costly health-risking plan for a new coal-fueled power plant and financed pollution-controlling retrofit of existing coal plant.
Parks and Recreation: Protected, improved and expanded the City’s parks and recreation system by saving Northwest Park from commercial development, opening Cofrin and John Mahon Nature Parks, securing funds for a new park at NW 53rd on 441, heating City swimming pools for winter use, approving parking and boardwalks to improve park access, expanding the Children’s Safety Training Park, and up-grading the Martin Luther King recreation and community center.
Economic Development: Encouraged downtown Gainesville’s economic prosperity through development partnerships for projects like University Corners, Hampton Inn Downtown, Gainesville Greens residential and commercial tower, University Lofts apartments and commerce, Regent Park condominiums, and the Jefferson and University student apartment complexes, with more to come. Our highly successful investment in the Gainesville Technological Enterprise Center continues, as does our planning to convert GRU’s downtown acreage to a high tech business park.
Natural Resources: Reinforced and extended the City’s land use policies for natural resource protection and sustainability.
Downtown Vitality: Invested in the enhanced vitality and attractiveness of Gainesville through relocation of the bus center, enhanced walkability and beauty through medians , walkways and landscaping in neighborhoods and commercial areas, and expansion of protections against aggressive panhandling.
Public Transit: Improved public transit by increasing bus ridership and extending bus services to Sundays.
Traffic De-Congestion: Countered traffic congestion by winning Federal and State funding for a now-under-implementation traffic-light synchronization system and by enhancing the City’s road grid, especially by up-grading Archer Road, Williston Road, Waldo Road and (in the near future) SW 62nd Street/Boulevard as city by-pass routes and by up-grading City streets with strategic rotary circles and more turning lanes.
Sustainable Development: Successfully resisted burdensome sprawl development onto our surrounding greenspace and natural resources by lobbying against inappropriate development like the Pennsylvania Development Company’s Springhills project at I-75 and 39th Avenue, by working with the County government on land use and zoning policies, by focusing the new County gas tax on improvements to Gainesville’s streets and traffic flow, and by partnering financially with developers to encourage urban infill projects and higher density development within Gainesville’s City boundaries.
Financial Stewardship: Worked for responsible budgeting by careful comparison of the community’s public service needs and its available revenues from taxes and fees, along with careful review of City auditor reports. Our efforts resulted in lowered property tax rates (three years in a row), lowered property tax payments (for FY ’08), constrained GRU rate increases despite seriously inflated costs, and improved oversight of GRU financial bonding and expansion plans.
Domestic Partner Registry: Established a Domestic Partnership Registry for City government employees and a Domestic Partner Registry for citizens to insure equal opportunity to provide care to loved ones at life-critical moments.
Town/Gown Relations:U Partnered with UF and SFCC through City Commission’s Economic Development Committee and also undertook the following UF-related roles: supervised four internships for UF political science students, joined high-tech business development tours to the University of Wisconsin and Georgia Tech, organized and facilitated the Religious Engagement forum for the UF Conference on Town/Gown Best Practices, joined the UF President’s Council on Alcohol Use.
Children and Youth: Enhanced our children’s futures with funding for pre-school education, truancy and crime prevention services, services to prevent child abuse and predation, programs for after-school care and enrichment, and GRU energy-efficiency services; Served on the board of the Partnership in Prevention of (Teen) Substance Abuse and on the Elected Officials Joint Committee for School/Residence Concurrency.
Homelessness Reduction: Restored numerous homeless children, women and men to safety and productivity by developing City/County partnerships with helping agencies and volunteers to provide for winter shelter, an Office on Homelessness, a soon-to-be-opened comprehensive homelessness recovery service center, affordable housing initiatives, travel-home assistance, and assignment of a park ranger and a recovery counselor to the downtown.
Public Safety: Served on the City’s Public Safety Committee in support of our police department’s increased use of mediation and restitution (to resolve conflicts and restore relationships), downtown policing, and community-oriented policing, and also in support of Gainesville Fire/Rescue’s new fire station in Northwest Gainesville to close the service gap there.
East Gainesville Revitalization: Continued redressing past developmental investment inequities in East Gainesville by funding, partnering, and leading in the planning of the Redevelopment Initiative, maintaining family medical services at Shands/AGH, improving airport flight connections and business and job opportunities, expanding UF and SFCC east-side presence, improving neighborhoods by residential development such as upon the former Kennedy Homes site, and supporting commercial development such as the east-side Wal-Mart super center.
Airport Leadership: Successfully lobbied the State legislature to keep our Gainesville Regional Airport and its economic development potentials under our local public control and also successfully added new high-tech business employers (Dayjet and Eclipse Aviation) at the airport.
Transportation Disadvantaged Services: Increased monitoring and oversight of public transit services for the disabled, elderly and poor via the City/County Transportation Disadvantaged Board and Metropolitan Transportation Planning Organization.
More on Jack Donovan
2006 Elected Official of the Year
National Association of Social Workers
Florida Chapter, Gainesville Unit
Recipient, 2006 Harry Truman Award
Democratic Elected Official of the Year
Alachua County Democratic Executive Committee
Homeowner
- Westmoreland Estates
Family
- Married to Rev. Alisun Donovan
- Children Brigitte (SFCC), Erin (UF Law), Jesse (UF Grad)
Education
- Master of Public Policy, Harvard University
- Master of Divinity, Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, CA
- B.A. in English Literature, Dartmouth College
Past Employment
- U.S. Peace Corps community developer, Micronesia
- U.S. Foreign Service Officer, redevelopment specialist, Military Assistance Command/Vietnam
- Boston Community Action Agency, housing project youth center director; program evaluator
- Assistant to the Mayor, Utica, New York
- Program design/evaluation consultant to US Departments of Labor; Health, Education & Welfare; Housing and Urban Development
- Minister, Gainesville Unitarian Universalist Fellowship
Community Service
- Gainesville City Commissioner, District 3, 2005-present
- Board, Affiliated Congregations to Improve Our Neighborhoods (ACTION Network)
- Founding Member, Interfaith Coalition Against Poverty
- Vice-Chair, City of Gainesville Homeless Shelter Task Force
- Member, Human Rights Council of North Central Florida
- Board, Planned Parenthood of North Central Florida
- Founding Member, Gainesville Area Food Bank
- Classroom Volunteer, Millhopper Cooperative Nursery
- Classroom Volunteer, Glen Springs Elementary School