Daily Record Financial News &
Tuesday, April 19, 2016
Vol. 103, No. 112 • One Section
35¢ www.jaxdailyrecord.com
JEA pushes back on oversight
Group wants performance measures for inspector general Voters last year made it clear they wanted the Office of Inspector General’s reach to expand out of City Hall and into constitutional offices and independent authorities. There has not been much pushback since that additional oversight began Jan. 1 with the exception of the agency that faces the most complaints of the
new group. That entity? JEA. The publicly owned utility sought a legal opinion from city attorneys after receiving requests from the Office of Inspector General for access to facilities, personnel records and other information relating to an investigation being undertaken. That opinion issued March 25, for now, backs the authority. Before voters by a 55-45 split decided extra oversight was needed, a Memorandum of
More than ‘Rex’ for booming Northside
New jobs might need new housing, so in addition to selling property for the large Project Rex, North Jacksonville property owner Steve Leggett wants to turn almost 18 acres off Interstate 95 and Max Leggett Parkway into a 300-unit apartment complex. After that, he wants to develop the adjacent 43 acres into medical uses, such as skilled nursing and assisted living, physicians’ offices and related services. “There’s been a lot of activity,” Leggett said Monday. “It’s like the economy woke up.” His North Jacksonville land is benefiting from the UF Health North medical office complex and hospital, as well as River City Marketplace, Parkway Shops and growth in population and jobs in the area. It’s also about 3 miles northeast of the 180-acre site for INSIDE: Project Rex, widely Council committee believed to be a promakes changes to posed 1,500-job Ama‘Rex’ legislation. zon.com Inc. fulfillment center. Page A-3 All the activity is why Leggett decided to start work on 65 developable acres along Max Leggett Parkway, which is named for his late father. The first phase of 22 acres starts this summer and includes the apartments and four lots in front of them that could be medical offices, a hotel and other outparcel uses. Integra Land Co., based in Lake Mary, wants to develop the Integra Riverside apartments at Owens Road and Max Leggett Parkway, plans show. Integra Land President David McDaniel said Monday his group intends to buy the land from Leggett simultaneously with breaking ground, anticipated this summer for completion toward the end of 2017. Leggett’s second phase, expected to break ground about the fourth quarter, will depend on the economy, he said. He anticipates build-out over a few Mathis continued on Page A-2
Public
Understanding — commonly known as MOUs — was required for the inspector general to work with the additional agencies. That essentially was enforced by the voters last spring. While the charter was updated to reflect the voters’ will, the portion of the Ethics Code dealing with MOUs was not — leaving interpretations for both the old and new requirements. City ethics director Carla Miller told the seven-member Inspec-
tor General Selection and Retention Committee on Monday the clean-up language needed to be enacted as soon as possible. City Council will have to fix the issue. It was just part of the group’s discussion, much of which focused on setting up performance metrics to determine how good a job the Office of Inspector General is doing. The office was established in late 2014 to combat fraud, waste Inspector continued on Page A-3
Cline
Creative control freak Unplanned career for three decades
By Carole Hawkins Staff Writer Rita Williams thinks fast, talks fast, works fast. When movers unload furniture to decorate her model home slower than she’d like, she jumps in and grabs stuff to bring in. “I’m a control freak, I admit it,” she said, blending the sentence seamlessly with six others before it. Perhaps, there are just too many ideas in her head. The owner of Rita Williams Merchandising Plus seems to have had a history, though, of being stuck in fifth gear. Before she came into her 32-year career as an interior designer for home, apartment, condo and senior living communities, Williams was a runner who worked part time creating window displays for a sporting goods store. A friend once opined that Williams’ rift with her ex-husband of long ago began when she passed him on a bridge during a race. It was not a race, though, that brought Williams to where she is today, a design leader who’s laid claim to a long string of regional and state awards. That came from being pushed through a door.
Rita Williams is a Jacksonville native who began her interior design career while doing merchandising for builder/developer Chester Stokes.
Teen designs peers’ rooms Rita Williams leaned on her grandniece, Charis Lapkovitch, at right, to design the children’s bedrooms in a D.R. Horton model at Aberdeen Castlegate. Charis is a Fashion Academy student at Bartram Trail High School. See her creations on Page A-4.
legal notices begin on page
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City’s native daughter Photos by Carole Hawkins
By David Chapman Staff Writer
Williams grew up in Jacksonville, married and raised four daughters. In her generation, women overwhelmingly became school teachers or secretaries. Williams attended Jacksonville Business School after high school and learned such skills as keypunching. (It was in the days Williams
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