The city of Jacksonville is no longer participating in the Rockefeller Foundation's 100 Resilient Cities initiative. The program, which awards cities around the world $1 million in cash and services to address extreme weather, crime and sea level rise, was applied for by former Mayor Alvin Brown.
City spokeswoman Tia Ford provided WJCT with a Jan. 25, 2016, letter from 100 Resilient Cities President Michael Berkowitz in which he thanked Mayor Lenny Curry for his involvement for the last six months, but he understands “that the priorities of setting up your administration perhaps have made it a challenge to dedicate resources and time to making this partnership a success.”
The Curry administration said it was moving forward with the plan in August and named Charles Moreland, the mayor's Director of Community Affairs, as Jacksonville's Chief Resiliency Officer. Part of the grant from the Rockefeller Foundation went to the creation of that position. Moreland was introduced as the city's CRO as recently as mid-January.
100 Resilient Cities spokesman Max Young said in an email, “We work with many cities around the world and recognize there are frequent changes in leadership within city governments. In each instance, we have taken the moment of transition to connect with the new leadership and administration and evaluate if the partnership with 100RC is something that the city desires and whether it would be a good fit.”
Young also says the initiative would be happy to collaborate with Jacksonville in the future.
Until Wednesday morning, Jacksonville was included on the 100 Resilient Cities website. Now all mention of city's involvement in the program has been wiped.
Requests to the city of Jacksonville for further comment have not yet been answered.
This story will be updated.
Original story below:
The city of Jacksonville is no longer participating in the Rockefeller Foundation's 100 Resilient Cities initiative. The program, which awards cities around the world $1 million to address extreme weather, crime and sea level rise, was applied for by former Mayor Alvin Brown.
The Curry administration said it was moving forward with the plan in August and named Charles Moreland, the mayor's Director of Community Affairs, as Jacksonville's Chief Resiliency Officer. Part of the $1 million grant from the Rockefeller Foundation went to the creation of that position.
But city spokeswoman Tia Ford said Wednesday morning the city is no longer participating in 100 Resilient Cities. Charles Moreland has been introduced as the city's CRO as recently as mid-January. On Wednesday morning, Jacksonville was still included on the 100 Resilient Cities website, but after a call from WJCT, all mention of city's involvement in the program was wiped. The Rockefeller Foundation has not yet answered additional questions..
This story will be updated.
