Jacksonville City Council votes on new leaders. Here's what you need to know

Ron Salem and Randy White will serve in the top two City Council positions for the upcoming year.

The newly elected City Council participated in its first vote Thursday afternoon, confirming the two incumbent members, respectively, as president and vice president. The nominations did not come as a surprise as members have held public meetings in past months to rally support.

Salem, the At-Large Group 2 council member and current vice president, said he knew he wanted to serve as the body’s president during a mayoral transition when he was first elected to City Council four years ago.

“I just thought it's a historic time with a new mayor and new council members,” Salem told the Times-Union. “I thought it would challenge me to be president at this point, so I kind of reached my goal.”

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Salem and White are both part of the Republican supermajority on the council who will have to work with Democrat Mayor-elect Donna Deegan. Council has worked with a Republican mayor for the past eight years, but both said they looked forward to working with the new administration.

The 19-member council voted unanimously for Salem – who was the only nominee for the position – but White, the District 12 council member, faced some surprise competition. District 9 Council member Tyrona Clark-Murray nominated Michael Boylan, the Republican District 6 council member.

“[Boylan] is in the community working with people and working with the committees to push the needs of the people,” Clark-Murray said. “I think he also represents the progressiveness that this council desperately needs but probably doesn’t know it.”

At-Large Group 4 Council member Matt Carlucci seconded the nomination, saying the race needed to be more competitive in the future, but both Carlucci and Boylan ultimately voted for White.

Here’s everything we know about the City Council President and Vice President Designate:

Who is Ron Salem?

Voters elected Salem to the At-Large Group 2 position in 2019. He served all four years of his first term as part of the Finance Committee, as well as two years as vice chair and chair of the transportation committee and two years on the neighborhoods committee.

He has served on a number of special committees, most recently as the co-chair of the Critical Quality of Life Issues and Solid Waste committees.

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As a pharmacist by trade, he is the president of Salem & Associates, a pharmaceutical consulting firm, and an alumnus of the University of Florida.

Salem ran unopposed for both his spots as vice president and president of the council, which he thinks comes from being trusted by his fellow council members.

“I think they, the council members, realize I do my homework and study,” Salem said. “I asked some good questions, and I'm collaborative. And they all feel like that I treat people fairly, and that that's a good feeling, so I hope to continue that.”

Salem joked during the meeting that his upcoming vice president is not the most talkative member at the dais, but when White speaks, people listen.

“[White is] one of my best friends on the council,” Salem said. “He's very competent, and I love him to death. And I look forward to working with him.”

Who is Randy White?

White is a native of the Jacksonville Westside he represents. Since his election during a special election in 2018, White served four years on the city’s neighborhoods committee – two as chair and one as vice chair – and five years on the Land Use and Zoning Committee. He is currently the City Council liaison to the Jacksonville Aviation Authority.

White worked as a firefighter with the Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department for 32 years, spending one year as the president of the Jacksonville Association of Firefighters, before retiring in 2011.

White has prioritized public safety, the growth of Cecil Field and infrastructure projects during his time on the council, and he was an early supporter of current Mayor Lenny Curry’s half-cent gas tax initiative in 2021.

What are Salem’s priorities as City Council president?

Salem will release his full list of priorities during the City Council installation ceremony June 22, he said.

During his time on City Council so far, however, he has focused heavily on health initiatives, including with the special committee to address the opioid epidemic, the Mental Health Offender Program and North East Florida Healthy Start Coalition.

“Those are some areas that I care deeply about,” Salem said.

How will the City Council work with Mayor-elect Donna Deegan?

Deegan reached out to Salem ahead of the City Council election, but he did not want to meet until after his new position was confirmed, he said.

Deegan featured health outcomes as one of her three campaign pillars, potentially bringing some common ground for the two. Salem said he hoped their individual agendas would be similar and anticipated they would have a meeting in the coming weeks.

As for initiatives like the Jacksonville Journey, a crime prevention program Deegan has repeatedly said she wants to fully fund, Salem said he needed more information about her intentions before he signed off.

The program was “definitely effective,” Salem said, but he did not know her plans for the current Kids Hope Alliance – which Curry funded after consolidating the journey and the Children’s Commission.

Ultimately, both he and White said they looked forward to working with the new administration.

“We've got a Democrat mayor, Republican leader of the City Council, but we've got one city and we need to find ways to move it forward,” Salem said.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Ron Salem, Randy White elected to top Jacksonville City Council jobs