On the final day before their acting status legally expired, Jacksonville Mayor Alvin Brown named three city employees as heads of their department.
Two other departments — Public Works and Senior Services — had their interim directors replaced Tuesday with new interim directors. Legally, interims could only serve until Jan. 31.
At the same time, Brown brought in three managers from outside city government and appointed two internal candidates in addition to the former interims.
The highest paid new employee is Usha Mohan, who will come from Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Florida to lead the city’s information technology department. Mohan was senior director for service technology at the insurance company and will be paid $135,000.
Also coming from outside city government is Elaine Spencer, who will head up the city’s office of Housing and Community Development. Spencer will make $125,000 and comes from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, where she spent more than 30 years, including serving as the local field office director.
The third new hire is Brian Clarke, who will serve as the city’s ombudsman with a $90,000 salary. Clarke is a Florida Supreme Court Certified Circuit Court mediator who has been helping to settle civil court cases in Duval County since 2008. In the new job — in which he replaces Dinah Mason, making about $7,000 more — he will be a clearinghouse for contractual compliance.
The internal promotions include:
- Kelley Boree will serve as director of parks and recreation with a $112,000 salary. This is a $10,000 raise from her previous job, as deputy director in the department.
- Twane Duckworth will be the city’s risk manager, with a $115,999 salary, a $32,700 raise. He had been in the city’s Office of General Counsel since November 2009 and also worked in District of Columbia Office of Attorney General and as a program analyst for the U.S. Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs.
- Greg Pease, appointed to be head of procurement, served as operations manager in the city’s Administrative Services Division before being made acting head the department. He’ll make $105,000, about $15,000 more than his predecessor and $16,800 more than in his old job.
- James Schock will be the chief of building inspections, with a $102,761 salary, the same as his predecessor and a $12,000 raise. He had been deputy building inspector.
Pease, Boree and Schock had been acting heads of their departments since October, when Brown accepted the resignations of virtually all department and division heads.
Public Works will now be led on an interim basis by Bill Joyce, chief of engineering and construction management, and Senior Services by Lisa Marshall, the manager of senior centers. Permanent heads of those departments will be named “soon,” Chief of Staff Chris Hand said.
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