JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — John Delaney, President of Flagler College has served at the helm of many organizations, most notably as mayor of Jacksonville from 1995 to 2003. He was known as a unifying force during his time in office. Delaney's initiatives have had lasting impacts on Duval County. They include road and infrastructure improvements and a massive expansion of city parks.
"I kind of always had a theory in politics, friends are better than enemies and peace is better than war," Delaney said. "It doesn't mean that occasionally you won't have somebody that just hates you. And it doesn't mean that sometimes you don't have to get into a political fight, you know, to twist arms to get the votes to get an agenda through. But I just found it's a lot better to try to learn more and understand what makes people tick."
Many would argue he did that well. Delaney championed the $2.2 billion Better Jacksonville Plan, approved by voters in 2000. It included construction of a new county courthouse, main library, baseball park and arena.
"As the years have gone by, I don't go a week without somebody thanking me for it," Delaney said. "One of our security people would pick me up in the morning, and I'm doing Rotary Club speeches, and they dropped me off at night 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. So that was a brutal, brutal couple of months between our announcement and the vote but people, people are happy with it."
While working to build a better Jacksonville he also had a young family to cater to. Delaney says he and his wife lived by the adage 'family first'.
"My wife and I got invited to a White House Christmas party, but my youngest daughter had a basketball playoff game and I said we're not going to go," Delaney said. "I kind of thought I'd get asked the next year, but I never got another invitation."
In 2018 the Terry Parker High School graduate announced his so-called retirement, leaving the University of North Florida after serving as its president from 2003 to 2018.
"I announced that I'm retiring, which I shouldn't use that word because people think that I'm, you know, planting gardens and this sort of thing," Delaney said.
He is enhancing the landscape at Flagler College where he landed as president after leaving UNF. The historic campus in St Augustine is currently undergoing a $100 million restoration project.
Delaney will leave a footprint in St Augustine just as he did in Jacksonville, and he offers a bit of advice as a former mayor to next leader of the River City.
"Make sure you listen and understand the consequence of a decision," Delaney said. "Too often in politics now people fall in love with a policy and approach. And you need to understand how that's going to impact, you know almost any government policy at the end of the pipeline it touches a human being. And you just need to understand, is that worth it?"