List of mayors of Jacksonville, Florida

The Mayor of Jacksonville is the chief executive for the city of Jacksonville, Florida, United States. Jacksonville currently utilizes the strong mayor form of government, in which the mayor has significant powers compared to the Jacksonville City Council. Since the consolidation of Jacksonville with the Duval County government in 1968, the mayor is the administrator over the entire county. The current holder of the position is Alvin Brown.

History

The first mayor of Jacksonville, William J. Mills, was elected in 1832. A new city charter in 1841 changed the titled to "Intendant" until 1859 when it was changed back to mayor. The information on mayors of Jacksonville from 1832 to 1848 is limited, mostly due to the Great Fire of 1901 which destroyed some of the city's records. Most of the information available today was taken from newspapers published during the period.

There was no election for mayor in 1840, nor during the Civil War in 1862, 1863, and 1864. During the Reconstruction era, mayoral elections resumed but the position had no real power, with the city being administered by the United States Military. There is no set amount of time in which one person can stay as mayor, but it is up to the individual to financially support his or her own campaign.

On May 31, 1887, the city instituted a new charter, annexing several suburbs, including LaVilla, Springfield, Riverside, Brooklyn, East Jacksonville, and Fairfield. The mayor's term of office was also increased from one year to two. The mayor serving at the time, J. Q. Burbridge, had been elected on April 8 of that year, but the new charter required a new election to be held. On December 13, 1887 another election was held and C. B. Smith, a Republican, won with support from members of the city's large African American community. After this, local Democrats petitioned the Florida State Legislature to change the city charter once again in an effort to curb Republican and black participation in local politics. The result was that direct election of mayors in the city was abolished from 1889 until 1893. Mayors during this period were elected by the city council, who were appointed by the Governor of Florida.

The city's charter changed several times over the next several decades, and additional areas were annexed, expanding the city limits. The biggest change to local government, however, was the Jacksonville Consolidation, which took effect on October 1, 1968. In this measure, the Duval County and City of Jacksonville governments were consolidated, expanding the city limits to include almost the entire county. Mayor Hans Tanzler had just taken office on June 23, 1967; however, consolidation meant that he would have to run again for the office of mayor for the newly consolidated city government. Tanzler was re-elected and took office on March 1, 1968. Since that time mayors have been elected every four years.

Mayors of Jacksonville, Florida

The following is a list of mayors of Jacksonville:

Pre-Civil War mayors

#	Name	Took Office	Left Office
1	William J. Mills	1832	1835
2	Unknown	1835	1838
3	Stephen Eddy	1839	1840
4	None	1840	1841

Intendant period

#	Name	Took Office	Left Office
1	Unknown	1841	1844
2	Obediah Congar	1844	1845
3	Unknown	1845	1846
4	Joseph B. Lancaster	1846	1847
5	Oliver Wood	1847	1848
6	Unknown	1848	1849
7	Rodney Dorman	1849	1850
8	J. McRobert Baker	1850	1851
9	Rodney Dorman	1851	1852
10	Henry D. Holland	1852	1853
11	Isaac Swart	1853	1854
12	F. C. Barrett	1854	1855
13	Philip Frazer	1855	1856
14	F. I. Wheaton	1856	1857
15	George C. Gibbs	1856	1857
16	John S. Murdock	1858	1859

Pre-Civil War Mayors revived

#	Name	Took Office	Left Office
1	Holmes Steele	1859	1860
2	Halstead H. Hoeg	1861	1862

There were no elections held in 1862, 1863, and 1864.

Pre-consolidation mayors

#	Name	Took Office	Left Office	Party
1	Halstead H. Hoeg	1865	1866	Democrat
2	Holmes Steele	1866	1867	Democrat
3	John Clark	1867	1868	Democrat
4	Edward Hopkins	1868	1870	Democrat
5	Peter Jones	1870	1873	Republican
6	J. C. Greeley	1873	1874	Republican
7	Peter Jones	1874	1876	Republican
8	Luther McConihe	1876	1877	Democrat
9	W. Stokes Boyd	1877	1878	Democrat
10	Luther McConihe	1878	1879	Democrat
11	Peter Jones	1879	1880	Republican
12	J. Ramsey Dey	1880	1881	Republican
13	Morris A. Dzialynski	1881	1883	Democrat
14	W. McClaws Dan	1883	1885	Democrat
15	M.C. Rice	1885	1886	Democrat
16	Patrick McQuaid	1886	1887	Democrat
17	J.Q. Burbridge	1887	1887	Democrat
18	C.B. Smith	1887	1888	Republican
19	Patrick McQuaid	1888	1891	Democrat
20	Henry Robinson	1891	1893	Democrat
21	Duncan U. Fletcher	1893	1895	Democrat
22	William M. Bostwick	1895	1897	Democrat
23	William D. Knight	1897	1899	Democrat
24	J. E. T. Bowden	1899	1901	Democrat
25	Duncan U. Fletcher	1901	1903	Democrat
26	George M. Nolan	1903	1906	Democrat
27	William H. Baker	1906	1907	Democrat
28	William H. Sebring	1907	1909	Democrat
29	William S. Jordan	1909	1913	Democrat
30	Van C. Swearingen	1913	1915	Democrat
31	J. E. T. Bowden	1915	1917	Democrat
32	John W. Martin	1917	1923	Democrat
32	John T. Alsop, Jr.	1923	1937	Democrat
32	George C. Blume	1937	1941	Democrat
33	John T. Alsop, Jr.	1941	1945	Democrat
34	Frank Whitehead	1945	1949	Democrat
35	W. Haydon Burns	1949	1965	Democrat
36	Lou Ritter	1965	1967	Democrat
37	Hans Tanzler	1967	1968	Democrat

Consolidated city mayors

#	Name	Took Office	Left Office	Party
1	Hans Tanzler	March 1, 1968	July 1, 1979	Democrat
2	Jake Godbold	July 1, 1979	July 1, 1987	Democrat
3	Tommy Hazouri	July 1, 1987	July 1, 1991	Democrat
4	Ed Austin, Jr.[1]	July 1, 1991	July 1, 1995	Democrat / Republican
5	John A. Delaney	July 1, 1995	July 1, 2003	Republican
6	John Peyton	July 1, 2003	July 1, 2011	Republican
7	Alvin Brown	July 1, 2011	Current	Democrat

References

1. ^ Ed Austin, Jr. campaigned and was elected as a Democrat, but announced that he was changing party affiliation to Republican after he was in office for a length of time.