Mayor Ward revives Friendship 7 as GNV Next
BY JENNIFER CABRERA
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Gainesville Mayor Harvey Ward is “revitalizing” the Friendship 7, the group that commissioned the “Understanding Racial Inequity in Alachua County” report in 2018, to “develop a strategy for broader economic development, a renewed framework for sharing resources, and a demonstrated commitment to a long-term relationship.”
In an October 9, 2025 letter, Ward invited representatives from Alachua County, Alachua County Public Schools, the University of Florida, UF Health, Santa Fe College, the Community Foundation of North Central Florida, and the Greater Gainesville Chamber of Commerce to a lunch meeting that was ultimately held on December 18.
According to public records obtained from the City of Gainesville, the following people attended the meeting:
- John Alexander (City of Gainesville)
- Paul Broadie (Santa Fe College)
- Chuck Clemons (University of Florida)
- Ian Fletcher (Greater Gainesville Chamber of Commerce)
- Michael Holmes (UF Health)
- Barzella Papa (Community Foundation of North Central Florida)
- Andrew Persons (City of Gainesville)
- Cintya Ramos (City of Gainesville)
- John Roberts (Greater Gainesville Chamber of Commerce)
- Brian Singleton (City of Gainesville)
- Jennifer Smart (City of Gainesville)
- Karen Thomas (University of Florida)
- Thomas Vu (School Board of Alachua County)
- Harvey Ward (City of Gainesville)
Purpose of the original Friendship 7
The presentation given at the meeting reviewed the original Friendship 7 project: “In March 2016, the United Church of Gainesville and the Alachua County branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) sponsored a weekend-long seminar to focus community efforts on inequities in the Alachua County area. The seminar included speakers from the Dane County, Wisconsin Race to Equity Project. This project collected existing national, state, and local data documenting racial disparities in the county and comparing those disparities to Wisconsin and the United States overall. Their study led to a community-wide focus on how their community can work together to meet the challenge of narrowing the gaps in quality of life among all racial and ethnic groups.”
The presentation continued, “A group of community leaders representing Alachua County, Alachua County Public Schools, the City of Gainesville, the Gainesville Area Chamber of Commerce, Santa Fe College, UF Health, and University of Florida (Friendship Seven) saw value in completing a similar project. Wishing to understand and document racial inequity in Alachua County, this group called for the development of a baseline report grounded in quantitative findings to document and provide insights about the extent, nature, and source of racial inequality in Alachua County” [bold in original presentation].
The UF Bureau of Economic and Business Research (BEBR) collaborated with the UF Program for Resource Efficient Communities (PREC), and the “Understanding Racial Inequity In Alachua County” report was published in January 2018.
New group will be called GNV Next
The presentation proposed naming the new group “GNV Next” and considering topics such as community engagement, workforce growth, the environment, innovation and research, public safety, talent cultivators, civic life, infrastructure, wellbeing, economic development, homelessness, arts and culture, healthcare, affordable housing, and educational attainment.
Next steps listed in the presentation include establishing a “neutral, third party convener” and establishing a staff working group for priority connections, with the next meeting scheduled for February 4.
Menu and cost
The December 18 meeting was held at the Thomas Center, with a menu of sandwiches, chips, pickles, fresh fruit, potato salad, water, sweet tea, and cookies from McAlister’s Deli. Lunch cost $505.12, and the funds came from the City of Gainesville’s Government Affairs and Community Relations budget in the City Manager’s Office.
Hope the attendees a nice lunch on the taxpayers.
Unfortunately everything is done thru either a gov’t program or NGO designed to foster dependency and election strategy. Two of them are about housing but involve perpetual dependency, not independence. The goal should be freeing the people and reducing dependency.
How many marginalized individuals has Harvey “Two Face” hired to work around his house? He should do that instead of looking for fuzzy rubs from the public.
Until he does, he’s always going to be the largest hypocrite in City Hall.
Sounds like past failures 2.0
The slide should be 2/3 public safety and 1/6 economic development, 1/6 public infrastructure like roads etc. That’s it, the rest is not the business of local government.
What a great excuse for Ward and his like minded minions to eat lunch on the taxpayer dime.
McAlister’s Deli. Lunch cost $505.12
Skip lunch and LOWER our taxes.
Skip lunch!?? You know you are talking about Harvey Ward. It doesn’t look like he’s ever skipped one.
By rights, the cost number needs to include the hourly cost of the 11 government employees. It easily quadruples the cost to the taxpayers.
It is 2026 and if a person is still claiming inequality. Forget it. Harvey is just using you. Get job or 2 and work hard is the answer. This may require you to move even to another location. Sooner or later you can begin to save. Don’t depend on the government for nothing. Educate yourself, Social Security is a joke. Good Luck!!!
The report totally failed to identify anything worthwhile. The general conclusion of that 2018 report (p.32) lists two areas of concern.
1. Lack of high quality education, specifically high school
2. Employers who are unwilling to hire minorities, even those with a criminal record
Local schools have rapidly devolved since this report…why has the city and other local government agencies remained silent on the complete failure of our school district?
Employers are not unwilling to hire minorities. They are unwilling to hire criminals for very obvious liability reasons. The report tries to paint employers as racist even though the true issue is crime related, not race related.
A new group of blockheads and a revised report isn’t going to correct a damn thing. Does anyone really buy in to their hollow gestures anymore?
Another BIG factor in non-hiring of minorities (actually three) are work ethic, showing up on time for work and an adequate education for the job you get hired for and any promotions you seek. Oh, one more thing; attitude, towards customers, coworkers and bosses.
Small business jobs account for about 48% of the total in the US – 1/2 of them. Racist or not, small businesses tend to hire people in their social mileu and people who look like them and that means less blacks in these jobs.
Also, although there are exceptions to every rule, we tend to do better financially in the US if our parents were better off, if we went to better schools, and if we live in communities where a large segment of the male population aren’t unemployed. Guess what social group does not do well under any of those measure.
What group was held in slavery and then segregation in America until 60 years ago, an active part of which was denying education at all, and then later seperate and unequal education. Who told us that 350 years of this crap would be solved and forgotten in 2 generations? Who belived that or belives it now?
Being that this is all about racial inequity I assume poor white folks are ineligible. In a free society, all have the right and ability to be successful and many blacks, Hispanics, whites, and Asians have been born here with little and are now millionaires. We should instead focus on the disabled, elderly who can’t manage, and persons with various afflictions (blindness, mental retardation, etc). This is just Democrat vote buying.
When will Mayor Ward “revive” AND enforce the city’s food waste collection ordinance passed in 2022?
It would be nice if our mayor and commission would govern GNV as a city for all of its citizens, instead of pandering to special interests. Positions in government employ should be based on merit and most qualified, not based on sex, color, religion or woke, like perceived sex and political extremism.