The Duval County legislative delegation will be carrying a pair of pared-down proposals into the 2026 Legislative Session, both of which started more ambitiously than they ended up.
Ultimately, these measures to change consolidated government were reined in by the structure itself, with the scopes narrowed before state legislators heard them Wednesday.
One bill was previously envisioned as a path to set up a general counsel for the Duval County School Board.
That bill met resistance from the Council, whose members said it threatened the consolidated government model, ahead of voting against recommending the charter change to the delegation.
The controversy that a majority of the City Council couldn’t abide stemmed from whether DCSB could subvert the independent authority of the city’s General Counsel. Its own lawyer was offering a binding opinion that could sidestep the charter, thereby putting power in the city lawyer’s hands.
Ultimately, the Board also modified its proposal.
School Board Chair Charlotte Joyce noted the School Board was concerned about the candidates who applied earlier this year for an opening not being certified in education law, and said other districts pick their own lawyers, who are eligible for the Florida Retirement System.
A previous general counsel for the city wrote a memo arguing the Board could have an in-house attorney, Joyce added, before explaining that after deliberation, the Board seeks to modify the language to make the Board’s separate counsel subject to the binding opinion of the city’s general counsel.
Sen. Tracie Davis asked Joyce about whether this was a “political move.”
Joyce said in response that the School Board is an autonomous organization.
“Number one, the School Board of Duval County School District is different than all of the other agencies in the city of Jacksonville. We are seven duly elected representatives. The second, and I think more important thing, is that the City Council does not approve our budget,” Joyce said.
Furthermore, Vice-Chair April Carney said the Board is “co-equal” to the City Council and that they’d have better lawyers if they could hire them directly.
Mike Weinstein, the Chief of Staff for Mayor Donna Deegan, said the executive branch is not opposed to the revamped proposal, offering further assurances for those who might need them.
City Council President Kevin Carrico, who filed the version of the bill the Council rejected, spoke in favor of the revamped language.
“The amendment helps give the binding authority to the General Counsel,” Carrico said, arguing that the Council would have passed the current version of the bill.
While Rep. Angie Nixon objected to the J-Bill because Chair Joyce did not show Board members the changed bill, she did not change enough minds to kill the bill.
Rep. Kim Daniels hailed the Deegan administration and the School Board for “coming together so we have a better place to start as we go to Tallahassee with this.”
Others downplayed concerns about changing Jacksonville’s foundational document.
“It’s not the Ten Commandments,” argued Rep. Dean Black. “It’s the charter, written by men.”
Another bill, championed by Jacksonville City Council Vice President Nick Howland, no longer seeks to rename the Jacksonville Aviation Authority after the independent agency balked at the initial proposal.
Instead, the new plan to “accelerate job creation” is to set up an Economic Development Committee to work toward bringing direct route international flights to the Jacksonville International Airport and to use JAA to drive more aerospace business to Cecil Field, with the Committee reporting annually to that end.
Speaker Pro Tempore Wyman Duggan will carry both pieces of legislation.