{"id":17985,"date":"2025-10-23T22:34:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-23T22:34:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/17985\/"},"modified":"2025-10-23T22:34:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-23T22:34:08","slug":"duval-school-boards-scaled-back-request-to-hire-own-attorney-will-go-to-tallahassee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/17985\/","title":{"rendered":"Duval School Board\u2019s scaled-back request to hire own attorney will go to Tallahassee"},"content":{"rendered":"

A last-minute compromise with the Jacksonville mayor\u2019s office was enough to convince locally elected state lawmakers to carry the Duval County School Board\u2019s ask for its own attorney separate from the city\u2019s. <\/p>\n

The Duval legislative delegation, comprised of six state representatives and two senators, voted 6-2 on Wednesday to file legislation known as a \u201cJ-bill\u201d that would change Jacksonville\u2019s city charter and allow the school board more independence from the city\u2019s Office of General Counsel.\u00a0Republican Wyman Duggan will file the bill to be considered during the 2026 legislative session. <\/p>\n

Reps. Jessica Baker, R-Jacksonville; Dean Black-R, Jacksonville; Kimberly Daniels, D-Jacksonville; Kiyan Michael, R-Jacksonville; and Sen. Clay Yarborough, R-Jacksonville, joined Duggan in endorsing the J-bill.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sen. Tracie Davis and Rep. Angie Nixon, both Democrats, voted no.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The J-bill that will be sent to Tallahassee has a notable change from what the school board advanced in August. And the process that led to an 11th-hour amendment raised the eyebrows of at least two of the delegation members and some in the public.<\/p>\n

After the Jacksonville City Council narrowly declined to support<\/a> the charter change this month, school board Chair Charlotte Joyce says she met with Mike Weinstein, mayor Donna Deegan\u2019s chief of staff, to find a way to \u201cunify this vote.\u201d<\/p>\n

The compromise says the school board may hire an attorney who\u2019s independent of the city\u2019s Office of General Council. But it strips the school board\u2019s language that their attorney would be unfettered from legally binding opinions by the city\u2019s lead attorney. Instead, the bill now says the school board\u2019s attorney \u201cshall be subject to the opinion, binding or otherwise\u201d of the city\u2019s general counsel.<\/p>\n

That means the city\u2019s top attorney would still have a final say on legal decisions the school board\u2019s hired attorney makes. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe mayor\u2019s office and executive branch is not opposed to what\u2019s in front of you today,\u201d Weinstien told delegation members Wednesday.<\/p>\n

With the language change, the mayor\u2019s office flipped its position from a week ago, when Weinstein told the city council that allowing the school board legal independence elevates the risk of lawsuits between the board and city when the two entities disagree.<\/p>\n

Joyce told delegation members she discussed the compromise bill with the school board members who voted in favor of the charter change but did not consult with the two board members who voted no.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026 I felt like we had the votes to get it done anyway. Even if we didn\u2019t do that compromise in the unity, we had the votes to get it done. And we could have taken it there. I just wanted it to be stronger, and I just wanted, you know, to make sure that everybody was okay with that,\u201d Joyce told Jacksonville Today after the vote.<\/p>\n

State lawmakers\u2019 reaction<\/p>\n

Duval delegation members saw the newly amended J bill language for the first time Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Rep. Black called the compromise \u201cheartwarming,\u201d and Sen. Yarborough, said the financial savings, from paying a lawyer\u2019s salary rather than racking up billable hours with the city, could be reinvested into academics. <\/p>\n

Joyce says the district spent over $4 million in the last year for legal services through the city. <\/p>\n

\"\"Members of the Duval Legislative Delegation meet Oct. 22 at Jacksonville City Hall. | Mike Mendenhall, Jacksonville Today<\/p>\n

Sunshine concerns<\/p>\n

The revelation of one-on-one meetings between Joyce and the school board members who want the independent legal counsel caused concern for several members of the public who spoke before the Duval delegation, as well as for Rep. Nixon and Sen. Davis \u2014 Wednesday\u2019s two no votes.<\/p>\n

Nixon asked Joyce if her talks with the other school board members were properly noticed meetings.\u00a0Florida Sunshine law<\/a> requires official acts by elected officials to be taken in open public meetings.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Joyce said, because members already voted in the affirmative for the J-bill, there were not public notices for the conversation.\u00a0She also told news reporters after the meeting that, in her opinion, there \u201cwasn\u2019t a substantive change\u201d to the J-bill.<\/p>\n

Nixon did not seem convinced. \u201cWe could have heard from them, and they could have rendered whether or not they were supportive,\u201d Nixon said. \u201cThey should have had the opportunity to let us know how they supported it. It should have not just been snuck into this meeting today.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Darryl Willie was the only school board member not at the delegation meeting. Board member Cindy Pearson, who also voted against the J-bill in August, declined to take a position on the amended version. <\/p>\n

When Jacksonville Today asked Joyce if she considered taking an official vote of all members, she said there was not enough time before the J-bill deadline. <\/p>\n

As for the talks between the mayor\u2019s office and Joyce about the amendment, mayoral spokesperson Phil Perry said Florida Sunshine Law was not applicable.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A last-minute compromise with the Jacksonville mayor\u2019s office was enough to convince locally elected state lawmakers to carry…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17986,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[232,234,233],"class_list":["post-17985","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee-headlines","tag-tallahassee-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17985","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17985"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17985\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17986"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17985"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}