{"id":44558,"date":"2025-11-13T01:07:06","date_gmt":"2025-11-13T01:07:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/44558\/"},"modified":"2025-11-13T01:07:06","modified_gmt":"2025-11-13T01:07:06","slug":"new-bill-could-require-jacksonville-council-ceremonies-to-be-held-in-public-spaces-action-news-jax","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/44558\/","title":{"rendered":"New bill could require Jacksonville council ceremonies to be held in public spaces \u2013 Action News Jax"},"content":{"rendered":"

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 A new bill is in the works after an Action News Jax investigation<\/a> into the cost of a lavish Jacksonville City Council leadership ceremony.<\/p>\n

Councilman Matt Carlucci tells Action News Jax he plans to introduce legislation within the next two weeks that would require future installation events for the City Council President and other officers to be held in facilities owned or operated by the City of Jacksonville or one of its independent agencies.<\/p>\n

>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen new leaders take their oath, they should happen in spaces that belong to the whole community, not a select few,\u201d Carlucci said in a statement.<\/p>\n

The proposal aims to increase transparency and ensure public access to events that celebrate the city\u2019s top elected officials.<\/p>\n

Background: $200K installation ceremony<\/p>\n

Last week, Action News Jax uncovered that Council President Kevin Carrico\u2019s installation ceremony in June cost more than $200,000.<\/p>\n

While most of the event was funded by lobbyists and donors, taxpayers still covered more than $14,000 for the venue rental at Deerwood Castle, home of the Jacksonville Sports Car Museum.<\/p>\n

[DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks<\/a>]<\/p>\n

That finding sparked questions about transparency and accountability in how the city conducts its ceremonial events, especially since Becker discovered the family of Council Finance chair Raul Arias was hired for $37,000 to work the event. <\/p>\n

What the bill would do<\/p>\n

Under Carlucci\u2019s proposal:<\/p>\n

Council installation ceremonies and related events must be open to the public and held in city-owned facilities.Approved venues must be ADA-compliant, allow media coverage, and have the capacity for live streaming.A list of eligible city venues would be maintained by the Council Director\/Secretary.Any request to use a non-city facility would require a two-thirds vote of the full council and a written justification.<\/p>\n

[SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter<\/a>] <\/p>\n

The ordinance states that holding ceremonies in public facilities \u201creduces the appearance of exclusivity\u201d and \u201censures maximum opportunity for public access and attendance.\u201d<\/p>\n

If approved, the measure would become law after being signed by the mayor.<\/p>\n

RELATED: \u2018OMG, I can\u2019t believe this\u2019: Questions over city contract linking council leaders, local company<\/a><\/p>\n

Read the full ordinance here:<\/p>\n

Click here<\/a> to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, click here<\/a> to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and click here<\/a> to stream Action News Jax live.<\/p>\n

Action News Jax Top Stories<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 A new bill is in the works after an Action News Jax investigation into the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":44559,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116,118,117,3282,3281,3280],"class_list":{"0":"post-44558","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-jacksonville","9":"tag-jacksonville-headlines","10":"tag-jacksonville-news","11":"tag-lakana","12":"tag-lakanamigration","13":"tag-wjax-wokv-partner"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44558","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=44558"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44558\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}