{"id":302443,"date":"2025-10-14T11:01:13","date_gmt":"2025-10-14T11:01:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/302443\/"},"modified":"2025-10-14T11:01:13","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T11:01:13","slug":"city-council-to-vote-on-resolution-that-would-allow-duval-county-school-board-to-hire-its-own-legal-counsel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/302443\/","title":{"rendered":"City council to vote on resolution that would allow Duval County School Board to hire its own legal counsel"},"content":{"rendered":"

DUVAL COUNTY, Fla.<\/strong> \u2013 The Jacksonville City Council is expected to vote on a resolution on Tuesday that could change how the Duval County School Board gets legal advice by allowing the board to hire its own attorney.<\/p>\n

The push for the Duval County School Board to get its own general counsel began in August, when the Board voted to ask the city of Jacksonville to amend its charter, paving the way for the board to hire its own legal counsel. The move passed by a 5-2 vote.<\/p>\n

RELATED | <\/b>\u2018We should at least look\u2019: Duval County School Board votes to seek its own general counsel independent from COJ<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

It\u2019s called Resolution 2025-0695<\/a>, and it supports Local Bill J-1. <\/p>\n

A J-bill would allow the city charter to be changed at the state level instead of approval by Duval County voters.<\/p>\n

Currently, the city\u2019s Office of General Counsel handles legal matters for all city agencies, including the school board. One of its responsibilities is hiring legal representation for the school board.<\/p>\n

But back in August, Board Chair Charlotte Joyce said this arrangement is limiting the district\u2019s options.<\/p>\n

\u201cLooking at the quality of applicants and the number of applicants, we just didn\u2019t really have the depth that I felt like was needed for a large urban school district in Florida,\u201d Joyce said.<\/p>\n

The Board said it needs its own legal voice to better serve students and make decisions without relying on the city\u2019s legal opinions.<\/p>\n

The push for change comes as the board struggles to replace its previous attorney, Ray Pool, who resigned in May. Joyce explained in August that Duval is one of the few school districts in Florida where the board does not hire its own counsel, making recruitment difficult.<\/p>\n

She also noted that attorneys hired under the current system must leave their state retirement benefits behind\u2014a further obstacle to attracting qualified candidates.<\/p>\n

If City Council votes \u201cyes\u201d on Tuesday, the resolution will be sent to the Duval Delegation, the group of state lawmakers who represent Duval County in Tallahassee.<\/p>\n

The final decision would then be up to state lawmakers.<\/p>\n

Before state lawmakers can vote, public hearings would be held locally so people in the community can learn about the proposal and share their opinions on whether the School Board should have its own attorney.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2025 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DUVAL COUNTY, Fla. \u2013 The Jacksonville City Council is expected to vote on a resolution on Tuesday that…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":121876,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5136],"tags":[5229,26459,8314,3188,723,7310,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-302443","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-dcps","10":"tag-duval-county","11":"tag-fl","12":"tag-florida","13":"tag-jacksonville","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-united-states-of-america","16":"tag-unitedstates","17":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","18":"tag-us","19":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115372181703182667","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302443","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=302443"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302443\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/121876"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=302443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=302443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=302443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}