{"id":304903,"date":"2025-10-15T08:36:20","date_gmt":"2025-10-15T08:36:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/304903\/"},"modified":"2025-10-15T08:36:20","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T08:36:20","slug":"jacksonville-city-council-votes-no-on-charter-change-that-would-let-school-board-hire-separate-attorney","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/304903\/","title":{"rendered":"Jacksonville City Council votes no on charter change that would let school board hire separate attorney"},"content":{"rendered":"

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. <\/strong> \u2013 The Jacksonville City Council voted against a resolution that would have allowed the Duval County School Board to change the city charter and hire its own attorney. <\/p>\n

The resolution failed narrowly, 8 to 9, keeping the current system in place, where the city\u2019s Office of General Counsel is responsible for hiring the school board\u2019s attorney.<\/p>\n

RELATED: <\/b>City Council rejects plans for apartment complex to be built on former Northwest Jacksonville landfill site<\/a><\/p>\n

Supporters of the change argued that allowing the school board to hire its own attorney would improve the hiring process and address issues with the current consolidated legal services. <\/p>\n

Board Chair Charlotte Joyce previously explained the challenges under the current system. She said that hiring an attorney through the Office of General Counsel limits the pool of qualified candidates. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re one of the few districts that don\u2019t have the ability to hire our own attorney,\u201d she said. Joyce also pointed out that attorneys hired under the current system must forfeit their state retirement benefits, making recruitment more difficult.<\/p>\n

During the city council debate, Councilman Rory Diamond supported the resolution, emphasizing the cracks in the current consolidated system. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe biggest issue we have when it comes to consolidation today is that we have a school board that is completely removed from us. They have their own budget, their own elections, their own universe,\u201d Diamond said. \u201cI\u2019ve been told that we should not try to be a super school board, we should let them go and do what they want to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Diamond also noted that sometimes fixes are needed when consolidation causes problems.<\/p>\n

However, Councilman Jimmy Peluso opposed the change, arguing that the city charter should not be altered through this resolution. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe concerns we\u2019ve heard about hiring their own attorney, making sure that person\u2019s qualified. It\u2019s my understanding those concerns have been figured out in the past year.\u201d Peluso said.<\/p>\n

He noted that the city has a charter revision commission that meets every ten years to recommend changes. <\/p>\n

The debate dates back to August, when the school board voted 5 to 2 to advance the charter change proposal. Board Chair Charlotte Joyce expressed concerns that hiring an attorney through the Office of General Counsel limits the pool of qualified candidates. She also pointed out that attorneys hired under the current system must forfeit their state retirement benefits.<\/p>\n

The school board has been trying to replace Board Attorney Ray Poole since May. Joyce emphasized that Duval County is one of the few districts without the ability to hire its own attorney, which she said is a disadvantage.<\/p>\n

During public comment, opinions were divided. Some residents voiced concerns about the potential impact of the change, while others, including Board Member Melody Bolduc, supported the move.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe city tells us who our attorney will be and how much we\u2019re going to pay,\u201d Bolduc said. \u201cThe only service we share with the city is legal counsel right now. Historically, that arrangement has not benefited the school board or our students, families, and constituents. Over the past two years, we have paid more than $2.3 million for legal services. Work that could have been largely accomplished by our own board-certified education attorney at a fraction of the cost.\u201d<\/p>\n

Opponents of the change, like Jamie Travis Leonard, expressed concerns about the original purpose of the Office of General Counsel. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe OCG was created in 1968 after voters approved consolidation to ensure consistency, minimize conflict, [and] provide unbiased legal to parts of our consolidated government, including the school board,\u201d Leonard said. \u201c[It] continues to exist to protect the public interest, not any entity\u2019s agenda.\u201d<\/p>\n

Copyright 2025 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 The Jacksonville City Council voted against a resolution that would have allowed the Duval County…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":304904,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5136],"tags":[5229,5310,56179,3188,723,7310,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-304903","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-city-council","10":"tag-duval-county-public-schools","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\/115377273842806774","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304903","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=304903"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304903\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/304904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=304903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=304903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=304903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}