Attorney Leslie Jean-Bart appears Tuesday, Aug. 26, 2025, on First Coast Connect on WJCT News 89.9.
Published on August 26, 2025 at 1:05 pm
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A local attorney is asking the governor to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate what she considers potential Sunshine Law violations by Jacksonville City Council members.
Three council members acknowledge trading text messages during a council committee meeting, but they say the messages involved legislative process, not the substance of legislation under consideration.
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Florida’s Sunshine Law prohibits public officials from discussing public business outside the public eye.
Leslie Jean-Bart, president of the Democratic Black Caucus for Duval County, says she twice asked State Attorney Melissa Nelson to investigate council President Kevin Carrico and council members Mike Gay and Ron Salem. She said she got no response.
Tuesday, Jean-Bart told WJCT First Coast Connect host Anne Schindler that she now has contacted the governor’s office.
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Jean-Bart noted that the state attorney used the same political consultant as some of the lawmakers involved, which she thinks poses a conflict of interest. She raised that issue in her letter to Gov.
Ron DeSantis.
The shared consultant “raises serious concerns about impartiality and undermines public confidence in the integrity of any prosecutorial decision-making in this case,” she wrote. “The citizens of Jacksonville deserve a thorough and impartial review of the allegations.”
On First Coast Connect, Jean-Bart said: “The governor has the power to appoint a prosecutor, another state attorney to investigate the matter. He has certainly done this in the past. And he has this ability if there’s a conflict or if the current state attorney is unwilling or unable to do an investigation.”
A knowing violation of the Sunshine Law is a second-degree misdemeanor punishable by 60 days in jail, a fine or removal from office.
