Duval County School Board Chair Charlotte Joyce speaks during a School Board meeting. | Jacksonville Today
Published on October 23, 2025 at 5:55 pm
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A last-minute compromise with the Jacksonville mayor’s office was enough to convince locally elected state lawmakers to carry the Duval County School Board’s ask for its own attorney separate from the city’s.
The Duval legislative delegation, comprised of six state representatives and two senators, voted 6-2 on Wednesday to file legislation known as a “J-bill” that would change Jacksonville’s city charter and allow the school board more independence from the city’s Office of General Counsel. Republican Wyman Duggan will file the bill to be considered during the 2026 legislative session.
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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.
Sen. Tracie Davis and Rep. Angie Nixon, both Democrats, voted no.
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.
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After the Jacksonville City Council narrowly declined to support the charter change this month, school board Chair Charlotte Joyce says she met with Mike Weinstein, mayor Donna Deegan’s chief of staff, to find a way to “unify this vote.”
The compromise says the school board may hire an attorney who’s independent of the city’s Office of General Council. But it strips the school board’s language that their attorney would be unfettered from legally binding opinions by the city’s lead attorney. Instead, the bill now says the school board’s attorney “shall be subject to the opinion, binding or otherwise” of the city’s general counsel.
That means the city’s top attorney would still have a final say on legal decisions the school board’s hired attorney makes.
“The mayor’s office and executive branch is not opposed to what’s in front of you today,” Weinstien told delegation members Wednesday.
With the language change, the mayor’s 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.
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.
“… I felt like we had the votes to get it done anyway. Even if we didn’t 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,” Joyce told Jacksonville Today after the vote.
State lawmakers’ reaction
Duval delegation members saw the newly amended J bill language for the first time Wednesday.
Rep. Black called the compromise “heartwarming,” and Sen. Yarborough, said the financial savings, from paying a lawyer’s salary rather than racking up billable hours with the city, could be reinvested into academics.
Joyce says the district spent over $4 million in the last year for legal services through the city.
Sunshine concerns
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 — Wednesday’s two no votes.
Nixon asked Joyce if her talks with the other school board members were properly noticed meetings. Florida Sunshine law requires official acts by elected officials to be taken in open public meetings.
Joyce said, because members already voted in the affirmative for the J-bill, there were not public notices for the conversation. She also told news reporters after the meeting that, in her opinion, there “wasn’t a substantive change” to the J-bill.
Nixon did not seem convinced. “We could have heard from them, and they could have rendered whether or not they were supportive,” Nixon said. “They should have had the opportunity to let us know how they supported it. It should have not just been snuck into this meeting today.”
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.
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.
As for the talks between the mayor’s office and Joyce about the amendment, mayoral spokesperson Phil Perry said Florida Sunshine Law was not applicable.
