JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A local attorney is calling on the State Attorney’s Office to investigate three Jacksonville City Council members for potential violations of Florida’s Sunshine Law, raising new concerns about transparency inside City Hall.
Attorney Leslie Jean-Bart submitted a formal request asking State Attorney Melissa Nelson to investigate Council President Kevin Carrico, Councilman Mike Gay, and Councilman Ron Salem over alleged private discussions about public matters — conversations that may have occurred outside of the public eye.
Jean-Bart, who also serves as president of the Democratic Black Caucus for Duval County, had already requested an investigation last week over a series of text messages between the council members during an Aug. 4 Neighborhoods Committee meeting. The messages reportedly involved discussions about pending amendment bills — a potential breach of Florida’s Sunshine Law, which prohibits elected officials from discussing public business in private.
Now, Jean-Bart is raising new concerns following remarks made by Salem during an interview with News4JAX on Aug. 15.
“So President Carrico was involved in something with the mayor’s office and asked me to draft legislation that would split everything,” Salem said, referring to legislation related to event gifts.
The statement quickly drew scrutiny from fellow council members.
“I just wonder where he asked him about this. Was this a public meeting?” Councilman Matt Carlucci asked in response.
Jean-Bart said those comments raise red flags.
“What was that conversation? What did it look like? What were you talking about? What were your motivations?” she said. “All of those different things we as citizens are entitled to know. And what there was — a lot of comfort mentioning that this happened — that this is something the President does.”
In her latest request to the State Attorney’s Office, Jean-Bart alleges that the conversation between Carrico and Salem about drafting legislation — as well as prior text message exchanges, including Councilman Mike Gay — may constitute violations of the state’s open-government law.
Full email can be found below
“So Mike Gay was chair of the Neighborhoods Committee. He was apparently texting Carrico, and then you had Ron Salem also texting Carrico and disclosing that it was okay with Carrico — basically getting the okay from Carrico to vote yes on amendments,” Jean-Bart said.
She added that she believes the issue may reflect a broader pattern of noncompliance within the council.
“I think we are definitely looking at a more extensive problem that we’re seeing with the City Council and their communications outside of the Sunshine,” Jean-Bart said.
The Sunshine Law, part of Florida’s open-government statutes, requires that decisions by public boards and commissions be made in meetings open to the public, and prohibits elected officials from discussing public business in private outside such meetings.
News4JAX reached out to all three council members for comment.
Council President Kevin Carrico wrote the following: “Let’s be clear: this is nothing more than a partisan and false attack from liberal Leslie Jean-Bart, a local political hack for radical Democrats. Jacksonville families are sick of these kinds of political stunts designed to smear elected officials and generate bogus headlines.
As far as tickets, I oppose Councilmember Salem’s legislation as written. Instead, it’s long past time to end ALL taxpayer-subsidized Jaguar tickets for both the City Council and the Mayor. Taxpayers shouldn’t be forced to bankroll political perks. I will be filing an amendment to eliminate this practice in the coming days and I call on Mayor Donna Deegan to join me in support. It’s time to end this ridiculous handout for good."
Councilman Ron Salem also responded in a statement: “The ticket issue was a policy that was important to the Council President. This matter was handled just like the other policy assignments where the President asks individual Council Members to look into and propose a response - potentially through legislation. My DOGE committee and the children’s after school and recreation programs are other examples. I wasn’t directed to achieve a result, I was just asked to look into the Mayor’s new ticket policy. My legislation is my proposed solution to this new policy. And in all fairness, I had discussions with and alerted the Administration before I decided to file my ticket policy bill. ”
As of publication, Councilman Mike Gay has not responded to requests for comment.