JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – New questions are being raised about newly released public records tied to Jacksonville City Council President Kevin Carrico and a state investigation into the attempted appointment of his boss to the JEA board.
The questions center on two different images of the same Carrico text message. One was provided last week to Jacksonville media outlets and another later sent to Florida Trib Executive Editor Nate Monroe after he asked for additional context and posed questions about unexplained omissions.
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Placed side by side, the images appear visibly different, with changes in timestamp placement, cropping and missing header and recipient information. The differences have prompted scrutiny over why a public record would be released in an altered form.
“These are two different documents, these are two different records,” Monroe said. “And one of the questions that I have for the city is which one is the one that he actually gave over to the state attorney’s office.”
Carrico has acknowledged sending a message to his boss, Paul Martinez, that reads: “Guess it’s time they get a new board member to show them who’s boss. Are you ready to play the game?”
Monroe said a follow-up records request revealed the message was part of a larger conversation, and that the earlier version provided to media did not show the full context.
“The version that they gave last week obscured the fact that there is an entire top half to this message that we are not seeing,” Monroe said. “They have not explained, other than a kind of vague talking point about withholding personal information. And they haven’t provided us any specific statutory reason why that stuff is being held back.”
The controversy follows a separate text message in February, when Carrico pushed to appoint Martinez, his boss at the Boys & Girls Club, to the JEA board. In a message to outgoing board member Arthur Adams, Carrico referred to the appointment as a “favor,” according to previously reported records.
In a newly released statement, city council attorneys said Carrico’s compliance with a criminal investigation subpoena included both personal communications and public records containing search terms provided by investigators.
However, they said only documents that qualify as public records would be produced in response to public records requests, and that private communications do not become public records simply because they were submitted under subpoena.
Monroe and News4JAX have questioned how portions of the same text message could be treated differently, with part released publicly and other parts withheld.
“What we can see in the half of this message that is disclosed is this phrase, ‘Guess it’s time,’” Monroe said. “That sentence implies that whatever came before it has some relationship to this. You don’t just say ‘guess it’s time’ out of nowhere. You say guess it’s time play the gave in response to something. It’s like an if-then statement.”
The public records process has also drawn criticism over cost and transparency. When News4JAX and other outlets first requested subpoenaed Carrico documents, the city initially estimated the cost at about $4,000. After media attorneys became involved, that estimate dropped to about $200, according to the outlets.
News4JAX and the Florida Trib said they are awaiting further response from city council attorneys about the latest records release and the differences between the two versions of the text message image.