JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Just days after City Council President Kevin Carrico said he asked another councilman to look into how free tickets and perks for events at city-owned venues are distributed among councilmembers, he’s now going against the legislation councilman proposed and calling for the elimination of the long-held practice related to Jacksonville Jaguars tickets.
Carrico said Tuesday he is filing an amendment to Councilman Ron Salem’s proposed legislation to “eliminate ALL taxpayer subsidized Jaguar tickets for both the City Council and the Mayor’s Office.”
On Friday, Salem said he authored the legislation at the request of Carrico and introduced it on Aug. 12 after Carrico ran into issues getting free tickets to events from Mayor Donna Deegan’s office.
The “DEEGAN Amendment,” which Carrico said stands for “Denying Elected Elites Gameday Access Nonsense,” closes the door on elected officials “using public dollars for gameday perks.”
“With recent policy changes and the Council’s continued effort to cut government waste, I am proud to file the DEEGAN Amendment to officially end the practice of free Jaguar tickets for elected officials,” said Carrico. “Taxpayers should not bankroll politicians’ tickets and the DEEGAN Amendment puts an end to that. I’m calling on Mayor Donna Deegan to back this reform and prove she’s on the side of taxpayers, not perks. If Jacksonville families must buy their own tickets, politicians should too.”
Carrico and Deegan have been trading jabs through the media for days amid the ongoing city budget process, and that continued Tuesday with the announcement of the new amendment.
Deegan, in a statement to News4JAX responding to the amendment, said, “While I’m flattered this amendment was named after me, I’m not the one asking for more tickets. I’ve been a Jaguars season ticket holder for decades. I’d be happy to return to my longstanding north end zone seats, which I still pay for.”
The proposal, as previously written, would have changed the way the city distributes free event tickets and VIP perks, like free parking and box seats to Jaguars games, that it receives from city-owned venues like EverBank Stadium, Daily’s Place, and the VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena. Currently, these perks for concerts and sporting events are sent to the mayor’s office, which then distributes them at its discretion.
Councilman Salem said it’s only fair that the mayor’s office and the city council split the perks evenly.
Councilman Matt Carlucci criticized the proposal and said the legislation is a contradiction of public service. The proposal also received some backlash from the public.
On Monday, Carrico first said he would not support Salem’s legislation as written and said in a statement that the practice involving Jaguars tickets should end.
Carrico said Tuesday he introduced the amendment because families are facing higher costs across the board, and accountability and fairness must come first.
“If the City Council wants to update the ticket system that has been in place for many years before I took office, I’m all for it,” Deegan said. “That said, why stop with Jaguars tickets? Let’s look at all tickets for city-owned venues as part of this process.”
The mayor’s office said Jaguars tickets are provided to the city as part of venue tenant lease agreements and the venue management company contract. The mayor’s office said the practice began many years ago for economic development and relationship-building efforts.
The mayor’s office said the City Suite for Jaguars games will continue to be split 50-50 between the administration and City Council unless it is changed.
All Jaguars club seats, Jaguars terrace seats, and any other city-owned venue tickets will be made available upon request from community members, city employees, and the City Council, the mayor’s office said, adding that the system is designed to ensure transparency and that ticket distribution is not abused.
Carrico said his amendment will be filed in the coming days and “deserves swift approval.”
There are also concerns over potential violations of Florida’s Sunshine Law related to the original crafting of the proposal by Salem.
“So President Carrico was involved in something with the mayor’s office and asked me to draft legislation that would split everything,” Salem told News4JAX on Friday, 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?” Carlucci wondered.
“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...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,” Salem wrote in a statement in response to Carlucci’s question.
But Jacksonville attorney Leslie Jean-Bart said Salem’s comments raised 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 a 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 during an Aug. 4 Neighborhoods Committee meeting — may constitute violations of the state’s open-government law.
Carrico called the Sunshine Law allegations “a partisan and false attack.”
