Newly released text messages offer an unusual, but incomplete, view into a series of unguarded conversations between Jacksonville City Council President Kevin Carrico and a raft of his political allies, friends and colleagues.

Together, they show Carrico, a Republican, to be an enthusiastic political operator — joking, for example, about booting an ally of the city’s Democratic mayor from a committee assignment. They also show him repeatedly discussing public business with a tone that is at times flippant, at others cryptic and at turns remarkably direct. “Need this permit closed out bro,” he told one city zoning staffer in an undated message. “… it’s a favor to church for (former Jacksonville mayor) Lenny Curry.”

The manner of the text messages’ release is itself the subject of scrutiny, with a City Council staffer and former General Counsel at first saying that every record requested by local news organizations was provided, but later refusing a Florida Trib reporter access to inspect the files, acknowledging that they contained information that was withheld.

The texts were part of a batch of records Carrico had to turn over in response to a subpoena from State Attorney Melissa Nelson’s office to the council’s secretary, Jason Teal. The Florida Trib and a coalition of Jacksonville media organizations fought for the release of those records, which city council staffers initially said would cost nearly $4,000.

The State Attorney investigation is related to a winding controversy swirling around Carrico and the city’s publicly owned electric, water and sewer utility, JEA. Nelson’s office has declined to comment on any of the several subpoenas that the Trib and its news partner, News4Jax, have discovered in public records.

Council staff eventually reduced the cost of the subpoena records, but allowed Carrico to withhold some of the documents. The texts, for example, have often been stripped of context, and in several places the records have been visibly obscured. Asked about the missing information, Teal, the city council secretary, initially said, “There were no redactions or exclusions based on any statutory exemption. Every public record that was included in the subpoenaed documents was provided pursuant to your public record request.”

When a Florida Trib reporter requested to inspect the original records in person, Teal then denied her, saying that the original records contained information that had been held back from the media.

In a statement, Mitchell A. Stone, a Jacksonville criminal defense lawyer, said Carrico, his client, had “carefully reviewed” the records and withheld communications he deemed were too private to provide. “My client takes seriously his obligation to fully comply with Florida’s public records laws.”

It’s unclear how much has been held back, and neither Teal nor Carrico have identified any specific laws permitting them to do so, as is standard when public officials withhold information contained within otherwise public records.

The Florida Trib is seeking the full set of records for insight into what issues state prosecutors are probing and to learn more about how Carrico, a two-term council member and part of an influential GOP voting bloc, has conducted public business, particularly during his year as the body’s president.

Carrico’s day job intersects with city government

It’s unclear what standard Carrico applied to deem certain text messages private and unrelated to his role as a member of the Jacksonville City Council. In some cases, council staff provided texts but withheld information such as the date it was sent, or who the recipient was. It’s unclear why the substance of a text could be considered non-private and disclosable, while the recipient and other details considered private.

Stone said in his statement that Carrico turned over “numerous personal communications with family members and friends” to prosecutors that he was refusing to provide the public. “While some media organizations may have hoped to obtain additional personal information through this request, satisfying media curiosity is not the legal standard governing public records disclosure.”

Carrico’s private and public lives are, to some degree, intertwined: He is the chief operating officer at the Boys & Girls Club of Northeast Florida, which regularly receives city grant funding.

In recent years, the Boys & Girls Club in Nassau County — which jointly operates facilities with its Northeast Florida neighbor — had asked JEA to donate a valuable piece of land for new youth centers. JEA never moved forward on that deal, but it has become of interest to prosecutors: They sent JEA a subpoena last month for records relating to that potential donation.

Carrico’s records show that he had an interest in the Nassau land deal.

“Hey bro, remember when you looked into the Nassau land next to the Boys & Girls Club?” Carrico asked JEA’s former chief of staff, Kurt Wilson, in a December text.

The text thread then abruptly ends. It’s unclear why.

Big favor for a friend

Earlier this year, Carrico moved to put Paul Martinez, his boss at the Boys & Girls Club of Northeast Florida, on the utility’s board of directors. To do so, he had to replace an existing member of the board who was up for reappointment, Arthur Adams, a former vice president at CSX. In a text to Adams, Carrico described his decision as as “big favor” to a “friend.”

“… I look forward to having a drink with you man,” Carrico offered to Adams after delivering the news he was set to be replaced.

That conversation became the subject of a subpoena from Nelson’s office to Teal, the council secretary, which sought some of Carrico’s records. At the time, Carrico chalked his language up to his informal speaking style, and he accused JEA of fostering a toxic, racist work environment that needed new leadership. Carrico has never provided evidence of that work culture, but he created a council committee to look into the utility.

In the texts Carrico turned over to Nelson’s prosecutors, there is a cryptic January 20 message from Carrico: “Guess it’s time they get a new board member to show them who’s boss … You ready to play the game?”

The text has been visibly altered and contains no other context, including who received Carrico’s message. He later confirmed to Florida Trib news partner News4Jax that he’d sent that to Martinez (Martinez later pulled out of consideration).

Carrico has repeatedly had to address the tone of his texts after they publicly surfaced. “I’m a straight shooter, and sometimes that means my language is more blunt than polished,” he said in a statement about his mesages to Martinez.

There are texts that show Carrico to plainly discuss his priorities. “Let’s go man … gotta hold down the school board, super majority including at large and then push hard for the mayor’s office!” he told one associate.

Nate Monroe is the executive editor of The Florida Trib. He can be reached at nate.monroe@floridatrib.org.

Florida Trib reporter Trinity Webster-Bass contributed to this story.