An aircraft at Boeing’s maintenance and repair facility at Cecil Airport. | Jacksonville Aviation Authority photo

The Jacksonville Aviation Authority’s board of directors unanimously voted on Thursday in a tense special meeting to go through with its high-stakes threat to hire an outside attorney and sue City Hall after an alleged yearslong effort to “pickpocket” the airport’s sizable cash reserves. 

But, after hearing from city officials, who said the suit would tear away at the fabric of Jacksonville’s consolidated government, the board allowed for a 30-day window to mediate with City Hall outside court.

“We’re not drawing lines in the sand. We want to work in that 30 days to try to come up with a good resolution for the city, for the JAA,” said JAA board chair David Hodges in comments after the meeting.

In a blunt 43-page draft lawsuit, the JAA alleges that the City Council, with newly sworn-in President Nick Howland as the main instigator, has attempted to coerce airport officials over the past several years to divert its some $400 million in cash on hand to the develop Cecil Airport and other city projects. The suit accuses the council of mismanaging city finances and looking for someone else to pay the cost.

At the center of the dispute is a $10 million line item the City Council added to JAA’s budget this fiscal year to pay to expand Florida State College at Jacksonville’s aviation mechanic program. That came after multiple prior ideas Howland floated with aviation officials in recent years, including a $10 million contribution to the Kids Hope Alliance and $25 million to raise the power lines over the St. Johns River. 

Howland, however, told the board Thursday those prior proposals “no longer exist,” though he believes JAA can do more to bolster workforce development and assist FSCJ. The city’s general counsel helped Howland draft the budget amendment and state-level legislation, which is now law, that added workforce development to JAA’s mission.

Howland said the Cecil line item should only be spent if all agencies, including the Federal Aviation Administration, “agreed on a collaborative solution.”

“Our general counsel has already concluded that the budget actions were lawful and that JAA is part of the consolidated government, and he’s not alone. Republicans and Democrats agree,” Howland said.

“Only you on this board or JAA management disagree.”

Michael Fackler, the city general counsel, raised the specter with board members that a lawsuit could erode the foundations of Jacksonville’s municipal government and that the agency “went behind my back and did what it wanted to do.” 

Litigation between the city and one of its independent agencies, like JAA, is rare because city attorneys have generally held that such lawsuits violate the charter, which decades ago created a consolidated county-city government. 

“Give us an opportunity to answer the questions that you have instead of running off to a court and creating unnecessary confusion,” Fackler said.

While not named as an individual defendant, Howland was singled out in the lawsuit as the most vocal member of city government pushing the authority to invest more into Cecil, a former Navy base with the longest runway on the East Coast. 

The JAA has repeatedly indicated that such revenue diversions would violate FAA standards. They believe federal regulators are firmly on their side in the dispute.

Howland has been pushing publicly and privately to capitalize on the growing aerospace industry by developing Cecil. However, the FAA said the board could not legally use its revenue to pay for the FSCJ program at Hangar 14, a plan that would require the JAA to end an existing long-term lease that ends in 2041. But Howland said it’s possible for aviation officials to think creatively to help the school.

As the city’s chief legal officer, Fackler said the JAA is unable to sue the consolidated city government and his office can answer legal questions.

“Just so we’re crystal clear, do not do revenue diversion. That’s my advice to you guys. I can’t be any clearer than that,” Fackler said. “Council cannot make you do revenue diversion. I don’t think I can be any clearer than that.”

Molly Farrar is a Report for America corps member and the Florida Trib’s Jacksonville municipal watchdog reporter. She can be reached at molly.farrar@floridatrib.org.

Molly Farrar covers accountability and policy in the consolidated city-county government of Jacksonville for The Florida Trib. Before joining us as a Report for America corps member, Farrar worked as a staff writer for Boston.com with the Boston Globe, WHDH Channel 7, and as a freelance reporter in the Greater Boston area covering local politics. Her news and transportation reporting won regional awards, and Farrar was selected as a First Amendment Institute Fellow with the New England First Amendment Coalition. Her investigative work on criminal justice and prisons was published in GBH News and The Intercept. Her stories have also appeared in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and The Boston Globe. Farrar graduated from Boston University with a degree in journalism and cello performance, where she also served as editor-in-chief of the Daily Free Press, the independent student newspaper. You can reach Molly at molly.farrar@floridatrib.org.