Jacksonville Council to extend attorney’s contract until September 2025 to help usher stadium deal

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — At 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday, we’ll get our first official glimpse at the framework for the Jags stadium deal.

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In the meantime, virtually everyone is in the dark, including council members.

“I am not aware of what is in the agreement,” said Council President Ron Salem (R-Group 2 At-Large).

“I haven’t heard a thing actually. I’m surprised we’ve got this far and the council hasn’t really been involved, but I guess that’s the process,” said Councilmember Kevin Carrico (R-District 4).

While the terms of the overarching deal may not yet be known, council members are already signaling they may need some additional time to fine-tune the agreement before giving the final stamp of approval.

After Tuesday night’s presentation, legislation set to come up would extend the council’s contract with the attorney hired to help them hammer out a final deal through September 30th of next year.

According to council member Action News Jax spoke with, it’s intended to ensure he’ll still be available if negotiations extend into the next fiscal year, which starts on October 1st of this year.

“We certainly shouldn’t try to rush a billion-dollar-plus deal. If we need more time, I believe that legislation is more or less a security blanket,” said Carrico.

Carrico said it will all depend on how happy the council is with the framework deal presented Tuesday night.

“We could get a phenomenal deal that we all read through and go through a special committee and pass it out, or we could get a deal that needs a lot of changes and tweaks and that’s going to require time,” said Carrico.

President Salem said he anticipates the presentation to the council will begin around 5:10 PM Tuesday.

The mayor and Jaguar’s President Mark Lamping are both set to speak.

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