A.G. Gancarski
A fascinating little subplot has emerged in the Jacksonville mayor’s race. It involves incumbent Democrat Alvin Brown and his team’s recent skirmish with Action News Jax over what is “campaign time” and what is “city time.”
The discussion matters right now given that Brown, in service to the news cycle and the exigencies of endorsements and scheduling, has held some endorsement events on weekdays. They include the recent endorsements by U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson and two Republican city councilmen.
In the provocatively titled “Campaign law fact check: Mayor Brown dodges Action News questions,” the local TV outlet provides a transcript and video account of a contentious exchange the Mayor had Tuesday with Lorena Inclán, one of the most tenacious reporters in this market:
“Yesterday, you had a meeting with city council members endorsing you, wasn’t that during official time?” Action News reporter Lorena Inclán asked.
“I’ll let you answer that question for her, Jim (Piggott, a WJXT-TV reporter on the scene at both events), because I can’t answer campaign, can you answer that question you were there?” Brown said.
“The thing is you can, you just don’t want to,” Inclán said.
“I was not official, I was on campaign time,” Brown said.
“But can you admit that you just don’t want to answer my questions though, it’s not about …?” Inclán said Tuesday.
“OK, I don’t want to answer your question,” Brown said.
In its story, Action News features a comment from a local First Amendment attorney, who asserts that the “law says that any elected official running for re-election can express his or her opinion about any subject he wants to.”
Addressing the same subject in The Florida Times-Union, reporter David Bauerlein offered a quote from a Monday exchange between Inclán and Brown, while also presenting the opinion of Duval County Supervisor of Elections Jerry Holland, whose oracular pronouncements always merit reference:
Action News sought Monday to question Brown about his decision, catching up with the mayor outside City Hall. Brown told the station’s reporter he couldn’t field campaign-related questions on “official time.”
“I don’t need any more ethics complaints filed against me, so we can talk to the campaign later but I can’t do any questions on the campaign on official time, never have, can’t do it,” Brown said in the brief interview.
Supervisor of Elections Jerry Holland said Tuesday there is nothing that restricts an elected official from answering a reporter’s questions about a campaign at any time.
“There’s nothing that prohibits him by law from responding to you,” Holland said. “Now, he doesn’t have to respond to you, but he doesn’t have a law that says, ‘I can’t talk to you about that right now because I’m on official time.’”
Holland, who consulted with city lawyers on the question, said elected officials get no vacation time or sick time. They get paid to do their jobs and are on the job seven days a week, 24 hours a day.
“There is no ‘official time,’” Holland said. “He cannot solicit votes or solicit funds while he is on government property, but other than that, he’s free to answer any question about the campaign that’s asked of him.”
Given that multiple sources have disputed the meaningful distinction between “campaign time” and “city time,” it’s worthwhile to review the Brown camp’s distinction between the two.
It is predicated on the assertion, by General Counsel Jason Gabriel, that “as we have consistently advised, the general rule is to keep the lanes separate between city business and campaign business.”
In an email sent Tuesday to Communications Director David DeCamp and Ethics Director Carla Miller, Gabriel wrote, “The Ordinance Code provisions set forth limitations on political activities and campaigning during City duty hours, in City buildings or with the utilization of City property or resources” though “there are some exceptions to the rules, and the analysis is dependent on the facts of each case.”
“Accordingly, as we have consistently advised, the general rule is to keep the lanes separate between City business and campaign business,” Gabriel said.
“Journalists are not prohibited from asking questions related to the campaign during the course of an interview, and it’s our understanding that no one tried to inhibit such questions. The mayor or any elected official certainly has the right to maintain a policy of conducting politically oriented business separate from conducting city-oriented business,” Gabriel concluded.
That was in response to an email from Miller, in which she said, “It is acceptable for the Mayor, as an elected official, to take an active part in political campaigns during duty hours,” based on Section 350.301 of the Municipal Code. However, “it is not acceptable for other city staff to do this.”
Furthermore, she added that “no one can solicit actual campaign contributions on city property and you cannot campaign where ‘Public employees are working.'”
To sum, Brown legally can take campaign questions whenever. But he cannot solicit contributions on city property.
What is clear is that, because of the division of resources between the campaign side and the government side, the mayor’s staff has made a conscious choice to separate the two functions. That’s understandable. The question that Action News Jax and other outlets will monitor going forward, however, is whether or not the mayor’s rhetoric during city events incorporates campaign themes, thus blurring the lines.
As we’ve written before, the near-term forecast is that Brown will face day after day of hard-hitting questions from Action News Jax. It’s the most aggressive news operation in the market and has the least to lose, given that the Mayor’s campaign staff “big timed” them out of hosting a debate. It sticks in their craw that they will be the only one of the three local news operations not to host a debate. So they will get their licks in between now and the May 19 runoff election.
