Jags box tickets “flowing” to council members draw ethics slap

Does Shad Khan need an even bigger scoreboard?

It would seem that way, given the free and easy access Jacksonville City Council members apparently have to the owner’s box as indicated by an email by Ethics Director Carla Miller. She sent the missive to local Jags-and-everything-else lobbyist Paul Harden and General Counsel Jason Gabriel  over owner’s suite box tickets sent “directly to Council members” indicates.

“I have information received today that the Jaguars are sending game tickets (suite passes, etc.) for the owner’s suite directly to Council Members,” writes Miller. She  points out that “this is a prohibited gift under Florida law (value in excess of $100 from entity doing business with the City).”

“And, my memo on valuation is attached to these tickets and they are told that I approved of this. This is incorrect. My memo on valuation was to only go with tickets disbursed that qualified as ‘gifts to the city.’ Sitting in the owner’s suite for the whole game clearly has a value in excess of $100,” Miller writes.

Clearly, she hasn’t seen Gus Bradley‘s team this year.

“All tickets given to the City, per the City’s contract with the Jaguars, are given to the Mayor or Council President to disburse and are logged into the Internet as ‘gifts to the City.’

“Any other tickets that don’t get formally indexed and processed by the City as a ‘gift to the City’ are direct gifts to the people who take the tickets,” writes Miller, who adds that the recipient has 90 days after receiving such a gift to pay it down to under $100.

“We will make sure they reimburse the Jaguars for the value in excess of $100,” Miller writes.

General Counsel Jason Gabriel, a man already busy with ethics memos to the City Council regarding cell phone use and lawsuits related to the same, has yet another headache from the legislative branch.

“We should meet within the next few days with General Counsel to sort out all suites/boxes/tickets/passes/food that are flowing between the Jaguars and City employees and officials.”

Indeed.