Shad Khan yacht drama rocks Jacksonville government

Kismet is the name of Shad Khan’s yacht, and the word means “destiny.” And its recent voyage to Northeast Florida was appropriately fated to cause drama for local officials.

A holiday gathering on the boat involving representatives of the 2-10 Jacksonville Jaguars, members of the City Council, and the Mayor has proved to be the gift that keeps on giving for public officials who attended.

The event comes just months after local officials voted to approve “the stadium of the future,” reallocating $775 million in future sales tax money that the Lenny Curry administration had purposed to handle legacy pension debt. The old defined benefit pension plan, closed to new entrants in 2016, will likely be rendered fiscally solvent by 2060.

As the working week ended, appointed officials and legislators were still discussing the optics of Monday evening’s affair, even after Carla Miller, an ethics adviser to the Donna Deegan administration, said the event was in line with law and didn’t require reporting even with a +1 because attendance at the tony shindig was valued at less than $50 per head by the Jaguars organization.

Republican Rory Diamond, the loudest critic of the Deegan administration, pointed out Friday the principal objections to what the Jaguars told the Times-Union was a “holiday reception.”

“For Deegan’s argument to make sense, you have to believe the cost to host 60 people on a $300 million yacht with food and open bar was $3,000 or less (total). She needs to stop lying to the people of Jax. Just cut a check to the Jags from your own personal funds,” Diamond charged.

Diamond, who did not attend, estimated the cost of the gathering at “$200 to $300” per person.

Deegan administration spokesperson Phil Perry chided Diamond Friday evening.

“I sincerely hope you will focus more on serving your constituents than petty partisan attacks and friendly fire on your own colleagues. More legislating, less trolling is a start,” Perry said.

Eight Council members attended, and a couple defended the event memorably.

Republican Matt Carlucci, who endorsed Deegan in the 2023 campaign, said nothing untoward happened, such as Council members huddling up to talk business. He mentioned to the T-U that his “wife would have been disappointed” if they hadn’t attended the affair.

Meanwhile, Democrat Rahman Johnson offered a long-form defense of the “simple holiday gathering,” saying that criticism was misplaced and that those complaining about the event should focus on “improving access to healthy food options.”

At press time, it’s unclear whether people needing healthy food options will be given their own event on Kismet beyond the public officials feted.

The ultimate fallout of this event remains unclear, though it’s the latest recent example of a conflation of the city’s symbiosis with the Jaguars making news.

The city spent $21,000 on a trip to London when the team played games there this year. Mayor Deegan was accompanied by Perry, Director of Economic Development Ed Randolph, and Director of Sports & Entertainment Alex Alston.

Other local officials, like City Council Finance Chair Ron Salem, also made the trip across the pond. But Salem used his political committee to fund the trip, holding a fundraiser overseas. While legal, this raises questions about why a local official would have a fundraising event in a different country.

Deegan also made news while in country, doing a press interview where she accused President-elect Donald Trump of looking for “concentration camp” styled setups to house illegal immigrants ahead of deportation. The Mayor has since apologized for the “pain” caused by her comments but expressed “no regret about calling out the inhumanity of treating immigrants, or any person, as less than human.”

“The inevitable human rights violations that would result from rounding up people for mass deportation is unthinkable and un-American,” she said earlier this year.

Given the bipartisan nature of entanglements with the Jaguars, it’s uncertain if any of this drama will impact Deegan’s re-election campaign in 2027. Regarding Jacksonville and the NFL, it’s business as usual.