Tax collectors. Property appraisers. Supervisors of elections. School board members.
They are among the positions identified as "constitutional officers" within a state law passed this year and required to annually complete four hours of ethics training.
County commissioners are listed, too. But City Council members are not explicitly stated.
A recent Office of General Counsel opinion maintains that members of the 19-member Jacksonville body aren't constitutional officers or county commissioners for the law and therefore do not have to meet the requirement.
"All of us have been through ethics training and go through it incessantly," said City Council member Richard Clark, who sought the opinion. "To say we don't know what the requirements are … we know."
Clark said council members still need to participate in ethics training, but didn't think there should be potential legal trouble if they may not be able to attend.
Carla Miller, the city Ethics, Compliance and Oversight director, said she disagreed with the opinion.
"The legislative intent was to cover the governing bodies of all counties in Florida, all 67 counties," Miller said. "I don't think the intent was to exclude Duval (County)."
Miller said the Legislature "went further this year than in decades" when it comes to ethics and boosts what the city has.
Jacksonville's ethics code was put into place in 1999 and requires all elected officials to go through training when they are elected. Those trainings tend to include updates on the Sunshine Law, conflicts of interest and the like.
Miller said she still receives questions daily about such topics and that every council member has called her to talk over the topics at times.
"I consider that like a continual training, the back and forth," she said. "We have a lot of communication."
Still, Miller said the intent of the state law means council members — Duval County's consolidated government's county commissioners — should be included.
"You'll see in the Jacksonville Charter that our City Council people are our constitutional officers," she said.
Clark said Miller does "such a tremendous job" of what the ethics requirements are.
"It's part of the beauty of what she does," he said. "We are always reminded."
Miller and others are conducting part of the mandatory ethics training for constitutional officers at 11 a.m. today at City Hall.
Clark won't be there, but council President Bill Gulliford said he will.
"You have the law and then you have intent," Gulliford said. "I can't read the mind of the Legislature …. But I think the intent was probably to include us."
Miller said several other council members have come to her saying they will be there.
Constitutional officers can also meet the requirement through outside works, watching videos and other means to meet the four-hour requirement.
Asked if he would do that, Clark was upfront.
"No," he said.
Mayors also are not listed as constitutional officers and aren't required to complete the four hours of training. Despite that, Mayor Alvin Brown will be in attendance Friday with members of his staff to participate.
As for the possibility of changing the law to explicitly include council members, Miller said there are several options. The state ethics commission can seek a ruling or advisory opinion; the local ethics commission can weigh in and try to regulate at the local level; and the Legislature could amend the law next session.
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