The Jacksonville City Council granted final approval Oct. 14 to legislation reflecting an agreement with the Jacksonville Aviation Authority over aerospace development at JAA’s airports.
Council voted 17-0 in favor of an amended version of Resolution 2025-0693, which requests that the Duval County delegation to the state Legislature file a bill amending JAA’s charter to formally make it responsible for developing the industry and require it to submit a strategic development plan annually to Council.
Council member Ju’Coby Pittman was not present for the vote and Council President Kevin Carrico was traveling with other city leaders on an economic development trip to London in connection with the Jacksonville Jaguars game Oct. 19 at Wembley Stadium.
The agreement
The amendments came about after Council Vice President Nick Howland, who introduced the resolution, came to an agreement with JAA in which the authority agreed to establish a joint committee with Council to focus on attracting aerospace companies to Northeast Florida, particularly Cecil Spaceport.
Howland, the Council liaison to the JAA board, agreed in return to drop provisions in his resolution that would have renamed JAA the Jacksonville Aviation and Aerospace Authority and required that two of its board members have experience in the aerospace industry.
Council committees approved those amendments the week of Oct. 6, and the full Council OK’d them Oct. 14.
“I’m thrilled by this new spirit of cooperation between City Council and the Jacksonville Aviation Authority,” Howland said during the Council meeting.
“Cecil Field is destined to have an outsized role in our state’s thriving aerospace industry, and to emerge as a major job growth engine for Northeast Florida.”
JAA, an independent authority created by the state Legislature, owns and manages Jacksonville’s airport system, which includes Jacksonville International Airport, Jacksonville Executive at Craig Airport and Herlong Recreational Airport in addition to Cecil.
Accused of interfering
The agreement came after JAA accused Council of interfering in its operations through Howland-led actions that included approval of a $13 million transfer in JAA’s 2025-26 budget for improvements to the spaceport and related expenditures on aerospace development.
In September, the JAA board approved resolutions opposing the transfer and Howland’s original legislation.
JAA, an independent authority created by the state Legislature, obtained a legal opinion authored by former Florida Supreme Court Justice Alan Lawson of the Tallahassee-based Lawson Huck Gonzalez law firm. In it, Lawson said Council had overstepped its authority and that JAA’s options included taking legal action against the city.
Michael Fackler, head of the city Office of General Counsel, told the JAA board that Council did nothing wrong with its budget amendments and that the city charter bars JAA from taking legal action against the city.
When the agreement between Howland and was announced Oct. 6, JAA said its concerns over the budget transfers had not been resolved. Howland said at the time he believed the funding issue could be resolved amicably.
As with other authorities such as city utility JEA, JaxPort and the Jacksonville Transportation Authority, Council reviews JAA’s budget annually and approves it as part of the overall city budget.
JAA is user-supported and receives no funding from the city or the state. It can receive grants for projects.
Fackler told JAA board members that the city charter gives Council authority to move money within JAA’s budget, but the authority is not required to spend it in accordance with Council’s wishes.
Regarding the provisions that were amended out of Resolution 2025-0693, Howland said JAA was concerned about costs related to the renaming, such as revising signage and marketing materials, and did not want to hamper Gov. Ron DeSantis in finding qualified candidates for the board. The governor appoints four board members and the mayor three.