The Jacksonville Aviation Authority board has scheduled a special meeting July 16 to discuss taking legal action against the city of Jacksonville over what it contends is a pattern of abuse of power by City Council at the instigation of Council President Nick Howland.
The potential lawsuit is the latest flash point in a dispute between JAA and Howland, who also is the Council liaison to the authority, over accusations by JAA that Howland has unlawfully interfered in its budget and operations. JAA is an independent authority created by the state Legislature, but Council reviews and approves its budget annually.
In a July 10 statement issued after the meeting notice was released, JAA said: “Prior to the Jacksonville Aviation Authority (JAA) Board of Directors meeting on July 16, we’ll let the proposed legal action speak for itself. The Aviation Authority will have no further comment until the JAA Board votes on this matter next week.”
Howland responded July 10 with a statement focusing on JAA’s resistance to his efforts to boost aerospace development at Cecil Field in West Jacksonville, a central point of contention between him and the authority board and administration. In 2025, Howland led a push to fund an aviation training center at the airport, which JAA operates, through a budget transfer that the JAA contends was illegal. He also introduced successful legislation to urge the state Legislature to change JAA’s charter to help spur aerospace development at Cecil.
“By unanimous vote of the Jacksonville City Council and a 149-0 vote in the Florida Legislature, the people’s elected representatives have made it clear that JAA should accelerate investment at Cecil and help create an aerospace hub and job growth engine for our community,” Howland’s statement read. “It is unfortunate that, after such a clear mandate, JAA is still refusing to comply with local and state law and is now considering hiring outside counsel to fight it. That not only undermines Jacksonville’s consolidated form of government, is likely illegal, and disregards the clear will of the people to create jobs and economic opportunity for our community.
“This should be a settled matter. Jacksonville’s focus should be on creating jobs and growing our economy — not wasting taxpayer dollars relitigating a decision the people’s elected representatives have already made.”
The claims: Budget matters
The proposed lawsuit, attached to the agenda, centers partly on a $10 million transfer that Council approved at Howland’s lead in JAA’s 2025-26 budget. The money was to help create a potential future JAA/Florida State College at Jacksonville Northeast Advanced Aviation Maintenance Training Center at a hangar at Cecil Airport in West Jacksonville, which is operated by JAA.
The authority, which leases the hangar to a private company, Million Air, opposed the transfer. It said spending the money would put it in breach of contract with the tenant and could bring punitive action from the Federal Aviation Administration.
The suit says the FAA has confirmed that the transfer “would likely constitute unlawful revenue diversion” of funds meant for airport operations.
It further says Council has mismanaged the city’s financial affairs and “now wants to pay for the consequences with other people’s money,” including by an attempt to “pickpocket the substantial reserves JAA has prudently accumulated — to fund the safe operation and expansion of the region’s airports — to instead fund Council priorities it lacks the money to fund itself.”
Howland has directed that effort, the suit says, adding that he “pursued it first as a Council member, then as Council Vice President, and who now, having ascended to the presidency of the Council, directs it from the body’s most powerful seat — but has at every step been joined, seconded, and ratified by the Council as a body.”
The proposed lawsuit is contained in JAA Resolution 2026-02S, which says the budget transfer jeopardizes JAA’s eligibility for federal airport funding and potentially makes it liable to repay grants and interferes with an exclusive and legally enforceable lease with Million Air that runs through 2035.
In addition, the resolution says investment banks and credit-rating agencies expressed concern that Council actions have raised questions about JAA’s autonomy and creditworthiness. It further says contracting partners, including a “major airline,” have questioned whether JAA can negotiate and honor agreements without interference from local politicians.
The claims: ‘Legal cover’
JAA further claims the city Office of General Counsel has “wrongfully provided legal cover for the Council’s campaign” through opinions that Council’s budget actions did not exceed its authority.
Michael Fackler, head of the OGC, told JAA board members during a September 2025 meeting 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.
Also at that time, Fackler said JAA overstepped by requesting an opinion from an outside attorney on the actions of Howland and Council.
In an opinion sought by JAA, former Florida Supreme Court Justice Alan Lawson of the Tallahassee-based Lawson Huck Gonzalez law firm said Council had exceeded its authority and that JAA’s options included taking legal action against the city.
“When that counsel advised the City had overstepped its limited fiscal authority and violated JAA’s State-granted autonomy to govern and manage its own affairs, the City’s General Counsel (who simultaneously represents the Council) disagreed and purported to fire JAA’s independent counsel,” the proposed suit reads.
One area of agreement
At the Sept. 25 meeting, JAA board members approved two resolutions expressing opposition to the Council-approved budget amendments and Howland-led legislation aimed at changing the city charter to rename JAA the Jacksonville Aviation and Aerospace Authority and formally make it responsible for developing aerospace at Cecil, among other effects.
Howland and Council were undeterred.
In October 2025, Council voted 17-0 in favor of a resolution asking the Duval County delegation to the state Legislature to file a bill amending JAA’s charter to formally make it responsible for aerospace development at Cecil and require it to submit a strategic development plan annually to Council.
The Council resolution was the product of a compromise in which Howland agreed to drop provisions 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.
“I’m thrilled by this new spirit of cooperation between City Council and the Jacksonville Aviation Authority,” Howland said at the time. “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.”
State lawmakers introduced and approved legislation on the charter amendment.