The State Attorney’s Office has launched a probe into Jacksonville’s gun logbook mandate, scrutinizing its legality and collecting evidence from present and former city staff.
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Emails and documents detail the implementation by Jacksonville in July 2023 of a rule demanding security guards to maintain logs of gun owners carrying concealed firearms into city premises. However, the city recently ceased this practice after State Attorney Melissa Nelson initiated an investigation into whether these gun logbooks contravene state law.
On April 22, Nelson began her inquiry, which is currently ongoing. Her office has issued another batch of subpoenas this week, requesting text messages and emails related to the logbooks from nine current and former city employees, including top officials in Mayor Donna Deegan’s administration.
Nelson has not made any determination on whether the city violated a 2004 state law that makes it illegal for a local government to “knowingly and willfully keep or cause to be kept” a list, record or registry of privately-owned firearms or their owners.
Violating that law is a third-degree felony punishable by up to five years in prison and a fine up to $5,000.
The Department of Public Works is in charge of overseeing security at city facilities and it contracts with First Coast Security for staffing at City Hall and the Yates Building where security guards had used the gun logbooks at building entrances when people went through metal detectors.
One facet of the State Attorney investigation is focusing on a city document titled “Check Points and Perimeter Security” that spells out the city’s expectations for security procedures. Updates to that policy in summer 2023 directed security guards for the first time to use gun logbooks, according to documents and emails obtained by the Florida Times-Union through a public records request.
The addition of the logbooks happened as Florida had started to let people carry concealed weapons even if they did not have a concealed license permit. Florida law previously allowed residents to carry concealed weapons into City Hall and the Yates Building — except for council chambers when City Council is meeting — only if they had a license. That changed on July 1, 2023.
A document dated June 30, 2023 shows an administrator in the Department of Public Works approved adding a section on concealed weapons and firearms to the city’s security procedures. The section on concealed firearms included creating gun logbooks that contain identifying information about gun owners and their concealed firearms.
“At a minimum, record the name, state issued photo ID unique information number, age, weapon type in the WEAPON AND FIREARM LOGBOOK,” the instruction says with the capital letters for the logbook.
That June 30, 2023 document was approved by Mike Soto, who is the city’s facilities manager, on the last day of Mayor Lenny Curry’s term before Deegan was sworn in on July 1, 2023.
The city did not start using the gun logbooks at that time, however. Soto sent an email on July 3, 2023 to First Coast Security asking for its feedback on the updated instructions for handling checkpoints and perimeter security at city facilities.
In a July 13 email to First Coast Security, Soto wrote that the recommended changes to the standard operating procedures “have not been approved at this point.”
On July 24, Soto approved the three-page set of instructions for security that included the same language as the June 30 document in regard to gun logbooks. As a result, security guards started using the logbooks at checkpoints in City Hall and the Yates Building, which houses the property appraiser and tax collector offices.
The State Attorney investigation is interested in getting information about the addition of that directive, according to subpoenas the city received this week.
The May 5 subpoena, which the city provided in response to a public records request, asks for all communications and drafts related to the document approved on July 24, 2023 and also an earlier version of the document effective Nov. 15, 2022.
The subpoena also seeks communications between First Coast Security and three administrators in the Public Works Department: Soto, Chief of Public Buildings Roy Birbal and Operations Director Steven Long.
A second subpoena dated May 5 seeks emails and text messages by nine current and past city employees related to specific keywords from Feb. 1, 2023 to Sept. 30, 2023.
The request for emails and texts covers five people who came on board at City Hall when Deegan took office in July 2023. They include Chief Administrative Officer Karen Bowling, Deputy Chief Administrative Officer Kelli O’Leary and former chief of staff Pat McCollough who now is a special advisor to Deegan.
The subpoena also requests emails and text messages for Lakeisha Burton, who was director of community initiatives, and Bob Rhodes, who was interim general counsel in the opening months of Deegan’s term. They no longer work for the city.
The subpoena covers texts and emails from four city employees who were working for the city prior to Deegan taking office. They are Jason Teal, who was general counsel before Deegan took office and then worked as a top assistant for Rhodes, and the three Department of Public Works employees: Soto, Birbal and Long.
Deegan said May 7 she has not been contacted by Nelson’s office.
“We have certainly provided her with everything that she has asked for and will continue to cooperate with whatever it is that she needs,” Deegan said.
Editor’s note: This story was first published by our news partners at the Florida Times-Union.
