City Council member Nick Howland sailed over rough and calm water during his time in the Navy.
His path to become City Council president was smooth sailing May 26 when he won unanimously in an uncontested race for the powerful post.
But in the wave-tossed race for council vice president, Joe Carlucci won by a 10-9 margin that took two rounds of balloting to settle.
Carlucci’s narrow win puts him on track to become the second member of the Carlucci family to lead the council as president.
“Man, that was intense,” Carlucci said after the final tally was announced.
Howland and Carlucci will move into the leadership posts on July 1 as the city faces a tough budget season in the run-up to re-election contests for Mayor Donna Deegan and council members in 2027.
Howland said his goal will be to build consensus on the 19-member council so it “operates as a team.”
“I truly believe a 17-2 vote is better than a 10-9 vote because it means we’ve worked together,” he said in remarks from the council dais. “I don’t want to force outcomes. I want to build them together through discussion and through consensus.”
“Even in an election year,” Howland said, “that will be a clear objective of mine over the next year, and that’s what this city deserves.”
But as the subsequent voting for City Council vice president-elect showed, 10-9 votes happen depending on how council members break.
The vote for vice president, a position that historically is a springboard to becoming council president the following year, took two rounds when no one in a field composed of Carlucci, Chris Miller, Rahman Johnson and Ken Amaro could secure 10 votes in the first round.
Joe Carlucci’s father casts tie-breaking vote for becoming VP
Miller won seven votes, Carlucci six votes, Johnson four votes and Amaro two votes.
Carlucci and Miller, both Republicans, advanced to the second round where Carlucci prevailed in part because four of five Democrats on the council threw their support behind him.
The vote count was 9-9 between Carlucci and Miller when City Council Secretary Jason Teal, reading off choices written by council members on paper ballots, announced Matt Carlucci’s vote for his son to become vice president as the decisive vote.
Matt Carlucci said he has long been a proponent of having competitive contests for vice president “and we did it tonight.”
“I would be remiss if I didn’t say that my son, he’s going to do a very good job,” Carlucci said. “He will not disappoint. He will be fair and square across every council member here.”
Matt Carlucci was City Council president in 2001-02 so if his son were to ascend in 2027-28 to that post, it would mark two family members filling what’s often called the second-most powerful post next to the mayor in Jacksonville City Hall.
As the next president succeeding Kevin Carrico, Howland will select leaders of the council’s standing committees and put his own stamp on the city’s legislative agenda during his one-year tenure.
Howland says job creation will top agenda as council president
“Most of all, we’ll focus on job creation over the next year — not government-driven job creation but the Milton Friedman model, creating conditions for private investment and business growth,” he said.
He said he’s sought to do accomplish that since being elected to council in 2022, including working to speed up growth of well-paying aerospace jobs at Cecil Airport on the Westside.
“That matters today more than ever because we do have an affordability crisis,” Howland said. “The cost of living is skyrocketing. We can’t control prices but there are lots of things we can do just for economic development to create jobs and to help our constituents afford to feed their families and stay in their homes because people are truly struggling.”
Joe Carlucci also talked about a need for council to work together.
“I commend all of you who ran but now it’s time to build consensus,” he said. “It’s time to get back to work.”
Change in state law cleared way for Joe Carlucci to seek VP post
Carlucci’s ability to run for City Council vice president while his father served with him on City Council was in doubt when the staff of the Florida Commission on Ethics drafted an opinion that said it would violate the state’s anti-nepotism law.
After the ethics commission deadlocked 3-3 on the staff’s recommendation, state Sen. Clay Yarborough, R-Jacksonville, won support in the Legislature for changing the law to explicitly state the nepotism restriction on employment of relatives in government positions does not apply when an elected official advances to a leadership position on a city council or similar body.
Carlucci won votes in the race for vice president from Johnson, Carrico, Ron Salem, Reggie Gaffney Jr., Raul Arias, Ju’Coby Pittman, Randy White, Jimmy Peluso, Matt Carlucci and himself.
Miller’s support came from Howland, Amaro, Michael Boylan, Tyrona Clark-Murray, Rory Diamond, Terrance Freeman, Mike Gay, Will Lahnen and himself.
Among Democrats on the council, Clark-Murray backed Miller while Johnson, Pittman, Gaffney and Peluso went with Carlucci.
Next up for Howland and Carlucci will be an installation ceremony scheduled for 5 p.m. June 25 with a reception following it at the Jacksonville University law school in downtown.
“I’m a Navy veteran, this is a Navy town and you can expect the Navy to be featured that evening, fittingly as we approach this nation’s 250th birthday,” Howland said.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: City Council picks Howland unanimously, Carlucci narrowly as leaders
Reporting by David Bauerlein, Jacksonville Florida Times-Union / Florida Times-Union
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