Florida’s attorney general says his office is investigating whether Duval County School Board member Darryl Willie broke residency requirements if he moved somewhere outside his board district now that used to be in the district.
That question is the core of a request for a five-part legal opinion the leader of the Jacksonville Young Republicans submitted Saturday, May 30, about Willie, a Democrat who was already required to leave his formally nonpartisan seat this year because of term limits.
“We are investigating! Thanks for bringing this to our attention,” Attorney General James Uthmeier tweeted Saturday night on his personal X account in answer to a tweet from the GOP group.
While the answers apply immediately to just one lame-duck politician, “similar circumstances may arise throughout Florida,” Jacksonville Young Republicans President John Scott, an attorney, wrote in requesting the opinion.
Willie’s home address drew interest from local Republican leaders as TV news reports May 28 said he apparently moved in December to an address outside School Board District 4, which he has represented since 2018.
“Willie should resign today. If he doesn’t, he should be removed,” Jacksonville City Council member Rory Diamond tweeted May 28, commenting on an X post by the Duval County GOP that X showed as unavailable on May 31.
Gov. Ron DeSantis can temporarily suspend officeholders under some circumstances, such as when they’ve been indicted for felonies, but it’s not clear that there’s a basis for ousting Willie now.
Willie and his wife have owned a home in a neighborhood off Harts Road in North Jacksonville since 2013. But a Duval County elections record called a voter audit report said that in December his listed address changed to a street off Plummer Road in a suburbanizing part of Northwest Jacksonville that was previously forest.
The new address is in School Board District 6, although it was part of District 4 until 2023, when a federal judge approved a settlement for a lawsuit over redistricting a portion of Jacksonville’s 14 district council seats, which are combined in pairs to make seven school board districts.
Attorneys for the plaintiffs in that lawsuit later asked U.S. District Judge Marcia Morales Howard to order a 2024 special election for School Board districts 4 and 6, which might have changed the legal calculus for questions about Willie’s seat now, but Howard turned down that request.
Although initially expressing curiosity about Willie’s December address change, Duval County Supervisor of Elections Jerry Holland, also a Republican, told Action News Jax May 29 that research led him to believe there was no problem with Willie moving to the newer address.
“He was elected under the old school board district lines. … So, you don’t lose the area in which you represent,” Holland told the TV station.
Earlier May 29, Holland said that his office wouldn’t be the one investigating regardless.
“We’re not the election police. We just house the information,” he told the Times-Union.
As attorney general, Uthmeier is considered the state’s chief law enforcement officer.
Willie didn’t respond to a reporter’s May 29 phone message about his address.
But that day, he did post a Facebook video about high school graduations in which he referenced “a lot of conversation, bits and pieces out there,” mentioned Holland’s remarks and thanked supporters he said had been calling and texting encouragement.
“I just really appreciate all the thoughts out there,” Willie said in the video, where he noted it was his final graduation season as a school board member. “… This has been the greatest honor of my life, to be able to serve. And I want to thank you for this opportunity.”
Five people ― Rhodesia Butler, Alfreda Denson-Butler, James “Coach” Jacobs, Gracie Bell Kearse-McCastler and Jordan Wells ― are counted as active candidates for the District 4 seat, according to the Duval elections website. That contest will be completed in the November general election.
A question surfacing online after Willie’s residency was questioned was whether this impacts an upcoming council race to fill an at-large seat being vacated by council member Terrance Freeman.
After Freeman announced his resignation to run for a seat in the Florida Legislature, the council passed an emergency bill May 26 to hold an August 18 election for a replacement. Candidates must qualify for that race between June 11 and June 12.
Willie’s new address appears to be in the At-Large Group 1 residence area a candidate needs to call home for that seat, although voters across Duval County will cast ballots.
Willie had been rumored to be interested in the council seat, and former council member Katrina Brown posted on Facebook May 29 that “a candidate with countywide name recognition, years of elected experience, and an existing voter base would immediately make this a more competitive election.”
Republican Deborah Wesley had already filed to seek the at-large seat during the city’s normal election cycle in the spring of 2027.
On questions of Willie’s residency, Brown wrote: “In my opinion, many voters may view these events as an attempt to discourage Darryl Willie from entering the race. Whether that is the intention or not, that’s a question the public is entitled to ask.”
This story was updated to add information.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: AG probing whether Duval School Board’s Willie meets residency rules
Reporting by Steve Patterson, Jacksonville Florida Times-Union / Florida Times-Union
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