this story is really telling about Kevin Carrico and his chaotic term as council president.
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Council president blasts 'elitist' politicians getting free tickets that he's requested
David Bauerlein
Jacksonville Florida Times-Union
Jacksonville City Council President Kevin Carrico has called for an end to free tickets for elected officials to city events, despite having requested numerous tickets himself.
Carrico requested tickets to Jaguars games, Jumbo Shrimp games, and various concerts in 2024.
Other council members, including Terrance Freeman, have also made frequent ticket requests, with Freeman seeking access to 33 events in 2024 and 2025.
The city distributes thousands of tickets annually for events at city-owned venues, primarily to city employees, with some allocated to non-profits and elected officials.
City Council President Kevin Carrico has blasted ticket giveaways to elected officials but he has repeatedly requested to use such tickets himself for sports events and concerts.
Carrico sought free tickets to four Jaguars games, two Jumbo Shrimp games and four concerts by Anthony Hamilton, Third Eye Blind and Yellowcard, Justin Timberlake and Luke Combs in 2024, according to city records.
He's not alone. Many City Council members have done the same by using the city's long-standing system for distributing thousands of tickets the city gets each year for events at city-owned venues. The bulk of those tickets go to city employees outside City Council and the mayor's office. The city also provides tickets to non-profits for fundraising efforts.
City Council member Terrance Freeman has made the most ticket requests of any council member. He asked for tickets to 33 concerts and sports events in 2024 and 2025 at city-owned venues.
...
Carrico put the spotlight on the distribution of free tickets when he proposed the Denying Elected Elites Gameday Access Nonsense, or the DEEGAN amendment, to prohibit the mayor and City Council from getting free Jaguars tickets.
Carrico previously requested a total of 10 tickets for four Jaguars games and 12 tickets for four concerts at VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena and EverBank Stadium in 2024. He requested 10 tickets over two Jumbo Shrimp games.
He did not respond to a question about whether he went personally to all of those events.
...
https://www.jacksonville.com/story/news/local/2025/08/25/jacksonville-city-council-president-carrico-requested-free-tickets/85770163007/?tbref=hp
the best part is is that Carrico is the one who originally demanded even more tickets, and he violated the sunshine law to get Ron Salem to file the bill to do it:
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Attorney Leslie Jean-Bart submitted a formal request asking State Attorney Melissa Nelson to investigate Council President Kevin Carrico, Councilman Mike Gay, and Councilman Ron Salem over alleged private discussions about public matters — conversations that may have occurred outside of the public eye.
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"So President Carrico was involved in something with the mayor's office and asked me to draft legislation that would split everything," Salem said, referring to legislation related to event gifts.
The statement quickly drew scrutiny from fellow council members.
"I just wonder where he asked him about this. Was this a public meeting?" Councilman Matt Carlucci asked in response.
Jean-Bart said those comments raise red flags.
"What was that conversation? What did it look like? What were you talking about? What were your motivations?" she said. "All of those different things we as citizens are entitled to know. And what there was — a lot of comfort mentioning that this happened — that this is something the President does."
https://www.news4jax.com/news/local/2025/08/18/attorney-calls-for-sunshine-law-investigation-into-jacksonville-city-council-president-2-other-members/
then after he got called out, he threw Salem under the bus. what a clown show
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End of Jaguars suite for politicians? Don't turn a Third Eye Blind on other freebies
Mark Woods
Jacksonville Florida Times-Union
Updated August 27, 2025
This is always the silly season for local politics. But this year it seems even sillier than usual.
The latest saga started with Jaguars tickets. But it has reached the point where unless City Council President Kevin Carrico says elected officials shouldn't receive any free city tickets to events, it will appear like he and others were just playing political games, coming up with clever acronyms, only to end up looking like they are turning a blind eye (or maybe Third Eye Blind tickets) to some HYPOCRISY.
That's short for Hootie (& the Blowfish), Yellowcard, (The) Players, One (Hallelujah Tour), (Luke) Combs, Riley (Green), Icemen, Shania (Twain), Yellowcard (and hundreds of other free tickets requested by council members just in the last two years).
OK, the backronym game needs some work to reach the level of Carrico's DEEGAN amendment.
That, if you didn't hear, is short for Denying Elected Elites Gameday Access Nonsense.
Florida politicians are big into backronyms these days, taking existing names or words and creating acronyms, from TRUMP (Tackling and Reforming Unlawful Migration Policy) to WOKE (Wrongs to Our Kids and Employees).
Carrico came up with this one after Mayor Donna Deegan's office changed the distribution of some Jaguars tickets, making council go through the mayor's office to get terrace suite and club seats.
Councilman Ron Salem, at Carrico's request, filed legislation to require a 50-50 split between the mayor's office and City Council for all the free tickets to events at city-owned venues, like EverBank Stadium, VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena, Vystar Ballpark and Daily's Place amphitheater.
Carrico then said he opposed Salem's bill as written and proposed the DEEGAN amendment — to end free Jaguars tickets for the mayor's office and council.
"I'm calling on Mayor Donna Deegan to back this reform and prove she's on the side of taxpayers, not perks," said Carrico, who last year requested free tickets to four Jaguars games, two Jumbo Shrimp games and four concerts: Anthony Hamilton, Third Eye Blind and Yellowcard, Luke Combs, Justin Timberlake.
He punctuated this call for mayoral support by saying, "If Jacksonville families must buy their own tickets, politicians should, too."
The mayor resisted coming up with a CARRICO backronym, instead responding that she was "flattered" to have this amendment named after her — and that, as a longtime season-ticket holder, she would be happy to return to her seats in the north end zone, which she is still paying for.
And then she upped the ticket ante.
"If the City Council wants to update the ticket system that has been in place for many years before I took office, I'm all for it," she said. "That said, why stop with Jaguars tickets?"
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Carrico has barely been council president for two months. And he seems to have made trying to lay politcal traps and play "gotcha" one of his top priorities. Only in this case, the question is whom is he actually going to get?
If you dub something the DEEGAN amendment and say politicians shouldn't be getting free Jaguars tickets, but politicians still end up getting lots of freebies, then maybe there should be something called the CARRICO: Constantly Amplifying Rhetoric to Retain Influence, Clout, Office.
OK, still need to work on that — but there undoubtedly will be more silliness and maybe even more backronyms ahead.
https://www.jacksonville.com/story/news/columns/mark-woods/2025/08/27/jacksonville-council-presidents-backronym-latest-political-game/85824884007/
Another great line from this piece by Mark Woods:
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If we're going to talk about politicians, access and the Jaguars, perhaps nobody tops former Mayor Lenny Curry. But it wasn't limited to the Jaguars.
When Curry was mayor, my former colleague Nate Monroe dug into some gift disclosures "just for fun" (Nate did such things for fun) and found that during a window of a bit more than two years, Curry had received about $23,000 worth of tickets. These included tickets to Jaguars games, monster truck shows, the Globetrotters, and a lot of concerts — Tim McGraw, Def Leppard, Dave Matthews, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Journey, Rhianna, Justin Bieber, Train, Tedeschi Trucks, Carrie Underwood.
As is the case now, this doesn't necessarily mean Curry used those tickets himself. He might've given them to others.
But this much is certain: Some of those screaming about the Jaguars' suite now hardly said a peep about it then. (Even when it came out that at one Jaguars game, Florida Power & Light — the private company hoping to buy our public utility — just happened to have a suite next to the city suite and held a party with an open door and open bar.)
https://www.jacksonville.com/story/news/columns/mark-woods/2025/08/27/jacksonville-council-presidents-backronym-latest-political-game/85824884007/
Jacksonville is easily one of the worst managed cities in the South and the US based on political nonsense and totally needless partisan hackery.
So glad I divested from my investments there.
I saw a news report (more of a 'tease' for an upcoming show) of an interview with Curry, where he said "in his day" the Jags tickets were split 50-50 between the Mayor's Office and Council, but now the Mayor keeps them all, 'forcing' Councilmembers to request them. Since I watch different news shows during the day, I don't remember which one had this.
Quote from: Charles Hunter on August 29, 2025, 11:52:58 AM
I saw a news report (more of a 'tease' for an upcoming show) of an interview with Curry, where he said "in his day" the Jags tickets were split 50-50 between the Mayor's Office and Council, but now the Mayor keeps them all, 'forcing' Councilmembers to request them. Since I watch different news shows during the day, I don't remember which one had this.
Unless that process change resulted in a major change to the rate at which councilmembers received tickets, it's just another misleading innuendo with no substance. For the party who allegedly loathes entitlements, this smacks of it.
This whole issue is best solved by common sense parenting: "If you can't get along and share the ______ nicely, then we're going to put it away and nobody gets to play."