Jacksonville City Council approves measure to give sheriff a say in settlements involving JSO

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The way the City of Jacksonville handles settlements will change, as the sheriff will now have to sign off on the deal.

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At Tuesday night’s City Council meeting, councilmembers voted to give Sheriff T.K. Waters and other constitutional officers the authority to sign off on settlements of legal claims filed against their officers.

The measure passed by a 15-4 vote.

Read: Council committee amends bill to give Itself final say on settlements involving sheriff’s employees

It would also allow the council president to effectively become the tie-breaking vote if the city’s risk management officer and the sheriff, for instance, disagree on whether to settle a lawsuit.

Sheriff Waters lobbied to have a say on lawsuits against his department. He argued that he was unaware when the city settled with the family of Jamee Johnson, a 22-year-old Florida A&M student shot and killed by a JSO officer in 2019, for $200,000.

“I would have asked that the case never be settled because it sets a bad precedent, a horrible precedent, because he was 100% right to try and save his own life,” Waters told Action News Jax.

Groups like the Northside Coalition opposed the idea, arguing that “it would create a conflict of interest for the sheriff and other constitutional officers, who may have personal or political motives to avoid accountability or transparency in cases of misconduct or negligence by their staff.”

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