JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A new email obtained by Action News Jax shows Mayor Donna Deegan’s team was looking into ways to prohibit guns in City Hall at the same time the city’s allegedly illegal gun registry policy was first drafted.
On Wednesday, Mayor Deegan sat down with Action News Jax for the first time since we broke the story on the existence of the logs of gun owners who entered city buildings while carrying concealed firearms.
One day before Mayor Deegan took office, Bob Rhodes, who Deegan had tapped to serve as Interim General Counsel, sent an email titled “Concealed weapons policy” to three city attorneys.
In it, Rhodes requested they “think further” about designating City Hall as a police substation.
“It all started with concern for the safety of the people in this building,” Deegan said.
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Deegan acknowledged her team had looked into the possibility of putting a police substation in City Hall, as it would have exempted the building from the state’s permitless carry law, which took effect the day she entered office.
“There are a million places that are exempt. You know, you have the police department, you have the State Attorney’s Office, you have the legislature, you have all sorts of, you know, different athletic facilities, everything exempt, and yet we weren’t exempt,” Deegan said. ”So, we said, is there a way to become exempt?”
Sheriff TK Waters confirmed his agency received the request for a City Hall substation, but “After careful consideration, that request was declined”.
The email inquiring about a substation in City Hall was sent the same day an employee within the city’s department of public works drafted the registry policy in response to the permitless carry law.
That policy is at the center of the criminal investigation launched by the State Attorney’s Office.
Creating lists of gun owners is illegal under state law.
Violations constitute a third-degree felony, and local governments that keep lists of gun owners can be fined up to $5 million, but Action News Jax discovered since the prohibition became law in 2004, no one has ever been prosecuted for a violation.
Deegan argued there’s no connection between her administration’s substation request and the registry policy created by the Department of Public Works.
“One has nothing to do with the other,” Deegan said.
The mayor has repeatedly said she had no knowledge of or involvement in the creation of the registry policy.
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She told Action News Jax she first learned about the logbooks after the city received a complaint last month, just before the State Attorney’s Office launched its investigation.
“As soon as we learned about it, it was shut down that day, but I had no idea before then,” Deegan said.
While Deegan has not been subpoenaed in the investigation, nine current and former city officials have been, including former General Counsel Rhodes.
Still, the mayor said she does not believe any members of her administration played a role in the creation of the registry policy.
“I have tried to walk back to determine if anybody in the administration knew, and it doesn’t look like anybody in my administration knew that that was happening,” Deegan said. ”From what I can gather, this was a person who was very concerned about making sure that there was nothing to worry about in terms of security in the building, and so, just thought that perhaps instituting an additional step would keep that from happening. I don’t know.”
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