Jacksonville Boards and Commissions

Jacksonville runs a long list of citizen boards because it is a consolidated government. The city site calls itself the official City of Jacksonville and Duval County government website, so one set of boards covers the Northside, the Westside, the Southside, Arlington and the Beaches alike. The Boards and Commissions page sorts them into four groups, and the group tells a resident how much power a seat carries.

Advisory boards are the largest group. In the city's words, these boards and commissioners serve an advisory role, providing advice, research and residents' perspectives to the mayor and City Council. The list runs from the Jacksonville Waterways Commission and the Tree Commission to the Mayor's Young Leaders Advisory Council, the Commission on the Status of Women and separate Mayor's advisory boards for African American, Asian American, Hispanic American and LGBTQ+ residents.

Oversight boards sit one step up. The city says they serve in an oversight capacity and may allocate city funding within some programs. The Board of Library Trustees, the Cultural Council of Greater Jacksonville, the Art in Public Places Committee, Kids Hope Alliance, the Public Service Grant Council and the Duval County Tourist Development Council are in this group.

Regulatory boards carry real authority. The city describes them as exercising regulatory authority, such as the power to make rulings and impose penalties in accordance with various sections of the Ordinance Code. A fourth tier, the independent and quasi-independent authorities, includes JEA, JAXPORT, the JTA, the Jacksonville Aviation Authority, the Jacksonville Housing Authority and the Downtown Investment Authority. Members of these boards are mostly appointed and/or confirmed by the Mayor or City Council, according to the city.

There are two doors into a Jacksonville board. The Appointment Opportunities page sends applicants either to the Jacksonville City Council's application or to the online form for mayoral boards and commissions. The Council's own appointments page puts the basic deal plainly: board members are volunteers who are appointed by City Council or the Mayor to serve for a term with a set end date. Some seats ask for expertise in a field; others, the city notes, ask only for energy and interest in improving a neighborhood.

The Council form asks a Duval County applicant to list boards of interest, from the Better Jacksonville Plan committees and the Environmental Protection Board to the KingSoutel Crossing and Renew Arlington Community Redevelopment Agency advisory boards. It asks how long the applicant has lived in Duval County and whether the applicant, a spouse or a child works for or owns a business that does business with the City of Jacksonville, including independent authorities like JEA. A background document and a resume are uploaded with the form.

Attendance is part of the screening. The form notes that state law requires the boards and commissions members physically attend meetings in person to establish the necessary quorum, and asks whether anything would keep the applicant from coming downtown. The Council page adds that many Jacksonville boards meet monthly and cannot meet at all without a quorum, so an empty chair stalls the work.

The Jacksonville City Council tries to place each applicant on a first-choice board, but the city says an offer may come for another board the applicant is qualified to serve on. Once a candidate is chosen, the confirmation email comes first, and then the paperwork turns into legislation at City Hall.

Confirmation runs through the Rules Committee. After a candidate is selected, appointment legislation is introduced and the Legislative Services Division sends a letter with the bill number and the date and time to appear. The city states it directly: the Rules Committee reviews all Board and Commission appointments. Under Council Rule 2.102(5), the Rules Committee handles confirmation of nominations by the Council, Mayor and Sheriff, along with Boards and Commission structures, charter revision and redistricting.

Appointees are expected to call or meet the Rules Committee members before the hearing, and they must appear in person when the bill comes up. At the meeting each appointee gives a short introduction and background. After the appointment legislation is approved by the Rules Committee, it will be confirmed by the full Council at the next bi-monthly City Council meeting, in Council Chamber on the first floor of the St. James Building on West Duval Street.

The Rules Committee meets on the first and third Monday at 9:00 a.m. in that same Council Chamber at City Hall. Because a confirmation is a bill, every appointment leaves a public record in the Council's legislative file, the same file that holds Jacksonville's zoning bills and budget ordinances.

The Planning Commission is the board most residents meet. It reviews proposed land use changes, text changes to the Comprehensive Plan and requests for zoning exceptions, variances and waivers, except inside the Downtown Overlay Zone. It is also the city's local planning agency: its duties include to serve as local planning agency per 163.3174 F.S. and prepare the comprehensive plan. Seats are listed by Planning District 01 through 06, plus at-large members, alternates, a school district representative and a military representative, so each of the six planning districts from the Urban Core to the North district has its own seat.

The Planning Commission meets twice a month on Thursdays, after the Council's Land Use and Zoning Committee, in the first-floor hearing room of the Edward Ball Building on North Hogan Street. Its recommendations then travel to LUZ and the full Council, so a rezoning in Mandarin or Oceanway is heard first by citizen commissioners before any council vote.

Downtown has its own design board. The Downtown Development Review Board has nine members, all named by the Mayor, and the city lists its job as to review and make decisions with respect to all applications for development and redevelopment within the Downtown Overlay Zone. That split is why a tower on the Northbank goes to the DDRB while a subdivision on the Westside goes to the Planning Commission.

The Civil Service Board works mainly as an appeals board with quasi-judicial powers over city employee discipline and hiring complaints, under Article 17 of the City Charter. Its nine seats are split: the Mayor makes 5 appointments; JEA makes 2 appointments; Duval County School Board (DCSB) makes 1 appointment; and the Board makes 1 appointment. It meets the second and fourth Thursdays at 2:00 p.m. in the Yates Building on East Forsyth Street.

The Value Adjustment Board hears appeals from decisions of the Duval County Property Appraiser on values, exemptions and portability. It mixes officials and residents: two members of the Jacksonville City Council, one of whom chairs it, one Duval County School Board member and two citizen members, one appointed by the Council and one by the School Board.

Some Jacksonville boards are built so no single officeholder controls them. The Ethics Commission has nine members, and one member is appointed by each of the following: the City Council, the Mayor, the Sheriff, the Public Defender, the State Attorney and the Chief Judge of the Circuit Court. The remaining three are chosen by a majority vote of the Commission itself. The commission drafted the Jacksonville Ethics Code and helped set up the Office of Ethics, Compliance and Oversight.

The TRUE Commission, short for Taxation, Revenue and Utilization of Expenditures, is an 18-member fiscal watchdog under Chapter 57 of the Ordinance Code. Six members are named by the Mayor and six by the Council President, and the last six come from the neighborhoods: each is appointed by one of the Citizens Planning Advisory Committees in the six Planning Districts established pursuant to Executive Order 93-170, so the Urban Core, Greater Arlington/Beaches, Southeast, Southwest, Northwest and North districts each hold a seat.

The Duval County Tourist Development Council has nine members appointed by the City Council, with the Council President and Vice President serving ex officio, three hotel or accommodation operators and seats for the airline industry and tourism businesses. It oversees the bed tax, and the city reports that Jacksonville currently levies a six percent tourist development tax on transient accommodations in the city, split evenly among stadium capital maintenance, stadium bond debt and tourism development.

The Jacksonville Waterways Commission is the oldest river panel in the list. It was established in 1984 to study and make recommendations to the City Council with respect to the improvement, development and protection of the St. Johns River and all tidal waters in Duval County. It also reviews state manatee speed-zone rules for Duval County, and its chair as of October 2026 is District 14 council member Rahman Johnson.

Every seat comes with ethics homework. All members of City Boards and Commissions are required by local law to complete training provided by the City of Jacksonville Ethics Office, and the city says this should be completed within six months of appointment and renewed at least once every four years. A knowledge check comes before the training, and new members are told to read the Florida Sunshine Law material before their first meeting.

The 2026 schedule lists six sessions, from noon to 1:00 p.m. on January 15, March 12, May 14, July 16, September 17 and November 19, alternating between Zoom and in-person sessions. The in-person sessions meet in the Lynwood Roberts Room located on the 1st Floor of the St. James Building, which houses Jacksonville City Hall at 117 West Duval Street.

Each Jacksonville board also files an annual report summarizing the prior year's activities, meeting information, membership and an assessment of its own effectiveness, which the city posts on a Boards and Commissions Annual Reports page.

As of October 9, 2026, the City Council roster lists Nick Howland, At-Large Group 3, as Council President and Joe Carlucci, District 5, as Vice President; both sit ex officio on the Tourist Development Council by rule. The Rules Committee that screens appointees is chaired by Mike Gay of District 2, with Ken Amaro of District 1 as vice chair. Donna Deegan is Mayor of Jacksonville and makes the mayoral appointments that the Council confirms.

One seat was open for applications at the time of writing. The Jacksonville Ethics Commission was accepting applications for a future vacancy, with completed applications due on Friday, October 10 at 12:00 p.m. by email to the Ethics Office, and applicant interviews set for a Nominating Committee meeting on Friday, October 17, 2026. Last verified: October 9, 2026, on the City of Jacksonville website.