Duval County Legislative Delegation in Jacksonville, Florida

The Duval County Legislative Delegation is the eight state lawmakers whose districts take in all or part of Duval County: two members of the Florida Senate and six of the Florida House. The City of Jacksonville describes them as the two state senators and six state representatives who represent Duval County in the Florida Legislature. They are elected separately, from districts drawn in Tallahassee, but they meet as a body in Jacksonville to take up one kind of business that no single legislator can carry alone: local bills, which the delegation office calls J-bills.

Consolidation is the reason the delegation matters so much here. The 1968 merger of the City of Jacksonville and Duval County left one government in place of two, and the city's civics page puts it bluntly: Duval County does not have a County Commission because it is a consolidated government. Some powers a county or city would hold still sit with the Legislature, and when Jacksonville wants one of them changed (a special zone for a commercial strip, the rules of a pension fund, the structure of an independent authority) the request goes through the Duval delegation before it ever reaches the floor of the House or Senate.

The delegation's frequently asked questions define a local bill as legislation that relates or applies to a particular part of the state, such as Jacksonville. Once a local bill becomes law it is called a special act. A general bill, by contrast, applies to the whole state and, once law, gets a chapter number and is incorporated into the Florida Statutes. Each Jacksonville local bill gets a working number for its year: J-1, J-2 and so on, with JB used for a Jacksonville Beach bill.

The delegation's own notices give the plainest test of when a J-bill is needed. A 2026 deadline announcement on the meetings page describes local bills as changes enacted by the Florida Legislature on matters which cannot be accomplished by the City of Jacksonville through Ordinance Code changes. In practice that has meant the special zones that let restaurants and bars in particular Jacksonville districts operate under different alcohol rules than state law would otherwise allow, changes to pension systems created by state act, and changes to agencies such as JEA, the Jacksonville Port Authority and the Jacksonville Aviation Authority whose charters trace back to the Legislature.

State law sets the ground rules. Article III, Section 10 of the Florida Constitution says no special law shall be passed unless notice of intention to seek enactment has been published as general law provides, unless the law takes effect only after approval by the voters of the area affected. Section 11.02, Florida Statutes, fills in the detail: the notice must run one time at least 30 days before introduction of the proposed law into the Legislature, in the county where the change would apply. For a Jacksonville bill, that county is Duval.

The path starts in Suite 480 of City Hall. The delegation office, which the city says was established in 1974 as a nonpartisan liaison between the members and local governments, community organizations and citizens, works from Suite 480 at 117 West Duval Street. It processes local bills and appropriation requests, schedules every delegation meeting and keeps the records. The delegation's rules of procedure, which govern how bills are filed and heard, were approved on Jan. 30, 2023.

Each year has a filing deadline, then a public hearing in Jacksonville. For the 2027 session, Representative Kiyan Michael, as delegation chair, announced on July 14, 2026 that the deadline for filing J-bills was 5:00 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 11, 2026. The delegation is set to convene on Friday, Nov. 13, 2026, from 1:00 to 5:00 p.m. in the City Council Chamber on the first floor of City Hall at St. James for a local bill public hearing, followed by the organizational meeting that elects the 2026-2027 chair and vice chair and a general legislative public hearing. Speaker request forms are due by 5:00 p.m. on Nov. 6, 2026, and presentations are limited to three minutes per speaker.

The meeting archive shows the same rhythm year after year. In 2025, under chair Jessica Baker, the delegation held a local bill hearing on Jan. 9, another on Oct. 22 and its organizational meeting on Nov. 12, all in the Council Chamber on Duval Street. The archive also shows older sessions held in Tallahassee itself, such as an April 1, 2019 meeting in the Capitol and January 2016 meetings in the House Office Building.

After a bill clears the delegation, a member files it in the Legislature, where it runs on the state calendar. The FAQ notes that regular sessions begin on the second Tuesday in March in odd-numbered years and the second Tuesday in January in even-numbered years, and that a regular session cannot run past 60 consecutive days unless extended by a three-fifths vote of each house. A J-bill that misses the session waits for the next year's cycle in Jacksonville.

The city keeps two lists. The local bills page shows what was filed each year, and the session laws page shows what became law. Read together, they sketch which Jacksonville problems end up in Tallahassee. Older acts include Chapter 99-459, the JEA name change, Chapter 95-477 and Chapter 96-505 on the Atlantic Beach and Dutton Island annexation, and Chapter 03-369 on the authority of the Council Auditor. Chapter 2015-186 dealt with kiteboarding in Huguenot Park, and Chapter 2015-184 with the Civil Service Board.

Neighborhood commercial districts show up again and again. Chapter 2016-248 covered the Riverside Avondale commercial character areas, and Chapter 2017-213 covered the Murray Hill and Springfield commercial areas and the San Marco transportation corridor. In 2022 the delegation's J-1 created special zones for the Downtown Northbank and the Kings Avenue commercial corridor on the Southbank, enrolled as HB 1497. In 2023 the J-1 was the North Florida Keys Corridor Special Zone, the J-2 was the Dennis Street Commercial Corridor area, and a Jacksonville Beach bill, JB-1, set up a Jacksonville Beach Downtown Special Zone, enrolled as HB 1561. The 2025 J-1 was the Urban Transition Area North of Park Street Special Zone.

Some J-bills reach well past bar hours. The 2020 J-1 proposed an elected superintendent for the Duval County School Board. The 2024 J-1 proposed amending Section 212.0306, Florida Statutes, to give the City of Jacksonville authority to impose a local option food and beverage tax. For 2026 the list shows a J1 on the Duval County School Board and a J2 on the Jacksonville Aviation Authority. Quiet years happen too: the session law list records no local bills enacted for Jacksonville in 2018, 2019 or 2020.

On the Senate side, flsenate.gov lists Clay Yarborough in Senate District 4, which consists of Nassau County and part of Duval County, with a district office on Huffingham Road. His Senate biography notes service on the Jacksonville City Council from 2007 to 2015, including council president in 2014 and 2015. Tracie Davis holds Senate District 5, described as part of Duval County, with a district office on North Myrtle Avenue.

In the House, the House member roster lists Wyman Duggan (District 12), Angie Nixon (District 13), Kimberly Daniels (District 14), Dean Black (District 15, Nassau and part of Duval), Kiyan Michael (District 16) and Jessica Baker (District 17), each serving a term listed as running from 11/06/24 to 11/03/26. The city member page gives district offices from Herschel Street and Roosevelt Boulevard to Yellow Bluff Road on the Northside and Third Street North in Jacksonville Beach, and lists Kiyan Michael as delegation chair and Clay Yarborough as vice chair. Last verified: October 9, 2026, on the City of Jacksonville website and on flsenate.gov and flhouse.gov.