The city of Jacksonville's chief administrative officer recently invoked a claim of executive privilege when a City Council investigative committee's attorney asked him to recount conversations with Mayor Lenny Curry, bringing to City Hall a claim more often found in conflicts between the White House and Congress.
Presidents have asserted executive privilege in the face of congressional investigations, most famously during Watergate, but it's a first in Jacksonville, according to WJCT News partner The Florida Times-Union.
Chief Administrative Officer Brian Hughes's assertion came during a City Council investigation that has been ground-breaking in its own way in how far it's gone to figure out what went wrong during last year's failed JEA sales attempt.
A memo prepared last month by an Office of General Counsel attorney says that executive privilege can be claimed not only for communications between the mayor and his staff, but also for communications among members of the mayor's staff.
The memo also says executive privilege applies to all communications the mayor and his staff have with "any other person" about discussions that fall within the mayor's decision-making power, which would extend the privilege to people who work outside City Hall in such circumstances.
Read the rest of this story at Jacksonville.com.
