A handful of parents and guardians of Duval County public school children filed suit Monday to try and force the Jacksonville City Council to put a half-cent sales tax referendum before voters.
Jacksonville attorney Tad Delegal, who is representing the parents, is arguing the council exceeded its authority when it refused to put the question on the ballot.
And, he said he’s employing a little-used maneuver called a Writ of Quo Warranto.
“Under that writ, citizens and voters have the right to challenge public officials who take actions that they don’t have authority to take,” Delegal
Delegal said he expects a judge to be assigned in the next couple of days, and that the judge will either require the City Council to act within a certain period of time or require the city attorney to explain why the referendum should not be scheduled.
The proposed half-cent sales tax would generate more than half of the nearly $2 billion the district says it needs to repair or replace aging school buildings, which are among the oldest in Florida.
Read The Writ Of Quo Warranto
Complaint by Anne Schindler on Scribd
Contact reporter Cyd Hoskinson at choskinson@wjct.org, 904-358-6351 and on Twitter at @cydwjctnews.
