Ethics and Oversight Offices in Jacksonville, Florida

Consolidation in 1968 put the City of Jacksonville and Duval County under one government, and that single government now answers to three separate in-house watchdogs. The Office of Ethics, Compliance and Oversight, paired with the volunteer Jacksonville Ethics Commission, polices conduct under Chapter 602 of the Ordinance Code. The Office of Inspector General looks for fraud, waste and mismanagement in anything paid for with city money. The Office of the Council Auditor works for the City Council and audits the books. A fourth body, the TRUE Commission, gives the Council outside advice on taxes and spending but has no audit or enforcement power.

The split is deliberate. Each office answers to a different master, so no single elected official controls all of the checking. The Council Auditor is a creature of the Council. The Ethics Commission draws its members from six different appointing authorities, including three officials of the Fourth Judicial Circuit. The Inspector General is picked by a committee that mixes the Council President, the Mayor, the State Attorney, the Public Defender, the Chief Judge and the chairs of the Ethics and TRUE commissions. Two of the offices sit on Duval Street in City Hall on the Northbank, and the Inspector General works from an office on East Forsyth Street.

The ethics side is the oldest. According to the City of Jacksonville, the City Council passed an ordinance in 1992 creating the Jacksonville Ethics Commission to provide a local forum for consideration and investigation of ethical problems and issues. A full Ethics Code came later: the historical summary of the code records that the first Jacksonville Ethics Code was passed in 1999, that major revisions passed the City Council on Nov. 11, 2007 in Ordinance 2007-329, and that they took effect Jan. 1, 2008. Ordinance 2011-167 wrote the Ethics Commission into Part 9 of Chapter 602, and Ordinance 2011-197 created Part 6, which established the independent Office of Ethics, Compliance and Oversight.

Day to day, the office trains people rather than punishing them. The Ethics Office describes Jacksonville's program as an attempt to train all city employees in the values behind the rules, with training for elected officials run through the office with help from the Office of General Counsel. Every department has a Department Ethics Officer who reports to the city's Ethics Officer. That network has a history of its own: the Department Ethics Officer page says the program was first created in 1999, when each executive department appointed an Ethics Officer, and that it was reestablished in 2014.

The Ethics Commission is the enforcement arm. Under Section 602.921, quoted on the duties page, the Commission may receive and investigate any sworn written complaint alleging a violation of Chapter 602, or open one itself by a minimum vote of six members. It can levy the civil fines Chapter 602 authorizes, refer matters to the State Attorney or the Florida Commission on Ethics when those bodies are better placed to act, and it serves as the hiring committee, subject to Council confirmation, for the executive director of the Jacksonville ethics office. It meets quarterly, and the meetings are open to the public.

Much of what the code demands is paperwork. Section 602.403, posted on the secondary employment page, says all full-time compensated officers or employees of the City shall disclose any private, non-City employment, filed with the City Ethics Office. Appointed staff need prior approval from the Mayor, the Council President or their Constitutional Officer before taking outside work, and a violation is a class C offense under the Jacksonville code.

The Office of Inspector General is the newest of the three. Its home page states that an independent OIG was established in October of 2014 by Ordinance Code, and that a charter referendum passed in March of 2015 expanded its reach to the constitutional officers and the independent authorities and agencies, effective Jan. 1, 2016. The OIG charter page identifies that amendment as Ordinance 2014-747, which also provided for independent legal counsel for the office. In Jacksonville that expansion matters, because so much public money moves through bodies outside City Hall: JEA, the Jacksonville Aviation Authority, the Jacksonville Port Authority and the Jacksonville Transportation Authority are all named in Charter Section 1.202.

The OIG frequently asked questions lay out the powers. The office can review and audit past, present and proposed City of Jacksonville programs, accounts, records, contracts, change orders and transactions, can subpoena witnesses and documents, and is authorized to run random audits, inspections and reviews of any city contract. Its reach covers all city employees, public officials and elected officials, along with vendors, contractors and lower tier subcontractors doing business with Jacksonville. Under Chapter 602, Part 3, as summarized on the About the OIG page, the office is meant to provide independent oversight, promote economy and efficiency, and receive full and unrestricted access to records.

There are limits. The FAQ is plain that the OIG is not a law enforcement agency. It works alongside the Office of the State Attorney for the Fourth Judicial Circuit, gives that office notice before serving any subpoena, and relies on the 4th Judicial Circuit Court to enforce one. When the Jacksonville OIG closes an investigation or audit, the report is redacted and posted, and the office sorts its published work into investigative, contract oversight, inspection, data analytics, audit and annual reports.

Selection is designed to keep the Inspector General at arm's length from any one official. The Jacksonville Inspector General serves a four year term and is chosen by the Inspector General Committee: the Council President, the State Attorney and Public Defender of the Fourth Judicial Circuit, the Chief Judge of the circuit, the Mayor, and the chairs of the Ethics Commission and the TRUE Commission, or their designees. The Inspector General Selection and Retention Committee, which handles the job under Section 602.305, held a meeting on Jan. 21, 2026 and posted a July 15, 2026 meeting date.

The Council Auditor is the oldest office in the group and the one most tied to the money. The Council Auditor home page says the Office of the Council Auditor was created pursuant to Section 5.10 of the City's Charter in 1968, the year consolidation took effect, and the office works from Suite 200 at City Hall on West Duval Street. Section 5.10, as described on the About the Council Auditor page, directs the office to examine the accounting systems of every office and department and all independent agencies, to conduct a continuous internal audit of the fiscal operations of the consolidated government, and to report to the Council as it requires.

Two parts of the Jacksonville Ordinance Code widen that job. Chapter 13 lets the Council President, the Committee on Administration and Finance or individual Council members ask the auditors for research on the financial, staffing or management affairs of the consolidated government, including agencies that receive miscellaneous appropriations or public service grants. Chapter 102 adds management audit procedures on top of fiscal ones.

The office also manages the outside audit. The external auditor page says Chapter 102 charges the Council Auditor with contract negotiations and management of the city's independent auditor, and that the city's current external auditor is Carr, Riggs & Ingram, LLC. That firm audits Jacksonville's Annual Comprehensive Financial Report, the yearly financial statement of the consolidated city, with the Council Auditor's office assisting where it can.

The Taxation, Revenue and Utilization of Expenditures Commission, known around City Hall as the TRUE Commission, is advisory only. The TRUE Commission page says it is established under Chapter 57 of the Ordinance Code to act as an advisory body to the city concerning fiscal policy, and it may look at anything from franchise fees and bonding capacity to the pension benefit structure for city employees. Its findings go to the Council and the Mayor as recommendations, not orders.

The membership is built to reach beyond downtown. Section 57.102 sets 18 members: six named by the Mayor and six by the Council President, all with finance or accounting background, plus one member chosen by each of the six Citizens Planning Advisory Committees, the neighborhood planning bodies for the Urban Core, North, Northwest, Southwest, Southeast and Greater Arlington and Beaches districts. The TRUE Commission chair is also one of the seven seats on the committee that picks Jacksonville's Inspector General, which links the advisory body to the city's investigative office.

Each office has its own door. The Jacksonville Ethics Office runs a hotline at (904) 630-1015. According to the hotline page, the hotline phone is not connected to the City of Jacksonville's phone system and was set up so the caller's number is not recorded or announced; the phone sits in the city ethics officer's office. Completed hotline cases become public records, but before then the office will neither confirm nor deny that it is working on a matter.

A formal ethics complaint is a heavier step. The complaint procedures require the Ethics Commission form to be signed before, and co-signed by, a notary or another person authorized to administer oaths, marked Confidential, and either emailed or delivered to Suite 225 of City Hall at 117 West Duval Street, or handed in at a Commission meeting. Under Florida Statutes 112.324, the Ethics Commission keeps the complaint confidential until it is dismissed as legally insufficient, the subject asks in writing for it to be made public, or the Commission decides whether probable cause exists.

The Inspector General takes reports by its hotline at (904) 255-5800, by email, by fax, by mail or in person at its office on East Forsyth Street, and reporters may stay anonymous. City employees who fear retaliation can ask for whistleblower protection, which shields identity under Section 112.3188, Florida Statutes, and Chapter 602, Part 5 of the Jacksonville code sets out the local whistleblower procedures.

As of October 2026 the City of Jacksonville lists Kirby Oberdorfer as Director of the Office of Ethics, Compliance and Oversight, Phillip Peterson as Council Auditor, and Erich Freiberger, the City Council President's appointee, as chair of the Jacksonville Ethics Commission, with William Maule, the Public Defender's appointee, as vice chair. Last verified: October 9, 2026, on the City of Jacksonville website.