Jim Arnold Retiring After 49 Years as City Attorney
Recent Events in Green Cove Signaled That It Was Time To Go
Jim Arnold has served as city attorney for Green Cove Springs for 49 years. He recently announced his retirement, effective at the end of he month. Truth be told, Arnold was the second casualty of the election that ousted City Councilor Ed Gaw.
While pleading legal necessity, Arnold had bucked the wishes of the City Council in it’s desire to reach a quick settlement with commercial property owner Ward Huntley, who had been unfairly assessed more than $187,000 in stormwater drainage fees.
Instead of handling routine pleadings himself until the settlement, Arnold hired a specialist law firm in Tallahasee to file what appeared to be boilerplate responses to Huntley’s lawsuit against the city. The firm was paid $18,000 before the desired settlement shut the case down earlier this year, but later than the council had wanted.
Arnold himself earns nearly $100,000 a year to advise the council on legal matters and is enrolled in the city’s health insurance system. Meanwhile he and his son operate a private law firm, headquartered across Orange Avenue from the Clay County government complex.
During the election, the Food Truck Friday issue drew attention to the fact that incumbent council candidate Gaw—also the Food Truck Friday organizer with former City Councilor Van Royal—had voted in favor of a city subsidy of the event, rather than recuse himself from the vote.
Arnold should share the blame, according to two city councilors. These critics said Arnold should have advised Gaw not to vote on any measure before the council that allocated city funds for his private event. That’s basic conflict-of-interest avoidance, an ethics best practice.
Nor, by the same logic, should Gaw or former City Councilor Steven Kelley have cast votes in favor of improvements to Walnut Street because that is the address of Red’s Wine Bar, an enterprise in which Gaw, Kelly and Royal had been partners.
Then there was the phantom ethics complaint that roiled the election.
An alleged ethics complaint about Gaw and Food Truck Friday prompted Gaw and Royal to cancel the event. Royal and the Gaw campaign alleged without apparent evidence that Tom Centriacchio had filed a state ethics complaint against Gaw. They said Arnold had advised them to cancel the event out of an abundance of caution.
Then, City Councilor Cheri Starnes came forth and said that she had been the one who had raised the question of Gaw’s ethics, but with Arnold, not the state.
Even so, Arnold never came forward to confirm that Centracchio had nothing to do with the matter, and the Gaw campaign continued to imply that Centracchio was to blame for shutting down the city’s popular party.
By the time the smoke settled and Centracchio had triumphed—he was sworn in on Tuesday—a majority of the council had become dissatisfied with Arnold, who had hoped for another year in the job to make it a full half century.
Through channels, Arnold was encouraged to proceed to retirement.