JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — For months the State's Attorney's office has been investigating allegations of Florida Sunshine Law violations by City Council members.
Garrett Dennis, who represents District nine, was one of the targets.
"For me and my family we are glad that it is over," said Dennis. "It was a baseless bunch of hearsay."
On Monday prosecutors determined based on the current facts and the law, they couldn't sustain a prosecution so they're closing the case.
"I am totally relieved. It was a political hit," he said.
Dennis said the allegation he colluded to determine the outcome of the city council president was motivated by his opposition to a potential sale of the Jacksonville Electric Authority.
"This boils down to we stopped the sale of the J.E.A.," said Dennis.
Documents reveal a staffer in Mayor Lenny Curry's office brought the complaint. She is the city council liaison.
"I think there should be an investigation into the mayor's office of this political hit," he said.
While several other council members were named in the investigation it appears that Dennis and Anna Brosche, both critics of the Curry Administration, were the focus of the probe.
Investigators looked at phone records. They pointed out that both Dennis and Brosche spoke a total of 62 hours during the time frame of their investigation.
And once they announced what they were doing, they noticed the phone conversations ceased.
Dennis defends the time spent on the phone with his fellow councilman.
"There's a lot of campaign strategy that we talked about," said Dennis. "I am not going to apologize for my friendship, but we have other things to talk about outside of city business."
Florida's Government in the Sunshine law prohibits two or more members of the same board from discussing matters privately that will come before that board. But proving a violation is a high threshold.
We reached out to the Mayor for comment, he has yet to respond.
Ryan Wiggins, a spokesperson for Anna Brosche issued this statement:
The timing of this is not coincidental. When rumors started circulating that Anna was going to run for mayor, members of Curry's inner circle filed this complaint without any evidence of any wrongdoing. A member of his team sat in on the interviews with council members in a blatant attempt at intimidation. The findings were then released coinciding with absentee ballots being sent to voters to stir up speculation of wrongdoing despite the fact that the investigation didn't result in charges being filed. Nelson isn't filing charges because there is no evidence that Anna violated sunshine laws. This entire thing is just another taxpayer funded political stunt by the Curry administration.
Both Dennis and Brosche are now turning their attention to their campaigns.
Dennis is seeking re-election to his district office and Brosche is running against the incumbent Mayor Lenny Curry.