Jacksonville’s fire marshal will sit out inspections at a series of bikini bars as part of an agreement filed in federal court to end a lawsuit by a business that claimed its rights were violated.
Other fire inspectors will still check the businesses as always, but the agreement outlined this week would bar Fire Marshal Kevin Jones from inspecting seven adult entertainment businesses for the next nine months.
The first business on the list, Wacko’s at 3701 Emerson St., sued the city in January, claiming it had been needlessly closed by a “cease and desist” order Jones wrote about fire code violations in March 2017.
City attorneys flatly denied Jones or other inspectors did anything wrong, but this week they joined Wacko’s attorney Gary Edinger in asking U.S. District Judge Timothy Corrigan to approve a consent judgment that would outline changes to city inspection habits and would end the lawsuit.