Council votes to seek outside ethics opinion after dispute over general counsel hiring

Jacksonville City Council on Aug. 12 approved an amended resolution directing the city's general counsel to engage outside attorney Jason Gabriel of Burr & Forman to prepare a legal memorandum and analysis to be submitted to the Florida Commission on Ethics. The action passed 12-6 after more than two hours of debate and repeated questions about conflicts and the proper process for obtaining an independent opinion.

Council member Mike Gay introduced the floor amendment that substitutes the office of general counsel's original plan — to prepare the memorandum in-house or use a currently engaged contract attorney — with instructions to retain Gabriel at a reasonable rate and have the memo reviewed by the council president before filing with the state ethics commission. "I felt it was better that we just had a clean separate, perspective on this Administration," Gay said during the rules-floor debate.

The amendment and its sponsor drew sustained criticism from several council members who said the change undercuts the city's customary practices and risks second-guessing the general counsel's authority.…