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. Council member Matt Carlucci warned the action was an inappropriate intrusion on the general counsel's discretion and described the move as "throw[ing] a wrench in his works." Others, including Council member Jason Freeman and several speakers who cited concerns about appearances of impropriety, said the council needed a fully independent review.

City staff described the rationale the general counsel offered to the rules committee for seeking outside counsel: "The rationale that was presented in the committee meeting was essentially because the issue dealt with mister Fackler directly. He felt it was important to hire somebody, to so that there wasn't appearance of impropriety in his decision or in a decision that came out of our office that then was forwarded to Tallahassee," said Mary (staff counsel) at the dais. The floor amendment instead names Gabriel by role and firm and requires the memo be submitted to the council president before it goes to the state commission.

Jason Gabriel, who was present in the chamber, said his firm had a pending, unrelated land-use matter involving the city but told council, "To answer your question, emphatically, there is no conflict." The amended resolution passed on the final ballot, 12 yeas, 6 nays.

Council members asked procedural and budget questions about who would pay for the work. Council member Amaro asked about the budget and whether a cap would be set for the "reasonable rate" language; staff said work would be paid from the office of general counsel's account used to engage outside counsel, and the phrase "reasonable rate" was intended to let general counsel negotiate an appropriate hourly fee for the engagement.

The resolution, as amended, directs the general counsel to secure the legal memorandum from Gabriel, submit it for review and approval by the council president, and then forward it to the Florida Commission on Ethics. The council did not direct the content of the memorandum beyond the referral to outside counsel. Supporters said the change ensured a clean, outside perspective; opponents said it undermined the general counsel's normal authority.

The vote followed more than two hours of floor debate and public commentary about the city's ethics processes, the general counsel's independence, and the appearance of conflicts in high-profile contracts. The council adopted the amended resolution and will forward the outside counsel memorandum, once prepared and reviewed by the council president, to the state ethics agency for an advisory opinion.

Council actions related to the memorandum and its submission are administrative: the council approved the amended resolution and did not itself issue any discipline, direct hiring or firing, or make findings about wrongdoing. The state Commission on Ethics will be asked for an advisory opinion based on the submitted materials.

What happens next: the general counsel will negotiate and retain the outside lawyer named in the amendment, the memorandum will be prepared and reviewed by the council president per the amendment's terms, and then the council president will decide whether to forward it to the Florida Commission on Ethics for an advisory opinion. The resolution does not set a dollar cap; staff said fees would be paid from the OGC outside-counsel account and negotiated under "reasonable rate" language in the amendment.