JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Some Jacksonville City Council members are questioning the job performance of the city’s top legal officer, General Counsel Michael Fackler, following Mayor Donna Deegan’s recent veto of a controversial waste contract.
At Tuesday’s council meeting, Council member Ron Salem introduced a resolution expressing a “lack of confidence” in Fackler’s ability to serve as an “independent, unbiased General Counsel.”
The resolution comes after Fackler advised that the city council’s decision to approve an additional $4 million annually for Meridian Waste over the next three years violated the separation of powers.
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The council disagreed with that opinion and overrode the mayor’s veto in a 14-4 vote.
However, the mayor’s office stated it would not sign the bill, choosing instead to uphold the existing contract.
Some council members believe this could lead to legal action from Meridian Waste.
Councilman Nick Howland said this wouldn’t be the first time the Fackler picked a fight with the city council.
“The general feeling among a lot of my colleagues is that the mayor coerced the general counsel on an opinion about a year ago on the monument removal to justify what was basically executive overreach and is doing so again to justify overturning councils legislative and appropriation powers in this Meridian Waste Bill,” Howland said.
The mayor’s office fired back at the resolution, defending Fackler’s integrity and the role of the general counsel.
“When the City Council and I hired General Counsel Fackler, we agreed that we wanted someone who calls balls and strikes. That is exactly what Mr. Fackler has done since the day he became the chief legal officer for our Consolidated Government.
When calls didn’t go the way of the Mayor’s Office, we didn’t call him biased. We respected his opinion. Under our charter, the Office of General Counsel is the glue that holds our Consolidated Government together. Mr. Fackler has done exactly what he is supposed to do: make difficult and sometimes unpopular rulings based on the City Charter.
The separation of powers is one of the most sacred elements of our City Charter. It is my job to do what I believe is in the best interest of the citizens and to protect our consolidated form of government for future administrations. That should be the expectation of our General Counsel.”
City of Jacksonville
No action was taken at Tuesday’s meeting, but it will not push through the committee cycle over the next six weeks.
Read the resolution below: