Jacksonville Mayor Donna Deegan selected former City Council member and Fidelity National Title Group National Agency Counsel Randy DeFoor as the city’s next top attorney.
Following a day of six back-to-back interviews, the city General Counsel Qualifications Review Committee reconvened Aug. 9 and announced Deegan had weighed in with her choice of DeFoor.
“After reviewing the candidates, receiving community input and unanimous approval from the Qualifications Review Committee, I am proud to appoint Randy DeFoor,” Deegan said in an emailed statement Aug. 9.
“Her extensive experience as a general counsel, management executive, and public official is the leadership we need, and she will bring honesty, toughness, fairness, and courage to the position,” she said.
At the start of the meeting, committee Chair and past city General Counsel Jason Gabriel said he met with Deegan and city Chief Administrative Officer Karen Bowling after the interview Aug. 8 to provide the committee’s feedback and impressions of the applicants.
That’s when the mayor shared her preference.
Gabriel said the mayor also received outside legal and political input, which weighed into her decision.
“The bottom line is the mayor has selected Randy DeFoor as the person she wants in that role. And, I think, as we discussed yesterday, we’re hard-pressed to say that any of the six were not qualified. They are all qualified,” Gabriel said.
“It’s a matter of a varying degree of skill, experience, personality and that sort of thing.”
Gabriel told reporters after the meeting he thought Deegan’s choice was “a bold decision.”
A former Council member
As a Council member, DeFoor represented District 14 from July 1, 2019, through June 30, 2023. Her district included Riverside, Avondale, Murray Hill and Ortega. She also chaired the Neighborhoods, Community Service, Public Health and Safety Committee.
During the 2023 mayoral runoff election, DeFoor, a Republican, crossed party lines to endorse Deegan, a Democrat, over GOP nominee and JAX Chamber President and CEO Daniel Davis.
She told the committee Aug. 8 that she “just didn’t feel called” to run for reelection.
DeFoor’s time in office was marked by her role as one of the original three-member Council committee formed in early 2020 to investigate the attempt to sell the city-owned water and electric utility JEA to a private company.
She also cast one of the seven votes that ended Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shad Khan’s bid to secure $245.3 million public incentives for a proposed mixed-use development at Lot J in the city-owned stadium complex.
A corporate attorney for decades, DeFoor has been senior vice president and national agency counsel for Fidelity National Title Group since 2013 and has worked for the financial services company since November 2011, according to her resume submitted to the city.
DeFoor was vice president and senior corporate counsel for Regency Centers Corp. from 1995-2009.
The qualifications review committee voted 5-0 to affirm Deegan’s selection and make DeFoor their official recommendation.
Selected over five other candidates
DeFoor was selected over five other candidates that included her former Council colleague and family, constitutional, civil rights and educational law attorney Brenda Priestly Jackson.
The other four were:
• Former city General Counsel Jason Teal, who serves in the Office of General Counsel as senior assistant general counsel.
• Deputy General Counsel of Government Operations Lawsikia Hodges.
• Deputy General Counsel in the city’s Tort, Employment & Regulatory Department Sean Granat.
• Chief Legal Counsel for the Duval County Health Department Amy Meyer.
Before taking office, Deegan announced she was appointing retired attorney Bob Rhodes to serve as interim general counsel, replacing Teal.
She also named Gabriel, an attorney for the Burr & Forman law firm and a former city general counsel, to lead the qualification committee.
City Chief Communications Officer Phil Perry said after the meeting that the mayor sees DeFoor’s existing relationships with most Council members as well as her experience in corporate law and management would give “her the fight to do this job.”
Supermajority needed
DeFoor will need a 13-vote supermajority of the Council to confirm her appointment before she can take the role.
Perry said Deegan has had a conversation with Council President Ron Salem about the general counsel nomination, but he did not have details on that discussion as of Aug. 9.
Council has until Sept. 30 to confirm a general counsel, which is 90 days after interim Rhodes started in the position.
If approved, DeFoor would lead an office of 48 attorneys that represents the mayor’s administration, Council, the city’s constitutional officers, independent authorities and Duval County Public Schools.
An issue was raised during DeFoor’s interview about whether an April 2019 opinion by the Florida Commission on Ethics that said a former Council member is not allowed to lobby a group or the city’s interests before the council for two years following their term would impact DeFoor’s ability to execute the role of general counsel.
DeFoor and Gabriel said changes to Florida law in 2022 carved out exceptions for public officers filling the duty of their office.
The ethics opinion last came into play at Jacksonville City Hall in 2019 when former Council member Lori Boyer was named CEO of the Downtown Investment Authority and had to have another agency employee represent the DIA in most cases when addressing Council members for two years.
It’s unclear if the administration would seek another opinion from the ethics commission to clarify if there would be any hurdles to DeFoor communicating directly with Council members.
The four other members of the committee are:
• John Delaney, Flagler College president and former Jacksonville mayor and general counsel.
• W. Braxton Gillam, Milam Howard Nicandri & Gillam partner attorney and DIA board member.
• Michael Orr, Orr | Cook managing attorney.
• Blane McCarthy, Jacksonville Bar Association president and a certified circuit civil mediator with the Jacksonville office of Miles Mediation & Arbitration. He also is a board-certified civil trial lawyer.
“Hearing from the mayor … is probably a good thing because it is such a close call with so many good candidates,” Orr said.
The committee started its search July 5 and gave itself a deadline of Aug. 16 to make a recommendation to the mayor.
It set a July 28 deadline for qualified candidates to submit resumes. The city charter says a general counsel must have at least 10 years of experience as a practicing attorney and be licensed in Florida.