Mayor Donna Deegan’s administration has started the search for city of Jacksonville’s next top attorney.
The city General Counsel Qualification Review Committee held its first meeting July 5 at City Hall and set a deadline to complete interviews and recommend a candidate to the mayor by Aug. 16.
Jason Gabriel, attorney for law firm Burr & Forman, a former city general counsel and Deegan’s appointed chair for the committee, said the mayor does not have a candidate in mind.
Gabriel told the committee that city interim General Counsel Bob Rhodes is not interested in the position. Rhodes retired from law firm Foley & Lardner in 2012.
“If you’re looking at the baseline qualifications in the charter, it’s pretty simple,” Gabriel said.
According to section 7.03 of the city charter, 10 years of experience as a practicing attorney or judge and a license to practice law in Florida are the minimum qualifications.
Gabriel said the position’s duties, including binding legal opinions for the city, legal counsel for 32 elected officials and the city’s independent authorities and managing outside contracted attorneys and employment of the city’s in-house lawyers, make the position complex.
“It’s a pretty sizable job and a job that I think requires a good (and) apt understanding of our charter and of local Jacksonville law, state law and all the other things that might intersect and affect the local governance of things,” Gabriel said.
The five-member committee is required by the charter to consider all candidates suggested by the mayor and may consider their own.
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 Downtown Investment Authority Board member.
• Michael Orr, Orr | Cook managing attorney.
• Blane McCarthy, Jacksonville Bar Association president.
Three of the five members are dictated by the city charter — Gillam and Orr are the Florida Board of Governors representatives for the 4th Judicial Circuit and McCarthy as the JBA president.
Deegan chose Delaney to serve on the committee.
Whoever Deegan selects will replace Jason Teal, who was named the city’s most recent general counsel in Oct. 28, 2021, after Gabriel left for private practice.
When Deegan announced her executive team hires in June before officially taking office July 1, she said she would be convening the qualifying committee and be taking recommendations for a new top city attorney.
City Chief Communications Officer Phil Perry did not immediately respond July 5 to questions about Teal’s future with the general counsel’s office. But the city’s website lists him as senior assistant general counsel.
According to Gabriel, the city has a Sept. 30 deadline for City Council approval of the next general counsel and to have the person in place when Rhodes’ 90-day interim appointment expires.
The charter allows Deegan to extend Rhodes’ appointment another 60 days until the spot is filled.
The committee’s Aug. 16 deadline would allow it to send a candidate’s name to Deegan for a decision and file legislation with Council for approval by Sept. 30, Gabriel said.
The Council Rules Committee also will interview the candidate.
“It could be a lawyer that’s ready to step down from a firm. It could be somebody that’s been tangentially involved with government work (who) says, ‘Hey, this is something that maybe I might be interested in,’” Delaney said.
“But somebody who has to run the traps to make sure they’re not embarrassed by being rejected by either the committee or by the mayor.”
The committee plans to run a job advertisement in the Jacksonville Daily Record with a deadline for applicants to submit resumes and cover letters to [email protected] no later than July 28.
The committee is scheduled to meet three more times — 9 a.m. July 31; 3:30 p.m. Aug. 8; and 9 a.m. Aug. 15 — to review applications and interview candidates.
A notice released by the committee July 5 encourages those interested in the position to visit these links:
• City of Jacksonville Charter – Article 7 – Office of General Counsel:
• City of Jacksonville Office of General Counsel Website: