Since Mayor Donna Deegan took office in mid-2023, she and the Jacksonville City Council have clashed over such issues as Confederate monuments, a trash-hauling contract and her travel to London in connection to the Jacksonville Jaguars’ games there in October 2024.
Another flare-up occurred Feb. 3, when Council members criticized a policy from her administration to manage communications between city staff and the Council, but this one was different.
This time, members of Deegan’s own party were among the harshest critics, with Democrats accusing Deegan of failing to communicate with them and impeding their ability to resolve issues raised by their constituents.
In a pointed discussion involving Deegan’s chief of staff, Mike Weinstein, Council members criticized the mayor’s office for not including them in the formulation of the policy and upbraided Weinstein for defending it with such remarks as “this administration doesn’t work for you, the administration works for the mayor.”
“I am floored by the way that you’re responding to this Council today,” said Council member Rahman Johnson, a Democrat. “It smacks of insolence and absolute disrespect for not just the process but the people who control the purse strings of this city.”
At the end of a Feb. 3 meeting on the policy, the mayor’s office agreed to delay its implementation and work with Council President Randy White to revise it.
“We put forward a plan to streamline executive and legislative branch communication around constituent needs in an effort to bring more transparency and efficiency to the process,” the mayor’s office said later in a statement. “It was not well received, so we are working closely with City Council on creating a policy that works for all parties.”
The policy at issue, which took effect Feb. 1 before being delayed, instructed staff not to informally handle requests they receive from Council members for matters involving city resources or action by a city department. Instead, staff were directed to help the members register those requests in the MyJax system, a computerized program designed to receive, track and resolve calls for service.
Staff also were instructed to log all contacts from and to Council members to a newly created email address for review by the administration.
Council members said they routinely call staff members for assistance on a wide range of constituent needs, such as traffic lights that stop working, stormwater drains becoming clogged, medians that become overgrown and any number of issues involving city infrastructure and services.
In the Feb. 3 meeting, which was called by Council member Nick Howland, Weinstein said the policy was designed to help track requests from the Council and handle them efficiently. He said it was also aimed at helping staff maintain focus on their most important tasks.
“When calls come in from Council members, it’s a distraction and they don’t know which to prioritize,” he said.
Council member Joe Carlucci took exception to Weinstein’s remark.
“I’ve never felt that I was a distraction when I communicated with your departments, so that’s a good thing. But if that’s the mentality that you all have, that needs to change. The communications policy doesn’t need to change, your mentality needs to change. That is garbage,” he said.
Carlucci and other Council members also said they had no idea the policy was in the works until they received notice Jan. 27 that it was coming.
“It’s just bizarre that you’re trying to improve communication and yet you don’t communicate with us,” he told Weinstein.
Johnson said he discusses his legislative proposals with the administration before introducing them, and expects the same level of communication with the mayor’s office.
During the meeting, Johnson agreed that Deegan’s office should have collaborated with Council members before adopting the policy.
“I think intelligence dictates that one would talk to the end user of any process before instituting the process,” he said.
Speaking to Weinstein, Johnson said the mayor and Council needed to reset on the issue.
“Let’s try to respect each other,” he said. “It feels like a devolution and we are disrespecting each other. I for one will not disrespect the executive branch, but I will not tolerate the executive branch disrespecting us.”
Weinstein said he had approached White about making a presentation to Council about the policy, but then ran into a scheduling conflict. He took responsibility for not giving the Council more notice.
Kevin Carrico, Council vice president, raised concerns that the centralized process for addressing Council issues could be politicized.
“Say Rory Diamond is off in Twitterland saying horrible things about the administration and picking fights, and then he has something he needs to prioritize and has to go through all these loops and chains,” said Carrico, who like Diamond is a Republican.
“Well, human nature is if he’s picking on my boss, let’s teach him a lesson. We’re going to put that on the bottom of the stack.”
Johnson and others also said the city’s solution was flawed in its reliance on the centralized system for handling complaints, which includes the [email protected] email address and the 630-CITY phone helpline.
“The 900-pound gorilla in the room is that 630-CITY just doesn’t work,” he said. “There have been myriad occasions where I’ll put in the information and they’ll close the ticket or I put in the information and nothing happens.”
Member Chris Miller, who made an audible response to Weinstein’s comment about the administration working for Deegan and not the Council, said the mayor’s office and Council should collaborate for the good of local residents.
“You might have heard me say, ‘Wow,’ earlier to one of your responses, but that was a hard one to hold in,” he said. “We should be able to respect each other and converse and coordinate things, and do things in such a way that shows the public that they can trust us and that we’ll work well together for their benefit. But I’m not seeing that or hearing it right now.”
Roshanda Jackson, the executive Council assistant for Democratic member Reggie Gaffney Jr., raised concerns about the policy during the Feb. 3 meeting.
In written remarks she shared with a reporter, Jackson said the policy would slow down the process for addressing constituents’ calls for service, undermine the role of Council members and ECAs, violate First Amendment rights by chilling speech between executive and legislative branch employees, and erode public trust in city government.