In one of its first actions of 2025, the Jacksonville City Council overrode Mayor Donna Deegan’s veto of legislation providing Meridian Waste with $4.02 million more than what Deegan and the Council auditors had recommended for curbside trash-hauling service in Duval County.
Council’s 14-4 vote Jan. 14 surpassed the two-thirds majority required to override a veto. No votes, which equated to support for sustaining the veto, came from members Matt Carlucci, Tyrona Clark-Murray, Rahman Johnson and Jimmy Peluso. Member Terrance Freeman was not present.
The vote sends legislation containing the extra compensation, Ordinance 2024-0800, back to Deegan’s office. After the Rate Review Committee made a recommendation, Deegan’s office introduced the bill with a 5% increase for Meridian, but Council amended it to provide a 29% boost and approved that version on a 17-2 vote in September 2024.
The Council’s bill set the monthly payment at $22.39 per homeowner, compared to the Deegan-recommended $18.29. The ordinance applies to the next three years of the contract.
Deegan’s chief of staff, Mike Weinstein, said after the override vote that the mayor would not sign the ordinance, meaning Meridian Waste would remain on a contract that was in place before the bill was introduced.
“They’ll live within the existing contract, which has no raise in it at all – not even the one we recommended,” he said.
Some Council members said that by not signing the ordinance, Deegan would create the possibility that Meridian would sue the city for not being given fair compensation for its service.
In a Jan. 13 media release announcing the veto, Deegan called the Council-approved increase “financially irresponsible” and cited an opinion from city General Counsel Michael Fackler that Council violated separation of powers requirements in approving it.
Council members said the increase was justified to allow Meridian to compete with other contractors providing service in Jacksonville, the Beaches communities and Baldwin. Member Mike Gay, who voted in favor of the override, said the increase provided “fair pay for fair work.”
“When a competitor is paying more for their drivers than you are, you’re going to lose them,” he said. “It’s as simple as that.”
Member Nick Howland noted that the ordinance passed with an overwhelming majority and bipartisan support, with the no votes coming from Republicans Carlucci and Will Lahnen.
The veto, he said, “shows disdain for City Council and the work of this body.”
Regarding the separation of powers, member Rory Diamond said Fackler’s opinion was wrong. Diamond said he’d spoken with members of the Office of General Counsel staff who disagreed with it.
Diamond said the charter gives Council the authority to appropriate money, which was what it did in approving the increase.
“The mayor, as a functionary, has to sign it,” he said. “To say she doesn’t have to gives this mayor more power than any mayor in the history of Jacksonville.”
Peluso urged Council to delay the vote so that the separation issue and other questions about the situation could be more fully explored.
Council member Ron Salem, who voted for the override, said the mayor’s office never mentioned a concern about separation of powers as the ordinance went through Council committees and then to a final vote.
Salem said “it has now come out that he (Fackler) was well aware of the separation of powers (issue) but did not inform the Council” as the bill was progressing through the system.
Like Deegan, three of the Council members who voted against the override are Democrats. Carlucci is a Republican.
The veto was Deegan’s first since becoming mayor in mid-2023.