Saying that the city of Jacksonville’s top lawyer has shown “an unacceptable preference to address and support the wishes of the executive branch,” two Jacksonville City Council members have filed legislation expressing lack of confidence in the attorney.
Resolution 2025-0081, introduced by members Ron Salem and Rory Diamond, states that the Council lacks faith in General Counsel Michael Fackler to continue to lead the office.
Hours before the resolution’s scheduled introduction at the Jan. 28 Council meeting, Mayor Donna Deegan issued a news release expressing confidence in Fackler.
“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,” the statement read.
The resolution cites matters in which Fackler has issued opinions, including
Deegan’s December 2023 order to remove a Confederate monument from Springfield Park and her Jan. 13 veto of a Council-approved increase of $4.02 million in compensation for Meridian Waste to provide curbside trash-hauling service in portions of Duval County.
In both cases, Fackler said Deegan acted appropriately.
The resolution also faulted Fackler for having a lack of institutional knowledge. It says that morale among attorneys and staff in the Office of General Counsel and resulted in “significant turnover.”
Before Deegan appointed Fackler as head of the Office of General Counsel in September 2023, he practiced law as a commercial litigator for nearly 20 years and was a partner at the Milam Howard Nicandri & Gillam law firm in Jacksonville.
He is a past president of the Jacksonville Chapter of the Federal Bar Association, Fackler also was an adjunct professor at Florida Coastal School of Law.
Deegan appointed Fackler after her first general counsel appointee, former Council member Randy DeFoor, withdrew her nomination amid questions from several Council members as to whether her appointment would violate Florida statutes that prohibit a former elected official from lobbying for compensation for two years.
The Council voted unanimously to confirm Fackler.
In Deegan’s statement on Fackler, she indicated that not all of his opinions had been in her administration’s favor.
“When calls didn’t go the way of the Mayor’s Office, we didn’t call him biased,” the statement read.
“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 resolution comes two weeks after Council voted 14-4 to override Deegan’s veto on the extra payment to Meridian, which was contained in an ordinance that Council had passed in September 2024 on a 17-2 vote. Deegan refused to sign the ordinance and requested an opinion from Fackler on the issue.
Fackler, in a binding opinion, concluded that the Council had likely complied with the city’s ordinance code, which gives Council the authority to set rates for residential garbage contracts. But he said the provision of the code that gives Council that authority violates separation of powers language in the city charter, making the ordinance invalid.
The opinion left Meridian with no increase, including the 5% that Deegan had recommended. The ordinance would have provided a 29% increase.
Meridian, in a statement responding to Fackler’s opinion, said it would “pursue all legal avenues necessary” to enact the Council-approved legislation.
Deegan is a Democrat. Salem and Diamond are Republicans.