General Counsel ‘crisis’ alarms Jacksonville City Councilwoman Randy DeFoor
Randy Defoor won't run in 2023.

Randy DeFoor
Lenny Curry ally sees 'crisis' with Jacksonville general counsel.

Jacksonville City Councilwoman Randy DeFoor has surprised some observers since her election this year.

DeFoor, backed by Mayor Lenny Curry from the launch of her campaign, has taken an independent path on Council.

The Ortega Republican has been especially vocal on JEA, where she has questioned Council being sidelined as a sale appears to move forward.

Curry staffers grouse privately about DeFoor, with at least one wishing her Democratic challenger Sunny Gettinger had won. The complaints: DeFoor is too liberal, has too much of an ego, and hasn’t sufficiently appreciated the difference that Curry’s support and the political operation had in her narrow win.

However, DeFoor represents District 14, which includes Riverside, Avondale, Ortega, and points south toward the Naval base. And she intends to ensure Council prerogatives are not sidestepped, she told us last week.

“Being a lawyer,” DeFoor said, “I really see this as a crisis of the Charter itself.”

“We have a general counsel who is advising all of these groups,” the Councilwoman added, “where there’s an inherent conflict.”

“From my perspective, the process is flawed because each of us has not been properly represented,” DeFoor, who herself is a corporate general counsel, said.

Indeed, many believe General Counsel Jason Gabriel is an adjunct of the Mayor’s Office, siding with Suite 400 and its expansive construction of executive power in one dispute after another.

Gabriel supported Curry’s campaign, and is functionally part of the inner circle.

DeFoor wouldn’t go that far.

“Looking at it literally from the general counsel perspective,” DeFoor said, “we’ve been told a lot of things we can’t do [regarding] JEA. It’s a huge hole.”

DeFoor believes the Council needs outside counsel, and says the Charter allows Council to hire a legislative counsel.

“The general counsel is basically saying we can’t do that without his permission,” DeFoor said.

She sees similarities between the City Council being sidelined on this issue and what was done to the Duval County School Board regarding the half-cent sales tax referendum.

“One of the reasons I didn’t vote for the withdrawal,” DeFoor said of the referendum authorization, “was that our authority was to determine whether there was a viable plan.

The implementation plan and the “clean” OPPAGA Audit satisfied her concerns.

DeFoor added that failure to vote the plan up given those conditions being satisfied could have exposed the Council to legal jeopardy.

“The appearance that we were trying to [strong arm] the School Board to change their plan, which we had no authority to do,” was DeFoor’s concern.

Legal challenges to the referendum not being authorized are pending, and if the city loses, DeFoor says that’s evidence that “we are not getting the type of counsel we should be getting.”

“This is the first time that Gabriel’s reputation has been in question,” DeFoor said, saying she and “a lot of lawyers” are “surprised by current events.”

“At some point,” DeFoor said, “there’s an ethics question.”

She hopes the city lawyer will correct course, but clearly is losing faith that he will.

“I like a lot of what the Mayor is doing,” DeFoor said. “This is not Randy DeFoor versus the administration at all.”

“I’m really trying to ask questions … to make sure we do everything right, what’s best for the city,” DeFoor said.

Time is of the essence.

If Council does not have a seat at the table during the bidding process, she expects the body to be in a “very difficult position come March or April,” when the accepted bid likely will be presented to the body.

A.G. Gancarski

A.G. Gancarski has written for FloridaPolitics.com since 2014. He is based in Northeast Florida. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter: @AGGancarski


5 comments

  • James J. Jensen

    September 30, 2019 at 10:23 am

    I’m of the understanding that JEA is a co-op so how can the city sell”my” share without my consent?

  • Frankie M.

    September 30, 2019 at 11:10 am

    This is hilarious. Where were DeFoor’s concerns when city council stomped all over school board’s authority? It appears the shoe is on the other foot now. Perhaps she didn’t get the memo that she’s not supposed to bite the hand that feeds you. If she needs a refresher she can always turn to Joe Peppers for counsel.

  • Oops!

    September 30, 2019 at 2:40 pm

    Looks like District 14 will be filled with potholes for the next few years as she will not even be able to get her phone calls returned by the lowest level staff member in the Mayor’s office.

  • ANN GIPALO

    October 1, 2019 at 12:10 am

    Good grief. Even now she doesnt understand that City Council has NO responsibility to review in any way the School Boards plan for the half cent sales tax. School Board members are responsible to THEIR voters and WE VOTERS will determine if we’re happy with the plan at the ballot box. YES, Gabriel has conflicts of interest all over the place. Is this problem being addressed by the Charter Review Commission??

  • shine

    October 1, 2019 at 8:24 am

    She is right. Duval county is the only place in the free world where your lawyer is also you judge. Nothing bad about the General Council, but you need a lawyer that is accountable to you. These rules were created 50 years ago when a large share of local officials were being indicted for corruption. 1/2 century has gone by. Its time for a”customary” attorney/client relationship with the divisions of local government.

Comments are closed.


#FlaPol

Florida Politics is a statewide, new media platform covering campaigns, elections, government, policy, and lobbying in Florida. This platform and all of its content are owned by Extensive Enterprises Media.

Publisher: Peter Schorsch @PeterSchorschFL

Contributors & reporters: Phil Ammann, Drew Dixon, Roseanne Dunkelberger, A.G. Gancarski, Anne Geggis, Ryan Nicol, Jacob Ogles, Cole Pepper, Gray Rohrer, Jesse Scheckner, Christine Sexton, Drew Wilson, and Mike Wright.

Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @PeterSchorschFL
Phone: (727) 642-3162
Address: 204 37th Avenue North #182
St. Petersburg, Florida 33704




Sign up for Sunburn


Categories