Jacksonville City Council's In-House Lawyer Sparks Debate Over Authority and Consolidation

A longtime Jacksonville city attorney now serving as the City Council's in-house lawyer has become a lightning rod for controversy, drawing criticism from current and former officials who say his dual role as council secretary and legislative counsel has stretched the boundaries of city law and challenged the foundations of Jacksonville's consolidated government structure.

Jason Teal, who earns nearly $282,000 annually in his combined position, has increasingly taken adversarial stances against city agencies and the mayor's Office of General Counsel since being hired last year by the council's Republican leadership. His activities have ranged from interrogating JEA executives to warning Jacksonville Aviation Authority board members about potential criminal liability, prompting questions about whether the council has effectively created its own competing legal authority.

What's happening

Teal was hired as City Council secretary in March 2025 by a five-person committee that included then-Council President Kevin Carrico and current President Nick Howland. In August 2025, over the objection of the committee's only Democrat, Rahman Johnson, the council's personnel committee expanded Teal's responsibilities and officially named him the council's in-house legislative counsel, a position the council has rarely filled over recent decades.

His current salary of $281,599.96 approaches that of the city's General Counsel Michael Fackler, who earns $288,166.92 for overseeing approximately 40 lawyers providing legal services for Florida's largest municipal government. On paper, Teal's official supervisor is the council president, according to his offer letter obtained by The Florida Trib.

The expansion of Teal's role has manifested in several high-profile conflicts. During a June 8 meeting of a special City Council committee investigating workplace culture at JEA, Teal led nearly two hours of questioning of JEA officials, drawing objections from attorneys in the Office of General Counsel that he once oversaw as the city's general counsel during former Mayor Lenny Curry's administration.

More recently, Teal appeared at an August Jacksonville Aviation Authority board meeting to warn members that hiring an outside attorney to sue the city "could result in each of you being held personally liable for those funds, potential criminal liability, and a determination of malfeasance or misfeasance." Teal acknowledged these comments fell outside his responsibilities as legislative counsel or secretary but said he wanted to share his expertise in government law.

Impact on Jacksonville's consolidated government structure

Jacksonville and Duval County have operated under a consolidated city-county government since 1968, a structure designed to unify most government functions under a single administrative framework. The Office of General Counsel traditionally serves as the legal authority for the entire consolidated government, including advising both the mayor and the City Council.

Former city officials say Teal's role represents an unusual departure from that framework. "The general counsel is the glue that holds our consolidated government together, and that should be honored," said Council member Matt Carlucci, the body's senior member. "It was like the City Council suddenly divorced itself from the Office of General Counsel, and we decided to get our own general counsel with Jason Teal."

Former Jacksonville Mayor John Delaney, who also served as the city's general counsel, called Teal's appearance before the Aviation Authority board "pushing the envelope." "The legislative counsel for the city council is not really supposed to be issuing legal opinions," Delaney said.

The tension reflects a broader power struggle between the council's Republican leadership and Democratic Mayor Donna Deegan. Council leadership's distrust of Fackler, whom Deegan appointed as general counsel in 2023, prompted the move to hire separate legal representation. An early breaking point was Fackler's defense of Deegan's decision to remove a Confederate monument in Springfield Park, a move that angered some Republican council members.

Teal has directly challenged Fackler's legal findings on multiple occasions, at one point suggesting the council could take the Office of General Counsel to court over unfavorable opinions. When the council's GOP majority wanted to dilute some of Deegan's appointment powers—which Fackler said the charter did not allow—Teal argued that without the ability to challenge Fackler's views in court, "in essence Mr. Fackler is god because there is no check or balance."

Questions about legal authority and public records

The limits of Teal's role became a flashpoint this summer during a public-records controversy involving Carrico. State Attorney Melissa Nelson's office issued a subpoena to Teal for Carrico's communication records related to JEA discussions, stemming from controversy around Carrico's decision to nominate his boss at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Northeast Florida to the JEA board.

When media organizations requested copies of records Carrico turned over to investigators, Teal initially demanded $4,000, saying Carrico had not kept copies and the records would need to be reproduced. After pushback from a coalition of media organizations including The Florida Trib, the council lowered the cost but provided records that had been visibly altered with missing elements.

Teal defended withholding certain communications as Carrico's "personal communications," even though the more complete records later provided by Nelson's office showed the withheld texts included discussions between Carrico and his boss about valuable JEA land in Nassau County that the Boys & Girls Clubs' local organization hoped to receive as a donation from the utility.

In one text exchange, Carrico discussed JEA leaders' decision not to provide the land for free, writing: "Guess it's time they get a new board member to show them who's boss … You ready to play the game?" Teal maintained the redactions were appropriate because Carrico had stepped out of his council president role into his private position as a Boys & Girls Clubs leader.

Former General Counsel Rick Mullaney, now executive director of Jacksonville University's Public Policy Institute, said the general counsel's office should have been reviewing the emails, not the council's attorney. "The question is who gets to make that call and that call should generally be made by the general counsel's office," Mullaney said.

Precedent for independent authorities

The controversy has created an ironic parallel with the Jacksonville Aviation Authority's own grievances. The independent authority has clashed with the Office of General Counsel and sought to hire outside legal representation, only to face opposition from council leadership and warnings from Teal himself.

"So, if a council can have their own attorney, why shouldn't an independent authority be able to have their own attorney?" asked Bill Gulliford, a JAA board member and former Jacksonville City Council president. Gulliford called Teal's comments to the Aviation Authority board "inappropriate" and likely the result of "strong pressure" from current Council President Howland.

The aviation authority's dispute with the city centers on a long-running conflict with Howland over authority and governance issues. The board's consideration of hiring outside counsel to sue the city represents the latest escalation in that battle, with the authority seeking the same kind of independent legal advice the City Council now receives from Teal.

Under Florida law, independent authorities typically have the power to retain their own counsel, though the specific charter provisions governing Jacksonville's consolidated government and its independent authorities can create complex questions about legal representation and potential conflicts.

What Teal says about his role

Teal acknowledged in an interview that "the ordinance code is very general and generic as far as what role legislative counsel can do." However, he defended his approach by arguing his background as former city general counsel uniquely qualifies him to understand the limits of his position.

"There's a danger if it's allowed to go too far," Teal said. "The danger is lessened with legislative counsel because it's been in there from the beginning (of the charter), and you have somebody in that role that understands consolidation and appreciates consolidation and won't let it get out of hand," he said, referring to himself.

Teal argued that his experience allows him to "fully understand and support the fact that the legislative counsel is inferior to the general counsel." "It's probably safer, I think, for consolidated government to have me in that role than to have somebody else," he told The Florida Trib.

When initially discussing his potential appointment in August 2025, Teal described the legislative counsel role in narrow terms: "It is limited to only those matters that will come before the City Council or could come before the City Council. So I wouldn't be able to weigh in on an issue for the airport authority for example or the school board or those kinds of things." His subsequent appearance before the Aviation Authority board contradicted that description.

Broader implications for city governance

The disputes over Teal's role come as Jacksonville's consolidated government faces other tensions between the legislative and executive branches. The City Council's creation of a special committee to investigate workplace culture at JEA—the city-owned electric, water and sewer utility and one of the largest municipal utilities in the United States—reflected Republicans' concerns about the utility's management under Deegan's administration.

During the June 8 JEA hearing that prompted Carlucci's "prosecutor" comment, Teal led questioning that at times drew objections from Office of General Counsel attorneys. Carlucci called the proceedings "disturbing and toxic" and "directionless," adding: "We're treating (JEA) like prosecutors up here."

"He was, to me, carrying out what the council president (Carrico) and the chairman of that committee (Ron Salem) wanted him to do," Carlucci said in an interview about Teal's role as interrogator for the special JEA committee. Some council colleagues view Teal as more aligned with the GOP leadership's agenda, particularly given that his dual role was not voted on by the full council.

The key open question is whether Teal's expanded role will become a permanent feature of Jacksonville's government structure or whether future council leadership might scale back the position. The answer will likely depend on the political dynamics between the council and mayor's office and whether the current tensions over legal authority prompt charter amendments or other structural changes to clarify the boundaries between the legislative counsel and general counsel roles.

As Jacksonville continues growing as Florida's largest city by area and population, the effectiveness of its consolidated government structure remains critical to managing development, infrastructure, and public services across Duval County. How the city resolves questions about legal authority and checks and balances between branches could set precedents affecting governance for years to come.