Engagement letter shows city's cost for hiring father-in-law of city's general counsel
A Jacksonville law firm that has a family connection to city General Counsel Michael Fackler will start with a $15,000 budget to represent the city in a criminal investigation over whether it illegally recorded the names of gun owners and their guns at security checkpoints.
The engagement letter for hiring Bedell, Dittmar, DeVault, Pillans & Coxe sets the initial not-to-exceed budget and also the hourly rates for three attorneys from the firm: $495 an hour for Hank Coxe, $450 an hour for Michael Lockamy, and $350 an hour for Lidija Barauskas.
Coxe is the father-in-law of Fackler, who heads the city's in-house legal office. The Office of General Counsel can go outside the city to retain special counsel when needed. The city's ethics officer has told Fackler the state's anti-nepotism law does not prevent him from contracting with the Bedell firm.
But City Council member Rory Diamond said the city should get a formal legal opinion from the Florida Commission on Ethics based on the specific facts of the contract.
"We shouldn't be in this position at all," Diamond said. "There are literally hundreds of criminal defense attorneys in Jacksonville. Michael Fackler should not be hiring his father-in-law, period. Hard stop. It's terrible. He knows better."
"The optics on that are not the best," City Council member Kevin Carrico said.
Carrico said when City Council members have hired attorneys to assist the council, they've vetted multiple firms. He said he's not he's "taking anything away from Mr. Coxe and his skills as a lawyer" but hiring the Bedell firm has the appearance of nepotism.
Fackler said he agrees Jacksonville has many outstanding criminal defense attorneys. He said he met with his deputies in the Office of General Counsel about retaining outside council after the city received a complaint about the gun logbooks and that lead to the decision that "Bedell was the logical choice."
Bedell has worked for the city in the past under the leadership of other general counsels. The firm practices in the fields of civil and criminal defense which will be needed because the state law at issue carries civil and criminal penalties, Fackler said.
Coxe, who has been recognized as one of Florida's top criminal defense attorneys, is a partner at the firm.
Kirby Oberdorfer, executive director of the city's Ethics, Compliance and Oversight Office , wrote in a May 5 email to Fackler that a state law against nepotism does not apply when the city hires an independent contractor, including contractors who provide professional services such as a law firm.
Oberdorfer said in an interview she also contacted the Florida Commission on Ethics and got verbal confirmation that she is interpreting state law correctly.
The state's anti-nepotism law prohibits a public official from "appointing, employing, promoting, or advancing, or advocating the appointment, employment, promotion, or advancement" of a relative.
Oberdorfer said if Fackler "were to hire his father-in-law to work at the General Counsel's Office as an employee, that would be prohibited by that statute."
She said past opinions by the state ethics commission and the attorney general have determined the nepotism prohibition only applies to employment or positions within the government agency, not to independent contractors retained by the government.
The city does not have its own anti-nepotism law.
Fackler told City Council in a May 5 briefing that his office had retained the Bedell firm.
"Well, I think you probably chose well," City Council member Nick Howland said.
Fackler also told council members about his family relationship with Coxe and said that was not the reason for choosing the firm.
Fackler said when the city learned April 21 that a gun owner had lodged a complaint about the city keeping a gun logbook at the Yates Building, the city had to move quickly to bring in an outside firm because violating the state law has serious penalties and the Office of General Counsel does not have attorneys specializing in criminal law.
He told City Council at that meeting he had not entered into an engagement letter with Bedell.
"We did it on the fly and in a rush due to the important consequences," he said.
He said he would do an engagement letter and that would be a public record.
In response to a public records request by the Florida Times-Union, the city provided the engagement letter that shows the initial budget for the contract and the "discounted hourly rates" for the three attorneys who will assist the city. The engagement letter is dated May 27 and approved by Fackler. It covers expenses since April 21 when the city got the complaint.
The city started using the logbooks in July 2023 and stopped using them April 21. State Attorney Melissa Nelson opened an ongoing investigation on April 22.
State law says a local government cannot "knowingly and willfully keep or cause to be kept any list, record, or registry of privately-owned firearms or any list, record or registry of the owners of those firearms."
The city had directed First Coast Security to use the the "weapon and firearm logbook" that records the name, photo identification such as a driver's license, and weapon type of anyone carrying a gun or weapon into City Hall or the Yates Building.
Violating that law is a third-degree felony punishable by up to five years in prison and a fine up to $5,000. Nelson's investigation is seeking to determine who was involved in creation of the directive for using the gun logbooks.
In addition, the state attorney general can bring a civil action seeking a fine of up to $5 million against a government entity if the court finds evidence the list, record or registry was "compiled or maintained with the knowledge or complicity of the management of the governmental entity."
( This story was updated to correct the dates when the city stopped using gun logbooks and State Attorney Melissa Nelson opened an investigation. )
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Engagement letter shows city's cost for hiring father-in-law of city's general counsel
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