Jason Teal, a 21-year veteran of the Jacksonville Office of General Counsel, will be the city’s top attorney through July 1, 2023.
The Jacksonville City Council voted 17-1 on Oct. 26 to approve Teal’s nomination for the general counsel position after nearly two months of pushback from some Council members, led by Brenda Priestly Jackson.
Mayor Lenny Curry appointed Teal as acting general counsel in July after Jason Gabriel resigned to return to private practice, joining the Burr & Forman firm.
Teal will serve for the rest of Curry’s second term, which ends July 1, 2023.
At that time, the incoming mayor could choose to renominate Teal or select a new general counsel nominee to be vetted by Council.
Curry is term-limited, so there will be a new mayor who will nominate a candidate.
Rules Committee Chair Priestly Jackson voted no. She has expressed concern with Teal’s nomination since it began in August.
She questioned a pay raise and promotion Teal approved for a general counsel’s office attorney with whom he had a personal relationship.
Teal disclosed the relationship in a Sept. 30, 2020, email to the city Employee Services Department as required by city policy.
He told the Rules Committee on Oct. 19 that the raise was appropriate to bring the lawyer’s pay in line with other attorneys in the office.
Priestly Jackson also questioned a contract Teal approved July 19 for legal services with Burr & Forman, which Gabriel had announced he would join.
The firm drafted a ground lease in a city marina operating agreement.
“I have wrestled with Mr. Teal’s actions and my vote on this matter,” Priestly Jackson said at the Oct. 26 Council meeting.
“Consequently, I have only one question for Mr. Teal today,” she said.
“I must ask if you could go back in time, Mr. Teal, would you sign an engagement letter under similar circumstances, or would you take a different course of action?”
Teal said the contract was one of many duties the outgoing Gabriel delegated to him.
Teal said it was an ethical decision. He said at the time of the decision he had been named acting general counsel by Curry and did not think approving the contract was improper.
“He (Jason Gabriel) knew that I would be acting general counsel, if not full general counsel, and those were some decisions that I would have to live with and that the office would have to live with. He wanted to have me be the one to make some of those decisions,” Teal said.
Council members Randy DeFoor and Garrett Dennis, who opposed the nomination at the Rules Committee citing the process issues, supported Teal in the final vote.
A Qualification Review Committee of current and former city officials and attorneys appointed by Curry voted Oct. 4 to recommend Teal for the job after receiving no other applications.
Gabriel officially left the city Aug. 7. According to the city charter, the mayor and Council have 90 days from the vacancy to fill the general counsel position. In this case, that was Nov. 9.
Teal began working as a city attorney in October 2000 and was a deputy general counsel overseeing the Regulatory and Constitutional Law Department before being named interim general counsel.
He represented city elected officials and independent authorities, purchasing and bid protests, personnel and employment matters and real estate and foreclosure cases, among other areas.
Before the vote, Duval County Supervisor of Elections Mike Hogan spoke to the Council in support of Teal.
Hogan said Teal has advised the Supervisor of Elections Office on election law for years and gained the respect of the staff.
He said the city needs a general counsel who understands how Duval County’s consolidated government works on day one.
“Our citizens and our elected leaders will need a general counsel who is already well known and respected by our existing staff,” Hogan said.
“We do not have the luxury of a honeymoon period for this new general counsel.”