by Mike Sharkey
Staff Writer
A few years ago when General Counsel Rick Mullaney decided to compile every legal, binding opinion written by the City’s general counsels since Consolidation in 1968, he wasn’t sure what he was getting into. Better yet, Mullaney didn’t realize who he was getting into.
At first, the idea was to compile the opinions, catalogue them and store them electronically for easy access. Throughout the process that included many of Mullaney’s staff one name continuously stood out.
Since Consolidation, a dozen general counsels have authored hundreds of opinions. Mullaney — the longest-tenured general counsel at 10 years, has written only a fraction — 10 — of the 379 opinions that have helped support and shape the City Charter. The other 11 general counsels — and that list includes two former mayors, Ed Austin and John Delaney — have written a handful each.
Then, you get to former judge William Durden, who served as the first general counsel under the new Consolidated form of government.
“The whole first volume is just judge Durden,” said Mullaney. “It is truly extraordinary.”
In all, Durden wrote 264 of the 379 opinions currently on the books. Due to the nature of the new government, a vast majority of those opinions — over 300, according to Mullaney — were written during the first few years.
Mullaney also planned to finish the project in time for the 40th anniversary of Consolidation, which the City recognized in October. Things such as Grand Jury inquiries flirted with ruining Mullaney’s plans. But, when he was done Mullaney realized a second project: bound leather versions of the opinions for Durden.
May 22, Mullaney along with several former general counsels and members of the Durden and Cooper families gathered in Chief Judge Don Moran’s Chambers to honor Durden for his work and present the volumes to the local legal icon.
“He’s the John Marshall of Consolidated government,” said Mullaney.
Durden’s daughter, Circuit Court Judge Mallory Cooper, was the only other person who knew her father was being lured to the Courthouse for something other than lunch.
“There is no way to say how much this means to our family,” she said. “There is a lot of history in this room. I don’t think 25 years ago you all thought you would meet today on this occasion.”
Durden talked about the complexities of moving from multiple forms of government to a consolidated government literally overnight. He said at the time there were 69 offices, budgets, boards and commissions in some form that comprised the City of Jacksonville and its suburbs.
“The job of consolidation was to take all of those and combine them into a consolidated government. It was an awesome task,” said Durden. “There was nobody to guide me and nobody to report to, either.”
Durden said the new Charter had to be adopted by the State Legislature and he credited Jim Rinaman, who succeeded him as general counsel, for helping him in the early days. Still, there were issues. Durden said all 69 entities had their own lawyer and each spent a lot of time suing each other.
“We were just having a grand old time with legal fees,” he said.
Some of the issues Durden had to deal with included unaccredited schools, 168,000 parcels of land that had to be reassessed and the fact he was a presiding judge at the time of Consolidation.
Mullaney also had sets of the opinions made for the other former general counsels and presented them to those who attended the luncheon.
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