City Council overrides mayor’s veto of pay hike for trash hauler; mayor vows not to pay

A day after Mayor Donna Deegan issued her first veto, Jacksonville’s City Council voted to override it and approve a 29% pay hike for garbage collection for Meridian Waste.

Only four of 18 council members voted to sustain the mayor’s veto: Matt Carlucci, Tyrona Clark-Murray, Rahman Johnson and Jimmy Peluso.

Back on Dec. 10, council members initially approved the new contract for Meridian Waste. But on Monday this week, the mayor vetoed the legislation and issued a statement: “Giving at least 4 million additional dollars every year for the next three years in cash for trash is unnecessary and wasteful.”

On Tuesday, Deegan met with news reporters to discuss her veto, saying it was the fiscally responsible thing to do.

“We negotiated a contract with these folks. They agreed to the contract,” Deegan said. “But to ask for a 29% increase in a time such as this, that just seemed like an irresponsible thing to approve.”

The mayor was aware that the full council could overturn her veto later on Tuesday — which they did — but she said she has the power of the executive branch.

“We have a strong (mayor) form of government here that has served us very well over the years. We negotiate the contracts here, and the council disposes of those contracts,” Deegan said. “In this situation, we do believe this is an executive power. Apparently the company was not pleased with the contract they signed, so they went to the council to get a better deal.”

She said this is not just about her as the mayor, and there may be “some folks over there that still haven’t wrapped their mind or heart around the fact that I am the mayor of this city, and that’s OK. But at the end of the day, I have to do my job… We have a strong mayor form of government with an executive branch, and legislative branch, and we need to honor that.” 

The two branches of government appear to be accusing each other of infringing on the power of the other side.

At Tuesday’s City Council meeting, several elected officials bristled at Deegan’s veto, including District 13 Councilman Rory Diamond, who represents the Beaches.

Diamond said appropriation of government funding is a solid “90%” of what the 19-member body does, and he felt Deegan’s veto was an overreach.

“If the mayor can just decide that she is not going to spend the money that we’ve appropriated, then we have lost more power than any City Council who has ever sat here before,” Diamond said. “This is our job. The mayor’s job is to convince us we’re wrong, but she doesn’t get to just take our power away.”

Diamond was the first on City Council Tuesday evening to lash out, too, at General Counsel Michael Fackler for issuing an opinion that says the council’s rate-setting power “essentially removes the executive branch from a core function of local government” and thus violates the city charter’s separation of powers clause.

“Mr. Fackler, you need to rewrite this opinion. Stop glitching the entire city government over this issue. I understand the mayor asked you to do this, but you don’t have to stick by this opinion. You’re carrying more water than any OGC for mayor in the history of the city. It needs to be undone,” Diamond told the city’s top lawyer.

Others agreed.

At-Large Councilman Ron Salem said it bothered him to be put in the situation they were in Tuesday night. He said vote on Dec. 10 was a 17-2 vote.

“Leading up to that, all we heard was the dollars that were involved,” said Salem. “Throughout that process, even the night of the vote, there was no mention of separation of powers…And it has now come out that (Fackler) was well aware of the issue of separation of powers, and did not inform this city council.”

District 14 Councilman Rahman Johnson, while he voted to uphold the mayor’s veto, issued a statement following the meeting that harshly criticized the process.

“The core of this issue lies in a failure to communicate effectively,” Johnson wrote. “I voted to uphold the mayor’s veto because the foundation of this issue cannot be ignored. Nevertheless, I believe that the General Counsel’s opinion is flawed. I must also emphasize that the Mayor’s Office bears significant responsibility for the poor handling of this legislation. Had there been earlier and more effective communication, this situation — and the uncertainty it brings — could have been prevented.”

“Jacksonville thrives when all branches of government work together toward a common goal, and we cannot afford to let breakdowns like this hinder our progress,” Johnson said.

Mayoral vetoes are rare, but Deegan earlier Tuesday had said the administration had made it clear, as the bill was being debated, that “we were absolutely opposed to this, and we had negotiated this in good faith.”

Deegan also said earlier that day that if City Council were to override the veto, her administration “will not be paying for that increase.”

“To spend an additional $12 million over the next three years for a contract that’s already been agreed to is not fiscally responsible,” she said.

“If it needs to go to a legal action, then that’s what we will have to do,” said Deegan. “I suppose there would have to be a legal action on the part of the company if they decided to go further with this. Then we would have to get our general counsel involved. Ultimately, this is not just a question with this contract. It is a question about all contracts going forward.”

“We are still not going to pay it,” she said.

Salem was clearly heated over the contract’s putting the city at legal risk.

“I urge the mayor, after this override today, to sign this document,” said Salem, adding that he does not want the threat of litigation by Meridian Waste to result in the city’s hiring outside legal help that would cost “hundreds of thousands of dollars.” 

Salem said that moving forward, “(We need to) get out of this process, put these contracts out to bid as they should be, and we won’t be in this situation in the future.”