Jacksonville General Counsel Michael Fackler is facing scrutiny from city lawmakers for hiring his father-in-law's legal firm to hand a State Attorney's Office subpoena. | Jacksonville Daily Record
Published on August 13, 2025 at 6:13 pm
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Jacksonville city lawmakers will ask the Florida Ethics Commission to weigh in on a decision by the city’s top attorney to hire a family member’s law firm to handle a subpoena from the State Attorney’s Office.
City Council voted 12-5 on Tuesday to seek an advisory opinion from state ethics officials on the selection of the Bedell Law Firm by General Counsel Michael Fackler to research and respond to the subpoena related to an illegal gun registry kept by the city in 2023.
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The legislation — Resolution 2025-0475 filed by council member Mike Gay — says the Bedell Law Firm is owned by Fackler’s father-in-law. Fackler is married to Katie Coxe Fackler, daughter of criminal defense attorney Hank Coxe, former Florida Bar president and Bedell partner.
Specifically, council members are asking the state if contracting Bedell was a violation of Florida statutes related to standards of conduct for local government attorneys and public officers.
The Bedell firm was responding to the state attorney’s request for documents and nine current and former city employees about the gun registry that originated in 2023, according to Jacksonville Today news partner News4Jax.
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After City Council member Nick Howland posted allegations about the registry in May on the social media platform X, Fackler said he had been informed that the registry has ended and he was hiring outside counsel to represent the city.
Mayor Donna Deegan’s administration said at the time the logs began under the previous mayoral administration. Former Mayor Lenny Curry told News4Jax that neither he nor any of his administration’s employees “kept and logged citizens exercising constitutional rights in City Hall.”
Florida’s “Constitutional Carry” law that went into effect July 1, 2023, prevents a public firearms registry.
On Tuesday, Gay, council member Rory Diamond and the council leadership also took exception with whom Fackler chose to write a city memorandum that would be sent to Tallahassee attached to the resolution.
Fackler selected Smith Gambrell attorney Lawsikia Hodges to write the memo. But Gay said Hodges’ current contract with the city’s Office of General Counsel on other issues could present a conflict and result in “bias representation.”
“To the extent you’ve directed my office, I’ve gone beyond what I what think is actually necessary and retained and spent extra funds to avoid the appearance of bias or impropriety and hired Ms. Hodges,” Fackler said.
Instead, the council amended the bill to hire former City General Counsel and current Burr and Foreman attorney Jason Gabriel to prepare the documents for approval by Council President Kevin Carrico, who would then forward to state ethics officials.
Gay and other council members were careful to reiterate their respect for Hodges, who also worked in the general counsel’s office for 19 years.
Council member Jimmy Peluso argued the legal memorandum could be drafted by an attorney in the city’s Office of Ethics, who are not under the supervision of the general counsel.
A frequent ally of Deegan’s, Peluso said during the debate that spending money on another attorney outside the city government to draft the opinion appeared to contradict comments last week during a city budget debate by many supporters of the ethics review about the need to stop “duplicative efforts” in city departments.
“I just find it odd that we’d want to spend money when we have people who we already pay in this building who specifically work in this field of study,” Peluso said. “It makes no sense to me.”
Diamond, a Republican who represents the Beaches, said much of the council’s move stems from distrust of Fackler “by a majority of the council.” Deegan’s appointment of Fackler in November 2023 was approved 17-0 by council. Diamond and Freeman were absent for that vote.
Since then, Fackler has been at odds with some in the council’s GOP majority for what they see as a preference to side with Deegan and the executive branch in his legal opinions, including his stance in January that their vote to raise pay for one of the city’s three trash haulers violated the city charter.
Others on council, Deegan and the Jacksonville Bar Association have publicly voiced their support for the city’s top attorney.
Diamond said that, had Council made the decision to hire a family member,” they would be “railroaded out of here by voters.”
“Why are we not using OGC? Obviously, they are conflicted. Why are we not using our ethics office? We love them, but they’re here, and the entire city is watching what we are doing,” Diamond said. “So they want to know that we are a step removed, that we’re going to get an honest answer as to whether or not your government is honest and ethical.”
