JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – There might be a cease-fire in the latest battle over Confederate monuments in Jacksonville.
Jacksonville City Council has been debating the issue since Democrat Mayor Donna Deegan ordered the removal of the statue from a park a month ago.
But it might be a while before we hear the issue debated again.
Republican members of the Jacksonville City Council pressed the city’s General Counsel during a special workshop Thursday to get more answers on Deegan’s decision to remove a Confederate monument from Springfield Park just after Christmas. The removal was peaceful and those on hand were not causing trouble, but Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters said during the meeting that he would have liked to have known it was coming.
“I’m indifferent about the reason or the statue itself. Doesn’t matter where I fall on a subject, it matters how I take care of the city and the citizens of this community. I would like to have known because you don’t want to ever wake up and don’t know something like this is happening and there’s one police officer out there,” Waters said.
But the man who faced the most questions on Thursday was the city’s top lawyer, Michael Fackler. He was the one who advised Deegan she had the power to take down the statue without council approval. But after the monument was down, in a second opinion on the matter, Fackler said it was not so cut and dry.
“It’s up to the council, I guess, to see if there’s other action taken,” Fackler said after the meeting. “I stand behind the opinion that I gave. There were appropriate questions. I don’t think the process that the council is undergoing is inappropriate in any way. They’re asking the appropriate questions.”
Fackler did acknowledge there were mistakes made.
“There was a mistake made on my part by not incorporating my team that had the expertise and the knowledge of how the process works,” he said.
Fackler said that he does not believe his mistake opened up the city to a lawsuit.
One of the biggest critics of the entire process has been Republican Councilman Nick Howland.
“I’m even more concerned today than I was yesterday, based on the information we learned. I mean, it’s clear to me that the opinion in its first form, and its second form was written to justify a decision that was already made,” Howland said.
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The removal widened the rift between the mayor and City Council President Ron Salem and he has been going back and forth with Deegan over the issue.
On Thursday, Salem said he believes he heard the answers he needed to help put this to rest.
“I need to hear from my colleagues. It’s just not my decision. But I thought we had a good airing of all the issues today. And I thought that was very helpful,” Salem said.
There is legislation by Salem that is the works that would not allow the mayor in the future to act alone on issues like this.
Meanwhile, Deegan has made it clear: She believes there is a double standard considering how the council reacted to a similar decision under former Mayor Lenny Curry.
The General Counsel has already said the statue’s removal, using private donations, was within her authority.
“I went to the General Counsel, asked if I had the permission to do that and was told yes, I do. Now we’re stuck in the weeds of a bunch of stuff that honestly we’re held a double standard frankly to the last administration,” Deegan said.
