Broker: Jacksonville legislation granting more power to sheriff could cost taxpayers

Two Jacksonville City Council committees this week supported legislation that would expand Sheriff T.K. Waters’ influence over potential settlements in lawsuits against his officers, despite warnings from city officials that such a move could increase the city’s liability insurance costs or prompt the insurer to drop the city altogether.

Introduced by Waters, the bill would require constitutional officers’ approval in lawsuit settlements involving members of their staff. The bill passed in the Rules and Finance committees with council members arguing the sheriff and other elected officials need “a seat at the table” in major decisions, although council members also heard from one constitutional officer, Duval County Supervisor of Elections Jerry Holland, who argued there was no need to change the existing process.

“It's not just about dollars and cents,” Kevin Carrico, District 4 council member, said Tuesday. “It's about culture [at JSO], and [Waters] has to lead that culture. If this is an arrow we need to get him in his quiver to help build a better culture, to help police our streets and keep us safe, we're gonna give it to him.”

Nate Monroe: FAMU student's death was tragic, not ammo for sheriff's political play

The city’s Risk Management team currently calculates whether the city should take a chance going to trial or reach a settlement, and other members of city government must sign off on the agreement. Although others, like department heads, are sometimes consulted, smaller settlements don’t always need their sign off.

The broker, the city’s top lawyer and the city’s chief financial officer each had concerns over the financial effects of the legislation which, by adding another layer of approval, would make settlements more cumbersome.

“No other municipality in the nation requires written approval of affected organization leaders, which the insurance industry deems to pose ethical conflicts of interest and ‘would materially affect our view of the risk and terms we are able to offer,’” Anna Brosche, the city’s chief financial officer, told council members Monday.

Council members came to a compromise: the constitutional officer – whether the sheriff, tax collector, clerk of court, property appraiser or supervisor of elections – still has to be involved in settlement talks and give written approval. But, if the officer disagrees with the city’s Risk Management team, the City Council president will act as a tie-breaker.

Josh Becksmith, an insurance broker with Brown & Brown, said the provision helped, but he still could not know how the city’s insurance carrier would respond. He suggested council add dollar figures to guide the city in certain cases looking to cost over a certain threshold, but council did not make stipulations in committee.

Sheriff introduces legislation following ‘communication error’

The legislation comes three months after Jacksonville’s The Tributary reported  the city settled a lawsuit against a Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office officer in the death of 22-year-old Jamee Johnson, a Florida A&M University student shot in 2019.

Settlements are normally reached when the city does not want to incur the cost or the risk of a jury trial. Settlements generally don’t include an admission of guilt, which was the case in the Johnson family settlement. Johnson’s family signed that they released the officers from “all liability and claims whatsoever involving this incident or occurrence.”

Court records show Johnson’s family asked for $5 million in mediation. They agreed to a settlement of $200,000.

Waters said in November that he was not consulted on the settlement and that he was “deeply disappointed by the outcome of this litigation and JSO’s lack of proper notification by our attorneys.”

The legislation is meant to ensure the sheriff always has a voice when discussing the agency, Waters told council committees. Settlements can negatively affect officer morale, Waters said, and he needed the ability to explain the decisions to them.

“The impact that it has on the agency, and the public facing view of our agency, even though it's a settlement, is still detrimental to what happens within our office,” Waters said Monday.

Records obtained by the Florida Times-Union show the Office of General Counsel notified Undersheriff Shawn Coarsey and Waters’ executive assistant Aug. 1 of an impending settlement with Johnson’s family, which was signed by his parents over the next two days. There were no records showing Waters’ real-time response to that news.

Brosche, the city’s chief financial officer and a former council president, said the office made a mistake by not notifying the sheriff’s office sooner. Previous sheriffs have not wanted to be as involved in the settlement process as Waters, she said.

“We have proposed ways to open up lines of communication and to work together without causing unintended consequences of codifying the process of written approval,” Brosche said.

She suggested council allow the offices to make policy changes to better communicate instead of codifying the changes.

Lara Mattina, organizational strategic executive for JSO, told them an informal policy change was not enough.

“This litigation has shown us that we must have a seat at the table,” she said. “We must have decision making power as part of the whole because we are the agency that is fundamentally going to be suffering the greatest loss in terms of settlement of any kind of litigation.”

The legislation would extend to the decisions of future sheriffs, not just Waters.

Legislation could impact city liability insurance, sued city employees

Council members largely were not concerned about the impact to the city’s insurance, saying the addition of the City Council president as a tiebreaker would keep the constitutional officer from garnering too much power.

Nick Howland, chair of the finance committee, called the concerns over loss of insurance “dubious.”

“I consider the fact that this policy change might put us in the realm of uninsurability to be pretty dubious when Serena Williams can insure her wrists and Lionel Messi can insure his feet.” Howland said. “We’re a $7-plus billion consolidated revenue company that’s sitting strong financially.”

Brosche also explained the potential impact on individuals sued.

If a case went to trial that could have been settled, insurance companies could refuse to pay. In those cases, taxpayers would be on the hook if the city lost. If the city employee was sued, the individual would be responsible for any financial loss themselves.

“Our Risk Manager and OGC attorney are protecting our men and women in blue from unlimited personal financial risks,” Brosche said. “While there are concerns about damage to JSO and officers from settlements…I submit to you that the damage of lengthy trials, nuclear verdicts and the personal financial impact to our officers could be more damaging.

The team most qualified to operate on the best option for all parties, not principles, was the Risk Management team, city general counsel Michael Fackler told council. Fackler said his office viewed codifying the approval as bad policy.

Though reputational damage that JSO representatives discussed could not be quantified, the damage would already have been done through filing of the suit, Fackler said, and might have been worse if “all the dirty laundry aired” during a jury trial.

“I don't want to be in a situation where we’re litigating a large number of cases over principle,” Fackler said. “And I know that sounds jaded, but that's the reality of litigation.”

City Council will need 10 votes to pass the legislation. The last chance for the public to speak to it will be the night of the vote Tuesday

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Jacksonville legislation gives sheriff more legal settlement power