Jacksonville Sheriff Mike Williams won't resign, awaits opinion on his move to Nassau County

Jacksonville Sheriff Mike Williams said Monday he does not see "any scenario" where he would resign as sheriff in the midst of an Office of General Counsel investigation into whether he unwittingly vacated the office by moving to Nassau County a year ago.

The city's Office of General Counsel plans to issue a binding legal opinion by Wednesday on whether Williams still is sheriff in light of a City Charter provision that says moving out of the county automatically makes the office vacant.

Williams said he believes that under state law, he remains sheriff and he has not ruled out going to court to challenge the General Counsel's legal opinion if he disagrees with it.

"I feel strongly that there's a clear inconsistency between the Charter and state law," he said. "There's a way to correct that without court, but I don't know that's going to be an option the city takes up."

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City Council member Matt Carlucci said he doesn't think council would step in at this stage to amend the charter and allow a sheriff to live outside Duval County while serving.

"To try to change the charter now, I think, would be very, very hard to do."

Carlucci said he spoke with Williams on Sunday and suggested he move back to Duval County.

"I know Mike Williams is a good man and I believe if he finds residency back in Jacksonville, it will be a tempest in a teapot," Carlucci said. "He's a really, really good sheriff."

Williams, who has been sheriff since 2015, said that moving back to Duval County might be a way to resolve the matter and "that's part of the discussion we're having."

Williams moved a year ago to Nassau County and there is no dispute he no longer lives in Duval County.

City lawyers are expected to weigh in on residency issue this week

City Council President Sam Newby requested the binding legal opinion that is moving quickly toward release by the city's top attorney. City General Counsel Jason Teal said he expects to have an opinion ready on or before Wednesday. He would not comment further.

Rumors that Williams had moved out of Jacksonville had circulated for weeks, and he confirmed it on camera Thursday with Times-Union news partner First Coast News, disclosing for the first time he had moved to Nassau County in preparation for his eventual retirement even though he has about a year left on the job.

He told First Coast News there are "multiple sheriffs around the state that do not live in the county in which they serve."

But the Jacksonville City Charter, considered the foundational governing document for city government, clearly says that in Jacksonville, the sheriff must live in Duval County while serving in the office.

"If the sheriff should die, resign, or remove his residence from Duval County during his term of office, or be removed from office, the office of sheriff shall become vacant," the City Charter says.

In 2010, the state Legislature repealed a state law setting residency requirements for sheriffs across Florida. State law does not have any provisions preventing charter counties like Duval County from requiring in-county residence for a sheriff.

Jason Gabriel, who served as Jacksonville's general counsel until last year, said he believes the "charter residency requirement applies here," meaning the office of sheriff has been vacated.

Gabriel said there are times when state law and the charter address the same subject area, and in those cases city attorneys strive "to read those laws in harmony with each other." Absent a specific state prohibition on Jacksonville imposing a certain law, like a residency requirement, however, "the charter applies," he said.

And since there is no such ban on Duval imposing a residency requirement, the residency requirement in the charter is valid.

"Having said that, I am sure the Office of General Counsel is working diligently and as quickly as possible in reviewing, analyzing and coming to a resolution on this matter (among the multitude of matters at hand) and I have utmost confidence and faith in that process and the lawyers looking into this matter."

Jacksonville, one of 20 so-called chartered counties in Florida, has enhanced powers of self government that, historically, the Office of General Counsel has jealously guarded.

The Jacksonville Office of General Counsel is unusually powerful: The top lawyer oversees an office of nearly 50 attorneys and is charged with resolving local legal disputes. The general counsel can, when asked, issue opinions that carry the binding force of law, as will be the case when Teal releases his view on Williams' status this week.

Still, that wouldn't necessarily be the end of the issue. Were Teal to, for example, find that Williams had vacated the office, Williams could file suit to test his legal theory about the charter requirement in court and convince a judge to reinstate him.

Williams said he will be meeting Tuesday with the city's Office of General Counsel and "we may be trending toward not agreeing on this topic."

Special election for sheriff might be needed in August

Should Teal come to the view held by his predecessor — that the charter's clear language applies to Williams — the effect of his opinion would be dramatic and have uncertain down-stream effects.

It would not only mean Duval County does not currently have a sitting sheriff, it would also mean there has been a vacancy in the office since the time Williams officially gave up his Jacksonville residency about a year ago.

That could leave decisions about hirings, firings, promotions and discipline within the large police agency over that timespan in a legal gray area, and it could stretch to include decisions over procurement and more.

City Council member Ron Salem said he expects Teal's opinion could come as soon as Tuesday and depending on what it says, City Council will have a special meeting to decide what to do next.

"I would hope that the sheriff would go along with whatever the general counsel says," he said.

The outcome of the opinion might trigger special elections this year for sheriff to fill out the rest of Williams' term.

The charter says when the position of sheriff becomes vacant, City Council will schedule an election for a replacement no sooner than one month after the resignation and no later than six months after it. That time frame would dovetail with the upcoming  Aug. 23 and Nov. 8 election dates.

City Council member Aaron Bowman said he considers it likely that the upshot of the Office of General Counsel's opinion will be that the office of sheriff is vacant and council will need to call a special election for voters to select a replacement.

"We'll see what happens when the opinion is released," he said. "If it goes where I think it's going, we'll probably have a special council meeting and put it on the ballot for August."

He said he hopes the matter doesn't end up in court after Teal issues his opinion because that would "put us in a terrible position. I don't see that happening."

The governor would appoint an interim sheriff until a replacement is elected.

Jacksonville's consolidated city-county form of government is one of 20 Florida counties that enacted charters giving them more leeway in determining how to run their local governments. Those charter counties have gone beyond state law by adding provisions such as term limits and having candidates run in non-partisan elections.

Jacksonville and Charlotte County are the only charter counties that say if the sheriff moves his residency to another county, the office automatically becomes vacant.

The City Charter of Jacksonville applies that same residency requirement to the office of mayor, City Council, supervisor of election, tax collector, property appraiser and Duval County School Board members.

Clay County, which is one of the state's charter counties, does not have a residency mandate for sheriff.

Over the past year, pastors, activists and other community leaders have said pinning down Williams for a meeting has been difficult and time-consuming. ICARE, a prominent local group of ministers and faith leaders that support criminal justice reform, told the Times-Union it took the group six months to secure a meeting with Williams, and the meeting itself was disappointing as he refused to take any of the group's suggestions.

Williams said Monday he continues to put in the time as sheriff in carrying out his duties, and he rejected any perception that his move to Nassau County reflects poorly on the safety of Jacksonville.

"I completely disagree," he said. "We're a big metropolitan area so there's a lot of overlap" of people working in Jacksonville and living outside the city. "JSO, me included, are working every single day to keep the community safe, and I think there's example after example of that."

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Jacksonville Sheriff Mike Williams says he won't resign