JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The Jacksonville City Council’s Special Committee on Duval DOGE held its second of six scheduled meetings Tuesday afternoon.
RELATED: Duval DOGE special committee meeting turns into $90 million question
During its last meeting two weeks ago, a $90 million question quickly became the focal point.
Take a look at an excerpt from the meeting below.
City leaders said that’s the amount of money that could potentially be reallocated and used in different ways and, according to the auditor’s report, would come from over 60 Capital Improvement Projects (CIP) that are marked as having “no expenditures since October 2023.”
“There are projects that are completed where money is just sitting there because at a year there’s a warranty that needs to be completed which cost a couple thousand dollars so were letting hundreds and thousands of millions of dollars just lay there,” Councilman Ron Salem and Duval DOGE Chair said.
The 11 categories being reviewed include:
- CIPs marked as complete
- CIP with no activity since October 1, 2023
- Analysis of growth in city departments
- Reduce P-cards
- City facilities
- Children services
- Changes to independent agencies
- Financial services expenses
- Building efficiency
- Travel policy
- Overtime
The committee also looked at departments’ growth and made comparisons from this 2024-2025 fiscal year compared to 2017-2018.
For example, in 2017-2018, the Inspector General’s Office had a $999,610 budget. For this fiscal year, it’s over $1.6 million, a growth of over $600,000.
Most of the CIP lists spending for budgets in the last 10 years. A handful of line items date back to 2001, 02, 05 and 07. The oldest items are from 1995 and 1996. Some projects are complete but remain open for warranty periods or inspections that could cover other costs affiliated with a project.
“Our observation and it is certainly for the committee to think about is potentially closing the projects sooner rather than sitting on these dollars because these dollars can be reallocated, prevent you from issuing more debt than is needed,” Kim Taylor the Council Auditor’s Office said.
Salem said he wants to find money that could be reallocated or cut wasteful spending.
“Essentially committee, we are holding on to hundreds of thousands of dollars if not millions for a period of time for an inspection to occur that may be anywhere from 2000 to several thousand dollars. It would be my preference to set up some type of inspection fund,” Salem said.
The mayor’s office said that’s already happening.
For the last 22 months, the Deegan administration has already been working to make city government more efficient. We have implemented the 904 LEAN Initiative, a program that has been proven in the business world to create efficiencies without diminishing services. We wlcome any attemps to be more efficient, but it’s important to be intentional as you go about this process, using a scalpel, not a chainsaw.
Melissa Ross, Director of Strategic Initiatives/Press Liaison
The committee’s final report is due by June 23.
Some taxpayers disagree with the idea of Duval DOGE. Ms. Bussard is retired and lives in Duval County.
“It targets the least of these and so many republicans who are good Christians; they are targeting people that need the help the most,” Bussard said.
Another resident said she didn’t understand the purpose of the committee.
“I think it’s an attempt to run a parallel mayor’s office because mayor Deegan already has certified efficiency experts that work for her in trying to reduce the city spending, so I don’t see what the purpose is if it isn’t Ron Salem running for mayor,” Candace Hamilton said.
Salem responded to the accusations made by those who disagreed with the formation of the committee.
“If they don’t want to save tens of millions of dollars that we are identifying here, I respect that, but it is my job as a finance chair and chair of this committee to try to maximize the savings to this government. I can’t understand why anybody would not want to save money through this CIP process money that’s just sitting there why would you not want to save that? And they say I’m grandstanding; maybe they’re grandstanding,” Salem said.
The next meeting will be May 6.
