4 councilmembers walk out during discussion of Rory Diamond’s ‘Big Beautiful Budget Amendments’

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Four Jacksonville city councilmembers walked out of a city council meeting during budget amendment discussions Tuesday night, sparking drama and prompting the sergeant at arms to intervene.

The walkout occurred after a split vote on the city’s millage rate, during a contentious debate over the “Big Beautiful Budget Amendments” proposed by Councilman Rory Diamond.

RELATED: Jacksonville City Council split on millage rate proposal

The amendments add several restrictions to Mayor Donna Deegan’s budget proposal, including:

• A ban on taxpayer funding for people living in the country illegally
• A ban on taxpayer funding for Diversity Equity and Inclusion (“DEI”) initiatives
• A ban on taxpayer funding for abortion and abortion-related services as defined by Florida Statute

During the discussion of Diamond’s proposal, councilmembers Rahman Johnson, Jimmy Peluso, Ju’Coby Pittman, and Reggie Gaffney Jr. all walked out.

Pittman criticized the amendments sharply, calling them a “bullying tactic” that undermines the transparency and trust built during weeks of budget deliberations.

“It was snuck in after several weeks that we all worked very hard and deliberated the budget — which I feel undermined the process, the transparency and most of all the trust,” Pittman said. “It was a bullying tactic, self-serving and it wasn’t governing. And I want to say — enough is doggone enough.”

Diamond defended his amendments, rejecting accusations of racism. He said the amendments explicitly state the city will not discriminate based on gender, race or family status.

“It literally says we are not going to be racist — we’re not going to spend money on treating people different based on their gender, their race or who they go home to — that’s what it says, that we will not be racist,” Diamond said. “Instead, I get called racist. I didn’t throw out any names — I didn’t hear any substantive arguments against this. Give me one good reason why we should spend $1 because we like one race or one gender more than another? I don’t think we should.”

After the walkout, the councilmembers returned to reconsider the vote.

On social media, Diamond called the council’s failure to strip the amendments out of the budget a “Big win for Jax,” adding that the vote tally was 8 (against) to 10 (in favor).

“An effort to strip our Big Beautiful Budget Amendments out of the budget FAILED 8-10 tonight,” he said. “Conservatives stood strong. We kept our BAN on spending on DEI, illegals, or abortion.”

Around 10:15 p.m., Johnson posted to social media, explaining why he walked out of the meeting.

“I left the council dais tonight as colleagues tried to cram bans on DEI, abortion & immigration into Jacksonville’s budget. Our Charter isn’t a toy. Local budgets fund local needs—not culture wars. My voice won’t be silenced. #DuvalForward," he said.

Millage rate vote split

The millage rate vote was also contentious. It took three rounds of voting to reach a 9-9 tie, which meant the motion to keep the rate at 11.3169 mills failed.

But the council was required to pass the millage rate by the end of the meeting, so Councilman Ron Salem changed his vote to prevent further delay, saying he would vote differently in two weeks.

The final vote on Tuesday was 10-8.

According to City Council President Kevin Carrico, Councilman Chris Miller was overseas for work travel and wasn’t present to vote at the meeting, but he will be at the Sept. 23 meeting.

That’s when a final vote on the full budget is scheduled.