JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The Jacksonville City Council passed Mayor Donna Deegan’s $1.9 billion budget, which focuses on issues like addressing public safety and homelessness.
The billion-dollar budget passed with a 16 to 1 vote on Tuesday but the approval did come without heated discussion. There was a lot of back and forth between council members surrounding one amendment that would reintroduce a staff position that was eliminated in the mayor’s office.
Councilman Rory Diamond, the lone vote, felt it was a way to sneak back in the chief DEI position that was eliminated in budget discussions in August.
“If we needed a director of analytics there would have been a person here defending it. Chief of staff stood there and said they’d rename DEI as director of analytics. This is about putting something back into the budget that we took out,” Diamond said.
Mayor Deegan released a statement after the budget passed.
“With the passage of this budget, we continue to take Jacksonville from potential to progress, with transformational investments that deliver the best returns for our citizens. We have secured historic pay raises and returned pension options for public safety employees, and begun the important work of getting the homeless population off our streets and on the path to a viable future. I also want to thank the City Council for their commitment to revisit funding to address the affordable housing crisis.
In just the last 90 days we successfully negotiated to keep the Jaguars in Jacksonville for the next 30 years and get our City-owned stadium rebuilt into a world-class venue; we secured transformative funding for the historically underserved Eastside community; we committed to preparing our workforce for the future; we passed legislation to support a catalytic downtown neighborhood development project; and we fully funded a visionary plan for riverfront parks. And we did all of this without raising property taxes.
I’m gratified that a member of my staff, Dr. Parvez Ahmed, will work to make Jacksonville competitive with its peer cities and provide data-driven insights about the city’s internal disparities. In his new position as Chief of Analytics and Special Advisor, Dr. Ahmed will continue to ensure all residents of Jacksonville are seen and heard by their city government.
I want to thank Council President White and the entire City Council for partnering with my administration on this important work. Let’s continue moving our city forward.”
Mayor Donna Deegan
Councilman Rahman Johnson said the amendment was his idea and that adding back a position would create a director of analytics that would allow the city to look at data to make sure it stays competitive.
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It seemed to be implied that Dr. Parvez Ahmed, who holds the chief DEI position, would take on the director of analytics role. Johnson talked about Ahmed’s actions in bringing back the city’s first joint Martin Luther King Jr. breakfast since 2019.
“I will tell you it was the most amazing thing that this breakfast came together. It was the work of Dr. Ahmed that made that happen. This is something I put in, that I believe in. We’re talking about a net zero impact,” Johnson said.
Four other amendments passed along with the mayor’s budget which Diamond disapproved, saying it would “put [the city] in the red.”
“The Deegan’s Doomsday for your property taxes is coming,” Diamond said. “Your property taxes are going up. There is no way we can spend like this and not increase your taxes.”
Councilman Jimmy Peluso countered that by saying that property taxes are not increasing and said anyone that claims there’s a deficit is lying.
Councilman Peluso also said the budget was great in terms of public safety, adding positions for police and fire crews, collective bargaining that resulted in pay raises and the return of pensions, but he felt the budget wasn’t complete in other areas.
“This budget is lacking a lot of things,” Peluso said. “The city of Jacksonville has grown, so we need to make sure we have more officers on the street, more firefighters on the street. That makes perfect sense but with that, we need more planners, more public works employees.”
Council also approved the $2.5 million ordinance to address homelessness by creating a seven-person team through the Jacksonville Fire Rescue Department.
The $10,000 initiative to add two off-duty officers to help with security on the Riverside also passed.