JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – An initial review of Mayor Donna Deegan’s international travel finds taxpayer money was not used toward her vacation to Italy shortly after the annual trade mission to London.
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The London trip was in conjunction with the Jaguars game there. The auditors presented a draft of the report to the city council’s Finance Committee Tuesday morning. This follows a request by Councilman Terrence Freeman for a full audit of Deegan’s European trip.
Deegan and three city employees went on the trip to London. This included her Chief Communications Officer, Philip Perry, Executive Director for the Office of Economic Development, Ed Randolph, and Executive Director for Office of Sports & Entertainment, Alex Alston.
According to a release from Deegan’s office, she was in London from Oct. 12-15. It said she participated in the UK government’s International Investment Summit, pitched multiple banking and fintech companies, met with the US Ambassador to the UK and embassy staff, and gave economic development interviews. It went on to say JAXUSA Partnership was aware of the mayor’s availability and scheduled critical meetings to align with her plans.
According to the draft, the original summary for the mayor and the three accompanying employees was approximately $22,734. The updated amount is now $23,191.
The draft indicated Deegan’s London hotel stay was the only city expense and she paid for her flights, meals, and personal trip to Italy after the London trip. It also said expenses for accompanying spouses were not footed by taxpayers.
It went on to say: “There did not appear to be any instances of non-compliance with City law regarding travel.”
However, the draft shows Deegan is reimbursing the city for $178.81 which was originally included in the P-card charge for the hotel. P-cards are essentially city credit cards. It further clarified the charge included a meal, internet charge, and minibar charge. Some other issues of note were also listed in the draft.
The mayor’s office released a statement shortly after the presentation:
“This report confirms what has already been stated multiple times. Mayor Deegan has been completely transparent with taxpayers. She is working tirelessly to deliver jobs and business to Jacksonville. These trips are undertaken to grow the city’s economy and are an investment in our future.”
JAX Chamber President Daniel Davis, Deegan’s opponent during her campaign for mayor, also released a statement.
“Mayor Deegan is critical to our efforts to bring businesses and jobs back to Jacksonville and she has set us up for even more success in the years ahead,” Davis said. “We have seen our momentum significantly accelerate since she joined the trade missions in 2023 and 2024. The mayor goes above and beyond, and we thank her for the continued partnership.”
News4JAX spoke to Councilman Salem Tuesday afternoon, who chairs the city council’s finance committee. Salem said given the report is a draft, the response is premature.
“She’s responding to a draft report that’s not finalized, and I would have liked to have seen them wait until the report is finalized before they respond,” Salem said. “Clearly, there were P-card purchases by the mayor and others that violated the code. I don’t know how you can say that everything was perfect.”
Salem also told News4JAX he anticipates the auditors will finalize the report soon and bring it back to the finance committee in the coming days. He also said he’s exploring the possibility of introducing legislation in the future regarding P-cards.
“I need to find out first, how many people have them and how widespread they are, and I would like to absolutely limit their use and limit the number of people that have city credit cards,” Salem said. “My experience with credit cards is often they end up with people charging expenses that are not appropriate. I’ve seen it in the corporate world, where I was very active for over 40 years.”
To see the draft presented to the finance committee Tuesday morning, click here.
