Investigation prompts change at City Hall

City Council responds after report about missing city property worth millions

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A News4Jax investigation that uncovered missteps in city government, which led to the disappearance of more than $4 million worth of equipment over five years, has prompted a response from City Council.

Among the missing items were more than $100,000 of video equipment from the city’s new courthouse, exercise equipment, ovens, a floating dock, ice machines, SWAT team gear and even a forklift truck.

City Council President Greg Anderson admitted that more oversight is necessary immediately to keep track of city equipment, which originally cost the city millions of taxpayer dollars, and that the city now cannot find. 

COMPLETE LIST:
City property missing between 2010-2015

Anderson said new legislation introduced to the council after News4Jax questioned city officials will allow the city to delete the lost items off the city books and find a way to prevent the same thing from happening again. The bill was introduced Tuesday night to City Council.

“We hear you loud and clear,” Anderson said. “The process is in place for a good reason, and that’s to make sure the dollars are spent wisely and purchased on your behalf to know where they are.”

In 2011, the city of Jacksonville created a city inventory subcommittee which was tasked with finding out if similar items were stolen or lost. The subcommittee pored through a laundry list of missing items and in turn asked the council to assign someone to go back and search for the items again. But that subcommittee only met one time and then dissolved because of budget cuts.

Anderson said council is considering bringing that specialized committee back.

“Absolutely we should convene a subcommittee if we can do that,” he said.

City Councilman John Crescimbeni sat on the City Inventory Subcommitte in 2011, along with then-councilmen Bill Bishop and Richard Clark.

According to the minutes from the April 2011 meeting, the subcommittee asked “each department to conduct a vigorous search for the missing items, because they may turn up."

Members said, “There is a sentiment that inventory officers and managers are not being held sufficiently accountable.”

But a spokesperson for then-Mayor John Peyton’s office later explained “that due to continuing budget pressures and fewer employees, inventory and asset tracking may not be a high priority item.”

The subcommittee met only one time, and the City Council ended up withdrawing legislation that year that’s virtually identical to the ordinance Mayor Lenny Curry requested last Friday that authorizes the director of finance to delete all unaccountable items from the city's books from 2010 to 2016. 

The items were purchased for more than $4 million, but after depreciation the items are valued at $94,000.

The finance committee will ultimately determine whether or not the City Inventory Committee will once again convene.

“The questions the committee will be asking is why did this take so long and what do we do to make sure the process is a clean one moving forward?” Anderson said.


About the Author:

Tarik anchors the 4, 5:30 and 6:30 p.m. weekday newscasts and reports with the I-TEAM.