JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A Jacksonville city councilmember accused Mayor Donna Deegan of attempting to improperly route city funds through a local nonprofit for diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) purposes — an allegation the mayor and United Way both strongly deny.
District 13 Councilman Rory Diamond, a Republican, raised the allegation Thursday morning on his personal Facebook page. In the post, he accused Mayor Deegan of trying to “launder” $237,000 in DEI funds through the United Way of Northeast Florida.
The post came about an hour before Florida Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia appeared at Jacksonville City Hall to speak about DEI programs in the state.
At the center of Diamond’s allegation is Deegan’s “State of Jax” initiative — a publicly accessible website meant to centralize and display data about the city’s key challenges, including health care access, housing affordability, and education. The funding request for the platform includes $237,000 in the upcoming city budget, designated for work handled by United Way.
“They should have just said, ‘We want $237,000 for DEI data collection,’ but they didn’t,” Diamond said in an interview before a scheduled City Council finance committee meeting. “They tried to pass it through United Way.”
When asked whether he had reported the matter to law enforcement, Diamond said he had not, and added, “Laundering is not necessarily a criminal offense. It’s simply dishonest use of money.” However, according to federal and state law, money laundering is defined as the act of concealing illegally obtained funds by transferring them through legitimate organizations or transactions.
Diamond confirmed he had not yet filed an ethics complaint and said he intended to ask further questions about the funding.
“We’re about to ask the United Way who in the mayor’s office asked them to do this, and why this is a pass-through,” he said.
Deegan responded to the accusations during a press conference Thursday, calling the claims baseless and misleading.
“These are programs we have funded for a very long time that have nothing to do with DEI,” Deegan said. “They have to do with making sure our most vulnerable citizens have what they need — which, in turn, helps our quality of life and public safety.”
The United Way also issued a statement pushing back on Diamond’s claims.
“United Way is a nonpartisan organization and, therefore, does not comment on political matters. However, as a trusted and fiscally responsible nonprofit for more than 100 years in Northeast Florida, we believe it’s important to share no investigative entity has reached out to us. The dollars, if granted for the upcoming fiscal year, would be used for State of Jax data-storytelling technology as well as communication needs – such as brand, messaging and website development – necessary for public consumption. State of Jax is an initiative of the Jacksonville Transformation Coalition, of which United Way serves as its administrative and fiscal agent.
News4JAX confirmed Friday there is no ongoing ethics or law enforcement investigation related to the matter.
Although Diamond initially denied bringing the issue to CFO Ingoglia during the official’s visit to Jacksonville, he later admitted to News4JAX he had discussed what he referred to as a “funny contract” involving the United Way.