A.G. Gancarski
CoWealth, the family business of Jacksonville City Councilwoman Katrina Brown, closed out 2016 by paying its delinquent 2015 property taxes.
JoAnn Brown, the Councilwoman’s mother, paid the balance of $22,515.69 in full on Dec. 30.
CoWealth was raided in December, in a multi-jurisdictional effort that included the FBI, the IRS, HUD, the Small Business Administration and the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office.
CoWealth, the parent company of Jerome Brown BBQ, faced a hard deadline of Dec. 31 regarding a city disbursement of $640,000 in loans and grants for job creation that never materialized.
We are reaching out to the City of Jacksonville to see the status of that; however, at least one of the issues related to the family’s barbeque sauce plant has been resolved.
Left to be resolved: payment on the city loan for November and December.
If these issues are resolved to the city’s satisfaction, the terms of the deal between the city and the councilwoman’s company could be adjusted.
That would require council approval.
Councilwoman Brown, a member of the Finance Committee, would likely have to recuse herself from those discussions.
This isn’t the first dalliance with property tax delinquency from the Brown family.
During the 2015 campaign, delinquent property taxes became an issue also, spotlighted in local print reporting and in a debate between Brown and her campaign opponent before Brown paid up.
