Jax City Council committee wants Gov. DeSantis’ DOGE team to probe books

Jacksonville City Hall.

Florida’s Department of Governmental Efficiency (DOGE) effort is getting an attaboy from the Jacksonville City Council Rules Committee.

The panel voted in favor of a resolution to bring Gov. Ron DeSantis’ budget audit effort to Duval County.

“The purpose of this legislation is to voluntarily request a financial audit of the City of Jacksonville/Duval County’s budget and expenditures by the Florida Department of Government Efficiency,” reads the bill summary for resolution 2025-259.

An amendment adopted will include direction to forward the resolution to the Governor’s Office.

But support was not unanimous.

“I guess this would go hand in hand with our Duval DOGE,” speculated Matt Carlucci. “I don’t support it unless you can convince me otherwise. There are no better auditors anywhere than our City Council auditors. Too many cooks spoil the broth.”

In fact, said sponsor Terrance Freeman, they are separate efforts, with his resolution requesting a “voluntary financial audit.”

“My concern is with home rule continuing to slip away,” Carlucci said. “I’m tired of seeing our local control slip away. They keep getting into our business.”

Michael Boylan called himself a “doubting Thomas” on the need for the “state to come swooping in” and look at the work of Council auditors. He worried about “emotional impact” on staffers, and questioned the impact on taxpayers.

“I don’t like the message, frankly,” Boylan said, wondering why it’s “warranted” and calling the bill an “impingement on home rule.”

Boylan eventually came around though.

Rahman Johnson said the City Council was in fact the city’s “DOGE task force” and that the statewide probe “is what inefficiency really looks like.”

The local process looks at stalled out capital projects among other issues, but the state level one will likely be a more rigorous probe, looking at spending increases in recent general fund budgets and whether they accord with the politically conservative governance prioritized by the Governor.

Freeman suggested that opposition to his resolution is based on “optics” ahead of the 5-2 affirmative vote.

The Finance Committee is the final stop for this measure Tuesday morning.