It’s a complicated process, so the city is not phased by the fact that the Request for Proposal looking for a company to take an inventory of city-owned land and buildings has not yet hit the street.

In fact, it hasn’t even made it up for committee discussion.

I first brought you this investigation nearly two months ago.  I discovered Jacksonville doesn’t have an accurate idea of just how much property it owns.  We do know that tens of millions of your tax dollars are tied in much of the property which is now vacant, and there are more than 2800 parcels of land listed under city ownership.

During the first installment of this investigation, I told you about city plans underway to get that answer.  I was told the RFP would be before a procurement committee that week- two months ago- so the proposal could get out and we would hopefully secure a contract by the end of the year.  The contract would take a full inventory of city owned land and buildings, including the condition, occupancy and value.  From there, the city would begin to decide what to do with the parcels.

That “imminent” solution still has not made it up for discussion, although after I began to ask about it two weeks ago, the RFP finally make it to the committee agenda last week, but was not discussed.

Jacksonville Procurement Chief Greg Pease says delays are not uncommon in what he calls a very new and complicated proposal where things can easily pop up.

“It’s a very complex procedure, narrowing down the scope of what exactly is it- the type of services that we’re going to require.  It’s not simply just collecting an inventory of all the city’s facilities and properties, it’s much more than that,” he says.

Pease would not go in to many details on the exact complications, because he says going in to detail on the RFP could give some of the companies looking to bid on it a competitive advantage.  Among the unique challenges he said were part of this specific proposal, however, was the scope.

“We want to ensure that the scope is certainly within the best interest of the city, that it’s actually going to meet all the requirements and that it’s limiting the city’s risk exposure,” he says.

Taxpayer value is another ongoing concern.  Pease says they want to make sure any investment in to this process is a good value and specifically tailored.

“We don’t wanna really tie ourselves down to a timeline.  We want to make sure we meet those other objectives,” Pease says.

Moving forward, he doesn’t expect many more delays, and overall he is happy with where the proposal stands.  He expects it will move forward quickly, although the overall timeline for the entire process has now stretched. 

Neither Pease nor Jacksonville’s administration is too deterred by the shifted timeline.  Mayor’s Office Spokesman Dave DeCamp says the inventory is one step in a bigger plan for the city and Downtown Jacksonville, which includes the newly authorized Downtown Investment Authority and IBM Smarter Cities Grant among other initiatives.  He says many of these pieces will work together in the vision for the future of Jacksonville, so the time on this RFP allows those other pieces to continue to develop as well.

Pease says they are fine tuning the proposal right now, and will be moving forward as quickly as possible.

I will continue to investigate the story and your investment in to not just the vacant property, but the solution here.