JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — City Council will be voting on a $1.34 billion budget in Tuesday city council meeting.

However, before the full budget can be voted on, there are six amendments that will be discussed on City Council’s floor.

JSO BUDGET

One of the more debatable amendments on the agenda is the talk of withholding funds from the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office. The amendment was proposed by City Councilmember Garrett Dennis and was discussed during a public meeting yesterday.

The full budget for JSO is $484.6 million. The majority of the budget is for personnel salaries and pension costs. If the amendment from Dennis passes, JSO would get only $234 million for six months. The other $234 million would be put below the line and would be given back to JSO after a presentation and review of the Sheriff’s Office.

Dennis said in the public meeting that this was not defunding the police department, rather it was holding them accountable.

However this amendment wasn’t popular with other city officials or by activists calling for a cut of JSO funds.

City Councilmembers Matt Carlucci and Rory Diamond publicly stated that they would not support this amendment.

The Chief of Staff Jordan Elsbury made a statement saying that the Mayor would consider vetoing the bill if this amendment passes.

Supporters of the People’s Budget, a movement that would cut JSO’s funding entirely by half and redistribute the funds to the community, spoke at the public meeting yesterday.

“People are dying now, people need a ‘now’, which is why we need to immediately take action to see funds reallocated. To see all this community revitalization, we need to put this money in other places now because we can’t arrest our way out of the problems that we’re seeing in our community," Neal Jefferson said.

Transferring Funds Out of the Social Justice and Community Investment Special Committee

Councilmember Rory Diamond proposed two new amendments that would take a total of $86,500 out of the new Social Justice and Community Investment Special Committee.

The proposed budget has the committee sitting at $2,824,168. If Diamond’s amendment passed, the committee would have $2,737,668. The committee was formed earlier this year to address racial and economic inequalities in Jacksonville.

Diamond proposes that $80,000 goes to the Fire Watch - an organization that works on combating veteran suicide rates. Diamond was a supporter and pushed for the organization to be created in Jacksonville.

The other $6,500 would go to the Jacksonville’s Veterans Memorial Wall Trust.

Office of Ethics, Technical Adjustments, and Technology Replacement'

Councilmember Matt Carlucci is proposing two amendments. One was a technical amendment that would move the Rogero Road Undergrounding Electric project from the Beyond 5 years column to the 2021-2022 fiscal year. This project would install underground electric cables, pull boxes and other necessary electrical elements underground in order to decrease the chances of a power outage during natural disasters.

The other amendment would transfer $10,000 from contributions form Independent Agencies to the Office of Ethics. This would help funds for a full-time Ethics Training employee.

The last amendment on the proposal list is one created by Council President Tommy Hazouri. Hazouri proposed that the carryover funds of $35,000 would be used for City Council for capital computer equipment.

Cox Media Group