JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Jacksonville’s city council president wants to prevent the mayor from using private funds to circumvent having to get council approval for projects on city property.
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He filed new legislation doing just that Wednesday morning.
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Council President Ron Salem (R-Group 2 At-Large) had vowed to file the bill after Mayor Donna Deegan leveraged private dollars to facilitate the removal of the Confederate monument in Springfield Park last week.
“I just want to make sure it’s crystal clear going forward,” said Salem.
Specifically, the legislation prohibits monetary and non-monetary donations from being used by the mayor to, “alter, demolish, relocate, transform or in any way modify any City-owned or managed property, object, thing or anything else of substance,” without first getting approval from council.
Related Story: Difficult questions and answers behind Confederate monument removal in Springfield Park
Deegan called the bill an “overreaction”.
“We were trying to remove a vestige of Jim Crow from a place where it really shouldn’t have been. This is not something that’s going to happen over and over again,” said Deegan.
While President Salem argued he has no interest in putting the monument back up, he said he’s angry about the way the removal happened.
It was a point he made clear while grilling the city’s General Counsel Tuesday over the draft opinion written by his office and used as the legal justification behind the mayor’s decision to remove the monument in the way she did.
“I am concerned, as one of my colleagues said, that he had a plan and tried an inventive a way of implementing that plan,” said Salem.
Deegan told Action News Jax more than the legislation, which she’s not fond of, she’s most upset by the General Counsel’s integrity being called into question.
Related Story: After removal of Springfield Confederate monument, ‘Monuments and Memorials Protection Act’ filed
“It’s just unfortunate that everything has to be made political and I have tried so hard not to do that and I think, as I’ve said, I by and large have good relationships with this council. It’s just this is an issue that had to be addressed. We had to move past it, and I hope we can move past it,” said Deegan.
Salem on the other hand argued there’s nothing political about ensuring all branches of government are respected.
“I just want make sure that I stay in my sandbox, and she stays in her sandbox,” said Salem.
Deegan also argued city council didn’t make any effort to change city ordinance after Mayor Lenny Curry removed the Confederate obelisk that once stood in James Weldon Johnson Park.
On that point, Salem countered he was upset when that happened, but wasn’t Council President at the time.
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