The marketing money will come with a new reporting obligation.
A major business group in Northeast Florida needs to save its receipts going forward.
For a second straight day, a Jacksonville City Council committee debated the proposed $750,000 appropriation for the local Chamber of Commerce.
The money is typically in the budget. But this year, the measure was not in the final spending plan, leading to a push to move the funding through in one cycle of committee hearings and a full Council vote.
The Finance Committee likewise voted in support of the proposal, but not without questions about records.
Council Auditor Phillip Peterson said the Chamber currently reports quarterly on what they’ve done to market Jacksonville in accordance with their services contract, rather than submitting receipts to show how money is spent in the way that nonprofits getting grants must.
“I believe it’s a three- to four-page document and how much they spent to accomplish that goal,” Peterson said. “It’s just here’s what we did during the quarter, and here’s how much it cost us, and that’s the report that the city receives. It’s not a very extremely detailed report.”
Republican Rory Diamond, who said he supported and liked the Chamber, said he was “uncomfortable” with the lesser reporting threshold than public service grants have, and suggested the contract can be changed to impose the same requirements on money for the Chamber as grant recipients have to follow.
For Diamond, it’s about “increased transparency for nonprofits.”
Republican Nick Howland wanted to ensure that receipts and invoices “didn’t present an undue burden” on JAXUSA, the marketing arm of the Chamber.
Assured by a representative of the group that they could do so, Howland said he could support an amendment accommodating Diamond’s concerns.
The amended legislation will be considered on Oct. 28 by the full City Council.