Changes to Jacksonville’s oldest park are still on the way, but funding for the renovations could look different than originally planned. The city has lost out on $1 million for upgrades to James Weldon Johnson Park.

Jacksonville’s Council Auditor Kim Taylor addressed the $1 million hole in funding for upgrades to the park during the latest finance committee meeting. Her office looked into this at the direction of Councilman Rory Diamond.

“I heard in public comment that there was a missing $1 million grant, and so I went and did the research with our council of auditors, and we lost a million dollars just because we didn’t file a two-page report,” Diamond explained.

According to the council auditor’s office, the city’s parks department began the application for an African American Historical and Cultural Grant from the Florida Department of State back in 2022, under the Lenny Curry administration. The grant was for $1 million, with the city matching $250,000.

The grant agreement deadline was first extended to December 31, 2023, at the request of the city. The city requested another extension later that year, pushing the deadline to June 30, 2024.

In May 2025, the city received a letter from the Florida Department of State, which stated the city failed to submit a final report for the grant by the deadline and the department cannot process the city’s payment.

That $1 million has already been spent by the city, though, for some of the initial design work and to remove a confederate monument, and the city will no longer be reimbursed for that money.

“I mean, we’re gonna have to come up with a million dollars somewhere else of people’s hardworking money just to make up for what we could have had for free,” Diamond said.

The council auditor told the finance committee a position change for the city employee working on this grant could be to blame for the missed deadline, but Mayor Donna Deegan’s office said the grant manager at the Dept. of State told the city’s parks department grant manager she would not need to request another deadline extension.

Emails between the city’s parks department and the state department dated July 2024 show the city’s grant manager asking if a contract extension would need to be completed since the city was waiting on legislative approval for a final piece of the grant. The Department of State said an extension should not be needed as long as the expenditures were paid out.

Diamond is now calling for more oversight.

“I mean, this is totally ridiculous. So, this is in front of the IG, the inspector general has got this now, and others need to look at this,” Diamond said.

The upgrades to James Weldon Johnson Park are still in the design phase with the total project expected to cost around $7 million.

Taylor said the city will have to find a new funding source to make up for the $1 million that was already spent. The mayor’s office said this project is fully budgeted for in the Capital Improvement Plan.