The Jacksonville City Council’s Neighborhoods Committee deferred a bill Monday that would fund 14 Safe Haven Baby Boxes, one in each council district, as some members questioned the demand for the devices.
The bill is sponsored by District 13 Council Member Rory Diamond and would appropriate nearly $315,000 to the fire department for purchasing and installing the climate-controlled boxes at fire stations.
The boxes allow parents to anonymously and safely surrender newborns up to 30 days old under Florida’s Safe Haven law, automatically alerting first responders when they are dropped off.
Diamond argued that it’s a worthwhile investment.
“If we save one newborn baby, it’s worth the money,” he said.
There are currently no boxes on the First Coast, with the nearest in Flagler County at Fire Station 25. That county recently saw a stark example of why they exist, with a Palm Coast woman indicted Monday for first-degree murder after allegedly letting her newborn drown after giving birth in a toilet.
District 6 Council Member Michael Boylan didn’t oppose having the boxes, but proposed starting smaller with a four-box pilot program.
“I absolutely support the concept… I just wondered how we determined the need for it,” Boylan said.
He shared a letter from Adoptee Advocates of Michigan.
“This proposal raises serious concerns about the allocation of a substantial portion of public funds toward a solution in a city that has not experienced a baby surrender or abandonment case in well over a decade,” the letter read in part. “At a minimum, it is difficult to justify diverting hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars, not including thousands more in additional ongoing maintenance costs, to address a problem that does not appear to exist in Jacksonville.”
Diamond pushed back, calling the proposed reduction unbelievable, especially after the city approved $775 million for a stadium and hundreds of millions for downtown developers.
“They won’t spend $300,000 for newborn babies,” he said. “It’s ridiculous. I don’t know what planet these people live on.”
The bill heads to the Finance Committee Tuesday, where Chair Joe Carlucci is expected to defer it again, Boylan said. That could delay a full council vote by two to four weeks, giving time to assess demand and the optimal number of boxes.
District 2 Council Member Mike Gay also commented on the proposal.
“I fully support the bill as originally filed,” Gay said. “The only change I will support is finding another funding source.”
The measure was originally slated for possible full council consideration on April 14.