The City of Jacksonville lost out on a $1 million park improvement grant because the city employee responsible for managing the grant had never been trained for the job, and didn’t realize that two reports the state required were actually two different documents, according to a report released Tuesday by the city’s Office of Inspector General (OIG).
The state grant money was first awarded in 2023 and has since been spent by the city on early design work and the removal of a Confederate monument from the downtown park.
According to the report, the employee, who is not named in the report, told investigators they thought a routine quarterly progress report was the same thing as the final report the state required at the end of the grant. It wasn’t. The state needed both, and never got either on time.
The employee also ran into unexpected requirements on the state’s online grant portal that weren’t in the city’s original paperwork, adding to the confusion.
Things got worse in February 2025, the report states, when the employee tried to upload documents to the portal and got locked out. Instead of fixing the access problem, they emailed the documents directly to a state employee — with no confirmation the files were ever received. That payment request came in 222 days after the grant expired on June 30, 2024. The state said the contract was already closed and couldn’t process it.
In a letter dated May 13, 2025, the Florida Department of State said the city failed to submit two required reports and didn’t provide enough documentation to show how the grant money was spent. Because of those failures, the state withheld the full $1 million.
Inspector General Matthew J. Lascell concluded the employee’s lack of training was a major reason the city lost the money, and said it points to a broader problem that needs a systemic fix — not just a one-time correction.
The parks department submitted its response on June 22, outlining steps it has already taken. Grant staff have completed two training courses, one through the National Recreation and Parks Association and one through the U.S. Department of Education. Going forward, employees who handle state grants will be required to complete an annual online training through the Florida Division of Arts and Culture and pass an associated quiz, the report states. The department said staff will also add grant deadlines to their work calendars, and managers will review the requirements of every active grant each year. Any communications with the state must now be documented in writing — letters, memos or meeting summaries — rather than handled by phone or informal email.
The grant, which originated under the Lenny Curry administration in 2022, was part of Florida’s African American Historical and Cultural Grant program. It included a required 25% local match from the city. The James Weldon Johnson Park redesign, led by designer Walter Hood of Hood Design Studio, remains in the design phase, with total project costs estimated at around $7 million.
First Coast News reached out to Mayor Donna Deegan’s office for comment and will update this story when they reply.
The full OIG report is available here.