also visited Spiers Brown Roberts Cemetery<\/a>, which was recently mowed but has more than $80,000 in liens, according to city records.<\/p>\nSpiers Brown Cemetery, which was recently mowed, still has more than $80,000 in liens, according to city records. (WJXT)<\/p>\n
City records show that over the last three and a half years, the city spent at least $4.2 million on contracted cleanup work. This fiscal year alone, nearly $200,000 has been spent.<\/p>\n
In previous years some cleanup jobs have cost as much as $27,000, $25,572, and $21,000. When indirect costs are included, the city tells News4JAX the total cost could be as high as $9 million.<\/p>\n
Some expenses go beyond routine mowing and landscaping to cover larger cleanup efforts.<\/p>\n
The city attempts to recover these costs by placing liens on the properties, but records show in the last several years very little of the fees are collected.<\/p>\n
News4JAX contacted the mayor\u2019s office to learn what steps are taken to hold property owners responsible for clearing and maintaining their property.<\/p>\n
Some cleanup jobs have cost as much as $27,000, $25,572, and $21,000. (WJXT)<\/p>\n
They said the city provides multiple notices, including hand delivery, phone calls, and emails.<\/p>\n
Owners usually have 15 days to comply, with extensions granted if progress is made. If nothing is done, the property is scheduled for abatement or cleanup, sometimes requiring contracted work depending on the severity.<\/p>\n
At-Large Councilman Matt Carlucci spoke with News4JAX about whether the city ever forecloses on properties or might consider new policies to do so.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know if the council has ever really taken that issue up to the extent where we felt like we wanted to change a policy of forcing more foreclosures. I don\u2019t think that I would want to force more foreclosures, but I would not object to taking a look at how long it\u2019s been since we have foreclosed on properties that perhaps, maybe, we should have,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
At-Large Councilman Matt Carlucci spoke with News4JAX about whether the city ever forecloses on properties or might consider new policies to do so. (WJXT)<\/p>\n
Carlucci emphasized that properties must be maintained for community safety, whether by the owner or the city.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf they don\u2019t get it done, then the city, by law, has to go in there and clean up those conditions so that the neighbors are safe from the conditions and the exposures that those conditions will bring into the neighborhood,\u201d Carlucci said. \u201cIt costs money to do that, and so we try to collect the money back.\u201d<\/p>\n
The mayor\u2019s office told News4JAX that funding for cleanup work comes from the General Fund and the Nuisance Abatement Lien Special Revenue Fund.<\/p>\n
The mayors office also told News4Jax:<\/p>\n
\u201cThe costs we incur are normal operating costs that we budget each year and the liens are essentially receivables that get collected when a property sells\/changes hands unless they have applied for a lien abatement agreement. We charge interest on the outstanding balance and it continues to accrue over time and increase the amount owed.\u201d<\/p>\n
They say when the money comes back it goes into the General Fund.<\/p>\n
If you see a property causing a nuisance, you can call 904-630-2129 or email the JSO Nuisance Property Team to file a complaint.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 Jacksonville has spent $4.2 million in taxpayer money over the past three and a half…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":145091,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[6206,10316,3858,116,118,117,70208,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-145090","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-i_team","9":"tag-i-team","10":"tag-investigations","11":"tag-jacksonville","12":"tag-jacksonville-headlines","13":"tag-jacksonville-news","14":"tag-neglect-nightmare","15":"tag-politics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145090","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=145090"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145090\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/145091"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=145090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=145090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=145090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}