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Several Jacksonville policies, positions and programs could be at risk under new anti-DEI law<\/p>\n
Local governments have until January 1st to scrub any programs, policies, grants, and hiring practices that give preferential treatment based on race or sex.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s due to the new anti-DEI law signed by the Governor here in Jacksonville on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Aside from being signed in Jacksonville, it\u2019s hard to ignore the Jacksonville connection to the new law.<\/p>\n
The House and Senate sponsors were both Jacksonville state lawmakers.<\/p>\n
Likely next Jacksonville Council President Nick Howland (R-Group 3 At-Large) said the city council will have to take a close look at the budget to ensure compliance.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve done a pretty good job of being vigilant to ensure that DEI practices and spend is not included in our budget, but there\u2019s still a lot more to go,\u201d said Howland. \u201dWe\u2019ll take a fine-toothed comb to the budget this summer.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mayor Donna Deegan\u2019s office said it\u2019s working with the Office of General Counsel to complete a \u201ca top-to-bottom review of city programs, policies, procedures, and job descriptions\u201d to ensure compliance with the law.<\/p>\n
The Mayor\u2019s Office explained that it believes advisory councils representing groups like African Americans, Hispanics, Asian Americans, the LGBTQ community, and women are likely safe.<\/p>\n
But based on its read of the new law, the Mayor\u2019s Office believes positions intended to help specific groups, like the Hispanic Outreach Coordinator, will no longer be allowed.<\/p>\n
The Hispanic Outreach Coordinator position has been vacant since April, and the Mayor\u2019s Office said it does not plan to hire anyone to fill the role.<\/p>\n
Senate sponsor State Senator Clay Yarborough (R-Jacksonville) argued Jacksonville\u2019s Chief of Analytics, a position formerly dubbed the Chief of Diversity and Inclusion, should also go.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven if a job title is changed, local officials can still be held accountable for the activities taking place,” said Yarborough.<\/p>\n
Action News Jax identified several examples of policies and programs in city ordinance that could be impacted by the new law.<\/p>\n
JFRD\u2019s Firefighter Candidate Sponsorship Program<\/a> is meant to \u201cincrease the\u2026 pool of qualified minority and women candidates\u201d.<\/p>\n Enterprise Zone loan programs<\/a> are intended to assist \u201cminority business enterprises\u201d.<\/p>\n There are also trust funds intended to specifically help local women<\/a> and the Hispanic community<\/a>.<\/p>\n Howland said the council will also have to take a close look at organizations that administer grants on behalf of the city, like the Kids Hope Alliance and the Cultural Council.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd make sure that their recipients are representing that they\u2019re not using taxpayer money for DEI,\u201d said Howland. \u201dWe have to do that to comply with this new state law.\u201d<\/p>\n Penalties for failing to comply with the new law are steep.<\/p>\n Local officials could be removed from office, and local governments could face civil lawsuits from citizens, who allege violations.>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<<\/a><\/p>\n [DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks<\/a>]<\/p>\n [SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter<\/a>] <\/p>\n Click here<\/a> to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, click here<\/a> to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and click here<\/a> to stream Action News Jax live.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Several Jacksonville policies, positions and programs could be at risk under new anti-DEI law Local governments have until…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":186328,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[107556,5888,116,118,117,829,14217,15624,107557],"class_list":{"0":"post-244042","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-city-programs","9":"tag-clay-yarborough","10":"tag-jacksonville","11":"tag-jacksonville-headlines","12":"tag-jacksonville-news","13":"tag-local-governments","14":"tag-nick-howland","15":"tag-policies","16":"tag-preferential-treatment"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244042","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=244042"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244042\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/186328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}