JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 The City of Jacksonville failed to meet key grant requirements and lost a $1,000,000 state reimbursement for improvements to James Weldon Johnson Park, the Office of Inspector General said in a report released Tuesday.<\/p>\n
The state awarded the funds to support demolition, redesign and initial construction of park improvements but denied reimbursement after finding a \u201csevere lack of documentation,\u201d missing progress reports and an untimely payment request, the report said. <\/p>\n
The city\u2019s payment request was submitted Feb. 7, 2025 \u2014 222 days after the grant expired on June 30, 2024, the report said.<\/p>\n
The OIG review found the city did not submit required quarterly progress reports, a Final Report within one month of the grant\u2019s end, or sufficient documentation of allowable expenditures through the Division of Arts and Culture\u2019s DOS Grants portal, as required by the Grant Award Agreement. <\/p>\n
The contract manager assigned to the project had not received formal training in grant or contract management, the review said, contributing to missed deadlines, confusion about deliverables and improper submission attempts, including emailing documents after being locked out of the state portal.<\/p>\n
The OIG recommended the city adopt mandatory, standardized training for all personnel who manage grants or contracts, covering reporting obligations, documentation standards, expenditure eligibility and proper use of the DOS Grants portal. <\/p>\n
The report (No. 2026-0027) says structured training is needed to reduce the risk of future financial loss and ensure compliance with state and federal requirements.<\/p>\n
In a written response included with the report, city management outlined steps already taken or planned to improve grant oversight. Those steps include requiring formal, documented communications (letters, memos and meeting summaries) rather than relying on email or phone; completing training courses such as the National Recreation and Park Association\u2019s Grant Success: From Application to Award and the U.S. Department of Education\u2019s Discretionary Grants Administration and Allowable Costs and Activities; reviewing the state grants website and tutorial materials annually; entering Outlook calendar reminders for deadlines; and having department management review grant requirements annually.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 The City of Jacksonville failed to meet key grant requirements and lost a $1,000,000 state…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":318399,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116,118,117,25185],"class_list":["post-318398","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-james-weldon-johnson-park"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318398","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=318398"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318398\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/318399"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=318398"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=318398"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=318398"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}