$1 million state reimbursement for James Weldon Johnson Park that was denied<\/a> after the Office of Inspector General found grant reporting failures. They said the loss is one example of what they called a broader trend of waste, lack of transparency and failed execution by the mayor\u2019s office.<\/p>\n\u201cAll the mayor\u2019s team had to do was write one letter. One letter, and they didn\u2019t do it,\u201d Diamond said, criticizing city officials for not informing the public sooner about the missed reimbursement. \u201cThey didn\u2019t even take responsibility for it.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, the grant was pursued and awarded under the previous administration in early 2022. In May 2023, the grant expiration date was extended to take place under Deegan\u2019s administration.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t cease and dissolve government in between mayoral administrations,\u201d Black said. \u201cWe believe that we\u2019re handing it off to a competent chief executive who is going to make wise decisions and hire good people and train them.\u201d<\/p>\n
The contract manager assigned to the project had not received formal training in grant or contract management, the OIG 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
Emails provided by the Parks Department show the city\u2019s grant manager, Lauren Chappell, and state Financial Administrator Teri Abstein had an ongoing back-and-forth about final deliverables in the weeks leading up to the grant\u2019s expiration.<\/p>\n
In a July 15, 2024, email \u2014 just 15 days after the grant expired on June 30 \u2014 Abstein wrote to Chappell: \u201cAs long as the expenditures are paid out, we shouldn\u2019t need to do an extension.\u201d<\/p>\n
City officials say the grant manager was operating under that direction. The outstanding deliverable \u2014 an executed Restrictive Covenant \u2014 required legislative approval before it could be filed with the County Clerk, a step Chappell had flagged for the state in her communications.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am double checking whether the restrictive covenants are going to have to go through legislation to be signed, and will let you know the timeline on that process,\u201d Chappell wrote to Abstein on July 15, 2024.<\/p>\n
The city says that once the legislation was approved, Chappell submitted the final deliverable. However, by that point, the grant\u2019s reimbursement window had long passed.<\/p>\n
Since then, the city has taken steps to improve grant oversight and reduce the risk of future financial loss.<\/p>\n
Earlier in the month, Florida Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia took aim at Jacksonville city government Monday, claiming the city wasted $275.7 million in taxpayer money in the 2025-26 budget<\/a> \u2014 a sharp jump from the $199 million in excessive spending he claimed the previous year. <\/p>\nCopyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 State and local leaders are holding a press conference on Tuesday to demand accountability and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":324873,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116,118,117,25185],"class_list":["post-324872","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\/324872","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=324872"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324872\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/324873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=324872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=324872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=324872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}