New legislation from Jacksonville City Council member Terrance Freeman would invite the state of Florida’s Department of Government Efficiency to audit the city’s finances.
Freeman’s Resolution 2025-0259 expresses support for Gov. Ron DeSantis’ creation of the state DOGE initiative, which is modeled after the Trump administration’s similar effort.
The local legislation seeks recommendations from state DOGE officials to promote fiscal responsibility, maximize productivity and enhance transparency, according to an April 7 news release.
“Taxpayers deserve confidence that their money is being spent wisely,” Freeman said in the release. “By voluntarily inviting the Governor’s DOGE team to examine Jacksonville’s books, we’re embracing accountability and actively seeking ways to trim government waste, improve efficiency, and pass savings along to the taxpayers.”
According to the release, Duval County would become the third in Florida to welcome the DOGE audit, following Bay and Hillsborough, both of which are on the Gulf Coast.
In March, Council member Ron Salem initiated a local financial examination he titled Duval DOGE. A five-member special Council committee has been established to review various areas of city spending to determine if cost savings can be found.
Freeman, in the news release, commended Salem’s effort.
“This resolution builds on the excellent work of the local committee,” he said. “I believe inviting the Governor’s team to take an outside look at our finances, combined with the Duval DOGE, will equip our city with every tool possible to ensure we are operating at peak efficiency.”
The special Council committee is exploring areas such as the growth of city departments that has outpaced the rate of inflation and population increase, possible duplication of funding for child services and whether the city can eliminate projects from its Capital Improvement Plan.
On April 1, the committee received an auditor’s report showing some $90 million in Capital Improvement Plan projects for which there had been no spending since October 2023, prompting questions about whether those projects were still needed or could be canceled and the funding used elsewhere.
The creation of the committee sparked protests in front of City Hall from residents citing concerns that the local DOGE effort would result in a gutting of local government and scaleback of city services.
In response to the creation of Duval DOGE, Mayor Donna Deegan said she had already adopted an efficiency initiative that had saved more than 200,000 employment hours and had initiated an exercise asking city departments to find ways to reduce their budgets up to 10% through such means as attrition and streamlining of operations.