Mayor Donna Deegan says Jacksonville City Council member Terrance Freeman’s proposal to allow the state’s Department of Government Efficiency to audit the city’s finances is a duplicated effort that smacks of a political move.
During an April 8 appearance on the WCJT News talk show “First Coast Connect,” Deegan said the city charter already requires an annual examination of the city’s books by an independent auditor. She said Council recently put the audit process in motion, making it difficult for her to understand why Freeman would request that tax dollars be spent for state officials to conduct another audit.
“Why would we do that twice?” she said.
On April 1, the Council Independent External Auditor Selection Committee took an early step toward the annual audit when it accepted scoring results from a request for proposals from prospective auditors.
Deegan said she sensed that Freeman was making a political appeal to Republican voters who back the Trump administration’s DOGE effort, on which the state initiative is modeled.
Freeman, an at-large Council member whose second consecutive term expires in 2027, is a Republican.
Deegan, a Democrat, was elected mayor in 2023 and is expected to seek reelection in 2027.
Without going into specifics, she suggested other Council members also were suggesting legislation for political purposes versus fulfilling a legitimate city need.
“I feel we’re going to get one of those a week pitched now for a couple of years,” she said.
Deegan’s remarks came a day after Freeman announced that he had introduced Resolution 2025-0259, which would invite the DOGE to conduct the audit and make recommendations to promote efficiency.
In a news release, Freeman said the resolution would show that the city is “embracing accountability and actively seeking ways to trim government waste, improve efficiency, and pass savings along to the taxpayers.”
Deegan said her administration had already adopted efficiencies that had saved more than 200,000 employment hours. She said she was “more than confident” that the city’s finances were in good order.
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 whether cost savings can be found.
That committee is next scheduled to meet at 12:30 p.m. April 15 at City Hall, 117 W. Duval St.
Annually, Council auditors review the mayor’s proposed budget. That review forms the basis of a weeks-long examination of the budget by the Council Finance Committee, which then recommends a final budget for consideration by the full Council.
Salem is chair of the Finance Committee and Freeman is vice chair.