After hearing a number of residents speak out against a proposal to launch a local version of the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency to examine the city of Jacksonville’s operations, the Jacksonville City Council member who brought forth the idea said he is not deterred.
“I understand they’re upset, but our efforts are more targeted” than the federal DOGE process, said Ron Salem, the Council’s most recent past president, after a March 18 public hearing on the issue.
Salem opened the meeting by announcing that a five-member Council committee had been appointed for what he calls the Duval DOGE initiative.
He outlined the areas the committee will study, including any city departments that have grown faster than inflation and the percentage of population increase in recent years, whether any projects in the city’s Capital Improvement Plan are no longer needed, and reviewing the use of community centers and libraries to determine whether some can be combined.
The committee also will look into whether children’s services are being duplicated; the monitoring of personal credit cards that the city has provided to about 150 personnel; and the charges the city imposes on independent authorities for municipal services.
Salem said Council auditors suggested the areas for the committee to explore.
The committee, he said, will not have independent authority but instead will make recommendations on efficiencies to the Council, which would then decide whether to approve them.
The meeting generated words between Salem and Council member Jimmy Peluso, a Democrat, who said the effort was being driven by partisan politics as opposed to responsible government. He noted that all five members of the DOGE committee were Republicans.
“I’m disgusted we’re even here,”Peluso said, adding that the effort would “crash and burn.”
“If you don’t want to be here, you don’t have to be here,” Salem responded.
In a hearing that lasted about an hour, at least 21 people spoke. All but two of them were opposed to the initiative.
Several accused Salem, a Republican, of staging a political attack on Mayor Donna Deegan, a Democrat. They suggested Salem is planning to run against Deegan for mayor in 2027.
Mike Ludwick told Salem he was undermining Deegan through the DOGE effort, which Ludwick called the “Salem Witch Hunt.”
Other speakers said the federal DOGE effort was already harming veterans and recipients of government medical benefits and Social Security. Adopting it at the local level would cause similar effects for people in need in Duval County, they said.
Leslie Andretta, who identified himself as a Vietnam War veteran who served in the U.S. Army from 1964 to 1967, said he had been a lifelong Republican until recent years when, as he described it, the party shifted to extremism.
“The fact you don’t have any Democratic representation on this committee is a crime,” he said.
John Scott defended Duval DOGE, saying he believed Council members would find ways to save taxpayer dollars and improve accountability and oversight of local government. He said he believed Council was the appropriate body to look into the issue as opposed to the mayor’s office. He said critics of the initiative were suffering from “DOGE Derangement Syndrome.”
Salem chairs Finance Committee
Another criticism was that the Council already had the ability to look for efficiencies through the Finance Committee and other means.
Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Salem said he had been advised not to handle the search for efficiencies in the Finance Committee, which he chairs.
He said the Finance Committee already has a number of responsibilities, pointing out that he had come to the DOGE meeting after a Finance Committee meeting that had lasted nearly three hours.
Asked whether he was running for mayor, he said he had made no plans.
“I like what I’m doing,” he said. “If the public comes to me over the next six months to a year and asks me if I’ll run, I’ll consider it.”
Regarding the lack of Democrats on the committee, Salem said the committee members had been chosen in consultation with Council President Randy White and Vice President Kevin Carrico. Both are Republicans.
Salem said a committee meeting would tentatively be held in two weeks. He said no similar public hearings would be scheduled, adding that the committee had established a website where local residents could offer comments.
The email for Duval DOGE is [email protected]. Salem said residents also could comment by email to individual Council members.
Administration efforts
Deegan said establishing Duval DOGE was Council’s prerogative, but she stressed her administration had been working successfully to find efficiencies since she took office in mid-2023.
Her efforts include establishing the 904 LEAN program, which adopted a strategy used by business to improve efficiency, customer service, project delivery times and collaboration between workers and departments to reduce duplicated efforts.
During a news conference March 11, Deegan said the program had saved 216,000 work hours among city employees through such means as digitizing applications and approvals. She said that figure equates to a year’s worth of work by 103 employees.