Jacksonville Mayor Donna Deegan wants to make city contracts with nonprofits more transparent and competitive, and her plan has the support of some unlikely allies.
Deegan’s Fairness in Non-Profit Contracting Act, which was unveiled Tuesday morning, makes two main changes.
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First, it requires nonprofits seeking city funding to disclose ties with elected officials and their families on the front end.
Currently, Jacksonville City Council members make those disclosures themselves.
“It’s better for everyone if we let more sunshine into this process,” Deegan said.
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Deegan’s bill would also make it harder for the city council to bypass the required competitive bid process for nonprofit contracts, which is supposed to allow other entities to submit alternate proposals.
That requirement can be waived with a majority vote and since 2022, the council has waived it 64 times for contracts totaling $84 million.
Deegan’s proposal would require a two-thirds majority vote for any future waivers.
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“I think it removes any sort of cloud that might hang over things when these things are just waived and they go through the council,” Deegan said.
Council member Rory Diamond (R-District 13), who generally finds himself at odds with the mayor, told Action News Jax he’s supportive of the new proposal.
Diamond said he sees it as a way to strengthen legislation he passed four years ago, which created the requirement for nonprofit contracts to go out for competitive bids.
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“And it was supposed to be really hard to get non-competitively bidded money to the non-profit that employs you or a family member, and it just wasn’t happening. So, I like the fix,” Diamond said.
But he argued the bill could be strengthened even further.
He suggested requiring companies seeking city contracts to disclose whether they’ve contributed to an elected official’s campaign.
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And he argued those disclosures should extend beyond nonprofits.
“If you’ve got a for-profit entity that’s giving a campaign contribution to the mayor or to a city council person, there should be scrutiny there too,” said Diamond.
When asked whether she believes her bill has the support needed to pass, the mayor told Action News Jax the feedback her office has gotten has been positive so far.
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