Efficiency or ‘farce’? Salem lays out plan for Duval DOGE

An effort to bring a “Duval DOGE” budget effort to Jacksonville City Hall was met Tuesday by public protest and a mixed review from City Council members. 

In a public meeting, Council Finance Committee Chair Ron Salem had City Council auditors lay out his local DOGE proposal: to examine a wide array of departmental operations and the city budget for cost savings and efficiencies. 

Salem’s proposed DOGE, a nod to President Donald Trump and billionaire Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musks’ Department of Government Efficiency effort, mirrors a Council ad hoc committee’s work from 2007 at the start of the Great Recession. 

Salem, a Republican, announced his DOGE effort last week with a post to the social media platform X (formerly Twitter), in which he accused Mayor Donna Deegan, a Democrat, of “ongoing financial mismanagement.”

Deegan held her own news conference Tuesday in the City Hall atrium about her administration’s government efficiency efforts, 904 LEAN initiatives, just before Salem’s meeting.

In the adjacent room an hour later, Salem opened his meeting by saying, “It is clear to me that we are facing significant challenges, with several years of revenue reductions and potential deficits. This requires that we take a hard look at how we operate to ensure we are maximizing efficiency without compromising essential services.”

“My goal is to approach this with physical responsibility, transparency and a commitment to evaluating the expenditures and prioritizing critical investments while keeping our city financially stable and positioned for future growth,” he said.

District 7 Council member Jimmy Peluso, a Democrat, said compared to other Florida cities and counties, Jacksonville is already efficient despite being understaffed in many core departments. 

He worries core social services could face cuts under Salem’s proposal. 

Peluso called the DOGE meeting “a farce.” 

“It’s a publicity stunt, and it’s clear, and none of us are saying anything about it, but I will. Hell, it’s called DOGE, right? So that was with clear intent of what you meant to do. After being on council for six years, there was never this enthusiasm for ‘efficiency,’ Peluso said during the meeting. “This is a campaign event and and, you know, I wish you’d just say it efficiency.” 

How the local DOGE could work

The city auditor’s presentation suggested the auditor’s office, at Council’s direction, could examine overlap in services performed by different departments, like the Kids Hope Alliance, Parks and Recreation, community service, and the public library. The process would also examine grants distributed to nonprofits for a variety of public services, including everything from cultural activities to opioid overdose prevention, as well as all city contracts. 

Council Auditor Kim Taylor suggested the DOGE process could also review capital projects for financial inactivity; reduce the mayor’s budget-transfer authority; analyze department growth; and evaluate public incentives given to private companies under the Downtown Investment Authority and Office of Economic Development.

See the entire council auditor’s presentation.

Salem pointed to a 2007 cost-cutting process during Mayor John Peyton’s administration as precedent for his effort.

That year, an ad hoc city council budget committee placed 2% of the general fund and general service budgets into a contingency fund, according to documents prepared by the auditor. Taylor said the departments were able to spend the money if they showed the need, but it was set apart from the other city funds. 

In the end, about $761,000 of the $4.8 million in lapse funds were cut from the budget, representing a small fraction of the city’s overall budget.

The 2007 committee excluded the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office and Fire and Rescue, as Salem has floated for his DOGE.

If the council decides to clone that process this year, it could be done separate of the August budget hearing process.

Council’s response

Response to the DOGE from Council members in attendance Tuesday was mixed.

At-large Councilman Nick Howland voiced his support. At-large Councilman Matt Carlucci, and Joe Carlucci, representing the San Marco area, appeared supportive of finding efficiencies and duplications in services, and Joe Carlucci said an ad hoc budget review process before the traditional August budget hearings could help find anything unexpected. 

But Matt Carlucci noted that it will be difficult to make any cutting decisions before knowing how much revenue the city will receive in property taxes next year.

He received assurances from Salem on Tuesday that if the DOGE found departments that were understaffed or underfunded, that those issues would also be addressed.

“I have never seen in a long time so many opportunities in front of Jacksonville. So many. And I don’t want to lose this momentum over worrying… I just want to see us advance,” Matt Carlucci said.

District 14 Councilman Rahman Johnson, one of the council’s few Democrats, said he worried the 2% “budget lapse” process could be inefficient, and he he needs more information before moving forward with the DOGE proposal.  

“And I do believe … the city of Jacksonville has had a Department of Government Efficiency since 1968 that is, in effect, the Jacksonville city council,” he said.

DOGEd public trust

Protestors from a consortium of local activist groups and the Duval County Democratic Party gathered outside of City Hall before the meeting to challenge the stated purpose for the Duval DOGE.

The groups also filled the Lynwood Roberts Room on Tuesday and an overflow viewing room inside City Hall, where about 60 people gathered to watch the meeting via livestream, according to officials.

As the meeting ended Tuesday, they chanted “say no to DOGE.”

Gloria Einstein, lead coordinator for the group Indivisible Mandarin, said her biggest concern is that the Duval DOGE process will be used for political gain and could make haphazard budget cuts to city programs.

The protestors’ message to Council members: “Don’t do it,” she said.

“This isn’t like federal DOGE, where this is a federal government usurpation on the power of Congress to allocate money. This is the City Council, which already has the legislative power to allocate money. So if it’s not right, it’s on them. And they’ve been in political control for a long time,” Einstein said about the council’s Republican majority.

”And if there is waste and fraud and corruption, it’s on them. It’s not on the current [mayoral] administration,” she said. “So I think it’s being politically manipulated, and it’s dangerous as we’ve seen with the federal DOGE, that people do cuts before they actually know what these things do, what these agencies do, and they’re really harming the American people. And if we bring that here, there will be harm also.”

Next steps

Salem has announced a second DOGE meeting at 12:30 p.m. on Tuesday, March 18, in the Lynwood Roberts Room at City Hall, where he intends to take more questions from council members as well the public.