Auditors flag $11 million in unclosed capital-project balances and $90 million with no recent spending

Auditors told the Duval DOGE Council Subcommittee on Tuesday that a set of capital improvement projects shown as "complete" on the administration's online dashboard still carry unclosed balances totaling nearly $11 million, and that a separate group of projects with budget authority have seen no expenditures since Oct. 1, 2023 — a total the auditors identified as about $90 million.

"These are projects that the status is marked as complete but there has not been anything done to close out these projects," Auditor Kim Taylor said to the committee. She said chief administrative staff confirmed some projects are finished but still await transactions needed for formal closeout, such as one-year inspections and other final paperwork.

The finding matters because, Taylor said, closing projects correctly makes available funds visible in the originating fund and allows the council to consider reallocating those dollars for debt reduction or other projects. She described the auditors' normal closeout expectation: completed projects should be transferred to a dedicated closed-out project so available balances are transparent.

Auditors said the $11 million in balances includes multiple fire-station line items. "As these dollars accumulate, he'll come to us with a new fire station or something like that," the committee chair said, referencing Jacksonville Fire & Rescue Department planning; the chair also asked for district identifiers on the audit list so council members can see which projects affect their districts.

On the larger list of projects that have seen no spending since Oct. 1, 2023, Taylor said the auditors pulled any CIP project that had a budget prior to the current fiscal year and showed no actuals recorded in the last 18 months. "There's $90,000,000 here. And these projects have not been touched in 18 months," she said. The auditors told the subcommittee they had sent inquiries to Public Works and had routed some items to Parks & Recreation for response where appropriate.

Council members pressed for additional detail. Councilman Joe Carlucci asked when the auditors requested the information; Brian Parks of the Council Auditor's Office said the request went to the administration on March 25. Parks told the committee: "We hope to kinda have a good idea, and our goal maybe would be able to have an update to you guys in 2 weeks at our next meeting on this piece." The administration—s Brittany Norris said the dashboard currently highlights projects that staff believe are most relevant but agreed to discuss making more projects and filters available.

Committee members and auditors noted that not all inactive or long-running project balances indicate waste: some project budgets are constrained to specific uses, some are phased, and some may await additional work or mitigation funding. Councilwoman Garrett Pittman asked whether phased projects (for example, park projects with multiple phases) would explain some balances; auditors said they were asking departments for status on each individual project and for any special constraints.

The auditors proposed several follow-ups: provide council district identifiers for each line item, return dates of last expenditures where available, and supply department responses explaining why projects have not progressed or why balances remain. Ms. Taylor said the auditors intentionally limited the initial packet to projects with balances over $100,000 (66 projects shown); she said there are about 200 projects the auditors reviewed in total and they can expand the list if the committee wants.

No formal legislation or vote occurred at the meeting. Committee members instructed the auditors and staff to continue investigations and return with additional details at a future meeting so council can consider potential CIP amendments or other legislative steps to reallocate or close out funds.

The committee also noted the Office of the Inspector General has offered to contribute to future reviews; the inspector general identified travel-policy compliance as another forthcoming item for this subcommittee.

Next steps: auditors will continue working with Public Works and other departments, add district and last-expenditure data, and report back to the Duval DOGE subcommittee — the auditors said they aim to provide a status update at the committee's next meeting in about two weeks.