True Commission to dig into Jacksonville’s quarterly finances, encumbrances and OneCloud reconciliation delays

The True Commission voted not to take formal action (no quorum) but agreed to pursue a deeper review of Jacksonville’s finances after hearing a presentation from the council auditor and commissioners’ questions.

Blake Bass, council president and chair, opened the session by outlining six 2026 goals, including a focused review of city spending for January–June before the mayor’s mid‑July budget submission and a July–December examination of independent authorities. Bass said the commission will convene a spending committee and hold publicly noticed workshops to perform department‑level analysis.

Tommy Carter, of the council auditor’s office, briefed members on the quarterly financial summary (council auditor report No. 899). Carter explained that the summary is a cash‑basis, preliminary snapshot prepared while the city’s books remained open and that encumbrances are commitments to reserve funds for purchase orders or multi‑year contracts that can carry forward into later fiscal years. “Basically, an encumbrance is a commitment to expend funds for goods and services that hasn’t been fully executed yet,” Carter said.

The chair and commissioners reviewed headline figures from the summary: budgeted revenue for fiscal 2023 of about $1.58 billion, revised budgeted expenditures of about $1.63 billion (producing a large revised deficit figure on paper), and notable variances in professional/contractual services where roughly $6.6 million was encumbered and about $5.5 million remained unspent. Bass flagged salary increases (a reported roughly $67 million year‑over‑year rise) and a roughly 42% increase in grants and contributions as topics for future drilldown.

Commissioners raised concerns about the time it takes to produce audited statements. Carter and the chair said reconciliation issues tied to the city’s OneCloud implementation — and disruptions around the COVID period during roll‑out — have contributed to delays. Carter recommended that the commission rely on the external auditor’s final financial statements for definitive trend analysis and departmental detail; those audited statements are expected to be posted mid‑year. The commission asked staff to invite the city finance/technology team (OneCloud implementers) to give a brief status update at the April meeting.

Ending: Without a quorum the body made no formal findings or votes. Commissioners directed staff to obtain the external audited financial statements once available, schedule workshops for department‑level review and implement follow‑up briefings on OneCloud reconciliation status and independent authorities (JEA, JAXPORT).