‘Stop the Trump Stunts’ rally draws protesters for immigrant rights
The Jacksonville Immigrant Rights Alliance and Jacksonville Palestine Solidarity Network rallied in front of Jacksonville City Hall.
- Jacksonville City Council’s Finance Committee added amendments to the 2025-26 budget restricting city funds for DEI programs, services for undocumented immigrants, and abortions.
- Mayor Donna Deegan criticized the amendments, introduced by council member Rory Diamond, as divisive and polarizing.
- Diamond defended the amendments, stating they reflect his consistent stance and growing council support.
- The amendments face potential mayoral veto, with legal questions surrounding the override threshold.
The City Council’s Finance Committee clamped restrictions on the use of city taxpayer money for “DEI” programs, services to people who are in the country illegally, and abortions in its version of next year’s budget.
Mayor Donna Deegan denounced the addition of the amendments filed by City Council member Rory Diamond. She said the “divisive amendments do not belong in a budget bill.”
“I’m extremely disappointed that the majority of this Finance Committee went along with yet another attempt to polarize our community with toxic D.C. culture wars that hurt our city,” Deegan said in a statement. “We have so much momentum right now and I will not let us be distracted.”
The council’s Finance Committee approved inserting the amendments into the 2025-26 budget as the committee wrapped up six days of budget hearings.
Diamond said the issues covered by what he calls the “Big Beautiful Budget Amendments” have been important to him since he joined City Council in 2019. He said he repeatedly has brought them up at budget time.
“This is nothing new to me,” he said. “The only thing that’s different is that there’s a whole bunch more members of City Council willing to vote with me.”
The amendment on prohibiting spending city money on services for people in the country illegally revives a similar attempt Diamond made earlier this year in legislation that was vetoed by Deegan. Council then fell short of the two-thirds majority needed to override her veto.
The mayor also can do line-item vetoes on the 2025-26 budget that the full City Council will vote on in late September. But it’s easier for council to override line-item budget vetoes because it just takes a simple majority of council members to overturn those.
Mayor’s chief of staff says committee wants to ‘continue to divide’
Mike Weinstein, chief of staff for Deegan, said the Diamond amendment is an attempt to enact policy through the budget by trying to avoid the two-thirds veto override hurdle.
“I just don’t understand why you guys want to continue to have controversy and you want to continue to divide,” Weinstein told the Finance Committee.
It’s unclear what would happen if Deegan were to veto the entire budget in terms of what it would take to override a veto of that magnitude.
The Office of Geneal Counsel, which provides advice for the entire city government, has been researching the scenario. City Council might need a two-thirds super-majority to override a veto of the entire budget, Deputy General Counsel Mary Staffopoulos said.
But the newly retained legislative counsel for City Council said a legal argument can be made that the veto threshold still would be a simple majority.
Legislative counsel Jason Teal, a former general counsel who also is City Council secretary, said the council clearly has the ability to add the three Diamond amendments to the budget. He said it then would be the Deegan administration’s responsibility to figure out how to enforce the policies.
Diamond’s amendment on abortion would prohibit the use of any taxpayer money in the budget for abortion services. The Finance Committee changed the blanket restriction to add exceptions for rape, incest and the life of the mother. Diamond opposed the addition of those exemptions but then voted on the amendment containing them.
Diamond says abortion restriction won’t change current policy
Diamond said he does not think the restriction on taxpayer money for abortions would make any changes in how city government currently operates because heath insurance plans for city employees do not cover elective abortions.
“It should just give people who don’t want to use taxpayer funding for abortion a little bit easier sleep at night,” Diamond said.
Finance Committee member Ju’Coby Pittman, who voted against all three amendments, told Diamond “we’re not in D.C.”
“You need to stay out of people’s bedrooms, and what they do with their body is totally up to them,” Pittman said. “You are totally wrong. You have no business going down the road that you’re going down today, period. I’m ashamed of you.”
Diamond told the Finance Committee his amendment on diversity, equity and inclusion — or DEI for short — prohibits using taxpayer money “to do anything which promotes differential or preferential treatment for people’s immutable characteristics.”
“We’re not going to spend money on treating people differently because of the color of their skin, because of their race, because of their gender or who they go home to or who they love or how they allegedly express their gender,” he said.
The amendment does not apply to the Jacksonville Human Rights Commission which is in charge of enforcing the city’s anti-discrimination law. It also would not apply to entities that carry out programs using city grants, or any children’s programs, or special events that highlight or promote a “specific DEI classification.”
City Council member Rahman Johnson, who is not on the Finance Committee but joined its budget discussion, said there’s no standard definition for DEI that’s been accepted by courts.
“It’s a vague term and when you look at this strictly from an academic point of view, colleagues, this just doesn’t make sense,” Johnson said, adding it will have a “chilling effect.”
He said he’ll also oppose the abortion amendment, saying it “doesn’t balance a budget. It balances an ideology on the backs of women. It’s a sad move.”
GOP and Democratic Party square off on Diamond amendments
The amendment preventing the provision of services to people who are in the country illegally mirrors the legislation that City Council approved in June in many respects.
The amendment by Diamond also carries a number of exemptions to the ban so it would not apply to city-funded youth services, grant money awarded to UF Health for treatment of poor patients, public health services aimed at stopping the spread of infectious diseases, assistance for victims of sex trafficking and some other specific circumstances.
The major difference from the legislation that Deegan vetoed in June is that it applied to the award of grants whereas the budget amendment covers the city’s entire budget, except for the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office. It also doesn’t cover independent authorities such as JEA and the the Jacksonville Transportation Authority.
City Council voted 11-7 for the legislation in July. After Deegan vetoed it, council voted 8-7 to override the veto, falling short of the two-thirds support needed by council to reverse Deegan.
Finance Committee Chairman Raul Arias voted against all three amendments.
“We just literally spend six days, 33 and a half hours on this budget and now for us to have to scrub through it again to potentially have conflict on budget night, this is just adding more drama to an already extensive budget cycle,” he told the Finance Committee.
The amendments quickly brought a split opinion from the local Republican and Democratic parties.
“Great work, councilman!” the Republican Party of Duval County posted on X in a message to Diamond.
Duval County Democratic Party Chair Daniel Henry said the amendments are “unnecessary, unrelated and designed to sow division.”
“Rory Diamond continues to be a distracting, destructive presence on council — prioritizing his own political agenda over the needs of working people in Jacksonville,” Henry said. “He is beyond unacceptable. He is the worst of us.”