JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 Jacksonville City Councilmember Raul Arias (R-District 11) has stepped down from his role as Finance Chair. <\/p>\n
The announcement comes after Action News Jax reported on a string of questionable business dealings related to Arias, but Arias is pushing back on the idea that those stories led to him resigning from his top leadership role.<\/p>\n
In August, we revealed Arias owed nearly $70,000 in unpaid property taxes<\/a> on his former restaurant, Mambos.<\/p>\n That bill was paid in full after we reached out.<\/p>\n This past month, we showed another company owned by Arias\u2019 family was paid $35,000 to cater Council President Kevin Carrico\u2019s installation ceremony<\/a>, and Arias helped steer a $100,000 city grant to a non-profit that he recommended hire his former company, Bold City Media<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cIt seems like there\u2019s a hiccup every two weeks or so, and I do hear from my constituents on these things,\u201d Councilmember Matt Carlucci said (R-Group 4 At-Large).<\/p>\n Councilmember Carlucci said he suspects Action News Jax\u2019s reporting may have played a role in Arias\u2019 decision to give up his leadership position.<\/p>\n \u201cNo, I would not do that at this point,\u201d Carlucci said.<\/p>\n In a statement, Arias suggested his decision did not come as a response to our reporting.<\/p>\n \u201cAfter a long and productive budget season that delivered meaningful property tax relief for our homeowners, I\u2019ve shifted my focus back to the district. I\u2019ve identified several neighborhoods that need immediate attention, from road improvements and traffic calming to street lighting and other safety measures,\u201d Arias said.<\/p>\n He also noted he will still serve on five council committees, including the Finance Committee.<\/p>\n Additionally, Arias will continue to chair the Community Benefits Agreement Committee.<\/p>\n It\u2019s unclear whether Arias\u2019 stepping down from his leadership role marks the end of his troubles.<\/p>\n We asked the Office of Inspector General whether it had received any complaints related to our reporting on several of Arias\u2019 business dealings or if it had initiated an investigation.<\/p>\n \u201cThe OIG cannot confirm or deny the existence of an ongoing investigation. However, we do take all credible allegations of fraud, waste, and abuse seriously and have the authority and ability to initiate an investigation when warranted,\u201d Inspector General Matthew Lascell said in an emailed statement.<\/p>\n Carlucci said he doesn\u2019t know whether an investigation has been initiated, but wouldn\u2019t be surprised if it\u2019s at least being considered.<\/p>\n \u201cThe reporting has been made public, and I\u2019m sure that the different authorities that might would investigate something have taken notice, but I\u2019m not going to pass any judgment in the public square,\u201d Carlucci said.<\/p>\n We asked Mayor Donna Deegan whether she believes an investigation is warranted.<\/p>\n \u201cI do believe that Raul was working hard on the Finance Committee. I was surprised to see it,\u201d said Deegan. \u201cIt\u2019s really not my lane, and I\u2019m gonna leave that to council to decide who is gonna lead. I\u2019ll work with whoever is there and continue to work with Raul. I always would prefer to see us focusing on the business of Jacksonville, and that\u2019s what I\u2019ll keep trying to focus on.\u201d<\/p>\n Council President Kevin Carrico (R-District 4) selected Councilmember Joe Carlucci (R-District 5) to take over as Finance Chair.<\/p>\n In his letter announcing the leadership shakeup on the Finance Committee, President Carrico (R-District 4) stated he remains committed to uphold the \u201chighest standards of transparency and integrity\u201d moving forward.<\/p>\n Councilmember Matt Carlucci said he hopes that is truly the case.<\/p>\n \u201cI certainly would like to see things calm down and some normalcy. You know, it\u2019s been a rollercoaster of a year,\u201d Carlucci said.<\/p>\n >>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <\/b><\/a><\/p>\n [DOWNLOAD: <\/b>Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks<\/b><\/a>]<\/b><\/p>\n [SIGN UP: <\/b>Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter<\/b><\/a>] <\/b><\/p>\n Click here<\/b><\/a> to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, <\/b>click here<\/b><\/a> to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and <\/b>click here<\/b><\/a> to stream Action News Jax live.<\/b><\/p>\n Action News Jax Top Stories<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 Jacksonville City Councilmember Raul Arias (R-District 11) has stepped down from his role as Finance…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":402946,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5136],"tags":[50444,13027,12189,15619,5229,82826,190517,190518,82827,3188,723,7310,134581,190516,48908,48501,48494,425,167964,48506,190519,5207,82822,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-402945","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-action_jack","9":"tag-action_jacks","10":"tag-action_news","11":"tag-action_news_jack","12":"tag-america","13":"tag-arias","14":"tag-bold_city_media","15":"tag-community_benefits_agreement_committee","16":"tag-finance_committee","17":"tag-fl","18":"tag-florida","19":"tag-jacksonville","20":"tag-jacksonville_city","21":"tag-jake_arias","22":"tag-jake_stoan","23":"tag-kerrio","24":"tag-kevin_krio","25":"tag-local","26":"tag-mambos","27":"tag-matt_carlucci","28":"tag-office_of_inspector_general","29":"tag-president","30":"tag-raul_arias","31":"tag-united-states","32":"tag-united-states-of-america","33":"tag-unitedstates","34":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","35":"tag-us","36":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402945","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=402945"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402945\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/402946"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=402945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=402945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=402945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}