{"id":404587,"date":"2025-11-25T22:48:13","date_gmt":"2025-11-25T22:48:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/404587\/"},"modified":"2025-11-25T22:48:13","modified_gmt":"2025-11-25T22:48:13","slug":"jacksonville-councilmember-criticized-for-unproven-claims-of-misconduct-in-city-telehealth-contracts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/404587\/","title":{"rendered":"Jacksonville councilmember criticized for unproven claims of misconduct in city telehealth contracts"},"content":{"rendered":"

JACKSONVILLE, Fla.<\/strong> \u2013 A Jacksonville city council member is facing criticism from a colleague after publicly alleging potential misuse of taxpayer funds in the city\u2019s telehealth contracts<\/a> \u2014 without providing evidence of illegal activity.<\/p>\n

RELATED: <\/b>Duval DOGE committee dives deeper into city\u2019s telehealth contract amid fraud allegations<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

Councilmember Matt Carlucci is pushing back against Councilman Rory Diamond, who earlier this month called for an emergency investigation through the city\u2019s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Diamond claimed he had been alerted to \u201cpotential serious misuse of taxpayer funds, wrongdoing and potential illegal conduct.\u201d<\/p>\n

Diamond said that multiple calls and concerns prompted him to seek an inquiry.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy phone is like the Bat-phone\u2026when it starts to ring over and over again it usually means that\u2019s a serious problem,\u201d Diamond said.<\/p>\n

His allegations involve possible conflicts of interest, questions about patient eligibility and what he described as potential fraud tied to the city\u2019s telehealth contracts.<\/p>\n

RELATED: <\/b>\u2018Entirely false\u2019: Jacksonville\u2019s telehealth contractor denies fraud allegations ahead of Duval DOGE meeting<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

When asked if he had found any illegal conduct, Diamond said the review was just beginning.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve already found $1.5 million in money that we didn\u2019t need to spend,\u201d Diamond said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got an entity that\u2019s willing to do this work for free, but we\u2019re spending $1.5 million.\u201d<\/p>\n

Diamond said he requested extensive documentation from Telescope Health, Mayor Donna Deegan\u2019s office, UF Health and the Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department.<\/p>\n

Both Telescope Health and the Mayor\u2019s Office strongly deny any wrongdoing.<\/p>\n

Diamond said he did not bring his concerns to the State Attorney\u2019s Office or the city Inspector General before making them public, arguing it is his responsibility to ask questions on behalf of taxpayers.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy job is to ask good questions to protect taxpayers,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m not allowed to go to another member of the City Council\u2026that\u2019s a violation of the law.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carlucci said Diamond has not provided any evidence of illegal activity and argues the accusations are harming the city\u2019s reputation, as well as the medical professionals involved.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re supposed to be innocent until proven guilty,\u201d Carlucci said. \u201cHe\u2019s not got one shred of anything that leads to any type of evidence that there\u2019s wrongdoing being done.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carlucci said the allegations are based on rumor and are unfairly dragging health providers into controversy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese people are getting hurt, and it\u2019s not only them, but also their families and the people working in these organizations,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Carlucci also suggested Diamond\u2019s actions are politically motivated.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything always ends up being a tempest in a teapot\u2026it\u2019s petty politics,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Diamond said he expects more information in early December after receiving responses from multiple agencies.<\/p>\n

This is not the first time Diamond has accused city officials of improper financial conduct. In August, he claimed Deegan attempted to \u201claunder\u201d $237,000 in diversity, equity and inclusion funds to the nonprofit United Way. No evidence of fraud or illegal activity has been found regarding that claim.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2025 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 A Jacksonville city council member is facing criticism from a colleague after publicly alleging potential…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":404588,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5136],"tags":[5229,5310,8314,3188,723,7310,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-404587","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-city-council","10":"tag-duval-county","11":"tag-fl","12":"tag-florida","13":"tag-jacksonville","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-united-states-of-america","16":"tag-unitedstates","17":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","18":"tag-us","19":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115612778933184350","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404587","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=404587"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404587\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/404588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=404587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=404587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=404587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}