The city spent $153,602.68 preparing for the canceled Republican National Convention, including a more than $66,000 bill by a private emergency management consulting firm.
City Council Auditor’s Office records show Mayor Lenny Curry’s administration contracted with Wheeler Emergency Management Consulting in work related to the planned Downtown event Aug. 24-27.
The $66,777.50 Wheeler invoice for 378 hours of consulting work from July 9-31 is addressed to city CFO Patrick “Joey” Grieve.
The invoice is under review for payment, Council Auditor Kim Taylor said in a Sept. 3 email.
Curry and other administration officials have said that city resources were not used in planning for the RNC, other than employee hours.
“To the best of my knowledge” no Duval County taxpayer dollars were spent for the RNC other than staff hours, city Chief of Staff Jordan Elsbury told Council members during a July 24 special meeting.
“We’ve stated on numerous occasions that, other than staff time related to planning an event that we undertake for any special event that the city hosts — sometimes those happen, sometimes they don’t — but this one, specifically directed from the mayor’s office from the beginning, we weren’t going to allocate city resources until we had the (U.S. Department of Justice) funding in hand,” Elsbury said.
The Council Auditor found the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office incurred $69,974 in employee overtime associated with preparation for the RNC.
Overtime costs from Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department totaled $9,862.70; $2,604 in part-time costs were reported by the city Office of Ethics, Compliance and Oversight; and $1,384.48 in overtime was reported for Finance and Administration Radio Shop employees.
Jacksonville Sheriff Mike Williams told reporters at a July 20 news conference that the JSO did not have enough time or resources available to keep people safe at the RNC.
Elsbury said Curry’s staff worked with Williams after his announcement to address the security concerns.
Originally scheduled for Charlotte, North Carolina, on July 11 the planned convention speeches, festivities and President Donald Trump’s acceptance were moved to Jacksonville. Those events were canceled by Trump on July 23 because of safety concerns amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
GOP delegates met in the original host city of Charlotte Aug. 24-25 to nominate Trump and Vice President Mike Pence.
Trump officially accepted the nomination in front of the White House Aug. 27, following a week of virtual, televised convention speeches.