To the tune of $70,000 a year....
Thankfully, better sense is on the City Council to sniff out this garbage.
http://jacksonville.com/news/2016-09-20/story/council-committee-scrutinizes-plan-give-district-council-members-70000-hostA Jacksonville City Council panel delayed clearing a plan to set aside $70,000 for council members to host community events after several council members raised questions about how the money could be spent that weren’t answered to their satisfaction.
For years, council members who wanted to host events at city parks would request access to the property as well as other city resources, like staff, bleachers and stages, said City Councilman Reginald Brown, who introduced the plan.
Under Brown’s legislation, the community events would be limited to 500 to 1,500 people. The events must benefit a council member’s constituents and promote or inform attendees on governmental activities, programs or projects. The events are prohibited from being political in nature.
Despite those rules, Councilman John Crescimbeni mentioned a few hypothetical grey areas, like attendees wearing political shirts in support of the host or a council member using city money to host an event on behalf of a nonprofit, that a city attorney acknowledged would likely be allowed.
“I’m not sure how I’m voting on this bill,” Crescimbeni said. “It’s really more of a concern about some newspaper article coming out about how this was mishandled.”
Unlike some of his colleagues who said they needed more information about the plan, Councilman Danny Becton said he’s heard enough.
“This is too frivolous of a use of taxpayers’ dollars,” Becton said. “I’ll be pressing the red button whenever it shows up.”
