Nick Howland’s ‘Transparency for Taxpayers Act’ becomes Jacksonville law, Deegan ‘not supportive’

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Jacksonville City Councilman Nick Howland’s “Transparency for Taxpayers Act” is now a law in Jacksonville, even after Mayor Donna Deegan was “not supportive” of the legislation.

“The Transparency for Taxpayers Act, passed overwhelmingly by City Council in January, is now law,” Howland said Wednesday.

“While the Mayor was not supportive and chose to return the legislation without signature, her veto window expired last night,” he continued.

Howland’s bill came directly in response to the outcome of Deegan’s single source contract award for her administration’s new lobbying firm pick, where the mayor forewent the usual bidding process. That contract had a $300,000 price tag.

Howland’s legislation implements a rule that any single source or non-compete contract awards for federal and state lobbying, as well as grant writing professional services must be approved by the city council in order to be considered valid and binding, according to the bill.

“No longer will sole source contracts to lobbying firms be awarded in Jacksonville without public hearings and City Council approval,” Howland said.

In September, Langton Consulting received the contract award from Deegan’s administration. Howland said city council found out about it through a news article in October.

Langton Consulting contributed to Deegan’s mayoral campaign. Howland previously said the contract award “smelled fishy,” leading him to question the mayor’s choice.

Following Howland’s bill passage, he told Florida’s Voice that after understanding the mayor’s administration’s “fairly flimsy” justification for the contract award, he decided to “make sure that this can never happen again.”

“For one, I hope we never see any secretive single source contracts to, you know, grant writing or lobbying firms, again,” Howland said. “For two, if they need to do one, we get the formal approval of it. So I’m hoping, what this does, is stop behaviors like that from happening again.”

During a Nov. 7 meeting where the Finance Committee asked the mayor’s office several questions about the contract and its justifications, the mayor’s office said their main way of determining if Langton Consulting was the only firm able to do grant writing, public policy and federal advocacy was through Google searches.

Howland said his office discovered other firms who provide those same services.

The committee also learned during the Nov. 7 meeting that Langton Consulting does not have a license to do federal lobbying.

During the Finance Committee’s Nov. 21 meeting, the mayor’s office told the committee they will be moving forward with the contract to Langton Consulting, which Howland called “disappointing.”

“Thank you for the strong bipartisan support of this bill,” Howland said Wednesday. “I take transparency, accountability, and fiscal responsibility seriously and will continue to fight for fair and open government at all levels.”