NEPTUNE BEACH, Fla. — Action News Jax is digging into the city of Neptune Beach and its former mayor, Elaine Brown.
Public records show the city failed to file financial audits on time under Brown’s leadership, putting more than $1 million of state funding at risk.
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The city manager said Neptune Beach should be back in compliance by the upcoming deadline. But records show not only did it happen on the watch of then-Mayor Brown, they show the city failed to file three years in a row.
Internal emails addressed to Brown show the Joint Legislative Auditing Committee reached out to her in October about “taking state action against municipalities that have failed to file outstanding financial reports.”
She’s also copied on the city CFO’s response mentioning the three delinquent reports, saying two have been filed and that Neptune Beach “hired additional finance personnel to expedite” the remaining one.
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According to the committee, that failure put more than $1 million in state revenue in jeopardy: $950,149 from the Local Government Half Cent Sales Tax and $329,084 of Municipal Revenue Sharing for a total of $1,279,233
Over the phone, the city manager told Action News Jax’s Emily Turner the delay was due to personnel turnover. Neptune Beach has had three financial officers and two city managers in that time. But when Action News Jax called Brown, she refused to comment, said it was a non-story and eventually hung up on Turner.
Brown is Jacksonville Mayor Donna Deegan’s pick to replace Megan Hayward on the board of the Jacksonville Transportation Authority. The move comes in the middle of Hayward’s term, just as she’s been asking tough questions of the authority’s CEO.
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Deegan has repeatedly cited Brown’s experience in office as her reason for the replacement and reiterated that again Tuesday when asked if she’s concerned about Brown’s ability to oversee JTA in light of her failure to file audits and putting public dollars at risk.
Deegan said this was the first she’d heard of the problem and went on to say, “Elaine is obviously someone who has been a dedicated public servant for many years, knows a lot about transportation, and will be a fantastic person to have on that board.”
The legislation to remove Hayward and replace her with Brown was delayed. Jacksonville City Council Member Nick Howland, who delayed the legislation, said it is to give Hayward time to have some of her concerns addressed at the March JTA board meeting.
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