JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The Council Finance Chair is getting his personal finances in order after Action News Jax learned tens of thousands of dollars in property taxes went unpaid.
Action News Jax learned just shy of $70,000 in unpaid property taxes were owed on the Mambos restaurant on Beach Boulevard and the former Denny’s just down the road.
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Both properties are owned by Mambos Holdings LLC, which used to be owned by Council Finance Chair Raul Arias (R-District 11).
But the taxes were owed for 2023 and 2024, when Arias still owned the company.
“This was our first commercial investment that we did,” Arias said.
Arias told Action News Jax he didn’t know about the issue until we reached out Monday night.
After talking with his bank and the tax collector’s office, Arias showed us the taxes were paid in full by Tuesday morning.
“It was an oversight on my end,” Arias said.
Arias explained he thought he was paying the property taxes through his mortgage, like most homeowners do with their residential properties.
“And it turns out they were just sitting in an escrow account for me to manually pay, versus it automatically paying the county,” Arias said.
Given Arias’ responsibilities overseeing the city’s finances, we reached out to the mayor’s office for comment, but they declined to weigh in.
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Councilmember Matt Carlucci (R-Group 4 At-Large) did offer a statement on the situation.
“Serving as Finance Chair is a serious responsibility, and paying taxes is part of that. But we all make mistakes, and we all deserve second chances, even third chances,” Carlucci said.
Arias argued for him; it was a learning experience.
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“This, like I said, was a complete oversight on my end. With so many things going on, this was my first time investing in commercial property. So, we’re always learning, always learning new things as days go on, and this is a critical lesson I learned the hard way,” Arias said. “However, I’m only human, and ultimately, as long as we were able to fix the issues, I think that we’re in a good position. And that’s exactly what we did today. We fixed it within an hour’s notice.”
Failure to pay property taxes can result in penalties and liens.
Upon searching the tax collector, clerk of courts, and property appraisers website, Action News Jax couldn’t find anything to indicate that those were applied in this case.
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