Action News Jax Investigates: City paid $4 million for missing items

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — An Action News Jax investigation uncovered that the City of Jacksonville is missing items that it paid millions of taxpayer dollars for.

Items include desks, printers, kitchen appliances and even ice machines.

This latest discovery comes after another Action News Jax investigation uncovered more than $1 million in lost and stolen items in Duval County schools.

The city paid more than $4 million for items that are now missing. Action News Jax asked city leaders how so much property could just disappear and why there's now a proposal on the table to delete all this missing property from city records.

"It’s obviously disappointing. We need to look into it,” said City Council president Greg Anderson.

The list of missing items from various departments includes a truck lift worth nearly $30,000, a vehicle that cost $17,000 and a teleprompter priced at $2,300.

"I don't know whether that means the teams have been transferred to different departments or were replaced,” said Anderson. “Until we get into the details we don't know for sure, but it certainly sounds sloppy."

Anderson introduced an ordinance at the request of the Mayor's Office to write off losses of $4.3 million.

After depreciation that amount is valued at $94,000.

A section of the proposed ordinance reemphasizes missing property should be reported to the Sheriff's Office.

Action News Jax Crime and Safety Expert Ken Jefferson said tracking down the missing items would be next to impossible.

He served 24 years with Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office, one of the agencies listed as having missing property.

"It would be very difficult to make a dent in any kind of investigation in this, with the exception to things that are recent," Jefferson said.

Action News Jax found JSO tops the list of city agencies with missing property.

A total of 221 items with an original cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars are missing.

Items include a bullet shield, laser gun and Breathalyzer.

Action News Jax contacted JSO this weekend to find out if police reports have been filed for the missing ?property. We’re told the department is unable to start looking for that information until Monday.

The Mayor’s Office told Action News Jax there are already record-keeping procedures in place.

There are already record-keeping procedures that exist for the City of Jacksonville. Municipal Code (122) includes specific inventory management requirements city officials must annually follow to track and monitor equipment. Whether it's a desk or a dolly, if the value exceeds $1,000, it's inventoried. The previous administration did not follow code at any time during their four years in office, leading to a report of un-located items, totaling $20,000 (depreciated value -- there are items like typewriters, cameras, and monitors from 1974 on the list) that Mayor Curry discovered. While we are unable to speak to the previous administration's failure to adhere to Code, we can speak to Mayor Curry's commitment to complying with all codes and procedures that promote quality inventory management practices.

Anderson said the council will examine how to better manage the process in the future.

"How we're making sure that anything we buy or using is accounted for properly ... these are the things we're looking into," said Anderson.

View a full list of the missing items here.

Cox Media Group