In a special meeting on Tuesday afternoon, the Jacksonville City Council voted 18-1 to take action on the Kids Hope Alliance legislation on Tuesday evening.
City Council President Anna Brosche was the lone holdout, saying the public and council need more time to evaluate the legislation.
Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry requested the legislation to reform and consolidate the Jacksonville Children's Commission and Jax Journey into one entity.
On Monday, Councilman Garrett Dennis accused the mayor of waiting to sign the budget so he could sway some council members' votes by threatening to veto projects in their districts.
On Tuesday, Dennis joined with 17 other council members in voting to take up the legislation on the same day.
“I think there’s some games going on about trying to keep it bottled up. There’s 14 co-sponsors, so clearly the bill has got plenty of support to pass,” said Councilman John Crescimbeni.
During Tuesday afternoon’s special meeting, Brosche did not even wait for roll call or the Pledge of Allegiance before making a bold claim about the mayor’s office.
Brosche accused Curry's administration of strategically trying to keep the public out of the process.
She called out Allison Korman Shelton, the mayor’s director of intergovernmental affairs, and Lawsikia Hodges, deputy general counsel of the Government Operations Department, by name.
Brosche said she faced an “unresolved personal dilemma” after a Sept. 14 meeting in her office with Shelton and Hodges.
“Allie Korman Shelton explained that the strategy for introducing the substitute through a council member was to avoid the bill being available to the public for that two-week period,” said Brosche.
A half-hour after the meeting, the mayor emailed the following statement:
"At no time would anyone from my office or the office of general counsel seek to subvert the legislative process or attempt to prevent the input of the people of Jacksonville. It is both irresponsible and disgraceful for an elected official to make such a slanderous allegation. The council president should immediately admit that the anecdote is false and should apologize to the two staff members who she attacked."