Council Auditor: Problems in City Real Estate Records

[Charles Hunter]

From the Business Journal

Forgotten leases, missing rents, inaccurate data: Council Auditor finds problems in city real estate records

Memo to the print shop that is leasing a city building on Lee Street: The city would now like the 18 years of rent you haven't paid, a debt of about $118,000.

Jacksonville would also like to know who authorized a credit union office to go into the Police Memorial Building and why there's never been a rent check – or even a lease agreement.

Additionally, if anyone knows why two of three houses on Country Mill Lane that the city sold specifically for demolition in 2003 are still standing and being rented out, give the auditor a call.

The auditor also found that almost half of the 2,500 properties in the city's capital assets database "were not tracked individually or missing" from the inventory – meaning almost 1,100 acres worth about $178 million were missing.

"Therefore, capital assets in the City's financial records might be understated," the auditor report reads.

Worse, the Office of Inspector General had already flagged this issue in 2016, the auditor's report states, and "it appears that this same issue still existed" as of September 2018, the end of the period studied by the auditor.

The report includes a number of agreed upon action steps for various city agencies to take, including the Downtown Investment Authority, the Accounting Division and Real Estate Division, among others.

https://www.bizjournals.com/jacksonville/news/2020/03/12/forgotten-leases-missing-rents-inaccurate-data.html?ana=e_me_set4&j=90499729&t=Morning%20B&mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiT1RjNE9EQmpZMll4TWpFeCIsInQiOiJycE8wUDB6Q1VlSzB5cytOUjZDckRUNCs5Y08wU1AxVGZVSlwvSzNiXC9RN3lBXC83UGVcL2liUVwvclRBNE1oYXIwblhmV1lVTm5wSHRGOFBueWhMK05tUVVORlwvV2NIOHFtZHF4SjVldUpVTlZGZWxFU3FXTTN3RERuQnlEUmZOVFZ3SyJ9

Wish the article listed the "agreed upon action steps for various city agencies to take."  Perhaps including firing anyone who was in a managerial position when the 2016 audit came out, and is in the same or a higher position now.  Unless they can show they attempted to make corrections, but were stopped by higher management or the Council.

[vicupstate]

Truly the City of Jacksonville must be one of the most corrupt, inept, incompetent and mismanaged major cities in the country.
 

[marcuscnelson]

What? What the hell?

Is this at all comparable to other cities?

[vicupstate]

What? What the hell?

Is this at all comparable to other cities?

Very comparable to Detroit prior to their bankruptcy.

From everything I have seen and read, the amount of property that the city owns itself is very high, perhaps one of the highest in the region/country.     

[MusicMan]

For as long as I've been blogging here I've stated the COJ Division of Real Estate is a disaster. here's more proof.