JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The City of Jacksonville has served ties with a lobbying firm it had contracted with for years to advocate on the city’s behalf in Tallahassee and Washington DC.
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Mayor Donna Deegan’s administration abruptly cut ties with Ballard Partners on Monday, exercising its right to terminate its contract early.
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The contract was slated to end in January.
The decision came just two weeks after the lobbying firm announced it had hired former Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry.
“One maxim in politics is to the victor goes the spoils,” Councilmember Matt Carlucci (R-Group 4 At-Large) said.
Carlucci argued it’s not uncommon for new administrations to shake things up and seek new firms to represent the city.
He added he doubts the decision was influenced by politics.
“The previous mayor, he stopped contracts with some of the consultants, you know, that I knew, and they were nice people as well, but they got cut out. And previous mayors to that,” Carlucci said.
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Deegan’s Chief Communication’s Officer Phillip Perry explained the rationale behind the decision.
“Mayor Deegan is committed to bringing in more federal grant dollars. With that goal in mind, the administration is moving in a different direction and identifying partners who can support both grant writing and lobbying efforts,” Perry said in an emailed statement.
UNF political science professor Dr. Michael Binder said that may be true, but he argued the political optics are hard to ignore.
“It would make sense to me why a new mayor who is of an opposite political party, who ran really a very difficult race against folks that this group supported publicly, might want to distance herself from that group,” Binder said.
But ultimately Binder said he doubts the decision will impact the city’s ability to pulls down funding from Tallahassee and DC.
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“This is not the idea that they’re the only game in town and, oh no, Tallahassee’s not gonna give us money. Listen, if Tallahassee was not gonna give us money, they were not gonna give us money anyway and if they were, they were gonna continue to do so,” Binder said.
Ballard Partners also weighed in on the termination of its contract with the city.
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“Ballard Partners has been honored to represent the City of Jacksonville and is proud to have assisted the City secure more than $14 million in appropriations and a change in Florida law that allowed the city to avoid massive budget cuts that would have been needed to cover the city’s $2.6 billion unfunded pension liability. We are grateful for the opportunity to be helpful and wish the city’s administration great success in its service to the people of Jacksonville,” said Ballard Partners’ Justin Sayfie in an emailed statement.