JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Mayor Donna Deegan gave Jacksonville residents one last chance to ask her questions about her budget proposal before Tuesday city council vote.

The final town hall meeting was held before a crowd of packed pews at the Northside Church of Christ, in an area of town where many say they feel forgotten by city officials.

“For so long we really have overlooked certain sections of the city,” said one meeting attendee, Northside resident Dr. Barbara Darby. “And she has come to us with a mind and a heart to bring equity and to treat us all as citizens of Jacksonville.”

About two dozen people lined up to ask the mayor questions after she gave her budget presentation. One of them, was Cary Grant, who’s been living in the neighborhood for about 40 years.

“This city is, is trying to move forward,” Grant said. “It’s trying to become Atlanta, you know, or some of the other big cities, and as long as we can get things done in the right way, I have absolutely no problem with that.”

Grant says he’s seen a lot of changes in the city but that he is behind the mayor and her budget proposal.

“The mayor put up a good budget, you know, if you look around the city, you see things happening,” Grant said.

The mayor had to leave at 6:30 p.m., but had her staff members continue to take questions from the audience. 

“We needed this because a lot of things been going on where people just, you know, talking among each other but we’re not getting anywhere just talking to each other, you know, but by it being someone to come out to hear us that makes it much better,” Clementine Duran, a Northside resident and meeting attendee, said. 

Duran came to voice her concerns about speeding on Avenue B and said she did get to speak with someone from the mayor’s office about her concerns. 

“We have a lot of elderly people here in the neighborhood and they are making complaints as well about, you know, the traffic and we have other problems as well,” she said. 

In spite of the multitude of issues that were brought up at the meeting, most attendees agreed on a couple of things. They’re in favor of Mayor Deegan’s budget proposal and against Councilman Rory Diamond’s amendments banning spending on undocumented immigrants, abortions and diversity equity and inclusion. 

“I look forward to the city council doing the right thing for Jacksonville citizens and the right thing is not to reduce the millage rate and not to cut the services that have already been targeted and thirdly not to divide the city,” said Darby said. 

The city council will vote on the budget on Tuesday at 3 p.m. at city hall.