JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The bill that would have led to the removal of the Women of the Confederacy monument in Springfield park has been withdrawn.
The motion passed by a 12-6 vote at Tuesday night's Jacksonville City Council meeting.
Two proposals to postpone the city council's vote to a later date also failed. The first vote to table the bill until March 2022 failed by a 3-15 margin. A second proposal to postpone the vote until May 2022 failed by a 6-12 margin.
The bill was expected to fail after several city council members publicly voted against it in committee meetings.
In response, City Councilman Matt Carlucci and the Northside Coalition of Jacksonville have called for the vote to be postponed until a later day.
The removal of the statue was estimated to be $1.3 million, according to the bill. However, Councilman Garrett Dennis proposed an amendment that would reduce the cost of removing it to $99,000. That amendment also failed.
The meeting was heated with more than 90 people signed up for the public comment sections, and virtually all spoke either for or against the removal of the monument.
Later, during the city council's discussion of the Confederate monument bill, the entire gallery was ordered to leave the chamber after multiple outbursts.
Mayor Lenny Kenny's Chief Administrative Officer Brian Hughes said the mayor is disappointed in the city council's decision. Curry proposed the bill and was openly calling for it to pass.
Curry also said in a Tweet Tuesday night:
"Tonight the City Council disappointingly denied a step toward real progress in Our City by refusing to vote on the removal of a divisive monument from public land."