JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Several notable new bills were introduced at Jacksonville City Council’s meeting.
Including a bill allocating $1.5 million to fund sports tourism and bring big time college sports games and tournaments back to Jacksonville.
Jacksonville is home to one of college football’s greatest rivalries, Florida/Georgia, but besides the annual game few colleges and big games have visited.
“Can we get a playoff game here? Can we bring march madness back?" Jacksonville city council President, Ron Salem, asked.
Salem proposed using the bill with the goal of bringing March Madness back to Jacksonville.
The NCAA men's basketball tournament has come to Jacksonville four times, most recently in 2019.
But it isn't slated to return.
The bill would bring back something Jacksonville once had.
“We had a sports commission sports board in the past, I thought it was a very effective tool in bringing March Madness here. In fact, I was on the board when we did it. We lost it. And I don't think we've had an effective sports tourism effort ever since then," Salem said.
The strongest reaction from the public Wednesday night came in response to the recent removal of a confederate monument in Springfield Park.
“This has all been about lies and deceptions!” a man against the removal of the monument said during public comment.
"The mayor claims that the removal wasn't an attempt to erase history, but to show what we have learned from it," a woman against the removal of the monument said during public comment.
“You are on the wrong side now as you challenge the mayor's right to remove that confederate statue," Wells Todd, of Take Em Down Jax, an organization in support of monument removal, said.
Mayor Deegan used private funds to remove the monument in December, Salem thought she overstepped by not getting council approval.
He’s proposed a bill preventing the mayor from using private donations or funding for any city project without council approval.
It was read for the first time Wednesday. The city’s top lawyer ruled Mayor Deegan was within the law.
But Salem said he’s still waiting for an official ruling, which he expects to have Tuesday.
“The issue that I had with it was a draft opinion, that was not signed and dated, I asked him to formalize that opinion," Salem said.
Also read for the first time Wednesday, a bill allowing people to drink alcohol on Jacksonville's riverwalk.
As long as you buy from a designated vendor and the drink is in a special cup.
Salem's private fund bill, his sports tourism bill, and the riverwalk designated drinking zone bill could be approved next month.
Former council president, Terrance Freeman, returned to his city council seat for the first time in months. In September he announced he would undergo cancer treatment for prostate cancer.