A.G. Gancarski
For those looking for a peek behind the curtain of a municipal budget process, there is no better place to be than City Hall in Jacksonville for the next three days, as Sam Mousa will go through the budgets of every department in Jacksonville government.
After a period when it seemed like these meetings might not be open to the public, a reversal of that policy was announced in The Florida Times-Union late on Friday, “after a Times-Union story and the newspaper’s pressing the transition team to open the meetings,” wrote Nate Monroe.
That’s one interpretation. Mousa, at least in a review of emails in the public record, attested somewhat differently.
In an email exchange over the weekend, COJ Ethics officer Carla Miller asked Mousa about the meetings’ Sunshine status. His answer was nuanced.
“Susie and others were involved in determining the ‘Sunshine status’ of these budget review meetings,” Mousa wrote.
“What I can say is the following about my role and those I asked to assist me. I am staff to the Transition Committee and not a Transition Committee member. The folks I asked to assist me are an extension of my staff. Any recommendation made by staff will be made to me and not the Mayor-Elect/Mayor. I will be the only one making any final recommendations to the Mayor,” Mousa added.
“Me and my staff are not required to work in the Sunshine; however, me and my staff are required to meet in the Sunshine if we desire to meet with more than one Transition Committee member,” Mousa continued.
In an email on Sunday, Wiles followed up.
“I talked with Carla at length. She says this is a “gray area” and is pleased we have decided to [have] erred on the side of open-ness. So… we will need someone to do minutes and make sure these meetings are properly noticed. Per Carla, the minutes need only be cursory – attendees, subject(s) discussed – nothing elaborate.”
For those who seek, for whatever reason, a less “cursory” version of what happened in the meetings on Monday, and what will happen the rest of the week, you have recourse. We of course have liveblogged the JFRD, JSO, Inspector General, and Public Works meetings.
We also have been the only media outlet to cover these meetings from start to finish, taking advantage of them being fully in the sunshine. And we intend to do so for the next three days, as public interest demands such a measure.
Tuesday’s slate of budget review meetings starts bright and early at 8:30 a.m. with a Property Appraiser meeting. Then, Supervisor of Elections, Library, JAA, JPA, and Intragovernmental Services fill out the morning session.
At 1:15, budget review springs anew, with Finance, the Tax Collector, Clerk of the Court, Jacksonville Journey, and Sports and Entertainment taking the day’s program to the 5:00 hour.
As the one person in the media who has seen everything so far, some interesting patterns are emerging.
One pattern is Mousa’s frustration with the idiosyncratic accounting processes in individual departments, which often seem ad hoc and non-standardized in a way that mitigates against efficient, lean budgeting. In three of the four sessions on Monday, an edge came into his voice on numerous occasions.
A second pattern is that there seems to be a pattern of casual neglect of certain assets of the city; most notably, fleet vehicles. Fire and Rescue and the Sheriff’s Office both discussed their aging fleet of vehicles. Another subtext in the JSO presentation was that they needed a financial commitment to technological upgrades sooner than later.
The morning sessions seem like they will be reasonably straightforward on Tuesday, given their short timeframes. The afternoon sessions, if today’s longer sessions are any indication, will prove to be more interesting. Still, even smaller departments have felt budget constraints in recent years, and it’s easy to imagine the Library discussion being more interesting than most observers might expect.
