A.G. Gancarski
The next live blog of Wednesday’s Sam Mousa budget meetings: a discussion of the Mayor’s Office budget. Chris Hand and David DeCamp represent the Mayor’s Office.
4:10 p.m.: Sam Mousa and Chris Hand talk about how well the transition has gone thus far.
4:12 p.m.: Hand: “Ours is a budget made up entirely of people.” Less than 2.5 percent of the budget is discretionary spending.
4:13 p.m.: Hand mentions that the year was begun with a deficit, which has been reduced by $300,000 to $135,000. “While we haven’t gotten entirely to zero,” he feels good about it.
4:14 p.m.: There looks to be a repeal of the Mayor’s Office transfer authority that will happen at Tuesday’s city council meeting.
4:16 p.m.: Hand anticipates pressures in next year’s mayoral budget. 35 total positions among three parts of the office. The Education Office position, an “executive on loan” from Jacksonville University, has been unfunded publicly, supported through private dollars.
4:19 p.m.: Mayoral educational initiatives, such as Learn2Earn, are being discussed. There is a self-appropriating trust fund. Mousa wants to know if it can fund the support person.
4:20 p.m.: Travel line item up now. Hand directed the budget to be cut by 10 percent, per Curry’s campaign promise.
4:22 p.m.: Mousa wants Angela Moyer and Kandi Begue to work together to craft a mayoral budget, given changes will be made.
4:23 p.m.: Discussion of an auto budget. This was not done by the Brown administration. Hand: “We tried to keep it as lean as we possibly could.” Two of the backup vehicles will be switched out by the Curry team for “new Tahoes,” per Mousa. There are also six or seven vehicles that can be checked out by city employees for travel purposes.
And we’re done.
