A.G. Gancarski
Thursday morning Jacksonville transition team budget reviews continue with the Office of Economic Development.
9:55: No revenue. Expenses: salaries down $33K. Health insurance up. Office of General Counsel allocation down by $65K. Removed extraordinary lapse, imposed by City Council last year. Flat budget; no major changes.
9:57: Why is parking under Eco Dev? Sam Mousa says that Mayor Brown thought increased downtown parking was good for economic development, so people would have a “more pleasurable experience.” It also has helped bring businesses downtown. Economic Development partners with the Downtown Investment Authority also. There also are code enforcement issues, related to junk cars on blocks citywide, and nighttime enforcement in Riverside/Avondale.
10:01: Mike Weinstein brings up the Enterprise Zones downtown. Mousa wonders distinguishes functions of Economic Development, DIA, and JAXUSA (an arm of Jax Chamber). There are distinguishing factors, goes the answer, but it is a “close, synergistic relationship.”
10:04: The discussion of the “partnership” continues. OED monitors “compliance.” The DIA is responsible for Downtown. OED is countywide. Ashton Hudson wonders why DIA can’t be rolled up into OED. Mousa describes the DIA as “downtown focused,” and the DIA could be gotten rid of if one were willing to sacrifice the “political focus” and the optics of eliminating the DIA.
10:07: More discussion of the Alvin Brown belief in singularly branding and marketing downtown. Sports Entertainment was once an Economic Development function also.
10:08: Mousa: “the DIA has appropriating authority” for downtown. That said, of the three discrete sections that the DIA administers, “one of them’s broke, one of them has a little bit of money, and one of them has a lot of money.”
10:11: A discussion of tax increment districts. Jacksonville Beach, Jacksonville International Airport, et al. Debt service discussed. The North Access Interchange.
10:15: The Soutel/Moncrief tax increment district. Eventually, enough revenue will be built up to actually do something with it. There’s not much money coming into this district currently. A reminder of Reggie Brown‘s suggestion to put a water park down there a few years back, which would likely require Kevlar swimsuits; another suggestion, revamping/extending water and sewer. Almost $2M in the fund. Mousa may “sweep” it.
10:20: Parking late fees up $125K. Collection fees up $20K. The budget for revenues is up over $300K. Mousa wonders if this can be forecast.
10:22: There is now a collection agency on board. This has boosted fund recovery, and gives the confidence to project higher numbers going forward. There are separate subfunds for on-street and off-street parking. Learned something today. They do this to ascertain profitability.
10:26: There is still a backlog of “collection opportunities,” such as old paper, booted and impounded cars, et al.
10:27: More activity downtown equates to more revenue. Garage utilization is very high, and they could adjust rates to soak the demand.
10:28: On street parking costs are among the lowest in the country. Meter rates have not been raised since the 1980s. Cheaper to park on the street at a meter than in a garage. This is undesirable. Mousa wonders why parking fees have not been hiked, as have “500 pages of fees” in other departments. The answer: fees are intended to cover the cost of providing the service. They also can’t “undercut the private operators.” This all explains the high amount of “out of order” and “historic” meters, in my opinion.
10:32: Jack Shad of Parking: “meters should be based on market goals” and right now, they don’t match up with downtown goals. Long term street parking right now is actually incentivized; this is not ideal, if the goal is turnover of spaces. The OED has the authority to jack up parking rates, according to the City Council. Weinstein mentions that budget and marketing have “conflicting goals.” Right now, private operators are disincentivized from building garages without “extensive city subsidy.”
10:35: Weinstein: “Our financial loss has to be looked at as an investment.”
10:36: Mousa: “A black city Trailblazer has been parked at a meter for a week and a half.” Apparently, it was moved from the garage, to create room for the transition team. This is not ideal.
10:37: Fun Fact: Ed Ball Garage has a waiting list of 80 people. Another case for a rate hike. Right now, Mousa pays $80 a month for parking. When on the city payroll, he will pay $40 a month.
10:40: The industry standard is that a parking garage can be oversold by 25%.
10:44: Looks like they are going to buy at least one vehicle with cash. They have 20 vehicles; need three at $20K per. One from each of the three subfunds.
10:45: More discussion of the offstreet parking fund. A $279K revenue uptick anticipated; they are expecting 600 new customers from Citizens Insurance. A long-term deal; terms are being worked out. The old Courthouse lot, meanwhile, is lost without a big investment in repair. Big lot, but not a lot of volume, since the center of development has moved.
10:48: Mousa asks about sunset to the city employee discount; end of FY 2016.
10:52: The library garage, taken back by the COJ in 2013, is now a big profit driver.
10:55: On to the motor vehicle inspection fund. School bus inspection fees have gone down; they were “stacking cash” in that fund. They also handle taxicab regulation, along with other “vehicles for hire.” Uber X (except for Uber Black) and Lyft are “operating outside the law.”
11:01: On to Enhancements. The access control system, card reader and cash machine manufacturer is going out of business; there will be no support there after. They may bid out; may lease new equipment. It is going to be a headache; the RFP process could take a year. Mousa suggests the department use cash on hand and cash carryover to fund enhancement procurement.
11:07: Mousa: “I’m not buying this entire list. If we can find cash, spend cash.”
11:08: Weinstein wants the enhancement list to jibe with the cash carryovers from given funds. Mousa wants delineation of one-time costs versus recurring impacts.
11:12: The equipment has to be upgraded, says Shad. All systems are proprietary, he adds.
11:15: There are a couple of OED vacancies. A director of strategic planning needs to be added, presumably for “strategery.” A manager role also. Mousa urges them to “hold up” on filling those vacancies, which suggests that a restructuring may be in the works.
11:19: Mousa wants to know their documentation of audits; apparently, there is a spreadsheet that he can review.
END
One comment
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