A.G. Gancarski
Preface: It amazes me, again, how the “media” isn’t covering these events. Here’s a good reason why.
A quote from Chief Administrative Officer Sam Mousa, before this session started: “We keep hearing rumors that Lori Boyer is pushing bills through” to “show product” from her CIP Committee. “Everyone’s running around like a chicken with its head cut off, like the sky’s falling; it’s not falling.” Apparently, Bill Gulliford wants a solid waste transfer station. “It’s not feasible,” Mousa said. Solid Waste is pushing an RFP.
People show up to “get quotes.” They miss the real story.
The second Transition Team budget review of Thursday afternoon involves fresh paper from Public Works. Notes from the previous session can be found here.
2:00: Sam Mousa wants Jim Robinson to discuss the solid waste transfer station. Robinson says Gulliford wanted a “top to bottom examination of the solid waste operation,” including the “viability” of said station. Trail Ridge, the main landfill, is on the western side of the county. He wanted some solution for the easterly growth of county. There was a feasibility study in 2005; an update in 2015. A conclusion was reached in the feasibility study that it was viable. Councilman Gulliford then made a request for proposal, still “championing the cause.” The RFP was created; he had a Notice Meeting regarding the final draft of the RFP, with various haulers in the review session.
2:03: Mousa: “Why were they reviewing it? They would be competitors.”
2:04: Robinson says they may be in the posture of issuing the RFP for a turnkey operation for a privately owned/run/maintained facility for the purpose of receiving waste from the more easterly portions of the county, then transferring it out to Trail Ridge. The ultimate decision is one of price point; the goal is to reduce the driving distance of the collection trucks, and drive down costs. “We’re searching for economy… and a reduced fee for this larger capacity transfer.”
2:06: Ashton Hudson has questions about a “level playing field” in this process. Mousa wants to know how this will all work. “How you gonna get around the tipping fee?” Robinson responds that it won’t reduce weight.
2:07: Speed and reduced mileage, in theory, drive the price point consideration.
2:07: Mousa: “It ain’t going to work…. if there was a benefit, one of the large companies would have already done it. I can tell you there is no benefit. There’s no money in the game.”
2:08: Steve Weinstein responds that growth on the East Side might be a driver.
2:09: Mousa asks about council members using Public Works as staff. Robinson: Basically, yeah.
2:09: Mousa: “I’m not getting into Gulliford’s business.” But he’d like this to be held up until Mousa is on staff.
2:10: Weinstein wants a larger list from Procurement. Mousa describes being “bombarded with phone calls” that Procurement put a hold on projects because the new administration is coming in. “When you want to put something off hold, it’s out the door in 72 hours. If you really need a contract out, it can be done in the same day. If you don’t, it sits [in one place] for six weeks, [another place] for two weeks,” and so on. “It would be nice if these things could be slowed down; we’re all drinking water out of a fire hose these days.”
2:13: Discussion of the stormwater fee. Used for operations and capital. Some for debt service; very little for pay-go. Mousa mentions that “there is no system to track stormwater related fees” that tie into the system; hence, manual entry is required. “Repairing a sidewalk isn’t supposed to go to stormwater… I’m uncomfortable with how the money is being tracked, and whether the $18M of operations is really for operations.”
2:16: Robinson: “It’s better than it was.”
2:16: Mousa says an “enterprise” needs a stricter accounting system. “I don’t know if you need to set up a separate stormwater division; there’s got to be a better way to do it. Why isn’t there a separate division dedicated to stormwater? It’s an estimated expense budget; it’s not real time.”
2:18: The actuals, apparently, are “in arrears.”
2:19: Mousa: “But the actuals aren’t accurate.” Apparently, says Robinson, there is a quarterly true-up. “At four times a year, it’s accurate.”
2:20: Robinson says they aren’t a separate division, because they wanted to avoid the “unnecessary overhead” of two separate divisions. Mousa doesn’t buy it. “We’ve beat this up enough.”
2:21: Salaries and pension, up. Workers comp, up $550K. Robinson claims it’s not claims based. Mousa says that 70 percent is claims based.
2:24: Some events are not reimbursable to the Traffic Engineering Division. These are coordinated through Special Events. The accumulation of events causes a traffic control issue. Mousa doesn’t understand. Neither do I.
2:25: “What type of other events are you talking about? Either they’re sponsored by the city, a promoter, or a renter.”
2:26: One way directional changes on Bay Street present impacts to the Public Works budget. For years, standard events were in the budget, such as football games, Monster Truck rallies, and other matters. Now, says Robinson, there is “scope creep.” These small events are an impact. Sometimes, they get bigger promoters to pay up. Often, they can’t recoup expenses.
2:30: Mousa wants an $80K line item in the Special Events budget for traffic control services, taking it out of Public Works, and forcing them to pay it out of their trust fund. Mousa tells Robinson to make beneficiaries of Traffic Control pay up for their services.
2:34: “Hold on, I want to see if there’s anything else I can cut out of this budget,” says Mousa. “It’s pretty flat otherwise,” he says with disappointment. On to Stormwater.
2:44: User fee reductions. Early payment discounts. Lower income people and non-profits are exempt from stormwater fees. This causes Mousa consternation. “I’d like to know if these 501C3s are still around. They change around like I change underwear.” He’d like to get these freebies off the city’s books. He believes there needs to be a strenuous review process of this process. “Y’all need to look at stuff like this on a constant basis. Don’t just wait for a budget hearing. Revenue protection, that’s what it’s called.”
2:57: Question as to how much is available for capital improvements. There was a full review of the stormwater and the Capital Improvement Fund.
3:02: A discussion of the reappropriation of $25M, which Boyer discussed with Mousa earlier in June, for stormwater and other purposes. It apparently takes time for Treasury to process these requests.
3:05: “This has not been very much fun today.”
3:07: “Maintenance of public art? $3,500? You can’t do very much with that, can you?” Another Mousa-ism.
3:09: The maintenance of the pre-trial detention center has gone up $1.7M.
3:11: A discussion of “orphan buildings” such as Brewster Hospital. “If nobody’s there and taking care of them, why are we paying utilities?”
3:12: “See if you can find parents for the orphans. Try not to adopt them.”
3:14: Utilities are skyrocketing as are costs of public buildings.
3:19: Trying to figure out how much of the $44M budget is General Fund. Weinstein appears to be praying. About $29M is the answer.
3:20: A discussion of salaries and benefits. Contractual services are up almost $550K, with janitorial services up $216K.
3:26: Now, a discussion of “indirect costs.” The General Fund gets a portion of indirect costs back.
3:29: Mousa: “Why don’t we have backbone to tell City Council that’s not in the budget?”
3:30: Janitorial budgets are on now. Apparently, “improving market conditions” raised costs, according to Robinson.
3:31: The Jacksonville Public Library system has come up. Apparently, the library gets a state-aid grant commensurate with the size of their budget. Also, the library has desire for internal controls. They’ve had the same contractor.
3:32: Mousa: “If it’s the same contractor, they must not trust your management.” Apparently, there is a three person staff that oversees custodial and security services for the main library.
3:38: Armed security, up now, for places like City Hall, attorneys’ offices, and other places with security risks.This service is contracted out.
