A.G. Gancarski
Beyond the Liberty Street discussion, there were discussion points of note during Wednesday morning’s Capital Improvement Projects review by the Finance Committee of the Jacksonville City Council. This is by no means an exhaustive recap of these.
John Crescimbeni asked for a total recap of this CIP budget compared to the last. About $71 million this year, with $8 million from the banking fund. The previous year’s proposal: $200 million, with $150 million from the banking fund, according to Council Auditor Kirk Sherman.
Despite the apparent solidity of the financing, comparatively speaking, there was still plenty to discuss before the Liberty Street fix came up.
Crescimbeni and Sherman continued a specific dialogue about a few projects, including pool designs at Blue Cypress Park.
Crescimbeni mentioned that pool designs have already been used for pools elsewhere, suggesting that they could be replicated. The answer from a city employee was that each design had to be site-specific; he took issue with the $150,000 charge for “site-specific” designs.
One of his issues: moving funds from sidewalk construction to pool design.
Anna Brosche had questions as well, related to why roadway resurfacing is excluded from capital improvements, given that roof replacement and other maintenance.
“That which does not extend the life of something is repair and should not be capitalized,” Brosche said.
Danny Becton posed a question regarding borrowing.
“How long are we borrowing the funds for? That’s always been the missing link for me,” he said, related to borrowing money for road resurfacing and other issues. His concern: “paying too far out,” and how that affects long-term financing.
Joey Grieve had an answer. “We do not strive to kick the can down the road,” adding that projects are not financed beyond their useful life.
“I am very comfortable that when we borrow the useful life, we are borrowing the term of the useful debt,” said Lori Boyer, the council’s CIP expert.
“I’ve looked at the tables,” Becton said, and “the descriptions are very ambiguous. You don’t have a clue what these mean,” referring to a “balloon payment four years from now that looks astronomical.”
“It’s just really troubling when you go back and look at these reports now as they sit,” Becton said. “We, as new council members deserve … to be brought up to speed.”
Boyer observed that this information is being sought in a CIP committee bill, but it was “unrealistic” to expect a new administration to bring this information on the budget.
Solid Waste Treatment Facilities came up next. “This project is a multiyear project,” said Sam Mousa, who said a slight reduction in funding will not interfere with completion.
Boyer reminded the new Council members that the CIP is a five-year program, breaking down the intricacies of financing and paying for these projects, before introducing some revisions.
“In the recent three or four years, the outyears of projects have changed dramatically,” she said, with “projects dropping off.” Her concern: that projects not get lost.
“The new administration has not had an opportunity to prioritize the projects on the list,” she said.
These discussion points happened before the Liberty Street proposal was approved.
After the Liberty Street proposal was approved, “caved in sidewalks” came up in discussion. Boyer noted that money needs to be dedicated to sustainable repair.
Sidewalks have been identified frequently as liability risks, yet history is that sidewalk issues have been given short shrift in favor of other matters.
Another point of discussion: whether the city would purchase garbage cans or not, through the Advanced Disposal contract extension that is under consideration by the Council.
Advanced Disposal is the last of the three providers to go to an automated collection system.
The idea is that the city could buy the cans cheaper than they could get them via the contractor markup. A $1.2 million net savings would be realized over the term of the agreement.
“If the city wants to bring our last hauler into the 21st century,” said Crescimbeni, these cans need to be purchased.
They would be paid off by proposed borrowing, offset by revenues.
“We save money by paying now. If we decided to let the contractor pay for the cans, we’d need no CIP money” for this deal, Crescimbeni said.
From there, discussion moved to the Banking Fund.
One talker: $15.9 million would be borrowed for the vehicle replacement fund, addressing longstanding issues with the fleet.
Boyer mentioned moving $4.5 million from a one-time fund carryover from reserve to vehicle replacement. This would keep the fund above 7 percent, which is a target, while restoring the “depleted” vehicle replacement fund.
Gulliford then brought up that many jurisdictions are over 15 percent in total reserve, to which CFO Mike Weinstein said that the rule is that the smaller a community, the higher a reserve.
For a city like Jacksonville, a 12 percent combined reserve is acceptable.
