A.G. Gancarski
The Jacksonville City Council Finance Committee continued its budget reviews on Wednesday afternoon. Documents were sparse in terms of change recommendations from Council Auditor Kirk Sherman, yet with the Jacksonville City Council, the potential is always there for lively discussion.
The discussion of the Court budget, with Chief Judge Mark Mahon, was notable more for its cheerful bonhomie than any wrangling over budgets.
If only Mark Mahon ran every city department, these budget reviews could be done in the Comedy Zone.
Regulatory Compliance, meanwhile, brought considerably less bonhomie to the room, as that department’s director Kim Scott sauntered to the stand to discuss salaries with Anna Brosche.
“I’d like to know what took place to get salary increases in the middle of the year,” Brosche said, describing previous salary increases as a “pretty bold action.”
“I’ve been hearing too across budget hearings that we’ve got step raises,” Brosche added.
Scott said that none of these raises are “equity raises.” Some came from promotions.
Lori Boyer followed up, wanting to know “how many people does the $79,000 increase in salaries” affect.
That number was not immediately available.
Scott Wilson followed up, wanting to know how many of those employees were appointed.
That number was not immediately available, either.
Another hot topic: the foreclosure registry.
Councilman John Crescimbeni wanted a better grasp of the projected revenue, and he wanted answers.
“They should know how many [properties] have been on there one year, two years, three years.”
Chief Administrative Officer Sam Mousa suggested that the vendor would have that information, and “if not we need to get a different vendor.”
Indeed, the vendor does track these numbers.
“The whole idea behind this was to formalize the use of that money… which had been languishing,” said Bill Gulliford, for mowing, code enforcement, and so on.
An animated Lori Boyer spoke up also, with “real reservations” about the usage of this money, seeking a “conservative estimate” on registrations.
There was then a spirited discussion of an EPA grant for Air Pollution Control. Despite the fact that the grant has recurred for 30 years, many council members voiced “what if” concerns about what would happen if the grant was not renewed.
Mousa asked for “consideration of the quantity and the quality of the exceptions.” The EPA Grant isn’t, he added, “just any old grant” and in this case “legislative exception… [or] appropriate legislative authority” should apply.
Code enforcement came up. Fun fact: since demolition assessment revenue is on track to underperform, there will be an increase in projected nuisance abatement revenue.
Jacksonville residents: try to be more of a nuisance. The city coffers need it.
From there, discussion moved to debt affordability.
City Treasurer Joey Grieve took Finance members on what was billed as a “brief” look into where the city of Jacksonville stands.
“Now that property valuations have recovered and the City Council has shown restraint” in debt management, debt is moving toward the “adopted target of 2.5%,” Grieve said.
The “contracting budget” in recent years was due to millage rate underperformance; with a property bubble in full swing, Jacksonville’s short-term financial future looks robust.
“Over time, we have been working on fixing and making our ten year pay down ratio” better, Grieve said, attempting to pay down 50% of outstanding debt over the next ten year period.
In 2010, the forecast was at 40%; the recovery is expected to persist until the end of the decade, as Jacksonville pays down more debt than it is issuing.
“Even with the addition of the Liberty Street process” and “vehicle replacement,” Jacksonville is good.
“The city has been in a tough spot the last few years,” but now “we look to be in a pretty good spot.”
Questions followed.
Lori Boyer mentioned that this report includes a lot of “boilerplate” that has been repeated year over year, and perhaps “isn’t an appropriate point of reference.”
Boyer took issue with “estimated growth rates,” saying the treasurer was “bullish.”
Grieve responded that the city’s conservative approach allowed for this optimism.
“The next couple of years is tremendously influenced on two things,” said Mike Weinstein, Chief Financial Officer.
The JEA issue and the Police and Fire Pension.
Boyer continued her deconstruction of the Treasurer’s report for some minutes.
“The reason that this is so important is that there are those in the audience and those watching the video who are very concerned with the city’s debt position,” Boyer said.
Both Boyer and Grieve agreed that “we are in a much better position than we were two years ago.”
A discussion then ensued about General Fund money being used to fund Better Jacksonville Plan projects.
“Some debt service on the BJP may have been backed by the general fund, but only BJP funds were used,” Mousa continued.
Boyer then responded that there was a $30-40M allocation from the general fund that was used, putting the fund in a cash negative position relative to the BJP.
“It’s not only the issue of debt; it’s also the issue of operating expenses,” said Gulliford, who added that Jacksonville is in “the stratosphere” with regard to the latter.
One of those issues, as Danny Becton brought up, land mass. Jacksonville has more roads and fire stations than other areas, which creates pressures.
“That’s one thing that Consolidation didn’t do a good job anticipating,” Gulliford said, regarding escalated costs for services like garbage collection in rural areas of Jacksonville.
Jacksonville is “filling up,” though, so there is improvement in terms of population density.
From there, discussion moved to the Food and Beverage budget.
Considerable discussion ensued around the budget for the MLK Jr. Breakfast budget.
It appeared that the budget was zeroed out in the mayor’s original budget, but all parties agreed that for a breakfast to be successful, a food budget would probably help.
That said, the tone of “collaboration” prevailed. At the end of the session, Mousa and Gulliford exchanged mutual words of commendation, with Gulliford, Crescimbeni, and Boyer all talking about how much smoother the process was this year than twelve months before.
