A.G. Gancarski
In the third to the last Jacksonville City council meeting of 2016, the agenda had a couple of interesting items.
Perhaps most interesting: two bills that would restore a pay cut made in 2010.
As council went through some lengthy recognition ceremonies, a phalanx of police officers stood in the back of the room.
Police officers who, it goes without saying, haven’t had a pay raise in years, and who have seen their Police and Fire Pension Fund pilloried in the local media, and by council members and the mayor both.
The first of the two bills: to restore the 2 percent cut to 19 executive council assistants.
Councilman Scott Wilson, a former ECA, raised concerns, saying that he’d “like to see the collective bargaining process move forward” before extending raises.
He and Doyle Carter were the two in a 15 to two vote to raise the ECA pay.
Then, time for council to vote on its own pay.
Councilman Danny Becton said he had defended the bill to his constituents as a “restoration,” before mentioning that the Finance Committee boosted the pay to “what the state mandated,” thus undoing the original intent of the bill in a manner he found to be “disingenuous” and laden with “pork.”
“We’ve given the taxpayers no time for public comment,” Becton said.
“We should be passing a clean bill that gives a 2 percent salary restoration to our city employees, and that includes City Council members,” Becton continued, leaving the door open for a floor amendment to restore “what we said we were going to do in the budget process.”
Councilman Jim Love: “I can’t support this bill in good conscience.”
Love, like Becton, wanted the 2 percent raise for all city employees, including police and fire, before taking a pay raise.
Then Tommy Hazouri, just elected with 10 others, said, “How can we justify giving ourselves a raise five months into the job?”
“We should not come first. As elected officials, we should set the example. … we don’t deserve a raise right now; the city employees do,” Hazouri said, to applause.
Doyle Carter and Katrina Brown echoed the evolving consensus, as Councilman John Crescimbeni grimaced.
Then Crescimbeni noted that the budget “did appropriate funds to the restoration of all employees cut in 2010” who hadn’t had their 2 percent restored.
“Police and fire get step pay raises,” Crescimbeni said, before noting that the state sets pay rates, and “We’re the only ones who took a 2 percent pay cut.”
“We need to put ourselves back there … and direct the mayor’s office to get in the collective bargaining process.”
Finance Chairman Bill Gulliford then sought to re-refer the bill back to Finance to resolve those objections, promising to allow public comment at Finance for anyone who seeks it.
The re-referral was unanimous. The officers stood in the back, impassive, then filed out, some in uniforms, a couple in “Blue Lives Matter” T-shirts.
Though police officers won the round, the game isn’t over.
Also on tap in Finance: subpoenas of material, and at least one senior member, of the police and fire pension fund for the November 30 meeting.
Prediction: the relationship of Jacksonville elected officials and its first responders may become more fractious in the weeks ahead.
Other highlights:
- Jags lobbyist Paul Harden showed up to advocate for the city’s $45 million commitment to the $90 million EverBank Field upgrade deal; MMJ advocate Chris Ralph piggybacked that comment, saying that given the CTE epidemic in the NFL, Jacksonville may be a great place for research on that front.
- $266,000 of Jax Journey money was advocated for the LEAP (Library Enhancement Access Program).
- Capital improvement and debt management legislation, worked out in a series of Capital Improvement Plan workshops, was passed.
- The $100,000 John Gorrie Dog Park in Riverside allocation passed without objection.
