A.G. Gancarski
After a fractious public notice meeting between Jacksonville City Council members and Friends of Hemming Park earlier on Tuesday, council Vice President Lori Boyer proposed that an appropriation approved by the Finance Committee for $250,000 for the construction of a new stage be changed to an appropriation granting Friends of Hemming Park $100,000 to cover operating costs through early August, with a second bill on the addendum to appropriate the other $150,000 later in the summer.
“We’re comfortable with the $100,000 … we’re not comfortable with going the full 250,” said Boyer, who stressed that “all of [the money] is for operation and maintenance.”
Despite being “comfortable,” the council’s discussion ahead of a 16-2 vote to appropriate the money revealed a legislative body fed up with imprecise accounting from Friends of Hemming Park.
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Boyer’s floor amendment would appropriate the money for operation and maintenance to be used “during the summer.”
“In the meantime, we would be looking for more detail,” and would also have access to the mayor’s budget proposal.
As well, said Boyer, a bill on the addendum would appropriate the remaining $150,000, that would go through at the August meeting.
“When this was in Finance last week, there was a whole different proposal,” Boyer said, regarding the naming rights proposal from Community First Credit Union, which is “out of the conversation for right now.”
The city, meanwhile, will have the discussion with Community First, a key point given the uncertainty of FOHP.
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Councilman Matt Schellenberg, a frequent Hemming Park critic, noted that FOHP had said they’d have money through the end of June, a tune they changed this week.
“If there was any other nonprofit operating like they do, we would cut funding and find somebody else,” Schellenberg said.
“Those numbers were flying all over and it was almost incomprehensible,” Schellenberg said, voicing a desire to “find a more suitable group of people” to be friends of the downtown park.
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Boyer noted, in response, that FOHP said “they would be closing down in a week,” so “it wouldn’t be a problem if they were to close down” in August if the mayor’s budget didn’t come through.
“The numbers were not consistent,” Boyer said about the position FOHP advanced in the meeting, citing “grey and fuzzy” management of various accounts, including operating, capital, and reserve funds.
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Councilman Aaron Bowman wanted to know how much time FOHP would need to “turn this contract off.”
Bill Gulliford, meanwhile, while expressing “serious concerns,” noted the “drastic change for the better” at Hemming in the last couple of years, and also noted that FOHP has brought “significant money to the table.”
“It’s up to them to fund their programming, and if they can’t get funding outside, just don’t do the program. That’s how it works in the private sector,” Gulliford said.
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Tommy Hazouri noted the discrepancy in narratives from FOHP, saying that “if you lose that trust … it’s like the soul, it leaves and never returns again.”
Hazouri talked to Friends CEO Vince Cavin Monday afternoon, and was not told FOHP was out of money.
He had to read that on the internet from the Florida Times-Union, which vexed him.
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John Crescimbeni shares the “frustrations” of Hazouri and Schellenberg regarding FOHP.
“Folks, we’ve got a million dollars of taxpayers’ money in this, and this should be a great concern to us.”
Crescimbeni doesn’t “know if there needs to be a change in management, or a change in board management, but something needs to happen.”
Crescimbeni also wants a new Hemming Park council committee this summer, and sees the $100,000 as a “bridge payment.”
Crescimbeni also advised a survey of city hall employees, regarding whether they feel safer in the park than they did two years ago.
“It’s time to fish or cut bait with Friends … you’ll have to carry me out of here if we approve another $9 million for Friends.”
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Cavin, at long last, spoke up.
He “didn’t know” the money would be needed for operations when they first requested it 15 weeks ago.
This didn’t mollify Al Ferraro.
“If this were private industry, I’d fire you on the spot.”
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Then, more Schellenberg, incredulous about the discrepancy between what FOHP told committees and what he read in the paper.
“If you’d come to us and said we are running out of money … we would be more in favor of it than being hoodwinked in the paper,” he said.
And Crescimbeni, who went into prosecutor mode, wanting Cavin to commit to allowing the council auditor to look at the books.
Wayne Wood of FOHP made that commitment, as Cavin went mute.
Then Katrina Brown, wanting to know if they went to the paper wanting “sympathy from the community.”
Then Hazouri, again, wanting to know when FOHP “decided you were out of money and the reporter picked it up.”
Hazouri and Cavin had a difference of recollection, with Hazouri’s temper flaring up.
“We need to know the truth. We need to know so we can help you.”
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Garrett Dennis wanted to know “if we vote this down, how soon can you be out of the park?”
The answer would have been June 1.
No worries today, however, as the measure passed 16-2, with Schellenberg and Scott Wilson the no votes.
