A.G. Gancarski
A bill allocating $70,000 t0 Jacksonville City Council members for internal costs on “neighborhood events” had gotten some pushback when introduced by Councilman Reggie Brown earlier this year.
However, in the current round of committee hearings, the measure is getting traction.
The measure cleared Neighborhoods, Community Investments, and Services on Monday. And on Tuesday, the Rules Committee approved it 5 to 1, with Danny Becton in opposition.
The Rules version came with a number of amendments attached beforehand: third party donations are a gift to the city, not to the council member; “Neighborhood Community Events” may not be “promote[d]” by council members; council members are not allowed to “solicit donations”; and the Neighborhoods Department must be part of the review of the event.
These amendments sought to sharpen distinctions between political events and events for community enrichment and education, the latter of which was the councilman’s intent.
Among its terms: city dollars would only pay for internal costs, such as city resources relative to police and fire/rescue, bleachers, and so on. Not for amenities like “bounce houses”, which Brown had advocated as something to give kids something to do while parents/guardians learned about city services.
As well, the council member could not promote the event before the event was approved by the affected departments, risk management, the finance and ethics departments.
Discussion was robust in Rules.
Councilman Greg Anderson expressed concerns about the series of approvals needed. The OGC representative noted that the event had to be submitted for approval 60 days prior to the date of the happening.
Councilman Brown addressed the issue of at-large council members having events; Brown was “comfortable” with the $70,000 allocation, given his expectation that not every council member would have events the first year.
Currently, the council has just over $133,000 in reserve.
The allocation would be “first come, first serve,” said the OGC rep on hand.
The expectation is that each event is going to draw 500 people at least, with a desired range of 1,000 to 1,500 people.
Councilman Brown noted that his events have grown over the years, from 100 people at his first holiday “day of service” event (which introduces constituents to city services), up to 1,000 people at more recent events.
Hence, the “best guess” is employed to make initial projections.
Much discussion revolved around disbursal of the $70,000, with cautionary tales spun about a council members potentially spending the whole sum on one event, and Councilman Danny Becton expressing concern over this discussion as it relates to potential boost in the council travel budget.
Brown noted that “we’re all responsible and we know the intent of the bill … whatever the amount is, let’s be sure to divide it by 19.”
Councilman Greg Anderson sought a “monetary limit” in the bill, to cap the amount spent by a given council member.
Councilman Becton reiterated his opposition, calling this a “party thrown [with] taxpayer dollars,” and claiming that the blurring of the lines between a campaign event and a community education event is inevitable.
“From a funding standpoint, as a city we’re not out of the woods yet,” Becton added, noting pension costs and capital costs (such as drainage problems) preclude using money “for this type of purpose.”
This bill inspired considerable discussion, and the measure will be tweaked further at Finance Committee on Wednesday morning.
