A.G. Gancarski
On Thursday, the Jacksonville City Council Finance Committee pushed through a series of bills ahead of approval next Tuesday by the full council.
All of these bills were approved unanimously.
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Lien Scene: A bill adding “code enforcement liens” to the list of claims, bills and judgments that may be settled by the Finance Director, Office of General Counsel or Mayor (Resolution 2016-766) was the first of these measures to go through.
Nuisance abatement liens with a principal amount of $1,000 up to $4,999 would be settled by the Director of Finance; liens below $10,000, by the general counsel; and liens up to $99,999 would be settled by the Mayor with the concurrence of the General Counsel and the Finance Director.
Liens can add up; code enforcement fines often can be as high as $250 a day.
“This doesn’t necessarily solve all our problems with respect to the size of these liens,” Councilman Bill Gulliford said, urging a cap on liens.
Charges of hundreds of thousands of dollars often are settled for a couple of thousand dollars by the city.
“If it was 20 percent of the property value,” Gulliford said, the next owner may settle the lien at face value.
Currently, when liens reach a certain point of arrears, third-party collection efforts are employed.
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Give ShotSpotter a Shot: Ordinance 2016-795, authorizing moving money from closed capital project accounts to ShotSpotter and other city priorities, was another key bill to meet with committee approval.
Ordinance 2016-795 will, among other things, “appropriate $435,001 already allocated in a ShotSpotter reserve account to an equipment purchase account for installation of the test site … acoustic gunshot detection and surveillance technology in a 5 square mile area of Health Zone 1.”
The $435,000 allocation was part of a larger package of $1.356 million of unused capital improvement funds that will be funneled into a variety of projects.
The program, which identifies the source of gunshots, will be rolled out in a 5 square mile area in Health Zone 1, the part of the city that has the most gun violence.
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Home Sweet Home: Ordinance 2016-797, authorizing the disposition of 101 pieces of surplus property in Council Districts 7 through 10 and 14, also met with committee approval.
The total value of these properties: just over $783,000, ranging from a vacant lot valued at $140 (a great gift idea) to a single family home valued at just under $60,000.
Community housing development organizations get the first crack at developing these properties for single-family, owner-occupied homes as long as the CHDOs don’t have liens; CHDOs are allowed to handle five at a time.
Previous committees noted that the bulk of these properties come from Districts 7 through 9.
Movement of these properties on the list already has been slow, so the city plans to add some dollars to the RFP to incentivize development.
The cap of dollars offered to community housing and development corporations, and other developers, would be $55,000 of city funds.
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Help for the export market: Finance also approved an ordinance (2016-800) authorizing a memorandum of understanding with JAXUSA, an arm of the local Chamber of Commerce, to implement an export plan and develop a foreign direct investment strategy.
The export plan is part of a process that began in 2013, when Jacksonville was one of just eight cities in the Brookings Institution’s global cities initiative, and comes after years of study.
“The MOU calls for JAXUSA to establish a ‘one-stop shop’ to provide interested businesses with information, research and assistance in developing export activities; to create a Global Cities Advocacy Team to lead the implementation effort; to conduct outreach activities to at least 25 potential export businesses,” reads the bill summary.
It is a $60,000 city obligation for one year, with provisions for renewal. The total budget would be $125,000, with JAXUSA pouring in $55,000.
The Chamber will provide quarterly progress reports on this work, which would start Feb. 1, and would therefore see the first quarterly report Apr. 30.
Councilman Aaron Bowman noted that Jacksonville is “very low in the export world compared to surrounding cities that have ports,” and that the Chamber — his primary employer — is “excited” about this.
Councilman Bill Gulliford pushed back.
“Our primary competitors, Charleston and Savannah, have world trade centers. It is to our detriment that we don’t have one,” Gulliford added, saying Jacksonville is “working at a disadvantage” compared to regional competitors.
“It’s something that if we’re serious about this, we really need to pursue it,” Gulliford added.
This initiative would be regional, rather than strictly delineated for Duval County.
