A.G. Gancarski
The Jacksonville City Council approved Tuesday night a $1.37 billion spending plan for the next year but not before passing four amendments.
Mayor Lenny Curry has called this a “transformational” budget and it reflects payoffs from moves ranging from reamortization of the city’s pension debt to favorable variances in recent budgets.
The budget passed 18-1, with Democrat Garrett Dennis being the first to vote against a Curry budget in five years.
With a $173 million capital improvement budget, big ticket projects, such as multi-year and multi-million dollar capital projects at UF Health, the Florida Theater and the Zoo, got resources.
As well, floor amendments were floated, with mixed success.
Democrat Brenda Priestly-Jackson sought to move over $189,000 from Goodwill to all 14 Council districts, funds to be equally divided for capital or operations purposes.
“I can’t think of a worse program to target than a workforce training program in the Northwest Quadrant,” remarked former President Aaron Bowman.
Opposition piled up, and the amendment failed 2-17.
Republican Terrance Freeman sought to move $10,000 from membership in the Black Chamber of Commerce to support a local youth movement, EVAC.
James Breaker of the Black Chamber of Commerce excoriated Freeman, an African-American with strong ties to the larger Chamber of Commerce, for “not having a clue” what the Chamber does.
Freeman pulled the amendment, saying his goal was to “help kids” and he “will never stop fighting for kids.”
Hopefully, that puts members of the Council less concerned about helping kids on notice.
Another floor amendment, to move JEA’s $4.75 million ad budget “below the line”, was scratched on Monday, more than 24 hours before the meeting.
Council Vice-President Tommy Hazouri, a Democrat, floated an amendment to move JEA’s $4.76 million ad budget below the line.
The utility, which is purportedly in a “death spiral,” nonetheless has aggressively advertised, even as it solicits bids from larger private companies and has seen rates go up 71 percent since 2006.
Over $4.5 million of that money goes to promotion of the electrical side of the utility.
Hazouri questioned, at first, the whole spend promoting a “monopoly,” noting that some may wonder if the marketing was for local customers or prospective buyers.
By late Monday afternoon, the Councilman was goaded into pulling the amendment.
Some amendments did succeed: Councilman Al Ferraro wanted to move $360,000 from the Northeast Florida Regional Council budget to Waterways, saying the investment wasn’t paying off for the city. Eventually, the money was moved to Council Contingency, and the decision to re-up with the membership was held over for future meetings.
Republican Rory Diamond moved to move over $3.1 million from various funds dedicated to Jacksonville Beach fire services on the county level to the budget of Jacksonville Beach Fire and Rescue. This money was simply moved “above the line,” Diamond said.
One thing not in play, but in the background: the ongoing back and forth between Curry and the Duval County School Board.
Curry, who has resisted the push by the School Board for a tax referendum vote this year, offered to send city maintenance crews to schools to fix air conditioning units Monday.
The School Board has identified $1.9 billion in capital needs, and wants a half-cent sales tax. Curry and allies, meanwhile, say that key questions about how the money would be spent have yet to be answered.
7 comments
Frankie M.
September 23, 2019 at 2:30 pm
You gotta spend $$ to make $$ & Zahn is great at spending other people’s $$.
Curry, who has resisted the push by the School Board for a tax referendum vote this year, offered to send city maintenance crews to schools to fix air conditioning units yesterday.
Lenny can’t do anything about the crime rate but that won’t stop him from trolling public schools.
Seber Newsome III
September 23, 2019 at 7:05 pm
Frankie M., when will you admit that no one can do anything about the crime. It is impossible to have a police officer there when a shooting happens, or when a rape, robbery, etc. happen. It all goes back to the community where it happens, and most happen in the black community, that is what the statistics show. There have been 92 murders in Jacksonville this year. I bet at least 85 of them are black on black crime. This all falls back on the black community to take responsibility for their actions and to stop trying to blame someone else for it. Tell on the people committing the crimes, rather than being silent.
Sonja Fitch
September 23, 2019 at 3:55 pm
JEA is just a Looting Lenny scam. JEA rates in the top utilities in the United States. Looting Lenny just looking for a cushy job when done Looting the public common goods dollars
Frankie M.
September 23, 2019 at 11:28 pm
Seber when will you admit that your boy Lenny campaigned on lowering the murder rate. He hammered Alvin Brown on it but you haven’t heard a peep about it since then.
I’m not trolling you Seber. I’m trying to be helpful just like the mayor when he says to give his charter school buddies whatever they want. I’m just trying to help. Jesus if this is what winning the news cycle looks like I’d hate to see what losing looks like.
Seber Newsome III
September 24, 2019 at 10:39 am
Frankie, what about my comments on crime and who commits the crime, not a peep from you about that?
Frankie M.
September 25, 2019 at 12:36 pm
Are they not citizens of Jax? Do their lives count any less than someone who lives in Mandarin or the Beaches? If you make it a campaign issue then do something about it. Instead all we do is pad the JSO budget and expect different results. Shouldn’t be surprised though. Liberty Street is still under construction too.
Seber Newsome III
September 26, 2019 at 10:13 am
Frankie M. are you stupid or something? Did you not read what I wrote about crime. Yes, the ones committing the crimes are citizens and their victims are too. But, it is impossible for the police to be at one of these robberies, murders, etc. when they happen, you must have enough common sense to know that. The black community needs to take responsibility for their own community. This community are the ones who have committed the overwhelming number or murders. Black on black crime is rampant. They need to start telling on those that they know committed crimes.
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