OFFICE OF THE CITY COUNCIL
CHERYL L. BROWN 117 WEST
DUVAL STREET, SUITE 425
DIRECTOR 4TH FLOOR, CITY
HALL
OFFICE (904) 630-1452 JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA 32202
FAX (904) 630-2906
E-MAIL: CLBROWN@coj.net
Finance Committee Budget Hearing #4 Minutes
August 16, 2013
9:00 a.m.
Location: City Council Chamber, 1st floor,
City Hall – St. James Building; 117 West Duval Street,
Suite 425
In attendance: Council Members Greg Anderson (Chair), Richard
Clark, John Crescimbeni, Matt Schellenberg, Robin Lumb, Clay Yarborough
Excused: Johnny
Gaffney, Reggie Brown
Also:
Council Members Jim Love, Lori Boyer, Bill Gulliford (arr. 9:26), Don Redman
(arr. 9:27), Warren Jones (arr. 10:00)
Also: Kirk
Sherman, Kim Taylor – Council Auditor’s Office; Carol Owens – Legislative
Services Division; Peggy Sidman – Office of General Counsel; Jeff Clements –
Council Research Division; Ronnie Belton and Michele Barth – Mayor’s Office;
Glenn Hansen and Angela Moyer - Budget Office
Meeting Convened: 9:04 a.m.
Council Auditor Kirk Sherman
updated the committee on the status of the Special Council Contingency Fund, which currently stands at negative $5.9 million (0.128 mill
equivalent).
Council Member Crescimbeni
requested that the Planning Department be scheduled to return to a future
meeting to discuss the contract with Jacksonville University for the manatee
plan data update, which he understands is not budgeted for FY14. A suggestion was made that the cost could be
shifted to the Environmental Protection Board trust fund, but later research determined
that the contract is an on-going expense that cannot be funded from the trust
fund. Budget Officer Glenn Hansen stated that the contract would be covered by
appropriating funds from the current year’s budget from the Planning and
Development and Neighborhoods Departments.
References from this point refer to Budget Hearing #4 Handout
– August 16, 2013
Medical Examiner
Medical Examiner Dr. Valerie Rau
stated that her department has suffered deep cuts in previous years and cannot
meet accreditation standards at the current budget. She advocated for restoration of $633,273 to meet basic needs. Budget analyst Kim Greenwood stated
that department cannot meet the 13.88% reduction and still provide services
mandated by state law and regulation.
Motion
(Crescimbeni): include the Medical Examiner’s cremation records review fee in
the City’s annual fee review process and increase the fee from $25 to $50 per
review – approved unanimously.
Peggy Sidman of the General
Counsel’s Office stated that she is researching the status of a 2005 lawsuit
challenging that fee.
Motion
(Yarborough): allocate funding to the Medical Examiner’s budget to provide for
purchase of the office’s top two equipment replacement priorities (Agilent
toxicology lab and portable digital X-ray) for a total of $137,620
Amendment (Schellenberg):
allocate funding to grant the Medical Examiner’s entire list of budgetary
improvements as shown on Dr. Rau’s handout ($633,273)
Amendment
(Crescimbeni): increase include the
out-of-county autopsy charge to $2500 for FY14 and do a study of the
adequacy of the fee in the City’ annual fee review process and adjust
the fee by separate legislation based on the results of the study.
Yarborough motion as twice amended – approved
unanimously
Motion
(Crescimbeni): on p. 14, reduce the Medical Examiner’s extraordinary lapse from
$275,432 to $120,000 to reflect the addition of $155,000 in new fee revenue – approved unanimously
Fire and Rescue Department
Motion
(Schellenberg): on p. 20, approve the Council Auditor’s recommendation #1 to
decrease fire inspection revenues by $366,196 – approved unanimously
Chief Kurt Wilson discussed
the department’s commercial building fire inspection program, stating that the
City has the right under state law to inspect all non-residential buildings
once a year and to charge a fee for that inspection. If a building owner refuses access to a fire
inspector, the City can go to court and get an order from a judge to compel
access, which they have done on several occasions. The goal is to inspect all
those non-residential buildings every year to help get the highest possible ISO
rating to drive down insurance premiums.
Motion
(Crescimbeni): on p. 20, approve Council Auditor’s recommendation #2 – approved unanimously
The committee discussed the
rescue billing operation. Chief
Senterfitt stated that the department is doing a much better job since last
year’s budget hearing discussion of the failings of the system. The process is improving and employees are
doing a better job of collecting the needed information for billing
purposes. Ronnie Belton stated that the
City recognizes deficiencies in the performance of its collection agency and
has prepared an RFP for hiring a new company in hopes of getting a much better
collection rate.
Chief Senterfitt made a
presentation about his department’s funding, staffing and operations and the
impact of the proposed reductions on service levels.
Motion
(Joost): on p.21, restore the extraordinary lapse of $15,537,793 – fails 2-5 (Joost and Lumb in favor)
Council Member Clark urged
the committee to find a way to put a stop to the practice of extraordinary
lapses as a budget balancing mechanism.
Council President Gulliford said that he was already working with the
Office of General Counsel on such a proposal and will propose an amendment to
the budget ordinance to accomplish that end.
Chief Senterfitt explained that his department’s normal lapse is
approximately 42 employees representing $1 million due to normal position
turnover. He said that the JFRD had
recently hired 24 new firefighters in an attempt to reduce the large amount of
overtime expenditure required to keep stations and equipment sufficiently
staffed. Council Member Crescimbeni
questioned whether it was less expensive to hire new entry-level firefighters
who cost the City pension and insurance benefits in addition to their salary,
or to pay overtime to personnel already on staff.
Chief Senterfitt noted that
ISO (Insurance Services Organization) fire ratings are a very large factor in
determining the cost of homeowners insurance.
When the ISO recently reduced the ISO rating of the Bartram Park area
from a 10 to a 3, homeowners saw their premiums double or triple. The same thing happened last year in the Town
of Baldwin when its ISO rating was reduced.
Motion
(Clark): restore the JFRD’s extraordinary lapse of $15,537,793, less the $2.9
million to be spent on filling half of the available position vacancies (total
restoration - $12,620,948) – approved
5-2 (Crescimbeni and
opposed)
Ronnie Belton commented on the
status of pension negotiations, saying that the administration is committed to
making another attempt at negotiating with the appropriate parties in hopes of
reaching a new proposed resolution to present to City Council. Council Member Crescimbeni urged the Council
President to call a “shade” meeting to give the Council the opportunity to
instruct the administration on the path it would like to see the negotiations
take. President Gulliford stated that he
has been told by General Counsel Cindy Laquidara that there may be a way for Council’s
special legislative counsel – Gray, Robinson – to take part in the sunshine
meeting.
Motion
(Clark): to restore $639,830 shown on Chief Senterfitt’s budget restoration
priorities handout for replacement vehicles and $984,138 for dual response
vehicles – motion withdrawn
Chief Senterfitt clarified
his earlier statement that a restoration of the $15.5 million extraordinary
departmental lapse would allow the department to rescind the closure of three
fire stations, stating that the restoration of $12.6 million of the lapse would
not be sufficient to keep those stations open.
The committee asked for detailed information from Chief Senterfitt of
the cost of keeping those three stations in operation. Council Member Crescimbeni requested
historical data on JFRD’s staffing level, and requested copies of all e-mail
correspondence to and from JFRD officials since March 1, 2013 regarding the
preparation and presentation of the FY14 proposed budget. Chief Senterfitt indicated his willingness to
keep the three stations in question open, but believes that eventually the cost
of keeping them open will severely impact on his overtime budget, at which
point he will need to come back to the Council to discuss how to deal with that
impact.
County courthouse fire
system test
Tom Goldsbury of the Public
Works Department reported that a complete building-wide fire detection/
suppression test was conducted last night, which was largely successful. One failed fire sensor was revealed and one
programming error was detected which should be corrected in the next few days,
after which a re-test will be scheduled with the judiciary. No operational changes need to be made at the
courthouse as a result of the findings of this test.
The committee was in recess from 12:41 to 1:43 p.m.
Sheriff’s Office
Motion
(Lumb): postpone discussion of the Sheriff’s budget to Friday, August 23rd
due to the dwindling number of committee members remaining and the importance
of the topic – dies for lack of a
second.
Motion
(Schellenberg): postpone discussion of the Sheriff’s budget to Friday, August
30th – fails 3-4
(Gulliford, Schellenberg and Lumb in favor)
Motion
(Schellenberg): postpone discussion of the Sheriff’s budget to Thursday, August
29th – approved 4-3 (Anderson,
Joost, and Clark opposed)
Motion (Crescimbeni):
reconsider the decision to postpone discussion of the Sheriff’s budget to Thursday,
August 29th – approved 4-3 (Gulliford,
Schellenberg and Lumb opposed)
Motion (Crescimbeni):
to call the question – approved
unanimously
Motion
(Schellenberg): postpone discussion of the Sheriff’s budget to Thursday, August
29th – approved 5-2 (Joost, and
Clark opposed)
Kirk Sherman reported that
the Special Council Reserve account stands at negative $1.96 million
(equivalent of 0.45 mills)
Meeting Adjourned: 2:00 p.m.
Minutes: Jeff Clements, Council Research
8.19.13 Posted 5:00 p.m.
Tapes: Finance Budget Hearing #4– LSD
8.16.13
Materials: Auditor’s Budget
Hearing #4 handout
8.16.13