OFFICE OF THE CITY COUNCIL

117 WEST DUVAL STREET, SUITE 425

4^TH FLOOR, CITY HALL

JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA 32202

904-630-1377

Finance Committee Special Meeting Minutes

November 16, 2016

Immediately following 9:00 a.m. Finance Committee meeting

Topic: City grant budgeting processes

Location: City Council Chamber, 1^st floor, City Hall – St. James Building, 117 West Duval Street

In attendance: Council Members Anna Lopez Brosche (Chair), Sam Newby, Bill Gulliford, Aaron Bowman, Greg Anderson, Katrina Brown (arr. 9:14)

Excused: Council Member Matt Schellenberg

Also: Kirk Sherman and Kyle Billy – Council Auditor’s Office; Peggy Sidman – Office of General Counsel; Jeff Clements – Council Research Division; Philip Zamarron and Tess Patterson– Legislative Services Division; Ali Korman Shelton – Mayor’s Office; Mike Weinstein and Angela Moyer – Administration and Finance Department

Meeting Convened: 10:52 a.m.

Chairwoman Brosche called the meeting to order and introduced the day’s topic – City grant-related budgeting processes. City Budget Officer Angela Moyer distributed and discussed a set of four recommendations for changes to the grant appropriation process in the annual budget ordinance.

Grant Schedule B1a – Continuation grants requiring no City match

Ms. Moyer explained that the traditional language in the annual budget ordinance authorizes the administration to accept and expend grant funds for continuation grants requiring no City match in an amount up to 15% above the budgeted amount on Schedule B1a without further Council authorization. She proposes a revision to the budget ordinance language to allow the administration to accept and expend (via authorization from the Mayor’s Budget Review Committee) additional amounts received on continuation grants requiring no City match without a percentage limit, with a requirement that the administration make a quarterly report to the Finance Committee of all grants amounts received during the quarter. Deputy General Counsel Peggy Sidman noted that should it adopt this policy, the City Council would be delegating a portion of its authority under the City Charter to appropriate all budgetary funds to the Mayor’s Budget Review Committee with regard to these additional amounts received from this category of grants. The committee acknowledged its understanding of the policy implications and expressed its consensus agreement with the proposed change.

Grant Schedule B1b – Continuation grants requiring a City match

Ms. Moyer explained that the traditional language in the annual budget ordinance authorizes the administration to accept and expend grant funds for continuation grants that do require a City match in an amount up to 10% above the budgeted amount on Schedule B1b without further Council authorization. She proposes a revision to the budget ordinance language to allow the administration to accept and expend (via authorization from the Mayor’s Budget Review Committee) additional amounts received on continuation grants requiring a City match without a percentage limit on the amount of additional grant funds received, but with a 10% cap on the additional amount of City matching funds required to obtain the additional grant funding. The administration would be required to make a quarterly report to the Finance Committee of all grants amounts received during the quarter.

The committee discussed to what extent a fixed dollar amount should be imposed on the amount of additional City matching funds allowed to be authorized administratively without Council action, on the basis that an additional City match of up to 10% might be a very large dollar amount if applied to a very large grant amount.

Motion (Anderson): authorize the administration to accept and expend additional continuation grant funds requiring an increased City match without limit on the additional grant amount, but with a limit on the City match of an amount up to 10% above the Schedule B1b budgeted amount, not to exceed a hard cap of $20,000; additional match requirements exceeding 10% or $20,000 would require Council approval – approved unanimously.

Grant Schedule B1c – Provisional grants

Ms. Moyer explained that Schedule B1c lists miscellaneous provisional grants (grants that may or may not be received during the fiscal year) and anticipated matching funds that would be required if the grants were to be received in the fiscal year. The match for such provisional grants is budgeted in the Reserve for Federal Grants account, a “first come, first served” source of funding for non-continuing grants. She explained that the presence of the Florida Inland Navigational District (FIND) grants on that list skews the amount budgeted in the Reserve for Federal Grants because the City frequently finds non-General Fund resources to use as the local match for FIND projects. Ms. Moyer suggested that a separate grant schedule be created to show FIND projects only, which would be removed from Schedule B1c. Heather Reber of the Council Auditor’s Office suggested that Schedule B1c become the FIND projects schedule and that funding for FIND project matches be budgeted in a new designated FIND contingency fund. The committee expressed its consensus agreement with the proposed change as described by Ms. Reber.

The committee will consider the final proposal – Schedule M and A2, Jacksonville Children’s Commission grants – at its next special meeting.

Meeting Adjourned: 11:24 a.m.

Minutes: Jeff Clements, Council Research

11.18.16 Posted 11:00 a.m.

Tapes: Finance special committee meeting– LSD

11.16.16