OFFICE OF
THE CITY COUNCIL
117 WEST DUVAL STREET, SUITE 425
4TH FLOOR, CITY HALL
JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA 32202
904-630-1377
FINANCE
COMMITTEE BUDGET HEARING #3 MINUTES
August 18, 2016
9:00
a.m.
Location: City Council
Chamber, City Hall – St. James Building; 117 West Duval Street,
In attendance:
Council Members Anna Lopez Brosche (Chair), Greg Anderson, Aaron
Bowman, Katrina Brown, Bill Gulliford, Sam Newby, Matt Schellenberg
Also: Council Members Garrett Dennis, Doyle Carter
(arr. 10:46); Peggy Sidman and Paige Johnston – Office of General Counsel; Kirk
Sherman, Kim Taylor, Brian Parks - Council Auditor’s Office; Katrin MacDonald –
Legislative Services Division; Sam Mousa and Ali Korman Shelton – Mayor’s Office;
Mike Weinstein and Angela Moyer – Finance and Administration Department
Meeting Convened:
9:02 a.m.
Chairwoman Brosche convened the meeting and the attendees introduced
themselves for the record. Ms. Brosche told the committee she and the staff are
keeping running lists of both outstanding items and enhancement requests for
consideration later in the budget hearing process.
Page references from this point refer to
Council Auditor’s Meeting #3 Handout.
Tax Collector
Motion: on p. 3, approve
Council Auditor’s recommendation #1 to increase delinquent tax sale collection
fees by $90,000 and reduce the transfer from General Fund- GSD by the same
amount – approved unanimously.
Motion:
on p. 3, approve Council Auditor’s recommendation #2 to increase Convention
Development Tax collection fee by $9,165 and the Tourist Development Tax
collection fee by $18,239 and reduce the transfer from General Fund- GSD by the
same amount – approved unanimously.
Tax Collector Michael Corrigan said that his lapse rate is higher than
most other City departments and agencies because of a high turnover rate due to
insufficient salaries and a slow hiring process. There is a Sheriff’s Office
presence in all Tax Collector offices on a part-time, rotating basis, replacing
the former Florida Highway Patrol security presence. He said that the
delinquent tax payment fees are declining because more property owners are
paying their taxes on time because of improving economic conditions. CFO Mike
Weinstein said that the problem of employee turnover due to insufficient
salaries is a City-wide issue that the administration recognizes and has
addressed with modest improvements here and there, but there are not sufficient
budgetary resources to deal with the problem on a wholesale basis. In response
to a question, Mr. Corrigan described the Tax Collector’s office locations and
leases. He reported that the office’s revenues increased with the state’s
forced replacement of all driver’s licenses and will do so again when the state
requires replacement of all license plates in the near future.
In response to a question from Chairwoman Brosche, Mr. Corrigan said
that the Budget Office, not the Tax Collector, estimates the amount of City
business license tax to be collected in the upcoming year. He said that that
revenue stream is fairly constant, varying between $7 million and $7.3 million
per year. The Planning Department and the Fire Marshall have both been very
cooperative in asking businesses they inspect about their business license tax
certificate and that has helped inform businesses about their responsibility to
have the license. His office has cooperated with City Procurement to check that
all businesses on the City’s approved vendor list have paid the business
license tax.
Motion: approve the
Council Auditor’s recommendation to increase City business license revenue by
$345,749 – approved unanimously.
Supervisor of Elections
Mr. Sherman reported that the Supervisor’s budget fluctuates annually
based on the number of elections being held. The new fiscal year has only one citywide
election – the Presidential election on November. Council Members Gulliford and
Anderson said that service on the Election Canvassing Board is a very
interesting and enlightening experience. Supervisor Hogan described a recent
visit to his office by a delegation from Iraq learning about election security.
Motion: on p. 8, approve
the Council Auditor’s recommendation #1 to increase salaries and benefits by
$23,089 to pay the Supervisor of Elections’ salary pursuant to the Florida
Statute with a negative impact to Special Council Contingency of the same
amount – approved unanimously.
Clerk of the Courts
Motion: on p. 11, approve
Council Auditor’s recommendation to increase the Transfer from General Fund-GSD
by $39,642 and correspondingly increase the Building Cost Allowance-Courthouse within
the Court Cost Courthouse Trust Fund – approved
unanimously.
Mr. Sherman explained a table on p. 14 which recasts the formerly
separate budgeting of the Legal Aid, Duval County Law Library, Juvenile Drug
Court and Judicial Support court cost fees into a single budget.
In response to a question from Council Member Bowman about an increase
in court facility maintenance costs from Public Buildings, CAO Sam Mousa said
the Finance Committee will see increases and decreases in building maintenance
fees throughout the budget due to a new method of calculating the charges.
Chuck Patterson of the Court Administration Office explained the
department’s request for an additional $80,000 allocation from the department’s
fund balance for professional services for the Court Application Processing
System (CAPS)
Motion: on pp. 22-23,
approve the Court Administration request to increase the transfer from fund
balance by $63,164 and decrease cash carryover by a like amount to increase
professional services for the CAPS system – approved unanimously.
Mr. Patterson and Court Administrator Joe Stelma explained the need
for additional funding for attorneys to deal with court-imposed mandates
regarding post-conviction case processing and the upcoming mandate for
additional attorney services that will result from a recent U.S. Supreme Court
ruling regarding additional scrutiny to be applied to death penalty cases. The
office needs to hire specially qualified outside attorneys to supplement
current staff to provide these additional services to meet the court mandates. The
office requested a $450,000 transfer from the court’s cash carryover (the Chief
Judge is considering how these funds will be allocated) and an additional
allocation of $50,919 of City funding. The request for $50,919 will be placed
on the enhancements request list for consideration at the end of the budget
process.
Public Defender
Motion: on p. 25, approve
Auditor’s recommendation to decrease building cost allocation for the
Courthouse by $16,160 – approved
unanimously.
Parks, Recreation and Community Services Department
Motion: on p. 31, approve
Auditor’s recommendation to add a provision in the budget ordinance
establishing the department’s proposed new Bike/Pedestrian Annual Pass Fee for
Huguenot Park; budget $110 in new revenue – approved unanimously.
In response to a question, CFO Mike Weinstein said that the negative
cash balance in the Huguenot Park Trust Fund is an ongoing issue and this
budget does not propose a resolution. Mr. Sherman noted that the Huguenot Park
budget has been balanced for a number of years via transfers from the Hanna
Park Trust Fund and the General Fund and recommended that the Council consider
if this is an acceptable situation or not. There are several other funds in
other areas that run persistent deficits. Daryl Joseph, Director of Parks,
Recreation and Community Services said that fees were raised at Huguenot Park several
years ago to make them comparable to Hanna Park and the nearby state parks and
said that there is a limit to how much fees can be raised before attendance is
negatively affected. He also noted that attendance is negatively affected by
the occasional closing of the roadway due to erosion from high tides. The
ultimate solution is to make the park more attractive through the addition of
amenities such as the return of a store concessionaire (at no rent) and
additional park facilities. Sam Mousa noted that many City facilities require
subsidies because they are important community amenities that just don’t
produce enough revenue to operate at a break-even level. In response to a
question from Council Member Anderson, Mr. Mousa explained the new Information
Technologies overhead allocation rate that has caused increased IT billings to
some departments and less to others. Parks and Recreation will see an increased
charge this year because of a new computer system that provides increased
customer services, including on-line reservation capability for facilities such
as picnic pavilions.
The committee asked Mr. Joseph about how the park system publicizes
and markets its parks. Council Member Gulliford suggested the need for
transportation improvements to the beach parks and Council Member Dennis
suggested increased swimming training and then trips for those swimmers to the
beach parks.
Motion: on p. 33, approve Auditor’s recommendation to add a provision
in the budget ordinance establishing the department’s proposed new
Bike/Pedestrian Annual Pass Fee for Huguenot Park; budget $55 in new revenue – approved unanimously
In response to a question from Council Member Gulliford, Council
Member Carter said that the Equestrian Center has had a great year of operations
and revenues are up substantially. New events are being attracted that the City
has never been able to attract to the facility before and the future of the
facility looks bright. Facility improvements have been made with private
in-kind and financial donations. In response to a question from Council Member
Anderson, Mr. Sherman reported that the Taye Brown Trust Fund generates
approximately $183,000 in annual revenue and has a current fund balance of just
over $1 million. About $400,000 is transferred to the Equestrian Center budget
annually from the Taye Brown Trust Fund. Sam Mousa said that he has met with
the group now operating the Equestrian Center and is impressed with their
business acumen and their success in reducing the annual City subsidy amount.
He noted that there is a project in this year’s CIP to cover one of the outdoor
rings at the Equestrian Center to increase its use and revenue opportunities.
In response to a question from Council Member Bowman, Daryl Joseph agreed to provide
information about the City’s responsibilities for maintaining and operating the
golf course, gym and other facilities at Cecil Commerce Center.
In response to a question from Council Member Anderson, Mr. Joseph
described his department’s on-going effort to assess and evaluate every park
for its condition, maintenance needs and capital improvement needs and to
generate a cost estimate for desirable improvements. There will be some
discussion of the early findings at the upcoming CIP budget hearing. Council
Member Gulliford suggested that another regional park be considered for the
southeast region of the city, especially with the expected explosion of growth
in the State Road 9B corridor. Mr. Joseph said that in the short term they are
working with Duval County Schools on joint use agreements for public access to
school properties and in the long term are looking to have land donated by
developers in the southeast area. Mr. Joseph responded to a question from
Council Member Katrina Brown about parks that are operated under license
agreements with private organizations.
Planning and Development Department
In response to a question from Council Member Gulliford, Planning and
Development Director Bill Killingsworth stated that the City’s development
review fees are comparable to neighboring jurisdictions and that last year the
City Council began allocating $500 from the mobility fee to operational costs
of the Concurrency Management Office with the rest going to capital
improvements.
Motion: on p. 51, approve
Auditor’s recommendation that the $152,274 in salary and benefits lapse
assigned to the Building Inspection Fund be reallocated to Building Inspections
($110,258), Development Services ($39,963) and Fire and Rescue Department
($2,053) – approved unanimously.
In response to a question from Council Member Anderson, Mr. Mousa
described the restoration of the Transportation Planning Division under the new
administration from an unfunded, unstaffed, paper division in the previous
administration and stated that the division could use additional resources to
perform its functions at a higher level. The Concurrency Management Fee could
be a funding source for that, but then the Concurrency Management Office would
need an alternative funding source as well. Mr. Mousa said that the
administration hopes to be able to make a recommendation at next week’s CIP
meeting to allocate $19 million in fair share funds to road projects. Mr.
Anderson urged the Council and administration to make efforts to “get ahead of
the curve” in meeting the City’s transportation needs, stating that traffic
backups are building up in various parts of the city, particularly in newly
developing areas that didn’t exist just a few years ago. Council Member Carter,
one of City Council’s representatives on the North Florida Transportation
Planning Organization, said that the Transportation Planning Division is doing
a fine job of interfacing with the TPO and helping Jacksonville get its fair
share of federal funds again. He urged Mr. Mousa and the Council to be aware of
the need to raise salaries to keep the good staff that have been hired, noting
that the City has started to lose those good, qualified people to private
employers paying better salaries.
Public Comment
Ysryl urged the committee to fund funding for job training and
development for young people, especially young black males who are at greatest
risk of being arrested for committing crimes because they
Pending items
·
Court Administration request for a $50,919
enhancement for professional services and other expenses related to hiring
additional contract attorneys for mandated procedural reviews.
·
Permissible uses of the $450,000 fund balance
in the $65 court cost fee account.
The Special Council Contingency fund currently stands at $1,699,190 to
the positive.
Meeting adjourned: 11:43 a.m.
Minutes: Jeff Clements, Council Research
8.19.16
Posted 8:00 a.m.
Tapes: Finance Budget Hearing #3
– LSD
8.18.16
Materials: Council Auditor’s Budget Meeting #3 handout - LSD
8.18.16