JACKSONVILLE
FINANCE COMMITTEE BUDGET HEARING MINUTES
September 4, 2008
9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.
City Council Chamber
1st Floor, City Hall
117 W. Duval Street
Attendance: Chairman
Michael Corrigan, Committee Members Daniel Davis, Jack Webb (arr. 1:15 p.m.,
dep. 5:05 p.m.), Clay Yarborough, Warren Jones, Stephen Joost, and Art Graham
Guest: Council
President Fussell (arr. 10:10 a.m.)
The meeting was called to
order at 9:03 a.m.
Chairman Corrigan announced
to the committee and the audience that discussion of the Jacksonville Journey
proposal is being deferred while he and President Fussell are meeting with the
Mayor and his staff to craft a substitute proposal, which they hope will be
ready to report to the Finance Committee at the September 15th
committee meeting.
All references from this point refer to the Council
Auditor’s budget handout for Meeting #2, originally scheduled for August 14,
2008, rescheduled to September 4, 2008.
Emergency Reserve
Kirk Sherman explained that
the fund shows an accounting transaction to carry-over the $37 million
remaining in this year’s emergency reserve to the next fiscal year. Finance
Director Mickey Miller stated that storm cleanup costs from Tropical Storm Fay
are still being tabulated, but the City hopes to recover 87-90% of the cost
from FEMA and the state.
p. 1 – recommendations 1-4 tentatively approved.
pp. 2-3 tentatively approved.
Supervisor of Elections
Supervisor Jerry Holland
explained that his budget varies considerably from year to year depending on
the number of elections scheduled. The
new budget will fund one general election rather than two in the current
year. The committee asked several
questions about early voting locations.
Mr. Holland indicated that early voting sites cost approximately $22,000
apiece to operate, and need to balance convenience for voters versus cost and
anticipated turnout for the particular election. His office is operated 10 early voting sites
for the August primary election and will have the full complement of 15 in
operation for the November general election for which record turnout is
predicted. A City Council-only election
may only warrant 5 locations at regional libraries because of the much lower
anticipated turnout. Mr. Holland thinks
that 2 full weeks of early voting is excessively costly since many campaigns
are geared toward a publicity blitz in the final week before Election Day and
many voters don’t make up their minds until then. He recommends that the Florida Legislature be
asked to amend the state law to provide for 8 days of early voting (the two
weekends and intervening week prior to the election day).
The committee discussed the
Auditor’s recommendation to stop paying for return postage on absentee ballots
at a cost savings of $52,200 as
p. 5 – tentatively approve recommendation #1 regarding
pay rate for Call Center personnel; do NOT approve recommendation #2 regarding
return postage for absentee ballots.
In closing Mr. Holland noted
that his budget does not include any funding for a full recount of the General
Election results if that circumstance should come to pass.
Health Administrator
pp. 6-7 tentatively approved.
Medical Examiner
Terri McCracken of the
Medical Examiner’s Office requested a carry-over of ITD internal service
charges for technology projects underway this fiscal year that will not be
completed by year-end and for the addition of equipment to increase bandwidth
availability for the office’s laptop computers.
Computer system upgrades are also necessary to bill the other counties
for the services the Medical Examiner provides pursuant to the new contracts
recently approved by Council. This request was not approved as funding for a
Case Management System for the Medical Examiner’s Office is still included in
the Banking Fund as a current project.
p. 8 tentatively approved.
Mayor’s Office
p. 9 tentatively approved.
Mayor’s Boards and
Commissions
p. 10 tentatively approved.
Central Operations
Department
Director of Central
Operations Devin Reed stated that his department is running on a lean budget
and has not engaged in year-end expenditures to use up funds that might
otherwise lapse back into the General Fund reserve at the end of the fiscal
year. He is comfortable that the
Auditor’s recommended reduction in Printing and Binding will not hurt
operations.
p. 11 tentatively approved.
Fleet Management
p. 12 tentatively approved.
Fleet Management – Vehicle
Replacement
Mr. Reed stated that the city
is getting 4-5 years of life from most vehicles and is stretching the
replacement schedule to 6-7 years wherever possible. An exception is rescue vehicles, which are
cycled out of service as soon as they’re fully amortized for safety reasons;
many are sold at auction to other jurisdictions for surplus value.
pp. 13-20 – Auditor’s recommendations tentatively
approved.
Motion (Yarborough) – enforce a “keys to keys” policy requiring departments
to turn in their old vehicle to Fleet Management before they can take
possession of a replacement vehicle –
tentatively approved.
p. 21 tentatively approved.
Group Health
p. 22 tentatively approved.
Council President Fussell
arrived at 10:10 a.m.
Principal Auditor Kyle Billy
briefly reviewed the JTA’s various budgets on pp. 23-48. He indicated that the
City and JTA are still working from the 2000 Better Jacksonville Plan sales tax
and gas tax projections which are deviating further and further from the
original projections as the years go by.
The sales tax is under-performing over time while the gas tax is
over-performing to a roughly equivalent degree.
pp. 23-48 tentatively approved, including Auditor’s
recommendations #1-3 on p. 41.
Council Member Yarborough
distributed a list compiled by the Auditor’s Office of all City officials
receiving a monthly automobile allowance for work-related use of their personal
vehicles. He recommended that the 5
allowances not authorized by the Ordinance Code be halted and that one
allowance of $300 per month be reduced to $250 per month to comply with the
Code. Chairman Corrigan suggested it
might be less expensive for the City to pay more employees monthly allowances
instead of providing City vehicles.
The meeting was recessed from
10:22 to 10:33 a.m.
Fire and Rescue Department
pp. 49-50 tentatively approved.
Council President Fussell
proposed a plan to put Ladder Company #31 and two new rescue units (#54 and
#55) into service earlier in the upcoming fiscal year than the department’s
plan contemplates by using existing equipment and appropriating Council
Contingency funds for the personnel. The
ladder truck already exists for Ladder 31 but needs funding for staffing and an
increase in the department’s employee cap by 15 to start service in April. Two existing spare rescue units could be used
as Rescue 54 and 55 while the purchase of the new vehicles is taking place,
putting those units in service in January 2009 rather than April.
Motion: increase
the JFRD employee cap by 15 and appropriate the additional funds ($783,959) needed
to staff Ladder #31 for use in April 2009 and to operate Rescue #54 and 55
beginning in January 2009, contingent upon funding being available in the
Special Council Contingency Fund at the end of the budget process– tentatively approved.
Fire and Rescue Director Dan
Kleman noted that additional funding is needed ($120,000) to fully equip Ladder
31 for service.
The meeting was recessed at
10:55 a.m. for lunch and reconvened at 1:15 p.m.
Attendance: Chairman
Michael Corrigan, Committee Members Yarborough, Joost, Jones, Graham (arr. 1:25
p.m. following a meeting of Northeast Florida Regional Council), Webb, Davis
(arr. 2:34)
Guest: Council
Member Redman (arr. 1:27 p.m.)
All references from this point refer to the Council
Auditor’s budget handout for Meeting #3, originally scheduled for August 14,
2008, rescheduled to September 4, 2008.
Chairman Corrigan announced
to the committee and the audience that discussion of the Jacksonville Journey
proposal is being deferred while he and President Fussell are meeting with the
Mayor and his staff to craft a substitute proposal, which they hope will be
ready to report to the Finance Committee at the September 15th
committee meeting.
Tax Collector
Tax Collector Mike Hogan told
the committee that the City’s contribution to the Tax Collector’s budget has
decreased 25% over the last three years due to increased operational
efficiencies and better use of technology.
He noted that is office loses some potential revenue because of
Council Member Redman arrived
at 1:27 p.m.
Kirk Sherman noted that the
proposals do not appear to have been reviewed and recommended by the City’s
Information Technology Steering Committee as required. Alison Luker of the Tax Collector’s Office
stated that the office is happy to work with City ITD on procurement when they
can and will do so for these purchases, except for the “imaging at the counter”
equipment. That equipment must interface
with the Tax Collector’s state systems and ITD does not support that portion of
their computer operation. Mr. Hogan expressed
his frustration with having to use the City’s and State’s procurement systems
to purchase items at inflated prices that could easily be purchased for
considerably less by the average citizen at any local retail store. City CAO Alan Mosley vigorously disputed the
notion that City procurement is inherently more expensive than off-the-street
retail purchasing and requested an opportunity to have an extended discussion
of procurement outside of the budget process using a fair set of mutually
agreeable facts. In response to a
question about when the IT Steering Committee could meet next to review and
comment on the Tax Collector’s three proposed purchases, Mr. Mosley indicated
that a meeting could be convened before the Council takes final action on the budget
on September 23rd.
The committee discussed with
Mr. Hogan why the Tax Collector and JEA no longer share branch offices. He indicated that he is in favor of
recombining those offices, but there are some problems that would need to be
overcome such as JEA offices being open on Saturday when state government
offices are not open and state transactions (i.e. automobile tags) could not be
processed.
p. 1 tentatively approved.
Tax Collector’s three
proposed technology purchase requests deferred pending review by the IT
Steering Committee prior to final budget adoption.
Recreation and Community
Services Department
Chairman Corrigan speculated
that the City may be spending more time and resources tracking and documenting
expenditures for food and beverages as mandated by the Ordinance Code than the
value of the food and beverage itself.
The intention was surely good; can these expenditures be tracked in some
less expensive way?
pp. 2-3 tentatively approved.
Alcohol Rehabilitation
Program
In response to a question,
Recreation and Community Development Director Ros Phillips stated that the
Alcohol Rehabilitation Program is not duplicating any functions already funded
through the Public Service Grant process.
She explained that the Human Services Council used to coordinate and
watch out for program overlap but that body has been inactive for several
months. Linda Lanier, Executive Director
of the Children’s Commission, is leading an effort to reformulate and revitalize
the organization. Council Members Joost
and Yarborough expressed their continuing concern that bits and pieces of grant
funding keep appearing in various departmental budgets and don’t seem to be
coordinated by or through the Public Service Grant process.
p. 4 tentatively approved.
Kelly Boree, Deputy Director
of the Department of Recreation and Community Affairs, stated that the
increased entrance fee, annual pass fee and camper rental fees will help cover
the park’s operational costs but will still not make it self-funded; Hanna Park
revenues are still used to supplement the
p. 5 tentatively approved.
Hanna Park
p. 6 tentatively approved.
p. 7 tentatively approved.
p. 8 tentatively approved.
Driver Education Safety Trust
Fund
p. 9 tentatively approved.
Choose Life Trust Fund
p. 10 tentatively approved.
Public Service Grant Funds
Alberta Hipps, Chair of the
PSG Committee, discussed the application review process and the committee’s adherence
to the Council’s priority populations for funding.
pp. 11-12 tentatively approved 6-1 (Yarborough
opposed).
p. 13 tentatively approved.
Downtown Vision Inc.
Executive Director Terry
Lorrince explained that DVI had budgeted for an increase in the City’s
contribution from $229,747 to $364,118 as a result of the City’s increasing
downtown land holdings in recent years (Main Library, Ed Ball Building). The increased property value multiplied by
DVI’s 1.1 mill levy produced the new figure.
The Council Auditor recommended the City continue to pay the lower
assessment.
pp. 14-16 tentatively approved.
The General Counsel’s Office
distributed a suggested amendment to the budget ordinance approving the non-ad
valorem assessment on downtown properties of 1.1 mill on all non-exempt
commercial property and correcting a reference to the City’s latest ordinance
reauthorizing the Downtown Business Improvement District.
Motion (suggested by Chairman Corrigan): amend the OGC’s proposed budget amendment language to
move the venue of the Downtown Business Improvement District annual public
hearing from the Finance Committee to the JEDC Board – approved
Motion: tentatively
approve the OGC’s proposed budget ordinance text amendment as amended – approved.
Finance Department
p. 17 tentatively approved.
Self-Insurance
p. 18 tentatively approved.
Insured Programs
p. 19 tentatively approved.
General Employees’ Pension
Administration
pp. 20-22 tentatively approved.
Correctional Officers Pension
Trust
p. 23 tentatively approved.
Police and Fire Pension
Administration
pp. 24-26 tentatively approved.
Haverty’s Building Concerns
The Council Auditor’s handout
noted that the proposed budget includes a $2 million contribution from the City
to the project in addition to $2 million provided last year, increasing the
total project cost from the original $10 million to $14 million. The Police and Fire Pension Fund is paying
$10 million of the cost and is guaranteed a specific rate of return on their
investment. The City is asked to
contribute the additional $4 million to cover increased project costs from
unanticipated construction issues, new furniture, fixtures and equipment, and
IT build-out. John Keane, Executive
Director of the Police and Fire Pension, explained the project’s history,
described the unknowns that led to the discovery of problems that required a
remedy and increased the overall cost, and noted that with a relatively small
investment in some new construction on the interior, the Pension Fund created
10,000 additional square feet of usable space in the building. The committee discussed the Police and Fire
Pension Fund’s performance and its unfunded liability. Council Member Joost questioned the fund’s
rate of return assumptions and the effect of those assumptions on the fund’s
ability to meet its obligations to its retirees.
Capital Improvement
Program (CIP)
Council Member Yarborough
questioned why a Craig Airport Runway Extension project is listed in the CIP if
it is not allowed under the City’s Comprehensive Plan and the JAA has no
approval from any governmental agency to undertake the project? Michael Stewart, spokesman for the JAA,
stated that the project is listed because the CIP is a planning document and a
project cannot be studied for its possible merits without being in the
CIP. He stated that the JAA is proposing
a $500,000 environmental assessment of the proposed runway extension in the
first year of the 2009-13 CIP; the remainder of the project is in out years of
the plan and is not funded. The
environmental assessment is a necessary first step toward determining if the
extension is even a viable project worth considering.
Motion (Yarborough): on p. 34 delete lines 92-93 regarding Craig Airport
Runway Extension – motion dies for lack of a second.
Council Member Yarborough described
his frustration at not yet receiving a legal opinion he requested several
months ago regarding how the JAA can keep pursuing a project that the City Council has clearly
prohibited. Council Member Davis agreed
that such an opinion should be produced in a timely manner and suggested that
he and Mr. Yarborough may schedule a noticed meeting with the Office of General
Counsel to discuss this issue.
pp. 28-44 tentatively approved.
City Banking Fund
pp. 45-64 tentatively approved.
General Capital Projects
p. 65 tentatively approved.
Grant Capital Improvement
Projects
p. 66 tentatively approved.
Principal Auditor Kyle Billy
briefly reviewed the JPA’s various budgets on pp. 67-76. In response to a question from Council Member
Jones, Rick Ferrin, Executive Director of the Authority, stated that Jaxport
was fairly successful in FY08 at getting state grant funds for port projects in
p. 67-76 tentatively approved.
All references from this point refer to the Council
Auditor’s budget handout for Wrap-Up Budget Hearing, September 4, 2008.
Solid Waste Division
Solid Waste Disposal
p. 1 tentatively approved.
Solid Waste - Contamination
Assessment
p. 2 tentatively approved.
Landfill Closure
p. 3 tentatively approved.
Solid Waste Facilities
Mitigation
p. 4 tentatively approved.
Solid Waste Facilities
Mitigation – Class III
p. 5 tentatively approved.
Solid Waste Pollution
Remediation
p. 6 tentatively approved.
Clerk of the Courts
A representative of the
Clerk’s Office requested that the office be permitted to retain $11,000
recommended by the Council Auditor for transfer to Special Council Contingency
for employee training and associated travel.
The committee declined the request.
pp. 7-8 tentatively approved.
The Council Auditor then
distributed a one-page list of 12 items previously postponed or otherwise
remaining to be resolved at the conclusion of the budget hearing process:
- Budgets on which action was postponed:
- Solid Waste Division – tentatively approved
above.
- Clerk of the Courts – tentatively approved
above.
- Executive Order prohibiting transfer of salary
and benefits funds to other operating lines: budget text reinforcing the Executive Order tentatively approved.
Council Member Webb indicated
that he might explore the need to amend the Ordinance Code and/or City Charter
to prohibit the practice in a more permanent form than an executive order that
can be revoked by a future mayor.
- Public Service Grants – the Auditor’s Office
distributed a previously requested schedule of all PSG recipients for
FY06-07, FY07-08 and proposed FY08-09 showing which were funded from other
City sources besides PSGs: for
information only – no action taken.
- CDBG grants to Clara White Mission ($14,212) and
Catholic Charities Bureau ($60,788) previously placed “below the line” for
further consideration: grant
funding restored “above the line” and tentatively approved.
- Ethics Office budget previously put “below the
line” for further consideration: funding
restored above the line and tentatively approved.
Chairman Corrigan expressed his dismay
that the committee’s action to put the budget temporarily
“below the line” in order to obtain further information was portrayed in the
media as a repudiation of the office or
as an indication of a lack of support for ethical standards in government – the committee simply needed
some questions answered before it felt comfortable taking action.
Managing Deputy General Counsel Steve Rohan stated that there is no
duplication of functions between the
Ethics Office and the Office of General Counsel’s Ethics Counsel. The Ethics
Counsel provides legal opinions and interprets the law and its application to
specific circumstances; the Ethics
Office provides training, record keeping, oversees compliance with Ordinance Code Chapter 602, operates the
confidential ethics hotline, cooperates with the Inspector General’s investigations, etc.
- Jacksonville Symphony rent forgiveness ($109,000
increase in the General Fund subsidy to SMG to compensate for revenue loss
from forgiving the symphony’s rental fee) previously placed “below the
line”: the committee discussed at length the appropriateness of rent
forgiveness for the symphony. Chief
Administrative Officer Alan Mosley stated that the Mayor chose to
recommend the rent forgiveness in order to treat the symphony the same as
other not-for-profit entities that use City facilities in the downtown
area at little or no cost and reminded the committee that the Symphony
Association raised $14 million in private donations toward the cost of
renovating the Civic Auditorium into the new Times-Union Center for the
Performing Arts. The committee also
discussed a variety of mechanisms for providing such relief should the
Council decide that such relief is an appropriate policy, including
appropriating funds to SMG to make up their budget deficit from the
removal of the expected rent revenue and directing the symphony to the
Cultural Service Grant process to request an appropriation for rent costs.
Motion
(Joost): appropriate an additional $109,000 to the Public Service Grant Committee
allocation for the committee to
review and consider the symphony’s rent forgiveness request on its merits – withdrawn.
Motion
(Graham): restore the $109,000 General
Fund rent forgiveness subsidy “above the line”, appropriate it to a designated Cultural Council contingency fund “below
the line”, and ask the Cultural
Service Grant committee to consider the symphony’s rent forgiveness request; if
the request is approved then the
$109,000 subsidy will be appropriated by Council “above the line” and paid to the Jacksonville Symphony as
reimbursement for rent paid at the T-U Center; if the request is not approved then the $109,000 stays within the General
Fund in a designated contingency
account – tentatively approved 4-0 (Webb
and Corrigan absent).
- Detail on CIP allocation of $7.4 million for
community center rehabs requested by Council Member Davis: information only – no action taken.
- Lapse calculation for Sheriff’s Office: no discussion.
- Capitalization of ITD software development costs
(borrowing the cost of salaries, benefits and professional services costs
attributable to software development from the City Banking Fund and
amortizing the costs over 3 years): defer
to September 15 meeting.
- Contingency funds - sweeping all remaining
amounts at year-end from all contingency accounts to a single account: no discussion.
- Drug Court: request for additional $100,000: no discussion.
Council Member Webb departed
at 5:05 p.m.
Motion (Graham): delete $16,000 from the budget of the Recreation and Community Services
Department to cease operation of the canning kitchen. Ros Philips reported that the City received
no response to its RFP for an entity to operate the canning kitchen independent
of City funding. Currently the center is
being operated by Master Gardeners on a volunteer basis – the $16,000 in
funding is for maintenance of the equipment and operation of the building
which, in addition to the canning kitchen, also hosts educational programs
provided by the Agricultural Extension Service on food safety, nutrition, home
economics, etc. Motion fails 2-4 (Graham and Joost in favor).
Council Member Yarborough clarified
a point from an earlier discussion about the
Council Member Yarborough
distributed a list of City take-home vehicles he had requested from the Council
Auditor. In response to a question, Kirk
Sherman indicated that providing City employees with a take-home vehicle is
generally the most expensive of the methods of providing an employee with
necessary mobility (compared to providing a monthly vehicle allowance or
reimbursing for mileage for the use of a personal vehicle).
Motion (Yarborough): provide monthly auto allowances to 23 department
directors and division chiefs highlighted on the take-home vehicle list just
distributed and retrieve their take-home vehicles – motion withdrawn in consideration of an agreement by CAO Alan
Mosley to study the issue in detail, check the policies of comparable
jurisdictions and produce a plan that is fair and equitable to both the City
and the employees for presentation to the Finance Committee at the second
committee meeting in October (October 20th).
Council Member Yarborough
noted the unfortunate death of a JSO officer the previous night in a traffic
accident and expressed the committee’s condolences to the officer’s family and
to the Sheriff’s Office.
Chairman Corrigan thanked
everyone involved for a job well done on the budget process. Final decisions will be made at the Finance
Committee meeting on September 15th.
Council Member Joost suggested that the Council may wish to continue
last year’s in-depth two percent budget withholding analysis process.
Mr. Sherman announced that at
the end of the budget hearing process the Special Council Contingency Fund
stands at $204,623.
There being no further
business, the meeting was adjourned at 6:20 p.m.
Jeff Clements, Chief
Council Research Division
630-145
Posted 9.12.08
4:40 p.m.