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

 

JOINT RULES/FINANCE COMMITTEE ON 2012-212, 2012-213 and 2012-364

MEETING MINUTES

June 13, 2012

5:00 p.m.

 

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

    

In attendance: 

Rules Committee Members Bill Bishop (Chair), John Crescimbeni, Matt Schellenberg and Clay Yarborough.

Finance Committee Members Warren Jones (Vice Chair), Greg Anderson, Bill Bishop, Bill Gulliford, John Crescimbeni and Clay Yarborough. 

Excused: Rules Committee: Lori Boyer, Johnny Gaffney, Ray Holt; Finance Committee: Richard Clark

           

Also: Council Member Doyle Carter; Kirk Sherman, Janice Billy and Heather Reber – Council Auditor’s Office; Cindy Laquidara, Peggy Sidman, Jason Gabriel  – Office of General Counsel; Ronnie Belton – Finance Department; Jessica Deal – Mayor’s Office; Paul Crawford and Jorina Jolly – Office of Economic Development; Phillip Zamarron – Legislative Services Division; Jeff Clements – City Council Research Division; Kevin Meerschaert – WJCT; Steve Patterson – Florida Times-Union; Joe Wilhelm – Financial News and Daily Record; Terry Lorrince – Downtown Vision Inc.; Jerry Mallot– JAXUSA Partnership; Don Shea – Jacksonville Civic Council; Chris Warren and Chris Quinn – Chamber of Commerce; Tony Bates – Concerned Taxpayers of Duval County

 

Meeting Convened: 5:08 p.m.

 

Rules Chairman Bill Bishop convened the meeting and asked Jessica Deal of the Mayor’s Office to resume discussion of the joint Finance/Rules substitute for 2012-212.  Ms. Deal noted that a new revised Rules/Finance Substitute had been distributed that incorporated all of the amendments made by the joint committees at the June 6th meeting.  Peggy Sidman of the Office of General Counsel reviewed the amendments from the earlier meeting. 

 

Ms. Deal stated that the various budget and BT documents from the last meeting did not exactly match up because the Auditors had used later numbers on their document than the JEDC had used on its form.  The JEDC has generated additional revenue that wasn’t budgeted for FY11-12, so the BT needed to be amended to reflect that additional revenue and allow for its expenditure.  That accounts for the difference between $1.286 million and $1.316 million as the budget for the remainder of the year.  Janice Billy explained that the additional revenue must be added into JEDC’s budget to recognize the receipt and to make the funds expendable, thereby increasing the overall budget slightly.  Paul Crawford, Acting Executive Director of the JEDC, said that the agency needs to increase the professional services line item by $30,000 for the remainder of the year because the JEDC is contractually obligated to pay for title work for a property in LaVilla and the property is under contract to be sold.  The committee questioned Mr. Crawford, Ms. Deal and Assistant Council Auditor Janice Billy at length about various budget line items, payroll expenses, contingency accounts and projected expenditure rates.  Ms. Billy stated that the BT attached to the bill is by necessity a somewhat imprecise document, since it is based in part on estimations and assumptions.  It cannot be calculated precisely to the dollar.

 

In response to a question about what personnel are included in the economic development budget for the remainder of the year, Mr. Crawford said that it included 15 current JEDC  personnel plus then new director of sports and entertainment (Alan Verlander) and the Mayor’s sports and fitness ambassador (Artis Gilmore).  The salary for the Executive Director of the Office of Economic Development is not included in the remainder of the FY11-12 budget; it will begin in October with FY12-13.

 

Council Member Yarborough questioned the arrangement of several of the units on the organizational chart attached to the bill.  Ms. Deal agreed that the reporting arrangements were not correctly depicted on the chart and that revisions would be made to correctly reflect all Office of Economic Development sub-units reporting to the Economic Development Officer.  Council Member Bishop suggested removing the organizational chart completely since it is incorrect and is only attached to the bill as information, not a formal attachment to be adopted.

 

Page and line number references from this point refer to Joint Finance/Rules Committee First Substitute to file no. 2012-212 (as amended on 6.6.12)

 

Motion (Gulliford on behalf of Council Member Boyer): in Sec. 55.202, on p. 4, line 30, after “through a facility manager” insert “retained in accordance with the requirements and limitations of Chapter 126” – approved.

 

Motion (Crescimbeni): reduce the Professional Services, and Event Contribution line items in the JEDC budget to 25% of the original budget amount for those items ($85,948 for Professional Services, $63,007 for Event Contributions), remove all Travel expenses ($7,103), and appropriate the savings from those reductions ($327,965) into a Special Council Reserve account designated for JEDC - approved.

 

In response to a question about what obligations JEDC is required to pay either contractually or by a regulatory agency, Mr. Crawford listed the following: $100,000 for FDEP-mandated monitoring and environmental remediation at the Jacksonville Shipyards property; $60,000 for environmental remediation at Geffen Park/Fire Station 5; $25,000 advertising for Florida/Georgia football game and Cecil Commerce Center RFP; and $25,000 for college basketball game expenses.  Mr. Crescimbeni indicated his willingness to amend the BT to a different amount in committee next week if the JEDC and Council Auditor’s Office can agree on a more correct and defensible figure.  Council Member Anderson suggested that the JEDC remaining year budget should be amended to remove the amount of the June 8 payroll already expended.

 

Motion (Schellenberg): reduce the BT amount to $1,257,742 – approved.

 

Motion: amend the substitute bill to remove the attached organizational chart – approved.

 

Motion (Rules Committee): recommend approval of the joint committee substitute for 2012-212 as amended – approved 4-0.

 

Motion (Finance Committee): recommend approval of the joint committee substitute for 2012-212 as amended – approved 6-0.

 

Page and line number references from this point refer to pending Ordinance 2012-364.

 

Jessica Deal gave an overview of the ordinance that was created as the vehicle for consideration of all of the Downtown Investment Authority language removed from 2012-212 at the joint committee’s request.  The transfer was not verbatim; the original language has been somewhat revised and clarified.  Ms. Deal stated that Assistant General Counsel Jason Gabriel sent out a “white paper” to the committee members two weeks ago giving background and a general discussion of Community Redevelopment Authorities (CRAs).  2012-364 provides for a delegation of the City Council’s CRA management authority to the proposed Downtown Investment Authority (DIA) to manage the Northside Downtown and Southbank Downtown CRAs; the other two CRAs (Jacksonville International Airport and Soutel/Moncrief) would continue to be directly governed by the City Council .   City Council confirmation will be needed for the Mayor to remove a DIA board member.  The DIA will appoint its own executive director and will have the power to lease City-owned property within the downtown area using a standard pre-approved lease form. A new Section 500.104 is added to enumerate the City Council’s retained powers at the City’s CRA governing body.

 

The bill provides for a single definition of “downtown” for all City purposes, to be located in the Zoning Code.  Other definitions of downtown in other Code chapters are being deleted.  The Public Works Department has produced a new map that matches the narrative description, clarifying some imprecision in a Southbank boundary line near the former JEA generating station property.  The narrative in the bill was slightly altered to match the map, which is definitive.

 

The committees discussed whether they needed to approve the standard lease and economic redevelopment agreements attached to the bill as part of the bill approval process, or whether they could be removed and reviewed and approved separately at a later date.  Don Shea of the Jacksonville Civic Council said that the agreements did not need to be approved along with the Code changes, as long as City Council is willing to continue approving each of the agreements on a case-by-case basis until the standard forms are approved.  Council Member Bishop felt that thoroughly reading and studying the standard forms would add considerably to the length of the approval process and delay the DIA’s implementation, and suggested approving the forms separately.  Council Member Schellenberg noted that the Council committees are going to be reformulated in a few weeks and suggested that consideration of the bill might be delayed until the new committees are appointed.  In response to a question from Council Member Anderson about the use of standard form agreements in other jurisdictions, Don Shea of the Jacksonville Civic Council said that the use of standard agreements varies considerably by jurisdiction.  In places where the economic development agency is a trusted entity with a long track record of success, the governing body may be comfortable delegating a high degree of deal-making power to the agency.  In other situations the governing body may be more comfortable authorizing standard agreements but requiring any deviations from the norm to have their approval.

 

Council Member Crescimbeni advocated for a different name without the use of the word “authority.”  Mr. Shea and Ms. Deal indicated they are open to suggestions for better naming alternatives.  Mr. Crescimbeni also suggested the need on page 21, lines 11-21 to be more specific about to whom the DIA board can delegate the power to approve and execute the standard agreements – perhaps limit it specifically to the Board Chair and/or the Executive Director.    Mr. Crescimbeni also suggested that a sunset clause be added to the bill to give the proposed agency one year to prove its worth and earn extension by the City Council.  Mr. Shea stated that the City Council has the power to shut the agency down at any time if it is dissatisfied with its performance, and suggested that an early sunset provision might tend to cast a cloud over the entity’s authority to represent the City and enter into long-term agreements with development partners.  He stated that there are considerably more controls and protections in this ordinance with regard to the DIA’s operations than there are with any of the City’s other authorities.

 

Mr. Crescimbeni questioned whether non-county residents should be permitted to serve on the DIA board (page 8, lines 9-10), or, if so, if the number of non-county residents should be limited.  Mr. Shea explained the rationale behind allowing non-residents who own property or have substantial business interests in the City to serve on the board.

 

The committees will begin next week’s meeting with a presentation on CRAs by Jason Gabriel of the General Counsel’s Office.

 

The committees will reconvene next Wednesday, June 20th, at 5:00 p.m.

 

Meeting adjourned:  7:09 p.m.

 

Minutes:           Jeff Clements, Council Research Division

             6.14.12     Posted: 3:00 p.m.

 

Tape:               Joint Committee meeting 6.13.12

                        Legislative Services Division

 

Materials:         Joint Finance/Rules Committee First Substitute to file no. 2012-212

                        6.6.12

                        2012-364