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/RCD COMMITTEE ON

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT BILL 2012-213

MEETING MINUTES

November 15, 2012

5:00 p.m.

 

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

    

In attendance:   

Rules Committee: Clay Yarborough (Chair), John Crescimbeni, Lori Boyer, Jim Love (dep. 6:36)     Excused: Ray Holt, Robin Lumb

Finance Committee: John Crescimbeni (Chair), Greg Anderson, Clay Yarborough, Stephen Joost, Lori Boyer, Bill Gulliford (dep. 6:03)   Excused – Johnny Gaffney,

RCD Committee: Doyle Carter (Chair), Don Redman (dep. 6:36), Stephen Joost, Matt Schellenberg (temporary appointment for quorum purposes)   Excused – Kimberly Daniels, Richard Clark, Johnny Gaffney

 

Also:  Kirk Sherman, Janice Billy and Heather Reber – Council Auditor’s Office; Peggy Sidman and Jason Gabriel – Office of General Counsel; Jessica Deal – Mayor’s Office; Paul Crawford  – Office of Economic Development; Marilyn Allen – Legislative Services Division; Jeff Clements – City Council Research Division; Jerry Mallot, Chris Warren and Chris Quinn – Chamber of Commerce; David Chapman – Financial News and Daily Record;  Steve Patterson – Florida Times-Union

 

Meeting Convened: 5:08 p.m.

 

Rules Chairman Clay Yarborough convened the meeting and asked Jason Gabriel of the General Counsel’s office to review the substitute he had prepared for ordinance 2012-213.  Mr. Gabriel said that the substitute had 3 major changes from the original bill: 1) amending the Council Rules to provide for one-reading approval of resolutions approving economic development incentives under certain circumstances, including a review by a specially-designated Council committee for economic development; 2) with regard to the Job Opportunity Bank, deletion of references to any funding other than appropriations by City Council; and 3) deletion of any City-imposed restrictions or requirements on the use of Enterprise Zone incentives that differ from the state standard requirements.  The substitute does not make any changes to the City’s current economic incentive policy – that will come later via separate legislation.  Council Member Crescimbeni said that his understanding from an earlier joint committee meeting was that the local Enterprise Zone additional criteria would be deleted, but that the Office of Economic Development would be developing a new set of local incentive criteria in their place.

 

Page and line number references from this point refer to Joint Rules/Finance/RCD Substitute for Ordinance 2012-213 – Draft 11-9-12

 

The committee discussed the options for review of economic incentive proposals by the City Council, whether a special committee should be appointed or whether the Finance Committee would be more appropriate.  The timing of the designated committee’s meeting was discussed, as was the timing of the filing of such bills and how that impacts on meeting notification requirements.  Council Member Joost suggested that the designated review committee meet on the Monday of City Council meeting weeks after an incentive bill is filed by the prior Wednesday deadline.  There was discussion of whether to call special meetings as needed or to schedule a standing meeting and then cancel week by week as necessary if there is no applicable legislation filed. 

 

The committee and Mr. Gabriel discussed the substitute’s wording that “prior approval” of the designated review committee is required before an incentive resolution could be heard in an expedited manner and determined that a committee “report”, not approval, should be required, leaving open the possibility of a committee recommendation of denial.  Council Member Crescimbeni argued for the insertion of language specifically requiring an expedited incentive bill to meet the usual filing deadline of the Wednesday prior to a Tuesday Council meeting so as to preclude the possibility that a bill could be presented to Legislative Services for introduction on a Monday morning, be heard Monday afternoon by the designated review committee, and then reported the Council for action on Tuesday night.  Council Member Boyer raised the issue of Monday holidays and their effect on this expedited review process if Monday committee meetings are integral to the process.  Council Member Anderson pointed out that the Finance Committee, if selected as the designated review committee, is already empowered to call special meetings as needed, which could meet the purposes the committee has been discussing.

 

Review of Council Auditor’s list of concerns and issues

 

1)      What are the City-level criteria for Enterprise Zone incentives?  Addressed earlier.

 

2)      Can City Council appropriate funds via resolution?  Jason Gabriel explained that contacts can be approved via resolution in Sec. 5.08 of the Charter as it is proposed to be amended on p. 3, lines 13-16.  Some related elements involved in an incentive package (i.e. road closures, rezonings, etc.) would be required to be approved by ordinance under state law. Council Member Crescimbeni questioned if this new resolution mechanism could possibly open the door to expanding the Mayor’s discretionary spending powers by invoking “economic development” as a means of obtaining fast approval by resolution of spending that now requires a budgetary approval or transfer by ordinance.  Council Member Boyer recommended clarifying language in Council Rule 3.101 to address where the “as otherwise authorized to be approved by resolution pursuant to these Rules” language is referring to.  Are there other places in the Rules where approval of contracts and agreements by resolution is authorized? Mr. Gabriel will review Rule 3.305 for appropriate wording.

 

3)      How and when will “prior approval of a committee of Council” take place?  Addressed earlier.

 

4)      When is it anticipated that the City’s economic incentive policy will be addressed and amendments proposed?  Mr. Gabriel will add language to the substitute providing that in case of inconsistencies between this substitute and the existing incentive policy, the provisions of this substitute will prevail.

 

5)      Should there be a limit (number or dollar amount) on the number of one-reading bills allowed to be approved annually?  The committee discussed the pros and cons of attempting to limit the number of these fast-track approvals.  Paul Crawford, Acting Director of the Office of Economic Development (OED), felt that proposals should be presented to Council as they arise and the merits debated on a case-by-case basis. Jerry Mallot of the Chamber of Commerce’s Cornerstone office argued against an artificial cap that could tie the City’s hands unnecessarily. Assistant Council Auditor Janice Billy suggested that a reporting requirement be established that would require the OED to present along with each fast-track incentive proposal a report of all currently existing incentive obligations so that the Council will have some context for judging the merits of a current proposal by seeing how much incentive payout is already accumulated year by year into the future.

 

The committee discussed the mechanics of processing and publicizing fast-track requests.  It was suggested that when OED files bills with the Legislative Services Division with a fast-track request, a memo would be sent to each Council Member announcing that fact so that the members could be aware that a designated review committee meeting would be needed the next Monday to consider the proposal.  Council Member Crescimbeni suggested placing required language in the bill’s title indicating that it is a fast-track request, both so that the Legislative Services Division will recognize it as such and so that the general public can find it by searching the Legislative Bill Search system.

 

6)      When will the public hearings be noticed and held?  How will citizens know that a fast-track bill has been introduced, and when will it be available on Legislative Bill Search?  Marilyn Allen of the Legislative Services Decision reported that new introduction bills are typically posted on Legislative Bill Search by noon of the Thursday following the Wednesday 3:00 p.m. introduction deadline.  Council Member Crescimbeni suggested that fast-track bills be given priority in the scanning and posting process and that the City Council web page be modified to add a special link for these fast-track bills.  He also suggested that a public hearing be required at the Monday designated committee review meeting to give the public an opportunity to be heard.  Council Auditor Kirk Sherman cautioned that a Wednesday afternoon introduction/Monday special committee meeting/ Tuesday Council meeting process gives his office very little time to review these proposals and to do any analysis or contact other parties for information or explanation.  They will make their best efforts, but with only 3 or 4 days to work with, opportunity for detailed scrutiny and analysis will be extremely limited.  Paul Crawford noted that the bill already requires the OED to notify the Council Auditor as soon as a fast-track bill is filed.  Janice Billy expressed the hope that the OED would use a standard incentive request format so that information will always be in the same place in the same format so that any deviation from the norm is immediately apparent to a reviewer, to which Mr. Crawford agreed.  The committee also recommended that the City Council order of business be amended to require that Council consideration of fast-track bills occur after the Public Comment portion of the meeting so that the public has an opportunity to be heard before Council votes on the issue.

 

Council Member Anderson asked that all of the suggested amendments be listed and circulated to the joint committee members by next Monday prior to the Rules Committee meeting.  Janice Billy cautioned that might be difficult given the very short time frame.  Assistant General Counsel Paige Johnston said that she and Peggy Sidman will look further into the issue of approving incentives that require appropriation of funds by resolution versus ordinance.

 

Items to be incorporated in a revised Joint Committee substitute

 

  1. Designate Finance Committee rather than a special committee to review economic development incentive proposals; schedule regular meetings the Mondays before City Council meetings and cancel if not needed.
  2. In consultation with the Legislative Services Division, establish a deadline for posting economic incentive legislation on the City Council web page, both in the Legislative Bill Search system and on a special economic development legislation page linked from the City Council page (within 2 hours of filing).
  3. Make a public comment period a regular agenda item for Monday Finance Committee meetings that review economic incentive legislation.
  4. Review and make consistent the resolution / ordinance language in the definitions on p. 4, line 5 of the substitute.
  5. Amend Council Rules re: order of Council business to place fast-track economic incentive legislation after the first Public Comment period of Council meetings.
  6. Amend Council Rules to provide that all Council members shall be immediately notified by memo when fast-track economic incentive legislation is filed with Legislative Services so they can plan to attend the Monday Finance Committee meeting.
  7. Amend substitute to provide that where the bill conflicts with the 2006 economic incentive policy, this current bill prevails.
  8. Amend language to say that the designated committee to review economic incentive legislation must report out a recommendation to Council (not necessarily approve) pursuant to standard Council Rules for reporting.
  9. Strike-through Ordinance Code Section 180.111 in its entirety regarding the JEDC monitoring provision.
  10. Amend Job Opportunity Bank language at the bottom of p. 6 and top of p. 7 of the substitute to strike the last sentence of Subsection (c).

 

Meeting adjourned:  6:44 p.m.

 

Minutes:           Jeff Clements, Council Research Division

             11.20.12     Posted: 10:00 a.m.

 

Tape:               Joint R/F/RCD Committee meeting 11.15.12

                        Legislative Services Division

 

Attachments:     Joint Rules/Finance/RCD Substitute for Ordinance 2012-213 – Draft 11-9-12