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

 

SPECIAL CITY COUNCIL MEETING – MID-YEAR BUDGET REPORT

 MEETING MINUTES


June 6, 2013

4:00 p.m.

 

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

    

In attendance: Council Members Bishop (President), Gulliford (Vice President), Anderson, Boyer, Carter, Crescimbeni, Jones, Joost, Love, Schellenberg

Excused: Council Members Brown, Clark, Daniels, Holt, Gaffney Lee, Lumb Redman, Yarborough

 

Also:  Cheryl Brown – Council Secretary/Director; Peggy Sidman and Paige Johnston– Office of General Counsel; Kirk Sherman, Kyle Billy and Trista Straits – Council Auditor’s Office; Dana Farris, Carol Owens and Philip Zamarron – Legislative Services Division; Steve Cassada – Council Staff Services; Jeff Clements – City Council Research; Ronnie Belton, Glenn Hansen and Angela Moyer – Finance Department; Chris Hand – Mayor’s Office

 

Meeting Convened:  10:05 a.m.

 

Council President Bishop convened the meeting and Council Member Boyer led the Pledge of Allegiance.

 

Fire Chief Marty Senterfitt gave an update on the status of Tropical Storm Andrea which is gathering strength in the Gulf of Mexico in the Big Bend area off Florida’s west coast.  The storm is predicted to pass north and west of Jacksonville, meaning the city will in the heavy rain zone to the east of the center of circulation.  The storm is predicted to reach Jacksonville at 10-11 p.m. tonight, which unfortunately coincides with high tide in the downtown area, which may pose a flooding threat for low-lying parts of the Riverside area. The area is predicted to see 50-60 mph winds overnight.  The Emergency Operations Center is activated at Level 2.  Citizens are urged to stay indoors and off the roads tonight.

 

CFO Ronnie Belton and Budget Officer Glenn Hansen age the mid-year budget presentation.  The General Fund is currently projected to show a $1.4 million favorable variance in revenues and a $7.6 million favorable variance in expenditures by year-end.  The outlook for property tax revenues for next fiscal year is still problematic, but sales tax revenues are beginning to trend upward.  A substantial part of the favorable expenditure variance results from lower salary expenditures deriving from the number of positions being left unfilled and from the departure of higher paid long-time employees and their replacement with lower paid employees.  Council Member Schellenberg requested a revised version of the financial spreadsheet with the addition of a column showing the original budget for each line item and the current revised mid-year budget for those items so that the projected year-end figure can be compared with both the original and the revised budgets.

 

In response to a question from Council Member Joost about the overage in the Fire and Rescue Department’s overtime budget, Chief Senterfitt explained that the overtime account is somewhat over budget for the year, but is still running below the amount expended in last year’s budget.  Overtime is being used to cover the staffing needs without hiring too many new full-time employees.  It appears that the rescue division transport fee revenues will be slightly over budget, but the fire inspection fee revenues will be under budget.  The Chief reported that a new class of 24 firefighters graduating from the fire academy was hired in May under the current pension plan; they will likely be the last class hired under that plan.  Chris Hand of the Mayor’s Office stated that the 24 were hired to fill department operational needs, and the timing had nothing to do with eligibility or ineligibility for the current pension plan.  It was noted that six of the 24 firefighters hired currently reside outside of Jacksonville.  Edward Gadsden, Acting Director of Employee Services, stated that the Code allows non-county residents to be hired if they establish residency within the county within 6 months of hiring.

 

Council Members posed questions about the timing of the City’s receipt of state-shared revenues, about the collection rate for rescue transport billings, about the verification of county residency and about the difference in City pension costs for the 24 firefighters hired under the existing plan versus the cost under the proposed revised plan.

 

Meeting adjourned: 10:42 a.m.

 

 

Minutes:  Jeff Clements, Council Research

                6.7.13   Posted 11:00 a.m.

Tapes:     Midyear Budget Presentation meeting – LSD

                 6.6.13