OFFICE OF THE CITY COUNCIL

CHERYL L. BROWN 117 WEST DUVAL STREET, SUITE 425

DIRECTOR 4^TH FLOOR, CITY HALL

OFFICE (904) 630-1452 JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA 32202

FAX (904) 630-2906

E-MAIL: CLBROWN@coj.net

Finance Committee Budget Hearing #10 Minutes

September 4, 2013

9:00 a.m.

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

In attendance: Council Members Greg Anderson (Chair), Reginald Brown , Richard Clark, John Crescimbeni, Johnny Gaffney, Stephen Joost, Matt Schellenberg, Robin Lumb, Clay Yarborough

Also: Council Members Bill Bishop, Lori Boyer, Bill Gulliford (arr. 11:32), Doyle Carter (arr. 12:00)

Also: Janice Billy, Kim Taylor, Kyle Billy, Robert Campbell, Brian Parks, Philip Peterson - Council Auditor’s Office; Carol Owens – Legislative Services Division; Cindy Laquidara, Peggy Sidman and Paige Johnston – Office of General Counsel; Jeff Clements – Council Research Division; Cleveland Ferguson, Michelle Barth and Margo Klosterman – Mayor’s Office; Glenn Hansen and Angela Moyer - Budget Office

Meeting Convened: 11:11 a.m.

Chairman Anderson announced that the committee would take up the Council Auditor’s list of wrap-up items, followed by the Jacksonville Journey budget, followed by an opportunity for council members to offer amendments to the budget.

Intra-governmental Services Department

Greg Pease, Chief of Procurement, described the department’s personnel restoration request of $112,370 to be restored “above the line” to fund 2 positions – an Ombudsman Assistant and a CARE center customer services representative.

Motion: on the Council Auditor’s handout, restore $112,370 “above the line” – approved unanimously

Copy Center and Mailroom

Greg Pease described how the Copy Center budget is projected to be in the black this year after running in the red for a number of years and described the City’s copier contract and in-house printing and mailing capabilities. The Copy Center subfund was not subjected to the mayor’s 13.88% reduction because of the uncontrollable nature of the copier contract and postage needs, although the department as a whole did achieve the reduction from other areas.

Motion: restore $338,880 of the Copy Center’s budget “above the line” – fails 3-6 (Brown, Crescimbeni and Anderson in favor)

Jacksonville Journey

School Superintendent Nikolai Vitti described the value of the out-of-school suspension center as a crime prevention program with community-wide value, not just a school program. In response to a question from Council Member Lumb, Mr. Vitti stated that there is no prohibition against the school system funding the center itself, but the school system’s budget has been set and they have no resources to fund the center next year. Several committee members advocated for the center being funded by the school board rather than the City in future years.

Motion (Clark): restore $836,824 “above the line” to fund the restoration of the out-of-school suspension center - approved unanimously

Police and Fire Pension Fund

Brian Parks of the Council Auditor’s Office answered several questions from committee members about the calculation of the correct pension contribution and the potential effect of appropriating or not appropriating the funds. Council Member Crescimbeni urged the General Counsel to take the actions necessary to get a definitive judicial ruling on the legality of the senior retirement program so that the Council will know the status of that plan and can be guided in decisions related to the plan accordingly.

Motion: delete the proposed $158,811 pension contribution entirely, returning the funds to the Special Council Contingency account – approved unanimously

Downtown Investment Authority

Motion: restore $4,145,722 to the DIA “above the line” in a designated contingency account – approved unanimously

Jacksonville Journey

Gene Montgomery, Executive Director of the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) described his agency’s activities and the pass-through nature of its funding directly to service-providing agencies. Council Member Lumb advocated for much greater efforts in dealing with ex-offenders and their reintegration into society and the workforce. Ju’Coby Pittman, President of the Clara White Mission, outlined her agency’s existing efforts with regard to ex-offenders and agreed to work with Council Member Lumb after the completion of the budget process to convene a process to explore ways to improve ex-offender services in the city.

Motion (Joost): restore $384,767 as shown on Sheriff Rutherford’s handout “above the line” to restore funding for the Juvenile Assessment Center

Amendment (Lumb): appropriate the restored funding for the program directly to the Sheriff’s budget instead of to the Jacksonville Journey for redistribution – approved 4-3 (Joost, Schellenberg and Brown opposed)

The Joost motion as amended by the Lumb amendment was approved

Council Member Schellenberg advocated for less fragmentation and dilution of Journey funds and urged more focus and accountability for use of the funds.

Motion (Lumb): restore $545,197 “above the line” to restore funding for the Jacksonville Ex-Offender Re-entry Center (JREC) per the Sheriff’s handout – approved unanimously

Code Enforcement

Kim Scott, Chief of the Code Enforcement Division, stated that the line item in the Jacksonville Journey budget labeled as DART–Code Compliance is a misnomer – the Journey funding is used for normal nuisance abatement and demolition, not for DART-specific enforcement activities, in Health Zone 1.

Motion (Crescimbeni): restore $324,091 “above the line” to restore funding to the Code Compliance Division for nuisance abatement and demolition purposes citywide, not restricted to Health Zone 1 – approved unanimously

In response to a question from the committee about whether the hearing could continue beyond 2:00 p.m. when the RCD Committee meeting is advertised to begin in the Council Chamber, Council Member Crescimbeni read from a legal opinion provided by Peggy Sidman stating that if the RCD Committee meeting is cancelled or relocated and the Finance budget hearing continues uninterrupted, then the meeting may proceed. If the meeting recesses or adjourns, then the advertised 2:00 p.m. adjournment time must be recognized and the meeting cannot resume after the RCD meeting. In response to a request for clarification, General Counsel Cindy Laquidara stated that the opinion is based on Florida Attorney General’s Office rulings and represents a defensible legal position.

Motion (Lumb): delete funding of $179,929 from the Jacksonville Journey budget for the Summer Jobs Program – approved 6-1 (Brown opposed)

Motion (Lumb): restore $277,633 “above the line” for the Ex-Offender Employment Program – dies for lack of a second

Motion (Lumb): restore $265,568 “above the line” for the Ex-Offender Training/Re-entry Center – dies for lack of a second

Motion (Crescimbeni): restore $399,023 “above the line” for LISC – dies for lack of a second

Motion (Crescimbeni): restore the $678,000 remaining in the Jacksonville Journey proposed budget “above the line” and place it in the Special Council Contingency fund – approved unanimously

The committee will meet again tomorrow, September 5^th, with the meeting noticed from 2:00 to 7:00 p.m.

There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 1:54 p.m.

Jeff Clements, City Council Research

Posted 9.4.13 7:00 p.m.