OFFICE OF THE CITY COUNCIL
117 WEST DUVAL STREET, SUITE 425
4TH FLOOR, CITY
HALL
. JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA 32202
Finance Committee Budget Hearing #8 –
Wrap-up Meeting Minutes
September 2, 2015
10:00 a.m.
Location: City Council Chamber, 1st floor, City Hall –
St. James Building; 117 West Duval Street
In attendance: Council Members Bill Gulliford (Chair),
Anna Lopez-Brosche, Danny Becton, Aaron Bowman,
Lori Boyer, John Crescimbeni, Reggie Gaffney
Also: Council
Members Matt Schellenberg, Katrina Brown, Sam Newby, Tommy Hazouri, Garrett
Dennis, Scott Wilson, Reggie Brown, Greg Anderson; Kirk Sherman, Kim Taylor,
Phillip Peterson, Tommy Carter, Robert Campbell, Brian Parks – Council Auditor’s
Office; Jessica Morales – Legislative Services Division; Peggy Sidman and Paige
Johnston – Office of General Counsel; Jeff Clements – Council Research
Division; Sam Mousa and Ali Korman Shelton – Mayor’s Office; Mike Weinstein, Angela
Moyer, Cal Ray – Finance Department
Meeting Convened: 10:00 a.m.
Chairman Gulliford convened
the meeting with a quorum present and the members announced themselves for the
record. He stated that the budget must
be wrapped up today in order for the Auditors and Budget Office to have the
documents properly cast for next week’s Council meeting. The Chair cautioned
the members against pontificating and indicated that he would enforce the time
limits on debate if necessary to move the business along to successful
completion.
Randy Wyse representing the
International Association of Fire Fighters said in response to comments at a
previous budget hearing that the demotions of Health and Safety Officers and
Field Safety Officers being proposed will not be undone through re-promotions
in 2016 as stated; full restoration won’t take place until 2018 at the earliest
and will have a demoralizing effect on the department. He advocated strongly
for the restoration of the Health and Safety Officers in the budget to cover
all the work that needs to be done on a 24/7 basis and to reduce the department’s
workers’ compensation claims experience, which they strongly impact. Chief
Administrative Officer Sam Mousa said that the administration proposed a budget
for the JFRD structure as it existed at the time. The administration then heard
concerns from both the IAFF and some council members and agreed to a compromise
proposal that restores some of the reclassified positions; any further changes
are in the Finance Committee’s control.
Page references from this point refer to Council
Auditor’s Meeting #7 Wrap-Up handout – August 8, 2015.
Council Member Boyer
suggested that the committee can remove items #21 (BJP Subfind 1i1) and #37
(Parks and Rec employee cap – Women’s Center contract) from the list; her
questions have been answered.
#7 Employee cap position
schedule
Motion: approve
item #7 Employee Position Cap Schedule for all employees, including grant
positions – approved unanimously.
#8 Vacant Property
Foreclosure Registry
Motion
(Boyer): appropriate $100,000 from the foreclosure registry revenue for the
City-Wide Blight Public Awareness Campaign replacing $100,000 from Special
Council Contingency - approved
unanimously.
#9 Inspector General’s Office
Motion (Boyer): approve the Inspector General’s
Office budget as revised and e-mailed to the committee earlier, adding $297,459
(instead of the $350,000 approved last week) and allocating $52,541 back to
Special Council Contingency - approved
unanimously.
#14 Building Inspection Division
Chief of Building Inspection
Tom Goldsbury distributed and discussed information on the Development Services
Division and noted that the division does not collect any fees for review of
development plans and permits. He described the division’s workload and
advocated for the addition of several positions and the imposition of a new
development services fee and a concurrent reduction of the building inspection
fee to more accurately match revenues with expenses.
Motion (Boyer):
approve the Building Inspection Division’s proposal to institute a new
development services review fee, reduce the building inspection fee, and add 5
new positions to the division, reducing the General Fund impact by the division
and increasing Special Council Contingency by $1,114,611 - approved unanimously.
#22 Stormwater debt service
Subfund 461 and #28 stormwater capital projects
Council Member Boyer
distributed copies of an e-mail to her from Council Auditor Kirk Sherman
showing potential available revenues from property tax revenues, General Fund
availability affected by the creation of the new development services review
fee approved in item #41 above, and a transfer of $2 from the JIA CRA account
which amount to $2,880,737 available for reallocation.
Motion: Transfer
stormwater debt service liability of $2,880,737 from the stormwater operating budget
to the General Fund and reduce the transfer from fund balance from $7,521,642
to $4,640,905, allowing retained earnings of $3,578,358 and transfer of
$2,421,642 from Subfund 461 to fully fund drainage system rehab and allow
$459,095 to provide funding for initial draws on Old Plan and Valens Drive
project – approved unanimously
Council Member Boyer quoted
from the state statute regarding allowable uses of CRA funds not expended
within the fiscal year and urged the City to be scrupulous in taking one of the
allowable actions to allocate any unused funds at the end of each year.
#20 Pottsburg Creek dredging
FIND application
Council Member Crescimbeni
posed questions about the project to Tera Meeks of the Parks and Recreation
Department and expressed frustration that the application was submitted for
FIND consideration in apparent disregard of the City’s established policies
requiring Council approval of such applications. Ms. Meeks quoted from a letter
from the design engineer declining to provide any guarantee on the length of
time the dredging project will remain navigable. Council Member Boyer pointed
out that the City will have to repay the $122,000 of design funding to FIND if
the project is abandoned and suggested that perhaps Pottsburg Creek area residents
could be asked to make private contributions to assist the City with funding
the project. Sam Mousa urged the Council to replace the words “guarantee” or
“warranty” with something more acceptable to the engineering profession, along
the lines of “best professional opinion”.
Motion (Crescimbeni):
strike the Pottsburg Creek dredge project from the FIND project list - withdrawn
Council Member Bowman noted
that the City and FIND have commissioned a countywide waterways master plan
that should help to inform the future project prioritization and funding
process.
#18 Armada game revenues
Motion: authorize
Armada revenues and expenses to be moved to account SPEF4C1SOC – approved unanimously.
Motion: insert
an Ordinance Code waiver in the budget ordinance to allow SMG to utilize its
procurement policies rather than the City’s procurement policies during the
fiscal year – approved unanimously.
#26 Transfer powers
Council Member Boyer
explained her concern with use of funds generated by receipt of additional
grant funds in excess of the original grant amount or funds made available from
supplanting one funding source with another being used for salary and benefit
funding without further Council approval. She distributed a proposed amendment
to prohibit the use of such funds for salary increases.
The item was tabled until
later in the meeting.
#36 JIA CRA proposed budget
Council Member Boyer
distributed and explained a proposed revised JIA CRA budget and explained the
need to adjust certain project amounts.
Motion (Boyer):
approve revisions to the JIA CRA budget as shown on the document just
distributed – approved unanimously.
#34 City employee
compensation restoration
CFO Mike Weinstein explained
that before any salary restorations can be made to unionized employees, that
restoration must be collectively bargained. Kelli O’Leary, Director of Employee
Services, state that the cost will be $1.5 million in salary (excluding
benefits) to restore the 2% pay decrease from 2010 to those employees who have
not had any restoration of the decrease since then (1,275 employees). Ms.
O’Leary will return after the lunch break with further information on separate
amounts for unionized and non-unionized employees and full totals for salary
and benefits. Mr. Weinstein noted that the proposed budget includes a $2.3
million allocation for potential collective bargaining agreement wage increases
during the year. Council Member Boyer advocated for budgeting
both a restoration of the 2% pay reductions to those employees who have not
received any increases and also allocation of a pool to allow the
administration to make additional adjustments as needed to rectify other
situations.
The committee was in recess from 11:55: p.m. to 12:30
p.m.
Fleet Management
Karim Kurji, Chief of Fleet
Management, reported that the division found some applicable equipment in
inventory for equipping JSO community service officer vehicles (light bars,
laptop mounts, etc.)
Motion (Boyer):
approve an allocation from Banking Fund borrowing of $123,767 for community
service officer vehicles equipment, authorize an adjustment to the vehicle cap,
and amend the Banking Fund borrowing list and cap to provide for this purchase
– approved unanimously.
#39 UF Health Jacksonville
indigent care funding
In response to a question
from Council Member Gaffney about how the hospital would use additional
indigent care funds, Penny Thompson, VP of Public Relations for UF Health,
stated that any additional funds would be allocated to the same uses as the
current indigent care funding for uncompensated care. Sam Mousa requested that
the Council not act on an increase in the indigent care funding at this time
until the Curry administration can convene a community brainstorming process to
develop a comprehensive solution to the City’s indigent care needs. The
administration will need to know how additional funding will be used and will
want to see evaluation metrics before investing any more in indigent care.
Chairman Gulliford said that the City can’t rely on either the Legislature or
Governor to help resolve the problem so it will be incumbent on the City to
shoulder the load itself in conjunction with the private sector. Council Member
Schellenberg felt that the Legislature would help with additional funding at
some point in the future once the City shows its resolve to make a serious
effort to ramp up its funding for indigent care. He also noted that the City is
developing an employee wellness program that could benefit UF Health’s paying
patient ratio. Council Member Boyer cautioned that adding funding to UF Health
or to employee pay increases raises the baseline budget for next year when the
City’s pension contributions will be increasing as well, placing further
pressure on available resources.
#18 Armada game revenues
Motion
(Boyer): clarify that the SMG waiver approved earlier is to Chapter 126, Part 2 of the Ordinace
Code, not Part 3 – approved unanimously.
#26 Transfer powers
Motion: amend
the prior motion on #26 to add “unless approved by MBRC prior to implementation
in compliance with the Mayor’s transfer authority” – approved unanimously.
#8 Vacant Property
Foreclosure Registry
Deputy General Counsel Peggy
Sidman asked the committee clarify on the record a motion made this morning
regarding appropriation of $100,000 from the Vacant Property Foreclosure
Registry revenues for the City-Wide Blight Public Awareness campaign so that it
is clear that the expenditures being charged to the fund are clearly understood
to be legal uses of the registry fund.
Motion (Boyer):
amend the earlier motion on #8 to provide the $52,366 for the City-Wide Blight
Public Awareness campaign be allocated from Special Council Contingency for
salary purposes and the at $47,634 be allocated from the Vacant Property
Foreclosure Registry revenue for other expenses - approved unanimously.
Solid Waste Division
Phillip Peterson of the
Auditor’s Office stated that his office has learned that $5.5 million in solid
waste debt service will be completely paid off in this fiscal year and will not
recur in next year’s budget, which will provide the capacity to pay the debt
service on the proposed purchase of garbage and recycling carts on behalf of
Advanced Disposal Services. Council Member Becton asked if the ADS contract for
the Southside includes the possibility of issuing smaller carts than the
typical carts used in other zones.
Motion (Crescimbeni):
authorize Banking Fund borrowing of $3.8 million (increasing Banking Fund debt
service by $250,000) to purchase recycling carts for Advanced Disposal Services,
pending resolution of pending Ordinance 2015-477 regarding renewal of ADS’s
franchise agreement - approved
unanimously
Motion
(Boyer): amend Crescimbeni motion to add a provision that these funds not be
borrowed by the Banking Fund unless and until 2015-477 is approved - approved unanimously
#41 Blue Cypress CIP cleanup
Motion: change
the source of the appropriation of $3,306 for the Blue Cypress to investment
earnings – approved unanimously.
#36 JIA CRA
Motion
(Gaffney): remove the Hart Road Bridge project from the CIP project list – approved unanimously
Mr. Mousa noted that the JIA
CRA plan needs to be amended to include this bridge project before it can be
included in the CRA plan. Ms. Boyer noted that the committee had earlier
allocated $200,000 for a study to amend the JIA CRA plan.
Jacksonville Public
Library
The committee debated where
best to add library hours with limited funding to achieve the best possible
coverage for the community.
Motion
(Brosche on behalf of Council Member Schellenberg): appropriate $94,644 from
Special Council Contingency to restore 8 hours of Monday operation for the
Mandarin Branch Library on Kori Road -
Motion (Gaffney):
call the question – dies for lack of a
second.
Motion
(Bowman): table discussion of additional library funding until later in the
meeting – approved 4-3.
#38 Downtown Investment
Authority parking garage debt service
Mr. Sherman asked the
committee to consider whether a policy should be implemented to recognize fund
transfers between the General Fund and the downtown tax increment districts and
whether the council wishes to reconsider whether the MPS courthouse parking
garage debt service should be paid from downtown TIF revenues, from the General
Fund or from some other source. Ms. Boyer gave a brief history of the
combination of the two downtown CRAs
Motion
(Bowman): reconsider the amendment approved by the Finance Committee at an
earlier meeting to create a system of IOUs between the General Fund and the
downtown CRA tax increment districts – approved
unanimously.
Motion:
(Boyer): repeal the amendment approved by the Finance Committee at an earlier
meeting to create a system of IOUs between the General Fund and the downtown
CRA tax increment districts to recognize subsidies from one account to the
other – approved.
Council Member Schellenberg
requested information on the cash flow position of the downtown courthouse and
Sports Complex parking garages.
#34 City employee salary
restorations
Kelli O’Leary provided the committee
with information on the number of employees, union and non-union, who have not
had their 2% pay reduction from 2010 restored at all and on the number that have had some restoration
but not a full 2%.
Motion
(Boyer): allocate $737,000 from Special Council Contingency to a designated
reserve account for potential use to restore the 2% pay reductions from 2010 to
approximately 1,700 non-collectively bargained employees who have not received
increases – approved unanimously.
Motion (Crescimbeni):
reconsider the allocation of $737,000 from Special Council Contingency to a
designated reserve account for potential use to restore the 2% pay reductions
from 2010 to approximately 1,700 non-collectively bargained employees who have
not received increases – approved.
Council Member Boyer
expressed doubt about the Council’s ability to unilaterally restore the 2% pay
reductions by its own action, believing that the administration has the
ultimate authority to expend the funds appropriated by Council.
Motion (Crescimbeni):
allocate $737,000 from Special Council Contingency to a designated reserve
account for potential use to restore the 2% pay reductions from 2010 to
approximately 1,700 non-collectively bargained employees who have not received
increases and direct the administration to effectuate the Council’s intent - approved unanimously.
Jacksonville Public
Library
The previous motion by
Council Member Schellenberg was removed from the table.
Motion
(Brosche on behalf of Council Member Schellenberg): appropriate $94,644 from
Special Council Contingency to restore 8 hours of Monday operation for the
Mandarin Branch Library on Kori Road - fails
1-6 (Gaffney in favor).
Special Council Contingency status: $1,153,566 to the positive.
In response to a question
from the Chair about where he would recommend using the $1.15 million in
Special Council Contingency, Kirk Sherman indicated that he would place it into
the Emergency Reserve. In response to the same question Mr. Mousa pointed out
that the committee has still not resolved the question of whether to restore
some of the JFRD demotions as requested earlier in the meeting. He reiterated
that the administration is not advocating for reopening the issue and reversing
the previous decision. He committed the administration to make the promised
JFRD safety improvements regardless of which program the committee ultimately
selects and whatever number of employees are funded.
Motion
(Gaffney): reconsider the committee’s previous decision on demoting several
JFRD chiefs and captains – fails 3-4.
Committee members expressed
varying opinions on the fairness or unfairness of the demotions, the need for
the safety officer positions, and the impact on departmental morale of
reversing or not reversing the proposed demotions. Fire Chief Kurt Wilson and
Randy Wyse of the IAFF explained how the safety officer positions have been
proposed over recent years but never included in the mayor’s proposed budgets.
Motion
(Boyer): allocate $500,000 from Special Council Contingency to Drainage System
Rehabilitation and $150,000 from Special Council Contingency to New Sidewalk
Construction – approved unanimously.
Motion (Boyer):
allocate the balance of the Special Council Contingency fund ($503,566) to the
vehicle replacement account to supplant Banking Fund borrowing - approved unanimously.
Mortion
(Boyer): allocate $121,493 from Building Inspection Fund Balance for Building
Inspection vehicles - approved
unanimously.
Motion: tentatively
approve the substitute on 2015-15 to incorporate all Finance Committee
amendments made to date - approved
unanimously.
Motion:
tentatively approve 2015-501 - approved
unanimously.
Motion:
tentatively approve 2015-502 - approved
unanimously.
Motion:
tentatively approve 2015-503 - approved
unanimously.
Motion:
approve amendment to 2015-505 – approved
unanimously
Motion:
tentatively approve 2015-505 as amended- approved
unanimously.
Motion:
approve amendment to 2015-506 – approved
unanimously
Motion:
tentatively approve 2015-506 as amended- approved
unanimously.
Motion:
approve amendment to 2015-507 – approved
unanimously
Motion:
tentatively approve 2015-507 as amended- approved
unanimously.
Council President Anderson
congratulated the committee on its outstanding work on the budget. Mr. Mousa
echoed those congratulations to the Chairman and the committee on behalf of the
Mayor and his administration.
Ms. Sidman explained that the
substitute budget ordinance will be on the Council agenda next Tuesday to for
the substitute to be adopted and then laid on the table for two weeks. The CIP
and Banking Fund bills will be adjusted to reflect the Finance Committee’s
actions to date. When the bill is up for final debate and adoption at the
Council meeting on September 21st, the Council President has asked
that any council member proposed floor amendments be prepared in writing and
submitted by noon on the 21st to be available to all members prior
to the meeting.
Chairman Gulliford and
Council Member Boyer thanked the administration, General Counsel and City
Council staff for their outstanding efforts during the budget process.
Public comment
Joe Strasser recounted his
experience with the Fire Department responding to a fire at his home and
thanked the committee for restoring some of the Fire Department chief and
captain demotions. He stressed the importance of education in living a
successful life and congratulated the committee on its good work.
Meeting Adjourned: 3:34 p.m.
Minutes: Jeff Clements, Council Research Division
9.4.15 Posted 9:30 a.m.
Tapes: Finance Committee Budget
Hearing #8 – LSD
9.2.15
Materials: Budget handouts
9.2.15