OFFICE OF THE CITY COUNCIL
117 WEST DUVAL STREET, SUITE
425
4TH FLOOR, CITY
HALL
. JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA 32202
Finance Committee Budget Hearing #6
Minutes
August 27, 2015
9:00 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, Tommy Hazouri, Garrett Dennis, Katrina Brown (arr.
9:31); Kirk Sherman, Kim Taylor, Phillip Peterson, Tommy Carter, Robert
Campbell – 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: 9:00 a.m.
Chairman Gulliford convened
the meeting with a quorum present and the members announced themselves for the
record. He announced that Chief Judge
Mark Mahon would be appearing at 1:00 p.m. to address an issue that was not
covered during his appearance before the committee yesterday.
Council Member Hazouri
thanked Council Member Boyer and the Council Auditor’s office for providing him
with additional information regarding the JTA’s presentation last week that
corrected information the JTA provided during its budget discussion. He urged
new council members to verify information they’re given by third parties to
ensure accuracy.
Page references from this point refer to Council
Auditor’s Meeting #6 handout – August 27, 2015.
Mayor’s Office
Motion: on
p. 3, approve Auditor’s recommendation to remove 3 unfunded positions
(administrative aide in the Administration activity, project manager in the
Education Office and Manager of Public Accountability) from the proposed budget
– approved unanimously.
In response to a question
from Council Member Boyer, CAO Sam Mousa reported that the Manager of Public Accountability
position responsible for coordinating public records requests has moved from
the Mayor’s Office to the Office of General Counsel. Ms. Boyer asked whether
the OGC employee cap was increased by one to accommodate that position
transfer.
Motion: on
p. 5, approve Auditor’s recommendation #1 to reduce contractor certification
revenue by $200,000 - approved
unanimously.
Motion: on
p. 5, approve Auditor’s recommendation #2 to remove code violation fine revenue
from th FY15-16 budget because it is already deposited into a trust fund - approved unanimously.
Employee Services
Kelli O’Leary, Director of
Employee Services, answered several questions by Council Member Crescimbeni
about the City’s tuition reimbursement policy. In the proposed budget the only
allocations are for the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office and the Fire and Rescue
Department; there is no reimbursement for other departmental personnel. Gail
Lopez, Chief of the JFRD Training Division, explained that a new college degree
requirement for captains takes effect in January 2016 and currently only 4 departmental
employees qualify to take the captain’s test for the upcoming openings.
In response to a question, Ms.
O’Leary reported that an employee may change their retirement option (defined benefit
versus defined contribution) up to three times within the first 5 years of
employment and not thereafter. Employees do not have the option to change plans
after retirement, although the Council Auditor believes that that may have
happened in the past.
Council Member Boyer
requested research on the City’s history of tuition reimbursement and the
number of employees to which it applied, and a history of the JFRD Memorandum
of Understanding referenced earlier. Mr. Gulliford asked whether the City reimburses
100% of the tuition in its program.
Chairman Gulliford urged the
administration to consider increasing the use of temporary employees who may
have excellent skills but not be interested in or able to work a full 40 hour
week for any number of reasons.
Human Rights Commission
In response to a question
from Chairman Gulliford, Executive Director Charlene Taylor-Hill reported that
the commission currently has approximately 400 cases either pending or requests
for investigations. Mr. Gulliford suggested that Ms. Hill meet with the new
Inspector General to determine if any of the cases referred to the HRC are
suitable for referral to the IG’s office. In response to a question from
Council Member Gaffney, Ms. Hill noted that the commission lost 2 investigators
in last year’s budget and is in need of further staff to handle its workload.
Downtown Vision Inc.
Jake Gordon, CEO of DVI,
answered questions from Council Member Schellenberg about the relationship
between DVI’s ambassadors and the Friends of Hemming Park personnel. Mr. Gordon
explained that the contract with FOHP for ambassador service was entered into
during the current fiscal year. Mr. Schellenberg asked for a cash flow analysis
of the ambassador service contract. Mr. Gordon explained DVI’s attempts to
encourage not-for-profit agencies to make voluntary contributions in support of
DVI’s work, as First Baptist Church and the Catholic Diocese of St. Augustine
have done.
Motion: on
p. 13, approve Auditor’s recommendation to replace Schedules AD and AE with
revised schedules to reflect a reduced City contribution by $169,838 to
$311,660 and reduce the Operating Expense budget to $919,859 – approved unanimously.
Mayor Lenny Curry thanked the
committee for the positive and collegial atmosphere exhibited by the Finance
Committee with his administration during this year’s budget hearings.
Jacksonville Journey
Motion: on p.
17, approve Auditor’s recommendation to place $3 million of proposed additional
funding into a designated contingency fund pending further identification of
specific uses –
Kerri Stewart, Mayor’s Chief
of Staff, distributed a document showing a proposed funding allocation for
Journey programs and asked that $60,000 for part-time hours and $150,000 for
assessment of existing programs.
Motion (Boyer):
adopt the administration’s proposed allocation spreadsheet (Kerri Stewart
handout) with $2,554,284 in new funding placed in a designated contingency fund
for future allocation, $445,716 allocated as shown on the spreadsheet for
immediate use, and last year’s funding levels for Journey programs being held
constant - approved unanimously.
Chairman Gulliford expressed
concern about reinvigorating the Jacksonville Journey and especially the
community’s level of engagement, which has waned considerably since the Journey
was launched a number of years ago. Council Member Crescimbeni requested that
the administration and the Journey Oversight Committee take a look at the
proposed Jacksonville Public Library youth outreach initiative in the near
future and not wait until early next year when the plan will be proposed for
use of the $2.55 million in additional Journey funding.
Jacksonville Children’s
Commission
Motion: on
p. 19, approve the department’s request to amend Schedule M to reflect receipt
of 2 additional grants and amend Section 10.1 of the budget ordinance to update
the total budget amount – approved
unanimously.
Motion: on
p. 20, approve the Auditor’s recommendation to update Schedule A-2 to shift
$60,000 from one index code to another - approved
unanimously.
Council Member Boyer asked
for an explanation of how salaries for some employees were increased in
mid-year and how that relates to the department’s overall salary figure
approved by Council. It appears that employees in the department got raises of
1, 2 or 3 percent and that other employees also got additional raises from
promotions. Ms. Boyer believes that some rationality is needed in the City’s
overall pay increase policies, particularly with regard to the departments’
ability to increase salaries in one year within the overall departmental salary
cap and employee cap vacancies and the effect that those increases in one year
have on the subsequent year’s budget. Several committee members urged the
administration to propose a comprehensive policy on salary adjustments that
covers City employees, the independent authorities and the Constitutional
officers.
Council Member Crescimbeni
urged Jon Heymann, CEO of the JCC, to propose funding for summer camperships at
the needed level at the beginning of the budget process and not bring emergency
requests after the summer camps have begun as has happened the last two years.
Council Member Bowman noted
an apparent pattern of position reclassifications in departments and asked for
additional information on who can authorize reclassifications and how they are
justified. Mr. Mousa said that an
Executive Order was signed by a former mayor that eliminated Mayor’s Budget
Review Committee review of position reclassifications within departments; only
positions being shifted from one department to another require Mayoral
approval. He believes that all position reclassifications and salary changes
should be reviewed by MBRC at least for information if not for formal approval.
In response to a question
from Council Member Becton, Deputy General Counsel Peggy Sidman explained that
the 2% salary reduction enacted by the City in 2010 came via collective
bargaining agreements for union employees and via the budget ordinance for
non-collectively bargained employees. She has consulted with the City’s outside
employment counsel Jim Lind who advised that the Council needs to be cautious
about taking a public position on salary matters for collectively bargained
employees because of its role in the collective bargaining impasse process. She
recommended a “shade” meeting to discuss this issue. Mr. Becton made the point
that restoring the 2% pay reductions is not a simple process that a single vote
of the Council would achieve; there are many factors involved, including
collective bargaining. In response to a question from Council Member Gaffney,
Kelli O’Leary stated that 1,278 city employees are being paid the same amount
in 2015 as the pay cut they took in 2010. Council Member Crescimbeni said that
many employees have received salary increases over the past 5 years since the
2% pay cut was instituted in 2010, some as a result of automatic step increases
provided by collective bargaining contracts, some as a result of position
reclassifications, some for other reasons. Chairman Gulliford asked for historical data
on employee turnover since 2007 for non-retirees and non-appointed officials.
Acting CFO Mike Weinstein said that the City Council has the power to enforce
policies on salary increases for the Constitutional officers and independent
authorities if it has the will to do so. Council Member Boyer said that in 2011
or 2012 the City Council voted against proposed JEA employee pay increases and
was told by the then-General Counsel that the Council did not have that
authority. She suggested that the new administration seek a new opinion from
the current General Counsel on that issue.
Kirk Sherman pointed out that
the existing Children’s Commission ordinance allows the JCC to relocate funds
within its budget for programmatic purposes but prohibits the JCC from shifting
funding away from children’s programs. The committee discussed whether
additional language is needed in the budget ordinance or in the Ordinance Code
to tighten the restriction on funding transfers. Cynthia Nixon, finance
director for the Children’s Commission, explained that the JCC did not use
programmatic funding for its mid-year salary increases but instead used funds
freed up from the receipt of grants providing overhead costs to free up City
salary dollars that were reallocated to the increases.
Motion
(Boyer): add language to the budget ordinance prohibiting mid-year adjustments
to administrative costs (salaries, benefits, operational expenses) without
Council approval, including prohibiting the use of new grant funds to supplant
previously-approved City funding and shifting the supplanted funds to other
uses – withdrawn.
In response to a proposal by
Council Member Crescimbeni to require all salary adjustments to come before the
Finance Committee for approval, Peggy Sidman cited an OGC legal opinion stating
that the Council has the authority to set salary ranges and appropriate a
salary line to departments, but cannot control individual employee salaries.
The committee was in recess from 11:15 to 11:25 a.m.
Public Works Department
Mr. Sherman discussed the
department’s electricity budget for streetlights and the impending end of the
20% discount the City has been receiving from JEA since 1996. Mr. Mousa
reported that the JEA had inventoried all the streetlights in the City and
determined that there were approximately 2,800 more lights in operation than
were on the inventory. The JEA is raising the streetlight charge to the full
cost of service and eliminating the discount. He stated that there is
considerable debate underway about the agreement between the City and the JEA,
whether the change constitutes a change or the complete elimination of the
existing agreement,
Motion: on
p. 28, approve the Auditor’s recommendation to reduce electric bill cost by
$1.1 million to reflect the upcoming JEA fuel credit and allocate $1,049,637 to
Special Council Contingency – approved
unanimously.
Council Member Boyer noted
that the City and FDOT appear to have a communication problem, citing a
situation on Hendricks Avenue where right-of-way maintenance responsibility has
shifted back and forth between FDOT and the City and the FDOT destroyed
landscaping for which the City had permits. She urged better communication
between the Public Works Department administration and the Mowing and Landscape
Division regarding which agency is responsible for which areas and what
landscaping has been properly permitted. Public Works Director Jim Robinson
answered questions from Ms. Boyer about the increase in the department’s budget
for fleet vehicle rental charge. Mr. Mousa clarified that the increase is
actually for the purchase of the new vehicles approved in the current year’s
budget, not for rental. Ms. Boyer requested that the department provide a
report on the delivery date for all of the new equipment and urged the
administration to plan for and propose funding for heavy equipment replacements
on a more regular and proactive basis so the City is not hamstrung when a
VacCon or Minzi Muck breaks down. Mr. Mousa indicated that the administration
will be working on vehicle repair and replacement policies in the coming year
to achieve a reduction in vehicle and equipment down-time and increase
efficiency.
The committee was in recess from 11:59 a.m. to 1:00
p.m.
Courts
Chief Judge Mark Mahon
appeared before the committee to request the addition of $42,821 to the court’s
budget for a total budget of $119,000
Motion
(Boyer): add $40,783 to the General Court Operating Budget from Special Council
Contingency for replacement furniture in public areas; books, publications and
subscriptions; and “smart board” equipment purchases – approved unanimously.
Public Works Department
Motion: on
p. 32, approve Auditor’s recommendation #1 to increase Tree Protection Trust
Fund expenditures by $62,500 and offset by increased investment pool earnings –
approved unanimously
Motion: on
p. 32, approve Auditor’s recommendation #2 to remove $1,943,000 from
landscaping and tree planting projects and offset by a decrease in
Contributions from Private Sources – approved
unanimously
Council Member Boyer asked
for clarification on who determined that certain tree planting projects were
not eligible for use of these funds. Sam Mousa said that Public Works had
determined that the 3 projects included more hardscape than tree planting and
therefore were ineligible. Acting Budget Officer Angela Moyer said that her
office is seeking clarification from the General Counsel’s Office about
legitimate uses of the tree protection trust fund. Peggy Sidman said that use
of the fund is currently under litigation and urged the committee to be very
cautious about further comments on this fund. Mr. Mousa pledged the
administration’s cooperation with Council Member Gaffney to develop tree
planting projects in his district. Council Member Schellenberg requested an
update on the current balance in the Loblolly Mitigation Fund and the district
Loblolly funds.
Motion: on
p. 33, approve Auditor’s recommendation to perform an all-year’s adjustment on
the Beach Erosion – Local account to eliminate previously approved transfers
from fund balance - approved unanimously.
Motion: on
p. 36, approve Auditor’s recommendation to change the Solid Waste Division
Supervision Allocation charged to the General Fund/GSD for sanitation services
by $12,063, offset by increasing division miscellaneous revenue by a like
amount – approved unanimously.
In response to a question
from Council Member Crescimbeni, Mr. Sherman indicated that his staff is still
analyzing the ability of the Solid Waste Disposal fund to absorb the cost of
the City’s purchase of solid waste and recycling carts on behalf of Advanced Disposal
Services. The committee deferred the discussion of cart purchase to later in
the meeting. Jeff Foster, Chief of Solid Waste, updated the committee on the
progress of the methane gas capture project at the closed landfills. Sam Mousa
committed to review the project for feasibility and potential cost savings
given the current low price of diesel fuel. In response to a question from
Council Member Crescimbeni, Jim Robinson updated the committee on the
construction of the new cell at the Trail Ridge Landfill and the current waste
disposal trend at the landfill, which is growing with the general pickup of
economic activity despite the City’s increasing recycling rate. The new cell
should open sometime in 2017 and will operate simultaneously with the existing
cell for a time. Ms. Boyer questioned whether the Solid Waste Disposal Fund 441
has enough capacity to pay the debt service on the landfill expansion project
while also paying solid waste operating expenses and purchasing trucks and
collection carts for the contract haulers. Mr. Robinson and Mr. Mousa stated
that this fund is facing fiscal stress and that consideration of a solid waste
fee increase and increasing operational efficiencies are in order.
Motion: on
p. 42, approve Auditor’s recommendation to eliminate the transfer in of
$229,250 from the Solid Waste Disposal Subund 441 to the Landfill Closure Fund
443 and offset with elimination of the cash carryover of $129,250 and a
transfer from fund balance of $100,000 – approved
unanimously.
Motion: on
p. 51, approve Auditor’s recommendation to decrease the Stormwater Services
Fund 461 Regulatory Compliance allocation for clothing/cleaning/shoes by $530
and offset with a corresponding cash carryover – approved unanimously.
Mr. Sherman discussed the
cash shortfall in the Stormwater Services Subfund 461 and the dwindling fund
balance, noting that, like the solid waste disposal fund, the time may be
approaching to consider an increase in the fee to restore the subfund’s
financial viability. Ms. Boyer noted that the fund is absorbing a $2 million
charge from the JEA for water quality credits in addition to the $4 million in
transfers for payment of debt service on drainage bonds that were issued before
the stormwater utility was created and was previously being paid by the General
Fund. She advocated for using this fund for stormwater capital projects and
announced that she would be proposing an amendment at tomorrow’s wrap-up
meeting to allocate other funds for the debt service being paid by this fund to
free up resources for construction projects. Mr. Mousa stated that the
administration is developing a new development management fee that will relieve
some of the stress from the stormwater utility fee. Ms. Boyer will propose and
amendment at tomorrow’s wrap-up meeting to address changes to the use of the
stormwater utility fee.
The committee discussed a
proposal to transfer half of the funding programmed for the Newtown Drainage
Project to other stormwater projects that are more ready to begin construction
immediately. Council Member Boyer explained the Council’s actions in last
year’s budget process to shift money out of drainage projects that are not
sufficiently funded or are not ready for construction for engineering, design,
permitting and other reasons into projects that are “shovel ready”. Mr. Mousa
said that the administration’s top priority is to get shovel ready projects
underway immediately and put available dollars to work.
Motion (Boyer):
on p. 52, approve departmental request #1 to transfer $2,421,642 from the
Newtown Drainage Project to Drainage System Rehab and replace the funding for
Newtown in FY16-17 – fails 3-4.
State and federal grants
Motion: on
pp. 56, approve Auditor’s recommendation to attach Revised Schedules B1-A, B1-B
and B1-C – approved unanimously.
Motion: on p. 57, approve
Auditor’s recommendation to include the accidentally omitted COPS hiring grant
on Schedule B1-B - approved unanimously.
Council Member Crescimbeni
suggested the need for codification of the Jacksonville Journey rather than
leaving its authorization to the annual budget ordinance. Mr. Sherman committed
to work with the General Counsel’s Office to craft ordinance language for
consideration.
Special Council Contingency status: $2,246,956 to
the positive.
The committee was in recess from 3:02 to 3:19 p.m.
Page references from this point refer to Council
Auditor’s Wrap-Up Items handout – Meeting 7 – August 28, 2015.
Wrap-up items
The committee reviewed the
Council Auditor’s list of 29 wrap-up items accumulated throughout the first 6
budget hearings. With regard to Item #3 – JEA budget (regarding amending the
streetlight tariff), Mike Weinstein suggested that the City be proactive, if
that is the Council’s decision, and not budget the $2.3 million for increased
street light electricity. That would put the onus on the JEA to prove its case
for the increase. Regarding the Fire and Rescue Department safety officers, Mr.
Mousa said that a proposal to revert most of the promoted positions back to
their prior level has been developed and will be ready for discussion tomorrow.
Motion (Boyer):
on p. 2, item #12, delete from the Parks and Recreation Department budget the
$74,415 for salary and benefits for the Homeless Day Resource Center employee
and reduce the department’s employee cap by 1 - approved unanimously.
Folks Huxford, Director of
the Planning and Development Department, answered questions from the committee
about the department’s revenue projections for building inspection revenue and
described the trends in applications and permitting. Mr. Sherman distributed
and discussed a chart showing the basis for the Auditor’s recommendation to
reduce the proposed departmental revenue. The committee agreed to leave
unchanged the number of Building Inspection personnel, given the growth in
building activity in recent years.
Motion
(Boyer): on p. 2, item #13, approve the Council Auditor’s recommendation to
reduce Planning Department projected revenue by $282,912 – approved unanimously.
Motion: on
p.3, item #15, authorize the Council Auditor and OGC to revise the Council
Member salary table if the latest county official salary figures are received
from the state prior to budget adoption - approved
unanimously.
Motion: on
p. 3, item #19, reduce the OGC’s IT internal service charge by $50,000 to
reflect that the OGC is not utilizing the City’s document scanning system - approved unanimously.
Regarding item #27 – SMG
salary increases, Mr. Mousa committed to invite SMG to be present at tomorrow’s
meeting and to be prepared to defend its proposed salary increases.
Regarding item #18 – Armada
ticket surcharge revenues, Kim Taylor of the Auditor’s Office reported that the
revenue is being deposited into the wrong index code and being co-mingled with
other Baseball Grounds funds.
Committee members added the
following items to the agenda for the wrap-up meeting tomorrow:
30) Public Service Grant amounts
31) City Council employee compensation
32) Office of General Counsel employee cap for transfer of
Chief of Public Accountability position.
33) Library expenditure of fee revenue for children’s
rooms renovations; limitation on expending the funds before the revenues are
received.
34) City employee salary cut restoration
35) Art in Public Places discussion
36) JIA CRA budget – recognize $300,000 for a CRA study
and correct the FY14-15 budget to reduce cash carryover
37) Parks and Recreation – did the two positions
eliminated by the outsourcing of Sexual Assault Center services to the Women’s
Center of Jacksonville reduce the department’s employee cap?
38) DIA IOU for General Fund subsidy of parking garage
debt service
39) UF Health contribution
40) Solid Waste 441 Subfund
Bill McConnell, General
Manager of SMG Jacksonville, answered questions about salary increases
programmed in SMG’s budget. Heather Reber of the Auditor’s Office stated that she
understands from SMG that the salary increases include collectively bargained
raises for union employees and a reinstatement of a pool for merit increases to
retain non-union employees who have not had increases in the last 5 years.
Chairman Gulliford stated
that he would inform the City Council by e-mail that the budget has been
largely completed and inviting their proposals for additional amendments which
will be offered by the Vice Chair for the committee’s consideration. The
committee wills schedule a separate meeting for next week to entertain that
input. Mr. Sherman and Ms. Sidman reminded the committee that the budget must
be approved by the Finance Committee and forwarded to the Council on September
8th to be tentatively approved and placed “on the table” for the two
week public review period. The committee will schedule another budget hearing
for Wednesday, September 2nd.
Special Council Contingency status: $2,038,459 to the positive.
Pending information
requests
·
Council Member Boyer
asked whether the OGC employee cap was increased by one to accommodate the
transfer of the Manager of Public Accountability position.
·
Council Member
Crescimbeni asked for additional details on the JSO and JFRD tuition
reimbursement programs and the City’s legal requirement to provide those
reimbursements.
·
Council Member
Gulliford asked for the derivation of the college degree requirement for fire
captains and when and how that was adopted.
·
Council Member
Boyer requested research on the City’s history of tuition reimbursement and the
number of employees to which it applied, and a history of the JFRD Memorandum
of Understanding referenced earlier. Mr. Gulliford asked whether the City
reimburses 100% of the tuition in its program.
·
Council Member
Boyer asked for information from the Human Rights Commission about the makeup
of the commission’s caseload – what percentage concern race, religion,
employment, housing, etc.
·
Council Member
Schellenberg asked for a cash flow analysis of the ambassador service contract
between DVI and Friends of Hemming Plaza.
·
Several committee
members urged the administration to propose a comprehensive policy on salary
adjustments that covers both City employees, the independent authorities and
the Constitutional officers.
·
Chairman
Gulliford asked Employee Services for historical data on City employee turnover
patterns since 2007 for non-retirees and non-appointed officials.
·
Discuss the
Council Member Boyer “tighten up transfer authority” proposal.
·
Ms. Boyer
requested that the Public Works Department provide a report on the delivery
date for all of the new equipment that was authorized in the current year’s
budget.
·
Council Member
Schellenberg requested an update on the current balance in the Loblolly
Mitigation Fund and the council district Loblolly funds.
·
Ms. Boyer
recommends that the committee endorse Auditor’s Option #1 on p. 51 with major
modifications to address the stormwater services fee.
Public comment
None
Meeting Adjourned: 4:55 p.m.
Minutes: Jeff Clements, Council Research Division
8.28.15 Posted 3:00 p.m.
Tapes: Finance Committee Budget
Hearing #6 – LSD
8.27.15
Materials: Budget handouts
8.27.15