OFFICE OF THE CITY COUNCIL
117 WEST DUVAL STREET, SUITE 425
4TH FLOOR, CITY
HALL
. JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA 32202
Finance Committee Budget Hearing #4
Minutes
August 21, 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, Katrina Brown, Joyce Morgan, Tommy Hazouri, Matt Schellenberg, Greg
Anderson (arr. 9:36), Sam Newby (arr. 1:37); Kirk Sherman, Kyle Billy, Kim
Taylor – 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 and Angela Moyer – 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.
Page references from this point refer to Council
Auditor’s Independent Agencies handout – August 21,
2015.
JEA
Assistant Council Auditor
Kyle Billy reviewed the JEA’s operating and capital budgets. Council Member
Boyer asked about the timing of the upcoming fuel charge rebate and whether it
is reflected in the FY15-16 proposed budget, which it is. In response to a
question from Ms. Boyer about how the JEA can use its excess fuel revenue
stabilization fund, Paul McElroy, CEO of the JEA, said that the fuel fund is a
closed fund for fuel purchase purposes only; any excess revenues can only be
rebated to customers and cannot be transferred to other funds for different
uses. Chairman Gulliford asked for legal research on whether the fuel fund can
be used for other purposes or is solely restricted to fuel purchases or rebates
to customers. He understands that it is a requirement of the Public Service
Commission of investor-owned utilities and may be an industry best practice,
but he believes that debt reduction is an equally valid use of the fund on
behalf of the ratepayers. John Hirabayashi, JEA board member, discussed the JEA
board’s decision on the timing of the fuel credit.
Ms. Boyer posed questions to
Mr. McElroy, Mr. Hirabayashi and City CAO Sam Mousa about the JEA’s rate
discount for large electric users, the Memorandum of Understanding with the
City for street light services and rates, and the recent elimination of the
street light discount by the JEA that increased the City’s electric bill by
over $2 million. Mr. Mousa has asked the Office of General Counsel for an
interpretation of whether the elimination of street light discount constitutes
a modification or a cancellation of the MOU. Ms. Boyer asked that this topic be
added to the agenda of the Special Committee on the JEA Agreement.
Ms. Boyer asked several
questions about the JEA capital budget and asked Mr. McElroy to provide a
listing of projects that are intended to serve new territory and customers
versus repair and replacements of existing facilities. Mr. McElroy noted that
sometimes capital projects are intended to upgrade reliability and provide
redundancy to existing customers, which may or may not serve new customers. Ms.
Boyer explained her interest in exploring whether the JEA is building new water
and electric service lines to serve new customers at the utility’s expense and
spreading the costs over the whole customer base which Mr. McElroy has
previously told the City Council that the JEA does not do. Council Member Schellenberg
posed questions about the JEA’s recently announced hiring of a chief of public
affairs, the utility’s stance on a pending state law change regarding who pays
for utility line relocations for road projects (the utility or the city or
county), and about the JEA’s re-sale of natural gas on a wholesale basis. Mr.
McElroy explained that the JEA’s capital budgeting process is somewhat unusual
in that all projects are administratively closed at the end of each fiscal year
and must be re-evaluated and re-authorized each year with an exact cash flow
projection for the coming year. Council Member Schellenberg requested
information from the JEA on the number of projects that are canceled or
substantially changed at these yearly reviews.
Pastor John Guns introduced a
visiting group of One City, One Jacksonville young men on a tour of City Hall.
Council Member Crescimbeni
posed questions about the JEA’s reserve funds and the amounts that are added to
and deducted from those accounts during the fiscal year and about the JEA’s
salary increases, both for bargaining units and for other employees. Much of
the salary increase is attributable to collectively bargained pay raises and
some is attributable to step increases and the filling of positions that were
vacant in the previous year. JEA does salary surveys to compare itself with other similar utilities and targets the 50th
percentile as its goal. Mr. McElroy returned to a discussion of large user
electric discounts and stated that the Office of General Counsel has opined
that the JEA could no longer offer the street light discount to the City. Other
large user discount agreements entered into in the 1990s have run their course
of 5 or 10 years and have sunset. Mr. McElroy responded to a question from
Council Member Gaffney about how the JEA prioritizes its capital improvement
needs and project list. He noted that the most recent J.D. Power survey results
show that the JEA is the top ranked utility in the southeast for customer
satisfaction and third in the nation. Council Member Gulliford asked for
information on the savings the JEA realizes from buying its fuel through City
fleet management. In response to questions Mr. McElroy said that 31% of JEA
employees live outside of the City of Jacksonville and the utility has $2
million set aside for a future downtown improvement project that may be the
development of the Jacksonville Shipyards property. Mr. Gulliford asked Mr.
McElroy for additional information on an advertisement he received from Florida
Power and Light offering to install a lightning
protection system on JEA’s meter to protect JEA customers from lightning surge
damage. Council Member Crescimbeni asked Mr. McElroy for clarification of the
number of street lights covered by the Memorandum of Understanding.
Motion: tentatively
approve the JEA budget as presented – deferred
pending further meetings between the administration and the JEA to answer
questions posed today.
Page references from this point refer to Council
Auditor’s Meeting #4 handout – August 21, 2015.
Local Option Gas Tax
Motion: on
p. 2, approve Auditor’s recommendation to decrease the amount of gas tax
transfer to JTA by $396,784 to account for one month of transferring 5 cents
rather than the full 6 cents of the tax, and placing that amount in cash
carryover in Subfund 143 – approved
unanimously.
Page references from this point refer to Council
Auditor’s Independent Agencies handout – August 21,
2015.
Jacksonville Transportation
Authority
Assistant Council Auditor
Kyle Billy reviewed the JTA’s operating and capital budgets. Council Member
Schellenberg requested information from the JTA about the ridership of the
Connexions community transit service over the past several years. JTA CEO
Nathaniel Ford said that his staff will be making a presentation to the board
in the next week of several different options for how to deal with the Skyway
in the future. Mr. Ford indicated that various options are being considered for
making revisions to the community transportation system, including the use of
subsidized taxicabs. Council Member Hazouri questioned the amount of JTA sales
tax for tolls that ended up being transferred to the Better Jacksonville Plan
for building construction projects and the subsequent extension of the local
option gas tax to complete the construction of a list of road BJP road projects
that weren’t completed with BJP sales tax funds. He questions what assurance
the City and the taxpayers have that sales tax revenue that was specifically
prohibited from being used for the Skyway is not being co-mingled with gas tax
funds and ending up in Skyway operations. Sam Mousa offered a clarification of
the various allocations of the BJP sales tax between transportation and vertical
construction projects and the transfer of BJP and local option gas tax funds
between the City and the JTA for different sets of road projects and stated
that none of the BJP funding intended for transportation projects ended up in
vertical construction. Council Member Boyer noted that the Special CIP
Committee spent four months analyzing the BJP project funding and said that
agrees with Mr. Mousa’s assertion that no BJP transportation funding went to
vertical construction projects.
Council Member Crescimbeni
discussed the transfer of the St. Johns River (Mayport) Ferry to the JTA for
operation and noted the uncertainty in timing and the consequent effect on both
the City’s and the JTA’s budgets. The Ferry Commission will meet next week to
adopt its budget and to try and determine a timeline for the transfer, which may
depend on the JTA’s willingness to commit to funding half the cost of the ferry
overhaul that will take place in December. The timing of federal FLAP grant
quarterly payments also plays into the timing of the transfer for simplicity’s
sake in accounting.
Council Member Boyer
commented on the growth in sales tax revenues and how it’s treated by the JTA
since it represents revenue not appropriated by City Council, at least until
the JTA requests a retroactive budget reconciliation
such as the bill currently pending before Council to amend JTA’s FY12-13
budget. Ms. Boyer wants the Council Auditor and administration to study this
issue and propose a mechanism for dealing with these excess revenues in the
future. She also questioned the budgeting of a $1.25 million operating
contingency for unspecified purposes. Mr. Sherman and Mr. Weinstein agreed that
excess revenues should not be expended prior to appropriation.
In response to a question
from Council Member Gaffney about the JTA’s commitment to running the ferry,
JTA board members Isaiah Rumlin and Kevin Holzendorf and CEO Nathaniel Ford all
stated that the JTA is fully committed to taking ownership of and operating the
ferry, but Mr. Ford did caution that the authority was not willing to accept
responsibility for funding years of deferred maintenance from the period when
the ferry was owned and operated by the State of Florida and then Jaxport.
Council Member Boyer
questioned the timing of projected construction of several road projects using
the extended local option gas tax. The Council’s understanding when the gas tax
was extended was that projects were chosen specifically to be immediately
construction-ready and she is puzzled by the fact that some projects are now
not scheduled for groundbreaking for 2 or 3 more years.
Motion (Boyer):
amend the budget ordinance to provide that any excess sales tax revenue beyond
the approved budgeted amount would require further Council appropriation before
expenditure – approved unanimously.
In response to questions
about the timing of the start of construction on Mobility Works projects funded
by the gas tax extension, Mr. Ford referred to a letter he wrote to Council
Member Crescimbeni earlier in August that explained the reasons for the delays,
which include faulty project cost estimates, insufficient designs that were
supposed to be 100% complete, and rising construction costs in the marketplace
as the economy improves. This issue will be deferred to next Friday’s meeting.
Motion: on
p. 56, approve Auditor’s recommendation #1 to decrease local option gas tax
revenue for buses on Revised Schedule O by $459,506 and decreasing the Bus
Contingency line by an equal amount – approved
unanimously.
Motion: on
p. 56, approve Auditor’s recommendation #2 to increase Gross Sales Tax Proceeds
(BJP) on Revised Schedule O by $886,062 and increase the Transfer to COJ for
Debt Service (BJP) line item under Engineering on Revised Schedule P by a like
amount; also increase the Net Sales Tax – Operating line under Bus on Revised
Schedule O by $886,062 and increase the Contingency line item under Bus on
Revised Schedule P by a like amount – approved
unanimously.
Mr. Ford described the JTA’s
fuel acquisition methods including hedging contracts and use of a fuel pricing
consultant. In response to a question he reported that 10% of JTA’s employees
live outside of the City of Jacksonville.
The remainder of the JTA
budget will be taken up at next Friday’s meeting.
The committee was in recess from 12:17 to 1:30 p.m.
Jacksonville Aviation
Authority
Mr. Billy reviewed the JAA’s
proposed capital and operating budgets, noting that the JAA neither receives a
financial contribution from the City nor makes any financial contribution to
the City (per Federal Aviation Administration regulations on use of airport
funding).
Motion: on
p. 66, approve Auditor’s
recommendation #1 to revise Schedule G to increase the expenditure line for Services
and Supplies by $18,981 and decrease the Operating Contingency line by the same
amount to revise the cost of fire/rescue services - approved unanimously.
Motion: on
p. 66, approve Auditor’s recommendation #2 to revise Schedule H to increase the
JIA capital funding budget by $40,000 for an omitted project and increase
Transfers to Operating Capital by a like amount – approved unanimously.
Motion: on
p. 66, approve Auditor’s recommendation #3 to make various technical
corrections to Schedule H - approved
unanimously.
In response to a question
from Council member Schellenberg, JAA CEO Steve Grossman stated that although
an expansion of Craig Airport is in the JAA’s long range plan, the authority
has no interest in pursuing that expansion until such time as the JAA, the City
and the surrounding neighborhoods all reach agreement on an acceptable
expansion plan. In response to a question from Council Member Boyer, Mr.
Grossman stated that all of the items on the capital budget list are intended
to be built in the upcoming fiscal year.
Mr. Grossman responded to questions from Council Member Crescimbeni
about the authority’s advertising budget and the intended market for that
advertising. In response to a question from Council Member Gaffney, Mr.
Grossman reported that 35% of the authority’s employees are non-Jacksonville
residents and that 84% of the authority’s expenditures are with Jacksonville
companies.
Motion:
tentatively approve the JAA’s budget as presented - approved unanimously.
Jacksonville Port
Authority
Mr. Billy reviewed the JAA’s
proposed capital and operating budgets. In response to a question from Chairman
Gulliford, JPA CEP Brian Taylor indicated that the authority does not compile
separate financial operating reports on each line of business (vehicles,
containers, cruise ships, etc.).
Motion: on
p. 74, approve Auditor’s recommendation #1 to increase Shared Revenue from
Primary Government by $47,484 - approved
unanimously.
Motion: on
p. 74, approve Auditor’s recommendation #2 to remove and replace Schedule J to
make formatting changes - approved
unanimously.
In response to a question
from Council Member Boyer, Mr. Taylor indicated that all items on the JPA’s
capital projects budget are intended to be constructed in the upcoming fiscal
year. In response to a question from Council Member Gaffney, JPA board chairman
John Newman stated that the board is very engaged in overseeing the work of the
authority while respecting the policy/administration separation. Mr. Taylor
answered questions from Council Member Crescimbeni about the nature of tenant
improvements being made at the Talleyrand Terminal. Mr. Taylor indicated that
the authority has no plans at present to divest itself of the property it
acquired in Mayport when it operated the Mayport Ferry. It will be cooperative
with the Mayport Community Redevelopment Area process. In response toa question from
Council Member Gaffney, Mr. Taylor indicated that 79% of the authority’s
employees live in Jacksonville and that the authority is making its best
efforts to utilize local small and minority businesses in its contracting
opportunities. In response to a question from Council Member Brosche, Mike
Poole, the JPA Finance Director stated that the authority’s debt service
coverage ratios are close to the City’s ratios, but he is unaware if the debt
management parameters are exactly the same as the City’s. Council Member
Crescimbeni thanked Jaxport for handling the Mayport Ferry’s security and
allowing the ferry administration to operate rent-free from its building on the
authority’s property in Mayport; the authority has been a good partner to the
ferry and the Ferry Ambassadors.
Motion: tentatively
approve the JPA budget - approved
unanimously.
Page references from this point refer to Council
Auditor’s Meeting #4 handout – August 21, 2015.
Finance Department
Mr. Weinstein thanked his
Finance Department staff for their hard work in the budget preparation process
and announced that legislation is being filed to appoint Angela Moyer as the
City’s budget officer. In response to a question from Council Member Boyer
about the problems the City Council has heard about in recent years regarding
lack of manpower to process and post transactions, produce reports, etc., Mr.
Weinstein stated that the budget as proposed contains enough funded personnel
to properly handle the departments functions. Ms. Moyer explained the addition
of a new position dedicated to the new Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)
acquisition process.
Risk Management Division
Mr. Sherman recommended that
the Risk Management budget be amended to fund Worker’s Compensation and General
and Auto Liability reserves at a 70% confidence rate rather than the 55%
confidence rate used in recent years. Mr. Mousa stated that the administration
believes the City has appropriate reserves in place overall and that the 55%
rate is an acceptable level given the other budgetary needs. Mr. Sherman
cautioned the committee that several financial adjustments are looming in the
future with regard to pension contributions and worker’s compensation claims
that will affect reserve accounts. Risk Manager Twane Duckworth reported that
the City experienced several “shock claims” in worker’s compensation during the
current fiscal year which makes the current experience look worse than it
otherwise have been for the year; prior to one $3.5 million claim the trend was
positive. Legacy claims are being closed at an increasing rate and claims
processing is beign handled much more efficiently than in the past. Sam Mousa
noted that when he was in the private sector his construction company invested
significant resources and effort in training programs that brought down their
worker’s comp claims significantly; you need to invest in programs that save
money in claims reductions. In response to a question from Council Member
Crescimbeni, Mr. Duckworth stated that 82% of total worker’s comp claims are
generated by the Sheriff’s Office and Fire and Rescue Departments, and be
understood that the allocations to the departments reflected those ratios. Mr.
Crescimbeni requested confirmation of the allocation ratios by the Finance
Department and Council Auditor. Council Member Schellenberg urged the City to
be more pro-active in encouraging employee health and wellness and actively
reducing worker’s comp claims.
Motion: on
p. 7, approve Auditor’s recommendation to budget the cost of Worker’s Compensation
and General and Auto Liability at a 70% confidence level instead of 55% and
utilize $2,948,609 from Special Council Contingency to achieve that confidence
level – fails 0-7.
Art in Public Places
Motion: on
p. 10, approve the Cultural Council’s request to move the $11,500 from
Miscellaneous Services and Charges to Professional Services – approved unanimously.
Employee Services
Department
Motion: on
p. 13, approve Auditor’s recommendation #1 to adjust expense premiums paid to
result in a net total budget decrease of $7,215 – approved unanimously.
Motion: on p. 13, approve
Auditor’s recommendation #2 to move group health expenses more consistent with
how the costs are actually paid - approved
unanimously.
City Council
Council Secretary/Director
Cheryl Brown presented three departmental requests regarding a salary increase
pool, additional professional services for IT cloud storage and use of cash
carry-forward of $6,968 for professional services for staff office ergonomic
evaluations. Ms. Brown and Angela Moyer answered questions from Council Member
Crescimbeni about the process by which Council Auditor salary increases were
included in the Mayor’s proposed budget while Council Staff Services salary
increases were not included in the proposed budget but were listed as a
departmental betterment request. Council Member Crescimbeni suggested that the
salary increase pool be conditioned on a 2.47% distribution formula.
Motion: on
p. 17, approve the Council Secretary’s three departmental requests – approved unanimously.
Motion: on
p. 17, approve Auditor’s recommendation #1 to reduce Council Members’ direct
parking and tolls by $6,677 and increase Special Council Contingency by the
same amount –
Motion: on
p. 17, approve Auditor’s recommendation #2 to increase Communication Allowance
by $2,560, decrease Council Members Direct Expenditures by $11,124 and increase
Special Council Contingency by $8,564 – approved
unanimously.
Motion: on
p. 17, approve Auditor’s recommendation #3 to remove and replace Attachment B
(chart of council members’ salary waivers) to reflect the state elected
official salary table – approved
unanimously.
Motion: on
p. 17, approve Auditor’s recommendation #4 to reduce Council Auditor computer
system maintenance/security line by $49,483 and increase the Council Staff
Services computer system maintenance/security line by a like amount to correct
an incorrectly booked allocation - approved
unanimously.
Page references from this point refer to Council
Auditor’s handout Duval County Tourist Development Council Budget 2015-2016
Tourist Development
Council
Council Member Boyer noted
that the 3 City Council members of the TDC opposed the budget as it was
proposed, objecting to the TDC’s contract with Visit Jacksonville; the other
members of the TDC voted in favor of the budget. Ms. Boyer objects to the TDC’s
allocation of 80% of the bed tax revenue (the 70% required by the existing
5-year contract plus an additional 10%) to Visit Jacksonville rather than a specified
dollar amount per year and believes that more of the bed tax revenue should be
allocated for other event promotions functions besides Visit Jacksonville’s
marketing program.
Motion: amend
the TDC budget to reduce the allocation for marketing initiative to $100,000
and allocate the remaining $456,000 in the proposed budget for that purpose to
“Other Grants” – approved 5-2.
Page references from this point refer to Council
Auditor’s Meeting #4 handout – August 21, 2015.
OED – Public Parking
Motion: on
p. 26, approve Auditor’s recommendation
#1 to change PFPF contra revenue by $10,000 from negative $400,000 to negative
$390.000 to reflect a 30% distribution of parking fines – approved unanimously.
Motion: on
p. 27, approve Auditor’s recommendation #2 to adjust contra revenue from negative
$76.500 to negative $51,000 to reflect a 17% distribution of collections - approved unanimously.
Council Member Gulliford
suggested that the Public Parking function be transferred to the Downtown
Investment Authority. Ms. Boyer reported that the DIA board is very much in
favor of making that change.
OED – Motor Vehicle
Inspection
Motion: on
p. 31, approve Auditor’s
recommendation to add back $2,100 in clothing/cleaning/shoes transfer allowance
and offset by a decrease in cash carryover – approved unanimously.
Office of Sports and
Entertainment
Dave Harrell, Director of
Sports and Entertainment, explained the need for the position of operations
manager after Sports and Entertainment was shifted out of the Office of
Economic Development. Mr. Harrell answered questions from Mr. Crescimbeni about
how funding for the Florida Country Superfest and the Florida/Georgia football
game was transferred from the Tourist Development Council’s budget to the
Office of Sports and Entertainment. There are rumors that the promoter may not
bring the Country Superfest back to Jacksonville at the end of the contract
term, although the City is very interested in keeping the event. In response to
a question from Council Member Boyer, Mr. Sherman stated that moving funds from
the SMG promotions account to a specific use would require Council action. Mr.
Mousa noted that there are really two SMG promotion funds – one a $1 million
account of which $200,000 has been used in prior years, and a second $500,000
fund that is jointly controlled by SMG and the City. Ms. Boyer asked the
Council Auditor and the Finance Department to review and reconcile the amounts
available in the several different special events trust funds and to evaluate
the need for the proposed $5 million subsidy from the General Fund for various
special events.
SMG Facilities
Bill McConnell, General
Manager of SMG Jacksonville, explained the overestimation of increased
electricity usage for the EverBank Field video boards and discussed the use of
the video boards by events using the stadium. Mr. McConnell explained that SMG
is still owed approximately $90,000 for the cost of removing signage from the
Veteran’s Memorial Arena from the law firm that had the exterior advertising
rights. SMG will need to weigh the costs of legal action to recover those funds
when determining if it is worth the cost and effort to attempt to recover that
amount.
Motion: on
p. 47, approve Auditor’s recommendation to increase the advertising revenue
line for the Arena by $125,000 and increasing the event contribution expense by
the same amount – approved unanimously.
Mr. Mousa reported that the
cost of converting the Baseball Grounds to a soccer stadium for Jacksonville
Armada games is exceeding the projections and those additional costs are
currently being borne by the Armada, although Mr. Mousa has heard that the team
may be considering approaching the City to discuss the issue. Ms. Boyer asked
the Auditor’s Office to research whether ticket surcharge revenue is being
received from the Armada games and deposited into the account that was created
for that revenue. Ms. Boyer also asked for additional information on whether
the General Fund contribution to the Baseball Grounds is shown as increasing by
$700,000 because the appropriation to the field conversion for FY14-15 was not
included in the FY15-16 budget.
Chairman Gulliford expressed
concern that the City is not budgeting very much for facilities maintenance for
the SMG facilities and hoped that deferred maintenance needs are not accumulating
to expensive repair needs.
Tax Increment District
funds
Motion: on
p. 68, approve Auditor’s recommendation to increase the General Fund transfer
in to Subfund 181 by $14,500 and decrease the transfer in from Northside West
TID to account for an omission – approved
unanimously.
Motion
(Boyer): on p. 68, amend the schedule to reflect the repayment revenue from the
Carling project – approved unanimously.
Mr. Crescimbeni noted that
the Northbank East TID continues to run a deficit and he has been informed by
the Office of General Counsel that transfers from the General Fund into a TID
in deficit can be booked as an obligation for repayment at a future date. Mr.
Mousa and Mr. Sherman agreed that most likely the assignment of tax increment
funds as the funding source for items such as downtown parking garages was done
via Council ordinance, not by administrative fiat.
Motion (Crescimbneni): begin the practice of booking
General Fund contributions to tax increment districts as non-interest-bearing
liabilities – approved 6-1 (Boyer
opposed).
Other
Motion:
authorize the Finance Department to make clean-up adjustments to the
committee’s appropriation from the Taye Brown Regional Park account to the
Equestrian Center - approved unanimously.
Council Member Crescimbeni
questioned whether the single Tourist Development Council employee is eligible
for the salary increase authorized for other City Council employees earlier in
the meeting. Council President Anderson will research whether the position is
already included in the program or if the Finance Committee needs to make a
budget amendment next week to include it.
Public comment
Joseph Strasser commented on
the vital importance of the Council Auditor in the City’s financial dealings
and urged the committee to listen to his office’s sage advice. He urged the
committee to fully fund basic city services such as park maintenance and
libraries open every day of the week. Fiscal conservatism is not antithetical
to investing in public assets.
Connie Benham questioned
whether the SMG budget contains employee raises and, if so, the justification
for those raises.
Special Council Contingency status: $1,170,007 to
the positive.
Pending action items
·
Mr. Mousa has
asked the Office of General Counsel for an interpretation of whether the
elimination of street light discount constitutes a modification or a
cancellation of the MOU. Ms. Boyer asked that this topic be added to the agenda
of the Special Committee on the JEA Agreement.
·
Mr. Crescimbeni
requested confirmation of the worker’s compensation claims allocation ratios among
the departments by the Finance Department and Council Auditor.
·
Council Member
Gulliford asked for information on the savings the JEA realizes from buying its
fuel through City fleet management.
·
Ms. Boyer asked
the Auditor’s Office to research whether ticket surcharge revenue is being
received from the Armada games and deposited into the account that was created
for that revenue.
·
Ms. Boyer also
asked for additional information on whether the General Fund contribution to
the Baseball Grounds is shown as increasing by $700,000 because the
appropriation to the field conversion for FY14-15 was not included in the
FY15-16 budget.
·
Ms. Boyer asked
Mr. Mousa to research Resolution 2003-587-A which authorized the MPS parking
garages for downtown; it does not designate the Northbank TID as the funding
source but that is what has evolved over time, which would seem to indicate
that an administrative decision rather than a Council decision was made to
utilize that funding source.
Meeting Adjourned: 6:10 p.m.
Minutes: Jeff Clements, Council Research Division
8.24.15 Posted 3:00 p.m.
Tapes: Finance Committee Budget
Hearing #4 – LSD
8.21.15
Materials: Budget handouts
8.21.15