OFFICE OF THE CITY COUNCIL
117 WEST DUVAL STREET, SUITE
425
4TH FLOOR, CITY
HALL
. JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA 32202
Finance Committee Budget Hearing #3
Minutes – twice amended
August 21 20, 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 Greg Anderson, Reggie Brown, Katrina Brown (arr. 10:15), Scott Wilson
(arr. 10:33), Doyle Carter (arr. 10:35); Kirk Sherman, Kim Taylor, Philip
Peterson – 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.
Finance Director Mike
Weinstein gave a progress report on the appeal of the Property Appraiser’s
budget. The Florida Department of Revenue eliminated the funding for the 2%
merit pay pool and agreed to fund 69-70% of the cost of the funding for the
market survey-based salary equalizations. The FDOR and Property Appraiser have
agreed to a schedule for next year that will bring the Property Appraiser’s
budget to the City Council earlier in the spring to avoid this problem in the
future. Mr. Weinstein also noted that he has found no evidence of the Property
Appraiser having been given any specific instruction from the prior
administration not to include any pay increases in his proposed budget. Council
Member Crescimbeni stated his understanding that the Curry administration did
instruct the Constitutional officers not to include any pay increases in their
budgets; Mr. Weinstein agreed that it had but noted that the Brown
administration apparently did not promulgate that instruction earlier in the
budget preparation process before the change of administrations. Council Member
Boyer expressed her belief that the Council should only appeal to the Governor
and Cabinet if the facts are on the City’s side and there is a good chance of
success; to lose an appeal with a weak case might set a poor precedent for
future appeals to the Cabinet. Chairman Gulliford urged the administration to
take a wholesale look at the City’s salary structure, possibly by an expert
consultant, and devise a remedy to the existing inequities.
Page references from this point refer to Council
Auditor’s handout Meeting #3 – August 20, 2015.
Tax Collector
In response to a question
from Council Member Crescimbeni, Tax Collector Michael Corrigan stated that
some of his employees are not being paid at market rate for their
qualifications and that some are definitely deserving of merit pay increases.
Supervisor of Elections
In response to a question
from Council Member Boyer regarding the fluctuations of the Supervisor’s budget
due to the changing number of elections and whether that number includes pay
increases not related to the number of elections, Council Auditor Kirk Sherman
and Budget Officer Angela Moyer both indicated that their analysis shows that the
expense decreases are directly proportional to the number of elections and that
there are no salary adjustments otherwise. In response to a question from
Council Member Crescimbeni, Supervisor Mike Hogan stated that some of his
employees are not being paid at market rate for their qualifications and that
some are definitely deserving of merit pay increases. He does plan to
redistribute cost savings from filling 4 positions at lower salaries to
employees deserving merit increases. Chairman Gulliford noted that Ordinance
Code Chapter 106 will need to be elected to include the Supervisor of Elections
in the list of Constitutional officers eligible to get a vehicle allowance
rather than take a fleet vehicle. Peggy Sidman explained the circumstance that
led to the Supervisor of Elections position being removed from that list
several years ago when the then-supervisor elected to utilize a fleet vehicle
rather than take the vehicle allowance option.
Motion
(Crescimbeni): authorize an amendment to the Ordinance Code via stand-alone
legislation to include the Supervisor of Elections in the list of
Constitutional officers eligible to get a vehicle allowance – approved unanimously.
Clerk of the Courts
Motion: on
p. 7, approve Council Auditor’s
recommendation #1 to increase indirect cost by $41,745 and offset with an
increase of the same amount in recording fee revenue – approved unanimously.
Motion: on
p. 7, approve Auditor’s
recommendation #2 to create a new sub-object entitled Court Compliance Fee
(341950) to record revenues from the Court Cost Compliance fee – approved unanimously.
Motion: on
p. 7, approve Auditor’s recommendation #3 to reduce the Ed Ball Allocation by
$39,076 to reflect reduced storage space utilization – approved unanimously.
Council Member Boyer asked
for additional information on the City’s Maximo internal service charge
allocation mechanism.
In response to a question
from Council Member Crescimbeni, Clerk of the Courts Ronnie Fussell stated that
some of his employees are not being paid at market rate for their
qualifications and that some are definitely deserving of merit pay increases.
The only increases in his budget this year are for employees completing their
probationary periods.
Chief Administrative Officer
Sam Mousa explained his discussions with the previous administration regarding
instructions for budget preparations to the departments and Constitutional
officers. He understands that the prior administration did not give the
Constitutional officers any instructions regarding salaries and the first time
those officers heard about an expectation of flat budgets and salaries was when
they held their first discussions with the Curry administration’s Mayor’s
Budget Review Committee.
Legal Aid
Mr. Sherman noted his
office’s continuing concern about the negative fund balance in the account that
handles the contribution to Jacksonville Area Legal Aid from the 25% allocation
from the surcharge on misdemeanor and criminal traffic offenses. The City’s
practice of writing a check to Legal Aid for the full budgeted amount
regardless of the amount of fine collection during the year was stopped at the
Finance Committee’s direction during last year’s budget process. Mike Weinstein
committed that the administration would derive a solution to the negative
balance. Mr. Sherman offered to work with Mr. Weinstein to develop a proposal
to fill negative fund balances from year-end fund balance reallocations, with
notification to the Finance Committee or full Council. Jim Kowalski gave additional background information on
the legal aid surcharge, noting that the additional $35 surcharge is producing
no revenue because judges are not imposing the second surcharge because the
defendants can’t afford to pay it.
Motion
(Boyer): amend the budget ordinance to add a provision that authorizes the
Council Auditor and Finance Director during the close-out of FY14-15 to propose
an allocation of General Fund fund balance recapture funds from
accounts with remaining balances to fill negative fund balances for items
such as the Legal Aid 15R subfund; authorize a waiver to Ordinance Code Section
106.106(i) to accomplish the reallocation – approved unanimously.
The committee discussed how
to account for the vacant property registry fee increase revenue, which is not
included in the budget proposal.
Public Defender’s Office
Public Defender Matt Shirk
discussed his office’s parking arrangement for the investigators who come and
go throughout the day. The cost for those vehicles is paid by the City; the
cost for general employee parking is paid by those employees. Mr. Shirk made a
request for additional funding of $25,000 for replacement of the office’s
single file server on which all case records are saved, which is 6 years old
and is running out of capacity. Chairman Gulliford directed that that item be
added to the unfinished business list for consideration at the end of the
budget hearing process.
State Attorney’s Office
Motion: on
p. 13, decrease the State Attorney’s
Office courthouse building internal service charge allocation by $16,685 and
increase the Court system’s allocation by the same amount – approved unanimously.
The committee was in recess from 10:23: to 10:32 a.m.
Parks, Recreation and
Community Services
Motion: on
p. 18, approve Auditor’s recommendation to increase miscellaneous sales and
charges revenue by $10,000 – approved
unanimously.
Acting Director of Parks,
Recreation and Community Services Daryl Joseph answered questions about last
year’s outsourcing of the sexual assault response unit and holding 5 positions
vacant, some of which are now being proposed to be filled in the new budget. Council
Member Boyer noted that the homeless day center was started 2 years ago as a
pilot project that has now been included for continuing funding for a staff
person without the Council having gotten any report on the success of the pilot
program. Mr. Joseph reported that the only pay increases in this budget are
tied to end-of-probation reclassifications. Ms. Boyer asked for clarification
of the department’s overtime costs and whether they apply only to
City-sponsored special events (4th of July parade, Veteran’s Day
parade, Florida-Georgia game) or whether some costs are incurred for events
sponsored by third parties (i.e. Art Walk, Friends of Hemming Park events). Mr.
Joseph explained the department’s continuing responsibility for maintenance of
physical facilities in Hemming Park (fountain, pavers, etc.).
Sherry Wilson, Chief of the Parks
Division, described the Summer Night Lights program that kept pools and parks
open on weekend nights until 10 p.m. for 8 weeks and answered questions about
the use of JSO officers for security at those events. The JSO provides 1 night
of in-kind service at each site each weekend; the City pays for the remainder
of the coverage. Council Member Crescimbeni urged the department to proactively
develop a plan for the JSO officers on that duty to actively engage with youth
at the events in a positive way and not sit in their cars. Council Member
Reggie Brown questioned the balance between the number of pools versus parks
involved in the program and recommended that the example of other cities be
studied to determine how they devote more resources to the program. He also
asked about the status of the homeless day center pilot project.
Council Member Becton asked
questions about funding for park maintenance activities and the prioritization
process for allocating maintenance funds. He hoped that there is a logical and
methodical method for determining priorities and that the department is not in
a “squeaky wheel” reactive mode. He urged budgeting sufficiently to keep all
parks and facilities up to a minimum usable state and wondered about the
minimum level of funding needed to meet all of the basic maintenance needs. Mr.
Joseph and Johnnetta Moore, Chief of the Social Services Division answered
questions from Council Member Brosche about the emergency rent/mortgage/utility
assistance program.
Council Member Wilson urged
an extension of senior service programming to Windy Hill Community Center to
provide a resource to seniors on the Southside. Council Member Boyer gave
historical perspective on the shift in grass mowing responsibility from the
Public Works to the Parks and Recreation Department and back again. The total
park maintenance budget is combination of the efforts of both departments. She
also pointed out the migration of former Jacksonville Journey initiatives (i.e.
Summer Night Lights, Mayor’s summer jobs program, etc.) from identifiable
Journey funding to departmental budgets and lamented the loss of identity and
the inability of the Council to easily track funding shifts within departmental
budgets that add to or subtract from what Jax Journey used to do. Ms. Boyer noted
the importance of the relationship of the activities of the City’s Social
Service Division and the services funded by the Public Service Grant program,
noting that there is some overlap in coverage. Council Member Carter urged
greater coordination and rationalization of the many and various programs and
funding sources to ensure that the City is getting the best bang for its bucks
and eliminating duplication wherever possible. Council Member Reggie Brown said
that the City has long under-funded its parks in comparison with other cities
and urged a real funding commitment to maintenance and programming. Council
Member Becton said that the Council needs to grasp the full extent of all its
basic funding needs for minimally acceptable service levels in all areas (park
maintenance, libraries, UF Health indigent care funding, public service grants,
etc.) and to budget accordingly. Chairman Gulliford questioned whether funding
for the City’s Hemming Park obligations should be budgeted in the Parks and
Recreation Department or perhaps in the Downtown Investment Authority budget.
Motion ((Boyer):
put the revenue from funding for the Friends of Hemming Park
contract in a designated contingency fund pending actual execution of the
contract – approved unanimously.
Huguenot Park
Motion: on
p. 22, approve Auditor’s recommendation #1 to reduce entrance fee revenues by
$30,000 and increase General Fund/GSD transfer by the same amount – fails 0-7.
Motion: on
p. 22, approve Auditor’s recommendation #2 to add a provision to the budget
ordinance recognizing establishment of the new Annual Pass Replacement Fee – approved unanimously.
Council Member Gulliford
noted a continuing problem with the City’s inability to attract contract
concessionaires for Hanna and Huguenot Park which both diminishes the park
patrons’ enjoyment of the parks and diminishes the City’s concession
revenues. Sam Mousa agreed to study the
issue and provide recommendations.
Mr. Gulliford indicated his
intention to send a memo to all council members inviting them to attend the
Finance budget hearings to propose amendments to the budget (to be moved by the
Vice Chair) in order to ease the crush of floor amendments on the night of
final budget passage. He extended the same offer to the administration to
propose changes to the budget that have been identified since the budget
proposal was introduced.
The committee was in recess from 11:56 to 1:00 p.m.
Hanna Park
Motion: on
p. 27, approve Auditor’s recommendation to amend the budget ordinance to
recognize the creation of 3 new fees – Annual Pass Replacement Fee, Primitive Camping
Fee and Community Service Worker Administration Fee – approved unanimously.
Council Member Boyer asked
Deputy General Counsel to confirm that the City can use Florida Boater
Improvement Program funds for the list of capital projects proposed, and that
there are not state regulations that would limit their use on projects
previously listed on the City CIP or for other reasons.
Equestrian Center
Motion (Crescimbeni):
on p. 32, adopt a revised budget proposed by Council Member Carter
appropriating $899,157.46 in expenses with a $539,000 subsidy from the Taye
Brown Trust Fund in addition to the private revenues of the Northeast Florida
Equestrian Center – approved
unanimously.
Motion: include
a waiver in the budget ordinance of the requirement that Taye Brown Trust Fund
revenues be used for capital purposes to allow it to be used for operations – approved unanimously.
Mr. Carter said that he will
be introducing an ordinance on the addendum to the agenda at next week’s City
Council meeting to revise the operating contract between the City and the NFES
to make it more workable for the private operator. Council Member Boyer
questioned whether the amount of the City subsidy was being increased by the
amendment and was told that it is being increased for the next several years.
Chairman Gulliford gave some historical background on the Equestrian Center for
the benefit of the new council members, explaining the City’s funding commitment
and the history of the facility’s management.
Planning and Development Department
Folks Huxford, Director of
Planning and Development, and Julio Lacayo of the Budget Office answered
questions about proposed departmental fee reductions. Council Member
Crescimbeni asked for confirmation from the Planning and Development Department
about the calculation of the fee reduction to account for the change in the
notice publication policy. Council Member Boyer asked for clarification about
the policy the new administration used to deal with restoration of positions
that were eliminated or left unfunded in last year’s budget; Mr. Mousa and Mr.
Weinstein explained the policy used to develop the budget proposal, recognizing
that the current administration was not aware of what trade-offs might have
been agreed to in the previous year’s budget hearings.
Council Member Boyer
questioned the Council Auditor’s determination that development applications
and fee revenues will be flat or fall in the upcoming fiscal year and therefore
his recommendations to reduce projected fee revenues. Mr. Huxford stated that
his review of development trends in the last few months shows a slowdown in the
precursors to development activity (applications for land use and zoning
changes) making the original revenue projections slightly optimistic. The
Chairman deferred the Planning Department Subfund 011 budget until further
information can be obtained about the Auditor’s projection of reduced revenues.
Mr. Mousa stated that the department’s budget was not predicated on matching
new projected revenues with a dollar-for-dollar increase in projected costs.
Mr. Sherman noted his
continuing concern with the Concurrency Management Subfund (112) producing
insufficient revenues and depleting the accrued fund balance.
Community Development
Division
Motion: on
p. 44, approve the Department’s request to shift the $75,000 for “other grants
and aids” to the permanent and probationary salary line – approved unanimously.
Building Inspection
Mr. Mousa stated that the
administration withdraws the request shown on p. 48 to add $325,000 in computer
system maintenance/security allocation for phase 2 of the Electronic Plans
Submittal Process. He also stated that the administration is developing a
proposal to reduce some building inspection fees and to create a separate
development management fee to cover costs for services that span several
divisions. The Auditor’s Office has not yet had a chance to review the
proposal. Ms. Boyer noted that the City was slow to both shed development
management personnel when the Great Recession hit in 2008 and to add new
personnel when the economy began its rebound several years ago. She questioned
how the request for 6 new building/plan review inspectors squares with the
earlier discussion about a flattening out of development-related activity. Tom
Goldsbury, Chief of Building Inspection, said that his data shows that building
activity is still increasing even if land use and zoning activity may be
slowing down. Mr. Mousa indicated that the building industry is in favor of the
new development management fee if it causes an increase in the service level
the City provides to that industry. The Chair deferred action on this budget to
a future meeting following a further discussion of development trends and
permitting activity.
Military Affairs and
Veterans Services
Harrison Conyers, acting
Director of the department, answered questions from the Chairman about
potential City funding for the Five Star Veterans Center.
Pensions
The committee discussed the
City’s contribution to the various pension funds and the implementation of the
provisions of the Police and Fire Pension Fund agreement approved by Ordinance
2015-304-E.
Motion: on
p. 51, approve Auditor’s recommendations to amend the budget ordinance in
Section 8.4(b) and (c) to revise the language regarding whether the amount of
pension contributions is stated in exact dollar figures or on percentage of
payroll, with a provision for payment of the minimum dollar figure and a
“true-up” to the actual figure during the fiscal year – approved unanimously.
The Chairman asked Ms. Sidman
to draft an Ordinance Code amendment to codify the temporary policy regarding setting pension contributions as the greater
of an exact dollar figure or a percentage of payroll recommended for approval
for the upcoming fiscal year. The
administration was asked to propose a solution to the Auditor’s concern
expressed on p. 51 concerning the fixed dollar amount vs. percentage of payroll
question for the General Employees Pension Plan.
Motion: on p.54,
approve Auditor’s recommendation to increase the supervision allocation to the
Correctional Officers Pension Fund by $18,080 and offset with a decrease in
Miscellaneous Revenue – approved
unanimously.
The Chairman asked Ms. Sidman
to follow up on the City Council’s previous request for a Florida Attorney
General’s Opinion on the mechanism that would be necessary to levy the
available local option sales tax for fire and rescue services and to use the
funds supplanted by that new revenue to apply to the City’s Police and Fire
Pension Fund unfunded liability accelerated payments.
Police and Fire Pension
Fund administration
John Keane, Executive
Director of the Police and Fire Pension Fund, answered several questions from
Council Member Crescimbeni regarding executive director salary and the PFPF’s
response to the request from Downtown Vision Inc. for a contribution to DVI’s
budget. Mr. Keane indicated that the fund has done a nationwide search for a
deputy director for the fund and hopes to hire a candidate by October 1st.
Motion: on
p. 61, approve Auditor’s recommendation #1 to split estimated revenue and
expenses for the building and parking garage into separate schedules AB and AC
- approved unanimously.
Motion: on
p. 61, approve Auditor’s recommendation #2 to reduce internal service charges
by a net of $2,546 and increase Indirect Costs by $3,342 - approved unanimously.
Motion: on
p. 61, approve Auditor’s recommendation #3 to add the authorized employee cap
to Schedules AB and AC - approved
unanimously.
Motion: on
p. 61, approve Auditor’s recommendation #4 to increase Parking Garage Rental
Revenue on Schedule AB by $3,960 - approved
unanimously
Motion: on
p. 61, approve Auditor’s recommendation #5 to remove supporting schedules
inadvertently included in the budget ordinance with Schedules AB and AC - approved unanimously
Motion: on
p. 61, approve Auditor’s recommendation #6 to strike a reference to Section 25
of the Restated Agreement of March 5, 2001 and replace it with a reference to
Section III, Subsection A, Paragraph 11 of the 2015 Retirement Reform Agreement
dated June 19, 2015 - approved
unanimously
Public Comment
Joe Strasser complimented the
City on the operation of the tire buyback program and apologized for becoming
somewhat emotional in his comments at a previous meeting regarding the
conversion of some Fire and Rescue Department provisions to chiefs and
captains.
Special Council
Contingency status: $1,232,203 to the
positive, including $182,913 in a contingency fund pending resolution of the
appeal of the Property Appraiser’s budget to the Florida Department of Revenue.
Council Member Brosche
reported on the action of the Special Committee on Public Service Grants to
recommend approval of the funding list as presented in the proposed budget.
Council Member Crescimbeni stated that he voted to approve the recommendation
of the special committee in order to allow it out of the special committee, but
he opposes adopting and endorsing the results of a process he knows to be
flawed. Council Member Gaffney recounted the committee’s discussion and the
testimony of representatives of the non-profit community that re-scoring and
re-ranking all the applications at this point would be an infeasible task.
Council Member Boyer expressed support for the committee’s recommendation given
that it appears the scoring process was followed which threw out the low and
high scores and averaged the remaining scores for ranking purposes; that should
have taken care of the most egregious errors that have been reported to the
Council about individual applications.
Motion: accept
the recommendation of the Special Committee on Public Service Grants and
approve the PSG funding list as originally submitted – approved 6-1 (Crescimbeni opposed)
Chairman Gulliford lamented
that only Miami-Dade County is authorized to levy a food and beverage tax to
fund homelessness initiatives and Council Member Boyer lamented that the
legislature has also barred consolidated governments (of which Jacksonville is
the only one) from using other revenue sources. Ms. Boyer noted that millions
of grant dollars flow through the City’s coffers to not-for-profit entities
that provide a variety of similar and potentially overlapping services. Mr.
Gulliford expressed the belief that the City should reconsider how it expends
its Community Development Block Grant funds and think of new approaches that
might produce better results. He believes a comprehensive look needs to be
taken at how all of the various funding streams are or are not coordinated and
their benefit maximized. Council Member Crescimbeni urged the committee to
budget all available contingency funds to specific uses and not leave any
unallocated pots for a “feeding frenzy” at the final budget adoption night. Ms.
Boyer noted that the PSG system changed in the last two years to shift from a
model that gave small amounts of funding to a large number of applicants to a
system that gives full funding to a smaller number of organizations to increase
their effectiveness in providing services. Ms. Brosche reported the Special
Committee’s consensus to stick with the rankings produced by the PSG Council
rather than start reconsidering individual applications on a case-by-case basis
which would lead to chaos.
Pending action items
·
Public Defender’s
office request for a new computer server at $25,000.
·
Council Member
Boyer asked Deputy General Counsel to confirm that the City can use Florida
Boater Improvement Program funds for the capital projects proposed.
·
The committee deferred
action on the Planning and Development Department’s Subfund 011 budget and asked
for confirmation from the Auditor and Planning and Development Department about
the calculation of the projected revenue reduction and the corresponding
expenses associated with those revenue generating activities.
·
The Chair
deferred action on the Building Inspection Division budget to a future meeting pending
further discussion of development trends and permitting activity.
·
The Chairman
asked Ms. Sidman to follow up on the City Council’s previous request for a
Florida Attorney General’s Opinion on the mechanism that would be necessary to
levy the available local option sales tax for fire and rescue services and to
use the funds supplanted by that new revenue to apply to the City’s Police and
Fire Pension Fund unfunded liability accelerated payments.
·
The Chairman
asked Ms. Sidman to draft an Ordinance Code amendment to codify the budget
ordinance’s Section 8.4 temporary policy regarding setting pension
contributions as the greater of an exact dollar figure or a percentage of
payroll recommended for approval for the upcoming fiscal year.
·
The
administration was asked to propose a solution to the Auditor’s concern
expressed on p. 51 concerning the fixed dollar amount vs. percentage of payroll
question for the General Employees Pension Plan.
·
Council Member
Crescimbeni requested a copy of the Police and Fire Pension Fund’s latest
budget report as of July 31, 2015.
Meeting Adjourned: 3:47 p.m.
Minutes: Jeff Clements, Council Research Division
9.15.15 Posted 11:30 a.m.
Tapes: Finance Committee Budget
Hearing #3 – LSD
8.2120.15
Materials: Budget handouts
8.2120.15