After weeks of heat, Friends of Hemming Park received a little bit of shade Wednesday.
Not much. But enough to offer a sense of optimism, at least for the next couple of months.
A special City Council committee reviewing the Downtown park and its future ultimately decided to pass along a recommendation that Friends receive two months of funding.
The $58,000 total for August and September is down from the close to $75,000 sought, which is down from an initial sum of $150,000 that had been stowed away by council.
Of the $150,000, though, council has decided to set aside close to $75,000 to repay Southwest Airlines to fulfill a Friends grant obligation.
Friends used that money to pay operating expenses in the past year instead of on a Black Sheep kiosk project that has since stalled.
Even with passage, there is still dissent among council members. The motion couldn’t even merit a second early, but did after more than an hour of discussion.
The committee vote passed 4-2, with council members Anna Lopez Brosche, Danny Becton, Bill Gulliford and Sam Newby in support. John Crescimbeni and Scott Wilson voted against the short-term funding.
Sam Mousa, Curry’s chief administrative officer, was in favor of the short-term funding to provide an “orderly transition,” if necessary.
The proposal will still need to go to other council committees and the full group, which could vote on it Aug. 23 — right around the time Friends would run out of money.
Throughout the close to two hours of talks, there wasn’t a lot of hand-wringing over expenses Friends had accrued with its $1 million contract.
Criticism was rampant in earlier meetings, but the tone of Wednesday’s was different.
Largely, it was the park’s turn to speak. Not leadership so much, but the staff members who have been in the park for much of the past two years.
“Clean and safe” has been the mantra council members have repeatedly cited in recent weeks.
Yet, Friends’ focus on programming, some council members have said, didn’t end up helping curb park patrons’ conduct.
There are still varying levels of inappropriate behavior that’s deterred people from enjoying the park, a Friends staff member and council members said.
Drinking is one, whether it’s blatant with recognizable beer cans and bottles or more discreet in brown paper bags and Styrofoam cups.
There also are tales of drug use, including a story Od’Juan Whitfield, Friends’ social service director, told the committee.
In the past nine months, Friends staff encountered two men snorting lines of crushed Oxycodin pills on a park table, said Whitfield.
When nearby police officers were alerted to the situation, the officers wiped the table off and removed the men for trespassing.
The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office is a deterrent to bad behavior, said Whitfield, but a more proactive, consistent effort is needed.
To that end, the council committee wants Sheriff Mike Williams to come to a future meeting to talk about the park.
Given the difficulties in getting a handle on conduct and the drive for safe and cleaner, Brosche said it was almost as if Friends couldn’t be set up for success.
“I’m at a loss,” said Brosche.
The decision, however minor, to push along Friends to receive the short-term funding doesn’t have any bearing on whether it will be the park operator after Oct. 1.
The council Finance Committee in the next several weeks will review whether to approve Mayor Lenny Curry’s proposal of giving the Friends $250,000 for six months of operating the park.
One idea: The money could be set below the line until late September, which would afford the committee more time to make a long-term decision on the Downtown venue.
A call for other vendors’ ideas and proposals could be formulated in that time at no cost to the city.
Gulliford said at this point, that might be “premature.”
For Bill Prescott, Friends’ interim CEO, the latest sit-down among city leaders was a shift — one that didn’t cause as much heat.
“I feel better today than I did last week,” he said afterward with a laugh.
He credits that to council members hearing from staff members and the plans that have been laid out for the next 45 days.
That includes pumping more into “clean and safe,” efforts such as private security that began Wednesday. Coming up with a fundraising plan. And, of course, a watchful eye on expenses.
“I’m hoping as they see those things, they consider it and say Friends is the right organization to take this thing forward,” said Prescott.
Before moving forward, however, there is one misstep the group will be correcting within the week.
The recent Saturday board meeting where former Friends CEO Vince Cavin resigned and Prescott was named his short-term successor wasn’t publicly noticed.
The organization is bound by state Sunshine Law and wasn’t exempt because of the issue at hand.
Prescott said a cure meeting would take place “within a week” and training would follow for board members.
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