by Glenn Tschimpke
Staff Writer
City Council and the mayor’s office volleyed their first ideas toward next year’s budget last week when City Council president Matt Carlucci and Mayor John Delaney shared their budget priorities for the next fiscal year. The two lists, while preliminary, offer a glimpse of where City leaders may focus their attention in the coming year.
By ordinance, Carlucci and Delaney must share with each other no more than 10 budget priorities by Jan. 31. The mayor and Council president will hammer out a total of 10 priorities for a full Council resolution in March.
City Council held a budget workshop last month to brainstorm its priorities for the upcoming year and arrived at the following top priorities:
• Provide a long-range plan for surveying and updating public dirt roads and access way roads.
• Coordinate and increase funding for affordable housing initiatives.
• Fund positions in the Department of Parks and Recreation to run programs in Jacksonville’s parks.
• Continue the commitment to building new fire stations, renovating older stations and purchasing additional equipment
• Make the Care Center work.
• Explore cable television competition.
• Increase park maintenance.
• Step up code enforcement.
• Develop neighborhood trolley services.
• Provide more access to the St. Johns River and its tributaries via boat ramps, parks and river walks.
• Evaluate storm water and drainage projects.
The mayor’s list was more nebulous. Most line items were broad statements like “improve customer service” within government. Some specific bullets include:
• Continued reduction of Duval County’s ad valorem tax rate.
• Reform the election process and include training and support for the new optical scan voting machines.
• Continue to promote development in downtown and the north and west areas of the St. Johns River.
“This letter is more of a vision letter, so that’s why there aren’t a lot of specifics,” said Delaney’s chief of staff Audrey Moran.
Delaney’s list did not address the cable television franchise problems, a high-profile problem in the last year. AT&T Broadband’s questionable customer service has drawn the ire of countless constituents, forcing City leaders to take notice.
“I do know that the mayor and President Carlucci have been continuing to talk about that issue,” said Moran. “We didn’t feel a need to put it on our list because we saw that it was on the president’s list.”
Carlucci wasn’t concerned that it didn’t make the mayor’s list.
“It’s a priority issue in Jacksonville, and it is with the mayor, but I’m not sure where that fits into the budget in terms of how it fits into a policy,” he said. “The other reason it’s not on the mayor’s is because cable TV, the regulation and the review of the cable franchise holder falls under the purview of the Council and not the mayor and that’s pretty clear in the ordinance code.”
Carlucci side-stepped making any predictions about when the city’s cable television problem would be solved, but stressed that the Council will continue to investigate whether AT&T Broadband violated its contract with the City and that a stronger ordinance could prevent similar problems in the future.
A curious top priority with the Council is to address the county’s network of dirt roads. Carlucci said he was a little surprised by the attention the issue received, but it is worth exploring.
“I suppose some of the other Council members have dirt roads in their districts that are public which they want to get paved for their constituents,” he said. “There was enough concern about that to garner enough votes. I, in my district, don’t have much of that. A lot of times with these dirt roads there’s a question as to who really owns them — private property owners or the City. I have been very familiar with the problem with dirt roads in the past. Generally, what the problem is it boils down to who owns them.”
While not on the mayor’s list, Moran acknowledged the problem and offered a similar answer.
“That’s something we continue to have a dialogue with the Council about,” she said. “Paving of dirt roads can get very thorny. People like it, but how do you pick and choose? Once we pave over a dirt road, do we take responsibility for that road? How does it get maintained? Some neighborhoods don’t want their dirt roads paved.”
In his list, the mayor offered a business plan which outlined four areas he would like to focus his attention: housing, energy, neighborhood revitalization and code enforcement. The mayor’s office is keeping tight-lipped on many of the specifics, saying that details are still in the works.
“The energy initiative something you’re going to be hearing about a lot more this month,” said Moran. “The JEA will be part of it. It’s going to be a conservation theme. Housing . . . more to come on that, too. We’re working on a lot of creative initiatives on housing. Hopefully, by the end of this month or March, we’ll have something.”
As for code enforcement, Moran said the administration will continue to beef up the municipal code as well as streamlining operations for code enforcement officers.
The mayor’s office also wants to piggyback City Council vice president Suzanne Jenkins’ neighborhood revitalization initiatives and Town Center projects, which breathe life into decaying urban areas.
Carlucci wouldn’t guess which items would make the final list, but plugged one of his personal priorities.
“I think you’ll see a little bit of everything on the final list,” he said. “I think one that’s important is developing neighborhood trolley services. That may not be an issue city-wide. I’ve been trying to get a lunchtime trolley for San Marco for a year and a half.”