Ritz Theatre & LaVilla Museum Executive Director Carol Alexander said the mayor’s final budget presentation was “very good.” “It was encouraging to the citizens and city workers. People have been dreading what the mayor’s budget was going to be, but it was positive and it was very, very well written.” The Ritz is part of the city and Alexander said the budget’s effect “depends on how the City Council receives it.” Alexander said the Ritz is “an anchor of culture and art.” In 1993, Council adopted Mayor Ed Austin’s River City Renaissance plan, which included $33 million to renovate the historic LaVilla and Brooklyn areas. Groundbreaking for the $4.2 million theater and museum took place in 1998 and the building was completed and opened in 1999.
Jacksonville Children’s Commission CEO and Executive Director Linda Lanier said Peyton did a good job. The proposed budget includes a transfer of $20.8 million to the commission, down from $21.06 million in the current year. It also shows a projection of almost $21 million for fiscal 2011-12. The commission offers child-care, youth development, family and parenting programs, summer programs and more services directed at improving the health of families in the community. Lanier called Peyton’s last budget speech “statesmanlike.” “It was a good, final, wrap-it-up kind of speech.”
“He laid out his budget and tried to call the FOP out,” said Fraternal Order of Police President Nelson Cuba, who said the union continues to talk about the city’s request that the union take pay cuts. Cuba said he wants the city to first show that “the wasteful spending has stopped.” Cuba said the starting pay of Jacksonville officers is 97th out of more than 200 forces in Florida. “Those are hard numbers for me to look at,” said Cuba, and to discuss pay cuts in that context is tough. “We continue to talk. It’s give and take,” he said, adding that it seems the “giving” is expected on the FOP’s part.
“The mayor did a terrific job,” said Sherry Magill, president of the Jessie Ball duPont Fund, which has been directing support to critical human services during the recession. She’s been outspoken about the continued drop in funding for nonprofits. The mayor proposes to keep public service grants at $2.4 million the coming year. “I find the challenges absolutely daunting. I see enormous challenges for the people of Jacksonville,” said Magill. “We live in an era when one cut leads to another, and that concerns me.” The proposed funding “is not a huge investment, but it is significant,” she said, explaining that nonprofits can use it “exceedingly well.”