by Mike Sharkey
Staff Writer
Budget week 2002 is over — round one that is.
Twelve City department heads and whatever backups they deemed necessary have brought their must haves and wish lists to the mayor’s office with fingers crossed. Since Monday of last week, they have come one-by-one into the mayor’s large conference room and met with Mayor John Delaney’s Chief Administrative Officer Sam Mousa and Chief of Staff Audrey Moran. And now they get to play the waiting game.
On July 9, Delaney will present City Council his fiscal year 2002-03 budget. Considering last year’s offering was $712.5 million, this year’s figures to be in that range. For Mousa and Moran, the end of budget week may seem like a chance to breathe. That’s hardly the case.
Over the next three weeks, they will scrutinize all 12 budgets, pinching a little here, giving a little there. Overall, it’s a tough job that won’t get any easier until Council gives the budget its OK.
“Last week was very stressful for me,” said Mousa, who is in his second year as budget chairman, but spent six years before that watching his former boss Lex Hester knead the budget like a seasoned baker. “We take each department’s requests seriously, but sometimes we have limited resources. It’s a balancing act. We have to prioritize who gets what and when. The whole month of June is tough.”
Moran, going through her second budget process, finds the whole ordeal both trying and educational. With one million people scattered over 860 square miles, Jacksonville’s annual budget represents the needs of as diverse a community as any in the country. Moran said that can almost be overwhelming.
“Prioritizing the needs of a city the size of Jacksonville is critically important and extremely tough,” said Moran. “Also, we have a mayor who has a big vision of where the city can go. But, we have finite resources.”
Mousa said the budget process begins for him each year on Jan. 1 and the 12 department heads start looking at their numbers shortly thereafter. The real work begins in mid-April when each department schedules sessions with a member of the City’s budget department. An analyst is assigned to go over each department’s budget, suggest cuts and formulate a budget that will be acceptable to Mousa and Moran and closely matches what Delaney has suggested.
“We want to make sure it is in line with our business plan,” said Mousa, who often refers to the City as a big corporation, especially where the budget is concerned. “We start our business plan on Jan. 1 for the next fiscal year. This is like a huge corporation. It’s synonymous to a holding company with 12 subsidiaries that all report to the same board of directors.”
With over $700 million on the table, budget week is quite serious. The meetings are held to a fairly tight schedule and each department is expected to come to their session prepared to explain their budgets and answer expected and unexpected questions. Moran says Mousa isn’t afraid to hold anyone’s feet to the fire.
“Not much gets by Sam and the people at the end of the table know that,” said Moran.
Mousa and Moran aren’t the only interrogators in the room. Cal Ray, director of administration and finance, and Shari Shuman of Ray’s office, also attend, calculators handy and asking questions.
Although inflation will probably dictate a budget slightly higher than last year’s, both Mousa and Moran were pleasantly surprised by each department’s unsolicited willingness to streamline.
“We had more discussion this year about how to get a better bang for the buck,” said Mousa, citing items such as fuel and cell phones as areas where departments are looking to cut costs. “They are trying to figure out how to get more for their money.”
“There was a lot of technology discussion this year,” said Moran. “I’d say that was the overriding theme.”
“We tend to think our people are trained to do that,” added Mousa. “They all know technology can help us.”
Of all the departments, fire rescue and public safety want the most, about 55 percent of the proposed budget. Neither Mousa nor Moran have a problem with that. A large majority of their budget is allocated for salaries and neither department is planning any cuts anytime soon.
“That’s a real reflection of this community and the mayor’s priorities,” said Moran. “Jacksonville has always been a law and order town, and we want to have a top-notch police and fire department. A lot of their budget is wages, so in that sense, it’s not that scrutinized. We need those policemen and those firemen. Half of that is salaries, and benefits and those are calculable numbers.”
Both Mousa and Moran agree that parks and recreation is the most entertaining budget to consider each year. Although a great deal of what they ask for certainly isn’t absolutely necessary to functioning as a city, the department provides much of what makes life in Jacksonville enjoyable.
“They are in the business of fun,” said Mousa, adding that he has a hard time telling that department “no” because they are usually so well prepared, a big plus to Mousa. “We have some very creative people in that department and the management has improved tremendously in the last couple of years. Those who have a proven track record, I tend to be a little more lenient with the cash.”
To Moran, budget week is a microcosm of government, whether it’s Jacksonville, New York or Green Cove Springs. By covering every facet of town in a little over a week, the sessions are essentially a crash course in Civics, the ninth grade class high schools take months to teach.
“You see over the course of eight days the whole government,” said Moran. “It can be a little overwhelming. We do a myriad of things and we do them well.”
Mousa says the hard part still lies ahead. Over the next three weeks, he will compare what the dozen departments have presented to what Delaney will approve. Some requests simply won’t make the cut and feelings and egos will be hurt. In the end, Jacksonville will enter the next fiscal year with a working budget of over $700 million. And Mousa and Moran can relax.
“It will be time to partayyy!!,” said Mousa.