by Bradley Parsons
Staff Writer
Concern on the City Council is growing that the mayor’s support for the City’s Town Center Program is more show than dough.
Mayor John Peyton’s budget commits $2.1 million to expand the program, which offers City money to help renovate commercial corridors in Jacksonville’s neighborhoods. But several Council members reacted with surprise during a Council committee meeting last week when they learned that the money is contingent on the City plugging a $13 million hole in this year’s budget.
The program is one of several included in the mayor’s contingency budget. Other Peyton priorities such as payroll increases for the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office and increased funding for his early literacy initiative are also waiting for the budget gap to be filled.
“I took the mayor at his word that he would fund the Town Center Program because he believed in it,” said Council member Suzanne Jenkins. “Everybody thought we had $2.1 million for this program and we don’t.”
Peyton spokesperson Susie Wiles said the mayor would find a way to fund the Town Center expansion, but it’s still not sure where the money will come from.
“It will be funded. The mayor has an unwavering commitment to the Town Center Program,” she said.
City Finance Director Cal Ray said the City has been playing catch-up with its $856 million budget since a series of hurricanes hit Florida late last summer. Those storms cost the City about $20 million, which largely accounts for the budget gap, said Ray.
The City expects the Federal Emergency Management Agency to reimburse about 90 percent of that money. The federal money will be used to fill the $13 million gap, but Ray said that wouldn’t be enough to pay for the items listed on the contingency budget, including the Town Center Program.
The mayor will shift money from other accounts to pay for the program if necessary, said Wiles. The projected increase in funding this year is on top of about $12 million the City has previously funded for the program.
The program offers City money as an incentive to neighborhood advocate groups, encouraging them to renovate struggling sections of their neighborhood. The program offers up to $160,000 per project for design and planning and an additional $400,000 for construction.
The City has about $9.4 million available for construction of planned projects, but the program currently suffers from a lack of funds for planning and design. The money pledged by the mayor for 2004 was to fund planning for new projects.
The program has helped start up several projects in Jacksonville’s urban core, Arlington, San Marco and in the Northwest part of the City. However, no grants have been awarded in the City’s North and Southwest planning districts.
Until more start up money becomes available, those districts will likely remain shut out of the program.
Renovations are complete or nearly finished in Five Points, Park and King streets and Bay Street.
Jenkins said she called a special meeting on the subject during Wednesday’s Government Performance, Audit, Technology and Education Committee meeting because she didn’t know what to tell neighborhood groups looking for the money. Jenkins helped develop the Town Center Program and has been one of its strongest advocates during the initiative’s early stages.
“I get calls from the JEDC, from the neighborhoods, asking about the program and what do we have the money to do?” said Jenkins. “The confusion had to stop.”
Jenkins has prepared legislation that would create a trust fund to pay for future improvements. The bill would also give the Council more of a supervisory role on the program’s administration.