by J. Brooks Terry
Staff Writer
The City Council’s Finance Committee took a large step toward helping three underfunded Better Jacksonville Plan library projects come online Monday morning. After exhausting a litany of questions, hypotheticals and concerns, the seven-person committee unanimously recommended approving legislation that would create a special library contingency fund flush with approximately $1.5 million.
According to a report issued by the Mayor’s Office in late April, construction at the Southeast, South Mandarin and University Park branches are together facing a combined $1.2 million shortfall.
The proposed contingency account, which would be funded with dollars left over from 11 already completed library projects, is expected to satisfy those budget concerns.
Council member Michael Corrigan said using surplus dollars to help ends meet for underfunded projects was a good idea, but only if the libraries donating money are 100 percent completed and adequately stocked.
“Sure, I’m supportive of creating a contingency fund to help pay for the libraries that are coming up short as long as we aren’t sacrificing other projects,” Corrigan said. “It’s very fortunate that we have so many libraries with money left over to give and, as a believer in the entire library plan that the City has in place, I want the remaining few to be able to open.”
Council members Daniel Davis and Pat Lockett-Felder said they also support having a library contingency fund. However, they said if money is still available after the final library projects come online, they would want the branches that donated their surplus dollars to get a portion of them back.
“My district is very poor and any money we have, we’d like to keep and use,” Lockett-Felder said. “If it’s possible to get even a little bit of the money back that we’re donating to help these other libraries, I’d like to see that we can.”
Adam Hollingsworth, Mayor John Peyton’s top policy advisor, said those provisions could be made prior to passing the legislation, but that they would likely be unnecessary.
“The reason I say that is because we are still expecting a shortfall in the neighborhood of $300,000 for the Main Library even after we have this contingency fund in place,” Hollingsworth said. “I don’t think we’ll be in a position to talk about having anything left over, but anything is possible.”
Main Library shortfalls are still being addressed, Hollingsworth said.