by Rachel Witkowski
Staff Writer
Mayor John Peyton presented his proposed fiscal year 2006-07 budget Wednesday at City Hall Chambers — satisfying many City concerns while creating other cuts as well.
The nearly $900 million proposed budget is a $60.3 million increase from the current budget. The proposal calls for increases to the budgets of the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office and the Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department, which received major cuts last year. Nearly one-third of the proposed budget is for JSO.
Peyton proposed an additional $14.6 million for JFRD and $23.8 million for JSO. The budget will also fund JFRD replacement apparatus, equipment upgrades, communication improvement, a new fire station and the hiring of 29 new personnel, according to Peyton.
“This budget reaffirms our commitment to the first job of government — public safety,” he said.
The proposed $297.6 million budget for JSO would allow the hiring of 200 police officers, the replacement of more than 1,100 computers and continued funding for the Community Service Officer program.
“There were 65 vacancies last year. We had a tremendous deficit,” said Jacksonville Sheriff John Rutherford, referring to recent budget cuts. “This year, we’re getting our vacancies filled.”
The proposed budget also uses no one-time money for recurring expenses, which Peyton said is the first budget in 15 years where recurring expenses matched recurring revenue.
“The City of Jacksonville now has a formal, protected emergency reserve of $40 million,” he said.
Peyton added that it will also be the first budget with a financially feasible five-year Capital Improvement Plan that “anticipates operating costs for future projects.” Better government technology was another area Peyton addressed. A new quality management system will be fully operational by Oct. 1, he said. The more leader-driven system will replace the Sterling-based quality management system.
“That system will tailor metrics to individual divisions and departments, emphasize customer service and input, provide more immediate measurement and accountability, decrease the time employees spend compiling data, and increase the time employees spend providing services,” he said.
Many City Council members were glad to see Peyton was listening to their concerns.
“It was a good presentation. He (Peyton) focused on the issues that the Council has been talking about and we look forward to working with him on the budget,” said City Council President Michael Corrigan.
Two of the biggest issues that Corrigan said the Council was concerned about were public safety and recurring expenses with one-time revenues. Though the topics were addressed, a new cut was announced in the city workforce. Peyton said he proposes to eliminate 191 positions next fiscal year, 36 of which are currently filled. The others are vacant and won’t be filled.
“Part of doing better is doing more with less and that means downsizing our city workforce,” he said. “That is a small cut in numbers but it will have a big impact on those whose positions are eliminated. That’s why we will make aggressive outplacement assistance available to each and every one of those individuals.”
Corrigan said he thought the vacant positions are not as big of a concern and Council will pay closer attention to the positions that are filled. Council member Suzanne Jenkins said she appreciated the mayor’s focus on public safety and wants to look further into tax dollar expenses, park improvements and public service.
“I just want to make sure we’re providing a good level of public service,” she said.
The mayor’s fiscal year budget will next be reviewed by the City Council auditor and then the Council’s Finance committee in August.