by Mike Sharkey
Staff Writer
In its second meeting of the Council year, the City Council’s Finance Committee passed several bills Monday that ran the gamut of interests across the city. Two of those bills sparked plenty of debate.
A bill introduced by Council member Warren Alvarez just days before he left Council due to term limits was approved 5-3 and came with some help from Council President Daniel Davis, who isn’t on the committee, but came down to the meeting to answers questions about the bill.
“I would not have voted for this if he (Davis) hadn’t come down here,” said Council member Richard Clark, who was outspoken in his opposition to a bill that will divert $216,000 annually from the Trail Ridge landfill to the Taye Brown Regional Park, which is in Davis’ district.
“This causes me a lot of heartburn and I am not inclined to support it,” said Clark.
The bill allows funds generated by the landfill to be distributed to three separate funds. Of every $2.72 collected at the landfill, 50 cents goes to the Class I Landfill Mitigation Fund or the Construction and Demolition Debris Landfill Mitigation Fund.
Of that, the ordinance requires that half go to the Taye Brown Regional Park for anything from improvements to the Equestrian Center to new soccer fields. The rest of the money goes to the contamination assessment and remediation fund (24 cents) and the landfill closure fund ($1.98).
Brown was one of the original Better Jacksonville Plan’s project managers who was killed in a car crash several years ago. The Westside park was named after him a few years ago.
Clark doesn’t have a problem with approving funding for the park. He just questions the funding source which, as the ordinance is written, is a continuous funding stream — something that no other park or district Council member currently enjoys.
In order to pass the ordinance, the Finance Committee also had to waive a provision in the mitigation fund that requires the funding to go to projects within seven miles of the landfill. The Taye Brown Regional Park is 8.2 miles from the Trail Ridge landfill and Clark says it’s only a matter of time before another Council member requests funding for a project that’s 8.3 or 8.4 miles or something reasonably more from a landfill in their district.
According to the Council Auditor’s Office, the Trail Ridge Landfill Mitigation Fund generated $432,000 last year. Kelley Boree, interim deputy director of the City’s Parks, Recreation, Entertainment & Conservation Department, said the longterm plans for the park include new soccer fields and tennis courts as well baseball and softball fields.
Clark wasn’t the only Council member who opposed the bill.
“I don’t like the idea of reoccurring funding,” said Council member Art Graham. “I do not support this as it reads and I do not think it’s a good idea.”
Former Council President Michael Corrigan is not on the Finance Committee and couldn’t vote on the ordinance. But, he did attend the meeting and expressed concern that the bill was generated by Alvarez but the landfill is in what is now Council member Ray Holt’s district (he replaced Alvarez) but the park is in Davis’ district.
“I will have trouble supporting this in full Council,” said Corrigan of the bill that must now be approved at a full Council meeting in order to become law.
Davis defended the bill, which was amended earlier in the day at the Council’s Rules Committee meeting during which all references to the Equestrian Center were replaced with the phrase “Taye Brown Regional Park.”
“This was not intended for the Equestrian Center. It was intended for the entire recreational area,” he said. “It’s intended purpose is to maximize the uses of the regional park. You could vote it down if you don’t like it.”
Graham said “public scrutiny” will get missed by the bill that creates a constant funding source.
The other bill that drew much debate was an ordinance sponsored by Council member Johnny Gaffney that dramatically reduces bond money set aside by his predecessor Pat Lockett-Felder for three projects in his district. As reported earlier, Gaffney was not happy that Lockett-Felder drained her bond money account shortly before leaving office. The three projects include the Arlington Road Town Center project ($140,000 down to $100,000), funding for the Bridge of Northeast Florida ($100,000 down to $25,000) and $98,352 for an ultrasound system for the Shands Jacksonville Eastside Clinic.
According to Peggy Sidman of the Office of General Counsel, there are unsigned contracts on two of three contracts that pertain to the Town Center project. Gaffney said he’s requesting a reduction in funding for the Bridge for two reasons: Jaguars owners Wayne and Delores Weaver recently gave the Bridge $1 million and it’s his understanding the Bridge wanted City money to buy a van.
“Surely they can buy a van for $25,000,” he said.
Council member Denise Lee is in her second stint and she said it’s not uncommon for outgoing, term-limited Council members to spend all of their bond money before leaving office.
“There’s no money in Dist. 8, either,” said Lee, of her district bond fund. “When I was a Council member before, I spent my bond money.”
Lee also questioned the need for district Council members to spend their bond money on projects she considers to be either the responsibility of Public Works or the Parks Department.
“We are spending bond money on things the City should be doing anyway,” said Lee, who wants a breakdown from the Council Auditor’s Office showing exactly where Better Jacksonville Plan bond money has been spent in her district. She also expressed the desire for the mayor’s office to be as good to her as it has been to previous Council members.
“I hope this administration has a deal for me before I leave so I can get some bond money, too,” she said.
In other news:
• The committee approved an agreement with Shands for the hospital to provide indigent health care. The cost for the one-year contract is $23.8 million, a deal that Penny Thompson of Shands says is good for the City.
“We lose money, but we make it up other ways. We write off $74 million a year,” she said.
Thompson said the funding is diverted to the City from a giant fund controlled by the state and funded by each county. Thompson said there are hundreds of millions of dollars in the fund. Dade County, she said, is the biggest contributor to the fund while Memorial Hospital and Shands are the two biggest providers of indigent health care in the state.
• The committee approved $10,000 worth of overtime for Parks Department employees that have worked events at Bruce, Justina, Clanzel Brown, Simonds-Johnson and Carvil Parks. Sidman said the work has already been performed and the committee was being asked to approve a funding source for the overtime. Council member Stephen Joost said he’d like to see the Parks Department explore ways to modify the schedules of City employees so they can work at events at these parks without exceeding a 40-hour work week.
• The committee also approved a little over $700,000 from the Special Law Enforcement Trust Fund for tasers for correctional and judicial officers ($488,000), diversity training for the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office ($88,000), the Crimestoppers initiative ($25,000), the Justice Coalition ($25,000), the Boy Scouts of America ($5,000) and Families of Slain Children ($2,000). The bill also appropriates $74,000 for the sheriff’s office to purchase equipment and written materials that will assist officers who come in contact with a deaf person. The Special Law Enforcement Trust Fund is funded through forfeiture money that is usually confiscated during drug busts and similar arrests.