by Mike Sharkey
Staff Writer
Several hours after a split vote defeated an amendment that would have reduced the proposed 20 percent reduction in City contribution to the Cultural Council of Greater Jacksonville, the City Council Finance Committee voted 4-2 to reduce the cuts to just 10 percent — and put that 10 percent below the line until Cultural Council Executive Director Bob White provides a list of exactly who will receive the 10 percent.
The change in reduction was proposed by Finance Chair Art Shad.
“The Cultural Council is one area where I believe the mayor may have sharpened his pencil too much,” said Shad, during the Thursday morning session of the Finance Committee’s budget hearings. “At most, there should be a 10 percent cut. I think it’s important to invest in the arts community. I could go on and on and I could bring speaker after speaker up.
“I look at the Cultural Council as an economic driver. I feel strongly about this and I can produce studies to back this up.”
Because Shad proposed the change, Council rules prevent him from proposing an official amendment to the budget. And, that’s where things got confusing. Both Council and Finance Committee members Denise Lee and Art Graham made amendments to the budget. However, after 15-20 minutes of discussion and amendments to amendments, when the vote was called no one seemed to be sure exactly what they were voting on. Assistant General Counsel Peggy Sidman tried to explain the issue more than once. However, the vote ended up 3-3 (Finance Vice-Chair Kevin Hyde is an attorney with Foley & Lardner and missed the meeting due to work), which constitutes a defeat per Council rules.
Several hours later, at the end of the afternoon session, Council and Finance member Jay Jabour said he was confused by the morning vote. Since he originally voted against Graham’s amendment, he’s eligible to reopen the discussion.
“Because I didn’t know what I was voting on, can I move to reconsider?” asked Jabour.
Council and Finance Committee member Richard Clark voted against the amendment in the morning and he didn’t support the amendment in the afternoon.
“I am opposed to this and I do not support it,” said Clark. “We have a big enough hole to overcome without going into this. Let’s look at what we’ve got before we start adding money back in.”
Council and Finance Committee member Stephen Joost agreed with Clark.
“I don’t think it’s wise to do this piece-meal,” said Joost. “My objective is to cut expenses where we can and make the new fees as fair and equitable as possible. I am not going to support his.”
When the vote was called, Shad, Graham, Lee and Jabour all voted in favor of adding 10 percent back into the City’s contribution to the Cultural Council.
White was joined by about 75 citizens from various arts-related organizations that either benefit from or work with the Cultural Council in some capacity. In the morning, White argued the proposed 20 percent cut would have had terrible consequences on the local arts community and its peripheral industries.
“This is not trimming fat, but a cut to the bone,” said White. “The arts yields tens of millions of dollars back into the economy.
“The arts have an indelible impact on Downtown development. Arts tourists spend 45 cents on the dollar more than any other tourist. If we know anything about any great city, it’s the record of art left behind.”
White said the 10 percent will be divvied up between 26 groups, all of whom go through a thorough and transparent evaluation process.
In other budget hearing news from Thursday:
• The Downtown Vision, Inc. budget was passed with little discussion. DVI is funded through two sources: a 1.1 mill assessment on Downtown property owners within the Business Improvement District and money from the City. Originally set to take a $229,000 cut in City funding, Policy Chief Adam Hollingsworth explained that cut was a mistake on the administration’s part.
“We failed to properly budget for the City’s contribution to DVI,” said Hollingsworth. “As a show of good faith, we are asking the Finance Committee to restore the $229,000.”
• The Committee approved a motion that will raise a fee the City’s Planning and Development department charges to notify residents of potential land use and zoning changes. City law requires a written notice be sent to any resident within a 360-foot radius of any proposed land use or zoning change. Planning and Development Director Brad Thoburn said the City has been charging the land use change petitioner $2 per notice for the past 34-plus years.
“It costs us about $7 to send them out,” said Thoburn.
The Committee originally proposed raising the fee to $5. However, after learning that it costs Thoburn’s department $7 to send the notices out, the fee was quickly amended to $7.
• A proposed budget of $8.2 million for the Supervisor of Elections Office was deferred until a later date. That budget is about $1 million less that fiscal year 2006-07 due to the fact there is only one election next year (the presidential primary) that must be budgeted for. Supervisor of Elections Jerry Holland is seeking approval of 33 full-time positions — the same as the current fiscal year — and 187,905 part-time hours.
• A budget of $22.7 million for the Jacksonville Children’s Commission was approved. However, the addition of a deputy director at $115,000 annually was denied.
• The Jacksonville Fire & Rescue Department’s budget of $145.4 million was approved. Salaries — $85.2 million — make up a majority of the budget that includes 1,303 full-time positions and 34,924 part-time hours.
• A budget of just over $2 billion for JEA was also approved as was an increase of 87 positions. Within the budget is $40 million to begin construction on a new natural gas power station. JEA CEO Jim Dickenson said JEA was supposed to partner with three other utilities to build a pulverized coal burning plant in the Panhandle. However, that plan was vetoed by Gov. Charlie Crist.
“We got signals from the governor that he was not going to OK the project,” said Dickenson. “The former administration encouraged the coal burning plant. This administration does not encourage coal.”
• The JTA budget was moved to next Thursday after the morning session went longer than expected. Shad also scheduled a wrap up day for Sept. 6 during which the committee may address any budget issue they may have before sending the budget to the full Council for approval.