by Mike Sharkey
Staff Writer
After a thorough examination of its take-home and vehicle allowance policy, the mayor’s office has determined it can save thousands of dollars by adopting an amended policy.
Deputy Chief Administrative Officer Kerri Stewart told the City Council Finance Committee Monday the City will save $72,638 during the current fiscal year once it implements the new take-home, pool and car allowance policy over the next several weeks.
Stewart and her staff made this determination after reviewing the policies of several other government entities, both locally and elsewhere in the state. Those reviews included the Duval County School Board, JTA, the City of Orlando and others. Stewart said there was a wide range of policies from the School Board’s one paragraph policy that places all the responsibility in the hands of the superintendent of schools to Orlando’s 12-page policy that includes a form city officials must fill out in order to check out a vehicle.
“The policies run the gamut from very vague to very specific,” said Stewart, adding the policy the City has adopted is similar to the one JTA employs.
Monday Stewart presented a final draft of the policy to the Finance Committee as a presentation. The policy does not require any kind of formal approval from Council, but it does contain one major change members of the Finance Committee discussed about a month ago.
Under the new policy, those with take-home vehicles will not be allowed to drive them outside the county line. The previous limit was 10 miles, but how those 10 miles were determined was up for interpretation. The change also only affects those who report to the mayor and does not affect the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office, which has a separate vehicle policy.
“The language was not scientific, so we made the county line the cut-off point,” said Stewart.
The savings were realized in two areas: $18,000 a year in auto allowance and $54,638 in take-home vehicles. Stewart said each City employee with either a car allowance or take-home vehicle was examined to determine the true necessity of the allowance or vehicle.
Stewart said the policies of the other four Constitutional officers –property appraiser, supervisor of elections, tax collector and clerk of the courts – were examined and it was determined that each automatically defaults to the guidelines of the mayor’s office.
Finance member Warren Jones said it’s now time to look at the JSO policy.
“We have to impress upon the sheriff to do something similar,” said Jones. “I hate to see Duval County tax dollars being used outside Duval County.”
In other news from the Finance meeting:
The Committee voted to defer a bill that would provide another extension to a developer that once promised to build a movie theater on the Northside but is now seeking to build two auto dealerships. The original deal was between the Jacksonville Economic Development Commission and HOPE Inc. of Jacksonville and INOC, LLC. The third redevelopment agreement also seeks to extend the completion deadline of the project to Dec. 31, 2011. The original completion deadline was Dec. 31, 2005, but the developer received an extension to Dec. 31, 2007.
Janice Billy of the Council Auditor’s Office explained the developer is also in default on the development agreement to the tune of $2.1 million. The original terms of the development agreement called for $3 million from the City and $30 million from the developer.
“We don’t do deals like this anymore,” said Finance member Daniel Davis. “This is probably not a deal we would do now or let the JEDC bring to us. This was done before we got here.”
James Richardson of the City’s Housing Department defended the developer, saying auto dealerships bring more value to the property as well as higher annual wages. He also pointed out there is another movie theater about three miles from the site.
“It’s not economically viable to have two theaters in such proximity,” he said, adding the entire development will bring about 600 jobs to the area with an annual salary of about $40,000. “If we don’t move forward, it puts the project at risk. The City will ultimately retain the property and hold the asset for quite some time. That is not revenue producing.”
Richardson said the developer is currently building one dealership, but couldn’t guarantee the other would come to fruition.
“I will work with the developer to secure guarantees,” he said.
Davis said he had concerns about the potential dealerships given the current economic health of the car manufacturers. Finance member Steven Joost said car dealerships would be the wrong choice and, given the future growth of the port, he’d prefer to see warehouse facilities.
“Would I invest my money or the taxpayers’ money in this? Absolutely not,” said Joost. “I don’t see any reason to support it. If the land stays with the City, 4-5 years from now, with the port development, we will make a profit.”
356-2466