By Mike Sharkey
Staff Writer
In a relatively uneventful meeting, the City Council’s Finance Committee approved several bills: one that will help jump-start the revitalization of a neighborhood, one that will assure the City’s Job Opportunity Bank stays funded and several that authorize agreements for the Duval County Medical Examiner to provide services to several area counties.
The redevelopment bill OKs the establishment of a Community Redevelopment Act and accompanies the redevelopment plan for the Soutel/Moncrief area.
“We have been working on this for quite some time,” said Council member Mia Jones, who sponsored the bill two years ago. “That area has been overlooked for services and amenities for years. It used to be a thriving retail area.”
Jones said a new grocery store did open last week and she’s hoping the redevelopment act will further push an increase in new housing and retail.
The project meets four of the Jacksonville Economic Development Commission’s primary objectives. Those include the recruitment and expansion of higher-wage jobs, the growth and expansion of small business, promoting and encouraging private investment and promoting and leveraging investment in economically distressed areas.
The Finance Committee also approved a bill sponsored by Council member Kevin Hyde that waives a requirement within the administration of the Duval County Job Bank. According to Hyde, the funding for the Job Bank is provided by companies the City has granted various economic development incentives to over the years.
Under normal circumstances, the balance in that fund must be at least $250,000 before grants can be awarded. Hyde says the current economic slowdown has made it virtually impossible for the fund – which has a current balance of $76,475 – to meet the $250,000 mark.
“This is not the City’s money,” said Hyde, explaining how the fund has been used to provide small grants to the Clara White Mission and Florida Community College at Jacksonville. Hyde said a board was established that looks at all grant applications and rules on the applications.
Finance also approved ordinances that will authorize the Duval County Medical Examiner to provide services to Suwannee,Lafayette, Hamilton, Columbia, Nassau and Clay counties. The agreements run through the 2010-11 fiscal year and include everything from the performance of autopsies to cremation approval.
Overall, the Duval County Medical Examiner will provide 17 services ranging in price from $2,100 for an autopsy to a free autopsy report for the family of the deceased.
One bill that was read into the record for the second time that may draw plenty of scrutiny in two weeks is an ordinance that would provide more than $850,000 to Metropolitan Parking Solutions. The money is a loan payment from the City to the company to cover the difference between revenue generated at four Downtown parking garages and the 8-percent profit Metropolitan Parking Solutions is guaranteed annually.
The parking garage agreement was reached in February 2004 when the City sold the land under the garages to Metropolitan Parking Solutions for $5.7 million (which was in the form of a City loan). The City then loaned the company another $50 million to build two garages near the Sports Complex, one near the Main Library and one near the site of the future new County Courthouse. According to the agreement, when the garages start turning a profit, Metropolitan Parking Solutions will share that profit with the City, which has an option to eventually buy the garages. In 2006, the City paid Metropolitan Parking Solutions $1.7 million to assure the 8-percent profit.
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