Staff Writer
Special meeting before Tuesday
A day after two City Council committees approved a measure relating to maintenance money and timelines between the Jaguars and the City, the council Finance Committee put Jaguars-related measures on hold Tuesday following too many questions without consensus.
An amendment approved Monday by both the Rules and the Recreation and Community Development committees would allow the Jaguars to be reimbursed for stadium projects with future Convention Development Tax revenues.
Several finance committee members said they were uncomfortable voting on the measures pending more discussion and agreement.
The committee will meet again to resume discussions before Tuesday’s full council meeting. No date was announced at the meeting.
As approved by the other two committees, stadium projects would be paid from a rolling five-year capital improvement plan financed by the CDT revenues and approved by the Jacksonville Economic Development Commission. Projects could be moved up within the rolling five-year period as needed.
The City would be contractually obligated to reimburse the team for the projects from the future year’s revenue, according to the amendment.
The five-year project plan would be created by the stadium manager and JEDC.
The Jaguars, represented by attorney Paul Harden, said flexibility is being sought on maintenance and capital improvements because the City’s budget process schedule and the needs for football stadium improvements do not always coincide.
Any project that is advanced in the five-year plan would have a dollar value attached to it, said Harden, with the team assuming any risk of going over that budget.
Under the amendment approved by the first two committees, a copy of the five-year plan would be distributed to the council president and the council member for District 7, which includes the stadium, for distribution to other council members, with approval being withheld for 30 days.
The five-year plan would be approved every year based on the coming five years. Once approved, if any of the projects deviate from the five-year plan, the council would not be able to weigh in because the projects would already have been authorized.
That potential deviation with no council input was questioned by a few finance committee members, but Harden said such projects were within the five-year plan and not outside the scope.
The percentage of funding that goes toward the stadium and other venues from CDT revenues was also questioned by finance committee member Ronnie Fussell.
Last year, those funds totaled around $3.3 million, with the stadium receiving more than 32 percent of such funding.
In the mayor’s proposed budget for fiscal 2010-11, anticipated funds are $3.9 million, with the stadium receiving 77 percent of the allotment.
The stadium’s age and needs compared to other venues warrants the increase, said Harden, with the stadium “playing catch-up” on needed improvements.
Fussell proposed an amendment to cap the allotment at 70 percent to safeguard funds for the other venues. The amendment was seconded by finance member Denise Lee and ultimately approved. It was the only action on the bill Tuesday.
The finance committee also deferred the ordinance regarding the naming rights deal between the Jaguars and EverBank and will also take up an issue regarding pricing of club seats for the annual Georgia-Florida game, which is set by the Jaguars.
The three Jaguars-related issues will be the subject of the special finance committee meeting.
356-2466