by Joe Wilhelm Jr.
Staff Writer
A City Council committee charged with finding budget savings looked Tuesday at the costs of take-home vehicles and fuel, among other items.
“When it comes to the budget, everything should be on the table for discussion,” said council Vice President Stephen Joost, who chairs the City Council Budget Savings Review Special Committee.
The committee will meet four more times as the upcoming City annual budget is put together.
The City’s Fleet Management Division budget was on the agenda Tuesday.
However, the committee did not discuss vehicles that are taken home by City employees.
That discussion is postponed until the City General Counsel’s Office provides an opinion whether or not the vehicles used by Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office employees are a benefit that is included in the collective bargaining process.
“Mr. Cuba will tell you that is a benefit to the police officer and any take-back of benefits to his officers would be a (collective) bargaining item,” said City Chief Administrative Officer Kerri Stewart.
She was referring to Fraternal Order of Police President Nelson Cuba.
Take-home vehicles may be further scrutinized after a recent study of vehicle use revealed 400 vehicles showed above-normal usage.
Fleet Management representatives met with a panel of JSO staff over the last year to discuss how vehicles could be better utilized.
“The last meeting we had, the primary issue was JSO had 400 vehicles that were above the average usage for fuel on an annual usage. Average usage is somewhere between 18,000 and 20,000 miles per year,” said Devin Reed, director of Central Operations for the City.
“That’s one of the areas that we are going to have to rein back so that kind of usage is curtailed,” said Reed.
The committee will wait for the General Counsel’s Office opinion.
“Take-home vehicles are a major budgeting item, but we will wait to hear from the Office of General Counsel to see if it is part of collective bargaining,” said Joost.
Council members Warren Jones and Reggie Brown agreed.
The committee also heard about the fleet’s most expensive item, which is fuel.
Fuel accounts for more than half of the Fleet Management budget. About $21 million is proposed for fuel costs in the current fiscal budget, up more than $3 million from last year.
The 2011 budget could mark the third straight year where fuel costs have experienced an increase of at least $3 million annually.
The Fleet Management budget is $39.6 million.
“That area of fleet’s budget constantly increases because that is one of the elements that is uncontrollable,” said Reed.
“It is driven by market forces and that is something that is out of Mr. Houston’s hands,” he said.
Reed was referring to Fleet Management Chief Sam Houston.
Reed said another factor out of Houston’s hands is the age of his staff. Reed reported that the average age of the 120 employees is 50.
“We need to start restocking the pipeline,” said Reed. “People just aren’t studying to be mechanics like they used to, but we have to find a way to get some employees into those positions before the staff begins to retire.”
Joost also was interested in the staff, particularly the number of hours billed by the employees of Fleet Management.
Information provided by Reed stated that fleet employees worked 103,000 billable hours in 2010. He wants 90 percent of the work to be billable to City departments or outside agencies, including JSO, JEA, the Jacksonville Transportation Authority, the U.S. Marshals Service and the City of Fernandina.
“If you do the math, it doesn’t work out. That’s about 16.5 billable hours per employee. Where is the other 20 hours?” asked Joost.
Reed assured Joost that staff was keeping busy during those hours and he would provide more information detailing the work.
Council President Jack Webb appointed the committee to prepare recommendations for budget saving measures to be considered by the mayor and Finance Committee during the upcoming budget process.
The committee’s next meeting is 3 p.m. April 19 at City Hall.
356-2466