With an end in sight for City budget hearings, the City Council Finance Committee will take up funding today for the Jacksonville Journey crime-fighting initiative and other programs as it continues to look for savings in Mayor Alvin Brown’s 2011-12 budget.
The final scheduled meeting is Wednesday. The full Council will vote on the budget before the fiscal year begins Oct. 1.
The Finance Committee will review the Journey, capital improvement plans and about $14 million “below the line” items.
That includes $7.2 million in Journey funding put below the line until the Journey can explain its budget today.
Council Finance Chairman Richard Clark questioned the commission’s budget, saying that part of its function is to serve as a pass-through for funding for the Jacksonville Children’s Commission. Both the Journey and the Children’s Commission are nonprofits.
The general fund provides $35.5 million to nonprofits each year, he said.
“It’s a significant chunk,” he said. “We’ve got to find a better way … most cities have a dedicated source not in their general fund. Right now our general fund is getting eaten up.”
The Journey discussion Friday kicked off a day of budget debate.
The committee, in a 4-3 vote, approved waiving more than $600,000 in garbage tipping fees for the Neptune Beach and Atlantic Beach communities to use City landfills. The fees were disputed by several Beaches officials who attended Friday’s meeting.
Along with Finance member Bill Gulliford, who represents the Beaches, the group cited fairness concerns over the fee levels.
The fees were waived last year and Gulliford proposed they be waived for an additional year with the caveat that the administration and Beaches officials reach a resolution.
Clark opposed the waiver, saying the contract is a “black-and-white issue” and waiving the fees creates an even larger budget hole.
Later that afternoon and after the vote, Council President Stephen Joost made an appearance to voice his opposition to the waiver.
He said after talking to former Mayor John Peyton and his administration officials that the one-year waiver was never meant to turn into two years.
“We’re over $10 million in the hole and we can’t afford to start creating bigger holes for us,” Joost said.
He said he didn’t believe it was fair for Beaches officials to “cherry pick” points for an argument and asked the committee to reconsider the motion.
The initial vote and result was a positive step, Gulliford responded, that will help resolve the issue. Beaches officials, he said, received flawed, inaccurate and untimely information.
Joost asked for the waiver to be reconsidered, but that request died for lack of a second. Joost said he would take it up with the full Council.
Also debated was funding for the Equestrian Center, which the committee ultimately funded for just half the fiscal year.
Clark, saying he was being blunt, called the center “the City’s version of the Skyway Express” and wanted to see it unfunded.
“If you’re asking for a date certain, I’d say Oct. 1,” he said, when asked when it should be unfunded. “I’ve had enough.”
With events already scheduled for numerous dates in the first six months, the motion was passed to continue funding and allow Council member Doyle Carter, who represents the center’s district, to seek other ways to keep it funded.
Joost returned to the committee for discussion on the topic, which was also heavily debated last year during the budget process.
Funding was eventually restored after being put below the line.
Joost said it wasn’t even the dollars allocated to the facility but the principle and he wanted to set a date when it would come off the books.
Carter presented the merits of the center to his colleagues and said the facility was an economic driver and an asset that brought people to Jacksonville who normally wouldn’t visit.
He said he felt like a year would have been better, something Finance member Warren Jones also stated, and would allow him more time to strategize and seek assistance.
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