After six full days of hearings throughout August, the City Council Finance Committee completed its work Tuesday, cutting close to $4.6 million from Mayor Alvin Brown’s proposed budget.
“It has been a very deliberative process,” said Finance Chairman Richard Clark. “Not a single department was exempt, and I’m proud of the work this committee put into it.”
The $4.6 million was then applied toward a $5 million tab for car and computer purchases along with capital maintenance to ensure the City pays for purchases as it goes rather than using debt.
Clark and others strived for the “paygo” method of purchasing during the hearings.
“That’s enormous,” Clark said of the potential savings. “That was is what we want to do.”
The process was not without difficult decisions, Clark said. Cuts to the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office and Jacksonville Public Library were two of the more painful moves, he said.
“I think everyone understands what we’re going through in this budget,” he said. “We had to find cuts.”
The budget must be voted on by full Council before the start of the fiscal year Oct. 1.
JSO, Journey take hit
The final day of hearings featured cuts to the JSO and Jacksonville Journey among other agencies.
Brown’s JSO budget included a 2 percent pay cut that union members have not agreed to take. The additional needed cut totaled $4.46 million that Sheriff John Rutherford said would result in layoffs of 69 positions, including 41 police officers.
On Friday, the Finance Committee defunded 50 positions, of which about 20 were vacant, that are contingent upon the sheriff’s office receiving a U.S. Department of Justice grant.
Rutherford said the total cuts, around $16.4 million to his budget, would “have some negative impact on public safety,”
The committee cut half of the $4.46 million for budget savings and the rest will be placed in a special contingency fund for Rutherford to rehire some of the laid-off positions should the department receive grant funding or the union takes the 2 percent pay cut.
Rutherford told the committee he was laying off 52 people.
Fraternal Order of Police President Nelson Cuba attended the hearing.
“It makes no sense,” Cuba said. “These layoffs are not what this community needs. Priority No. 1 is public safety and those Council members all ran on that. Now they’ll have to answer to the citizens.’
The Jacksonville Journey’s budget was cut by $1.4 million to $9.2 million, down from $11.8 million in the current year. Brown had already proposed a cut.
Mayor John Peyton initiated the crime prevention and intervention program for youths, but Clark and other Finance members wanted to know the program’s exit strategy. Journey officials must return to Council in six months to present “measurables” to determine when the program is a success and will no longer need City funding.
The $1.4 million was once a part of Journey funding through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, said Debbie Verges, Journey director. The funding has expired.
She said a meeting Thursday with the Journey Oversight Committee and groups that receive Journey funding would determine where the cuts would be.
“Everybody understands the situation,” Verges said.
Finance Vice Chairman Warren Jones opposed cuts to both the JSO and Journey and was concerned that the cuts would disproportionately affect the communities most in need.
“We were elected to represent the total community, yet we exclude parts of the community,” said Jones.
Following the final meeting Tuesday, Jones said the committee’s actions throughout the budget review were insensitive to the poor and other struggling communities.
Cutting police positions in addition to Journey initiatives provided a double negative impact, he said.
“The reality is, some of us who live in Jacksonville have not seen a reduction in crime,” said Jones. “Yes crime is reduced, but not where it needs to be.”
Brown’s final initiative slashed
In its final day, the committee also revisited budgetary items it put “below the line.” Those were items that arose during the regular budget review but funding was put on hold instead of being eliminated or approved to allow for later discussion.
The committee decided to fund, strike or keep several items below the line for later consideration.
The last of Mayor Alvin Brown’s initiatives that remained in the budget, a $2 million line item for economic development, was struck from the budget.
Jessica Deal, Brown’s Council liaison, asked that the item remain below the line until Jacksonville Regional Chamber of Commerce Executive Vice President Jerry Mallot and Jacksonville Civic Council Executive Director Don Shea, who are reviewing the City’s economic development strategy, could speak with the committee.
The committee also struck Brown’s initiatives to create nine advisory councils, a Downtown development agency, an Education Commissioner’s office, a sports and entertainment office and an office for public private partnerships.
Committee members throughout the hearings said they didn’t want to budget new offices until Brown completed his plan to reorganize City government.
No new Brown initiatives remain in the budget.
In other “below the line” items resolved Tuesday:
• The Inspector General’s office was funded after initially being placed below the line. Kent Olson of the City’s Budget Office lobbied for it, saying it assisted in finding budget savings, but Clark was against it. Finance member Bill Bishop, Council vice president, was one of the members in favor of keeping it, but only because it was another part of reorganization that shouldn’t be a part of the budget process. The office has a budget of more than $963,000.
• Two vacant executive Council assistant positions belonging to Finance members John Crescimbeni and Greg Anderson were eliminated. Anderson said he OK with the decision. Crescimbeni was not at Tuesday’s meeting, but has not employed a Council assistant.
• The Jacksonville Economic Development Commission’s budget cut was adjusted to $1.7 million, from its original cut of $1.8 million, to restore full funding for two grants. The lessened cut also includes six months of rent for the commission’s offices at the Police and Fire Pension Fund Building and $40,000 for moving expenses once the office can be moved to City Hall.
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