A week after the City Council Finance Committee was alerted to an almost $11 million combined deficit in Mayor Alvin Brown’s proposed budget, his administration pitched a list of budgetary savings totaling $11.85 million to offset the missteps.
The committee received a memo and brief presentation from City Chief Financial Officer Ronnie Belton detailing the potential savings during the morning part of its all-day budget hearing Thursday, but has not yet reviewed it.
The proposed list includes:
• Savings achieved through competitive bidding in the facilities management and health benefits contracts, totaling $4.25 million. Neither contract process has concluded, but the administration is banking on saving $750,000 from the facilities management and $3.5 million in health benefits through negotiations. “Though it is hoped that contract negotiations will produce even greater savings, those additional savings are not incorporated into this recommendation,” the memo states.
• A $3 million increase from state revenue, supported by the Florida Office of Economic and Demographic Research.
• Debt service savings of $2 million in the next budget year.
• Debt service savings of $1 million from the current budget year that will be carried over to provide debt service in the next fiscal year.
• Additional staffing reductions of $1 million, based on departures and attrition.
• A $600,000 savings through a reduction of the Courthouse Trust Transfer-in and Parks and Recreation double billing issue. The Council Auditor’s Office has recommended this change in its analysis of Brown’s proposed budget, and the administration is in agreement with the finding.
Council member John Crescimbeni, Finance Committee chairman, said during Belton’s presentation that the quick turnaround of Belton and the Finance Department’s findings “sounds too easy” and questioned why the savings weren’t included in the mayor’s original budget.
Several components, such as the $3.5 million in savings through the health benefits contract, were realized within the last several days, said Glenn Hansen, City budget officer.
Council Auditor Kirk Sherman said that he and his office had yet to review the administration’s proposal and that analysis and an opinion would be available early next week.
Crescimbeni and the committee directed Belton to find additional savings following several errors being found by the Council Auditor’s Office last week, the largest being a $5 million miscalculation in the state revenue sharing.
A decimal point being misplaced also caused an additional hole of almost $1 million.
Late last week, it was also revealed that close to $4.5 million originally meant to be placed in the general fund after being swept from Community Redevelopment Areas accounts for the Southbank and Jacksonville International Airport would instead be returned.
In the past several years, unused funds from such accounts have been permitted to be swept on the last day of the fiscal year, but the administration wanted those funds kept in those accounts this year to assist with the newly created Downtown Investment Authority.
Other news from Thursday’s budget hearings:
• Public Service Grant funding and the Cultural Council funding for nonprofits were reviewed but not passed and will come back for further discussion. Committee members questioned the list of proposed Public Service Grant Council disbursements, totaling $2.3 million, going to local nonprofits. Questioned in particular were increases to Urban Jacksonville in several areas and declines to others such as Second Harvest Food Bank. “I’m astonished by this list,” Crescimbeni said. He and other members asked to see the matrices used to formulate scores that determine which nonprofits receive what funding. Committee members also questioned Robert Arleigh White, Cultural Council executive director, on salary and staff levels in addition to its $2.85 million proposed funding that had no dispersal list like that of the Public Service Grant Council.
• Discussion of the courts’ budget included the idea of relocating traffic court, located at 3490 Beach Blvd., to the new courthouse. Such a move to a public building could save more than $275,000 in rent payments each year. For it to work, though, accessible parking for up to 200 patrons that use the facility each day is required. Court Administrator Joe Stelma said that the courts will have discussions with City officials on the move’s feasibility and that Fourth Circuit Chief Judge Donald Moran would have to approve.
• The State Attorney’s Office was denied its request of more than $171,000 to purchase its own servers. Rich Komando, executive director of management in the office, said that the request was due to security issues given the nature of their work, but the committee, with the backing of the City’s information technology department and Office of General Counsel, recommended that the City’s IT department continue to provide the service and work.
• As of the end of Thursday’s hearings, the budget is $7.4 million in the hole. That does not include the administration’s recent savings proposals.
• The August 30 wrap-up date is becoming fuller with each hearing. Thursday’s deliberations pushed the City’s Special Services, Planning Department and Concurrency and Building Inspection reviews into the last day. They will be joined by several others, including tax increment districts and Downtown Vision Inc., held over from last week. The committee also has two built-in hearing dates Aug. 29 and Aug. 31 if needed.
• The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office budget review headlines the action expected from today’s half-day meeting scheduled from 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Two hours have been slated for discussion on the police budget, while another 45 minutes has been scheduled for the Jacksonville Fire & Rescue Department.
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