He was armed with a calculator and a sense of urgency.
“I’ve got three and a half hours to bring this in for a landing,” said Richard Clark.
“This” was a balanced budget. And the City Council Finance Committee chair was correct — the group was running out of time.
Daylong sessions throughout August and a starting hole of $60 million were distant memories by Friday, the final day of meetings. There was still $22 million to trim, down to just over $11 million by early afternoon.
Clark’s interjection came at a point when members started to wander in conversation. They were talking about the city turning to a self-insurance health program that could save millions — just not this year.
And balancing this year’s budget was Clark’s concern.
Throughout the entire process, Clark kept ticking away at the calculator by his side, keeping a running total on how much more the group had to cut to meet its goal.
All the while, it held fast to several key principles.
No use of one-time money. No pulling from reserves. Living within the city’s revenue.
It was a mantra Clark repeated early and often in the review process.
When discussion veered toward even the possibility of using one-time money, like Friday when talk resurfaced of letting the sheriff carry forward a portion of his savings, Clark was quick to offer a stern reminder. He wasn’t going to support a single instance.
Ultimately, Clark’s calculator rested on a figure just north of $11 million. Out of ideas and with time ticking away, the group took a sweeping step to close the gap. Without much debate, it voted to impose a 2.45 percent across-the-board cut to city departments.
The figure filled the gap. Budget balanced.
Clark’s colleagues said he was just the person to lead the way, given the hurdles the financial group faced.
“He can make a decision and move on it,” said Kimberly Daniels, one of the nine committee members. “We didn’t need anybody balking.”
No balking. No pontificating, either.
Praise from his peers
The vote was a consensus 7-0 when the committee’s work was done, three minutes shy of the scheduled conclusion.
Many on the committee were in consensus on Clark’s role, too.
Interspersed with a laugh, Bill Gulliford said Clark was “mean, nasty and hard to deal with.”
There were several times, he said, when Clark “just barely avoided being stabbed” by his peers because he reined them in when they “pontificated” on a particular topic. It’s a term Clark often uses.
Gulliford said there were a couple of times Clark called him out for doing just that, but they were warranted.
“He had the edge … he takes no prisoners and he’s really, really good at things like this,” Gulliford said of Clark’s committee leadership.
Some of that edge was apparent Friday when Clark took Mayor Alvin Brown’s administration to task for not adhering to a budget cut imposed last year. Several times, Clark stated Brown’s administration took savings other departments accrued over the year to cover its own hole.
Each time, Chris Hand, Brown’s chief of staff, disagreed with Clark’s implication the executive branch didn’t have to follow the rules. Instead, Hand said the administration transferred from other savings opportunities.
“Why do we stick to a budget if that’s what happens?” Clark asked aloud while taking off his glasses. “I’m at a loss.”
Finance member Lori Boyer said Clark did a “fabulous job” and allowed debate on subjects while keeping the pace of meetings flowing. One particular part of the budget that involved the need for detail was that capital improvement plan, which lays out projects for the next five years.
In past budgets, Boyer said members would say “we don’t have time to deal with that now.”
Clark, though, allowed that type of discussion, she said.
Daniels also had high praise for Clark.
“I think Richard Clark was an excellent leader,” Daniels said. “He’s like the pitcher of the team … and he was throwing strikes to get us where we needed to get.”
Not all supported plan
But despite praise, not everyone was 100 percent on board with the team’s philosophy.
Council member Reggie Brown said he thought Clark did the best he could with the situation, but differed in ideologies. Clark favored “paygo” or paying with cash instead of borrowing.
Brown said borrowing isn’t bad as long as it’s paid back — just like people do in their personal lives.
If the group had decided to borrow or use some of that one-time money for services, possible job and service cuts that come with the 2.45 percent lapse might have been avoided.
“Always remember that we have to think about the quality of life we want to have in Jacksonville,” Brown said.
Across the aisle, Alvin Brown’s administration also wasn’t on board with the committee’s philosophies or style. In a statement, Hand said the administration was disappointed in “the tone of the process” and how the committee eliminated investments to priorities like Downtown revitalization, job creation, parks and quality of life.
“It was not the kind of collaborative effort that produces the best results for taxpayers,” Hand said in the statement.
Despite Clark’s stern approach, humor did slip in at times.
One example was when vehicle replacements were being discussed for various departments. There were several millions in cash that could be spent, mostly on public safety and public works.
But at the conclusion of the meeting, a representative from the medical examiner’s office approached the podium with a request. The office needed one vehicle replaced for about $20,000. With the money still there, the committee agreed.
Clark announced it was the only time someone who approached the committee received 100 percent of what they asked and he offered advice.
“Run,” he said, which drew laughs.
For Clark, though, in hindsight it wasn’t fun and games.
’Never been prouder’
Clark has seen his share of city budgets.
The term-limited District 3 representative is taking part in his 10th in a row.
“I would say that of my 10 years, this was by far the most difficult that has ever been presented,” he said Sunday.
Boyer called his commitment to not using reserves or one-time money “steadfast.”
Clark said it was the committee’s work that made it a reality, which hasn’t always been the case in the past.
“I have heard that before,” he said.
But the words weren’t always followed by action. There wasn’t the follow through in the past, he said. This finance committee, though, was resolute in it adhering to the principles it set forth in the beginning, he said.
It was the committee, not he that deserves praises he said.
“I’ve never been prouder of a group of people as long as I have been on council,” he said.
Every member felt pain in the decisions not to borrow. Every one of them had to set aside a project or passion in order to live within the city’s means.
By doing so, he said the city now knows what it truly can afford from a debt perspective.
“It was probably the single biggest financial reset in the history of the city,” he said. “We hit the reset button.”
His job though it all, he said, was to do what his colleagues praised him the most on: keeping them all on point.
“I knew how big the task was,” he said. “We weren’t here to pontificate; we’ve got a budget to deal with.”
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