A tie vote in late March left supporters of pension reform deflated.
A resounding victory Tuesday had them elated.
Time was ticking down. A little more than two months after that March vote, a new mayor and City Council would take the reins. That’s when the deal so many current leaders had worked on the past several years might finally fall apart.
The deal Mayor Alvin Brown and Pension Fund Administrator John Keane negotiated had almost passed. It just took a veteran council leader to help drive it over the finish line.
“We had gotten so close,” said Bill Gulliford. “Maybe one last time we could get it through.”
It was Gulliford’s effort and results that swayed enough of his colleagues to pass the deal Tuesday by a 14-4 margin.
Richard Clark was one of those members who voted against the deal in March. Tuesday, he was on the other side, afterward saying the compromise Gulliford struck was enough to “finally get this thing done.”
“It was going to take Bill to get in and do it,” said Clark. “It couldn’t be one of the short-term council members … it had to be someone who understands, someone who was willing to live by those things you propose.”
Robin Lumb also was swayed since March. He said he was most concerned about the cost for new hires — especially with Mayor-elect Lenny Curry wanting to hire 147 new police officers. The deal helps lower those costs.
Last week, he said he still wasn’t sure how he’d vote. But Tuesday evening, he said it was Gulliford who convinced him.
“It’s why he’s one of the outstanding leaders in Jacksonville,” Lumb said.
Both men provided words of encouragement for the efforts and compromise Brown and Keane made in setting the foundation for Tuesday’s deal. But both had the same answer when asked if a deal could have happened in such a short window without Gulliford.
“Probably not,” both said.
Council President Clay Yarborough was among those with similar feelings. He came around to the latest deal partly because of simple math. While he favors a deal that’s three years, the seven years approved is much better than the 14 years remaining on the current deal.
The length of the deal was a key component of the Gulliford compromise package.
Keane, the man who’s sat across the table for many a pension discussion, also praised the councilman. He called Gulliford a “very strong voice” and one who “has a way to convince the brethren up there of the best solution.”
The two of them had met off and on since March to talk about a deal, hammering out finer points with which a majority could agree.
Like a “fairness” issue involving pay for police officers. Now in the deal, officers who took a 3 percent pay cut several years ago will have that restored entirely before their pension contribution escalates. At one point, they would only have gotten 2 percent back while firefighters would have had their cuts fully restored.
For days that stretched to weeks last year, Brown and Chris Hand, the mayor’s chief of staff, had been on the other side of the table with Keane.
Hand said much of the credit goes to Gulliford, the mayor and the city staff who worked hard on the issue. Gulliford has been a staunch critic of Brown in the past, but he worked with the mayor’s administration in the past weeks to help push the latest deal through.
“I think it speaks volumes about both of them,” Hand said of Gulliford and Brown pushing aside past differences. “People don’t always see eye to eye … but both of them did what leaders do.”
For all the praise heaped upon him Tuesday, Gulliford brushes it off. Don’t worry about him, he said.
Having anyone speak highly of him and, in this case, being able to sway his colleagues toward a deal were attributes he’s gained over time.
“It’s just a function of being old and treacherous,” he said, then laughed.
While praise for him, Brown, Keane and anyone else associated with reform were flowing Tuesday, it still isn’t finalized.
The pension fund board still has to sign off on it. And if it does, there will be a grand signing ceremony — likely filled with praise for all parties that made this first step a reality.
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