Along the campaign trail, priority No. 1 for Mayor-elect Lenny Curry was public safety.
On Monday, his transition team received an early glimpse that it could cost more than $20 million to meet those additional needs.
Forty police officers, 40 community service officers and the needed equipment and IT would be more than $7 million.
Another $4.9 million for technological needs like replacing broken laptops and servers along with updating fingerprint identification systems.
How many officers will be included in Curry’s first budget hasn’t been determined, said spokesman Brian Hughes. But, it won’t be the full 147 officers Curry promised during the campaign.
“We’re going to get the number up as quickly as we can without breaking the bank,” said Hughes, noting that “multiple years” of budgeting led to the problem.
Hughes also said the training academy couldn’t process 147 new officers in the first year.
On the fire department side, more than $3 million is needed just to keep 55 firefighters employed. The two-year federal grant that funded those positions ends in February.
Rescue units come in at about $1 million and stations cost $2.5 million to $3 million.
In the next month, Curry and his team will determine how much to spend on priorities leading to his July 20 budget submission.
That work started Monday when Sam Mousa, Curry’s transition executive director, and a team of budget volunteers began meeting with city departments about revenue, expenses, needs and wants.
Fittingly, Jacksonville Fire and Rescue and the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office came first.
Overall, the fire department’s asks exceeded $12 million, but Chief Martin Senterfitt said the number isn’t yet verified — it could be more or less.
The biggest issue, he said, is the positions.
Two years ago, the city received a Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response Grant to hire 67 firefighters during down economic times. Funding for 55 of those expires in February — the remaining 12 receive an extra year because they are military veterans.
Overall, he said, keeping the lapsing employees for the other half of a year costs in excess of $3 million, but will be up to budget-makers.
“Now we, as a city, have a decision to make,” said Senterfitt.
On the police side, there’s a request for 40 officers and 40 community service officers — those who handle non-criminal calls.
Of those, 15 police officers could be included as part of a federal COPS grant, but that would need about $600,000 in city money after the state said it would throw in $250,000 toward the goal.
Some of the officers could be on the street before the middle of 2016 if the funding is in place Oct. 1 and certified officers enter the program, incoming undersheriff Pat Ivey told the budget group.
Mousa asked for a five-year cost projection of the 40 officers and 40 CSOs, which should be available today.
Some of the sheriff’s office asks, like almost $200,000 for TASER and body armor replacements, were labeled as enhancements but are considered necessary.
“It is getting to the point where we have to do this,” said Ivey afterward, referring to some of the replacements like the fingerprint system.
Later in the day came the Inspector General’s Office and Public Works, with the rest of the week slammed with other parts of city government. Today will feature the Jacksonville Public Library, Supervisor of elections and some of the independent authorities.
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