Citing “cooperation and collaboration,” the City Council Finance Committee and Mayor Lenny Curry’s administration wrapped up the fine-tuning of the city’s 2015-16 budget.
The five-hour session Wednesday capped 60 hours of evaluation of the $1 billion, 512-page financial plan Curry submitted to council on July 20.
“The process was right,” said committee Chair Bill Gulliford. “We worked together to do something good for the community.”
The final session was devoted to wrapping up the last details in some departments’ spending plans and setting the course for the next phase of discussion that will begin when the budget is filed to the full council on Tuesday.
City employees, who have lobbied council for months for the restoration of a 2 percent pay cut they accepted five years ago to help the city through the recession, got some good news. The committee allocated $737,000 to restore the 2010 pay levels for 1,275 city workers who are not union members.
Curry’s proposed budget included $2.3 million to increase union workers’ pay, which will be part of collective bargaining as each union’s contract with the city is negotiated.
Council member John Crescimbeni said the increase in pay should be effective Oct. 1, the date the decrease went into effect five years ago.
“We taketh away, now we’re giving back,” he said.
The news wasn’t as good for UF Health Jacksonville.
The committee made no addition to the $26 million allocation in Curry’s plan, which is the same amount in the 2014-15 budget.
The committee and the administration agreed UF Health provides essential services for uninsured patients and trauma victims, but also agreed devoting another $1 million to the city contribution would not make a significant difference in the indigent-care facility’s bottom line.
City Chief Administrative Office Sam Mousa said the administration will convene a community-wide discussion of options to support the hospital. That will include government, businesses, the other local hospitals and the University of Florida, he said.
“We need a total holistic fix with all interested parties at the table,” said Mousa.
The final actions of the committee allocated money for infrastructure that has been underfunded for several budget cycles and to reduce the amount the city will have to borrow to purchase vehicles.
Council member Lori Boyer said there’s a “large backlog” in the county of drainage repair and improvements and sidewalk construction projects.
The committee allocated $500,000 for drainage and $150,000 for sidewalks.
The balance of a little more than $500,000 will be used to increase the allocation for the vehicle replacement fund, reducing the amount of money the city will borrow to purchase rapidly depreciating equipment at relatively high interest rates.
The committee’s budget will be filed to the council on Tuesday, beginning a series of public hearings.
Council members will have until noon Sept. 21 to offer amendments to the spending plan, which will be enacted by Sept. 30.
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