Brown passes budget baton to Joost and City Council

In a soaring and charismatic speech, new Jacksonville Mayor Brown presented his budget to the new City Council at 10:00am this morning. It was a short, but sweet speech in which Brown has closed the $60 million budget shortfall facing the city and upheld many campaign promises he made in one fell swoop. Now it will be up to City Council to deliberate, make their adjustments and pass the final

version. The deadline is scheduled for October 1.

Brown spoke is a manner similar to that of a charismatic reverend. I even heard an "amen" proclaimed a few rows ahead of me in the Council Chambers. It reminded me of hearing someone at the inauguration say that if he didn't win the election, he would have had a career in a church somewhere. The speech was motivational, calling all stakeholders to get involved in the process. If we are to succeed, Brown said, it would take everyone working together.

The speech was short, and stayed away from the nuts, bolts and numbers that go into a budget and instead focused on the broader policy goals he hoped to achieve through these measures. At the end, he joked: "Waiting for a longer speech, huh? Gotcha."

This budget does not come without pain, however. 255 jobs - some vacant, some filled - are being eliminated from the city's payroll, a fact that I heard one council member expressing some concern about. At a time of record unemployment, the city is adding to the pain. Brown did not dwell on this in his speech, but in an article published late  last night on the Florida Time Union's website a spokesperson was quoted as saying these cuts were necessary to get costs under control. These cuts are also part of a larger effort in streamlining the city and administration's personnel to increase efficiency and decrease costs. The mayor briefly spoke to these plans in his presentation.

Further cuts occur across many city departments: Fire & rescue, the sheriff's office, fleet management, the Jacksonville Journey and the Jacksonville Children's Commission will all see their budgets decrease this year. Library hours will be shortened, but no branches will be closed.

This budget is not all cuts. The Mayor proposes the creation of four new offices in the areas of education, public/private partnerships, downtown development and sports and entertainment. These offices fulfill many of the promises Brown made on the campaign trail and reflects his strategy on how to lead the city.

One possible sticking point could occur between the assumed 2% pay cut on the behalf of the police officers. The Fraternal Order of Police and the city have been in a tense debate for more than a year over such a deal. The FOP and City have reached an impasse in their negotiations and are waiting on the decision of a special magistrate to determine how to proceed. If the FOP stands gstrong against these cuts, Brown may have quite a battle on his hands.

Overall though, I was surprised about how quickly this budget proposal was presented and at how little animosity was stirred up in the process. The mayor really appears to have taken a team like approach in the way he does business, from the formation of his administration to the tactics used to balance the budget. Today's presentation was a far cry from Mayor Peyton's last budget proposal, where he smugly challenged the Council to do better at his conclusion.

A lot can happen after the baton is handed over to Joost and the Council. There is no telling what direction this budget can take between now and October 1. I for one hope they do not change much.