Jacksonville committee debates ‘strategic initiative’ spending, approves mix of carryovers and community grants

Council members on the Jacksonville City Council Neighborhoods Committee on Sept. 15 debated whether small, district-level “strategic initiative” appropriations have become informal “pocketbooks” for council members and whether city practice should automatically sweep unspent or “vacant” funds into the city operating reserve.

Councilmember Michael Boylan (District 6) opened the debate, telling the committee that he was “taken aback” by the number of small appropriations and saying the strategic program had become “Council pocketbooks” rather than a coordinated set of investments. He urged a return to competitive requests for proposals and more concentrated awards, citing his own approach of issuing an RFP and making a single larger award rather than many small grants.

The point struck a chord with other members. “I will be voting against all of them,” Councilmember Dr. Salem said of multiple small grants, adding that awarding many $5,000–$10,000 appropriations creates the same workload for auditors and Office of General Counsel as much larger grants. Salem said he plans to introduce legislation to set a $25,000 minimum for these strategic appropriations going forward.

Mary Stifopoulos of the Office of General Counsel reminded the committee that the legal test for spending city dollars is public purpose. “Public purpose is…tantamount to the expenditure of public dollars,” she said, explaining that OGC and auditors vet whether a proposed grant or appropriation meets that standard and that OGC sometimes recommends adding explicit findings to legislation to document the public purpose.

Councilmembers raised a related concern they called “sweeping funds”: dollars identified in the current year because of budget savings (for example a nearly $10 million debt-service savings discussed during the meeting) that can be reallocated. Several speakers proposed an ordinance to require truly vacant or…