Few cuts promised in Gainesville Charter Officer and GPD budgets

BY JENNIFER CABRERA

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – In a Workshop held today, the Gainesville City Commission heard presentations from five of their six charter officers and from Gainesville Police Department on their proposed FY24 budgets. Although the City needs to cut about $19 million from its overall budget for next year, few cuts were proposed in today’s meeting, and the cuts were offset by large increases in some of the budgets.

City Attorney

The City Attorney’s Office proposed $48k in salary increases, a $9k increase in Operations & Maintenance, and a $22k cut in Administrative & General, for an overall increase of $35k, or 2% more than the FY23 budget.

A recurring theme in the discussions was that increases for employees who are members of bargaining units (such as Communications Workers of America or the public safety unions) are set during bargaining and are not directly under the control of Charter Officers.

City Auditor

The City Auditor’s Office proposed a $15k increase in salaries and benefits, a $2k decrease in Operations & Maintenance, and a $10k decrease in Administrative & General, for an overall increase of about $3k, or 0.35% more than the FY23 budget.

City Clerk

The City Clerk’s Office proposed a $59k increase in salaries and benefits, a $5k decrease in Operations & Maintenance, a $28k decrease in Administrative & General, and no change in Programs, for an overall increase of $26k, or 2.02% more than the FY23 budget.

City Commission

The City Commission Office proposed a $55k increase in salaries and benefits (mostly determined by the ordinance that specifies raises for commissioners based on the Consumer Price Index), an $11k increase (375%) in Administrative & General, and no change in Programs ($35,000 in travel expenses for commissioners), for an overall increase of $66k, or 13.52% more than the FY23 budget.

Steve Varvel, Acting Office of Budget & Management Director, explained that some of the increase in salaries and benefits came from the Florida Retirement System (FRS) contributions, which have “skyrocketed… for the elected official class.” The City pays the contributions for the mayor and all of the commissioners except Ed Book because he participates as a Santa Fe College employee. The City even has to make contributions for Commissioner Cynthia Chestnut, who receives an FRS pension.

City Manager

The City Manager’s Office proposed a $374k reduction in salaries and benefits, accomplished by eliminating an Executive Assistant Senior position, transferring the Chief Climate Officer to Sustainable Development (so those funds will show up in that budget), a voluntary reduction of 5% in the City Manager’s salary, and eliminating four vacant positions in Neighbor Advocacy Services. The office also proposed a $50,000 increase in Operations & Maintenance for a temporary service employee to sit at the front desk of City Hall and no change in Administrative & General, for an overall decrease of $423,710, or 20.29% less than the FY23 budget.

Equity & Inclusion

The Office of Equity & Inclusion proposed an increase of $37k in salaries and benefits, but it was unclear whether that included the salary in Director Zeriah Fulston’s new contract, which has not been made public yet. The office also proposed a $79k increase in Operations & Maintenance, a $109k decrease in Administrative & General, and a $39k decrease in Programs, for an overall decrease of $33k, or 2% less than the FY23 budget.

During the discussion following the presentation on the Equity & Inclusion budget, Mayor Harvey Ward said it is unusual for a city this size to have six charter officers, and Commissioner Bryan Eastman said the commission might want to look at reducing that number with a ballot initiative in 2024.

Gainesville Police Department

GPD proposed a $4.5 million increase in salaries and benefits (most of which is contractual), an $805k increase in Operations & Maintenance, a $94k decrease in Nondiscretionary Operations & Maintenance, and a $373k increase in Administrative & General, for an overall increase of $5.4 million, or 15.29% more than the FY23 budget. The changes include eliminating three vacant positions: a Program Coordinator in the Police Chief’s office, a vacant Assistant Police Chief position (the other Assistant Police Chief position will be filled soon), and a vacant Police Crime Analyst position. Another change is that overtime will be budgeted up front instead of being added in a “true-up” at the end of the budget year.

In addition, the Juvenile Justice and Community Support Programs, with the exception of 3.5 positions in BOLD (Brave Overt Leaders of Distinction), will be eliminated, including the Reichert House Youth Academy. City Manager Cynthia Curry said the City is trying to find other jobs in the City or at GRU for the people whose jobs will be eliminated by this change. The elimination of these programs will cut almost $2.4 million from the City’s budget.

Reichert House

Curry said that eliminating Reichert House as a City program was driven by the State Auditor General’s findings: “We really just could not get past the issues or solutions that would have addressed those findings. We haven’t been able to get past that. And so the decision that I made and shared with the Commission was that the Reichert House program, in particular, would end at the school’s calendar year, which is May 31. The program would roll into GPD over the summer, and those employees would be maintained through the fiscal year, which is September 30… There will be programs specifically designed for the summer for those young men” with Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs and other programs.

Curry concluded, “It has not been driven by a lack of money, it has just simply been driven by a lack of ability to, quite frankly, get past audit findings.”

Regarding the future of Reichert House, Curry said, “I would agree it is an important program. The services are critical. For the last month, we have been meeting with community partners–Darry Lloyd, specifically, from the State Attorney’s Office, but also representing Black on Black and some other community-based organizations. He has taken the lead, along with representatives from the School Board, the Children’s Trust–they have not made a hard commitment, because there’s an application process that has to be gone through in order to secure those funds. But they are all at the table. I spoke with Mr. Lloyd today, he feels very confident that they will have a program that will roll out for the fall school term, that will provide an after-school care program for young people that were served by Reichert House.”

Curry said she hoped the City would be able to provide “at least some resources, be they facilities, or vehicles or whatever it is that they request. But there clearly is a role for the City, going forward. I just can’t speak specifically to it right now.”

Willits asked whether the promise of saving over $2 million on Reichert House was “not completely accurate, that we may save it in this budget line, may show up in a different budget line.”

Curry responded that the program would not be part of “GPD’s core service, but the services provided are clearly needed in the community. And we would hope that the City would continue to play a role somewhere in the future of that partnership that is being discussed right now, to carry the program home.”

A summary of the General Government budget presentations so far is below:

More departments will present their budgets on May 25 at a City Commission Workshop that will be held instead of the scheduled General Policy Committee meeting at 1:00 p.m.