Gainesville City Commission ratifies contract with significant salary bump for police officers, gives $150,000 to the Hippodrome Theatre

BY JENNIFER CABRERA

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – At yesterday’s Gainesville City Commission meeting, commissioners ratified a contract that gives a nearly $10,000 raise to police officers and agreed to give $150,000 to the Hippodrome Theatre to replace money vetoed by the Governor.

Amended contract for police officers

After presenting a quarterly update on crime statistics (available here) from Gainesville Police Department (GPD) Interim Chief Nelson Moya, City Human Resources Director Laura Graetz said that City management had agreed with the Fraternal Order of Police Gator Lodge 67 on the terms of the next labor agreement, which covers 2024-2027. 

The agreement will move police officers from 10-hour to 12-hour shifts, which allows the department to save on overtime expenses and staff up patrol zones more efficiently; that will begin on September 2, and the savings from that change allowed the salary increases that had been a top priority for the police department, due to staffing issues and the need to compete with nearby agencies. Paid parental leave was reduced from 12 weeks to 6 weeks, but it is now more flexible: leave can be taken any time within the first year after the birth or adoption of a child, so mothers and fathers who both work for the department can take separate leaves.

A recent report showed that GPD had one of the lowest starting salaries for peer agencies at $50,000 per year, and the union wanted to get to a starting salary of $60,000, so as of October 1, all pay ranges were increased by $9,975. Graetz said that since all the ranges were adjusted, “there’s no compression that occurs now.” Officers will forego their 2025 step increase, and the next regular step increase will be in 2026. Both sides agreed to revisit cost-of-living increases in years two and three of the contract. 

After a motion by Commissioner Ed Book and multiple seconds, the Commission ratified the agreement unanimously.

Hippodrome Theatre funding gap

During the afternoon session, the Commission discussed potential funding for the Hippodrome Theatre. Mayor Harvey Ward said he put the item on the agenda because Governor DeSantis vetoed $150,000 in funds from the state’s budget, “basically a rounding error in the larger state budget. It did not improve the state budget; it just harmed the arts and economic development in every community around the state. I find that disturbing and disappointing, and I don’t know why it happened, to be honest with you.” He said the theater had also lost about $100,000 in revenue because “they had to shut down the most lucrative of their shows… in the early summer because of a wave of COVID.” He said the theater was asking for help in plugging a $250,000 cash flow gap, and that is “a very serious issue… because they are a keystone and anchor of downtown Gainesville.”

Ward emphasized that there is no “bucket of money sitting there just waiting to be spent” because the City’s budget for FY2025 is very tight, but “I hope that we do give them some opportunity here, that we do invest in this problem, that we try to do better for downtown and to replace what the Governor has taken away.”

Commissioners concerned about setting a precedent

Commissioner Bryan Eastman said it is “important that we support them,” but he wanted it to go through the City’s process for funding nonprofits because “when we start becoming kind of a funding source of… last resort, that kind of opens you up to… suddenly getting lobbied by a number of different nonprofits when they have funding gaps.” However, he said he could support funds for the Hippodrome out of Gainesville downtown CRA (Community Redevelopment Area) funds. 

Commissioner Desmon Duncan-Walker said she supports the Hippodrome but wanted to know whether the County would be allocating any funds to the theater.

Commissioner Cynthia Chestnut said, “The Hippodrome is in a dire situation. The County has already been helping them, so they’re calling on both governments now, and I would really like to try to find the $250,000.”

Commissioner Reina Saco said she loves the Hippodrome, but she was concerned about setting a precedent that would lead other nonprofits to ask for help with funding cuts. She also wanted to know how much the County was giving the theater, “so I’m trying to see what 250 minus whatever that is.” She said she understood helping the theater with “immediate liquidity,” but she didn’t like “going around our processes.” 

Downtown Advisory Board recommended $250,000 from CRA funds

Acting City Manager Andrew Persons said the Downtown Advisory Board had voted unanimously to recommend that the Commission allocate $250,000 from CRA funding that had been set aside for the downtown area. He said, “Obviously, the Hipp is iconic to downtown” and said the City owns the building and has provided about $973,000 over the past four years for upgrades, provides about $56,000 in direct support every year, and provides $350,000 annually in rent abatement by not charging rent.

Ward said staff had told him the two potential sources for funds are the GCRA funding and a reshuffling of ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) money. He added, “Any changes we make is money we’re not spending somewhere else… There’s a cost to doing this… By way of full disclosure, I have a family member who is a part-time house manager at the Hippodrome, and I have seen the actual result of people losing their hours this summer.”

Hippodrome Artistic Director: “Absolutely a liquidity problem”

Hippodrome Artistic Director Stephanie Lynge said the County had helped the theater move forward with grant money that they would have requested in the next fiscal year: “We’ll see what that does in two months, but right now, it is absolutely a liquidity problem.” She said the theater’s budget is already “fairly lean,… in many ways, as lean as we can get… The immediate need is our cash flow, it’s current expenses,” including utilities, which are expensive in an old building that “leaks a lot.” She said they are encouraging patrons to pay in advance for the season and looking for additional contributions and sponsorships. 

Sexton: Alachua County is the single largest donor to the Hippodrome on an annual basis

Alachua County Communications Director Mark Sexton, who was previously the General Manager of the Hippodrome, said the County had helped the theater meet the immediate need with about $80,000 left in their current budget commitment to the Hippodrome. Sexton added, “Historically, the County right now is the single largest donor to the Hippodrome Theatre on an annual basis. This year, our grant program awarded $185,000 to the Hippodrome.” He said the County has increased the grant amount to all arts, nature, and culture organizations, and he suspects the funding for the Hippodrome will go up “considerably” because of that. 

Sexton also said the County Commission may look at removing the Hippodrome from the grant process, similar to Meridian Behavioral Healthcare, which provides an “absolutely essential” service that the County would provide if they didn’t. Similarly, the Gainesville Sports Commission gets part of the bed tax and does not have to compete for that every year. Sexton said the Hippodrome is different from the other arts organizations that are looking for money because it is “a pillar of a successful downtown” that does not have the backing of an institution like UF or Santa Fe College and inhabits a historic building. He said the County Commission gave him permission to say they would agree with using GCRA funds for the Hippodrome. He emphasized that the increased funds the County may allocate next year are intended for the theater’s regular operations, not to make up the $250,000 funding gap they’re facing. 

Linda McGurn: “The Hippodrome is part of the heart of our city”

Linda McGurn, chair of the Downtown Advisory Board, said the six people at their recent meeting had voted unanimously to approve “a one-time funding contribution to the Hippodrome Theatre from the Gainesville Community Redevelopment Area in an amount not to exceed $250,000… The Hippodrome is part of the heart of our city… They impact economically almost all the restaurants downtown, the other businesses downtown – they bring people downtown. It is an amazing asset. It would be a psychological blow to downtown redevelopment if they closed.”

First motion

Eastman said the City is “intimately linked” to two organizations, the Hippodrome and GRACE Marketplace, because they are located on City property, “so I think that we have to support them in some way.” He said he thought it was appropriate for the County to fund arts and culture institutions because that’s what the bed tax is for, but he would be comfortable providing $150,000 in funds to replace the vetoed state funds. He made a motion to direct staff to provide a $150,000 one-time payment to the Hippodrome Theatre, but there was no second.

Commissioner Casey Willits said he had ideas, including paring back or delaying the Downtown Ambassadors program; he said that any reallocation of GCRA funds would delay something else, and he wanted to know specifically what that would be. Persons said the money would probably come from about $4 million in reserve funds for capital projects.

Saco: “It should be half and half” with the County

Commissioner Reina Saco said she did not like Eastman’s number because “if we are going to address this matter of 250, it should be equally paired… It should be half and half” with the County.

Chestnut asked whether they could use ARPA funds, and Ward said he preferred that they agree on a number and let the City Manager select the funding source. 

Commissioner Ed Book said he supported “some funding. I certainly don’t support a quarter million dollars at the moment… But I think we need to do something to ensure that the Hippodrome remains the icon that we’re talking about.”

Ward: “an economic value question, far more than it is an arts question”

Ward said it was “an economic value question, far more than it is an arts question. Now, I also believe that there are no great cities that do not have great arts, period… So the arts piece is important, but the economic piece is what we’re talking about investing in today.” He said the conversation needs to include the North Central Florida Community Foundation.

Eastman said he would like to see the County give extra one-time funds to the theater, on top of their annual allocation, to match whatever the City provides. He added that GCRA funds are intended for previously disadvantaged communities, while the County’s bed tax funds are specifically for tourist development, “and so I do think that it is appropriate for the County to be stepping up.”

Willits said he was uncomfortable “writing a blank check for $150,000” without knowing where the funds are coming from in a year in which the City is watching its fund balance carefully as part of creating the FY2025 budget. Persons said the most logical funding source would be GCRA reserves, but there may be other options such as ARPA. Willits responded, “I think I can get there, $150 [thousand],” and they could let staff determine the source so the Hippodrome could get the money quickly; he also thought it was important that the Downtown Advisory Board had weighed in on the issue.

Saco said she still couldn’t support $150,000: “I can’t agree to more than 125; I can’t agree to more than half,… having sat through several rounds of cutting down our budgets and talking about people losing their jobs, departments, losing programming, staff… I can’t do it.”

Second motion

Saco made a motion for staff to “find a way to release $125,000 to the Hipp.” There was no second.

Third motion

Eastman again made a motion to “direct staff to write the Hippodrome Theatre a $150,000 one-time payment.” Chestnut seconded the motion. Ward asked Eastman to state how he arrived at that amount, and Eastman said it was “for the revenue lost from the Governor’s veto of $150,000.” Ward responded, “I think that’s an important point.”

Ward said he hoped the County would “step to the table” to make up the remaining $100,000, and he again mentioned that he hoped the North Central Florida Community Foundation would contribute, along with “individuals throughout the community who are lovers of the arts and good economic development.”

The motion passed 6-1, with Saco in dissent.