Fair, 54°
Weather sponsored by:
Sponsored by:

Orange Park dips into reserves funds to balance budget

Eric Cravey
Posted 9/21/16

ORANGE PARK – By the time the Orange Park Town Council finished debating its 2016-17 budget Tuesday night, it would delete items previously discussed and approved in its tentative budget and add …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

Log in

Don't have an ID?


Print subscribers

If you're a print subscriber, but do not yet have an online account, click here to create one.

Non-subscribers

Click here to see your options for subscribing.

Single day pass

You also have the option of purchasing 24 hours of access, for $1.00. Click here to purchase a single day pass.

Orange Park dips into reserves funds to balance budget


Posted

ORANGE PARK – By the time the Orange Park Town Council finished debating its 2016-17 budget Tuesday night, it would delete items previously discussed and approved in its tentative budget and add new items that had not been recommended by town staff, a move that will require using reserve funds to balance the budget.

The new fiscal year budget, which begins Oct. 1, was approved 3-2 with council members Steve Howard and Mayor Eugene Nix voting against the budget. However, it was Howard who added the items that would require deficit spending.

In the 3-2 vote, council adopted a final millage rate of 6.1818 mills, which is estimated to bring in $3,006,809 in revenue if taxes are collected at a rate of 96 percent. According to the Clay County Property Appraiser, there is $506,663,497 worth of property in the town that can be taxed for operating revenue, an increase of 4.78 percent over the previous year.

The state-required rolled-back millage rate will be 5.949 mills, which is calculated to provide the same amount of revenue for the next year as collected in 2015-16, excluding new construction. The 6.1818 mills is a 3.91 percent increase over the rolled-back rate. The town’s budget is $16,946,509.

But before the final budget vote, Howard made two separate motions that were both seconded by council member Gary Meeks to add a mechanic position to the town’s public works department at the cost of $45,000 a year plus benefits and buy the public works director a new SUV in “the price range of $25,000-plus,” Howard said.

Nix said Howard’s motion was confusing.

“I proposed this a couple meetings back to add a mechanic over there and somewhere along the line between there and here, it got shot down, so now we’re bringing it back up again, but I will support the mechanic,” Nix said.

Howard defended the motion saying the town’s fleet of vehicles is “aged” and “many of them have over 100,000 miles” and the department’s sole mechanic has difficulty keeping them all in top working order.

“I’m not sure why the town manager and the public works director hasn’t brought this to our attention before now. I’m of the opinion that our equipment is not getting – might not be getting what it needs – but it needs some more attention,” Howard said.

The motion to hire the new mechanic was passed 3-2 with council member Connie Thomas and Vice Mayor Scott Land voting no.

As the discussion moved on to the SUV purchase, Land questioned Howard’s motion and said it was not the council’s job to do the town manager’s job.

“I’m a little confused why we’re trying to play town manager here,” Land said. “I don’t see that as our job, dictating how to run the town. We’re not the town manager, we’re the town council. It’s not our job to tell what employees we need and what vehicles we need.”

Howard fired back at Land’s comment.

“If the town manager was doing his job, he would have told us we needed another mechanic and we would have had a better list of vehicles to purchase next year,” Howard said. “It’s been to where it’s incumbent on us to get involved with the business of the town.”

Meanwhile, Town Manager Jim Hanson responded to Howard’s comments and said that a new mechanic position is not needed.

“I did give you my best recommendation. I don’t think a mechanic is needed. I don’t think this vehicle needs to be replaced and I would put the money somewhere else. Having said that, it’s your budget. You can man it the way you want, but I gave you my best recommendation after consulting the department heads, and trying to figure out what was best for the town. I’m sorry you disagree,” Hanson said.

The motion to purchase the SUV was passed 3-2, with Land and Thomas voting no.

After adding new spending that was not in the previously tentative budget, council members also voted to extract other items from the budget, including $25,000 on a fence targeted for the grounds of Town Hall Park. Committee members had recommended the fence to improve child safety during the town’s popular events, such as KidFest and Fall Festival. The moves still meant that the council had to figure out by meeting’s end at 10 p.m. how to find $87,263 in order to balance the budget.

“Oh, I’m sorry again, we need to go back to the public because we’re making an amendment to take $87,263 out of the savings account fund balance to pay for our over expenditures,” Nix said. “Any comments from the public?”

Land continued to question the revised spending plan. He said that last year, in order to balance the budget, council raised the utility tax 10 percent, yet the dipping into the reserve fund continues.

“I think there’s something wrong when we can’t balance our budget without taking money out of fund balance and we just raised [the utility] tax by 10 percent,” Land said.

Hanson reminded council members that, as presented and later approved at the end of the meeting, the new budget does not include any revenue from redlight cameras. No council members voted to extend the meeting past 10 p.m. in order to hear a report Hanson had prepared regarding the cameras. However, prior to the budget discussion, Brad Dreasher, a senior account manager with Mesa, Ariz.-based American Traffic Solutions, gave a presentation to the council in an attempt to keep the ATS contract going. As of the Sept. 20 meeting, the town’s cameras will go dark on Oct. 1 as the contract with ATS expires on Sept. 30.

After Dreasher’s presentation, Greg Parks, senior vice president with Lombard. Ill.-based redlight camera competitor RedSpeed urged the council to place the redlight cameras up for bid. Parks said the council should seek competitive bids in the spirit of “transparency, government in the sunshine and open competition that will provide the best value for your citizens.”

According to a town budget memo from Orange Park Police Chief Gary Goble, “Extending the [ATS] contract for a year would increase revenues by an estimated $579,100 and increase expenditures by $327,300. These estimates do not include costs of town personnel to administer the program and related mailing costs totaling $59,800.”

In other business, council voted to move more than $3.34 million in deposits from Wells Fargo to FirstAtlantic Bank, a move that will save approximately $17,300 in annual service charges and add to town coffers approximately $36,900 in annual interest income, for a total gain of $54,200 to the town budget.