Daily Record Financial News &
Thursday, May 28, 2015
Vol. 102, No. 139 • One Section
35¢ www.jaxdailyrecord.com
DVI to city: Pay your fair share Group asking for $170,000 increase
Downtown Vision Inc. board member Bill Prescott, left, and executive director Jake Gordon presented the nonprofit’s proposed budget.
Photo by Max Marbut
By Max Marbut Staff Writer
Gulliford and Keane support new plan
For the second straight year, Downtown Vision Inc. is asking the city to fund the nonprofit based on the value of municipal property, just as private property owners have done for 15 years. Don’t count on it, said Lori Boyer, the City Council member who serves as liaison to the Downtown Investment Authority, which approves DVI’s budget. DVI’s leadership presented the group’s proposed budget to the DIA on Wednesday.
In 2000, property owners in a 90-block Business Improvement District agreed to pay an additional 1.1 mills in ad valorem tax to fund DVI to support clean and safe programs, market the urban core and produce events intended to increase the value of Downtown. The city is the largest land owner Downtown and its holdings represent 31 percent of the assessed value in the district. For the past two years, the city capped its contribution at $311,660. That’s about 0.7 mills, based on the value of the city
property. Jake Gordon, who took over as executive director of DVI two weeks ago, told his board Wednesday that it’s time for the city to pay its fair share, since the city receives the benefits of the nonprofit’s services just as private property owners do. If the city were to pay the full 1.1 mills, the contribution to DVI would increase by about $170,000. That sentiment was echoed later in the day when Gordon and DVI board member Bill Prescott presented the proposed 2015-16 DVI... Continued on Page A-4
Latest version could pass council by July 1 Last summer, Mayor Alvin Brown was across the table from John Keane, spending hours that bled into days hammering out pension reform. On Wednesday, it was City Council member Bill Gulliford sitting across from the Police and Fire Pension Fund administrator. This time, though, the talks lasted all of about 15 minutes before mostly reaching a deal. Both believe this version might just work by July 1, when 11 new council members and a new mayor enter the scene. Gulliford has taken the lead on the city side for deal, making a last-ditch attempt that’s largely based on the deal Brown and Keane agreed upon. The council member was among the staunch advocates that a new agreement last no longer than three years. Keane’s five-member board demanded 10. Now it’s at seven, a compromise the two are OK with. In the latest version, Gulliford also bumped up how much the city would pay over the next 13 years toward the plan’s $1.7 billion in unfunded liability. A week ago, he pitched $5 million from the city next year, $10 million after that, then $15 million and finally capped at $20 million. Now, the first several years are the same, but instead of $20 million each additional year, it jumps to $32 million. And, instead of the Police and Fire Pension Fund matching the city’s contribution, it would instead mirror the contribution until $15 million, which then would drop to $8 million each year thereafter. Overall, a schedule has the city paying $318 million to the fund’s $102 million. In addition, the fund would put in almost $46 million from a stabilization fund, bringing its overall combined payment to $466 million. Pension... Continued on Page A-3
Public
Bortles looking for his receiver
Photos by Bobby King
By David Chapman Staff Writer
Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Blake Bortles throws on the run Wednesday during the team’s second day of Organized Team Activities. See more photos on Page A-2.
‘We’ve got to stand for something’ Rummell, Burr talk need for city to have personality
By Karen Brune Mathis Managing Editor Jacksonville can count on a lot of pluses – climate, river, military – to move forward but at least one civic leader says it lacks a pivotal component. “My biggest fear is Jacksonville does not have a personality, and that’s a theme that we need to think about,” said Peter Rummell, a developer and the founding chairman of the private Jacksonville Civic Council. Rummell and Ed Burr, president and
legal notices begin on page
A-10
CEO of GreenPointe Holdings LLC, met Wednesday morning with about 50 members of the Society for Marketing Professional Services North Florida to talk about “Sustainable Development in Northeast Florida.” The wide-ranging, Rummell 90-minute conversation, moderated by JAX Chamber executive Alan Mosley, covered the themes of
Published
for
housing, transportation, crime, education, employment, ports, climate change, green development, pension issues, UF Health and more. Mosley is the chamber’s vice president of transportation, energy and logistics. Yet, they continued to circle back to a combination of Jacksonville’s need for a personality, theme, vision and focus, specifically related to Downtown and even more directly about how to make the city attractive for millennials. Burr, Rummell and Mosley referred to Vision... Continued on Page A-4
26,666
consecutive weekdays