Daily Record Financial News &
Monday, July 20, 2015
Vol. 102, No. 176 • Two Sections
35¢ www.jaxdailyrecord.com
Curry: No budget gimmicks Building
office up from the ground
Webb takes job as local managing partner for Kelley Kronenberg
Photo by Max Marbut
By Marilyn Young Editor
Mayor Lenny Curry delivered his first budget address this morning to City Council and a nearly full council chamber.
City Council will spend summer debating plan
By David Chapman Staff Writer Mayor Lenny Curry spent parts of his birthday Sunday thinking about his budget before having a dream. In it, he would walk into City Council Chambers today, be greeted with an overwhelming “Happy Birthday” message before the 19-member group passed his spending plan as is. It didn’t quite go like that. Instead, Curry delivered his first budget speech to the legislative group, giving what he calls a balanced budget steeped in discipline, accountability and urgency. His list of priorities starts foremost with public safety, his plan calling for hiring 40 police office and 40 community service officers Children also are addressed, with $3 million more slated for Jacksonville Jour-
ney programs. And economic development is pushed forward through a $71 million Capital Improvement Plan, far above the barebones plan council worked with this year. It’s a budget, Curry said, that has no “sleight of hand,” “gimmicks” or funding lapses that have cropped up in recent budgets. Council members will spend the summer determining whether Curry’s priorities are their own. Other areas, like the Jacksonville Public Library, UF Health Jacksonville and the Public Service Grant program all remained flat or relatively flat. Those areas have frequently been championed in several years by council members. “That’s going to be the discussion,” said council President Greg Anderson. Although he likes what he’s seen so far, Anderson said he’ll continue to look for
ways to further fund UF Health, which he calls an essential service for Jacksonville. Curry addressed that point specifically Monday morning, saying he’ll lead on the issue by meeting with hospital officials and the business community to find ways to grow commercial revenue. Before he does that, though, he doesn’t want to dedicate any more taxpayer dollars than the just over $26 million the hospital is slated to receive this year. He also said he’s allocated $5 million in additional funding for pension payments, the result of recent reform. Afterward, Curry was asked whether he’d consider a half-cent sales tax to help pay down the $1.6 billion unfunded liability for the public safety pension like what financed the Better Jacksonville Plan. Curry said he wasn’t ruling any idea out. Council member Joyce Morgan said Budget continued on Page A-2
Opportunities can come at the most unexpected time and long before you know they’re right for you. Jack Webb found that out one day while driving home from a deposition in Mississippi. A headhunter called to ask Webb about his interest in being the managing partner to build a Jacksonville office for a South Florida law firm. Not interested, Webb said. He was happy as a partner at Brennan, Manna & Diamond, where he’d been since 2009. The next call from the headhunter came with a simple request: Would Webb at least talk to someone at Kelley Kronenberg? Webb Webb agreed and said the conversation with Michael Fichtel, principal partner and CEO of the Fort Lauderdale-based firm, intrigued him. Kelley Kronenberg was growing rapidly in Florida, has about 110 lawyers and wanted to add Jacksonville to its eight offices in the state, Webb said. (The firm also has a Chicago location.) Webb flew to Fort Lauderdale, where he said he had a “very straightforward” conversation with Fichtel. Webb said the full-service business law firm is advanced technologically and progressive with client relationships. And, he Webb continued on Page A-10
Page
A-3
J&J expects sales ‘momentum’ in Vision Care
Johnson & Johnson Vision Care Inc. is one of Jacksonville’s biggest companies, with about 2,000 local employees and annual sales of nearly $3 billion. But the Jacksonville-based contact lens maker usually registers just a blip on Johnson & Johnson’s quarterly earnings report. However, when the health products giant reported secondquarter earnings last week, a Johnson & Johnson executive took time to discuss Vision Care’s outlook in great detail after several quarters of declining sales. The company continues to lead the global market with its Acuvue brand of contact lenses, but sales
Public
in the second quarter dropped by 8.6 percent to $646 million, continuing a downward trend. That was partly due to currency impacts on international sales, but U.S. sales fell 7.3 percent. “It’s no secret that we faced capacity and portfolio issues in Vision Care in 2012 and 2013,” Group Worldwide Chairman Sandi Peterson said in Johnson & Johnson’s conference call with analysts last week. “At the same time, competition intensified and consumer preferences shifted. The market structure has evolved in response, driving increased emphasis on e-commerce and increased price
legal notices begin on page
B-1
competition between channels,” she said. Because of the market changes, Johnson & Johnson last fall reset its contact lens pricing “to bring more value to consumers in close partnership with eye care professionals,” Peterson said. The repricing produced a sharp drop in sales in the third quarter last year, but that means shareholders should being to see “rev-
enue momentum” in the third quarter this year as sales are compared with last year’s third quarter, she said. Peterson said Vision Care is committed to new product development to grow sales. “We anticipate at least one major product launch in each of the next three years, including innovations with the potential to disrupt the category,” she said. “Though we are still in the throes of rejuvenating our eye care business, we have made considerable progress, which will continue this year and into the next,” she said. Johnson & Johnson’s total sec-
Published
for
26,703
ond quarter sales fell 8.8 percent to $17.8 billion, largely due to currency impacts. Its adjusted earnings fell by 7 cents to $1.71 a share, but that was 4 cents higher than the average forecast of analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial.
Remy agrees to buyout
Fidelity National Financial Inc. no longer owns an interest in Remy International Inc., but it seems Remy retained Fidelity’s deal-making appetite after it left the Fidelity umbrella. Just six months after FidelBasch continued on Page A-10
consecutive weekdays