Daily Record FINANCIAL NEWS &
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 6, 2016
Vol. 103, No. 038 • Three SecTioNS
35¢ www.jaxdailyrecord.com
The price of unpaid tickets
City decides to write off more than $11M in old fines By David Chapman Staff Writer
Unpaid tickets 1980-2010 Years
191,500
Outstanding tickets
$11,016,590 Uncollected fines
City Council member Bill Gulliford asked an innocent enough question Monday morning to a room full of people who had pension reform on their mind. That plan would be announced an hour later, but Gulliford wanted to briefly talk parking tickets. Mayor Lenny Curry’s administration had decided to write off unpaid parking tickets over a 30-year span.
“Anybody want to know what the total dollar amount is?” said the finance committee chair at the end of the meeting. No one quickly responded, so he offered the answer in the form of another question. “How about $11 million?” That got the room’s attention. A quick but audible gasp, a brief whistle. According to ordinance, the city is able to simply cut its losses on fines that were never paid. The city is
allowed to remove debts more than a year old. However, it pursues them for five years. City Chief Financial Officer Mike Weinstein sent a memo to council President Greg Anderson, Council Auditor Kirk Sherman and Gulliford in December informing them of his decision to write off the uncollectable citations. Weinstein told the committee during its meeting that signing off on such settlements and waivers is the “most painful part of my job.”
“We do give away a lot of money,” he said. From 1980-2010, there were 191,500 parking citations that never were paid. The highest annual unpaid fines came at more than $1 million from 2005-09. Illegally parking in a handicapped spot earns a $250 fine. Overtime on a meter starts at $15 and the fees jump as as both continue to go unpaid. After a certain period, a boot can be hitched to the offender’s car. TICKETS CONTINUED ON PAGE A-4
Board reviewing bonus pay at JEA The requirements and formula haven’t changed, but how JEA might choose to reward its employees for meeting performance goals was clarified Tuesday by the utility’s Compensation Committee. The committee was formed after Mayor Lenny Curry replaced six of the seven board members he asked to resign. It is charged with assisting the board in fulfilling its oversight responsibilities by reviewing compensation policies and strategies for JEA’s 2,000 union-member and appointed executive employees. The committee reviews and makes recommendations, which must then be approved by the full board. “This committee represents our purpose,” said board member Delores Kessler, chair of the committee. “We asked a lot of questions and got this where it needs to be.” Employee compensation became an issue last year when JEA announced its top executives and some managerial Kessler employees would receive bonus checks, referred to by JEA as “pay for performance,” ranging from $15,000-$50,000. The rank-and-file union members received an average of $1,700 in performance pay. The bonuses were — and will remain — based on employees meeting specific goals. Chief Human Resources Officer Angie Hiers said salaries and bonuses for union employees are based on how JEA’s pay scale compares to other utilities — both not-for-profit and investor-owned — and similar industries. “The compensation market is based on the established or accepted rate of pay for a job,” she said. She described the overall compensation survey conducted every two years as JEA
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Helping reunite lost pets and their families
Photo by Fran Ruchalski
By Max Marbut Staff Writer
Bob Williams’ Facebook page and website provides information to people who have lost and found pets. The Facebook page and its volunteers have reunited hundreds of families. Williams, pictured with his rescue dog, Charlie, does not make money from the venture. See story on Page A-7.
Open office space for Southeastern HQ Plans for the new Baymeadows headquarters for Southeastern Grocers, which will house about 1,000 associates and contractors, show four floors of conference and collaboration rooms and open office areas. What they don’t show are individual offices. That’s what President and CEO Ian McLeod promised when the Jacksonvillebased supermarket company announced it would move its headquarters from West Jacksonville to the Prominence office park. “All personal offices will be removed, including my own,” he said in a statement in October. He said he believed that open space without offices “works far more effectively to break down barriers and encourage faceto-face communication.” The only nod to executive functions appears to be the largest conference room
legal NoTiceS begiN oN Page
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on the top floor of the four-story building. Southeastern Grocers said Tuesday it would not disclose which floor would house the top executives. The company has said the new space will include contemporary workstations, glass-walled meeting rooms and facilities to support new product development. It said Tuesday the new design was made with its top goal in mind — “to deliver quality, service and value to our customers.”
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Like other open-plan office environments, the Southeastern Grocers Store Support Center will feature a blend of open, collaborative work areas and private spaces to accommodate meetings and communication, said company spokesman Zack Bingham. Rockford Construction Co. of Grand Rapids, Mich., is the contractor for the project, according to a building-permit application. RS&H is the architect. The application shows a $4.5 million interior renovation at 8928 Prominence Parkway. Interior demolition of the 160,000 square feet of space was a separate $261,000 project by Williams & Rowe Co. Inc. Bingham said the company, which is privately held, does not divulge details of capital expenditures. Southeastern Grocers also intends to MATHIS CONTINUED ON PAGE A-2
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