The Jacksonville City Council's finance committee is juggling a handful of donation requests while also trying to find ways to pay back a loan for a major city project.
The council's Finance Committee received three requests for funding last Monday. The Festival of Lights asked for $10,000, The Salvation Army requested $50,000, and Jacksonville Area Community Food Center came back to ask for an annual allocation of $70,000. The food center's request was a repeat of last year that went unmet.
In previous years, the city council had used their income from video gambling funds allocated to them by the state. The revenue from the video gambling is currently being used to pay off a loan that the council had taken from their Securities Investments account to fund the I3 broadband project.
Finance Committee chair and Ward 5 Alderman Don Cook says that the council wants to rebuild the security exchange fund before they give any further donation requests out of that particular fund: "The city's position - and this had to do with the video gaming fund and had nothing to do with anything else - and it was that we would not allow any money going out to these requests from that fund until like 2026 after we paid back the Security Investment fund. We've got to pay off the final part of the I3 project, and that money came out of the Security Investment fund. We are going to build that back up, but the requests tonight are not going to have anything to do with the video gaming fund. We are going to keep with our plans and build up that surplus in there."
Cook says that it doesn't mean that the city isn't going to accept or take donation requests. He says that the city is currently in its annual budget period and the funds will likely come from another line item or revenue stream: "We're going to find money in the budget. We are just in the budget process right now anyway, to allocate some monies for these particular requests. We are going to start looking at - first off, we are going to establish a line item for these requests, but we have to come up with some figure to put in the line item. The finance committee is going to meet...probably going to meet several times, and try to iron out what we feel the city can afford overall."
Mayor Andy Ezard says that many requests simply are never budgeted beforehand because of timing, and they should be looked at on a case-by-case basis: "A lot of these requests will come in when there is not really a plan. Unfortunately, we are just living in a time where there is a lot of special needs for a lot of different folks. You know, they lean on government and the city to help them. When I said tonight that there is money we can discuss is when we're going through a budget process, many lines don't get eaten up over the course of the year. If there are some lines that are very evident that we may be able to grab some money out of this line and eliminate it and put it towards requests such as these, that's a possibility. I know City Clerk [Angela] Salyer is in her first year with leading the budget, and we're all a part of it. We're going to make it as easy as it can be for her to understand. I think this will be a good exercise on tuning up each line item and getting some money out of the budget for these requests instead of going directly to the General Fund."
Ezard says that the council knows there is a small surplus in the city's general fund, primarily for rainy day usage as recommended by the city's auditors. He says that he considers donation requests to the area's food banks and social services to be on a different priority than others. He says that the grant request for the Festival of Lights and those from the area's food banks should be from different funds because they do different things for the city's overall health.
Aldermen suggested creating not only a financial plan but a process for dissemination for donation requests as well as parameters of eligibility for requesting money from the city.
No decisions were made on the 3 donation requests last Monday. Possible action on those items are likely at the council's November meetings.