From the Mayor’s Office to the media:
There was a question about personnel increases, and I will say I was taken back because I did not think we were adding that many. Towards that end, I realized my reaction was confirmed with finance as many in that increase were enterprise related.
As I said this morning, most of our growth was reacting to increases in our enterprise funds. These are funds that don’t use tax dollars by user and permit fees. These are also funds that have to act more like a business and react to increases in demand. Additionally, demand has been strong enough that there are sufficient revenues to fund these positions. Additionally, if we were not to fund them, we could fail to meet demand and cause our own reduction in revenue.
Please note 19 of the 27 positions are outside of the general fund. Please note that 3 are in Inspections, 5 in Pensacola Energy, 6 at the airport (with one being a PPD position funded by the airport), 1 at the port, and one in fleet maintenance. All of these are funds that raise their own money and cannot share with others. They have all seen increases and need more people to keep up with servicing demand. In addition, we have 1 in CRA to deal with the large number of CRA projects that the council has approved, and we have 2 in Cultural Affairs, which is a new department introduced by Councilwoman Broughton and funded by the council in ARPA.
That leaves 8 new in the general fund and 5 of those are public safety, 4 in PPD (3 of those were related to dispatch), and 1 in Fire. Again these were the top priorities for each public safety department, and I am always going to support public safety. Both of our departments are premier organizations in the state if not the country, and community support is strong for each for why people want to live in the city.
The others are 1 in project management for public works to oversee the significant amount of projects we are currently doing. Another is for additional support at Parks and Recreation. Again we have a lot happening in P&R and it is another priority why people want to live in the city. For these reasons, we believe additional support is critical to the effective management of this department. Finally, we have the additional hire for a Planning and Zoning manager under Ms. Morris in Development Services. Again we feel this is a critical area especially with looking at statutorily how we can assist affordable housing within the LDC. We definitely need a person in this position.
Finally, under the Mayor’s budget Council is neutral, as the Mayor’s office removed the separate legal council position which balances the increase council has made in hiring a second budget analyst. However, council may also look to increase a position.
I hope this answers your question. Again, as I said this morning, the vast majority of the positions 24 out of 27 are either public safety or in funds outside the general fund. Those enterprise funds are experiencing rapid growth and we need personnel in order to simply service demand.
Thanks. Grover