The city of Pensacola held this week two public input meetings on its 2014-15 budget. A grand total of six citizens attended them, which should be a clear indication that city needs to do more than simply issue press releases if it wants public input.
Yesterday’s meeting was held at 9 a.m. at the Vickrey Resource Center. City Budget Manager Yvette McLellan handled it. Mayor Hayward, City Administrator Colleen Castille and CFO Richard Barker Jr. chose to attend the Escambia County Commission’s agenda review meeting to discuss ST Aerospace.
There was no presentation made at Vickery meeting. McLellan just answered questions from the three attendees for 37 minutes. Some questions she said she would have to research and call back the two citizens who asked them. One question was on the progress of a city park on 17th Avenue where work apparently stopped and the other was on the process of submitting a budget request for a nonprofit.
She did offer some highlights for the 2014-15 budget:
-City Council members will only receive $7,500 in discretionary funds for “public purpose” for the second year. Previously, they received $10,000 each.
-Property taxes will remain at the same level.
-Redoing Fire Station 3, like Fire Station 6, is a priority.
-The city plans to fund a new program on “outdoor pursuits and activities” and has hired an outdoorsman to teach children about fishing, for example, at Sanders Beach-Corrine Jones Resource Center.
-The Mayor’s funding will not increase that much or it may go down, McLellan said. “He has a full staff and they are rockin’ and rollin’. They’re getting their checklist done.”
-The total budget has shrunk from $220 million to $192 million. That includes $50 million in the general fund, which receives about $12 million in revenue from property taxes. (Note: As reported earlier a significant portion of the decrease is due to the city handing over control of the public library system to the county)
-The airport, natural gas and port enterprises are “all holding their own,” McLellan reported. In fact, she said, “We do not have to supplement the port. They are holding their own. We used to give them about $1 million a year.”
When asked about the Mayor’s priorities, McLellan listed:
1) the West Side “to get it up like the East Side”;
2) work in neighborhoods; and
3) economic development.
A specific list of priorities had not been made yet. They were still receiving requests from City Council members and others in the community. McLellan, Hayward, Barker, Castille and Tamara Fountain, the mayor’s communications administrator, will review the budget and prioritize funding.