Pensacola residents are lucky to have an experienced City Council reviewing the FY 2017 budget proposed by Mayor Ashton Hayward. P.C. Wu has 12 years on the council, Jewel Cannada-Wynn 10 years, and Larry B. Johnson, Jr. eight years. Brian Spencer and Sherri Myers have been on the council since 2010.
They have the experience to recognize that several city departments, including their own, have increased spending significantly since FY 2014.
The proposed City Council budget is 67 percent over what the council spent three years ago. Wu, Cannada-Wynn, Johnson, and the other more experienced council members understand the need to cut expenses elsewhere to cover the additional $436K in expenditures to staff their department and cover their pay increases. Remember the FY 2017 budget has two fewer council members than the city had in FY 2014.
The Planning Services budget is 53.5 percent more than the FY 2014 expenditures. CFO Dick Barker’s department, Financial Services, has jumped 24.3 percent in three years. The City Clerk is up 21.7 percent, Parks & Recreation up 11.6 percent.
Overall, personnel costs are up 4.3 percent, but that is skewed by the savings in the Fire Pension. If you take the Fire Personnel costs out of the equation, other personnel costs are up 10.3 percent.
The operating costs are up 13.2 percent since FY 2014.
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What is strange is that while costs are up for several departments the allocation of overhead hasn’t increased by the same proportion. As the cost of the council, financial services, city clerk and core administrative department goes up, the allocation to various departments and enterprises should also go up.
Oddly Planning, Police, and Fire have no allocation of overhead.
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The Pensacola City Council has its work cut out as it reviews Hayward’s budget.