Good morning.
To Council President White, Vice-President Carrico, councilmembers, city staff, guests, and the people of Jacksonville, before we get into the true purpose of today, I want to take a moment to reflect.
It is said and I believe – love is deeds. Because all of us only have a finite amount of time – what we choose to do with that time reveals what we value most. Family always comes first. That each of you sacrifices time away from family in service of our community is proof of your love for our city and of your servant’s heart.
I have enjoyed getting to know all of you better. It’s with gratitude that I have discovered what you truly care about and just as important, why you care.
That call to help others comes in different ways and at different times for each of us. I recently learned for Council President White – it came very early in life. He was asked – when did you first want to be a firefighter? And he answered – when he was two while he watched his dad water the curing concrete that was part of the new fire station being built in their neighborhood.
As your lifetime of service continues, I look forward to accomplishing great things with this City Council under your leadership.
When we focus on our shared love for Jacksonville, our shared commitment to service, and our shared desire to work together, we can do anything. I truly believe that.
We’ve shown we can do it because it’s what we’ve done for the past year when we put politics aside and work as a team.
How many told us we couldn’t get that historic Jaguars deal done with the time table we set out? What a testament to the power of collaboration. An agreement to build the Stadium of the Future where our proud cry of Duuuval will be heard for the next 30 years. A crowning achievement that will also allow for the completion of our riverfront parks and that will be made even better when we pass the rest of the community benefits agreement.
Nothing is more important than the health and safety of our citizens. We finalized historic union agreements with higher salaries and the return to a defined benefit pension. This reflects the value and commitment we all share for firefighters, police, and corrections officers. Please join me in acknowledging and thanking the two incredible leaders for those men and women, Sheriff Waters and Chief Powers. The entire city is grateful for the courage of your teams.
We ensured more citizens have access to mental health services and reduced the number of uninsured citizens by 34%. Thanks to all the partner organizations who made this possible. It was with support from Glenda Collins and Shenita McCrimager who played big roles in our Get Covered Jax campaign.
Building a vibrant downtown where residents and visitors will enthusiastically gather to live, work and play is important to the future of our great city. In addition to a billion dollar investment from Shad Kahn we have partnered with developers like Gateway Jax CEO Bryan Moll who is teaming up with us in the Pearl Street District. There are many more like Bryan who bring us their expertise, passion and commitment.
To help make Jacksonville a destination of choice for families, graduates and companies requires that we continue to create amazing places and spaces. One such iconic space is the Emerald Trail. In partnership with JTA CEO Nat Ford and Groundwork Jax CEO Kay Ehas, we opened the first segment and won the largest federal grant in our city’s history. $147 million! I'm so appreciative of their partnership and leadership.
We kept numerous families in their homes and helped them get through rough financial patches with roof rehabilitation, rental assistance, and eviction diversion programs. Additionally, we assisted more families with closing on their first homes. Darnesha Randall had a dream to own her first home. I say 'had' because thanks to our Down Payment Assistance program she recently moved into her new home. Congratulations to Darnesha and many others who will follow her on the path to homeownership and wealth creation. We also congratulate Darnesha on her new job, which is why she couldn't be here today.
Our city pools are now open in every corner of Jacksonville, proving our commitment to serving every resident of our city.
When we learned that half our third graders were not reading at grade level, we launched our River City Readers program. After shattering our goal three times, I’m proud to say that we’re about to pass 1.5 million minutes read in 2024! Thanks to DCPS Deputy Superintendent Dana Kriznar for her strong support. And reading champions Fonda Pettway and Cynthia Wright who won awards for the student participation at their schools.
We launched JaxEPICS, a permitting software platform that was built in-house and has transformed the entire process. A combination of people, process, and technology changes has reduced review time of single family home permits by more than 25% in the past three months.
We increased the number of Jacksonville Small and Emerging Businesses by 30% and grew the number of contracts awarded to them by $22 million year-over-year. Terence McKenzie from The Kenton Group is one of those hundreds of JSEBs. His company is working with Haskell on the LaSalle Street drainage project – a critical infrastructure effort. Thank you to both of the teams.
We also launched a grant program that will support 60 local artists each with $10,000. These funds will contribute greatly to keeping their talents in Jacksonville.
We opened the doors of city hall to many ethnicities and populations representing the beautiful mosaic of our city. In short, we gave the people of Jacksonville reasons to believe in the possibilities of our future.
We grew our city pride, boosted our community’s hope, and brightened Jacksonville’s future. All of this, and we are just getting started.
Today – we begin our work to build on that success with a $1.9 billion general fund budget and $489 million in the 2025 portion of the Capital Improvement Plan.
This balanced budget makes generational investments in our key priorities: infrastructure, health, economic development, and public safety.
Our budget proposal confronts the unexpected reality of ad-valorem revenue increases that are significantly lower than projected. An increase in commercial property vacancies, higher insurance rates, and residential rental market rebalancing led to $62 million less in property tax revenue than anticipated. Meanwhile, Jacksonville saw the 4th largest population gain of any city in the nation, growing by 17,000 people last year. That means an increase in demand for city services, most critically public safety. In fact, it’s because our population is growing so rapidly that nearly all our ad valorem taxes go to pay for critical public safety needs. This is also the first budget in years when we no longer have American Rescue Plan money available to spend on important programs.
There were many deserving projects that had to go unfunded this year. Our team had to make difficult choices to keep the city on its trajectory of progress. It meant truly prioritizing the vital over the important, and making investments which deliver the best return for our citizens. Governing is about choosing. Decisions were made with our commitment to building a Jacksonville for all and with the courage to do things differently.
To maintain the same level of service while accounting for our fast population growth, we are funding a handful of essential one-time expenses from our operating reserves. Even with this necessary investment, our operating reserves would be double the recommended target of 10% in our city ordinance code.
We have such strong reserves for times such as these, but let me be clear, we have to look at everything we do with fresh eyes.
Too often, we have heard the words we’ve always done it that way. That is no longer acceptable. Today our city has piloted LEAN process improvement strategies to decrease wasted time in an effort to meet demand and improve citizen satisfaction. We are now on track to our goal of saving 250,000 hours of inefficiency by the end of 2024. And we are expanding these efforts city wide to significantly grow that number in the years ahead – and all at no expense to the city. This will increase efficiency, improve performance, and save money.
In the past, our Capital Improvement Plan carried the weight of projects which never got beyond the concept phase of building. That weight represented a threat to our credit rating and our financial strength. So we had a mutual goal with the City Council to clean up the CIP. Today – our CIP is leaner, more responsible, and more representative of reality with hundreds of millions of dollars in old, never started projects removed. It will continue to improve our standing with the credit rating agencies.
We have long struggled to keep the promises of consolidation. We are making strides today with investments in infrastructure, health, affordable housing, workforce development, and more. And more than $150 million dollars of CIP projects are aimed at making good on those promises in districts 8, 9, and 10.
We placed added weight on projects that positively address the social determinants of health in areas where the project is performed. While the boundaries don’t perfectly align, these districts represent the majority of Health Zones 1, 4, and 5. Those are the areas where life expectancy lags by 10-15 years. There is a direct correlation between quality of infrastructure and quality of health. And that is why these areas are being strategically targeted for infrastructure investment.
With many needs and limited resources, our budget makes investments into projects with the largest ROI. Jacksonville has the lowest taxes of any major Florida city by far – and we want to keep it that way. It also means we need to bring new revenue into our community. That’s why we are so focused on developing and creating the ignition point that will allow Jacksonville to take off – and take our place as one of the greatest cities in America.
One of those catalytic projects is the downtown riverfront. It was the spark that made Tampa’s downtown ignite, and it will do the same for Jacksonville. We are investing in the Metropolitan Park Marina Fire Station, Museum and Dock; the new Museum of Science and History; and marina, bulkhead, dock, and lighting work along the North and Southbank. The CIP now also includes the funding negotiated with the Jaguars to complete Riverfront Plaza, Shipyards West Park and Metropolitan Park.
Another revenue generator is the attraction of more high-profile events and that requires world class facilities. An additional $25 million will go to city venues, including the Ritz Theatre, 121 Financial Ballpark, and VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena. Jacksonville has had a history of not taking care of our venue assets, and so the 5-year CIP now includes additional capital funding to provide ongoing repairs, maintenance, and improvements.
Our city’s growth also requires a thriving economy, and as we all know, time is money in business. We are excited to have launched the new procurement code that will streamline the ability to do business with the City of Jacksonville and move projects faster. This budget includes the additional 2 positions requested by the City Council to support this new procurement code. Our funding for the Jacksonville Small and Emerging Business program continues as we grow outreach and the number of participants. Grants and loans are going to the many new developments downtown and to dozens of businesses who have relocated or expanded operations in Jacksonville.
With a 20-1 return on investment, we also believe arts funding is as important for business as it is our culture. It’s with that in mind that we continue our commitment to Cultural Council grants with $7 million. It was our goal to increase funding for arts and culture programs and we hope to do so in the future.
Part of a good quality of life includes having high quality facilities for families to learn and play. $5.5 million in library renovations will ensure top notch facilities as we continue to encourage reading and increase grade level literacy rates. $24 million is allocated for improvements to 14 park and pool facilities so we can have the best urban park system in the country, in addition to the largest.
In every community conversation I’ve been to over the last year I heard four needs most often – more affordable housing, solutions to mitigate homelessness, better roads, and public safety. This budget invests in all four.
The City is placing a one-time, $10 million contribution into an ‘Affordable Housing Loan Fund’ as the seed money to attract an additional $30 million in private and philanthropic investments. This innovative public-private partnership will help to address chronic funding shortfalls and will ultimately yield $120 million in new multi-family rental housing – with the potential for more than 1,000 affordable housing units being built. Even before this fund is created, Jacksonville will have nearly 4,000 affordable and low-income housing units completed by the end of 2025 because of our strong focus on addressing this challenge.
At the same time, we are responsible for paying for the unfunded state mandate on homelessness. The budget is directing $10 million in 2024-2025 to address the requirements of the new law making it illegal to sleep in public spaces. We anticipate the total cost of this initiative to be $15 million and we are calling on the private sector to close the gap. Public-private partnerships are how we create a safer community and make sure homelessness is a rare, short-term experience in a person's life. An additional $300,000 will go to eviction prevention funding that will keep some of our neighbors from having to face this experience all together.
The city has a major role to play on both of these challenges. These investments demonstrate our commitment AND that we will be able to leverage these resources with state, federal, and private philanthropic grants that often require city dollars.
As for the better roads – we met our annual target funding for critical infrastructure projects including road construction, drainage, pedestrian crossings, and sidewalks. We are leveraging the work of our groundbreaking resilience plan to smartly invest in projects which will be able to withstand and redirect rising water, cool historically hot neighborhoods, and view trees as infrastructure which add more than shade to a street.
We continue to make the necessary investments that will keep our citizens safe and healthy. JFRD will see more than $28 million in construction of new fire stations so that response times keep decreasing. That will dramatically reduce home insurance costs as well. Our entire city is grateful for the brave firefighters and paramedics who deliver lifesaving support every day.
This budget provides funding to put 40 additional officers on the street, part of our plan to add 200 officers in four years, and it fully funds the department’s needs for people, vehicles, equipment, and technology. The women and men of JSO put themselves between us and danger on a daily basis. They deserve our respect and support.
Jacksonville is seeing a precipitous drop in its homicide rate. This is a welcomed trend thanks to the efforts of JSO and the community. I am proud to announce a new era of collaboration as we launch Journey Forward, a community-based crime prevention initiative which builds on the previous work of the Jacksonville Journey. The prevention and intervention work of this program will be driven by the voices who are working to make our community safer and those most impacted by better outcomes.
We have identified existing funding for this effort. Legislation will be filed soon to stand up the program’s board, which will support a comprehensive strategy that includes immediate and long-term goals for crime reduction, community engagement, and program performance metrics. In partnership with Sheriff Waters, working with community partners, and aligning resources across city agencies, we are poised to tackle the root causes of crime more effectively than ever before.
Safe neighborhoods also require healthy citizens. Funding for our mayor’s task force initiatives in food insecurity, mental health, telehealth, and infant mortality are having an impactnow.
We are making a $56 million investment into the operating budget of our safety net hospital – UF Health – and another $38 million for capital improvements. This additional funding strengthens our commitment to this critical asset in our community and ensures they can continue providing care to our most vulnerable citizens. At the same time, we are working with them to bring their costs down by increasing the number of people showing up at the hospital with insurance, and we are cutting the red tape so they can operate their own patient transport services, a projected savings of $4 million for them.
Jacksonville is on the precipice of greatness, and the time is now to choose what kind of city we want to be. Now is not the time to withdraw from our bold vision. It’s thinking small that has kept us mired in mediocrity. A city with more potential than progress. We were elected to do hard things. We have to be smart AND we have to lean in.
Let’s be a city that is united by love. Let’s be a city that solves our challenges together. Let’s be a city that turns renderings into realities. Let’s be a city that finally meets its promise for everyone. Let’s be that bold new city of the south.
After a year of firsts, I lastly want to say thank you.
To the people who have come up to me and shared your burdens – thank you.
To the people who have shared your ideas for making the city stronger – thank you.
To the people who have helped clean up our beaches or our streets or our parks – thank you.
To the people who volunteer in a soup kitchen, or a homeless shelter, or as a scout leader, or a mentor, or a coach – thank you.
To the people who have told me of the renewed pride and hope and optimism you feel in our city – thank you. That one means more to me than I can express.
Love is deeds.
You are showing through your deeds how much you love your city and all of its people.
I know together, all of us, inside and outside of this chamber, will commit ourselves to doing the same. Let’s keep lifting as we climb to build a better Jacksonville today and for each new day to come.