JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – City leaders are racing the clock as they try to solve Jacksonville's biggest financial problem -- the pension deficit -- before Mayor Alvin Brown leaves office.
Previous plans have failed, and the latest proposal still doesn't address every issue, including where the money will come from to cover the $1.7 billion deficit.
City Council members and the pension board met Friday to try to work out a deal.
All sides went into the meeting optimistically, but it appeared that they drifted apart when questions of funding, lawyers' responses and the question of how new police and firefighters would pay for pension reform came up for debate.
Councilman Bill Gulliford has been championing the latest pension reform push.
Gulliford's bill would change how much the city would pay into the pension fund. It also has the pension board turning over its $79 million in reserve money to the city to help pay down the deficit.
All sides are asking questions about the complicated issue.
The biggest question: Can a solution be found before Mayor-Elect Lenny Curry and a new set of City Council members take over on July 1?
"I hoped and prayed it would happen, and I still do. I am going to do everything I can to make it happen," Gulliford said. "This is not easy. We have had people on both sides saying, 'Don't do it. Don't do it.' But we've got to do something."
Police and Fire Pension Fund Executive Director John Keane said legal questions could hold up the deal.
"We are ready to move on. I think they are going to have a fire under them to get the answers to these questions," Keane said. "We are ready to move on. There are two more council meetings. Council leadership supports this, so they could have more than two more council meetings to get this done. We are committed to it."
Brown has been dealing with pension reform since he first took office four years ago, and he would love to see a deal settled before he leaves office.
Brown's chief of staff, Chris Hand, said it looks like it will happen.
"I think what you are now seeing is everybody working together to try and resolve this," said Chris Hand, chief of staff for Mayor Alvin Brown -- Councilman Gulliford, the mayor's office, the Police and Fire Pension Fund," Hand said. "It's a definite priority for the mayor, and I think it's a shared priority for everybody to get this done before this mayor and the city council leave office. So I think it's possible."
Curry is staying out of the debate for now. His staff would not say whether Curry would like to see pension reform resolved before he takes office.