JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The City Council has now passed a bill to help restore city services cut for budget reasons.
Mayor Alvin Brown proposed the spending after the city discovered it had unspent money from the previous year.
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The money will go toward maintaining city right-of-ways more often, restoring maintenance at city parks, turning back on some streetlights that had been turned off, and boosting economic development in areas of Northwest Jacksonville and near the airport.
Following the end of the last fiscal year on Sept. 30, the City Finance Department embarked on its annual financial review and determined that the city had additional unspent funds from the previous fiscal year, according to city officials. Based on those findings, the Brown Administration proposed to amend the legislation and make the following investments:
- $660,000 to increase the frequency of maintaining city right-of-ways.
- $300,000 for streetlight activation to restore the lighting-related cutbacks in last year's budget. The city will work with JEA and commercial property owners to explore whether LED lighting would be appropriate to replace the more expensive photo cell bulbs.
- $89,500 to help Fraternal Order of Police employees in the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office with job-related educational expenses. The city's contract with the Fraternal Order of Police provides that the city contribute $60,000 to educational reimbursements for JSO employees. That required funding has been exhausted and this investment would allow additional JSO employees to receive educational reimbursement.