City Council Finance Chair Garrett Dennis did not share details, but said he will address the city’s inability to provide sandbags and other emergency supplies to residents before council finalizes the 2017-187 budget, which is due Sept. 30.
Dennis said Thursday he plans to bring up the topic at Monday’s council meeting and Thursday’s Finance Committee, but he would not say in what form.
“We’re going to bring it up,” he said.
He said nearly every Florida county provides the service for residents and that “this is a situation we could easily address and I don’t think it would cost that much to do.”
Dennis estimates the city could spend about $25,000 to purchase enough sand and bags to serve the county’s more than 800,000 residents.
“There are plenty of places to get sand, and I think we owe it to our constituents to use the resources we have to make that happen,” he said.
Last week during a special council meeting about the potential impact of Hurricane Irma, Mayor Lenny Curry was asked why the city wasn’t providing sandbags.
The question came from council member Joyce Morgan, who said it was a concern for people in her District 1, which contains a large part of Arlington’s riverfront.
“That’s a resources decision,” said Curry in response.
“We’d be certainly open to, if someone was passionate about that and wanted to talk about that for future storms, we can have that discussion and look at budget priorities,” he said.
Curry noted the size and scope of Jacksonville’s population and that “the decision was made before I was here” as the reason why the city wasn’t providing the service.
“At this point, no sandbags,” he said.
The question has come up a few times during the city’s news briefings before, during and after Hurricane Irma swept through Northeast Florida on Sunday and Monday.
Each time, Curry shifted the focus toward what can be done instead of what could have been done.
“There’s a time for all that,” Curry said during a Wednesday news conference on relief efforts.
“We are all aligned, right now, on people that have immediate needs, and that’s going to be the effort over the next few days,” he said.
Curry said conversations about budget priorities will continue.
Residents of Jacksonville’s Beaches cities and in St. Johns County were provided with sandbags before Irma hit. Private business donated sand.
Council member Reginald Brown, who serves on the Finance Committee, said the issue should have been addressed after Hurricane Matthew affected the Northeast Florida coast in October.
He said those discussions now likely will take place.
“We’re going to do a better job, I believe,” he said. “Those things that we didn’t get right this year, I’ll assure you, we’ll get right next time.”
In addition to sandbags, Brown said he’d like to see the city provide essential supplies for people who stay at shelters.
“Definitely blankets and cots, things of that nature,” Brown said. “We want to make sure we have those things readily available at every site for the next storm.”
The Finance Committee, as Dennis likes to remind people, “controls the city’s purse strings” because the standing committee is responsible for reviewing the annual budget.
In August, the committee scrutinized Curry’s proposed $1.273 billion budget for the next fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1.
While the budget does set aside emergency reserves, it does not specifically pay for supplies like sandbags or blankets for a major weather event.
Dennis said the money could be shifted to the city Public Works Department budget, but said he’ll have more clarity heading into the next council meeting.
On Monday, the full council will have its first public comment and review of the budget since it moved through the Finance Committee.
Council members will have another chance at the Sept. 26 council meeting to amend and review the budget. It must be approved by Sept. 30.