Jacksonville Civic Council Inc

Programs: The jacksonville civic council is a private, nonprofit, non-partisan organization whose mission is to promote a fiscally responsible, economically vibrant, thriving community which offers opportunity for all its residents. The jacksonville civic council is comprised of over 70 business and community leaders. We have identified five criteria or "pillars of progress" to achieve our goals and mission:1) a safe and healthy city. The jcc currently has the uf health task force that supports this pillar. The objective of this task force is to understand the role of safety net hospitals in florida and in our community; analyze the uf health jacksonville business model as jacksonville's safety net hospital; quantify the indigent care need within the city of jacksonville and how need is currently being met, understand the relationship between uf health jacksonville and the city of jacksonville, including historical funding patterns; understand the uf health jacksonville/uf relationship (structural, financial, governance, etc. ); study best practices of how other cities in florida support their safety net hospitals; make recommendations for sustainable, long term funding to support our safety net hospital in the face of reduced medicaid funding. 2) great schools, k-12 and beyond. Education is the key to building a strong workforce, a knowledgeable citizenry and a viable community. The civic council collaborates with our local colleges and universities, jax chamber, jaxusa partnerships on economic initiatives to attract and retain jacksonville's workforce. We also collaborate with the jacksonville public education fund to advance this pillar. 3) a growing economy with a varied base of growth industries. We stress a unified emphasis on economic development and understand its importance across all business sectors. Our goal is to increase the tax base in duval county through private capital investment and business growth. We advocate on issues that will promote fiscally responsible public spending and encourage private investment in economically distressed areas, like jacksonville's urban core. In cooperation with jax chamber, the civic council has established a patient capital fund focused on downtown revitalization through focused private capital investment in our urban core. 4) a high standard of operational excellence at all levels of government. Our goal is to promote modern, efficient and effective operations and revenues to support primary government functions. We compare jacksonville's overall cost structure (taxes and fees) to other major cities in florida and a selected peer group of communities. On a per capita basis, we categorically compare spending on essential services in jacksonville to those in other major cities in florida and a selected peer group. Operational excellence includes a city government that is financially stable, represented by: bond ratings that meet or exceed moody's aa2, standard and poor aa and fitch aa. Department service levels that do not exceed 20 percent compared to the total general fund budget. Pensions that are actuarially sound funded minimally at 80 percent. We have established the pension task force for this pillar. This task force, made up of jcc members and subject matter experts from the community, has been studying this issue for the last four years. The jacksonville civic council has conducted an in-depth study of the local government police and fire pension fund obligations and has proposed solutions to address the severely under-funded pension. Jcc is working with city leaders to implement pension solutions that will return pension funding to 80% in a reasonable amount of time. 5) a fun and energetic community with a strong downtown, arts, recreation, cultural and sports environment. A vibrant downtown is key to every successful region, large or small, in the world. Downtown must be the business and entertainment hub of the city and the urban core for the region. To that end, we advocate for a downtown governance system that enables evolution and is provided with dedicated funds sufficient to achieve its mission. We also advocate for venues and businesses that attract visitors to downtown, as well as for public spaces that embrace the river, an incredible jacksonville asset that we need to protect. A strong arts, recreation, cultural and sports environment - the spirit and soul of a city is measured by its arts, the volunteer community and sports. The downtown task force has worked for over 4 years to establish the downtown investment authority and implement a new downtown master plan and community redevelopment area plan.