The audit uses legal and budget terms common in city governance but less common in public debate. This glossary pairs the formal definition with a plain-language translation so readers can trace either one without leaving the page.
A classification used when the mayor and city council can execute the core promise directly, subject to budget, staffing, and administrative competence.
City Hall can actually do this if it chooses to fund and run it.
A Community Redevelopment Agency, which can finance projects inside a defined district using tax increment revenue.
A special district tool the city can use for targeted redevelopment in certain areas.
The city’s main operating fund, used for recurring services such as public safety, administration, permitting, and neighborhood functions.
The core city checking account that pays for everyday operations.
The constitutional and statutory authority that allows local governments to manage local affairs unless the state has limited or preempted that authority.
What City Hall can generally do on its own before Tallahassee steps in.
A classification used when part of a plank sits inside city authority but its signature components run into preemption, fragile legal footing, or outside control.
Some of it is doable, but the headline promise is not fully in the mayor's hands.
A memorandum of understanding between public agencies or partners that sets terms for cooperation, data sharing, or implementation.
A formal agreement that lets multiple agencies work together without one controlling the other.
The set of actions the city can take directly under charter authority, state law, adopted budgets, and administrative control.
The tools City Hall can actually pick up and use without waiting on another government.
A deliberately wide fiscal range used when public documents support a cost band but not a single precise implementation figure.
A cost range that tells you the scale of the money problem without pretending the estimate is more exact than the record allows.
A state or federal rule that reserves authority to a higher level of government and prevents local governments from acting independently in that area.
A legal stop sign that keeps the city from making its own rule on a topic.
A classification used when implementation depends on another board, agency, county government, state office, or federal partner that the mayor cannot direct alone.
The city can help move it, but someone else still has to vote, fund, approve, or operate it.
A doctrine that limits lawsuits against the government unless liability is expressly allowed by law.
A legal shield that changes how and when the government can be sued.
Revenue distributed to local governments by the state under formulas set in state law.
Money the city depends on but does not fully control because Tallahassee can change the formula.
A mismatch between a proposed local action and an existing state statute or legal requirement.
When the proposal runs into a state law that says the city cannot do it that way.
The city-controlled implementation route that remains available after the audit identifies a legal barrier, outside dependency, or funding constraint.
The version of the idea City Hall can still run with the tools it actually has.