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NEWBERRY – The City of Newberry is set to approve a $25,793,291 annual budget. A second public hearing was conducted at the Sept. 14 City Commission meeting. Following adoption of a preliminary millage rate, Commissioners approved a tentative budget for the 2020-21 Fiscal Year, which begins Oct. 1, 2020 and ends Sept. 30, 2021.

Director of Finance and Administration Dallas Lee provided a summary of the resolution adopting a tentative budget. “Budgeted funds are to pay for personal services, expenses, operating and maintenance expenses and other expenses, for capital outlay and for debt service requirements,” said Lee.

During the five budget workshops held by the Commission, direction was given to staff with regard to the preparation of the budget.

All revenue and other financing sources available to the City of Newberry total $15,485,206. With reserves of $10,308,085 and the $15,485,206 revenue and other financing, the City is setting a $25,793,291 budget for the upcoming fiscal year.

A second public hearing to determine the final budget amount will take place Sept. 28, at 7 p.m. Citizens are encouraged to participate as time will be set aside for comments and questions.

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HIGH SPRINGS – High Springs City Commissioners easily approved an interlocal agreement between High Springs and Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) for enhanced police services within the CRA district. The agreement is specifically for CRA-sponsored events and begins Oct. 1, 2020 and ends Sept. 30, 2021. Renewal of the agreement is for successive one-year terms upon written consent of both parties.

The agreement stipulates that the CRA will pay the City monthly for services at a rate of $37 per hour. In exchange the City agrees to assign police officers to cover the CRA area for specified times, excluding Pioneer Days and the tree lighting event, both of which are Chamber of Commerce events.

In the agreement it is anticipated that 208 hours of additional services within the CRA District will be required, which includes 130 hours of additional holiday patrol for a total anticipated payment of $7,713. At least 27 of those hours are reserved for Folk in the Springs, which is currently scheduled for September 2021.

The agreement stipulates how payments will be made to the City and the City will provide semi-annual and annual law enforcement activity reports in the District.

This item had been previously discussed in the CRA meeting, and approval of the agreement was unanimous.

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NEWBERRY ‒ The Newberry City Commission unanimously approved Resolution 2020-40 during the Sept. 14 Commission meeting to adjust the City’s Compensation Plan for the 2020-21 fiscal year. This item was presented to Commissioners by Director of Finance and Administration Dallas Lee.

As part of his presentation Lee reminded Commissioners that the City adjusted the pay classification and compensation schedules last year to correspond with the market at that time.

“The Commission adopted a resolution establishing the pay ranges for each job classification. To keep our pay scales in range with the market, staff proposes to increase the pay ranges by one percent,” said Lee.

He pointed out that the proposed adjustment is less than the 3.22 percent rate established by the state as the percentage increase in Florida’s household income for the current year. He also commented that the one percent adjustment does not relate to anyone at the City receiving a Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) per Commission direction. But, he said, “It may affect the starting pay of a future employee, or the top out pay of an employee when merit raises are assessed.” Existing employees will be evaluated for merit increases this year based upon performance.

“During this year, staff identified several areas in our pay grid that were below market and are proposed for changes,” Lee said. “Several positions were identified as under market when compared to our peer cities. Staff identified the most significant under market [positions] and adjusted them to market rates.”

Commissioners approved the resolution without comment.

All changes will become effective Nov. 1, 2020.

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NEWBERRY ‒ The City of Newberry will no longer be performing cemetery internment services. A legislative hearing relating to updates to the cost of cemetery lots was conducted on Sept. 14 and received approval on second and final reading. Ordinance 2020-15 updates the City’s policy to remove the cost of lots and cemetery operational services and move those costs to the Fees and Fine resolution approved as part of the annual budget process.

In addition, the cost of internment, the actual excavation of the gravesite for installation of the vault and the covering of the vault after the funeral, which has been charged by the City, will now be deleted from the costs as internment is performed by the presiding funeral home.

Director of Utilities and Public Works Jamie Jones said the regulations for the daily operation of the cemetery are in the form of an ordinance and can only be modified by amending the ordinance. By moving this item to the Fees and Fine resolution, changes can be made in the future by updating that document as part of the annual budget process.

“Currently, the actual internment is performed by the City Public Works Department. The Cemetery Ordinance identifies a cost for this service at a minimum of $400 to be collected by the City of Newberry, which is in addition to any and all charges by the presiding funeral home,” said Jones.

After researching seven municipally-owned cemeteries in the general area, Jones found that in every case the actual opening and closing of the gravesite was performed by the funeral home providing the funeral service. In addition, Jones found that the cost of internment is part of the funeral services package for most funeral homes, regardless if the funeral home opens or closes the grave site.

The City has developed a Policy and Procedure Manual for the operation of the City Cemetery. As part of this action, the Commission adopted the manual and authorizes the City Manager to maintain and amend the policies and procedures as necessary to meet the needs of the City and its citizens, as well as to ensure compliance with federal and state laws.

This item was unanimously approved on second reading.

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HIGH SPRINGS ‒ The High Springs City Commission has approved amending the agreement with Alachua County for fire suppression and fire response EMS/rescue services. This is the first amendment to an agreement that began Oct. 1, 2019.

Payment for service will be based quarterly and based on the previous quarter responses. The City Fire Chief and Alachua County Fire Rescue (ACFR) Chief will meet between Jan. 1 and March 1 to establish the compensation rate and CPI for the following calendar year, allowing both to budget for the following fiscal year.

Payment to the City will be made in four payments made on a quarterly basis in accordance with the provisions of Florida Statutes.

The City shall reciprocate payment per response, at the same rate that the County pays, to the County when County fire apparatus (excluding rescue and command) are dispatched as the "Primary responder" within the municipal boundaries of the City. "Primary responder" is defined as the only unit dispatched to an incident or when dispatched as the closest unit due to the unavailability of appropriate apparatus from the City Fire Department.

The County agrees not to invoice the City for response in the City if the City is simultaneously responding to a call in the County. Payment to the County will be made on a quarterly basis in accordance with the provisions of Florida Statutes.

High Springs Fire Chief Bruce Gillingham said working on a quarterly basis with the County allows both to have real time numbers to work with.

As no Commissioner or citizen comments were forthcoming, Commissioners easily approved the amendment to the agreement.

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ALACHUA – The City of Alachua filed suit in circuit court against Alachua County Monday over a proposed charter amendment that, if approved, would dramatically change how growth is managed countywide. The measure is set to appear on the Nov. 3 general election ballot. The measure is roundly opposed by city commissions around Alachua county, but that has not stopped the Charter Review Commission from pushing it onto the ballot.

The Alachua County Charter Review Commission voted 10-2 to adopt CRC Resolution 2020-1, which includes a ballot summary purportedly informing the voters of the scope and effect of the amendment. If approved by voters, the charter amendment would essentially establish a so-called growth management area comprising a substantial majority of lands not currently within any city’s municipal boundaries.

The teeth of the amendment are in the details of the text, which essentially dictates that if a city annexes any of the growth management lands into its municipal boundaries, those lands will continue to be exclusively subject to the County’s Comprehensive Plan and Land Development Regulations. Under current law, once a city annexes a parcel of land into its corporate limits, that annexing city’s comprehensive plan and land development regulations govern zoning, growth and development of that annexed land.

The ballot summary states, “COUNTY CHARTER AMENDMENT ESTABLISHING COUNTY GROWTH

MANAGEMENT AREA. Shall the Alachua County Charter be amended, effective countywide, to establish a County Growth Management Area (“Area”), provide that the County’s comprehensive plan and land development regulations will exclusively govern land development in the Area, whether inside or outside municipal boundaries, authorize implementing ordinances, provide for removal of lands from the Area, and provide that the charter and implementing ordinances shall prevail over conflicting municipal ordinances?”

The City of Alachua’s chief complaint as laid out in the lawsuit is that the ballot measure violates Florida voting laws, specifically Florida Statute 101.161(1), which sets out rules for the language of a referendum such as the one proposed by the Charter Review Commission.

The lawsuit alleges that the ballot language is misleading because it gives the false impression that the main purpose of the amendment is to establish a growth management area, when in fact the primary purpose of the amendment is to stymie a municipality from using its own land use regulations. The City also states the ballot summary does not provide “fair notice” that the proposed amendment would modify current rules regarding annexed lands, most notably that a city would no longer be allowed to impose its own land use regulations and comprehensive plan.

The lawsuit goes on to allege that the ballot summary is “false and misleading” because it gives voters the false impression the amendment will result in the County’s planning regulations being applied to lands outside of a municipality, when, in fact, as it currently stands, the County’s planning regulations already govern development and zoning of lands which are not in the corporate limits of a municipality.

Going further, the City calls the ballot summary misleading because it does nothing with respect to the management of growth, but rather, it merely dictates who will have regulatory power, not what is to be done with that authority. And, the City says the ballot measure suggests that growth is not currently managed in areas in the so-called growth management areas or that it would not be managed if annexed into a municipality.

Indeed, the City states in the lawsuit that the amendment would undermine a city’s ability to impose more restrictive regulations to manage growth. The City also calls the Charter Review Commission’s use of the phrase, “Growth Management Area” improper political rhetoric in violation of Florida Statutes 101.161(1).

In its chief complaint, the City details numerous other grievances with the ballot measure, including the failure to inform voters that the amendment would establish actual boundaries for the so-called growth management area, failure to include a reference to the proposed boundary map, failure to inform voters that only by a super-majority vote of the Board of County Commissioners could lands be removed from the managed area. On a technical point, the City notes that the Spanish language translation of the ballot summary is 90 words, exceeding the 75-word limit established by state law.

In Count II and III of its complaint, the City states that the amendment fails to comply with Florida’s state constitution or state laws because the amendment could not “coexist” with existing state laws. In particular, the City points out that the charter amendment would impose the County’s land use regulations in conflict with Florida’s laws regarding municipal annexation and contraction, Florida Statutes 171.011 through 171.094. Additionally, Chapter 163 of Florida Statutes mandates that with respect to land use, a municipality “shall exercise authority” over lands within its boundaries, but the amendment, if approved, would preempt a city’s regulatory control over land use matters. Finally, the City alleges that proposed amendment conflicts with other parts of Chapter 163 which provide explicit procedures for the amendment of comprehensive plans.

The City asks the circuit court to provide temporary and permanent injunctive relief by invalidating the proposed charter amendment, striking it from the 2020 ballot, preventing the Supervisor of Elections from tabulating or certifying the results of the referendum and preventing the County from enforcing the amendment if approved by voters.

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