Alachua County Commission grants funds to Newberry, amends proposed structure for a six-county CareerSource consolidation

BY JENNIFER CABRERA

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – At their March 26 Regular Meeting, the Alachua County Commission granted funds to the City of Newberry to pave a parking lot and amended a proposed structure for a six-county CareerSource consolidation.

Wild Spaces Public Places grant to Newberry

The board unanimously (with Chair Mary Alford and Vice Chair Chuck Chestnut participating remotely) voted to grant $133,333 from the County’s portion of the Wild Spaces Public Places Surtax to the City of Newberry to offset the cost of improving the parking lot at the Easton Newberry Sports Complex.

Terms for a new six-county CareerSource Interlocal Agreement

Next, the board took up a request for approval of the material terms of the new six-county CareerSource Interlocal Agreement. 

Assistant County Manager Tommy Crosby said County staff have been working on the six-county consolidation at the request of the State; Alachua County currently shares a CareerSource board with Bradford County. Crosby said some of the terms of the Interlocal Agreement were “not in the best interest of this County and this County Commission,” particularly a desire to have each county have one vote. Crosby said Alachua County represents 62% of the population of all six counties combined, and County staff preferred a model similar to the current agreement with Bradford County, in which Alachua County has 75% of the votes; in return, Alachua County operates a service center in Bradford County, and Bradford County has representation on the CareerSource council. 

The proposed agreement would create a new Workforce board for Alachua, Bradford, Columbia, Dixie, Gilchrist, and Union Counties, governed by a six-member council comprising the Chair of each County Commission or another Commissioner appointed by the Chair. The votes would be weighted to account for population and grant-funding calculation, so the representative from Alachua County would have five votes, and the other counties would each have one vote; however, Crosby pointed out, “50% does not give Alachua County a majority vote, so we cannot do things without some buy-in by at least one rural county.” Crosby said Alachua County would continue to have 66% of the liability.

Alachua County will serve as the administrative entity, the fiscal agent, and the Equal Opportunity Office to the council. The Chief Executive Officer will serve at the pleasure of the council but will be an employee of Alachua County. The target date for the agreement is July 1. 

Prizzia: “I just don’t think this is a good deal.”

Commissioner Anna Prizzia said she didn’t support the proposal: “I’m glad we have veto power, but I just don’t think this is a good deal. Like, I don’t think it’s a good deal for Alachua County. I don’t think it’s a good deal for Columbia County… I don’t know why we’re even having this conversation right now.”

Crosby responded that if the Commissioners decided that Alachua County should get a majority vote, “you’re not going to hurt my feelings… We got to where we thought… we could look Tallahassee in the eye and say, ‘Look, this is a pretty good deal.'”

Cornell: “If they want 50% of the vote, they get 50% of the liability.”

Commissioner Ken Cornell, who was chairing the meeting in the absence of Alford and Chestnut, said he could support having 50% of the votes but not 66% of the liability: “If they want 50% of the vote, they get 50% of the liability.”

Todd Hutchison, Director of Finance for the Alachua County Clerk of Court, said that it is preferable for Alachua County to have 50% or less of the voting power on the CareerSource council because in that case, the CareerSource entity would have a standalone audit; if Alachua County had more than 50% of the voting power, the audit would fall under Alachua County. Hutchison said he was not worried about producing accurate financial statements, but he was concerned about future audit risks from unallowable costs: “Why should it fall on Alachua County government when there’s five other counties that are going to be involved in the consolidation?”

Cornell said that explanation had convinced him that it would be advantageous for Alachua County to have only 50% of the votes, but he said he would prefer having multiple Alachua County Commissioners on the CareerSource council. He proposed that Alachua County take on 50% of the liability, with 10% of the liability assigned to each of the other five counties.

Motion

Commissioner Anna Prizzia agreed with both of those changes. She made a motion to amend the proposal to give Alachua County 50% of the liability and two members on the board, making it a seven-member council.

Crosby cautioned that this would give each Alachua County member 25% of the vote, diluting Alachua County’s influence if one member were absent. Cornell suggested adding language stating that the Commissioner who is absent could designate the other Commissioner to vote for them. 

Cornell clarified that the motion was to approve staff’s recommendation with two changes: Alachua County would get two members on the council, with each getting 25% of the vote and one having the ability to vote the full 50% if one is absent; also, the liability distribution for unallowable costs would reflect the vote distributions (50% for Alachua County, 10% for each of the other counties). Cornell added a request to send a Chair Letter to the other counties. Commissioner Marihelen Wheeler seconded the motion. 

In response to discussion about some of the other counties being upset about the consolidation, Alford suggested giving the other counties an option to have a second non-voting council member who could be an alternate if the voting member weren’t available and could attend meetings in a non-voting capacity. Crosby said that didn’t change the size of the board, so he didn’t see a problem with it. Cornell added that to the motion.

In more discussion, Commissioners and staff together clarified that the motion would give Alachua County two voting members, with each having 25% of the vote, but one member would have 50% of the vote if the other were absent; the other counties would have one voting member but could add a non-voting member who could substitute for the voting member if the voting member could not attend a meeting.

The motion passed 5-0, with Alford and Chestnut voting remotely.