Alachua County Commission hears update on City of Archer’s financial emergency, recommends increased oversight of City’s Infrastructure Surtax revenue

BY JENNIFER CABRERA
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – At their January 14 regular meeting, the Alachua County Commission heard an update on the City of Archer’s financial emergency and recommended increased oversight of the City of Archer’s Infrastructure Surtax revenue.
Audit found City of Archer’s Infrastructure Surtax revenues commingled with General Fund
Assistant County Manager Gina Peebles told the board that an independent audit of the City of Archer’s 2023 budget found critical issues related to commingling more than $738,000 in Infrastructure Surtax revenues with the City’s General Fund. The City of Archer has acknowledged this finding and has committed to correcting the issue, with changes implemented by March 1, 2025. Peebles recommended that the County require the City to reimburse the Infrastructure Surtax fund within three years. She also recommended that the board request a full accounting of all Infrastructure Surtax revenue received by the City of Archer since 2017 and implement enhanced monitoring by the Infrastructure Surtax Oversight Board.
County Manager Michele Lieberman cautioned the board against requiring a specific repayment schedule at this time because the City has requested assistance from the State and also owes $178,000 in payroll taxes to the federal government: “There’s a lot we have unknown on how the State is going to tell them they have to pay for things.”
Commissioner Mary Alford said she wanted to see “something, even if it’s just a dollar a month, to show that they have that commitment in front of them and are moving forward with addressing it… I mean,… we’re talking about taxpayer dollars here that have been misspent.”
Commissioner Anna Prizzia responded, “I guess I hear you, but I also think we’re not the only ones in line.” Alford said she understood that, which is why she said a dollar a month is fine.
Alford said, “I do think that this is a really unfortunate situation, and they’ve had an unfortunate few years with a bad City Manager, and there’s been a lot of things that have happened. But I’d like to help them get out of the situation as best we can.”
Archer Vice Mayor: Commission did not know bills and payroll taxes had not been paid
Archer Vice Mayor Iris Bailey, attending via Zoom, said her Commission would not have a problem paying a dollar a month, “but we found out at the same time the public found out that the bills were not being paid properly or that the taxes had not been paid,… and everyone was surprised… It’s not that we knew what was going on and that we condoned what was going on. We were under the same pretense, that everything was being paid and it was being paid on time.”
Bailey also said the City’s accountant was out for a long time with an injury and then returned part-time, “so there was a lot of things that happened, and I’m pretty sure most of us was trying to give her grace to get back on track because she had been gone so long.”
Prizzia pointed out that $738,000 over three years would be $20,500 per month, but Lieberman said not all of that was spent incorrectly. Lieberman said the County needs an accounting of all of the Infrastructure Surtax revenue and spending, and she emphasized that this is not money owed to the County but money that belongs to the City of Archer and needs to be put in a cordoned-off fund so it can be spent appropriately.
City of Archer’s shortfall amounts to more than its annual General Fund budget
Newberry Assistant City Manager Dallas Lee, who has been consulting with the City of Archer, said the Archer City Commission recently cut about $70,000 out of their General Fund budget of about a million dollars a year. He said his best guess is that about $300,000 needs to be repaid to the Infrastructure Surtax fund, but the City just completed its 2023 audit and is now looking at 2024. He said, however, that the City is now segregating Infrastructure Surtax revenue into a separate fund. Lee requested three years to reimburse the fund, given that the amount is 10% of the City’s budget for the next three years. He also said the City actually owes $233,000 in payroll taxes to the federal government, in addition to other unpaid bills, totaling over a million dollars.
Lee asked for “the County’s grace and understanding that… there are a lot of people in line” and the City’s main focus is paying the IRS because the interest rate is high. Lee also said the City of Archer received “bad advice from their auditor. Their auditor misunderstood the restrictions on Wild Spaces Infrastructure Sales Tax.”
Commissioner Ken Cornell said there were 16 findings in the 2023 audit report, so “there’s an awful lot that the City of Archer is going to have to deal with, with JLAC (Joint Legislative Auditing Committee), and figure out what help, if any, they can get from the State, if they can even survive the State’s scrutiny.”
First motion
Cornell made a motion to request the full accounting of all Infrastructure Sales Surtax revenue received by the City of Archer since 2017 and set a reasonable timeline to repay the funds. He said that if County staff and the City think they need more time, he wasn’t opposed to extending it. Third, the motion directed the Infrastructure Surtax Oversight Board to strengthen oversight by conducting enhanced monitoring of the City of Archer, including, he suggested, pre-approval of funds before they are spent.
Chair Chuck Chestnut asked whether the City had heard from the State yet, and Lee said he and Bailey had traveled to Tallahassee in December to meet with the Governor’s Deputy Chief of Staff, who said they were looking into it, but the City has not received anything formal from the State.
The motion passed unanimously.
Requests for assistance from the City of Archer
Lieberman said the County had received a letter from the City of Archer, formally asking for planning assistance with redrafting parts of their Comprehensive Plan and help with getting a low-interest loan to pay off a high-interest loan. Lieberman said she recommended that the City seek the help of the Regional Planning Council for their Comprehensive Plan, with the County as “a resource for them,” mainly because she was concerned about County staff capacity. Lieberman’s recommendation on the request for financial assistance was to wait and see whether the State offers any financial help.
Second motion
Cornell made a motion to refer the City of Archer’s request for planning assistance to the Regional Planning Council and delay a response on the request for financial assistance. The motion passed unanimously.
So, why didn’t/hasn’t the BOCC done the same with the free spending Poe and Harvey Ward in Gainesville? Has GNV even corrected its errors and problems yet?
“Are you kidding me?!” “Are you kidding me?!” – Bernie in About Last Night
You already know the answer to that question.
Clown city run by clowns
Archer should market itself as “Gateway to the Gulf” with big arrows on billboardssss.
You mean to tell me they need ‘government oversight’? Hasn’t that become an oxymoron?
And they wanted to have their own county? How would that of worked?