City of Alachua Mayor Gib Coerper Honored with 2022 Home Rule Hero Award
Press release from City of Alachua
The Florida League of Cities (FLC), celebrating its 100th anniversary as the united voice for Florida’s municipal governments, recently recognized City of Alachua Mayor Gib Coerper with a 2022 Home Rule Hero Award for his hard work and advocacy efforts during the 2022 Legislative Session. Coerper worked tirelessly throughout session to promote local voices making local choices, protect the Home Rule powers of Florida’s municipalities, and advance the League’s legislative agenda.
“On behalf of the League and its legislative team, we’re very proud to present this year’s Home Rule Hero Awards to a deserving group of municipal leaders,” said FLC Director of Legislative Affairs Casey Cook. “We had a record number of Home Rule Heroes this year, which shows the dedication and impact of local officials on behalf of their residents and businesses in protecting local decision-making. These local officials were constantly engaged and actively advocating for their communities throughout the 2022 Legislative Session. They’re heroes for Home Rule, and we thank them for their efforts.”
Home Rule is the ability for a city to address local problems with local solutions with minimal state interference. Home Rule Hero Award recipients are local government officials, both elected and nonelected, who consistently responded to the League’s request to reach out to members of the legislature and help give a local perspective on an issue.
“I am greatly humbled to be selected for this honor,” Coerper said. “I’ve always felt the government closest to its community should be the one making decisions based on the best interests of that community, and the Home Rule allows municipalities like Alachua to do just that.”
It would have been interesting to see how owner residents of our Turkey Creek Community would have voted for Gib in this regard. Our City of Alachua seems to be much more concerned about establishing new taxable development rather than assisting established community tax bases in their most important issues.
In Turkey Creek, our most important issue that is not under our control is the flooding associated with waters flowing from both waterways of Turkey Creek and Pinkinson Creek. Our TC Community is self sustaining on infrastructure. Yet our substantial property tax funds never return to any portion of our. Community including public safety, recreation and environmental activities.
We now pay approximately $1,000,000 in property taxes to the City alone and pay $1,000,000 to our Home Owner Association. As owners in Turkey Creek, we must push our City of Alachua Commission to help mitigate flooding issues through responsible actions including obtaining grants available through SRWMD and the Alachua County Local Mitigation Group.