Gainesville City Commission moves toward ending roam towing, sets FY2027 budget

BY JENNIFER CABRERA

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – At the September 17 meeting, Gainesville City Commissioners moved toward ending roam towing, set the FY2027 property tax rate and budget, and named the Greater Gainesville International Center as the administrator of the City’s Sister City programs.

GCRA grants in the 8th & Waldo corridor

Commissioners awarded a little over a million dollars in Gainesville Community Reinvestment Area (GCRA) funding in the 8th & Waldo area, with $105,802 for 12 residential facade improvement applicants, $20,000 for one site improvement applicant, $15,950 for one business and community facility renovation applicant, and $871,000 for two vacant property development incentive applicants. The board also voted to give two applicants until October 19 to complete their applications. $2 million was previously budgeted for the grant program out of GCRA funds.

Click here to read about the 19 people who spoke during the General Public Comment period, advocating for ending a Gainesville Police Department policy regarding contact with “suspected unauthorized aliens.”

Click here to read about the 18 UF parents who asked Commissioners to do more to protect students from potentially violent homeless individuals in the area around campus.

Towing ordinance

Commissioners then took up the first reading of an amended towing ordinance that eliminates roam towing inside city limits; consolidates the towing, trespass towing, and trespass immobilization (boot) sections of the ordinance; and cleans up some language. If it is approved on second reading, it will take effect on January 1, 2027.

Instead of contracting with towing companies to roam parking lots and tow trespassing vehicles, the ordinance would require property owners to call a tow company if a vehicle is improperly parked on their property.

During public comment on the proposed ordinance, a representative from a towing company said property owners have been asked to make a list of tenants so the tenants can call or email for a tow truck if someone is in their parking space. He was also concerned that the requirement to provide a copy of the tow request to the person being towed could be a safety issue for the person who requested the tow because that person’s name would be on the tow request. He questioned a provision that prohibits towing a vehicle if there is a live animal inside, saying that simply having a lizard or snake in a vehicle shouldn’t be “a free basis to park anywhere they want in the city.”

Another man said he had been charged $410 by Superior Towing within 39 minutes of the tow, although the City’s fee schedule should have limited the charge to $235; he said Superior charged a $250 lien processing fee. He asked the City to immediately clarify and enforce their fee structure and hold tow companies accountable for overcharging. 

On May 21, 2026, Commissioners approved a resolution setting the basic towing fee for all classes of vehicles at $160, storage per day (after 6 hours) at $30, and administrative and lien fees (after 48 hours) at $75. Immobilization fees are capped at $80.

According to an email sent to City Commissioners in August, Superior Towing appeared to rely on state law that “permits towing companies to charge $250 for mandated lien work.” The email, which was sent by Superior Towing to an apartment complex and forwarded to Commissioners by the apartment complex, continued, “Accordingly, our rate will be set at $410 for the first 24 hours, which reflects a courtesy storage discount for that timeframe.”

Commissioner Casey Willits asked, “If [a tow company] charges $250 for lien processing inside the city of Gainesville for less than 39 minutes, have they broken… Gainesville’s ordinances?,” and outgoing Tow Administrator Monica Jordan replied, “Yes.”

In response to a question about holding tow companies accountable for overcharging, Jordan said the current ordinance has “a lot of gray area and lot of steps to take in regards to revocation of a permit.” She said the new ordinance would make it easier to hold the companies accountable. 

Gainesville Police Department Major Jaime Kurnick stated explicitly that the $250 lien processing fee “is in violation of the City ordinance,” and the tow company has been told to cease and desist. She said further violations by the tow company can result in a civil citation, and multiple occurrences can lead to the revocation of the company’s permit, after the new ordinance is passed.

In response to a question from Commissioner Ed Book about the maximum fees permitted under the ordinance, Jordan said that if a vehicle is towed and picked up the next day, the owner can be charged $160 for the tow and $30 per day for storage after the first six hours. The lien processing fee cannot be charged until after the vehicle has been there for 48 hours. The ordinance also allows for gate fees and after-hours fees, which are $60 each. The maximum fee for immobilization is $80.

Mayor Harvey Ward said he liked the idea of adding the ability to send tow requests by email, and he favored bringing back data a year from now to see whether the ordinance is working as they hoped.

There was a brief discussion about the requirement to report how many vehicles have been immobilized each day, with a tow company asking to submit Sunday reports on Mondays because their office is closed on Sundays.

Motion

Commissioner Bryan Eastman made a motion to approve the ordinance on first reading, with three changes to be made before the second reading: “[immobilization] reporting is required Monday through Friday, email authorization is allowed for a tow, and that we collect complaints and data and return in August 2027 with analysis and suggested updates.” Willits seconded the motion.

Kurnick said the “tow trends” are very different during football season, so she recommended waiting until the ordinance has been in effect for a full year before revisiting it, and Ward suggested changing the date to January 2028; Eastman and Willits agreed.

Anyone who was overcharged can reach out to GPD

Eastman said anyone who was charged too much can reach out to the Gainesville Police Department non-emergency number or go to small claims court; Kurnick said GPD can write a citation for overcharging because it violates the fee schedule. Jordan said she and Kurnick would talk about “a better solution… that may or may not include small claims.”

GPD’s towing complaint form can be found here.

Ward noted that even after the ordinance takes effect, cars can be booted and towed upon request from a property owner; there’s just no more roam towing or roam booting.

The motion passed unanimously.

Ordinances moving stormwater and solid waste fees to annual property tax bills

Commissioners also passed ordinances on second reading that will convert stormwater fees and solid waste fees into annual assessments that will appear on property tax bills instead of monthly GRU bills; the stormwater ordinance passed unanimously, and the solid waste ordinance passed 6-1, with Commissioner Desmon Duncan-Walker in dissent.

Commissioners also unanimously passed an ordinance on second reading that revises the City’s Solid Waste ordinances to:

• Require haulers to report issues such as recycling contamination and non-compliance with recycling ordinances;
• Permit pharmacies to provide postage-paid bags for those who want to turn in prescription drugs, as an alternative to disposal kiosks;
• Remove a requirement for commercial establishments to provide food waste collection containers in areas where food is consumed.

Regarding food waste collection containers in commercial establishments, the agenda backup noted, “Contamination levels in food waste collection containers in dining areas are too high to allow for reuse. Therefore, the existing requirement is not practical.”

That requirement was adopted in 2022 as part of the City’s Zero Waste ordinances.

Construction bid award for the Eastside Bus Transfer Facility

Commissioners awarded a bid for construction of the Eastside Bus Transfer Facility to Blackwater Construction Services, LLC, for $4,308,747. 

FY2027 property tax rate and budget

During the evening session, the board unanimously passed a property tax rate of 6.7297 mills for 2026-27; that rate is unchanged from the previous fiscal year, and it is 0.3453 mills or 5.42% higher than the rolled-back rate of 6.3839 mills. The rolled-back rate is the rate that would generate the same revenue as last year, excluding new construction.

The 2026-27 All Funds budget of $500,774,431, which is $33.9 million or 7.3% higher than the FY2026 adopted All Funds budget, passed 6-1, with Eastman in dissent. The FY2027 General Fund budget is $174,136,893, which is $12.1 million or 7.5% higher than the FY2026 adopted General Fund budget. Property tax revenue is projected to be $81,566,380. 

Administration of Sister City programs

The remaining action item on the evening agenda was a resolution to recognize Sister City Programs of Gainesville, Inc., doing business as Greater Gainesville International Center (GGIC), as the official organization administering international exchange programs on behalf of the City of Gainesville, effective immediately.

As former Mayor Lauren Poe, the President and CEO of GGIC, came forward, Ward said he doesn’t have the capacity or experience to manage the City’s Sister City programs, “but the Greater Gainesville International Center does a terrific job of administering that on our behalf, and they have asked that we formalize that, and I think that makes all the sense in the world.”

Poe said the impetus for the resolution arose from an increasing “frequency and depth of our activities with our Sister Cities… in the past few years, and the other is the legislation that was passed, when it became apparent that we needed a little bit more transparency and accountability for the City Commission to make sure that — you know, whether it’s Tallahassee or folks in Washington that are curious about what we’re doing, we’re able to quickly and accurately reflect the work that’s happening.”

The resolution requires GGIC to issue an annual report on its activities, and Poe said he plans to issue quarterly updates. 

Poe continued, “I want to remind you all… that we are not politically or religiously affiliated… We work with people all around the world… We want to build relationships, we want to build positive interactions, and we want to show that people can work together, no matter what… We really do have an outstanding history and an incredible opportunity ahead of us, and I think that this resolution will just help us do that even more effectively.”

The agenda backup states that the resolution has no fiscal impact, but it also authorizes the City Manager to identify resources available to support GGIC’s work on behalf of the City.

The motion to adopt the resolution passed unanimously.