Gainesville City Commission votes for 0.3-mill property tax rate increase, freezes positions to reduce budget

BY JENNIFER CABRERA

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – At the August 14 General Policy Committee meeting, the City Commission voted to increase the property tax rate by 0.3 mills (a 4.7% increase from the current rate and 12.27% more than the rolled-back rate), eliminated eight positions, and “froze and unbudgeted” about 26 positions.

Interim City Manager discussion to be held on August 28

At the beginning of the meeting, Mayor Harvey Ward discussed the recent resignation of City Manager Cynthia Curry, effective in November, and said he would like to discuss appointing an interim at the August 28 General Policy Committee meeting. A motion to do that passed unanimously.

Curry said the latest property values show that increasing the property tax rate by 0.4615 mills would generate $5.3 million more than the amount generated by staying at the current rate of 6.4297. Curry also said the City has an excess fund balance (reserves) of $17.2 million, which she referred to as a budget stabilization fund. The City Commission previously approved using about $4 million of that for specific purchases, and Curry said she would be recommending that they allocate another $2 million for the new IT department and $965k for police and fire rescue radios, leaving a budget stabilization amount close to $9 million. She said the budget gap is currently about $8.7 million. 

Curry said staff had come up with three scenarios to balance the budget, which can be found on slides 11-13 of the presentation. She said staff had also come up with a fourth scenario that didn’t use any reserves. 

The first scenario maintains the maximum property tax rate set on July 17 of 6.8912 mills, decreases expenditures, and uses funds from the budget stabilization fund to make up the gap. This would cost an additional $69.22 for the owner of a homesteaded property valued at $200k, and a non-homesteaded owner of the same property would see an increase of $92.30. This scenario eliminated eight positions and freezes one position, and it reduces fleet fixed payments by 25%, with the remaining gap of $1.1 million coming from the budget stabilization fund. 

The eight positions, which will be referred to throughout this article, were eliminated because GRU is no longer using or paying for services from various City departments. The positions were cut from the City Attorney’s Office, the Office of Equity & Inclusion, the Department of Financial Services, and Human Resources and are projected to save $682,082. The frozen position is in the City Auditor’s office and will save $112,027.

The second scenario sets the property tax rate at 0.25 mills higher than the current rate (6.6797 mills), decreases expenditures, and uses funds from the budget stabilization fund to make up the gap. This would cost an additional $37.50 for the owner of a homesteaded property valued at $200k, and a non-homesteaded owner of the same property would see an increase of $50. This scenario eliminates eight positions and freezes one position, reduces fleet fixed payments by 25%, reduces police and fire overtime expenses by 50%, reduces funding to outside agencies by 50%, and makes up the remaining gap of $1.8 million from the budget stabilization fund. 

The third scenario keeps the property tax rate at 6.4297 mills, decreases expenditures, and uses funds from the budget stabilization fund to make up the gap. This scenario eliminates eight positions and freezes one position, reduces fleet fixed payments by 50%, freezes nine vacant positions in GPD, reduces funding to outside agencies by 50%, and makes up the remaining gap of $2.5 million from the budget stabilization fund. Although property taxes will increase with the value of properties under this scenario, the increase in a property’s value is limited to 3% for homesteaded properties.

The fourth scenario leaves the property tax millage flat at 6.4297 mills, eliminates the same eight positions and freezes one position, reduces fleet fixed payments by 50%, eliminates all police and fire overtime expenses, eliminates all funding to outside agencies, and eliminates an additional 19.75 positions. This scenario leaves a gap of only $69k, so no budget stabilization funds would be used.

Curry said the advantage of the fourth scenario is that it cuts into the operational budgets “so that in ensuing years, we are in a better position, unfortunately, having made the cuts now, rather than having to make them in the future.”

Eastman: “I think this is a year where we need to make the decisions that put us into a stable position.”

Commissioner Bryan Eastman said he didn’t want to get into a pattern of taking money from reserves every year: “We’re constantly having this conversation, year over year over year, and I think this is a year where we need to make the decisions that put us into a stable position.” He pointed out that “eventually we’re going to have to true up the overtime” for police and fire and the cuts to outside agencies “means mostly GRACE Marketplace. So that is something that would be a tremendous hit to our homeless community; it would eliminate our support of homelessness within the city.” He concluded, “I think we’re on a precipice here, but I’m just encouraging everyone to think five years, 10 years down the road.”

In response to a question from Commissioner Casey Willits, Chief of Staff Cintya Ramos said the fleet fixed payments are the funds set aside every year to replace vehicles in the future.

Ingle: “[I’m] hesitant to make big cuts and systematic changes when we’ve got as big a question mark as GRU hanging out there.”

Commissioner James Ingle said he was “hesitant to make big cuts and systematic changes when we’ve got as big a question mark as GRU hanging out there.” He asked City Attorney Dan Nee whether the City would have a final answer on GRU sometime next year. Nee said, “I would expect the current appeal to run its course by late spring, early summer, of next year, but as you know, the legislature meets every year.”

Ward: “I would like to fund police, going forward, as much as we can… [If we cut funding to GRACE], we are going to see more folks sleeping downtown and in other places… [The property tax increases] amount to $5 to $10 per month, per homeowner,… to maintain some pretty great services.”

Ward said he didn’t want to cut overtime hours for police and fire because the City would end up paying for them, anyway, “and I’d rather be honest about it going in.” He didn’t want to freeze the nine police positions: “I would like to fund police, going forward, as much as we can, to a level, and then say, ‘This is our level.'” He said the City has “essentially outsourced homeless services… to GRACE Marketplace… If we cut that, we are going to see more folks sleeping downtown and in other places, putting tents up in a variety of places. Those people don’t disappear because we stopped paying for services.” He said the increases “amount to $5 to $10 per month, per homeowner… I don’t think that’s a bad trade-off… That’s what we’re considering here, maybe even less, to maintain some pretty great services.”

Chief Moya: 18 police officers for the entire city “on a great night”

Gainesville Police Department Chief Nelson Moya said GPD had 289 sworn officers in 2020, and there are only 280 positions now. He said the crowds who often go downtown on weekends to “hang out and cause chaos” are leading to an overall decrease in policing because they have 17-18 officers “on a great night,” which are all sent downtown if something starts to happen, which “vacates everywhere else.” He said there have been two occasions when an officer’s body camera shows them patrolling in crowds when a shooting happens in front of them: “Now I’m truly concerned about the safety and well-being of my staff, that I already know is outnumbered, that I already know, on a great night, is 18 for the entire city.” He said if he brings in additional officers, that increases the overtime costs. 

Moya said, “What I’m telling this Commission is that, if I don’t create a footprint downtown, God forbid, but we are on borrowed time for something to happen to one of mine, and that I can’t stand for.”

Moya said GPD has reduced overtime by 50% compared to last year “because of better management,” but they still have to call people in to work overtime when a shift falls below the minimum staffing (16 officers, one per zone). He said the overtime request in the budget is his “bare minimum.”

Moya: Goal is 20-21 officers per shift

Moya said GPD currently has 94 patrol officers, and his goal is 108, which would put 20-21 officers on a shift, “much better than we have now.” He said he has officers in the pipeline to become fully staffed by the end of October, and the nine frozen positions are necessary to get staffing back to “where we once were… We’re not even where we were in 2020, in terms of our allocated numbers.” He said he currently has four openings for School Resource Officers, and those schools are currently being staffed using overtime. He said anybody new goes to patrol, not to positions like School Resource Officers, because patrol is “at their bare minimum.”

Commissioner Ed Book said GPD had about 300 allocated positions in 2011 and 317 positions in 2017, but only has 280 now, although the city’s population has grown. The department also used to have a downtown unit with horses and shared a joint aviation unit with the Sheriff’s Office.

Book: It’s “smart and fiscally accountable” to budget for overtime and fleet replacement

Book said he didn’t support reducing overtime or fleet expenses “because it saves us no money; it’s just how we budget.” He said it was smart and fiscally accountable to put those things in the budget because they would be spent, anyway. He said he would like to make a motion (but didn’t make a motion) to use about a third of the budget stabilization fund, a little over $3 million, which “allows us to… fund RTS, reduce our allocations by what’s on these scenarios, and it allows us to reduce the millage increase, perhaps, by a little bit.” He supported reducing aid to outside agencies by 25%, reducing fleet expenses by 25%, and increasing the property tax rate by 0.2 mills to 6.6297. He said his motion made up a third of the deficit ($9.2 million if the City Commission decides to allocate $500k to restore bus routes on top of the $8.7 million gap) from each of the budget stabilization fund, a property tax increase, and expenditure reductions. 

Eastman said they couldn’t just defer expenses to subsequent years but must have some annual expenditure reductions, and one of them should be the reduction in 19.75 positions: “That’s a true expenditure reduction.”

Ingle: “We are going to have more officers on the street next year than we’ve got this year… without unfreezing [the nine positions].”

Regarding the police positions, Ingle said, “We unfroze 11 this year. We are going to have more officers on the street next year than we’ve got this year… without unfreezing [the nine positions]. And, for the hole we’re looking at, to spend a million and a half dollars so that we can have nine more when we can’t even fill the ones we’ve got, I think that’s irresponsible.”

Ward: “[RTS] probably ought to be its own thing, which would allow it to be a taxing unit separate from the City of Gainesville.”

Ward said, “I don’t think our current model of funding RTS is sustainable; I just don’t think that’s how it works. It is uncommon to do it the way we do it… I’ve said many times that I really love that the City of Gainesville operates a transit system — and a very good transit system, I’m proud of that — but it probably shouldn’t be operated by the City of Gainesville. It probably ought to be its own thing, which would allow it to be a taxing unit separate from the City of Gainesville… I think there are other ways to approach that… I think it’s time to really honestly approach that.” He said, however, that would not change anything for the current budget cycle.

Ward said he would not vote for a budget that cut aid to outside agencies “by even 25%” because there would be “more tents popping up… If we spend less, we’re going to get even worse service… I don’t think that’s the path to getting better as a community.” 

Ward said he supported unfreezing the police officer positions and was “comfortable with a variety of levels of increasing the millage.” He thought there were probably five votes for a quarter-mill increase. He supported funding police and fire overtime but thought they could cut fleet replacement by 50%. He said that in the “not too distant future,” the City could offer fewer services to the University of Florida: “That is a conversation that we ought to be having… What I’m trying to say is, there are other revenue models out there that are not out of the realm of possibility, and I don’t want us to cut off our nose to spite our face in this current year’s model.” He added that some employees might leave the City if other positions aren’t filled because they don’t want to keep doing the job that was eliminated, on top of the responsibilities they agreed to when they took their job. 

Ward does not support cutting funds for GRACE “at all. That’s off the table for me.”

Willits said he didn’t want to cut GRACE “at all. That’s off the table for me.” He also said he thought they should take about a million dollars out of the budget stabilization fund but not the $3 million that Book had proposed; he said he could be convinced to take $1.8 million if it saved bus routes. 

Book said he wanted to make a motion, but after he had spent several minutes talking about the amount available in the budget stabilization fund, Curry asked for a break so she and her staff could bring back additional scenarios, based on the discussion.

Two more scenarios

After the break, Curry added two more scenarios. The fifth scenario increases the property tax rate by 0.25 mills and includes cutting the same eight positions and freezing one; it reduces fleet fixed payments by 25%, continues to freeze the nine police officer positions, eliminates 19.75 additional positions, restores four bus routes (5,8, 15, and 43), and uses $1.6 million from the budget stabilization fund.

The sixth scenario increases the property tax rate by 0.3 mills, cuts the eight positions and freezes one, reduces fleet fixed payments by 50%, eliminates the 19.75 additional positions, restores the four bus routes, and uses a little over a million dollars from the budget stabilization fund.

Curry: City will have to reduce positions “either now or in the near future”

Curry encouraged them to use as little of the budget stabilization fund as possible: “The future is uncertain. We just really need to kind of hang on to as much of it as we can.” She said the reductions in positions would “stunt operations, [but] the whole issue there is, it’s either now or in the near future.”

First motion

Ingle made a motion to adopt the sixth scenario but replace the elimination of 19.75 positions with the freezing of nine police officers, “which are roughly equivalent.” Willits seconded the motion.

Eastman said that freezing positions would just be a “band-aid” and added, “We need to eliminate — we need to do annual reductions” like eliminating the 19.75 positions. He concluded, “My number one thing is that I want to make sure that we’re not right back here,… having the same discussions next year.” He said he supported the sixth scenario as it had been presented by staff, not Ingle’s changes.

Willits said he didn’t want to eliminate the 19.75 positions without hearing from the Charter Officers, particularly the Director of the Office of Equity and Inclusion, Zeriah Folston; someone later said Folston was away at a conference. Willits said they could unfreeze the police officer positions later in the budget year, using budget stabilization funds, if all the vacancies are filled and there are people in the pipeline for the nine positions. 

Ward said the number of eliminated positions did not need to be nailed down during that meeting because the most important thing was to get five votes for a specific property tax rate.

Book and Duncan-Walker: 0.3-mill increase is too much

Book said he thought a 0.3 mill increase was too much, and “I feel like we need to do as much as we can with all the other levers to reduce the impact,… so we do have to cut positions.” However, he wanted to preserve core services, which he defined as “public safety and roads and infrastructure — and I love Parks and Recreation in there, because that is an absolute core service.” He favored using “slightly more budget stabilization monies.”

Commissioner Desmon Duncan-Walker was concerned about raising the millage that much because the City Commission has also been discussing issuing a general obligation bond (which would require approval by voters) that would increase property taxes by another half mill or so. She also did not want to freeze the police officer positions because “we’ve made some pretty significant gains in public safety, and I am very, very afraid to do anything that might hamper our opportunity to keep those gains moving forward.”

Curry: “I really did not want to put the nine police officers on the menu at all, but as I met with you all individually, it was clear that it was something that needed to be placed on there… I support Chief Moya and his efforts at the department… That’s just my opinion, but I do believe that this is not taking us in the right direction by reducing those positions.”

Curry said there were more options for cutting funding in the backup documents, and “I really did not want to put the nine police officers on the menu at all, but as I met with you all individually, it was clear that it was something that needed to be placed on there, because there was a need for discussion here at the dais. I support Chief Moya and his efforts at the department. He has been very compliant when we have gone to him and asked him about the reductions and the impact of the reductions… I don’t support [the freezes] because I’m in the office on a daily basis, I’m calling his staff, I’m calling him to respond to downtown, to respond across the city… When we start to hamper his ability here — I’m concerned that this is really not the right one, as Manager. That’s just my opinion, but I do believe that this is not taking us in the right direction by reducing those positions.”

Ingle said, “I just want to make clear that I hear both Chief Moya and the City Manager; I don’t want to make these decisions, either. We’re in a bad spot, mostly because GRU won’t pay their bills.” He said that filling the 28 vacant positions at GPD would put more patrol officers on the streets, and “I realize we’d like nine more and bump back up from 28 to 37, but with the budget constraints we’ve got,… I feel like we’re still making progress… It’s just very hard for me to justify putting another million and a half dollars towards that right now.”

Ward asked whether Ingle would be okay with splitting the motion between the revenue side and the expenditure side, “knowing that we also have to make a decision about the expenditure side, but at least we’ll know what the revenue piece is, if we do that.”

Second motion (split of the first motion)

Ward asked for a vote on a motion to increase the property tax rate by 0.3 mills, which would be 6.7297 mills, a 4.7% increase from the current rate and 12.27% more than the rolled-back rate of 5.9944 mills. Ramos said that would be an additional $45 per year for a homesteaded property valued at $200,000.

The motion passed 6-1, with Duncan-Walker in dissent.

Third motion 

Ward next called for a vote on Ingle’s expenditure motion that started with the sixth scenario but kept the 19.75 positions and froze the nine police officer positions. 

The motion failed 3-4, with Chestnut, Ingle, and Willits voting in favor of the motion.

Fourth motion

Book made a motion to adopt the sixth scenario but reduce fleet fixed payments by 25% instead of 50% and retain the 19.75 positions, with the additional revenue taken from the budget stabilization fund. Book said the amount from the budget stabilization fund would probably be “in the neighborhood of $3.1 million,” but Curry advised the Commission against doing math on the dais. The sixth scenario would also unfreeze the nine police officer positions. Duncan-Walker seconded the motion.

Ingle: “We’re not reducing long-term expenses by anything and spending $3 million in fund balance to make up for it, and that seems like a lot.”

Ingle said he was uncomfortable using so much of the budget stabilization fund “for long-term or for repeating costs, because we’re actually adding on nine more officers and keeping all the other [positions]; we’re not reducing long-term expenses by anything and spending $3 million in fund balance to make up for it, and that seems like a lot.”

Eastman: “If [the rest of the Commission is] not comfortable with [raising taxes], then we need to cut annual expenditures,… but saying we don’t want to do any of it is, I think, just kicking the can down the road.”

Eastman said that if they want to keep the 19.75 positions and increase the fleet fixed payments, they should increase the property tax rate instead of dipping further into the budget stabilization fund: “I am comfortable raising taxes to keep our employees… If [the rest of the Commission is] not comfortable with that, then we need to cut annual expenditures,… or we can raise taxes, but saying we don’t want to do any of it is, I think, just kicking the can down the road.”

Curry said this would be “a much more difficult discussion next year… because you’re going to have costs building and building and building.”

Ward said he thought they needed to pick either unfreezing the police officer positions or retaining the 19.75 other positions, but he didn’t think there would be enough votes to do both. Book said he would remove retaining the 19.75 additional positions from his motion “and allow the City Manager to figure out exactly what might be the most appropriate.”

Duncan-Walker, the seconder of Book’s motion, said she was “really struggling” and would be “much more comfortable with doing what I didn’t want to do originally, which was leaving the police officers frozen, because it’s something you can come back to. I don’t like eliminating these 19… That’s a major thing for me… I can’t get behind letting 19 [people] go.” Ward reminded her that all of those positions are unfilled. 

Curry said Commissioners could also freeze the 19.75 additional positions instead of eliminating them.

Willits said he would vote no on the motion but could vote yes if they froze the 19.75 positions instead of eliminating them. Ward also said he could vote for the motion if the positions were frozen instead of eliminated.

Book agreed to change the motion to freeze the 19.75 positions instead of eliminating them, and Duncan-Walker agreed. 

The motion failed 3-4, with Book, Duncan-Walker, and Ward in support.

Fifth motion

Ingle made a motion to adopt the sixth scenario with a 25% reduction in fixed fleet expenses but freezing all of the positions — both the police officer positions and the 19.75 additional positions. Eastman seconded the motion but said he would rather freeze only five police officer positions; after some discussion, Ingle decided against making that change to the motion.

After more discussion, though, Ingle agreed to change the motion to “freeze and unbudget 19.75 FTEs and freeze and unbudget five police officer positions.” Eastman, as the seconder, agreed with the new motion.

The motion passed, 4-3, with Book, Chestnut, and Duncan-Walker in dissent.

Ward said that although that passed, the budget would have to pass with five votes, not four. He added an agenda item in the evening portion of the August 21 meeting for staff to bring back the actual budget numbers resulting from the decisions made by the Commission.

Ingle said he hoped the City Manager would look at the 19.75 positions again and see how long they had been vacant: “It may make more sense to not worry about” positions that have been vacant for “a year or a year and a half.”

Ward said, “I want to be super clear: I’m a New Dealer. I would hire everybody if it were up to me, but we don’t have the budget available to do that.”