“Motion carries, dreadfully”: County Commission repeals landlord program on first reading, unanimously approves budget
BY JENNIFER CABRERA
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – At their September 12 meeting, the Alachua County Commission voted to repeal their Residential Rental Unit Permit program and unanimously approved their property tax rates, budget, and assessments for the 2023-24 fiscal year, both on first reading.
Residential Rental Unit Permit Program
Chair Anna Prizzia led off by saying, “I’m not happy about [this agenda] item. It’s just one of those things we have to do.”
Assistant County Manager Missy Daniels reminded the board that “at the prior meeting in August, you also gave us direction to look into other creative solutions to get to some of these ends, as well. We’re not going to discuss that today; we’re going to bring that back to you, probably at a policy meeting.” She said the City of Gainesville is also looking into “ways they can continue this type of, you know, maintaining the housing stock, the energy efficiency standards, and of course, the minimum housing.”
She said the County will continue to enforce the minimum housing standards in their code on a complaint basis and that they are already working on refunding the landlords that had already paid for permits.
Commission Ken Cornell made a motion to approve the ordinance repealing the program, and Commissioner Marihelen Wheeler seconded the motion.
Commissioner Mary Alford favored finding a way to require landlords to register so the County could maintain a list of landlords. Daniels agreed to look at that.
Prizzia wanted to go ahead and put the discussion of replacement programs on their calendar in October because “I know this is of interest to many of our advocacy organizations who worked really hard, the Labor Coalition being one of them. I know that also the unions worked hard on this, and I know that there’s a lot of interest in that meeting.”
Prizzia: “They’re bringing back creative solutions”
Cornell asked for clarification about the topic of that discussion, and Prizzia responded, “They’re bringing back creative solutions for things that we can do proactively to still support minimum housing standards and sort of looking at creative solutions to still do some of the work we were planning to do with this inspection program, given the statutes.”
Cornell said he probably would not be in favor of keeping a list of landlords “because that can change periodically. I don’t know why we would do that.”
Daniels suggested scheduling the meeting for November to give her a chance to talk about “our creative solutions” with the Labor Coalition and other organizations.
Public comment: “Ready to help you guys come up with creative solutions”
During public comment, Bobby Murmur from the Alachua County Labor Coalition said he knew the board would vote to repeal the ordinance: “I understand, and we understand at the Labor Coalition why you’ve got to do it… [We’re] here ready to help you guys come up with creative solutions to replace this ordinance.” He said there are ways to “save big chunks of this law” and that Florida statutes allow local governments to have building codes that are more stringent than Florida’s building code: “And you can charge fees for those inspections, so long as those fees only go to fund the inspections themselves. So there is a funding source for what we will be bringing before you.”
Chestnut: “We see what happens when you put people in office who don’t have our ideas and our beliefs”
Following public comment, Commissioner Chuck Chestnut said, “You know, it’s important who we elect to offices, even state-wide, senate-wide, I mean, it’s very, very important. Because when you get people in the legislature who look out for special interests–that bothers me a whole, whole lot–and do a lot of this preemption stuff that’s not necessary, in my opinion. But I think that voters have to start becoming more educated and more concerned about who they’re putting in office. And I think that that’s the most important part, in terms of education of our voters, it has to be, to let them know what these people are doing to our country and to our rights. I mean, really, let’s get real. And so, you know, we have [an] election coming up in a year. So, I mean, we have to get more and more involved and active in terms of who we put in office because we see what happens when you put people in office who don’t have our ideas and our beliefs.”
Prizzia said she was “just at a conference [and one of the] major topics was preemption and… how, across the board, particularly in conservative states, this is really becoming a major, major issue.” She said they talked about “how to educate the public on [home rule], something that’s kind of wonky and difficult to understand, but really critical to them maintaining their rights and the value of where they live and why they stay in and participate in Alachua County.”
The motion passed unanimously, with Prizzia pronouncing, “Motion carries, dreadfully.”
Budget
During the evening session, the board unanimously passed a property tax rate of 7.6414 mills, a decrease from last year’s 7.7662 mills but 7.51% greater than the rolled-back rate of 7.1074 mills. The Municipal Service Taxing Unit (MSTU) law enforcement rate remained flat at 3.5678 mills, an 8.19% increase over the rolled-back rate of 3.2977 mills. The rolled-back rate is the tax rate that would raise the same amount of revenue based only on valuation increases in the same properties that were on the tax rolls last year.
The County’s tentative budget for the 2023-24 fiscal year is $757,036,496, a 7.7% increase over the FY23 approved budget of $703,068,309.
Cornell made a motion to adopt the millage rates, and Alford seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously.
Alford made a motion to approve the tentative County budget, and Cornell seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously.
Chestnut made a motion to approve the MSTU law enforcement millage rate, and Cornell seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously.
Wheeler made a motion to approve the MSTU law enforcement budget, and Cornell and Chestnut seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously.
The second and final budget hearing will be at 5:01 p.m. on September 26.
Fire, stormwater, and solid waste assessments
Cornell made a motion to adopt the recommended fire assessment fee, which will be the same as last year, and Alford seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously.
Chestnut made a motion to adopt the recommended increase in the stormwater assessment ($10 per equivalent residential unit), and Wheeler seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously.
Alford made a motion to adopt the increase in the solid waste assessment rates (the table of rates can be found here), and Wheeler seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously.
Chestnut: “We see what happens when you put people in office who don’t have our ideas and our beliefs”
I agree, and this tax and spend BoCC proves that every time they open their mouth.
I’m starting think Chucknut didn’t graduate high school.
Chestnut’s correct. Some of us do see what happens when the people who are elected have the IQ of a peanut and those voting for them possess even less. No wonder they’re against single member districts.
Single member districts are predicted to result in no black county commissioners.
Not necessarily. That is unless the majority of East Gainesville’s voters are not legally able to vote.
Maybe the current commissioners are worried about having to turn on one another or worse yet, actually having to get out and mingle with the voters they claim to represent.
Wrong. East Gainesville is going to vote Cornell out. Numbers aren’t on his side.
So the BOCC is whining because they can’t run roughshod over the citizens of the county, to install their personal sense of regulations on the populous. Tell us, Mr. Chestnut, why does our government need a list of landlords? How does it benefit anyone, except for the few people in the activist groups demanding more and more of our tax dollars for their purposes. Just like the Dems in Congress want $16 BILLION to continue a nationwide preschool system. BTW, that program would spend $50,000 per student, per year.
Santa and Putin need lists.
Which one is Chestnut trying to emulate?
Seriously, why do they want to put people’s names on lists? Was that some kind of veiled threat against landlords?
Are these people going to be targeted for political retaliation, the same way the Gainesville City Commission retaliated against taxpayers for taking away their precious 100% raise?
Are they planning to send protestors and pallets of bricks outside the properties of listed landlords, for the crime of owning private property in the glorious People’s Republic of Gainesville? Will there be public struggle sessions?
Do these lowly, paper-pushing county commissioners think they are the mafia now?
Missy Daniels said the City of Gainesville is also looking into “ways they can continue this type of, you know, maintaining the housing stock, the energy efficiency standards, and of course, the minimum housing.” ~ What she meant to say is that the City of Gainesville is continuing to look into ways of increasing the homeless population, ignore the crime, siphon off GRU revenues and rape the residents.
Here’s $oci@li$m speak at it’s finest, “Bobby Murmur from the Alachua County Labor Coalition said, “I understand, and we understand at the Labor Coalition why you’ve got to do it… [We’re] here ready to help you guys come up with creative solutions to replace this ordinance.” He said there are ways to “save big chunks of this law” and that Florida statutes allow local governments to have building codes that are more stringent than Florida’s building code: “And you can charge fees for those inspections, so long as those fees only go to fund the inspections themselves. So there is a funding source for what we will be bringing before you.”
Hope you Democrats are still happy with having a voter intelligence deficiency.
Sounds like Bobby Murmur is proposing a shakedown.
Property owners that don’t pay protection will be selectively targeted for unending and financially devastating inspections, conducted by the family members and political donors of the local government.
I am trying to connect what in the world Unions have to do with the landlords programs? What is Chucknutt rambling about?
If a labor coalition is willing to help, rest assured they will get a cut of the fees.
Chestnut amazingly is too ignorant to realize he should keep those thoughts we have about him and his cohorts to himself. It makes him look like he should relegate himself to digging holes for those he’s burying instead of pretending to represent the community.
Vote them all out of office!
I completely agree, however that seems to be much easier said than done here in Gainesville. I really wish I knew what it would take to motivate the vast majority to go to the polls instead of just thinking that someone else is going to take care of this problem. Are people really this lazy???
The majority does vote, particularly in presidential election years, and the majority elect these commissioners. The commenters here are in the minority when it comes to support of the Commission.
I get a chuckle every time I read the comments of “Chuckie Chestnut”. He is the male version of Kamala Harris, not very bright. His IQ seems to be that of a potato. How did this guy get elected?
A. The majority of the local electorate are progressive Democrats.
B. The people who vote for them aren’t that intelligent.
C. Most of the people who vote for these people like being bound to the government.
D. All of the above.
Final answer – D. All of the above.
You forgot to add apathy of the majority.
Don’t think that’s it considering approximately 2/3 of the voters in Alachua County are registered Democrats.
The labor coalition is a bunch of F’n
Communists…all they are doing is making rents go up…everything you do to aggravate the landlord gets past on to the tenants…
Labor coalition are our local Antifa based at the Civic Media Center. Who can buy out their landlord for us?
It is hard to think of a group whose positions have done more to harm the cause of affordable housing than the Civic Media bunch.
They keep listening to the same special interests (Labor commies) who made housing less affordable in the first place.
? Want to explain that? I build houses and I have no idea what you are talking about.
You supposed high IQ commenters – look up the average educational level of Trump voters, and the least informed consumers of news (hint: starts with an F, ends with an X) – apparently don’t even understand what Chesnut and Prizza were complaining about, or at least haven’t addressed it. The preemption of local autonomy by state legislatures is not a fantasy and Florida is doing it in spades, going so far as to open the gates for law suits against local governments for actions deemed to have cost someone money, while expressly making it impossible to do the same for state actions. Other bills restrict what local governments can do while maintaining power in Tallahassee. I’m sure with the GOP in power in Tally, most of you approve, however, you might consider the principle of local autonomy and how you’ll like it if power shifts parties in the future. The idea that the GOP is the party of small government is no longer true. You guys own that?
How smart do you think Biden voters are, given the results? Are you willing to double-down and risk sending little Johnny or Janie (son, daughter, grandson, granddaughter, nephew, niece, etc.) off to war in two or three more years? I can’t believe anyone with half a brain is still calling Trump supporters stupid or somehow less-intelligent. Look around you.
Get real…both parties are full of idiots and opportunist. Y’all are both on a plantation and always fight over which slaver is the better slaver.
I own the fact that locally elected officials aren’t doing much, if anything, to help the residents they claim to represent. The knuckleheads who keep voting for them and expecting them to change their stripes is symbolic of the low IQs of those who keep voting for them and their failed policies. Tired of the “my mom & dad and their parents were Democrats so I have to be.”
Then again, perhaps it’s more indicative of their low expectations of others within the community.
For this to be such a highly educated community, one would have thought they would have figured that out before but it’s been 20 years now. Don’t catch on very quickly do they?
It’s true, can’t fix stupid and you can’t help those who don’t want to help themselves.
I’m pretty sure either party cares about smaller government.
The real reason housing, and all other, costs have shot up is due to monetary policy at the federal level. Since the beginning of 2020 around 80% of all US dollars have been created or printed. Thank Trump, Biden and both parties in congress for the massive inflation and destruction of the dollar. This shouldn’t be a partisan issue…the blame should be spread across both political parties, aka the uniparty. (And yes, what the county wants to do will only raise costs even more.)
Investors don’t have confidence in the economy because of who is in charge. It’s that simple. Opening the borders and closing the pipelines have consequences. We’re going to need to print a lot more money to clothe, house, and feed all of our “new neighbors.” When gas costs more, everything costs more. I realize you are stuck at the “there’s plenty of blame to go around” level and don’t want to deal with reality. But maybe someone else can benefit from seeing your ignorant statements discredited.
1. Investor confidence has nothing to do with the value of money. However, interest rates and the sheer quantity of money does (aka federal monetary policy). You are confusing fiscal and monetary issues, which are very different.
2. Yea, borders do need to be secured.
3. Domestic oil production does not necessarily have anything to do with pipeline closures…the crude is now just transported via Warren Buffets rail lines as a political favor. Domestic crude production is not currently down:
https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=WCRFPUS2&f=W
4. Go smoke a joint before your blood vessels explode with anger
Investor confidence has everything to do with the economy, which has everything to do with the value of the dollar and inflation. The dollar would be worth a lot more if being backed by the full faith and credit of the United States government actually meant something. Nowadays, the dollar represents a criminal clown show. It’s no wonder the Saudis and plenty of others have already jumped ship from the clown show. Chairman Xie doesn’t even want to waste his time trying to meet with Biden. Do you think that is hurting or helping the dollar and inflation? Do people want to invest in a failing system run by morons and imbeciles?
It sounds like you are suggesting the Money Supply is 80 percent higher now than in 2020? That’s obviously not correct. I do not claim to recall everything I learned, but I have studied business and know enough to recognize a bunch of BS when I hear it or read it.
If someone’s blood vessels were about to explode, THC would probably increase their heart rate and blood pressure, making the situation worse (if you are going to continue dispensing medical advice online). In any case, my cardiovascular system is not in question. And I am not angry about the bad orange man, which is most of you guys. Are we projecting again? Perhaps a Bud Light would make you less hateful and always wanting to pretend you are a victim of the system. “Democrat or Republican, I am still their slave!!!” — that’s what I’m hearing from you.
I don’t mean to be rude, but you have no idea what you are taking about. Actually, that many usable dollars have been ‘created’ in the past few years. This is most commonly measured by what is known as the M1 money supply. In addition to what was ‘printed’ by Trump and Biden, the Trump administration allowed the reclassification (‘created’) of other assets in to M1 money supply to make corporations & banks more liquid. So when I say ‘printed or created’ it is a very accurate statement.
What have I ever said to make you think I identify as a victim…that’s makes me laugh. I just really enjoy calling out the blinded left and right wingers, including you. Now go fight those pipeline closures
Consider how uninformed or unthinking is the average person. Now, by definition, half of people are even more uninformed or unthinking than that. Why would informed, thoughtful people abrogate important decisions affecting their personal lives to the uninformed and unthinking? That, my friends, is why democracies fail. And that’s why our Constitution guarantees a republican form of government and supplies a Bill of Rights. Our “leaders” fail to grasp the difference between public and private. We agreed to have them manage public properties. They assumed such delegated authority extends over your private property as well. They’re wrong.
More of the same…..”dreadful” leadership.
The arrogance and total lack of self-awareness of Alachua County Commissioner Anna Prizzia is really off the charts.
Yes, the sophomoric policies of leftists like Prizzia are facing real challenges in conservative states **because those policies do not reflect the actual will of the people of those states**. The blue blob in a red sea that is Alachua County doesn’t even represent the majority of county citizens, much less the state.
Citizens aren’t resisting because they are “not educated” on the concept of home rule, they are resisting because they see how these unwanted policies–many transparently handed down to our local puppets from the national party leaders–are ruining the lives, homes, and communities that taxpayers have worked so hard to build.
These ill-conceived “woke” policies are so blatantly impractical and harmful that we are willing to give up some of our local rule to the state government. Our local leaders are failures–shameful, tone-deaf failures–and have been failing us at an accelerating pace for decades.
No one is moving to or staying in Alachua County because of Anna Prizzia or any of her woke interchangeable clones on the Alachua County Commission. We stay here in spite of the incompetence, greed, and malice of our local politicians. I will continue to vote no matter how pointless it might seem, and hopefully one day all these bums will be voted out of office.
Dad, despite your obvious delusions, you do not represent some silent majority in Alachua County. It has been blue in every presidential election since forever and went 63-36 for Biden in 2020. Given his progress in keeping us out recession, increasing US manufacturing, passing infrastructure improvements, which both parties have promised, and strengthening NATO while restoring international respect for the US, that was a wise choice.
It’s not anything he’s doing that is “keeping us out of a recession.”
Keep smoking the DEC wackie weed. Meanwhile, our state government is stalling most of the Alachua local agenda. #winning
Do you think it’s going to go 63-36 for Biden again, Jazzman? Are people going to be willing to send junior off to die in President Biden’s inevitable war? Can they afford four more years? Most people are hoping they can make it through the next year. Of course Biden has brought great shame to the US. If you were more of a real American (or just a real man), you might understand that. You sound REALLY out-of-touch claiming that Biden deserves some ‘credit’ for the economy.
Probably not Mr Peabody, because most Americans experience the inflation without understanding it’s across the developed world and we are relatively better off than most. But I’m sure Alachua County will vote blue again.
As to what makes you feel like a real man, I don’t rely on politics for that. I have a good life, a good wife, good grown kids, grandkids, and at my advanced age can still cut firewood and play some limited sports. If you get off one some fat pu..y orange Richie Rich talking tough and doing nothing, while stabbing supporters in the back who are no longer of use to him, that’s your problem and I pity you.
This jazzman makes me smile! Got some fire in the belly tonight! (Although not all currencies are experiencing inflation now..it’s mainly the ones pegged to the US dollar..which is probably the majority worldwide, but not all by any means)
The crowds love Trump, and he’s been giving some great campaign speeches lately (some of his best ever). When will Biden begin his campaign? Will anyone show up to see him?
Obviously, the US is a large part of the global economy, probably the largest part. If we have Joe crashing the economy into the walls over and over again, that will affect the rest of the world and cause increased inflation.
The last time Alachua went for a Republican was the Regan landslide. Before that it was Eisenhower.
So, you pretty much have to liberate Europe to get that vote in Alachua County.
Jazz, you gotta admit that the tens of thousands of college students (who are not truly Alachua co residents) have huge sway in our local elections. These young, dumb and full of…rum kids really muck up our local political system. That is to say that our local political system is really not that representative of its actual, long term citizens.
Now go back to copying and pasting your approved party line talking points. You and Mr Peahead fight it out over whose party is more better-er
You made the claim Slice, now give us the stats. I don’t think that enough UF students who don’t actually live here for an extended period as grad students – and are as legitimate voters as any other residents here for multiple years but not forever – vote to make the difference. Unfortunately for the Democrats, the young don’t turn out very well.
Slice, if you can provide anything of substance on occasion I don’t care where you get it. You want me to apologize for being well read and doing necessary research?
UF students are not dumb (like you sound), and many of the current generation lean more conservative. They are old enough to remember Trump and want him back. Most I’ve talked to hate the current state of Gainesville, with drug addicted hobos staggering around in front of every business, asking them for money and acting belligerent.