Campbell, Outlaw, and McNeil opened the meeting by discussing how they are addressing Tallahassee’s crime rate.

“We are working across disciplines, across law enforcement partnerships, across state lines to do what we can to drive down crime in this community,” McNeil said.

“We can’t arrest our way out of the problem,” Outlaw added. He said law enforcement is working with social agencies to prevent crime by helping people develop values.

The first question for the panel was how to prevent crime. Outlaw said crime trends are decreasing, but he said citizens should pay attention to their neighborhoods and lock their doors.

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“It’s surprising the amount of burglaries, auto burglaries, that we have just based on people leaving their cars unlocked, and they’re getting wallets, they’re getting laptops, they’re getting firearms,” he said.

Campbell, Outlaw, and McNeil were then asked about the details of the proposed Syringe Exchange Program in Leon County. The basis of the program is exchanging drug users’ contaminated needles with new, sterile needles.

Campbell said the program will not grant participants immunity from legal problems. McNeil added that he does not believe the program will lower crime rates, but it will help prevent infectious diseases from spreading.

The next question addressed why Campbell’s office is no longer prosecuting certain marijuana cases.

Campbell said the decision came from a cost-benefit analysis, noting that distinguishing between lawful hemp and illegal marijuana is expensive and requires lab work.

“It’s more important for us to be handling the violent crimes,” Campbell said.

Campbell, Outlaw, and McNeil all said they do not support an amendment to legalize marijuana.

The meeting concluded with a discussion on the Tallahassee homeless rate and the intersection of mental illness and criminality.

“The criminal justice system is an inappropriate mental health facility,” Campbell said. He noted that mental health counseling is frequently being carried out by law enforcement officials.

“It’s not our responsibility to be a mental health provider,” McNeil said.

He added that 34 percent of incarcerated people in the community suffer from mental health problems, and there needs to be a system in place for handling them.

McNeil said law enforcement officials will continue discussing a solution for the issue in the future.

For the last two consecutive years it’s received a D grade from the Florida Department of Education (FLDOE), but its new principal, Delshuana Jackson, is confident she can turn it around and guide it to safer waters.

Jackson has a record of success and believes her experience can benefit struggling Bond Elementary. Jackson transferred to Bond from Havana Magnet School in Gadsden County. Like Bond, Havana Magnet is a Title 1 school. Unlike Bond, Havana Magnet received an A this year from FLDOE and was named a National Title I Distinguished School. It was one of only two schools chosen in Florida, and the first school ever in Gadsden County so honored.

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Last year, student achievement scores were very low at Bond, ranking in the bottom 300 of Florida schools, with the percentage of students who received a passing score in English Language Arts at only 23 percent (the lowest in the Leon County School District) and Science at a dismal 19 percent (the second lowest in the district). Math was better at 49 percent.

Only on the job since mid-July, Jackson said there is a lot left to evaluate and may plans to make. She said, though, the teachers seem excited and determined to do whatever it takes to keep Bond from being a D school again next year.

“Many of them (the teachers) are excited,” she said, “but you know, they are dealing with the unknown with me as a new principal.  I’m hopeful that that I’ll be able to build relationships by working alongside them and getting the job done.”

“I have 20 years working with Title 1 schools. We must overcome these scores. I have to be optimistic because, ultimately, I’m the one that guides this ship. We will work with the mindset we are an A school. We will roll up our sleeves and get to work and there is a lot of work to do,” Jackson said.

She also asked that the community continue its support of the school, “It is all hands on deck.”

The plantation, located on the Florida-Georgia border, is available to purchase for $29.6 million, which makes it the most expensive ranch property for sale in the region. The property has long served as a winter retreat for wealthy Northerners who want to hunt quail. The plantation, named Loveridge Plantation, is in the heart of the Red Hills Plantation Belt.

The sale includes 4,500 acres, 1.25 miles of frontage on the 6,000 acre Lake Miccosukee, 14 quail-hunting routes, 10 horses, 49 dogs, and a 5,800-square-foot main house.

Ms. Clarke reports, “The sellers are the grandchildren of George H. Love, a businessman who led Consolidated Coal and Chrysler. He bought the property in 1946 from the wife of late New Jersey Gov. Walter Edge. . . . George Love, one of the five children [selling the home], said they are selling because some members of the family have different interests. They hope to sell the property to someone who will maintain it as a quail-hunting operation and be a good steward of the plantation.”

The listing agent is Elliott Davenport Jr. of Hall and Hall. Hall and Hall states, “Based upon recent years, the annual property taxes for Loveridge are estimated at $44,286. More information can be found at the following link: Hall and Hall.

From the Mayor’s Office twitter account: “The numbers don’t lie, folks! #Tallahassee has the fastest growing #economy per capita in #Florida! ”

From the OEV’s twitter account: “Tallahassee metro area has the fastest growing economy per capita in the state.”

From the City of Tallahassee retreat agenda: “the Tallahassee metropolitan statistical area (MSA) is the fastest growing economy (per capita) in the State of Florida.”

These claims are based on a comparison of the Gross Domestic Product per Capita released by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis for 2016.

The data shows that the GDP per Capita for the Tallahassee Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) is 3.8% and is the highest of all MSA’s in the state of Florida, outpacing the state (0.6%) and national (0.8%) 2016 GDP per Ccapita growth rates.

These numbers mean the economy in Tallahassee grew approximately six times as fast as the Florida economy in 2016.

However, the significant difference in the economic growth rate between Florida and Tallahassee is not consistent when you compare job growth ( Florida: 2.8%, Tallahassee: 2.1%) and taxable sales (Florida: 5.3%, Tallahassee: 4.0%) during 2016.

The “fastest growing” claims, based on 2016 numbers, also come in the face of more recent information that shows Tallahassee is lagging when compared to other cities in the state of Florida in job growth, real estate sales, and consumer spending.

From October 2016 to October 2017, when comparing Florida’s 22 MSA’s, Tallahassee ranks 22nd in job growth, 14th in the growth of single family homes sales, and 13th in retail sales growth.

Based on these facts we did some research and placed a call to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.

This is what we found.

First, the 3.8% growth in the GDP number is driven mostly by the finance component of the GDP calculation. The finance component of the GDP calculation includes economic activity associated with  Federal Reserve banks, securities, commodity contracts, insurance carriers, funds, trusts, and other financial vehicles.

This component increased by a whopping 38% – approximately $280 million – from 2015 to 2016. This growth accounts for approximately 30%-40% of the 3.8% per capita growth rate.

So why did this component grow so much in Tallahassee? What does this growth mean for the local economy? Where are the tangible benefits of this growth in Tallahassee?

These are the questions that are currently being researched by officials at the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.

TR also called the Office of Economic Vitality, but OEV was not prepared to provide answers to our questions. OEV said they would research the issue.

MPOAC is a statewide transportation planning and policy organization created by the Florida Legislature pursuant to Section 339.175(11), Florida Statutes. The organization is made up of a Governing Board (27 members) consisting of local elected officials from each of the MPOs.

The MPO for Tallahassee region is called the Capital Region Transportation Plannning Agency (CRTPA). Current members from Leon County include County Commissioners Kristen Dozier, John Dailey, and Nick Maddox and City Commissioners Scott Maddox, Curtis Richardson and Nancy Miller.

One of the purposes of the MPOAC is to develop legislative priorities that are supported by the MPO’s.

While voting to support the full slate of MPOAC recommended legislative priorities, officials singled out two priorities for special consideration and distanced themselves from another.

First, the CRTPA wanted to emphasize the need to tie local fuel taxes to the consumer price index as a way for local governments to collect more transportation revenues when the cost of goods increase.

And second, the CRTPA placed priority on state legislation that “regulates distracted driving as a primary offense by prohibiting the use of electronic wireless communications devices and other similar distracting devices while operating a moving motor vehicle.”

The MPOAC list of priorities also included a controversial provision which seeks legislation directing the Florida Department of Transportation to develop a plan and conduct one or more pilot tests to move Florida toward a Mileage Based User Fee, which protects individual privacy, in lieu of the traditional fuel tax.

Recognizing the controversy generated with support of this provision last year, see our report here, officials still voted for the priority but made an effort to distance themselves from the proposal.

City Commissioner Scott Maddox said that “just because we vote to support the full slate of priorities for a state organization does not mean we agree with all of them.”

The full list of MPOAC state legislative proposals can seen here.

The budget also calls for approximately $7-9 million in new spending.

Local media outlets have reported that the General Fund budget is about $5 million less than last year. TR’s review of the budget finds this statement to be misleading, if not false.

The new spending is supported by the new revenue and approximately $3 million in what the City is calling savings. (Details below under “Savings”)

However, the most striking finding upon the release of this budget is the move by new City Manager Rick Fernandez to severely limit the amount of information easily accessed by those interested in evaluating the budget.

REVENUE

Last year, with the 13% property tax increase, the City’s General Fund collected an additional $7 million in fees, charges for services and taxes. This year the City’s General Fund is projected to collect an additional $4.2 million in fees, charges for services and taxes.

SPENDING

If the City had capped spending at last year’s level of $149 million, the new revenues would have paid for that spending and generated a surplus of approximately $5.2 million.

However, approximately $2 million of the additional 2017 tax revenue of $5 million was used to replace the borrowed money from the deficiency fund that was used to support spending during FY2016. Yes, even after a 13% property tax increase, the City moved approximately $2 million from City savings to pay for spending.

For 2017, the City has opted to spend $7-9 million, including $5.8 on new roads and sidewalk projects. Where did the City get the revenue to finance these projects?

This is where creative accounting has yielded what the City claims are savings.

THE SAVINGS

The City claims to have generated $3.2 million in “savings.”

First, the budget summary shows $1.7 million in expenses has been transferred from the General Fund to the Water Fund. The expenses have been transferred, not cut. The Water Fund will pay these expenses. Is that really “savings”?

Second, the City claims to have saved $1.2 million in StarMetro expenses. However, for the majority of these savings there is no detailed plan on how these savings will be achieved.

And finally, one of the biggest issues not addressed in the General Fund is the renegotiating of the Star Metro contract with FSU during 2016. Why is this not addressed in the budget?

TRANSPARENCY

The release of the FY2017 highlights the fact that under the new leadership of City Manager Rick Manager, less information about the budget has been released than ever before.

First, the roll out of the budget does not include a capital budget. For at least the last 20 years the roll out of the City budget included a capital budget. A capital budget details spending on specific projects. For example, a capital budget would detail where the $5.8 million in road maintenance and sidewalks was planning to be spent.

Second, the FY2017 budget does not provide the line item detail provided in previous budgets.

And finally, the City has removed the City’s online checkbook from their website. Now, if you want to see what vendors are paid and by what departments, you must submit a public record request. The online checkbook was promoted as a big step in transparency, but now it is gone.

Ridership was down from 4.71 million people in 2010 to 3.66 million in 2015. These ridership numbers include both City passengers and University passengers. Both categories declined during the five-year period. University riders declined 17% while City passengers declined 27%.

Also, due to the recent cancellation of the FAMU contract with StarMetro to provide bus services on campus, passenger numbers are expected to decline again in 2016.

During this same time period, the subsidies provided by taxpayers has increased from approximately $7.9 million in 2010 to approximately $10 million in 2015.

The subsidies are transferred annually from the General Fund, which is supported by property taxes, sales taxes, and utility taxes.

Recently the City of Tallahassee began using revenues collected from the Gasoline Tax to fund StarMetro operations. Since 2014 approximately $2.3 million in Gas Tax revenue has been transferred to StarMetro.

This means over the last three years, approximately $6.9 million has been removed from road paving, road maintenance and sidewalk projects to support StarMetro.

Various citizens groups, who are actively engaged with evaluating the City’s spending priorities, have raised concerns about StarMetro’s role in the need for the recent property tax increase and the lack of concern by City staff with StarMetro’s operational efficiency.

The City will present the FY2017 budget on June 2oth. TR will report on how the City deals with StarMetro funding when the information becomes available.

In the press release accompanying a link to the video, shown below, McNeil references the latest crime statistics and states, “This cannot become our new normal. Someone has to fight for Leon County and literally protect us. Rick Scott’s appointed sheriff isn’t doing the job, the numbers prove it.”

The latest ad mentions the All American City award recently won by the City of Tallahassee and then a gun shot rings out and an ominous voice  speaks about the recent crime-rate information released by FDLE.

McNeil continues to make the argument that Sheriff Mike Wood is responsible for a rising crime-rate even though the data shows that the increase is due to incidents occurring in the City of Tallahassee.

In addition, trends show crime was increasing in the City of Tallahassee before Wood was appointed Sheriff.

At recent political forum’s Sheriff Wood has said that the rising crime rate is “unacceptable” and has talked about new Sheriff’s Office initiatives that include a mentoring program for school children and an anti-gang effort.

Despite these points, McNeil argues, as Sheriff, he would provide more leadership and step-up cooperation among law enforcement entities.

The first task was to look back at the budgets over the previous years to try and determine if there was an explanation, hidden somewhere in all those numbers, for the tax increase that was required in 2010 to provide the citizens of Tallahassee with the most basic governmental services.

After digging through budgets and actual expenditures for each year since 2006 and talking to city officials, Tallahassee Reports discovered that for 2006, 2007,  and 2008, the COT approved a budget that did not rely on revenues saved in the city deficiencies fund.

However, looking at the actual data for each of those years reveals that sometime during each year, the COT transferred approximately $3,000,000 from the City Deficiencies Fund to pay for core services.

If the use of deficiency funds was a one time policy due to an unanticipated event, this action would not be so noteworthy. However, to continue to rely on a “savings account” to fund day-to-day operations for core services year-after-year is noteworthy because it explains why the COT found itself in a budget showdown this year. The bill the City Commission had refused to address over the last four years had finally come due in 2009. 

The bill came due because the City’s Deficiency Fund, that was being used to fuel the spending the City could not afford, became tapped out. In June 2006, the City’s Deficiency Fund had a balance of $24 million. In June 2009 the balance was $9.5 million.

The research indicates that decisions made, or not made, in 2006, 2007 and 2008, laid the foundation for the tax increase passed in 2009.

It is interesting to note that not one city commissioner, during the most recent budget process, mentioned the fact that over the last three years the budget was not balanced and the City had to spend years of savings.

Using Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) data on Gross Domestic Product and City of Tallahassee expenditure data, the analysis indicates the COT GDP grew 11.6%, while COT government expenditures increased 33% from 2005 to 2008. (Government Expenditures includes all government funds.)

When isolating the General Fund expenditures, the analysis indicates a growth rate of 12.5 % over the period of 2005-2008, compared to the GDP growth rate of 11.6%.

The table below shows yearly government expenditures as a percentage of the GDP.

The calculation for 2009 is an estimate taking into account the current recession and COT expenditure estimates for 2009.

The above table indicates an increasing percentage of resources being removed from the Tallahassee economy to address the needs of government.

A quick perusal of the budget for the Office of the Mayor indicates there are four budgeted positions. However, that number includes the Mayor. So for 2010 the Mayor has 3 aides. In 2008 he had 3.5 aides.

The expenditures for the Office of the Mayor in 2008 was $689,000, in 2009 the estimated expenditures is $573,000, and the budgeted amount in 2010 is $592,000.

The other four commissioners each have one aide. The 2010 budget for the part-time commissioners’ offices is $161,000, except for City Commissioner seat #1, which is $12,000 less at $149,000. This seat is occupied by Mark Mustian.

During an informative discussion with Assistant City Manager Raoul Lavin, he detailed the parameters regulating the use of the rate stabilization fund.

The uses of the fund are limited to four categories. Each category has a minimum and maximum target level. They are as follows: Rate stabilization ($23-$50 million), Future Generation Needs ($37-$74 million), Retirement of Debt ($62-$116 million) and Fuel Hedging Program ($30 million).

Based on this information, the minimum and maximum target level for the fund is $152 and $270 million. In other other words, based on commission policy, the fund would begin running a surplus after reaching a level of $270 million.

To the best of his recollection, Mr. Lavin indicated that the rate stabilization part of the fund has only been used for low income relief to the tune of approximately $5 million over the last two years. There has been no across the board cuts in rates using this fund.

The Fuel Hedging monies are used to stabilize fuel prices so consumers are protected against significant swings in electric rates.

In addition, Mr. Lavin indicated that decisions on how and when to spend the reserves are decided during “rate studies.” These “rate studies” take place every two or three years.