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Delray Beach commissioners revive fire service fee

The audience at Tuesday's Delray Beach city commission meeting filing in. Most were city employees and their families, and most voiced support for the fire service fee.

By Palm Beach Business.com

DELRAY BEACH — It was a much different crowd Tuesday evening than the one that showed up two weeks ago, and the results were much different as well.

Facing a friendly audience made up largely of municipal employees and their families during a "workshop" meeting on the budget, Delray Beach city commissioners Tuesday informally agreed to revive the fire service fee proposal shot down two weeks ago to fill a $3.2 million hole in the budget.

Last summer, commissioners adopted a $92 million city budget for the 2011-12 fiscal year that was balanced in part by the yet-to-be-adopted fee. But when it came time to actually put the fee on the books, commissioners were confronted by a parade of about 40 angry residents who spoke against the measure. Only one soul spoke out in its favor.

By contrast, the audience that packed commission chambers Tuesday clapped and cheered as commissioners voiced support for the fee.

Commissioners still have to work out details, including whether to raise the entire $3.2 million with the fee or couple it with budget cuts, and whether the fee should be “tiered” based on square footage,  or flat, with all homeowners kicking in the same amount.

Those details should come Monday, when commissioners hold a special meeting. A final vote on the fee won’t likely come before the last week in March, as the city mails out notifications to property owners.

What turned commissioners around was a presentation by City Manager David Harden that showed the extent of the cuts needed to balance the budget absent the fee. Under one proposal, facilities, such the community center at Veterans Park would close; the teen center would close;  the city’s grant to the public library would be slashed by 10 percent; funding for the 100-foot Christmas tree would end; the Fourth of July fireworks would be eliminated; jobs would be cut, and remaining employees would work one day less each month.

Under a second proposal, police and fire department staffing would be reduced, with less drastic cuts coming elsewhere in the budget.

“If you do these, you will really be changing the character of the city,” Harden said. “My recommendation is that the fire serve fee be reconsidered.”

At the last meeting, three commissioners — Tom Carney, Angeleta Gray and Adam Frankel — voted to kill the fee. All three flipped, with Frankel the most enthusiastic. Commissioner Jay Alperin, the only no vote, said he would continue to support the fee, but only at reduced rates and accompanied by substantial budget cuts.

Gray, the only commissioner running at the March 13 municipal elections, agreed to the fee in order to keep programs for youth and seniors but said “everything is on the table.”

Carney said the fee should be a last resort, adding that city needs to be more aggressive in collecting revenue elsewhere, especially parking, which is now free throughout the downtown east of the Intracoastal. He also said commissioners can reduce the budget as well

“There are cuts we can make; there are cuts we should make,” Carney said.

Mayor Woodie McDuffie, who missed the last meeting with the flu, took a harder line in favor of the fee. He noted that since 2007, the property tax rolls in the city have fallen by more than 31 percent while at the same time the city has cut its property tax rate.

“As far as I’m concerned, it’s disingenuous of people to think we can continue to operate the city and do away with (the fire service fee),” McDuffie said.