Police cuts ordered, county talks authorized after 2-3 vote
HIGH SPRINGS – The High Springs City Commission voted 4-1 on Sept. 10 to raise the city’s tentative property tax rate to 7.24 mills for the 2026-27 fiscal year, then spent nearly three hours debating whether to dissolve either the police department or the fire department before backing away from both.
A motion by Vice Mayor Wayne Bloodsworth Jr. to dissolve the High Springs Police Department (HSPD) and keep the High Springs Fire Department (HSFD) failed 2-3, with Bloodsworth and Commissioner Tristan Grunder voting yes. Commissioner Chad Howell, Commissioner Katherine Weitz and Mayor Andrew Miller voted against the measure.
The commission instead voted unanimously to direct staff to identify a 5 percent reduction in the police budget, the maximum cut allowed without triggering state intervention, and to authorize Interim City Manager Jennifer Applebee to negotiate in good faith with Alachua County over the possible transfer of police and fire services to the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office (ASO) and Alachua County Fire Rescue.
High Springs Finance Director Leslie Moyer told the commission the city had proposed a millage rate of 7.24 mills, 8.94 percent above the rolled-back rate of 6.6458 mills. The commission had previously asked staff to prepare the fiscal year 2027 (FY27) budget at 6.99 mills, a rate that Moyer said would leave the city with roughly $2,000 in unallocated funds for the entire year. Moving to 7.24 mills would leave approximately $149,000 in reserve, she said.
“The requirement to move forward with a tax levy of 7.24 millage rate will require a two-thirds vote, or four of five commissioners,” Moyer said.
Commissioner Howell made the motion to set the rate at 7.24 mills, framing it as roughly $25 more per year in taxes for every $100,000 of taxable home value. “With that being said, no part of me ever wanted to raise the taxes in this city,” Howell said. “But with the votes that’s happened here, I don’t see how we don’t, unless I’m missing something.”
Weitz cast the lone dissenting vote on the millage rate. She had pressed Moyer earlier in the meeting for a breakdown of where savings could be found before committing to a higher rate, saying, “For me to be comfortable voting on a budget, I’m, you know, we need to talk about where, where, where could we get savings elsewhere.”
The commission then voted 5-0 on the first reading of Ordinance 2026-07, adopting the FY27 budget, and 5-0 on the second reading of Ordinance 2026-05, an amendment to the current fiscal year 2026 budget. Moyer told commissioners the extra $149,000 generated by the higher millage rate would be placed in an unallocated reserve account until the commission directs otherwise.
Bloodsworth: “We May Not Have a City in Two Years”
Before the votes, Bloodsworth warned that without major changes, High Springs risked losing its status as an incorporated municipality. “If we don’t do something now, we may not have a city in two years,” he said. “We have to do what we got to do now to save this city.”
Bloodsworth said he had learned in the weeks before the meeting that a 2025 fire assessment increase to $383 per residential parcel had not solved the fire department’s funding shortfall the way he expected. “Now it’s $980,252 that has to go to the fire department,” he said, adding that he believed the police department, not the fire department, would have to go if the city could only keep one. “At least with the fire, we have money. We have control of the money.”
Grunder seconded Bloodsworth’s motion to dissolve the police department, telling the commission the city’s financial condition amounted to more than mismanagement. “The lies and the mismanagement and the lack of oversight over finances in this city has done this to us, and that is just where we are,” Grunder said. “To me, honestly, at this point, after what I’ve heard just the last couple weeks, this is criminal, all day long.”
Howell, who has previously discussed department cuts publicly, said he did not believe the city could keep both departments as currently funded. “I don’t believe there’s any way out of this that we keep both of them. I really don’t,” he said. “It comes down to: Do you want to save money or services?”
Weitz said she supported keeping the fire department, which the city can fund through its flat-rate fire assessment, but was not ready to eliminate the police department without more information. “I respect Commissioner Grunder and Vice Mayor Bloodsworth’s perspective immensely, and, you know, I just, I’m just not ready to make that kind of a drastic decision at this point because I don’t think we really do have enough data,” she said.
Mayor Miller ultimately voted no on the motion. “I think that the numbers tell us that we can save the fire department. We have more control over that, and it’s unfortunate,” Miller told the commission before the vote. “It’s an unfortunate decision. It’s a tough decision, but I agree, and it has to be made.”
What Dissolving Either Department Would Cost
Applebee gave the commission preliminary figures for contracting services to the county. She said a single fire engine staffed with three personnel would cost the city $1.8 million in the first year, since the county could not immediately levy its own fire assessment on High Springs residents. Bloodsworth said the number would drop closer to $980,000 annually in future years.
On the police side, Applebee said a municipal service taxing unit (MSTU), the mechanism the county would use to bill High Springs residents directly for sheriff’s coverage, would cost $1.9 million. One contracted sheriff’s deputy would cost $2.2 million, and two contracted deputies would cost $4.4 million, she said.
Grunder questioned the deputy figures. “It can’t be the actual cost. That’s ridiculous. The four point something for two people. That’s freaking ridiculous,” he said. Weitz agreed, telling the commission, “With those numbers, it makes no sense to get rid of either. I mean, if those are our actual numbers, that doesn’t make any sense at all.”
High Springs Police Chief Antoine Sheppard and High Springs Fire Chief Kevin Pearson both addressed the commission after being invited to speak by Applebee. Sheppard said the decision was within the commission’s authority. “It’s obviously in the commission’s purview to have financial stability for the city, and we support whatever direction that is that that goes forth,” he said. “If that means getting rid of the police department because you can’t afford it, that that’s certainly within your options.”
Pearson told the commission HSFD has “113 years of service as a department” and is currently operating with eight full-time firefighters on shift, short of a goal of 12. He said the department had received six job applicants in the five or six days before the meeting, including two from High Springs, after a period of vacancies. He also said HSFD’s dual-truck response model produced an estimated 170 overlapping emergency calls a year that a single-engine county model would not be able to answer as quickly.
Commissioner Grunder confirmed the commission’s hands are legally tied on how deep any police cut could go. “I did speak with the state attorney’s office, and he has confirmed with me that if we drop the police department more than 5 percent, he will sue us and bring litigation,” Grunder said.
Applebee said 5 percent of the police budget equals roughly $166,400.
Public Pushes Back on a Same-Night Decision
Several residents urged the commission not to vote to dissolve either department the same night. Ross Ambrose, a resident, told the commission it lacked enough information to act immediately. “I just don’t think that you have enough data right now to make a decision of this gravity tonight at this level,” Ambrose said. He urged the commission to direct staff to gather firm cost and service-level numbers from the county and revisit the issue within 60 days, and suggested the city look at annexing county pockets surrounded by city limits as a new revenue source.
Donald Alderman, a former High Springs Fire Department employee and longtime critic of city financial oversight, warned that county fire service would not match the city’s current response times because the county sends the closest available truck rather than guaranteeing coverage inside city limits. “The county will not provide the same service,” Alderman said. “County has a rule of closest unit goes.” He also urged the commission, if it does contract out fire service, not to surrender the department’s trucks and equipment to the county.
Amy Grunder, a resident and the wife of Commissioner Tristan Grunder, questioned why the fire department was discussing new hires the same night the commission was weighing whether to eliminate the police department. “I think that it’s an extreme poor taste for the fire department to stand up and then talk about their hiring process and that they have several positions open,” she said. Applebee responded that the fire department is down four employees and that those positions had not been frozen so the department could maintain its level of service, while the police department is fully staffed.
After Bloodsworth’s motion failed, the commission moved to the narrower 5 percent cut and voted 5-0, with Miller making the motion, to pursue that reduction in the police budget rather than hold a separate workshop on the topic. The commission separately voted 5-0 to direct Applebee to negotiate in good faith with the county sheriff and county fire rescue, with Ambrose suggesting from the audience that any transition be timed no earlier than the beginning of the city’s third fiscal quarter.
Finance Director Moyer cautioned “I want to warn you that if you do direct [Applebee] to negotiate with the third quarter, we would not have enough budget based on the preliminary numbers we have to pay salaries for three quarters of the year, and then do payouts and the contracted amount for the remainder of the year.
City Attorney Kiersten Ballou said the second reading of the FY27 budget ordinance is scheduled for the commission’s Sept. 21 meeting, a deadline Moyer said the city must meet under Florida Statutes or call a special meeting.
A group of residents is organizing a rally in support of the police department for 6:30 p.m. Thursday at the High Springs Woman’s Club, ahead of the commission’s Sept. 21 second reading of the FY27 budget.
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