The ad valorem tax revenue decrease is the result of a recent property assessment of Vulcan Materials Company, formally known as Florida Rock Industries Inc.

Disregarding Community Development Block Grant revenues and expenditures, anticipated revenues are down 5.6 percent and anticipated expenditures are down 7.3 percent.

One suggestion from City Manager Keith Ashby included reworking city positions. After City Clerk Gayle B. Pons retires, Ashby proposed that current Deputy City Clerk Judy Rice be promoted to City Clerk. The position of Deputy City Clerk would be abolished.

To offset a projected 20 percent increase in healthcare costs, city staff proposed charging city employees $25 a month to offset the cost, which would bring in $17,000, half of the anticipated increase.  Another option would be to offer employees a $350 monthly stipend, which would save the city a projected $49,000.

There was also discussion about transferring money from utility reserves to mitigate the deficit.  The commission will continue budget and personnel discussions in the coming weeks.

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Finance Services Director Helen McIver said the Alachua County Property Appraisers’ Office estimated a 5 percent drop in property values for the 2012-2013 fiscal year, which will equate to approximately $60,000 to $70,000 less in ad valorem taxes than the city received this year. The budget revenues already reflect a $1.5 million reduction in total revenues from the 2010-2011 fiscal year to the current year.

In addition, the Florida Supreme Court is considering a case about the state employee pension fund. If the court settles in favor of employees, the city may have to pay back a 3 percent reduction in retirement benefits that was instituted as a result of a State of Florida mandate. Commissioners suggested setting aside a reserve fund to be prepared for either outcome.

“It’s going to be a tough budget year,” Vice-Mayor Bob Barnas said.

The budget meeting falls on the heels of the commission voting to bring back the emergency dispatch center to the High Springs Police Department.  During the budget workshop, the commission decided to budget for one dispatch supervisor and five dispatchers.  The anticipated cost of the dispatch will be $268,925 for the 2012-2013 budget compared to $143,285 in 2011-2012. Dispatch services are currently handled through the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office Combined Communication Center (CCC).

“Communications is the one that concerns me because of what we have to fund this budget year for next year’s operations, and that’s money that’s got to come out now,” Commissioner Scott Jamison said. “We need to figure out where we’re going to get it.”

Total expenditures from the police department operations have fallen from $1,044,788 in the adopted 2011-2012 budget to $937,318 for the proposed 2012-2013 budget. City Manager Jeri Langman said High Springs will have to fund approximately $54,000 to $75,000 in the current fiscal year to purchase equipment and software, and to begin training employees. The dispatch console alone will cost an estimated $40,000.

In addition, the city’s fire department proposed adding three firefighters and one administrative assistant. The addition will increase that portion of the budget from $507,650 in the previous fiscal year to a proposed $615,600 in 2012-2013 for personnel service costs.

According to the Fire Chief, Bruce Gillingham, the fire department needs more firemen to create a safe environment and improve fire response time. Currently, he said the response time is seven to eight minutes for a downtown call, but a typical fire will consume a house in 11 minutes.

“All I’m trying to do is raise the quality of care we are providing,” Gillingham said.

Commissioner Sue Weller said she would like to keep a full-time Parks and Recreation Director on staff, if possible. Other commissioners agreed. Barnas said he enjoyed the previous director’s contributions to the city, citing Music in the Park.

Barnas said he wants to look at cutting employee health benefits and getting rid of the tag agency to lower city costs.

“We’re going to have to change – dramatically change – what we contribute as a city to health benefits,” Barnas said.

If the employees want to stay with their current plan, Barnas said the employees will have to pay the difference between what the city can pay next fiscal year and the total cost of the plan. McIver estimates the city will pay $6,500 per employee for 45 to 50 employees in the 2012-2013 fiscal year.

Although McIver had estimates on reductions in property taxes, the revenue side of the budget has not been formally prepared.

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With former city manager John Glanzer’s resignation effective May 11, the commission is pressing forward to find a replacement.

Commissioners shared their thoughts on each candidate after their one-on-one interviews with them last week. City commissioners Fletcher Hope and Blanch Parker and Vice Mayor Marjorie Zander were present out of the five officials who will chose the new city manger for Archer.

Fourteen applications were submitted in response to advertisements for the city manager position, which was posted at the end of April. Each commission reviewed the applications and rated them based on a grading rubric with 10 to 12 different criteria.

Only five of the original 14 candidates made it to the second phase in the process, and they were given an hour interview with each commissioner separately.

The five candidates are Carlos Tobar, Judith Jankosky, George Hayfield, Craig Gould and Al Grieshaber.

Despite the progress in the application process, the city commission is still accepting applications for the position. The application process will stay open until the position is filled.

City Commissioner Fletcher Hope said, “If it takes us until September, I don’t want it to be until September, October, we need to make sure we have the correct review of profile and criteria for the right fit for Archer.

“I don’t want to slow it down, but I don’t want to rush it either, because we’re frightened of a budget final,” he said. “That’s why we did what we did at an expense to carry John Mayberry on as a temporary employee, and we quickly made sure we had our interim stuff taken care of,” Hope said.

The salary cap for the position is $75,000 including salary and benefits. Applicants are offered the option to give their preferred salary range on the application.

Some of the candidates have previous municipal experience and others have had leadership experience elsewhere.

Hope and Parker were both impressed by Carlos Tobar who has paid and unpaid experience in municipal government in Tampa, Jacksonville and California.

Parker said Tobar had plans for the recreation department that didn’t cost the city any money.

Commissioners Hope and Parker both agreed that someone with diverse skills would be a good fit for Archer.

“We’re so small we just have to get somebody that’s able to do not just the job in the office but they got to be able to move and do,” Parker said.

The city manager candidates are expected to be on the agenda for the next city commission meeting scheduled for June 11.

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During the April 26 meeting, Commission Scott Jamison said he was concerned that Plantation Oaks did not meet the guidelines required by the ordinance for tax exemption.  The exemption would grant Plantation Oaks a 60 percent reduction in taxes for six years.

“It concerns me a little bit that we are looking at approving something that doesn’t fit any of the criteria in an ordinance that we put forth,” Jamison said.

The ordinance requires at least 25 non-manufacturing employees for a new business, which Plantation Oaks does not meet. To calculate the possible tax reduction, the commission took into account the number of employees and average employee wages.

A majority of the commission felt that the business should be granted the exemption in hopes of creating  a business-friendly environment in the city. The intent was to give benefits and breaks to business coming in, said Commissioner Linda Gestrin.

High Springs city attorney Raymond Ivey said the commission can grant a waiver for Plantation Oaks, but warned that doing so for a business not meeting the requirement could open the door to others requesting the same treatment.

“This is a business that has added employment to the city, has bent over backward to help the city,” Vice-Mayor Bob Barnas said at an earlier meeting. “If we want to continue to invite businesses to come to town, this is something that we said we were going to do years ago in economic developments and incentives. It will go to the county, and they will review it.”

On March 20, Mayor Dean Davis said the owner of Plantation Oaks purchased the building for $2 million. Previously a conference center for Seventh Day Adventists, the building was not on the tax rolls, but the taxes expected from the business for this year total $51,000 to $53,000. According to Barnas, the business pays $12,000 to the city in taxes.

At the May 24 meeting, Commissioner Sue Weller made the motion to pass the application along to the Council of Economic Outreach. Commissioner Scott Jamison voted against the measure citing the applicant’s failure to not meet the required guidelines. The motion passed four to one.

“They are helping our city,” Davis said.

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