By Steve Plunkett

    Gulf Stream town officials are taking off the gloves in their quest to recover some of the tax money property owners in the annexed pocket paid Palm Beach County for 2011.
    Mayor William Koch Jr. asked County Commissioner Steven Abrams in a Sept. 14 letter for more help getting $19,469 reimbursed by Palm Beach County Fire-Rescue for services from March 15, the date of the annexation, through Sept. 30. Koch wants $21,728 from the Sheriff’s Office for the same time period.
    An Abrams-facilitated phone conversation allowed Gulf Stream’s town manager to verbally present the request to county fire-rescue in August, but a follow-up call prompted Koch’s letter, he wrote.
    “The information provided to our town manager is that the ‘legal’ department is checking into this matter and the town must wait until a legal opinion is provided,’’ Koch wrote. “It does not seem appropriate or responsive on the part of the county and the town to delay the FY [fiscal year] 2011 payment.’’
    Town commissioners also asked Town Attorney John “Skip’’ Randolph to investigate suing the county if negotiations fail.
    Gulf Stream based its request for police services on 199 days of coverage times its total police budget times the 3.2 percent additional acres the annexation added to the town. The fire-rescue amount equals the additional amount Delray Beach demanded following the annexation.
    “If the annexation vote could have been predetermined or guaranteed, this ‘after the fact’ reimbursement request would have been provided much sooner,’’ Koch wrote.
    The annexed pocket, bordered by Sea Road on the south, County Road on the west, the St. Andrews Club on the north and the Atlantic Ocean on the east, will add an estimated $69 million to the town’s tax base.
    The $19,469 Gulf Stream wants back for fire-rescue is a small fraction of the roughly $240,000 the county department charged the pocket in municipal service taxes for the full fiscal year.
    The county levied nearly $176,000 on the pocket to fund the Sheriff’s Office in
2011.                                       
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