assessment - News - The Coastal Star2024-03-29T12:38:49Zhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/feed/tag/assessmentDelray Beach: Consultant told to stop work on fire assessment feehttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/delray-beach-consultant-told-to-stop-work-on-fire-assessment-fee2019-04-03T18:40:00.000Z2019-04-03T18:40:00.000ZMary Kate Leminghttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/MaryKateLeming769<div><p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>By Jane Smith</b></span></p>
<p class="p3">Delray Beach property owners will not have to pay a separate fire assessment fee in the next financial year.</p>
<p class="p3">City commissioners on March 12 unanimously approved stopping the consultant from doing any more work on the fee.</p>
<p class="p3">The item appeared on the consent agenda, meaning it was not discussed.</p>
<p class="p3">The amount assessed depended on the type of property held.</p>
<p class="p3">Single-family home and condo owners were supposed to pay $80.88 in the first year.</p>
<p class="p3">Commercial, industrial and warehouse owners were going to be assessed a fee per square foot. Commercial owners would pay the highest fee, at $11.77 per 100 square feet. Vacant-land owners were to pay $59.81 per parcel.</p>
<p class="p3">Deputy Vice Mayor Shirley Johnson, who voted for the fire assessment fee in December, had second thoughts in early February. From informal surveys of residents, Johnson said, “Most were not happy about it.”</p>
<p class="p3">She asked then-City Manager Mark Lauzier to check how far along the consultants were in the process of creating the fee.</p>
<p class="p3">Lauzier reported at the second February meeting that Stantec Consulting Services of St. Augustine would stop further study of the assessment.</p>
<p class="p3">In October, the city had agreed to pay $23,613 to Stantec to develop the preliminary fire assessment, based on the recommendation of Fire Chief Neal de Jesus. The Dec. 11 commission vote gave Stantec the go-ahead to finish the assessment report for $21,380.</p>
<p class="p3">Stantec had recommended starting the fee low and then gradually raising it until the assessment covers the full cost of firefighting services. The fee does not cover rescue services. The consultant did not explain how after the fee was assessed that Delray Beach could separate its firefighting from emergency medical services costs.</p>
<p class="p3">On March 1, city commissioners fired Lauzier for actions they said violated the city charter. On the same day, they asked de Jesus to serve as interim city manager. </p>
<p class="p3">At the March 12 commission meeting, Jack Warner, former chief financial officer of Delray Beach, said he was in favor of the fire fee assessment, if it can be offset by a similar number in the tax rate.</p>
<p class="p3">Commissioner Bill Bathurst, who voted against the fire fee in December, was pleased that work on the fee ended.</p>
<p class="p3">“I didn’t vote for it in December,” he said. “I think we can manage our budget through the millage rate [the tax rate per $1,000 property value] and not by adding another tax.” <span class="s2">Ú</span></p></div>Delray Beach: City makes early moves toward fire assessmenthttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/delray-beach-city-makes-early-moves-toward-fire-assessment2019-01-02T17:24:41.000Z2019-01-02T17:24:41.000ZMary Kate Leminghttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/MaryKateLeming769<div><p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>By Jane Smith</b></span></p>
<p class="p3">Delray Beach property owners may have to pay a fire assessment fee in the next budget year under a proposal the City Commission approved by a 3-2 vote on Dec. 11.</p>
<p class="p3">The assessment amount depends on the type of property.</p>
<p class="p3">Single-family home and condo owners would have to pay $80.88 in the first year. Commercial, industrial and warehouse owners would be assessed a fee per square foot, with commercial owners paying the highest fee at $11.77 per 100 square feet. Owners of vacant land would pay $59.81 per parcel.</p>
<p class="p3">The commission will decide later this year whether churches, nonprofits and charities will need to pay the assessment.</p>
<p class="p3">In October, the city agreed to pay $23,613 to Stantec Consulting Services of St. Augustine to develop the preliminary fire assessment, recommended by city Fire Chief Neal de Jesus.</p>
<p class="p3">At the time, the city, along with others statewide, was facing a possible revenue loss to an extra $25,000 homestead exemption that was on the November ballot. The ballot amendment failed.</p>
<p class="p3">The Fire Department had also been promised four extra positions by the previous City Commission.</p>
<p class="p3">The Dec. 11 vote gave Stantec the go-ahead to finish the assessment report for $21,380. Another approximately $28,000 is needed in July for a first-class mailing about the fire assessment to all Delray Beach property owners.</p>
<p class="p3">If approved by the city, the fire assessment would appear as a separate item on the property owner’s county tax bill, payable in November.</p>
<p class="p3">The resolution had to be adopted by Jan. 1 in order to get on the county property appraiser’s list of non-ad valorem assessments.</p>
<p class="p3">Delray Beach property owners will have two more opportunities to address the commission on the assessment — in July when the tentative tax rate is approved and then in September when the city tax rate has a second reading.</p>
<p class="p3">On Dec. 11, five people spoke about the assessment. Four were against it, including Christina Morrison, a commercial real estate broker, who lives in the Tropic Isle section of Delray Beach.</p>
<p class="p3">“You reviewed it in 2012 and found it not practical,” Morrison said. “Please put it aside and deny it.”</p>
<p class="p3">Ron Gilinsky, who is retired and volunteers for many city events, was for the assessment. “We need new equipment for the Fire Department,” he said.</p>
<p class="p3">Delray Beach should start with a modest assessment and gradually increase it until the assessment covers the full cost of fire services, Erick van Malssen of Stantec said.</p>
<p class="p3">“The 100 percent cap fully funds the Fire Department and won’t fluctuate with the whims of the economy,” van Malssen said. That would translate to about $25 million for fire services, resulting in a $500 fire assessment for home and condo owners.</p>
<p class="p3">The fire assessment can be used only for firefighting purposes that benefit the taxable property, van Malssen said. The medical rescue services that benefit people must not be included, he said.</p>
<p class="p3">For $4 million in the first year, the city Fire Department would receive four firefighters who would be paid about $401,044, an increase in existing pension costs of $340,464, additional pension burden of $502,051, vehicle replacement program of $750,000 and station rehab/replacement of $2 million. </p>
<p class="p3">Van Malssen did not explain how Delray Beach could separate its firefighting from emergency medical services costs after the fee was assessed.</p>
<p class="p3">Boca Raton and Boynton Beach have fire assessment fees that do not include emergency medical services, van Malssen said. Boca Raton assessses $135 per household; Boynton Beach’s fee is $120.</p>
<p class="p3">Commissioner Ryan Boylston was for the assessment in order to fulfill the previous commission’s promise to add four firefighters. He also wants to see the city’s taxes cut by $4 million — the amount the initial assessment would generate.</p>
<p class="p3">City Manager Mark Lauzier, however, did not recommend that large of a reduction.</p>
<p class="p3">“We don’t have a revenue problem,” said Mayor Shelly Petrolia, who voted against the assessment. “We have a spending problem.”</p>
<p class="p3">She said the city brought in $14 million more in property taxes for the current budget year<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span> compared to the previous year and that there is often a mid-year budget adjustment showing millions unspent.</p>
<p class="p3">Petrolia was most concerned about the residents who live on fixed incomes and can’t afford to pay an assessment.</p>
<p class="p3">Commissioner Bill Bathurst also voted against the assessment. He’s concerned about rising rental rates along Atlantic Avenue in the downtown. Landlords would likely pass along the fire assessment to their tenants, he said. </p></div>Gulf Stream: Assessment plan for utilities' burial sethttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/gulf-stream-assessment2011-08-03T17:19:42.000Z2011-08-03T17:19:42.000ZMary Kate Leminghttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/MaryKateLeming769<div>By Steve Plunkett<br /><br /> Surveyors began measuring the south part of Gulf Stream in mid-July after town commissioners voted unanimously to levy special assessments to put electric, phone and cable TV lines underground.<br /> Sitting June 30 as the Board of Equalization, town commissioners ruled the non-ad valorem assessment plan developed by consultant Willdan Financial Services was fair.<br /> “I think the proposal is reasonable and we should make the decision,’’ Mayor William Koch Jr. said.<br /> “It is difficult to divorce your opinion from your pocketbook,’’ Commissioner Chris Wheeler said. “The whole reason we relied on these experts is to provide that objectivity.’’<br /> Habib Isaac, senior project manager for Willdan, said the amounts his company proposed were based on actual observation of each parcel.<br /> “We went through all the streets in town,’’ Isaac said.<br /> He presented a chart showing, for instance, that parcel size was considered in calculating the added safety and aesthetics benefits, but not reliability, while having a guest quarters added to reliability benefits but not aesthetics or safety.<br /> That led to sizable differences between different types of dwellings, Isaac said. <br /> “On average a condo is being assessed roughly 60 percent of a single-family home,’’ he said, or $7,057 vs. $11,907.<br /> Resident John Caldwell of the Gulf View Club again asked why units in his condo building were being assessed $2,000 more than units in Gulfstream Shores.<br /> Isaac told him it was because Gulfstream Shores already has underground electric lines from the street to the building and that their meters are already updated.<br /> After other condo residents complained that they were paying almost as much as some multimillion-dollar estates, Isaac said his analysis did not use property values at all.<br /> “If you do that you’re really doing a tax in the clothing of an assessment,’’ he said.<br /> He also pointed out how impartial Willdan was in devising the assessment plan.<br /> “We’re not contingent on whether this moves forward or not from this point on,’’ he said. “Our involvement is in providing you the report that you have in front of you, and that’s the end of our services.’’<br /> Some homeowners wrote letters of support for the project, while other condo residents mailed objections. <br /> “Is there anything that you heard today in any of the comments that would cause you to want to reconsider your assessment methodology?’’ Town Attorney John Randolph asked Isaac.<br /> “My answer to that would be no,’’ Isaac said.<br /> “Today is not the first time you have heard the objections that have been raised today, particularly some of the objections that were made by [Gulfstream Shores condo president] Candy Gouwens and by Mr. Caldwell. <br /> “You’ve heard those before and you’ve given consideration to those kinds of comments in your methodology?’’ Randolph asked.<br /> “Yes, I have,’’ Isaac replied. “The only one I didn’t give consideration to was the value of the home in relation to the assessment amount.’’<br /> Town commissioners also voted unanimously to borrow up to $5.5 million to finance the project.<br /> The first phase of work is from roughly Golfview Road south to Pelican. Danny Brannon, the town’s consulting engineer, said shovels won’t hit the ground until next spring, following the survey phase and putting the project out to bid</div>