City Commission Roundup: September 4, 2012

You've already heard about the big decision the Safety Harbor City Commission made on Tuesday for at least the next nine months.

Lost in the commotion that decision caused, there were some other pretty important items on the agenda on September 4th, a couple of which should be of great importance to Safety Harbor residents:  

-The commission listened to a plan presented by Public Works director Ray Boler to implement a singe stream recycling system in the community by 2014.

The proposal calls for Safety Harbor to switch to the "1-1-1" recycling system currently being used in neighboring communities like Oldsmar and Dunedin. The system calls for residents to use one 64-gallon garbage can that will hold all waste material. The material is then sorted at a processing center.

The proposal will help save money by eliminating the need for separate waste containers as well as eliminating one trash pickup per week and consolidating the truck fleet. "I'm really excited about this," Commissioner Nina Bandoni said. City Manager Matt Spoor said "in our 10 year projection, in capital purchases alone, we would save over $100,000 in just capital purchases."

-After much debate back and forth, the commission decided to keep the millage rate the same as last year - 3.3808. The main sticking point with this issue was the implementation of a streetlight fee of $54.00 per resident per year. While some residents during the public hearing complained about the fee, the commission ultimately decided to keep the fee and not raise the millage rate.

-The FY 2012-2013 budget was also a highly debated topic, with plans to cut more than $281,000 from the budget raising a lot of concern with commissioners and residents alike.

Included in that number were cuts to Christmas decorations, library materials and staff restructures, which would include the elimination of some jobs. That prospect didn't sit well with many people in the room, including Commissioner Nancy Besore, who said "the personnel part is terrible." City Manager Matt Spoor said "these would be reductions that would impact the least," from a management standpoint. "It's difficult to eliminate personnel without affecting services," Spoor admitted.

Ultimately the commission decided to cut the budget by $174,340, leaving the proposed $82,500 in staff restructuring cuts out of the plans. That brought the proposed total budget to $20,629,960 for FY '12-13.

Commissioner Bandoni praised the city staff for "finding areas where you feel it would least impact morale and least impact the members of the community", a position that was echoed by Commissioner Besore.

Both the millage rate and final budget will be adopted at a public hearing on September 19.