By REID TUCKER
The DeFuniak Springs City Council again debated whether or not to continue the moratorium on impact fees, but the measure passed once more, though this time by a narrow margin.
The moratorium, now in its fifth year of existence, was approved by a 3-2 vote at the Council’s March 23 meeting, with Councilmen Mac Carpenter and Mac Work coming out against the motion to renew the moratorium put forward by Mayor Pro Tem Henry Ennis.
Carpenter and Work opposed continuing the moratorium for different reasons.
Carpenter expressed similar concerns in 2015 as he did the past two years, saying that the Council was effectively taking action on matters related to the budget outside of the budget workshops. He said the public did not have enough notice such a discussion was to take place or, possibly, sufficient clarity as to what was being decided on, as the moratorium affects not just water and sewer impact fees but also those relating to police and fire services. There was even some confusion on the board about what had been decided with the vote, specifically with regard to the difference between impact fees and tap fees, the latter of which were not waived as a result of the moratorium.
“This should come to the Council in detail where we’ve got an ordinance that required those fees that we’re talking about instead of ‘we all generally know what we’re talking about,’” Carpenter said. “I just don’t think that’s the right way to do it.”
Work voted against continuing the moratorium on the grounds that the only business induced to begin new construction in DeFuniak Springs since 2011, when the Council first began the suspension of impact fees, was Taco Bell. All other new businesses that have opened since then moved into existing buildings or storefronts, Work said. Furthermore, the city used approximately $1 million in impact fees to carry out construction at one of the water system’s wells – money that otherwise would have had to come from raising rates to water system customers.
The remaining councilmen were in favor of the moratorium for more or less the same reason – the possibility of attracting new development to the city.
Councilman Ron Kelley disagreed with Carpenter’s claim that discussion about impact fee waivers constituted a budget discussion and was rather a matter of city policy. He said that, so long as the city’s utilities are not close to operating at maximum capacity, it isn’t necessary to have developers pay for a minimal burden on that system. Councilman Kermit Wright was of similar opinion, saying that one of the city’s top priorities is increasing business growth along the U.S. Highway 331 corridor, which ought to see a boom as the highway is expanded to four lanes south of town in the near future.
Ennis said impact fees might not matter to large businesses but the moratorium is a help to smaller ones on the fence about building in smaller markets. He cited the example of Zaxby’s Chicken, which waited for two years – even locating in nearby Fort Walton Beach – before building a Crestview location due to the city’s lack of a moratorium on impact fees. Ennis said the slowly improving national economy is at least partly to blame for the lack of new business construction in DeFuniak Springs, but as it improves so will the city’s prospects for attracting new businesses.
The other big news to come out of the City Council meeting was the presentation of a letter from auditing firm Tipton, Marler, Garner & Chastain, which announced that company’s deciding to cease its services with the city. That decision was reached after the Council voted at its last meeting not to pay the final audit invoice of $44,214, which included numerous extra fees incurred as a result of the extra time needed to balance the city’s financial statements. The debacle led to the termination of former Finance Director Thomas Carman.
The city will presently begin advertisements in the search for a new auditing firm, said City Manager Sara Bowers.
Finally, to wrap up a bit of old business, the agreement to accept several thousand gallons of boiler water per week at the city’s water treatment plant from Denali Water Solutions is set to go ahead after all. The Council approved the deal at its March 9 meeting, but Denali requested a change in the agreement’s liability verbiage after the fact, leading to the hang-up. However, CH2M Hill OMI, the city’s water system contractor, announced that all parties were in agreement as of late last week, and the treatment plant will likely begin receiving approximately 6,000 gallons of the wastewater by next week.
Per the agreement between the city and Denali, the company will send upward of 12,000 gallons of wastewater per week to DeFuniak’s water treatment plant at a rate of five cents per gallon. The idea was first proposed as a way to easily generate more money for the water system by CH2M Hill’s Jayne Swift, as the amount in question is well within the system’s capabilities.
