ANNA MARIA – On Nov. 16, each of the three Anna Maria Island mayors received a letter requesting information from the Florida Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability (OPPAGA), which is conducting a study on consolidating city services and governments.
The study was requested in January by the Manatee County Legislative Delegation that consists of Sen. Jim Boyd (R-Bradenton), Rep. Will Robinson Jr. (R-Bradenton), Sen. Joe Gruters (R-Sarasota), Rep. Tommy Gregory (R-Lakewood Ranch) and Rep. Mike Beltran (R-Apollo Beach).
On Nov. 16, Mayor Dan Murphy and the Anna Maria City Commission discussed the OPPAGA study, the request for information received earlier that day and the initial Zoom meeting that Murphy and Commission Chair Mark Short had with OPPAGA representatives on Nov. 7.
Speaking first, Short said he learned during the Zoom meeting that OPPAGA Staff Director Emily Leventhal is overseeing the three-person team assigned to conduct the study.
“The scope of their project is to look at the possibility of consolidating services across the three Island cities; and separately, to do an analysis of the consolidation of government structure (the three city governments),” he said.
Short said that each city will be analyzed separately, but the analysis and data pertaining to all three cities will likely be combined into a single report.
“Their goal is to provide options with respect to what could be done and provide both pros and cons with respect to each of those options. They told us they are not making recommendations about what to do. It is unlikely they will recommend any specific course of action,” Short said.
Short said the first step for the city is to provide OPPAGA with the requested information by Dec. 8, if possible. He said OPPAGA representatives will also interview city officials as the study continues.
“They will then prepare a report that will be made available to the state Legislature. That report will be made available to them, not to us. Their goal is to have this analysis done by July of 2024. Probably the most surprising thing I heard on this call was that they are not obligated to share their report with us,” Short said.
After noting that OPPAGA is exempt from public records requests, Short said, “They will share it if the Legislature authorizes them to share it with us. Otherwise, they have no obligation to share with us whatever’s in this report, which, personally, I found to be extremely disappointing.”
Murphy provided an overview of the questions posed and information requests made in the letter. Most of them pertain to city services, but there’s also a three-part question about the potential consolidation of the three Island cities and their governments, he said.
The information request period spans from 2018-23. OPPAGA requested a list of current services the city provides, including, but not limited to, law enforcement, public works projects, public safety, elections, solid and liquid waste disposal treatment, code enforcement and building and planning services. OPPAGA wants email addresses and contact information for the appropriate city official to contact for each service listed, and the total budgeted amounts and actual expenditures for each service.
OPPAGA also wants a description of how the city services provided by Anna Maria could be consolidated with the other two Island cities.
Commissioner Robert Kingan said he doesn’t see how the projected cost savings for the consolidation of services between three cities can accurately be estimated.
Regarding the potential consolidation of the three city governments, the OPPAGA request letter says, “Please provide the following information on government consolidation: A description of the benefits and challenges to individual citizens as well as to government operations related to the following potential options for local governance on Anna Maria Island.
“Option 1: All three cities on Anna Maria Island are consolidated into one new city on the island.
“Option 2: All three cities on Anna Maria Island were incorporated as part of the city of Bradenton.
“Option 3: All three cities on Anna Maria Island remain as incorporated municipalities on the island and work to consolidate existing services where that makes sense,” the request letter says.
OPPAGA’s request for information does not mention Manatee County as a possible consolidation/annexation option.
Commission discussion
Murphy said he received a phone call from Bradenton Mayor Gene Brown the previous day and Brown told him he had not received any consolidated study-related correspondence from Boyd or Robinson.
According to Bradenton Public Records Liaison Bill Ackles, as of Nov. 18, Brown and the city of Bradenton had not received any correspondence from OPPAGA.
In the consolidation study-related letter that Boyd and Robinson sent to the three Island mayors in August, the state legislators stated their goal was to reduce property taxes by consolidating similar services provided by each Island city.
“If the purpose of this study is to reduce taxes, which is what they said at the very beginning, there might be some good in this,” Murphy said.
However, noting that Anna Maria’s property tax millage rate is 2.05 mills and Bradenton’s millage rate is 5.8 mills, he added, “Can you imagine what that would do to your taxes?”
Short noted the two biggest tax levies on an Anna Maria property owner’s tax bill are the taxes levied by Manatee County and the taxes levied by the Manatee County school district. Short said property taxes levied by the city of Anna Maria only account for approximately 10% of a property owner’s total tax bill.
“I think this is something we can embrace and we might get some good out of it and we might be able to shave people’s tax bills,” Murphy said. “I met with a couple yesterday who showed me their tax bill of $50,000 for their home. They’re not homesteaded. They’re retirees from Atlanta. They built a house and didn’t take into consideration the tax implications. Granted, a lot of that is the school board and Manatee County, but a portion of it is ours. I think the push in the next budget year is to reduce our ad valorem taxes. If OPPAGA can help us do that, let’s do it. If we can reduce taxes, we can attract more people to live here,” Murphy said.
Commissioner Jon Crane said, “I’m going to exercise my right to be a little skeptical.”
During public input, Anna Maria resident John Kolojeski suggested the city do some legal research on annexation and whether the state Legislature can force a community to be annexed into another community.
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