The Great Columbia County
Fire Rate Rip Off
Columbia County, FL (posted
Sept 14,
2009)
By Stew Lilker
Beginning in 2005 any person in Columbia County with
a more than five acre homestead has been ripped off by
the County Commission. The County has dragged its feet
on reviewing the fire rates for vacant land, while at
the same time giving huge savings to the largest
landowners in the county.
This double wide on 10 acres pays the same fire
assessment as Commissioner Bailey's father pays to have
a home on 147 acres.
For years, the Observer has observed the unfairness
of the fire rates and spoke out for change.
In Columbia County, if a person has a ten acre
homestead, which is common, they are charged two fire
rates: One fire rate for the first five acres (up to
5.999 acres), $77.00, and another rate for the other
four acres, which the county assesses as vacant land,
$69.58. The charge per acre for those four acres is
$17.40 an acre.
If you were Commissioner Stephen Bailey's father,
Emory Bailey, your rates for vacant land would be a
little different. According to the assessor's records,
Mr. Bailey Sr. owns a homestead of five acres connected
to 142 acres which he also owns.
Commissioner Bailey's father's fire rates go this
way. He pays $77 dollars for his five acre homestead.
Buried in the regulations of the county and approved
yearly is a rule that allows Mr. Bailey to connect his
parcels of 20; 10; 40; 40 and 32 acres, which total 142
acres. Commissioner Bailey's father pays $69.58 for his
fire protection on the 142 acres. That is $00.49 (forty
nine cents) an acre for fire protection. If Mr. Bailey
owned another 18 acres, his total fire protection bill
would not change, but his rate per acre would drop to
forty three cents an acre.
The
largest landowners in the county take advantage of
this County Commission manufactured loophole. County
Attorney Marlin Feagle and his family are one of the
largest beneficiaries of the County Commission's
largesse.
On
December 4, 2008 Lenvil Dicks, one of the county's
largest land owners came before the County Commission.
According to the board minutes, Mr. Dicks told the board
that assessing those with a vacant parcel of 160 acres
the same amount as a person with only 1/10 of an acre is
simply wrong.
Mr. Dicks recalled that it used to be that the fire
assessment was based on acreage, which he said was fair.
He asked the Board to reconsider the way property is
being assessed.
On May 5, 2009 the County Commission approved a
$7,500 payment to Nabors, Giblin and Nickerson to look
into the fire rates. GSG did the study.
The County Commission stonewalled the release of the
letter from GSG with the results of the study for
obvious reasons. Stonewalling records requests was
nothing new in Columbia County.
On July 30, 2009 in a
letter to County Manager Dale Williams, GSG said
they used fire call data from 2005. This was the year of
the first fire assessment. In that letter they
recommended "that the County review its recent call data
to determine whether or not the data exists to evaluate
and more appropriately allocate the fire department
costs to all property rate categories."
It is unknown why the CM Williams did not turn over
current call data to GSG. Clearly the county had this
data.
It is also not clear why the County ignored and
apparently did not turn over the acreage figures
compiled by the Tax Collector's office. These figures
clearly pointed out the inequities in the current method
of fire assessments and if used could have resulted in
savings for the working families of the county.
On September 3, 2009 there was a public hearing on
the special assessment for fire. The Board refused to
answer any questions regarding the fire assessment. The
only discussion was from Board Chairman Stephen Bailey,
who was upset because it was pointed out that his father
was getting a good deal on his assessment.
County Manager Dale Williams was a no show. (file photo)
County Manager Dale Williams could not answer any
questions regarding the GSG letter and the fire
assessment because he was not at the meeting.
During the public hearing the Observer asked
Assistant County Manager, Lisa Roberts where CM Williams
was. She said he was working on the budget.
On September 11th the Observer asked CM Williams if
it was true that he was at a football party during the
September 3, 2009 special assessment hearing.
County Manager Williams said, "I was home watching
the football game."