Putting the Public at Risk -
Part I: MSTUs
Lake City & Columbia County Don’t Disappoint.
Foot Dragging, No Information, Danger
June 7, 2026 10:05 am |
5
min read
AI Summary in a minute
Photo: Jon LCE via Unsplash
LAKE CITY, FL – The County continuing MSTU (Municipal Services Taxing Unit) mess spilled over into last Monday evening’s (June 1) City Council meeting. With City Attorney Clay Martin once again holding up the timely release of the City agenda, both the public and the City Council were ill-prepared to discuss the MSTUs, which were on the City’s docket for approval.
Columbia County’s MSTU promo team of County Manager David Kraus and County Attorney Joel Foreman appeared at the City Council meeting. According to Mr. Kraus, both City Manager Rosenthal and his assistant, Dee Johnson, told him the County was “to show up and answer questions.”
Politics has got y'all in this predicament, back-room deals have got y'all in this predicament, and now y'all want the city taxpayers to pay y'all out of it. I don't think we should do it.
— Sylvester Warren, Community Activist
Your reporter reached out to both City Manager Don Rosenthal and Assistant City Manager Dee Johnson for clarification on the agenda, as it stated the County would give a presentation. “Mum” was the word. Both of them ignored the outreach.
Public records show that City Attorney Clay Martin was again holding up the timely release of the agenda by leaving the Clerk’s Office and the City Manager hanging for resolutions and ordinances. Finally, at almost 3 pm on Thursday, May 28, City Attorney Martin provided the material. The City agenda is supposed to be circulated to interested parties and the public on the Wednesday preceding the meeting.
By Friday morning, May 29 (one business day before the meeting), the City appeared to still be waiting on the County for information. No further information was provided, and at almost 2 pm on Friday, the agenda was released, with both City MSTU ordinances (law enforcement and EMS) included.
Lake City’s 12th-hour agenda: unnecessary delay – disrespectful to the public
County Manager David Kraus explained that Columbia County faces a July 1 deadline and must adopt its own ordinance by June 18. The County needed to know whether the City would be opting in.
County Manager Kraus’ explanation of a balancing act, “If you increase the MSTU, we reduce the county taxes. It has a net effect of zero,” didn’t sit well with Councilman Jernigan.
Councilman Jernigan said, “I can't balance it out, you know, just like you say – one's here, and one's there – it balance (sic) itself out, but for some reason, it's not registered in my brain.”
County Manager Kraus carried on, “You'll have a decrease on your County tax equivalent to that increase on the MSTU, except when it comes to EMS, that would be a little different.”
”The County's' balancing act” was not registering in many people’s brains.
Mayor Noah Walker weighed in, asking, “What does this balance?”
The other half of the County MSTU duo, County Attorney Joel Foreman volunteered, “Let me give this a shot.”
County Attorney Foreman told the Council that taxpayers are already paying for law enforcement through existing County taxes, and that if the City chose not to participate in law enforcement MSTU, “City residents will actually see a tax reduction.”
It is unclear why City Attorney Clay Martin didn’t explain the law enforcement MSTU to the Council. Joel Foreman is not the City’s Attorney. Mr. Foreman is also not the County or City's financial advisor or public information officer. The City’s financial expert is supposed to be City Manager Don Rosenthal. He was out of town. However, he could have attended the meeting virtually and weighed in, or addressed a memo to the Council. He did neither.
Mr. Foreman’s EMS MSTU two-step was problematic. His explanation of a “hybrid public-private model” did not explain much of anything, other than that the North and South ends of the County lack adequate EMS service. (The City is in the middle of the County).
Mr. Foreman said, “It's a weird situation. You're right to struggle, and that's why I came.”
Spoiler Alert: No one in the County knows how the “hybrid public-private EMS model” would work.
A skeptical City Council
The City Council's reaction was skeptical of the compressed timeline. While Councilman Carter was especially critical of being asked to act quickly on a proposal involving a tax increase, Councilwoman Young and Councilwoman Harris also said they wanted more time and more information.
Councilman James Carter: "If anybody comes to the podium and says, 'Hey, listen, we got to do a thing, and it's going to cost the taxpayers money, and also we got to hurry up,' I'm going to pretty much say no to that every time."
Mayor Noah Walker made the case for a sales tax:
We have 70,000 people in town every day that aren’t citizens of Lake City and Columbia County that can help shoulder that burden.
Councilman Carter asked County Attorney Foreman, “What happens for the average citizen in Lake City if we do not opt into this for our EMS coverage… Is there a possibility that the County would no longer cover EMS within the city?”
Mr. Foreman answered,
If the City declined to participate in the EMS MSTU, I think we probably just wouldn't do the MSTU. We'd have to go a different route, a sales tax, something like that.
City’s Top Echelon:
The City Manager, Asst. City Manager, Police
Chief, and Fire Chief have kept the City in the
dark about the County’s failing EMS service and
the threat to its citizens
Prodded by Councilwoman Young, Police Chief Butler and Fire Chief Wehinger came to the microphone.
Police Chief Butler:
We often have to wait at least 20 to 30 minutes for an ambulance…we say seconds count… Just last week, we had a tragedy. A police officer, the deputy had to take a child in the back of the car, perform CPR, and race the child to the hospital because there was no ambulance coming... Unfortunately, the child didn't survive.
Fire Chief Wehinger:
• Even today, there were calls holding; that means no ambulances available to take those.
• I may be sitting with someone who's sick or ill, and then a fire happens, I can't leave that person.
• I would say daily you would hear 20-25-minute response times.
• We've got to have a change in our emergency medical services, because where we are now is not doing anybody in this public the service they deserve.
Coming in Part II: as the County 5 deals with the MSTU and EMS issues, their foot-dragging, poor planning, lack of decorum, and dysfunction are front and center.
Your reporter attended this meeting virtually
