- February 5, 2025
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Requested additions from the police and fire departments, along with a merging between public works and public utilities, have been important considerations as the Port Orange City Council plans for the 2019 general fund budget.
During a Thursday, July 12, budget workshop, council members voiced what they were and were not in favor of for the upcoming budget in preparation of setting a millage rate, which can be lowered but not raised and will need to be provided to the property appraiser.
City staff reported that public safety is currently making up for more than two-thirds of the fiscal year's 2019 base expenditures.
Fire department
On Thursday, City Council members discussed the possibility of adding an ambulance to the budget in order for the fire department to run calls. It's a topic of discussion that is not new to the table and has had divided opinions regarding the use of an ambulance.
Mayor Don Burnette said he would be in favor of adding an ambulance — currently set to cost $75,000 and require additional personnel for its operation — but said he wants City Manager Jake Johansson to "put in some conservative income estimates" knowing the ambulance would be in the rotation for calls of service.
Vice Mayor said that he was also in favor of adding the ambulance but wanted to have it in writing that it would be run as a closest unit response. Councilman Bob Ford and Burnette both questioned adding an ambulance to fill a county job. Ford said it would be duplicative performing a county function.
"It's not that I don't think we could do a good job with this. I think we could do a better job than them. My objection is simply this: that we're going to do this because the county’s not doing their job in our opinion," Burnette said, adding, "I have a problem with this government entity paying to do something that government’s already supposed to be doing."
Police Department
The police department has requested implementing new positions, among other needs, and included an evidence supervisor. Police Chief Thomas Grimaldi said this position would assist with the number of digital files that need to be processed, including video from body cameras. All council members were in favor of bringing on an evidence supervisor.
The department is also requesting the addition of three police officers along with gear and equipment. Grimaldi said these proposals have come up in order to keep up with the demand for services as the city grows. Additionally, Grimaldi would like to bring in a lieutenant position to help with supervision.
"More than 40% of our staff has less than three years on the job," Grimaldi said. "We have a very young department and a very inexperienced department. Field supervision is key; I'm a huge believer in field supervision."
Public works and public utilities
The merging of the public works and public utilities departments is expected to make what Johansson called an "organization change" in the budget. Since August of last year, the city has been operating without a public works director.
Johansson showed favor of the merger of public works and public utilities, saying that it would "further refine the two departments and fund them appropriately by the right enterprise fund."
Administrative Services Director Jamie Miller explained the proposal is to eliminate the director role as well as an administrative assistant role, two positions not currently filled, and instead request for two new positions — a generator mechanic and a crew chief.
Miller said that public utilities currently has 89 employees that report to that department, while public works has 54 employees that report to the department. Miller said that by having one less department and instead one subgroup but the same number of full-time employees is approximately a savings of $37,000 to the city overall, but it does involve multiple funds.
"Our goal was to make it fiscally responsible, gain efficiencies and, if possible, even improve service levels," Miller said.
Budget considerations
According to Assistant City Manager Alan Rosen, Volusia County is doing better than in 2010 due to unemployment being down by 70% and a large median household income.
Giving the council numbers to think about for the upcoming budget, Rosen said Port Orange has consistently ranked in the lower three or four cities within Volusia when it comes to millage rate. The city's current millage rate is the fourth lowest in the county where rates have a median of about 6.7 or 6.8.
However, due to inflation, Rosen said the same money will not go as far year after year. He added that one area this has been seen in involves contracts where an item is budgeted and contracts have come back more expensive.
Looking at taxable value, Rosen used the city of Naples as comparison, noting the city's tax rate amounts to about 1.5 through 1.8 with a taxable value of $27 billion and only 20,000 people. Rosen said this emphasizes that the more value a city has the less tax there is to make the same amount of money.
Homestead
Council members will also have to take into consideration homesteaded properties. Last year, there were 14,774 homesteaded properties, and this year there are 15,181, an increase of 407. Some of this is due to an increase in new parcels that people have bought and homesteaded. According to Rosen, 62.5% of the city's parcels are homesteaded properties, which means the value in those homes is capped.
Because of this, Rosen said the city needs to figure out the value of those homes and then apply the tax rate to it before calculating the revenue. However, even if the home value goes up 10% in one year, if that house is homesteaded it can only go up by 3% or consumer price index due to the Save Our Homes law.
"Think about what's going to happen next year if the change to the state law is made and there's an increase in exemption of $25,000 — you're going to see these numbers jump," Rosen said, referring to the Amendment 1 tax shift.
