By Dale Martin
City Manager
Fernandina Beach
January 24, 2019 12:00 p.m.
With the City Commission scheduled to conduct its annual visioning session next week, let me offer some “food for thought” for you to possibly share your perspective with City Commissioners before Tuesday’s all-day session. All City Commissioners are very accessible through email and welcome your comments.
The City’s financial position remains strong. A healthy reserve (by City ordinance, required to be maintained at 25% of General Fund expenditures) is in place for unanticipated or emergency needs. Property values continue to rise, with the City’s previously high taxable value of $2,044,000,000 prior to the Great Recession now surpassed this year at $2,200,000,000. I expect that values will continue to rise, but perhaps not at the same 8-10% rate of the past two years. This translates into a stable millage rate (tax levy) for City property owners. City property owners are also affected by County and School District levies, but I cannot speak to those agencies’ fiscal picture.
The Commission’s visioning session is the necessary prelude for the next budget year. Although we are only four months into the current budget year (which begins on October 1), the process of preparing the annual budget is a lengthy journey. By hearing the issues, concerns, and comments of the Commission, City staff can explore the costs of various Commission concepts for review later in budget preparation.
I expect that the Commission (and the entire community) will continue to discuss the development of the waterfront. With the anticipated repairs to the marina and (what I perceive to be) the strong commitment and consensus of the current City Commission, I believe that a revitalized effort to create a waterfront park will begin to show tangible results. The process will still require synchronization and, most importantly, significant financial commitment. With no City Commission elections scheduled for this year (due to a City Charter amendment in 2015), I believe that this City Commission is well-positioned to address previously difficult political issues with more decisiveness and steadfastness.
An overlooked component of the City that will require more and more attention (read: money) is the condition of many key City structures. The Atlantic Recreation Center, the Martin Luther King, Jr. Recreation Center, both fire stations, and City Hall have reached critical stages with regard to repair or replace. Conceptual design work will begin this year for a new fire station, but other than the ongoing process to acquire the Centre Street Post Office to replace City Hall, little or no discussion or planning has been considered for the future of the other facilities. New facilities are expensive and significant community outreach will be necessary to determine what the community expectations are for renovated or new facilities.
Part of that community outreach will occur with another community survey. The community survey, developed by the National Research Center and the International City/County Managers Association, was first conducted in Fernandina Beach in 2017. The key results from that survey- strong support for pedestrian/bicycle trails and land conservation efforts have, in many ways, directed the current City Commission’s efforts (and some might argue, its composition and philosophy). Do not underestimate the impact and role of your responsiveness to the survey.
The survey will be randomly (selected through postal addresses) offered to City residents through a web portal (the previous survey was paper-based). This selection process is critical, primarily due to the fact that many area residents that believe they are City residents are, in fact, not. The City Commissioners must be able to distinguish the philosophy and issues of the residents that they most directly serve. Unlike the previous survey, after the collection of the randomly-selected and segregated City respondents, the survey will be available to the general public. The data from the collection periods will remain separated, but the open effort will allow for a review of a broader universe of respondents. I expect that the survey will begin within the next sixty days.
Maintenance of the City’s beaches will continue to be an issue of interest. Concerns regarding beach trash and beach infrastructure (walkovers, bathrooms, lifeguard towers and equipment) will require planning and funding. New cooperative efforts with Nassau County will greatly enhance efforts on the entire Island.
Land conservation is also a significant interest to the community. I expect that increased efforts to fund conservation will be a priority for the City Commission.
The City recently completed a detailed analysis of streets and pavement conditions throughout the City. This analysis will be utilized to develop a twenty-to-thirty year streets improvement and maintenance plan. Such a plan will provide a solid basis for budgeting street funding and enable residents to examine the City’s long-term plans for streets that most affect them.
The aforementioned projects represent only a few key City efforts from a staff perspective. I look forward to hearing the City Commission’s perspective and philosophy on these and other issues. I also look forward to supporting those efforts and assisting the City Commissioners in their efforts to enhance the quality of life in Fernandina Beach.