CRESTVIEW — Okaloosa County Supervisor of Elections Paul Lux is one of three Florida SOEs  appointed to the Military and Overseas Voting Assistance Task Force by Chris H. Chambless, president of the Florida State Association of Supervisors of Elections.

The other two SOEs are David Stafford of Escambia County and Craig Latimer of Hillsborough County.

Lux said, "With all five service branches represented here in Okaloosa County, the work of this task force is essential to give us the tools to provide the best service we can to the very men and women defending the sacred right to vote. I am honored to be selected to serve."

In 2008, the Okaloosa County Supervisor of Elections conducted independent research efforts to gather data on needs of military and overseas voters from the county, leading to the formation of Our Mission, Your Vote, a digital platform available to overseas voters registered in participating Florida counties.

 Despite widespread advancement in technologies, Lux said, "We have been conducting absentee voting for our military much as we did during the Civil War. With today's technology we simply have to do a better job serving our military."

Okaloosa County currently leads a consortium of 34 Florida counties working together to provide state-of-the-art ballot access to uniformed service members, their families, and citizens living outside the United States through Our Mission, Your Vote. The challenge lies in making certain the ballots are received and counted by the close of the voting period. Lux said, "Now we have to work on how do we get their voted ballots back."

 The task force will study issues involving the development and implementation of an online voting system which allows overseas uniformed services voters to electronically submit voted ballots.

Task Force members are:

●The Secretary of State or his or her designee, who serves as chair

●The Adjutant General or his or her designee

●The executive director of the Agency for State Technology or his or her designee

●One member of the Senate appointed by the President of the Senate

●One member of the House of Representatives appointed by the Speaker of the House of Representatives

●Three supervisors of elections appointed by the Florida State Association of Supervisors of Elections

●Three individuals appointed by the Secretary of State who have relevant expertise in computers, the internet, or other associated technologies.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Okaloosa County Supervisor of Elections is on statewide voting task force

Some say impact fees stifle growth. Some say they’re needed to pay for growth’s impact on infrastructure. For more than three years they haven’t been collected at all. Now the fee waiver has expired. What’s next?

CRESTVIEW — When the economy faltered in the late 2000s, many communities, Crestview included, sought to stimulate growth by waiving transportation impact fees.

On April 29, the waiver expired, but without a decision on how to proceed, the fees weren’t being collected and both the city’s Growth Management Department and developers were in a sort of limbo.

At a May 26 special meeting, the City Council agreed to pursue an additional 16-month fee waiver period to allow Growth Management Department staff time to research construction costs, roadway indexing, synchronize capital improvement plans, “and just get the whole scheme of things in line,” Growth Management Director Teresa Gaillard said.

By state law, the city has to do the every-five-years study before it can pass an ordinance to waive or resume collecting traffic impact fees, Gaillard said.

“Most of the contractors are on hold,” she said. “They’re in limbo between their development order and purchasing permits.”

The prospect of the three-year fee waiver expiring spurred a development spurt as developers rushed to get their projects permitted before fees resumed.

“We had several commercial projects came through and secured development orders,” Gaillard said. “We’ve had them going on since the end of November. They all came in to make it before the end of the traffic fee waiver.”

INFRASTRUCTURE STRESS

Development contributes to stress on the city’s infrastructure, including state-owned highways 85 and 90, officials say.

But a substantial amount of that stress on Crestview’s streets comes from outside city limits, Public Works Director Wayne Steele said.

“The county has (permitted) almost 4,000 homes around Crestview in the last five years,” Steele said. “That is more than we built. We have other agencies around us that are allowing people to take up our capacity.”

Steele said impact fees are necessary to help mitigate development’s impact on local infrastructure, but some help is needed from Okaloosa County.

“If the county can allow development to occur in the rural areas right outside our limits, why should we ask our developers to carry that burden?” Steele said.

HELP AND HURT

Officials said impact fees can both help and hurt development. Major businesses, such as national chain stores and restaurants, factor local impact fees into construction costs.

“Sometimes those fees are enough to make or break a small company,” Gaillard said. “Your bigger people pretty much guesstimate when they’re planning. It’s the smaller companies the fees hurt. They’re not prepared to handle that amount.”

Steele said he doesn’t believe the fee waiver has spurred too much development as much as it has taken funds from infrastructure improvements.

“I haven't seen a lot of development happening here while we've had a moratorium,” he said.

And now developers are getting used to Crestview, Destin, Panama City and other neighboring communities scrapping their fees, Gaillard said.

“Traffic impact fees have pretty much been suspended or cities have come up with alternate funding mechanisms to fund transportation improvements where they don’t have to have traffic impact fees, and that’s going on statewide,” she said.

STUDY PERIOD

The 16-month fee waiver extension will be added to the 46 months the fee has already been waived out of the impact fee’s 85-month existence thus farm far, Gaillard said.

Crestview’s population is forecast to grow to 35,000 people by 2035, she said. It has experienced 41 percent growth since 2000.

“A fundamental requirement for economic growth is transportation management,” Gaillard said at the City Council’s May 23 meeting. “In order for us to prosper we need mobility and accessibility.”

“How can we complain about infrastructure and gridlock if we don't do anything?” Councilman Bill Cox asked. “We're dealing with issues now because previous councils have done nothing.”

Gaillard said projects currently on hold while developers determine what the council will do will probably move forward should the 16-month waiver be approved at a June 13 council meeting.

“By the time the projects we’re working on are worked through and ready for their permitting, the waiver will be in place,” she said. “If it had to happen sometime, now was a good time.”

Though the fees are waived until Sept. 30, 2017, the City Council has until July 31, 2017, to pass a new ordinance maintaining the waiver or reinstating the impact fees. Workshops will probably begin around April 2017.

“They’ll be looking at the figures and crunching options during workshops,” Gaillard said.

And in the meantime, Crestview will continue to grow.

Crestview has had traffic impact fees since May 2009. Of those 85 months, the fees have been waived for 46 months. Here’s how much revenue they have produced:

Fiscal year 2008-2009: $112,200

Fiscal year 2009-2010*: $180,419 ($292,619 balance)

Fiscal year 2010-2011**: $243,253 ($535,872 balance)

Fiscal year 2011-2012: $142,928 ($31,716 spent; $647,084 balance)

Fiscal year 2012-2013***: $17,820 ($664,904 balance)

Fiscal year 2013-2014: $0 (fee waived) ($664,904 balance)

Fiscal year 2014-2015: $0 (fee waived) ($30,643 spent; $634,261 balance)

Fiscal year 2015-2016: $0 (fee waived) ($6,075 spent; $628,186 balance)

*Fees waived first six months, 20 percent collected next three months, 40 percent collected last three months

**70 percent collected first six months, 100 percent collected last six months

***100 percent collected first three months; fee waived rest of year

Source: City of Crestview Growth Management Department

IMPACT FEE INCREASES PROPOSED

An April report recommends increases in the city’s traffic impact fees, which are currently waived.

“Everything we touched on about doubled and a quarter,” Growth Management Director Teresa Gaillard said. “But they’re waived until Sept. 30, 2017.”

Gaillard provided these examples showing what planned developments would have had to pay had fees not been waived, and what they would’ve paid under the proposed new traffic impact fees:

●Jimmy John’s: 1,250 square-foot sandwich restaurant: current impact fee (waived) $27,554

Proposed impact fee: $59,880

●Express Oil: 8,000 square-foot automotive shop: Current impact fee (waived): $17,552

Proposed impact fee: $38,272

●Single family dwelling:

Current impact fee (waived): $1,762

Proposed impact fee: $3,898

IMPACT FEES COLLECTED

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: The impact of Crestview's impact fees

LAUREL HILL — After a contentious debate over Mayor Robby Adams' use of his veto powers, two ordinances required to annex former Councilman Johnny James's property into the city were approved on 4-1 votes.

The ordinances must have second readings and approvals at the council's July 7 meeting to pass into law.

James, who was twice elected to the council, and his wife, Ernestine, have been trying for more than a year to have their property annexed into the city after it was discovered in November 2014 that it was actually adjacent to Laurel Hill's boundary.

The property was believed to have been annexed into Laurel Hill with other Robbins Road properties in the 1960s, but due to a clerical error, it was not included.

MAYORAL VETO

Adams vetoed Ordinance 320, which established the city's annexation procedures, informing the council of his decision by a letter read at the May 5 council meeting.

Adams said he would sign the ordinance after the James annexation was complete, assuring the annexation could occur under the city's former procedures.

However, upon researching the veto, Councilman Scott Moneypenny, who has consistently opposed the James property's annexation, discovered that by state statute, an ordinance passed by a municipal council goes into effect 10 days after passing unless vetoed within that time.

"The mayor did not notify the council until 29 days after the passing of the ordinance," Moneypenny. "The mayor had only 10 days, per state statute."

When city attorney Dan Campbell said it appeared Adams' veto was overturned, Moneypenny then said the James annexation couldn't take place because it was not consistent with the newly passed annexation procedures ordinance.

OUTCRY

"You've tried everything else to stop this annexation, which has cost the city more money than it should have," Councilwoman Debra Adams said. "He (James) has already submitted his papers…"

"He paid his money, too!" resident Jeff Senterfitt added.

"He began the process before 320 was in action," Councilman Travis Dewrell said.

"Mr. Johnny James come to the city hall," Senterfitt continued during a public comment period. "He wanted to be in the city. The man done everything he was told to do. Now Mr. Moneypenny, for some reason or other, is fighting it tooth and nail to not let this man become a citizen of Laurel Hill. I don't understand this thing. I don't know why.

"Let's get this behind us. We spent a lot of money that didn't need to be spent. It's going to end up in a legal battle, I assure you."

The council then approved, on 4-1 votes, first readings of ordinances approving the James's petition for annexation and approving a small scale amendment to the city's comprehensive plan adding the couple's property as low-density residential housing.

Moneypenny voted nay both times.

"We will consider the veto was invalid until we get something different from the attorney," Council Chairman Larry Hendren said, referring the matter to Campbell for clarification.

"So 320 is in place?" Dewrell asked.

"It is in place," Campbell replied.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Former Laurel Hill councilman's property closer to annexation (VIDEO)

CRESTVIEW — The Northwest Florida League of Cities has made it official: Crestview is excellent.

At the confederation of municipalities’ recent dinner, city officials were presented with a glass trophy recognizing Crestview’s livability.

“We received the 2016 Community Excellence Award for cities over 20,000 population,” City Clerk Betsy Roy said.

City Council President Joe Blocker called it a “prestigious moment” when Crestview’s name was announced for the award. Councilman JB Whitten accepted the trophy on behalf of Mayor David Cadle, who was delayed arriving at the event.

Whitten said one of the accomplishments the league found worthy of recognition was the Crestview Centennial Committee’s planning for the city’s 100th birthday celebrations.

“It was nice to be recognized in front of all the other cities,” Whitten said. “It was fantastic.”

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Crestview receives Community Excellence award

CRESTVIEW — After a comprehensive presentation by Okaloosa County officials, the Crestview City Council shifted their support behind the new courthouse orientation decision.

Three dozen residents filled the City Council chamber Thursday night for a special council meeting, during which County Commissioner Nathan Boyles and Public Works Director Jason Autrey described the process that led to rotating the new building's footprint clockwise to face the north leg of Main Street.

As a Main Street business and property owner and former member of the Historic Preservation Board, Boyles said he, too, was at first skeptical of the orientation away from the courthouse's traditional southern orientation down Main Street.

"I share a love of historic downtown Crestview," Boyles said. "I'm heavily invested in downtown Crestview."

But the courthouse's designers' technical review of site options, including an exhaustive analysis of how best to situate the new building, changed his mind.

"Their decision was rotating the building like they did in the '50s would take the best advantage of that site," Boyles said. "I went from being a skeptic to being a supporter."

REQUIREMENTS

Autrey said the building's requirements drove its site situation.

"We spent the majority of the upfront time saying, 'What did the building need?'" he said.

For starters, to allow growth, the new, four-courthouse building will be 68,000 square feet, surpassing the current courthouse's 42,000 square feet.

Despite diligent efforts and much brain-wracking, the plan could not be wedged into the site's limited property. Noting that the current building is already rotated clockwise from the original 1918 courthouse, designers recommended further rotation to take full advantage of the site.

"The building is set back 60 feet from Main Street," Autrey said. "You will see the columns when you approach it, but you won't be looking right at the front. The best part of it is, if we ever want to expand, go right ahead."

PRAISE

Council members were pleased with the detailed explanation and presentation of design renderings prepared to show actual vantage points from downtown streets toward the new courthouse.

The belated presentation also smoothed some feathers ruffled when councilmen and members of the public felt the decision to approve the orientation was pushed through at county commissioners' Shalimar meeting earlier this month.

"I liked what we had tonight," Councilman JB Whitten said. "I would've liked to have had that before the vote took place."

"If I had seen this presentation before last Monday's meeting, I might have been a little more swayed," Councilman Doug Faircloth said.

"We needed to know the facts before we jumped the gun," Councilman Shannon Hayes said to Boyles and Autrey. "I really respect you for coming here. I really think in your heart this wouldn't have become such a big issue."

Okaloosa County Public Works Director Jason Autrey offered these factors that led to the decision to rotate the new Crestview courthouse to face Main Street's north leg.

●Improved access to mechanical areas

●Adjacent cell tower separation

●Circulation/facility access

●Entrance toward Main Street

●Maximize parking

●Preservation of 50-foot oak tree on north side

●Potential expansion

●Security

●Underground utilities currently running through site

●View from Main Street

COURTHOUSE SITE CONSIDERATIONS

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Crestview council adds support for courthouse orientation

CRESTVIEW — The Crestview City Council will meet 5 p.m. May 26 at city hall, 198 Wilson St., N.

Here is the special meeting's agenda.

1. Call to order

2. Pledge of Allegiance

3. Public opportunity on council propositions

4. Presentation from the public

a. Okaloosa County Courthouse

5. Items for discussion/consideration

a. Traffic impact fees

b. Ordinance 1603 – traffic impact fees

6. Comments from the audience

7. Adjournment

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Crestview City Council special meeting agenda: May 26

CRESTVIEW — The Crestview Community Redevelopment Agency will meet 6 p.m. May 26 at city hall, 198 Wilson St., N.

Here is the meeting's agenda.

1. Call to Order.

2. Pledge of Allegiance.

3. Public Opportunity on Board propositions.

4. Items for Discussion/Consideration.

a. Extension for current CRA / Main Street Director's Contract.

b. Meeting date: RFQ presentation.

5. Comments from the audience.

6. Adjournment.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Crestview Community Redevelopment Agency agenda: May 26

CRESTVIEW — The City Council unanimously approved a request by the Crestview Fire Department to lease two new Pierce Saber pumpers.

The fire trucks’ seven-year lease will cost $902,880, and includes quarterly preventative maintenance by Ten-8 Fire Equipment of DeFuniak Springs.

Also included is three days of training on the new trucks by factory authorized technicians.

Following the final payment on June 23, 2023, the city can acquire the trucks for $1 or return them to Pierce and lease new equipment.

Fire Chief Joe Traylor said acquiring the new fire engines will allow his department to retire older equipment, including a 1985 truck, and to plan for the city’s expected growth.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Crestview council OKs fire trucks lease

CRESTVIEW — The new county courthouse's rotation westward raised concerns and condemnation at the City Council's Monday evening meeting.

By a 3-2 vote at its May 17 meeting, the Okaloosa County Board of Commissioners voted to accept the project developers' recommendation to align the new building parallel with Main Street rather than facing south as its two predecessors have done for nearly 100 years.

Critics of the decision—including city councilmen, Main Street Crestview Association and Crestview Historic Preservation Board members—say the public was not shown the new site plan before it was hastily adopted at the meeting in Shalimar. Commissioners Carolyn Ketchel and Kelly Windes cast the dissenting votes.

Both of North Okaloosa County's commissioners, Nathan Boyles and Wayne Harris, embraced the new plan.

In an interview with the News Bulletin, Boyles explained, “The site was very constrained, and there are utilities on the site that had to be taken into consideration.”

Crestview councilmen directed Mayor David Cadle to send a letter to the commissioners requesting an opportunity for residents to contribute to the debate at the commissioners' June 7 meeting, which will be in Crestview.

"There is concern by the citizens of Crestview and the City Council as to why this change occurred," Cadle said.

LAST-MINUTE CHANGE

Former councilwoman Linda Parker said despite the Historic Preservation Board working with commissioners for more than a year and half, board members only learned about the new courthouse orientation shortly before the Shalimar meeting.

"The site plan is very, very different from what was implied," Parker said. "The issue that the front of the building would be on the west side, this was never understood by anyone."

"It has always been situated so that if you come up Main Street from the south, you are looking at the front of the courthouse," Councilman Doug Faircloth said. "Now they want to change that so you're looking at the end of it."

Faircloth also had another concern.

"This also puts the (Okaloosa County) Veterans Memorial off to the side," Faircloth said. "It's not the main feature anymore as you approach the courthouse."

"I think our citizens are looking for a reason (for the reorientation) and it's incumbent on our county commissioners to be as transparent as possible," Councilman Shannon Hayes said.

"Since it seems to be an issue that has risen in our city—and the courthouse is in our city—I think we as citizens are owed an explanation."

"The commissioners came in front of us and made a very good presentation of what it was going to look like and had us all on board, but then made the change and never came back to us," Councilman JB Whitten said. "We never had that opportunity, no presentation."

RESIDENT INPUT

"I believe the citizens of this town have the responsibility, the opportunity and the obligation to let the county commission know what our desire is," Council President Joe Blocker said.

"This is our city….I want the architects and our county commission to know how the citizens of Crestview, Florida, feel about the location of this courthouse…. We didn't order a red one for them to give us a pink one. We're not going to buy this."

Parker said like the Historic Preservation Board, the Main Street Crestview Association and the City Council, the public was not apprised that the new courthouse would not face south.

"The public did not know. You can't complain about a problem if you don't know you have a problem," she said, encouraging residents to attend the June 7 meeting and let commissioners know their thoughts.

"If we don't pack this room here and we don't speak to this, they're not going to understand that we in Crestview see this as a problem. We need to be there and we need to have our neighbors there."

City leaders encourage residents to attend the Okaloosa County Board of County Commissioners' 8:15 a.m. June 7 meeting and voice their opinions on the proposed new courthouse's orientation. The meeting will be held at the Crestview City Hall council chamber.

WANT TO GO?

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Crestview City Council blasts new courthouse orientation

CRESTVIEW — The Crestview City Council will meet 5:30 p.m. May 23 at city hall, 198 Wilson St., N.

Here is the special meeting's agenda.

1. Call to Order

2. Pledge of Allegiance

3. Open Special meeting

4. Public Opportunity on Council propositions (any items not under public hearing)

5. Staff reports:

a. Ordinance 1605 – First reading — Comprehensive Plan Amendment 16S2

b. Ordinance 1606 — First Reading — Rezoning of 1.03 acres (16S2)

c. Discussion/approval of Fire Equipment Lease

d. Drainage Easement – Gil-Ava Street Drainage Restoration Project 2015

6. Public Hearings:

a. Ordinance 1604 – Administrative Fees — Second Reading

7. Comments from the Audience

8. Adjournment

Note: Citizen Business is business that was submitted by a citizen or group of Citizens no later than the Wednesday prior to the meeting to the Clerk's office for approval. 

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Crestview City Council agenda for May 23 special meeting