CRESTVIEW — An error in TRIM, or Truth in Millage, notices sent to Crestview taxpayers — which resulted in the Okaloosa County Property Appraiser resending the notices — will slightly delay the 2015-16 millage and budget's final adoption.

“The notices came out with an incorrect rollback rate,” City Clerk Betsy Roy said. “The tax rate for last year was correct, and tentative millage rate was correct but the rollback rate was wrong.

“It was my mistake and fortunately I was the one that caught it before the process got completely done."

The “rollback” — the current year’s millage — would be the default millage rate if the City Council didn’t adopt a new millage and budget, she said.

The millage increases from 5.8466 to 6.9466 mils with the new fiscal year. Roy said Property Appraiser Pete Smith’s office cooperated with the city to reissue TRIM notices in time to meet state mandates to adopt the 2015-16 millage and budget by Oct. 1.

Roy estimates that sending new TRIM notices will cost less than $7,500.

“This was a mistake. It wasn’t a conscious, ‘We have to redo the TRIM,’” Roy said. “The property appraiser’s office has worked diligently to keep the cost as low as it can so it doesn’t cost the city as much.”

WANT TO GO?

The Crestview City Council's first budget hearing is scheduled for 5:05 p.m. Sept. 22. The final hearing will be during the regular council meeting Sept. 28.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Error results in Crestview re-issuing TRIM notices

CRESTVIEW — City workers may begin accumulating paid time off, commonly called PTO, in lieu of set sick leave and vacation time if the City Council approves a plan presented by City Clerk Betsy Roy.

"This takes away using sick leave for time off," Roy said during an Aug. 27 workshop. "If it's, 'I need a weekend and (my supervisor’s) all right with it,' it eliminates using sick leave for something it's not intended for."

City Councilman Joe Blocker sought assurance the proposal would not cause employees to lose any sick time or vacation they’d already accumulated.

"Sick leave and annual leave are the same, the hours are the same, there's absolutely no loss," Police Chief Tony Taylor said.

In a brief presented to the council, Roy said there is “a ‘perception’ that the employee will ‘lose’ time if they don’t take it” under the current policy.

“PTO sets the maximum amount of time that can be taken off during any fiscal year,” Roy stated in the brief. “This makes it a management issue rather than a payroll issue. Managers will be responsible for insuring that employees stay within the maximum allowed for each year.”

Roy said the new policy, if approved, would still permit city employees to donate leave to one another or take emergency leave.

A consensus of department heads and city councilmen showed they generally favored the proposal, which if approved at an upcoming council meeting, would be implemented Oct.1.

PAID TIME OFF

Under the proposed paid time off, or PTO, plan, Crestview city workers would receive the same number of combined sick leave and vacation time hours as the current policy allows.

Years of service     Firefighters’ hours         All other workers’ hours

Up to 2                   18 monthly/216 annual          11.34 hrs. monthly,136 annual

2 to 4                      22 monthly/264 annual            14.67 hrs. monthly/176 annual

4 to 6                      26 monthly/312 annual             18 monthly/216 annual

6 or more                32 monthly/384 annual              21.64 monthly/256 annual

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Crestview contemplates PTO plan for employees

CRESTVIEW — With more than 23,000 residents, Crestview remains Okaloosa County's biggest city. It's also Northwest Florida’s fourth-biggest city, behind Tallahassee, Pensacola and Panama City.

With room to expand, Crestview continues to increase the population difference between southern neighboring communities constrained by Eglin Air Force Base reservation and the Gulf of Mexico.

But with growth comes challenges when vying for federal and state grant money, city officials say.

“One of the things that is hindering us as a city is that we are in the bottom of population with cities competing for grants,” Public Works Director Wayne Steele said. “We are in the same category as Pensacola. We can't compete with them, especially in the matching funds requirements.”

When he said that during an Aug. 24 City Council meeting, Steele was referencing the Water Pollution Control State Rotating Funds program. It's the city’s primary funding source for wastewater treatment plant upgrades, sewer infrastructure improvements and storm water pollution projects.

“The grant-type loan is available for all size cities, but for those cities having populations smaller than 20,000,  they are entitled to priority use of 15 percent of all available loan funds,” Steele said.

Smaller cities also qualify for loans from the funds' remaining unreserved 85 percent, Steele said. “The remaining available funding — whatever percentage that may be — annually is basically competed for by all of the remaining cities whose populations are larger than 20,000,” he said.

“When we request things like grants, we’re being lumped in with cities of that size,” Mayor David Cadle said. “When it calls for matching funds, the city of Crestview is at a disadvantage because we don’t have that money available."

For example, the city is competing for two $50,000 Florida Recreation Development Assistance Program grants; they would benefit Community Redevelopment Agency projects for which there’s no local match requirements.

However, if the projects were lumped together as part of a larger plan, the city would have had to put up a 25 percent matching grant. For projects over $150,000, the city would have to find 50 percent matching funds.

“It was much easier for us when we were in the small cities target area,” Steele said.

NORTHWEST FLORIDA'S LARGEST CITIES

Rank   City   Population

1. Tallahassee: 185,784

2. Pensacola: 52,758

3. Panama City: 35,773

4. Crestview: 23,209

5. Fort Walton Beach: 20,719

6. Destin: 12,541

7. Panama City Beach: 12,000

Source: Florida League of Cities 2015-16 Municipal Directory

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Crestview's increasing population means competing with bigger cities for funds

CRESTVIEW — The Crestview Housing Authority anticipates flood damage from an April 2014 storm and construction of mitigation structures will be finished almost two weeks ahead of its 30-day schedule.

Crews from J. Miller Construction in Pensacola started work Aug. 26 on a massive washout between sections of Harry Booth Terrace, low-income housing on Laurel Oak Terrace and North Spring Street, respectively.

During the storm, water cascaded down a creek that runs through the development as well as from Anything Pawn's parking lot, eroding embankments and almost completely silting over the retention pond between the two housing sections.

Pond-side erosion threatened at least one of the development’s units, and possibly a second, Executive Director Judy Adams said.

“That was one of my main concerns,” Adams said. “If it had not been repaired, we would have had to displace families. And we might possibly have had to (demolish) some of the units and lose available low-income housing.”

The $85,500 mitigation project, which includes securing the creek’s channel and strengthening embankments, is funded by the federal Watershed Protection Program through the local U.S. Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service.

A key partner is the city of Crestview, Adams said, which provided in-kind matching funds through restoration of the retention pond, which completely silted over in the deluge, resulting in what is mostly now a green meadow.

Formerly 4-foot-tall fencing surrounding the pond is now less than 2-feet tall in some sections due to the volume of dirt that swept into the water.

Public Works crews will remove the sediment from the creek through the pond, which is more than 4-feet-thick in some spots, as the city’s contribution to the project.

“The city agreed to step in,” Adams said. “We appreciate what they’re doing. We as a sponsor cannot match our federal dollars to another federal grant, so it was a huge resource for the city to do this for us.”

The Crestview Housing Authority is funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and operates under a cooperative agreement with the city. The City Council appoints members of the authority’s board.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Crestview Housing Authority storm damage repair ahead of schedule (PHOTOS, VIDEO)