Village of Indiantown

COUNCIL MEETING AUGUST 22, 2024

At her last meeting as a council member, Janet Hernandez said something interesting during the comment time. She said she was tired of overdevelopment. That is kind of interesting when the only large-scale development approved has been Terra Lago that she voted in favor. While other projects, both commercial and residential, are in the pipeline not much has changed. 86% of the village’s taxes still come from FPL as they have done since the village’s inception.

Mayor Gibbs-Thomas then said that if a municipality is not growing, it is dying. Of course, in the new current no-growth focus existing in the county, she may be speaking to herself. Once her resignation is final on October 31st, she will be the last of the original council. She resigned because of her unsuccessful run for county commissioner.

Of the taxable property value of $4,301,121, 85.5% of the revenue comes from personal property tax…almost exclusively from FPL. Only 5.4% is from residential property owners. This was all in the budget presentation.

Terra Lago begins to come online in 2025. The developers hope to sell the homes for $350,000. That will begin to diversify the tax base but right now only $151,697 is from single family homes and an additional $30,000 from multi-family according to the village finance director. Today only 10% of single-family residential parcels are valued at $200,000 or more.

Because of the water utility, the budget revenues and expenses look bigger than what is necessary to run the town. The entire non-utility budget is $7,906,000. The utility budget is a little over $3 million. They have $31,414,000 in their FY 24/25 Capital Improvement Plan. Most of it, of course, won’t be done (e.g., $1.3 million for parks).

You can see the presentation here 

There was a proposal to raise water and sewer rates for the first time since the village bought the utility. As we know prices have continued to increase over the past several years with inflation. It is no wonder that the utility needs to do something and fast. If they hadn’t voted in favor, then another loan to continue the upgrades would not be forthcoming from the state with interest at about 1%. The state also forgives 66% of the loan amount when repaid.

The sticky part is about late fees and deposits. The late fee is currently $5.00. They want to raise it to $30. There is also a matter of deposits going up if payment is past due 3 or more times in a year.

For some reason staff kept saying that there was no grace period, saying that a late fee was incurred if the bill was not paid by the 20th of the month. The manager told me that the bills were going out on the week of August 26th. They are due and payable immediately, but a late fee isn’t charged until the 20th of the next month if the bill is still unpaid. That in effect is the grace period of at least three weeks.

I believe the council was confused by the finance director’s repeated statements there is no grace period. A better explanation was needed. But all that Vice-Mayor Perez kept saying was that people can’t afford it.

Though it was Hernandez’s last meeting, she echoed Perez’s assertions. Palmer, who just recently took her seat, looks like she will be someone who won’t decide easily. She called for more meetings and workshops. This is at least the third meeting this has been discussed.

Dipaolo, who was participating remotely, made a motion to accept the proposed fee and deposit schedule twice but did not receive a second for either. Currently 20% of the utility’s customers are unpaid by the 20th when they receive a $5 late fee. It is hard for the utility to meet expenses with that many arrears. Supplying sewer and water is expensive. And just saying people can’t afford it is not responsible for the other 80% who are paying on time.

FPL or any other utility could not run without prompt payments. This is not responsible governing. There doesn’t need to be more meetings…only responsible governance.  But a meeting will be held on a Saturday to discuss the matter. Someone spoke and said no taxation without representation while looking at the council. What does he think the council is?

You can see the rate increases and fees here 

Lastly an Indiantown meeting wouldn’t be a meeting without further discussion of special events and the permits needed. They had more discussion…more discussion and more discussion. Hernandez, in her new role as unofficial “advocate,” will meet with Concerned Citizens of Booker Park and Palmer to work something out. I am betting it will be further concessions on parking, permit payment, and trash collection at the least.