At the tail end of a five-year stretch doubled stormwater fees for Palm Coast residents, the City Council is set to yet again increase monthly fees by another 75 percent over the next five years, approximating some residents’ city tax burden by then.
In 2018 residents were paying a monthly fee of $11.65. They are now paying $22.27. Based on the plan the council will adopt later this month, the monthly bill will rise 27 percent on Oct. 1, to $28.34, a $73 increase for the year.
The rate will continue to increase annually, to $39.10 a month (or $470 a year), by 2028. By then, residents will have seen their stormwater rate increase 236 percent between 2018 and 2028.
“Stormwater is right up there with road surfacing and everything else. It’s an essential, integral part of the budget you just can’t deny and you can’t get away from,” Mayor David Alfin said. The city has the record to prove it: in its quarter-century existence, reports of any home flooding are rare to non-existent as a swale and canal system continue to drain neighborhoods effectively. But the system is old. The city is in a constant race to stay ahead of potentially catastrophic failures.
Rather than assert the fact and move on, Alfin and Council members Ed Danko and Theresa Pontieri spent a large part of the hour-long debate over the new rate schedule on Tuesday trying through various contortions to make the increase look less than it is. They settled on equally contorted language that will be included in the city’s strategic action plan, pledging that the council will review the rates and the stormwater budget and project list annually.
The language will note whether reviews could show if some dollars have been saved and could be shifted to the following year, potentially limiting that year’s rate increase. (Such shifts happen now, without lowering rates, since some projects straddle fiscal years, and lowering projected rates could affect subsequent years’ capital plans.)
At Pontieri’s insistence, the language will include a provision that past the five-year span, residents will not again be socked with yet another batch of rate increases. From 2028 on, the rate increases would be limited to 2 percent or thereabout, to account or inflation. The language will also take account of assuring lenders and bond holders, who finance a significant portion of the stormwater fund, that their revenue will not he affected. It was that condition that won Pontieri over to the majority for passing the rate schedule.
But the projected annual rate increases are no longer in dispute.
The exception to that consensus was Council member Nick Klufas, the only member of the council who was on the council in 2018, and who voted then for the doubling of the rates. “It’s fruitless,” he said, after attempting to stop his fellow council members from what he saw as “handcuffing” future councils with language that could stop them from raising rates beyond inflation.
In fact, just as this council is getting ready to override the 2018 resolution Klufas himself had voted for with an even steeper rate increase kicking in next October, whatever the current council writes in its documents, a future council may undo. The only exception is the city charter, where changes are made by referendum and do not include such things as utility rates.
Still, none of the council members were embracing the proposal so much as resigning themselves to it.
“My heart is palpitating still,” Alfin said. He wanted to know what catastrophic consequences there would be if the council stuck to its current schedule of raising stormwater rates to $23.95 net fall, instead of to $28.34.
Cote presented the new rate structure alongside Murray Hamilton of of Raftelis Financial Consultants, the firm the city hired to write the rate study. Hamilton’s original plan had rates rising 102 percent over the next four years. The council could not stomach that increase and required a scale-back. Hamilton and Cote provided it.
A proposed canal dredging crew was reduced from five workers to one, who would address “spot locations within the canal systems that impede the utility functions,” Hamilton said. That employee would start in 2025 instead of a five-person crew starting in 2027. The plan eliminates one of two loans for equipment, reducing expenses by $300,000 a year. The plan removed two waterway projects from the work list, and it removed the addition of two swale maintenance crews. All that would reduce operating expenses by $3 million a year, but only by the fifth year of the five-year plan, and principal and interest payments for loans would be reduced by $2 million a year.
The current monthly stormwater rate for a single-family house is $22.27. When Danko asked about the proposed percentage increase over five years, Hamilton, rounding down, told him 75 percent. Then, with what seemed like remarkable indifference to cost increases for many families that live paycheck-to-paycheck, Hamilton sought to minimize the gravity of the increase by claiming that the sharp increase was in the “eye of the beholder: these are small dollars. So any time you have an increase in the small dollar, that percentage is great.”
“Even though this looks like a huge increase in five years, there’s a good chance that maybe it won’t be a huge increase when we get to that five year period,” he said.
While Alfin told him that the headline “is already written,” Klufas seemed to ridicule both when he said that when his council in 2018 approved the doubling of fees, it wasn’t concerned about headlines, but about addressing infrastructure needs.
Again, as in most previous discussions on stormwater funding, at no point did Cote note that the property tax rate includes a stormwater component, but that the rate has been cut, year after year, and replaced by stormwater fee increases. Those increases are not only to account for a backlog of works, but to account for the shift away from paying for stormwater projects through the property tax–and to artificially lower the property tax, giving residents the impression that their taxes are remaining low. In reality, residents are simply paying out of a different, more regressive pocket.
The stormwater rate is little different than a tax, and rate increases little different than ta increases for residents’ budget. But by calling it a “fee,” it allows council members like Danko–who has pledged to drink anti-freeze before raising taxes–to still claim that he’s not approving a tax increase. The graph above illustrates how deceptive the claim can be in relation to stormwater fees.
Pontieri and Alfin suggested that the increase was prompted by neglect. Cote disagreed. “I’m not sure if it’s necessarily been neglected,” he said. (How could it have been, considering the near doubling of the stormwater fee residents have been shouldering since 2018?)
“Part of the challenge that we face is a lot of this went in at the same time. So it’s not that it was neglected, it’s that we have a massive system aging together,” Cote said–essentially the same thing the council heard in 2018, when it approved the doubling of fees over the next five years. “I don’t think there’s been necessarily neglect. I think when we presented this in 2018, we presented three options. One was pretty much just a little bit more than what we’re doing today. Then we had an enhanced program, and then we had maybe a super enhanced program. The council at that time went with the middle program.” Now, he said, “that middle plan wasn’t keeping up with our failure rate and our maintenance of our system and costs have gone up. So now we’re at the point where, yes, we need to ramp up our efforts a little bit to catch up and not fall behind because we’re falling behind on some of our failures or aging of our system. And we need to address our inflation cost increases.”
It was at that point that Pontieri asked the obvious question: Would the adoption of the five year plan allow the city to catch up–and not result in yet another ask for more increases, “so that in five more years, we’re not hitting our residents again with another astronomical increase,” she said, “because in my mind, this is a lot of money for stormwater a month, after these five years.” She floated the limit to a 2 percent increases per year after the next five years’ increases, prompting Klufas’s opposition.
But Alfin saw the opening: if Pontieri was willing to vote for the increase with mere verbiage added to the strategic plan, he’d seize the moment.
“If we had that verbiage, when we adopted the enhanced stormwater program back in 2018, we would be handcuffed today and not be able to make these type of level of changes,” Klufas said, recalling recent developments requiring more spending on infrastructure. “So for the two and a half percent increase, which would have left us high and dry, no pun intended, I just don’t think that it’s something that we should be doing as far as handcuffing the future councils.”
That presumes knowing all the future unknowns, which is not credible, Klufas said.
Hamilton cautioned the council: just because there’s a surplus one year doesn’t mean it could enable the lowering of the projected rate the following year, because stormwater projects can stretch over more than a year. An annual review would also require the city’s consultants to provide annual analyses to ensure that debt servicing is unaffected. Cote preferred a review based on the possibility of the city receiving unexpected revenue which could, in turn, help rates increase by lesser amounts.
Alfin called that chance “unrealistic,” however. “You’ll have to come back to me and show me that there’s some magic money out there,” Alfin said, “that there are leprechauns in the field that are expelling magic golden coins because God love you, if you could find something. But you’d have to tell me where that’s coming from before I believed it.”
The next day, Palm Coast learned that its magic golden coin-expelling leprechaun in Tallahassee, Rep. Paul Renner, the House speaker, had secured $1.25 million for one of the city’s weir replacements, knocking that cost out of the stormwater fund’s needs.
Can not stand it says
WHAT? and they sit there and smile! These morons need to go, and this city is going to self-destruct. I am looking to get out of this city!
Dan Beasley says
just curious, why raise fees when you have approved thousands of new homes that will bring in thousands of new dollars to the cofffers. There is a limit to what taxpayers will tolerate.
Atwp says
Palm Coast city government is bad.
Jimbo99 says
I’d buy into this need to raise taxes, if we were going to end up with something better than what the swale storm water system is. But we’re going to end up with the same swales that are currently in front of everyone’s homes that will fill, soak up & drain rain water as they always have. This is probably the cheapest alternative, short of a storm water drain system throughout Palm Coast, if not Flagler county. Where are the growth & impact fees as local government continues to approve growth ? They aren’t collecting enough of that up front with sufficient funds to ever pay for anything for infrastructure improvements.
Most every photo I see of swale water accumulation is an individual property is a swale that is functioning as it was intended really. There are properties that have a pipe & driveway that is elevated and those usually sandwich one property that has just a driveway with no pipe to clog, it’s just a small water trough of a channel. Recent global warming articles (FlaglerLive), the water is a byproduct of global warming, more specifically growth that this area can’t absorb. Those pipes, there’s usually debris in there blocking the flow. And then there’s the dirt & sand that accumulates & grows at the ends of the pipes. I know this because I’ve seen it first hand at my property. I’ve even cleared those of children’s toys. There’s nothing that raising the taxes is going to do short of clearing those pipes, because somehow the ground, planet Earth is not going to become more water absorbent. As the swale system is, every street would have to be altered for sidewalks & storm drains like a traditional city storm water system has. That’s no solution either. Those clog & the properties swale fills to appear to be flooded. In a day or two, that’s gone, all is right with planet Earth again.
A traditional storm drain system isn’t a guarantee. Is South Daytona or even Broward County storm flooding tell us that there is no place for that much water to be diverted ? I think people are overreaching & overreacting to a puddle in front of their house whenever the worst of the rain storms pass thru. They go down to the council meetings and lobby their way into getting something done that is ineffective. And then they’ll complain that the next rain brings similar standing water in the same swale they’ve always had.
Fernando Melendez says
I think some bold rethinking on this one is definitely needed. Carl Coti and staff must come back with a better proposal that doesn’t hit the residents pockets that hard. I applaud all city council members including Mayor Alfin for being very vocal and against the rate hike with the exception of one very silent council member that seems to not know the time of day or remembering to represent our District 4. All others were adamantly looking to challenge staff.
jeffery c. seib says
My observations were somewhat different than former candidate Melendez. The mayor and two other council members made a big fuss, essentially over nothing, as they knuckled under the staff’s so-called recommendations for the huge fee increase. Two council members said little because it was a forgone conclusion that residents will be paying more and more. Why didn’t mayor Alfin or the other two make a motion to get these major funding needs into the regular city operating budget. Is it because they know they won’t be around long when huge tax increases are put in the budget by city staff.
Carol Caso says
This huge rate increase is due to years of neglect. Our house was built 20 years ago and we have had absolutely NO maintenance to the swales on our block. Now that we have new homes built, with shallow swales from the builder’s new development, we have standing water for weeks for mosquitos to breed . Finally after imposing a huge rate increase the city if finally going to re-do our swale and dig up our expensively maintained St. Augustine grass and make the swale deeper to handle the flow from the new homes that have been built and the new one almost completed next to us. Our utility bill use to be 89.00 a month. We are actually only using 23.00 a month in water, yet our bill this month is almost 150.00 and you want to impose even more monthly fees over the next 5 years. WHERE ARE THE IMPACT FEES FROM THE NEW HOMES GOING TO??? Now you also want us to pay for the dredging of the canals. Residents who do not live on a canal should not be subject to pay for the luxury of prestigious living on a canal. If our Mayor and council had thought about the welfare of the Senior Citizens in our city before awarding themselves a huge pay increase without the votes of the residents and put some of that money toward our city services you wouldn’t have to attack the home owners with these exorbitant rate fees, – especially when we don’t even have public sewage in our area. We rely on a 20 year old pep system, – that, has only been serviced once when we had to call last fall during the 3 day power outage during Hurricane Ian. — No other area in town was affected by power outages, – yet we were without power & use of our shower & toilets for 3 days, – cause we don’t have public sewage even though we pay for it. This city is very primitive, yet, you want to spend money and develop land to the “Westward frontier” How about our area?? How do you expect Senior Citizens to continue to live in Palm Coast when you keep developing with more and more homes and no road improvements or stores or businesses for the people? Or better yet, improve our areas first before developing fancy new developments with public sewage, paved roads, lighting, curbing etc. I know you want the impact fees, but where is the money going to? By continuing to build homes without stores, and businesses, you will be building more schools for us seniors to pay for too. Think about improving the existing areas before building the Westward Frontier.
john stove says
You need to educate yourself on the city’s Storm Water system…..the salt water canals are a key part of the drainage for the city and not only handle storm water runoff from the C and Parts of F section, but also drain large fresh water canals from West of Palm Coast Parkway. Residents of C and F section who live on these canals are tired of all the dirt, sediment and debris that are deposited in the salt water canals after every storm. Salt Water canals are owned, operated and controlled by the city and as such they are responsible for any identified maintenance needs.
Denali says
Not true. Talk about educating one’s self? Palm Coast Parkway runs east/west. It has no “large fresh water canals” to its west. Perchance you meant I-95? As for other areas west of I-95 (if that is what you really meant), the area south of Hwy 100 drains into Bulow Creek and the “drainage ditches” in the “P”, “R”, “E”, “W”, and Town Center drain into Graham Swamp. None of these areas come close to your salt water canals. Canals I would remind you were dug in the creek beds provided by Mother Nature, specifically the Big Mulberry and Long Creek. Additionally those canals were dug to entice purchasers to the area, not for the benefit of the residents west of I-95. In fact, the western portion of the “F” section and the “B” section would drain just fine if your houses and canals had never been built. Mama Nature did it for thousands of years before the “C” section was ever conceived.
pete says
The swales in front of the new home should be done when the builder has a final grade on the lot. It should not be up to the city to have to go and make it drain
Jimbo99 says
You know what else I see here ? Raising taxes on the rest of the community to pay for the dredging of canal intracoastal properties from that storm water (Florida Park Drive). They need to tax those C-Section & F-Section locations instead of passing the cost onto those that are *-Section landlocked property owners. Unfortunate those areas need dredging, Too many don’t benefit from dockage & water front views, we should not have to bear the cost of that. Same holds for the nonsense of building on swamp land.
This really comes across as the laziest & shiftless of ways to spread the burden of the tax increases on those that have no/zero stake in those properties. It’s just like those that live for ocean view properties. Those are the hidden costs of that lifestyle. Properties are more expensive up front for a purchase price, maintaining that property falls on the homeowner. Especially when there are airBNB’s generating revenue that can pay for those. I’m sure there are plenty of homes on he canals of the intracoastal that are rentals just the same. If you’re a luxury home slumlord and rental property whore, the rents charged should reflect the additional costs of dredging the canals for any boat/dockage and the immediate residentials surrounding those canals that contribute to the dredging issue, they need to pay their shares. And I’m already on record there for additional school burden for being taxed. Those with children need to pay more, the schools are there for their children, not those that don’t have children. Officers & Guns on campus, same thing, charge the parents for that program. Their children, their gun violence & bomb threats.
There seems to be a disconnect with local government on property lines & where they are located, what applies as a problem specific to a certain class of homeowner. While I do occasionally visit the beaches & intracoastal like so many others, it’s infrequent & I am limited & restricted to commercial or park locations for public access. Something we all are taxed for or pay in terms of the products & services consumed for those visitations. Wit the growth of Palm Coast, the wooded lots are leveled, the experts underestimating that trees absorb water like human beings need fresh water. Grass yards & concrete slabs isn’t the same environmental positive that a forest of trees, grasses for open fields is. When replenishment is done for the swampier FL lands, they take elevation in the form of dirt from inland, creating an environmental nightmare where there wasn’t one. Are we back to the open border crisis and you know who (Biden-Harris) for overutilization & overpopulation. of existing infrastructure. Or is it the domestic population shifts from Blue to this Red State ?
john stove says
These salt water canals are part of the city’s storm water system an carry storm and fresh water canals draining “landlocked” parcels in F and other sections. The city took over responsibility for these canals when they formed the City, made it part of the storm water system, include it in their permits to the ACOE and FDEP so you cant just ignore any maintenance needs now when it is inconvenient. C section and F section neighbors with salt water canals are tired of seeing all the mud, sediment and trash being deposited into the salt water canals.
TR says
More money thrown at a system that doesn’t work. It may have worked back in the day but with all the houses being built and the disruption of the grade, the water never flows anywhere the way it should. I have been dealing with the storm water dept for years. I live on a corner (since 1997) and in the beging when I bought my house the swales worked great. Then came the first boom in the mid 2000s and the water drainage got worse with every new house. the city came and redid the swale at the end of the 2000s and made it worse. The biggest problem now is a lot and drivers cut the corner ruining the swale. In fact just two weeks ago a woman came around the corner and drove right into the swale without slowing down and got stuck. She tried to go forward and reverse but just made things worse. She had to get towed out leaving two large ruts in the swale because it was the day after we had a very heavy rain and the ground was so soft which is why she got stuck. The bad thing is the city redid the swale less than a year ago. So now it’s screwed up again. Maybe the city should make the woman pay for the city to come out and fix what she messed up. But I doubt they will do anything except have my rate go up. The other sad part is she admitted to the cops that she was talking on the phone which is against the law in Fl. and they didn’t issue her a ticket. People need to be held accountable for their stupidity and ignorance.
I thought the city was going to go after the owners of the undeveloped lots bringing in more than $5 mil a year? I guess they realized they wouldn’t have any leg to stand on collecting the money and the city doesn’t want to put all those liens on the people’s property that don’t pay.
One last thing, My house is the 9th house in of the main street. There is a main drainage drain at the beginning of the street. The city morons have the grade for the first three houses going into the main drain and the rest flow down the street to my house, around my lot and to the street behind my house and down that street (another 9 houses) to the cul da sac and into the large drainage at the end of the street. Oh and guess what it.s the same main drainage ditch that is at the beginning of my street. I have explained to the city that they should take the pitch from my back corner property line and pitch it the other way to go to the beginning of my street, and then the other 9 house could stay the same. that would still put all the water in the same main drain and not leave water sitting in the swale for weeks at a time. I’ll said it again, the city council and the people who run any dept in this city are morons with the biggest one being the Mayor.
Tony says
Really so they going fix everything it floods everywhere besides the rich spots they are pos and roads too potholes sinkhole a main water burst and didnt fix for two years sinkhole
Joseph Barand says
The city has no idea of the daily release of tax, fee increases has on residents. How much of the proposed increases are attributed to consultants and other outside influences. Seems that the city has zero ability to plan, schedule and perform anything without those outlandish dollars going to vendors, consultants, engineering and legal firms. The city needs to live within it’s means. These types of increases will turn Palm Coast into a Ghost Town.
John says
Joseph you are so correct, they spend our money hiring outside consultants. It is obvious they don’t know what they are doing, They need to go.
dianne says
Where is our vote..the taxpayers of Palm Coast? Five people are deciding what this city needs..seems really bogus….we are being priced out of this city….Whose pockets are getting filled with the passing of all these new taxes and fees…STOP THE BUILDING
Deborah Coffey says
But, that’s how democracy works. Five people were elected by the people. If they don’t like what those 5 people are doing…stop voting for Republicans! It should be obvious by now that they can’t govern at any level of government.
Shark says
My swale has been dug out three times in the past ten years and it is still a breeding ground for mosquitos. Before they give them any money they should make sure the people working there are aware of the fact that water flows downhill!!!!
John says
The City raised it years ago to fix the swells and they never got done, so here we go again where they will take that money and not fix the problems. The City Officials need to either go or start doing their jobs.
dave says
That’s ok we all know its do to give Palm Coast the money ” Palm Coast’s growth aspirations boosted by expected $54 million in state budget projects” . And it’s going to get bigger. A lot bigger. Palm Coast may be a top 20 city in the state by 2050, a projection embraced by Mayor David Alfin. University of Florida researchers peg Flagler’s growth rate at 48% by 2050. Palm Coast represents 78% of Flagler County’s population, so if that proportion remains the same, the city’s population figures to top 142,000 by then.
Time to get now while you can.
Tony says
It’s unfortunate that so many incompetent people are employed by this city. Before they dig they pay someone to mark where underground wires are and when they come out they just dig them up. I never had a problem in front of my home until they did the work. Five people standing around and one working.
oldtimer says
When you level a lot and remove trees and underbrush and replace them with a concrete slab for a house that is less natural drainage. The city needs to pump the breaks on development or soon we’ll be just another Daytona.
jeffery c. seib says
How can anyone think the stormwater problems just became apparent right now? This has been going on for years, forever. The infrastructure of the stormwater system needs constant monitoring and repair. Residents should look at the swales and drainage structures in their neighborhoods to see what we all can surmise, that the system is used heavily, and in need of continual maintenance. The city has let the system go and now the chickens have come home to roost. Councilman Klufas called it right, given the way Palm Coast government is run, ‘the band-aid’ method, we residents will be seeing higher and higher stormwater fees forever. This item needs to go into the regular city operating budget. The fee system is a joke. For the impact costs for all the new homes the city cut the impact fee in half some years ago at the developer’s request to help sell more homes, so it is nominal. I’m guessing the current city council won’t raise it ever.
PB says
Maybe I should feel sorry for our politicians. Maybe one or more gives a crap. All I really know is I vote and if you are in power and continue to steal my money, your ass is gone!!!
Steve says
Keep voting for the crooked repubs year after year and this is the result. Old geezers pay attention to who you are voting for. You did this to yourself.
Dan Beasley says
i see you are really into the koolaid the dems are pushing. Hows that Biden thing working out for you. Enjoy paying 4.00 per gallon for gas this summer.
JustJoe says
So petty of people to be penny wise and pound ignorant, your home is worth nothing if it’s under water. Under 100 bucks over a year should be paid by the new folks moving into Palm Coast, not we who live here and are tenured residents. Next they will figure out that adding all these new homes, and crappy condos that are going up without any insulation.. lol wait til they get the air bill..
Denise says
Hold on a minute… What about the $100 million dollars that Flagler County May be getting… for projects such as this? Also why punish the people who have lived here put the burden on the people who are coming in!!!
What doesn't Nick Klufas want to do! says
On one person on that Council is asking the serious questions the Theresa Carli Pontieri.
She asks questions that the others on Council and those Directors and pair of City Managers don’t want asked.
I was shocked when Nick Klufas wouldn’t talk about money saving paving solutions. I’m glad he is termed out. I’m not voting for him if he runs for County Commission as rumor has it.
Keep up the good work Theresa you’re asking great questions about the future.
Dennis C Rathsam says
As I opened my News Journal friday morning, blasted on the front page that Palm Coast is now the biggest city in Volusia- Flagler County. And now are council, & realtor in chief want to raise our taxes, fix the swales, fix the pipes, & bail out the rich folks that live on the canals. These homes are more money to buy,and they get a priemium price when they sell. These folks wanted to live on canals….Let them pay or move. Why penalize the whole city? I had to laugh when Stuff Em In Alvin said hls heart is palitating… My heart and many others hearts have been palatiating since you became mayor. Your ignorance on fixing the roads, while continuing to buid more & more homes! WAKE UP MAN!!!!!! Now we are the bigest city, but look at all the good stuff Daytona has, then look at the crap, & shitty stores & places to eat. Raise the fees for builders, make the new people pay more, maybe they,ll buy elsewhere. Daytona has industry, we have……. Tell me Mr Mayor,( and I use that term litely) where are all those new homes you propose going to get food from? Theres nothing out there but grass & cows. How are they going to get to the stores on the other side of town? Traffic on Matanzas is hell every morning. the bridge is backed up for miles. We cant ger out our streets!!!!! Cant wait to vote all of you out of office. PS Daytona Beach has their own police dept, plus the sheriff!!!! What are we doing wrong?
Flatsflyer says
Maybe we should do nothing and apply for state and federal grants and funding. Seems like I read daily in newspapers about cities getting federal and state grants to fix problems local politicians have screwed up for many years.
Gus says
I continue to read comments that the people who live in the c sections should pay to have the canals dredged. I do not live in the c and do not have a swale in front of my house. With that logic all the houses on palm harbor parkway should pay to have the grass cut that lines the road behind their house. Everyone pays taxes for maintenance projects all around the city that’s why there are taxes. It shouldn’t matter what section you’re in. As far as blaming republicans, you just got nothing else to complain about. That’s what wrong with that type of thinking. Go to a meeting to raise your concern’s instead of blaming political party’s.