News

Brooksville's new mayorto be named Monday

Jeff Schmucker
Published: December 2, 2012

BROOKSVILLE - City council members will select new leadership on their board next week — with all but one of them offering experience in the mayor seat.

During the 7 p.m. meeting, council members will do their annual selection of the mayor and vice mayor roles.

Although the mayor and vice mayor roles are primarily ceremonial, the mayor role offers an extra $150 to his or her $450-a-month paycheck, while the vice mayor role offers $50 more a month.

Currently the mayor is Joe Johnston III and the vice mayor is Lara Bradburn.

And while it's not an official rule, the vice mayor is typically selected for the mayor role, although it will all be based on nominations by council members.

All of the current city council members have served in both the mayor and vice mayor roles except for Kevin Hohn, who was selected by council in 2011 in light of Emory Pierce's resignation from the seat.

Hohn wasn't challenged for his seat during the August primary election and will now keep it through December of 2014.

In other business, city council members will once again take a vote on implementing fire fees.

City staff are slated to present a resolution allowing the board to pay for fire protection by charging residents fees or by combining the use of fees with taxing them.

Each year, the fee amount can change based on city council's determination of how much is needed to fund fire protection.

In 2010, council members initially approved implementing fire fees on residents with the promise they would lower taxes proportionately to minimize their cost.

However, business owners rallied against the fees after council members went back on that promise and opted to keep the tax rate the same as the year before. They also argued during public meetings that they would essentially be taxed twice because their tax dollars already pay for fire protection.

Last summer, council members approved to collect the fees by charging residents $71 per parcel along with 52 cents per $1,000 in improvement value. The city is budgeted to collect roughly $400,000, although estimates suggest that the city would actually collect 95 percent of the fees owed, or $380,000.

jschmucker@hernandotoday.com (352) 544-5271