The Fruitland Park Commission’s budget workshop ended abruptly Monday night when Mayor Chris Cheshire slammed down the gavel and challenged Commissioner Rick Ranize over statements he was making about how the city spends its money.
“Have you been here for four years?” Cheshire asked Ranize, who will be leaving the commission in November when he is replaced by Villager Patrick DeGrave. “You act like you’ve not been here.”
Cheshire’s comments came after Commissioner Ray Lewis made a play to raise the city’s millage rate – the amount per $1,000 used to calculate property taxes – from 3.9863, the same amount it’s been the last two years. Lewis, who also will be replaced by one of three Villagers running for his seat in November, made the suggestion after saying he believes the new commissioners will “be on a one-track mind” to lower the millage rate going forward.
“I think what you’re going to end up with is a situation where their needs and Fruitland Park’s needs are going to be radically different,” he said of the two commissioners who will come from The Villages because voters approved an amendment to divide the city into five districts in November 2014.
Cheshire said he hopes that won’t be the case.
“That’s the worst dooms-day scenario,” he said. “I’m hoping the new commissioners who come on here realize they’re not just part of The Villages, that they’re part of Fruitland Park.”
Lewis, who was insistent on lowering the millage rate for the 2017 budget year because the city’s property taxes were rising rapidly from the homes being built in the Villages of Pine Ridge and Pine Hill, then turned to Ranize, who in a meeting last month about adding a school resource officer to the city’s police department blurted out: “Raise the millage rate! It’s simple.”
But Ranize said he’d had a change of heart. He said he believes the millage rate should be raised, but then listed a litany of issues he’s unhappy with, such as not having a five- or 10-year plan for the fire department and funding the agency solely by fire assessment fees.
“I said, ‘Let’s not do 100 percent so we could take money out of the general fund,” he said.
Ranize also asked the commission where it’d be today if it wasn’t for The Villages.
“Where would we come up with $240,000 to pump sewage to Lady Lake?” he asked. “Where would we have a $5 million well to supply water. This is what The Villages supplied us and what did we give them in return?”
Ranize then mentioned the lack of commercial businesses and issues with code enforcement in the city before Cheshire had heard enough.
“You act like every time, “Oh, I’m sorry. I apologize for this,” Cheshire said. “You act like you weren’t here for these things.”
“I’m tired of it,” Ranize snapped back.
“Did you vote for these things or not?” Cheshire asked Ranize.
“Yes, because I can count to three,” he said, referring to the number of votes need to pass items on a five-member commission.
“You could still vote no,” Cheshire fired back before ending the meeting.
The commission isn’t scheduled to talk about the city’s budget again until September. It would take four votes to increase the millage rate and as of Monday night, most of the commissioners indicated they would stick with the current rate for the coming fiscal year.
