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NSBNEWS.net video and photo by Sera Frederick.
Bob Tolley, a critic of CRA spending, is not pleased that Bert Fish paid $787,000 to the agency, especially since the money comes from indigent care tax money through the hospital district. Tolley is incensed that Community Redevelopment Agency monies are being spent on landscaping and pet projects for a small group of Canal Street merchants such as the nearly $27,000 spent on "Christmas on Canal." Our video shows the installation of a $9,000 artificial Christmas tree last fall at Canal and Riverside Drive. Click the attachment to read the CRA expenditures for Christmas on Canal.
NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- An outspoken critic of CRA spending said he doesn't believe Bert Fish Medical Center should have to pay any further taxes towards the Community Redevelopment Agency and shouldn't have paid up last year's owed $787,000 that was paid Tuesday.
"Money is being collected for indigent health care through the hospital tax that we as as local taxpayers pay," said Bob Tolley, a critic of CRA spending and an outspoken citizen at City Commission meetings on a variety of issues. "Not when 20 percent of those taxes are going to the CRA. As a result, we're paying for CRA expenditures for plastic Christmas trees, plastic lights, street scapes, etc. What does that have to do with indigent health care? The CRA has collected in excess of $5.5 million from the hospital, from 1993 to 2008, not including what they paid last week. Nothing has been spent by the CRA for the hospital that anyone has been able to show me."
At a conflict resolution meeting Tuesday with City Manager Pam Brangaccio and CRA representatives, Southeast Volusia Hospital Taxing District officials who oversee Bert Fish, handed over a check for $787,000 with Bert Fish CEO Bob Williams and his taxing district's attorney, Jim Heekin, acknowleging payment had to be made, but asking to be absolved of future payments to the CRA. They asked that penalties and interest owed on the payment that was supposed to be made in December be waived.
Williams said the hospital cannot afford to continue giving up hundreds of thousands of dollars needed to finance medical assistance for indigent patients or others without health insurance.
Williams and Keekin told city officials what Tolley reiterated, mainly that the hospital has paid in more than $5 million to the CRA over the last two decades and gotten nothing in return.
Brangaccio told the hospital officials there are plans to establish a health-care district, including medical offices and parking, but nothing is set and the city has more than a dozen priority projects that require significant funding with the CRA expected to sunset in 2015.
The CRA is set up for blighted areas, though some in the city have questioned whether Canal Street and Flagler Avenue, the core of the CRA are as blighted as other areas of the city such as U.S. 1, the city's main corridor and the Westside, which has been largely ignored. Newly-installed CRA Director Tony Otte said the hospital's funding is critical to the CRA and his agency is considering waiving the fees.
Tolley said the CRA has shown through its spending practices that it doesn't have its priorities established when it comes to investing in true redevelopment.
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NSBNEWS.net file photos by Henry Frederick.
At far left, the artificial Christmas tree had several instances where the lights malfunctioned as shown here. In the middle, beautiful holiday lights brighten up an empty Canal Street after dark. At right, police officer Brandon Mechtel plays with the wiring to get the tree fully lit after a loose connection.
"The only ones benefiting from the money are the Canal Street merchants and they aren't making any money anyway," Tolley said. "Show me one job that has been created because of CRA funding other than those created for the CRA itself. The only ones that were looking at the plastic Christmas tree on Canal and the fancy lights were the squirrels, the homeless and the police on patrol who had to turn the lights on when the plug got loose."
NSBNEWS.net asked the city through a Florida public records request for a list of expenditures for the CRA's Chistmas on Canal Street, which initially was publicized by city officials as costing no more than $9,000 for an artificial Christmas tree. Those expenditures showed $26,871.47 was actually spent by the CRA, mainly for the tree and holiday lights.
Mayor Adam Barringer, who took office in November, has questioned the priorities of the CRA and its spending practices. He said the city, under Brangaccio's direction, will work with the hospital to make things right.
"I think the check should go right back to helping the hospital," Barringer said of the city manager's plans.
As for the Christmas on Canal expenditures, Barringer said he was embarrassed, adding the City Commission doesn't have oversight of funding for items less than $25,000 and that the CRA needs to be reorganized.
"The tree and the lights looked nice, but that's about it," the mayor said.