Water tap issues

Dear Editor:

I think it is time to clarify the water giveaway program that has become a matter of contention. The original purpose of the installation in 1976 was to provide water to the residents if the city and their neighborhood communities were struck by some catastrophe where their water supply was cut off. It was never intended to provide water for the multitude of companies that have taken advantage of our largesse.

The water offered by Boca Raton is not potable whereas that taken in Deerfield is. Boca allows 250 gallons for a cost of 50 cents. Pompano Beach charges $47 a month and the user must sign up ahead of time and pay for 12 months in advance. Those in Deerfield getting 300 gallons for 25 cents do not pay a sewer fee or the 6 percent utility tax that the rest of the residents of Deerfield Beach pay.

Frankly, I believe that Commissioner Miller had a fiscal responsibility as a commissioner to inform the administration that there were many companies outside of Deerfield Beach that were making use of the free for all. When I was informed of how the situation was impacting Extreme Granite, I did not believe it could be happening. I asked the BSO Commander Robert Schnakenberg to check it out. Both he and I were shocked to find out that the problem that Extreme Granite reported did exist. That is why I took it to the commission at the last meeting.

We are not in the business of subsidizing users at the expense of the taxpayers of Deerfield Beach. Commissioner Miller failed to fulfill his obligation to the citizens of Deerfield Beach by knowing and allowing this practice to continue.

Jean M. Robb

Mayor, Deerfield Beach

Dear Editor:

[In] Joe Miller’s letter about business water usage, he states that he “found out that the city’s highest rate for water is $2.65 per 1000 gallons of water.”

I would like to know where he got this information from. Today, I received my monthly water/sewer/garbage bill and ,for 8000 gallons of water, I am paying $38.24. In my math, this equates to $4.78 per 1000 gallons. Realizing that part of this charge is a billing fee/administration fee or any other designation the city chooses to use, it still doesn’t change the fact that I’m paying $4.78 per 1000 gallons. I think it’s sort of disturbing that a man we chose to represent us on the city commission, a resident and also a business owner, is either distorting the facts to make his case for the continued discounted water usage for his business, or [is] not in touch with reality about an issue as important as this.

Steve McKean

Deerfield Beach

[Editor’s note: For a breakdown of all utility fees, visit www.municode.com, browse the library to look under the Deerfield Beach Code of Ordinances and chapter 70 utilities]

Pioneer Park Patriotic Concert

Dear Editor:

It was truly a magical night on Friday, Oct. 30, at Pioneer Park with over 80 of the “President’s own” musicians – the United States Army Field Band and Soldiers Chorus – and an opportunity for the public to hear them perform patriotic music in preparation for Veterans Day!

Special thanks and sincere gratitude to the record crowd that attended the concert and to the Deerfield Beach Woman’s Club, Kiwanis Club and the Junior Historical Society of Deerfield Beach High School for their sponsorship, and for making this fabulous night of music possible. We are also grateful to the Deerfield Beach Parks and Recreation Dept. for helping with arrangements.

Deerfield Beach Historical Society concert organizers

Open letters to Century Village Management

Master Management

All week, the week of Oct. 12, we were advised that the water throughout the village would be [turned] off on Friday, Oct. 16, from 7:30 a.m. to about 6 p.m. The City of Deerfield Beach was involved [in] this having something to do with the water valves. So, we made sure that we had water in our apartments for drinking and large pots of water to use to flush our toilets. Everything in the village was closed — the clubhouse, the pools and the restaurant. Well, along came Friday morning, Oct. 16, and the water was not turned off. I called the city water department about 10 a.m. and was told that Master Management had cancelled the work the day before.

The same way you notified us about the water being turned off, you could have advised us of the cancellation by email. It is a means of instant communication and could have been done it at the same time that you notified the city that the work had been cancelled—not at 11:30 a.m. on Friday when we had already had our days ruined but knew that the work had to be done. Who do you think you are, your own private Caliphate? How dare you treat us as if we are nothing more than your serfs? It is really time that each and every one of you was replaced.

Bay Management

You are a million dollar business that operates like a 1930s candy store.

The elevator in the [Century Village] clubhouse was not operative on Saturday or Sunday, Oct. 17 and 18. I know that the service contract is 24/7, but since no one from Bay Management was in the clubhouse over the weekend, and the people in the staff office know nothing, nothing was done.

It would have been nice to go to the dance on Saturday night or the show on Sunday, but since there was no elevator, those of us who could not manage the stairs were out of luck.

I am darn sure that if this had happened during the season, the people in the staff office would have known what to do immediately. I ask what kind of candy store are you running? You can make all the excuses you want to as far as why nothing was done. Makes no difference. You were wrong.

Roberta Shapiro

Deerfield Beach

RE: Hotel, parking in The Cove

Dear Editor:

Last Friday, attorney Tom Connick, a long time Deerfield attorney, sent via email [in public record] to all commissioners, Mayor and the City Manager that if they vote the [Blue Water VIII] hotel in with the seven [code] violations [Oct. 20], it is totally illegal. It will be challenged in court and the city will lose a multi-million dollar lawsuit. [Developer Mike] O’Leary does have an approval currently to build a restaurant which is perfectly legal and ready to go.

The tabling of the parking meters happens to be a blessing for the existing businesses. As quoted in your newspaper on Oct. 7, after Tuesday’s meeting at City Hall, Mr. O’Leary asked Vice Mayor Ganz if he could meet with him. Apparently, the meeting took place. Who was there? What was discussed? In the article, the City Attorney cautioned nothing said here can bind the commission.

I owned a home and business in The Cove Shopping Center for 13 years and went through the same hardships as others during that 3-1/2 year process. Twenty-nine businesses went out then. If this hotel is approved, the balance of the process will [cause the] demise of the rest of the businesses during this construction. I sold my home and business, but I am still involved in Deerfield Beach as my family still lives there.

Steve Krevoy

Deerfield Beach

RE: Support for burial ground memorial park

Dear Editor:

The Deerfield Beach Original “Save Our Beach” (OSOB) committee strongly favors the five-acre lot, at the intersection of SE 2 Avenue and SE 5 Court, becoming an African-American burial memorial.

This piece of privately owned property, termed in old Broward County records as “The Old Colored Cemetery”, became a burial ground, because of the segregation policies of the past.

There are still human remains on this land. This presents a perfect opportunity to create a memorial. There is no African American burial memorial in Broward County. Creating such a memorial is our City’s opportunity to honor and respect, in death, the memory of those who were disrespected and marginalized in life.

I hope the City, the County and the State can make this happen. It is long overdue.

Marge Hilton,

Deerfield Beach

Dear Editor:

GFWC Woman’s Club of Deerfield Beach supports the effort to turn the property at SE 2 Avenue and SE 5 Court, Deerfield Beach, into an African American Memorial Burial Ground.

This land should be made into a memorial to all the African American Broward County residents who, because of segregation, were buried in odd lots and side yards and whose locations (if not their memories) are lost forever to their descendants.

The Club recognizes this as a humanitarian effort to give proper respect.

Mary McKenna

Deerfield Beach

Thank you to DB’s Will Reed

Dear Editor:

Gardeners were cutting the median along Hillsboro Blvd. when a sharp object flew onto the road in front of my car. A lane change was impossible due to heavy traffic. Hence, I went over it and “POP” went my tire. My car limped into the shopping center where I called AAA.

After a whopping $232 for a new tire, my husband, who I have to give credit to, said, “Call the city and see what they can do.”

I would’ve just blown it off.

I spoke with Mr. Will Reed, who I would like to thank for expediting a check from the city. Thank you, Will.

Lorraine Barsher

Deerfield Beach

Dog enforcement on the beach

Dear Editor:

This is in regard to the Sept. 24 Talk to the Mayor article about dogs on Deerfield Beach. Some points to consider:

1. The current regulation is not enforced at all by the Deerfield Police or code [enforcement] officials. In 20 years walking the sidewalk, I have never seen a single stop by police for walking dogs on the beachside walkway. Not one. In fact, I have seen police in patrol vehicles look away seemingly on purpose. So what data-based evidence does the police chief have to know what he is saying is true? Maybe one well-publicized infraction would help violators obey. Enforcement is important because the personal injury risk to people and their dogs from larger dogs on the beachside walkway is enormous and the cost will fall to taxpayers because of lack of enforcement.

2. The old signs said “No Dogs” on the sidewalk. The new signs say “No animals” on the [sidewalk] and the wording is, at the least, confusing. The signs are not at the entrance spots or the parking pay stations, or the walkway egress to the parking lots. Maybe better more frequent better-placed signage would help with voluntary compliance.

3. Research shows that 38 percent of dog owners scoff at the dog feces pickup duty. As the EPA puts it, “If you think picking up dog poop is unpleasant, try swimming in it” – or additionally, in the case of our beach, lying and walking in it. All dogs currently walking on the Deerfield Beach beachside walkway urinate on the light standards, benches and lawn. Children who crawl will put anything in their mouths; 20 percent of kids get roundworm from dogs and cats.

4. People walk their dogs to the beach for the express purpose of defecating there versus their own residence. Fenced dog parks, a cheap solution, should be considered with collection containers to avoid the adverse conditions that allowing dogs on the beachside walkways bring.

George Cherenack

Deerfield Beach

Long live the Mayor

On Tuesday night, Sept. 15, Mayor Robb held her second “Talk to the Mayor” forum. During the 12 years I have attended commission meetings, no mayor took the initiative to actually to hear what residents think. Right out the gate, the first speaker criticized the mayor unnecessarily. Rather than applaud the mayor for her years of contributions to this city, she choose to malign her.

Most resident concerns centered on problems BSO needs to address, but, due to lack of boots, as stated by Chief Schnakenberg, these problems don’t get resolved. Rather than spend over a million dollars to purchase unbuildable beach lots, which residents do not want bought, the prudent move would be to add additional police officers to make our city safer … rather than being concerned about a couple of signs which are unnoticeable and a RV that doesn’t block one’s ocean view.

What should incense the citizenry of Deerfield Beach is paying a group of lawyers over a million dollars for property that cost them $4,000 twenty years ago. Yes, you read that correctly. Four thousand dollars annualized and compounded for 20 years, if invested in the stock market would bring a fair investment return. Even an unusually high 19.85 percent would be $150,000, not a million and a half dollars, which is more in line with what the lawyers are seeking.

Questions to ask: “Why didn’t the city buy these parcels a few years back when they had the opportunity before our city leaders made the horrendous mistake of giving Boinis an additional $200,000 for a beach lot the state was giving $200,000 for?” “Why didn’t the City allow a Sweet 16 for a lawyers’ daughter when the lawyers were always generous when the city would request using their land for events?” And, thus, the ensuing problem. The answer to these questions are mismanagement by our City Manager and the department heads under him, plus the City Commissioner who “expedited” the last beach sale by giving that owner an extra $200,000.

There is a public referendum procedure in place when it comes to selling city property above a specified dollar amount. Likewise, a public referendum is warranted before the city goes forward with purchases in excess of a million dollars.

Caryl Berner

Deerfield Beach

Thanks for community input

It is my pleasure to let you know that the budget for fiscal year 2015-2016 was passed at our last meeting on Sept. 21. I want to thank those of you who came out to give us your input and those of you who contacted me directly to share your thoughts and views on how your tax dollars are being spent.

Friends, I am proud that we are moving the city in the right direction, financially. We are fiscally stronger today than we have been since the economic downturn we all experienced a few years ago. I am pleased to let you know that we [the commission] voted to lower the millage rate in this budget, from a rate of 6.7688 to 6.6688, which is approximately one-tenth of a mill.

This decrease in the millage also resulted in a decrease of about $500,000 to the budget. While it isn’t as much as I would like to have seen, this rate reduction still provides tax relief while maintaining service levels and a healthy reserve.

Our next commission meeting is scheduled for Oct. 6, 2015 in City Hall Chambers located at 150 NE 2 Ave. The meeting begins at 6:45 p.m. and I hope to see you all there!

If you have any concerns or questions for me, you can always email me at bganz@Deerfield-Beach.com

Bill Ganz

Vice Mayor

Ugly trailer marring beach views

Dear Editor:

I live on NE 20 Avenue, one block from the public beach access that is located at 4 Court and A1A. I have always enjoyed waking early and walking to the beach to appreciate and thank God for yet another sunrise. It doesn’t matter whether the sunrise is extraordinarily spectacular or whether it is diminished by clouds. It DOES matter, however, that the sunrise is now and has been, for a few years, obscured by an unoccupied, unsightly trailer with an EXPIRED Florida license plate.

The signage around the trailer states “private property.” I have no objection with people owning beach property; however, I do object that there seem to be different rules for different people.

A few years ago, I purchased a small, pop-up camper. I parked it on the property (behind our hedge line) for three to four days until I was able to tow it to its final destination that coming weekend. The camper was legally registered and out of sight of neighbors. Within a day after parking the camper behind the hedges, the camper was tagged by the city with a warning to either remove the camper or face a fine. I complied with the warning, in accordance with the law. Problem solved!

It is beyond my comprehension how an unsightly, unregistered trailer, can remain on the beach, for every nearby neighbor, visitor and/or passerby to see. The location of this unsightly, unregistered trailer poses a threat not only to the public, but, also to the public beach property surrounding it. It is an eyesore on the beach of Deerfield, which prides itself on the beauty of its beaches.

Lorraine S. Kelly

Deerfield Beach

[Editors Note: The commission is working to find a solution to this issue. It is currently in litigation. “It’s an on-going problem we are hoping to resolve in the coming months,” said a city representative.]

Thank you, Thomas Roofing

Dear Editor:

Twenty-five years ago this past January, I needed a new roof on my home. I contacted a Deerfield roofing company. A new roof was put on and it looked great. This past January, Citizens Insurance stated that my current roof would have to meet certain qualifications. Ultimately, it meant I would have to have a new roof. I called Steve at Thomas Roofing who put the roof on in 1995. Steve also replaced the back patio roof after Wilma. (Incidentally, I wrote Steve to replace that back roof as I had left town to get away from the hurricane. He called me and, in three days, he had replaced the patio roof. I paid him when I returned to Deerfield a couple weeks later.)

When it came to this past January, I called Steve again. He was no longer in the business of putting roofs on homes, but he still had a business to repair, clean, pressure clean, etc. any roof. He gave me names of two Deerfield roofers. I phoned them. They came and [each] gave me an estimate.

I phoned Steve who helped me make a decision between the two companies. At the time it was being replaced, Steve came over and confirmed the work this roofer was doing was the best. Steve went out of his way to be a good neighbor, Deerfield business man and just a very nice guy.

Thank you, Steve, for being my friend.

J. M. Harte

Deerfield Beach

Thanks to Post Office rescuer!

Dear Editor:

I am a newcomer to this area and, today, I found the Deerfield Beach Post Office. I had two large envelopes to send – one unsealed, to show the clerk the Tic Tacs [that] were making the noise, as I was sending them along for the 94-year-old lady Veteran’s Honor Flight from Denver to Arlington, next week.

O.K. I did not have my debit card or enough cash. From the back, a man’s voice asked how much my bill was. The clerk said $8 and he said “I’ll pay it.” A tall, wonderful man came forward and paid my bill. I thanked him three times, and others did also.

When a good person steps forward to help out, more people should hear of it. Thanks again, Sir.

Dora Gabe

Deerfield Beach, FL

City excesses evident in proposed budget

Dear Editor:

Our City Manager presented a budget for the new fiscal year beginning Oct. 1 that increased the millage rate, proposed a new stormwater tax, and introduced a new Capital Improvement Plan that calls for $96 million in new spending programs over the next five years! The millage rate is now where it was in fiscal 2010 the year before our new public service tax began and the promise of lower millage rates were made.

But the city is now taking in $8 million per year from the public service tax and the rise in non-homesteaded property values in Deerfield Beach brought in an additional $2.1 million in revenue for the new fiscal year. However the City Manager believes our finances are so bad we need an additional new tax called the Stormwater Tax.

Let’s take a look at where this extra $10.1 million in added revenue is being spent by our City Manager:

1) The general fund balance (rainy day fund) has increased by $11 million since 2013 and is projected at $18.7 million this new fiscal year representing a 143 percent increase in just three years. On top of this the City Manager in 2014 created three new rainy day funds called the water and sewer replacement fund, the water and sewer emergency fund and the solid waste emergency reserve fund. These funds now have a balance of $4.5 million for the new fiscal year. The City Manager believes this $23.2 million in reserve is necessary on a proposed budget of $99 million.

This is the HIGHEST amount of reserves that the city has ever had. The City Manager is under the misguided belief that it’s better that the city hold on to this money than you the taxpayer in the form of a lower millage rate.

2) The self funded health plan for city employees is expected to increase by $1.1 million to $7 million, a 19 percent increase from last year. The city pays 90 percent of the medical premium for its employees. The employees also received average merit increases of 2 percent this year.

This and other examples of excess have been pointed out to the city commissioners over the budget process. Their response at the Sept.9 first reading was to roll back the operating millage rate by 1.5 percent so they could claim they did not raise the operating millage rate this year. They fail to realize the citizens of Deerfield Beach are seeing no tax reduction from the $8 million public service tax revenue nor [from] the $2.1 million in added revenue [due to] the increase in property values.

We have one last chance this budget cycle to tell our commissioners our displeasure with our tax-and-spend City Manager and demand that a meaningful percentage of that $10.1 million be returned to the taxpayers in the form of a lower millage rate. Please show up at the Sept. 21 meeting (at 6:45 p.m.) and speak to them during the three minutes they must give you. Go to the city’s website under the financial services section where you can read a copy of the proposed city budget.

Dan Herz

Deerfield Beach FL

[Editor’s Note: According to the City, the millage rate was not increased; in fact, the tentatively approved millage rate is that of 6.6688 mills. A stormwater fee is not included in the proposed budget. The fee has also not been imposed on any property. Proceeds from the fee, if deemed necessary in the future, cannot be used for General Fund operations.

The Water & Sewer and Solid Waste Emergency Reserve Funds, as well as the Water and Sewer Renewal and Replacement Funds, have no bearing on a property owner’s tax bill. The funds are fueled by user charges, which cannot be comingled with General Fund dollars.

The reserve balance has been higher than the proposed amount in the past. Neighboring cities with similarly-sized budgets have significantly more in reserves; some even have more than 3 ½ times Deerfield’s level of reserves.]

Proposed Blue Water Hotel

Dear Editor:

Over-development can be detrimental to an area and no amount of tax revenue to a city or increased profit margin for the landowner can justify the negative impact it has on an area.

The 3-dimensional concrete high-rise hotel/garage [proposed Blue Water hotel in The Cove] will tower over the Hillsboro Bridge by over 20 feet, higher yet with its A/C units, etc. on the roof, and change the skyline forever. Not a pretty view for the gateway to our award-winning beach, a sight that will be bare of landscaping at that height.

It will set a precedent for other landowners in The Cove to follow suit and ask for code deviations and special consideration for the plans they may have. Parking is already a community nightmare.

There were many public workshops regarding the “look” the residents wanted for the Cove Shopping Center and overwhelmingly the consensus did not include high rise construction.

Other concerns are traffic pattern changes with only one egress and ingress on Hillsboro Blvd. that is already bottle-necked on weekends, holidays, and every 30 minutes when the bridge opens. One egress and ingress onto 15 Avenue, a residential street, will result in cut-through traffic in The Cove Residential Home Development. Fourth Ct., 7 Court, 10 Street, 12 Avenue, 13 Court (any street with access to Federal) will become avenues for people headed south or west. Some streets have no sidewalks and speed humps already installed to slow traffic. Tenth Street that leads to Federal Hwy, I-95, and the Sawgrass Expressway is a residential street (two lanes) and residents are now asking the city for more speed humps.

The city has already tried to slow traffic and discourage cut-through traffic with roundabouts and islands (narrowing the roads more). How effective? Perhaps a little now, but with added traffic, [results are] very questionable.

The 15 Avenue bridge also narrows and has no sidewalks. It is not what this one hotel will bring; it is what will be brought by future development as codes are changed and variances awarded.

Impact will escalate safety problems for the families in this development. At any given time you see parents and grandparents walking their children by hand or in strollers, their dogs on leashes, walking and jogging on the narrow streets with too few sidewalks and curbs.

As codes change and some proposed uses are permitted uses or conditional uses, the city will face many dilemmas and perhaps legal challenges by all landowners in this area desiring to increase their profit margins by use of high rise development and other deviations from the building codes.

I ask our Commission to please be very cautious with permitted/ conditional use changes and in approving variances in this small shopping center.

I live in the Cove Residential Home Development and want it to remain as quiet, safe, and traffic free as possible. Our quality of life and that of future generations depends on decisions made now.

Marti McGeary

Deerfield Beach, FL

The Cove meters

Dear Editor:

It’s Sunday afternoon and we’re heading to The Cove shopping center for happy hour and it made me start thinking about the parking meters again. Will I go somewhere else because of them? Probably not, but it just boils my blood.

If this is just a maintenance issue that only costs about $80,000 a year, so I’m told, what are they going to do with other $1.2 million of the projected income of $1.3 million? Is it going to be like the utility tax and supposed to lower our taxes? Because we all know how well that worked for us. It sounds like just another revenue [stream] for [the] city to me.

Steven J. Fabrizio

Deerfield Beach, FL

Cove Parking Lot Suggestion

Dear Editor:

There has been much discussion of the Cove [Shopping Center] parking lot. I am going to suggest something that I wish the commission would consider at the Sept. 9 meeting.

Please just listen. We model the parking after the public parking garage in the beach area. We close off all entrances and exits to the parking garage, and the main entrance will be off Hillsboro Blvd. where there is a traffic light. A guard house would be set far enough back to avoid stacking up traffic on Hillsboro. At the entrance, there would be a mechanism to provide a parking ticket.

In the public garage, at the exit, tickets are collected. Each of the businesses has a mechanism that validates the parking ticket. At the end of the month, the city will send a bill to the business that has validated the ticket, and that business will pay one dollar for each validated ticket. That way the businesses that utilize the most parking are being assessed according to their usage, and the smaller businesses are not assessed since the first two hours will remain free. After that, the hourly $2 rate becomes effective.

I have been told by the people that run the public garage that, in all probability, the company that supplied our meters would also be able to provide the validation mechanisms for those merchants who request them. This is an equitable way to have those who use the most parking spaces pay the assessment that they claim they are willing to pay.

Mayor Jean Robb

Deerfield Beach, FL

Cove Parking Workshop Short of Ideas

Dear Editor:

Last Tuesday, August 25, I attended the Public Workshop at City Hall regarding parking meters for The Cove Shopping Center. I expected to see an exchange of ideas, suggestions and/or solutions. This was not what anyone would call a “workshop.” The city has one solution: parking meters. It is not in the best interest of the residents or merchants, but it produces revenue for the city.

How about you get a ticket going in, get a free [validation] stamp from a merchant (or if you only park, you pay) and leave? Why not put this on the next ballot and see if the people want parking meters? There are many ideas/suggestions/etc. out there, but you have to have an exchange at a workshop.

Better yet, why don’t we remain one of the few “nice little cities” in Florida? That’s why we settled in Deerfield Beach, not Miami or Ft. Lauderdale.

Stephen Welch

Deerfield Beach, FL

RE: Blaise Leone resigns

Dear Editor:

[On August 18] the city honored Blaise Leone with a plaque for 16 years of service to the Parks and Rec Dept.

That doesn’t touch the contribution he has given to the youth in Deerfield Beach in 16 years.

Just to mention a few things: to mention a few things:

• Blaise is our resident “Elf” at the [holiday] tree lighting ceremony each year.

• He is also the official “Voice of the Bucks” as the Deerfield Beach High School football game commentator.

• He was the creator and instructor for the “Boot Camp” program here in Deerfield and made it so successful that it, in turn, created a position for a trainer.

I have had the opportunity to work with Blaise for the past 11 seasons at Deerfield Beach Little League (DBLL).

His attention to all of Deerfield’s youth programs is endless. He knows most of these kids by name, can tell you where they live and go to school, and he truly cares about each and every one of them.

This was never a “job’ to him. It was [about] being part of a community.

The kids, as they got to be in high school, would often stop to speak with him about college, training techniques, etc. He was part of the family.

We at DBLL wish his family great success in Satellite Beach. Their gain is most certainly our loss. Our City will never find an individual that equals the character and integrity of Blaise Leone. We will miss him forever.

Kathleen M. Williams

Deerfield Beach

Property tax notice received

Dear Editor:

Just received our TRIM notice from Broward County.

Noticed that once again the City of Deerfield Beach has raised the property tax rate — in this case from 6.2745 to 6.2949.

The good news is this is the smallest rate increase from the city in several years.

However, I’m guessing that the city officials will try to tell you that the rate is the same as last year, just as they did last year compared to the year before.

The deception in that statement is that the city officials include the mandated reduction in the Deerfield Beach debt service to get to the “no increase” statement.

Check your TRIM notice and prior tax bills and you’ll confirm what really happened.

Consider that in 2010, the last year before the Utility Tax was implemented, the property tax rate was 6.2482.

City officials promised that with implementation of the Utility Tax, property tax rates would come down.

That happened in 2011 and 2012 when the property tax rate came down to 5.1865 and 5.1856, respectively.

However, 2013 brought an increase back to the pre-Utility Tax, property tax rate to 6.2317 in 2013 (a whopping 20 percent increase in the rate alone) and it has climbed each year since then. So much for the promises about the utility tax benefit.

The utility tax just became extra funding for the commissioners to spend.

Knowing that the city commission takes more from you in property taxes through rate increases each year should be remembered at the ballot box.

Unfortunately, this year, it wasn’t.

Dave Nace

Deerfield Beach