BY DAN HILDEBRAN
Monitor Editor
LAKE BUTLER— Government officials from Union County told Tallahassee lawmakers about their problems with state government, and some asked for state assistance, particularly for local funding shortages they claimed were caused by the Department of Corrections.
Board of County Commission Chair Ryan Perez, County Coordinator Jimmy Williams, Sheriff Brad Whitehead, Schools Superintendent Mike Ripplinger, Lake Butler Mayor Annette Redman and County Judge Mitchell Bishop all spoke during the county’s annual legislative delegation meeting.
State Senator Jennifer Bradley and Rep. Chuck Brannan hosted the session at the Lake Butler City Hall.
Perez thanked the lawmakers for listening to Union County’s concerns, then let Williams explain the county’s requests.
The county coordinator asked the two lawmakers to support a new formula for distributing the state’s supplemental sales tax revenues, taking into account inmate populations.
Lost revenues from state housing
“For Union County,” Williams said, “we have a ratio of inmate to citizen of 31.1%. The next county under us is at 20%, that’s Liberty, and then it drops all the way down to 16, 10, and so forth, so we have a lot higher ratio in this county than any other county here.”
Williams also said county tax revenues have been hurt by the 247 state housing units within Union, which generate no property taxes and no garbage or ambulance assessments but still require the county and school district to render services to residents in those state housing units.
Williams said the county and school district is losing over $200,000 a year in ad valorem taxes because of the property-tax-exempt state housing and another $34,580 in lost garbage and ambulance service assessments.
The county coordinator added that between May 2021 and May 2022, the Union County Sheriff’s Office responded to 197 calls from state housing, and the county’s fire rescue responded to 177 calls for a total of 374.
“That’s money that the citizens are paying the bill for also,” he said of Union County’s taxpayers.
“The Department of Corrections rents these homes out,” Williams continued. “They rent them out to people at a reduced rate because that’s one of the recruitment tools to try to get correctional officers. But then they expect the county just to flip the entire bill for all the services that we provide in the county and that the school (district) provides and so forth.”
Williams also asked for additional inmate labor from the Department of Corrections. He said correctional facilities have partially restored inmate crews after suspending them during the pandemic and correctional officer shortages but that the teams have not yet been restored to pre-pandemic levels.
Williams also asked for funding to update the county’s aging fleet of fire trucks and ambulances.
Support for emergency operations center and jail
Whitehead updated the lawmakers on the construction of the county’s emergency operations center and planned jail upgrades.
The sheriff said that although the legislature appropriated $3 million for the project last year, it is still not fully funded, and the county is proceeding with the demolition of the old library behind the jail next week without the guarantee of full state funding for the construction project.
Help with alternative teacher certification
Ripplinger gave the lawmakers a copy of the legislative agenda of the Northeast Florida Educational Consortium.
The superintendent added that one of the biggest problems he and his colleagues face is getting new teachers through the alternative certification process.
“More and more of our teachers are coming to us that did not go to school to be a teacher,” he said, “so they’re going through alternative certification.”
Ripplinger added that one of the biggest obstacles prospective teachers encounter is the general knowledge test all certification candidates must pass.
“It deals with their math skills, reading and writing,” Ripplinger said, “and of course, these people are coming to us, many of them have been out of college for quite some time. They may have been pursuing other interests, and now they’ve decided to come into the field of education, and it’s been quite a while since they’ve had college algebra or geometry or things such as that.”
Ripplinger asked that the state consider relaxing the requirements for the technical subjects since the candidates have already demonstrated competency in those areas, albeit long ago during their college days.
“Why do I need geometry or algebra if I’m teaching fourth-grade math or if I’m teaching fifth-grade science or things such as that?” he asked.
The superintendent added that Union County has emerged from its teacher shortage with only one or two open teaching positions now, compared to double-digit openings a year ago.
Thanks for wastewater treatment
Lake Butler Mayor Annette Redman thanked the lawmakers for the $3.5 million grant announced by Gov. Ron DeSantis earlier this year for the city’s wastewater plant.
“With that improvement,” Redman said, “it will ensure, among other goals, that the city and RMC will have reliable, advanced wastewater treatment and disposition that will also meet the goals of the Santa Fe River (Basin Management Action Plan).”
Redman also applauded the Suwannee River Water Management District and Florida’s Department of Environmental Protection for supporting the project. She said groundbreaking for the plant should occur next year.
DOC crimes adjudicated in Union County court
Bishop thanked the two lawmakers for their support in upgrading security at the courthouse. He also emphasized the need for upgrades to the Union County Jail, adding that the capacity and quality of the jail impact judicial services.
“There’s something about being able to have capacity and not be maxed out so frequently and having to borrow off of other jails and have (inmates) go there,” he said.
Bishop added that 30% to 40% of his felony docket is Department of Corrections cases.
“(These are) DOC inmates who have no connection to Union County other than the fact that they are housed by the Department of Corrections at UCI or RMC,” he said.
Bishop added that some DOC defendants pose a safety risk to people in the courtroom.
“They’re notorious, and they are flight risks,” the judge said. “They are security risks; they are problems. We have a handful on our docket right now that are a problem for the safety of the people in the courtroom and the safety of everybody working in the courthouse.”
Bishop said the sole death penalty case pending in Union County now is a Department of Corrections case in which one inmate is accused of murdering other inmates.
“Again, no connection to Union County, but for the fact that he was housed here and committed a couple of first-degree murders in the Department of Corrections,” Bishop told Bradley and Brannan. “And obviously, both of you would be familiar with the expense that a death case (imposes) on a county.”
Bishop added that while serving on the Union County bench, he has seen the number of DOC cases grow, many of them contraband charges.
“Sometimes that contraband is a cell phone, and sometimes that contraband is a weapon,” he said.
