The City of Brooksville annexed 9 properties on December 7, 2015. The County has officially challenged 5 of the proposed property annexations. The annexed properties being challenged consist of the Grace World Outreach Church property, the St. Anthony’s Catholic Church property, the Griffin property and the Hernando County Housing Authority property. The Brooksville Christian Church property is also being annexed by the city and challenged by the county.
At the meeting on December 15th, County Attorney Garth Coller explained that the Board has a longstanding policy to challenge annexations that do not meet the standards of good annexation. “That way we don’t end up with donut holes… peninsulas… or cul de sacs in zoning,” he stated. “The whole idea is to make sure the annexations are not cherry picking as well,” Coller added.
“It’s just a process that I think is necessary to preserve our rights…” said Commissioner Diane Rowden.
The county sent a letter signed by County Administrator Leonard Sossamon to the City of Brooksville stating that the five annexations in question may not hold up to Florida statutes
which prohibit annexations from creating enclaves or fingers of unincorporated land. Additionally, the letter claims that since the county has first right to serve for the Brooksville Christian Church property, the property cannot be annexed. First right to serves refers to the government entity which has the first right to provide water and sewer to the property in question.
However, Councilman Frankie Burnett believes that enclaves are a problem currently, and the annexations will result in alleviating them. He stated at a January 4th Council meeting, “It’s illegal to create those enclaves and continue to do what they have done over the years… I think what we did was a great thing… We need to continue to do it to eliminate those enclaves.”
“The County ought to be on board as far as I’m concerned,” added Mr. Burnett. With input from their attorneys, the city council agreed that legally they are in a strong position.
In regards to the county’s First Right to Serve, the city maintains that this issue is separate from the right to annex. In fact, the city of Brooksville currently provides utilities for Brooksville Christian Church. The city entered into a utilities agreement with the property owners in August 2005. The county had the first chance to provide services to the property due to first right to serve, but they declined to provide the services. The city stepped in and did it. “At that point it gives us the opportunity to annex,” stated Mayor Kahler.
On January 12th, County Attorney Jon Jouben explained to the Board of County Commissioners that the next step is to go through the intergovernmental dispute resolution process which can be initiated at the next meeting and followed by a joint meeting with the city.
Commissioner Dukes stated at that meeting that he reviewed all the properties, received potential impacts from staff and met with the Mayor of Brooksville. He said that he can’t find any downside to the county on the city annexing the properties in question. He’s not sure that it’s worth putting taxpayer dollars into litigating. “Litigation for litigation purposes does not solve problems,” Mr. Dukes stated.
Commissioner Nicholson stated that he believes the board should proceed in the direction that staff and the County Administrator recommends.
Chairman Adkins and Commissioner Nicholson stated that they would like to schedule a workshop to discuss general issues with the City of Brooksville, not the annexations specifically.
During the Brooksville City Council meeting on January 4th, Attorney Jennifer Ray of the Hogan Law firm explained, “If the dispute resolution is not effective and the issue is not resolved, then the county may file suit.”