County considers selling courthouse, South End Annex
BY PAM BRANNON Gulf Breeze News news@gulfbreezenews.com

One county commissioner wants to sell the county's waste water treatment plants and the courthouse, the jail and the south end annex, as well as all the libraries, among other county assets.Then he wants to put the money into roads and drainage projects.

Santa Rosa County Commissioner Gordon Goodin of Navarre told commissioners last week that he has been thinking for some time about a possible solution to the financial crunch the state has placed Florida counties, but has seriously been working for the past six weeks on a concept to bring before the commissioners.

He wants to sell county assets, like buildings and land - except for parks - and have the purchasing companies give the county a long term lease on those buildings. Then he wants to use the money from the sale to pave dirt roads and repave other roads, pay off the debt service of the MSBU's around the county on road paving for people having to pay that now, and do some drainage projects.

"This is not a new concept," Goodin assured his fellow commissioners. "You can see it working right now in Tallahassee and in Escambia County. Of course, you have to get a long term lease so you don't get into the trouble Okaloosa County is in right now, with a short term lease. They have a gun to their head."

But Goodin knows this is "bigger than the county staff". Goodin said, "There are a handful of firms in larger metropolitan areas, like Dallas and Chicago, who do this all the time with governments. I would like to engage one of these firms who would be familiar with the concept to work on a commission only basis with us, so if nothing sells than they make no money. But I think our assets could be put to better use than sitting in buildings and land."

Goodin said some creative ideas have to be put to use since the state is forcing the counties to take a new look at how they do everything now days.

"We have 160 miles of dirt roads still in Santa Rosa County. And we are way behind on our repaving projects," Goodin said. "From what estimates I get so far from our staff, it would take about $38 million to pave all our dirt roads. Then there are drainage projects that need to be done. From the property appraiser's office I got a quick estimate, without including parks or buffer lands, or anything like that, of at least $42 million in real estate the county holds. Why is that money sitting there? I don't think it is the best use of tax payer money."

He said he knew the county roads department could not handle all that paving and repaving work.

"That is one upside of this concept, also. It would help bring a stimulus to Santa Rosa economy, because we would need to hire contractors to do this work. The concept and the projects would be much larger than our staff could handle. We would need consulting help and guidance, and there are several firms who can offer that."

He suggested the county look at entering into a net-net lease on the buildings they sell, and making sure the lease is for at least 20 years. "In a net-net lease the person buying the building from us would be responsible for all maintenance and any depreciation. So if a toilet went haywire, we would just pick up a phone and call someone else to replace it," Goodin said.

He said if the other commissioners were interested in investigating this concept, he could work with the county staff to identify some national firms to invite to give informal presentations to the board. "Then if we liked what we heard, it would mean doing an RFP bid based on a company working off commissions only to help us sell the properties. And I think we should have a county committee - like each commissioner appointing 10 people to the committee from CPAs to lawyers t soccer moms - to look at what we want to sell and where to spend the money," Goodin said.

Commission Chair John Broxson of Gulf Breeze said, "I can think of all kinds of questions right off the top of my head. I think this is a process, rather than a decision any time soon. But if the other commissioners are in agreement, I would ask Commissioner Goodin to work with the staff to bring us back some companies that could give us very informal presentations within about 30 days from now, and we could decide then do we need to schedule a workshop to look at this even closer. The other commissioners agreed that this might be an idea to pursue, and said they wanted to hear more from firms who are doing this across the country.

Goodin cautioned, "With a budget deadline of Oct. 1 for next year's budget looming, I do think we need to also set some deadlines for decisions to be made if we are going to move ahead with the sale of any of these properties. We need to do something to help our tax payers. And everywhere I go in the county people tell me they want their roads fixed. We have about a million dollars due right now on road MSBU's, and I am sure all those people now paying those could use that money elsewhere in their own budgets that could ultimately help the county, also."

He said they have problems like needing a new courthouse that he does not see a financial solution for in the present financial structure of the county.

"There are only two people in this county that I personally believe could get a sales tax passed right now - the superintendent of schools and the sheriff. People love their law enforcement and love their schools. So I believe we need to find other alternatives for things like jail pods and courthouses - like someone else building them and then leasing them back to us," Goodin said.