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Utility dispute lingers for Brooksville, county
By DAN DeWITT BROOKSVILLE -- When City Council members and county commissioners met last month to try to settle their differences, Joe Johnston III suggested a possible point of agreement. Johnston, a council member, said city and county staffers had been close to a compromise a few months earlier, when they drew up tentative boundaries for a city utility service district. City Council members nodded their heads knowingly; county commissioners, on the other hand, looked at one another in surprise. "I didn't know about it," Commissioner Diane Rowden said last week. "I think that was typical of the entire time (Paul McIntosh) was the administrator. There was no communication." With McIntosh having resigned under pressure two weeks ago, some city and county officials believe the two sides may now have an easier time resolving their ongoing conflict -- which is primarily a competition for lucrative utility contracts in the area outside the city. McIntosh's replacement, Richard Radacky, furthered the impression of relaxed tensions when he said last week that his top priority was resolving the city-county feud. Besides failing to keep the board informed, McIntosh's manner was an obstacle to agreement, said Rowden, his most vocal critic. "It was certainly obvious how he felt about the city," she said. "That arrogance is hard to maneuver around." And for at least one council member, this manner represented the county's stance in the disagreement. "Unapproachable. That's the word I would use," said council member Mary Staib. "You would go up to him and ask him a question. And he would just give you a flip answer and turn around and talk to somebody else." Others on both the city and county sides dispute this description of McIntosh. They also say that, though McIntosh has departed, the points of disagreement remain. "I don't think the basic issues go away," said County Attorney Garth Coller. Some may have seen McIntosh as leading the fight against the city, Coller said, but that was only because he was the only staffer who had the authority to speak for the county. Also, Coller said, McIntosh did not keep information about a possible compromise from commissioners, because there never was anything close to a compromise. The county and city, he said, have maintained the same fundamentally different view on utility service: Representatives from Brooksville believe state law gives it the right to serve any customer within 5 miles of its boundaries, Coller said. According to the county's interpretation, the county has first right to those customers. The two sides also differ on an annexation Brooksville is considering. The city plans to take in a 1,600-acre tract south of town that includes the proposed 799-home Hampton Ridge development. The county opposes adding the land to the city, partly because it would like the right to provide utility service to the new homes. Also, said Larry Jennings, director of the county Planning Department, the annexation would deny the county control of issues that clearly affect it. For example, the development will likely pour a large volume of traffic onto Powell Road. Additionally, the development conflicts with the county's current land use map, which designates most of the site as rural land. "We're not necessarily saying we're opposed (to the annexation)," Jennings said. "But there are certainly a number of issues involved with county infrastructure, and there are land use compatibility issues." One indication that the gulf between the city and the county has not closed is action the commission took at its meeting last week. The city had offered to drop its formal dispute-resolution proceedings against the county -- which may be a prelude to a lawsuit -- as long as the two sides continued to hold discussions. A small group of officials from both sides is scheduled for negotiations on the utility issue on April 15. The next joint meeting of the council and commission is scheduled for April 22. The city asked, in return, that the county stop extending any utility lines until the dispute is resolved. The county refused. "I don't think it will have any impact either way," City Manager Dick Anderson said of McIntosh's departure, adding that he had a good working relationship with McIntosh. Radacky said that despite his desire to solve the problem, Anderson's interpretation is probably correct. Settling the dispute was also a high priority for McIntosh, Radacky said. "It was certainly one of his top 10, I can bet you that, probably his top five," he said. Radacky said he has seen no movement on the utility issue. "They are looking at the whole 5-mile area. They are saying it's their service area, and we're saying it's our service area," he said. Of the proposed annexation of the peninsula-shaped Hampton Ridge property, he said: "I don't think that's the way the city should grow. They need to be orderly in the way they take on land." Of the overall dispute between the city and the county, he concluded: "I don't think it makes any difference whether I'm doing it or whether Paul is doing it." -- Dan DeWitt covers the city of Brooksville, politics and the environment. He can be reached at 754-6116. Send e-mail to dewitt@sptimes.com.
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