More than 300 sign a petition to do away with Port Richey altogether. They want the issue to come to a vote in November.
By ALEX LEARY
Published June 23, 2004
PORT RICHEY - A group of residents who want to dissolve Port Richey submitted more than 300 signatures to City Hall on Tuesday and called on the City Council to put the issue before voters.
The petition requests that council members within 30 days adopt an ordinance dissolving the municipality and that the ordinance go on the ballot in November.
"Take due notice and govern yourselves accordingly," the group's attorney, Donald Peyton, wrote in a letter that accompanied the petition.
Group members want their homes to become part of unincorporated Pasco County, saying residents no longer should shoulder the burden of county and city property taxes or pay for services they can get from the county, such as law enforcement.
In submitting the 300 signatures, the group is hoping to satisfy a requirement that says 10 percent of all registered voters - about 1,900 - are needed to place a question on a ballot. That is the approach people trying to save police dispatch took this spring.
But dissolution is vastly more complicated and there have been many questions raised about the legality and the process. As of 9 p.m. Tuesday, the City Council had not discussed the petition at its regular meeting and the city attorney had not had a chance to review the documents.
Among the people who signed the petition were former council members Pat Guttman, Dale Massad, Bob Leggiere and Tom Brown, as well as Tom Zedan, the second-to-last-place finisher in April's city election. Former public works supervisor Al Foley also signed it.
"The time has come," Guttman said Tuesday. "For a city the size we are, this is getting to be too expensive, especially since there are so many services the county could offer us."
Organizers say property taxes paid to the city and the county are their main complaints, but not the only ones.
They point to rising water fees, aging water and sewer infrastructure, higher franchise fees for cable television and telephone service, and the city's historically nasty politics. "There's been nothing but problems with this city as far back as anyone can remember," Brown said.
Port Richey was incorporated in 1925 and now has a population of just over 3,000. In 1975, a move to merge the city with New Port Richey failed, as did one in 1997.
In January of this year, a committee composed of Charles Boyer, Ed Olson, Eugene Reas, Steve Johnston and Robert Goluba formed with the goal of dissolving the city. The committee ran into obstacles at City Hall and was told its paperwork was not in order and did not meet requirements spelled out in the City Charter. Some officials wondered whether the group could even issue a challenge, suggesting dissolution of the city would take an act of the state Legislature.
The issue had been pushed to the background in recent months as the city experienced considerable change. Paul Marino resigned as city attorney, and City Manager Vince Lupo was fired. The City Council's majority changed, and the new members promised to take things in a different direction.
Newly elected council member Fred Miller said voters who backed a local police dispatch center seemed to also cast a ballot in favor of the city. Miller said that if the city were dissolved, residents could see slower response times for law enforcement calls and lose out on grant money for small cities.
"I don't think people will support this," Miller said.
Certainly not Judy Parisi, a 13-year resident who attended Tuesday's City Council meeting.
"I like everything about the small city," she said. "These people don't have the right to take that away from me. If they don't like Port Richey, they can move."
In other news Tuesday, the City Council established a nine-member citizens' advisory committee to make recommendations on matters of governance and planning. The group was suggested by community activist Jim Priest and is seen as a way to get people more involved in shaping the city.
