Loss of land has Lealman fearful

Seminole's annexation of a part of the Lealman area puts taxpayers there in a bind and threatens its sense of community.

By ANNE LINDBERG

© St. Petersburg Times, published June 18, 2000

LEALMAN -- Fire officials, reeling from Tuesday's vote that saw some residents choosing to become part of Seminole, wonder if this annexation frenzy is the beginning of the end.

The fear is that Lealman will be consumed by one of the cities on its borders and become known as "the Lealman neighborhood" of Pinellas Park or St. Petersburg or Seminole. Or worse, that those cities and Kenneth City each would take their pieces of Lealman and erase any sense of community.

While residents and officials struggle to preserve both the Fire District and the unincorporated Lealman community, they have harsh words for the county, which they say sold them down the river.

"Why is the county allowing this?" Lealman Fire Board president Linda Campbell asked Thursday. "I feel they've done the residents of Pinellas County a big disservice."

Three areas voted Tuesday to annex into Seminole, nearly doubling that city's land area and increasing its tax base by almost 60 percent. The annexation is one of the largest ever in Pinellas County.

Among the three areas was the Seminole Lake Country Club area, south of Park Boulevard and west of Park Street. A triangular portion of that area bounded on the north by the Cross Bayou Canal, on the east by Park Street and on the south by Tyrone Boulevard is in the Lealman Fire District.

Until Tuesday, residents in that area paid fire taxes to Lealman. Now those taxes will be paid to Seminole, though Lealman will continue to provide their fire service. Lealman is required to provide the service, but now that Seminole will collect the taxes, it has no legal obligation to pay Lealman for the fire service.

The county, Campbell said, should have stopped Seminole's annexation of that triangular area before the issue got to the voters. Campbell and others have questioned the legality of that portion of the annexation, saying they're unsure if the land is truly contiguous to, or touching, Seminole's city limits.

Campbell also worried about business owners who were unable to vote in Tuesday's referendum. When it affects their taxes, Campbell said, the business owners should have had a say.

The county's inaction, said Campbell, sends a bad message to everyone in unincorporated Pinellas.

"Hey, any town wants it, just have at it, legal or illegal," Campbell said. "We're telling these municipalities they can go into any part of Pinellas County they want and they don't have to abide by the rules. . . . It's being perceived that (county commissioners) have no bite, that municipalities can just walk all over them."

The stark fact remains that 74 percent of voters in the election that affected Lealman wanted to become a part of Seminole. The financial fallout is bad news for those left in Lealman.

The land going over to Seminole has a current taxable value of about $29.6-million. At the tax rate of 4.9 mills, that triangular area paid about $146,000 to Lealman for its fire service.

That money represents about 4 percent of this year's $3.8-million budget. The shortfall will hurt next year, Lealman fire Chief Gary Wolff said.

The budget he submitted to the County Commission was bare bones as it was, Wolff said. "I've got to do some rethinking real quick."

If the budget is not reduced, then Lealman tax rates almost certainly will rise to make up for the lost revenue, said Dwaine Booth, the assistant director of Pinellas County Emergency Medical Services and Fire Administration. In fact, he said that if next fiscal year's budget remained the same, Lealman's taxes would increase because of the loss of the Otter Key area.

"It's not a good situation for those taxpayers," Booth said.

As taxes rise, the idea of annexing into a neighbor city with a lower millage is likely to become more attractive to residents. Eventually, the fire district becomes unaffordable to the residents who live there and the district cannot provide services.

The county then would have to provide relief -- in the form of a financial bailout or assigning Lealman's fire protection to other cities' fire departments.

Booth declined to speculate when that could happen or how the county would handle it.

"We don't have any problem at this point," he said. "We need to let their board at Lealman ponder the situation and review it."

If Campbell, the Fire Board president, has her way, the situation will never get that far.

"I absolutely refuse to have any kind of a defeatist attitude," Campbell said.

She called a workshop for Monday night to find a way to survive and cut costs.

One likely solution is to forget about opening a satellite fire station on Park Street. The board also may abandon plans to buy a new fire truck for that station.

What will not happen, Campbell said, is layoffs.

"Oh, God, no. I need more people," she said. "No. No way. Absolutely not. Everyone is quite secure in their jobs."

It's much more likely, she said, the board will try to negotiate with Seminole. The city, she said, needs to pay Lealman for covering the triangular area that includes Otter Key.

"I'm willing to work with them, but I'm not willing to do it for nothing," Campbell said. "This board and these taxpayers, . . . I absolutely refuse to allow them to pick up the bill for Seminole."

If Seminole does not want to pay for service, Campbell said she's willing to turn over the area to Seminole and its firefighters.

"You wanted it, you got it. That'll be the bottom line because I just absolutely refuse to allow our taxpayers to pick up that tab, too," Campbell said she'll tell Seminole. "I'll pull up roots. We won't be there. Somehow or other, you'll have to cover it."

It's unclear if that could happen.

With luck, tough dealing and new ideas, Campbell said she thinks the district and the community can remain viable.

"All of this is a bump in the road," she said. "You just keep going forward and thinking positive about it."

If you're going

The Lealman Fire Board will hold a workshop at 6:30 p.m. Monday at Fire Station 18, 4017 56th Ave. N to discuss the fire district's future. Among the likely topics: last Tuesday's annexation vote; whether to open a fire station on Park Street; whether to purchase a new fire truck the board authorized earlier this month; and whether to build a new fire station near the Lealman Park. The workshop is open to the public. For information, call the Lealman Fire District at 526-5650.

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