High Springs police and fire departments teeter on the cusp of dissolution after the City Commission unanimously voted Thursday to negotiate in good faith with Alachua County for both services. If it didn’t, it said High Springs would cease to exist.
The city has spent over a year weighing whether to keep or cut the departments to make up for what commissioners identified as $5 million of debt and an unsustainably funded budget. Most recently in May, the City Commission voted to save both fire and police by increasing fire assessment to the maximum $383.
The issue resurfaced Thursday as part of “unfinished business” from the previous regular City Commission meeting.
Commissioner Tristan Grunder alternated between holding his head in his hands and leaning back looking towards the ceiling, saying he hadn’t slept all night and took off from work to be able to think through what to do.
Commissioner Chad Howell came to the meeting recovering from a cold.
Mayor Andrew Miller would call a point of order on Vice Mayor Wayne Bloodsworth Jr. for yelling at him in the peak of emotions triggered by the reality of the 2026-27 budget.
Public safety is budgeted for $3,118,422 and $2,304,731 for fire. Howell pointed out that the city already faces a $5 million deficit. Finance Director Leslie Moyer reminded everyone that the city’s 2023-24 audit classified High Springs as not fiscally responsible and deteriorating financially.
Commissioner Grunder also said information had been revealed over the past few weeks detailing actions by former city leadership that he called criminal and worthy of an investigation.
To add to it, the fire department faces four staff vacancies and installed Capt. Kevin Pearson as interim chief on Tuesday following former Chief Joseph Peters’ departure. High Springs now has three departments held by interim leadership, including in the city manager’s role after the commission fired Jeremy Marshall in July.
Howell boiled the problem down to saving services or money, which all commissioners agreed the city did not have and was subject to becoming more pronounced following November’s homestead exemption vote.
“Some people are worried about keeping High Springs on our vehicles,” Grunder said. “I’m worried about the front doors of this building not having High Springs on them.”
Bloodsworth said he wouldn’t run his own household with a budget as unwise as High Springs’.
He made a motion to dissolve the police department and put any money saved towards a new fire study (costing $20,000), the only way the city can raise its fire assessment again.
Even though the police are fully staffed, Bloodsworth said he thought dissolving them would make the biggest budget impact. The city can control its fire department funding but is gridlocked by state statute from cutting police’s budget by more than 5%. Grunder said he’d verified with the State Attorney’s office that if High Springs did cut more, the state would sue.
Bloodsworth’s motion died 3-2 with Commissioners Grunder, Howell and Miller dissenting. Mayor Miller passed the gavel to move that interim City Manager Jennifer Applebee and Police Chief Antoine Sheppard still figure out how to make 5% worth of spending cuts in operations.
Commissioner Katherine Weitz also said she wanted staff to look into other areas to save money and generate revenue, including annexations of properties that may currently live outside city boundaries but benefit from police and fire services without paying.
Wanting more data to understand the impacts of what surrendering the public safety services to the county would look like in High Springs, Howell made the motion to direct Applebee to start good faith negotiations with Alachua County Fire Rescue and Alachua County Sheriff’s Office.
The county had presented earlier this year about what the partnership could look like, but with “good faith” negotiations, the City Commission places serious intent to move forward with a deal that could dissolve its police and/or fire departments, relying on county services instead.
“I truly can’t see an end result where both entities remain High Springs in this budget,” Howell said.