Although the High Springs City Commission approved a new three-year contract with the Florida Police Benevolent Union during a regular meeting on Monday, whether the city keeps its police department at all remains in limbo.
Residents packed City Hall to voice support for or criticism of the commission’s motion during the previous meeting this month. Staff were directed to start negotiations with the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office (ACSO) and Alachua County Fire Rescue for public safety services, with commissioners’ concerns that the city wouldn’t stay financially afloat if it didn’t.
The commission adopted the final 2026-27 budget 4-1 on Monday, with Commissioner Katherine Weitz in dissent. The millage rate will increase from the current 6.99 mills to 7.24, contributing to the city’s total budget of $20,852,403 with around $5.35 million in tax revenue.
The police department’s $3.2 million designation dropped to around $3 million with the maximum 5% cuts allowed under state law for a police department. But the commission said it’d need to reduce more for long term sustainability.
“The reality is, we will not get the same service,” Commissioner Chad Howell said. “But how can we sustain this financial instability if we don’t make drastic cuts more than 5%?”
Community members expressed concerns during public comment that an absence of local law enforcement would raise response times and attract more crime.
Lifetime High Springs resident Sylvia Lore said she’d been a caregiver for family and friends for over 30 years. She said she’s relied heavily on the city’s fire and police departments to make the difference between life or death in situations.
Eva Werner asked why citizens, who didn’t create the city’s financial crisis, had to lose protection because of it.
“The High Springs Police Department has served this community for 136 years,” she said. “For generations, our residents have known that when they call for help, there are officers in our community who know our streets, our neighborhoods, our businesses and our families. That is more than a line on a budget; it is an essential public service.”
The commissioners buckled down on their stance that the city will cease to exist if it continues operating as is.
Commissioners Howell and Tristan Grunder are also police officers, Howell with the Alachua Police Department and Grunder with the Gainesville Police Department.
Howell didn’t deny that outsourcing law enforcement services to Alachua County would change levels of service. But he said it didn’t mean there’d be higher crime, and that Newberry, which also contracts ACSO, didn’t have more crime than High Springs.
Of the more than 4,000 calls for service from January to August, Howell said around half were traffic stops as opposed to robberies and other police assignments.
He gave a presentation detailing what savings could look like using ACSO and said the numbers spoke for themselves that the city’s police department is unaffordable.
According to Howell, a $1 million contract with the department could save the city an annual $2.2 million, equating to $11 million over five years. A $2.5 million contract would save $700,000 a year and $3.5 million over five years.
“The reality is, we will not get the same service,” he said. “But how can we sustain this financial instability if we don’t make drastic cuts of more than 5%?”
Grunder said he didn’t want to cut police, but he encouraged people to reach out to the High Springs finance director and educate themselves on what’s going on, especially when the department calls him every other day with bad news about what they find financially wrong.
“When I look at my hometown not being a hometown anymore, I’m willing to get a little bit radical on that,” Grunder said. “But if somebody out there’s got, you know, a little bit of money they want to throw this way and donate, I’ll take it.”
High Springs also voted to move forward using the Florida City and County Management Association to help look for an interim and permanent city manager. Parks and Recreation Director Jennifer Applebee is currently serving as interim following the commission’s firing of former City Manager Jeremy Marshall in July.