Letter: Writer questions math on City Hall drive-through

Letter: Writer questions math on City Hall drive-through

Peter Romano
St. Augustine
Publication Date: 04/08/04

Editor: The City Commission's decision to convert the old fire station into a drive-through permitting desk contains, in its initial foundation, some fuzzy math.

The most obvious and blatantly stated "fuzz" was by the city controller at the March 8 commission meeting. He said his staff estimated that 2,000 citizens a month come to City Hall's customer service counter to pay bills and tickets or get permits. Nowhere were the "staff estimates" validated or quantified for accuracy. Commissioners overlooked this lack of reliable data and rushed to spend another "fuzzy" $300,000.

It would have been simple to devise a daily count that quantified the type of service, and whether the person drove, walked or pedaled to City Hall. A count over a normal working month (20 work days) would produce a good number. Instead, we have an "estimated" 2,000 citizens each month necessitating a drive-through facility?

Now let's look at the "fuzzy" cost.

Let's say you leveled the fire station. What is that downtown one-third block worth in today's commercial real estate market? $500,000? And let's say a developer turns that one-third block into an upscale retail, grocery and office building with public parking on the roof. (In harmony with the surrounding structures, of course.)

Let's say that it would have a built-out value of $5 million. Over 10 years, the property tax generated would be $330,000.

So let's do the math based on 10 years: $30,000 for renovation, plus $500,000 for giving up the commercial value, plus $330,000 in property tax, not collected. That totals $1.13 million, not including utilities and maintenance.

The city would have to charge each drive-through customer an additional $4.70 a visit to recoup what it's forgoing. That's about the price of a lunch at a burger joint. Would you like fries with that?


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