September 16, 2015 Dear Mayor and Commissioners, You face a difficult decision tonight. It is a decision that has been made more difficult and contentious by the process that has been followed. That process is one that works best with an electorate that is uninvolved and one that is satisfied with only minimum dialogue with its representative commission and staff. That is not to say that staff has not tried to accommodate questions from the public; they have. But now with only hours before the vote, you do not have a single detailed option to thoughtfully and confidently consider, other than the options to raise taxes. The only "no tax hike" option is the extreme option outlined below. If it is true that you are still considering options other than the 4.55 mill option, then you must have been provided with informational options in private one-on-one meetings with staff that has not been provided to the general public. Because the only "no tax hike" option we are aware of is the early June "no tax hike" option that was provided you by Mr. Lavin, that seemed to have been primarily written to shock commissioners. The option included the following choices:

• 7% of the general fund workforce would be fired • Funds that would have been spent to fund budget items close to various

commissioners' hearts (road maintenance, body cameras, and parks and recreation), would be eliminated.

• The use of one-time revenues would be used (an anathema to commissioners)

So, left with no staff-provided, authentic, fact-based, and creative options designed to keep the millage rate at 3.7 mills, citizen groups, individuals, and media, after doing hours of research from various sources, have stepped forward to offer alternative views. But that presents the problem for commissioners since to truly consider the citizen options, they must vet all non-staff provided numbers that may or may not be unreliable, through the same staff that seems to be all-in for a tax increase. The result is what we will predictably have tonight. It will be a night where commissioners who seriously want to consider leaving taxes at 3.7 mills will be required to attempt on-the-fly to mathematically weigh one set of budget numbers provided by non-staff entities against budget numbers from an apparent pro-tax staff that has refused to provide a meaningful alternative for not raising taxes that could have been debated before tonight. To assist you in sorting through the numbers that will be in flight tonight, there are some indisputable numbers that may be of use to you. Staff can quickly validate these numbers for you tonight. They are not in dispute. How you choose to use the numbers and whether you think they are important is up to you.

• The average cost per employee is $74,000 not $50,000 (as provided by staff). The $74,0000 number is calculated by adding all salary, benefits, and over time excluding part-time workers divided by the actual number of FTE positions. It does not include costs of office space, equipment, vehicles, vehicle maintenance, supervisory oversight, cell phones, or support staff (i.e. ethics office).

• Overtime is budgeted for at least $8,000,000. • Part-time or temporary workers budgeted at $7,500.000 for over 700 part-time

workers, the highest of all cities in Florida except unknown numbers of Jacksonville, Orlando, and Miami according to the Florida League of Cities website. Some part-time workers working less that 30 hours are provided additional benefits not required by law.

• The disparity study of $300,000 is not required by statute. • Saving money at Star Metro lowers the transfer amount from the General Fund. • Star Metro has a total of 51 long buses in operation. Approximately 31% or 16

of all long buses are used exclusively for FSU on campus. FSU pays $2,5000,000 to Star Metro, which is supposedly a full cost recovery contract. The Star Metro budget is over $17,000,000. FAMU pays $500,000 for 2 buses. TCC and Leon County pay zero. The general fund transfers $7,800,000 to cover the shortfall at Star Metro. Total subsidies have grown to a high of 59% for 2016. FSU has 41,000 students with about 11,000 parking spaces.

• The city of Gainesville transfers about $780,000 to RTS, its bus transit. The

University of Florida pays the city of Gainesville over $15,000,000 for bus service. Alachua County pays about $1,000.000 and Santa Fe CC pays $1,000,000. U of F has 49,000 students with about 19,000 parking spaces.

• Neither Contract Services nor Unclassified Supplies has not been discussed or

analyzed for budget cutting purposes . • The number of 2007-2015 FTE positions that have reduced since the high water

mark of 2007 is 150. Adding 44 positions for 2016 would decrease the number eliminated to 116.

Thank you. Regards, Russell Price