AVON PARK, Fla. — The Highlands County Sheriff's Office says it plans to stop providing law enforcement services for the City of Avon Park unless the city starts paying more.
Sheriff Paul Blackman presented Avon Park City Council with a termination notice Monday night. Unless the city's contract with the agency is renegotiated, the county sheriff's office won't be the primary law enforcement agency inside city limits as of Nov. 9, 2021. That's a one-year notice to city leaders to renegotiate or figure out another way to protect the roughly 10,700 people who live there.
Deputies will continue to patrol the city in the meantime.
So why is this happening? According to Blackman, the sheriff's office cannot afford to keep providing law enforcement services to the city under the terms of its current contract.
"...at least so far, the city has been unwilling to adjust the contract to reflect the reality of the cost to the HCSO," Sheriff Blackman explained in a message posted on Nextdoor. "The rest of the county is subsidizing law enforcement inside the city limits of Avon Park to a large degree, and that is not fair to those taxpayers who live outside the city. "
Blackman said the contract termination notice should not be a surprise to city leaders. According to him, it's been a long time coming.
"I have met with the previous three city managers to explain that the residents in the rest of the county are the ones footing a large part of the bill for their law enforcement, but the city has not addressed our concerns," he wrote in the message.
When you factor in city and county taxes, the people living in Avon Park are paying the sheriff's office roughly $2.6 million per year. But, Blackman says they're costing the sheriff's office more than $6.4 million, and the rest of the county's residents are being forced to pick up the bill. Blackman said it isn't fair for the rest of the county's taxpayers to subsidize Avon Park.
"Avon Park is home to roughly 10 percent of the county population and pays 6 percent of the property taxes, but 23 percent of the inmates who were booked into the jail last year were arrested in Avon Park and 26 percent of all of our calls for service last year were inside the city limits of Avon Park," he explained.
According to Blackman, Avon Park pays approximately $130 per resident for law enforcement each year. In contrast, he says Lake Placid residents pay $358, and people living in Sebring pay $393. People living in unincorporated parts of Highlands County are paying about $267 each year, he added.
"Avon Park does not exist in a bubble. Deputies who should be patrolling areas like Avon Park Lakes, Avon Park Estates, Sun ‘n Lake and the Crossings are instead getting pulled into the city to help those Avon Park deputies on a regular basis," Blackman said.
As the sheriff's office explained, deputies from the southern part of the county often have to shift north to help cover calls, which creates a "ripple effect" that can be felt all the way down to Lake Placid sometimes.
Blackman said "things have to change" if the sheriff's office is going to continue providing services to the city of Avon Park. Changes he would ask for include adding four more deputies and four sergeants to cover a new zone that he'd want to create within city limits. That would increase the cost of a new contract and cause Avon Park residents to pay about $232 per year for services. As he points out, however, that would still be the lowest tax burden for law enforcement services in the county.
"I definitely understand that this is not a good time to be discussing tax increases," Blackman said. "I know this has been a hard year for everyone. However, the city has to create a strategic plan for moving the funding of law enforcement in the direction that is needed for an agreement that is fair to the rest of the county if they want the HCSO to continue to provide services 365 days from now."
At this point, Blackman says the ball is "in the city council's court."
Click here to read the full message from the sheriff.
What other people are reading right now:
- Cindy McCain says her husband would have been 'very pleased' by Biden's win, report says
- Tracking Eta: Latest track from NHC shifts west, takes Tampa Bay out of the forecast cone
- Navy sailor from Florida killed in Pearl Harbor laid to rest nearly 80 years later
- 'I am worried': Hospital staff monitoring rise in cases in Tampa Bay, urge communities to use COVID-19 mitigation measures
- Pfizer says early data signals COVID-19 vaccine is effective
- 2020 Election Results | Get live results from 10 Tampa Bay
►Breaking news and weather alerts: Get the free 10 Tampa Bay app
►Stay In the Know! Sign up now for the Brightside Blend Newsletter
