- April 18, 2024
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In the cluster of industrial-looking buildings and structures that line the eastern end of Utility Drive, only one property isn't owned by the city: The East Flagler Mosquito Control District property.
But the city may soon close that gap: Officials are considering buying the now-vacated property for $317,000.
"Ever since they decided to move from Utility Drive … to the airport, we’ve always been very interested," City Manager Jim Landon told City Council members at a Sept. 26 meeting.
The 2.12-acre Mosquito Control property is sandwiched between the city's 35-acre sewer plant and a 3.63-acre city fueling facility.
The Mosquito Control District is an independent government agency with its board and taxing authority, and is separate from the city government or the county government.
The city's wastewater department has long wanted to construct a new office building. But the Mosquito Control building would meet those needs, and the proposed purchase price is about equal to the cost of building a new facility, Landon said.
"This makes a whole lot of sense: It consolidates our facility there so we don’t have anything in between," Landon said.
The city and the district have discussed the city buying the land at its appraisal cost of $317,000. But the timing is a bit uncomfortable for the city: The Mosquito Control District is currently investigating to determine how it managed to dig itself into a $1.1 million deficit this year due to an accounting error.
The district's accounting staff had carried forward the wrong balance from the previous year into this year, and didn't account for the fact that the district was spending that money on building a new facility at the county airport, according to officials.
The district began spending money it didn't have. By the time it uncovered the error, it had a $1.1 million budget hole. The district has laid off six staff members and cut back on travel and health insurance to help plug it.
The sale of its old building would help it recover.
"The timing is interesting here," Mayor Milissa Holland said at the meeting. "Quite frankly, they just need to be audited and find out what happened to $1.1 million." She asked Landon how long talks about the sale had been going on.
"More than a year," he replied. "As soon as they were moving out to the airport, we knew the property would be available. ... This was not something that came up as a result of financial issues."
"I’m concerned about what happened to these dollars, frankly," Holland said. "I think there's something really wrong there. ... These are all tax dollars. This isn’t like buying it through a private entity that may have financial problems that we have nothing to do with. ... It just seems messy right now."
City Councilman Bob Cuff said the Mosquito Control District property, along with the adjacent city properties, had been provided by his own former employer — developer ITT — with the idea that the Mosquito Control property might one day come back into the city's hands.
Landon called a formal audit of the Mosquito Control District "critical."
"Until they have a formal audit, we really don’t know their situation," he said. "Once again, this isn’t trying to bail them out; this has nothing to do with their financial situation. ... I think they’re taking it seriously, and I think we need to allow them to go through that process. In the meantime, from the city’s standpoint, we would hate to lose the opportunity that is a small little property right in the middle of our operation. It’s like you have an island in the middle of our operations."
