Sanford police, fire consider consolidation with Seminole County

SANFORD, Fla. — The city of Sanford is looking at possibly consolidating its police and fire departments with Seminole County.

Sanford Mayor Jeff Triplett told Channel 9's Jeff Levkulich that property taxes in the city have remained unchanged for years, while the cost to run the safety service departments continues to rise.

Triplett said that this is all in the very preliminary stages, but consolidation is something they need to really consider. Raising taxes is not an option since Sanford already has the highest property taxes in the county.

"Our ad valorem real estate values are not really keeping up with the cost of what services are,” Triplett said.

According to the city of Sanford's proposed budget for 2018, the cost to run the city’s fire department is $9,853,129. It costs $15,734,704 for the police department. While the ad valorem property taxes the city collects is $19.5 million, a difference of $6.1 million.

"Let’s put some numbers to it. If it's something we can take a further look into at a later date, if it makes sense, if it's savings of $5 million, or $2 million or a $100, we just don't know the answer to that,” Triplett said.

The mayor said the fire department is growing and the chief wants to build another station out at the Sanford-Orlando International Airport.

There is also the possibility of losing another potential $500,000 $700,000 if the Homestead Property Tax Exemption passes on the 2018 ballot.

“We are not robbing Peter to pay Paul, but how would that look with $700,000 less?  That's a lot of money,” Triplett said.

Casselberry, Winter Springs and Altamonte Springs merged their fire departments with the county. This would be a first for a police department to merge with the sheriff's office.

Cox Media Group