Current News

Written by Administrator | 30 July 2009

Beaches Watch Seeks 2011 Friend of the Beaches Award Nominations

2011-2012 Beaches Budget Information

Florida Planning Information

2011 Atlantic Beach Elections Information

Candidate Training Presentation

What is the Interlocal Agreement?

Florida's Sunshine Law & Open Government

2010-2011 Beaches Budget Information

Beaches Watch Seeks 2011 Friend of the Beaches Award Nominations

Beaches Watch is seeking nominations for the 2011 Friend of the Beaches Award. The Friend of the Beaches Award is an annual award that recognizes individuals, businesses or organizations for exemplary contributions that have enriched on our quality of life at the beaches.

“In a time when there is a lot of negative news, we want to recognize the positive things that are happening in our community”, said Beaches Watch President, Sandy Golding.

Nomination submissions should include the following:

1) nominator's name and primary contact information;

2) nominee's name and primary contact information. If nominating a business or organization, please also provide an individual name and contact information for the business or organization;

3) detailed reasons for the nomination: please list things the nominee has done that have had a positive impact on our quality of life at the beaches.

Nominations should be submitted by 5pm, Friday February 3, 2012 to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or mail to Beaches Watch, Inc., P.O. Box 50311, Jacksonville Beach, FL 32240.

Last year's recipients, Gretchen Ferrell and the Beaches Local Food Network, were recognized for the Beaches Green Market, Beaches Community Garden, hands-on workshops and educational programs through both venues. The Beaches Local Food Network works to create healthy community spaces where people of all ages and backgrounds can come together in order to share knowledge, seeds, resources and passions that ultimately lead to nutritious food on the table.

Previous award recipients have been River Branch Foundation, Mario's by the Ocean, Mary Emerson-Smith, Bennie Furlong and Marcy Silkebaken.

Beaches Watch is a non-profit, non-partisan civic organization whose mission is to promote and facilitate educated and productive citizen involvement in local and state government decisions that affect the quality of life of our beaches communities in Duval County, Florida.  Beaches Watch achieves this by raising, monitoring and researching issues; providing factual issue information to the general public and government officials; encouraging citizen participation in the solutions to beaches growth and quality of life issues and organizing citizens for action.

For more information or questions, call 513-9242, email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or visit the Beaches Watch web site at www.beacheswatch.com.

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2011-2012 Beaches Budget Info

ATLANTIC BEACH:

The Atlantic Beach City Commission approved the following 2012 budget:

Atlantic Beach 2011-2012 Budget

JACKSONVILLE BEACH:

The Jacksonville Beach City Council approved the following 2012 budget:

Jacksonville Beach 2011-2012 Budget

NEPTUNE BEACH:

The Neptune Beach City Council approved the following 2012 budget:

Neptune Beach 2011-2012 Budget

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Florida Planning Information

The University of Florida Center for Building Better Communities has created the "Florida Planning Officials Handbook".  This handbook has a lot of great information to help citizens better understand Florida growth management and the planning process.  To see the handbook, click on the link below:

Florida Planning Officials Handbook

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2011 Atlantic Beach Elections Information

Congratulations to the winners of the Atlantic Beach elections:

Mayor:  Mike Borno
Seat 2:  Maria Mark
Seat 3:  Mark Beckenbach

Prior to the August 30 election, Beaches Watch asked the candidates to provide biographies and responses to questions about Atlantic Beach issues.  Click on the office below to see the candidate biographies and candidate responses to the Beaches Watch questionnaire.

Atlantic Beach Mayor
Atlantic Beach City Commission Seat 2
Atlantic Beach City Commission Seat 3

On August 18, Beaches Watch hosted the only public candidate forum for the Atlantic Beach candidates.  The forum was well attended by over 300 people who came to the forum to learn more about the candidates before voting on Tuesday, Aug. 30.

Beaches Watch would like to thank all the candidates for participating in the candidate forum.  Beaches Watch would also like to thank all the volunteers who contributed to the success of the candidate forum:

Sarah Bopp
Sally Clemens
Kate Godwin
Sandy Golding
Ed Raube
Sharon Scholl
Brenda Shields
Darrell Shields
Julie Sleeper
Hallie Stevens
Janice Waters

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Candidate Training Presentation

At the July 6 Beaches Watch meeting, Beth Fleet from the Duval County Supervisor of Elections office presented candidate training to the qualified Atlantic Beach candidates and others that are considering running for office in the future.

"An important element to a smooth election is to have informed candidates who are knowledgeable of the election laws," said Supervisor of Elections Jerry Holland.

At the candidate training, Ms. Fleet provided a special candidate training session with handout materials about the campaign laws.  The training session also helped candidates understand the campaign laws for non-partisan campaigns and the "do's" and "don'ts" for online campaigning.

To view the presentation, CLICK HERE.

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What is the Interlocal Agreement?

Recently, Jacksonville has questioned whether beaches residents pay enough taxes to the county in exchange for servies provided by the county.  As a result, Jacksonville elected officials and auditors have decided to audit the interlocal agreement between Jacksonville and the beaches.

The interlocal agreement was created in 1982 after the beach cities fought with the City of Jacksonville over the ways taxes and government services were shared.  In 1996, the interlocal agreement was amended after the beaches filed a lawsuit against Jacksonville for breach of the 1982 interlocal agreement.

Where do your tax dollars go?
If you look at your 2010 property tax (TRIM) documentation, you will see that your 2010 property taxes are distributed as follows:

For Jacksonville Beach residents:
35% to Jacksonville
21% to Jacksonville Beach
41% to Schools
2% to St. Johns River Water Management District
0.2% to Florida Inland Navigation District

For Atlantic Beach and Neptune Beach residents:
37% to Jacksonville
17% to Atlantic Beach/Neptune Beach
43% to Schools
2% to St. Johns River Water Management District
0.2% to Florida Inland Navigation District

According to the 1982 interlocal agreement, your tax dollars pay for Jacksonville to provide the following services:
Property Appraiser
Tax Collector
Supervisor of Elections
Courts
Hospitals
Port Authority
Transportation Authority
Libraries
Agriculture
Health (except nuisance contron and abatement)
Rescue
Animal Control
Human Resources
Sports Complex and Auditorium
Construction Trades Board
Public Housing
Jails and Prisons
Sheriff (except police operations)
County Road Construction and Maintenance
Traffic Engineering on County Roads
Recreation-Regional and County-Wide Recreational Facilities Only
Sanitary Landfill

If you wish to learn more, you can read the interlocal agreement and amendments:

1982 Interlocal Agreement

1996 Jax Beach Amendment

1996 Atlantic Beach Amendment

1996 Neptune Beach Amendment

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Florida's Sunshine Law & Open Government

Special thanks to Andy Miller, Executive Director of the Public Trust Environmental Legal Institute of Florida (www.publictrustlaw.org), for being our guest speaker at the November 3, 2010 Beaches Watch meeting.  Andy gave a presentation on Florida's Sunshine Law and what every citizen needs to expect from open government. 

Transparency in government is a constitutional right in Florida that is protected by the Sunshine Law and public records law.  It is important for citizens to understand these laws so they can ensure their constitutional right is protected.

To learn more, CLICK HERE to see the presentation. (Note: this is a large file, so it will take some time to open.)

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ATLANTIC BEACH:

The Atlantic Beach City Commission has voted to maintain last year's millage rate of 3.1553 and approved the City's proposed 2010/2011 budget of $35,411,428.  Atlantic Beach was the only beach city to not increase the millage to the roll-back rate. To see the proposed budget, click on the link to the budget:

Atlantic Beach - Proposed 2011 Budget

JACKSONVILLE BEACH:

Jacksonville Beach City Council has approved the 2010/2011 Budget of $163,959,844 and the 2010 roll-back millage rate of 4.0947. 

For Jacksonville Beach citizens interested in understanding how your tax dollars will be spent, click on the link to the budget:

Jacksonville Beach - Adopted 2010-2011 Budget

NEPTUNE BEACH:

Neptune Beach City Council has approved the 2010 roll-back millage rate of 3.1826.

Neptune Beach Tax Facts

1. Neptune Beach’s General Fund Budget Expenditures (Police, Public Works, Parks, Building, Code Enforcement, Finance, City Clerk, City Manager & etc.) have gone down each of the last five years).

2. Neptune Beach’s General Fund: Revenues have gone down each of the last five years.

3. If you live in Jacksonville Beach, Jacksonville, Orange Park, St Augustine and Fernandina Beach you pay more in property tax than a Neptune Beach homeowner.

4. Neptune Beach’s property tax rate is on the bottom end statewide.

5. Over the past five years Neptune Beach has reduced its fulltime employees by 17.4%.

6. Property tax accounts for only 45% of the City’s expenditures.

7. There have been no employee raises or cost of living increases for the last three years.

8. Employee health benefits have been reduced, for the last three years, to keep the cost at the same level. (Benefits would have increased by 80%)

9. Neptune Beach has developed more than $1,500,000 in grants that have funded need projects that would have otherwise increased taxes.

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