City commissioners voted in a 5-0 approval of a set of ordinances annexing nine Daviess County Public School properties into city boundaries. Many citizens were present for the vote at City Hall, and Mayor Tom Watson had to quiet the room several times as DCPS employees vocalized their disapproval of the vote. While the schools to be annexed will remain in the county district, DCPS employees at those locations will be forced to pay higher occupational taxes.
Although City officials met with DCPS Superintendent Matt Robbins and Daviess County Board of Education attorney Sean Land prior to Tuesday night’s meeting to discuss negotiations, a final agreement was not reached. The unanimous vote of approval means DCPS will likely pursue legal action against the City.
“We’re very disappointed with the City’s decision to move forward with the vote tonight,” Land said after the meeting. “We think that’s very cavalier on the City’s part.”
DCPS seemingly had hope that City officials would table the Tuesday vote and continue with negotiations but, as the meeting unfolded, it became clear to those present that the City did intend to take an official vote and approve the annexation.
“It’s very true that leading up to the meeting — up until an hour before — we were negotiating, and they were very positive negotiations,” Land said. “But once this is submitted to a vote — it’s been read, voted on and approved, it’s hard to imagine the City will have any incentive to continue negotiations — that remains to be seen.”
Whether DCPS pursues legal action is up to the City at this point, Land said.
“The school board will never stand for the teachers, or any district employee, losing a penny financially,” Land said. “That will be contested to the Kentucky Supreme Court, if necessary.”
Once Watson allowed individuals from the crowd to stand at the podium and speak, DCPS educator Kevin Lowe compared the ongoing battle with local government over annexation to the years-long debate between educators and state government.
“Educators are already being beat up by our state government — we thought we had faith in our local government, but I guess we were wrong,” Lowe said before presenting blown-up pictures of select DCPS employees and students — some of which Lowe said are battling cancer and high medical bills — that would be affected by the annexation and 1.43 percent cut in pay.
“Put these faces in your mind as you make your decisions tonight,” Lowe said. “These are real people.”
The vote of approval didn’t come easy for all commissioners as Pamela Smith-Wright told the crowd she originally planned to vote no to the annexation of the DCPS properties. However, after learning of negotiations between the two agencies, Smith-Wright switched her vote before the meeting took place.
“They need to know we are working together on this,” Smith-Wright said. “[DCPS employees] were out in the dark, and that’s why they’ve been so hostile.”
Things became tense as DCPS employees began challenging commissioners who spoke before, during and after the vote took place. Initially, Watson told the crowd they must select only one person to speak as a representative for the entire group, but Daviess County Sheriff Keith Cain took to the podium to speak on behalf of DCPS.
“I am concerned and disappointed that this commission decided to make a vote before they heard the input of the community at large,” Cain said to applause.
Cain called some of the commissioner’s reasoning behind the annexation “inadvertently misleading”– namely, that the annexation would benefit DCPS with better and faster City-based police, fire and emergency personnel than what the schools currently receive from the county.
“It’s been said that the annexation is needed to enhance school security because of the tragedies that have occurred across the nation. Simply put, this is simply not true,” Cain said. “DCPS is recognized across this state, and even this nation, and that’s a direct result of our partnership with them.”
Daviess County Fire Department Chief Dwane Smeathers credited Owensboro Fire Department for providing great service, but said DCFD is the only fire department in the area that provided around-the-clock life support services.
“This annex will actually reduce the services DCPS now enjoys,” Smeathers said. “The Daviess County Fire service provides the same level of service through their two manned career stations, 12 volunteer stations and approximately 300 volunteer firefighters. We train tirelessly and remain abreast in all of the latest developments as it relates to all aspects of emergency services. DCFD responded to 189 calls of service for these [DCPS] locations last year, and these calls break down into two call types–fire suppression and medical assistance. Please don’t use emergency services as your political calling card.”
City Manager Nate Pagan later said his words were misinterpreted in reference to these issues as he agrees DCSO and Daviess County Fire Department both provide the same quality care as their City counterparts. However, Pagan said, his argument was always focused on DCPS’s close proximity to City-based emergency services.
“If we get a reasonable agreement, I think it could serve as a model for future annexations potentially,” Pagan said.
Pagan said DCPS schools being annexed could cut emergency response time in half by switching to City-based providers.
“We’ve got software that shows response times to this stuff — at Highland, it would go to 2 to 3 minutes with us, and it’s currently 6 minutes. For Daviess County High School — a 4-minute response from us is 10 from the other station. This is objective data. It’s not about the service provided by them — they provide great service. It’s about the geography.”
Pagan said the City’s goal is to make DCPS employees affected by the annexation whole, by offsetting the loss they would incur with a higher occupational tax rate.
“Right now, on the three current annexed City properties [Daviess County Middle School, Tamarack Elementary School and Heritage Park High School], the school board subsidizes their pay. For example, a first-grade teacher at Tamarack pays no more than a first-grade teacher at Whitesville Elementary,” Land said. “They’re assessed higher taxes because Tamarack Elementary’s been annexed, but the school board subsidizes that pay. With the nine additional schools being annexed, the school board cannot afford to subsidize the employee’s pay.”
According to an email sent out by Robbins, the TIF (tax increment funds) that may be available on the new DCMS/Highland property is part of the ongoing discussion between commissioners and DCPS.
However, these funds may not be available for some time as the money must be analyzed at the state level before it can be reimbursed to the City in the form of a surplus. This process can take up to a year to be finalized.
“The TIF funds availability has a good prospect for negotiation, but there are a number of open questions surrounding the certainty and amount of funds that may be available,” Robbins said. “Beyond this, we have an issue whereby we propose an even split of these funds to be shared equally by the City and DCPS and the City prefers a different approach. We simply cannot negotiate with money we do not know beyond a reasonable doubt, exists.”
Land said a big portion of the negotiations between DCPS and the City has been in trying to establish a compromise that allows the school board to continue subsidizing the teachers’ pay who work at all schools being annexed.
“We’re certainly very hopeful that can still happen, but I don’t know how the commission moving forward will impact that,” Land said.
Robbins stood at the podium and told commissioners and the crowd that while progress had been made between both agencies, DCPS wasn’t yet ready to call the game.
“What’s been explained to me has been in good faith, and we’ll proceed forward tomorrow. I’m doing my best to make sure you’re not impacted by this — and that’ll be the promise I make to you,” Robbins said addressing his employees in the crowd.
