{"id":79419,"date":"2026-09-11T21:28:02","date_gmt":"2026-09-12T01:28:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=79419"},"modified":"2026-09-12T20:26:33","modified_gmt":"2026-09-13T00:26:33","slug":"fort-meade-lost-113000-bell-says-it-was-on-purpose","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2026\/09\/11\/fort-meade-lost-113000-bell-says-it-was-on-purpose\/","title":{"rendered":"Fort Meade Lost $113,000. Bell Says It Was on Purpose"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As originally reported by\u00a0Illuminate Fort Meade<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n

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In June, there was nothing particularly remarkable about two resolutions placed before the Fort Meade City Commission. One dealt with fire protection. The other dealt with stormwater.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both were part of the annual process of setting the assessments that appear on property tax bills and help pay for those services. For fire protection, the City proposed $804,522.39 in assessments. For stormwater, $247,609.54.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The commission approved both preliminary assessments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was still work to do before the rates became final. The City\u2019s staff reports explained what would happen next: a public hearing would be held before September 15, and the required public notice \u201cwill be provided.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Summer passed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By September 3, the higher revenues had made their way into City Manager Troy Bell\u2019s proposed budget. Bell presented that budget to commissioners at the first budget hearing, and it relied on the increased fire and stormwater assessments to help fund the coming year. Nothing presented that night suggested the City had abandoned them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then came Labor Day weekend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometime between the September 3 budget hearing and the commission\u2019s next meeting September 8, a problem surfaced: City staff could not provide evidence that the required assessment notice had been sent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bell began asking questions of staff and legal counsel and consulted commissioners about what to do with the lower revenue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And there would be less revenue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Without the increases, fire protection would bring in $98,185.81 less than Bell\u2019s proposed budget anticipated. Stormwater would bring in $15,109.54 less.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Together, $113,295.35 disappeared from a budget Bell had presented five days earlier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When commissioners gathered September 8, they wanted to know what happened. Bell said nothing had been missed. According to him, management had made a decision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe made the decision not to pursue additional notice,\u201d Bell told commissioners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mayor Jaret Williams kept pressing. Why had the City not pursued the increases? Was there a delay in noticing? Bell repeatedly returned to the same explanation: increasing the assessments required additional notice, and management decided not to pursue it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Williams finally asked the question directly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDid we miss those notice requirements?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo, we did not,\u201d Bell replied.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then the city attorney was asked about the timeline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An increase required 20 days\u2019 notice. Asked whether the assessments could have increased had they been noticed earlier, the attorney said they potentially could have.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Williams then asked whether Fort Meade was now outside the timeline to notify residents of an increase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI believe you are outside of that,\u201d the city attorney said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That complicated the explanation that nothing had been missed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Who exactly had decided not to pursue the notice went unexplained. The commission had approved the preliminary assessments in June and had not publicly reversed that action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is not the first time Bell has faced questions about acting without commission authorization. Palatka commissioners fired him in 2024 after concluding he authorized a $50,000 payment to a festival promoter without the commission approval they said was required. Bell maintained that he believed he had authority to make the payment. During the dispute, one commissioner accused him of lying about what happened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Williams eventually used a different word.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is a grave mistake,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are two possible explanations, and neither fits comfortably with the record.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If Bell had already decided not to pursue the additional notice, why did the budget he presented September 3 still include the additional revenue?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If that decision came afterward, the city attorney confirmed the other problem: by then, the City was already outside the notice timeline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Residents may welcome paying less. But commissioners never voted to cut the assessments. They voted to move forward with the higher preliminary rates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And Fort Meade does not have $113,295 sitting around in a budget surplus waiting to absorb the difference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bell\u2019s proposed budget was already out of balance by roughly $2.2 million, with the difference to be taken from City reserves. Despite repeated discussion of those withdrawals, the City has not publicly disclosed how much money is actually available in those reserves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now there is another $113,295.35 to find.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Commissioners can take more from reserves, cut spending somewhere else, or leave the fire and stormwater funds without the revenue Bell\u2019s budget said they would receive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bell suggested one possibility during the September 8 meeting. He told commissioners the City has historically supported the fire department with reserves from other departments and could continue doing so if directed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That doesn\u2019t replace the missing revenue. It moves the burden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bell says losing the revenue was a choice. Mayor Williams calls it a \u201cgrave mistake.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way, the bill is now due.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As originally reported by\u00a0Illuminate Fort Meade. In June, there was nothing particularly remarkable about two resolutions placed before the Fort Meade City Commission. One dealt with fire protection. The other… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":79420,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNlwvMDlcLzgwMzIyNjcxNV8xMjIyOTg2NTQ5MzgwODg5OTFfMzM2NTUxMDcwMzc1MDczNTI5X24ud2VicD9maXQ9ODEwJTJDNTQwJnNzbD0xIiwidHh0IjoiRm9ydCBNZWFkZSBMb3N0ICQxMTMsMDAwLiBCZWxsIFNheXMgSXQgV2FzIG9uIFB1cnBvc2UiLCJ0ZW1wbGF0ZSI6ImRvaXMiLCJmb250IjoiIiwiYmxvZ19pZCI6MTYzMDQwNjYxfQ.x8njmeI25YwatOE0ZFztS-dekeD55uA9iF7ev_pTN1IMQ"},"version":2,"media_source":"sig","attached_media":[{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/jetpack.com\/redirect\/?source=sigenerate&query=t%3DeyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvbGFrZWxhbmRnYXpldHRlLmluZm9cL25ld3NcL3dwLWNvbnRlbnRcL3VwbG9hZHNcLzIwMjZcLzA5XC84MDMyMjY3MTVfMTIyMjk4NjU0OTM4MDg4OTkxXzMzNjU1MTA3MDM3NTA3MzUyOV9uLndlYnAiLCJ0eHQiOiJGb3J0IE1lYWRlIExvc3QgJDExMywwMDAuIEJlbGwgU2F5cyBJdCBXYXMgb24gUHVycG9zZSIsInRlbXBsYXRlIjoiZG9pcyIsImZvbnQiOiIiLCJibG9nX2lkIjoxNjMwNDA2NjF9.YIpYi1tz3FWujOK07bPBAdjDKe8TUJGdSDWmvCgTeokMQ","type":"image\/jpeg"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[14],"tags":[16976,17080,16069,16073,17079,17078,17081,17077],"class_list":["post-79419","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-city-budget","tag-florida-local-government","tag-fort-meade","tag-jaret-williams","tag-municipal-finance","tag-property-tax-assessments","tag-public-notice-requirements","tag-troy-bell"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79419","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79419"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79419\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79545,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79419\/revisions\/79545"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}