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Palm Harbor and East Lake may incorporate in Pinellas County

Instead of one new town in North Pinellas, how about two? While some Palm Harbor residents are considering the possibility of trying to incorporate and create their own city, some East Lake activists are watching the process with interest. They could decide to join the Palm Harbor incorporation movement. They might decide they prefer the status quo. And they might pursue their own incorporation strategy for East Lake itself.

"We really have to tear it apart as to the positives and negatives," said John Miolla of East Lake, who is on the board of the Council of North County Neighborhoods, a civic group based in East Lake. On Monday, the Greater Palm Harbor Community Coalition, an informal partnership of community groups, gave the Pinellas County legislative delegation its final draft of a proposed bill to schedule a referendum on incorporation in November 2008.

In addition to Palm Harbor, the coalition's study includes Ozona, Crystal Beach and all of East Lake, communities that would vote on whether to be part of any new town. The proposed bill includes a town charter and a final feasibility study.

The legislative delegation's dozen members are expected to consider whether to support the bill Jan. 3. Meanwhile, the Council of North County Neighborhoods, which was created this year to give East Lake residents a stronger voice in local affairs, has formed a committee to analyze the feasibility study and make a recommendation for East Lake by early next year.

The Palm Harbor group's 110-page feasibility study breaks out information on East Lake separately and will be useful whatever direction East Lake chooses to take, said Bob Loos of East Lake, the chairman of the council committee looking at incorporation. The three options Loos said he is considering are:
- Joining forces with the Palm Harbor Community Coalition, paving the way to possibly becoming part of the new town of Palm Harbor.
- Forming the city of East Lake to be "Brooker" or something, Loos said, because the East Lake post office name is taken in Florida.
- Doing nothing, continuing to rely on Pinellas County to provide services.

Jim Kleyman, the spokesman for the Palm Harbor group, said in an e-mail to the East Lake group that he does not want any disharmony between the two communities on the issue. "I hope that, should you choose to incorporate East Lake separately, you can use data we collected," he
said, "and we can help you complete your study and support your efforts to have a local bill passed independent of ours."

Kleyman, who declined to comment further for this story, finds the two groups have much in common. "It is encouraging to see that you are well-organized, have identified needs, and might be pursuing an incorporation study on your own," he said in his e-mail. "Ultimately, we all have the same long range goals - better fiscal management, more responsive government, and a good quality of life."

The biggest concern with incorporating at this point, Loos said, is the cost of providing police protection. That's because the feasibility study shows that a cost estimate provided by the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office is higher than the amount Pinellas County currently pays for law enforcement in the feasibility study area.

The feasibility study says the Sheriff's Office currently charges the county about $150 per person yearly to provide police services in the county's unincorporated areas. The study said the Sheriff's Office estimated it would charge $173 per person to provide the same level of service in the feasibility study area.

"We would hope that if we incorporated, we'd get a better price," said Scott Fisher of Palm Harbor. Fisher, who prepared the feasibility study, noted that some other Pinellas cities pay the Sheriff's Office less per resident than the agency's estimate for Palm Harbor.

Another choice, Loos said, could be for East Lake to create its own police department. Loos said he was once on the board of trustees of a village in New York and helped run the police department there, so he has some pertinent experience.

"The key to having an efficient police department is to have an experienced and professional police leader at the top of the pyramid," he said. "Then everything else falls into place." Bob Loos said anyone interested in helping the committee review the feasibility study, research options and make recommendations. Theresa Blackwell can be reached at  727.445.4170.

The Pinellas County legislative delegation is scheduled to vote on the bill at 9 a.m. Jan. 3, 2008, at the Catherine A. Hickman Theater, 5501 27th Ave. S, Gulfport.