The St. Johns County Commission agreed to add two referendums to the Nov. 5 election ballot for voters to decide on taxes being sought by the St. Johns School Board.
The referendums, which came at the request of the School Board, each passed 4-1 at an emergency meeting of the commission on Aug. 22. If passed by voters, one would continue the half-cent sales tax to fund new school construction, improvements and repairs, including safety and security upgrades, with continued monitoring by the Sales Surtax Citizen Advisory Committee. The other referendum would allow the School Board to increase property tax rates to fund teacher salaries.
According to Commissioner Christian Whitehurst, the BCC received the 2025 school millage rate proposal Aug. 20 from the school district. Whitehurst described the meeting as purely procedural.
“The meeting was ministerial, designed for the board, as required by the board, to accommodate the mechanisms outlined by the St. Johns County Supervisor of Elections, which states that all information be made public prior to Aug. 23 for early voting,” he said. “This was not an initiative, by any means.”
Whitehurst explained that the school board sets the millage rates — property tax rates — separately from the county’s millage rate process.The administrative vote would not raise taxes, he said. The vote would simply provide the opportunity for county residents to make the choice on Nov. 5.
But public comment against the commission was brutal. But not a single public comment referenced the tax. And not a single comment referenced the school board, teachers or raising salaries. Comments swirled around the timing of the meeting with implications of secrecy because of the recent primary elections.
“I find it inappropriate that two days before the deadline, the community is hearing about a vote being called on a ballot measure that will increase my taxes and the taxes of everyone in this community, which has not allowed anyone in this community to email to call or discuss this with this board,” said Denver Cook, chairman of the St. Johns County Republican Party. “It is not the way I expect my government behave.”
One resident suggested that the school board and the county were blatantly deceiving.
“This isn’t an emergency issue, this is an ambush,” resident Charlie Hunt said. “The school board and the administration had to plan it; disgusting, disgusting, poor, poor.”
Following public comment, county attorney Rich Kommando emphasized that the School Board had indeed held public meetings regarding the tax referendum.
“The school board passed the resolutions before you,” he said. “There’s been plenty of opportunities for the public to come and address these issues. These are not done in the dark of night. These are not things that just popped up just yesterday. The timing has to do with when the supervisor of elections is required to print the ballots.”
Kommando also noted that Clay and Hillsborough counties were sued for not placing the referendum on the ballot as directed by the school board.
During the meeting Whitehurst, repeatedly clarified with Kommando that the commissioners were not voting to increase taxes, they were voting to place the initiative on the Nov. 5 ballot and have voters decide.
Commissioner Krista Joseph, the only opposing vote, exchanged words with Whitehurst when he asked her to explain the reasoning behind her vote because of potential lawsuits.
“I don’t have to explain it to you,” she said. “I’m listening to my constituents.”
Joseph later told the St. Augustine Record that she was “pointing” to Commissioner Sarah Arnold’s responsibility to let the board know "what issues are coming from the school board."
“It’s become an emergency session to vote on it without any notification, without any transparency; it’s not fair to the public and it’s not fairto the teachers,” she said.
But Arnold said there wasn't time.
“These resolutions were voted on during an Aug. 20 school board meeting, leaving our board no option but to put them on the agenda shortly thereafter per the deadline established by the supervisor of elections,” Arnold said. “Anyone with a vested interest in the content of the resolutions could've checked on them months ago when they were made public. Commissioner Joseph's response to Commissioner Whitehurst provided no legal justification on why she voted no.”
Whitehurst later told The St. Augustine Record the referendum was not discussed prior to the primary elections as to not “muddy” the waters.
“The public comment was more about continued misinformation and mudslinging,” he said. “Tim Forson, the county’s school superintendent, clearly articulated that he purposely didn’t give the matter attention prior to the primary election fearing that the referendum would be taken out of context as a tax increase – which it’s not – as opposed to adding the referendum to the ballot, allowing the voters to decide.”
