{"id":43291,"date":"2019-06-05T15:22:06","date_gmt":"2019-06-05T19:22:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/?p=43291"},"modified":"2019-06-05T15:22:21","modified_gmt":"2019-06-05T19:22:21","slug":"lehigh-acres-voters-reject-new-fire-fee-assessment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/2019\/06\/lehigh-acres-voters-reject-new-fire-fee-assessment\/","title":{"rendered":"Lehigh Acres voters reject new fire fee assessment"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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With less than 7% vote turn out. Voters in Lehigh Acres\nspeak loud and clear and rejected a change in the way fire fees are assessed\nand collected at a special election Tuesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of the registered voters that turned out to turn\ndown the proposal with 1,892, or 56%, voting against the change and 1,523,\nor 44%, voting to support it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The referendum would have shifted an increased share of the\nburden for fire department fees onto the owners of the thousands of vacant lots\nthroughout Lehigh and cause double taxation and no more notification to the\nproperty owners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The change was strongly supported by the Lehigh Acres\nFire Control and Rescue District board, its fire chief and its unionized\nworkforce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Signed documents show that the Chief officers of the Lehigh\nAcres Fire Department will be receiving a 5% pay raise on Oct 1, 2019, and an\nadditional 5% Pay raise on Oct 1, 2020. 
\n
\nAlso, other signed documents show that the Firefighters of the Lehigh Acres\nFire Department will be receiving a 4% pay raise on Oct 1, 2019, and an\nadditional 4% Pay raise on Oct 1, 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Others documents show that the union know who voted by mail\nand early voting on June 3, 2019 and this was confirmed by the election\u2019s\noffice. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Only 800 votes were cast at the polls. Most of the voters\nwho cast ballots did so by mail, about 2,000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Tommy Doyle the Lee county election supervisor\nthere will be no recount. And the Lehigh Acres Fire Department will be receiving\nshortly a bill for nearly $100,000 for running this special election. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lehigh Acres Gazette tried to reach Fire Chief Robert Dilallo for comment, he was not available for comment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Special fire board meeting June 12 6 pm at Station 104 3102 16th St SW Lehigh Acres, FL 33976<\/p>\n\n\n\n

THE PURPOSES OF THE SPECIAL MEETINGS ARE TO DISCUSS AND POSSIBLY TAKE ACTION ON FINANCIAL AND CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT MATTERS AND TO DISCUSS AND POSSIBLY TAKE ACTION ON ANY AND ALL OTHER ITEMS THAT COME BEFORE THE BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With less than 7% vote turn out. Voters in Lehigh Acres speak loud and clear and rejected a change in the way fire fees are assessed and collected at a… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":43292,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57,32],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43291"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43291"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43291\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}