City stalls fire fee goal with crocodile tears for small business

City stalls fire fee goal with crocodile tears for small business

TODD NEVILLE
TODD NEVILLE
In a thinly veiled appeal to limit the impact of a new methodology for calculating the fire assessment fee from small businesses, St Augustine City Commissioner Todd Neville, an accountant, declared in last night’s meeting that it was enough to ask businesses to pay a larger percentage than homeowners for fire services — to also ask property owners to pay half the cost, instead of 30 percent, would be too much in one year.