MediaUpdate

And the search for possible locations will extend outside downtown Gainesville.

A majority of commissioners passed a motion asking Acting County Manager Rick Drummond to return with recommendations relating to the feasibility and cost of consolidating the elections office and moving it to another site either downtown or elsewhere.

The motion passed 4-1, with Commissioner Mike Byerly dissenting, during Tuesday's special commission meeting that focused on the fiscal year 2013 budget.

Commissioner Lee Pinkoson launched conversation about the elections office by telling other commissioners he had been contacted about an available location that could potentially save the county money on leased space.

Pinkoson didn't specify the site.

But, he said, he told the person who had contacted him that the biggest obstacle would be having the elections office outside the downtown area.

Pinkoson said he brought the matter to the commission's attention so they could discuss the elections office's needs and the idea of looking beyond downtown to meet those needs.

Pinkoson said he supported the idea of looking beyond the downtown area.

Moving the elections office from its current location in the Star Garage at 111 SE First Ave. has been an ongoing issue.

For years, Elections Supervisor Pam Carpenter has been asking to consolidate the elections office in a location that would house not only staff but equipment needed for elections and provide space to train poll workers.

Under the plan, Gainesville and all of Alachua County would be in state Senate District 7, which also includes Bradford and Clay counties. Alachua would represent 53 percent of the district's population, with Clay at 41 percent and Bradford at 6 percent.

The new odd number for the Gainesville district would give Sen. Steve Oelrich, R-Gainesville, the option of seeking another four-year term in the Senate, giving him the potential for a 10-year stint in there.

However, Oelrich, the former Alachua County sheriff, has already declared his intention to run for Congress this year.

The new Senate map approved Thursday changes the boundaries of 24 districts due to the ripple effect of revising eight districts that were invalidated by the Florida Supreme Court.

It also has new numbers for all 40 districts that were selected at random, using a pair of Bingo machines loaded with white and green balls, to determine which senators elected in November would serve terms of four years and which would serve two years, to keep the terms staggered.

The justices ruled the Senate's original numbering scheme appeared designed to make sure most incumbents could serve longer than the usual eight years before being term-limited out of office. The Bingo drawing, though, still would allow term limits of nine to 11 years for 19 of 29 incumbents not being term-limited this year.

Next, plans for the Florida Recovery Center will be in front of the Alachua County Commission, tentatively scheduled for April 1.

Wednesday, however, the plan that Shands at the University of Florida has for the northeast corner of Southwest 13th Street and Williston Road got nothing but good feedback from the public.

“It has all the resources for those who are willing to say ‘yes' to living,” said Mary Anderson, a Gainesville resident who was the only member of the public to speak at Wednesday's meeting.

Turning the former long-term lodging establishmen into a place for those recovering from either an eating disorder or a drug addiction required UF&Shands to get the designated land use changed from commercial to institutional medical.

Craig Brashier, who is managing the project for UF&Shands, faced a few questions from the Planning Commission Wednesday.

“That was as easy as it gets,” said Brashier, who works for Causseaux, Hewett & Walpole Inc.

Officials are calling the proposed expansion of the Florida Recovery Center at the former Residence Inn site something similar to the Betty Ford Clinic, where up to 160 patients will be able to live as they get their treatment for drug addiction and eating disorders. It will add 15 to 18 employees to the Florida Recovery Center's current workforce.

Across 13th Street and slightly to the south, Meridian Healthcare Behavioral Services, which also specializes in drug treatment, recently purchased the empty Gator Lodge.

The budget reduction stems from a decline in taxable property value, commissioners learned during a special meeting Tuesday. The county's taxable property value is expected to drop by $2 million, according to a presentation staff gave on the budget during the meeting.

Other impacts to the county's revenue will be added costs due to changes to Medicaid billing practices approved by the Legislature and the possible addition of jail staff at the Northeast 39th Avenue facility.

In a worst-case scenario, costs from disputed backlogged bills and annual bills related to Medicaid costs could come to approximately $8.5 million. Under the new rules, annual Medicaid costs will increase by about $4.5 million over what the county has paid in the past.

Adding 15 to 16 new positions at the jail will cost about $1 million, according to the presentation.

Rick Drummond, acting county manager, and Suzanne Gable, director of the county's Office of Management and Budget, stressed that the numbers were “very, very” preliminary.

Still, Drummond said he plans to start work on a proposed budget based on the current millage rate and the other factors. Not all department budgets may be impacted the same, he added.

Drummond said he will review how different programs are affected and how different departments have been treated in the budget process in past years. That, he said, may mean some county offices may see cuts that others won't.

Work on a county budget also will move forward as efforts continue to stop the Medicaid billing changes and to show the state that flaws in the system inaccurately and unfairly bill Alachua County.

The county has argued that Alachua, as the first county listed alphabetically, has a higher number of patients mistakenly billed to it.

With the trauma center at Shands at the University of Florida, the county also usually gets billed for non-county residents who come to the facility.

Due to those issues, the county generally rejects about 70 to 80 percent of Medicaid bills it receives.

Under the new legislation, however, counties are responsible for 85 percent of unpaid bills related to Medicaid patients hospitalized for more than 10 days. The state can withhold the unpaid amount of these bills from county revenue sharing.

The county is facing a backlog of about $11.4 million in disputed Medicaid bills that the county maintains have been appropriately denied, according to a letter from Commission Chairwoman Paula DeLaney. The letter was addressed and sent to Gov. Rick Scott and asks that he veto the bill.

With the new legislation, the county will be required to pay the disputed amount over the next five years, with one-third due this year, county staff have reported.

Other counties as well as the Florida Association of Counties also are asking that Scott veto the bill.

“Without the Governor's veto, HB 5301's fast-acting provisions will leave little room to fix this system before local communities — and local taxpayers — are asked for a blank check to fund inaccurate invoices,” a statement from Florida Association of Counties Executive Director Chris Holley says on the group's website.

In DeLaney's letter, she said the Agency for Health Care Administration has acknowledged the county's billing problems and has been working with the county to resolve them.

“Alachua County has paid its Medicaid invoices in a timely manner subsequent to staff carefully screening them to verify their accuracy, which over the past three years have contained an approximate 70 percent ERROR rate and in every instance of denial we informed ACHA about our reasons for denial,” she wrote.