Monday's Wakulla BOCC Meeting 09/21/2026

The Wakulla County Board of County Commissioners meets Monday, September 21, 2026, at 6:00 PM in Crawfordville. This is a walk-through ofthe county's Final Agenda, in the county's own numbered order, so you can follow along with your own copy or speak to a specific item under "Citizens to be Heard." Page numbers below refer to the county's own 245-page Final Agenda packet (posted September 16, 2026). Sixteen numbered items are on the agenda this cycle, and thirteen of them are on the consent agenda, where most local government spending quietly gets approved with a single vote. We read the whole packet, not just the outline, and a few things in the backup documentation don't quite match what's on the cover.

This meeting also closes out the FY2026/2027 budget cycle we've been following since July, so we're tying Monday's vote back to what county staff and commissioners have said on the record all summer.

Public Hearing

Item 1 — Second Public Hearing and Final Adoption of the FY2026/2027 Millage Rate and Budget (p. 6)

This is the big one, procedurally. Florida law (the Truth in Millage, or TRIM, process under Florida Statute 200.065) requires counties to hold two public hearings before adopting next year's property tax rate and budget. The first hearing was September 8; Monday is the second and final one.

What's confirmed: The final countywide millage rate is 7.7000 mills per $1,000 of taxable value, down from 7.9000 mills in FY2025/2026 (per the county's own FY2025/2026 Final Budget, adopted September 15, 2025), a decrease of 0.2000 mills, about 2.5%. According to the county's own public hearing script, the new rate also sits 1.55% below the "rolled-back rate" of 7.8216 mills, the rate that would collect the exact same total tax dollars as last year (p. 15). In plain terms: the rate is going down, and it's going down by more than the minimum needed to avoid collecting more tax revenue off rising property values. However, it should be noted that because property values have risen, you may not see much of a decrease in your property tax bill. And about those special assessments (Fire, pending new EMS)……………………………

The countywide budget across every fund totals $245,654,375 for FY2026/2027, per the packet's own Exhibit A fund table (p. 14). Compared against FY2025/2026's amended budget of $253,860,069 (this year's budget after a year of mid-year amendments), that's a decrease of $8,205,694, or 3.2%. But that amended figure already includes roughly $19.5 million in grant-funded and other amendments added over the course of FY2025/2026. Compared against what FY2025/2026 actually started at when the Board adopted it in September 2025 ($234,360,122, per that year's own Final Budget), FY2026/2027 is actually up $11,294,253, or 4.8%. Both numbers are accurate; they're just measuring from different starting points, and the size of the gap between them, nearly $20 million in amendments added to one year's budget, is itself worth knowing about.

Tracker callout — Fire Fund: The same Exhibit A table shows the Fire Fund (Fund 180) budgeted at $5,046,868 for FY2026/2027. Compared against FY2025/2026's amended budget of $6,390,253, that's a 21.02% drop, the number we flagged first. But FY2025/2026's amended figure was itself a mid-year jump: the fund was originally adopted at $5,173,954 back in September 2025, then grew by $1,216,299 (23.5%) over the course of the year. We don't yet have a confirmed reason for that mid-year increase, and we're not guessing at one here; it isn't the residential fire assessment increase (from $263 to $277 per dwelling unit), since that rate wasn't finally adopted until September 8, 2026 and its revenue applies to FY2026/2027, not the FY2025/2026 budget already in place. Measured against FY2025/2026's original starting point, FY2026/2027's budget is only down $127,086, or 2.46%, close to flat, a much smaller move than "down 21%" suggests.

Industrial Development Authority (Fund 195) — this is Project Safety, and the real growth is bigger than the headline number. The fund's FY2026/2027 budget is $46,926,369. Compared against FY2025/2026's amended budget of $31,926,544, that's a 46.98% increase, the single largest dollar swing of any fund in the county budget. But FY2025/2026's amended figure was itself already inflated: the fund was originally adopted at just $18,014,044 in September 2025, then grew by $13,912,500 (77.2%) during the year. Measured against that original starting point, FY2026/2027's budget is up $28,912,325, or 160.5%, more than double where the fund stood a year ago. This is the account carrying Project Safety, the county's push to bring a Point Blank Enterprises body armor manufacturing facility to Wakulla. The number has moved every time it's been presented to the public: originally pitched at $21.5 million, then revised up to roughly $24.5 million, and public reporting on the facility itself has separately put costs at "more than $20 million," rising to approximately $25 million as of this year's coverage, a 19% jump from December 2024 estimates. Now the fund carrying it has more than doubled in a single year to $46.9 million, well above even the most recent publicly-presented facility-cost figures.

Other things worth knowing about this budget:

- The county's property insurance renewal quote came in $184,211 higher than budgeted in July, a roughly 60% jump to $492,396 for the year; liability insurance is up $49,019 to $551,481 (p. 9). Both are attributed simply to "received renewal quotes for FY26/27".

- Two small items were eliminated from the general fund budget between July and now: a $6,000 employee "Annual Physical Incentive" benefit, and a $6,000 CDL (commercial driver's license) fee program (p. 8). Both of these items were mentioned as cuts in the county’s Strategic Restructuring Plan.

Approval of Minutes

Item 2 — Minutes of the September 8, 2026 Regular Meeting (p. 17)

Routine: the Board approves the written record of its last meeting.

Consent Agenda

Consent items are meant to be routine and non-controversial, and by rule they can all be approved with a single motion. Any commissioner, the County Administrator, or the County Attorney can pull an item off consent for individual discussion, and any citizen can ask a commissioner to do so on their behalf before the meeting.

Items 3 and 4 (payment of routine bills and vouchers; a proclamation for National 4-H Week) needed no further comment.

Item 5 — Wakulla County Health Department Core Contract and Amended Fee Schedule, FY2026/2027 (p. 30)

This renews the county's annual funding agreement with the Wakulla County Health Department and updates its fee schedule for the new fiscal year, as state law requires counties to help support. Confirmed cost: the state's share is capped at $1,602,019, and the county's own share is capped at $55,000 (p. 31). Routine, and the county's actual cash contribution is a small fraction of the total.

Item 6 — Resolution Accepting a Warranty Deed for Property on Maxson Road (p. 57)

A warranty deed is the legal document that transfers ownership of land. This one has a real backstory: Maxson Road sits in a low-lying, flood-prone part of Wakulla Gardens where the county is building stormwater improvements as part of its septic-to-sewer conversion project. The county closed on this property on September 16, 2025, and county administration has since designed and built new stormwater facilities on it, all before ever bringing formal acceptance of the deed to the Board. In the packet's own words, "inadvertently, the acceptance of the Warranty Deed was not presented to the Board following closing" (p. 57). Monday's vote is the Board formally approving what administration already went ahead and built on, over a year after the fact. (The county's own agenda document also dates the Board's approval of the underlying purchase agreement to September 3, 2026, more than a year after the September 16, 2025 closing it describes in the same paragraph; we're reporting that date as written, but it doesn't reconcile on its face.) Since the sellers are private residents, not public officials, we're not naming them beyond what the county has already made public on its own agenda.

Item 7 — Resolution Accepting a Warranty Deed from the Senior Citizens Council, Inc., 3095 Crawfordville Highway (p. 66)

A related kind of paperwork catch-up. The county gave this property to the Senior Citizens Council decades ago in exchange for building it a new, larger senior center elsewhere. The county has occupied and used the old site ever since, currently housing its Planning & Community Development and Building departments there, and the Property Appraiser's own records have listed the county as the owner since 2022. This resolution formally accepts the deed to match what's already true on the ground.

Item 8 — Low Income Pool Letter of Agreement with the Agency for Health Care Administration, North Florida Medical Centers–Panacea Clinic (p. 75)

The Low Income Pool is a federal-state Medicaid program that helps clinics cover the cost of treating low-income and uninsured patients. What's confirmed: this specific agreement commits the county to just $1.00 today. The real number, $15,000, is already set aside in the FY2026/2027 tentative budget and would come back to the Board separately if and when it's actually needed (p. 75-77). No new general fund money moves.

Item 9 — Modification No. 1 to the FDEM Hazard Mitigation Grant, Wakulla Gardens Stormwater Improvements (p. 82)

This amends a Hurricane Idalia recovery grant (Agreement H1262) with the Florida Division of Emergency Management to cover the county's required local match for stormwater work in Wakulla Gardens. Confirmed cost: up to $18,596, already budgeted in the county's adopted FY2025/2026 budget (p. 82).

Item 10 — Big Bend Community Based Care Business Agreement, $277,943.28 in CORE Opioid Funds (p. 88)

This approves a $277,943.28 agreement with Big Bend Community Based Care, Inc. (doing business as NWF Health Network) to buy medical equipment for Wakulla County Fire Rescue, using Florida's CORE opioid settlement funds. Money restricted this way can't be spent on ordinary county business, only opioid-related treatment, prevention, and response, so buying overdose-response equipment for the fire department fits the legal purpose on its face. The request breaks into two pieces: $210,594.52 for a cardiac monitor/defibrillator, and $67,348.76 for video laryngoscopes (p. 92).

Item 11 — RFQ 2026-05 Award, Construction Engineering and Inspection Services, Dr. MLK Jr. Memorial Road Multipurpose Path, to Rummel, Klepper & Kahl LLP (p. 151)

An RFQ is a formal, competitive solicitation process, meant to ensure a contract isn't just handed to whoever the county likes best. Confirmed cost: the total contract is $133,821.74, funded through a Florida Department of Transportation grant on a cost-reimbursement basis (p. 152). Competitively bid, grant-funded, and modest in size.

Item 12 — Amendment No. 1 to the Accenture Infrastructure and Capital Projects, LLC Continuing Services Agreement, Septic Upgrade Incentive Program (p. 196)

This adds $30,000 to Accenture's contract to administer a Florida DEP septic-upgrade grant program, bringing that administration contract to $120,000 total (p. 198). For context, the underlying grant program itself is worth $2,799,722.22 to help homeowners convert from septic to sewer, of which $240,277.78 was set aside for administrative costs like this contract. Routine, DEP-funded, cost-reimbursement.

Planning & Zoning

Florida counties handle land-use and development-code changes differently from ordinary business, and we give every Planning & Zoning item its own close read regardless of how it's framed on the agenda, because these are the decisions that reshape what gets built where, permanently.

Item 13 — Final Public Hearing and Ordinance Prohibiting Data Centers in Unincorporated Wakulla County (p. 207)

This is the second and final hearing on an ordinance that adds a legal definition of "data center" to the county's Land Development Code and creates a new Section 6-40 banning them outright in unincorporated Wakulla County.

What's confirmed, and it's a bit less dramatic than the headline suggests: the public asked commissioners to take this up a few months ago, Commissioner Russell brought it before the Board, and the Board directed staff to draft this ordinance 5-0 on June 15, 2026; the Planning Commission unanimously recommended approval on September 14 (p. 207). The county's own staff analysis says data centers already aren't a permitted or conditional use anywhere in Wakulla's zoning code, since the Light and Heavy Industrial districts don't have a "catchall" provision for unlisted, similar uses (p. 207-208). In other words, this ordinance doesn't change what's currently allowed; it formally codifies a prohibition that staff says already exists in practice. The definition itself is modeled on Florida's own water-resources statute (F.S. 373.203), and explicitly excludes ordinary server rooms, network closets, and broadband or telecom infrastructure that support an existing business (p. 209), so this isn't going to accidentally sweep up a small office's IT closet.

Item 14 — Final Public Hearing and Ordinance Amending the Comprehensive Plan's Public School Facilities and Capital Improvements Elements (p. 217)

This is the second and final hearing on an ordinance updating the county's Comprehensive Plan to reflect a new Five-Year Capital Improvement Schedule.

What's confirmed: Florida law (F.S. 163.3177(3)(b)) requires counties to review this schedule annually, and a 2011 change in state law lets counties do it by ordinance rather than a full text amendment (p. 217). Most of what's changing is a single reference date: the Wakulla County School Board adopted its own updated Educational Facilities Work Program on July 27, 2026, and the county's Comprehensive Plan needs to reflect that date. Beyond that, the packet says the county's broader Capital Improvements Element update "include[s], but [is] not limited to, the update of financial amounts allocated for several projects, the addition of new projects, and the removal of completed projects" (p. 218). The table of capital improvements itself starts on page 232 of the packet. The Planning Commission unanimously recommended approval on September 14. Publishing cost: about $507.

General Business

Items 15 and 16 — Collective Bargaining Agreements with Firefighters Local 2339 (Supervisory and Non-Supervisory), October 1, 2026–September 30, 2027 (p. 3)

These two items would approve the next one-year labor contracts between the county and its unionized firefighters, covering both the supervisory and non-supervisory bargaining units, presented by HR Director Jennifer Hoffman. Update: BOCC Administration has told a contributor that these two items will not actually come up for a vote at Monday's meeting, despite appearing on the printed agenda. There is no backup documentation in the packet, consistent with that.

Florida Statute 447.605 governs collective bargaining by public employers like Wakulla County. It requires the actual bargaining sessions between the county and the union to be open to the public, but it separately makes "all work products developed by the public employer in preparation for negotiations, and during negotiations" confidential and exempt from Florida's public records law, which is why draft wage tables or bargaining strategy wouldn't be published while a contract is still being negotiated.

Tracker callout: this matters beyond these two items. We've reported that the Fire Fund doesn't currently cover its own share of overhead costs, and that a major driver of rising fire costs this year was adding a third firefighter to every engine for round-the-clock staffing. Firefighter salary and benefit terms are exactly the line item that eventually shows up in whether the Fire Fund's numbers add up. We're adding this to our tracker so that when the actual wage terms surface, whether in a future budget document, a public records request, or reporting from the meeting itself, we can check them against what's being budgeted for the Fire Fund.

The Bottom Line

Most of Monday's sixteen items are routine and stay that way even under a close read. Two things are worth slowing down for:

1. Item 1, the final budget and millage adoption. The 7.7000 mill rate is down from 7.9000 mills last year and sits 1.55% below the rolled-back rate, real numbers in the taxpayer's favor. The countywide budget itself is a mixed picture depending on which starting point you use: down 3.2% from last year's amended total, but up 4.8% from what last year actually started at. The Industrial Development Authority fund, the account carrying Project Safety, has more than doubled (up 160.5%) from where it stood a year ago, and its public price tag has climbed from an original $21.5 million pitch to roughly $24.5 million to a fund now budgeted at $46.9 million.

2. Items 15 and 16, two firefighter union contracts that appear on the printed agenda but that BOCC Administration says won't actually be voted on Monday. Florida law gives the county real legal cover to withhold bargaining work product while a deal is being negotiated.

None of this is an accusation. It's a map of where the public record is strong and where it's thin, so you know exactly where a follow-up question is worth asking, and where we're already asking it for you.

The meeting is Monday, September 21, 2026 at 6:00 PM. Citizens get three minutes to speak under "Citizens to be Heard." This piece is based on the county's own published 245-page Final Agenda packet. Readers are encouraged to review the original documents themselves and reach their own conclusions.

Follow Us on Social

Facebook brings you bite-sized written content, sticky-note facts, and rolling updates you can share and discuss.

NEW! TikTok You can now follow Wakulla Reports on TikTok for quick updates and BOCC video clips.

YouTube is updated less often but does still exist for historical value and for longer videos as necessary.

Prefer to browse at your own pace?

Bookmark our website and visit anytime for fresh posts, resources, and real-life examples from right here in Wakulla County.

© 2026. All rights reserved.

Sign Up for Updates!

By submitting my information below I agree to receiving emails from Wakulla Reports.