Bd. of Cnty. Comm'rs Broward Cnty. Fla. v. Parrish

• Decision Date: 10 December 2014
• Docket Number: No. 4D14–101.,4D14–101.
• Citation: 154 So.3d 412
• Parties: BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS BROWARD COUNTY FLORIDA, a political subdivision of the State of Florida, Appellant, v. Lori PARRISH, Broward County Property Appraiser, Appellee.
• Court: Florida District Court of Appeals

154 So.3d 412

BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS BROWARD COUNTY FLORIDA, a political subdivision of the State of Florida, Appellant
v.
Lori PARRISH, Broward County Property Appraiser, Appellee.

No. 4D14–101.

District Court of Appeal of Florida, Fourth District.

Dec. 10, 2014.
Certification of S.Ct. Denied Feb. 3, 2015.

154 So.3d 413

Joni Armstrong Coffey, Broward County Attorney, Andrew J. Meyers, Chief Appellate Counsel, and Rocio Blanco Garcia, Assistant County Attorney, Fort Lauderdale, for appellant.

William R. Scherer of Conrad & Scherer, LLP, Fort Lauderdale, and Bruce S. Rogow and Tara A. Campion of Bruce S. Rogow, P.A., Fort Lauderdale, for appellee.

Opinion

154 So.3d 414

GROSS, J.

This case is a tug of war between Broward County's property appraiser, a constitutional officer, and the Board of County Commissioners. The Board wants to have as much control over its budget as possible; the property appraiser believes that the Board's discretion over her budget is limited by the budget review process set by state law. The Florida Constitution says that the Board's “powers of local self-government” may not be “inconsistent with general law.”¹ Art. VIII, § 1(g), Fla. Const. Our reading of applicable state statutes compels the conclusion that the property appraiser's view of her budgetary process is correct, so we affirm the order granting a writ of mandamus.²

Factual Background

By way of background, section 195.087, Florida Statutes (2013), requires the Florida Department of Revenue (“the FDOR”) to determine the budget for each county's property appraiser. Under this statute, on or before June 1 of each year, property appraisers must submit to the FDOR “a budget for the operation of the property appraiser's office for the ensuing fiscal year beginning October 1,” and furnish a copy of such budget to the subject county's commissioners. § 195.087(1)(a), Fla. Stat. (2013). Following submission, the FDOR has until July 15 to notify the property appraiser and the board of county commissioners of its tentative budget amendments and changes. Id. Thereafter, “the property appraiser and the board of county commissioners may submit additional information or testimony to the [FDOR] respecting the budget” until—at the latest—August 15, at which point the FDOR “shall make its final budget amendments or changes to the budget and shall provide notice thereof to the property appraiser and board of county commissioners.”Id.

Should the property appraiser or board of county commissioners take exception with the FDOR's final budget determination, either is entitled to appeal the matter to the Administration Commission—comprised of the Governor and Cabinet—no later than fifteen days after the county concludes its

154 So.3d 415

section 200.065(2)(d),³ Florida Statutes (2013), public hearing to finalize the county's budget and set its millage rate. § 195.087(1)(b), Fla. Stat. (2013).

Unlike a plenary appeal to this court,⁴ an appeal to the Administration Commission is not a matter of right, as the statute dictates merely that the Commission “may hear appeals” from the FDOR's final action. Id. If the Administration Commission considers the matter and finds “any aspect of the budget [to be] unreasonable in light of the workload of the office of the property appraiser in the county under review,” it may amend the judgment as necessary. Id. Upon completion of this process, the resulting budget request “as approved by the department and as amended by the commission ... become[s] the operating budget of the property appraiser for the ensuing fiscal year beginning October 1, except that the budget so approved may subsequently be amended under the same procedure.” Id.

In this case, the Board informed its constitutional officers—including its property appraiser, Lori Parrish—that the county was expecting a 1.8% appropriation increase, leaving the property appraiser with a target budget of $14,600,200. On June 5, 2013, the Board revised its appropriation figure to 3.8%, increasing the property appraiser's projected budget to $14,886,000.

Notwithstanding the Board's position on her budget, on May 31, 2013, the property appraiser submitted to the FDOR her office's proposed 2014 fiscal year budget, requesting $18,819,000. Consistent with section 195.087(1), the FDOR reviewed the budget request, made certain amendments and changes, and on July 11, 2013, notified both the property appraiser and the Board that it reached a tentative budget for the office of $18,712,207. Displeased with the determination, the Board responded by submitting additional information to the FDOR, including the aforementioned projected budget and its explanation for the calculation. Nevertheless, when the statutory deadline of August 15 arrived, the FDOR informed both sides no further changes would be forthcoming, leaving the county responsible for $16,563,527 of the bill.

Unwilling to bind itself by the FDOR's decision, the Board convened during a September 24, 2013 public hearing to discuss adopting a 2014 fiscal budget that appropriated less funds to the property appraiser than the amount approved by the FDOR. During the hearing, Commissioner Martin David Kiar moved to approve the property appraiser's budget as

154 So.3d 416

set by the FDOR, arguing that under section 195.087(1)'s statutory scheme, a property appraiser “is entitled and should receive the Department of Revenue approved budget.” In a sentiment joined by several commissioners and the mayor, Commissioner Kiar explained:

[W]e owe the Property Appraiser the money that the Department of Revenue approved. We technically owe that money to her. That's money that we're supposed to appropriate to.

If we're upset with that, we can appeal to the Cabinet but we have to appropriate that money. That is technically her money. It's been approved by the Department of Revenue. It's been set up by that.

Despite these concerns, the Board's majority approved a final 2014 fiscal year budget appropriating only $15,855,000 for the property appraiser, a significant drop from the FDOR's approved amount. In conjunction with this decision, the Board chose to appeal the FDOR's final budgetary decision to the Administration Commission. Since supplemental authority was never submitted, and the 2014 fiscal year has come to a close, it appears no decision from the Administration Commission's will issue.

Procedural Posture

Believing the Board's action to be unauthorized, the property appraiser filed a request with Broward County for a quarterly draw of $4,140,881.75, conforming to the FDOR's budgetary determination. After the county countered with an offer of $3,963,750.00, the property appraiser filed a petition for writ of mandamus in the circuit court against the Board, requesting that the Board be compelled “to fully fund the [FDOR] approved Fiscal Year–2014 operation budget, as required per Florida Statutes, §§ 192.091 and 195.087.” Aside from the irreparable harm caused by her inability to carry out her statutory duty, the property appraiser argued that “[b]ecause the county commission's duty to adhere to the [FDOR's] final budget is wholly ministerial, its refusal to fully fund the [p]roperty [a]ppraiser [wa]s the ... type of agency inaction that mandamus is designed to redress.”

After the trial court entered an alternative writ of mandamus,⁵ the Board responded by characterizing the petition as an “improper attempt to circumvent the exclusive appellate procedures established by the Florida Legislature” in section 195.087(1)(b), involving an appeal to the Administration Commission. In addition, the Board asserted the petition failed to satisfy the elements justifying a writ of mandamus.

Following a non-evidentiary hearing, in December 2013, the trial court entered a final order granting the property appraiser's mandamus petition, compelling the Board to “immediately fund [the property appraiser's] budget in accordance” with the FDOR's final budget determination. In so ruling, the trial court noted that while section 195.087(1)(b) provides either the property appraiser or board of county commissioners the ability to appeal the FDOR's final budget determination to the Administration Commission, the budget approved by the FDOR is “final” such that the property appraiser maintained “an immediate right to be funded so as to discharge [her] constitutional duties.” The

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trial court cautioned, however, that its order was “not intended to usurp the budgetary authority of [the Board, the FDOR,] or the Administration Commission”; rather, its purpose was to direct the Board to “comply and discharge their ministerial act of funding the budget for [the property appraiser] as approved or subsequently amended by the” FDOR.

The Circuit Court Did Not Abuse its Discretion in Granting a Writ of Mandamus Requiring the Board to Fund the Property Appraiser in Accord with the FDOR's...