In Santa Rosa County, voters will have a lot more to decide in the fall than just who they want to elect to office.

Voters countywide will be deciding whether to impose a sales tax increase to fund a new judicial facility as well as where to locate that facility, and voters in Navarre will get to say whether they would like to see their community become a city.

In the meantime, the Santa Rosa County Commission has selected six candidates to interview for county attorney.

City of Navarre?

Citizens of Navarre will get the chance to say whether they would like for their community to become an incorporated municipality.

On May 22, the Santa Rosa County Commission voted unanimously to schedule a nonbinding straw poll for Precincts 26, 29, 34, 35, 38 and 40 on the Nov. 4 general election asking: “Shall a legislative effort be pursued to consider the municipal incorporation of Navarre, which includes proposed legislation and the submittal of a feasibility study to the Florida Legislature?"

Those precincts represent an area generally between the Okaloosa County line on the east, Sundown Drive on the west, the southern shore of East Bay and the East River on the north and the Gulf of Mexico on the south.

Right now, that area encompasses about 28,754 registered voters, according to the Santa Rosa County Elections Office.

The question is the product of years of work by the Citizens to Incorporate Navarre, led by Navarre Beach property manager Laurie Gallup.

“Incorporation of the Navarre Beach area as a city will put Navarre in charge of its own future, empowering us to maintain our community character and standards, manage our own resources in accordance with our own vision, and chart our own future,” according to the group’s website, www.incnavarrenow.com.

Of course, if Navarre were to incorporate, the city government would be responsible for funding itself through property taxes like other municipalities in Florida.

Courthouse questions widen

Also on the ballot for all Santa Rosa voters, will be the funding and location of a new courthouse.

The process to replace the aging and insufficient courthouse in downtown Milton, waxing and waning since the late 1990s, seemed to see some progress in February when the County Commission designated a privately-held tract in Pea Ridge for a new judicial facility if the voters approved a sales tax increase to fund it.

When some citizens cried foul that commissioners had ruled out land the county owns in East Milton near the county jail and another parcel out there offered to the county for free by a private owner, they added a second question to the ballot asking voters if they preferred the Pea Ridge site or an East Milton location.

Now, following grumblings from the City of Milton and lawyers with downtown offices, commissioners have agreed to add the option of constructing an expanded facility on the current location to the ballot – and idea that was long ago dismissed as too costly.

Last week, they approved allocated $13,500 to HOK, the firm that has been handling design issues related to the facility for years, to reconsider the downtown location.

County attorney interviews

Commissioners have whittled a list of 33 applicants for county attorney to just six.

The candidates are: Lori Tetreault of Port Charlotte, Stephen Todd of Riverview, William DeBraal of Vero Beach, Roy Andrews of Milton, Jason English of Pace and Tiffany Sullivan of Milton.

Commissioners will meet individually with the six candidates on June 23, and the full commission will conduct public interviews with the candidates on June 24.

The salary range listed in the county’s job advertisement is $115,000 to 145,000, depending on qualifications. Current County Attorney Angie Jones, who earns $140,080 annually, informed commissioners on April 21 that she will be leaving her post as of July 31.

You may contact Louis Cooper at [email protected]

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