NSBNEWS.net video by Sera Frederick. New Smyrna Beach resident Bob Tolley addresses his concerns Tuesday to the City Commission regarding spending by the Community Redevelopment Agency and the impact on Bert Fish Medical Center's ability to provide quality indigent care while having to pay large sums of tax money to the CRA.
NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- Bob Tolley is among a growing number of residents questioning the spending practices of the city's Community Redevelopment Agency and calling for elected leaders to consider directly overseeing the CRA.
Tolley pointed to financial reports he received showing Bert Fish Medical Center, in particular, has paid as much as $7 million from its indigent care accounts, which is taxpayer funded, directly into the CRA because of its location within the CRA disrict, with nothing coming back.
Tolley had his name placed on the agenda to speak about recent CRA purchases including the nearly $9,000 purchase of an outdoor artificial Christmas tree for Canal Street as well as the neartly half million dollar purchase of the arsenic-polluted Dunn Lumber site as examples of spending "turkeys."
But Tolley focused his time on what he believes is the need for the City Commission to take place it under "your authority" further adding he's like to see the "hospital untangled from the CRA."
The commissioners said the issue needs further review, but otherwise took no definitive position.