City of Palatka annual report shows positive finances; commission votes to publish after final review

Ms. Shaw presented the City of Palatka's 2025 annual report to the commission, reporting $41.78 million in revenue and $40.92 million in expenditures for a positive operating margin and saying the city secured more than $22 million in grant funding to support capital projects and community programs.

Shaw framed the city's priorities as investments in infrastructure, public safety and economic opportunity. "I'm honored to present the state of our city recap for 2025," she said, and summarized a year of capital upgrades and planning intended to improve safety, reliability and regional connectivity.

The presentation included several specific metrics and program outcomes. Shaw said the police department achieved a 17.98% reduction in crime and that the fire department responded to more than 4,100 calls for service. She described upgrades to water and sewer infrastructure, including replacement of thousands of feet of water main, and said the city's water plant "achieved a full annual compliance of the TTHM and HAA5 standards set by the Department of Environmental Protection," a milestone the presentation described as the first for the city. Shaw also reported sanitation services serving over 4,000 residents and businesses and highlighted Community Redevelopment Agency efforts downtown.

On housing, Shaw said affordable-housing grants included down-payment assistance to 15 families at $20,000 each and essential home-repair grants to 12 households at $40,000 each. She also cited expanded recreation programming—"the department hosted over 35 events"—and steps to improve digital engagement through a redesigned city website and more active social media use.

Shaw noted strong activity at Palatka Municipal Airport and described it as among Florida's busiest non-towered airports; the spoken transcript shows a numeric hesitation (announcing both "over 9,000" and "90,000") and the precise annual operations figure was not clarified in the meeting.

During a brief Q&A, Commissioner Canova asked when the report would be made public on the city's website. According to staff, once tonight's meeting is complete and there are no objections, the report "will go to print" and should be available on the website "as early as the end of the week" and in print for pickup at City Hall "by the end of next week." Canova asked whether the commission should formally approve the draft; staff answered that department heads had submitted and signed the material and that staff would perform one final review before publication.

After brief comments praising staff work—Commissioner Davis called the draft "beautiful" and thanked staff for their work—the commission made a motion to approve publication of the annual report pending a final review and accuracy check by the acting city manager and staff. The motion was seconded and the commission voted "Aye" with no opposition recorded in the transcript, and the presentation concluded.

Next steps recorded in the meeting: staff will complete the final internal review and then send the report to print; staff estimated online availability by the end of the week and printed copies available at City Hall by the end of the next week.