Sec. 122.411. - Fee Purchases.

(a) Appraisals; Confidentiality. (1) Real estate transactions may be kept from public disclosure and exempt from the provisions of F.S. § 119.07(1), on the following conditions until an option contract is executed or, if no option contract is executed, until the day a bill is filed for consideration of approval by the City Council. If a contract or agreement for purchase is not submitted to the City Council for approval, the exemption from F.S. § 119.07(1), if exercised, will expire 30 days after the termination of negotiations. The conditions for exemption are: i. Every appraisal, offer, or counteroffer must be in writing. Complete and accurate records of every appraisal, offer, and counteroffer shall be maintained. For the purposes of this Section, the term "option contract" means a proposed agreement by the City to purchase a piece of property, subject to the approval of the local governing body at a public meeting after 30 days' public notice. The City is not under any obligation to exercise the option unless the option contract is approved by the City Council at the public hearing specified in this Section. ii. The City shall obtain at least one appraisal by an appraiser approved pursuant to F.S. § 253.025, for each purchase in an amount of not more than $500,000. For each purchase in an amount in excess of $500,000, the City shall obtain at least two appraisals by appraisers approved pursuant to F.S. § 253.025. If the agreed purchase price exceeds the average appraised price of the two appraisals, the City Council is required to approve the purchase by an extraordinary vote. (2) If a parcel is assessed at $100,000 or less and the Real Estate Division finds that the cost of an outside appraisal is not justified, the assessed value or a comparable sales analysis, or other reasonably prudent procedures may be used by the Division to estimate the value of the parcel, provided the public's interest is reasonably protected. For parcels assessed at $50,000 or less the Division may use the assessed value. (3) Appraisal fees and associated costs shall be paid by the agency proposing the acquisition. All appraisals used for the acquisition of lands pursuant to this Section shall be prepared by a state-certified appraiser, and be prepared according to generally accepted appraisal standards. The Real Estate Division may substitute federally mandated appraisal standards if federal funds are available and will be used for the purchase of lands, title to which will vest in the City, and qualification for the federal funds requires compliance with federally mandated appraisal standards. (4) The appraisal report shall state any extraordinary assumption or hypothetical condition made by the appraiser in determining market value and shall document and adequately support the appraiser's estimate or conclusion of value. (b) Condition of Title. (1) A title commitment shall be obtained by the Division, at the acquiring agency's cost prior to the conveyance of title. The content of the evidence of marketable title shall demonstrate that title is marketable and compatible with the purposes of the acquisition. The Real Estate Division may waive the requirement of a title commitment for acquisitions of property assessed by the Property Appraiser at $100,000 or less, if the Real Estate Division finds, based upon a review of the title records as is reasonable under the circumstances, that there is no apparent impediment to marketability or to management of the property for the purposes for which it is being acquired. (2) The objective of negotiations for acquisition of property is to obtain all the landowner's rights, title and interest in the property as are necessary for the planned management of the property. All exceptions, reservations, encroachments or other adverse conditions that are disclosed in the course of preparing to negotiate, negotiating, contracting or closing shall be individually evaluated by the Division and the acquiring agency, in consultation with the Office of General Counsel, as to possible adverse effects on the objectives of the acquiring agency. If matters potentially having an adverse effect on acquisition goals become apparent prior to closing for acquisitions approved by the City Council, the City Council must approve proceeding to closing. This requirement shall be a contingency in all purchase instruments approved by City Council. (c) Purchase Instruments. (1) Purchases to be approved by City Council shall be placed in the form of a written purchase instrument. (2) Option agreements may be signed on behalf of the City by the Real Estate Division. (3) Before a purchase instrument is submitted to the City Council for approval or before it is approved by the Real Estate Division, the provisions of F.S. § 286.23, shall be complied with. (d) Limited authority to modify Council-approved purchase instruments. The Real Estate Division is authorized to modify a purchase instrument approved by the City Council to extend the time for option exercise, closing date, submittal deadlines, or any other time limit in the agreement if the total extension of time for closing does not exceed 180 days after the closing date in the purchase instrument approved by the City Council. The Real Estate Division is authorized to modify the legal description in a purchase instrument approved by the City Council to conform the description to the description on the certified survey. (Ord. 2018-871-E , § 2)