Sarasota City Commission Budget Workshop FY 2024-25 – July 22, 2024
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Sarasota City Commission Budget Workshop for FY 2024-25 – July 22, 2024
The Sarasota City Commission held a budget workshop on July 22, 2024, from 9:01 AM to 3:22 PM, to review the proposed Fiscal Year 2024-25 budget by department and fund. The meeting was the first of a two-day workshop (continuing July 23). Mayor Liz Alpert presided, with all commissioners present. City Manager Marlon Brown and Financial Administration Director Kelly Strickland led the presentation.
Discussion Items
- Total Proposed Budget: $305,644,916, an increase of $18,931,403 (6.60%) over the adopted FY2023-24 budget. The General Fund proposed budget is $106,900,125 (up 9.69%).
- Millage Rates: The proposed millage rate remains unchanged at 3.0000 mills for the city-wide operating levy. Debt service millage decreased slightly from 0.1580 to 0.1436 mills. Special district millages (Golden Gate Streetscape, Downtown Improvement District) also unchanged.
- Taxable Values: As of July 1, 2024, city taxable value is $18,327,903,650, a 9.71% increase over the prior year. Newtown CRA values rose 14.60% and The Bay TIF area rose 14.62%.
- Fund Balance: The proposed General Fund unassigned fund balance is 26.9% of operating expenses (projected $28.8 million), down from 33.1% in FY2024. The city manager noted that historically the actual fund balance has been higher due to year-end reconciliation; the city has never actually used fund balance as proposed.
- New Positions: 16 new full-time positions are proposed across departments, including Police (body-worn camera specialist, 4 crime analysts for Real Time Operations Center), Parks and Recreation (arborist, building maintenance tech, administrative specialist), Engineering (environmental services engineer), and others.
- Budget Issues: Total citywide budget issues amount to approximately $3.8 million. Notable items include $500,000 for a Downtown Master Plan update, $350,000 for transportation modeling, $300,000 for a Traffic Calming Plan, $150,000 for Water Transit Planning, and $690,000 for police Real Time Operations Center equipment and staff.
- Departmental Highlights:
- Police: Budget $48.98 million (up 4.9%). Request for body-worn camera specialist and crime analysts. Chief Troche reported about 158-164 effective sworn officers.
- City Commission: Budget $839,242 (up 34% due to salary correction and new administrative assistant).
- Governmental Affairs: New department (purchasing, grants, special events, marketing) with budget $1.56 million.
- Planning: Budget $2.9 million (up 27.5%), includes downtown plan.
- Engineering: Budget $3.93 million (up 67.2% due to one-time items like drone, traffic calming plan).
- Parks and Recreation: Budget $12.19 million, with three new positions.
- Enterprise Funds: Water and sewer ($65.5M expenditures, ending fund balance $30.5M), Solid Waste ($17.6M, with 12% rate increase), Parking Management ($4.29M), St. Armands Paid Parking ($1.83M, negative beginning balance), Bobby Jones Golf Complex ($3.84M), Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall ($18.34M, record season).
- Special Revenue Funds: Notable decrease in Housing and Community Development (grant reductions). The Bay TIF contribution from the county was lower than expected (county contributed only debt service portion, not full increment), raising concerns about future funding.
- Pension Plans: Funded status: General employee plan 76%, Police officer plan 88.9%, Firefighter plan 93.7%, OPEB plan 94%.
Key Outcomes
- No final votes were taken; the workshop continued on July 23, 2024, starting with Internal Service Funds.
- The commission directed staff to provide additional information, including a trend line for taxable value changes, actual versus budgeted police sworn positions, and details on the Revenue Stabilization Fund spending criteria.
- Staff indicated that a comprehensive plan for affordable housing outreach would be developed for future budget cycles.
- The county’s reduced Bay TIF contribution will be discussed further; staff is negotiating with the county to hold excess funds in trust for the district.
- The commission will consider a tentative millage rate at a special meeting on July 23, following the budget workshop.
Meeting Transcript
I'm having fun in Sarasota. I'm having fun. And I lucky one. With the sun and the sand in the sea. I love it more and more. I adore that leader shore. I'm having fun in Sarasota. I'm having fun in Sarasota with the sun and the sand and the sea. I'm having fun. With the sun and the sea. I'm having fun having fun. With the sun and the sandwich. I adjoy that. We're having fun in Sarasota. We're the sun and the sun in the sun. It's magical for all if you believe it's hidden in his mystical and need. So her future is unknown. She'll never stand alone. Sarah Soda is my home. But most of all, I want to sing it loud. And it's no surprise, I want to make you proud. She's always number one. Good morning, everyone. Um City Commission workshop for July 2nd, 2024. And um, in case I forget to mention it, I just please turn off your cell phones. I haven't had a big problem with that lately, but uh just occurred to me we should remember to do that. And um I am going to start with our um item one presentation and discussion regarding the proposed fiscal year twenty twenty-four-twenty twenty-five budget by department and fund. And so I see Kelly Strickland sitting there, so I am assuming you're starting us off. Well, I'm gonna let the city manager give an introduction. Okay. Uh good morning, uh Man Commissioners. Um again, um, you know, I'm happy to present uh for the for my I believe my fourth year um the budget um for uh fiscal year twenty four twenty-five. Um I just want to again share my appreciation for all of the staff, the department directors, uh, for helping uh tailor this budget to what you see before you uh this morning. As you'll hear from staff, you know, we are keeping the millage the same as we have done for the last uh two years. And again, you know, with this commission's um support, this commission's vision in terms of um, you know, attempting to be fiscally responsible to our taxpayers in terms of making sure that you know we have a low tax rate. I really applaud this commission for that, you know, for that uh support and you know, uh sticking to you know what we presented in the previous years. So we'll take our time, we'll go through uh this budget. Again, feel free to ask questions after each section. Um, you know, we have as many staff as you can see in the audience, uh, you know, as usual, staff always outnumbers the uh the public. But again, um, you know, without them, uh this budget could not be prepared. And again, I hope, you know, that we've done, you know, a a good job in terms of you know, sharing with you all aspects of the budget. Again, also want to thank you know both our charter officials, uh, Miss Griggs and uh Mr. Fournier uh for their support in this budget as well because it forms part of my budget presentation to you this morning. So with that, I'm gonna pass it over to Ms. Strickland Um and Miss Murray uh to start the presentation. Um give com this commission credit uh for is you um you know, through the request of uh public comment, you ask us to hold a town hall meeting, which was the first that we've ever that we ever uh did. And again, from that town hall, you know, we had um you know quite a few individuals who uh provided comment. And again, you know, our opportunity for those individuals to provide comment um would be on Tuesday as well. I will ask the commission to allow individuals to s to to speak beyond the three minutes um if the commission so desires, but again, we'll have further opportunities during the public hearings in September uh to provide uh further comment on the com uh to the budget. I wanna one thing that I want to clarify there are individuals who have said that you know once the commission adopts the tentative millage that you know we can't change anything.
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