Venice City Council Budget Public Hearing - September 9, 2025
Venice City Council Budget Public Hearing - September 9, 2025
The Venice City Council held a public hearing to consider the adoption of the final millage rate and the official budget for Fiscal Year 2025-26. After public testimony and council debate, the council voted 5-2 to set the millage rate at the rollback rate of 3.845 mills and unanimously adopted the corresponding budget ordinance on first reading.
Public Comments & Testimony
- Kit McKeon (former council member): Opposed reducing the millage rate, arguing that the city needs stable revenue to maintain services and adequate reserves, especially given potential economic headwinds and hurricane recovery costs. He noted the tax savings of $40-45 per household would be insignificant compared to service impacts.
- Bill Wilson (former council member): Also urged council not to roll back the tax rate. He emphasized the city's mission to provide exceptional service and stated that residents he spoke with would rather forgo a small reduction ($40-45) than risk service cuts or future forced tax increases.
Discussion Items
- City Manager's Budget Presentation: The city manager reviewed the budget process, highlighting a 4.1% increase in general fund expenses (excluding the $5 million Wellfield Park project). Key investments included six new firefighter/paramedics, a new fire station, park facilities, solid waste operations, centennial celebration, parks master plan, website rebuild, beach nourishment, and stormwater projects. He noted the strategic use of reserves for Wellfield Park and cautioned about future uncertainties such as property tax reform, natural disasters, and softening economic conditions.
- Council Debate on Millage Rate: Council members split on whether to adopt the rollback rate (3.845 mills) or maintain the current rate (3.9041 mills).
- Supporters of rollback (Council Members Frank, Smith, Howard, Weed, and Mayor Petota) argued that the city's reserves ($32.2 million) are well above the 25% target policy, that the rollback represents a modest gesture to taxpayers, especially those not protected by homestead caps, and that the city can maintain exceptional service levels. Council Member Frank noted public safety spending increased 85% since 2018.
- Opponents (Council Members Inglekey and Vice Mayor Boltz) argued the city faces significant headwinds (declining home values, falling permit fees, potential state property tax reforms, aging infrastructure, and staffing needs). Vice Mayor Boltz pointed to police staffing shortages and the need to replenish reserves used for Wellfield Park. Council Member Inglekey detailed that 70% of expenses are labor costs, with 72% of payroll going to public safety, and warned against reducing revenue prematurely.
- Council Member Howard emphasized the need for attrition management and careful hiring to prepare for future downturns, noting that the rollback amount ($419,000) is a rounding error in the general fund and could be managed through efficiencies.
- Council Member Weed supported the rollback, stating every dollar taken from taxpayers must be justified and that he sees opportunities for efficiency and modernization.
Key Outcomes
- Ordinance 2025-31 (Millage Rate) – First Reading: Motion to adopt a final operating millage rate of 3.845 mills (the rollback rate). Passed 5-2. (Council Members Inglekey and Vice Mayor Boltz opposed; Council Members Frank, Smith, Howard, Weed, and Mayor Petota in favor.) The ordinance was scheduled for final reading.
- Ordinance 2025-32 (Budget Adoption) – First Reading: Motion to approve the official budget for FY 2025-26, with the understanding that the budget will be adjusted to reflect the rollback rate on second reading. Passed unanimously (7-0).
Meeting Transcript
Okay. All right, I'll call this budget public hearing to order. Madam Clerk, if you could do a roll call, please. Mr. Engle Keith. Here. Mrs. Frank. Here. Mr. Howard. Here. Mr. Smith. Mr. Weed. Here. Vice Mayor Boltz. Here. Mayor Petota. Here. All right. We're going to start with the Pledge of Allegiance, which will be led by Council veteran military veteran Kit McKeon. And current planning commissioner. Sorry, kid. I didn't want to sell you short. All right. So let's go to ordinance two zero two five-three one. Madam Clerk, if you could read this ordinance by title only, please. An ordinance of the City of Venice, Sarasota County, Florida, adopting the final levying of ad valorum taxes for the city of Venice for fiscal year 2025-26 and providing an effective date. Your discretion. Okay. All right, I'll open it up first. So let's um Madam Clerk, if you could go ahead and make the tax taxing authority statement, please. The current operating millage rate is three point nine zero four one mills, and is the millage that was set last year on which the previous aqualarm taxes were calculated. The rollback rate is the millage required to collect the same amount of money as last year with this year's valuation, which is three point eight four five zero mills. The tentative operating millage is three point nine zero four one mills, which was set by council on July 9th, 2025, and was sent out in the trim notices to property owners from the property appraiser's office. Just a quick recap on this budget process. It all began in January with our departmental budget kickoff meetings, our five-year CIP planning, and then in February, we held our annual strategic planning with City Council. Uh, this provided the foundation for budget development and then led into our priorities and the vision for the future. In March, we held our CIP workshop with City Council where we dug into specific projects, and you gave us some great feedback and direction on how that five-year capital plan should look. Throughout April and May, uh departments met one-on-one with the then city manager Ed Lavalli and myself and our finance director director Linda Sinney, where we really went through and justified all programs, all expenses, and made necessary reductions as needed. In June, we held our annual budget workshop with council, uh, which was a full day and included many revisions and updates to the budget. Those were incorporated uh by finance, which we presented to you at your last council meeting on August 26th. I want to point out that uh you know, the budget we are very proud of this budget, it delivers on the high level of service that our residents expect, but also I want to note that we took a much more aggressive approach to expenses than we've taken in many years in the past, and I believe that is reflected in this budget. Overall, looking at the general fund, our expenses uh have increased just 4.1 percent over last year when you do not include the five million for Wellfield Park. If you look at just operating expenses, it's down to 3.3% over last year. And that's something that we're proud of. It would not have happened without the uh collaboration from all the department directors and the willingness to take that conservative conservative approach to the budget process. Despite that approach, there's a lot that we can all be proud of in this budget that's before you, and I want to take a moment just to highlight some of the key projects that are before you that we're looking forward to accomplishing over this next year.
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