Organizational funding discussed

Revenues and expenditures rise and fall.

But, there’s one thing the Longboat Key Town Commission can always count on: Various organizations will approach the commission. They’ll list past accomplishments; they’ll share their dreams for the upcoming year. And they’ll ask for what they need to make those dreams a reality: money.

Funding for organizations made up just $94,100 of the 2011-12 fiscal year budget. As a starting point for discussion, Town Manager David Bullock prepared the preliminary 2012-13 budget using identical contributions for each organization. And, although it’s just a small sliver of a budget with proposed total operating expenditures of $13,939,177, it still drew discussion from the Longboat Key Town Commission during a Wednesday, June 6 budget workshop.

Commissioners discussed the possibility of eliminating the $17,500 contribution that Solutions to Avoid Red Tide (START) received in the 2011-12 budget. The late Mayor Jim Patterson and other Key citizens founded the group in 1996 in response to a severe red-tide outbreak.

But, the last major red-tide bloom was more than six years ago, leaving some commissioners to wonder if there were better uses for the money.

Commissioner Phill Younger said that the town doesn’t know how its START funds are used and worried that including organizations year after year on the budget creates a sense of entitlement.

He made a motion to eliminate START from the budget, which Commissioner Hal Lenobel was willing to second, until Town Clerk Trish Granger confirmed that they were in a workshop, not a meeting, therefore were not allowed to vote.

Younger said that he would rather see START funds go toward the Longboat Library, which operates exclusively on the Key, or possibly toward a completely different purpose, such as town employees.
Commissioner Jack Duncan said that he would prefer for START funds go to the Longboat Key, Lido Key, St. Armands Key Chamber of Commerce, which received $7,500 in the current fiscal year budget.

The Longboat Observer was unable to reach START Chairman Sandy Gilbert for comment. However, in a letter sent last month to the commission requesting $17,000 in funding, START representatives listed the group’s 2012 accomplishments, including enhanced START1.org and coastalclassroom.org websites, the launch of Seafood Savvy specials at local restaurants that promote sustainable seafood, a continuing collaboration with Mote’s Beach Conditions Reporting System, an administrative partnership with Sarasota Bay Watch and red-tide alert public service announcements on local TV stations, to warn the public about impending blooms.

Vice Mayor David Brenner didn’t want START removed from the budget. He said that the commission made a handshake-type agreement last year with Gilbert to reduce funding for the upcoming fiscal year to $10,000 and eliminate it during the 2013-14 fiscal year in the continued absence of red tide. He also didn’t support funds going to the Longboat Library, which first asked the commission to consider a line item in early 2011.

Brenner said that he doesn’t want to see Key taxpayers, whose money already supports the Manatee and Sarasota county library systems, paying for libraries twice. (Town Manager David Bullock wrote in an email the next day to commissioners that Key taxpayers currently contribute $300,000 to Manatee County libraries operations and $357,621 in Sarasota County ad valorem taxes for libraries.)

The Longboat Library doesn’t currently receive funding from the town, although it leases its building at 555 Bay Isles Road from the town for $10 per year. However, since early 2011, its board members have asked the town to consider a line item to support the library.

The library operates independently but recently received a one-time $20,000 grant for capital improvements from Sarasota County.

Brenner told the Longboat Observer that the library should work with both counties.

“I would like to see them spend time with the management of the Sarasota County system and see what they could do to operate more efficiently,” he said. “I think they should ask the same thing of Manatee County.”

Library board member Hazel Steskal told the Longboat Observer still has a system in place that allows users to place a book on hold in the county library system and have it delivered to the Longboat Library.

The organization has used approximately $16,000 of its grant from Sarasota County on projects, such as replacing its fence and fixing its roof.

Mayor Jim Brown questioned the town’s $42,000 contribution toward the Manatee County portion of Longboat Key’s trolley route. Sarasota County funds its portion of the route but considered stopping the route at the county line, near Bayfront Park Recreation Center, for budgetary and scheduling reasons. Manatee County agreed to fund all but the remaining $42,000 cost of the route, which the commission had agreed to fund in early 2011 through gas taxes.

Brown told the Longboat Observer that the service is clearly needed but said that the agreement with Manatee County needs to be negotiated.

“I think we’re kind of paying our taxes twice,” he said.

Line items
The following contributions were included in the town’s 2011-12 fiscal year budget:
Organization; Amount
Manatee County trolley subsidy; $42,000
Solutions to Avoid Red Tide; $17,500
Sarasota Bay Estuary Program; $15,000
Longboat Key, Lido Key, St. Armands Key Chamber of Commerce; $7,500
Sarasota Economic Development Corp.; $5,100
Manatee Economic Development Corp.; $5,000
Sarasota County Openly Plans for Excellence; $2,000