- May 9, 2024
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Sarasota City Commissioner Shannon Snyder urged his fellow commissioners Tuesday to realize “bold decisions need to be made because the city is already starting to unravel.”
Among those potentially bold decisions, Snyder said, could be the elimination of the Sarasota Police Department as well as drastic police pension changes.
During the commission’s first workshop on the 2013 fiscal year budget, Snyder said getting rid of the city’s police force could free up $7 million. He pointed out that the city is facing a $4 million to $5 million deficit in the 2013 fiscal year, primarily because of rising personnel and pension costs.
Future changes to the police pension alone could save the city approximately $1.5 million, but police officers last year protested any talk of such changes.
The commissioners already have asked city staff to provide them with figures they expect to show that unfunded city liabilities will climb from $240 million to an estimated $330 million over the next 10 years.
Snyder noted that declining property values and rising personnel costs are a recipe for disaster. He added that city residents would leave in droves, to live in the county, if the city commission ultimately had no option but to double the property-tax rate to pay for rising costs while keeping service levels the same.
“The bottom line is we can no longer to afford to do some of the services we do on our own anymore,” said Snyder, suggesting the police department has become an excessive expense. “It’s starting to unravel, and we need to get started on something this year and stop kicking the can down the road.”
None of the other commissioners evidenced surprise at Snyder’s comments.
Although the rest of commission agreed with Vice Mayor Terry Turner that major decisions, such as the elimination of a city department, could not be made before the city budget was approved this summer, they also agreed that further discussions were necessary if they were going to be able to shore up the city’s finances.
In the meantime, a four-month, city-of-Sarasota hiring freeze could begin as soon as March 5. That move, staff said, could save more than $250,000. Eliminating Florida Power & Light franchise fees, as well, could save approximately $200,000, city staff said.
Although more personnel cuts are inevitable this year, and they could save the city an estimated $400,000, both city Finance Director Chris Lyons and Interim City Manager Terry Lewis warned that future cuts were going to affect the city’s level of service.
“Everywhere I go in this organization, people are maxed out and people are tired,” Lewis said. “Just know that we are starting to deteriorate, and there will be a level-of-service reduction that comes along with future (personnel) cuts.”
Turner maintained that everything else needed to be scrutinized before employee cuts were considered.
“Every dollar we save is an employee we save,” Turner said.
Future budget workshops will involve discussions of a five-day employee furlough, which could save the city $515,000, and eliminating or modifying a police squad car take-home policy, which could save $138,000.
Although raising the city’s millage rate for the next fiscal year, to offset declining property values, could bring in approximately $600,000, the commissioners debated whether they should entertain that idea.
Mayor Suzanne Atwell said the city must consider a millage increase, to offset property-value decreases. Atwell also suggested the city’s revenue stabilization fund, which has $500,000, must be tapped.
“We need to have a balance here,” Atwell said. “Part of that balance is raising the millage to the rollback rate, and we need to use the rainy day fund because it’s pouring here.”
Turner, though, said he didn’t want the city to build a budget this summer with a millage increase automatically factored into it.
“Not having a millage increase could prevent people from walking away from their houses,” Turner said.
Meanwhile, Caragiulo and Snyder maintained that future workshops must show the city’s residents what the ad valorem tax revenue pays for and what changes in services would result from specific decisions the commission made.
“Our job is to present what it costs our constituents to do what we do,” Caragiulo said. “We have to be prepared to explain, ‘If you like this, this is what it’s going to cost to keep it.’”
Before the meeting, Snyder told the Sarasota Observer he was concerned that city taxpayers someday soon would realize they were tired of subsidizing everyone else’s quality of life.
“The public has to realize the catastrophe is starting to happen now,” Snyder said. “At some point, the citizens of this city will say it’s not worth living within the city limits any longer, when county residents enjoy the same level of service without having to pay more for it.”
Commissioner Paul Caragiulo took the argument to another level, suggesting that if the city couldn’t afford the police department any longer, why should the city continue to exist as a local-government entity?
“If we’re not willing to have law-enforcement apparatus, it’s probably not worth having a city to begin with,” Caragiulo said.
Snyder agreed the day might come when the city no longer was financially viable.
In the short-term, the commission agreed to keep on hand a list of budget suggestions while staff prepares a spending plan for the next fiscal year.
City of Sarasota Budget
Savings Suggestions
Budget Suggestion Savings
Millage increase $600,000
Revenue stabilization fund balance $500,000
Five-day employee furlough $515,000
Personnel reductions $400,000
Eliminating FPL franchise fees $200,000
Police pension modifications $1.5 million
Hiring freeze $250,000
Suspension of police car $138,000
take-home policy
Eliminating citizens survey $22,000
Eliminating Sister Cities funding $10,000
Funding cut for SCOPE and the EDC $72,645
