IDA holds costs down

LAKEWOOD RANCH — Supervisors on Lakewood Ranch’s Inter-District Authority Board adopted a 2015-16 fiscal year budget with a 9.7% increase over the current budget. The increase is mostly due to funding for software upgrades and staffing increases.

Supervisors adopted their $3.69 million operations-and-maintenance budget July 25, for the IDA, which oversees issues common to Lakewood Ranch’s community development districts. The entity acts as a pass-through for costs, because it does not have the ability to generate revenue on its own. CDDs 1, 2, 4, 5 and 6 will incorporate the IDA’s budget into their own when they adopt their budgets Aug. 20. 

Financial Director Steve Zielinski said primary cost increases are associated with the conversion of Town Hall’s software system, Jenark, to another program/provider. 

“Jenark is a proprietary system,” Zielinski said. “We’re going with an open-ended product that’s going to give us the ability to make in-house changes.”

The change will enhance efficiency, sustainability and in-house controls Town Hall’s financial and property management department. 

Installation of the new software will take about six months, and the IDA is budgeting now for the system to go into use during fiscal year 2016-17.

The IDA budge also accounts for the addition of two new positions: a purchasing manager and utilities technician. 

“It’s a prudent, solid budget,” Zielinksi said. “Overall, I think it was a job well done, considering the requests for additional positions and the software conversion.”

In other business

• Lakewood Ranch CDDs 1, 2, 4, 5 and 6 will adopt their budgets for the 2015-2016 fiscal year at their Aug. 20 meetings.
• CDD 2 will install “no parking” signs at The Masters Avenue and Lakewood Ranch Boulevard to prevent parents from parking to pick up students from Willis Elementary School at the intersection. The curb, supervisors decided, will not be painted yellow, as previously discussed.
• CDD 5 supervisors rejected bids for roadway/drainage repairs because bid prices came back at higher than industry standard. The per-square-foot cost of asphalt, in particular, came in too high. “When we did our analysis, it became obvious any future projects would be much more than we were accustomed to paying,” Town Hall Executive Director Eva Rey said.
• Town Hall staff said the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office has increased its rates for off-duty patrol services, and CDDs 2, 5 and 6 will see that new contract at its August meeting. Rates will increase by $5 per hour, to $105 for three hours.