City budget prioritizes police, planning and parks

City residents shouldn’t expect a property tax rate increase this year, for the preliminary 2016-17 budget is balanced thanks largely to a rise in property values.

From Monday through Wednesday, staff shared its proposed budget with the City Commission, with many department heads requesting increased personnel to improve the level of service citywide.

It’s a relatively new position for the city to be in. The recession led to severe budget crunches, and as recently as 2014, the city was facing multimillion-dollar general fund deficits.

This year, the city believes it can use unassigned general fund reserves to cover what was initially a $990,188 budget gap. That number could grow, because the county declined to help fund the Robert L. Taylor Community Complex after the city budgeted for $500,000 in county support.

City Manager Tom Barwin said the city is exploring its funding options to replace the expected county contribution, but staff says that total could also be covered with the unassigned fund balance if necessary.

In total, the $61.97 million general fund budget represents a 5.4% increase over last year. Beyond maintaining the current level of service, city administration recommended an additional $1.57 million in general fund expenditures that would help expand certain operations. 

One of the primary beneficiaries is the Sarasota Police Department, which would receive an additional $338,660. The funds would be used to add personnel, including a new narcotics detective and marine patrol officer, and equipment, including bomb suits and ballistic shields.

The city’s increased focus on parks is also borne out in its budget: Staff is recommending the creation of seven new full-time parks-related positions, highlighted by a parks and recreation general manager to assist Parks and Recreation Director Jerry Fogle.

Fogle, who was hired to fill a position created in the previous budget cycle, said the general manager would be tasked with running the city’s special events division.

“It’s grown tremendously,” Fogle said. “I think it deserves a body that can oversee it.”

Because the city’s economic strength is tied to a building boom, staff is requesting a series of new development-related jobs, including the creation of a planning director position.

Tim Litchet, the city’s director of neighborhood and development services, said this position would focus on long-term planning efforts — which became neglected after the city consolidated its planning and building departments post-recession.

The city intends to divide neighborhood and development services into two departments: one focused on building and code compliance, the other on planning.

“We talked about some of the functions planning used to do, including long-term planning — things we quite frankly haven’t done in a while,” Litchet said. “Planning used to be a whole different department with many, many more bodies.”