Three new Longboat Key staff positions budgeted in 2026, others not

Paying the salaries for Longboat Key’s 134 employees takes up a big slice of the budget pie.

According to the proposed 2026 budget, 80% of general fund expenses go toward staff salary and benefits. The $19.2 million “personnel services” line item in the next fiscal year is $456,167 higher than in 2025, partly due to a 6.5% employee wage increase. 

There are also three new staff positions budgeted, two full-time and one part-time. The town will add a building permit tech, GIS analyst and senior HR generalist to its ranks in the next fiscal year, but requests from the police department and fire department to expand are on hold while the town recovers from impacts from the double-whammy hurricane impacts that hit the key in 2024.

“This is a storm-weary budget, I would say,” Town Manager Howard Tipton said, adding that on the north end of the Key, property damage from hurricanes impacted assessment rates which will hurt the town’s bottom line, though the addition of the St. Regis Hotel to property tax rolls evens that out a bit.

Tipton said the employee pay increase will be two-fold, 3% being a cost-of-living adjustment and 3% merit-based performance pay bumps. 

The police department requested to add an officer to its ranks, but with new police chief, Russ Mager, just sworn in, Tipton said he thought it made sense for new leadership to get a footing for a year before re-evaluating whether the additional staff are necessary. The fire department requested two new firefighters each year for the next three years, adding six total. Including benefits, adding six firefighters and one police officer would cost the town about $925,000 per year, according to finance director Susan Smith.

“It’s not an unreasonable request, but at the same time, this was just a difficult year to try and entertain it,” Tipton said. “All of those requests would come on the general fund. All of our public safety is what is funded through property tax, and it just was a difficult year to do that. I’ve told the commission, and I’ve told both chiefs that we will circle back around next year and examine their requests more fully and see if their reasoning still stands, and if so try to figure out how we get there.”

The decision to add two full-time positions and one part-time position in other departments came down to readily available funding sources, Tipton said. The building permit tech is 100% funded through building department fees. 

The GIS analyst will be split between three departments and will reduce the amount the town has to spend outsourcing GIS work, Tipton said. 

The senior HR generalist position is being added as a way to transition a soon-to-retire human resources assistant. Lynn Curreli, the current assistant, will transition to a part-time role and a new HR employee will come on at a higher pay grade with the hopes of transitioning them into Curreli’s role upon their retirement.

The 2026 fiscal year budget would begin in October if the Longboat Key Town Commission approves it. A public hearing is scheduled Monday, Sept. 8 at Town Hall at 5:01 p.m. A second meeting will follow, same time, same place Monday, Sept. 22 where the Town Commission will give final approval for the budget.