Federal shutdown forces pause in park recovery projects

Just as the Sarasota City Commission concluded the long-standing issue of selecting a new city manager, news of a delay of another sort emerged.

At the conclusion of the Feb. 27 special meeting during which the commissioners unanimously chose Karie Friling as its next city manager, Interim City Manager Dave Bullock informed them that the long-awaited repairs to several waterfront city parks damaged by the named storms of 2024 have been paused as a result of the latest partial shutdown of the federal government.

At issue is not so much the money — combined, the repair projects to seawalls, piers and other facilities total approximately $10.2 million — but whether continued work will jeopardize possible FEMA reimbursement. The partial shutdown has stopped the flow of money to the Department of Homeland Security, Bullock explained, which includes FEMA.

“One of the downstream effects of (the shutdown) is FEMA reimbursement processes have stopped now, let alone the money,” Bullock said. “The process is equally important to the money, so what we found is, if we continue to work — and we have construction going on right now on several of our parks — if we continue to do that work we may become ineligible for future reimbursement of that work.”

Not all of those projects are  active, but all are in various stages of moving toward construction, “and without the FEMA authorizations as we go, we jeopardize reimbursement,” he said.

As a result, Bullock told commissioners he led a staff decision to pause all projects with the exception of the north side of Nora Patterson Park at the northern entrance to Siesta Key because the seawall remains exposed and is subject to erosion. Bullock told commissioners they may authorize work to resume on any park at any time, but at the risk of losing FEMA reimbursement, which at this time is generally regarded as questionable anyway.

“When we did our budget last year, we anticipated no FEMA reimbursement, but we've done everything to stay in their queue,” Bullock said. “So yes, we can move ahead. Yes, we do have the money. What we're jeopardizing is the possibility of reimbursement."

Photo by Andrew Warfield

The money Bullock referenced was made available during the fiscal year 2026 budget process by a reallocation of surtax revenues. Still, if there is a chance, he recommended the city do what it can to get the money back.

“I don't think we can look at previous government shutdowns as a model,” Bullock said. “I don't think we've ever come across a time when an individual federal department has been specifically not funded. So here we stand with the shovel in hand. We're going to stick the shovel in the ground and wait if at some point the imperative is to get the work done.”

None of it will be Bullock's problem after March 6 as he concludes his 10-month stint as interim city manager. That will fall to his interim successor, Government Relations Manager Jennifer Jorgensen, who will fill in until the commission’s selected permanent city manager, Karie Friling, occupies the office.

Deputy City Manager Patrick Robinson told commissioners that once the projects are demobilized, it could take as long as five months for work to resume.

"This is a policy decision,” Robinson said of if and when the commission decides to reactivate the restorations. He said staff will provide regular updates on the status of the projects, but, “If anything changes between those two updates, we will update you immediately.”