Council begins 2013 budget talk at workshop
With a ‘never too early’ attitude, the Fort Myers Beach Town Council began budget discussions for next fiscal year -more than six months before the 2012-13 numbers go into effect- at a morning workshop Tuesday, Jan. 17.
The early start in the process will allow Town officials to bring the first estimate of next year’s budget to the first Council meeting in March.
Town Manager Terry Stewart and his staff provided each Council member with information regarding expected revenues and forecasted expenditures as well as summary budget sheets for the past two fiscal years. Stewart also gave a Lee County property appraisal update to reflect property values on the Beach.
“On June 1, the property appraiser will give everyone in the County the first estimates of what property values and expected tax revenues will be for the coming year,” he said. “We are calculating what we have to remain fairly stable.”
The Town’s current millage rate is 0.8144 mils. Council approved the 2011-12 overall budget amount of $18,691,193 days before the Oct. 1 start date.
Stewart noted the careful and prudent fiscal approach taken by Town officials in previous years. This year, projects such as fixing the potable water utility come into play.
“We’ve been judicious about what we are doing capital-wise within the operating budget. We do have some major projects that are coming on the horizon and that we need to begin this year,” he said. “The potable water system is out of the utilities fund, a separate enterprise fund that is calculated separately.”
Reserves may be utilized for such one-time expenditures.
“If you choose to wish to do a capital project, you do have some latitude within reserves,” said Stewart.
Each Council member provided the town manager with input to develop a “general fiscal philosophy” in developing a tighter budget.
Councilwoman Jo List would like to see Bay Oaks become less of a strain on the Town pockets.
“My purpose would be to figure out a way to make that work. I think having a director in Parks & Recreation is a huge boost in that direction,” she said. “That is a quality of life situation and real important.”
Councilman Alan Mandel agreed that Bay Oaks has become an increase of $300,000 to the Town budget. Raised taxes are not an option to him.
“There is the burden, if that is what you want to call it, that we have to look at,” he said. “The other thing is to try to keep what we charge taxpayers about the same. The economy hasn’t gotten any better for anybody yet. I think that’s important.”
Vice Mayor Bob Raymond targeted his complaints on the inability to fully complete and open Mound House before adding his few comments to the Bay Oaks financial difficulties.
“I am going to complain until the end of the year to get the Mound House completed and fully opened,” he said. “As far as Bay Oaks, it’s a major drain now and will continue to be a major drain. I know we will never going to break even, but I’d like to get close to it.”
Mayor Larry Kiker said: “As far as I am concerned, this Council has funded the Mound House to open. We don’t need to talk about it. Just get it done.”
The budget discussion moved to comparing last year’s numbers to forecasting the 2012-13 numbers and centered on parking revenues, code enforcement, staff realignment, Town committee money and legal services. A legal review with Town Attorney Fowler White & Boggs will be scheduled.
“We have really reduced our legal services,” said Kiker, “by 50 percent easily.”
New Town Parks & Recreation Director Patty Evans gave a presentation on Bay Oaks by focusing on the programs that the recreational campus offers. It was noted that fee programs are self-supporting due to the cost of the class divvied up to the class instructor (80 percent of proceeds) and the remainder for operational costs.
“We don’t want to extend and ask you for more money for staff. We want to be able to use our resources within the community,” said Evans. “Our partnerships, like with senior softball where we let the guys do their own thing, is a really strong and efficient way. It is effective and economically sound for us to do business because we push the responsibility on to them to do all the planning, programming and so forth. We get the benefit because we get to say we are a partner in that program.”
Evans has begun conducting a fee survey for cost comparison analysis with neighboring communities.
“We’ll be sharing resources, see what our sister cities are offering for programs and what their fees are,” she said. “This way we can really take a hard look at ourselves and see where we fit.”
Cost for fees, programs and rentals at Bay Oaks have remained at the same level. Taste of the Beach brought in $3,000 and a recent wrestling event collected $500.
Council members would like to see an increase in facility utilization to better finance the campus. The Town budgets $850,000 for Bay Oaks alone.
“I’d like to see you come in here with a vision,” Kiker told Evans. “This is a great piece of property, and I think it is wrongly utilized. The buffer is over.”
Councilman Joe Kosinski believes ‘reinventing’ the campus and what it offers is key.
“We need to look at it from a fresh perspective. I like these programs. There is a lot of youth, a lot of activities and we need suggestions to increase participation,” he said.