Panama City Beach council reviews FY2025 budget, approves staff spending and study funds

Panama City Beach officials on Wednesday reviewed proposed FY2025 budgets across the general fund, community redevelopment area and enterprise funds and approved several departmental requests and work directives.

The workshop began with finance staff presenting an overview of the general fund, which shows projected revenues of $57.2 million against an expenditure plan of $68.1 million. Finance staff told the council the budget assumes a 2% merit pool for staff, a 10% health‑insurance cost increase and a hiring plan that staggers new positions to a February 1, 2026, start to capture FY2025 savings.

Assistant City Manager Holly White thanked the finance team for the presentation and the council complimented the graphics and clarity of the materials. "They've really done an excellent job of putting together justification and giving you all the information to help you make decisions," Holly White said.

On specific items, the council voted to approve payment of the Bay EDA fee of $28,613 and separately authorized travel funds for the city manager, assistant city manager and city clerk to cover conferences and professional development throughout the fiscal year. Both motions passed unanimously in roll call votes (Vice Mayor German, Councilman Casto, Councilmember Coburn, Councilman Register and Mayor Teder voting yes).

Council agreed to move a part‑time administrative assistant position for the city clerk's office to full time to improve responsiveness on minutes and public‑records requests, and placed a $40,000 placeholder in the budget for a proposed Citizens Academy to educate residents about city operations.

On transportation and parking, council approved a staff recommendation to transfer $100,000 from the general fund to the CRA unrestricted fund to pay for a beach access parking study; staff said that study would unlock an approximately $800,000 pool of public beach access capital funds that otherwise cannot be used for planning. "If you allocate this $100K for studies we can identify where to use that $800K for beach access parking," a staff presenter said.

Council also directed staff to change the bulk‑waste pilot from year‑round service to a pilot that provides pickups four times a year, with staff discretion to schedule quieter months for those cleanups. The motion was framed as a pilot for one year so the council could evaluate costs and demand before making the program permanent.

Many departmental presentations highlighted personnel pressures and capital needs. Among repeatedly noted items: police and fire overtime concerns and recruitment challenges; proposed lifeguard hiring to reduce beach safety overtime; funding for park and recreation capital projects at Frank Brown Park; and a request from Human Resources to add a safety and risk manager to improve claims management.

The workshop concluded with staff summaries and an instruction to return ordinance/resolution language and formal budget materials for adoption. Several items will return as formal agenda items for future council action, including final CRA resolutions and project‑specific budget amendments.

What happens next: staff will prepare resolutions and budget documents reflecting the workshop directives, and present them at a future council meeting for formal adoption.