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Parks board asks City Commission to develop options for a citywide parks district
Summary
The Park, Recreation and Environmental Advisory Board voted to ask the City Commission to direct staff and legal to produce options for creating a dependent parks district funded by a portion of city millage, citing a need for stable, dedicated funding and careful structuring to avoid harming other services.
The Park, Recreation and Environmental Advisory Board voted to ask the Sarasota City Commission to direct staff and the City Attorney's Office to develop and present options for establishing a dependent parks district funded by a portion of the city's property millage.
The board's chair said the move is intended to give the incoming city manager and new commissioners materials to consider, and to avoid restarting the conversation from scratch after the next administration takes office. "We're either going to make a decision or we're not. I'm gonna push to make a decision," the chair said during debate.
Joe Polzak, the city's legal advisor, told the board a parks district could be structured as a millage allocation that dedicates a portion of the general millage to parks and the parks department, or by other special-district mechanisms such as special assessments. "The policy rationale would be to secure permanent, unambiguous funding for the park's mission," Polzak said, while cautioning that the detailed mechanics'including vote thresholds and cost-allocation modeling'would require further analysis by legal and finance staff.
Jerry Fogle of Parks and Recreation cautioned that pulling millage into a district could require covering internal cost allocations and reserves and might reduce general-fund capacity for other departments. "We couldn't do that in 5 years. You're 9 years out," Fogle said of completing a master plan solely through rapid bond or short-term approaches, urging a methodical financial approach and careful safeguards so a district would not unduly harm other city services.
Board members debated two principal pathways: a commission-created district funded by millage reallocation, which may require different vote thresholds depending on the millage impact, or a referendum/bond approach to raise funds for specific work such as completing a master plan. Several members urged early research into why a prior parks district ordinance was rescinded after funding failed, so the board does not repeat past mistakes.
After discussion, Chair moved and a member seconded a motion asking the City Commission to examine and develop options for a parks district and to direct legal and staff to prepare those options for commission review. The board asked that any work drafted by the City Attorney's Office and staff be returned to the advisory board for review before being finalized.
The motion passed by voice vote. The board and city legal staff said they will produce a scoped set of options and financial models for the commission and return drafts to the advisory board for comment.
What happens next: The advisory board requested the Commission direct staff to begin option development. If the commission agrees, legal and finance staff will draft structures and pro forma financial modeling for review by the board and the commission.
