Board members also stress that program will have to pay for itself
On a unanimous vote, the Sarasota County Commission has directed staff to being work on plans for a registration program for vacation rental businesses in the county.
The board members indicated a desire for it to include life-safety inspections — such as determining whether smoke detectors and fire extinguishers are present in the dwelling units — as well as the need for a point of contact to be available 24 hours a day, in the event that problems arise.
Commissioner Mark Smith said he believes a local contact would be preferable to one out of town.
They also stressed to Matt Osterhoudt, director of the county’s Planning and Development Services Department, that a Sarasota County program would have to pay for itself, including any extra staff needed for administrative or other purposes.
Further, the commissioners indicated their support for the purchase of a software system that could help determine whether people registered in the program are paying the required Tourist Development Tax, a 6% levy on rentals of six months or less time. Osterhoudt told them on Sept. 22 that preliminary research had found that such software casts in the range of $300,000 to $400,000 a year “at least,’ with extra expenses for added features.
Chair Ron Cutsinger noted that, in a report that staff had prepared about its preliminary research, staff learned that after a registration program was implemented in the Town of Fort Myers Beach, county employees learned that more than 2,000 rental operations in that jurisdiction were not paying the tax.
The Sept. 22 vote on a motion by Commissioner Smith, seconded by Commissioner Teresa Mast, calls for more research by staff before proposed facets of the program come back to the board for further consideration.
Osterhoudt did stress that, at the outset of any registration program, the county would not have revenue to cover its expenses. Therefore, he added, funding for the initial work would have to be subsidized by the county.
During his presentation that day, he reminded the commissioners that they had voted on April 7 to direct staff to undertake preliminary research into facets of a registration program. That included looking into how other jurisdictions handle vacation rentals and conducting discussions with Karen Rushing, clerk of the Circuit Court and county comptroller, and Tax Collector Mike Moran. Moran’s staff handles the collections of the Tourist Development Tax payments.
A variety of options
At the outset of his remarks, Osterhoudt also reminded the commissioners that the only place in the county where vacation rentals of dwelling units legally are allowed for terms less than 30 days are on the barrier islands, in residential multi-family zoning districts.
Turning to the software issue, he explained, “There are several vendors that are unique to this specific business … They help track, monitor and assist with compliance registration of those short-term rental programs … and they are used by jurisdictions across Florida.”
However, Osterhoudt noted, “There is not one best practice yet. There are many best practices out there.”
In fact, he added, some of the programs “ ‘scrape’ data from rental listings.” Such software, Osterhoudt pointed out, would be of great use during any county Code Enforcement proceedings against property owners violating the county regulations, given the data that would be available.
During a later exchange with Commissioner Joe Neunder, Osterhoudt explained that AI is used for that “scraping” process. Software with that AI element, Osterhoudt noted, creates efficiencies, especially in its abilities to bridge the business elements of the registration process with those regarding Code Enforcement.
Osterhoudt did advocate for use of some type of software with the “scraping” feature.
Commissioner Smith was the first member of the board to express support for software with that capability. He talked of the necessity of casting “a broad net,” indicating his desire to ensure that all hosts of vacation rental accommodations are located, to ensure they are paying the county tax.
If the commissioners that day directed him and his staff to move forward with work on implementing a program in Sarasota County, Osterhoudt said, they would work on determining the software that would fit the board’s policy needs.
Among other factors for consideration in a Sarasota County program, he continued, would be the frequency of registration renewals — annually or every two years, for examples.
Osterhoudt also told the commissioners that having the point of contact “is something I highly recommend. … That way, our Code Enforcement [personnel], our law enforcement [members do] not have to try and track down the responsible party,” if a problem arises.
Further, in regard to inspections, he noted that those could be required to include swimming pools and waste disposal, along with smoke detectors and fire extinguishers.
Extra county staff would be required for inspections if those were done in-house, Osterhoudt pointed out. The City of Sarasota has a five-person team that handles its registration program, he said.
“I’m looking at at least three to five staff to implement this program,” Osterhoudt told the commissioners. At one point, he characterized three people as the “bare minimum,” based on the board members’ comments that day.
Commissioners Mast and Neunder suggested that inspections could be handled by outside entities, with Neunder noting that those could be hired to perform the inspections at times convenient for the owners of the rental accommodations.
Other considerations
During the discussion, Commissioner Mast did raise the fact that “wonderful residents … have purchased [properties where vacation rentals are allowed by county zoning regulations]” and that, generally, those purchases were “at a pretty hefty price.” Therefore, she suggested, “The first thing that we need to look at is some of our zoning requirements, because I think that’s gonna have an impact on how [the registration program] is implemented.”
She added, “I don’t want the right hand to not be complementing the left hand …”
Further, Mast said she would like for staff to discuss with Tax Collector Moran whether he would be agreeable to his office’s “being perhaps the location where all these wonderful people go to apply [for the registration program].” She acknowledged that she was “not trying to volunteer our tax collector” to allow his offices to be the point of contact; nonetheless, she talked of that potential as a means of keeping staffing needs lower for Planning and Development Services.
Mast also stressed to her colleagues that she would not want a registration program established unless it were cost-neutral.
She talked, too, of the need for staff to review the provisions of county overlay zoning districts, such as those for Siesta Key and the predominantly Amish-Mennonite community of Pinecraft, to make certain no conflicts would arise in regard to the regulations for those districts.
Finally, Mast noted the need to make certain that the registration process not be arduous and that the program “be very fair and equitable across the board for whoever is participating in [it].” The goal, she said, is for people to “be willing to participate in a very professional and smooth way.”
Commissioner Tom Knight disagreed with Mast’s suggestion that the registrations be handled by the Tax Collector’s Office, even if Tax Collector Moran were amenable to that.
When he was sheriff — an office he won in three elections starting in 2008 — Knight pointed out, “I was very conscious about the organization having control of everything. … People change; boards change; individuals change.”
His desire, he emphasized, is to have the registration program “controlled from the county administrator down [to] the employees, [so] it would just be something totally in-house.”
Then Commissioner Smith brought up the fact that some homeowner associations allow vacation rentals and some do not. “We have enough battles with some homeowner associations,” he added. Thus, he said, “I’d like for the county not to overstep and allow something to happen in a neighborhood that the neighborhood [does not want].”
Osterhoudt responded that staff would coordinate with the Office of the County Attorney on that issue.
Rushing, clerk of the Circuit Court and county comptroller, did note the opportunity for more education for the public, before the program launches, to ensure that people understand the requirement that they turn over Tourist Development Tax revenue to the Tax Collector’s Office, “so that people are not caught in violation.”
Chair Cutsinger concurred with her on those points.