About 350 full-time City of Sarasota employees getting raise, thanks to City Commission approval of Teamsters agreement

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Extra $236,000 coming out of various reserve funds as budget supplements

These are details about Teamsters Local #173 from the union’s website.

Thanks to the Sarasota City Commission’s unanimous approval of its Jan. 5 Consent Agenda No. 2 of routine business matters, city employees who are members of the Teamsters Local #173 will receive a raise of $1.25 per hour for this fiscal year, which began on Oct. 1, 2025.

In response to a Sarasota News Leader inquiry, Jan Thornburg, general manager of the city’s Communications Department, wrote in a Jan. 7 email, “The approved agreement with Teamsters Local 173 covers approximately 350 full-time employees in various classifications, including Fleet Technicians, Landscape Technicians, Utilities Mechanics, Permitting and Code Compliance staff, Lifeguards, and Building and Facilities Maintenance personnel.”

The city has 926 employees, Thornburg also told the News Leader.

The commissioners had to approve a budget amendment to account for the increase. The formal Agenda Request Form for the Jan. 5 item explained that the 2026 fiscal year budget “included $800,000 for the allotted step increase for this group of employees …” However, an extra $236,000 will be drawn from “various funds” to make up the total needed, it added. That was a factor of “the timing of the negotiations,” the form said.

The other money will be pulled from the following accounts, as noted below:

  • General Fund — $93,599.91. The General Fund is made up largely of property tax revenue. The City Commission can approve expenditures from it for needs that have not been anticipated for a specific fiscal year. In fact, as interim City Manager Dave Bullock pointed out, the General Fund was used to pay for hurricane recovery efforts in 2024. The necessity of building up the reserve for that fund was the key reason the City Commission raised the millage rate for this budget year.
  • Building Services — $10,399.99.
  • Water Fund — $55,249.95.
  • Sewer Fund — $30,549.96.
  • Solid Waste — $31,199.97.
  • Parking Management — $5,199.99.
  • Fleet Services — $10,399.99.

Each of those amounts was to come out of the account’s reserve fund, as noted in a document included in the backup materials for that agenda item.