Speakers express concerns about potential effects Sunday fees could have on their members
Responding to pleas from leaders of churches in downtown Sarasota, the City Commission voted 4-1 this week to eliminate the implementation of fees for parking from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Sundays.
On May 4, they had voted, on first reading, to approve an ordinance that called for paid parking to be in effect for longer hours and on Sundays, along with increases in fees for citations.
Vice Mayor Kathy Kelley Ohlrich made the motion at the end of the discussion about the ordinance, upon its second reading during the board’ regular meeting on May 18.
Vice Mayor Jen Ahearn-Koch seconded it. Commissioner Kyle Battie cast the “No” vote.
“People are having a hard time paying for gas, you know, to even get downtown,” Battie pointed out. Moreover, Battie said, downtown businesses need churchgoers to be their patrons on Sundays. Therefore, he announced, “I don’t think I can support paid parking on the second reading [that day].”
“This is not an easy choice,” Commissioner Liz Alpert said. Referencing public comments during the first reading of the ordinance, on May 4. Then concerns were aired about the effects the changes may have on retailers.
Alpert added, “Who do we burden? So we either increase the fees on the regular hours and burden the restaurants and retailers more, or we … burden the churches.”
“We do have to make sure that the department can pay for itself,” Alpert pointed out. “This is right of way that is being used to store cars.”
Ahearn-Koch admitted during the discussion this week that, when Broxton Harvey, general manager of the city’s Parking Division, first addressed the proposed changes with the commissioners — on March 23 — she did not understand that parking fees would be charged on Sundays. “That’s my own mistake,” she told Harvey.
During the May 18 discussion, Harvey reported that the modified ordinance — which will go into effect on June 1 — will reduce the anticipated Parking Division revenue by approximately $300,000.
Therefore, Mayor Debbie Trice noted, that will mean that the public will have to wait longer for the parking fund to build up sufficient revenue to pay for capital improvements, such as new parking garage elevators and new parking meters.
At the outset of her exchange with Harvey following the public comments, Vice Mayor Ohlrich asked him to remind everyone what an enterprise fund is, as the Parking Division was established to operate as an enterprise fund.
Harvey explained that, as an enterprise fund, the Parking Division does “not utilize tax dollars to fund ourselves.” Instead, the users of the division’s services — people who pay to park — are supposed to cover the division’s expenses.
The fact that the city has had to take money out of its General Fund to pay for Parking Division deficits over the years was the impetus for proposed changes to the parking regulations, Harvey pointed out to the commissioners during a March 23 presentation.
A slide he showed the board members that day and again on May 4 noted that the Parking Division was anticipated to realize another deficit this fiscal year, which will end on Sept. 30. With the new paid-parking hours on city streets to run from 8 a.m. to midnight each day — along with all of the parking citation fees rising by $5 and users of the city’s surface parking lots and its garages to pay to park 24 hours a day, seven days a week — the Parking Division was expected to bring in a surplus ranging from $674,797 in the 2027 fiscal year to as much as $1,500,366 in the 2029 fiscal year.
The General Fund’s largest revenue source is the city’s annual property tax revenue.
On May 18, Harvey also took the opportunity to underscore the fact — as he had during the May 4 hearing — that he does not play to add more staff. The seven full-time employees he has who handle the paid parking spaces, plus one part-time worker, will have their schedules adjusted to account for the longer hours, he explained.
‘Financially practical on paper,’ but ‘spiritually costly in reality’
The very first of the 13 speakers who addressed the parking issue on May 18 was Dr. John Cross, the senior pastor of First Baptist Church of Sarasota, which is located on Main Street. He proposed that the city begin its parking charges after 1 p.m. on Sundays, “so that all those who need to park to attend worship at these various churches downtown, as well as out on St. Armands Circle, could attend church without having to pay to park. That’s my simple request today.”
Cross said at the outset of his remarks that he wanted to remind everyone that “three of our downtown churches precede the City Charter.”
Robert Carter, senior warden of the Church of the Redeemer, pointed out, “There are moments in civic life when a decision appears financially practical on paper, yet proves culturally and spiritually costly in reality. … This decision to expand downtown paid parking into Sunday workshop hours risks becoming one of those kinds of decisions.”
Carter continued, “No one will ever dispute that the City of Sarasota faces legitimate parking infrastructure expenses. … But good governance is not simply balancing spreadsheets. It is in fact balancing priorities, values and the character of a community.”
“Our downtown churches,” he added, “are among the city’s oldest and most consistent civic institutions.”
Like First Baptist, Carter noted, the Church of Redeemer’s membership exceeds 3,000. “Worshippers fill downtown streets and restaurants,” he told the commissioners. “They support businesses before and after services.”
Carter pointed out that many worshippers will see the city’s Sunday parking charges “as a direct attack and burden placed on religious practice. While unintended, I’m sure, the optics are troubling.”
Lynne Koy, speaking on behalf of First United Methodist Church, told the commissioners that she moved from Chicago to the city in October 1985 to care for her aging parents.
In November 1985, she said, “Daddy’s leg was amputated. I tell you this because the only way that I could get him to church was to pull up to the entrance and ask the ushers to help me get him out of the car and into the wheelchair.”
She would park the car as close to the entrance as she could, she continued. After the service, she would move her vehicle back in front of the entrance, “and then, again, depended upon assistance to get Daddy back into the car.”
Koy added, “I can’t tell you how important it was that he was able to get into church, so that he could hear the encouraging words from the pastor, his friends and from God.”
That was why she wanted to ask the commissioners “to be careful about what [they] decide,” Koy said.
Considerations and options
After the public comments, during his exchanges with the commissioners, Parking General Manager Harvey pointed out, “All of the churches downtown actually do have some form of their own parking lots.” He acknowledged, nonetheless, that those lots “may not suffice” for the numbers of worshippers, as evidenced by testimony that day.
He also noted that many of the public spaces on side streets in close proximity to the churches allow for two or three hours of free parking, “which would cover the timeframe in which church services are.”
Harvey added that he knows that a couple of the churches provide valet parking, as well.
Still, he readily expressed support for halting parking charges until 1 p.m. on Sundays.
However, Harvey did note that while the spaces around the churches could remain free to use for several hours on Sundays, paid parking could go into effect for other areas during that period.
He reminded the commissioners, “We’re looking at the city as a whole.” Modifying the paid parking hours citywide on Sunday, he continued, would mean no fees, for example, for parking on Benjamin Franklin Drive, which members of the public use when they go to Lido Beach.
“Not a fan of the Ben Franklin paid parking, either,” Commissioner Ahearn-Koch told him with a smile.
“One of the thing that I’m hearing,” Commissioner Battie said, “is about the Parking Department going into the black,” a reference to the need for the division to cover its expenses. Yet, Battie asked Harvey, “Is it about that, or is it about us having to pay for [the city’s] parking garages?”
“I would say it’s both,” Harvey replied. With the current hours and parking fees, he added, the division cannot cover its capital expenses.
“The [2024] hurricanes hit us hard,” Harvey continued. “We still have not bounced back.” Before the storms struck, he said, “Our garages were around about 66% [full], which isn’t great, but we were able to actually function. Right now,” he added, “they are sitting around 25[%] to 40%.”
The goal, Harvey stressed again, “is to be able to pay for ourselves.”
Mayor Debbie Trice sought and won assurance from Harvey that the ordinance does not call for the city to start charging for any of the free parking spaces around the churches.
Moreover, she suggested that the City Commission could approve longer periods for “timed” spaces near the churches to remain free. For example, Trice said, the period could be increased from two hours to three for some of them.
“I would have no issue with that,” he replied.
Ohlrich also brought up the fact that, on March 23, Harvey proposed the potential of higher parking fees, instead of the longer hours and adding in Sunday hours.
He acknowledged that, noting that he also had pointed to the prospect of raising the fees for city parking permits for business employees, along with an increase in the citation fees.
“I think this commission … ended up choosing the option we thought would be less disruptive to the citizens,” Ohlrich said.
“I think it’s important to us to pass this [ordinance] on second reading today,” Ohlrich continued, but with changes. Then, she pointed out, the commissioners could discuss other recommendations after they take their annual summer break during the month of June.
Harvey concurred with the latter option.
After she made the motion that ended up winning approval that day, Ohlrich said, “I think this is a good compromise.”
Mayor Trice concurred, adding that the commissioners will “see what happens.”