City leaders point to reduced expenses as result of transition
Thanks to unanimous votes this week of the Sarasota City Commission and the County Commission, the county’s Breeze Transit Department will be taking over operations of the city’s Bay Runner trolley.
No changes to the route or service of the Bay Runner are planned, city staff told the city commissioners during their regular meeting on Nov. 17.
Further, “The branding will remain the same,” Broxton Harvey, general manager of the city’s Parking Division, reported to the commissioners, and the county staff will try to keep the route to the approximately 30-minute timeframe within which it has been operating between downtown Sarasota and St. Armands and Lido keys.
Moreover, he said, riding on the Bay Runner will remain free.
Formally, the City Commission vote was to approve an interlocal agreement with Sarasota County that establishes Breeze Transit “as the managing entity for the City’s Bay Runner trolley service,” as a city slide put it. The agreement begins on Dec. 1, with automatic annual renewals for up to five years.
The Breeze Transit staff will provide the city monthly and annual reports on ridership, including the numbers of persons getting on the trolley at each stop, as well as on-time performance.
In response to a question from Vice Mayor Kathy Kelley Ohlrich, Harvey said that he and his staff had worked with the city’s Public Works staff to determine that the Bay Runner had reduced traffic each year along the route that it serves. People use it to get to work and to go shopping, he added and tourists ride it. “There is a value in the trolley.”
Ohlrich likened taking a trip on the Bay Runner to going to the circus: “You feel like a child, and you have fun.”
The proposed agreement, Ohlrich added, “makes so much sense to me.”
The Bay Runner service began in March 2022; it runs from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday; on Fridays and Saturdays, the hours are 7 a.m. to 11 p.m.
Originally, Harvey said, the hours were 8 a.m. to midnight each day. However, after staff learned of demand for an earlier start time, for people who wanted to take the trolley to the locations where they work, the hours were modified. Further, he noted, ridership was practically nil around midnight.
Jane Grogg, director of Breeze Transit, pointed out that integrating the Bay Runner into the county’s system will provide travelers the option to connect to different routes and to use the county’s OnDemand service. Overall, she noted, it will improve the system’s efficiency.
In regard to the financial aspects, interim City Manager Dave Bullock noted that all of the city’s business tax revenue is being used to pay for the trolley’s operations; thus, with the transition, the potential exists that some of that money could be freed up for other purposes.
Bullock also explained to the city commissioners that Sarasota County Government is the federal government’s designated transportation agency for Sarasota County. In that capacity, he noted, the county can try to gain federal financial support for the trolley, which the city has not had the standing to seek.
Further, Grogg talked of her staff’s plans to try to pursue more support from the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) after its current grant for the Bay Runner ends in 2027.
After the 2027 fiscal year, the interlocal agreement calls for the city to pay only the balance of the expense for the Bay Runner that is not covered by any grants.
FDOT began providing the grant for the trolley in conjunction with the construction of the roundabout at the intersection of Gulfstream Avenue and U.S. 41, with the Bay Runner seen as a means of providing easier travel for people between downtown Sarasota and St. Armands and Lido keys while that project was underway, Harvey of the Parking Division also pointed out.
A slide presented to the city commissioners said the FDOT funding for this fiscal year — which began on Oct. 1 — is $371,057. For the 2027 fiscal year, it will be $259,740, the slide noted.
Further, Bullock pointed out of the Bay Runner expenses, “There is a financial deficit to the city of a few hundred thousand dollars, which is per year, which is critical.”
(At Bullock’s recommendation, the City Commission raised the millage rate for this fiscal year in an effort to build up the city’s reserve account, which had fallen below the policy level as a result of the expenditures necessary to recovery from the 2024 storm season.)
As Bullock and other city staff members also noted on Nov. 17, the county will be taking over all of the city’s paratransit expenses, which run about $39 per revenue hour, based on the estimated, annual 4,558 operating hours, as shown in a slide.
Even though the county has contracts in place to provide paratransit transportation, Bullock said, the city has been required to have its own contract for such service.
Prior to the city staff presentation, he did tell the commissioners that an interlocal agreement between the city and the county, involving the Bay Runner, “has been under discussion for quite some time …”
During the County Commission’s May 2024 budget workshop, Breeze Transit Director Grogg talked of the potential of the county’s taking over the Bay Runner.
Plenty of demand for the Bay Runner, but a lot of expense
During the formal staff remarks, Harvey noted that the Bay Runner had carried a total of 554,670 riders since it began service in March 2022. In fact, he said, March is the peak month for the trolley’s operations. (For years, county Tourist Development Tax — or, “bed tax” — revenue data has made it evident that March is the top month when tourists to come to the county.)
The city’s expense for the Bay Runner costs $129.22 per revenue hour, Alvimarie Corales, the city’s chief transportation planner, pointed out. With the county handling the trolley’s operation, that figure is anticipated to drop to $98.28 per revenue hour, as shown in one of her slides.
That county figure “is the fully loaded cost,” Corales said, including the fuel expense.
Another slide showed that the other portion of the Bay Runner’s funding comes from the Downtown Improvement District’s budget. The annual amount is $50,000.
Both Commissioner Jen Ahearn-Koch and Bullock talked of the fact that the DID board members are not happy that their organization has had to keep providing that money.
Mayor Debbie Trice did ask whether the DID funding would “go away,” as a result of the transition.
Bullock indicated that, without the DID contribution, staff would have to take money from the city’s General Fund, which is the account that contains all of the property tax revenue and other general revenue that the city receives. It is the primary fund to which city staff has to turn not only in the event of emergencies but also in other situations when money is needed for an unbudgeted expense.
Yet, Bullock added, if staff proposed any change in funding the Bay Runner, that would come before the commissioners for a final decision.
In regard to the Bay Runner, he pointed out of county staff members, “They have a much deeper history of potential funding sources.”
As for a characterization of city staff’s ability to find alternative sources of money for the trolley, Bullock told Trice, “I’d say it’s modest.”
Further, a slide showed, the city’s current contract for the Bay Runner, as of Nov. 17, had a total expense of $1,370,483, including the paratransit service ($177,782).
Over five years, with the shift of the Bay Runner to Breeze Transit, Corales pointed out, the city would save more than $1.9 million. The figure on the relevant slide was $1,917,048. For the current fiscal year alone, the savings would be $557,682.
At the outset of the staff presentation, Harvey of the city’s Parking Division, explained that the Bay Runner is operated by CPR Medical Transportation of Washington, D.C. That is the same company that operates the Siesta Key trolley.
Corales noted that the city contract with CPR Medical was set to expire in just a couple of days
Commissioner Liz Alpert ended up making the motion to approve the interlocal agreement with the county, and Commissioner Kyle Battie seconded it.
After that passed on a 5-0 vote, Commissioner Ahearn-Koch made a motion that directed Bullock and his staff to undertake research into new funding sources for the Bay Runner. Battie also seconded that motion, and it passed unanimously, as well.
On Nov. 18, the County Commission unanimously approved the interlocal agreement as part of its Consent Agenda of routine business matters. A county staff memo prepared for the Bay Runner item noted that the cost for the county to operate the trolley for the rest of the 2026 fiscal year is estimated at $811,843. The memo indicated that the money is available in the Sarasota County Transportation Authority Fund.
One further point in that memo is the fact that county staff “will install equipment on the trolleys to enable real-time tracking via the Breeze Rider app.”