City Commission approves revised regulations on unanimous vote during first reading
With a unanimous vote on May 4, the Sarasota City Commission approved the implementation of longer hours for paid parking at metered spaces and in city parking lots and garages, starting June 1.
Their vote also will establish higher fees for fines.
The changes are to take effect June 1, as noted in the Agenda Request Form for their regular meeting that day.
A final, “second reading” of the ordinance is scheduled for the board’s regular meeting on May 18.
And though former city resident Martin Hyde alleged during his public comments last week that the changes will result in the hiring of 12 new city staff members — for a total of 50 in the Parking Division — Broxton Harvey, general manager of that division, told the commissioners that that was untrue. Instead, Harvey explained, through the scheduling of the hours for his staff of seven, plus a half position, the division will be able to handle the longer hours without the need of more employees.
“I never requested for additional staff,” he pointed out. “I’m not sure where that information came from.”
Instead of charging for parking from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., the commissioners agreed during a March 23 discussion with Harvey that the hours in the city’s metered spots will extend from 8 a.m. to midnight, seven days a week. The current city regulation allows people to park for free on Sundays, though — thanks to prior City Commission direction — Parking Division staff has been monitoring parking spaces that day for any potential safety violations, Harvey noted.
Fees will be charged 24 hours a day, seven days a week, in the city’s surface parking lots and parking garages, Harvey further noted, based on that late-March discussion.
Further, he reminded the board members that they had agreed to raising all of the citation fees by $5. Those new figures will be $30, $35 and $40, he added, with an average of 50,000 citations paid annually in the city, as noted on a slide he showed the commissioners on May 4.
The holidays when parking will remain free, Harvey said, are New Year’s Day, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Presidents Day, Memorial Day, Juneteenth, Independence Day, Labor Day, Veteran’s Day, Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day.
The current city regulations, he also reminded the commissioners, call for parking to be free the day after Thanksgiving and the days before and after Christmas, as well.
The changes are expected to bring in approximately $280,750 more revenue per year for the Parking Division, as another slide noted.
Projections had shown that that division would bring in $6.2 million in revenue this fiscal year — which will end on Sept. 30 — but the expenses would add up to about $6.5 million, with no changes in parking hours or fees.
With the longer hours and higher fees, as shown in that slide, the new projection is that the Parking Division will be able to cover its expenses through the 2031 fiscal year.
“This is a complex problem,” Vice Mayor Kathy Kelley Ohlrich acknowledged during the discussion. “However, an enterprise fund” — such as the Parking Division, which charges fees and fines — “is supposed to pay for itself.”
As Mayor Debbie Trice noted, any deficits that division encounters ends up being covered by the General Fund, which is comprised largely of property tax revenue.
Trice referenced a presentation that city Financial Administration Director Kelly Strickland made to the board members on April 20, which showed that the increase in the city’s millage rate this year — as former interim City Manager Dave Bullock had proposed — is not helping the city’s reserves build back up as fast as staff had anticipated.
Strickland reminded the commissioners on April 20 that the reserve fund was used to pay for clean-up and repairs to city property after the two hurricanes and Tropical Storm Debby in 2024. Strickland also indicated that staff has no expectation that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will end up reimbursing the city for some of those payments, as originally expected.
No more taxpayer subsidies
During the board members’ exchanges with Harvey on May 4, Commissioner Liz Alpert asked which option he felt was better — raising the parking fees or extending the hours. Harvey told her that, as he sees the situation, extending the paid-parking hours “will be less impactful. Everyone will be impacted by the same rates.”
Further, Alpert inquired, “If, in the future … if we see that this was not a good idea … we have the option of changing it?”
“Sure, sure,” Harvey replied. “We can always go back and make the change.”
Alpert was referencing other comments by Martin Hyde, a businessman who reminds the board members that he no longer lives in the city, and David Lough, a Rosemary District resident. Both men that day expressed concern that the implementation of the longer paid parking hours and higher fees will encourage potential shoppers and restaurant patrons to visit areas other than downtown Sarasota.
“We know that last year, anecdotally … the merchants had a rough summer season,” Lough told the board members. “I would urge us not to treat all of this too casually,” he continued, referencing the Parking Division changes, and then have to address unwanted results months later.
Nonetheless, Lough acknowledged his agreement with the need for the Parking Division to cover its expenses.
Trice inquired of Harvey whether the Parking Division would return to the General Fund any revenue that exceeds expenses at the end of a fiscal year.
Harvey replied, “We could pay off our debts that we owe to the General Fund at a faster pace.”
“You actually borrowed from the General Fund?” she asked.
“Yes,” he said. “We have money that we are paying back annually to the General Fund.”
Trice also stressed that the fact that the Parking Division had been contending with budget deficits meant that the city’s taxpayers “were subsidizing the people who were parking.”
“That is correct,” Harvey said.
Further, when Trice asked Harvey whether the additional revenue would enable the Parking Division to ensure that repairs to elevators in the city garages would be undertaken more quickly, Harvey pointed out that the plans already call for some of the funds to be used to replace elevators under warranty with “newer and better models.”
Even so, he added, if the new ones did break down, the Parking Division should have the money available to repair them.
Commissioner Kyle Battie asked what the change in paid parking on Sundays would mean for the Parking Division.
“One million dollars difference,” Harvey responded.
Among other questions, Vice Mayor Ohlrich asked whether the city has sufficient signage to warn people about spaces where they cannot back in their vehicles.
Harvey responded, “We have ‘No back-in [parking]’ signage throughout the city …” He also affirmed that the amount of signage is sufficient.
Moreover, he explained, when a Parking Division staff member issues a citation, the employee works to frame the vehicle and the relevant signage so the offender will understand why a citation was issued.
In response to another question from Commissioner Alpert, Harvey explained that all of the city parking garages have “photo enforcement” for the collection of parking fees: License plate readers were installed when the commissioners decided a couple of years ago to make the garages gateless. Invoices for payments are sent in the mail, he added.