Total coverage for year beginning April 1 to cost about $2.4 million
In a 4-1 vote approving two items on their March 3 Consent Agenda 1, regarding routine business matters, the Sarasota city commissioners agreed to a total of $35 million in insurance coverage for city property.
Commissioner Liz Alpert cast the “No” vote after telling her colleagues that she had intended to pull a different item from that agenda for discussion.
After Alpert made her comment, City Auditor and Clerk Shayla Griggs immediately pointed out that, with Commissioner Kyle Battie having made the motion to approve Items No. 1 and 3, and Commissioner Jen Ahearn-Koch having seconded it, the motion was on the floor for action; therefore, Alpert had lost her chance for a discussion of an agreement related to security guard services at the Van Wezel Performing Arts Center.
Before the vote, Ahearn-Koch told her colleagues that she had considered pulling the insurance policy renewal for discussion, but she had been able to check with city staff to verify that staff did not recommend a second option, which had been explained in the Agenda Request Form for the item.
Brown & Brown of Sarasota is the firm that handles the city’s property insurance, that form noted. The quote for the renewal of the policy was $2,385,537, the form added. The policy will go into effect on April 1 and continue to April 1, 2027, the form said.
The expense of the existing policy is $2,371,225, the form pointed out. “The renewal proposal reflects an overall premium increase of $14,312.00 (0.6%),” the form continued.
The flood coverage expense, with Wright National Flood Insurance Co., is $78,441, a document shows. The buildings covered by that policy are the Sarasota Garden Club, located at 1131 Sixth St.; the Blue Pagoda Building, which stands at 655 N. Tamiami Trail; the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall, which is located at 777 N. Tamiami Trail; the structure standing at 709 N. Tamiami Trail, which encompasses facilities of the Sarasota Orchestra; the Municipal Auditorium, which is located at 801 N. Tamiami Trail; the Lido Beach Pavilion, which stands at 400 Ben Franklin Drive on Lido Key; the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Park restrooms, located at 2523 Cocoanut Ave.; and the Chidsey Library, which stands at 701 N. Tamiami Trail.
Among the program improvements with the new policy, the Agenda Request Form added, are “a revamped valuation of scheduled properties, the addition of properties not formerly scheduled, and more favorable coverage terms.”
Further, the form noted, no change had been recommended in the type of coverage, compared to the existing policy.
The form also said that Brown & Brown was able to reduce the rate for the utility portion of the coverage by 16.7%, with the non-utility insurance rate down by 21.1%. Because of the favorable market conditions, it pointed out, the timing was “convenient to request additional insurance in the form of increased limits based on a modernization of [the city’s] property values.”
A Brown & Brown document included with the back-up materials for that agenda item noted that, in 2025, for the first time in 10 years, “no hurricanes made landfall in the US … This quiet season has hastened the softening of the commercial property markets. The vast majority of carriers were profitable in 2025 which has led to increased capacity and new domestic carriers opening for business in 2026. Lloyds of London has 7 new syndicates generating additional competition for premium dollars. All of this is creating a buyers’ market resulting in better terms and downward pressure on rates.”
That document added that early policy renewals in Florida were resulting “in rate decreases of 10% and 20%, broader coverage (blanket endorsements are returning) and offerings of higher limits.”
Further, the Agenda Request Form — which shows that it was prepared by Dominique Anderson of the city’s Human Resources Department — explained, “In the wake of the named storms that occurred in 2024, we conducted an analysis of our portfolio of properties to update our schedule of values. These updates were calculated by Risk Management in collaboration with Brown and Brown, taking into account the professional opinion of HCA Asset Management [of Bradenton].”
The goal of such updates, it continued, “is to have more appropriate amounts of coverage on our properties. The double digit rate reductions allowed us to add $61,292,111 of our value to our schedule of values with a nominal increase in [the] overall premium.”
The option that city staff did not recommend — to which Commissioner Ahearn-Koch had alluded before the March 2 vote — entailed adding $28,078,500 in loss limit for “all other perils,” which would have excluded damage from wind and hail caused by named wind storms, along with flooding, storm surge and earthquakes. The premium for that extra coverage would have been $43,754, the form said.
Yet, city staff explained, “We have only three properties on our updated schedule of values that are valued at more than [$25 million]”: the Van Wezel, the Public Safety Building, and the Palm Avenue Multi-Use Facility.