Parks district topic expected to be part of work on 2027 fiscal year budget
Reviving a proposal that former Sarasota City Manager Tom Barwin had championed, the Sarasota City Commission has voted unanimously to direct staff to schedule an upcoming board discussion on the potential creation of a city parks district with a dedicated funding stream out of the revenue that the city receives annually from property tax payments.
Following a May 4 exchange with the immediate past chair and current chair of the city’s Parks, Recreation and Environmental Protection Advisory Board (PREP), Commissioner Jen Ahearn-Koch made the motion, and Vice Mayor Kathy Kelly Ohlrich seconded it.
Although Ahearn-Koch made it clear that she was hopeful that the discussion could be scheduled for the commission’s regular meeting, on May 18, City Auditor and Clerk Shayla Griggs noted the fact that the agenda for that session was due to be released before the end of the week of May 4. Interim City Manager Jennifer Jorgensen suggested that a July discussion would be better timing, as staff already has been working with city Financial Administration Director Kelly Strickland and Jerry Fogle, director of the city’s Parks and Recreation Department, on “running the numbers and understanding what [the creation of the district] does to the budget …”
Jorgensen further stressed, “I do feel like we have the opportunity to still put that on the [agenda for the commission’s ] July budget workshops. Now I’ll double-check with Ms. Strickland, because I don’t want to put her into a difficult situation …”
Then Jorgensen again suggested that Ahearn-Koch leave open the timing of the agenda item.
“OK,” Ahearn-Koch told Jorgensen.
The City Commission will be taking its annual vacation during the month of June. Thus, the workshops involving the proposed budget for the 2027 fiscal year will take place in July.
(The Sarasota News Leader confirmed this week that the discussion has not been included on the board’s May 18 meeting agenda.)
Part of the parks district discussion, Ahearn-Koch said on May 4, should focus on the city’s potentially taking over the operations of Ted Sperling Park, which is located on the southernmost point of Lido Key, adjacent to Big Sarasota Pass. Sarasota County owns that property.
Anticipated city expenses for taking control of Sperling Park
As the News Leader has reported over the past couple of years, especially, South Lido residents have complained to the county commissioners about activities at Ted Sperling Park. Among their concerns have been dangerous jet ski usage, which they have documented in videos presented to the board members, calling it a threat to the public. They also have pointed to partying on weekends, with park visitors using big pieces of stereo equipment that produce loud music easily audible to nearby condominium residents. Photos and videos have underscored that issue, as well.
While county staff has pointed out that the City of Sarasota’s noise ordinance controls sound levels at the park — as the park is within the city limits — the county commissioners last year did agree unanimously to establish a 300-foot Idle Speed, No Wake zone offshore of the park, in an effort to provide for safer swimming and boating activities. That decision followed staff reports that the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) had indicated that it would not support a boating exclusion zone within 300 feet of the park’s shoreline.
In response to a News Leader request for an update this week on the status of the permitting of that zone, the county’s Parks, Recreation and Natural Resources Department reported the following in a May 14 email: “Sarasota County Parks, Recreation and Natural Resources (PRNR) provided the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) with the required documents for the pre-application review process. PRNR staff spoke with FWC recently and [learned that] the application is under review. After FWC completes the review, pursuant to [Florida Administrative Code] FAC 68D-21.003, a public notice of approval or denial will be posted for 21 days to provide [for] comment and/or public hearing requests.”
The reply added, “We expect to have more information in the coming weeks; however, we do not have an update on when FWC will complete their review.”
During the Citizens Input period at the start of the City Commission’s May 4 meeting, South Lido resident Celine O’Connor — who often has appealed to the County Commission for help with the Sperling Park problems — offered full support for the city’s taking over the park.
That action, she said, “would ensure stronger local stewardship and alignment with the city’s long-term parks management goals.”
O’Connor added, “The long-term impact of not taking over Ted Sperlng Park is the continuation of the jurisdictional merry-go-round the city and residents currently experience with the county.”
She then extended her appreciation to the members of the Sarasota Police Department “for their continued investment and vigilance regarding matters at Ted Sperling Park and [their] excellent response times when called upon.”
Paying for Sperling Park maintenance and operations
On Feb. 24, the News Leader learned from a review of emails in the County Commission’s online folder that Fogle, director of the city’s Parks and Recreation Department, sent a memo to then-interim City Manager Dave Bullock about the anticipated expense of the city’s operating and maintaining Ted Sperling Park and the adjacent Ted Sperling Nature Park.
Fogle also noted, “Nicole Rissler, Assistant County Administrator (Parks, Recreation, and Natural Resources Director at the time), indicated that the County may propose transitioning Lido Beach and North Lido Beach Park back to the City. This is based on whether the City acquires the operations and maintenance of both locations, which is still to be determined.”
Then Fogle provided the following figures for operating and maintaining Lido Beach and North Lido Beach Park, “per the Sarasota County Parks, Recreation and Natural Resources Annual Report for Fiscal Years 2023, 2024 and 2025,” adding that, during that period, “the average estimated net cost for the County to operate and maintain [those facilities] has been approximately $1,068,025 [his emphasis].”
Next, Fogle wrote, “Over the past five years, Sarasota County has reported annual revenues of approximately $330,000 generated through its Commercial Recreation & Tour Operator (CORT) Program at Ted Sperling Nature Park.”
He continued, “The estimated [costs] for the City to operate and maintain Ted Sperling Park at South Lido and Ted Sperling Nature Park are [as follows]:”
Finally, Fogle wrote, “Staff reviewed key considerations, including operational scope, anticipated transition, start-up and ongoing costs, availability of City resources, potentially using property tax funds, potentially funding stormwater operations, timing, and alignment with current City priorities.” (In March 2025, County Engineer Spencer Anderson, who then was in charge of the county Stormwater Division — which also handles the city’s stormwater work, including oversight of the city’s stormwater infrastructure — broached with the city commissioners the idea of the county’s giving the city’s stormwater responsibilities back to the city.)
Fogle continued, “Based on the review, and in light of current budget constraints, staff are unable to recommend moving forward with assuming the operations of Ted Sperling Park at South Lido and Ted Sperling Nature Park at this time. While the concept may have merit,” he added, “advancing it now will require significant financial and staffing resources that will put additional strain on the City’s budget that continues to recover from the financial impacts of recent storms.”
The News Leader learned this week that Commissioner Ahearn-Koch had requested the figures, though she acknowledged in a May 12 email to the News Leader that other members of the City Commission could have done so, as well, since state law prevents them from communicating with each other outside of public meetings.
She added in the email, “I have been working on this for a while now. I … am gathering research and information per the County giving Ted Sperling to the City. It might be more efficient for both the County and the City if the City were to own and to manage Ted Sperling. It is definitely looking that way. “
The PREP Board’s recommendation
The parks district discussion arose on May 4 as the City Commission heard a presentation from its PREP Board regarding that body’s activities during the 2025 calendar year.
Carl Shoffstall of South Lido Key, a long-time member of the PREP Board, told the commissioners that he had made a motion — which the PREP Board had passed unanimously — to recommend that the City Commission direct city staff and City Attorney Joe Polzak “to examine options for developing funding for a parks district immediately.”
“It’s very important that we fund the parks,” he said, “because we all want a world-class city, and world-class cities have world-class parks.”
Moreover, Shoffstall continued, “I think it’s important that, by the time the new city manager steps in and gets situated, she’s going to have her hands very full … But at the very least,” he said, “we’ll be on the ground running [and] with the help of [Polzak], we can start to lay things out for her.”
The new manager, Karie Friling of the Chicago area, is expected to begin work late this month.
Shoffstall added that he had attended the May 2 meeting of the Coalition of City Neighborhood Associations (CCNA), during which time he was able to talk briefly with Friling about the parks district proposal. “She’s very in favor of it,” he told the commissioners, “the way it sounds.”
Following Shoffstall’s remarks, Commissioner Ahearn-Koch explained — for those who were unaware of the commission’s past efforts to establish a parks district — that the board “did vote twice” to create the district and to designate a millage rate for it.
However, she continued, “We were advised at the time that [a unanimous vote was necessary to establish the dedicated funding for the district].”
On Oct. 15, 2018, the city commissioners seated at that time “directed the City Attorney’s Office to draft a proposed Ordinance to create a City of Sarasota Parks and Recreation District (Parks and Recreation District) as a dependent Special District and scheduled for Public Hearing at the November 05, 2018, Regular Sarasota City Commission Meeting,” as the minutes of the latter meeting note.
On Nov. 5, 2018, the city commissioners voted 3-2 to approve that draft ordinance on first reading. Then-Commissioner Hagen Brody had “stated that the creation of a new Parks and Recreation District is neither favored or needed,” the minutes say. Then-Commissioner Shelli Freeland Eddie had expressed concerns about funding the district’s operations, the minutes point out.
Making certain the parks district funding could be included in the 2027 fiscal year budget
During the May 4 discussion, Ahearn-Koch told her colleagues and staff that her goal is to make certain that the city’s 2027 fiscal year budget include funding for a city parks district out of the property tax revenue, instead of setting up a special tax for it.
When she asked City Attorney Polzak whether a majority vote could create the district, he replied, “There seems to be some mixed information. I’ll come back to you on that.”
Nonetheless, Polzak added, “Creating the parks district itself [seems] pretty simple. … We can bring back an ordinance creating that,” he continued, with later action to be focused on the funding mechanism.
“We can do that before this budget season?” Ahearn-Koch asked him.
“Correct,” he replied. “We could.”
“I would like to do that,” she said.
Then she noted that she would like the future of Ted Sperling Park to be part of the overall discussion.
Vice Mayor Ohlrich told her colleagues, “I’m strongly supportive of establishing a parks district and funding it.”
Ohlrich added that she would like to include Sperling Park in the discussion.
During an earlier exchange with Ohlrich, Shoffstall of the PREP board had said, “I think the city beach is ours. … From my communications — and I don’t know if I’m talking out of school here or not, but I’m going to — that [the county] would like to give [the North Lido Beach, Lido Beach and Sperling Park property] to us. … I was a proponent of that a hundred years ago.”
Ohlrich responded, “You’re not that old, Carl.”
Shoffstall stressed of Lido Beach once again, “It’s the city’s. We own it. We need to take care of it.”
After Ahearn-Koch made her motion about scheduling the parks district discussion, City Attorney Polzak asked whether he had the consensus of the commissioners to begin drafting the necessary ordinance “and do all the legal documents …?”
“Draft it,” Ahearn-Koch replied.
Mayor Debbie Trice noted that she would vote against such a district, given concerns that Financial Administration Director Strickland had raised with the commissioners in April about the fact that the city’s reserves are not building back up as quickly as the board members had hoped after raising the millage rate for this fiscal year. (Strickland had reminded them that the reserves had been drawn down below the level where they should be, in accord with a long-established city policy, because of the need to pay for the clean-up and damage from the 2024 storm season.)
However, City Auditor and Clerk Griggs told Trice, “Mayor, don’t go down that road. Let’s just vote.”
Nonetheless, Trice asked Polzak whether the district could be established without a unanimous vote.
“I’ll research whether unanimity is required,” he said. “If it’s not, I’ll bring forward a product.”
After that exchange, Ahearn-Koch’s motion passed unanimously.