VERO BEACH — Recreation and law enforcement were the two big topics of dissention during Vero’s first of four days of budget workshops on Monday.
The two departments have a few things in common, namely the fact that the public demands a high level of service and that they’ve both taken some large budget cuts in recently.
The recreation budget was a hot topic last year when Vero tried to close the Royal Palm Fountain and when operations at Leisure Square were on the chopping block. This year, instead of massive cuts to spending, the city is looking at ways to generate more revenue.
Long-time Vero Recreation Director Rob Slezak said that low-cost or even free activities offered by the city have become increasingly popular in this down economy when families are looking at less expensive things to do with their leisure time.
In past years, the city has cut Slezak’s budget for the mostly young, part-time staff that keeps recreation programs going in force in Vero. But according to Finance Director Steve Maillet, by the end of the year, that staff ended up being called to duty anyway due to the need for camp counselors and staff for other activities.
“What we’ve seen over the past couple of years is those efforts that don’t bear fruit,” Maillet said. “We’ve tried holding down part-time salaries, but the demand is there, the people are coming in. If the demand for service is there and they need these kids doing whatever these kids do . . . we need to put the money in.”
Vice Mayor Pilar Turner said the 2012 budget is the year to draw the line on further cuts to recreation in Vero.
“They’ve shared more than their share of the pain if you look at past years’ budgets,” Turner said.
Councilman Craig Fletcher argued that the money being spent on recreation could be pumped into the police department, potentially helping to keep four cops on the street who are slated to be laid off. Fletcher said public safety is a bigger priority than recreation in his book.
In what developed into a philosophical argument about recreation and crime prevention, Councilman Heady offered the suggestion that the two modes of spending are not mutually exclusive.
“One of the ways we make sure police hands aren’t full is by keeping kids active in recreation,” Heady said. “This is probably a low-cost way of making sure kids stay out of trouble and stay busy.”
The issue was raised — as it is every year — that about 70 percent of the people who participate in Vero Beach recreation activities live outside the city limits, so city taxpayers are, in effect, subsidizing those programs.
Heady reminded the viewing public, the council and the staff that the reason why the city has money to fund recreation programs at all is due to the influx of millions of dollars into city coffers from the 61 percent of electric customers and 40 percent of water-sewer customers who live outside the city. Vero is set to transfer about $9.3 million from its utilities into the general fund in the 2012 budget year.
Some options on the table for recreation are annual membership fees for families and increased user fees for facilities and activities. Another idea which went over well with the council was to try to recoup the high labor costs of special events put on in the city by nonprofits and other groups. Slezak said the events almost always require overtime for set up, coordination and cleanup and that the rental fees do not cover those costs.
Budget workshops run through Friday, with the council taking only Tuesday off due to what’s been called a “cure meeting” to re-do in public a closed meeting which took place about utility issues and a regular city council meeting Tuesday evening.
The budget workshops resume at 9 a.m. Wednesday and will be televised on Channel 13.
