VERO BEACH — The Vero Beach City Council Wednesday voted 3-2 to spend $30,000 more in the coming year for lifeguard protection at the City’s beaches.
The change will take effect on Oct. 1 when the new budget year begins.
The money, which was added to Vero’s $20.7 million general fund budget, represents a three-hour extension of lifeguard service at Humiston Park Beach, something the Vero Beach Lifeguard Association (VBLA) has been asking for repeatedly since hours were trimmed due to the recession.
The major bone of contention was that lifeguards close up shop at 3 p.m, but felt they should be on duty until 5 p.m. to better meet the expectations of residents and tourists who want to swim at guarded beaches.
The Council refused to take this action during budget workshops in July, when there didn’t seem to be three votes to spend the money, but the issue seemed to resonate with those on the dais today — Vice Mayor Jay Kramer being the swing vote.
Representatives from the VBLA and the Vero Beach Chamber of Commerce urged the Council to make ocean safety a higher priority.
The Council stopped short of earmarking the added cash for Humiston beach specifically. Instead, it voted “for $30,000 to be added to the lifeguard budget to be spent at the discretion of the city manager.”
Councilman Craig Fletcher and Councilwoman Pilar Turner opposed the expenditure, both citing concerns about the City’s lack of reserves to pay for unforeseen events, such as a Nor’easter that might require emergency sand to be placed at the shoreline, as has occurred in recent years.
Finance Director Cindy Lawson said the City does have some other money, fund balance, that could be pulled out for those expenses.
“Having any surplus at all, any unappropriated surplus at all is above and beyond having a balanced budget,” Lawson said.
City Manager Jim O’Connor pointed out that, on the other hand, the city’s negotiating team is also actively at the bargaining table with employee unions and that it must have the surplus to act in good faith when looking at salary and benefit provisions in the contracts.
Vero would have had substantially more of a budget surplus this coming year, Lawson said, as state revenue sharing figures — which are always an estimate until final paperwork is received from Tallahassee — came in well above projections. But those dollars had to be allocated to cover $231,647 in costs for railroad crossing improvements.
Under the City’s long-term agreements with the railroad, taxpayers are annually on the hook for materials and labor costs for certain maintenance and improvements of the railroad crossings.
A July 7 letter from Florida East Coast Railroad cites the Aviation Boulevard and 14th Avenue crossings as in need of work as part of the 2015 Grade Crossing Rehabilitation Program.
The letter was also discussed at Tuesday’s council meeting, with O’Connor saying that he was confused about why FEC would make crossing improvements that may need to be ripped out by the All Aboard Florida crews should that project come to pass in the next year or two.
Vice Mayor Jay Kramer wondered aloud if the $231,000 bill had landed on the City Manager’s desk because Vero Beach has been vocal in its opposition to All Aboard Florida, and conversely, if the expense would go away if Vero changed its tune.
On Wednesday, O’Connor said he’d spoken to both AAF and FEC personnel and reported back that the improvements would only be made in 2015 if necessary for the safety of the crossing. FEC projects often get pushed into the next year, O’Connor said.
“What they’re really doing is putting us on notice,” he said.
The budget approved by the City will require a tax rate of $2.03 per $1,000 of taxable value. Due to an increase in property values within the City limits this year, that rate is 3.08 percent higher than the roll-back rate. The roll-back rate is the rate that would bring in the same dollars as the previous year’s rate.
The $2.03 rate will bring in $90,000 more in taxes. Vero is also taking $128,000 more in revenue from its 34,000 electric utility customers this year to balance the budget.
The final public hearing of the 2014-15 Vero Beach budget will be at 5:10 p.m. on Sept. 16 in Council Chambers at City Hall.