The City of Port St. Lucie is looking for nine volunteers to, as the adage goes, “watch the pennies …”
Of course, the premise being, “… and the dollars will take care of themselves.” In this case, an estimated $88 million over a decade.
The Port St. Lucie City Council recently approved plans to create a seven-member committee (with two alternates) to make sure it spends voter-approved, sales-tax funds wisely. “The preference that was mentioned is people with a background in engineering, construction or finance,” said David Graham, assistant city manager.
However, he added, the city will consider all applications for the Infrastructure Surtax Citizens’ Oversight Committee, which is also called the One-Half Cent Sales Tax Citizen Oversight Committee.
St. Lucie County voters overwhelming supported implementing a 10-year half-cent sales tax in November. That half-cent is on top of the county’s existing 6.5 cents per $1 in qualifying sales taxes, raising sales taxes to 7 cents per $1 in qualifying sales for the next decade. The tax is projected to raise about $217 million countywide. Port St. Lucie will get about 40 percent of that revenue, which must go to certain infrastructure such as roads.
Before last year’s general election, the Port St. Lucie City Council, using information from citizen surveys, picked a list of projects to promise voters what the money will be spent to do. (That list is available online at www.cityofpsl.com/salestax.) Among the projects are improving intersections along St. Lucie West Boulevard, and widening Southwest California Boulevard. Those projects are anticipated to coast about $13.2 million.
Graham said committee members won’t be responsible for identifying or prioritizing projects. “It is in fact an oversight committee,” he explained. Committee volunteers will only review spending.
“They will be responsible for creating an annual report,” Graham said. “They’ll be reviewing documents in the projects. They be able to see a whole bunch of information from our public works and budget departments.”
The committee volunteers will meet quarterly. City council members will review applications and each will pick two preferences. Mayor Greg Oravec will then, Graham said, pick candidates from the council members’ lists and make appointments with their guidance. Committee members will serve based on the terms of the council members who recommended them. None can serve more than two consecutive terms on the committee. “(Committee volunteers) simply need to be residents of the City of Port St. Lucie for a period of one year prior to the appointment,” Graham said.
In addition to the city establishing an oversight committee, St. Lucie County is as well – the Infrastructure Surtax Oversight Committee.
Applications for the city’s committee must be submitted by Friday, Jan. 11. They are available online at the city’s website, or by calling the deputy city clerk, Jeannette Baechle at 772-871-5157. Her email address is JBaechle@cityofpsl.com.