District 3 Weekly Update –

the District 3 newsletter.

Building Community in St. Pete Beach

Our strength lies in our connection. We focus on small-scale neighborhood gatherings to discuss issues and ideas. Whether it's beautification of our neighborhood features or underground wastewater, every discussion counts towards making St. Pete Beach a true home for everyone.

District 3 Priorities

I am committed to infrastructure, customer service, and collaboration. My long-term plan includes securing funding for drainage and wastewater, a new digital permitting process, and new layer of community engagement, Community Action Groups, to enhance the unique character of District 3.

Come to our weekly discussions in your park to highlight new issues, detail ideas, and pose questions.

Where I’ll Be This Week

I'll be in each neighborhood this week, and the hot topics are beach use rules, beach alcohol policy, park repairs, 2027 budgets, discuss the cost of the Suncoast Beach Trolley, and Seawall Standards relative to code enforcement. The weekly visit to your neighborhood or Condo is so very important as our city considered how to fund the many infrastructure needs.

Update to Constituents: First 2027 Budget Workshop and Revenue Strategies

At the first 2027 Budget Workshop, the Finance Director presented an overview of the city’s budget planning process to city directors, department heads, the mayor, and commissioners. The workshop focused on identifying priorities for the coming fiscal year and establishing a framework for evaluating the city’s needs in a transparent and strategic way.

One major topic of discussion was a list of approximately 90 potential projects under consideration. To help guide decision-making, the city developed a scoring matrix that evaluates each project based on factors such as criticality, cost, health and safety, asset condition, recovery and resiliency, economic and smart growth as well as potential impact, and whether grant funding has been offered, secured, or applied for. This approach is intended to help ensure that limited resources are directed toward the projects that are most necessary and beneficial to the community.

The workshop also addressed the importance of keeping enterprise funds self-sustaining. Enterprise funds are normally funded through specific user fees rather than general tax revenue. Wastewater infrastructure is one example where current repair and maintenance costs are far beyond our current revenue within the enterprise fund.

One proposal discussed, as an example, would be to add a service fee based upon water usage to provide funding for wastewater repairs.

Another important part of the discussion centered on the city’s long-term capital needs. Current estimates show approximately $218M (million) in infrastructure needs over the next five years. At the same time, the city is facing difficult decisions about how to fund those needs. Excluding FEMA reimbursements that we expect to receive for funds already spent on hurricane repairs, our city revenues are expected to be $52M and our operating expenses are expected to be $41M.

However, the problem is that identified infrastructure needs for 2027 are $62M in excess of operating expenses.

This underscores the importance of developing a more sustainable financial model to identify new sources of revenue so repairs can be funded.

Budget Committee Recommendations for new Revenues

-Fire assessment fee: up to $3 million per year

-Parking fee: up to $2 million per year

-Resiliency fee: up to $1 million per year

-Utility-related enterprise fund fee: up to $1 million per year

-Grant funding: up to $1 million per year

-Other considerations include a parking-based street repair assessment.

Bottom Line: How could these increases ever cover $62M in repairs?

Commonly faced by cities all over the world, major infrastructure most often calls for a bond for a large sum, in our case for 2027 perhaps $62M. The monthly payment at 5% and 30 years would be $4 million per year. Hence, committing some of the above mentioned user fees could fund $62M in repairs.

Bring your ideas to next week’s neighborhood meeting!

Stay Involved – Community Engagement Opportunities

See Community Action Groups
Thoughts on the next Commission meeting, May 26th, See the Newsletter link above.
See the Newsletter for very important info on Sewer Line cleaning and backflow prevention!
District 3 is looking for a volunteer to serve on the Historic Preservation Board. This board generally meets the first Thursday of each month. We are seeking a person who appreciates our district’s historic character and understands the value of historic designation for many of the 1950’s homes in Lido, Belle Vista, and Don CeSar neighborhoods.