Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/235968
Sarasota News Leader January 3, 2014 Former volunteers and staffers this summer charged Save Our Seabirds (SOS), the Sarasota nonprofit that rescues, rehabilitates and releases injured birds, with a wide range of misdeeds. The organization was improperly housing birds, euthanizing them unnecessarily and operating without the proper licensing, they said. But a new round of inspections, ordered by the Sarasota City Commission, shows everything is in fact hunky-dory. In July, the City Commission voted unanimously to have staffers and state regulators conduct a new round of visits at the SOS site on Ken Thompson Parkway and to compile any past inspections for review. Two days after the city meeting, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission Inspecting Officer Lar Gregory toured SOS and found the site in "overall good condition with all pools clean, adequate perching and enclosure safe for birds," according to a report submitted to the city. Gregory wrote that the records-keeping system at SOS had been "vastly improved" since a 2011 inspection and that the "only discrepancy" was the need for "additional shelter" for larger birds during severe rain. Page 96 values went up 4.2 percent across the county this year. The board's resolution regarding the final millage rates also notes the total is a 3.3 percent increase over the rolled-back total of 3.2828. The FY 2014 budget is $1,077,919,038, about 20 percent higher than the 2013 spending plan when it was adopted. Steve Botelho, the county's chief financial planning officer, has estimated that $11 million will have to be used from the economic uncertainty reserve fund to balance the FY 2013 budget. On Sept. 24, the City Commission approves its 2014 fiscal year spending plan on a 3-2 vote, with Commissioner Paul Caragiulo and Mayor Shannon Snyder in the minority. They have been voting against the budget since July, when the preliminary millage rate was set. Despite a 6.8-percent increase in that millage rate, the city still needed to pull $1.1 million from its reserves to balance the budget. Neither Caragiulo nor Snyder offers any suggestions on where the budget can be cut further or how to reduce the reliance on reserves. The millage increase on a $200,000 home will cost an additional $50. The total budget is $191 million. Property tax revenue During the County Commission's second accounts for less than half that sum. required public hearing on the budget, held Sept. 23 in Venice, no one comes forward to speak. With Commissioner Christine Because Sarasota County has been a particRobinson in the minority, the board votes 4-1 ipant in a flood insurance rating initiative to approve its FY 2014 spending plan. She has since 1992, homeowners will still receive protested the continued reliance on the coun- a discount of up to 25 percent on National ty's economic uncertainty reserve fund to Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) policies, balance the budget. The County Commission regardless of federal efforts to eliminate keeps its millage rate at the 2012 level of subsidies in the NFIP, the Sarasota County 3.3912, though that will mean a slight increase Commission learns. In an example proin tax bills for some homeowners, as property vided by Desiree Companion of the county's