and decimals, it represents the reallocation
of millions of dollars for common and some-
times even uncommon purposes. With it, you
hold a city in your hand, figuratively speaking.
Anybody who can balance a checkbook can
understand an annual report. But the agenda
item right after it is the auditor's report of
the accounting for the money in Fiscal Year
2013. Luckily, this year's audit found no
issues of complaint, and it passed the out-
side inspection.
These documents are required by state law,
and they represent enormous labor. But
the third financial report on the agenda fits
neither of those descriptions. For the first
time, the city staff has prepared what it
calls a "Popular Annual Financial Report."
Instead of 220 pages in black-and-white, it is
nine pages in color. A critic might call it "City
Budgets for Dummies." But it is an effort to
make the city's multi-million-dollar spending
understandable to the people who pay for it.
You can save a tree and find it on the web
at http://sarasota.granicus.com/MetaViewer.
php?view_id=7&event_id=950&meta_
id=384854
Or you can pick up a copy at City Hall.
HOPE SPRINGS ETERNAL
Just as the snowy plovers return in the spring
to frolic on Siesta sands, so do the hopes of
public-private partnerships for the city's big-
gest piece of undeveloped bayfront land. It is
the acreage between the old G.WIZ science
museum and the 10th Street boat ramp. Right
The 2007 Cultural Park Concept Plan includes a photo of models showing how the developed area near
the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall could look. Image courtesy City of Sarasota
Sarasota News Leader February 28, 2014 Page 59
