Cape Coral continues discussion on FY ’25 budget | News, Sports, Jobs

Cape Coral officials continue to hone the city budget for next year with a document reflecting the City Council approved 5.2188 “half back” mileage rate to come to the table.

The half-back rate is lower than the 5.3126 mills proposed by the city manager but higher than the “rollback” rate; the rate at which overall revenue from property taxes would remain flat.

Financial Services Director Mark Mason told the Council made an adjustment to the property tax rate two weeks ago, which was not included in Tuesday’s budget workshop presentation.

The 2025 proposed budget – $984,115,107 – presented included the rate of 5.3216, which is a decrease from 5.3694 mills in the current budget.

One mill is equal to $1 for every $1,000 of assessed taxable valuation.

Property taxes are one component of the city tax bill.

The budget discussed at the workshop again had fire service assessment revenue remaining at 70% cost recovery, an 11% increase in water and sewer rates, a 4.93% increase in stormwater rates and a 14.7% increase in solid waste rates.

Mason said there were also lots of mowing program adjustments.

The presentation also went into a deeper dive within different departments, some of which have requested additional staffing.

The FY 25 budget includes 66.44 positions at a total cost of $6,071,409. The general fund proposed positions includes six for the city attorney, two for the city auditor, 12 for police, 9.44 for administration and 2.70 for fire general fund.

“In the last five, six years, we have seen a decline in the number of full-time equivalent employees per 1,000 residents. “It’s simply an observation,” Mason said, adding that the population has grown significantly since 2020. “We are now 227,000.”

There was a great deal of discussion about the six proposed city attorney positions at a cost of $923,945. Those positions included one administrative clerk, one assistant city attorney II, one city attorney office manager, one police legal advisor/assistant city attorney, one senior assistant city attorney and one senior paralegal.

City Attorney Aleksandr Boksner said he has dynamically shifted the roles to meet the legal demands of the city. He said to reduce outside counsel from having to be used, he has proposed the six additional positions.

“My proposal regarding is to bring us on par and bring us to a level to where the city should have been — address growth, complexity of work the projects, but also further development in CRA, entertainment and downtown,” Boksner said. “That is what I believe is necessary to meet the legal needs of the city and to ensure they do not go by the wayside.”

Council gave a consensus to move forward with a city attorney office manager, senior assistant city attorney and police legal advisor positions.

“What I am trying to establish is the right attorneys that will be able to succeed in the future years to come if I am not here. “I have to move the chess pieces accordingly,” Boksner said.

Another department that received a good amount of discussion was the city auditor.

A consensus was also reached to keep the two internal auditors in the budget for City Auditor Andrea Russell’s request.

“Both of these positions are entry level. I think this is important. I don’t think this should be one of the things we cut. “We can put more resources into it and get more,” Councilmember Jessica Cosden said. “Get more resources into the audit office and get more audits back. Audits are important. They save money, increase productivity and reduce liability.”

Cosden said the city auditor department has not been well staffed since she has been with the city for nine years.

“I would really like to see this happen,” she said.

Another department that received a lot of discussion was from the Police Department, as it had 12 position requests for $1,138,530.

“This November it will be four years for me in this position,” Police Chief Tony Sizemore said. “When I assumed the position of police chief, we were significantly behind in personnel to be able to achieve expectations and goals for the community. “We have made great strides and continue to make great strides.”

His requests are needs, not wants, he said.

For professional staff, Sizemore is asking for a 911 operator, one crime analyst, one customer service representative and one IT systems administrator. As far as sworn officers are concerned the request is for six investigative police officers, one community services police officer and one patrol police officer.

The crime analyst, Sizemore said is for child sex crime and internet sex crime type of cases. There has been an exponential increase in these types of crimes, he said.

With the high volumes and seriousness of these types of investigations, Sizemore said they cannot afford to miss, or misstep any of them.

The IT systems administrator would help with the high dollar software and hardware programs that will be fully operational come October.

“When this goes fully live you get full-time trouble with part-time help,” Sizemore said.

As far as the sworn side of position requests, he said is due to the big uptick within the special victim’s unit. Sizemore said there have been large increases in financial crimes that includes construction fraud, as well as narcotics activity.

The community service police officer would be assigned in the same bureau as School Resource Officers as there has been an uptick in threats.

Although City Council said they would support the five officers for the traffic unit, Sizemore said he has the ability to replicate a traffic unit through innovative ways.

The city will continue to hold discussion on the budget with two public hearings to follow.

The first public hearing will be held Thursday, Sept. 12, at 5:05 pm to approve the tentative millage rates and proposed budget.

The final public hearing will be held at 5:05 pm Thursday, Sept. 26.

The city budget document may be found at CapeCoral.gov.