PORT ST. LUCIE - City Manager Jerry Bentrott’s proposed budget for next year reduces costs by $28.4 million with no property tax rate increases and minimal cuts to city services.

However, the budget also eliminates 145 full-time positions, staffs the Police Department below the City Council’s policy of 1.6 sworn officers per 1,000 people and puts reserve funds at levels that would only pay the city’s expenses for about two weeks.

Bentrott will present the $402.7 million 2010-2011 budget to the City Council during budget workshops scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday at the Community Center across from City Hall.

“The biggest issue facing the city is its ability or inability to sustain itself during the current economic recession, which has been longer and deeper than anyone foresaw,” Bentrott wrote in his July 1 budget message to the City Council.

Revenues, especially from property taxes and impact fees, are down significantly and others, such as the sales tax and franchise fees, have remained static, Bentrott noted. (more…)

A new law could make it more difficult for Treasure Coast government employees to “double dip” - where employees receive a paycheck and pension at the same time. The employees retire 30 days and are then rehired for the same job.

The new law, which began Thursday, will require state workers such as teachers, law enforcement officers and county employees who participates in the state Deferred Retirement Option Program, or DROP, to wait six months to return to any participating employer.

DROP started in 1998 as a way to get higher-paid, older employees to retire and make way for younger, lower-paid employees. But instead, the old law allowed employers to rehire the higher-paid employees after only a month, defeating the purpose and allowing the employee to collect both a paycheck and pension.

As of March 2009, more than 100 Treasure Coast government workers are double dipping including elected officials such as Indian River County Clerk of Court Jeffrey K. Barton and Indian River County Property Appraiser David Nolte. State records as of June 1 show about 480 people on the Treasure Coast have enrolled in the retirement program but haven’t retired.

Those on the list include Harry LaCava, Indian River County Schools superintendent, and Marsha Ewing, Martin County Clerk of Court. LaCava is scheduled to leave DROP next June, and Ewing is scheduled to leave the program in May 2013, at that point each will have to retire for six months if they want to keep working. (more…)

STUART — Voters deciding this year’s race for the Stuart City Commission Group II seat will choose between a political newcomer promising fresh ideas and an incumbent with some 20 years of commission experience.

Jeffrey Callahan, a Martin County marine safety officer/emergency medical technician entered the political arena this year to challenge incumbent Jeffrey Krauskopf, who will be seeking his 13th term as a city commissioner.

Voters head to the polls for this year’s general election on Tuesday, but early voting and mail-in ballots already have been cast. Early voting for city residents continues until 4:30 p.m. Friday at the Martin County Supervisor of Elections Office, 135 S.E. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. in Stuart.

A six-year Stuart resident, Callahan, 41, said he entered this year’s race for the at-large seat to offer voters a fresh look at city government and to offer new ideas.

“The campaign is going fine,” Callahan said. “I’ve been saying the same thing to every group I speak to. We need affordable housing, environmentally sound decisions and more high-tech and green jobs.”

Krauskopf said resident feedback has been generally happy and appreciative, but he is working to see that sentiment does not translate into complacency at the polls, he said.

A 31-year city resident, Krauskopf first joined the city commission in 1984, holding that seat until he was elected to the Martin County Board of County Commissioners in 1990. He has been re-elected to the city commission continuously since returning there in 1995.

In addition to maintaining a balanced city budget and holding the line on taxes, key issues for the 59-year-old Realtor and property manager include finding incentives to support existing businesses and attracting new ones to the city. He also thinks continued efforts in conservation and cost-cutting are crucial.

Krauskopf said local businesses need relief from increasing taxes and insurance rates that “are putting the pinch” on shop owners.

“I keep telling people, taxes affect everything,” he said.

Martin County Supervisor of Elections Vicki Davis said turnout for early voting, which began Oct. 26, has been “quiet” for the week, with 49 early ballots cast by city voters as of Wednesday afternoon.

JEFFREY KRAUSKOPF

Age: 59

How long city resident: 31 years

Occupation: Realtor/property manager

Key issue: Balanced city budget without tax increase, incentives to support and attract local business, continued environmental conservation

JEFFREY CALLAHAN

Age: 41

How long city resident: 6 years

Occupation: Martin County Marine Safety Officer/EMT

Key issue: Attraction of high-tech and green jobs, creation of more affordable housing, environmental conservation

TREASURE COAST — The number of Treasure Coast medical equipment suppliers for Blue Cross/Blue Shield patients will dwindle to three starting Nov. 1.

The cutbacks follow a competitive bidding process by regional suppliers who provide products from diabetes testing strips to oxygen machines statewide to remain in the Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Florida network.

Liberty Medical Supply and Physician’s Choice Respiratory Services, Inc., both in Port St. Lucie, and Rotech Oxygen & Medical Equipment in Stuart remain as the lone Treasure Coast suppliers after the bidding, according to a Blue Cross/Blue Shield list sent to Oxygen Plus in Vero Beach.
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PORT ST. LUCIE — The City Council Monday night unanimously agreed to move forward with purchasing 15 acres from Tradition Outlet LLC for $10 million, a move that puts up half the state’s contribution to help a Hollywood executive set up a digital production studio.

The studio could create up to 500 jobs and bring Florida State University’s Film Studies program to the Treasure Coast.

The package includes the local governments building a 150,000-square-foot studio for Hobe Sound-based Wyndcrest Holdings, a private investment firm focused on entertainment and Internet technology headed by Jupiter Island resident John Textor.
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Just days away from the new semester, school administrators in Martin and Indian River counties say that last year’s unprecedented flood of students qualifying for free and reduced-cost lunches will likely expand even further in coming months.

In St. Lucie County, the situation is about the same as last year, with no improvement expected.

More formal statistics won’t be available for a couple of weeks – after parents complete all of the paperwork – but early indicators show a massive spike in eligible candidates for the federally funded National School Lunch Program in the two Treasure Coast counties. (more…)

Since her employer began closing on Fridays, Dawn Gilmore has turned her photography hobby into a money-making business that is helping to offset her lost income.

Without a lot of new real estate development, business has been slow for the Houston Cuozzo Group, a landscape design firm in Stuart. After laying off one-third of the staff of 18 last year, the firm started closing on alternate Fridays last September as a way to reduce workers’ hours and cut costs. In March, the firm started closing every Friday.

Across the Treasure Coast, many residents who have avoided layoffs are facing reduced hours — which means less money in their wallets. Some are spending their new-found spare time with family, home improvement projects or hobbies. Others are looking for ways to make up the lost income, such as a side business or a second job.
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FORT PIERCE — Some city commissioners are questioning why city manager David Recor didn’t include a job he held in Alaska on his resume and city application when he applied for deputy city manager in Fort Pierce.

But Recor said issues surrounding his Alaska job are misunderstandings.

Recor worked as a planning and land-use director for Matanuska-Susitna Borough, AK, from March 12, 2003, to April 14, 2003, according to Borough’s Human Resources Manager Rob McFerron. Recor was hired as Fort Pierce deputy city manager in April 2005 by former city manager Dennis Beach. Recor was then promoted to city manager in October when Beach retired.

Three days before Recor resigned from his job in Alaska, the Palmer Police Department arrested and charged him with shoplifting. The charges were later dropped and the case was dismissed, court records show. (more…)

The early retirement of state Sen. Ken Pruitt will cost local governments — and therefore taxpayers — more than $475,000.

Tuesday’s special election to replace Pruitt, R-Port St. Lucie, for one year will cost at least that much.

Elections officials in the five counties that comprise state Senate District 28 base their costs projections upon printing, staff overtime, poll worker costs, advertising and the cost to mail out absentee-style ballots. (more…)

PORT ST. LUCIE — Which would you prefer?

A 26 percent property tax increase, cutting 117 city jobs, having 16 fewer police officers, closing the city Parks and Recreation Department and its facilities or not tuning into PSL-TV.

Those are the options the City Council plans to discuss Thursday and Friday as the group looks at an $11 million deficit for next year’s budget. (more…)