City Employee Wages - Here's a subject everyone who works for the City of Sarasota can get interested in. The first thing I'll say is that I believe the City Commission is committed to providing a good working environment for all employees, and that includes competetive salaries and benefits. They understand who really makes things work around here, and that's why in this year's budget they approved a transition for our compensation plan to allow people to reach what we call "market rate" more quickly than in the past. If you haven't heard the detail of this yet, you will be very soon.

Another piece of the puzzle is how we measure the competitiveness of our salary structure, which is something the Charter Officials and Department Heads spent the better part of an hour discussing this morning. I'm not sure I agree completely with the person who said city salaries are well below those of other municipalities, but I do know that we are not adjusting for competitiveness in the systematic way we need to, which is why Mr. Hoverter was leading us through that discussion this morning. We have had a series of workshops with the commission on these issues, and they understand and support the need to address them. So to the person who said this needs to be a point of emphasis for us for 2006, you are exactly right. And to those who have suggested we need to be creative and look for many ways to attack the issue, I agree with you also, and I have great faith in Human Resource Director Kurt Hoverter, our compensation guru Stacie Ross, and the rest of the H.R. people to lead us down that road.

This kind of creativity will be necessary on many fronts, as the discussion of a 4-10 schedule to save energy and reduce commuting costs points out. HOPP, I have to find out about that one. I was aware of in-city housing incentives for SPD, but don't know what HOPP stands for.

Affordable Housing - This issue has righfully taken center stage in the public consciousness. Sarasota's prosperity is great, but it's tough when many of the people who help make it prosper have to live 30 miles away. For some people who have lived here for many years this is less of an issue, but for our newest employees in particular it is difficult. The housing that exists within or near the city limits that would be more affordable typically doesn't turn over much. I just went to Realtor.com, where they show 101 listings for property in what they consider Sarasota for sale between $100,000 and $200,000 and another 316 between 200 and 300 thousand. I'm sure the majority of those are condos, but there are also single family homes. What that tells me is that there are some options out there, but if someone wants 2500 square feet or a pool and yard I doubt there is much of that on that list.

To the person who asked about my take on Mr. McGruder's piece in the Pelican Press, I would say that I agree completely with what I see as his overriding point, which is that this is an issue that must be addressed on many, many fronts, as there is no simple one or two step answer. The good news is that the community, including the City Commission, is taking that seriously. On September 21st the City Commission will receive a final report form their economic consultant on tools they can adopt to help advance the issue, and I know they're chomping at the bit to get there. Their action to expand the CRA is also a big step in making tools available, because while the idea of putting affordable housing right downtown is appealing to many, sheer economics dictates that many more units can be developed for the same money just a few miles away because of the land costs.

Stan Z. I don't have that average salary number for you, I think the H.R. folks went home a while ago (at least I hope so) but I'll get it. You do make a great point, which is one we don't seem to talk much about, which is that this is a WAGE issue also. Thanks for the transition, because it takes me to the next post, though I suppose in blogland it will actually preceed this one as it is read. Which may be too confusing for me this late on a Friday afternoon....

I can see already that a big challenge will be to organize these threads of discussion. If anyone in City Hall who is more Blog-savvy than I am has suggestions on how that works best please stop by my office and let me know! For now I'll try a couple of separate posts by subject.

I also see a great benefit in people responding to each other here, not just to me. Thanks again for participating, and I hope you have (or had) a great Labor Day weekend, and keep a good thought for our neighbors up the Gulf Coast. Also - (fmr.) Mayor Martin - nice to "see" you! Mike

First, a huge thanks to everyone who took the time to post a message through this new channel. I'm glad to see that many of you want the same thing I do, which is a way to create constructive communication. And no time was wasted getting right to one of our real issues, which is the cost of living, particularly housing for city employees.

For everyone whose cost of commuting has skyrocketed, you'll be glad to know that the Engineering and Human Resources Departments are very close to rolling out a van-pool program that has City Commission approval that would allow people from North Port or Venice to ride together to work. I won't go into details, but look for a participation survey in the next week or so - and sign up if you're interested, because it is going to happen.

At our department head meeting Friday morning we're going to talk about some other energy-saving ideas, and one that has come up is the 4-10 idea one of the posters mentioned. So you're right on track, we really have to be creative, because the problem is going to get immediately worse thanks to Katrina.

Affordable housing - that is a large issue on everyone's radar screen. I will have to add some thoughts to this post later on, as my Old Man's Basketball League is calling my name for the moment, and I can't do the subject justice in a few minutes. The same goes for the salary and benefit issues, which are certainly related.

Again, thanks to all who participated in this new experiment today! Mike McNees

Welcome. If you're here, you've discovered the Web Log of Sarasota City Manager Mike McNees. This "Blog" has been created to give interested people the chance to ask questions, make suggestions, express opinions, or in any other way give or receive input on things related to the operation of city government here in Sarasota.

It is my intention to review and update the blog on a regular, hopefully daily basis, once folks who have things to share discover that it exists and have begun to post comments. Only one rule will be enforced here - that is for mandatory civility. The goals here are open dialogue and the honest exchange of ideas. If you choose to use your name when posting that's great, if you wish to use a nickname or remain anonymous that's fine also.

The people at Google make this free platform available, and using it seems like a better idea than spending the city's money re-creating the wheel.

Once again, if you're here, thank you. What's on your mind? Regards, Mike McNees