Commissioners question why Rubonia won't get help after recommendation to fund Myakka Community Center

MANATEE -- After hearing from Rubonia residents at a community meeting last month, some Manatee County commissioners have questioned why some community centers receive county funding while the Rubonia Community Center remains closed.

"It's the same scenario," Commissioner Charles Smith said of approximately $13,000 allocated for adult programs at the Myakka Community Center in the 2015-16 proposed budget. "I think that's something we should look at."

Brenda Rogers, director of the Community Services Department, said nonprofit agencies receive funding after submitting proposals to the county in January.

"I anticipate that we will have an application from Rubonia for next year's proposals," Rogers said during a Tuesday commission work session.

The work session provided the commission an opportunity to go through other county-funded programs and agencies not budgeted in a specific department but still funded in the proposed $549 million budget. Programs include economic development, general government, human services, judicial, miscellaneous and other community services.

County Commission Chairwoman Betsy Benac asked: "If we were to find a program for Rubonia that needed funding, where would we find the money?"

Since the beginning of the recession, county Administrator Ed Hunzeker said the list of funded nonprofit programs has "gotten smaller and the dollars have gotten fewer for the most part."

Manatee County differs from other counties because it funds nonprofits to provide services rather than managing the programs.

"You rely on the expertise of the nonprofits in the community to deliver services," Rogers said. "We fund them for services. Every bit of our dollar is used toward service they are contracted to perform. Some counties have a higher number of staff that deliver the programs that we fund through our nonprofits."

Soliciting offers

The county is soliciting invitation-to-negotiate offers for the Rubonia Community Center to determine "what's best for the community and what looks like the overall best plan for the community," Hunzeker said.

"We anticipate that there will be a request for some county expenditures for not only some repairs to the structure itself but depending on what they want to use the building for, it depends on what type of repairs they want to see for the building," Hunzeker said. "There's an awful lot of unknowns on the operating and capital side that we didn't feel it was justifiable to go out and spend money to do what we thought needed to be done. We decided to wait and see what comes back in from these proposals because the community may want different things than we thought on capital and operating sides."

Also, Commissioner Vanessa Baugh said she wants to fund four of 12 additional deputies Manatee County Sheriff Brad Steube requested. Steube told Baugh it would cost about $344,000 to fund the positions.

The commission must find something in the proposed budget not to fund instead, she said.

"If we are going to rearrange, I have to know where it is coming out for us to put it in somewhere else," Benac said. "It's going to affect somebody else's budget."

Commissioner Carol Whitmore said she doesn't support the suggestion.

"The problem is we have 1,700 other employees that haven't been able to add to their departments unless it came out of other revenue sources (other than property tax funds)," she said.

Smith said he has to support the budget as is.

"I don't want to hurt anyone else now," he said.

Claire Aronson, Manatee County reporter, can be reached at 941-745-7024 or at caronson@bradenton.com. Follow her on Twitter @Claire_Aronson.

This story was originally published August 5, 2015 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Commissioners question why Rubonia won't get help after recommendation to fund Myakka Community Center."