Sunday September 14, 2014 - The New St. Pete Fiscal Year

The Kriseman administration gets off to its first full fiscal year with its own budget October 1, 2014.

All the money should be in the right buckets so the Mayor and his team can get their programs underway.

The Kriseman administration has been a little slow on the uptake, so it may be a few weeks before we see things start to happen.

Look for Todd Yost (Codes) and Mike Dove (Neighborhoods) to get off to a quick start. Codes has additional funding for staff and technology, and Neighborhoods has some big plans and funding to make them happen.

I expect to see some real visible results from these two real fast.

Elsewhere look for some changes at the PD as new Chief Anthony Holloway begins to pull things together. The changes will likely be pretty subtle, but look for a shake up in the top level.

The Chief is going to move slowly, but I do look for a rapid implementation of his plan to get out of the Patrol car and walk around. It’s going to take some leadership from the Patrol management, but it will make a big difference in how the PD is viewed in the Community.

The Kriseman administration needs to keep a close eye on the infrastructure departments: Water, storm water, waste water, along with streets and roads.

With all of the heady stuff like the Pier, the arts, soccer and baseball it would be easy to overlook some real serious stuff. In the next budget cycle the Kriseman team should give a little more attention to the infrastructure side of the house.

Things to watch for:

Red Light Cameras
The Mayor indicated the red light cameras would go away at the end of the fiscal year. ATS, the red light camera vendor, is probably going to put on a big push to keep the cameras in place.

Look for Jim Kennedy, who is a benefactor of ATS campaign contributions, to make a big case for continuing the program.

Smart move here is to simply do as promised and not get caught up in a big red light camera controversy.

The Pier

Big trick here is to keep the process focused on the all the work that has been accomplished up to now.

Those that would hijack the process for their own purposes are still lurking in the wings. Diligence and transparency are the keys to success.

The budget process was a success and now the hard work on implementation begins.

Kriseman needs to manage the budget closely and hold all of his department leaders and those receiving grants and funding from the City accountable.

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Disclosures: Contributor to No Tax for Tracks.