State of the City

City Manager Jerome Fletcher recapped the successes and challenges of the past year and outlined an encouraging vision for North Port’s future in his 2024 State of the City Address, delivered Jan. 18 at the North Port Area Chamber of Commerce’s annual meeting at Suncoast Technical College. View and read the speech below.

2024 State of the City Address

Good afternoon! I’m Jerome Fletcher, and I’m proud to be your North Port City Manager.   

First, I’d like to recognize the City Commissioners here with us today. They’re passionate about representing the residents of North Port and looking out for the City’s best interests. We’re grateful for their tireless work and support. 

Thank you also to our City team. We have an exceptional group of employees who show up for work every day ready to serve their community. I appreciate your dedication to making North Port an outstanding place to live, work and play. 

I would also like to thank Bill Gunnin and the North Port Area Chamber of Commerce for organizing this event and inviting me to speak today. We appreciate your dedication to strengthening our business community.  

Of course, I would be remiss if I didn’t extend a special thank you to the local business owners and community leaders here with us today. Even with challenge after challenge coming your way, you’ve remained a steadfast pillar in our community. You make our city the tight-knit Community of Unity we foster and advocate for daily. Your generosity, commitment and talents do not go unnoticed. Give yourselves a round of applause!  

If you can believe it, this is my third year joining you for the State of the City address. 2023 was a year of learning, adapting and rebuilding. The path to success is never a straight line, and there have been plenty of challenges along the way. But we are continuing our momentum toward a bright future in 2024. This is going to be the most important year in this City’s history. I don’t make that statement lightly.  

As I reflect on the year 2023, I think about the many challenges that were transformed into opportunities. We’ve captured these highlights in our City’s first Annual Report. You can view this brand-new digital document online at NorthPortFL.gov/AnnualReport, and I encourage you to take a look. The theme is “A Pathway Forward.” Since Hurricane Ian, our community has navigated through the devastation to become stronger and more resilient. I am so proud of the many accomplishments and successes by our team last year, and this report captures all the highlights and the work we are doing to serve our community. 

The biggest news of 2023 was the groundbreaking for the Price Boulevard Widening Project. No, you’re not dreaming. This is happening! The widening of Price has been talked about since at least 2009, and the “coming soon” signs first went up in 2017. But in 2024, the project is finally in motion. It’s being funded by bonds payable from proceeds of the one-cent sales tax approved by voters a few years ago. We expect work to begin later this year and finish in 2027. Widening Price from Sumter to Toledo Blade boulevards will improve traffic flow and accommodate the city’s size. Thank you to this commission for stepping up to the plate to dedicate the necessary funding. And thanks to our Public Works team for laying the groundwork for this transformational project.  

More big news for 2024: Sarasota Memorial Health Care System recently sought architectural and engineering help for not one, but two North Port projects set to break ground next year. HCA Florida Healthcare has also announced its plans to expand its footprint into North Port with a new facility in Wellen Park, and a 144-bed behavioral health care facility is already under construction by Acadia Healthcare south of Price Boulevard and east of Toledo Blade Boulevard. For decades, North Port has been advocating for high-quality health care here in the city. Now, in 2024, we are so close to meeting and exceeding our goals. These projects will not only bring improved health care options for our residents. They have the potential to create thousands of jobs in our city. Having 90 percent of our workforce commute to jobs outside of North Port is not sustainable for our long-term economic viability. We will soon have quality career opportunities right here in our city in the health care industry, and our City team is helping to make it happen. 

As North Port grows, we are also collaborating with our education partners, Suncoast Technical College and State College of Florida, to align educational expansion opportunities with economic development priorities. STC has proposed a state-of-the-art, 20,000-square-foot building on its North Port campus. It's designed to prepare students for careers in health care, construction, manufacturing and electrician trades. The City is working closely with STC’s leadership team and the Sarasota County Schools Superintendent, but we need the support of our state representatives and all of you, our local business community, to make it happen. 

Meanwhile, State College of Florida is addressing the nursing shortage facing our region. Thanks to community fundraising and the support of the state legislature, the school was recently able to increase the number of students that could be accepted into its nursing programs. This is the kind of progress and momentum we need to build upon at SCF’s North Port Campus.   

For years, we’ve heard that North Port doesn’t have enough jobs. 2024 is going to be a big year for creating employment opportunities in North Port. But you can’t draw new employers without the utilities to support them. You've seen the work being done to add new water and sewer lines at the Innovation Corridor at Toledo Blade Boulevard and I-75, and the Gateway Corridor at Sumter Boulevard and I-75. These projects led by our Utilities Department create shovel-ready land. That's especially attractive to developers and business owners.   

The Gateway Corridor serves as a key entryway to North Port. It will be home to a future SMH medical campus. There are also opportunities for expansion of our commercial, medical, office, retail and dining options. Up to 4,000 new jobs are projected for this corridor alone in our 2021 Market Feasibility Study.   

Across town, the Innovation Corridor is home to more than 2.3 million square feet of light industrial space and over 2.6 million square feet of office and commercial space. An updated return on investment analysis for more development in this corridor showed the potential for 2,000 to 5,000 jobs. By expanding water and sewer lines there, we are activating nearly 3,000 acres of undeveloped land and unlocking this tremendous job growth potential.  

Our City’s Economic Development Division continues its work to attract entrepreneurs and developers to our city. More than 300 businesses, from brick-and-mortar to home-based, opened in North Port in 2023. This past year, for a second year in a row, North Port was ranked in the Top 10 Cities for U.S. Job Seekers. LinkedIn Workforce Report has also placed North Port as the top city in the U.S. for workforce migration. Our community is looking to add high-paying jobs and careers, and they also want new dining and entertainment options and destinations. We’re thrilled to have exciting new restaurants, shops and community activities at Downtown Wellen Park, which is the result of years of careful master planning by the City and the developer. But we’re not neglecting Legacy North Port, either. In 2024, we look forward to the opening of Anna Maria Oyster Bar at its North Port location on U.S. 41. We are also hard at work attracting dining and retail establishments to Activity Center 5, The Crossings, located at the intersection of Price Boulevard and Toledo Blade Boulevard. We have 100 acres of available land at Bottle Lake for mixed-use development, encompassing commercial, retail and light industrial ventures. This could become the kind of downtown destination that so many residents have said they want to see in Legacy North Port. 

In 2024, our team is giving the City's Unified Land Development Code a much-needed update. The refreshed and modernized ULDC will better reflect our vision for the future and serve as an important tool for responsibly managing our growth. The changes will create a wider variety of housing options to accommodate our growing workforce needs, encourage much-needed commercial development to reduce the burden on taxpayers and strengthen our ability to preserve natural habitats and wildlife.  

We are taking an even bigger step to protect our precious environmental resources amidst all this growth with the creation of a new Natural Resources Division. This new team will oversee the preservation of critical habitats for endangered and threatened species, boost tree protection efforts, coordinate a City-wide tree planting plan and increase our resiliency and sustainability initiatives. We are putting our money where our mouth is by committing resources and expanding our toolkit for environmental protection in 2024. The Natural Resources team will soon be embarking on a listening tour to hear the community’s ideas and priorities for our environment. Other initiatives already underway this year include creating an environmental management plan for preserving ecological habitats in the Heron Creek community and developing a campaign to encourage and promote the benefits of proper recycling. 

Meanwhile, the development applications and building activity in North Port continue at a blistering pace. The City issued nearly 23,000 permits in 2023 and performed 100,000 inspections. Those are massive numbers. This record level of activity is keeping our Building and Planning divisions busy, and it’s not slowing down in 2024.  

For years, this City has struggled with indecision and inactivity when it comes to the future of Warm Mineral Springs Park. Not in 2024. We have made significant progress toward a public-private partnership that will achieve the shared vision for Warm Mineral Springs without burdening the City's taxpayers. We’ve enlisted subject matter experts to review the proposal by Warm Mineral Springs Development Group, including a financial analysis, risk assessment and geotechnical survey. In 2024 we are continuing our due diligence and working toward a strategic partnership that will support the restoration and improvement of the historic buildings, protect the environment and enhance the services and amenities on the property. This is an exciting and pivotal moment as we move toward transforming Warm Mineral Springs into an asset that we can all be proud of.   

Let’s talk about our financial picture for 2024. We were able to keep our millage rate unchanged for the fourth consecutive year, despite all the growth, the demand for City services, and an economic climate that has included high inflation and rising costs across the board. Our Finance Department prepared a conservative budget that still meets our growing needs and priorities. But we also left about $4 million out of this year’s budget, holding off on “wants” in favor of “needs.” But that list of needs is growing along with our City’s population. We’re exploring options for a new enterprise resource planning system that will replace our outdated systems and greatly improve our efficiency as a city. We are doing everything we can to be fiscally responsible and find solutions without asking for more money. But the challenges can’t be ignored if we are going to continue to become the kind of community that we all envision.  

North Port is still in its infancy compared to other cities. Despite all our growth and development, we are still only about 30 percent built out. While our latest population is about 86,500 and counting, we are projected to reach 250,000 residents or more at full buildout in the next few decades. People are not going to stop coming to Florida or North Port any time soon. We must stay focused on doing the best for the most, making some tough decisions and working to preserve the quality of life that we all enjoy. 

One of the most essential needs as we grow is public safety. We continue to try to keep up with the exponential growth while maintaining a safe and welcoming community. The North Port Police Department responded to over 87,000 calls for service in 2023, which is close to a 14% increase from the previous year. Initiatives like our Operation Wreck-Less campaign and increased community outreach are helping to keep North Port safe. We’ve added Police personnel to keep up with our population, but the department has severely outgrown its current headquarters next to City Hall. We are preparing plans to move to a new property on North Toledo Blade Boulevard. The cost for a new headquarters is anywhere from $80 million to $130 million depending on the model that is chosen. 

Our Fire Rescue Department also has needs. The aging and outdated Fire Station 81 was built in 1998. We’ve identified about $15 million in Surtax and other funds to pay for a replacement. Our Fire Rescue team responded to more than 12,000 emergency incidents last year and continues to expand its services and capabilities to meet the growing demands of a growing city.  

The needs don’t stop there. Hurricane Ian exposed vulnerabilities in our road network and infrastructure. Many of our water control structures have outlived their useful life and need replacement. Maintenance and replacement projects were deferred or ignored in years past. There’s now a lot of work to be done, and it has a very steep price tag.  

Simply put, we have kicked the can down the road for far too long, and it’s essential that we act now. We will continue to pursue all opportunities for grant funding and other outside sources. But we are looking at a cost in the tens of millions of dollars needed to keep our City safe, strong and resilient as we grow. We will be having serious conversations with our commissioners and our City residents this year about bond referendums and how we’re going to pay for these needs. To put it into perspective: If we were to bond for $100 million, you would see an almost 30 percent increase in the City’s millage rate. That’s simply not sustainable.  

We are doing our best to live within our means as a City, just like so many of our residents. We know some of our community members are still hurting from Hurricane Ian. Whether it’s difficulties with insurance or increased costs for just about everything, many people are feeling the economic squeeze.  

Making sure our vulnerable and less fortunate populations in North Port is priority No. 1 for our Social Services Division. They are working to create an internal committee that will serve as a conduit to North Port’s nonprofit community. We have so many agencies and organizations doing good work in the community, and in 2024 it's essential that we channel that collective energy to make sure it is as effective as possible for those in need. Our Police Department’s Homeless Outreach Team is also continuing its work to engage those who are experiencing homelessness or are at risk. We want to connect them with the services they need and find a path to permanent housing. 

Adding to our challenges in 2024 is a dangerous trend of hostility toward government and public officials. It goes beyond the kind of negativity that you may experience when scrolling through your social media feed. That is only a symptom of the greater trend of misinformation, mistrust and true anger directed toward government and other institutions.  

In the 2023 Chapman University Survey of American Fears, “corrupt government officials” was the thing Americans are most afraid of, for the ninth straight year – more than nuclear weapons, biological warfare, or their own loved ones getting sick or dying. Unfortunately, the unethical actions of a small number of public officials make things harder for the public servants who are working to make their communities better at the local level. This political rhetoric has a way of seeping into real life. We’ve seen many examples around the country of threats being made toward public officials and their families. Unfortunately, sometimes those threats are acted upon with violence.   

We take threats seriously here at the City. The safety and security of everyone – including our own team – are paramount for us. We also understand there will be a certain level of criticism no matter what we do. Public service is not for the faint of heart; you need to have a thick skin to serve in this line of work. This is what we all signed up for, because we love helping to build a community and giving back. We welcome respectful feedback, dialogue and constructive criticism from the public. We are committed to transparency and accountability. We strive to do the right thing, and if we make a mistake, we own it, and we move on.   

At the same time, we will not give in to the naysayers, the detractors or the negativity. We are not going to be deterred here at the City of North Port. We aim to serve as an example and set a standard for other cities and local governments around the state and the country. There are so many positive things happening in North Port and so much to be excited about. We remain focused on the work.  We are accessible, and we want to keep the two-way communication pathway open. We’ll be speaking to neighborhoods and interest groups across the City on our North Port United Tour, an ongoing partnership with the nonprofit North Port Forward. We also recently launched our Coffee & Conversation initiative, where residents can meet with the mayor and I to discuss topics important to them.  

We encourage you to be a part of the conversation with us this year. Our Communications team has enhanced the ways our citizens can interact with us and stay informed. We invite you to check out our redesigned City website, NorthPortFL.gov, and sign up for our new email newsletter, called “CommUNITY.”  In 2024, we’ll also be focusing on increasing our organization’s customer service and the value we can provide to our residents.  

We are proud of the many accomplishments of our team in 2023. But as we flip the calendar to 2024, we still have some serious work ahead of us. You can see why this will be the most important year our City has faced in our history. As we prepare to celebrate North Port’s 65th anniversary in 2024, the future awaits. We recognize there are some undeniable challenges and some serious needs to be filled. We also know that change is difficult, and make no mistake, North Port is changing. We believe the changes will be for the better. We welcome everyone get on board with us and share in the vision for our city’s future.    

As we look ahead to 2024, let us carry the lessons learned and the spirit of collaboration from the past year into the future. Together, we can continue building a city that thrives, adapts and cares for each community member. As I close, let me share with you six little stories with lots of meanings: 

Thank you for being an integral part of North Port's journey, and here's to a bright and prosperous future for us all. Thank you for your time.