Port St. Lucie City Government Guide

Port St. Lucie runs on a council-manager system: five elected council members, the Mayor among them, set policy, and the council appoints a City Manager and a City Attorney.

The Port St. Lucie Mayor and City Council page describes the council as the body that sets policy and the long-term vision for the city, with the City Manager handling daily business affairs and the City Attorney giving legal advice (Port St. Lucie Mayor and City Council page). Every member, the Mayor included, casts one vote, so no seat outweighs another on a council decision.

Elections follow a mixed rule. A council member must live in the district the seat represents, yet voters across all of Port St. Lucie vote for every district seat, and the Mayor runs citywide and may live anywhere in the city. All five serve four-year terms that are staggered. The council office answers at 772-871-5159, with 772-871-1775 as the alternate line, at Port St. Lucie City Hall, and the council page links the council district map.

Below the council, the Departments page gives the City Manager's office the job of overseeing daily city operations, carrying out City Council policy and leading strategic planning, and gives the City Attorney's Office legal counsel, drafting legislation and representing Port St. Lucie in legal matters (Port St. Lucie Departments page).

The general route to any Port St. Lucie department is 1PSL, the city's 24/7 request system by app, phone or web, or the main line at 772-871-1775; City Hall is at 121 SW Port St. Lucie Blvd.

The Departments page calls 1PSL a 24/7 City Hall and says residents can reach the city through it by mobile app, phone or web portal (Port St. Lucie Departments page). It is the channel the city points to for reporting a concern or asking a general question, and Neighborhood Services, for one, sends residents there to report concerns or request city services (Port St. Lucie Neighborhood Services).

City Hall offices at 121 SW Port St. Lucie Blvd. are listed by lettered building. The City Clerk works from Building A (Office of the City Clerk), the Business Tax Division also sits in Building A with walk-in hours from 9 a.m. to noon on weekdays (Port St. Lucie Business Tax page), and the Building Department is in Building B (Port St. Lucie Building Department).

Each Port St. Lucie department has a one-line job on the city's Departments page, and the table below matches common resident questions to the right office and phone line.

The Port St. Lucie Departments page also lists Animal Control, Code Compliance, Communications, the Community Redevelopment Agency, Emergency Management, Finance, Human Resources, Information Technology, Keep Port St. Lucie Beautiful, Lien Services, the Office of Solid Waste, Parks and Recreation, Planning and Zoning, Procurement, Public Works, Risk Management, Special Events and Utility Systems, each with a one-line description (city department list).

The Building Department keeps office hours of 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays, but its lobby closes at 4:30 p.m. on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday and at 4 p.m. on Wednesday, plan review hours run from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m., and a drive-thru runs from 7 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. (Port St. Lucie Building Department hours). The Port St. Lucie Police Department, established in 1980 with nine officers serving 12,000 residents, now lists 335 sworn officers and 84 civilians (About PSLPD).

Port St. Lucie public records requests go through the city's online public records portal to the City Clerk's Office or the Police Department, and meeting minutes cost $0.20 per double-sided page.

The public records page says all requests for City of Port St. Lucie information are handled by the City Clerk's Office or the Police Department through the portal, and that requests may also reach the Public Records Center in person, by email, mail, phone or fax (Port St. Lucie Public Records Requests page). A request needing less than 30 minutes of staff time and no significant resources carries no labor charge, only the cost of duplicating the records; longer requests may be billed for labor. The city provides records in the format it holds them and is not required to create new documents.

Exemptions follow a form rule. Effective May 19, 2025, Port St. Lucie honors a public records exemption, such as one for sworn law enforcement officers or judges, only when it is requested on the city's exemption form, signed, notarized and approved by city staff, even for people who were granted an exemption before.

The City Clerk prepares council and board agendas, transcribes the official minutes, which are typically available within one month, keeps the code of ordinances open for review during business hours, serves as election qualifying officer for Mayor and council candidates and runs the City Hall Mail Center (Port St. Lucie City Clerk). The Clerk's office line is 772-871-5168, and the office is in City Hall Building A.

Port St. Lucie residents follow city decisions through the council and board agendas and minutes that the City Clerk publishes, and can volunteer for a city board or committee.

The Office of the City Clerk menu links Agendas and Meetings, Boards and Committees, Elections, Legal Notices and Business Impact Estimates, and the Clerk page describes serving on a board or committee as a way to participate in local government (Port St. Lucie City Clerk menu). The same page says all City of Port St. Lucie legal advertisements are posted on the St. Lucie County Legal Notices Portal, in accordance with statutory requirements. The Clerk menu also links the Council Rules.

For a question that belongs to a specific seat, the council page links a council district map so a Port St. Lucie address can be matched to its district before calling the council office (council district map link).

Port St. Lucie budgets on an October 1 to September 30 fiscal year, and for FY 2026-27 the City Council approved a millage rate of 4.8750, lower than the 4.9750 of FY 2025-26.

The Office of Management and Budget posts budget books, budgets in brief, capital improvement plans and statements of revenues and expenditures by fiscal year, and older books are available at City Hall or by public records request (Port St. Lucie Annual Budget page). Under FY 26/27 the page lists the Proposed Budget FY 26/27, the Proposed Budget in Brief FY 26/27 and the Proposed CIP Budget FY 2027-2036; under FY 25/26 it lists the Adopted Budget FY 25/26 and the Adopted Budget in Brief FY 25/26.

The July 24, 2026 city announcement explains the timeline: at its July 22-23 Summer Workshop the Port St. Lucie City Council approved the 4.8750 rate, listed public hearings on Sept. 14 and Sept. 28 for adopting the budget, and named Oct. 1, 2026 as the start of the FY 2026-27 budget year (Port St. Lucie millage announcement). The same release states that the city has the third lowest municipal tax rate among Florida's 20 largest cities.

The city rate is only one line on a Port St. Lucie tax bill. The About page says the city accounts for 22% of a property tax bill, with the rest going to other taxing authorities in St. Lucie County (About PSL). The St. Lucie County Tax Collector and Property Appraiser offices below handle property tax payments and property values.

St. Lucie County's Tax Collector keeps two offices in Port St. Lucie, on Walton Road and in Tradition, and the Property Appraiser has a Saint Lucie West office on NW Country Club Drive.

The St. Lucie County Tax Collector's Walton Road Office is at 1664 SE Walton Road, Port St. Lucie 34952, and its Tradition Office is at 10264 SW Village Parkway, Port St. Lucie 34987, with a main phone of 772-462-1650 (St. Lucie County Tax Collector contact page). Hours differ by office: the Fort Pierce and Walton offices open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., while the Tradition Office keeps extended hours from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. and offers Saturday appointments; each office lists driver license service hours.

The St. Lucie County Property Appraiser's Saint Lucie West Office is at 250 NW Country Club Drive, Port Saint Lucie 34986, phone 772-462-1000, with appointments booked online (St. Lucie County Property Appraiser). The Property Appraiser site also posts a guide to which county constitutional office to visit, saying each one serves a unique function in keeping the county organized. Last verified: October 22, 2026, with the Port St. Lucie council structure, Clerk, records, budget and county office pages each re-read that morning.