e through the pledge [Music] [Music] allegiance the United States of America to The Republic a nation under God indivisible liberty and justice for all like we should play the national anthem too roll call let's go uh I'm here so Barbara's by Zoom does she have to say hi I'm hi hi okay Brian Thomas hi deie dton hi maranne Shey hi Mike Hower hi Scott Safford hi [Music] okay Jack we should um have a vote as to whether or not to allow Barbara to participate via Zoom oh okay we have have to have a vote we have allow Barber to participate who who motions that I'll make a motion I'll second Brian Brian motion [Applause] okay then you actually have to vote oh okay we have to take a vote now it's okay all in favor all right who vot who everybody voted I okay everybody [Music] well this is for the minutes yeah that's okay okay okay now we're on to reorganization do I have any nominations for chair Brian Thomas who do you nominate Brian yeah right exactly the ghost person it's not here um do you accept Ryan uh sure sure we vote on that okay who wants a I'll second it okay who who Michael [Music] [Applause] okay okay now we have a nomination for a vice chair who wants to be the vice chair you're doing a great job we okay I accept them on you I'll second it never accept [Music] okay I'll in favor all in favor I I thank you who get to this okay now we have approval of the minutes has everybody reviewed the minutes I I would like to have one change I actually sent Joe an email telling him I was not going to be an attendance so I I thought that we were clear I was I was going to do my best to be on the meeting but said it wasn't attendance not excused oh I'm I didn't even realize it said that no it it should be excused um I apologize I didn't even notice that [Applause] [Music] appr minutes the changes just approval with changes approval of the minutes with changes all right who voted or who say who Mike okay Miche all in favor all today is the 13th [Music] unanimous okay we'll get do it later thank you okay that's true there's nobody any public comment nobody's here so we'll move on okay you're in charge good morning morning everyone I have um my usual update for you um the status of the procurement I wanted to start off with that there's really been no progress since the last meeting we had identified three potential um systems that met our requirements but the next step would be to um schedule demonstrations but with the audit we just haven't had any free time to do that so but that that is the very next thing that we'll be doing in terms of the the steps and the process and we already have had um Representatives reaching out to us to schedule those so it we should be doing that soon as far as the 20123 audit um the accounting manager and the staff they've been working hard to prepare everything for the year and close um reconciliations adjustments the audit schedules we had originally thought the audit the field work would begin on the 22nd but it began on April 29th um which was good for us in the sense that we had more that much more time to pull together everything and make it easier for the Auditors to begin um it's still expected to conclude by the end of May and our goal is to meet um the standard deadline of June 30th without having to um seek any extensions I am a little bit concerned however because there the size and the volume of the emergency fund transactions you know is quite large there's $20 million of transactions um there's there's quite a bit for the Auditors to review so if there is a delay I anticipate that that could possibly be the reason but so far so good um I just finished working on the master spreadsheet of all of the FEMA and emergency expenditures there's like 70 Columns of data 1,850 lines of data and what we're trying to accomplish by that is to make sure that every single expense is assigned the um appropriate FEMA project number so that we can then close the year with an a true accounting accurate accounting of all the emergency expenditures by project and this was challenging this year because so many of these project numbers were not identified until actually almost a year out so we didn't have these numbers at the time so they were not captured in the accounting system at the time so we're having to go back and do it after the fact but we're trying to make sure that we're in sync with tidle Basin who is preparing all this information for us to submit to the FEMA portal so that all of the um supporting documentation for um each of these expenses that whether it's um invoices the procurement um information all of that's collected along with us and is submitted to the FMA portal so it's it's a huge effort um and we're very appreciative of title basin's support in that um since we were um finalizing the year we were able to come up with the final lost Revenue figure and previously I had been trying to calculate it by comparing actual 2022 Revenue to the 2023 budget and the reason why I was doing that is the 2023 budget was what we thought no I'm sorry I'm saying this incorrectly I was comparing the FY 23 Revenue to the FY 23 budget because the FY 23 budget is what we thought in a from a conservative Viewpoint what we should have expected to receive in a normal year but it seems to be more conservative and more accurate to actually compare lost Revenue to do that calculation for accounting purposes by comparing 2023 actual Revenue to 2022 Revenue because that's a hard number it's it's more or less an indisputable number and so then that difference is more solid that calculation of that difference and I did go through and identify what I I believe were revenues that were affected by the hurricane in 2023 and those that were not and by only focusing on the ones that were that's how I came up with the um lost Revenue calculation and that's found on pages 10 and 11 um of the report package and the grand total lost Revenue was 3,852 9 and I have it divided by Department because one of the things then that has just happened at the last Town council meeting was now that we had the final figure we the Town Council authorized the transfer of the $3,885 29 from The Bridge Loan Fund to the general fund to offset all of these revenues and the transfer the accounting transfer is retroactive to September 30th and why that's important is um number one it was because we did need the bridge loan for fiscal year 2023 and otherwise if we had not had that we would have ended the year with $22,000 of cash in the general fund so that um those are two reasons why we chose to do it that way and I can say a little bit more about that um I think I have a little insert in my report in a few minutes from now the FY 24 lost Revenue then for the sake of consistency I'm also comparing 2024 Revenue to 2022 Revenue to calculate what was lost so far this year and but we're scaling it down to 6 months worth so what I did was I I took the monthly average revenue for 2022 multiplied six to get a 6 month's worth and then compare that to the 6 month worth of Revenue collected so far in 2024 to come up with an estimated lost revenue and so so far this year it's 651 th000 for budgeting purposes we had estimated that it would be almost 3 A5 million so for 6 months in the year the first 6 Months of the Year we're doing fairly well although we do collect most of our um tax revenue in the beginning of the year so I think that's skewing this number a bit uh let's see the FEMA Public Assistance projects there's not a lot that's changed there other than um Title Basin is continuing to work on collecting the supporting documentation for the projects and submitting it to FEMA um we still have the same number of projects we started out um with 37 11 of them were Consolidated into one project and and so we're down to 27 separate FEMA projects okay then I just so that you have the same information that's probably going to go out to the public um we had a reporter ask some important questions that I really had not stopped to consider um specifically the answers to these questions until they were asked and the the reporter was doing an article about the sufficiency of our emergency reserves on when hurricane Ian hits and whether we had sufficient reserves on hand to help us through the time until assistance came and so by looking back at the situation of course I wasn't here at that particular time I came in March afterwards but it looks like they had $537,000 specifically in the emergency Reserve fund there was also 1, 160,000 committed as a emergency Reserve in the general fund and then there was also a $600,000 operating Reserve in the general fund in addition to that there was $443,000 of contingency that was included in the budget for 2023 and so all of those things theoretically would be available in an emergency set setting and in addition to that there was $3.6 Million sitting in the general fund that was scheduled to be transferred to the capital fund for future capital projects so although it wasn't specifically designated for an emergency the cash would have been available um to help temporarily fund an emergency situation and that's exactly what happened because the town did incur about 300 or sorry $3.5 million of expenses for emergency overtime supplies contractual services and all of that was incurred during the first two months of the response to Hurricane and um it so it took those first it took until after those first two months for insurance proceeds to start coming in and then an expedited payment from FEMA so the town had to fund that 300 that $3.5 million of emergency expense from its own funds and that's where it really it depleted the emergency Reserve fund the general fund emergency reserve the general fund operating reserve the contingency and then also about a million dollars of the capital reserve so all of that was utilized to get through those first two months but then um we did receive after that that 7.5 million or $7.6 million from FEMA for expedited funding and then we started receiving the insurance reimbursements so that was able to replenish the cash that had been used until that point um let's see and then one of the other questions that was asked by the reporter is having had that experience how is that affecting our plans for the future in terms of an emergency reserve and we're we're still in the process of doing that we're still evaluating things and that that is and a very important thing that we need to address we're in a precarious state in the sense that revenues are still um lost and so we it's not that we have extra funding to be able to set aside at this point but it's certainly something we need to plan to do as soon as we're able to do that we're fortunate that we have the bridge loan to carry us through this far um speaking of the bridge loan I do have it um available funding sources I have an update there bottom half of page seven so an update um near regarding the bridge loan is that I I don't know if I you remember me explaining that the bridge loan originally had a repayment term of one year so our the loan would be paid or was due to be paid in full June 30th of this year that was was the original agreement there was a provision for a six-month extension since that loan was agreed upon between us and the state there was legislation that came through that extended it another two years it's a signed legislation so it is in effect but we did not receive an updated agreement I did reach out to the state to make sure that it wasn't due June 30th and I did receive response back in writing saying that it's it is not due June 30th that at this point it would be due 2 years from now but there's legislation waiting to be signed by the governor that would extend it 10 years and they're expecting that it would be signed so as soon as that legislation is signed then we'll receive an updated agreement with the terms so it it is whatever the case it's not due yet and we have another two years at least um to repay it um let's see on page seven still I I I wanted to just include the full list of all the available funding sources and I only um I highlighted the only things that were updated so under the $6.7 million Capital improvement loan it was set to expire on May 1st and so these this loan was specifically um a agreed to by the bank to fund the Bayside Park Bays Recreational facility and time score improvements so it's limited to that so by May 1st we were only able to complete $250,000 worth of improvements that fall under those categories and so that is the amount that that's the final amount that was submitted to the bank for re urement so that of that $10 million loan original loan that left 6.5 million unutilized um another update then is we've learned through a meeting um with our Angie Brewer who is our consultant for our state revolving Loan Fund and there's an additional $10.7 million available for storm water improvements that would protect the waste water system so we're working to identify what types of um expenses that that particular Grant would cover let's see um page eight I I already spoke about the $1.9 million Bridge Loan um so I think that covers covers that um Utility Billing um the billing department continues to research the age receivable B balances and as I explained before most of them are related to the demolished structures that are still accumulating water and storm water charges but the owners for whatever reason have not been paying their bill um so they're they're researching that in some cases the people are simply unreachable and others um they're refusing to pay so once we have a list of and categorized a categorized list of what the different situations are some of these issues I think will need to be brought before Town Council to decide on what the policy should be um in certain certain cases we also found um as a result of some of it um some billing errors that had occurred and so we were able to correct those um as they encounter those and identify what those might have been and we had one situation involving the town Town itself where we had we are being um build but this this wasn't a part of the receivable problem but it was kind of uncovered through that analysis we were beinging build large large bills each month and we we thought originally was from the irrigation system on the new ball field but as it turns out there was a water leak so at least that's been identified now and so we should be refunded for um some of those charges um Financial policy so we are working as a team um by by that I mean other department heads to compile um a set of policies that is required um as part of the Florida Recovery obligation calculation program this is through the Department of Emergency Management and this is a program that they developed in order to encourage um municipalities to be more um fiscally responsible regarding their their grants and so as an incentive for that they would like to see us have established policies and procedures um that would demonstrate our fiscal responsibility for Grant Management and the more of these you have in place um the higher score you receive because they do we submit this to them and they evaluate it and the higher score we receive um the more up percentage of upfront payment we'll receive um when it comes to um emergency assistance so rather than waiting first expending the money and then waiting for reimbursement will receive a portion up front so that'll be a tremendous assistance for cash flow and so we had submitted what we had originally um this was several months ago in terms of policies and procedures they reviewed it they they and then they sent us back um a list of suggested things that we should do to improve to improve our score and that's what we're working on now um so we did one of the things I worked on is that they had recommended that we have an emergency financial plan I finished that over the weekend I so I know it's it was not in your packet I emailed it out this morning I because it was just this morning I don't expect you to review it but I wanted you to have it so that you could see what we what we're working on and then certainly um as you do have time any feedback that you may have would be appreciated um on the emergency financial plan um one of the things that was also missing not missing but a suggestion for an improvement was a purchasing policy um that was more robust in terms of um language that would include in there and so one of the outcomes of this work that was done on the policies and procedures was an improvement to the purchasing policy and I tried to summarize that in the paragraph at the bottom of page page 8 where one of the changes that it included was it reflected the current organizational structure or in the sense that the purchasing function was actually reporting to the town manager rather than to finance but in the um original purchasing ordinance apparently in the past it had been the case for purchasing reported to finance and so there was many references to it being under the finance department but in reality it's under the town manager's office and so that language was changes to reflect the current structure there was also language um required by FM or encouraged to include and that would be um specific reference to adherence to a code of ethics that there'd be a requirement for a cost or Price analysis for any projects that are estimated to cost greater than 250,000 and that there' be a requirement to analyze um lease versus buy options so that language was incorporated then at the same time we adjusted the purchasing thresholds that govern the type of procurement method to be used and so I put in um the table on the top of page nine that shows you what the old thresholds were and what the new thresholds are so previously if was if a purchase was between $500 and $4,000 there were three verbal quotes required now that range is 5,000 to 10,000 and this is more reflective of other municipalities around us for example sanabel that's the range that they have then we have the range of instead of for three written quotes it used to be anything between 4,000 and 25,000 now we have it from 10,000 to 75,000 and anything over 75,000 is to is requir is required to have a bid issued or an RFP request for proposals issued although we have set the limit for bids or proposals to 75,000 for FEMA requirements we're required to abide by the state's threshold the state's threshold is 35,000 and any assistance from the state um in the form of Grants is also required to abide by that 35,000 threshold so in reality even though we have 7 set 75,000 as our threshold more most of the time will'll be following the $35,000 threshold because much of what we do is funded by state or federal um grants of one form or another the other activity that we've been involved with is assisting in preparing do documentation that was required um by the agreement for the cdbg drr grant award that the town has been awarded um we have been awarded $1,575 th000 to be used for planning for infrastructure improvements um so here again many of the things that they required was to have um written policies regarding Financial man management duplication of benefits um accounting policy and internal control policy we had you know these things written um in terms of accounting policies internal control policies the accounting policies are actually um included in our um audit reports each year we had internal controls kind of drafted for the Auditors when they do their field work so those things we we had and we just formalized it a bit more into documents the duplication of benefit policy we really didn't have anything specific to that although we did have practices in place to um avoid any duplication of benefits so we we developed a policy that was based on Lee County's policy and then the financial management policy is really financial management of of Grants is what they were looking for and there again we we took Lee County's financial management policy because it was really a a very thorough accurate or not accurate um what's the word um well it it covered everything that could complete that's the word thank you complete so that we used we followed it we customized it to reflect our own organization you know unique uniqueness but that was also so I have all four of those um included as at the end of the packet so that you can see what we put together that was submitted um to Lee County for um as part of the agreement package that was um approved by Town Council and I believe it's still waiting to go through that signature process but these um policies um especially the financial management and the duplication and bment policy those could be um made more General so the ones that we drafted specifically for cdbg drr had references embedded in those policies to cdbg drr just like the leak County policy had because it was specific to them but really those practices are um can be applied to all Grant Management and so I took that policy and I made more generalized version I pulled out specific references so that we could use it for all all Grant Management and I did the same for the duplication of benefits so now we have those policies as well just an update on the budget um the budget manager worked meticulously to prepare the budget worksheets um these are actually spreadsheets that are developed for each department for each fund um they're distributed to the department heads um they were were distributed to the department heads near the end of April I along with the town manager and the director of compliance and operations met with each of the the department heads in order to have um like a preliminary meeting regarding their headcounts and it also involved um Human Resources so that we can get an understanding of any changes that they foresee needing um for next year's budget and the good news is I think we're fairly stable in the organizational structure we currently have so there are just a few a few changes um that are foreseen for next year and now in these couple of weeks um we'll be working directly with department heads on their expense budgets and compiling those and towards the end of May we'll be meeting with the town manager again and the director of compliance and operations to review with each of the department heads what they have put together for their budgets and to make sure that it makes sense to them um to the town manager and to the director compliance or if they have any additional input um as well and so what will happen then is all of these individual Department budgets will be compiled into the general fund budget so that we can have kind of like a worst case scenario type situation where this is what really what everybody thinks they need it would be quote unquote improved um tentatively by the town manager and that's really like this becomes the starting point and then the Town Council will look at that and we'll and the finance department will try by taking all the other estimated revenues into account what is the millage rate Revenue the tax revenue and the millage rate that's required to generate that tax revenue to fund all this and that's where you know if it's reasonable a maj just that may be where it's left other than over the next couple of months there'll be more fine-tuning of the budget or if if there's a big gap between what would be a reasonable source of tax revenue and what's required we may have to do um some serious adjustments to the budget but it's just a starting point because we need to set the maximum millage rate by the end of June and so this kind of gives um something to work with in terms of what the need might be and I Envision that the audit committee like once we have this preliminary budget put together that we could make that available to all of you and then you could in however manner you wish to be involved you can review it you can meet with me with whoever and to have explanations um and then you your input is certainly welcome because I know that the Town Council would appreciate that I would appreciate that and then this way we can make sure that there's many eyes on the budget and and then where we're going in the future and then the last thing is I did include the usual um set of financial statements um so got the balance sheet the statement of revenues on expenditures cash flow statements um I did include the Lost Revenue estimate for 2024 um I do have the budget versus actual but it's just really a line item budget versus actual just for the general fund I can provide one by Department if if you think that that would be helpful at some point it's lot more volume and I just didn't want to overwhelm you overwhelm you but I'm happy to provide it if because we're not trying to hide any detail I just don't want to overwhelm you with it um and then I also um provided that statement of cash flows since hurricane Ian because I to me I think that's a very interesting um view of what's of the impact of hurricane in on on the town to this day so I have all of that in here I'm happy to answer any questions for you I have a question what's Rel related to the new policies that you have in here did anybody review them or they are we having the external Auditors double check those Financial policy well the accounting policy the internal control policy that is something the Auditors get um the financial management policy it's Lee counties I mean basically it's theirs on the duplication of benefits so in in the sense that it's already been vetted and approved by their their County but no I mean it's it was distributed to the um the managers here to the town um manager but it was not formally reviewed by anyone but I did want to include it here well if it came from somewhere else then someone else reviewed it okay but and feel free because these are not um set in stone so if if you see anything that could be improved we certainly want to continue to improve upon them or if you see something missing um for sure I do have another question given that the meeting is I think the second Monday of the month is that in uh inhibit you from getting your job done I mean doing month and closing and that type thing should this meeting be later in the month because it seems like you're you know you're rushing to try to get a lot of stuff together I think traditionally it's been the second Monday of the month it it could be later um it would be easier for me certainly to get the financial statements done for you but on the other hand to be under I I think getting the them done as soon as possible is a good thing and so to be under that pressure is kind of a way for me to make sure that they're done so we'll leave it yeah I do appreciate the consideration I I have a question we we had spoken two months ago about our CD interest rate yes and so it says here that one we have over 300,000 that just got redeemed work so the one that was redeemed was moved into the um operating fund because that's where we're getting 5.1% interest there we go so that that's our plan is to get a out of that low interest in moving yes because I mean these these were terribly low um and and I was very disappointed with the bank um that that that happened and I think part part of why this happened apparently um I think because they automat Ally renewed the last time and my assumption was that it would work like any other automatic renewal where you it's just whatever is the new current rate for those CDs well with that particular bank they renew if it's an automatic renewal they it drops down to .1% and I we didn't know that until it was too late no so I thought okay I don't think we want to keep our our dollars there that's period so that's why we we did move it out and we did deposit it with First Foundation bank and our plan is to get the next two in August and yes yes because I means it's just a little bit of interest but um I don't want to lose that little bit just silly so we're we'll be we'll be there soon thank you um are there any member item oh you through Jo I'm through are there any member items and reports none our next meeting is scheduled for June 10th at 9:00 a.m. we have to take a vote on this okay motions for adjournment Michael vot for German Brian second okay he J thank you bye everybody thank you