I pledge allegiance to the flag United States of America the for stands Nation okay we'll do a quick roll call for today obviously myself Jack leson here Debbie Dutton here Maran Shey here I've got the next four people via Zoom Mike Hower here Barbara puffer here Dave Sandberg here uh Scott Safford here all right we're all here um all right approval of the minutes everybody have their minutes in front of them if had a chance to take a look at it is there any any changes or comments uh regarding the minutes okay none being uh I to uh is it pass yes move is perfect approve yes approve the minutes correct have a second I'll second Jack seconds all in favor signify by saying I I I I all oppos same sign okay public comment doesn't look like we have anybody here from the public today uh so we want to roll go right into uh item six presentation of audit results yes that's right um Wade is um online and he is here from Malden Jenkins and he will be presenting the um audit results to you this morning all right thanks Joe can everybody hear me okay yes sir okay great I'm going to share my screen I've got a brief presentation for you all um can you all see that as well yes okay great all right um well thanks so much for allowing me to be here um virtually with you all today um you know the town has uh certainly gone through quite a bit um over the last couple years after Hurricane Ian um and so we've got we've got the um the town's 9:30 2023 audit completed um we were able to wrap that up before the state deadline in June and I've got again a brief presid presentation today um to go over if I can get here we go um and if y'all have any questions at any point in time just feel free to to jump right in and go ahead and ask I'm gonna go through this pretty quickly um here's kind of my agenda that we've got just a little bit information about M&J the overview of the opinions and the uh financial statements some required Communications and then be able to answer any questions that you all may have um I won't really go over this you've all seen this in the past um certainly we are very large Regional um audit organization we do audit a tremendous amount of governments here in the Southeast um and we're very proud to serve the town of Fort Meers Beach um this year's audit report um independent audit report was once again an unmodified opinion this is the highest form of assurance and this is the type of opinion that you all wish to receive each and every year um in our opinion the financial statements um do present fairly the financial position of the town as of for the year ended September 30th of 2023 um as part of our audit if we have any kind of findings or material weaknesses significant deficiencies we would report those toward towards the back of the report of what we call the yellow book report very happy to say once again this year we had no findings um for 2023 again once again Joe and his staff have done a really good job they they absolutely should be commended um for for not only taking care of the books and records of the town on on a just a normal basis but also for all of the the current uh Grant activity and all the compliance that comes along with those funds um they're they're doing a really really good job there and hats off to them obviously with the storm came a lot of damage also came a lot of monies from FEMA as well as the state this did require us to perform an additional single audit this year um the town received and expended about $22 million in Federal State awards for 2022 um and we were required to perform two major programs one on the federal disaster Grant which is the FEMA and then one state from the state Local Economic Development Initiative Program as part of those additional audits we also noted no issues so again hats off to the town and their staff are doing a really good job taking care of um townwide the overall net position actually increased for the year about 11.6 million um this change increased the total net position of the town to about 68.4 million um a big swing from that of the prior year obviously with the storm hitting right at the end of the year there was a lot of uh actual damage to property and Equipment the town that had to be written off um and that that led to a decrease last year of about 5.6 million um so again happy that that the town was able to quickly turn that around a lot of that was from the receipt of um Insurance recoveries I I believe that was about 9.5 million um that was received during 2023 so again overall good position a good rebound from the storm um this is the the general fund um kind of a pie chart showing your overall revenues um this certainly looks a lot different from that of Prior years um you can see you've got quite a bit of um intergovernmental revenues at 12.07 million there um almost 11.1 of that is from FEMA um also the miscellaneous of 9,661 majority of that is again insurance proceeds so um normally your property taxes is the bigger piece of the overall pie but this year with again the insurance proceeds and the FEA reimbursements um much different looking picture than in than in Prior years uh the expenditure side for the general fund um by far um the largest amount is under Public Safety um again this looks very different from that of Prior years um included in that public safety total was about 20.5 million from uh the the Federal Emergency expenditures so again from all of the cleanup all of the um contracted Services all of that that you all had to go through um and work through during 2023 all the others kind of remain consistent with that prior years here's a f a five-year general fund fund balance history um the majority of that increase is once again from the insurance proceeds um you know a lot of the the actual loss to the town in 2022 was more at the entity wide level it's was a lot of the destruction of your assets and the write down of your assets it didn't actually affect the general fund um and so with the reimbursement of all of those insurance proceeds during the year it's significantly helped improve the overall fund balance um for the town also you all did receive a large loan um from the state which is also included in that that overall increase um as those funds were not yet spent significantly by the end of the year um on your Enterprise fund side your water and sewer fund storm water fund um we always like to look at operating revenues versus operating expenses this year once again a a lot different from that of Prior year um with the with the overall storm the destruction the the lack of homes the lack of um actual usage of the system um there was a big significant decrease in the overall revenues as I would expect um hopefully those can then begin to um gradually get back up going going on to 2024 and forward um but this is what it looks like for 2023 um here's a comparison of those operating revenues from 22 to 23 again significant decrease and the water fund storm water fund was actually able to to maintain for the most part those revenues but the water and sewers saw a significant decrease then when it comes to your Enterprise funds operating expenses um again with the with the reduce reduction in um usage of the water system your overall operating expenses also came down storm water was actually able to come down as well um again all of those were um as really expected for the town then I've got some highlevel um statistics um for 2023 as well as 2022 on the next slide um spending per resident up significantly again because of those those large amounts of uh emergency expenditures that we had to go through um we see the general fund fund balance increase for the year the overall debt per resident again that also went up we had a slight reduction in overall total number of residents we had a slight increase in the overall debt of the Town um both governmental activities as well as business type activities um so that increase is reasonable there total number of employees actually down from that of last year um average employee salaries are there as well as the overall percentage of um salaries and benefits of your general fund fund of your general fund balance here's the same information as of 2022 again 2022 is a lot more of a of a typical year um 23 was very very difficult very unusual um with regard to the expenditures that's really all that I had for you all you we we also put together what we call our adna our Auditors discussion and Analysis um this is a separate document that you also should have a copy of um this is where we put forth all of our required Communications um we also list out if there were any kind of management findings or recommendations we give a little bit more detail there again there were none to report we also list out all of the uh upcoming gasby statements that may be applicable to the town coming coming down the pipeline um and we also U make sure that you all are aware that we do give um free continuing professional education to all of our clients um certainly members of the finance department as well as this board the Town Council as well they're all you all are all more than welcome to sit in on these um training opportunities they are generally done pretty much in this format via Zoom um really since Co um and so that allows you to to watch it wherever you are um but again that's really all that I had does anyone have any any questions for me when do you start the next audit we'll be starting that pretty soon um the year end obviously is coming up um and we'll be getting uh PBC letters and engagement Letters Out shortly I see that you all have a an item for discussion later on I'm I'm actually a little curious about that we've got a our original contract with you all was 22 23 and 24 um but but certainly hope to to continue our relationship with you all um and look forward to working with you all again for 2024 I mean I asking because it seems like the findings are kind of late from September did it was it because of the difficult year that we had that that de thought it was so late and that is is really our fault I mean Wade was ready to go with his team but we we weren't and it took us that long to kind of pull it all together and especially to go through all the emergency expenditures and to organize them um so it it was really all on our side thank and and I'll just point out I what the town has gone through and to be in as good of shape as you all are and to have gotten the report done by the state dead deadline I can't be more proud of you well I mean it's it's a remarkable effort by your finance department and team to have gotten the audit done as quickly as it was uh there is so much activity going on way more that the town has ever seen certainly our time frame with the town and um you know obviously we would love to get this to you all quicker um but I think that I think under the circumstances you all should be very proud of the fact that you you met the state deadline um like you did uh again hats off to the finance department hats off to the town um you you've done a great job really and truly any other questions for uh for Wade um Wade is your presentation available for us I would you be able to send that to us after the meeting oh absolutely not a problem whatsoever that would be great thank you yes sir all right well there no being uh further comments um we get a motion on a recommendation to accept the audit results I move to accept the audit results all right they mooved second I accept second second all right any discussion on the issue what we talked about okay uh all those in favor signify by saying I I I uh those opposed same sign okay propos allocation general fund balance go okay um as a result of the the good um audit report that we received and now have verification of of the the final figures for the year um what what we are happy to see is that as a result even though our net revenue um variance before the bridge loan was down by $2 million in total we were able to identify those Revenue line items that were affected by Hurricane Yin and tabulate the loss that on those line items and that totaled $3,855 so that's higher than the net loss that was recorded of 2 million and the reason for that is we had significant um interest earnings that we left out of that calculation because that really had nothing to do with um hurricane Ian um in the sense that it wasn't affected by an economic impact um to the town and so by leaving that out and then bringing in the $3,855 of bridge loan proceeds into the general fund that really left us with um revealing the the favorable variance that was related to interest earnings primarily and a few other items miscellaneous items that were not um affected by Hurricane in so that million 76,000 plus um $2.1 million of net um expens experience yielded a favorable um uh savings I would say of $3.2 million and so this $3.2 million is is there alloc it's added to the general fund fund balance um but it's there as an unassigned balance and given the fact that we have a great need to replenish our emergency reserve and and to really um bring it up to where it needs to be um in in line of what we just experienced with Hurrican and um the $3.5 million of cash that we went through and those first um 2 and a half to 3 months um it just pointed out that we needed much more in the emergency Reserve than we had and so what I'm proposing to do with this um 3.2 million um well actually a portion of that was already um re allocated to some of the um the uh fund balances to some of the assigned in the committed fund balances so that left um 2, 989,50 million I'm proposing that we take about 2.6 million of it to allocate it to our reserves and so I would propose that we bring the $60,000 up um increase to the general fund emergency reserve and that brings that amount up to 1,275 5,000 and I'm referring to my finance director's report in case you're wondering what I'm looking at um and then there's also $58,000 um I'm proposing to increase the general fund operating Reserve so that brings both of those reserves up to 1, 275,000 and so together that's 2,550,000 which equates to um 20% of next year's general fund budget and that is what gfoa recommends to be um The the Reserve amount that we should keep in the general fund so by making those two allocations we're able to achieve that 20% of the next year's um fund balance then we also have a separate emergency fund and that's really where all the activity is taking place um and is where we expended the $20 million but most of that we were able to do because of insurance proceeds coming in and because of that initial um expedited payment from FEMA that came in of 7.6 million so that gave us all the cash that we needed and then additional um FEMA reimbursements came in after that but that that came gave us a jump start those insurance proceeds the FEMA proceeds but that didn't come in until um almost 10 months to to I'm sorry 10 weeks to 12 weeks later and so we were on our own in those first um 10 to 12 weeks so by putting this $2 million in the emergency fund itself I think that that would also help to um have us better prepared for next time and that leaves us with a total of $4,550 th000 in total reserves and I think that that would um be certainly much better than what we had and I think it's um a good a good step forward and a good use of those unassigned funds that we now have in the general fund so that's that's my proposal for that um let's see just wanted to make sure what my agenda page um was that it's right there oh I right in front of me okay I was thinking those were the minutes okay um so that's the separate item that I wanted to refer to and it's it's in my report um does anyone have any comments about that suggestion or um oh quickly I mean we can talk about this at the next meeting but just kind of outlin the difference between where we have loans versus grants because I know that's kind of intertwin throughout the financial presentation right um yes just just for my edification if anyone else is interested um okay um I could clarify that when I refer to the general fund it's different than what um the Auditors refer to as a general fund the when I refer to the general fund I truly mean just the general fund that's that's it but what the Auditors also do is they combine the emergency fund um that combines the bridge loan from the state that combined our debt service fund with what we call the general fund so all of those are combined in in what they consider the general f the yeah the 68 million so when when I'm referring to the general fund it it's it's excluding those funds and so this is just purely um the revenues coming in and the expenditures going out of of just the general fund so our normal operate operating expenses and revenues of the town except of course we utilize $3 million of the bridge loan to offset the Lost revenues right and then the grants um they're primarily in other funds we have separate funds for Grants um like the the tourism Development Council the TDC Grant that's a large Grant gr that's in a separate fund of its own it's called beach access um and we have we have the some several Capital grants that's going into the capital fund then of course all the FEMA um and state funding coming in for Disaster Recovery that's all going into the emergency fund so the emergency fund now is somewhat confused for a lack of a better word between what we're trying to set aside like this two $2 million for the future versus all the activity that's going on right now for the recovery from Hurricane and so I'm I'm trying to keep that those two things separate um so that and maybe it might be time to create a separate Fund in order to do that but for now I I am I am deliberately separating those two out in my analysis okay okay any other comments about the know Reserve I don't think so I'm I'm not sure it's part of the reserve but but um with regard to our property casual insurance we feel like we're appropriately covered with limits and whatnot at this point because it seemed like we were a little underinsured we we were we were um very underinsured but this time around for our renewal um we made sure that we had they came out they looked of course we don't have the town hall at the moment but we did get we actually also have um a quote for insur insuring the new building next year so we have that so everything should be adequately ensured um going forward okay awesome okay so then um the in fund loan um I'm sure you're aware that we're about to purchase the building um on a stero Boulevard to become the new town hall um unfortunately though we have we did get we do have um an award letter so an official notice that we did receive the $8 million from the state it was appropriated in their their annual budget so we that is coming and it's coming through the Florida Department of Commerce and we're working with them to develop the grant agreement but that agreement won't be finished until the end of August roughly and then it will take about another 30 days to get the $8 million to pay for the building but in the meantime we're working towards scheduling the closing on the building in mid AUST August so we need to have a temporary source of cash in order to actually purchase the building that would then be immediately reimbursed once we get the $8 million from the Florida Department of Commerce so I I was after a long analysis of our various funds that we have um cash available I came up with an a proposal to do an interfund loan of the $8 million and so what it would do is it would take the $2 million that I just suggested we put into the emergency reserve it would use that temporarily to purchase the building um and I I have some other comments regarding um other funding that we can use for an emergency Reserve that's a little bit later in my report but so $2 million from the emergency reserve it would you we would utilize almost the entire Capital fund balance leaving about 33,000 remaining there's about and by Capital fund balance what I'm referring to is the there's been monies set aside before I even came here like on an annual basis um that was allocated to each department so that they could um replace equipment um their needs you know primarily in public works and and that the Departments that have larger Capital needs so that's been accumulating there but because now of so much having been destroyed and being replaced through insurance proceeds and with um payment reimbursements they really isn't so much of an immediate need to replace equipment right now at least not for a couple of months and so I think by it would be safe to utilize that 1.9 or almost $2 million there that's in the capital fund just for a couple of months and then when it'll be replenished once we get the $8 million we also have $1 million that was allocated from the arpa fund to pay to help um a mat to match a grant of $1 million for the ball field so there was something that was proposed before hurricane Ian to redeveloped the ball fields and we received a grant for $1 million and then we have this $1 million from arpa that was going to be our match well that project is being delayed or has been delayed and won start probably until maybe closer to the end of the year it's just going out for um bid now so we we can utilize those funds temporarily um there's also $875,000 that's unspent in the arpa fund that we can utilize and then we have that $155,000 that's kind of accumulated over the last couple of years um as a result of short-term rental fees um and and a couple years ago was proposed that a certain portion of the short ter rental fee would go towards Workforce housing and so $155,000 is sitting in that account that we can use the cash from temporarily and then we have still um more than $2 million in the general fund that's unassigned and that's because even though we just ended the year and we're utilizing most of that unassigned balance from the end of last year we've continued to um accumulate Savings in the general fund that is is available temporarily so that's that's the source of all of the entire $8 million and so that's being um will be presented to the Town Council at their next meeting for approval to utilize those loans um will they have a meeting before you had the closing yes oh yes it's we couldn't do it without their approval I mean we wouldn't do it without so it's I just wanted to let you know since this was our first opport or an only opportunity to meet before Town Council me I wanted to make sure you had an opportunity to express any thoughts or concerns about it before it moveed Forward is the money coming from the state guaranteed to be by a certain date it's not guaranteed um but they're they've been as realistic and honest with us I believe I mean they they could have tried to lead us along and telling us well no you'll have it before the building but they're seeming to be very honest and saying there it's in the process of approval right now now the agreement on their end and they're expecting I asked if it would be possible to have it for our next town council meeting they said no there it's it's not possible but we should have it for the next mon so I think I think they're being realistic with their setting like you know we're covering this ourselves waiting for that money to come in during Prime hurricane season yes well um I guess I could just jump ahead to that on on my next page of report we would be taking that $2 million away but we also have almost $4 million left in the bridge alone and that specifically the terms of the bridge loan it can be used for emergency response so then that really gives us almost $6.5 million on hand in case of such an emergency so that's the only reason why I even Dar um suggest anything like that we can't use the emergency fund I'm sorry the bridge loan directly to pay for the building but this is kind of like an indirect way to use what we do have while at the same time um reducing the risk um emergency okay um but it sounds like it's going to be more than $8 million though the building yes it will and the the additional cost I think the the full cost is about 10,700 th000 roughly 10.7 million but that also includes the purchase of the adjacent property the building itself is 7 million the adjas property is like 1.7 million um it's closing cost of about 55,000 and then we have um the um the it's not exactly renovation but the the modifications that needed to be made to the building itself so that it'll be functional like with the the chambers um for the Town Council meetings um there's most of the office space is is good to go it's just maybe fresh paint and some fresh uh squares um new Furnishings so they're thinking they can do all of that um with that remainder of of the $10.7 million balance and the difference between the 8 million and the 10.7 that 2.7 would be all insurance proceeds that we received from town hall and um also from the contents as well so we do have that it's just 8 million yeah what about has there been any conversation with regard to the the vacant I guess now vacant lot or land for Town Hall was I is that something that the town would consider telling I I think that's one of the options they're considering I think people have different ideas I don't they I'm not aware of any plan official plan um but I know different ideas have been proposed and discussed okay well then um just to move along then to um the preliminary budget I did send out to the Town Council um for the June July 15th deadline the preliminary version of the the budget and that was the best of our ability to pull it together at what we knew at the time and so I did send you um a summary of that it's about eight pages long and that was one of the things in the the packet um I I don't want to um take too much time to go over it but I I can hit some highlights and on the first page I'm just um indicating the increase in the tax B value was almost $1.4 million 54% increase and so by utilizing the same millage rate that would increase our Revenue by almost $1.4 million and it it is actually more than $1.4 million over what we budgeted for last year so that that was a significant increase um as a result of the taxable value of property and that's of course is included in the budget and it's needed in the budget and that is what has helped us to balance the budget Joe do I understand correctly to this 54% increase in the taxal value for Fort Meers Beach compared to Santa Bell is % oh I that's what's in the news yeah right I don't know if it's accurate or not but that seems to be what's voting around but I I couldn't comment on that I I don't have that figure in my head but I I I do know ours was a greater increase than theirs but the exact amount I I don't know at the moment um okay so one of the things that I was trying to do in my original proposal when we were talking about setting the maximum millage rate is I was trying to make sure that we have enough funding going forward to be able to contribute at least at the time I came up with um $435,000 a year to the emergency reserve and so given the fact that we were short um and we were short my target was like 3.5 million and we were short by 1.6 million and so I thought if we could just at least inch way closer to that 35 million by putting 435,000 in over the next um 4 years that we should should do that and I thought it would justify asking that the mill rate be increased by the Four Points in order to do that but now that we have an increase in taxable Revenue greater than what was originally expected at the time I made the proposal to increase the millage rate we it's now evident we do not need to increase the millage rate and that the increase in taxable value alone and the increase tax revenue was enough to provide sufficient funding to still make the $435,000 contribution to the emergency Reserve each year on top of this this $2 million that we're putting in because each year we do spend money out of the emergency reserve and responding to even the minor um tropical storms and hurricanes so we we have to have some something in there to be um to utilize and so this would at least provide for that um then I I did do a comparison um year-over-year um in just rough categories um this is on page two of the 2024 budget to the 2025 budget so base revenues um really are about the same um we're using we'll be using a little bit less of the bridge loan but it's the ad tax revenue that's really increased um our budget is next year is also going to include the full spending of the estro boulevard landscape Reserve that's the money we received from Lee County and has been sitting in our fund balance so it's it's in the budget to spend it all it doesn't necessarily mean it will all be spent but at least the provision is there but that that's it has nothing to do with Revenue this was Revenue received in the past but it's just utilizing the fund balance um last year we transferred in um 831,687 amount of a grant to pay for the entire amount so then that was brought into this year's budget back into this year's budgets to again to help avoid a migrate increase this year but we're not we're not needing to do that next year and it's um so that's why that is gone um last year we we utilized $175,000 of the health insurance reserve and that was to facilitate the the trans or the switching to um providers um and that was to help pay the run out claims of the previous provider so our base expenses have gone up about $800,000 um our a stero Boulevard landscape expense um is also I'm not sure why it's showing as a negative I think those are just the variances um and then we're we're we're doing oh okay so we're spending $782,000 more that's why it's it's a negative there but yet we're bringing in um almost that same amount of additional um revenue and then we're we're transferring $210,000 more to the reserve so that accounts for the differences from year to year and just a a a broad overall sense to help understand you know what's changed and I think also by realizing that we're not going to be doing the transfer from ARA we're not going to be doing that transfer from the capital fund that's really $1.3 million alone that we're not having on hand to do and that that's where that $1.3 million went to in the increase in adorm tax revenue okay the the Personnel budget um it's it's changed quite a bit in terms of um over the year in terms of the organizational structure the titles of positions and that was just a way to um accommodate the the change and operating needs that emerged as as the town went through last year and as under Andy and PR's leadership on what they were able to devise as a as a better way to manage things as they were now that but in so doing um that resulted in a 25 um 20 a reduction of 25 positions and this there's a on page three there's just kind of a little bit of a list of how that all occurred but but I will say that 16 of those positions of the 25 is that we're Contracting those positions instead of hiring them so although it's reduction and Personnel it doesn't correlate you know entirely to savings because we're still paying for them on a contractual basis um the budget does include a 1 8% incre Cola increase um and this was measured as of May we'll look again as of July to see what it is because that'll be closer to our our um fiscal year the beginning of our fiscal year but just year over-ear it seemed like May was a good point to measure that change because that's the point at which a year ago is when we were establishing next year's budget so that kind of a reflection of where payroll expenses have gone over this past year um there's also the fact that people stay an additional year longer they move up um in their job grade salary grade level and so there's about $50,000 set aside and that's really almost twice as much as what's necessary but it's just there to be a cushion in case any new positions are hired that requiring um greater than currently budgeted salaries just to have some flexibility there and then there's also an amount of $97,000 that's a performance-based one-time bonus and it's a provision it's not a guarantee um and it's still yet to be determined how or if that's going to be um utilized but it's just something there for the employees is the cola a one time also or is that baked into their salaries then well it'll well it'll be baked into their salaries but of course if it goes down then that would mean that next be you know it would be also so it it's factored in the whole the whole um salary grade moves up by that um Cola increase for all employees so that is an across the board um increase which would mean according to the town Charter that 1.8% would also be applied to the Town Council Members since that's since they're tight to any across the board increases um and then we have the F and the retirement portions of those expense so all of that together is an additional $365,000 now what was the increase for all the contractors cuz you had just the decrease here where is that well I I was wondering where it would be because you have a decrease of 25.7 almost 26 people yes but then you had increase for contractors right oh in terms of the cost cost yeah well I think I thought I had it in here somewhere but um from what I remember to we we thought it would be less expensive to hire employees our employees but it turned out it's actually I think about $200,000 less to do the to go the contractor route so that's also factored into this decision so by by not having those EMP employees it's let's save about $200,000 in terms of budget terms okay but Joe is that the is that the plan going forward keeping the headcount the same and just using contract are you well got a I mean this was this in Building Services I mean and I really I couldn't say for certain that that's the the plan I mean things Change Daily so I think the town is constantly trying to adjust to what's best um so if the contractor rates start to go up and it again looks like it would be better to hire own people then I think they would be willing to switch back to that other methodology but for right now this seems to be the best route to go um I'm sorry then on page five then that's this is just kind of a summary of the the the capital budget for the Departments that I was referring to earlier there's a beginning accumulated balance in total of about $2 million and we're budgeting about um a a third of it to be spent during the year and there's nothing specific it's just there so that the money is already budgeted in case somebody needs something and it's nobody's nobody's tied to this certain amount um this is flexible and we can make a budget adjustment if necessary it's just a way to try to to try to plan um but there are no specific Replacements in my is just to have something there in case something is needed um and then also included in the capital fund they have some onetime special projects and that's the athletic fields in other words the ball field um but it goes beyond the ball field there's pickle ball courts there's tennis courts there's all all of that and it's a $3 million project um there's Beacher nourishment of $8.9 million and then the remainder of the Estero Boulevard lighting is 3.8 or almost $3.9 million um then we have the hurricane I recovery Loan Fund this is a $5 million loan that we have but it's very specific to it's to be used as our source of cash for a very few select projects that have been pre-approved by thema and so for any of those we can use that cash to pay for and then when FEMA reimburses us it goes back to the state rather than to us so this is a way to have $5 million of cash upfront for any of those projects um and then I don't want to take up too much more of your time we there's just some basic notes on the building fund The Debt Service fund that Debt Service fund is how we're repaying back the capital improvement loan um it's been preset at $581,000 a year and so and that that's just going forward that that's the rate we'll pay until the loan is paid off and then of course we have the the bridge loan that we understand there's um efforts being made we have an extra two at the end of that I apologize there's efforts being made to um have that forgiven but in the meantime um a 10-year extension had been signed into law and we're waiting for a revised agreement from Deo um and that Community enhancement fund loan that $10 million loan that expired this last May so that's no longer available and then we have the storm water and water funds um there's still some work that needs to be done on those budgets especially um recalculating the rates going forward um that's a bit of a a small project to do that but that's not yet taken into account here and then we have the American Rescue plan fund that is we need to have all the funds um either spent or obligated and by obligated that would mean by um having contracts in place to spend those funds and then they need to actually be expended two years from this December okay um and then we have the new cdbg drr planning Grant that's um almost $1.6 million so that budget has been incorporated into next year um and this this is a a completely new Grant um it's and I just to read what I quoted in here it's to mitigate future risks ensure continuity of critical service Services protect vulnerable populations and strengthen the community's resilience against Natural and climate related hazards so basically this is going to pay for Consultants to help us do that type of planning over the next 18 months and this is being was awarded to us through cdbg drr funding so that incorporate or that covers um the preliminary budget I had submitted on um July 15th but then since then there have been some new things that have come to light and so I just sent out last night a a revision and these are I would say in terms of the size of the budget these are very minor but the Florida Department of Revenue told L that will be receiving $65,000 Less in state shared revenue and all that means is so we we reduce that Lineum but with then we also increase the bridge loone light item since that's related to Hurricane um Ian's impact um the mount housee actually increased their revenue by 2,500 so that net difference um means that we would only need to use $62,500 more of the bridge loan um the mount house also reviewed their budget in more detail and one of the things that came to light was there was an a position that was accidentally left out of their budget and so by having to put that position back in um and then adjusting some a few of the other line items that increase their budget by $83,000 then um after reviewing the whole budget in its entirety um gfoa recommends that we set aside 2% in a contingency line item in the general fund and so because the entire size of the the size of the entire budget increased we needed to increase the contingency by 25,000 um then um on a better um news front I was able to develop a cash flow forecast which is the very first one I think we've ever had U for the general fund um so that took some time but I was able to complete it before this meeting and with that revealed is our cash balance looks to be more than sufficient to be able to generate a total of $15,000 more interest in what I had budgeted because I was really trying to be conservative and concerned that we may not you know be able to um do what it looked like we could do but I'm much more confident now so I was able to increase the interest Revenue by 105,000 so that helped to offset the increase to the contingency and to the additional funding needed um for the employee in the mount house um and then there's some other minor changes that were made we had to rebalance the um liability insurance expense distribution throughout all the funds um and then a couple of minor changes to workers comp so I just wanted to make sure that all of that was out there since it's different and I even provided the line item detail um not that you probably would care but just for full transparency it's all there oh I love it and then last but not least is the cash flow forecast for the general fund and what this is showing is that you know we're starting out with about 5.6 million um as we move forward in August and then we we do um loan the $2,155 th000 to purchase the building and that comes out of the general fund that's the $2 million of unassigned and 155,000 of Workforce Development it just it only brings us down to about three and a half million and then after it's repaid it goes back up again but I thought that was important to see what the low point would be because buried in that balance is also those is also the emergency reserve and the operating reserve of the general fund which is 2,550,000 so that gives us like a million dollar cushion on top of that for emergencies so that was comforting to see that and then this is what I use to calculate um the earned interest okay um just curious why does the payroll number jump so much in August in oh there's um three three this is Cash based so there's three um payrolls instead of oh every it's every two weeks makes sense so I TR to take that into account as well okay so I think that covers everything in my report um of course then I provided you copies of the financial statements um through May and we're just about to have June finished um and the last thing then would be a discussion of the RFP for the Auditors and the reason why this is being brought to you now and is being considered is ever since I got here there's been talked that we need need we need to consider changing the Auditors it's been the same Auditors we we do not have a problem with the Auditors and I I didn't even realize that their contract is for one more year so but it it was asked that we cons it be considered um the Otter's still online yes well I mean this is a public meeting right so I mean he's welcome to be there so it's it's really your opinion as to whether we should move forward one more year with the current Auditors and then issue an RFP or if you think that there's reason to issue an RP now I was totally in your purview because you are the audit committee and that's one of your primary responsibilities but the current agreement yeah calls for them to also uh provide audit services for 20124 apparently I didn't even know that so um that's I believe that be the case then me I would think any RFP we would do now we have to redo right because it would be dated information that's true so I um I only prepared it only in case that's how you wanted to proceed I knew if that's the direction you wanted to take we had almost no time to get this done right so that's the only reason why um it was prepared yeah I just assume that their contract was completed right so we'd be looking for the next fiscal year but if they're still under contract com I'm good either way but it seems like a lot of work that we're going to have to redo again right you guys are in this business for Liv so I mean is there a penalty to break the contract why would we break it well it is it council's asking us this yes they I think they were concerned um they just they just didn't trust what was happening in the past and I mean maybe I shouldn't say that in public but um my that's my impression maybe no one's outwardly told me that and so I think and it's not that they was distrust of the Auditors I think they were just distrusted the whole situation process yes so I think they they thought that it should be reconsidered at the earliest opportunity and we knew we couldn't and this is when I first came in and we certainly couldn't do it right then because we were just in the midst of the audit and we finished the audit so late last year and had to get started as soon as possible it wasn't a good time to even consider it done but now that we're more on track it seemed like this was a possibility but it's not I mean I'm certainly not recommending it or please don't think of it as a recommendation I'm just trying to facilitate what you may like to do if you choose to do that Scott can you give us any additional insight well I like like Joe said I I I think there was just uh some distrust about the whole overall process it wasn't really the auditor per se it was just the overall everything that was going on I I I think we're fine now I I can't speak for the other council members but I I you know Joe's done a fantastic job and and like the auditor said how we you know are in the position we are right now is is fantastic so I I think I I personally feel that you know we we're doing a great job and and things are going great but I I think there was some questions you know in the past but I I I think we're good and I would recommend that you guys recommend that we we continue with this audit uh Team I'm okay yes Scott this Brian just a couple of thoughts because I was around on the committee when some of this took place uh it just wasn't very transparent it wasn't completely transparent uh there was changes and issues that didn't really get communicated to the audit committee that were kept within you know the financial department here and I think the more questions people ask is kind of like what why can't we get 100% disclosure and transparency and it's like my words not what was delivered to us exactly was like kind of got a little pad on the head and said well it's really complicated and you guys might not really follow this or understand it and just you know let let let let guidance within staff um be responsible and I I think that got everybody's backup a leave I know I did mine does that go along with before we were talking about like going back and in the friends I got it or whatever but I think we're in a good place right now I find the same okay and actually that's one of the reasons why I think I know it's overwhelmed you with detail but I wanted to be as fully transparent as I could possibly be because if to whatever extent it was with the town within the finance department or coming out of the finance department that lack of transparency I wanted to make sure that that was no longer the case and so I hope that I've accomplished that um I would totally prer that we're way more transparent and like Brian said just the lack of transparency in the past you know it raises red flags but I I think we're in a great place right now and and you know we just continue on hello can I S yeah thank you of um I guess we're hard to see up on the screen I guess um I I am full support of keeping the contract and letting them finish their term but I would suggest since all of us may have done a little work on this RFP that we send our suggestions to Joe on the side so that when he gets to it next time around assuming Council agrees with us when he gets to it next time around he already has some input that's I think it's a great idea yeah so if each one of uh the uh committee members uh would email directly to Joe uh to add because I've been an offender uh we can't copy everybody U because that violates Sunshine so if you send something to Joe it can only be to Joe or or other staff correct but not other committee members so but do we know what in the existing RFB I I don't even know how I would know what to tell you um well what oh I mean if we're looking for next year is that what we're talking about okay I did send a copy of the RFP okay to you and so if it wasn't clear in the massive attachments I sent to you where it was but um yes so you you should have that and basically it's the same RFP as last time it's just that um some of the language was updated especially the description of the Town basically um that that was all it's it's standard audit RFP language um okay any other comments or questions uh regarding the audit for the RFP for the audit excuse me okay what what do we need to make motion on I think um if you made a motion to um renew the contract with um our existing Auditors to not break the contract to well um that's true not to break the contract but there is um a new engagement letter that needs to be authorized so maybe um we probably better at wording it than I would be but no so so I think yeah we are uh I guess the motion would be we'll continue uh for the contractual commitment for the current Auditors M and Jenkins and that in going forward um the Audi committee members will share information any comments they have back with you regarding the RFP uh and that'll be the basis for that working document as we go forward I guess we' ask as changes come in and everything's complete obviously maybe resend that out to all the committee members for final review or or input yes I we'll do that thank you I second it thank you so Joe just a just a general question so that contract it's my so that contract that we have with them is that supposed to go through next year and I don't understand so we well it's so we're note I'm sorry I thought you were finished with your question um my question was my I'm sorry about that my question was what is the original contract going through is it this next audit and then we're going out for an RFP for another four or five years is that the process yes um that's my understanding and I I'll take a a close look at the contract just to make sure there is no misunderstanding but at the moment you know based on what we weight is shared it makes sense because I think this is only the second audit under the current contract and I think you know it's it it was supposed to have been threeyear contract and so the fact that you know he's mentioned that it should also be for 2024 makes sense and so I believe that you know it would be after that point after the 2024 audit would be completed that then we would consider um issuing an RFP okay thank you all right thanks Michael any other comments okay moving on member reports do we have to do all in favor thank you um back to the motion in place uh Deborah remind me uh all those in favor of the motion please signify by saying I I I I all oppos same sign okay motion carries thank you member items in reports I don't know that we have anything well this was the one I thinked maybe we have less uh of that detail that Joe's been giving us especially when he prints it out and that we go to more of a summary format sure so and I and I think he's already taken that suggestion yeah without it being moved right right which is great did you have something Michael yeah I was just wondering what the status was of your accounting software search that you were is that still going on thank you Mike I forgot to mention that um Frankie caek he's reached out to the three vendors um that he could find that seemed to meet the criteria um and so I'm I just I think last week the last few days of last week um they reached out to me to set up demos and so what I would like to do is our our accounting manager is currently out of the office and we'll be back I think the end of this week um but so she's obviously a key person to sit in on the demo so the soonest it could be set up I would think would be like the following week like next week and then what I would like to do is I assume it'll be they'll be online whenever they're arranged I can send an invo to all of you so that you can also sit in on it if you're interested or available um to see what what they are um um and if they do provide us with any you know information I can share that with you as well but that that's I so I think we're moving closer and I'm as much work as it'll be to do the implementation um I think we're we're getting into a better spot where we could handle it better especially next year um so we're we're getting closer I think to actually doing it and it'll be a welcome change because what we have now is this very limiting it's not horrible but it's just makes some of our work much more time consuming than it needs to be have we asked our Auditors their opinion of those three um no we haven't so we we is that a recommendation I'll certainly will I like it okay I will ask them and Joe I saw something in the uh Financial packet that the at least the budget for the software is like $100,000 is that annual and in your experience is that a reasonable number for the you're looking at well we I have no idea how much it's going to cost and I'm honestly I'm I'm a bit concerned that what we're trying to budget is not going to be enough and what we have budgeted is like roughly $30,000 well no I could be wrong what I what I budgeted was an additional $100,000 above what we are currently paying for the year okay we're we're not paying very much for what we have now which explains why we it can't do very much um so I know we're going to have to pay more to get more and hopefully it won't be something that would be outside of the budget but we'll find out and we'll have to make decisions accordingly thank you okay um we down to the next meeting day yes and I was told uh I think because of the holiday in September that the normal meeting date of the second Monday is not possible because the um the town council meeting has to be on that day so we'd be looking more towards the end of the month if you even would like to meet um again I mean I don't I don't think you'd want to meet in August or would you I mean typically in the past the the Committees did not meet in the summer like that okay um to take a break but I'm I'm I'm good either way I'd kind of like to get feedback from the committee if anybody has an opinion um that we so this is what July I guess right um so do we meet in August end or September or September only or wait until October because it sounds like everybody's coming back U does anyone have an opinion I'm here full time full time I'm here all the time okay what some people on the screen would it be would it be help I'm like David I'm not back until mid October but I'm happy to do a zoom call that helps in any way okay Barbara any thoughts I'm in and out start coming back in September I'm here fulltime the end of October okay okay and I'm here I'll be back the first part of October if it would help I could still continue to send you a monthly report so at least you're kind of kept up to date on where where we're at so that there's no surprises along the way and then that way when we do meet it wouldn't be overwhelming okay well it sounds like with peoples other than the four that are here the other committee members possibly are coming back sometime in October right so I guess I would suggest unless there's reason not to uh that we not have our next meeting then until October that work for everybody was that the second Monday in October I that's um that is the normal date yes oh it's it's a holiday the second Monday is the 14th which is on day yeah oh no is that a national H day I I don't know we what actually I can look Columbus Day I know columus I never got it off I either Columbus find the kusiv is that the time and that's right after your fiscal year your end are you going to be super busy well we're always super busy but it's all right I'm October 15th is my maybe what I could do is is find out what are the available times and do what I did before kind of send that out to you and then you can let let me know which great that would great okay I'll do that no meetings in August or September maybe he's going to send out a okay um well that being said do we have a motion for jit a motion toj for second bar Barbara thank you barara second okay yes we areour thank you Brian oh and if you could um fill this out