we thank you right now for thank for this Lord we ask you to be with us we go through representable to to the state to all our thank you right now we ask your help Father we know that we need your help and we thank you love you what you done what you want to do and we thank you these blessings BL we ask in Jesus name amen flag of the United States of America and the stand [Music] [Music] na one to our 24 2025 budget Workshop 9:00 a.m. Monday July 15 [Music] 2024 a conference line set up the conference line is 917 91022 access code 32347 pound number and the chairperson open the meeting for public comment please follow you speak please di star five the moderator will unmute your line it's your turn to speak and notify you by announcing the last four digits of your telephone number please announce your name and address you'll be allowed to speak for 3 minutes any person wishing to address the board regarding an agenda not will be giving three minutes for comment comment only speak all right so this is a Workshop we won't really need an approval of the [Music] agenda move on to item four the hold budget Workshop discuss all aspect year 2024 priori I'll start so Danielle's got her her normal presentation that she goes through do the overview for everything um so she'll she'll do that just like we always do so if you got any questions down and ask her at the end what those questions are before you get started though I did want to introduce y'all to Laura Brock she's with us today from the finance department you may have seen her before and you probably get emails from her with the accounts payables but Carly who was here before you know she took the job over at the city and LA's taking on her responsibility added car responsibility she's helping Danielle this year with thece this morning and and let them they can go ahead and get started and do their their presentation ready you okay so we will start with the certified values um received from the property Fraser for the year 2024 in the general fund um the preliminary gross tax B value is 1 b960 million the final certified value for 2023 was 1,966 Million which ends up being a gross taxable value decrease of 5,822 th000 which is a 30% decrease for the mstu unincorporated area the preliminary gross tax bill value for 2024 is 1 b640 million the final certified value for 2023 was 1 b655 million which is a gross taxable value decrease of 4,967 th000 which is a 90% decrease so this shows the current year mil rate compared to the roll back rate the budget that we'll be discussing was prepared based on keeping the millage rate the same which actually brings in a decrease of revenue for the coming year the current millage rate is 7.24 26 Mills in the general fund and 1. 12250 Mills for the mstu the roll back rate is the rate in order to bring in the same amount of Revenue as a prior year which for the coming year the roll back rate is actually higher the proposed aggregate millage rate represents a 1.40% decrease below the roll back rate as a result of the decrease in Gross taxable values for 2024 the roll back rate would represent a millage rate increase so for the 2023 2024 fiscal year um the general fund final adjusted Revenue was 4,242 and by keeping the same mill rate it will generate 14,2 200,000 which is a 30% decrease of 42169 for the 2324 fiscal year mstu final adjusted Revenue was 2, 28,000 and for the 2425 fiscal year the same millage rate should generate 2 mil 9,000 which is the0 90% decrease of 18335 so in total keeping the millage rates the same for the upcoming fiscal year of 25 should generate 16 million 210,000 which is a decrease of 6054 and 37% decrease this is an overall of the entire budget including all funds total budget request right now for the 2425 fiscal year is 100, 655,000 it is an increase of1 19,99 128,000 over the current fiscal year so this next slide is we start with a general fund the avalor on taxes are based on keeping the milit rate the same and again it's a decrease of 42169 moving to the rest of the revenues um EDR is not provided the estimates as of today for the state shared revenues and sales taxes so based on the estimates um I budgeted a slight decrease on the half cent sales taxes but an increase in the state shared tax state shared revenues and that's again based on estimates I look at the past couple of years and what we've received this year uh budgeted an increase in the ad on tax revenue offset this is based off of a formula and is received because we're fiscally constrainted County and the estimate is again based off of what we've received the past couple of years so it is an increase um there is a significant increase in state grants it includes the restore act projects Courthouse Improvement Grants and a few others the net overall recurring Revenue increased by 5.6 million and the cash carry forward estimate the budget with the cash carry forward estimate the budgeted Revenue in the general fund is 47,51 14,000 on the expenditure side all Department with personal services and the Constitutional officers reflect the dollar and hour increase retirement and there were some health insurance premium changes that Gary's going to discuss there was also an estimated property insurance increase of 10% Auto liability and workers comp were 5% so there is an increase to the BCC personal services and operating expenditures in the general fund that then you go to the transfer to Constitution officers again they reflect the dollar an hour and they're going to talk about their budgets during their presentations so overall the operating expenditures requested have increased by 778 th000 and then you go into the legally designated funds and those are legally designated on how they can be used and they have their own designated Revenue other recurring expend fures are ems the tcda and the health department and the next group is the new Grant funded Capital it is shown as an expense but the revenue is coming in to offset either all of it or percent of the Grant and this is about in just the general fund it's about 23% of I'll Rec I'm gon recalculate that I'll let you know I have it at about 34% of what the general fund is just the general fund not the overall budget so Mara is fixing the slide but your next page in your handout that you have this is the new non-recurring capital that's in the budget and total 72,000 so the total expenditures budgeted is 3,437 th000 before the Capital adjustment and when I say Capital adjustment because I reduce the general fund Reserve by the capital I go ahead and Bri like [Music] that and so with the recurring Revenue being 30, 14,760 and the recurring expenditure after the capital adjustment being 29 m733 the revenues exceed the expenditures resulting in an excess of 28,9 31 right now this is a list of what is designated to be funded with um Carry forward it's Capital Improvements or projects that will not be funded completely before the end of the fiscal year and they carry over and they're currently funded with um designated money and it's the same with the legally designated funds they're funds that have a reserve or a sinking fund and they're legally restricted on how they can be used and the next page is the general fund Reserves Capital Improvements already reflect the new capital request and is subject to change between now and September um I'll adjust it if needed before the hearings in September um as a reminder for this fiscal year um because you'll notice there is an increase in the reserve for Capital Improvement of the 4.5 million when we had budget last year we reduced our um Capital by $3 million in anticipation of our hurricane expenses because we didn't know what those were going to be and so that 3 million was put back in here so that 3 million is part of this four and a half so that is one reason why that is such a large amount so the total expenditures budgeted in the general fund including recurring non-recurring and designated is 47,3 64,000 so in the mstu we've budgeted the avalor on taxes based on keeping the millage rate the same and it is a decrease of 18, 335 we're anticipating an increase in other revenue and it's mainly due to the avalor tax offset increase the inter fund transfer from the general fund is used to offset the calls that County Fire answers inside the city limits and the transfer is based on the fire department's actual fiscal year end budget and the percentage of calls the other transfer is from the small county S tax fund which is used to offset the capital request the total recurring Revenue is3 Milli 753 th000 so the total revenue budget is 5.7 million there is an overall decrease in the expenditures in the mstu fund that is because the capital request is less than the previous year and the health insurance premium reduction but the dollar per hour increase along with the retirement and property insurance has been budgeted the county match for the fire station is also budgeted at 700,000 um that was discussed insd of last year during budget Workshop so that power repl it again this year and it's been reduced from the reserve from Capital the recurring expenditures minus the fire station match is 3,735 th000 the budgeted recurring revenue is 3,753 and the budget of recurring expenditures is 3,735 creating an excess of 18288 and then this shows the amount of the cost of the dollar per hour for all employees and constitutional officers and has been reflected in the appropriate departments the general fund includes some County departments as well as the Constitutional officers then you have the airport Bridge mstu Solid Waste Landfield ship and the Airport Enterprise fund and the estimated cost of the dollar including the salary benefits is 685 516 so that's it for what I have for right now we normally let everybody present and then talk about everything else [Music] go ahead and move to off I don't know any questions [Music] [Music] sheriff sheriff have on the list he's the sheriff's coming Thursday with Marty I believe they're scheduled for Thursday so I'm just listening all right so we'll bring [Music] [Applause] [Music] then we got two yeah okay anybody else like one right up here okay good morning everyone thank you for having me and um thank you for being willing to listen to this presentation that hopefully will bring you good news that we were potentially dreading but I think was uh held off for another year or so so um if you would look with me on page two of the presentation I have first of all I just like to say if you'all have any questions during any of these slides any of these uh points just please let me know and I'll be glad to explain them and go into detail however you need uh page two we've got the 2024 County tax school value and we've got real property at 62% of that taxable value and TPP at 38% in 2023 these percentages were around 43 to 57 um but this is kind of the beginning stages of Shifting uh those percentages due to the gc's tal personal property account and like I said in Prior years this county is a little bit different when that comes to those percentages a lot of these percentages in uh other counties especially more developed counties that r property is is usually over 75% and the t is a little less so but of course like I said we we'll start to see that shift with uh with GPS closing down over the next couple years we'll definitely see that percentage shift um page three this is your 2024 real property taxable value breakdown improved Residential Properties make up 57% of that taxable value value commercial being 12% agricultural being 177% other 3% and vacant residential 12% these percentages were very similar to 2023 we didn't really see a change in that page four improved residential Parcels so these are all of your Parcels that have residential buildings on them they are 6 2% are single family residences 37% are mobile homes and 1% are apartments and condos and that is the exact same percentages as last year so even whether it's new construction or new mobile homes being placed that change and uh page five comes to exemption percentages out of all the residential paral in TOA County 62% are homestead and 38% are not Homestead and that is the exact same from 2023 as well so um it kind of details the amount of permanent residents versus second homes or rental homes for all residential units it kind of just gives you a snapshot um and and then it also lets you know that the majority of homes in Taylor County are occupied by home sets the the more than half yes sir so the effect of that as far as taxes go or increase value so if they if it increases the values increase homee can only increase 3% great point and a nonh homee increase 10% only 10% um on every taxing Authority except for the schools okay so that's a great point that he makes that even though these values do continue to rise if that is what the market presents then then 62% are protected under that 3% homestead exemption and that save our homes cap so we're not really seeing the revenues on those that you would on those non-homesteaded those second homes the vacation homes the apartments things like that that only have a 10% cap so it's definitely that a very good not the single res only get 3% increases if they're if they're yeah that's the main thing yeah so uh like a lot of the I'll take uh The Landings in s hatche for example the majority of those homes I'd say 90% are all vacation homes and they don't have that protected 3% cap every single year based on the sales in that market if it if their value goes up every single year their value will their taxable value will increase by 10% 10% not not sh sorry RV um RV's or that have RVs on them where are how are they represented in this graph in this graph they would be represented as non pars yeah but on I think maybe the graph on page are they considered improved or they're consider improved okay thank you any other questions until we move on I got one question yes sir a lot somebody had a camper the beach and it they bought it for $80,000 now they're selling for $50 all that mhm you know so it you you increase their value of their taxes right correct right statutorily I must So based off of those sales if there was not just one sale but usually a market area so it and that can vary even in Cedar Island I have four different Market areas just because there's very different sales um so just based on that market area if there was one two three usually three sales then we'll take the those are you know considered the sales comparisons and we uh and we use those based off that yes and then statutorily those change every year so of course if those those sales start to show to come down the assessments would come down as well what if that trailer was a homestead that camper was a homestead I'm going to assess the camper if it's a homestead I'm assessing the camper you are um let's see Page Six you know we've always put this this graphic in the packet but this year I want to really hone in on it because y'all as a board and the tcda have you know something to really think about in the future and this map right here kind of helps you in that cause so we have over 667,000 acres of land here in our amazing Town 56% of that is owned by Four Rivers as you see in the light green and then the dark green is ADD classifications the orange estate conservation and the blue is private cons conservation so everything left in white is either developable or uh potential Revenue sources so it's not that much if you can just it's not that much compared to other counties especially they don't have that looks like this if their Maps if their Maps had this green and orange it would just it would be it would be more white than it would be anything it would be more potential Revenue so so I know y'all aren't dealing with or y'all may not have the most uh you know land like other counties or or sources like other counties but if y'all ever need any Maps like this that show this information or anything like that especially for the coastline especially for some of these areas uh that could be developed or could be used for industrial purposes please come to my office and and and get them we'd be more than happy to provide them um and the information that goes along with them but you know even on the other side of that this definitely says that we're a very preserved County that our county has natural resources and natural beautiful landscape that a lot of counties may not have so yeah okay that's much feel about that one the brown yeah orang conservation y there no building those you got on the coast so and they do not give us any money for is there any money coming from the state no they're F them from property taxes but in other counties right on the coast you don't have this much Brown you got it you got it that's right what would it take for the county to go to the state and ask them to give up some of this for potential resources phenomenal question I think it depends if you're it depends on can you speak up or usual I'm sorry I think um I think it would just depend on which areas you're speaking of because I know that the like the Cass preserve right that is in I think forever and I mean honestly usually a lot of them are but yeah it's definitely a great thought or a great point you know something that's worth shot but but yes that that's something that definitely is is noticeable too is that a lot of these other counties coastlines that have these revenues from this from the tourism that that these coastlines produce we don't have that real option really because of these this the state planned all the sign so yeah be a great point to pursue so what do we do that secret what guess so you know just want know yeah I think I think it's a great you see yeah which you know whether that's what you want for this County or not but um it definitely it definitely changes the landscape and the revenue uh potential absolutely so yeah that's definitely something to talk to your you know legislators about or or even the governor's office that owns that land yeah SE grass preservation is is pretty far reached because it it limits all those aspects even to the sense of putting in like a orer clam Farm you're not do it in that area because of that preservation we' looked at trying to have and no dring I mean dredging would be yeah I probably imposs I hate to use the word the condition you know that the our marine agents reported and the ISS the conern Le of SE grass out there you have a pile order to have that changed in my opinion yeah from what I've seen the state doesn't just go and purchase land for just random reasons they there's a reason that they have this and um whe whether it's for conservation or you know but but for the most part yeah it's it's fully exempt and it's not on the RO so and that's that's not all that good side to this negative side to right and I understand what you're doing but with the white areas I'd like to get with you and get a bigger more detailed as you know we're aggressively looking for industry anything that we can find so I would like to have yeah absolutely and I'm sure other people want just make me about five copies right abely yes ma'am yes ma'am that's what we're here for anytime you have anything a need like that or or we get calls from the Developers all the time that that need these kind of Ms as well so um yes just give us a call we'll be glad to to [Applause] help page seven what y'all are interested in very intently at this moment in time 2024 County taxable value and we've broken this down by TI so at the bottom there in the the chart it says 2023 find fin the total was 1.9 billion 1.96 and in 2024 preliminary is 1.95 which is a decrease of 5, 800,000 or .3% change and as you can see here that is from the slight increase in real property values that is still just a continuation of this real estate market that were that we're in from 2023 it's again it's statute statutory obligation that I must follow those sales when assessing real property and those sales held pretty steady in most of the county but in SEI beaches it really just continue to exponentially increase so um question yes how does that compare would say three years ago when it seemed like at that time the values the sales were really soaring they were they were really soaring and um there were still a great percentage and I in the next couple of slides will see that kind of broken down um but yes that has that has increased over the last couple years ever since the pandemic and and a lot of people moved to the free state of Florida and they and they wanted to if they were going to be at home they were living in the Sunshine State you know they wanted to at least maybe get a tan on their porch you know like this um but that's really when we started to see those that increase 221 22 23 all this real estate market really started booming in Florida and across the country it started to kind of decreased but in Florida it's stabilizing or still still going up in some areas so yes that has that has increased um but of course in the prior years this tangible personal property had also increased as well based off of gp's tangible personal property count when this year you'll see the first decline uh based off of their uh Tel personal property account and I had a question or may a comment about that maybe it's more Danielle but when we calculate the avalor taxes we we the milit rate against the the total so it's the same the militate applies to the personal property and the real property so it's the same mill rate applies to those so if personal property goes down then that reduces the avor taxes too right right so um but thankfully it it evened out a little bit this year I know that y'all a lot a lot of uh citizens and even some of you on the board were very concerned about this year as far as GP gp's tangible personal property account what that would look like um but from our serious discussions that we had uh we were able to hold hold that off for at least another year sorry I got another question about on the change part so the real property went up 109 million yeah and the person part went down 115 is that mostly GP 115 or is it just probably just not sure if I can answer that legally um Gary but um sure okay yeah yes yeah no I can I just thought about it yes I can yes it is so at least a large portion of it yes oh yes and I say that because the tangible personal property returns are confidential and they are not subject to the Sunshine Law and public records so the information contained in that return that GP gave me and the discussions that I had since then were not you know a product of public record so but the final actual number that will end up on Mark's website as a tax bill is public record so yes I can say that yes that was the majority due to GP but thankfully was not as great as some thought it would be this year so question yes so since you mentioned GP and we're talking about that a little bit can you any way prict next year if nothing changes how that's going to affect us the Ure yes so I'll just kind of go into a little detail of how we assess it so everything is as of January 1 so when they sent that return in this year it was as of January 1 they had closed octob November of 2023 but as of January 1 2024 they were still making statements that they were a working available sellable condition and that's what I really held on to when I had those discussions and how we got that product today now they have closed and now they're saying they're closed as it may so what that looks like for January 1 of next year I I'm going to let y'all think about that but you know yes y'all y'all it it probably will um be greatly affected next year but uh but I will still fight and um put in all the information I can and and time I can to make sure it's very correct and you know we've all heard that they were um taking away a lot of the equipment a lot of the the other things so um is there a way that you can verify what's there what's been taken out I yes ma'am and I uh even this this year in my discussions I took a tour of the site and uh and was given a lot of information from uh the actual company itself what I can't dive into but um but yes they they produce a lot of information um in their in their account and I have expert appraiser that I use every year for this account my utility accounts that we bring in and help us with this but yes we verify very very closely what that information is so that we can get the get B with anything definitely didn't that is proof in the foing this year for next year yes I will not I will not stop no it was uh it was very successful this year and I will not I will not stop I'll continue to do everything in very diligent manner so yes ma'am are there really is there really thing else you could stick up with well I don't know about that I'm just the property prer but no I think I think we did a pretty good job this year want me to this way you know so um yeah no um like I said everything's as of January 1 and now as of this year may of 2024 they are now closed so if that gives you any explanation to what next year might look like hard what what's going to happen next year correct but still that's why I'm holding off on really saying anything um definitive because they could they like they said they they have got some permits that could uh make the the site usable in different areas so we'll just leave it that um moving on page seven anybody anybody other any questions anything like [Music] that page eight okay so like U Miss P was saying this this graph really does show the taxal value Trend through the last couple years and uh that 2018 19 2020 before the real estate boom a lot of those were from the gp's investment in tangable personal property and then 2021 22 and 23 we saw those huge jumps and that was from the real estate market and that's even a great example too of what that real estate Revenue can really do on versus tangible personal property revenue and and investing in uh development or sources of revenue on the real property side that can greatly increase these roles and uh and this real estate MO is a good example so then we see from 2023 to 2024 and that like decrease just based off that one account what is the percent what is the percent of decrease that was that prior page and it was .3% okay value of new construction on page nine so it shows in here from 2011 2019 before the boom construction was pretty across straight across the board and then the the boom started happening and we had 2020 with a high new construction year as well as last year and then so far this year it is decreased but still new construction um at $20 million so so some is page 10 taxable value for market value so this is one of my favorite ones to go through because it it really uh it goes into the details of how we value property and how that starting just value gets down to a taxable value that is the basis of what we pay our taxes on so our total just value is $3.6 billion they at the top and then you subtract your assessment limitations fact add classifications conservation Pollution Control Homestead caps and non-homestead caps for a total assessed value of 2.4 billion then you remove your exemptions which are your homesteads your veterans uh your government exemptions so like you're asking the State Properties that's that government exemption right there 188 million y um institutional Widow widowers uh all the exemptions you you duck from that and then that gets your taxable value at 1.9 billion and and that goes for every single parcel every single parcel that we have starts out at adj Value if they had Homestead they would have that Homestead cap if they had the homestead for a while that would reduce their value and then their exhibtions would reduce their value even more home says it still $50,000 25 it's still it's still 50 yeah it's still 50 for anything that is over 75,000 in value so it it's broken down like this the first 25,000 on your assessment is fully exempt the second 25,000 is fully taxed the third 25,000 so that means if you have assessment over 75 the third 25,000 is exempt except for school taxes based off of the statutes and legislature so yes any other questions on that one that usually a big question one okay uh let's see page 11 number of qualified sales so I want to point out that after the Boom in 2020 so 2021 you see all these sales 2022 decrease of sales 2023 decrease 2024 today it would still be even if that was double it would still be less than last year the reason being the sales the actual number of sales decreased but the sales was price increase supply and demand and so it was resulting in higher Market which resulted in higher assessments what's funny is is back in 2022 someone came in and they said my neighbor just sold his house for this amount of money should I sell mine and I'd say well I don't have a crystal ball I have no idea I said I think I think that's just what that number is so high I can't believe it a couple months later the same person came down and said well that person sold it for double I should have sold my house right then and that's when I knew that this Market just kept growing gr growing so um so no it is definitely uh slowed down I would say in actual sales price increases um but only in certain Market areas in the county what do you think that um so what I mean by that is U like C Hatchy the beaches uh certain parts around the city which I know the city doesn't have anything to do with Y but but yes those markets are still increasing mainly Coastal mainly Coastal mainly Coastal and addition yes we see the high in sales in maybe 2021 or that just folks leaving and folks get out of bigger cities absolutely when when people come in and F foret I love asking the questions what brought you to Taylor County uh you know where are you from and honestly it's like half and half I would say half or from up North and they just want to move to Florida and but they didn't want to move to South Florida you know and I'm not going do every day right now I tell you same places I saw in 2020 different folks anywhere from the Northeast to North California Cami and it's anywhere from single women single mom sing they did out of the hust bule absolutely yeah half are either from South Florida or from a different state moving here a lot a lot the same thing in 22 from all from all yes and I'll even ask I'll say okay for people that were moving to Florida I'd say okay well how did you choose Taylor County they said oh we just pulled up a map and just pointed and that's just where we decided to go and some of them F never hav seen the house over hundreds over hundreds I couldn't believe you here nothing absolutely absolutely so it's definitely a a changing Dynamic but uh we're you know glad to see these these homes and this Revenue sure um I had one guy in a 2022 that was out way out of the city limit and he came here and I asked him the same thing what brought you here all this and then he started on everything that was wrong and he started with with water he wanted to know why he could not get like City water or the county put in some kind of system and I said well sir did you look did you ask about all this before you bought this place all and he said I never saw it and then when they get here then they want they want services that are not going to be available exactly right it was interesting though very much so very much so and I don't know how many you talked to that have purchased a home in 2023 and the hurricane hit a couple weeks later a couple months later you know these people they they they were still willing even though it was Hurricane Seasons even though these were the potential threats they were still willing to move to this this County so so they bought they bought a place a month after the hurricane a month after yes yes yes sir um next page we've got page 12 and then this kind of goes into the um the sales prices of some of these types of homes so the orange line at the top is the single family residence sales and those have steadily increased every year uh let's see the the gry line that is mobile home sales and again stly increased every year and then vacant land uh that one really kind of was was flat for a while while but we've recently seen those really pick up so and I mean and I know the graph doesn't really show the the revenue but I mean these some of these are double the the amounts you know from prior years is that the last page yes okay I just want to make sure um okay now I didn't have the one that we have up there this last page you see the mobile home mobile home did decrease in 2024 and uh single family residence a little bit and and then Bacon Land uh stayed the same so that kind of shows you that overall for the entire County they are kind of staying the same or decreasing a little bit but I feel like the overall coastline is really kind of making that overall on the entire tax roll kind of even off or even go up increase a little bit so that is the situation any questions overall um it just looks like and I'm looking at this last page it just looks like the mobile home sales really took a deal they did it could have been a lot of things could have been the hurricane could have been uh could have been the market but looks like maybe 23 was the anomaly oh high that year for some reason yes people would come in and say well why is my mobile home 30 years old single single wide mobile home assessed this amount and we had to show them these sales of over $100,000 over $150,000 that people were pay people were paying for these 30-y old single single wide mobile homes you know and that that's surely we have to keep up with that so [Music] um oh new price new $300,000 low [Music] is50 okay and then we want to go into my budget we want to say that too [Music] okay um they all have a copy of that okay I'll give you a minute to get if you don't want to flip to your binder you can it's I mean if you want just the total it's on this overall on page nine of the overall [Music] okay so we got a total increase in our budget of 2% and the majority of that is the $1 increases that we spoke of uh in budget talks and uh Personnel Services was almost flat uh $170 increase operating expenses $1,200 and the Department of Revenue requires me to put that $1 increase in the nonoperating and wait for y'all to approve it before we actually put it in Personnel Services so it's already kind of DED out so that you see the amount and percentages that changed um we had quite a few of our uh contracts go up on us this year as far as uh as far as value of course inflation so we really worked hard to cut in other areas to make it not such a huge increase in our operating expenses far as that goes a question our chair at one of our meetings not very long ago had suggested that I guess or just made a general statement for everyone to consider cutting their budget did you get that did you get that uh request yes and that and that is what we really Tred to do as far as as far as the operating expense and the Personnel Services we cut as much as we can to take up for those contractual increases that we so if we didn't cut it would have been much higher than this much higher because of our C system provider our appraisal systems all of these things that it would have increased much more than this just well I know that everybody has got to keep in mind here on right okay and next year and unless we have a miracle these numbers are going to be much lower and it's going to come a time that everybody if nothing changes you're going to have to cut whatever that means absolutely and as you know yes you know you only have so much money to you only have so much money absolutely and when that's gone when we don't have it then hard decisions will have to be made by everyone yes so I I just you know we're looking at increases we're looking at increases when we're look when we're expecting decreases and we're looking in the future so if we approve these increases this year and the rubber heads the road next year is it it may be very painful right but of course like I said if y'all approve that $1 raise then there would be increase but if y'all didn't approve that $1 raise as far as my budget goes it would almost be flat so I I made sure that uh I had cut as much as I possibly could to uh make up for that deficit how many people do you have in your office how many staff members do you have eight full time and one more time any the last year um I had some part-timers go in out um just because they're part time and they had different seasons of life that took them away so no I have my receptionist who his parttime and um I've had to hire them right no part discussion just really looking because we knew that going off what commissioner Fel had mentioned about dve to Tri as much as we can want to cut discussion if we did have people to for whatever reason not right that would be a minimal piece right yes I I I have some that might potentially retire soon and I would not um be filling that role I would be decreasing just to help oh the County General one thing I'm just passing along What I Hear okay this is just strictly what I hear on the street but I also I bet most of y'all hear it too and I hear a lot about I walk in the courthouse or I walk in some of these offices and there are lots of people in there why do they need so many people and that's I can't answer that question sure but that is asked quite frequently seeing all the people in in these offices so so you yall know we he and and we always have you obviously a a reason so um and I'm sure every single one of the Constitutional officers can go into those reasons and how vitally important they are to produce this I promise you I didn't produce this by myself this whole entire thing and this whole entire role and all of these numbers it's millions and millions and millions of numbers and and thousands of places that we have to go to every single year and get this information so so I do understand what you're saying and I appreciate you uh relaying that message but we do we get that message as well and uh and usually when I explain it the people are more than understanding of and again I go to next year and the year after that unless something drastic happen something a miracle and I am not I am not for people losing their jobs I want to make that clear but when it if it gets down to where we think it may be that might be one of the tough decisions that we all have to face and I hope I hope that doesn't come true me too because especially with tayor County the way it is now we we need more jobs not cutting jobs but I'm just saying for budgetary um um reasons something will have to be cut I don't know what it is I say even look at I often youall collaborate with surrounding counties even maybe talk some surrounding County such as what're absolutely here and how are they operating their offices with maybe less people absolutely maybe and we do and I I can't speak for the other constitutional officers but I know that as far as my Association goes we have relationship with these other counties especially our similar siiz population counties and we have we have one of the smallest um employee numbers as far as our population goes so we do we try we try to keep it small we try to help the taxpayer I will say Mark and I myself and Dana we even share a payroll person so that we don't have to we don't have to have the additional Health expenses like in all all those other expenses we try to share that and uh help taxpayers not have that put that bill as well so so we do we always try to look for ways to to cut and to to help so when did y'all do that I did not realize yes we started doing that when we've been doing it for oh gosh probably 10 12 years like 2006 or seven well for one office now joining in with with's office yeaha when I got elected cuz I did it before I got elected So then whenever I got elected I started using their same person so that we didn't have to have so have to pay out an additional Health which is I know expensive uh you know the life the the all all the other things that we have to pay it's just one salary uh split among all of ours and that's something that that we try to do and try to think of other ways to do uh across the board that's good yeah yeah I might just pull your thunder on that one Mark it's okay information got across question next we will have tax collector Mr Mark Wiggins good morning love done with the place is great now you can hear yeah they really do good look good so um you know you got it in front of you um think Daniel we did the option two with the um we the ID Solid Waste guy um my reason for that is I think that um so you right now you got three people going up or three off going out you got the property appraiser going out you got me going out and you have your code enforcement guy going out I'm going to the same place that your code enforcement guys is going to because neighbors are calling are these people being assessed for the four RVs that are on their L that's you know that's what we're getting um so I think that in the best interest of what we see coming on the horizon the board could have a full-time code enforcement officer with this money that I would give back I'll give you the truck I'll give you the program um I just think I don't think we need that many people going out how would that change your budget um it takes 48 some OD a wash for you guys is basically all that is and I'll get into some of mine but there's a little bit of an increase because of computer stuff we have to use our tax systems going up nothing as yall know you look in the grocery stores nothing's going down everything's up um so you know that I've got those increases that I can't do anything about I will tell you though that I have a plan in place to cut my staff down to eight I have 11 reason I have 11 is because I have three off and that's why since I've been there I've been trying to get out of the courthouse thank God we didn't get out of the courthouse because what would we have now with the lower next year's or not next year but the next year's lower budget we're going to have to deal with the tangal decrease from GP um we would all move into the courthouse um and two would be through uh retirement so it wouldn't be it wouldn't be laid off one I probably would have to put you down to n uh no that actually put me down to eight I I can run it with eight not including myself I can run it with eight looking at your I'm looking at your an almost a 24% increase is qu an increase for your office yeah so so what happened there was last year the dollar an hour raise was not in that budget and I'll take the blame for it but there was a there was a misstep that didn't happen this year but so that's why you see that that big an increase what of it is that's what yeah yeah yeah that's what it is have we talked about health insurance I missed the very first part not okay's going to talk about that all right next you're looking toate your offic back to the yes all three of well I have two in the courthouse one out driver would you still be able to just well there there was some legislation passed where you can actually go to the schools to do it um so that's what that would look like IDE it would be everything in a separate building out of the um that I mean that would be nice but I know that we're not we're not capable of that right now I don't want to push that not what's coming unless we have that Miracle um and and look people love the driver's license office they'll drive from SE haty right by the courthouse and go to it um they don't like the stairs they don't like the ramp they don't like the security I bet one thing I bet they would like that better than having their taxes increased some some probably if it's a choice between stopping at the courthouse and going out there sure raising their property taxes I imagine they would probably rather stop by the cour sure if we can facilitate it that way yes 100% definitely um so but but back on the on the U on the solid waste landfill person I just think that the code enforcement officer for the county could do a duel to be a dual purpose and you kill two birds with one stone um like I said we're already going out for those places and it's either a neighbors's called um we SE an ad we've got the permit from the board or from the you know building department um so code enforcement is going to those places anyway and I think that it just makes sense with what we've got coming to me I agree with that aspect I've long said that I felt like that we needed a full-time code enforcement officer sure sure sure I think um it just I think it's I think it's good business even though the county can't be run like a business I think it's a good business to consolidate that um Sha's required to go out every four to five years to each property so she's always out as it so beig um and then you know the board had their P enforcement personel let's Workshop that salary the same as far as where those funds or allocated for well no and that's what we have to work through because the solid waste assessment could not pay for code enforcement so we'd have to determine um so actually um if this person say 75% of their duties were the the solid waste assessment checking those then 75% of their salary could come from the assessment and 25% would have to come from mstu so we'd have to we'd have to work through that but I understand completely what Mark's saying is is when you know that that person is is out and about the all over the county let's just Workshop yeah I'll be happy to come back and talk about it for sure with with the workshop um so other than that I mean it's pretty besides the the $1 an hour that you see it's kind of like um I didn't have an increase in the in the knce brochure that Gary put out that year it show a 15% in for ta Butter's office that was a dollar an hour raise that you we're so gracious to give us so just so different for you yes you know just not what I've seen in all these years yes no definitely it it was it was left out um the beauty of of of our office and and hopefully it stays this way um we generate quite a bit of Revenue ourselves um by doing different things in fact I've been on the phone last last week we uh December's usually a big time for us with a company and they handle a lot of different renewals and and stuff for for large companies and we didn't have near the volume we had the year before so I've been on the phone going hey what's going on we need you know we need that volume back um so I mean the number you see is what you give me um and then with my $1.3 million budget we generate what you what you don't see there so it's yeah that it is strange to see the yeah because we never have an increase and hopefully you know these things continue to stay continue do the best we're doing because other counties aren't struggling like us um we're not struggling yet but we're going to be we we're probably going to be now when does the are we in the fifth year yet for this U $115 minimum wage what year are we in we're in um we're in the year for the $13 to be effective in September but because the board gave the $2 an hour for this year we're already up to the 14 so we're actually up we're ahead a year so we have one we have one more we have we have until September 26 to get to the 15 [Music] hard times are coming you all have a tough job hard times are coming um I said we do have a plan in place um I've met I met with the state right after we heard about GP and so we've got to figure out we're have to do some modifications in the courthouse um but I'll handle that Mark I think and you heard what I said earlier you know I I think everybody understands where we are and where we may be going um so and and you know like I said we only will have so much revenue so when the rubber hits the road and I'm hoping that doesn't happen because I know we're working very hard to Define industry and but you know that's no guarantee no no not at all and the answer to your to your question and uh about why they have all these employees in there so we have 11 but that's three different offices um so I have three upstairs handling all my tax information collecting 54 billion dollar worth of worth of tax type stuff um downstairs dhsmv um I have I have four um and what what you see is you have a long tenures which gather retire or gather time off um so so one of the toughest decision I ever made was to close driver's license for lunch but that kept me from having to hire somebody extra to cover out there because I can't have just one person out there by themselves it just doesn't work um the glass we got during the co year and a lot we put on there as it makes me feel better about the employees being out there um camera system Sheriff put in board put in I can see what's going on out there I can talk back and forth uh through my phone so so that's the reason that we have what we have we can run it with eight that's why Eight's the number we can make it happen um because the retirees that would be retiring that are in drop have quite a bit of time built up um so you just understand that I'm just relaying oh absolutely no no I I hear it all the time yeah yeah you don't worry about that I mean my best buddies give me a hard time about it and I said well when you come in don't you want to be waited on pretty quick you don't want to take a number cuz we've done what you talked about with going to Swan County going to gadon and all those different places and and we see best practices is there something we can Implement that's you know a lot better and we've learned some things and they've learned stuff from us so we do that regularly any other questions mark what you saying is you might have to close the thing out there to save money yes sir yeah but right now you're not right now I'm not no I will hold on to it as long as I can um absolutely because that is a favorite of a lot of people and just the ballp part figure what would that save if you did uh you're looking you're probably I mean rent's nothing so rent let's get that out of the way rent's $300 a year right Senator moer did that for us longterm lease um but the board has probably $8,000 for maintenance and stuff I'm getting little numbers and I'll get your um and then you're looking at basically two two salaries with health benefits and everything like that so I would venture to say would save $100,000 probably that's off the top of my head so I mean it's it's it's a big chunk it comes down to it and then you're going to save some more with with one retiring up here too um so basically everybody I mean everybody in my office is cross trained in everything except for driver's license so anything we do everybody's cross driver's license is the only thing that I have five people crew just simply because it doesn't work for the tax manager to go driver's license they can answer questions on the phone but as far as knowing how to operate the system um so cross turning is huge for us and it's going to get even more um once we're all together um a lot more now I I I know that that building is not big enough that you can move all your operations right right yes right do are do do you rent that building or do we own that building we we rent it for $300 a year we have a 99e lease which when Senator M so it's probably 92 years that's on it um I'm just thinking you know outside of the box if there was some way to get you out of the courthouse then we could get the state's attorney back in the courthouse and that would save a bu $58,000 a lot of money for that operation there so I'm just trying to think you know how we could sure absolutely um yeah I mean you know hey couple years ago when times were good and everything was going along and GP was putting money in the you know in the into their plant creating more tangible there some good places Jim and I talked about the old Citizen Bank would have been a good one well now it's torn down you know um but yeah drivethru service would be great I'd love to have a drivethru service for the people for simple stuff rals and things like that I think would be really cool um I don't take a bunch of your time but I did look at um they have these kiosks that do renewals um most of them Lakeland was or P County was the first uh test site and of course they put them in the public you just go in there you're shopping and you say oh I need to renew my tag so you go to the machine and you do it well you have to do 800 transactions a month to pay for the machine and to County doesn't do 800 transaction some mon for for renewals um so it would cost money to do so it just didn't make sense um but any other questions on the on on the tax I want to give you all some information just real quick before I leave but any more questions on budget wise or anything like that yes we're we're Cog we're doing everything we can to I mean there's anytime I hear somebody that's looking to relocate boat manufacturer whatever it may be you know we're calling and letting tcda know and and getting into those folks CU there are some things out there um Georg is kicking our behind I believe that um Florida needs to step it up a bit um people are moving here because they didn't work remotely also so that's why those F that's why those folks are coming here and they can work remotely and that is huge um I know several what the General Motors they living [Music] here but I want to ask you something that's something we talk about Head Hunters well why we're not uh looking at head hunters for industry you know you for head H by to high presidents of universities and professors and coures and all of this yeah you I don't know just just a little bit of my time and and I don't want to Ste anybody TC G or anything there in my time I mean it was so so we have land in water right that's we got that but Shan's Matt makes you feel a little wor with the light green um but our Workforce where's our Workforce you know that's one of the things that's I think I think we're lacking um well I I just want to say this I I think that if if it would you might want to stick around and listen to the tca's presentation today U they prepared um I think what's going to be impressive um and they're going to address a lot of this stuff so if you have time to stick around and listen like um hey I'll I'll plug in I think we need to hire lobbyist but I said that I said that when I was on the board too so um just to try to find some of that extra money that the state does have out there but just really quick I want to give you some numbers um for um the tourism dollars I know it come up in a meeting before so from October 2022 to September 2023 we collected 670 ,000 for tourism dollars that came in went to the board so there was about 13 million uh working gross sales receipts on on that and then so far this year um to the end of June we're at 487 so we're we're working on that I mean when I see a sign that caps that has a local telephone number or says this local and I call and we set him up a tourism account um so that's what we're doing and yeah anybody anybody that sees anything just call us you know I mean we're looking wooden water is a great place Realtors really uh Realtors are really helpful neighbors are the best oh yeah the neighbors want to know um so it works good that's probably something we need to look at a little later on about maybe in that Workshop we can talk about some tee in enforcement yes of that yes would be a good time I'm sure we're missing dollars there oh yeah me you're not ever going to be 100% no no you'll never be 100% now there are companies out there that help you get there and they cost one was 36,000 a year and one was 60 um but they were only going to guarantee me another 40 off of what they could see we were already doing and I said I'm not spending that money so um well we can talk through it yeah I think I think it's good I think we need to talk through it I think we need to everybody understand and everybody on the same page we'll succeed we're going we're going to be fine we're going to figure it out there maybe some tough years but you're resilient I'm make so y need anything from me you can yeah I think I will I will I'll fck around thank you thank you Court Insurance committee insur we'll just start with insurance first um so the insurance committee has been meeting and has asked um asked the insurance company for some renewals and I give these see on the first one there option number one is what we currently have the insurance committee is also aware of you know what what um challenges that be having in the upcoming years so that's why we asking insurance company for this so the recommendation from the insurance committee is actually option five on the second page and what that does that that doubles the the um deductible for the single for the individual and the family from 500 to 1,000 1,000 to 2,000 and it also um increases the out of pocket from 4,000 to 5,000 and 8,000 to 10,000 you can see there the annual cost down at the bottom so it's not much of a savings even making that change only saves the county about $121,000 I think so you know even doubling the duct didn't it made an impact not really a huge impact so um but the insurance committee felt that that prob started need to make some changes some small changes now instead of just getting in a situation where we going make huge changes later allow the people to kind of adjust plus if you're going to give a dollar an hour raise this year that help offset anybody who's now got to pay an extra $500 having a $1 raise to help for that offset so also another thing the insurance committee did was so if you look at so if you look at Option five and you can see the rate for an employee only is $787 that's a mon pay 100% of that for all employees so when you get down to the employee family the 2349 92 and you see the one the children is 1,452 you see one spouse the percentages that you pay been all over the place there those three it's been that way for a long long time changed a long time and I think you pay around 82% of that for some of them 85% for some of them so time just go ahead and make a change and just go to 80% on all of them so the employees would have to fund a little bit more [Music] portion a hug increase I think the B impact emplo which was like $44 a month that helps [Music] you making the making the the G making the percentages equal you know anytime there's an increase in now own employ going to pay ation of that and Bo going to pay portion of that and then of course every one the just percentage adjust those so that's that's going to be the recommendation you guys can think about that and we'll put it on next Bo meeting to you guys to officially that that's what you want to do let you guys know you don't want to do that but this budget does reflect those reductions so we did go ahead reductions in the budget you look at the excuse me uh could you break this down into how many uh employees um on spouses and yeah so option five yeah okay so if you look there just above the numbers there's enrollment employe 94 34 a total of 199 that's not the total insured I think the total insured is like or 300 that's that's the number of PL 199 PL that's how they break down we got 94 people that are employee only got 34 people who have spouse coverage 34 people who have children coverage and 37 people have and the total number I'm sure so that' be 199 employees and then plus their spouses and children I think put up you know almost 300 if you look at the last page was some of the most drastic changes in the premiums this is what this is going to HSA so we got those options there you can see the savings there um you you know much larger savings you're also looking at a pretty drastic really change how to do so what we what the insurance committee was recommending is as soon as we get done with our budget St this year you know like in October May before then having a workshop for insurance and getting our insurance agent to come and go over some of these options and some of the way some of the things the county can do to make changes so that we can that it takes a while for all this stuff to get going and get priced and if we're going to make changes before 2025 year we're going need you know looks like we're probably going to need to save some money that year you know we need to go ahead talking about assignment what really want to do and and go ahead making those plans and get it all rolling so that we can we can see some more Savings in the future if that's if that's desire Bo now this is thing with the same company that we this [Music] is have you looked at other options so you mean like getting it out so we we haven't never out that's something we can do next year too bid it out we know that um we're only going to get two bids that's United Health andoss Blue Shield because they really the only companies in this area that that would be good services for the for the employees and so um but that is an option too we we do have a very good loss ratio and we are probably a very attractive group so Blue Cross may buy the business and you know we'll see what happens um so that's an option for next year too yeah we may have the very best but um I'd like to for one commissioner I'd like to see what someone else has to offer just to look it doesn't hurt to test the waters right right so that's that's another option too and I do feel like we probably get a good good B from you know and and United Health Care also so you know so I didn't mention this in the beginning but option one is our current which is also there's no increase for that this year so they they didn't increase that this year for us so it's the same but we're choosing different options to try to lower try to lower some of the premiums this year ter what was the total cost savings with with all the changes I calculate based on the budget request and it ended up being three that was the total for all County departments and Constitution officers so I going to option five [Music] and and that is what's budg that is what's in the already reflected in this budget you know so I if you guys are okay with that we'll work on in the next few months getting a workshop together and going over some IJ this that' be our current agent uh if we did bid out our current agent which it don't hurt to do that really every year to keep everyone in check to get have options sometimes well I mean sometimes sometimes don't like it Happ every year sometimes I do take that into a fact it does cost them money to prepare a proposal so a lot of times what they warn us about is is that they will but you know we haven't done it in a long time so [Music] they bid on it they would any other year how much do they charge to to they don't charge anything I thought you said but what they will do is is they will build that into the the The Proposal that they give like they'll make sure that they get is that common I know very little about insurance that's just what that's just what they told it's standard [Music] practice they a going get anything [Music] they Insurance bids every year I've never heard of ADD questions on the insurance for all right so so we'll go we'll go my budget and so some of the things I wanted to you let you know kind kind of what we do in the Park's office you know we're always looking for ways to be more efficient and reduce cost something that I meet about every month and things we go over so constantly looking at those kind of things we um we do also have you know we we have a lot of stuff goes on in our office we have we probably have the largest IT department in the county and that's because we also have you know just so much paperwork and so things we have to do but it calls are constantly going up software maintenance especially is one of those things is my our jury system after I submitted this budget I got notifications our the maintenance on jury system go went from $7,000 a year to $13,500 a year that's almost 100% increase in the main that system which is still lower than what only systems charged so that's why they they could do it do that we out business cheaper so um so we're constantly seeing software Hardware maintenance same thing is going up but one of the things that we have experience with Hardware is we are getting a lot more life out of our stuff I we had like 50 PCS on our system and um we used to get about five years out of a PC now we're getting about 8 years out of the PC we used to get 10 years out of server now we're probably getting 15 or longer out of server so we are our equipment is we get more time out of our equipment another greater cost great cost of our office is printing so I mean the cost for like toner and things like that and paper has probably doubled in the last few years so it's a huge expense we looking at ways to to do the rest of that we've Consolidated six copier in our office to four we've only bought one new copier since I've been the office so last a lot longer we um we we have we entered into contracts with companies to provide um paper and owner for us because they they had a contract for a year they give it to us at the less so we're doing contracts now on that stuff and um yet we're seeing a better rate by doing that so um we also have received a little bit of fees in in u passports so that's that's kind of fluctuates you know seem like we do a lot of passports and don't do very many [Music] but 200 year down how much revenue is that bringing in for you so about $8,000 a year what that's bringing in so we have seen a little bit of increase in our recording to because of all the notice and commitments and everything all the work that's being done in our County hav record we've seen that we're constantly adj our SE so um one thing that we are doing in our office I wanted to share with you guys while I had your attention something brand new is this you might have heard about it this we're doing a property fraud work and um there's more of these fires over here if you guys want to take some of these and hand them out but so what this is is we just started doing this a few months ago for our citizens so you can sign up you can scan this QR code on the back and you can go there and you can sign up you got to have an email address you sign up and then anything that gets recorded in the name that you sign up for you get an email notification about it so you've probably heard of some of the property fraud and people stealing people's property all probably heard that's happening at time or two here in t County and so what this does is it doesn't prevent anything from happening what it does it sends you a notification if something if something get recorded in your name so may you may be selling something and you and you'll get that notification and it comes a link that you can click on it takes you right to that record document so you can look at and see but what it does do is it gives you an immediate notification so therefore if you need to call all enforcement or come on my office and try to figure something out and you got time to do that before somebody does something on your property much that if you had so far so of of the actual fraud itself I'm only aware of two that that's happened in Taylor County so um those only ones I'm aware of where did they go did the state help you a lot with that or so that that that's on the individual wasn't on us so I know that in one case the individual the title insurance I think ended up paying them and settling with them and working it all out and I don't know what happened on this second case but that that's that's the thing that's on the individual so if someone steals your property and does something the individual's responsibility the property responsibility to call law enforcement and work to get it straight now we do have an expedited service now the the legislators did change the law and you can file a a um you can file a petition with the courts and they'll expedite it through so the judge can make a decision if he has to put down order so that is in place now so you can do that you can file something with the court the judge can look at it and say hey belong to this person that belongs to this person we need to get it straight so get word from the judge like that so things we can do to help out so anyway no no people that's completely so what they usually Target and that's really big in South Florida and what they usually do is they usually Target vacant land because they feel like people aren't watching it and so like in the one case I know like this person uh pretended to be the owner and had an ID and everything and they had all their stuff notorized and done in Texas and it was recorded here so they had the same name as the owner or was pretending to be the owner and had all the identification and everything and uh so that's that's how they did did through a you so they did [Music] that that's why we did this want people to know about it as soon as they can and um you on it to make sure that that they're preventing anything happen spray the word like I said there's a whole buch here take you want hand them out your and let know doing that and it's again that is a cost for our office it's about $3,000 a year we we had to pay for that our C so in my budget what I did was if you don't include the $1 hour raise I cut it $ 5,311 and so if you if you do not approve the $1 raise then my budet will be reded about $5,300 and then if you do raise it be $5,300 less plus [Music] the for1 ra so um sir hold on just a minute I'm trying to keep up with you so on on your 2.5% increase is that mainly based on the dollar an hour $1 an hour minus $531 and how many staff members do you have 21 so we have reduced our staff sum and um we Carly didn't replace her know what's coming um L took on that extra responsibility some other people constantly look to shift things around and spread things out and put things another thing we done we move things in better put them in better departments together like type things so that we can be more efficient in those areas I know that we do have two people that are retiring in the next two years one of them are going to have to replace one probably not going to replac we're making plans to shift everything around when when that second person retires not replacing that person so but other than that I do have of those 21 I do have three parttime people and those will probably be the next on the kind of reduction of Si part time people first so you're not replacing replace car not replace the other person when they retire be two not [Music] repl you started you took over in 20 that many um when I took over there was 26 employees now we're 21 so now one of the things that and one of the reasons we haven't really put all of the decreases in the budget yet is just like last year I had two people that added family coverage that's 20 something, a piece that's A40 something, effect on my budget I had one person that got married and that her husband again you know that's um I think like $155,000 a year that add you that I had to pay for since then that person's left that was Carly who didn't we didn't um replace so getting that back now but um we constantly have people that are increasing their insurance or decreasing it for reasons so hard to yeah so it's that's up and down that many employees that's up and down they they add sometimes take we had on that added this year because of added their family because their family was at [Music] theur to us ,000 on that but we're going to continue to [Music] I think the the hospital's next running a little bit behind schedule's that we're running a little bit behind schedule but I don't know that everyone's okay take a quick break take a quick break or what I mean whatever pleasure of the board I'm good for going on Hospital thank you for the opportunity to okay um good morning my name is Lauren fa Clark I'm the CEO of Dr moral hospital and most importantly we want to thank you all for your support for support for our allocation to Wi sales taex help with our capital name so our presentation a little different um go ahead we wanted to thank you for some of the support we received last year we just have some pictures of some of the items that you helped us purchase our Telemetry upgrade um which is all our monitoring system for patients very expensive it's all throughout the uh facility new commercial oven and a spred scrub floor machine if you've been in a lot of hospitals I guarantee you our our hospital has some of those beautiful floors cleanest floors aable um Express Care flooring if you aren't aware we did open an Urgent Care Center May 1st it's doing wonderful um we're open 7 days a week 10: a.m. to 8 p.m. we're seeing a lot of children after hours a lot of folks that need to be seen so they can go to work the next day and we were able to replace the flooring get that carpet out of there nobody wants carpet in a medical facility so we were able to put some nice clean uh wood floors in there so that was great um we were also able to purchase a CR machine that's that big curvy thing that's used in Orthopedic surgeries so the surgeon can be looking at where they're replacing hip and knee Replacements as they're doing it they can be taking an x-ray and looking at the Imaging to make sure they put it in the right place um our machine we had was from 1998 um they no longer serviced it no longer had parts for it so the orthopedic surgeons are very happy we have the latest and greatest Cutting Edge technology here we're also able to support other additional or things in a tono arm in that we have several purchases in process right now we're getting a new endoscopy machine the tower and all the parts and pieces that go with that so as you need have Scopes preventative Scopes then Dr Nelson has a lot of those cases here um we only have one machine we have no backup um and it's old so we're getting a brand new one of those hter system which is a heart monitor glos scope which helps when you have to intubate patients in the ER and then a zoom scope with lights which allows for a lot of GYN diagnostic procedures so we're also buying a new nuclear medicine camera you can see just the sampling of the many tests that this camera allows us to do we're lucky enough to have a very skilled very high-tech um Tech that works with us now she lives locally so we able to keep her local and um this new machine will um give referring providers um conf in ordering test at dma by having this brand new machine again ours is very old and they're not going to order things if the quality of the testing isn't what they need it to be so we're in that process as well um just as a reminder our annual budget really we're nonprofit uh Community Hospitals so we we live off of what we make our largest uh cost center is our staffing um 67 it t goes between 67 to 70% of our um budget is Staff it takes a lot of people to run what we do every day our second largest expense supplies and then contracted Services building maintenance Etc our building is over 20 years old now and things are starting to need replacement and repair and so we're trying to make sure we stay on top of all those things we're always looking for new growth opportunities for Revenue um but also looking for grant opportunities and things like that U again we did receive a grant this past year to upgrade our er um and I have something at the end of the slide to show you about that we also just got a new 470 $8,000 Grant we're calling our Healthy Living Grant we're going to be opening a cardio pulmonary rehab unit we're going to be doing some renovation renovations to our cafeteria to allow for um patient classes training we want to do diabetes support groups cooking classes those kinds of things and we're going to be installing an ADA Compliant track to the right of the hospital if you're looking at with your approval we'll bring all this back for you all to approve when we get closer in our planning it's really to promote healthy living and give patients more options um um as they come to see us we're also did apply we worked very closely with County to apply for a hazard mitigation Grant to hopefully replace both our roof and get a new generator um we won't hear about that till probably January or February um but we did apply for almost $2 million to that Grant including the match Grant so we're hoping that those funds will take care of some of these needs so what do we need still going on we have of course we always need everything um but we have a couple needs on both on the facility and clinical placement so again I ke left the roof in here even though we did apply for a grant in case we don't get it the roof is what 21 years old now it's showing it we're hoping Escape any major storms this year uh we'll be ready but we're going to need to get that Ro replaced we've had several folks and we keep waiting F when one of these grants comes through so we can replace that Ro it's about $800,000 to a million doll depending on where you get the quote from a vfd drive for our HVAC system it's kind of the brains that runs our HV and then Chiller PPKs and the motor these are our most immediate needs um as the previous uh presentation talked about it needs um we have always have ongoing needs in healthcare because of the security and insuring Hippa lots of servers needs um we're going to be going to a um new phone system that's more the internet based phone system so it's not the old school Power phones ours is dying slow um just a lot of interfaces we need to make all of our systems talk and so there's a about $300,000 of it need next is Radiology our MRI is either going to replace it or upgrade it you kind of gut it and build lots of new parts it's either $650,000 or 1.4 million again always looking for other funding sources for that but that's an a very important um diagnostic test machine that we use with many of our um we also need an ultra sound machine Echo stretcher when you're get an echo test and a digital xray room so you can see options of radiology of our most expensive purchases next kind miscellaneous items we're still working on getting a database for our cardial pulmonary exams and reports so we can share them easily with referring providers you would like to purchase two mobile dialysis machines I know commissioner F and I talked about the need for dialysis Mis Community since the a building got destroyed we want to take care of inpatients first so we have people in the hospital that are sick for other reasons but also need dialysis we can take care of that um but we did just as a side that we did have de's leadership on site last week looking at creative options we showed them some space to see if there is any way for us to partner to help alleviate some of the burd for families who need out patient dialysis it's a lot a lot of equipment that goes into this but we're trying to see if we can be a good partner Community partner to help alleviate that so we're still working um also an arthroscope and laparoscope machine for surgery that would help again alleviate travel burdens for folks if we can get one of these machines here some of the miscellaneous clinical means we need an ER pediatric crash C some Supply storage carts pix Supply management system stop waste make sure we account for every single thing we use in the hospital as charge to the patients ta new ventilators new pulmonary function test machine Test new lung Capac so as you look at the Grand totals there's our facility immediate needs clinical needs a grand total just over $3 million and then the last slide it's just a Shameless plug to invite you all to our grand reopening of the ER August 29th that's everybody in the room to the FL we also are not only going to be showing the facility but we have terminated our contract with en Vision who was providing the physician care in the ER September 1st we will take over we build a new group we're directly employing providers they will be dmh Physicians we've recruited from South Jordan the surrounding areas areas and really pick the cream of the crop so you're going to see all new faces in our er um and we're very excited about that so many of them will be on site that day so you can meet them and you can see what the State dollars have put in our ER to make it great we trying very hard to get the governor there since he approved these we hope that people show up and kind of see how important this investment in rural healthare is we know as you all are looking at Economic Development the quality of healthare is one of the first things people know about healthare want to know about schools we're going to make sure the healthare needs are met questions yes ma'am yes sir you have something there now you call it what does it that risk care or something like that Express Care Express Care yes sir will that be when you have the grand open for the emergency room you can come look at it it's already open yeah but it's there and it's there to stay it's there to St it's not going anywhere we tested it it's proven to be a Community Asset people are seven days a week seven days a week from 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 P.M yes sir in and out in less than 30 minutes people we've been getting R reviews and comments our ideas to keep people at work keep kids in the school people get off work they need to be seen they can't always get in there been in trou in town already good question have you all considered a transport van for your nonemergent patients we are actually working on purchasing one um like a ban we can put a people can get in or use a wheelchair so yes we looking at that we've gotten a quote it's about $74,000 use Grant funds to purchase that that's very what is thetimeline on that do you know we hope to get one in the next six months at least if not and is very important especially people that need to come for preventative procedures um that's that's always a hardship so we are working on that we would love to have our own ambulance one day we a partner we can do our in facility transports as well so we recognize transportation's a challenge and we're always looking for options that any other question I have one question it looks like on this uh Financial that you have 2.3 Reserve 3 million in reserves is that in our projects which which I think we've been busy we spent about a million of that so there's about a million left so their estimated carry forward into next year is going to be 1.5 million that is not we're buying right now which is about 500 so we estimate this about a million that would be whatever is encumbered and because I would have know what was so that includes what was encumbered as of when I prepared so um it does not include giving them the one cent for next year because the board has to decide that year to year the difference between these two numbers is because of the expenses that are me what page are you looking at so so we're saying 1.5 on this page of page 502 Believe show for capital projects to three guess that's the difference in what's been expensed so yes the 2.3 is what they were approved this for this fiscal year and the 1.5 is what the estimated carry board is yes so they've spent or going to spend that difference and I will I would like to publicly thank Marsha for all of her help dealing with medical vendors and medical companies and purchasing some of this and the specifications with it can be a nightmare you've been fantastic right thank you very much [Music] Mr chairman and members of the board thank for this time on the workshop agenda my name is z Simmons I live at 3475 Road in Perry I'm here with other members of the tcba Development Authority M Curtis the tcba treasure and Jeff I serve as the vice chairman first thank you to each commissioner for the confidence that you have placed in Us by appointing us to the development party we're committed to doing the very best job that we can to serve our community by pursuing job growth and economic development this morning we'd like to provide you with the first update since the commission appointed four new members to the tcda May 21st our update will provide information that's relative to TC's funding request for schol year 2425 the seven weeks the tcda board has met weekly normally the board meets monthly and in the future we hope to return to monthly meetings but for now there's a real sense of urgency because mostly because of the loss of jobs and the tax base associated with last year's business closings and partly because tcda does not currently have any Economic Development staff at all in Overview at our weekly meetings we have been identifying our staffing needs and developing and Publishing advertising or Staffing positions and planning for interviews for job candidates also tcda board has reviewed and updated existing Vision goal and mission statements and action plans we have that with du kenery representatives and ask for their help and econom development we've asked them to consider Taylor counties when they build new generating capacities we have met and renewed our acquaintances with representatives of North Florida Economic Development partnership and hold them Point Blank we need all the help we can get we have prepared and published advertising alerting wood using Industries Nationwide and globally that Taylor County and adjacent Counties have three million tons of sustainable wood resources available right now the Southeastern us is known as the wood basket of the world and Taylor County is the drink apple of the wood basket we have received a briefing from Andy Jackson owner of 271 Acres of potentially Prime Industrial Development property inside the city of Mary he has helped us to understand the lengthy and extensive process of changing property's owned agricultural to Industrial when that process is completed his property will be a major Economic Development marketing tool for our community we're going to need more sites like this to track manufacturing jobs in addition we have been given a briefing by John King of the Sheriff's Office who happens to be knowledgeable about the national need to home a growing number of data centers based on that briefing we will pursue locating a Data Center in Taylor County although data centers are not known as large employers they do require large Investments taxable anable personal property the TCA board has received a clean independent audit for the year ending September 30 2023 I'm going to ask Michelle Curtis to present the audit and AD reports to give you additional information about action plans mentioned earlier [Music] [Applause] help pass those around that one just [Music] okay okay thank you for um having us today giving us this time to give you an update um what I passed around the thick document is the um audit itself conducted by um the the Accounting Group that does the the audit and as Dan mentioned we had a clean AIT but I do want to tell you because I having um this being my first year on tcda and also the treasure I read every line and made sure I understood every line and there is a notation on page 38 I don't think you need to go to it I'll read it to you but it it it it talked about giv the limitations and during the audit where you know find deficiencies of mature weaknesses however but when I read the however I said I got this however what it is our local um company that we use to handle our bookkeeping is count not acpa and so they put in boorder language in here that that is basically we identified the following deficiency and internal controls I called both the accountant that we use locally and the CPA that does the a don't sweat it this is not an issue it's been in here for years it is strictly more FL language um it's something they have to do from a state point so I wanted when you if you choose to read this thing like I did you're going to see that in there and they assure me it is not an issue very good controls and over this anyway I just wanted to share that with you they found no non-comp or compliance issues no compliance issues whatsoever we're good there so now I going to move on to this tor County Economic Development plan um you know when the new board came together and with the existing members we said where do we start from here we don't have any staff we don't have anything so we went back back to the documents that were prepared already when the 260 Vision was created in 2009 there was a t County Economic Development plan done at that time so we uh scammed the whole 20160 Vision which is a huge document we looked very very carefully at the economic development plan that was done at that time and it was very large I mean it was at work to keep you busy for the rest of your life seriously as far as it [Music] so we said we got to figure out where are we go from here so we said what is it we really need to jump on and that's what we have in this plan this is a five and a half year plan saying what is it we need to do right now we picked it most of the things out of that 209 plan some of the things we added um and I'm going to walk you through that so if you look at your page two these are the statements that came out of the vision visioning we made no changes to page two and the mission statement of what the tcda is okay so your page three gives you the background and and what and all it does is explain to you that um we've looked at these pths documents we picked those things out that were important for us to work on now and as new information comes available we may amend this plan for example the county um has already hired um a firm to do some work for you you got a Grant on um that that went into looking at Economic Development if there's new information that comes out of that that needs to be incorporated that we need to act on now we will add it but right now we don't know what it is and it's time to move on and let's get started with what we do know how to do so that's all this says on that page page four is where you really get to the me and um and so here the things really going to work on we're going to identify Target Industries first of all you know that kind of thing was done in the has it's one done recently with energy consultants's property they identify Target Industries we're going to be looking at that fact next meeting uh we are going to identify the target Industries we're going to focus on the board is um and as as Dan mentioned data centers is a new one that wasn't in existence in 2009 and that wasn't really how people do business and with the AI movement to the world the data center are a must have future and a new business opportunity for us in the county bring a lot of tax count soly be adding that and there may be others um we've identified in this who's going to do the work and when going to Target me none so you'll see the last item in every one of these sections it'll tell you who's actually going to be the lead person on it and um and Don um Ed J will be talking talking about Staffing a little bit but this specifically address the Staffing here as well in this docum so number two um we need to identify all of the financial and otheres that are available um we have some of that information already but we really feel we need one comprehensive list and contacts Etc of financial incentives so if we have a business come or any local business that wants to grow we can help them who is it we got to go talk to to Le about or to sign up for these various incentives so that we can use those as um some way to attract industry of business or Community uh the number three item is local business Outreach one of the things we found um in the reading done previous work that's been done is your quickest and best opportunity to grow the business in this community is to expand local business you seen some of that already but we need to reach out to every local business and so this is the plan of what we're planning to do to do that the top top business is the largest businesses we're going to probably work out personally those that maybe are as large if we don't have the time we'll be making a written Communications and that kind of thing to those businesses to be sure that they know we can we will help them we got the financial andet package we can go over with them and we'll do what we can do to help them um so that's the thir on the fourth it is business development sites um when you bring in Industry consider this County they go okay where where should we put it well we have got work to do to identify sites that have certain amenities that is important for the business we got to be sure the landowner is interested in in selling and at what price they might be willing to sell we're not becoming Brokers but um and we don't take any commissions but we want to be able to show their property so that we can interest new parties so that is another one of our priorities um living on the page five then comes the the rest of the work and that's let's go recruit those new Industries so um what one of the things that talk about more is we may have you know a lot of energy to do these things but we don't necessarily have all the contacts and we don't know what all the contacts are in the state of Florida and all the all the kinds of things that um business developing people with careers in that area have and so we're going to be seeking people with that kind of expertise to help us bring in new business and we're all going to be working toward it but we're going to be looking to hire as contractors not employees okay as a contractor um to help us reach out to these targ industries talk more about it um and then the the next is making step change improving local education system to support your business Improvement we recognize that tcda doesn't have anything to do with education system except to be sure that our leadership understand the critical importance of the good education system and anded our support and help them we can cont what have you so that we can have a system that does support the recruitment as as we of the hospital mentioned the schools and the hospitals are very important have Quality Systems in place to be able to recruit new business and that's been a historic thing that has certainly been made Ava Us in the as well um and then lastly improve the overall physical appearance of build you know we're competing with the rest of the world here um you know whether it's other cities in Florida whe cities and communities in in rural areas appearance is important and we we've taken a hit by the hurricane we haven't had a chance as a community truly to get it all clean up I know on my personal name it's still a mess you know out in the country so it's just a kind of thing it takes time but um we we know the county and City are working on those things and all we're doing here is recognizing that and being willing to support it and also as a recognition do have um potential companies coming in to know that we're in tune with our local leadership that is handling those kind of things and we're in support really things happen that happen so really when I looked at five and six those are things that we're really saying we're behind the people who are working on those things but they're important for us to include in the plant so that the um when this is looked at say for example by the state of Florida they recognize that we are recognizing other things in addition to what ccda can actually directly influence that has a direct impact on our ability to recruit the business so we tried to boil it down into something small enough that we can all get our arms around and know what we needed to do so this is the action plan that our board has to uh adopted and we've already been work on that this next week um we have interviews with six people who have expressed an interest in be considered for um two roles I talk about those more but we feel the need for a person that has those kind of contacts that we need and experience at the state level to um tie us in and help us bring in those businesses that they know are already out there not on doors around the state and then we also need um a more local person to help us work through many of these local issues and you'll see in that plan spelled out in detail on that plan but just with you that's a quick and dirty summary for you but any questions local business Outreach I understand working through the chamber but I'm assuming or asking if that's including the C Hatchet Chamber of Commerce the boat chamber some of those business may not be members of Perry that may just want them to have that opportunity and some of the businesses may not be a member of any of the chambers and we may not to some now figure out another way to reach out to them whether it's you know at newspaper advertisement or something or on Facebook sites or something you know because there may be some there small cottage industries that like to grow that are any more questions thank you oh I forgot one very important thing I apologize about back this but this is important because because we don't uh we don't currently have stacking issues and we've been very fortunate and that um this uh County Commission has funded at $100,000 pass and have budgeted for already $100,000 for tcda um we don't have that in our um in our checkbook yet because we didn't have a clean audit at that time we we just now got the audit back so now that we have the audit back we are respectfully request that the county go ahead and fund the tcda for the current fiscal year we're in at $100,000 level which was in all I thank the board for the recent you made could be here this morning work with a lot effort this thing Jason show a couple times about same Jo paper left their area over there paper you said it took them 10 years to get over over there I feel like getting past it our goal is not not make this a 10e deal so we're meet every week and have I think through the end of AUST right now plan on meeting every week so looking at our money and what we can do and what we're capable do it me with Duke Energy nor far Regional Economic Development Council we realized that this thing is a lot bigger than us oh yeah I didn't you know you start trying to deal with big companies and how they do business and and like Dukey told us he says you just got to be ready a lot of times they choose you you don't choose them so we're doing everything we can do to get ready and part of doing that we said well taking their advice how we want to go forward we feel like the best way to do this was have a two-part deal one is have a Local Economic we call them coordinator who's a part-time person contract person that will work part-time the phone I kind want to go through some of their just daily things we see them do like prepare agendas prep Public Notices dra meeting minutes scheduling meetings handl handling technology in the office assist consultant meeting request answer phone emails and check mail keep C including critical tasks missions all this you know board M terms um she touched on the development of the sites um and local Outreach also maybe to but their primary job is to assist an economic development consultant which we would hire which should be a separate can't afford hire a big firm full time we talk me um met one time with a consultant here a couple months ago and I asked him I said well how much money are we talking about you know and she held the fer one I said one what she said 1 million I said well how quick you spend 1 million you know we might spr that out two or three years know something like that so give you an idea of what it cost but what you really pay for you're paying for their knowledge their contacts there a lot of these people were actually past employees Department of Commerce the head of Department of Commerce we all hired you know those are the kind of people they cost money so our approach is going to be to have a local consultant parttime which will be called a coordinator the assistance all that in part of this process they'll be getting trained you know so they can work in this process two or three years and they can Maybe One Day More in BEC our economic developer but we're trying to we don't have that time we don't have that luxury so let's hire this consulting firm at a at a much lower rate on a part time basis and that our local coordinator assist them in doing all the grun work a lot the information gathering a all that to keep those costs down so we can utilize every dollar that y'all provide for us that we may could get from state or County or federal grants and part of this process too is to go and try to find us more money to work with so we can go and get the best most bang for our buck and that's simply what we're looking for is the most bang for our buck that we can do and have a two three four year plan that we can maybe get something you know turn some shovel put some iron and just spin this Sky you know as you well know that um in Florida it takes a little while Perman takes a little bit longer here than it does in other states we disadvantage there I I do business in Georgia I know it takes up there most of the time but other states have you know have a little bit leg up on Sy we got to find who wants to be here who wants our culture wants our community don't want to change our community but be part of our community and that would be a compliment our community bring the jobs and the industry and the Commerce here that we'll all be proud of one day and so I'm kind of am I we'll any questions for me matter have you had any companies talking pretty good L yes I think the the ad that Michelle's got out there for the U if you go to tcba website you'll see an ad there for the wood vum that we had here you me you'll see that uh there's already trying to be careful we have n disclosures obviously you know what I mean but yes we we do have some people that interested in bringing some industry here and you never know whether they're Tire kickers or how serious they are you know I mean but you got to approach every one of them as if they're just as serious as they can be so yes we do have some TI going on and so we need to Big position for them and U we're kind of right now fortunately the Department of Commerce we're kind of you know we're because of the hurricane and the loss of two meals here you know we're getting a little more attention then maybe some other folks are so we're going to try to take advantage of that the Department of Commerce helping everywh they can yes yes sir and and once we get a coordinator High we talked about this morning we're going to go back to Talahassee a couple of us go with this coordinator you know they say Hey you know you be deg greasy wheel okay that needs degrees go there once a week or twice a week whatever it takes to stay in their front door stay on their radar so that we can bring some industry here so that is our whole goal you know be a nuisance if you have to be but let's go up there and stay up there and you know work with this coordin work with our Jason sh office or Cory Cory's office you know Cory's office you know and let those guys help us so we're we're committed got the right we have the right team and I feel like you know some good prayers and some hard work we can get there I tell you something else I've been hearing you know every you need to cut through the red tape there's a lot of red tape out there we call it red tap stum blocks we need to be able to talk to our local people and organization that we belong to once they get some information coming from this local board or this DCd whoever get right on it you know we are in a position where we up against button block but if we can get I think if we can get that done we can get a whole lot more answers we we have a board now that's committed talk about a number of us that agreed that you know it takes money of our own Pockets to travel get on a plane go see somebody take time away from from our private businesses uh Department of Defense right now you got a lot of Wars going you know I mean so uh we poed a couple companies that invol in Nitro cellulos that goes making gun powder so it doesn't smoke so you know I mean that's nobody didn't even know anything about you I mean there's only two companies produc it one was right here and out here now there only one so the department is a NE there so you know can we capitalize on that I don't know but you know man e on the board too he works in he works in defense industry so he been very helpful so we got a good team and we're and I tell you a lot of far put some extra effort personally go do some things said hope it make a difference yes excuse me I just want to thank the board I want to tell y'all that we have the best board the best tcda board that we have ever had and I know that meeting every week that takes a lot of time in addition to all the phone calls and all the contacts that are being made I'm going to tell they're shaking and moving now and uh we need to support this group in every way possible you spend a lot of your personal time a lot of your personal time your own money and um I just want you to know how appreciative I am of what y'all are doing just to put this this together and and all the work that went into putting this together there's been a lot of things done in a short period of time right dog absolutely and uh now there's a there's a Clear Vision and plan and uh we need to be supportive do everything we can I think the tcda is just as important as the hospital and other uh other organizations because um the tcda has got to help bring the jobs in and then that helps the hospital that helps everybody else so um it's it's it's very thank you'all thank y'all very much for what you're doing and I'm proud to be a part of the group not only that I you know what I think I would say we need to prend on wonder to keep the board of bre of what's going on we be able to help and and move immediately we on coming back want put that that's good for that we we plan on coming back more we so we don't want to be we don't want you wondering what's going on over there okay so we we plan on making more trips over here especially once you get a coordinator that's going to be part of their responsibility come over here and update you guys okay well cannot operate without funding got to have money well make M basically in the past there a lot of mistakes make in the past we go for but we've got a lot of stuff positive going on I can't change the path but we're certain going to make a difference going forward the best our ability um I had a coordinator one thing it does is it allows that person to work with the consultant and you not SP much legal time you know before we on Ray Curtis because legal department to keep us out of trouble you you you have a sunshine all stuff be careful do so was having to do a lot of that in his in House people so now the coordinator can do that that'll reduce our legal Fe so maybe we can spend more time and effort working with local businesses you know that's something we've never done before hey if we can grow jobs locally with an existing business that's even better but it certainly for me I like to piggy back off commissioner fig I thank you guys for you know we've always you had a good board but you I think addition to the board I think it's the right fol to collaborate together all the same go for community I know we had a couple events that really just sparked everyone to really move forward knowing that we really do have an issue coming down the pops if we don't do anything so and I even say the presentation means a lot because even past presentations you know this presentation was very formal and and I do appreciate the energy that this I will say that Michelle and Dan they work Michelle still working part time but they have bring so much knowledge you to to the board that because we have this huge vacuum here and hopefully we [Music] canone together be and we'll make a shout out this we talked about education earlier we mentioned it the VCH has been is incredible we probably had the most bch probably nor Florida they've got award everybody knows that you know they're standing ready to go we need train somebody they're ready i' say even just in the property part you know I've even mentioned in a couple of your uh even existing members of the board of of looking at you know properties that County Properties that might not be used Reach Out come to a meeting and find property y have 33 Acres I think off 98 not being utilized more than that more than that around just look at give a list of well that's what we do getting options on this property because if you bring somebody here says Hey I want this property the person go oh I get who's coming they think be Pockets or something I'm going raise the price not we're not going to do that you got he wants to market the property we got to get locked in so we're not to spend our time and effort pie of property okay to Market it then the person own the seller pull the r out this I mean so and that's happened here one time several years ago here we lost 30 40 good jobs you know bring up dirty laundry but we learned a lot from that process I can assure you this that mistake will not be made in the future and I I think it's important to to recognize that this board has a lot of expertise in many different areas you've got Dan like you said you've got Dan and Michelle that have a lot of contacts Don you've got a lot of contacts Matt's got a lot of contacts so you have varying um um degrees of of contacts there that is very very important so again best word ever thank you yeah thank you well I feel like we've had a good discussion did want to close and maybe just a little bit about the next step but you can tell we're we're optimistic about in County people and businesses are moving in Florida because we're safe place and we're Sunny place and people want to come here to go the life and grow business so we think we're going to have a lot of success reason for optimism we got to experience manaure Workforce lot of them have been Creed up over the last several months Our Big Ben Technical College is a from in this asset and they have firm plans going forward to just turn out a Relentless supply of students that are ready to go work we have 40 million gallons of surplus water per day we got 50 Mega of surplus energy capacity Mill is no longer using we have a large volume of sustainable wood available large Surplus and natural gas supply we have rail service our community has large private land owners rural property that they indicated they would be willing sellers at market prices the question is how long will it take before we start to see significant New Economic Development in t County the answer to that is I don't know we get lucky and just get something really big that just fall into our lab that's a possibility it's more like that we're going to have to work hard and long to compete successfully against other states and communities who want to recruit the same we want to staff it's our expectation that they will identify companies whose name we' never heard of and whose owners have never heard of Perry Florida never been to Perry Florida our staff will have to Market us to them convince them to make site visits here and the companies if they decide they want to pursue it have to negotiate incentives make zoning changes bu property build structures order equipment and then hire workers it doesn't seem reasonable that that's going to happen in weeks or even months experts have told us that under favor favorable conditions it will take 24 months 36 months or we can expect to see significant successes that leads the tcda board to respectfully request County budget $100,000 funding for the development party in fiscal year 2425 the same amount last year that amount combined with pcda resources now on hand would ensure sure the authority could operate at an increased tempo for at least 36 months even longer qu at funding in the future in 36 months the County Commission and the community will have data to assess if our tcda team and proposed plan of work should continue will be completely overhauled meanwhile the TCA board with Community Partners will learn and continuously modify our plan of work to reflect reflect those learnings and to pursue targets of opportunity again we believe our community will be successful for the reasoned in attracting investments in creating jobs we appreciate the confidence that you have placed in Us by asking us to serve on Board t County Development Authority yeah any other questions for our team we be try we be glad to try to answer question I got one question I'm certainly support tcda and thank you for GU steady request on funding but I believe this the accounting report showing that your fund is at around $277,000 that's not inclusive of the request yeah it's as D mentioned um you know we're looking really for a threee kind of period of time okay so what we got we recently have gotten a commitment from the state of Florida for 125,000 for this year I'll be working witha figure out how do we get that money where we get it from so that's a help we anticipate what we budget is 150,000 for these two Consultants we don't know they take that much but you know there these high power Consultants are really expensive okay so that's why we need a coordinator at a different kind of rate so we got that built in but what it basically takes us through through the end of 2026 um if you funded us at 100,000 this year and then this next year and then next year we would be able to operate probably through 2026 okay so it's I then then we're sort of like out of money because these high power Consultants you know to get this kind of context and brought in here um we anticipating 50,000 between two so I mean it's just simple it's just but the plan to be implemented is a fiveyear plan plan five plan but because this stuff we we recognize you get it started but you know that might get you through breaking ground three years you know three budget M breaking ground I don't know depending on what type businesses there are hopefully we get more local businesses want to grow and can grow with incentives if we help them know what's available because they can do it a whole lot quicker but we haven't started on we're just putting together the plan and searching through these other about answer you got some now we have no one answering the telephone okay it goes to Matt eo's email Ian that's what's happening so the chamber has volunteered believe maybe last week they got the phones Chang where they can answer the phone for us in the inter right now there's nobody answering telephone or emails yeah we don't need to break down in community there not I mean that's I mean that's the kind of thing we came into is likea how you get to it you so that's where we starting from yes I I just want to make the point that this doesn't stop in three years no tcba needs to be going on forever and so with funding right now potential funding would last only about 3 years and then you're broke yeah you have nothing but yet this program needs to continue on it does not need to stop so just because it looks like there's plenty of money now that money will go fast and right now there's no way to replenish that $100,000 a year will not sustain tcda just want to make clear where all understand that I think just wanted to make a human scale requests so that you don't feel like Hey we're asking for everything forever we're asking for one more year of funding that'll give us enough resources to go at least three years with what we have on hand then we'll be time to reevaluate well I think it's very reasonable when I thank you for that certainly if there's other funds that are available far Commerce oh yeah happy they s to 25 this year so are yall are yall in the process of trying to hire somebody to have in there full time and to meet people and answer the phone what we're good you know as Don mentioned we we have the um we have a we call it exe Economic Development coordinator Coordinator would be the local person who would be handling the phones the emails coordinate the meetings setting up you know meetings with potential clients coming in they want to look at the county and this and that and working with this High powerered person who has contacts all over the world you know and and you all have met some of you have met some of those folks that are doing this worldwide and and know and have worked with Department of Commerce in the past um so we want to try to utilize them to lead us but let us do a lot of the L work for it and that's the local coordinator now that this money is not paying full time for that person that's a part-time role right now uh we just don't have the funding to do it um you've already got somebody in that position now no no we have no one in the position we have six interviews this next week for two two positions we got good applic yeah we we have very good applicants so um I have a question just comment so on the 23rd the meeting on the 23rd we'll put it on the agenda for you guys to officially accept the audit and release the funds for the current year and then the $100,000 for next already included in the it's already budgeted they submitted a request so it's already in the bud part of this budget information just not the spreadsheet they Supply they didn't include that not they didn't include it in their numbers they didn't include this year or next year in their numbers but we can release that at the meeting on Tuesday for this current year and the the budget we're working on now already includes the 100,000 request for [Music] that last right good morning we are still in morning thank you for allowing me to to be [Music] here so I'm probably like a lot of your other constitutional offices we're getting we're getting hit with increases um that are hard to foresee in advance funded mandates are hitting us hard election Law changes are hitting us hard every time they change a word in the law it changes how we have to operate um election supplies are increasing vastly um postage is hitting us something terrible you know postage went up yesterday um it is something that that is always increasing something that's an area that I don't feel like we can even begin to try to di her down we've got to have our it place but having said all of that um if you've looked at my request um you'll see that even with all the increases that we had across the board um I knew the struggles we were going to be facing and so I was able to somehow magically um cut my request $330,000 um that doesn't include if you were to decide to do the the dollar um salary increase even with the dollar salary increase I still would be about $22,000 less than what last year's um budget request was um knowing that the struggles are going to keep going forward we're we're just we're not even feeling really what we what we will be feeling at some point um I'm continuing to look at ways that we can that we can save going into even the next budget cycle we're trying to figure out um where we can do without some things consolidate some things um you we're constantly trying to find ways to reuse reuse the resources we have um you know just simple things like reusing folders over and over and over and over and over you know with an extent that you say so I'm very aware of what what might be coming down um in the future and so we are continuing to try to um save those pennies that turn into dollars that turn into greater AMS and so um um I do have one other thing I want to talk to you about but I'll I'll take any questions you may have about my budget at this point just some of the other questions I've heard you ask I have three people on staff um it's the same three that I've had all along um I do possibly um foresee one leaving and if that happens I don't intend to replace her I intend to absorb that workload amongst the other staff but it's not exactly set in stone if that's gonna happen or gonna happen is your is your building holding up out there is I believe we're we're back to normal um except for the one um outside hole in the warehouse fall um that still hasn't been repaired but other than that my main office is back totally operational yeah yeah you wouldn't even know we in Hurricane thank goodness I don't have a question that I want to have a com I have do have a comment you run a jam up office out there and every way um I have 100% confidence in the system that she runs and the checks and the balances and I'm really proud to say that toor county has never been in the news and that's because of you you do a very good job out there and then you come in here with a 4.7% reduction I'm telling you D thank you good job I know that I want to be a team player I'd agree you always to me you always ran pretty lean as it is here with this type of even even if you add the $1 increase you're to to be under So yeah thank you very much the one thing my budget doesn't reflect and it doesn't reflect it for a couple of reasons one I didn't have figures to present to you at the time that I needed to turn the budget in um and it and this specific item has not been in my budget in the past um it's been um been with the County's budget but it's it's to me explain the voting equipment um for those of you who might not remember we are um we negotiated an 8-year lease with our current voting equipment um and when we negotiated that lease um I was also able to negotiate um a grant to cover that lease in the amount of $457,000 so the expense of the voting equipment has never really come out of the the County's budget it's always been covered with that Grant um but the lease is going to be up in December of this year and so um as a board um we we are going to need to make a decision moving forward what we want to do um maybe at a workshop or something we can sit down and discuss those numbers I'm not um requesting that we go out for bids and buy new equipment our equipment is fine um I think we just need to negotiate a managed service agreement moving forward just so that we do have some type of um service agreement in place to cover some of the aspects of the Ving equipment um I wouldn't go into a long-term agreement um I would go into a short-term agreement I I probably would say four to six years maybe and because technology is moving so fast that um probably at the end of four to six years which would really take you past the next presidential election then you could evaluate whether there's new technology out there and you did want to get something new or maybe again just continue on with another un service agreement I definitely wouldn't go any longer than that but I do have some figures so at some point you know between now and the end of the year um we do need to start really thinking about um looking at what that service agreement is going to be I have reached out to the state to inquire if there's possibly another Grant to cover that and I've been told no that they're not they're not offering any grants at this point to us so um I don't know the Grant pocket is TR up or what's going on there but don't think there's going to be a grant to cover that so it's going to be a cost to the county are there State contracts out there for something like and these these do cover the state contracts these vend ballark ballpark um ballpark if we negotiated a 4-year um MSA you're looking um anywhere between 41 and 46,000 a year so I'll go back up on the Staffing part of it yeah I said I know I have mentioned in all of our offices that hey you know people leave but you're un so lean to me and you're running a three Staff office with three staff members if it makes sense to have the person yeah I did she this it's currently in my budget this position is um and I've known that this moment was coming maybe for some time so I have started already strategically moving some of that those job responsibilities to someone else and so um you know we'll see I'm um there's only so many hours in the day and there only so many hands to do that office about seven days a week and I I tend to work a lot of hours to keep from pay over time I would just say that before you overload apprciate stff and before you feel like y are very efficient I just like commissioner F [Music] said not say overload I appreciate that one other thing uh I was really pleased to see when you added community service and hours for these children because I mine has been working so they were not able to take advantage of that but they have to have a hundred hours I guess public school was the same way $100 yes it was so and I thought that was marvelous yes and we had probably um all together maybe about nine that took advantage of that and one of them was um jam up great and so she is still on doing the rest of her hours with us we hope we can give her 100 hours any more school stars but she is she has really got some skills so we Lo up with that yeah if you need some more help let me know thank [Laughter] you man it tell me husband wife want you married become one Mar that's the husband he can become that one and you both can do the same thing you do him hard every morning when I leave the house he says what do I need to do for you yeah but I Echo the same the rest of I think he run to a good job my hat talk to you all right thank you so [Music] much all going home now that's up to you Gary and I have talked about for Thursday our audit report is finished and so um I'm waiting to hear back from them so they may actually come Thursday morning also and present the audit just because everybody will be here just as it heads up that it shouldn't they shouldn't take 15 minutes and then the sheriff's presentation will be Thursday morning we need go anything else today unless you got any questions or anything you want to look at digest what I do think we need to think about A's request I mean if she's pretty sure we're going to need to spend 40 something, this year might go ahead might go and think about adding that in this year's budget um if that's going to be hitting Us in December but other than that I think that I don't think we've heard anything today change anything that's how we did it with what with the equipment before because we knew what the payment was going to be every year and so we budgeted what the payment was we actually actually budgeted the entire amount when the when it was first approved like a years ago budgeted the entire amount and then in a reserve in that department and then made the payment every year that way we knew we would have the money for that for the eight years what the grant didn't pay for I mean I can add the 46 on the [Music] all right nothing further than we'll L muted