hey s good afternoon I would like to officially call the budget uh special meeting Workshop to order I get a roll call please yes sir commissioner dollison here commissioner Mercer here commissioner danler here mayor proem Yates here and mayor B here where is oh there he is looking around for I was coming in the building all right I was going to take the evening off but so mayor mayor protim Commissioners uh audience members it is a great pleasure this evening to present to you our budget proposal for fiscal year 2425 I believe at your Das you have a copy of the slide deck you should also have a copy of the tenative budget which will give you the infinite detail into every cost center every line every Revenue everything that makes up our budget so what I'm going to do for the next um short period of time is go through the budget presentation I've had the pleasure of meeting with each of you individually over the past I'd say 45 days to give you an update of where we are on the process how all those things have shakened out is what you'll get this evening um as well as some additional information that we've gleaned through the process and then uh as part of your budget or sorry it's part of your workshop for this evening and also for your city commission meeting on Monday there will be an item on the budget or on the agenda that speaks to the uh trim notice so that's when we have to designate what our maximum millage rate will be and also set our budget date so hence the reason for this presentation this evening so again our budget is built around our six strategic pillars that we've talked so much about uh those that appear on your screen the quality of life Community safety infrastructure responsible government environmental stewardship and economic stability uh sustainability so again everything that the City of Winter Haven does um fits neatly either within one or multiple of these strategic pillars so we'd start talking about the services we provide we don't talk about what department does what it's about what do we accomplish Within These strategic pillars from our side we need to budget accordingly by department and that's what we've done in what we're going to present this evening but everything is gained or geared back towards these specific strategic pillars some of the budget highlights for fiscal year 25 we do have a balanced budget which we are required by law to present a balanced budget and adopt the balanced budget we are not like the federal government we cannot do deficit spending we can also not borrow money to pay off debt or pay off um shortfalls within operating expenses certainly we can for capital projects but you cannot balance a budget with Bond proceeds or borrowing your budget is balanced based upon an advore millage rate of 6.59 Ms this is the same millage that is in place today the total budget for fiscal year 25 is 296 M22 $3,539 in comparison the fiscal year 24 budget was $26 million so we see an increase of about $36 million almost every penny of that in then sum is going to be tied back to capital projects and one-time expenses um a lot of that within the utilities operations and some of the major projects that we have going on in Parks and Recreation at present time gross taxable values for Winter Haven the Incorporation ated area increased 11.3% uh up to $4.75 billion for the period this is tied to New Growth within the area so when you think about some of the big multif family properties that have come online a lot of single family residential permits that have come online as well as uh re-evaluation and upgrades and valuation of existing properties the advolum revenues uh this as a result of that increase in property tax value your adval revenues also increase by about $2.7 million for the year year ahead bringing your total adval revenue to just shy of $28 million the proceeds Ador wise within the CRA total 3.6 million for the downtown district and 1.2 almost 1.3 million for the Florence Villa District uh combined those result in an increase of about $666,000 over the prior fiscal Year I'll talk about the cras in just a little bit but they did meet this week and have gone over their budget uh recommendations and that will be coming back to you as a CRA board uh but that will also be noted further in my presentation the budget continues to include a allocation from the general fund to the affordable housing trust fund to the tune of $250,000 to help with our efforts to mitigate affordable housing challenges um you may recall that this year you have you just recently went through uh some commission agenda items that pertain to local uh commitment guarantees um or local match commitments for a blue sky project that was $465,000 that is out on the southwest side of Winter Haven and then also the Winter Haven Housing Authority for their uh lucern Park Road project that was a commitment of $1 million both of those are subject to those projects being recognized and recommended by the Florida housing uh financing uh co uh Corporation the budget includes a 2 and a half% step uh for our employees it's part of the step plan that was adopted in 2021 again that allows our employees to gradually move through the pay grade and recognizes that when you have greater experience uh you gain more skills more knowledge base in that role and there's a greater benefit to the organization and to the citizens we serve I'm going to talk in a little bit about the cost of living adjustment that we've included as a recommendation uh to help address uh economic hardships that our employees face overall affordability in comparison of wages earned to actual cost of living as well as in hopes of advancing our efforts for retention and recruitment in terms of number of positions the budget is built around a total of 736 positions of which 106 of those are part-time new positions that that are added to the budget for next year include a total of 29 full-time and 24 part-time positions um within the general fund which is where we most often focus our attention because that's really what is funded through taxpayer dollars there's a total of 12 new positions that are full-time and 20 that are part-time and part of that effort to use more part-time is gives us greater flexibility and it actually costs us less at the end of the day a lot of folks out there are looking for part-time work that are retirees and may want to work in parks and Recreation uh or some other area that we have but don't necessarily want to commit to a full-time job so that's a strategy that not only city is looking at but also I know the school board is looking heavily at that as one of their strategies um I will also say that when we get into the new positions you'll hear that the of those 12 new positions seven of those are within the police department alone looking at millage rates I mentioned that our budget is balanced on our current millage rate of 6.59 MS the table you see on the screen reflects what we know as of today in terms of what the other 18 taxing jurisdictions within pul County are looking to do going forward um I will say that the notation there for Lakeland that is based upon media reports that we received this week of something that they're contemplating where that lands I don't really know but you can see that that's a a little over a half a m increase is what was proposed there everybody else appears to be holding the line on millage um and with the exception of PK city is uh to our knowledge contemplating a half a m reduction in their adval millage rate we'll continue to update this and be mindful of it and I will talk a little bit more about that momentarily the budget includes funding for um three different groups of partners that we have so pulk Vision Main Street Winter Haven Chamber of Commerce and The Economic Development Council are all included as Community Partners those are agencies that help us fulfill the mission that the City of Winter Haven has um I will note that Main Street Winter Haven you see $20,000 is noted there there's also $45,000 in grant and aid that goes to the uh Main Street Winter Haven program that is housed within the downtown CRA project I'm sorry budget the uh Service delivery Partners those are folks that help us actually deliver Services consistent with what we do so keep Winter Haven clean up beautiful as you know Works closely with us on litter control Environmental cleanups around the Lakes the marching Wolverines band that is an outreach program that is housed within the Winter Haven Recreation and Cultural Center for Youth to help them with um again an experience in arts and culture and then Ridge Art Association which is housed within the Chain of Lakes complex or Advent Health Fieldhouse and Conference Center uh the $122,000 annual contribution for them those funds are all held within the respective departments as you see in parentheses there and then in the external contract Services Winter Haven area mass transit uh in Lakeland area mass transit district that is the what system the $293,200 I will note that the cras are both exploring options for microtransit to bring small um golf cart style transit systems into the downtown and also within Florence Villa to move people on shorter distances uh to again just help people get from point A to point B uh without necessarily having to walk or deal with climate change in in the heat that we're dealing with or rain also helps us with some of our parking issues uh that people uh speak to downtown there's also $295,000 that is tied to Hart for Winter Haven this is based upon expanded services that they are doing tied with some um rental assistance in Bridge Gap uh voucher program this aligns with what they presented to you on June 10th of this year as you may recall funding for nonprofit organizations the budget includes $38,600 additional agencies that you uh you considered for funding at a recent meeting uh to include an an additional amount um funded for the Meals on Wheels program you'll see a third from the bottom in that Center column overall there are 40 agencies that are funded this year that is an increase of seven over last year uh the grant and aid committee will be meeting this fall they're going to re-evaluate some of the application protocols within there um and uh hopefully that will help us over over come some of the challenges that were experienced by some of the uh the applicants this year total of all revenues within the budget so this is all the money coming in not to count not to include our cash carry forwards is$ 27 m943 52 so roughly $218 million in Revenue coming in you can see the greatest amount of that is within the Utility Fund followed by the general fund followed by Solid Waste although that is a distant third compared to the first two when we look at the um how the expenditures are made based upon all types one thing I'll point out here you see that the total expenditure is $296.3 million if I back up 218 to 296 that doesn't appear to be a balanced budget again that difference between what is expended and what is thought what is recognized as Revenue that bridge is covered by what is Cash carry forward of projects that are in the queue and funded that can be tied to Grants that are yet to be reimbursed and Debt Service or Bond proceeds that we have for projects that hasn't been exp expended yet that is held as cash carry forward when we look at the expenditures on a systemwide basis you're investing $133 million in capital for your community that is within your Utility Systems within your roadway projects within your Arts and culture programs and and Facilities uh that's a significant investment at over 45% of the the total budget is going into either infrastructure expansion renewal um or replacement it's about 60 thou 60 million or 20% there about is going towards Personnel Services and just shy of 19% towards operating services and looking at the um the expenditure of of by all types some things that come up with as expenditures you'll see within the general fund there is an expenditure that is tied to funds going out from the general fund to support other operations so the general fund provides direct direct support to the library to the cemetery and to the airport as an example um there will also be expenditures within utilities and within solid waste that are dividend Pro proceeds or transfers that are coming into the general fund so there is money that is transferred from those two shows up as an expense for them but will track as a revenue within the general fund the general fund itself is funded at $ 72.3 million um the biggest source of Revenue within the general fund is adorm taxes almost 28 million 27.8 million to be exact um comes in in ter terms of uh advm tax revenue that's followed by transfers and contributions again that that transfer that comes in from uh either the CRA or the Utility Fund the solid waste fund uh there are State shared revenues that is the percentage of of sales tax that we get back um Utility Services Tax Franchise Tax you can see all the way through of where dollars come in so for a total of $ 72.3 million in Revenue something to point out when you look at that transfers and contributions one of the things that we have advocated for and have really taken a a very hard line on at the state legislature it's been part of our political um advocacy efforts for the past three years there challenges to the transfers from utility funds into General funds uh that has been on the chopping block and has been within the I'd say the crosshairs of the legislature for a number of years uh it has not met you know has not gotten to the point of of being enacted um or even getting to the point of a presentation of a final bill to the for the Governor's consideration but I think that's something we're going to continue to see I think you all would recognize that as well um if that were cut entirely that $5.3 million becomes a hole in the general fund budget that has to be identified and made up for either through reducing services or offsetting that Revenue through something else not knowing what that is if you were to offset that Revenue loss through an increase in ADV valorum taxes that $5.3 million is equal to 1.26 Mills that you would have to increase the general fund or the uh the adval rate in order to generate that same Revenue I will say that we have been very responsible with our with our Utility Fund transfer those of you that were on the Commission in 2017 will recall we were trans transferring upwards of $6 million at one time more than that uh to um deal with the global financial crisis of 2008 that was a transfer from the Utility Fund in that impacted our overall credit rating it was recommended that we reduce that amount by $300,000 year-over-year until we got that number to be within 12% of the operating revenues of the utility system based upon the most recent um audited fiscal year we have been at 12% per policy for the past four years so when the legislature looks at these things and says hey there's a lot of of transfer happening out there and people aren't taking care of their utility system well I would argue that you guys first know know firsthand the Investments were making into the utility system and that you have a very manageable policy when it comes to transfers out from the utility operations expenditures within the general fund Personnel make up the greatest expense in there because you've got most number of bodies there between police fire Parks and Recreation streets you have a lot of positions in addition to your Administration HR I you know and uh um Finance those are those are operations where you see you're going to have a lot of bodies you don't have as much Capital going on and all the capital that happens within your general fund operations so for streets all of our road projects are in a transportation fund it's independent all of your Parks and Recreation major projects are within a construction fund so those are out separate if you added in all of your Capital Construction costs to this general fund uh that you see here at 73 million that number jumps by probably another $69 million in capital investment that's being made in those departments um the support of other funds I mentioned earlier you can see they're in the middle of the page the general fund contributes about $1.3 million to the library about 1.37 to the airport small amount to cemeteries very small amount to willbrook to offset some of the capital replacement costs associated with vehicles there's money that gets transferred into the transportation fund if you recall we have a 1 mil set aside for capital projects that was adopted in 2018 $2 million of that Revenue goes towards Transportation Improvement programs and you can see that that transfer exists there there's also money that's assigned for Diamond Plex uh coming out of there and playground Replacements that's the the transfer you see going into the 2015 construction fund I noted that affordable housing uh uh transfer there's also a small amount that goes towards urban forestry um when you look at the grant nade that's at the bottom of the table 615,000 again that includes all of your Community Partners Your Service delivery Partners as well as the nonprofit those 40 agencies that you're funding it's so the total amount that is going back to other agencies in the community to not not including Hart for Winter Haven or Winter Haven Mass Transit there's 6 almost $616,000 going out to other agencies to perform services in our community the expenditures by Department um non-departmental expend expenses again there's transfers and and other expenses that come out of that things to offset our internal service funds uh but when you look at actual Department expenses for personnel capital and and uh operations police and fire are at the top that's what you would expect to see uh Public Safety is the is the first duty of government um so I think that if you looked at any budget of any city across the country you'd be hard pressed to find one that doesn't have police at the very top of their uh expense uh categorization such as this together police and fire total $37 million of the general fund costs that represents over 42% of the total budget in the general fund that's neither good nor bad that is simply the reality of what it costs to deliver Public Safety but I will tell you this at $30.7 million the adval revenue that is generated in the community is $27.89 million so the adalum tax proceeds that come in those revenues fail to cover the cost of police and fire by $2.8 million in order to have an ADV valorum that just covered police and fire alone you'd have to increase from 6.59 you'd have to add another 66 Ms to that not suggesting we do that in any way shape or form just pointing out the reality of why we're so dependent upon some of those other Revenue sources that we have and when it comes time for the legislator to look legislature to look at things like eliminating transfers from utility funds or eliminating business tax receipt programs um things that that we don't have have a whole lot of sources to get revenue for general fund expenses so we're very Mindful and very uh conservative in how we budget those but we're also very protective when uh there's efforts that want to restrict those or reduce those self-insurance fund as you know the City of Winter Haven is self-insured that means that we are we are covering the cost to offset medical expenses beyond what our employees pay when they go for a service you can see at the bottom um the City of Winter Haven contributes about $4.6 million to the Self Insurance Fund employees through their benefit package contribute about a million retirees just under half a million and then through rebates and and the various programs we have with Florida blue and others we uh we attract about another $570,000 your your plan cost for 2024 $6.7 million um that has gone up slightly since the uh the prior year but one of the most impressive things I think within this is if you look to 2019 we remain below prepandemic self-insurance costs I can't explain that you know we've put some programs in place we're encouraging employees to get checked for health screenings much sooner you know don't wait until something really bad happens go get a physical go get a you know the the appropriate checks for your age or for your gender um do all those things so you stay ahead of the curve we've certainly uh try and Advance Wellness programs that we have you know getting employees to understand don't go to an emergency room for a cough you know use our tele Med system or use a an urgent care if need be those all those things help reduce our costs at the end of the day so we continue to focus on that and I would say that we're having success in that Arena employee pension costs um in all three pensions that you have so there's an a general employee pension plan that is closed to any new members coming in it does still have members within it you have a fire pension plan that new firefighters do enroll in and a police uh officer pension plan new police officers come into all of them will see an increase in fiscal year 25 in terms of the city's contribution as a percentage of payroll why is that well two main factors within the general employee pension plan I'd actually say three one it's closed to new members so you don't have any new money money coming into that two you have salary increases that have occurred over the years in response to cost of living that have outperformed or exceeded what the assumptions of the Actuarial assessments may have have planned for and if you look in the lower right hand corner you can see in fiscal year 22 and 23 um the investment returns were significantly less than what the assumptions were uh I will will turn to to MJ and others who are work with our pensions that what we're seeing so far particularly in the general employee pension that our uh investment returns for this year have been significantly better than what we've seen the past two years so that's going to going to continue to move up in the firefighter Pension Plan again you can see an increase of about 4% in terms of City's contribution is a percentage of payroll in fiscal year 25 lower right-and corner 2.82% uh actual performance in 22 and 4.58% in 23 seeing better performance current year but we're dealing with those years as well um couple things that that have impacted the firefighter Pension Plan again increases in salaries poor performance in consideration of what the Assumption was and then you also have a um uh what we describe as an inactive mortality experience meaning that when people retire they're living longer they're in a better health condition and therefore they're receiving a proceed a benefit from that pension for a longer period of time police pension exact same scenario is is the fire although I will say that their cost in terms of a percentage of payroll is significantly less less than half of that of the fire pension so they have had some very good performance in terms of their rates of return over the years um you know also if you have uh officers that leave before vesting that certainly benefits the the pension plan uh we don't want to see that but that is one of the I guess beneficial outcomes unanticipated when people you they don't stick with us for very long if they're here for 5 years and they move on we're you know the pension does not suffer from that it actually benefits somewhat although the citizens do [Applause] not speaking to wages I want to spend a few minutes here and and go back over what happened in 2020 as you remember our voters in the State of Florida in 2020 uh approved at over 60% Amendment two which raised the gradually raised the state's minimum wage to $15 an hour by September uh 30th of 2026 it did that by taking a dollar increase year-over-year starting in September of 22 um going forward it was a certainly a larger jump leading up to September of 21 as you can see on the on the chart there we had to make some changes to our own payroll at that time to to be in line with that to make sure that we we didn't you know fail to meet what those minimum uh wage requirements were going to require and so we what you see on the the right hand of that column or adjustments that the city made now before I dive into that I want to point out that blue bar in the middle of the page that if you look at what the current living wage in P county is in terms of affordability it is at $226 per hour what that contemplates is how much money do you have to earn ear in a year to cover your rent or mortgage your utilities your food your transportation your clothing and other consumable items if you are a single individual in P County that's what that number looks like if you are a single parent with one child two children three children that number goes higher and higher and higher if you are a two if you're a married couple living together with no children if only one of you is working that number goes higher if both of you are working with no children that number comes down a little bit if you're a nuclear family two working parents two children the annual wage for both parents will be above that $226 per hour now look at the column on the right for the City of Winter Haven in December of 2020 that is less than four years ago entry level positions in Winter Haven were making $2,923 it's amazing how much things have changed over four years and as the result of Co and what happened with the cost of living in September of 21 our entry level positions were making $28,000 a year later $229,300 in September of 23 so less than a year ago entry level positions and actually even today at our entry rate of $155 they make $30 $3,264 what we are proposing while we wanted to try and get that wage to $20 an hour I'm here to tell you that we we just don't see a feasible way to make that happen certainly not within one year this is a massive elephant and we will eat at it one bite at a time but um to get to that $20 an hour would cost about $9 million and we just don't have that luxury to to take that on certainly year over year over year but we did want to try and move that needle to make life more affordable for our employees at the same time looking at what do we need to do to be competitive within the market for the positions that we have so what we have recommended is that we increase that 1455 minimum entry level starting rate to $16 an hour it in doing so that positions us to um be much more attractive in terms of retaining employees who may go someplace else for an additional 50 cents an hour uh as well as to compete against those who are paying $15 an hour to go work in retail or in food and beverage um in in certainly in conditions that would be much easier than what our employees do Mowing and and working on pipes and working on roadways um if we can get that number up to 16 we feel certainly that we can retain our Workforce not have a brain drain of talent and we can attract higher quality candidates to join the team in raising that rate to $16 what we would that would be for vacant positions that we have today and anybody that would start with the organization after October 1st we would also recommend that you approve or or consider increasing the rate for our existing employees um it's $145 to get to 16 so that you don't have compression we recommend that we go to a155 for our incumbent employees above their current pay that totals out for a typical 2,80 hour work year that's 40 hours a week um 52 weeks a year inclusive of all the holidays and everything that equates to$ 3,224 additional dollars for every every employee in the organization in years past we would say let's do a 3% across the board 3% and I'll use me as the example and I'll use you as the other end 3% on my salary uh is a fairly significant amount you all you five are the lowest paid people in the entire organization uh 3% for you guys doesn't do a whole lot it doesn't do much for landscapers and maintenance operators either uh in my estimation of it the people that are earning more will earn more the people that are earning less will earn slightly more but less than those that are earning more it's not a very Equitable approach if we're trying to address affordability giving everybody the same dollar value of an adjustment does that it also allows us to move the entire Workforce up by that amount so it does not result in any compression within the organization we don't get pay classifications closer to each other where everybody's taking Tak one step forward in that process it's most impactful to our Frontline employees our Parks employees our utility services or building service workers those individuals probably see somewhere close to what might be as high as an 11% adjustment in their overall pay with that um in our midlevel positions assistant superintendance and some of those you're going to see what's probably close to about a 5% adjust ment on their salaries what it it would equate to everybody's the same dollar amount your higher level positions your department directors captains administrators some cases it may be a 2% maybe a one and a half% but it's the same dollar amount I want to be very very clear in saying this we note on here police sergeants fire lieutenants and inspectors firefighters and police officers we are still at the collective bargaining table in neg negotiations with our unions we um so I have to plug something into my budget so that I know maybe it's going to be more than that maybe it's going to be less than that but I have to have something to start from but we have not settled negotiations with those two entities I do know that the police Union has tentatively agreed to the proposal that we've submitted and they will have a vote at the end of this month but that vote is I will not make any assumptions on that and I don't wish the commission to either we have to wait for that process to work through uh we will continue to negotiate with the fire department in good faith ultimately what this does however is it helps us address vacancies um it gives everybody the same benefit at the end of the day and it makes life a little more affordable for our Frontline employees that are doing Yan's work particularly in days like today where it's 100 degrees outside um we've got to do something to help our our employees and it's going to take one bite at a time you'll note on this table the number of vacancies I don't want that to be misleading you see a 177% vacancy rate in mid-level supervisors I would suggest that every one of those 10 vacancies go ahead and be reassigned to the Frontline workers because when you fill those you're going to fill them from within with Frontline workers and all it does is rearrange those chairs on the deck so those vacancies instead of being at mid-level positions will now fall to entry level positions again that $16 an hour rate becomes critical in trying to backfill those positions um we're also looking at some uh potential further adjustments with some critical positions you notice that you may recall we did this a few years ago in garbage and INF Fleet um I am working directly with our utilities director our winter Heaven water director Gary hubard and sha dyes our HR Director to look at our treatment plant operators uh in consideration of where we are in the Market we will bring back a utility specific budget uh in early August that's a a completely different realm of of discussion and we didn't want to Cloud that this evening as we still work through some Capital items there I mentioned we'll still have a step plan in place this is intended to recognize the longer you're in a position that you should have a step unfortunately this doesn't apply to the city Commission Commissioners you don't get a 2 and a half% step plan on your annual anniversaries of election mayor Birdsong you would be sitting uh pretty good after 20 plus years there but um all the same it does apply to our employees and on their fifth year they can get up to a three and a half% to recognize those five-year Milestones new positions that are within the budget one of the most significant things that will happen in the coming year is that in August the school resource office program officer program will be taken over entirely by the sheriff's office we have seven sro's in Winter Haven uh six of those are assigned to the public school system one is assigned to New Beginnings High School uh we will still work with New Beginnings as I understand but the ones that we have assigned to these schools Dennison uh JW uh jwi School of the Arts Winter Haven High School um we also have a floater within there those will now be staffed with Sheriff's Office employees and we will continue to work with them we have a great relationship we certainly know the students it's important that we do interface regularly as we know of challenges that are happening in the community they know challenges that are happening within the schools we have to share intelligence in that for the most positive outcomes the the Sheriff's Office actually pays us for a percentage of those six officers that we have in the school system today they pay 75% of the entry level rate of a of a a police officer they offset that value for those six that we have now doesn't mean that we're getting 75% of the cost covered because some of our school resource officers are more senior officers they've been here a long time they're not making the entry level rate um regardless that funding is all going away I'll use the example of grant funding if you had in your business a grant that provided for technical assistant to work with you and that Tech that Grant Drive up that position would probably go away that's kind of the situation that we're in with our school resource officers is that we have grant funding that's coming in but my recommendation is that those positions don't go away we retain those FTE they are seasoned qualified credentialed and knowledgeable officers that we have we will absorb them into our organization we will pay for them through additional allocation of funds to the police department and that will allow us to expand the force that we have and I'll leave that to the chief of police to decide how best to do that if that's adding an additional member to each one of our squads if that's assembling uh community policing teams or special uh operations teams to combat specific issues that we have um but we will have six more FTE or full-time equivalent officers at our disposal that we don't have today because they have been sitting at a school dealing with that schools are still protected but we'll have more officers to work with the positions that we've added into the budget as I mentioned earlier there are 12 full-time positions that uh come into the general fund in uh public affairs and communication the staff assistant one this is the person that sits at the front desk historically that position has been housed within utility operations or account services we have brought that Under the Umbrella of public affairs so that we can have more consistent messaging and uh a little more ease in the backup and and uh redundancy for that position through the other staff that are housed right here in City Hall we are recommending the addition of a staff assistant within the city clerk's office this is something the city clerk has been asking for for a number of years given some of the challenges we have with public records requests uh making sure we stay on top of those not that we're not doing that but just the the number that come in and then also the digitizing of historic documents that we have stored for years and years and years at our airport we need to get all of that stuff digitized and if it's per state um uh retention statutes if it needs to be disposed of that we do that properly this will give them some additional staff to do that in the finance department we have a tw- member procurement team so that $296 million budget that I just mentioned if you back out all of the Personnel costs within that and just look at everything we spent on operations and capital and buying cars and and tools and equipment all that flows through our procurement office through the hands of of two people that's a significant workload you all have been parts of itbs rfps rfqs over the past year or as long as you've been on the commission you know what it takes to assemble those and process them um we need some help there so this gives them an additional body in public safety you can see the the police officers those six full-time positions I have have uh spoken on that we're also recommending the addition of a CSR a customer service representative one to to work with our record staff specifically in the area of body warn camera records the redaction and production of those in response to records uh that are requested the next two line items the Winter Haven Recreation and Cultural Center and the bottom four items um are all tied to the operation of new facilities that will come online either in 2025 spring or in 2025 fall uh those are recommended in the case of Winter Haven Recreation and Cultural Center to come on at 25% of the year so they're only budgeted at 25% of the cost uh for the Chain of Lakes Park activity fields that you see there those are expected to come on sometime in January February time frame you can see that all of those with activity fields are part-time staff again that speaks to our intent to operate operate using part-time staff versus full-time staff we can have have as many full or many part-time staff as we need we we only have so many hours to assign but if somebody you know if commissioner dancer was not on the commission and ever retired and had a love for baseball as you certainly does and wanted to come work at chain Lees Park as a concessionaire or a ticket attendant um and only work five hours a week this is that type of opportunity that we create we have so many retirees that are coming here that still want to be engaged and active it's a way to make that happen in the middle categories there in the Fieldhouse that is tied to our Fieldhouse operations that Recreation attendant the to the wre attendant and the recre leader that is tied to an expansion of summer camp programs that program is wildly successful and we want to continue to expand that we'll continue to uh pursue efforts to work with the school district to utilize school campuses so we can provide more services to more families in that regard building permitting we're recommending the addition of a deputy building official for some succession planning and redundancy within our building operation building inspection operation we're also recommending the addition of an a uh another building inspector just to keep up with the amount of construction that is happening in our area a crew leader within our cemeteries the four Library uh lines that you see there total three part sorry three full-time and two part-time positions those again are funded at 25% of the year to align with the opening of the branch library at the Winter Haven Recreation and Cultural Center and then a total of five full-time positions within our water plants in it one full-time Smart City analyst again trying to manage the varieties of software that we have in the platforms as well as keep up with cyber security needs uh that that operation is becoming more and more Technical and intense in terms of number of bodies we have to have there and we'll continue to employ the part-time interns to assist us we also have a part-time position recommended for adding to the fiber systems technician that would give them one full-time and one part-time position in our dark fiber operations Fleet Maintenance over 600 units of Fleet that we maintain uh very getting more and more technical we added our first electric vehicle this year to the fleet within our natural resources operations um but we need to expand that Fleet Maintenance staff we're recommending two bodies there and then within solid waste you see the growth we're having as we see homes come online we need to be prepared to pick up horiculture waste recycling and garbage uh so that allows for us to add two members to our Solid Waste team at midy Year and that also aligns with when we anticipate receipt of new vehicles to be able to put them in in total 29 full-time positions 24 part-time positions recommended for the fiscal year 25 we have a number of positions get reclassified um this is when we look at positions and make sure that their job function what they actually need to do and what they are doing aligns with the job description and then we assess that against what is the rate of pay or the pay grade and classification they should be in um we are transitioning a Communications intern to a uh full-time position within public affairs and communication you've seen through your strategic plan the level of work we're doing with metrics measurement the communication platforms we have out to the community our legislative advocacy efforts we are doing more in public affairs and communication than we ever have and in order to keep all those things rolling and being effective uh we need to make sure that we're properly staffed there so that this gives them just a little more uh human capital within there to carry out their mission the three positions that are noted for fire these align with trying to rightsize that organization and get some some key roles fied that um not only address current need but look to the Future so it's a conversion of our EMS coordinator to a rescue Chief to oversee all of our EMS services that is the vast majority of what we do within the fire department is uh medically related converting the fire training safety officer to a development Chief so that is development not only assigned with um the programs that we have for maintaining paramedic training and firefighter training but also the onboarding of new firefighter fighers into the system and then a strategic initiatives chief that we would take an existing fire lieutenant and modify that increas it up to a a strategic initiatives Chief this is really evaluating what's happening with our apparatus our engines what do we need to be planning for for replacement um where do we need to be identifying new stations to be down the road what are the needs of existing stations that we have what are changes within the industry that we need to be anticipating so that we can properly plan Fieldhouse has a uh change from a customer service rep two to a recreation supervisor one and then an activity Fields I mentioned the addition of all those part-time positions uh changing that food service leader to a food service crew leader because they will have quite a crew to oversee and manage within engineering uh there's three positions those actually have a a reduction in overall cost and that is just really aligning what we had as historical positions within the organization to what the need is today and then also a change in facility maintenance to create an additional level of supervision in that operation in the airport uh side of things there's a part-time Tech position that we're recommending make it into a full-time position this will allow us to have the same level of Staffing number of bodies and at the appropriate positions on every shift so that there is consistency throughout that operation and then there's an adjustment to the customer service manager position within account services to align with responsibilities and Market uh Market rates overall in terms of salary adjustments those reclassifications a total out at just about 97.5 $997,500 okay so general fund this is where most everything happens um in terms of police fire Park Streets the commission clerk city manager U revenues for f year 25 a little over $72 million it's a slight increase over what it was Prior year of about $6 million the expenditures a little bit less than they were last year we dropped down to 73 million so we we have about $6 million more in revenues and about $3 million less in expenses that's a that's a good thing to see so you see that the ending fund balance is projected to be about $226.1 million and I'm going to talk about that fund balance moment so you can get a picture of where that stands City commission um the only changes really here deal with some of the uh the programs that you attend travel and training expenses and then some of the community sponsorships we do city clerk obviously reflects the addition of a new position City attorney remains relatively flat City manager's office sees a decrease because we pull out all of public affairs and communication and we place that within its own cost center so you can see the the cost center below it public affairs and communication has no expense for fiscal year 24 but does have an expense for fiscal year 25 that includes two new bodies uh as well as uh some efforts to advance our strategic plan and communication outreaches Finance um slight uptick in finance 261,000 we do have an additional body there uh planning no real changes there their increase is is really tied to the reduction of some one-time purchases that were in Prior years within operations you can see that was about $192,000 difference year-over-year safe neighborhoods uh increase of about $197,000 they still have some positions open there that are you some budgeted positions that are vacant uh but they have recently filled a couple of those so we're excited to see what continues to happen within their operations police and increase about $588,000 that includes the um those six officers plus the CSR for the body warn camera records uh as well as some additional tools for their operations fire department sees an increase of about 1.3 million a lot of that has to do with rise in pension costs that they have as well as the increase in salaries over the years um and they also have an uptick in overtime associated with their operations Parks and Recreation um new some new funded positions as well as expanded operations and there's some one-time maintenance or uh Capital related expenses within their operations that account for that $2.5 million increase and then in streets uh again a slight decrease you can see that that is all housed within operating and capital again last year's budget had some one-time purchases that this year's budget does not fund balance this is where it all comes down to at the end of the day how much money do we have left so we are estimating that at the conclusion of fiscal year 2025 the city will have a fund balance that equates to about 36% your minimum threshold that you can you want to stay above is 177% your goal per fiscal policy is 30% the difference between 30% and the 36% that you see here is about $4.1 million we will be bringing back to you a recommendation um the the policy that was adopted by the Commission in 2023 calls for those funds to be directed towards one-time capital capital Investments and our intent is that that will go towards first and foremost the fire station 5 project on Lake cartridge that was uh some money came off of that portion of the construction to help with fa with station 4 um and we've talked about this a number of times recently that will be the number one priority for that additional projects that we're looking to put funds towards would be the acquisition of Park land in southeast Winter Haven for another Park to serve the growing population out there also trying to identify a location and path forward for pickle ball expansion uh facilities and and putting that within our construction fund to um begin earmarking money for that I will say that Julie and her team um are working to find additional pickle ball interim opportunities for that audience through use of the additional hardcourt at the um Tennis complex and upon completion of our summer camp designating specific indoor time within the Fieldhouse so overall fund balance sitting very strong um I think that this would be the Envy of any City in P County probably any city in the country to know that you've got 30% and actually 36 % that allows us to deal with some of the increased costs that we see for capital projects and how quickly those can go up year-over-year I commend the finance department for bringing those policies forward and for the commission to be as bold as they were to enact those certainly it's helped our credit ratings overall and his positioned as well some of the significant items that are uh capitalized in in in one-time expenses within the general fund you see some repair and maintenance uh projects within police and fire um in parks and grounds one thing I want to point out here the rights of way in Parks Contract Services that is where we're you know we haven't really added any bodies to our Parks uh uh staff the landscape staff yet we add Parks constantly uh Ruben Williams Park South Central Park came on in 2018 we didn't add any new bodies with that um it's just year-over-year we're getting more green space we're trying to keep up with that we're using the private sector to help us do that in a lot of places now but the line underneath that is probably the most exciting I've not gotten an update yet this week but it looks like we are going to get at least two of our P Correctional Institute inmate workforces back uh that gives us 10 working individuals plus two supervisors to help tackle rights of way and some of our Cemetery maintenance some of our large um maintenance areas outside of the activated Park system in Parks Administration Lions Park this is a smaller Park uh on the south shore of Lake may it has a small meeting facility and a playground and a boardwalk fishing dock City acquired that in the early 2000s from the Lions Club yet has not made a whole lot of investment into it just some minor repairs this is an effort to go in and really look at what do we need to do with that Park to meet the needs of the community that could be served by it immediately around it shuffle board courts involves the resurfacing of some shuffle board courts the Cabana shade covers involves the uh uh refurbishment of those shade structures that we have at the new Tennis complex um under the Fieldhouse the restroom upgrades $200,000 that is to address some historical Plumbing issues in the older part of the building they weren't part of the renovation that took place in 2019 um but something that we need to deal with uh long term Leisure Park rentals doing some improvements to the building envelope at the Women's Club and then also at the Garden Center doing some grounds and irrigation renovation as well as renovating the kitchen that's really the last thing I believe that we have to do at the Garden Center uh that was a project the city took over I'm going to say in 2021 commissioner Dan does that sound correct I know you were instrumental in making that happen uh activity Fields a new storage building out there for ctoa Park football we've done a lot of improvements out there on the baseball side we had done some improvements years ago on the football side but they do need some storage for football equipment um also within the uh uh general fund in the street side pedestrian bridge repairs those are the two bridges that you see along the chain Lakes Trail up on the canal that crosses uh from Lake harridge to Lake conine and then there's another one further north that is part of the outfall system of Lake pansy um and then electric charging stations we budget those within the general fund those would get pushed out to new projects that come online so Winter Haven Recreation and Cultural Center we You' expect to have charging stations there chain Lakes Park Phase 2 Fire Station 5 fire station 4 so that is part of our investment into the EV infrastructure for the city and then last but not least on this page the Ada transition plan this is a federal requirement that when we're getting federal dollars um having an ADA transition plan is a requirement it not only is it a requirement for Grant funds it is also essential to make sure that we're evaluating all of our facilities and assets to make sure that we are accommodating to those who have may may have physical or otherwise barriers to gaining access it says it's within the streets division but it certainly applies to Parks it applies to public spaces that you're in today it applies to processes in which we communicate information out digitally as well okay airport um MJ and CJ were just sharing with with me beforehand we had some discussion on this yesterday during a dry run of this airport revenues are actually covering personnel and operating costs at the airport what's not being covered within the airport is the capital expansion and that's okay you the fact that we're getting a a significant amount of funds from the federal and state government uh to offset Capital at the end of the day the revenue sales the rents um the the services that are paid directly to us uh uh that we provide and people pay us for at the airport are offset setting our operational and Personnel costs um the annual contribution from the general fund drops this year by about $750,000 that's mostly tied to again some increases in revenues but also a a shift in some of the capital projects that we're doing there the major projects going on at the airport obstruction clearing that's at the end of our runways remote control tower project you're familiar with Commerce Park phase one those are improvements that are on the western side of the existing Airport terminal those will allow us to facilitate more economic growth and development uh to the West uh headed towards auale area the Blue Line Aviation hanger development will occur in that area but these improvements will also be a catalyst we expect for additional hanger investment in that area and then the emergency generators the commission just recently approved that project is moving forward taxi way e extension this kind of runs to the I'm going to say the southeast direction of the airport that will give access down towards what will eventually be uh we we expect to be a permanent bricks and sticks uh facility for the Winter Haven High School and P County Public Schools Aerospace uh program uh Aerospace Academy program that is presently in the Portables and then a Master Plan update the the biggest takeaway from this and you can see there's some additional costs that we have at the bottom for some improvements to emergency plans and signs in the in the restaurant but of the major Capital $ 5.26 million the city's investment in that is just a little over 19 cents of every dollar so about 81 cents of every dollar spent on capital is either coming from the federal government or the state government if we could get that on every project we'd be sitting very pretty Library fund um not much change here although once the new library opens up we'll see uh we'll see operational cost increase we'll see circulation increase both of those combined will help us with our funding formula through P County Library Cooperative because that's what that funding formula is built off of and so we'll also see an uptick in County contribution or other revenues um there's a notation at the bottom uh the library has issued 30 3,190 cards uh in 2023 and had almost 420,000 visitations in that single year uh that is not the the highest that it's ever been certainly transitions over time in how people access books and and digital information has had an influence on that but to say that you had 420,000 visitations to the library is quite impressive that is a uh certainly a a uh traffic generator for Downtown Winter Haven Cemetery fund not many changes within it you can see that the general fund support has gone up slightly $100,000 um their other revenues down slightly to $113,000 so that's really tied to lot sales opening and closings um that number's come down a little bit over the past two years it's spiked I hate to say it because it's it's not really what you want to see but that number jumped tremendously following covid um and is likewise operational expenses dropped during covid um we didn't have as much going on although we were doing a lot of sales and a lot of internments at the same time so it it just it was a unique situation for us we do have 538 cemetery plots remaining that are platted and can be sold today but there is an additional 42 acres of land at Rolling Hill Cemetery that can be expanded um there are still maum spaces that are available within the uh Lakeside cemetery and there are niche spaces that we have quite a number of within Lakeside and the ability to expand those as well so I think we're well situated for future growth within the cemetery side of the house um should you know as that comes to be uh necessary Capital fund I mentioned most of the projects that are tied to Capital within the general fund don't live in the general fund they live in a special project fund a special fund known as the capital project fund we will be bringing to you I think in the next month or so um a a package or an agenda item to combine the two construction funds that we have we have a 2015 and 2021 those were kind of set up because that's where the bond proceeds how they were aligned there's no sense in really having two separate construction funds it's more complicated for everybody at the end of the day so we're going to recommend to you that we combine those but within your construction funds you can see the projects that you have those total out at $69 million uh all of those are um tied to Parks and Recreation with the exception of fire stations four and five and I would say that all of those are underway in some form or fashion with the exception of Lake Silver revetment you just signed a agreement with the uh FWC I think it's your last commission meeting for that grant program and the diamond Plex Renovations that's a lighting retrofit and upgrade at Diamond Plex that will happen sometime in likely the um the off seon of the operations there in 2020 late 24 early 25 that will commence Transportation fund the biggest project here is Pard road which is the south portion that goes from plant three wastewater treatment plant three all the way down to Logistics Parkway where it stops today if you've had a chance to go out to Pard road but the north phase of that project is complete it is phenomenal um don't know that I'd ever say that about a road that runs to a wastewater treatment plant I'm sure the staff out there love having this um but it is what was once a very I'd say poorly um poorly designed roadway system it wasn't really intended to carry perhaps the traffic that we're going to see out there long term of of uh um residents coming into the new subdivisions there but also workers getting into the uh the Intermodal Logistics park it is now a two-lane road it's got a trail system on one side it's got storm water retention is a tremendous uh Improvement to that area about four lines down the tip that's that $2 million for transportation Improvement projects that's milling and resurfacing micros surfacing all the different tools in the toolbox that Britney Hart and her team have to maintain our roadways and keep them uh in good repair for the long term um other projects that are in there the quiet zones we're still working through that uh working with CSX to advance that that will be quick projects once we get everything signed off and we're hoping that will happen relatively soon um South Lake Howard East kind of in the middle of the page there that is going to be the project that goes basically from The Canal at uh Lake May Lake Howard around to the South to 15th Street and then South Lake Howard West will continue from 15th Street down past South Lake Howard Nature Park there's also a project designated as East Lake Howard pedestrian improvements that is a project that will go from the boat ramp on the east side of the lake next to Tom Jennings accounting office it will start there generally um and go south towards the Canal Bridge that I just mentioned so we'll when these projects are done there will be Trail components or pedestrian facilities that go from Avenue G on the far far west side of the lake around the north side and almost back to Avenue G uh coming around we've got it some challenges on that section on the very western side but um we're working to see how best to mitigate that CRA as I mentioned they met this week uh they had back-to-back meetings Monday evening so the Florence Villa CRA has at its disposal $1.3 million to uh to work with in uh new revenues the uh downtown CRA will see new revenues of $3.7 million this is based upon their valuations properties within the district in the downtown CRA you can see their budget um how it's allocated out about 155 for personnel about 749000 for operating a little over 2 million for Capital um they have some non-departmental costs I mentioned that they have some transfer that comes into the general fund for Bond Ser uh Bond Debt Service um at the end of the day given their cash carry forward their fund balance they have expenditures that will total around $5 million Florence Villa CRA you can see their layout they will have expenditures that total around $3 million um so this week Angie and Eric uh and sise presented to the c um not only where they are first of all they gave a very thorough report on where we are with some of our grant programs so facade grants for residential and Commercial properties the um incentive package for uh Sidewalk Cafe furniture downtown some of those efforts uh so the both both advisory committees have a good understanding of where we sit with that in the downtown crra projects that were um uh recommended for uh carrying forward in the final budget proposal by that advisory committee and which will come to you as the CRA board include the fdot pond that is down by Bow and yard the undergrounding of some overhead too lines in the downtown area Street lighting along the recently completed Avenue C Southwest complete Street project some Park and right RightWay Renovations uplighting the water tower this is kind of an exciting project in that it's um it's about how do we put some light on that water tower and make it somewhat entertaining in in drawing people to the downtown not just lighting it up but things that can change colors and do different things um that make it kind of a beacon for downtown if you will some property acquisition should that opportunity avail itself the too wall is about constructing a wall around the substation on Second Street Southwest uh to beautify that area bus shelters to um take some of the non sheltered bus stops that we have and create some uh facilities there that make it a little more accommodating for people when they're standing out in summer rains or extreme heat um the uh Cafe expansion that's in the event that there's a request that is um vetted out and it's shown to have Merit for expansion of our Sidewalk Cafe program um one area that may come into play with that depending on what happens to the buildings that um uh are slated as the tailor Hotel buildings we did not put a Sidewalk Cafe in there at the time because we didn't know what would happen with that if those properties develop with something that wanted a Sidewalk Cafe the CRA could consider that and would have funds to advance it and then I mentioned microtransit that is about the acquisition of the ACT ual equipment the type of gem cars or golf carts uh but what we would do in terms of the operation of that both here and in Florence Villa we would look to somebody that actually knows how to operate Transit that would be the Lakeland area mass transit district we have spoken with them already about this um this would be a case where we own own the equipment they provide provide the drivers they are licensed ured you know certified to provide that they understand how to make that work in Florence Villa um significant investment into the neighborhood services Center to bring about that uh modernization there's also some cdbg funds that will go into that project uh they are doing some great work there uh and the facility while it's in in very good condition and has been um improved recently in terms of you know General upkeep and routine maintenance this would allow us to do some significant improvements to better serve our seniors in the Florence Villa area property acquisition that is about work with willing I repeat willing land owners to uh assemble small undevelopable Parcels so that may perhaps they can be developed into something that is beneficial a lot of small Lots Remnant Lots from when First Street was expanded out there this would be um in no way any type of um taking or eminent domain this is working solely with those that would be willing to partner in the process some consideration for the history element that will go inside of the Winter Haven Recreation and Cultural Center I know that commissioner dollson has been very active in that group's planning of how do we recognize and retain the history of that facility uh residential INF infill lot um assistance sidewalk enhancements again bus shelters um not creating new bus shelters improving the ones that we have that's in both cases and then again a consideration for exploring microtransit opportunities will Brook um we do have a Contractor on board to advance the Willowbrook Improvement project the uh that got a little bit delayed because we had a Contractor on board and then um they backed out and and couldn't do the project uh because of some insurance requirements as I understand it uh in bonding so the second bidder was awarded the project and we were working with them on the final scope of services this will include things such as the OnCourse restroom renovation renovation of the greens cart paths drain irrigation so you can see that there is $2.4 million earmarked in the middle of that page for Capital they are um we expect that we're going to lose a little money at willbrook this year because when you have Renovations going on it's going to be disruptive and that's okay because you're making the facility better knowing that once you come out on the other side you're likely to see those revenues increase because people want to come be a part of what's new and improved there so you'll you'll drop for a short period of time we expect that will tick back up upon the the reopening it won't close for any period within there it'll just be disrupted in the solid waste fund no major changes in here I did mention that we have um two new drivers that we'd like to bring on at 50% of the year you can see at the bottom of the table vehicles uh about $1.1 million set aside for the acquisition of new vehicles uh trying to be ever mindful of what those uh the timing and delivery of those can be vehicles in solid waste cost us between $350,000 and $400,000 now for our um our residential trucks and our commercial trucks our horiculture trucks a little less than that we are still seeing some delays and getting those delivered but that has significantly improved over the past 3 to four years there's also a set aside within there uh for the Fieldhouse recognizing that the when the phase two you know Baseball Facility comes online trying to manage and and uh uh address Solid Waste issues there we'll put a compactor into that facility uh so Solid Waste will uh will help assist with that you can see that at $93,000 in the storm water fund um they have a pretty significant cash carry forward uh they also have some uh quite a few projects that will happen this year you can see they've got about $4 million in capital uh that is set aside they've got um let me jump to their projects real quick South Lake Howard nature Park so as you recall we bought the land the wsir property back uh around around the co era 2020 time frame um and have actually added to that a little bit with a a recent um property acquisition of a smaller parcel but there is $900,000 to begin that expansion and that is under contract we have a a GMP I believe for that one and uh not a JM design design for that one so that will be advancing the lake ID settlement project and the lake Idol storm water project you just signed off on Grant applications for those uh in the last I'm going to say either the last meeting or the meeting before and then the Wetland restoration project at $800,000 that is the acquisition potentially of property on the North End Of Us 17 between us7 and Lake pansy a significant wooded area up there that is a a pretty environmentally significant Wetland uh area to be restored I mentioned that in 2018 we brought to the commission a recommendation to increase the millage by one mil the commission at that time did so um and the the intent was that that one M would go for capital projects it wasn't going to go for salaries it wasn't going to go for operations it was going to go for capital projects so you can see in fiscal year 25 the second column in or the third column in um that 1 mil generates 4 .22 million first thing right off the bat that comes off of it is the tip so $2 million going towards our transportation Improvement program there's money for our ongoing playground replacement efforts uh money set aside for Diamond Plex and then you can see a series of projects that continue on from there um an interesting point in recently doing some research on transportation and per and uh Transportation Improvement programs particularly pavement condition indexes and I'm going to ask MJ to to give me some of his recall on this our original if you go back before we did this one mill we were putting about $325,000 a year into tip and we were able to address we would have gotten our um number of roads that were in a poor condition um I want to say it was less than we might get down to maybe 35 40% in there but because of that additional funding that's somewhere down around 11% of our roads are in that um in that very low category so this is going a long way in addition to that expanded toolbox that uh the commission had approved us using so in conclusion um I finally got there to the very end it is a balanced budget my recommendation to you as the elected body is that you leave your millage rate at 6.59 Ms we don't know what the future holds but I certainly can tell you that if you were to lower that millage rate and if there was something significant that happened at the State Legislative level in fiscal year 25 or calendar year 25 you'd be back here right off the bat having to make up that difference quickly um so I want to be ever mindful of that also any change changes that could happen economically we have bankers and investors on this board you guys are more in tune with that but it is an election year and that can certainly have some impacts on what the markets do um we continue to budget very conservatively on interest rates despite what the past two years have shown Us in terms of performance but I do recommend you you maintain a 6.59 millage rate total budget $296,200 you continue to have a very strong uh budget within both of your CRA and are making significant improvements in both um I think those CRA committees would tell you that they're extremely pleased with what they're seeing in terms of the strategies for how those monies are to be invested you continue to fund affordable housing both in setting aside an appropriation from the general fund as well as making commitments to align with Investments that both the public uh sector in terms of the the affordable of the Winter Haven housing authority and the private sector and agencies such as Blue Sky are making in our community we continue our step program we recommend a across theboard dollar value adjustment for our employees to help address affordability and our budget is built off of 736 total employees of which this budget includes 29 9 new full-time and 24 part-time I mentioned I'll be back to you in early August alongside Gary hubard to present our utilities budget uh that will highlight a lot of the capital um all of the things that speak to employee positions and the total expenditures of all funds when I reference the utility expenses in here that number will not change how we allocate that money within the utility budget May fluctuate a little bit but the botom dollar will still remain the same so with that uh I'll happily stand for any questions you have and I thank you for your attention on this matter any questions Commissioners couple go ahead I hate to be the first one um Cliff I'm going to I'm going tell you remember this budget is almost 300 million when I first started it was right around 100 million so you'll always remember your first budget so this is your uh always remember you were close to 300 million so it's growing and um significant it's significant to of the 736 employees how many of those positions are filled is it are we what's our is it um good question let me certainly the the new ones would not be filled so you don't have 29 that are that are going to be bacing but if I go to bear with me one second yeah so this is probably the best representation of it you have six vacancies that are in our uh upper level management positions you have 10 that are within the the midlevel range um I can tell you you know in fire lieutenants there's a number of vacancies within there um and then in the front line there are 57 vacancies so the 73 between the three levels right do you have like so about 10% of of what that final number would be but you got to go off of what it is today so you got to back out the additional positions that we've recommended do we have like a turnover rate is that normal are we still having a lot of turnover I know it during Co we're having a hard time finding people and our because we had so many vacancies is that you know I'd say um commissioner dancer we did we've done a lot of of work to to strengthen up uh certain positions you know we had we had a lot of vacancies for a long time within police uh we made some changes to the budget last year in terms of our rates to pay for police and some uh hiring bonuses and some things that we've done there so I think we've we've narrowed that Gap quite a bit um I'm looking to see if Chief Brown is in the room Chief how many vacancies will you have based upon those that are in the academy today eight so eight vacancies within law enforcement based upon who we have in the academy today I'd say that that's very competitive and probably a lot better than most um Fleet we're hanging on to folks that was a scary one and garbage we we're hanging on to folks I think in water that's probably uh an area where we can lose people quickly that they want to they'll jump ship for just a a small fraction of of coin um but I think is there any Department that has a higher turnover rate than the organization as a whole like is police turning people over quicker than water and sewer for example or I'd have to I'd have to research that commissioner I would I would guess um you're probably going to see a higher turnover rate within probably a line Department like utilities than you would in police uh just given the nature of the jobs and what it takes the credentialing that it takes to get into those jobs and the background checks and everything you to become a police officer you got to jump through a lot of Hoops and and folks aren't real quick to say hey I've jumped through all those I'm GNA go jump through them again somewhere else so I think that that's probably a deterrent to some of that turnover well the reason that I'm getting in that in a perfect world if we could figure out a way to put more money towards the higher turnover spots particularly police fire whatever I know fire is not a lot of f turnover but where we could make sure because it costs a lot of money to replace a policeman for example and or somebody that works in the sewer department if we could somehow incentivize those particular positions to get people to stay I think and I think that's what what I'm recommending to you is that when you know I can tell you right now if I could pay every entry level position $20 an hour there wouldn't be a single vacancy on this report but there's no way feasible that that can happen in one one swift move um you know I think that that's something you strategize for a long term over a you know five six seven year window and see how do you move that needle even closer to that but I think that being able to increase the starting rate of or the that employee that started here within the last six months that's making $330,000 a year to bump that up to $33,135 through what we've proposed here it's certainly that's a lot more money that I have each month to buy groceries to pay rent to not have to worry am I going to pay a a a utility bill or pay the rent or or eat so I think that that that alone shows a tremendous investment in our employees a concern um you the benefit package remains extremely strong um we're and that's the the other thing I want to point out there's not a position that we have that doesn't have the opportunity for Upward Mobility so that's just to get you in the door once you're here you if you're in if you're working in the water department and you get your asbest certification you know there's a there's a an incentive pay that comes with that you have a CDL you have a anot certification you have a storm water certification um we pay for our employees to aain additional education so they could Advance up the other thing I'll say is that we have a program within utilities that um as an example if you come in as a utility service or one once you have attained certain skills and so much time with us you become a two once you've done so much skills and service with us you become a three and and I honestly would prefer to have every one of my utility services be a three because that means that they are the most qualified skilled employees that you can have and I looked at Tracy Mercer here I mean if I had my choice between a three two twos and three ones versus having six threes I'll take six threes every single day and I'd say the exact same thing in the fire department if I can matriculate up from a firefighter one to a two to a three if I could have every person on a shift outside of the lieutenant be a firefighter three we don't limit how many of those people we can have if I can have have if I got a crew of four firefighters and they can all be firefighter 3es and I don't need to have any firefighter ones I'm doing beautiful that is an ideal situation that means I've got the most skilled people working for our citizens and so creating programs to help them advance for that I think is what we have in play that helps with that retention I ask a question oh okay on this subject do you pay um for um ABC license one two threes yes we do do you pay I mean whether you need them or not do you pay the highest if again use the same example if I have a wastewater treatment plant and I have four positions an a a b a c and a trainee and they were all so skilled that they were all level A's that's the best situation you could ever hope for if somebody leaves you still have train staff right Shuffle and that's why we don't limit the number of people that we can have in that position some cities commissioner Mercer will say we can only have one a at this plant if I have four positions and they're operators they can as long as I have an A I'm good but if they all want to Bas and they can all meet the credentials and the time in the seat and can pass those tests come on y I agree does Grady still does Grady still work for us and still mow and do all that stuff or is that remember how he used to his his his guest and used to come down and mow for us and corre well what he does Grady's never mowed for us his guest although if you can get a picture that I think he calls him his guest or whatever yeah he um he has the uh the we call it the weekend warrior program so this is a deferred sentencing type program that individuals um can come work with us and we assign them to our crews they do a lot of manual maintenance within our RightWay uh within our landscape areas um we do still use that there's some challenges with it um there are some uh supervisory challenges so if you get female uh uh Weekend Warriors that come to work with you you need to assign them to a female supervisor okay that's one of the and if you don't have a female supervisor on that day you're kind of in the in in a Lurch there um but we that number really drained off Big Time following covid it started to pick back up we get some benefit out of that and and we certainly we can use that the bigger benit it is out of the pul correctional institute because that's five dedicated people that's that's the biggie and and we had four of those at one time we're still getting doing that though we are well that went away in 2000 as soon as Co shut everything down that died and and it is just now coming back we have pushed and pushed and pushed um Steve I swear Steve puit has the warden on speed dial and must have called every single day um only for the purpose of asking about PCI Crews I promise um but the uh just in the past 60 days that that ball has begun to move and um I'm hoping that we can bring back contracts to the commission for consideration for two of those crews in August couple questions about C and I know we you and I talked about this during our briefing and I'm I'm bringing this up for the other Commissioners too primarily to understand what I was talking about the downtown CRA and it's you know all of us are getting emails now including you about the retail wos of people downtown that have retail outlets and they make some valid points and ask they're asking for help and um I know stores and retail outlets are going to come and go but we don't want a a downtown of just bars so and and I look at like for example the Macy's building and we have a lot of vacancies big box buildings and to me that would be a perfect spot for a uh something whatever but seeing as how we have a pretty healthy fund balance is there any way that we could potentially use our CRA and hire some people Realtors or whoever it may be that could help us run some sort of a retail Outreach to try to fill some of these vacancies or help the ones that are struggling or what I'm you know what I'm grasping for straws here because I don't know the answer but I I'm looking at we we have such a we have a pretty healthy fund balance we have a real need in um in particularly in retail and I know retail is a lying everybody's Cutthroat but I'm just sitting here trying to think of a way that we don't have a bar on every street corner in in our downtown we have to have some retail stores and I know they got to come up with creative things and it's up to them but you know they make some good points when we did that construction it helped hurt some people and and I want that Macy's has been empty for years uh I'd love to see taret go in there something like that but somebody's got to be proactive to go out and reach out to these Target and say hey come look at Winter Haven again or whatever and that to me seems like that's a realtor I don't know we don't I know we don't have the staff for it but maybe our C could make that a priority if we as a commission making a priority through our CRA and if if they say we don't have the money well we give them some money or whatever I'm just trying to think out loud of ways that we could start some sort of a retail initiative to help our some of our downtown retail outlets so that's one thing and then the other thing in Florence villea the other thing that I mentioned to you there's so many vacant lots that could become housing if but the houses are all tied up in Probate and they and they two or three generations down next thing you have 15 beneficiaries instead of one and it just I remember Doug Lockwood used to talk to me about this when he was a practicing attorney that that just takes so much time to get down in the weeds and contact these people and offer them some money or offer them an opportunity way to clean up some of these lots and then we turn them over to Habitat for Humanity or heartt for Winter Haven or somebody that can build some housing because everywhere you go there's vacant lots and I'm sure if you looked into it it's because somebody in St Louis owns a third and somebody in New York owns a third and somebody in Canada owns a third or something and it just takes a lot so that's the other thing on these CRA if we could plow some of that money in towards an attorney to do that if and if we as a commission make that important and I think the CRA boards will come along with us so those are a couple of thoughts that I'm having and otherwise I'm pretty content with what you put here put together um you know but go ahead I've talked enough this is your time so um I think very good points on both those um doing I certainly we'll we'll work with Eric and Angie and and City attorney on the uh kind of an downtown economic pathway of looking at some of those properties you you have to be mindful that they're not our properties so we end up marketing on behalf of others but those are properties within the CRA and so there's I think that there is a pathway to make make that happen and um certainly we'll we'll give some exploration of that report back to to this group including the downtown CRA uh advisory committee and I believe um I'll ask Eric to correct me if I'm wrong but we've recently brought on Florida acquisition and Appraisal within the Florence Villa CRA to do exactly what you had had suggested there where we have willing land owners how do we begin to assemble those um we may have to bolster that with some legal support in terms of uh clouded titles and and multiple ownerships but I think we have a we have that as an initiative within the Florence Ville CRA now well every attorney I talk to says it you just got to be dogged in your approach you can't just send a letter and wait you have to follow up and follow up and follow up John you know absolutely you're correct it could be your firm it could be any but it's going to take a lawyer to just do this and well yeah and I working with Joe Blair and the Florida acquisition group of city manager noted they were very good very thorough they did the lake Albert Trail if you may recall that was an astounding feat that we were able to get however many 53 Parcels of land voluntarily conveyed to us um and and well that's slight a little bit different but you are absolutely correct you need to have someone that is detail oriented and has perseverance and doggedness to just go after it and they got to get paid we can't ask like dou was going to do it for free that just doesn't work no you're correct they got to get something I think the idea here at least in my mind and I won't speak for staff but we're we're I think we're going to identify those I'm not going to call it low hanging fruit but I'm going to say those pieces of land that we can we can identify at least on the surface as being not as congested not as tied up go after those and then start the ball rolling generate the the the the synergy you know you get some projects going and then you really devote all the while devoting your attention to those Parcels that are a little bit more tied up and so I but but you're absolutely right the we're in a good position we've got some people that want to build they just don't have the land I mean heart for Winter Haven Habitat for Humanity and there's other people that that come before our affordable housing committee that want to build and if we had some inventory they would build houses they would do it so um to the Library real quick I'm looking at the library budget I don't see anything in there for the Florence Villa Library the extension of the because I know we're going to put one in there right that's still on the agenda in the new building so that is sorry that will not show up in the library itself now keep in mind that building is expected to come online um after October 1st okay so the operational cost there it is the operational cost will not appear until then we will try and bring on some of the staff earlier uh building the collection getting systems in place getting ramped up on training to operate that but that the construction of that commissioner dancer Falls within the um the actual cost of the uh the Winter Haven Recreation and Cultural Center project it's all housed within one budget okay the the airport is there still a high demand for hanger space out there do we have a long list of people there is a very high demand for hanger space Troy do you know how many you have on the weit list 74 74 on the t- hanger weight list um they are uh in the process of finalizing some efforts with some uh commercial hangers that became available and uh you know we do a somewhat of an RFP process for those also tell you that we are in the process of um inspecting all of our te- hangers and Commercial hangers to make sure that they are being used in accordance with what the leases call for and if they're not being used to house the planes that they're supposed to be housing then uh those can either be housing the planes that they need to or we're going to make those available for other tenants when you've got 70 plus that are waiting for that space high demand we can't have te hangers out there that are storing RVs and boats and classic cars they're there for planes that's what they need to be used for you know that's a good point and I keep thinking about again we we're we have some money and I keep thinking that maybe we ought to potentially put some money into some tea hangers out there and um if it's going to automatically pay us back over 10 or 15 years or whatever it is why would we not consider that particularly if we can maybe get do or FAA to throw throw in some money like they always do I'm just throwing that out there for us to consider because that to me is a layout the developers don't want to do it because I've talked to plenty of them so it looks like it's up to us to build some of these things and maybe we I don't know I'm just throwing that out there for everybody else to think about um on the on the on the on the uh Women's Club on the Garden Club the Women's Club down in Lake Howard um for the longest time we had a strong initiative to get grant money because of the historical P historical perspective of that building is that still being worked do we know is there part of the challenge there is where that money lives in the state budget a lot of that got cut this current year um we still pursue that you know when when there's historical grants that we can can go after um but yes sir I've been a big advocate of moving Pony League Baseball to the new Chain Lake stadium and and getting out of ctoa park I just that's just a personal uh feeling that I have that the kid the bigger kids shouldn't be with the little kids I think I've heard you mentioned that a time or two yeah um but that's going to take some money to uh to do that and that's probably 2025 too I would imagine truthfully well that's you know that that did not fall on deaf ears your Parks and Recreation Department understands um that and we'll work with the uh ctoa greater Winter Haven youth baseball to explore you know how does that happen what does need to happen with that um certainly the um expansion of chainel Lakes Park to create those additional fields that project is underway we're reviewing initial quotes uh from the various disciplines associated with that project and hopes of getting that underway quickly okay I'm good anyone else so I just add a couple comments to the the budget um it are large capital projects I can't recall since being on this Commission of a time where we didn't have a large capital budget item whether it was the Fieldhouse or you know whatever um so that makes up you know roughly what $ 6970 million plus you know another mid teens million doll number in you know other infrastructure projects so when you back all that out that get that kind of gets you down to more your nuts and bolts of operating the city which is whereas yes we're we're approving nearly a $300 million budget but those are one-time ripe deals it'd be interesting to see what it would look like to not have those one-time deals and not I'm not advocating for not having those those are all phenomenal projects and I don't think we will ever not have these projects because once these get done then it's going to be infrastructure on sewer system and water treatment plants and so on you're always going to have these one big time projects I guess um but when you look at you know operations for the nuts and bolts of of 210 217 million how does that compare with other municipalities that are our size or potentially bigger or smaller compared to us it's a great question um I would say that if you looked at other municipalities and I'm going to back up to when we talk about the G ener fund specifically um I think you're probably going to see something that is very consistent with this in the general fund your greatest expense is going to be in Personnel so on page 13 um your operating services are going to end up being about 20% your Capital Falls to a relatively small portion because of how it's mapped out in terms of dollar per dollar how do we compare it to a to a hanne city or a Lake Wales or a Lakeland you know I can tell you that in Personnel side we measure up um we evaluate and in and Benchmark against a multitude to cities when it comes to what are our rates of pay um we never want to be at the very bottom of that you never want to be so far above it that it's you know you're you're on that bleeding edge you want to be competitive um we look at that constantly I was just looking at it this morning from a number of cities on specific positions to make sure that we're in that market where you'll see fluctuations may be in um the number of positions they have the types of services they provide uh are they providing an affordable housing element in the same regard that we are what is their reinvestment into roadways um I can tell you I just drove back from Okala this morning and going through some of the small towns of Maran and Lake count and seeing roads that are still dirt roads and gravel roads and poorly maintained shouldered roads no they're not making the same investment into their their transportation infrastructure um so I can't really say you know dollar for dollar I think that the way that we operate is extremely efficient I think we're very lean we maximize our technological resources uh in every way possible to make sure we're providing the highest level of service without putting an additional Demand on on people you know that's where you have a a continual carrying cost is within people um although you got to expand based upon what your growth is so I think there's so many variables within that do I think it's a um that you know dollar for dollar we we're consistent with what every other city is I think that's comparing apples to oranges to bananas but I would say that I with great confidence present this budget having been scrubbed this is something I didn't say within the presentation and and your question just kind of made me think of it we this isn't what everybody asked for you know this is a $296 million budget there's $9 million worth of stuff laying on The Cutting Room floor so that's additional positions that's additional um toys and tools and programs and things like that that you know hey they'd be great to have but we have an accountability to the tax pair at the end of the day the other thing I'll say is that a lot of times people want to compare us to places like Lakeland um we are the second largest city in P County Lakeland also has an electric utility that provides a substantial amount of money into their general fund is one of those dividends like we have from our utility but that offsets a huge expense that you would otherwise have to make up through adval or other revenues so um we can we can pull some numbers if you give us a little bit of time we'll be happy to do that maybe when we bring the budget back in September our CFO and her team can certainly look at what some other budgets are uh through their points of contact and in some cities of comparable size what do the numbers look like it's it's there is a lot of variables within it though and I I don't want to govern to headlines um you should never ever do that but I think it's just important to put that forth in it's not a 300 it's not really a $300 million budget it's a $300 million budget because of the capital infusion project you have $100 million worth of capital close to it just within your general fund you have 17 million in transportation improvements $69 million within uh infrastructure improvements and then if you add in all of the capital expenses Vehicles fire trucks those types of things that are within you're probably close to $100 million in capital keep in mind that $300 million includes $80 million in your utility operations I guarantee you and I I'll I'll bring it back to you in August that the percent that goes into Capital within utilities is greater than anywhere else in the organization it's where the most Capital intense operations are so you know at the end of the day operations in personnel throughout the entire system you can see about 48 49% are in personnel and operating Services about 45% is in capital so of that1 $300 million budget let's say 160 million of it is in personnel and operating and about 140 of it is probably in capital the road projects list that was on here there wasn't anything specific to the North Lake ship project which we've received some some support from the federal level on that project but it would appear like we're going to have to put some some more skin in the game than what we would really like to even though that's a a roadway that helps connect surrounding municipalities um should there be a line item for that project or is it is it better to kind of hold off on that particular project and you know potentially look at your you know larger than needed reserve and pull from there in the event that she needed to to add funds to get that project completed because what I don't want to have happen is that project be 10 15 years out that it's a project that needs to happen sooner than later so I'll ask MJ uh Carnival to give you an update on where that project is and then I'll I'll comment on the yeah so the um so it wasn't listed in the uh Transportation fund for construction but there are design dollars built in within the budget uh to work on actually doing the design work for that road and we're working to get that started right now um we don't think we'd actually see some of that funding uh for example the last round of funding that we got for South Lake Howard Drive West um we are just getting through the agreement processes on all of that now so we won't you know we're hope we've included that in next year's budget so I think the reality is if we look at construction and even starting construction that would be in the following years budget that's why it's not shown in here but it is something we're tracking and accounting for and building money towards the um it's it's we're gratefully appreciative of what has happened with our our St our federal funds that come towards our projects we have the um West Lake Howard pedestrian improvements that's an appropriation or a a community Congressional uh project that was sponsored by Congressman stto um Lake Ship that's with uh Congressman Franklin we're going to continue to pursue efforts on on on that one certainly but the one we got from stto we are just now getting to the point of paperwork getting ready to authorize us to move forward it's been two three years year and a half and we're just getting design started right now and so the part of the problem in in the CRA uh downtown advisory Comm just talked about this Monday night challenges you know in looking at like any grant program the the number you get for the project and when the money comes available the things that can happen just in 3 months well in two years what happens with costs you know those things continue to go higher and higher and higher and so that's the the challenge we have with that you know that that's a project that has a storm water component to it it has a utility component to it it has a transportation component to it so when we look at how do you fund the Delta of what you have what the total project cost is in comparison to what the federal appropriation would be we look to all three of those unique funds to help offset some of what that expense would be utility should pay for the utilities storm should pay for the storm Transportation should pay for the transportation and we leverage all of those and we look to the general fund fund balance and say hey we need you know some money to offset that again I God forbid I ever go to another city to work that doesn't have that type of approach to CU I don't I don't know that I could go back to the dark ages of saying okay we got to shake the couch cushions to find the uh the contingency for a project you all have very wellestablished fund balance that gives you some latitude on how to tackle some of those challenges because they are inevitable if you if you bid a project today if I give you a dollar a dollar amount today for a project and you bid it in 6 months the price I gave you to do it is not going to be enough it will change that quickly yeah think as everybody up here just wants projects to happen so much faster than they do and that's I get it that's the government world and there's not a lot that we can do to to change that or modify it but I think the the folks that we have running our day-to-day operations in the City of Winter Haven do expedite these things as quickly as as physically possible and so I'm appreciative of that the last question I've got is um kind of in line to commissioner dancer's comments on on filling the big boxes so I'll mention the the Winter Haven EDC which Mr Lions is here tonight is that an arm that we should be looking to them they've done a phenomenal job in bringing new development and new new industry out to the Intermodal facility and and the projects that are happening are there are second to none anywhere in the country but is is that potentially an arm of the EDC that we should look towards to try to recruit some of these larger retailers into the big boxes that we have available in and around our area I don't want to speak for Bruce but I certainly think that that would be somebody you want at the table and and if they could could help leverage that they are more engaged in that type of Recruitment and response to letters of Interest or um you know the the folks that are going out and and doing site selection on industrial parks it's not too awful different on the uh on the commercial retail side um so that would be something we'd have to explore with them but I think that that's because you're talking about economic development at the end of the day it's not just about the services that um I'll say per and this is not to be disparaging in anyway you know what a Main Street provides to a business and what a chamber provides to a business is different from what an economic development side you know of of greasing the wheels and navigating the path to to help them come in for a safe landing on a project um and pulling together all the various partners that need to be there that's certainly something that Bruce is expert in and we could uh certainly give some consideration of that through further discussions but I think you're I think you know commissioner dancer spot on you've got got some big boxes here um retail has changed it will continue to change so what do you do with those spaces and and what what level of retail what type of retail has not changed that would like to be in those spaces we've not engaged a whole lot in that because it's not our property to go out and promote and Market um but I think that if we sit and wait for somebody else to do it it's not going to happen thank you okay um I just wanted to say the budget was presented very well it's put together very well as far as um every city they're different they're different in what they engage in they're different in what they focus in they're different with strategic plans and that's what makes them different and that's why you're always you're not going to be able to compare and compare in a way that you could draw conclusions from um some sort of what they do better or you do better so um but I did kind of look at the general the total general fund with all the revenues and then I looked at our um I guess you would say I'm looking for the chart now kind of moved away from it um that showed the uh percentage how much was operational and then the percentage of our um funds that are over that but when I looked at and divided it the 72 million and that included a lot of general fund revenues um that just not add the LA taxes and um so if you had to operate in an emergency for three months without any revenues you would be at about um 188 million of that so um we would have a little cushion that we could go operate a little bit longer and with this hurricane season coming up and they anticipate more hurricanes and they've predicted and and whatever and and the um I guess you'd say the um intensity of those they've increased those so um just curious about the funding that we would have in case something did happen and we had to operate without revenues because if you've been through a hurricane as Charlie Francis and Jean um you um never come back you don't get back a lot of the revenues um ADV theor revenues there's some of that that you don't really recoup for a long period of time some of it you never do um we're lucky with the growth we have but you don't know what kind of how they would be affected either with some of those um homes I guess you'd say so um I think uh any excess that we have in that area um is good because it keeps any funding for bonds and things it gives you a better rating and everything on that so hopefully we don't have to use it commissioner Mercer if I could just respond to that so at $1 18 million you know for three months um operations at 30% City sits at about 21 almost 22 million right um you do have the luxury of hopefully getting money back through FEMA but as you well know that is a very lengthy process um you may not see that money back into your coffers for a year plus maybe two years so you're you're having to draw down reserves and hope that you're going to replenish them but as you said you never never fully will I had just read an article um in the past I'm going to say three or four days um about another city that had um they were looking for 45 to 60 days of fund reserves to be able to operate and I remember thinking wow that's a that's a short period of time if you were in a in a peninsular State like Florida and you had a hurricane season that was active 45 days you haven't even finished picking up the sticks from the first the day one that the storm came through the one I would say this for Fran um Charlie Francis and Jean I did all of the FEMA work um on that getting those in and I was still a year later still turning in the paperwork uh on some of those claims so you you know that's just filing the paperwork I got an EMA Emil from the Florida FEMA operations yesterday that ties back to uh impacts from Hurricane in so that's a anything else no that's dos you have you indicated that we're in negotiations with the fire and police is that correct yes sir and I don't know what they anticipate outome that would be the impact that may have but any or anything any significance on on on your projections that you I can I'm sorry I can barely hear you sir I think I'm Excuse me I said that whether or not there will be any impact relative to your budget uh depending what the outcome of those negotiations you know that's um it remains to be seen so the uh I mentioned that um the police department will have the our our employees members that are represented through the police Collective bargain agreement we'll have a vote at the end of this month um based upon what we had proposed and you know if that's successful then that has no impact on it if it's not then we're we're right back to where we were uh in the Fireside I don't know where that will land so we had we budgeted it uh just to put a placeholder in there I can't just not do anything and then um hope that that we land somewhere in and and can cover it if it if it goes up then I've got to make some adjustments within the budget to accommodate what that additional increase would be uh that could be tapping into initially into um reserves to to do something there or looking at where we have uh cash carry forward to offset because we will have some likely some cash carry forward uh that we'll have to manage coming out of fiscal year 24 if it's less then you know that's more money that goes into a a a fund balance for emergency needs so we like I said hopefully we'll know within the next probably three weeks where we are with the police department um and we'll be back to the table with the the fire department going forward and continue to negotiate in good faith with faith with them to come to some resolution with the CRA becoming uh well hopefully being more proactive as it relates to uh some of the vacant land uh has been mentioned um some of has been for years uh particularly in the Florence Villa area and I think taking that proactive uh approach uh will will serve that area much better uh as one of the portals coming into the city I think that uh it uh it certainly needs or deserves the attention uh I know that there is some movement we're seeing some of that with some of the properties uh there are incentives if you will because of the cost of land and uh interest of course is is increased significantly even in areas that perhaps were not as attractive or uh sought after uh so I think now most things are now in play if you will so there may be more incentive now for um as we proactively look at who who the owners are of the properties and and trying to Cobble those together so that uh it can be a meaningful someone could put a meaningful uh project or effort on there you know we just sold the uh the uh what was was at the uh on Martin Luther King um the old Salvation Army and uh that went pretty quick uh to say the least now of course where it's located and I think it went for a pretty good price so uh you know I don't know uh we don't have any any properties any lands we have a lot of vacant land but really no properties that are that are necessarily available people are looking for properties or individuals looking for places for business opportunities and that is do do not exist uh there have been many uh strategic plans that looked at that area and thought that perhaps like with Duty and other uh Enterprises that perhaps could be uh you know realized in that area as well uh so maybe uh that may be the approach we'll have to consider and I think the CRA will be the probably the uh engine that will help drive that yeah I got one more question mayor before you move on if I'm I'm try I'm trying to get comfortable with the percentage of debt that we have and I know when we first had our meetings I was complimentary about our debt service was but commissioner yat brought up a good idea of a $300 million budget probably 100 million of that as special projects or construction funds I'm trying to get and and CJ you may have to come up with this uh answer but on page nine it looks like Debt Service is 3.7% and and know when you go to page uh page um 13 looks like Debt Service is 8% I guess what I'm trying to get to is um where are we in terms of percentage of debt on in our budget not special projects not withstanding uh what would you think CJ can you pull that out of your out of the thin air or is it going to take some time so I'm not sure what you're asking well I'm looking I'm looking for for for Bond servicing all these bonds that we've got outstanding how how much you know like uh what I'm grappling for is you know the national debt for example they they've been able to equate it it's $42,000 per citizen is is were responsible for the national debt and the interest on the debt and if if I remember the first time we met over here in the the conference room I think our debt level was under 10% um but I don't know if that was on a $300 million budget or on a $200 million budget I can't do you remember that conversation that we had and I complimented you I'm just wanted to know I'm just trying to make sure our debt service is under 10% of our budget and I'd prefer it to be under five but I don't know where that number is you know what I'm trying to get to and I know when we have to do the bond disclosure we have to report that um but we added new debt so I don't want to top talk off the top of my head but I will get that to you okay if you don't mind I just I just want to know where we are again like commissioner yat said Not Special Projects notwithstanding talking about ongoing budget stuff what's our ongoing Debt Service against our ongoing budget are you are you talking about total balance of debt or total monthly debt total balance of debt percentage wise that's what I thought you were getting out okay total balance that's it anyone else well my final comment will be that uh to the staff she this is a uh what I think is a very uh forward budget and I'm going back to what you said you know I hadn't thought about that until you mention it and then I thought about it you know what my first budget was a little less than 70 million that was the total budget for the city of wi Haven less than 70 million and so I mean sounds like we're talking about when I bought my first car we've come a long way stand for a nickel and and you know what what else br I remember your first budget and the famous saying we don't need to kick the can down the road you remember that talked about that quite a bit I think we have copies um of every budget that was ever passed in our finance Library so maybe for uh one of the upcoming meetings we'll we'll see if we can dig up the the inaugural years of Commissioners and bring those budgets so you can reflect I just want to put tonight in in a perspective uh having been here for over 20 years having seen the fund balance be not even half of what it is now having gone through the downturn having gone through through the hurricans there has been one consistent thing consider consider wi Haven and that has been our staff and our management we have been able to navigate whatever has been thrown after us whatever has been thrown after us and to sit here tonight and look at a budget it's really sort of blowing me right out the water from where we've come and feeling reassured reassured about everything that I've seen over the years that we can withand any major situations I don't think that there's something that can be thrown at us that we would not be able to withstand now maybe that's overconfidence but in another sense of the word is strategically looking at where we've been and where we are now and what we have in place to keep us going so with that being said Mr Mayor can I make a final comment if that's permissible yes I just want to give some kudos to some people so CJ Scott and Allen weeks are responsible for um crunching these numbers your your department leadership uh team and all of their staff have worked on this budget since 101 of last year there there's never a time they are not working on a budget and I can guarantee you that they've already submitted this one to me they're working on the one for fiscal year 26 but you have an amazing finance department um through and through Katrina Hill and her team or who put this uh all the the Finesse to this in this uh presentation to help communicate everything and I'll tell you I greatly appreciate your compliments about how we approach this budget I will promise you this it will only get better if the Strategic plan is adopted that becomes a guiding principle for this um and you will see more of a fold in of the Strategic objectives that you have set will align exactly with what's in the budget it does that today but it would be uh very amateur and and uh preemptive of us to try and make those assignments to strategic goals when the plan has yet to be adopted but I can tell you that going forward that will be the approach to your budget year-over-year thank you just an outstanding job and so we really do appreciate it so with that being said I will adjin this meeting we will take a 10minute recess so we will come back at uh 7:23 e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e called the agenda review for this the uh 17th of uh July we will have uh roll call commissioner dollison here commissioner Mercer here commissioner danler here mayor proam Yates still here and mayor bong here still here all right we'll have the uh Pledge of Allegiance and then we have are we going to do this uh water professional month Proclamation or we're going to just wait till Monday to do that is that Monday evening all right developments of note none minutes we will take those up on Monday ordinance's uh second reading 02434 no changes to that one no changes Mr Mayor no that's just the uh the cash carry forward associated with uh reappropriation for encumbered expenses okay all right and then we have the uh consent agenda so if you'd like I can run through these fairly quickly with the assistance of the Deputy city manager yes go ahead the first item is the um RFQ 2418 this is for the progressive design build of the water recycling facility at Pard Road as well as the wastewater treatment plant to abandonment uh this is a project that or an RFQ process that commissioner Mercer was liaison to um they had three submissions for this those were ranked by the Professional Services committee and they heard presentations on June 27th Wharton Smith is uh who was recommended for Award of that uh design build contract so that would be to design permit and construct the new facility at Pard Road as well as the abandonment of plant two uh this has been posted and there were no rec no protests so this is just to negotiate a contract and uh then we'll bring back um actual scope and task orders associated with that project this is not a project you're going to do all at once you're going to take bites at this over time because this is a massive effort very very expensive within the utility system it's part of their their fiveyear Capital program so um and it will involve retrofitting and refurbishing some of the existing system but also expanding it to account for growth as well as that plant to abandonment um item 10B this is uh this is tied back to if you remember we had a couple incidents involving some uh problems at our wastewater treatment plants both at plant two and at plant three going back I'll say over the past 18 months two years as well as a number of sanitary spills that were tied to Hurricane activity when you have those things you must report them to the uh D and um they track all that uh in this case despite even the fact that these are uh in the case of Hurricane overflows those are Beyond our control you still get I'll say dinged for that so the city got a consent order from DP the nice thing about when you get a consent order it is to um really it's it's a for lack of better word it's a penalty because you had a system failure regardless of what the cause was but D does provide you an opportunity to do an inine type project versus just paying a a per a penalty fee to them so we had submitted to them a project in which we would purchase a um uh bypass pump uh in the amount of $ 78,79 uh this far exceeds what we need to do to meet the D consent order but at the same time it does give us a resource to address future spills and and mitigate those issues so all right um item 10 C this is a recommendation of award for a rebid of lift station 119 this lift station AJ if you can jump over to where the photo is this is going to be on the shore of Lake Mirror uh generally um north of uh the connection between mirror and and Howard there I can't see what street that is it runs up to it 16th Street I believe it is um or 14th 13th 14th okay so this is a rebid uh we did this in November of last year we only got one bid that came in and it exceeded what the engineers estimate was so we rejected that we rep posted we received um two bids on the rebid and B&B construction was the lowest responsive bidder and it was within line of the engineer's estimate of construction so this is a recommendation to award the rehabilitation of lift station 119 at a cost of 989,50 for B&B construction all right um moving on so there are the the these next three all kind of go together this is tied to Grant phone Grant programs uh through the Florida Department of Environmental Protection we're going to talk about three different Grant uh portals that they have these are grants that we have submitted so this is somewhat of a retroactive request for approval uh we had to meet a submitt deadline of July 15th and submitting these the first group of programs fall within the um let's see the protecting Florida together program so these are projects that were identified uh through the alternative water supply Grant portal so again dealing specifically with alternative water supply mayor you're very familiar with that through the prwc three projects one is a direct poble recharge mobile unit this is somewhat of an educational uh tool to help promote the future of direct poble reuse that is a grant request of 1.3 million the Pard Road Water Production facility this is a water plant and also the receiving point for prwc water that will come into Winter Haven that is a request for a $3.9 million Grant and then the Bradco transmission and treatment project this has to do with the uh uh bringing water to Bradco for rehydration purposes there that is a $25 million Grant these would require 50% match from the city and that would be factored into it's already included in your CIP we've had some briefings with you about the CIP for utilities over the past month or so you may recall our water director Gary hubard said that uh our rates and everything that we're considering are based upon 5% Grant receipts this is a very aggressive approach to far exceed the 5% um we may not get all these grants but you don't get them if you don't ask you don't ask and you by asking you find out what do they like about a project what do they not like how what do you need to do for a resubmittal and if nothing else it gets these projects on the radar screen of D yes the second group um are going to be water quality improvement Grant authorization so again same thing asking for Retro Retro uh active uh ratification of these submittals we did these are the water quality improvement grant program um the Water Resource facility at paa Road this is that water re uh wastewater treatment plant project we're submitting a grant for $79 million that's half of the cost of that project uh in our initial phases of it and then $3.4 million for the septic to sewer uh remediation area of 6A that's going to be on the west on the Eastern side of Lake harridge uh this has come before the commission a few times in the past this is one of our priority areas for getting folks off of septic so these would be submitted again $79 plus million for uh wastewater treatment plan 3 3.4 million for septic to sewer and then the last category or portal within this protecting Florida together Grant effort is for Wetlands restoration and protection Grant authorization and in this case uh this is a request for $5 million in Grant funds to further expand the land that is available within the Bradco project there's some additional land to the north uh that are uh been explored through the uh entity that we are doing some public private partnership work with and um so that would be to help fund the acquisition of that land um the next item on your uh agenda is the Planning Commission membership as you recall you appointed two individuals at your last meeting one of those members I believe but I will confirm uh has uh since withdrawn from consideration for that due to some other conflicts not of being on the commission but time restrictions that they are anticipating will come their way um but we are recommending the appointment of Kevin Tyson to seat one this was the one remaining seat and likely we will be bringing back another recommendation at some point and I'll look to Eric um they will consider further applicat to uh to fill the the other remaining seat okay and then after that you have travel and training for the mayor to go on behalf of the Central Florida Regional planning Council to the Florida Regional council's Association policy board meeting in early August in St Petersburg Florida I'm going to ask uh Deputy city manager to present um the final two for 10 I and 10 J good evening mayor and City commissioners so um this is the trail go it's a brand new Grant uh from the Florida and Greenway and trails office uh it's an opportunity through that office for the city to get some Grand funding to help improve the Chain of Lakes Trail um so staff is working to pursue the full Grant amount which is $200,000 um the goal would be to use that to give that trail a facelift uh and then also invest in some equipment that'll help with ongoing maintenance there so this is the grant window opens August 1st and this is a first come first serve Grant so we want to make sure that we are first in the door if possible um and so this is just seeking authorization to apply and take any additional action necessary um I also want to point out yep uh Katie white who recently joined our team you thr hand up there Katie um she's working with Andy Palmer to deliver capital projects within the parks recreation and culture Arena uh she was instrumental in preparing this application and actually comes to the city team uh from the office of Greenways and trails we hired her away from there uh she has worked very closely with our staff uh on a number of things over the years including our Trail Town designation um and uh just really brings a lot of experience with her uh she's local to P County um she did her undergraduate studies at FSU for those of you that that interests uh and her graduate work at UH Trinity College in Dublin and just brings a ton of really cool uh experience with her and we're excited to have her on the team uh item 10j is an award of RFQ 2424 for urban Forest planting maintenance and removal services so last fall you'll recall the city adopted its first ever comprehensive Urban Forest management plan and early this year uh we were awarded inflation reduction act funding uh for a grant we applied for uh with and with that match that dedicates about 695,000 over five years to invest in the urban Forest RFQ 2424 was advertised to procure local expertise impr pruning removal and maybe most importantly planting commissioner dancer um four organizations submitted bids in the Review Committee recommended selection of the top three all have slightly different expertise those three contractors are evolved Contracting Incorporated some are alls environmental the tree lady company and commissioner dancer served as the liais on for that and staff is recommending moving forward with fiveyear continuing contracts with all three firms and then issuing specific task orders for work underneath that um again focused on uh pruning planting and uh and removals where needed okay all right thank you all right then we have uh resolutions and so the first resolution strategic plan we don't don't need to review that again um rescheduling of the uh City Commission meeting from Labor Day that's we'll take care of that so then we actually that's that's not uh just sorry don't want mean to correct but that is tied to the rescheduling so we don't conflict with the board of County Commissioners Board of County Commissioners okay that's fine all right so then new business new business uh this is the trim notes I'm going to ask CJ is our CF who's who's put all this together to uh just comment on this briefly yeah so the city's required to set a proposed millage rate for the upcoming fiscal year per truth and millage also called trim um the city must notify the property appraiser of the roll back rate the proposed millage rate date time and location of the first public hearing by a August 4th uh 2024 the public hearing cannot be in conflict with the hearing dates for the BCC and pop County School the first public hearing is proposed for Tuesday September 10th the second public hearing will be held at the regularly scheduled September 23rd meeting uh the gross taxable value is 4 billion 745 m881 925 I know uh that's an increase of 11.26% over prior year the proposed uh FC school year 25 budget was constructed with the millage rate of 6.59 Ms consistent with the prior Year's military at a 9650 collection rate along with funding of the CRA the anticipated adorm is 27 m793 715 the rollback rate is the millage rate that would produce the same amount of adum Levi during the prior year exclusive of new construction additions and Boundary changes the calculated roll back rate for fiscal year 2025 is 62912 because the current rate of 6.59 Mills exceeds a roll back rate the millage rate must be advertised as a tax increase and that's just those are the rules uh so the recommendation is established the fiscal year 2025 tenative millage rate at 6.59 M and set the first budget public hearing on Tuesday September 10th uh 2024 at 6 p.m. all right thank you any questions no all right uh the final things are what we got here let me look up my agenda I think we can just adjin right Mr Mayor I just want to mention one thing if we can uh from the city major office just to let the commission know that I will be out of the office um beginning Tuesday so following me this meeting um Tuesday the 23rd through Monday August 5th 23d and Deputy city manager MJ Carnaval will be point on all items I will not be available via phone or otherwise wow okay all right anyone else would like to report anything tonight if not motion to adjin so move youj