##VIDEO ID:JCqhWTaKyYU## Tuesday September the 2nd excuse me 17th 2024 our second budget hearing on uh at 6 PM location 65th Stone Street bu downtown Coco um we are going to have our second portion of this um invocation will be led by councilwoman weeks and the Pledge of Allegiance will be led by councilwoman cost um with everyone including myself secure your cell phone Pages etc etc etc etc all right will we do invocation please ma'am woman yes sir' one stand our dear heavenly father we ask you to bless this group this evening and Lord give us wisdom and all the decisions we make Lord help us to do your will and not ours and what is best for the city of coko in Jesus name we pray amen amen face the flag I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all um we have an assistant city clerk is Abigail bass here as a city sister city clerk let's give her a round of applause please Madam clerk will you be kind enough to do roll call please yes sir mayor Blake president Deputy Mayor Hearn counc council member Goins council member cost here council member weeks here City attorney Ike here city manager Wht here okay so we have a quum um by law it is mandatory that we have budgeting hearings in pertaining to uh state law to have a balanced budget State mandate so we're going to address two issues today under public hearing it will be um item number one um which is the approval resolution 8 adopting the final millage rate of 6.95 32 Mills for the city of Coco's fiscal year 2025 commencing on October the 1st 2024 and ending on September the 30th 2025 which represents an increase of 905 over the roll back rate of 6.3 67 one okay seeing that this is a public hearing Mrs Bowman oh let me hear from their attorney just just in case just if you don't mind for preliminary reasons esar Ike ma'am do you have anything you would like to say ma'am for the first item for tonight on the budget hearing not at this time thank you yes ma'am thank you very much Mrs Bowman ma'am thank you Mr mayor yes ma'am um as you said this is the second public hearing to adopt the budget for fiscal year 2025 similar to what we did in the first hearing I'll be requesting two separate actions one to adopt a final millage rate for fiscal year 2025 and then to adopt a final budget for fiscal year 2025 and then according to State Statute there must be a balanced budget in place by the beginning of the fiscal year which is October 1st so that we can continue to operate however there are other things that we could do to continue operating but the point is to get a balanced budget so um in accordance with the trim process the first thing um that we're going to request the council do is to adopt the fisal year 2025 final millage rate um as a note the the tentative millage rate can't exceed the millage rate that was established um July 23rd is 6.95 32 Ms unless we go back and and re advertise and repost the notice of proposed property taxes um of note the fiscal year 20125 budget was developed with assumptions of avum Revenue at 6.95 32 Ms with a collection rate of 95% of which the state does require us to uh budget at least 95% to support ongoing operational needs the next step in this hearing will be to adopt the final budget for fiscal year 2025 um as we do with um the um presentations as we go through the two hearings for Budget adoption um this chart shows you where the city of Coco is as far as millage rate and again at the 6.95 32 Mills we are uh established to collect uh gross of 12, 31,516 so substantive issues for Council to discuss is that the total fiscal year budget for 2025 is72 m97 4,318 general fund revenue and expenditures is$ 54 mil 37756 to that does include a millage rate of 6.95 32 Mills it is a 9.05% increase over the roll back rate of 6.37 761 this tax increase was needed to fund salaries and benefits mandatory or critical Capital Equipment to maintain essential services and to absorb inflationary costs and again this is an advertise rate of 9.05% but council did not increase the millage rate itself so at this point in time Mr Mayor this is a public hearing I would like for you to request uh public comment thank you very much uh Mrs Bowman do we have any questions for Mrs Bowman before I turn it over to the public please submit a card ma'am or sir so that we can address your particular concern on the 2024 d888 I have a question but I don't know okay now if you want to director to her you can coun because you have your light on too right okay yes all right go ahead go ahead um yeah I was just going to ask the I understand that it's a 9% 9.05 increase over the rolled back rate I looked at that I've studied that today trying to figure out what is the actual increase in the budget of course maybe this is a question when we get into the budget aspect of this but over last year yes ma'am I'll show you what the increas increas dollar value increases over the budget from last year okay okay okay and then one other thing and I think this will be a budget question too okay so I'll wait to ask that Y and I just realized mine are budget questions as well so I'll turn my light off for now all right okay Council woman C would you turn your light off please okay I have one card in front of me and that is U Alec Greenwood it doesn't to item one am is this on this it's it's your prerogative wait coun okay other questions going once uh kist ly or which one are you wanting to do both come to the podium please submit two cards I will thank you uh good evening mayor and Council persons council members so I'm a little jumbled up too because the agenda didn't lay out the millage and the budget separately so one of my questions is the same as councilwoman cost had about you know what's coming so anyway I will go through and ask my questions um but I I think the public is allowed to ask questions so having the timer on is distracting I have questions' you have three minutes ma' that is not how you did it at the LA at the last meeting you allowed the public to ask questions ask your questions thank you I am one of the few people here who has prepared a present who has prepared for this meeting and to deny me the opportunity I'm not being rude you're being rude oh excuse me excuse me Mr Greenwood I'm sorry you have your time so get started will you please ensure that I'm not just I prepared for this meeting and I'm already out I haven't asked a single question just because I'm trying to understand the format of the meeting so um if you're going to deny me the uh I did not prepare my questions in uh two separate agenda items I have them prepared in bulk so it's confusing to me to try to reorganize um them I will go through it and if I deny time I will be very vocal about that um if I'm not able to ask my questions the first thing I would like to note for the benefit of council is is that uh at the last meeting at the trim meeting it was uh clarified that once the proposed millage rate is approved at the meeting the millage rate may be reduced or increased at the subsequent trim public hearings and I'm clarifying that it can be decreased at this very meeting without having to generate all the paperwork so I am making sure that I state that for the record because there are people in this community that are confused about that and um if that if I'm confused I would like that corrected there are other cities in um bravard that are not going with the millage R and there's one additional that was not on um the slide and that is pal Bay uh there are three cities who are choosing an intermediary rate for the millage and that is Palm just recently at the first mil at the first public hearing they have um tentatively gone with a lower rate of 6. 7339 uh Titusville has gone with a lower rate and then Indian Harbor Beach none of them have gone with the rolled back rate but they have gone with a lower rate this has not been done in Coco in many many years to do anything besides um the millage or a millage increase I did research on this I went all the way back please ma'am thank you I went all the way back to um 2007 and what I found was that there were slight decreases so in 2007 there was a reduction from 45705 to 4.48 N1 and in 2014 there was a slight reduction from 5.98 one1 which was the millage reducing uh to 5.79 7 5.79 so they're very slight but the point that I want to make about the millage is is that these are real hearings and these cost these can be adjusted at the hearing we have president in bravard county and when I started coming to this meeting which was exactly three years ago I came to the uh final budget hearing I got the impression that it was already everything was already baked and so that's why I want to make sure to clarify that this millage is not baked and there are people that are not supporting of um the plan for the millage and then I think the council should be considering either the roll back rate which I did some analysis which I won't have time to give you on my own taxes the roll back rate would end up at one point and an intermediary would keep our taxes flat so I don't think there's been enough consideration of that prior to adopting this millage I will Reserve that for my millage comments thank you thank you very much see anyone else with the comment card please submit your other card Mrs Lord you need two cards because there's two separate issues okay I have to fill it out so can I fill it out after or do you want me to take Council time to do that no no you you're going to speak on the second one make sure you submit your oh I see yes I will do that okay thank you anyone else saying none CH would like to close this portion to counsel to the public and return Council as pertain to your questions councilwoman um weeks the councilwoman cost um I was not on the council when the uh you know when the rate was determined and so I am curious I mean in going through the budget uh I know technically the millage rate is not going up but because home prices have gone up uh we will be getting more more money I get that um and I know that the where it shows 9.05% rate increase technically it's not that high unless uh over what it was last year it would be 3% is that correct Mrs Bowman could you answer a question please ma'am uh can you explain where you getting 3% from well because if it's a homesteaded property it can't go up more than 3% correct well if it's a homestead of property that's correct it can't go up more than 3% but new constru construction also contributes to the increased value and that's where you get the roll back rate it takes out that new construction let's just make sure we're clear because if it's a homee property s homes is the valuation so it's not it's not the rate it's the valuation that is is capped under save our homes so so valuation is set by the property appraiser tax rates are set by the taxing authorities the city councils the uh the uh School Board the uh Board of County Commissioners so so again save our homes pertains to the taxable value the tax uh uh the tax valuation of your property that's the cap this rate is based on what the taxable value of the home is correct I mean this the how do you come up with how much there the each homeowner is going to pay yeah the rate the rate is multiplied by the taxable value of homes there but but again one doesn't control the other again that's a the the the valuation and what the property appraiser does in terms of save our our homes is a separate independent uh uh process from where you set the rate I yes I understand that I reason I was saying 3% because homesteaded properties uh have gone up so I mean they're going to get taxed at the same rate technically and I know what you're saying about taking out the new home construction uh but do we have any idea new home construction how much that's going to add in um is that in our budget I did not see it do you well the new home construction value would be um included in the gross value that we're basing the 6.95 32 Ms times the um taxable value of all the homes right which does include new construction so we get the total uh Revenue that we're projected to collect and that's where you're coming up with the $ 12 million y so would it be um a terrible thing to do a less millage rate I'm just throwing it out there yeah when you when you we can give you the new construction valuation that's a valuation that's either going to be multiplied by the roll back rate or it's going to be multiplied by some rate in between rollback in the current rate so again sort of sort of two two separate things there but we can we can tell you what new construction brings in in terms of Revenue as we throw it against this proposed tax rate and then we can tell you what you lose if you if you if you go to a roll back rate or something less than the current proposed rate um so so you do lose Revenue this budget is balanced against that 6.95 32 so you would have to make Cuts if you want to do something less than that um we'd have to determine what those cuts are and we'd have to pretty much do it on the fly at this uh at this uh budget hearing okay I just want to you know I hate to see tax increases I mean I understand inflation I understand all those things that are are factored into this and and and I'm sorry to do this at the last minute um but I'm just trying to uh be responsible with obviously the people who live in Coco their money you know um and uh make sure that they're so again I just I just wanted to understand it and uh what would happen if as far as if we were to decrease it not go to the roll back rate but if we decreased it a little bit but um anyway I know Lorraine has questions so Mrs Bowman could you tell us what the cost of our fire department annual cost is almost 9 million okay and we only generate $12 million the Ador correct and what is our cost for our police Police Department too as well police no I think it's 12 12 or 13 right and and and and both departments we well police we've seen a 14.1% reduction um for for one of the alltime highs we've had a number of employees our staff is up to speed with the exception of maybe two vacancies is that correct or one and one of them is for educational purposes sir and that's applicable also to our our fire department so safety is one priority that um I know for a fact a lot of people will compensate and my thing as we grow then we can look at the position of doing a roll back but right now um in the 13th Hour we would be doing some severe cutting and same with our ISO rating Mr Mayor we improved our ISO rating which in turn saves our citizens and our business owners money on their issues right thank you very much sir so so it's it's it is to the point of now that we're start growing I mean once we get Amazon it's they received their coo correct Mr city manager uh have they not received what where are they now where's Amazon and reference of that so we can get them on our tax RS completely once they open up the doors and people come in yeah go ahead well and they they are they're wrapping up for an October start they are not on this fiscal year not the new Amazon the old stuff that they built the building without the uh the tangible taxes is on this year but the improvements that they made will not be on the 25 budget they'll be on the 26 budget remember that you have to be in before uh January 1 to be on the next year's uh budget so uh police is is a 13.8 million is their total budget for property taxes uh associated with the 6.95 or 12.8 million so and so the point is and the point has always been is that we don't collect uh enough in property taxes to fund that one core service um um so so again that that that's that's why in part the rate has been maintained for the last several years to actually um to lend some support to actually funding that core service of government and then a couple of other points of clarification that the there are two separate items on the agenda uh state law requires that there be two separate items on the agenda and so one a is the adoption of the tax rate 1B is the adoption of the budget and the CIP um Mrs B man did say at the uh first public hearing that you actually could reduce the rate if you went through uh a read vertisements hearing is advertised through the trim notice which comes from the property appraiser and I think she said it again at the beginning of her presentation there so so it's it's it's been made clear that uh there's a process for um changing the millage at this particular point in time and also as a matter of state law there's a requirement to have two separate items on the agenda okay and then if I may say something else um because of last year our state legislators were trying to limit the amount of funds we could transfer from the utilities into our General Revenue funds and each year they continue to grow stronger and stronger each year so that I'm looking at this upand cominging legislator's uh session that they will try to to apply the same thing again limit the amount of funds we can transfer over from our utilities department to compensate our general fund that's been the liquid goal utilities has been the the backbone of our community and our city and my concern is to to have that economic growth so that we can stop depending on utilities and stop having to have um a high millage rate or or at least I would say a competitive millage rate I will not say it's high it's competitive but also at the same time as we grow um and also we gave $5 million to uh bright line and you only see we generate 12 million so we almost gave half but it's we're looking at the future the projection for the city of Coco and the growth that's going to be centralized in the north byn northwest Corridor area so um I and I know for a fact personally where I've spoke and attended multiple events the citizens stated on both sides of the tracks um say Michael I don't mind paying an increase of rates so long as I have quality safety and that's the thing I guaranteed we guaranteed I think staff guaranteed them but more so Council has guaranteed that so that is the reason why I I am in support of the 6.95 32 but I will listen to councilwoman call or any other council members as well councilwoman calls ma'am okay well I was going to ask the the state requires we have two separate agenda items does it tell us what order we do them in yes yes so you have to vote on the millage rate increase first okay statute requires it okay I was going to say that last year and in 21 we actually had a millage rate increase so this year we are just maintaining um and I'm still not sure if my questions are appropriate now or later should I just ask them because I really had I was questioned about what we put out in the newspaper that's a requirement by that's a requirement right um but I really couldn't answer the questions um the uh and I'm I'm still trying to figure out what the difference is between the actual property tax levy and this year's proposed tax levy why is one you know 12 million the other's 11 million what is it I'm not understanding well there's the number one the change in property values but there's also a valuation adjustment board that goes through where people can contest what their values are their taxable values are um and so that isn't finalized until April B here I think that's referred to in B less tax reductions due to value adjustment board that's correct but the so is the difference between the actual property tax levy and this year's proposed tax levy is that new construction it would be new construction and change in property values so it's about 1.5 million in new construction then yes I think it was 1.6 okay yeah um so I've supported the millage rate increase because I feel like we're at you know a point um we're on the verge of greatness um and need that that lift that elevation I've gotten a couple of calls this week and of people that are really negative impacted and it's really made me think too about what we have done over the last 5 years six years that I've been here and we've actually increased you know our budget has significant 25% you know in some five or six years and what so what that has meant well for someone in my position it's been about $100 a year you know that is easy enough to absorb for some folks for other folks I have a couple of neighbors who are new to the neighborhood moved in from another state did not find out until they went to closing that the taxes listed at the property appraisers were not the taxes they were going to be paying so this has been a really significant hit for those folks and and I get it because when we're thinking about this we think about just you know the city of Coco and and getting this fire engine and but in addition to that $100 a year increase you've got first of all the county and all the different um you know the parks and all of those were increased as well but significant house insurance increase 2,000 bucks health insurance 3,000 bucks all these things really start to even for people that you would think could easily absorb it you know really start to uh have an impact and um I hope that we're cognizant of that when we're doing this like I said I've supported this millage rate I think we're we're at a point where we're really just just kind of of course the growth is exploding maybe not use that word but the growth is significant and you know we sit at the edge of this uh New Era where we will be hosting a bright Line Station where we will in fact become a destination in and of ourselves so that's why I've supported it um but I'm not insensitive and I'm certainly L going forward of making adding to that 25% and increases that has happened you know over the last five years um it's not that easy for the average bear to see where those differences are in their life and their quality of life and the quality of Coco life and and that was the other thing I was trying to figure out was the difference between this budget and last year's budget um I know that the the rate adjustment was 9.5 or percent but our budget is actually about what the new budget about a 133% increase over last year it's about 9% 9% okay well I must be looking at different numbers then must not be looking at the numbers you're looking at it's largely due to Insurance increases salary increases Capital needs and you know definitely chemicals it can vary with the inter fund transfers from the Utility Fund from one year to the next there's a lot of variables that are involved in that number okay and when we say that they're like on the budget summary that was in the paper as well it says there the operating budget expenditures are 2.4% more than last year's total operating expenditures where do we derive that percentage from from the operating expenditures as separate from capital and Inter fund transfers you should have something on there that says other nonoperating sources which which is your in fund transfers slash debt we have debt built into the budget this year that was over $2 million then we also have the parks increase and 500,000 for the parks so that was half a million what about the what about the property insurance increase property insurance was over a half a million wasn't it yeah so those those two those are both operating expenditures those are those are a million dollars combined there just in those two categories there remember you have a new parks uh agreement that requires us to fund uh some Capital expenses and then the property uh insurance has gone up by half a million so so parks and and and uh property insurance make up a million dollars again another reason to maintain the uh property tax rate and then in the previous budget meetings that we've had we kind of went over some of those things that caused the change in um uh cost budget okay well I know that uh we're presented you know with a budget we don't really when the presentations are made there aren't really options can go with this budget or that budget it's basically these are the needs and when I talk with members of the public and that's who I'm responsible to they remind me that they're under other pressures too increased Insurance you know um you name it and um the folks being hit real hard are those people that are just buying into Coco um less or so are my retired constituents who have maybe been here longer but who still have had less of a margin so got to be conscious of that and I've got to be able to say to them yeah we're tightening up here we're really looking at this and hopefully that's reflected in our workshops and what's presented um I'm still going to support this um because again I feel like we are you know on the verge of of really stepping into a new era and we need this Foundation okay um councilwoman weeks um I will just say that um originally I was going to you know go along because obviously I'm new and over the next year obviously I will learn more about this but it was you know brought to my attention uh as well that um people are hurting out there and um and any increase is is difficult and um so I will say at this point I I won't uh ask for a a decrease on this but uh there have been so many increases over the last few years that um we really have to look at that uh for the future so at this point I will just let let it let it set for this yes ma'am on that note Dan chair would like to make a motion to approve resolution 2024 d088 adopting the final millage rate of 6.95 32 Mills Mr Mayor if I could just go ahead and make the public announcement that I'm required to State at this meeting first please um I would like to announce that the city of Coco is the taxing Authority that the RO back rate is 63761 that the millage rate of 6.95 32 is a tax increase of 9.05% as a percent change of the roll back rate that was advertised in the ad that Council woman cost is referring to that the millage rate to be Lev levied is 6.95 32 which is 0% over the fiscal year 24 adopted millage rate of 6.95 32 so at this time the requested action uh from city council is to approve resolution number 24- 088 adopting the final millage rate of 6.95 32 Mills for the city of Coco commencing on October 1st 2024 and ending on September 30th 2025 which is 9.05% over the roll back rate of 63761 at this time I would request Council to take a vote chair would like to make a motion for resolution number 24 now that you've given us your your spin your input d088 adopting the final millage rate of 6 9532 Mills for the city of Coco commencing on October the 1st 2024 and ending on September the 30th 2025 which is is 9.05% over the roll back rate of 6376 and cheers looking for a second second second on the floor by C Deputy Mayor Hearn I would like the record to reflect councilman go is on the phone call the question all in favor by saying I I I hi hi any N I have it unanimously the second part to this will be approval of the resolution 20 thank you Staff first of all city manager City attorney and staff and citizens of Bard County and the great citizens of coko approve the resolution the city of Coco's fiscal year 2025 commencing on October the 1st 2024 ending on September the 30th 2025 Madam Bowman thank you Mr Mayor so this is the second portion of the budget hearing um in this section you'll be adopting the final budget for fiscal year 20125 so as I stated the total budget for the fiscal year is 172 M9 $174,300 eight large capital projects for the Utility Fund the restricted assets fund is essentially The Debt Service fund for the Utility Fund uh we have various special Revenue funds that are reported as governmental funds total of 3.8 million uh the impact fee fund uh were projected to collect about $2.4 million followed by storm water at 2.3 The Debt Service fund which is a governmental fund at $1.5 million and and then the workers comp fund at $1.3 million so looking at general fund um we have to report certain categories of our Revenue so our revenue is made up of taxes other permits and fees intergovermental Revenue charges for services fines and forfeitures miscellaneous and then the other non Revenue that I refer to previously which is inter fund transfers such as the water and sewer uh Utility Fund return on investment and 6% payment in Li of franchise fees and then anything that we take from um unassigned fund balance and then also debt proceeds so looking at the revenue by funding source um you'll note that uh the highest revenue source is the non revenues which is those Utility Fund transfers plus the debt totaling about $20.7 million follow by total taxes which is not just avalum but it's also anything else that the city council can enact per state statute is is as a tax uh total is about $15.9 million we have charges for services at 7.9 million other permits and fees um uh for a total of $5.7 million and then the intergovernmental which is State shared revenues about $3 million and then miscellaneous um we budgeted $1.1 million bring it to a total of 54 million 377,000 $ 13.9 million almost 14 um they did go up $514,000 majority of that is due to salary increases and and the um benefits related to the salaries Public Works increased $1.7 million that was due to Capital needs for the um Department fire department increased $1.2 million that was largely due to a fire Tru being budgeted General operations is where your insurances are um and then the other departments you can see there were increases for the most part um slight increases again most of that was due to salary increases uh trying to constrain the budget but still experiencing inflationary um increases and then the Emergency Operations went down $60,000 that was due to something that was budgeted in the prior year and wasn't needed in the current year well can you go back to that so you you can see on the the this chart really highlights that the the major increases the variances are occurring in the core Services of government police Public Works and fire so that's what's um and then the general operations which was includes what what did you say Insurance the insurances there um and so you can see the the big expenditures the big increases in the budgets in the budget uh is associated with increas in core core government services and I I would add that when I say insurances it's the liability the um property insurance all those other kind of insurance is not health insurance health insurance is is budgeted in all the Departments okay so then looking at the water and sewer budget um again we are required to put the revenue in certain categories so the biggest um um Revenue source is charges for services which is various services that the Utility Fund charges for it's about 80 million uh non Revenue which is um some of that he was pulling from net position to fund projects $5.4 million so the total budget for the Utility Fund is$ 85,681 broken out into different divisions based on what their work function is um the administration went down about $126,000 Water Production went up $863,000 that's probably largely due to chemicals uh chemical pricing uh water field operations went down uh most likely due to some Capital needs um and then you can see engineering went down about $1.9 million that's again due to um capital projects that um swings from from one year to the next uh based on their five and 10 year Capital plan so the Utility Fund had actually a total reduction of $317,000 then we look at the storm water fund so these are the main funds that we focus on um main funding sources in the budget um in the storm water fund uh we uh collect that Revenue through a special assessment that's about $2.2 million and then some people don't pay their taxes on time so there's some other miscellaneous Revenue due to people paying their taxes eventually um so that uh revenue is budgeted at 2.3 million and then breaking out the storm water fund because it's essentially One Division so we broke this out by uh the different uh um categories so personal services includes salaries and benefits um that went down4 43,6 128 their operating went down $204,000 but here you see their Capital went up $335,000 um so they have a total increase to their budget net of $16,234.73 comment okay if you have a card please submit your card so you can um have the opportunity to speak Des time thank you very much M Lord floor is yours Council excuse me former councilman Greenwood is this where you want to speak at to as well you the same time I'm going to wait for next meting we can wait sir thank you good evening chrisen LTE Coco resident I really dispute this process tonight um I I did come prepared I'm the only person who spoke under the millage at Titusville I spoke last week they allowed the public to speak for both the three minutes for both sections millage and budget and they answered questions at the end so I just really think that in my home City it's pretty disturbing that um I gave you four minutes for the that was the first minute was just minutes now yeah okay that's seven so now you just interrupted me so just go ahead man' the millage and the budget go together so the discussion could have happened both they should go together Coco has a milon 4,46 additional above the roll back rate there is on the notice to miss ca's point on this um on this tax increase the difference between C over B is 13.15% and the difference between line C over a is 13.7 1% so there is more in here and this may be the construction but it is confusing to people who take the time to look at it to understand the dollars there's a 95 page budget document on the website that 95 pages is not revealing it's a line item it I been studying the commission I've studied Titusville they both provide more information on their websites um with their budget do documentation and it was very hard to understand any as a as a concerned citizen I want easy access to information and and coko has some things that do help with easy access but the budget presentation this year is not one of them Koko has the least amount of information the county allows you to see more narrative and Titusville allows you to see more departmental breakdown and year year-over-year so I would encourage the city of Coco to do something similar to better informed citizens so that it doesn't take as much research to get informed on the budget the budget includes 5% staff salary increases from what I heard on a recording this the county did 4% Titus failed at 3.5% I'm not sure why um cokus is higher Co has 579,000 in the budget for Juni riio unspent funding $579,000 we have a million dollars that we're having to charge extra in order to keep the millage rate the same but is is an increase I'm not supportive of this process I don't get to tell every you all about it because my time is being curtailed at this meeting but this process is not robust citizen feedback I'm glad that you did do something but this is 579,000 and we had four options of what to pick out of the pre-ordained items on this that's a huge amount of spending we have enough to spend $5 million on a train station allocation and yet we do not have adequate citizen input we do not have adequate citizen engagement in this city um it's it's disturbing to see what's happening and I took all day to prepare for this and now I can't even get my questions answered okay go ahead I would like to know what the percentage of the water increas is this year is it 4% that the water bills are going to go up 2% 2% on the one thank you notified okay is it adequate that am I correct that there's 5% staff increases in the Coco budget yes there is and is there a reason why coko is asking for more than um Titusville or the county what has included more than what's the primary reason for the higher salaries can someone answer that does no answer okay um 30 more seconds ma'am because of the questions because the budget is not easy to um process and for citizens to understand I think that the city should be doing a version of a roll back rate version of what the budget looks like which has been mentioned and should be doing an intermediary version and I support the council women who were s talking about that councilman Hearn at the last meeting he sounded like he was saying something like that but I couldn't hear it on the microphone because he was off mic but he was interested too citizens want options and we want to know that you guys are processing options and not just being pressured to approve a millage and a budget is there anyone else with the card okay sure like closes portion to the public and return of the council um we'll proceed in this order I don't know which which go ahead you want me to go go ahead um you both hit the last I was going to say did well I just wanted to ask um Miss lordy last year we had a narrative that I found helpful to I don't know if you recall that but it kind of gave it it kind of drove rather than looking at a bunch of numbers it gave you a little bit of context and narrative um um it was like a four or five page document but um I felt like it gave the whole thing more backbone you know because you are do you recall that and is that um I I'm not sure I recall that but I do know that the county manager did do something this year he did a 10-page overview of his budget and then each department had a narrative of here's our accomplishments for this year here's what we did here's what's in the budget and so the county has an over 800 page document right now that gives you more on that side and the City of Titusville has more Department breakdowns you can see how many people are in each department you can tell year-over-year how those budgets have grown so they have more data but that's helpful data Coco just has line items 95 pages of line items and some write Downs of departments but you can't learn anything from that okay thank you thank you yeah um I thought that would have been helpful in the process but um the other issue is salary increases I believe we've had salary increases each year I've been here I'm pretty sure um I think they've been in the range of 3% does that sound familiar this year was 5% um you know we talked about this sum in the workshop but honestly to retain the staff there was a lot of pre when that's suggested there is pressure there even though I note that in my own household we had no 5% increase neither have we had a 5% increase in the last many years so it's not that common anymore um to have those kind of increases and um I think the one thing I look for when we do look to increase the budget increase the taxes again is that we as an organization show where we're tightening up you know how we're trying to tighten up and um anyway that that's what I'm looking for as well thank you can let me say something please um and I will come back to you problem yes ma'am thank you um um pom Bay's budget is different from ours let's be honest let's if you're going to compare oranges to oranges Apple to Apples Titusville budget is different from ours and there's something that's being um taking place in the in the State of Florida where several of our employees have left the city of Coco and went to Palm Bay because of a what because of what more money that's right higher wages so how can we compete then if we don't have them then we have to go to the private sector which we're going to have to pay even at a greater rate so how can we compete with others and when we're not in the ball game and that's part of my initiative as the State president to address this concern as a Statewide effect because all municipalities are experiencing this even on the county level um they will attest to this that they're being they're losing Quality Personnel that they've been here for a multitude of years acquired their trainings here at the city of coko or at any other municipality or County position and went towards the other or hire dollar that is the reason why we're trying now to invest in our youth so that we can capture them then and there give them the opportunity to have a safe and secure future in the city of coko where they actually grew up or where they were reared as a child and obtained their quality education that's with any business Personnel that they're taking our Personnel because of we do not have that competitive bid or that competitive wage to keep that Quality Personnel they're going to the private sector so we have to be creative and at the same time state legislators are tying our hands together where we cannot even generate any funding on a local level so how can we address these issues when our hands are tied so now we have to be creative as a municipality and unfortunately you can look at house build 1365 that's a conversation you can have between now until the end of time and it's not going anywhere it's an unfunded mandate so so I mean understand me it's easy to get up behind that Podium and and take pop shots but until you right in hot seat and living the walking the walk and talking the talk then uh then you will comprehend but until then how can you you know not have a heart and understand that's all I'm saying have an understanding heart wisdom is the principle thing but when getting wisdom get understanding so how do we deal with this issue heck when we pass a trim increase it affects us too behind this SAS it affects me so I'm looking I'm on a structured income I'm retired I don't have a limited Social Security and a pension plan that's it so I get it I'm feeling the same pain like everyone else but I do like everyone else behind it do love our city and do love our staff and do love the people that we represent And when they see you out in the midst of the community they understand but until you walk in our shoes you won't understand it's the floor is yours Mrs weeks and I think um I wanted to bring up which I could not find in the budget um exactly uh I know that uh juny Rios Park and and I know we have uh more money that we're having to spend on Parks but the splash pad was done away with what happened with that extra money um and uh was that absorbed back in or where did that go no it's it's budgeted you you guys haven't determine what you're going to do with those dollars those dollars are mostly arpa dollars and fund balances what does that mean and so they're not in a current year budget they're they're not in the budget that you're going to adopt uhhuh when you don't spend money but you want to spend it in the next year you re-budget it by Rolling it over okay and that's an agenda item that goes back to council and right now Council hasn't made a decision what to do so it's sitting there so fund balances are dollars unspent from the previous year that rolls over to the to the next fiscal year okay the and so and so if you if you decrease the tax rate that 579 or the 479 whatever it is would still be there I see what you're saying okay so then the council has to decide what to do with that money uh it's sitting there to be used at a park or only at Jun Ros Park can it be used uh to be used towards the bright line investment well it was it was dedicated to the to the Jun res park there during the budget workshops uh you all agreed to allow staff have to survey the citizens and so I think we're completing those surveys those surveys have been out there for quite some time to ask the public what would you like to see at junor res to ask the public what would you like to see at uh provos there and so so we'll have the parks discussion you guys will finally determine what you want to do if anything at junor res what you want to do additionally at uh at a provos park so but it also could be used say for the Conservation Area as well if we wanted to do something there to it it could be whatever the council decides yes ma'am but that money is still sitting there in rollover state so and and it would be sitting there regardless regardless of the tax rate recurring Revenue to pay for um recurring costs and so you go to fund balance to fund something that's going to be a one-time cost gotcha um and are I take it that there are other items in the budget also that weren't perhaps spent that are also in rollover state do we get a a breakdown of everything that's in rollover that'll be an agenda item that'll come to Council in November okay yeah and in Council woman weeks that'll be part of the meetings we're having this week on Monday okay okay again I just want to understand and and get that so thank you I appreciate that Mr Mayor yes sir a couple of things there and so I think you address uh very well the 5% obviously we're competing against the private sector we're competing against all of the Cities the and and all of the cities have uh have uh taken staff away from us because they're able to offer higher wages there and so and so and so you know in every Department we can we can give you examples of folks that have either gone to the private sector or gone to other cities for for the uh High wages here and so that's why we put out uh before you you all the 5% pay increase remember those those scenarios if you will to accept or not comes to you in during the budget workshops um our our our budget development the County's budget development actually looks like their final budget they have a very robust uh budget development software they have two point something billion dollars to do that under they have a $2.0 billion budget and I forget what the size of their budget staff is we have in essence two people we have we have two people that are dedicated to budget not even 100% of the time we have one person 100% of the time dedicated to budget and then we have the assistant Finance director and we have the finance director and so our budget is not going to be as Rob robust as a as the county that has I forget how many budget analysts um not guessing at that again spent 23 years with bravar County um this process is the same from City to City from County to County because this is the lawful process that's prescribed by Florida Statutes and trim uh uh law and so this process is no different this process can be no different if you were to talk about the tax rate and the budget together you would re you would receive a non-compliance notification from the trim office there and that's never fun that may cause you to have to redo the process all over again and so so it's a matter of state law that the process is the way that it is um again in terms of the budget property insurance increase Parks increase what was the Range Road what is the Range Road repaving 500,000 that's that's 500,000 and so there's 1.5 million there the pay raises as health insurance there is uh uh other insurance that increases in this budget there and so it's all accounted for some big dollars there remember in this budget uh because we couldn't actually get to the big Capital purchases we're actually financing those and so and so still unmet needs in the budget uh again as we always illustrate you collect 12.8 million in property taxes and the and the uh police department's budget is uh 13.4 of the 54 or $59 million general fund budget approximately 22 million maybe even more comes from water and one way or another and so and so if you put all of your property taxes together all of your State uh Revenue together you still can't fund the general fund portion of this budget without relying on the return on investment from the water system um and so it's a budget that uh uh is a very difficult budget simply because there's not enough taxable valuation in the city to actually fund again just the core Services of government um and and and and there's no way to set a rate to assure that everybody doesn't experience a tax increase um and so we're cognizant of that recall that approximately half of the properties in the city um have a taxable value of either $100,000 or less or $50,000 or less and so half of the folks in the city are aren't really experiencing uh a a tax increase the way the other half are and so that's what's unique about the city of uh coko is that we have an extensive amount of properties that really don't have a a large taxable value we rely on uh the return on investment from uh utilities to fund again just simple core Services of government is that it sir yes sir Council woman calls I I just going to this is going back to councilwoman weeks um the funds that roll over we should know we usually get that in March February or March that we know what dollars are left over from this budget that we're currently in in November according to State Statute we need to clean up our budget so that will definitely come to C I have a new person doing the budget who does the budget full-time so the rollover money may be December or January before Council sees it okay thank you what are the wishes of councel pertaining to this particular item adopting the fiscal year 2025 tentative ma'am I know you have to give us your spill again but I'm just saying make preparations go ahead ma'am the floor is yours thank you Mr Mayor so the requested action to adopt the tentative that should say adopted um to adopt the fiscal year 2025 budget is to approve resolution 2024-the 2025 final budget and CIP for the city of Coco for the fiscal year commencing October 1st 2024 and ending on September 30th 2025 Council has a requested to vote on this action thank you very much requested action Mrs Bowman do we have any additional questions for her saying n what are the wishes of councel I know we're waiting for the voice from above what are the wishes of councel you all don't want to make that motion motion to approve approve okay I don't know why there are two voices I don't know why but okay all right thank you uh which one of you two voices from the sky I he's he's the smaller guy so yeah he can have it okay the motion was made by depy mayor Hearns and a second by you seconded Council MCG or did I second I wasn't sure uh I got second I second all right Council mcor second it CH going to call the question all in favor by saying I I I any n i I have unanimously thank you very much gentlemen uh our third and final item for tonight um sheet of my paper here um item number two- one Council business approval a budget resolution related to Bab as24 d131 to increase project contingency funding in the amount of 420,000 for the fif Boulevard and Broadmore Acres drainage Improvement project that's you Mr Deputy Mayor approve a project construction contingency resolution adding 420,000 to the existing contingency amount of 1, 9851 and12 for a new total of 2, 45,2 authorize the city manager to approve and issue construction change orders not to exceed 2, 45,1 two related to the project the new construction contingency amount supersedes agenda item number 23- 458 approved by Council on March the 22nd 2022 and 24- 223 approved by Council on May 14 2024 Miss Morgan mayam thank you mayor during the construction of the storm waterer system on North Fisk Boulevard a conflict between the storm water pipe and existing sewer laterals was identified the age and material of the original sewer m in this area restricts the reconnection of existing laterals as called for in the plans the most costeffective solution is to install a new sewer main along this section of North Fisk Boulevard staff recommends adding 420,000 to the project contingency construction account so move looking for a second M mayor I got a question too okay okay yes ma'am ask yes just a reminder because we did not have delegations we need to have public comment on this before final action thank you yes ma'am thank you very much I mean this something we got to get done it's appared to that we do because they deserve that they've earned that and uh we do acquire some of the federal funding as well our councilman going and then I'll um hear from the ladies as well and then I'll turn it over to the public c MC was that you sir yes yes sir yes sir sir first I apologize being on the phone um I'm visiting a friend in a hospital in Orlando and uh and it's very difficult to follow on the phone so I don't want to do this ever again um um but but I I will I will um I I I have concerns not necessarily about the chain jic I understand that it happens uh sometimes when you're digging um you come across things that no one knows that's there and I I understand that um but the community is is is really feeling it in the area I do know that there is a process to construction but a lot of people don't understand what's going on and so I really want us to get more information about the delays that we're having why they are in it um and also put something out about uh an increase of of funding that we have to provide and the reason why because they have been questions and questions from people that don't normally pay attention to what we do um but they are they're they're feeling it every day um especially coming from as city managers aware of several businesses that have been calling and requesting meetings um I I just think we need need to be um not saying we haven't been transparent but I think we need to be more transparent about the process where we are and where we're going start well I mean the the like the the U Finish date um all those different things just I don't know if Council feels the same way or if they're getting the same calls um but I but I do believe that we need to get more information um to the community about where we are with that project okay man I don't know if we have a do we have a dedicated page to this project we do yeah so we we we do have a dedicated page to this project there we've been pushing out the information this was always going to be a difficult project because it is 50 60 years in the making and so um you know we we we've had um one two maybe three business that were were challenged by a certain Road or certain access being blocked off where we worked with them we've worked with the uh the contractor obviously we'll have lessons learned from from um from this and and uh in terms of our public uh information but we do have a a dedicated uh web page we are nearing the end of this project and so we are Abby what would you guess we are we are weeks away months the substantial completion date is um March of 20125 however uh they're they're they they're almost they're at the last quarter in terms of in terms of roads being blocked yeah oh the road being blocked yeah that should be open in two weeks yeah and and so so the roads will be open people have access to the normal routes there again uh this was an extensive project remember this is a uh it's a it's a storm water project it's a it's a drainage project and it is somewhat Jack correct me if I'm wrong some some sewer uh upgrades uh included in there some utility upgrades included in there so this is a this is a massive project for um an area that uh is uh not new construction there and so but again uh we'll we'll we'll um go over the lessons learned and we'll we'll obviously uh attempt to get better at public information but again we do have um a source for people to go to to get updated on the project okay uh um I think that's a great thing um but I just I want to that that's how we we View it but you have people uh in that particular community that may not have access um that don't even know how to move around um to find where that website is um and I'm not you know I'm definitely not trying to make an excuse for them to get the information but um I think just like what we had before um I talked to you about having the contractor when he's doing a major um part of the project to go door to door to pass out flyers right but because some of these people they working 16 hours they come home they get woke up 6:45 o00 in the morning or you know um by a bobcat or whatever it it's just those normal day-to-day people that may not be able to even research that you know a lot of you know especially a lot of young folks they stuck on Facebook they're not even paying attention to City of Coco FYI you know so just just trying to be creative whatever that means um to get them information the best way we can so but I I I appreciate you giving that that information yeah and and councilman going I think we've done other stuff other than the web page there and so so we do the Coco FYI and I think we've done other other print sources there we did our feature story in the last FYI was mailed to every household in the entire city um and that was just one thing we've done a lot and the business Spotlight was on the businesses that were um affected by the closure as well in that last FYI and we'll take the constructive criticism and look for ways to actually when we're doing projects of this magnitude to actually do things differently better uh do more of those things um it it contractors probably aren't good going door too and so and so um but again we point point taken with regards to uh to uh the constructive comments and so we we'll we'll look for ways to get better to approve to improve and to do more okay is that it yes sir thank you sir and I wish your friend to a speedy recovery councilwoman calls then councilwoman weeks and then I'll turn it over to the public yeah I would just say um that I support councilman Go's uh desire to get something a little more personal um and individualized there um I mean it used to be you would have a Communications officer or someone that would walk to door to door in fact that was one of my first jobs um during the uh septic dour uh projects but in this case I you know even uh a letter and if it could be personalized would be great but um it might really be worth it to have somebody just walk door too for a couple of days um and the other I wanted to ask the question the agenda item states that the age and specific construction of the original sewer m in the area prohibits the reconnection can I ask what what is the age and construction of that suain okay that area that area there used to be an old Landing Strip you from old Coco that used to be a military base you can look at the homes there so I'm just letting you know that's why they're saying old to you ma'am that was a Runway that's why we have the National Guard Armory there too as well so we don't necessarily know where the laterals are I guess we know where the laterals are but yeah it's it's all and and Antiquated but also too ma' A lot of that you may dig until you find it's not on the schematics you find it as you explore do exploratory research and it's materials that you don't use in today's construction and so and so so it's it's it's you unknown stuff in the ground and that unknown stuff is stuff that you don't use anymore so so that's part of of the big deal with regards to this obviously unknown elevations yeah yeah and then Jack's engineering stuff with elevations and and and and having to modify the elevations to to accommodate the the uh the new installs and so it looks like this project is going to be 7.8 million end up at that yeah so it's kind of doubled since we first started talking about it I think okay thank you be good to have it behind us Council weeks well my concern is the uh the difference between the 5.4 and the 7.8 mean that's a huge cost overrun and um is all of that simply because of the the connection I mean not this particular one we we've had we've had cost escalation we've had some other change orders there part of the cost the four approximately 4 million or so comes from the federal government from FEMA and so so we got 4 million from FEMA um I forget what Jack's portion I always say Jack's portion was 790,000 yeah now it's 1.8 so so 1.8 from utilities but it's it's been things that have been uncovered as we've as we gone along again this is old construction and so and so you know Jack doesn't want to guess uh but but I'll guess that this is this this uh these are homes that were built in the 50s and and and uh and and 60s well and I and I get that I it's just um it just seems like a huge cost overrun um and was it not bid correctly in the beginning and um I know that in reading through this it said you know uh that the lowest bidder was was chosen but in the long run they are not the lowest bidder by the time you get to all of this yeah and I I don't know how many biders we had they were the soul bid but but they were the soul they were the soul so they were the highest lowest I mean they were the soul biders twice because we rebid twice we had to go to FEMA and ask that they actually fund the increase there and so and so we had one bidder we had to go back to FEMA to ask that they fund the increase and fortunately they did we've moved money from projects that we had uh other capital projects there and so this was a big project um and again the the the the cost overruns have been significant this is this is is this the first time we've actually we're still within the con ency that was established or or how far outside of the contingency are we this budget adjustment is increasing the uh contingency amount okay so there are some change orders pending that will go in tomorrow and then they are asking for additional contingency to try and complete the project yeah because there's been so many unknown and unexpected things okay thank you okay thank you just want to understand how this whole thing worked yes ma'am wisdom is a principal thing but when getting wisdom get understanding you're absolutely right okay I would like to close this portion to council open it to the public I have one card if you would like to say something please submit your card uh Triple G would you come forward please uh yeah I know you don't mind me calling you Triple G I love Transportation issues uh uh just a a couple of quick comments uh one uh I know for the upcoming Dixon Road kickoff I know TPO has been talking about uh that particular project area is uh uh so lingual maybe not bilingual you have a lot of Spanish speaking people so we may be facing something similar over on the TPO side but for this project we have a website I'm sure we're updating it or putting notices out or something I'm a simple guy give me a couple signs kind of like what you guys are putting up for your uh uh uh running for office right with a like a you know Fisk Fisk Boulevard update with a QR code take you right to the web page and you know almost everybody has one of these and wouldn't be a lot of money it it wouldn't be too much work just a suggestion good idea good idea any other questions s none children like to close this portion to the public and return of the council what are the wishes of council I move to approve we have a motion on the floor by councilwoman uh weeks second okay and a second by councilwoman cost nobody from the above one from Heaven all right CH GNA call the question all in favor and sing I I I hi eyes have it unanimously did you get that Madam Clerk you're doing such a wonderful job all right this concludes this portion of this special budget meeting held September the 17th location beautiful downtown 65th Stone Street chair entertains a motion to adjourn move to adjourn we have a motion on the floor by councilwoman weeks okay I'll second I never I never have all go in peace T prize I was at the game fr