##VIDEO ID:PjGoLAvCpus## [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] uh regarding our budget on Tuesday September 3rd we will call this meeting to order uh Jennifer did you have any opening remarks I do mayor thank you very much just uh very very briefly good evening mayor vice mayor and Commissioners staff residents these this is the first public hearing regarding the fiscal year 2025 uh budget this is the culmination of very long process as all of you know and I'm not going to go over those dates as I usually do because they are embedded in the PowerPoint unless is going to go over them anyway uh but traditionally these types of meetings are are not as long as the budget workshops and those as you know were five and six hours long so traditionally it better not be dinner waiting in the past they have been but typically we get to this point and and the the hearing goes by rather quickly and I just want the uh public who are watching and those who are in the room to understand that this is actually the result of a very long process so and Les is going to go over the dates um he's going to go over the followup from from the last uh City commission meeting uh and then we're looking at adoption of the proposed mill rate and also the the operating and capital budget thank you mayor okay and um I'm just I'm going to introduce Jina um Parson who is our assistant City attorney welcome thank you for joining us Jennifer couldn't be here thank you had be here um I do notice that we don't on this agenda as we typically do and I'm guessing because it's a special meeting on one subject we don't have General citizen input listed here we have it for all the resolutions and everything but are we are we required to do that I would take uh public comments as it relates to this it's just such a important issue as it relates to the citizens here and to need and so I would offer comments um but I mean I didn't see just general citizen input and I I think we have some people here that might want to speak to something other than the budget is that a yes yes okay so I'm going to deviate and allow for the general citizen input that's not on our agenda and come on down give us your name and address for the record and uh hi everybody you'll have three minutes welcome hi Janette Cornell 1858 Douglas Avenue welcome oh I know all of you thanks um I'm here to thank the Commissioners that have met with us North Douglas res residents and checked in on us over this year I'm here to mark that it is one year since hurricane idalia for me it has been a year of researching and compiling information and data regarding the sun sunny day flooding that occurs on our street loming through the denan library databases thank you denan library and also researching County and state permitting databases the Erp permit number 14887 has become a very interesting and informative read we have been to countless City management meetings and workshops we have called and emailed we have gotten to know you all very well North Douglas residents have attended other board and committee meetings we have met with commission candidates for this year's upcoming election we have met with news outlets and we have built relationships as Neighbors on our street all for one main cause to finally fix the flooding on North Douglas from storm drains and water qu and the water quality Pond we are waiting we are awaiting the Consultants findings we are as patient as we can be we know there is a solution City management and this commission need to be on our side of we can and not we can't no Band-Aids here North Douglas has been waiting over 30 years it's our time time it's our turn to work to have the infrastructure that actually works so we can live safely and happily in the city we love monies have been allocated for golf courses pickle courts and City swimming pools those amenities are a great part of our city but without infrastructure the strength of our City's framework we have nothing it all starts and ends with infrastructure as the base of any great town or city the foundation of which everything Builds on North Douglas is excited to hear of the solutions City management will bring forth so we can close this long chapter on North Douglas our residents have been alerting emailing and asking for over 30 years it is our turn it is our time thank you Commissioners who called texted emailed and did Drive buys Jeff GW was there a couple weeks ago during her during storm Debbie and we're all in our rain boots that was our most recent driveby on North Douglas it has been appreciated um we've all met gotten to know all of you and we really appreciate that we're all on the same team and striving to make this a solution thank you so much thank you very much anyone else want to come forward she rocked it I don't know what else she could say Jennifer do you have any you hor have any updates no thank you we are awaiting uh the results of the consultant Jones Edmonds and we um as soon as we have that uh and hopefully they're going to give us an order of magnitude as far as how we address um the the flooding in the north Douglas Area we met with a residents some time ago I think eight or nine months ago when we started along this path and committed to them that everything would be on the table as far as what the solutions are and everything will be on the table as far as Solutions go we also met with our lobbyist last week um and our lobbyist informs us that there is a lot of State funding for this type of infrastructure Improvement and uh she asked us what our priority is and our priority is North Douglas and I was very clear that that is our priority and so uh the report is due I think very shortly correct modeling is due the end of September and then the final report the end of October okay end of September end of October PR good for government yeah well I think that we need to um and we will sit down with the residents the same ones that we invited in um the last time to go over the modeling and go over the recommendations and and as we develop the solutions along the way we're going to have short-term Solutions we're going to have long-term Solutions we're going to have solutions that may be lwh hanging fruit and others that that could be you know multiple seven figure uh uh costs so so like I said though everything is on the table uh and we will keep the the neighborhood informed every step of the way okay any any questions from anybody or I had one quick question yes I'll look at you but I'm really looking at Jorge because he's the one that will know this is the permit that she mentioned the Bob Brotherton permit from back in the day that's what I thought we all know about that permit all right thank you guys for coming out we really appreciate it all right um all right we'll move on to new business and that is resolution 24-15 to establish a tenative millit rate for fiscal year 2025 Jina would you please read resolution 24-15 by title only resolution resolution 24-15 establish tentative mil rates for fisical year 2025 this resolution is read by title only thank you can I have a motion to approve so moved second vice mayor fry and commissioner gaw Les thank you uh good evening mayor vice mayor Commissioners Les Tyler the finance director and I'm here with Ashley kton our budget manager um as mentioned this is 24-15 uh tenative budget resolution I have a few slides that I would like to walk through that are important as we as we cover this item uh starting with uh in accordance with Federal uh Florida Statutes uh 200.0 254c the city of dedan is holding a public hearing this evening on the proposed millage rate and tenative budget for fiscal year 25 prior to adoption the city commission may elect to adjust the tenative millage rate or amend the tenative budget as it as it sees fit following adoption staff will publicly announce the percent at which the tenative millage rate exceeds the 2024 roll back rate staff will also State the date of the second and final public heing and when the final millage rate and final 25 budget will be adopted the proposed millage rate for the city of D Eden U is a maximum millage rate of 41345 Mills or $413 per th000 in property value was established through the adoption of resolution 24-11 on July 11th 2024 in accordance with trim a millage rate of 41345 Ms is 8.89% above the 2024 rollback rate of 3.79 70 Ms from growth in property tax value the proposed millage rate uh avalorian taxes are budgeted at a 95% collection rate the minimum required by Florida Statutes uh at 41345 Ms our city avarum taxes are projected to generate uh1 6,994 th000 in 2025 in the general fund and avor taxes will account for 38% of all general fund revenues for fiscal year 25 the next slide gets into budget process and the the following slides are related to the 25 budget and the slides I just went over are related to the millage rate for the budget process the fiscal year 25 proposed budget was published on June 30th 2024 uh budget workshops were held on July 15th and August 6 2024 the following summary of changes since the August 6th meeting uh were made based on commission Direction and staff's input and changes since the August 6th uh Workshop number three starting with our revenues this is uh Citywide revenues this is all funds and the left column shows the August 6th uh amounts and then the the middle is adjustments and and the far right of the uh of the public hearing numbers today in the tenative budget want to point out just a few we had an increase in Citywide Revenue charges for service of uh $1.1 million and that was primarily for $669,000 increase in health and workers comp cost for the new positions that were added uh again this is Citywide $196,000 increase in facilities ISF funds to cover increased cost in facilities fund a $380,000 increase in IT services um for charges to departments uh to cover increased cost in the it positions uh and the related benefit cost and also some increase in the Erp project cost a $325,000 for estimated Pro Shop sales at the golf club this is in the golf operations fund and that was for the merchand that's for the revenue estimate for the merchandise sales that was not in our 2025 proposed budget we had a small increase in miscellaneous Revenue that was in the marina fund for uh a small adjustment to slip rentals and also interest income in the marina fund and also the debt proceeds we we decreased debt proceeds by 4.5 million we did that we we moved the estimated Debt Service financing to 2026 to be consistent with the estimated cost of the project so project debt proceed has been moved from 25 to 26 in the penny fund to be consistent with the expenditures and moving to the expenditures uh and some of the changes Citywide uh we had again some adjustments since the August 6th meeting uh first we have personnel which is wages and benefits uh the total increase is 94,000 and that that's both those lines for wages and benefits in the middle column uh that was for new positions and reassesment bonuses cost were $235,000 and for operating costs we had an increase of $884,000 and that was due to Due mainly to a few items first we had an increase in the facility ISF charge of 195,000 increased IT services of 380,000 for uh as mentioned before it approved positions and also some Erp cost increases and licenses in 25 and we also had an increase in the medical expense in the health fund and that was to account for the new positions that were added into the 25 budget and an increase in pro shop for the golf operations fund operating cost of $100,000 and that was an increase in the merchandise cost uh the offset to that Revenue I mentioned a few minutes ago we had an increase in capital cost of $100,000 and that was for uh a 20 $225,000 for a vehicle for Environmental Specialist position that was added a new position 35,000 for General AR billing phase uh phase uh 1 through four of mun CRP replacement and also 40,000 for uh utility building in uh eam phase phase five of Erp replacement project we had a decrease in eight organizations of $35,000 and that was for the removal of items pertaining to the Chamber of Commerce the Chamber of Commerce items will be adopted under a separate resolution at the final fiscal year 25 budget hearing on September 23rd and this slide shows the changes that we just walked through by fund and it shows from general fund down to it services and shows the total revenue changes and then the total expense changes and then the impact on fund balance in each fund so that concludes our our city-wide adjustments and we'll be moving into the follow-up memo do you have any questions at this point before we move into the follow-up memo well should we vote on that we could vote on the millage rate right now yeah but before before we get into the general fund and everything if you'd like to do that probably because I Mak sense that's probably true yeah let's do that just to be consistent okay any questions on the millage rate any feedback from the public on our military which is remaining the same okay we have a motion in a second vice mayor fry no I mean we've worked at this a long time and um um I'm happy that we're able to keep the military where it's at and um um wish we could lower it but I think it's a responsible thing to do um so I'm in favor of it okay commissioner gal uh thank you mayor yeah we have worked hard at this and we even had some citizen input here uh and result of that we talked about some some really hard and maybe scary figures that are coming up um and and so I think it is just it's good and smart prudent fysical responsibility to maintain the ship and once you start adj justing millage rates um things think can uh we can get ourselves in trouble doing that so as long as we're looking ahead and we're seeing um with good responsibility and stewardship uh where we can use those funds then I'm in favor of staying where we are thank you mayor commissioner walker uh yes May thank you um the last time that the city raised the millage rate was eight nine years ago 2016 2016 yeah 2016 that's correct yeah and I you know if you take a look at the the region relatively um that's a pretty good track record and um I will say that the you know the as we you know we we often discuss um you know rolling it back to a figure that's smaller than than what the the current Max maximum is but you start looking at the at the benefits or lack of benefits um the amount of the amount of money that that would be essentially rolled back is just it it wouldn't impact the residents or the businesses to the in tune of much more than about $10 a month maybe and uh yeah I would say that in terms of fiscal responsibility I think it's important that maintain healthy financial position for the city and we we're in great shape and and we're in great shape because we've all taken personal responsibility for fiscal stewardship and so um I guess this is the longwinded way of my saying I support the millage and uh thank you commissioner Toro thank you mayor I am not in favor of this mellage rate um I had hoped that we would see some Alternatives uh for this we can always spend the money that's for certain uh I think that uh we need to understand what's happening out in the marketplace and I think if we took a little slow down here it would be a value we have uh wages going up 11% benefits 9% operating expenses 11% um we get we may have some tough times coming up but certainly some of our residents do so um again I'm not I'm not in favor of of this uh millage rate U because obviously there's an increase in taxes it's rather significant uh it's it's over 10% and uh and I really think we should have we should should have looked and spent more time uh making another consideration so that's my position at this point in time thank you um thank you commissioner um I do agree with you commissioner Toro that we we do have concerns about insurance increases and wage increases and and um the number of employee increases and those are all cost to the bottom line and I think by staying with the same millit rate we're planning for those issues that we know are coming so I am definitely supportive of it um roll call vote please commissioner Walker hi commissioner TGA May commissioner gal I vice mayor Franny I and mayor Bowski I that motion passes 4 to one okay we'll move on to our second resolution which is resolution 24-16 to establish tentative operating and capital budget for fiscal year 2025 Justina please read resolution 24-16 by title only resolution 24-16 establish tenative operating and capital budget for fiscal year 2025 this resolution has been read by title only thank you very much Justina can I have a motion to approve so move second okay commissioner gal and commissioner Walker thank you all right Les okay thank you uh we're now to the followup memo portion of the meeting and uh did you have any questions on the memo want me to walk through it or no I don't want you to walk through it um but I you know I I will open it up to my colleagues to see if they have any questions on any particular thing commissioner walker uh can you go back to slide 10 real quick thank you guys for coming out oh there it is okay thank you thanks anything else um commissioner any vice mayor no commissioner anything on the on the uh uh followup items I just wanted to point out thank you for doing this even though it took me a hot second to figure out how to read it it did tell me what I wanted to hear um or wanted to see and I do think it's really up to my colleagues but I think it's an important thing to see it's not necessarily that you're going to do anything with it it's just to understand what the trends are um and this document is showing what we projected versus what you know the closer number um and you know when you look at what 25 looked like in the 23 budget we had a $4 million difference but I mean I know what caused that so but if you look at uh the 26 budget what we're projecting is the it's a difference of 1.8 million and the 2027 is a 1.5 so those are reasonable numbers M um I think but I you know I just think it's when you're going through the whole budget process to just understand what that trend is is and it tells me you've got little wiggle room yep so if you want to try to accomplish something that maybe you thought you didn't having that dialogue I think is important and and seeing that number but I'll reiterate I do appreciate your conservative budgeting thanks I just I do think it's important to understand what the end result really is I think it is a good analysis I agree yeah so I mean to me I would think you might want to keep keep doing it Y is always so polite I know he he's cursing me under his breath no no I think it's a good analysis I do yeah anyway I'm I was very appreciative of it and thanks for all the followup okay so next we're moving to general fund update and um and our general fund as mentioned we've had a few adjustments to the 25 budget since the August 6th Workshop number three and the big the primary changes are we had new personnel and recloses of about 164,000 in the general fund salary increases uh uh and Commissioner salary increases of 188,000 we had an increase in facility ISF charges of 130,000 and an increase in the it ISF of 236,000 uh since August 6th and uh in the long range plan as you can see uh for you today and and this is on page 80 84 and 85 in the tentative budget book the general fund long range plan but the general fund Reserve level uh is at 21.4% at the in fiscal year 25 which is well AB well above a 15% Target which is good in FIS year 26 our Reserve level estimate is at 12.3 so slightly under our 15% goal but but happened it was like couple years out what was that sorry I said it was a couple years out before it dropped at 12 something what happened no between the last time we looked at this it was it was the Personnel positions yeah it's Personnel mainly yeah yeah Personnel costs and and a few other costs have been added yeah yeah but but it was over you're right slightly over yeah mainly personnel and a few it and um so and and then to to the budget shortfall the budget shortfall is the second highlighted yellow row at the bottom and the shortfall uh today is it's at estimated at 2.1 million the shortfall on August 6 was slightly lower it was 1.76 million so it's gone up a little bit uh uh due to the positions and few few other adjustments we had that we walked through a few slides back and I want to mention one change we have made also we made a change in the assumptions for assess value growth we had some discussion about that at the last meeting and uh uh city manager and I uh went looked went over this in in quite a bit of detail we the county has not provided any any forecast for this year uh to this point and I'm not sure they're going to they at this point in time but uh on August 6th we had the County's estimates last year in our budget and what we've done is we've we've made an assumption in our alarm range plan and we've got uh fiscal year 27 through 30 at 4.5% growth every year is at 4.5% growth uh the County's estimates were an average of 3.4% growth over that same time frame so we basically increased the growth by 1.1% so not a large increase but we think it's uh a reasonably conservative number and that's what we have in the uh long range plan today uh I like to also mention that just general comment that staff believes that this $2.1 million short fall is a manageable number it's uh it's it's 4% of the budget it's not a huge number it's not 10% of the budget or 20% of the budget uh and the shortfall just want to mention again and we it's also I think a footnote in here is that you know as we begin each buzet budget season and we start the budget process working with the city manager you know we uh you know we address those shortfalls throughout the budget process to create the proposed budget through uh either increases in revenue and those could be various revenues also it could be it could be reduction in expenses or it could be if needed uh strategic service level reduction so this hold whole there a lot of different tools to balance the budget as you are all aware but I want to mention that and then each year the city manager working with our finance team we we bring a balance budget a balanc proposed budget to your commission with a minimum 15% Reserve uh for your commission Forin your input and Direction um mayor can I elaborate sure L if you don't mind a little bit because um year to year when we have this discussion and we've had this discussion quite a bit I think what people who are watching um this and not just tonight but afterwards they they watch it you know when they're when it's convenient for them you say shortfall that's all they hear right and so um I think it's important and and you know when I talk to Citizens Academy uh last week cuz I Wastewater gave me a chance to go and talk to them uh cuz I missed their first one and I wanted to meet all of them when I said that we cannot put a deficit budget before the city commission for approval they were astounded because what they hear is that we have a deficit by law we cannot submit to you a deficit budget and you cannot approve a deficit budget and so as Les said every year and what you're seeing right here is no carryover as well year to year so the big difference between the years is the carryover the way that that Les and I have put a budget before you is always based upon as you know very conservative uh projections and let all of the ugly hang out because we want you to see it uh as you're making your determinations moving forward I think the county moved to a program now where they are not forecasting they're not they're not doing projections per se they show you the budget and and then you know you can see the forecasts moving forward um predicate upon what was what happened last year and so and I'm not saying that's good or bad just one year right I mean that's what they have right now correct currently yeah yeah that's crazy well I'm not going to say it's good or bad or whatever crazy yeah I'm taking it off your I won't comment on that at all but um that's the point though that I really wanted to make is that is we we look at the shortfall in the out years because we're just looking at those basic black and white numbers and no carry forward no increases in Revenue beyond the 4.5% adum and on and on and on so um I think that that I'm going to work with uh beress our communications director once we adopt this budget to talk a little bit more about that and and what it is the city commission is adopting how they adopt it and what those projections mean moving forward so you know we've had discussions about from from in the future taking this table and and making an addendum for what the projection is in the future so that it's there you all see it but people don't get the impression that we are in any way shape or form adopting a deficit budget for fiscal year 2025 so and I'm almost done so in essence though the point that I'm making is that you are not approving fiscal year 20126 budget no you're approving 2025 right right so thanks yeah okay uh are you looking for questions on the general f any questions on general fund any questions on the general fund and we certainly in the general fund we borrow money um within the within our entire budget uh to meet meet requirements spending requirements is that correct yeah the uh the the only loan we have right now in the general fund is we'll be having a a a a $900,000 loan for a fire fire truck but that's the only one that's it we got we're going to have a seven-year Master lease agreement for that truck that truck is not in the fleet plan currently so but that's that's the only loan we have in the general fund and we borrow money to build things like garages and things like that yeah but but that that's not funded in the general fund currently that's other funds in our entire funding yeah correct anybody else have any questions on the general fund uh just related to that um so that the $90,000 that's just that is a new that new new debt right yeah I apologize it was 900,000 sorry 900 yeah excuse me 900 900 it's a fire engine 103 and that's right that's a that's a new one that uh in the general fund that will be financing over 5 to 7 years correct because we you know currently in the expenditures there's Debt Service and that's obviously servicing debt that is being paid out of the general fund correct yeah we that's a good question we uh all the all the debt that we have in there other than that fire engine is uh related to gas gasby 887 which is a accounting requirement for advertising U subscriptions and also leases so uh rather than us making lease payments and just paying lease expense they've changed it to where we have to capitalize them and we have to uh uh call them call them debt financing rather than rental expense so so they're they're uh there there sort of a new terminology that started about 2 years ago so we do have gby 87 in there but other than that we have that's all we have now but but we will now have a lease with that fire engine 103 yeah I think that's important I thank you for that clarification because um you know I I certainly understand where that came from but for the public I think that's important to understand that you know that doesn't mean we're carrying we're carrying debt we're amortizing the the subscription things that we have exactly I'm GL I'm glad you brought that up because uh I I had for I had forgotten about that Rec class was done about two years ago and that that did make those lease being advertised under a debt service line on and where it was some where was other expenses before so that good I'm glad you brought that up yeah gasby generally accepted yeah gby General accepted uh accounting principles and they had gasby 87 then gasby 96 and they both they both uh added uh took other expenses and put them into that debt service line okay thank you very much for that thank you anybody else questions on the JN fund okay what's next uh next is um this is sort of a summary of our 25 tenative budget just showing all funds and our our total revenue in all funds is 132 m97 $4,000 and our total expenditures in all funds is $138,800 and this is a point where I want to mention that the tenative budget may be amended at this point uh any desired changes in the tenative budget must be made prior to uh the resolution adoption and uh again resolution 24-16 establish in a tenative and operating capital budget for 2025 uh staff is uh requesting approval of that resolution okay questions for our team no anybody from the public wish to speak to this budget all right we'll come back to the maker of the motion which I believe was commissioner gal thank you mayor um we've talked about this we started a budget process early and we've all had great input it is a is it a perfect budget I no I think if we were all in charge we it it all be a little different there are certainly some things in here that I've concerned about but it's a matter of looking at the overall budget versus individual items and and certainly this is for my mind a a a budget worth passing it it shows um our fiscal responsibility it shows Our concern about what's going on in the community and forward thinking and so it's it's a good budget so thank you mayor thank you uh commissioner walker uh yes ma'am you know so the budget represents essentially our plan at a point in time which is now and uh that that doesn't mean that we can't make some changes down the road I would say that the one thing I was a little surprised about on the marina fund was is that we really only realized about $ 31,600 in increase based on the last 10% that we that we uh passed in April of 23 is that correct uh I think the increase was a little bit more than that uh we uh we that that 31,000 was 16,000 of of Interest revenue and I think 15,000 of a of an adjustment so that 15,000 was sort of a true up to the 10% and not the full 10% we we uh we we noticed that we that our proposed budget did not have a full 10% increase so we wanted to make sure we we got it to 10% okay yeah um and again not to repeat the our session this morning but you know we obviously still have some question marks in terms of what the you know whatever route we end up going on the dock Replacements and the uh or whether it's going to be a repair so I I think it's you know important and but um just hypothetically just saying down the line let's just say you know in Ideal World it doesn't cost as much which gives us an opportunity to you know do something to you know to the slip Runners to you know there there are things that we can do and my point in that is this is just a plan or this point in time and we can most certainly make changes yep thank you vice mayor yeah um I'm supportive of the budget I agree with what commissioner gal said we don't always all agree on everything but but I think we balanced pretty well um I um um make a couple comments additionally that I didn't make during the millage but um again I feel like slow steady responsible spending I I liked the words personal responsibility for fiscal stewardship of the city that lies with us I think it's really important um as I've talked to people about the budget um one of the things I highlight because people can really relate to the fact that um around the nation people deal with the labor issues and labor issues staffing issues competitivness issues um obviously we're in the middle of fire fire negotiations right now and we've certainly seen that turnover um and being somebody that recently had to have EMS come I really would prefer not to have the training people I would like to have good solid people that come to uh take care of our citizens and and of course 60% of our general fund budget is labor so that's that's not a you know that's not an easy task and I think we have to be very responsible about it uh we have to be realistic about it and we have to be fair about it because the backbone of this city has always been and will continue to be our staff so uh so I make those comments um you know that being said I know we've had some demands Staffing wise you know I still have a file in my office office that goes back 30 years of all the pay plans and the Staffing levels we've had I mean I look at it through a microscope um but you know we're we're to a point where we're equaling where we were before the the Great Recession um we we've added a lot of things like glce Douglas preserve and and uh we have a lot of services and uh you know and we've done a lot even with uh it's not the general fund but when we look at the storm water demands I mean our people are they're running so you know we we again we have to be smarter we're going to maintain a good stable City and it starts right here with our budget um I did have a conversation with the city manager I asked her about it last time um I'm don't want to see any more new positions uh next year unless it's uh you know kind of a matter of life and death I think I feel like we've been a good Commission in trying to get us wred and I think at this point you know we should be pretty wred and uh and you know now we've just got to be careful as we move forward um the um you know I I'll just comment because it's always on my mind lately you know I I continue to feel like the next level of penny for us will be a chance to um do some projects we have to do but also maybe give some rate relief in some of our areas to our citizens I think that is important because they are they do struggle and um um let's see I guess that's it we um we do have a structural deficit in terms of revenues not as high as expenses and we do then balance that with our reserves which again always tells me again slow steady cautious we don't want ups and downs that doesn't help us it doesn't help our citizens so I support this budget and again support the millage thank you vice mayor commissioner Tanga um would you just great question was asked about the marina uh and we just passed a 10% increase what is our Revenue um I just was dashing looking for it what is our Revenue annual revenue for the marina give me just one second to find that real quick [Applause] [Applause] for 23 it's $652,000 I believe for 25 including the 10% increase it's $721,000 uh that's that's all revenue that that includes slip rers and uh miscellaneous income come so maybe I misunderstood something here but 10% time 700,000 is $70,000 close yeah yeah the increase the increase roughly in 2025 with the 10% would be55 or $60,000 roughly somewhere in that area that 10% did I hear a number of 30 something or no the 30 I think I'm confused uh the 36,000 was just our adjustment and that that was uh that 30 that that 31,000 with 16,000 of interest income and 15,000 we made an adjustment to increase the 25 slip runers because we realized that our proposed budget was was calculated incorrectly and it was more like 8% or and not 10% so we just we true that up is all that that's that was that was a true up is all it was but the true but the full 10% was closer to I'd say $55 or $60,000 for slip Runners so I not necessarily misunderstood something or I'm not sure what whether I was misunderstood or whether I was mis whether I was confused about that number can you comment about that I I'm still not sure what what took place here I I thought the question was relating to the increase that we that we received what did that do to our to our Revenue wasn't that part of the question or not uh that wasn't part of my presentation no I mean I I was just talking about changes since August 6th I wasn't focusing on actual slipers but but but but to answer your question you know that that 10% increase in 2025 that was discussed this morning that's about a $55 $60,000 increase in in slip rer income thank you um I'm uh I'm concerned um as I pointed out earlier and and I've talked about it before and I'm concerned about the the number of people that we that we've added I'm also concerned about the fact that we don't have people in some of the positions and I say that not only for the health of the workers that are working within the city uh but I also say that for for our residents who are looking for a level of service and so um I have a problem uh adding adding additional people as I've pointed out before would obviously make a couple exceptions um as stated before um but but only a couple and so I'm not in agreement with with a number of people here now as I understand it um in the last from 22 to 25 we've gone from 380 to 416 people uh number of people number of persons number of real people that we that we want to add into the into the budget here and I try to look and see what you know we've heard the number before of 36 um folks that are positions that are not have not been that are that are vacant uh I'm not sure what that number is today I know it was 42 at one point in time and we're not adding a lot of people but every time we add somebody we add somebody for $100,000 it can cost up cost us up to some number between 160 and and 200,000 those are big numbers and again I am concerned about where we are and so I really I really was not supportive of that I was not supportive of that last year um that is that has nothing to do with me talking to the accounting department or the budget that was presented you presented a budget based on the input that you were asked for and uh and you did that I'm just not supportive of of the policies that we're following right now and I'm I'm I'm I'm concerned I'm concerned of what might happen and the last thing I want to do is to see us involved in any situation where where although we didn't understand the level of service before we now have to do something different with the number of people that we have if you know what I'm saying so um I'm just I'm just not going to support this at this point thank you Jennifer can you tell us going into this budget how many employees we'll have could you come up and help us out with this usually there's something in the budget book that says it and I was trying to find it but I don't know what page it is that's on page I was actually looking for the August on page 77 77 yeah thank you sure yeah it's so 7677 yeah okay so 416 Citywide yes okay Thank You Thank You Les okay um you know we're we are a small city with big city issues and dreams sometimes they are issues and sometimes they are dreams of what we want to accomplish um we've had a lot of folks out there that look at dun Eden and envy who we are it's why our property values are so strong because we dare to say why can't we do something different why can't we have a new program why can't we have a rockstar golf course and Marina and pool and drainage and all the things all the things um I've watched so many smaller communities we people that don't know we are the fifth largest city in in the county out of 24 we do seem very small but we really aren't compared to those communities that are much smaller than us and I don't think they all dare to dream like we do um nobody ever thought we could get the glattus Douglas property and we did with the help of our residents countywide um nobody thought that we uh could work a 25-year deal with Toronto Blue Jays for the minimal amount that we did but we did and I could go on and on and on and on I think we approach things about how we can versus why we can't and we try to find balanced approaches to what we do and I believe very dearly that we do a lot of that and we've got a lot of creative people here um that help us get to that point because you all dare to dream and you all dare to say why can't we do this um and I think our residents have come to expect that out of us that's why they live here and that's that's why they pay maybe a little bit more than they do somewhere else to buy a house here because we care about our quality of life we do care about our infrastructure we care about our budget we just don't let roadblocks get in our way and so yeah the budget looks big and I'm sorry preg Great Depression or you know recession sorry um we had well over 400 employees and we have done all of this without all of them but at some point or another you just have to say we can't keep working at this pace people need a break they need to have a normal job versus running running like crazy um and I think what we've done here and what Jennifer's brought forward here is um very targeted types of positions that are necessary to help our Revenue situation and and to help get the job done for those things that our residents have said are most important to them so I do think they are targeted positions they're necessary um and I'm extremely supportive and I thank you guys for your hard work I did do public input right okay all right roll call vote please commissioner tranga vice mayor frany I commissioner Walker I commissioner gal I mayor Bowski I and that motion passes 4 to one mayor can I read one last thing sure okay thank you um in accordance with Florida Florida's truth and millage trim laws a notice of proposed tax increase and a budget summary advertisement will be published within 15 days of today's tenative budget hearing a public hearing to adopt the final millage rate and budget will be held on Monday September 23rd 2024 at 6m at City Hall uh City commission Chambers and also want to mention that our 25 operating capital budget is posted on our finance website thanks thank you okay anybody else have anything for the good of the order thank go ahead we sunscreen and thank you again everybody for your hard work and to all our department heads who have worked so hard for the last 6 or eight months it's been a lot and we really appreciate all the hard work all right we are adjourned thank you thanks [Music] --------- ##VIDEO ID:cUsO2Y1qELI## [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] to our uh September 3rd City commission work session we'll call the meeting to order um if you'll please join us in Rising as Jennifer leads us in the Pledge of Allegiance IED to the flag of the United States of am to the for it stands Nation indivisible andice thank you Jennifer all right we'll move on to presentations uh we have the um Proclamation for library card sign up month and I will turn that over to vice mayor frany okay who do we have here could must be pH dress on I know the famous Library dress okay our favorite librarian so library cards sign up month whereas libraries are essential for the education and development of children offering everything from preschool story times to College and Career planning resources for high school students nurturing literacy and a love for reading and whereas libraries provide welcoming and inclusive spaces where individuals from all backgrounds can learn and connect bridging cultural ethnic generational and economic divides and strengthening the social fabric of their communities and whereas libraries are committed to creating and maintaining diverse programs and collections that reflect the communities they serve ensuring Equitable access for all and whereas libraries assist people of all ages in navigating life's complexities offering access to research information and government services that enhance productivity and fulfillment and whereas libraries boost the local economy by providing critical access to techn techology and training for job Seekers entrepreneurs and students whereas during times of Crisis libraries and their staff play a vital role in supporting communities both in person and virtually and whereas whereas the shared resources provided by libraries help households save money conserve resources and reduce waste offering a simple way to make a positive impact and whereas a library card ignites creativity and empowers individuals to explore new interests and pursue lifelong learning and whereas libraries uphold democracy by promoting Civic engagement and the free exchange of information and ideas for all now therefore I'm Moren mofy by virtue of the authority vested in Me by the mayor of the city of denen Florida and on H behalf of the entire city commission do hereby Proclaim September as library card sign up month in Den Eden and encourage everyone to sign up for a library card today for the best library in the world and also the center of our democracy is our library so [Applause] Phyllis thank you mayor vice mayor Commissioners for sharing about library cards sign up month we're inviting everyone to discover the incredible resources and opportunities available at the library by signing up for a card did you know that library cards expire every 3 years so if it's been a bit since you've been in the library stop by our front desk to get a card you can even register online to get the process started and then you can stop in and get full access to all your denan Public Library offers today's libraries are vibrant welcoming locations that offer much more than just books at denan you'll find diverse programs amazing online resources homework help book clubs author talks story times and much more you can check check out unique things like Wi-Fi hotspots ukuleles Museum passes and seeds and don't forget we're a passport acceptance facility so if you're getting a new passport you can get that at your library throughout September you'll see amazing things happening at the library new self checkout machines a new playground is getting installed two new charging stations and our favorite thing the friends of the library mini fall book sale they'll have half of the meeting room September 20th and 21st um so stop in find some great treasures at great prices so don't miss out stop by the denan public library or our Branch library in the community center to get the smartest card in your wallet thank you that's awesome thank you we love our library all right we love our pH us too yeah all right now's the time for citizen input anyone wishing to come forward and speaking on any item that's not already on the agenda please feel free to do so seeing or hearing none we'll move on to the consent agenda we have the approval of the minutes from July 15th the 23rd and the 25th we have board and committee appointments to the code enforcement board committee on Aging Library advisory committee local planning agency we have the Denon Community Center flooring project in the amount of 113,000 in change we have the award of RFP to furnish and install security cameras at the hail Center in the amount of $81,000 and change we have the auditor contract which is a three-year agreement with a total contract amount of 192,000 and we have an award of bid to supply and deliver of submersible uh pumps are there any items to be pulled d and f d and f any others okay can I have a motion to approve all items except dnf so moved okay commissioner Walker and commissioner torka thank you anybody from the public wish to speak to any of those items seeing or hearing none all in favor signify by saying I I I any opposed motion passes unanimously now we have item 2D which is the award of um which is a rebid to furnish and install security cameras to the hail Center did you just have a question yeah I had a a fundamental question and I don't don't recall the answer to this but oh and I'm sorry I'm sorry um I said just to the Hill Center but it's The Hil Center parks golf club fire stations and Communications my apologies go ahead no problem um so I I was just curious now that's that's quite a sum of money again and I thought just to get a again an understanding of of what these security cameras are doing and and for the cost of them cuz I know people ask ask me they have security cameras at their houses etc etc so there must be some significant upgrade uh to this so what are we getting for like 20,000 for each one of these locations I guess is just a a fundamental question Mike on IT director so the main purpose for the security cameras is for property protection and liability when there's an incident we can um download the video provided to law enforcement um it's mainly for for security it's not for um public record requests that anybody could just request those kind uh video it's for our protection uh for security of property Personnel Etc so the expense of this is is is rather is rather higher were there other options or um in comparison to what we've done in the past other buildings this is not very high although costs have increased um we're getting six buildings it's a lot of cameras in everying how many cameras are there maybe that helps answer some of it I think there's like 30 some at um Parks operation facility um in the 20s for some of the other sites probably 40 cameras at Hill Center because there's so many areas of the building inside and outside and the common space so we're only using cameras in common space not in um private offices anything like that so it's really the number of cameras that that's being it's the cameras and the equipment to record thank you so I do have a count of all the cameras thank you poor um Hill Center we got 21 cameras 16 at the Golf Clubhouse Parks operation is 16 cameras um and we have two fire stations about 10 cameras each I I didn't hear the last one the two fire stations fire station 61 1 and 62 we have about 10 cameras at each location thank you thank you m any other questions on this item okay can I have a motion to approve so move second commissioner torga and vice mayor fry anybody from the public wish to speak to this item all in favor signify by saying I I any opposed motion passes unanimously uhhuh and then we have the award a bid to supply and delivery of submersible pumps in the amount of 214,000 and change commissioner Toro was there just a question or yes please um so obviously these pumps are expensive and becoming more expensive we've been discussing this all along so I looked at the bid and you know was a large number of of uh sendouts but I think a limited uh bids coming back so we're at the 214 so rather than than spend any more probably any more time on it's $214,000 bid what what are the alternatives for us going off into the future I mean we have so many pumps and so many requirements for pumps and they have to work um is there a solution to this off in the off in the future or or what what do we do about this it's just getting more and more and more expensive it seems good morning Nan Bennett utilities director um these are the the singlephase pumps in the lift stations we we have another contract for the three-phase pumps but Wastewater is very corrosive it has a tendency to um use up the life in any equipment that we that we use to run it it runs pretty much continuously um that generally makes the community happy um when they don't work is when we have problems and this uh this is an AS needed contract for 3 years what we've been doing is as a pump fails we get three quotes and and then it takes time to get the three quotes it takes time to get deliveries this is a way to expedite it so that we don't have as much downtime and we're not relying on the um at each of our lift stations we have a minimum of two pumps so even when one fails we still have one that's operational but we like to run with redundancy I mean that's we like everything to work continuously and so this will get us so that we can replace the one pump that's down quicker and they also alternate it it extends the life of the pumps they alternate when they operate so that they don't operate all the time each one I I don't know what to tell you about inflation or the changes in cost over time um this is a necessary cost of doing business in the Wastewater industry and um short of only living downhill of the lift of the of the of the plant I don't know how else we're going to get the sewage there without pumps is there any technology that's being worked on in this in this area so for example we talk about um an example would be in the auto business we had we had combustible engines and then suddenly we ended up with the possibility and certainly now the capability of having electric uh powered vehicles for example uh different Motors different engines and things like that I was just kind of curious um as as I look at at how many pumps we actually have in not only in the Wastewater but pumps in general and and realizing that's a huge industry I was just curious as to if if there's any any breakthrough coming in that or Andor do we have any fallbacks to this is this is this going to get out of continuing to to rise in price and and become an issue for us the the newer pumps um are much less clogging they do a much better job of handling particularly the flushable wipes that aren't flushable that people continue to flush um and and we've had a lot better luck with without having to do as much maintenance on the newer non-clog pumps but um they are electric pumps they currently they're electric um some of our backup pumps that we are in trailers and stuff are on are diesel but these are electric pumps they do work on efficiency of the motors continuously we do you know look at the non-clogging look at things the industry is continually evolving but from something wholesale other than pumps I have not I have not heard anything of recent that would change it wholesale from pumps really not a fair question because it's too it's too wide open but how how much do you think we spend on pumps uh in in the city uh it we have so many pumps I'm looking over here at the pump guy yeah um I wouldn't venture to guess but pumping and energy is a big part of what wastewater treatment is between you know adding air and the energy that it takes and the pumps themselves it's a huge amount of what we do I I wouldn't venture to bet a dollar amount without doing some research thank you thank you mayor okay anybody else have any questions okay um can I have a motion to to approve so move second okay commissioner TGA and commissioner gaw anybody from the public wish to speak to this item all right all in favor signify by saying I I opposed motion passes unanimous all right we'll move to our action items we have resolution 24-22 amending the marina user fees Jennifer can you please read resolution 24-22 by title only resolution 2 4-22 a resolution of the city um I'm sorry of the city Commission of the city of deden Florida establishing deden Marina user fees including rates for use of boat slips pursuant to section 86-76 and charges for use of boat ramp launches pursuant to 86-15 of the code of ordinances of the city of denen repealing resolution 23-17 and its entirety providing for severability and providing for an effective date that was resolution 22 24-22 read by title only thank you can I have a motion to approve so move second okay commissioner gal and vice mayor fry Lany and Lori welcome good morning um Laney she's Parks and Recreation superintendent uh so just a really quick uh brief summary of how we are get got to where we are today uh back in late 2022 um the city of denan uh did a com very comprehensive rate study for the marina to determine what rates the need the Enterprise fund needed to be sustainable and uh the report indicated um and was received in January of 23 uh that the consultant recommended a series of 10% rate increases um five different incremental rate increases to happen uh as we had not raised rates since 2015 and so there was some catchup that needed to be done uh the initial rate increase of 10% was done in April of 23 uh with the next scheduled uh rate increase 18 months later to occur in October 1st of 24 so that is what is before you today um and so again that is the the rate study that was done um and that is independent of the marina any kind of Marina master plan in increases so this is just to maintain the infrastructure that we have today and with that I'll open up to any questions thank you uh questions vice mayor um yeah couple questions so um and you may have kind of said this I was right in my notes so um this even with this increase based on the rate study we're still pretty well well below the market correct yeah if you remember we at the time of the rate study we were on average 40% below equivalent type Municipal Marina rates okay and um and and Jennifer I'm guess this is maybe to you or lit to less um the finance board thinks we're not being aggressive enough with our rates they're of record yes say it again they're of record with that statement yes okay um and and I guess then the other one is just what is the status of the master plan you know in terms of the looking at the Docks right now and when we might see that come back so we're currently scoping um the project as far as going underwater uh to to look at as you recall the discussion was repair replace um we we're using the same consultant kimley horn and we need to go under the water in order to look at at uh B and C so we're scoping that right now I haven't had that come across my desk yet once I get that I'll be able to give you a better example of of the time frame you don't know any wild range at all no I did think you were down at the marina in a scuba outfit the other day though no that was Laney yeah no staff did meet um with engineering myself Lori um with kimley horn again uh late last week was Thursday uh again to talk exactly what data they needed in order to provide that report so they are working on finalizing that scope and fee proposal it shouldn't take long once we get that scope and pre proposal um Lor is also digging through some additional data of the last time we had cameras on underneath so once they see some additional information of what we already have then they'll know how much additional they'll need to do in order to provide that report great and of course you know when I say that just to be clear you know with the master plan this is really you know right now to me it's about the basics which is the docs you know are the docks good enough to last or do we need to make a decision about the docks so um okay that's all the questions I have right now okay commissioner Tonga thank you mayor um some of the uh comments that are made continuously are about the below market rate and these kinds of conversations and and for me this is an Enterprise fund and whatever it costs it costs and if it's less than what the market is then that's fine and there's a reason for that and it's an Enterprise fund not everything we compete against is an Enterprise fund certainly um some are for profit and some have a lot more uh C capability and capacities that we have so I just want to remind all of us of that second of all the board of Finance um Board of Finance is taking into consideration I'm sure um some of the thoughts about the master plan and what we end up doing with the master plan so that that makes a fundamental uh qu uh would would require a fundamental decision about how much should we be doing so if they think we should be doing more it's probably based on us looking at doing a whole big issue down at the at the marine and I don't think that's been decided or or perhaps required at this point in time we we're still looking into that the question that I have is um has has our maintenance gone up over the last five years and and how much has it gone up in comparison to previous years per year by year the M the maintenance continues to go up um we're replacing more and more boards we're replacing the upright boards uh we're seeing a lot lot of um the O-rings that were attached to the stringers that are degrading uh the docks have spent more time underwater so we do have a lot more um oxidation occurring on the hardware itself so we um we've had a lot of repairs we get more damage with the influx of the tides now things aren't uh holding up maybe as they used to and of course I have a five and a half year history so I can't speak to before that but um with each storm we're seeing more and more uh parts of the marina that are having to be repaired so in in my five and a half years I do see an increase of Maintenance so for example how much uh in relationship to cost so for example 5 years ago what happened year year by year has it gone up 3% 4% 6% 10% I wouldn't be able to guess at that figure um 5 years ago ago we replaced you know we did a lot of maintenance on Doc a during the dredge um because of the condition that doc a was in we need to look at doing that to Doc B depending on how the commission directs us to move forward uh and Doc c as well so um we kind of are waiting to see the outcome of the next inspection that's currently being proposed and um and your direction I appreciate that comment because I think we need to pay particular attention to the repairs that we do compared to the repairs that we did to Doc a back in those days um that was sort of loosely thrown together because the intent was or we were told the intent was that in 2022 we were going to redo that that Dock and so um we put some some money after some bad money and maybe some of that was bad money um but at any rate so um I just wanted to make a comment about the rate so that everybody understands well let's wait for comments yeah thank you thank you thank you thank you very much okay commissioner go questions all questions asked and answered thank you mayor commissioner walker uh yes ma'am thank you okay uh these clarifying and confirming um so what we uh what we voted on after the rate study um was essentially conceptually potentially 5 10% increases over the course of the next four plus years is that correct okay um and the other thing um in terms of the budget Reserve are um we the target the target is 25% right and that's 25% of operating costs yes that's correct okay Le Tyler the finance director all right and then uh related to the I'm sorry you're in the short chair I am in a short chair yeah I just couldn't help but notice I was like where did he [Applause] go I'll figure I'll figure it out is that is that our attempt to keep all the chairs in line please stop doing that I I think somebody comes in here and I I can see you guys really good at this level yeah very sorry just had to call that out ahead thank you um so I you know I know that based on and this related issue obviously to the rates um but you know we're we're basically on hold here until we get the cost of the repairs and totally understand how this has needs to be scoped but question is when can we expect that because the intent of at least from my perspective was not to um not to delay much longer so when when do we think we're going to have those estimates so I I do think that um Jennifer answered that question a little while ago you want to repeat that yes uh so so when we get the scope and fee proposal I'll come back to the city commission to give you the exact time frame that said we will do it as quickly as we can understanding that it it's very times sensitive but I can't give you those dates yet until we get find out exactly what work they're going to be doing and need to do and and I do believe that Lany had mentioned that she and Lori have some data that they're trying to pull out to give to Kimberly horn to review to see how long it will take and how much underwater work right isn't that what you guys said that is correct and and part of their report is also if repair is even an option right um so they're not sure at this time um based on the what basic knowledge they have of the under structure uh basically they went into this with knowing that those piles are at least 45 years old we don't know exactly how old they are but we know they're really old and so they went into it with that Assumption of it's most likely not a good Financial investment to do repairs on those old piles um and so they are going to do that additional assessment those underwater true camera systems um they did an above waterer inspection as part of their their C the current study they will do some additional underwater work to find out if it's even feasible to do a repair okay thank you uh last question um the one thing you know we our responsibility in this is and I'm not suggesting that this is the case but these 10% increases are not intended to be rubber stamped and so my question would be based on the fact that we now have uh uh one plus year of with a 10% increase the first one we did back in April 23 and now we're asking you're asking asking us to approve one for October 24 for another year um what what kind of is it possible to present numbers in terms of the runway run rate for the Enterprise fund specifically as it pertains to the um the target of 25% I guess what I want to see is is kind of how that's been trending with you know we've have a year of of increased revenue and related to commissioner Toro's question with regards to maintenance cost and and repair cost just get a feel for where we stand right now um in relation to the Target of 25% does that make sense yeah I I could share a couple of things that might help answer that question um I went back three years uh looking at act actual actual revenue and expenses in in the Marine Enterprise fund for 21 22 and 23 you know the actual results and uh our uh you know for 21 our our revenues exceeded expenditures by 225,000 for 22 our revenues exceeded expenses by 189,000 and in 23 the the revenues were more than re expenses by 173,000 so the average is about $195,000 of Revenue more than expenses and and we've been able to do that because we've had no capital projects you know we' we've not had any capital projects for a few years now you know and we and we've known we we had the rate study and now we have the master plan that we're working through we knew we had these large capital projects so we are building up reserves to to contribute towards those projects but like for instance you know right now our our Reserve at uh is an estimated to be just over a million dollars at the end of this year and that and that is significantly more than the 25% operating that that you had quoted however uh the re reason for that is because we're we're building up the reserve to to contribute towards doc a b and c and these other projects so that's the reason that Reserve is is looks healthy right now is because we've had no capital projects really since the dredge that we did uh four or five years ago uh so uh so it is about a million dollars now and and it is significantly more than the 25% but the reason for that is just because we've we've been building up and and if we did not have this million dollar Reserve as an example uh we'd probably be looking at uh larger rate increases to be able to fund doc ab and C you know moving forward so if that helps yeah I that that does help because I think you know what I'm what I'm hearing is is that basically we are on track to build a significant Reserve to basically offset the cost of whatever we decide to do with the docks right that's correct okay um yeah that's all the questions I have thank you okay any input from the public all right seeing or hearing none commissioner gal any final comments uh not really mayor I think we've kind of talked about this we're in the middle of this study we know that we need to increase our rates so yeah that's okay come vice mayor yeah I'd I just add I mean I think I made my points with my questions still well below Market um just to kind of add I fully understand Enterprise fund um whether we're below Market or above Market you know my point is when I said that by being still below Market is we got a lot of it you know comparatively we don't have a lot of amenities like some other places do so I certainly wouldn't want to be way above the market um right now to current rate holders while we kind of figure out what we're going to do so that was kind of my point even though I certainly understand Enterprise fund and uh and and of course as we move forward part of my conversation with the city manager was you know the generational expense of this that even when we get to the point we know we have to do do the current rate users have to bear all the burden or is this a generational expense because we're trying to protect an asset into the long-term future um so um so but I I think that um you know we're doing what we need to do right now uh I think it's expected by the rate um uh the slip renters even though no one likes a increase uh so I'm in favor of it commissioner Tonga um there's one question that I I have to throw in and that is what's happening to the ramp as far as expenses go the ramp if I remember correctly brings in some number like about 20,000 a year maybe you can say what that is you should have that in front of you I would think and and then uh what how much money do we bring in for the ramp and what is the what's the ramp contribute then from a standpoint of of contribution margin to what we're doing the ramp I believe and Les could correct me if need be I believe it was around $30,000 last year that um between the ramp kiosk and the annual passes um and as far as the maintenance go that's another thing that we were kind of waiting for direction on how we're going to go with the master plan on um what we need to do with the ramp next for maintenance so the ramp is a small part of of of what we're talking about from a revenue standpoint and from a cost standpoint probably not not very high other than other than if we try to um load it up with expenses employees Etc um so um my concern here is and I'm Pro I'm probably going to vote for to have the 10% increase simply because I know we're going to be doing something things uh but I would like to see us really hold back on on whatever we're doing for expenses right now and I also want to make sure that whatever input that we get back that if we have to we check it um to make sure that it is completely and totally valid um and and that is something that we can really work and deal with we have a we have a unique uh Marina here we've have had this for a long time um and the layout of it the layout is not changing right now as we stand and if we and if we just work with the existing layout while we still have some of the issues uh but that would be an effort to not spend some number on on on a marina could be 1010 million which big problem if we spend and on a master plan to redo the marina big problem is we could end up with a lot of people we could end up with a lot of people Le and then therefore then those that are there because it's an Enterprise fund they have to keep going up so uh it's a big concern a big concern that I have so I want to just make sure that we we charge staff with making sure that they really understand what the condition of those three docks are and what's the cost to have remediation on them thank you thank you commissioner commissioner walker uh yes ma'am thank you um so you know what what I I don't think any of us want to do is is to keep approving these 10% rate increases at the risk of you know doubling existing slip fees and actually pricing people that have been in the marina for quite some time out of the marina or out of the market if you will um but with that said uh you know and I I do agree that you know in the near term and where we are at right now that um the 10% based on the fact that we were significantly below Market when we started this discussion and where we're at now with a variable question mark with regards to what the repairs slash improvements are going to cost um and there there's a there's an optic associated with this because we based that market cost on similar Municipal marinas that have many more amenities than than we have currently here in Denon so I I'm you know I I agree we a benchmark was appropriate I just want to make sure that we are going into this eyes wide open in terms of making sure that we're doing the right thing for this for the residents the slip owners or slip renters and that you know we are being being mindful of minimizing our expenses going forward so anyway I'm I'm I'm going to I'm going to vote for it um but I I just want to make sure and if uh the I mean this is an ask and and certainly You Can Talk Amongst yourselves on on how to do this but I I think there's an opportunity here to you know provide a uh what am I going to call it uh variable variable pricing say based on senior citizen status based on Military based on that because then a lot of this applies to the residents that have been in the marina for quite some time and I I would just ask the the staff to to look at that that's all and uh that's all I've got mayor thank you um when we did this uh rate study we made sure that we did this study based on um what our needs are today and the possible future repairs so it doesn't include really the master plan um to any large degree other than we know that we're going to be doing something [Music] um and yeah you know it's painful to have 10 year 10% increases um but there were many years s years without an increase at all um and you know shame on us for not doing that um but we didn't because we kept doing studies and we kept we did the dredge and we didn't want H Co you know we were trying to be cautious and compassionate to our users um so this is the end result uh so I don't have a problem with it at all I I do want to see the ENT Enterprise fund be solvent and be able to take care of itself but there's there's kind of a unique thing I want to call out it's just something for my colleagues to think about you know we're going through a major renovation of our golf club which is now an Enterprise fund it wasn't when we started this process but it is now an Enterprise fund and the fees there are not paying for the entire thing so um because it's a Community Asset anybody can use it just really you know same with the marina so um it's kind of it was kind of a one-time investment large investment into an asset that we really cared about and appreciate and enhances our community and puts us on the map to some degree with um various circles if you will um I don't see any difference with our Marina um I know that's a whole another com conversation but I do think um you know if we find that repairs are not feasible we need to bite the bullet and take care of this really valuable asset in our community um I'm I'm all for looking to see if there are less expensive ways of doing it but in the end I want to see our city do the right thing for for this asset we spent a lot of time doing the right thing for a lot of other assets and this one has been I don't want to say neglected because it's not been purposeful but in the future when we do improve and make all the repairs we need to do or Replacements or whatever it is we'll have a much better handle on the financial stability of the fund and how to do it none of us want to be Market driven none of us not any single person up here wants to be Market driven that's not our goal but our goal is to have a an asset that says I'm here in Den Eden but a quality asset and an asset that will last for generations to come and we are its caretakers so what I don't want to see us do is continually Kick the Can down the road you know these are hard decisions to make but I'm supportive of the 10% increase um roll call vote please commissioner torka hi commissioner Walker hi vice mayor frainy I commissioner gal I and mayor bosski I and that motion passes unanimously Vincent uh Laney stay there good morning mayor good morning vice mayor City commissioners uh first I want to thank um Jennifer for allowing me to speak a few minutes publicly about uh Laney's career with our with our city and all the accomplishments that she's made the significant accomplishments that she's made in the last 15 years that she's been here um Lany thought that she was just going to leave her keys uh on my desk and walk out the door but we did have other plans and by the way I'm really glad this last item few passed so um Laney started with me uh 16 year almost 16 years ago she was first person that I actually hired when I started and um she was also hired by Peg Cummings and myself as when Peg was our division director for recreation she started out as a uh special projects coordinator and 3 or 4 years later worked a way up to a superintendent level um so um she's worked really hard uh every every day she comes to work she works really hard and uh she's had a few setbacks and she's worked right through them right up until uh today to be able to get this item on the agenda prior to her leaving strong work eth th long hours starts early in the morning finishes late at night she's the liaison to five committees one committees a lot of work but five committees the ma committee hammock parks and wreck V military advisory and the causeway committee and I sat through um each committee with her um for her last meeting and unbelievable comments from the committee members when she heard when Laney announced and she wanted to tell them herself uh that she was going to be retiring um every year she would lead our department through strategic planning session Retreat staff Retreat and goal setting so every year when we put our budget together uh we all we had fresh goals that were um included by all all of our staff at least our management staff coordination and development of our annual City budget along with Cindy Lane Cindy came here this morning Nicole's here this morning who handles our marketing Lor's here angel Joselyn Recreation coordinator Recreation uh superintendent um Laney rewrote our tree ordinance that's a big deal uh especially the way we love our trees and 37 years um Tree City USA she wrote that and rewrote that um that ordinance another bigging real significant she rewrote our land dedication ordinance now Park um now park Parkland impact fees if I don't say the land in there she gets upset so Parkland if I just say Park impact fees but Parkland impact fees uh involved with securing and administering over $4 million in Grand funds not only assisting and writing them between the GDP Weaver Park hammock Park but the administrative work which never ends goes on and on she um was an intrical member of our denan or the the N Golf Course transition team contributing to the sustainability plan with the National Golf Foundation wrote the RFQ for the Donald Ross architectural design assisted with the food and beverage agreement maintenance agreement and valued engineering of the construction agreement strong presidents in our Department's marketing initiatives working with Communications also Nicole Allen's here who handles our marketing began the development of the GDP architectural services for phase two before she would left she already put a agenda item on my uh desk to review um to move on with um bringing the um Phase 2 design to the city commission so you'll be seeing that fairly shortly uh also assisted with phase one uh opening assisted in the design and construction of our new pickle ball courts soon to open within the next two months we should have those Courts open and as you all know we talked about it a little this morning uh was heavily involved with Lori in the development of the marina master plan another big project she put a plan together to replace every one of our playgrounds uh we replaced 13 playgrounds during her time here in several shelters um from a uh from a little bit outside of um the department she was a contributing member to PA Florida recreation parks Association served on several committees and um also was a conference chair one year and really gave uh danan put danan on the map in the world of of Parks and Recreation um she also worked very closely with our arborist and and our Marina um and she definitely left her footprint in our city so thank you Lanie for what we've done thank Jennifer so thank you mayor and the and the only way that we could get that list out in the public was to Ambush Laney because she she like like Vincent said leave the keys on the desk and some people you know want to when it's their time to to to retire go quietly and Laney did and so um but the the list of items that Vince was mentioning were all as you all know very controversial items um and difficult items as well to to to bring to the city commission uh the techn technical uh background um especially when it came to for example the golf club and lany's a great golfer by the way I just want to put that on the record as well she really understood um what it was we were doing where we were going with it and and you know we hired Blair Klein as the general manager we knew that he did not have an expertise um in Golf Course uh Rehabilitation or reconstruction although he had some but she really guided him through that and we are very grateful for that as well he's he's in a very strong position now moving forward uh and the marina itself it's uh Lan's also a boater and a cruiser and uh again she brought a lot to the to the table there um as far as background goes so um you know I've only known Laney for the past seven years um and uh and the projects that she's worked on just the the technical background and the support have been uh amazing and so now as as you were retire very young I anticipate that you're going to be doing a second act uh but we're grateful for everything that you've done here and I'm very grateful for for all of your hard work um and you're going to see it for generations to come so well done thank you lady thank you you've done a lot it's been a pleasure so thank you all and we loved having you thank you for all your contributions to the the community anybody in the audience want to come forward and say anything no no pressure well we appreciate your service we're not going to put you on the spot um because I can see it's becoming emotional for you so um your service to your community is greatly respected go travel the world [Applause] okay um we have item 3B agreement between penelas County and the City of Denon for Fire Protection Services to the unincorporated areas unincorporated areas penel County known as the denan fire district providing for a 5year agreement with a fiscal year 25 estimated payment from pelis county of over a million dollar Chief Parks good morning mayor vice mayor Commissioners Jeff Parks fire chief uh present to you today our fire protection agreement with pelis County it's a 5year agreement with an option to renew for an additional five years and this is based on our our percentage of unincorporated area versus the city area and last year's budget we were at 12.37% of unincorporated uh this year we go to 12.36% and the difference uh from last year's budget to this year approximately as we need to wait till the uh budgets finally approved uh coming up here but the difference we would gain another $227,800 in uh this year's budget over last year any questions on questions for chief vice mayor no commissioner Chief would you tell me how large is this area this this in incorporates there's some some while it's unincorporated area that we have uh mainly along the US 19 Corridor we cover the west side of US1 19 from ceru to 580 a little around the Enterprise area uh Main Street and there's enclaves the the boxon areas throughout the city that we we cover as well so it covers all the enclaves that are unincorporated within the city of D Eden correct and then an additional part which is off of off of uh 19 yes mostly 19 thank you commissioner uh no questions commiss walker uh just uh I don't know if we keep this metric or not but um you know the 12 well the 1,163 815 um how does that is that sufficient for the unincorporated parts of denan do we do we know the answer to that or is it less than more I I don't really have a a number on that it's based it's been that way for years based on the the uh area that's left we used to be around 133% we've you know each year we decrease as we uh incorporate into the city so so that is it an actual request that that you all make or no this is the done by the county property appraisers office I believe they they determine what the percentage is okay and that percentage should gone gone up it's gone down as as we uh we continue to incorporate into the the city we lose that area okay all right well all right that that makes sense okay all right hey thanks thank you okay I don't have any questions anybody from the public wish to speak okay can I have a motion to approve so moved second okay vice mayor Frey and commissioner Gaal any final comments okay uh all in favor signify by saying I I I any opposed motion passes unanimously and then we also have the agreement between penis County and the City of denen for Emergency Medical Services Advanced life support first for the first responder agreement providing for a 5-year agreement and the initial five uh fiscal year 25 payment from pellis county is 20 2.7 million in change chief yes uh this is our ALS first responder agreement and we with that again it's a 5-year agreement with an option to renew for an additional five years uh guarantees us a 3% increase per year anything over that we have to go to the commission and get an amendment to the contract uh which we've done the last several years years and the difference in this year's contract over last year's is $392,900 per by the the county and it includes all the EMS equipment that we get our our monitors our drugs any any of that type of equipment uh in four foregoing years we have a replacement of a rescue uh in FY 28 which Believe It or Not takes 3 years to to get one delivered nowadays we'll be started to work on that it seems like we just got our rescue not too long ago and a replacement of a district chief of the EMS Chief vehicle and FY 28 as well any questions any questions for chief any comments from the public all right can I have a motion to approve move second vice mayor frany commissioner Walker any final comments yeah I do um actually I just say you know just kind of highlighting it to the public that um you know 15% of what we do you correct my numbers if I'm wrong Chief 15% of what we do basically is fires which we saw in Amberly how important that is to be ready for fires um and um but over time that left for not a lot of idle time which then led to EMS Authority for the county which led to doing much more 85% of what we do is medical um so merging the fire department and and EMS Services made sense for uh you know for just economy of scales and sometimes that's why sometimes it seems like everybody's coming at one time but it it is actually a cheaper way to do things by merging these two Services together um but um and and I think this works with the county it's a good partnership and um so very supportive of this obviously thank you anybody else no okay all in favor signify by saying I I any opposed motion passes unanimously thank you Chief and then finally we have the proposed agenda for September 17th looks like a biggie um any changes okay I can I have a motion to approve so move second commissioner TGA vice mayor frainy all in favor signify by saying I opposed motion passes unanimously let's take a five minute break before we head into our strategic planning project Workshop item cool [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] welcome back to our September 3rd City commission work session we'll go into Workshop mode where we're going to discuss the final draft of our strategic planning project I will turn this project uh Jennifer did you have any opening remarks uh I do mayor thank you very much and and um so so this is this is a big morning for our Str strategic planning effort um it it it really is this is the final report we're asking that you look at the goals and objectives and I'm trying to frame what what what it is I'm hoping that we can get to this morning the goals and objectives were developed over several Community meetings um meetings with the employees meetings with all of you to draft those you gave a general direction as you were recall when we had a meeting specifically dedicated to this subject we um um and you gave us the direction um and in the innovating period staff with our Consultants have been working very hard on on Focus focusing in on that direction as far as the goals and objectives go and also populating those with action items those are not the subject today that we're asking you to consider that's is as you know in the general scheme of things the city commission sets the policy and the staff implements and that's that implementation piece is the action items of this the Strategic are you really telling us not to give you comments on the action items yes you're so brave I'm I'm asking very nicely okay I just want to make I just want will that no and I I didn't hear it so you better repeat it cuz I was sorting my stuff so and we actually had sent a I'm not kidding though repeat what you said so I understand what I'll start at the very beginning right no you don't have to do that um and we did send an email out to you early but understanding that there's a lot here for you to digest yes and and ask you to concentrate on the goals and the objectives uh but did send of course the action items I understand that the city commission obviously wants the entire picture um those action items were populated by staff as far as how we're going to implement those goals and objectives uh within the plan so so as I said it's a a step forward this morning uh the next step is that we ask that you support this final draft um there might be a tweak or two which is which is fine with us we understand that and then we uh commence our implementation of the plan and we've had several conversations about the plan itself and implementation is crucial at this point uh and we'll talk a little bit about that towards the end of the presentation so with that I'll I'll hand it over to Nicole good morning mayor vice mayor commission Nicole Delino strategy and sustainability manager um I am really just going to hand it right over to uh Angela Chris uh with the Florida Institute of government and then with her uh Tina Fischer with the SPC Collaborative Labs who have been with us from the very beginning through this process welcome um they want to Angela is going to walk you through um some of the report and kind of you know highlight some things and then we'll have have your some of your feedback so thank you okay all right good morning good morning so uh Angela Christ uh Florida Institute of government at USF first let me say congratulations um I think it's always important to start with a little celebration and uh taking on a strategic planning process um at times can be very draining uh for elected officials and staff and so we've done a lot yeah a year so I just want to commend you for investing in it um before we dive into it I think this will this will be um something that the community will have for a long time so you should have received two reports uh one was this beautiful report here the other was a worksheet that look like this again I use the term work sheet um we we going to be discussing this report so this report is actually a culmination of all of our work right so this was Employee information employee Forum uh citizen information Community forums the forums and workshops that we had with you it is a culmination of everything for the purposes of today I would like to focus on the executive summary which I'm going to pull up it is on on page five starting there um it talks about the methodology the communications Outreach that we did however I just want to remind all of you that we started with the process of looking at the vision mission and core values from there we began to develop your strategic themes your goal statements and objectives your action plans aren't 100 % yet so we started with the vision okay um again we had a kickoff we had stakeholder interviews um I wanted to just kind of share with you so that you can see hopefully you've had a chance to review but as you can see a lot of the same things began to pop out throughout the process sense of community people in inclusiveness affordable housing growth and development traffic uh um environmental sustainability planning for the future um again having this shared Vision being able to embrace change traffic and parking affordable housing you can see that there begins to be this kind of these themes that began to pop up throughout the process right as we went through it at the end of the process we ended up with a draft mission and vision statement seven strategic themes 32 goals and 86 objectives that's wonderful but you cannot do all of that in the first year or first three years right so if you recall these were your strategic themes and still are uh the seven but what I really want you to focus on are these priority goals okay these are the priority goals that you as leadership set when SPC um facilitated so uh goal A1 a consistent set of standards for responsive and accessible customer service goal A4 robust Public Safety Services with an emphasis on community connectivity goal D1 water quality protection goal E1 responsive and responsible leadership goal F1 retain our charm character and small town Vibe and then goal F2 zoning and land use reflective of community desires those are the priorities of all of those goals and objectives that you've set but what I want you to realize is you're only 2third of the way through this process okay and this is that next steps that we were talking about even though you call it the implementation phase the implementation phase truly is a planning phase because this is a culture shift for your organization and I say your organization because that's going to happen across the elected officials as well as your staff so um over the next 3 to six months uh you will be working on um with city manager with Nicole and Leadership staff you will actually be working on that implementation piece which is looking at those action tasks that that are under the goals and objectives looking and making sure there is budget and resource alignment figuring out how you're going to report on this are you using a dashboard are you using a checklist and then how frequently are you going to be doing that um are there going to be quarterly progress updates and so those are some decisions that have to be made that's why I say you're only 2third of the way through the process the last third is the implementation piece if you go to um the one second I'm just going to go all the way down and I'm going to tell you which page I apologize if I'm making you dizzy okay oh my goodness oh my goodness oh my goodness oh my okay oh my goodness we did a lot of work okay page 21 so the this is the vision statement this is the mission statement and then starting on page 22 oh excuse me then you have your core values and guiding principles and then starting on page 23 is where you begin to see the details for strategic theme a city services so again you're focused on the goals and objectives today and what we're really looking for is that consensus to move forward with these as presented so that we're able to move into that last third of the project which is that implementation planning phase so I'm going to stop there because there's a lot of information um a lot of information so I am sure there are are questions okay I'm going to start going this way commissioner gal yeah no questions oh commissioner Walker um no I don't I don't have any specific questions um I I will say that these are very tightly worded very specific and I know that that was the intent and objective so uh I'm I think this is really starting to shape up and look good thank you and we'll have time for comments at the end okay vice mayor yeah I have a lot of question I have a lot of questions no I'm just kidding first of all could you go to page 20 on the slide absolutely is that the page that's page 20 uh that's not my page 20 oh is it this one pictures are on it it's got leadership Forum March 25th 2024 that's 21 I believe right here oh it's there that's the right page yep right here uh can you go higher up further up M higher there you go I just wanted to I'll put you all through that just to make note that I'm glad I'm not back there you see those two worthless wrists at that meeting yeah so I'm just making note of that actually sorry um I had you curious didn't I um I'm like oh no yeah no no I was I'm just glad I'm not back there um just messing with you I'm just messing with you no actually uh I I don't have I don't really have questions um um I I think it's really good I mean I and I'm pretty strong on strategic planning as you know like they can leave our comments for the end okay sounds good all right then I don't I don't have questions so you put her through all of that just oh I do have one question I'll just say this um the the uh obviously the most thing the thing I'm interested in the most is dashboards and checklists and and so you really feel like we'll get to that point within how much time oh I would say three to six months at the latest I mean honestly um I'm going to let Nicole comment because she's been doing some work and SPC is going to be assisting but I'm going to let Nicole comment but to get it that was my question to to where you'll have something probably 3 to six months remember I said it's a culture change so it's going to have to be embedded and not add additional work for staff so that takes a little adjustment but go yeah yeah I we've interviewed or initially interviewed three um companies that provide a dashboard solution um we've actually narrowed it down to two that staff is going to be reviewing uh next week um so we will make a decision with which one we would like to move forward with um from there um because I've been talking with them for quite a while you know they've got an implementation period of you know 60 to 90 days um obviously there will be some staff training involved but we hope to be you know up and running um with everything loaded part of part of what they offer is they take the plan and they load everything into it um and then they can also actually tie it to our master plan so um there'll be some crossover that we can kind of check boxes in both our Master plans and in the Strategic plan um so that I would say I think your your four to six months is a is a pretty good representation of we'll have it in place and really be working with the with the software and I would just also comment and then SPC will be working to assist you as Leaders with you know it may not be exactly the internal dashboard may be very detailed whereas what you get may be a little simpler right and so you'll still have access to that but but SPC will be working with you with how frequently do you want the updates what does that implementation plan look like for you as elected officials so it's kind of a two-pronged approach internally and then as well as with you and then uh one other prong too is uh for fiscal year 2026 to roll it into the budget oh absolutely that is key if you don't mind I was just going to say isn't is the dashboard and then there'll be a dashboard to the community oh yes yes that's all so is it three different dashboards no no no no no no so the solutions that we're looking at um it it'll depend on the one that we select but with with one of them I know that we we select what we push out so you may have your priorities that you know that that's what you want to be reporting on sharing with the community we're not going to necessarily report on 86 or you know 300 something action items but that kind of can that can shift well it'll be something where we can have you know discussions as to what gets pushed out and again you're looking at the internal so you can see a lot of reporting happening but then what's displayed is is going to be able to be readable you know digestible for the public I don't we don't want it to be over so overwhelming that you're looking through you know so many objectives and graphs and charts and all of that so and that'll be on the website yes yes yes okay sorry no no that's okay I mean yeah no I'm I'm I'm thrilled that you're already on top of that um because I think that obviously is the most when I saw the action list I'm like oh yeah this looks like it's never going to happen but I'm glad you guys are on it thank you it's going to happen no no other questions okay questions commissioner TKA uh my questions um relate to a comment that I'm going to make um this was certainly not concise it's big I mean this is big um so in questions um how much is this going to cost for the implementation the continuation of of of what's happening with this with this strategic plan we talked we talked before we said we were going to look into getting this um this dashboard how much is all of that going to actually uh cost from a financial side and then how much does that cost for us to keep that updated and how frequently is that going to be updated is what are the expectations for that uh I think how frequently it will be updated we will take some direction and some working through so that process I we I can't provide you with a firm answer um the quotes that I have sorry you want to add to that yeah I was just going to say we don't know what we don't know yet um in terms of the software so there's capabilities even though there's been demos there's capabilities um that some things can be done intern staff um so I mean I think you have a estimate but you're not sure yeah so so yes we're again that will depend on are we talking about do we want to report quarterly you know do we want to bring a report to the you know to in front of the commission to this do is it just something that's shared those are kind of details that we'll have to work out um as far as a lot of noise back there um as far as uh the cost are proposals and I I believe actually in the budget item um as a BPI for $220,000 or 25,000 25,000 um so we're looking to stay under that amount obviously I will negotiate as much as I can to you know keep that far under that amount as much as I can um but that's what's in the BPI as a recurring cost to maintain and and continue to use that software yeah I I asked that question because fundamentally most many people just want to know what are you going to do and when is it going to be done and then tell us when it's done um and for us for us spending I I would I want to make sure that we have staff taking care of the business that they want to take care of and and not constantly coming back and and and dealing with uh an administrative function or or if I may a bureaucratic function and more specifically taking care of the business that they need to take care of and that's and and I saw when I when I saw this and I also you you made a mention of of our your involvement with uh with this an ongoing involvement is that is that it's not ongoing it's for it would be for one year just to get the process going and then we would completely be out of it after a year so I can tell you that um we uh do these all over the state and uh city of Tarpon Springs um is using one of the softwares um and they have had an amazing experience with the internal piece of the software they're using because it really has provided for some cross-pollination of projects looking at budget and so um you know I think the investment is in the software itself um and again as I was saying you have one-third of this project left which is SPC working with Nicole and and Jennifer to kind of get get it in place and then we're stepping back and it's the investment in the software that you're making may or may I uhhuh I think that's that's an important point it really is because as as Angela said we are changing the culture of the organization and uh right now where our our our mission and our vision is is somewhat out of focus sometimes this really focuses it laser sharp and my experience is when we implement this meaning when we roll this out to the employees through the training the first reaction is going to be this is additional work that's going to be the first reaction my my experience though in the previous two cities I've worked for which are both hpos is that eventually it becomes the business correct of of the organization becomes the culture of the organization and it and it makes what we're doing more efficient and more importantly it it helps the community and the employees understand the direction that we're going in why we're going in it and how we get there so the update period is still yet to be determined and in in how this works um or or what what it is that we we think we need to have for an updated period for yes so it it's crucial of the planning right that the dashboard is kept up to date absolutely so that and the dashboard is actually what we're looking at at is is uh not only transparent but easy to understand what some of the ones that we looked at originally um it in my previous experience the updates were about quarterly and it was just a you know sent to the city commission under separate cover this is how we've done on this particular um objective um you know moving forward and then at the end of the year where we have our long strategic planning meeting it would be just that dashboard yep um and how we performed against that dashboard and then be done with it so this was a little a little bit foreign to me because my what I'm very familiar with is is the executives not in a company when I when I worked we knew where we were with pretty much everything we were working on uh you could ask you if I'm the as a as a VP of Business Development you could ask any part of what's going on in the business where are we with that and I would have to I would know that i' would have to know that um but but also the employees need to know what their requirements are to achieve that but they don't have to get quite so far into the uh into the into the big the big scheme of things in fact some of them for example if they're working on it on designing a film for a particular project that we have I'll use just use one of the industries that I worked in they just need to know where that one is where are they with that one generally they know where they are um they know where they are and they know where it's going and we're keeping touch of it all the time on a weekly basis on a weekly basis as a as a manager um so I just as I look at this I see this is is a is a kind of a large very very large process of which um I'm not sure we'll see um I'm not sure how I would use this or how I would function with this but I also want to remind all of us that we may have some changes up here um and one of the things we we we never want to do and that's inhibit the incoming uh Commissioners um as to what perhaps they wish to have accomplished or what they feel needs to be accomplished within the city so we may have some changes to this on an ongoing could have changes to this on an ongoing basis because it's policy sure may I comment on that sure so um completely hear you understand however for the record you spent and invested money to ensure that you use a participatory method which is what we used a methodology ensuring that we had received information from as many stakeholders that wanted to participate so this is a community strategic plan for the city of den Eden there were multiple opportunities excuse me allergies multiple opportunities um for we used information from the business survey we had the community forums we use citizen survey information we had the employee Forum we had the employee survey so in my professional opinion as you move forward there may be changes on the commission but you had a process and a methodology that you followed and these goals and objectives maybe tweaked tiny bit here and there should remain consistent As you move forward or you will have negated the entire process that we just spent a year doing so just something to think about as you move forward um in the next several months as you start the implementation phase so it always it always follows information in information out I won't say the rest some of the parts of this but but the the communication uh requirement um is is uh is very very important M and if we if we didn't get the will of the people completely correct that can change that certainly can change and certainly priorities can change depending on what happens so I I don't want to give it some um I wasn't planning on give it an example but uh let us say that um that I'll use pickle ball how about that so let's just say my favorite thing I know so let's just say let's just say that that became not only the rage but but if 50% of your people didn't play pickle ball then you weren't going to get any money from the federal government ever I'm just making something silly up um certainly you would you would decide whether you wanted to have more people playing pickle ball and if you did you'd have to have more pickle ball courts stupid example very stupid but I want it to be very stupid because I want everybody to think I was really using this as an example so I chose a really stupid one but when those things occur then they can affect your they can affect not only your goals but your strategies and in a business you in a business you always have to have that less perhaps in less perhaps in government but you still have to have it you still have to be aware of it that's where the priorities change yeah so so to to if I if I may speak freely on this um two comments to that um I in and I know where pickle ball was just an example but for example um we have a community amenities theme um and within that theme is a multi-generational recreational recreational programming is the goal so while that action item might change where it's pickle ball or it's swimming or it's diving or it's who knows cross whatever it is the goal and the theme remains consistent correct so it's where those sorts of things we might see some changes when it gets into the implementation in in action items but the bigger theme is really what was built upon the community uh the community's feedback um the leadership's feedback um to be able to build this strong kind of foundation yes and I would also say that this is where to Jennifer's point about you know kind of having those annual kind of workshops on strategic planning your priority goals may change right what you say you need to focus on right now you're saying these so the priority goals may change but the goals and objectives should not change to Nicole's point there may be a word Smith here and there but it's it's here it's the focus of uh the priority goals you may say okay well you know no for this year or the next year or two this is not it you may need to regroup on that but again the the goals and objectives should remain intact well and I and I basically agree with that I mean the the priority goals for example these there's not I don't even I don't see anything different here than what than what I than what I've been marching to sure um since I've become a commissioner so so I don't have a problem with it and I just wanted to point out that there is some there has to be some flexibility in this certainly and certainly things can change and uh and so that's one of the comments that I wanted to make at the end of this and the rest of it stands thank you and we and I'll just my last comment would be we completely agree on the flexibility we understand you could get a windfall from the state and projects give and projects get I was trying to be positive instead of saying you could have a hurricane I was trying to say you could get a windfall from the state and that could shift your priorities right because you may have some project that you were working on or some and now it's been moved up so our process is all about flexibility um and being able to react to uh maybe what's going on but with the consistency of the goals and objectives thank you MH I don't remember where I was at did everybody get a chance to ask questions I think so okay I don't have any questions is there any feedback from the public okay okay so what are you looking at from us today consensus direction to move forward with implementation okay does that come back for a vote or is it just no no because we're within uh We've budgeted $25,000 for the dashboard um there's going to be a great deal of employee training and I I could just give you updates as we go along but no okay we'd like to move forward with this final draft okay um I'll give you a chance for final comments but do we have consensus direction to move forward at some point when we have some Tada here it is or absolutely it has to be proceeded has to yes yes we will to very good all right we'll we'll go with our final comments then Vice May anything oh yeah well first of all I want to commend you guys because I think you did a great job working us through this working the community through it like even with the mission and the vision um you know those are difficult yeah they're hard and I've never want to do them because they're a nightmare and they take forever and they never get done and actually read these and I'm like I like these I'm yeah know we we came out we did well in the core values so you know I I just commend you I I I look at it and I think it really does nail a lot of what I hear from our community um and so and obviously that is the goal and of course we all know you know the key is to get to a place where you know we are doing the dashboards and the checklists ETC I mean I look at some I'm I'm on the clinical Excellence committee for Bay care um Miss Morton Plant and um you know it's all Bay care it's all dashboards I mean their quality services and how they look at everything it's all about that and so you're right to the meat of it you you know what's going on you can see it in you know our page with multiple you know dashboards on it you know I've said this to you guys before you're probably sick of it but you know when I was director of Animal Services for a few years man I got in I looked at those dashboards of number of dogs that came in and number of cats and I'd know how crazy my day was going to be and if I was had to you know get get up off the floor because of the need to get adoptions and get things moving so you know it's it's a and I do think our citizens will will really like it I mean um talking to a lot of citizens right now and and they they're very complimentary of our services but you know there's always these questions and I think it'll just um emphasize you know some of those key things that are happening and they can feel some comfort or if things aren't happening you know there's accountability so um I um you know I think we're at that point now where we just don't want to get stuck and it sounds like you're already moving in that direction actually you guys all look very professional today by the way I liked how you you came ready to you know show that you're professionals with a professional plan so um anyway I um I I I thank you I think this is a a great start thank you thank you commissioner torka um I I'd like to make a comment but included in that there has to be a little question here before I can go any further um we have priority goals here we also have epic goals remind me where the Epic goals are in within this the Epic goals were included throughout the entire process we we everything that you have done in previous thank you thank you okay so the have so the the Epic goal we have now priority goals yes thank you very very much and I appreciate I appreciate that concept I like the Epic goals huh I still love our epic goals sorry no comment thank you so so I I really appreciate these these uh items here because I've lived with these items and I support these items so thank you thank you commissioner commissioner G well thank you you thank you all for your hard work and that's also for the community that put a lot of time and effort into this uh I think it might have been my first year that I was on the commission uh we tried very hard we gave it up a really good effort to come up with a mission vision statement oh that was over and lab that was the most painful thing I had ever been in we' it's one of those was it Collaborative Labs or when we were at the Fine Arts Center I'm remembering a CH man where I thought and so I personally thank you so much for the mission and vision the whip it would never ever have happened you get six very five very strong opinionated people to try and come up with one sentence or phrase or yeah it just never would have work so thank you very I'm not that opinionated I think just the four of you and and just and I'm I'm just a nut over dashboards and so just I'm really looking forward to what those dashboards look like and how not only we can use them staff can use them but also uh how the public will use them how our community will be able to look at them and go oh how cool and then share them and the world will know how wonderful we are uh but yeah so thank you all very much for putting this together appreciate it commissioner thank you so uh you know part of the offering of of my company is to do strategic planning for Fortune 100 500 companies and uh I will say this this is not easy and um I I am impressed with the comprehensiveness of this particular plan um obviously and you know arguably the last onethird of this journey is probably one of the more important because the plan if not implemented and more importantly exec uted it doesn't work um so uh I you know I think we're on the right track I am excited about the next step in this um and I just one of the conversations that we've been having here with regards to the community involvement um I have to say I was very impressed with that turnout I I thought you know we really got a very good cross-section so that's another element of why we should be uh excited excited about this um and then just my final comment on page 18 um oh God I don't know if you are able to update the graphics but the bagpiper is very sharp and looking good yeah a new bag Piper the new one is it done is it back up it's back up you should go check it out it's yeah thank you very much thank you commissioner um we've all been around the block every organization has a strategic plan um I agree with the fact that you could hurt cats we were the cats um me included it it is very difficult to get everybody to come to an agreement on anything really you know I'm learning a lot about that just saying um but I'm I'm proud that we listened to Jennifer who said she wanted this and we all said why why do you want to go down this road CU I think you know we had our we had our um experience with creating the Epic goals and skipping over the mission and the vision and understanding just how hard it was and being concerned about getting rid of our epic goals um I still like them though I know that's okay um so but I also think that we trusted you you said this is as an administrator this is what I need not only to put it on paper but to Rally my troops meaning your troops um to all Row in the same direction Etc so I'm happy that we did come to the agreement to do it I'm happy that we're at this stage um I appreciate all the hard work I appreciate the um connection to to the school you work for the connection to your organization and all the hard work Nicole's done I mean Nicole let's face it you're our little rock star you're like the Energizer Bunny you know when it comes to this kind of stuff you know that's I mean you know she's highly skilled and organized and you know we appreciate that so you probably don't hear it enough but we see it so thank you for all your hard work um but it's not over because you know you're going to get all the critique in the world about that darn dashboard well I I you know when bringing Natalie into the city manager's office and kind of describing this project to her yes this next part is the most difficult part yeah so we're we're suiting up it's hard keep us out of it until you make your decision trust me just saying you got it you know and you can always update it every year somebody wants to see and and you know commissioner TKA isn't wrong we we do have new people on here that may want to see not changing what we're doing but may want to see a piece of information that's important to them that we're already doing that may be isn't you know on there so those are important things too um our city is becoming extremely organized so no more business plan huh this is this is going to be this is going to replace it yes there'll be something like it but by far more more efficient oh that business plan right I hate even looking at it I loved that that we did it yes and it was important well it was a step towards this is what it was a to get here and it actually told us it trained us cuz I remember five or well it's been longer than that however long you've been here seven years last Thursday Happy anniversary baby luy lucky s but I remember seven years ago that before that business plan was implemented any one of us up here and some of them were different players would just bring a new idea up right out of the blue and stop everybody from working towards their annual goals um and that happened happened really frequently really frequently and the business plan really stopped it it gave you a tool and us a tool to say well that's a good idea for next year no we're not going to go looking into it now right unless it's something simple um this will do the same thing because a strategic plan is usually 3 to 5 years or you know and then it'll be relooked at so this would be the same kind of tool so that everybody's working efficiently and Rowing in the same direction I've already said that so thank you ladies I think you have your consensus Direction J good job thank you yay mayor mayor yes ma'am if I may I just want to thank the five of you um this was a heavy lift for the Commissioners you remember during our budget hearings last year um and I I you know I've always felt that this is crucial we've poked around at it for seven years um through the business plan and uh bringing Nicole on board was the first step the very first step uh towards that and then Institute of government and Collaborative Labs thereafter um I I want to get up and dance down the aisle at this point go right ahead yeah yeah I'd like to see that Che the music yeah I don't need that I don't need that but um this as an instrument you know and Angela had had said it's going to change our culture and it really is it really is and change our culture in a positive way where as I said before it's much more defined than it was and and we truly understand the the will of the community through their their you know participation in this plan um and I'm looking forward to implementation that said and execution that said we've had these discussions a lot if we fail it'll be because we didn't have the leadership in place that we need yeah and um in order to execute this and that's how these fail at this point so my commitment to all of you is to we won't fail on this we are going to have a fully executed uh strategic plan um understanding that we have your support and that's crucial obviously you've shown it um uh you know you've demonstrated throughout the entire process through participating in these some of these work groups in all of them actually so so I'm really excited about the next steps and um I'm grateful to Nicole um specifically and Institute of government and Collaborative Labs as well for for getting us here so um thank you thank you very much you're welcome all right um do you guys need a little break before we go into informational items or I want to just move forward right I'm for moving forward okay um I didn't hear any anything on commission discussion from anybody so we'll just move past that city clerk's update when do we get to see Rebecca's pretty face I don't want to it is a driving issue she has to be released to drive I got you I do believe not Thursday but middle of middle of the month I'm thinking Okie do very good uh city manager update I do uh mayor and there is an attachment to the city manager's update um as you know I think it was uh two weeks ago today I believe uh the Tampa Bay Times U had a story regarding the um inclusion of active Recreation items in some of the state parks uh throughout Florida um we didn't have a lot of information we didn't have any information and there was a public hearing that was called um I think four days two days hence I I forget the time frame I apologize but anyway so very short uh notice with no really no supporting documentation to bring to you um of course our our residents being our residents and our business owners uh came out strong in opposition uh we found out a little bit later that there and for Honeymoon Island in particular was pickle ball courts um and pickle ball courts really have a dimentive um impact it was in a scrub area not that much traffic but the question is so so what would be next in that area after the pickle ball courts um as I said there wasn't a lot of time to call a special meeting and if we were to call a special meeting what would we put before you so um I did feel that that that the city of denan administration needed to take a position on the pickle bulk Courts at Honeymoon Island that said um it's the elected officials who State the position of the city of denen and not myself at all um so I we we published a statement from myself um Nicole's drafted this letter uh for um the director of uh Department of Environmental Protection um the governor has since said he's not going to move forward with that plan um they're going to to take a step back and regroup um that said I still think it's important for the elected officials to take their position um as I said I don't think that that you know I think that that's the most important uh position in order for Tallahassee to understand where the city of denan stands um we have actually spoken to our lobbyist as well um in regards to um drafting a letter and sending it off you said that that would be probably the the Avenue that we need to take we will send it to uh the uh legislative delegation we'll send it to our other elected officials as well as a director of um uh Department of Environmental Protection this is under the mayor's signature so with that um I'm going to request authorization to send this letter everybody okay with that yeah yes absolutely commissioner TWA okay very good thank you any other things for the city manager I had a couple things I have a little thing okay go ahead but I doubt you're going to know in Amberly park there is a bunch of trees with Vince already answered this question to me yell rib and green ribbons it's for trimming I already checked so yellow ones get more trim and green ones get less Tri I I didn't know there was more than one color but he's he's I texted him okay I texted him over the weekend cuz somebody asked me the same thing all right cool and I'll ask him Jenifer you don't worry about it I can ask but she said there were green and that's what the greib and I got ask I got green and yellow yeah like no IDE whatever what what he said was I'm sorry you know Green uh no because all that I got were green and yellow ribbons in the city I thought I'll ask but more information would be nice the same time as the trail run oh uh was there were other things going on in the community going well what Vince told me in case you care that they were doing a bid for outside Tree Service to do trimming especially at Amberly because it's closed to that big playground and there's a lot of trees there and so the trees that needed trimming are marked so they're waiting for beds or something there must be different levels of trimming or something but so I I honestly don't know why somebody tied a yellow ribbon around the old o tree I knew that had to be coming at you were just waiting you were just waiting no but it would be helpful it would be helpful to know if there's a difference between the two you got to know when Den people are worried well you don't be cutting them down so it's like you see all those and they're like well and and we need to remember that we need to remember that you know that maybe maybe there's something that don't cuz I mean we've all been asked about it now right so when we do that I mean people are very Ive of their trees here in dun Eden and so but now I'm going to have that song in my head all day long by a yellow ribbon around the old tree thank you Jennifer for that anybody anybody else have thing all right I have a couple things um I sent you an email I don't know when at post Scotland M um and we wanted to try if you remember we met with um at the the Smith Sterling Museum we met with the Sterling Pride folks yes and they had done a nice video um saying good luck with your pride week or whatever and I was hoping that we could do the same for them okay they have their big event on the 21st I don't think it has to be anything crazy but I'm sure our folks can see what Sterling did of course the G was standing in front of a castle we don't have anything like that dramatic but it was just a speaking kind of a thing saying good luck and I just thought it would be nice to do the same for them sure absolutely [Music] um we we've been talking again since post Scotland trip um I know commissioner gal is going to work with the Scottish Arts found Foundation but uh we probably need to get an invite to the Provost M yes um obviously we want to get the you know the buyin of the Scottish Arts Foundation they're not going to say no but he'll Jeff will work on that [Music] um but is there anybody else we want to invite as well I don't know I mean I think we'll be lucky to get the Provost on her sign ific other but you know maybe you can think about that I I think actually and and commissioner and I discussed this a little bit uh before the meeting as well I think the first thing to do would be to get the invite there so that they can right you know I mean there her her Aid is Frasier whom we met right uh and you know work through him to get that in front of her and then have them react and I wasn't sure if you wanted to consider the same for the fourth Valley Chamber lady Lynn sure I don't know I mean I mean you know they may want to come under different circumstances but I do think it's important for them to see our highing games and the culture and what we're about I mean that's the best time of year to see just how Scottish we are yes and so I think that's good for her so I don't know I just throw that out there [Music] um and then my last question for you is I know we're going to be talking at some point about the committee structures MH when is that coming forward not the actually um I know you're probably waiting for Rebecca I I would wait for Rebecca the conversations that we have had would be we should probably do that after the election because at this point you know it's it's that impactful and we'll have new new people here so okay that's a long time I know okay well 63 days no I mean it's been a long time since we first talked about it is what trying to say not that it is a long time from now but okay those are my questions for the city yes I I just wanted to because we you know we approved the letter to the state but I do want to thank um Jennifer for jumping on the issue with the state park and getting that finding a way to put the put our position out because I'll tell you what people really appreciated the quick way that that got out and made it clear to everybody they were relieved they were thrilled they felt you know our our our government gets it and so um I I want to thank you for figuring out a way to do that since we could it was we didn't have enough time to get an emergency meeting together so thank you thank you very much commissioner vice mayor here here can I just dog pile on that um yeah I want to say and I this is really you know the the the community the residents really really rallied I mean very quickly and it was uh you know because of the abruptness of that announcement and what appeared to be a decision that was a foregone conclusion I I think it was important to get out there in front of this and so I absolutely you know I I thought that letter was great I I thought you know we we got to do something and we got to do it quick because the emotional level of this was was significant was yeah quick yeah anyway thank you I think we all agree thank you okay City attorney update I have no upate you got nothing huh all right commission comments vice mayor okay well that was my comment I'm sorry I thought we were done with that but uh I I don't have anything else right now so commissioner TGA thank you mayor I did go to the Florida leag of cities so I'm just going to make two quick comments they're not the most important but the things that that I I remember the most uh one of them is is being in in this particular Hall and uh and seeing all of the activities and all the presentations and there was freebie and it was interesting I I walked up and I and I looked at the list of the places where freebie was and it was huge and very very large there were only two that of of all of the folks that were utilizing freebie that that did not have on demand and one of them was going to be changing and one of them was us so was just interesting just to pass that along um also um Chris Holly um I have his card somewhere Chris Hol was was there for Florida Li of cities and was talking about I got real interested and and had some conversations with him he's a director of member services and training and got into uh got into it with him about Florida Liga cities and grants and so they have a program that they they sponsor they pay for um to discover any potential grants that may be coming along so it's it's not like having a grant writer it's like having somebody F finding out for you all the grant grants that are available which is one of the problems of of of dealing with grants and then the second one of course is is having uh the the the ability to to write the grant but that's another subject so so they have that program and it's it's freed us to use and to have a relationship with so um I really liked that had spent some time with that had fun with that and that was about it it was a it was a typical presentation a lot of Elections and selections a lot of positions taken by the municipalities as it relates to home rule uh holding strong on that um and taking taking strong positions some good good members were were selected for executive positions and all in all it was a good meeting that's that's all I have about that okay commissioner thank you mayor uh yeah just to dog P line thank you for the uh letter Jennifer okay we got to start using that dog pile dog pile dog pile you I'm sorry you can't I I can't without so anyway um and just to let everybody know that uh there is somebody from the Department of Environmental Protection uh that has been dismissed yeah um so if y all didn't know that y as a result for sharing the information yeah uh let me see I do want to Echo the mayor's comments about uh the invite and maybe expanding it beyond the probost I'll let that be to your discretion but I agree that just the timing of the games it is an opportune time if you really want to show our Scott's culture then it just seems appropriate at at that time yeah we don't have the castles in the background that really show where Scott is got a nice Piper at the entrance but very true don't get me started God bless you bless you build to Castle I like that but anyway right uh it was we really haven't discussed the the trip and I can't remember whether we discussed the results at all uh but just if we hadn't just reminder to the public uh that our grade four city of dun Eden pip band um won the European Championship so they are European Champions and they are fifth in the world in the world championships and I certainly need to acknowledge that the drum core of the grade four pipe band is third in the world so kudos for grade four pipe band so good our uh grade one pipe band European uh championships he came in 12th and uh the worlds they came in 14th and want to remind somebody that that grade one pipe band was our grade two when they won the World Championships in 2018 and we would be very arrogant to think that we could come in as a newly grade one and and win the world you're European so anybody who thinks unless you get one two or three uh you suck uh no absolutely the our grade one does not they are 12th in the world and that is that is an amazing amazing feat so uh kudos to them as well and among the grade four pipe band just wanted to acknowledge that within that band there were three high school students uh that are that that went and were able to compete at the very top of of uh their chosen I don't know if it's a profession I guess not but their field I guess their passion and so that's just amazing what a great year for them great way for them to start their school year uh anyway uh Friday is uh September 6th it's alumni night at the football stadium so come out and enjoy a a High School game and reconnect with some of the alumni and it it'll be a fantastic night thank you mayor thank you commissioner Walker well yes you have a lot to talk about yes I do have a lot to talk about oh yes so uh very proud to announce that PSTA board uh approved the contract award for the fairy service to Clearwater Ferry U it's a three-year actually five-year contract uh with the first three years being funded by fot and now four and five are are unfunded but in preparation to get them funded um psda is going to be looking at a series of surveys and metrics and I specifically asked the question of or actually made the point that I think um one of those Focus area needs to take a look at the overlap of the ferry and what the Jolly Trolley provides because there's a lot of synergy there and so um I you know I think I think that's an exciting aspect of this I think the you know I think this is going to be great for denan and uh anyway very very happy that um that uh this was you know brought across the finish line by mayor commissioner gal and uh I just you know it's it's great questions no now we just got to get the deal with clear water I was just sitting in the seat well let's also say that Jennifer did Rush down to the meeting oh oh my God I left it yeah so yes uh the despite my poor planning the city manager was actually able to make it so I only had half a cup of coffee that morning thank you um second thing uh we uh need to Fine Arts Center U had a just a very very impressive wearable art um have to say I think that was the best one I have been to um another another great team effort and uh yep that's all I got okay um just a couple of things um coming up on a later meeting in September one of our agendas you're going to see the forward panelist um resolution uh to expand the board um we have gotten a lot of community input we talked about it endlessly um and came to a conclusion that this is what we wanted to do it's at the request of the governor all of the npos are looking at themselves but they're either we expand it the way we want to or he's going to do it for us so one of those um so that'll be coming before you and I I just want you to know that you know be reading it through and certainly talk to whoever you want to talk to but the nice thing about it is it's adding seats so more people get a voice because in the next couple of years the mo is not going to be just a County County uh situation it's going to be a region and my my deep concern about that is that uh there are policies and procedures in place where locals get a voice CU right now we have a big voice um and I'm I'm just concerned that that's going to go away and the big discussions are going to be what they always are 275 19 and you know we don't get to talk about all the other things that are going on in our commun so um I do think the expansion is good it it sends us in a better uh situation um then we would be if we went into the merge or however it's going to all happen without it so I just want to let you know that um and that's it hey look at you guys all fancy and stuff yeah we're having a meeting hey we're having a meeting on television you cheap in or we always need cheap trick in town thank you baby okay so uh um anything else for the good of the order mayor if I can just uh pile on uh your comments with forward pelis just wanted to acknowledge that the reason we have the position we do it's because we fought hard to keep it and so while there's a concern that our voice might be getting smaller it would have been greatly reduced had further options come to light so kudos to everybody that fought for us to keep our position yeah thank you guys for coming to that movie I mean that movie that meeting sorry it's not that late in the day anything else wow look at this we are adjourned [Music]