##VIDEO ID:n9RBfa4V0aQ## [Music] oh [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] welcome everybody to our Tuesday August 6 City commission work session we'll call the meeting to order and if you can please join us as Jennifer leads us in the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag the United States of America and to the for stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you Jennifer all right we'll get right in it um we move on to presentations which is the swearing in ceremony for our new firefighters and lieutenants um Chief Parks morning mayor vice mayor Commissioners we have uh our third in a series that we've done uh with the shifts here trying to catch up with our Co time uh that we we didn't have and we had the Old City Hall so uh this is our third and hopefully final so we'll go to twice a year after this so you won't see us as much uh I'm sorry I have to make fun of commissioner torga is that your alarm to tell you you have to be at a commission meeting sorry yeah good job so you won't see us as much because we'll let philis get more time in here the library so we're going to miss you yes I'd like to call forward uh Lieutenant Michael Jones as our newest uh Lieutenant promotion come on up and his uh we do the batch sure bring them all up where we got the family coming hold on do you want them all up here sure come here wow yeah you guys really do have a pack we have the family so Mike Mike was promoted on June the 19th 2024 to the position of Lieutenant he was hired uh November 15 2017 and currently serves as Lieutenant of engine 62 on asift he's a member of our Department's honor guard and fireboat Mentor so with that mayor if you want to come on down hi guys hello okay if you would raise your right hand and repeat after me I Michael Jones I Michael Jones do solemnly swear do solemnly swear that I will support the policies and procedures that I will support the policies and procedures of denan fire and rescue of denan fire and rescue while serving in the position while serving in the position of lieutenant liutenant Lieutenant I will faithfully and honorably I will faithfully and honorably bear Allegiance bear allegiance to my superiors to my superiors I will I will to the best of my ability to the best of my ability protect the safety and lives protect the safety and lives of the citizens of the citizens and firefighters and firefighters whose care has been entrusted to me whose care has been entrusted in me you're official thank congratulations back to you all right now we go to we got to come back here and do pictures all right go ahead come on up you guys stand up here here y two boys two girls huh well hang on got to we got Gotta Wait For Mama that's great got away from mama that's awesome there we go [Applause] congratulations okay congratulations okay I'd like to uh call up our other firefighters that' be sworn in and I'll read the bio as they're making their way up firefighter paramedic Juan David AA this way just slide over that way yes M and just uh we'll just put you over that corner okay Juan uh David as we call him was hired September 11th 2023 he comes to us from Sunstar where he was employed as a from September of 2022 until his H dat at dun Eden fire he's previously worked in Arizona for Rough Country response in widell Arizona Maricopa ambulance in Scottdale Arizona and AMR in Mesa Arizona David firefighter paramedic Anthony bigs Anthony was hired January 4th 2023 he started as a firefighter EMT in Marian County then accepted a position with Pasco County fire rescue where he worked for 5 years as a firefighter paramedic while at Pasco County fire rescue he he frequently trained new Personnel at the department paramedic Evan Carter Evan is one of our newest hires he joined the Department in June 5th of 2024 is employed by Sunstar as a paramedic for one and A2 years and will be attending St P College fire academy me starting this month so that's Evan firefighter paramedic Robert Sero Robert uh H I'll have to have him explain that award during his SPC EMT class firefighter paramedic David Cook David joined the Department March the 31st of 2021 he's a firefighter paramedic and worked at trans care prior to his uh coming to us is David here yes David's here he looks a little confused oh sorry okay firefighter peric Emerson Mill hopefully I pronounced that right I we start over here he was was hired in June 5th of 2024 he's worked in several clinics as a paramedic throughout panal County he's a bachelor's degree from full sale University in computer science and I find this interesting majoring in computer animation so I asked if he worked at Disney but that seems to be that's but so if we we now have a graphics person we can use to help us that Facebook page yes there you go uh firefighter Wanita Doza quo I don't believe she made she's she couldn't make it today firefighter Diego monsal okay I'm sorry he didn't make it either firefighter paramedic Anisha parks and she was hired July 5th 2023 she graduated from pal Harbor University High School and attended both St Pete college and Northern Southern University Southeast Eastern University where she graduated with a bachelor's degree she came to us from Sunstar where she was employed from 2019 you hang on just a second yes you can come up firefighter paramedic Gregory rain he he was hired April 27 2022 was hired as a firefighter EMT was attending paramedic class he previously worked at P County fire rescue where he graduated or he has a bachelor's degree from Middle Tennessee State University is working on a master's degree from the gra College in Georgia and you may recognize the name uh Lieutenant rain Howard uh worked for us for many years as in the audience too so we're raising them right welcome firefighter EMT Alex spazo he was hired May 23rd or May 3rd 2023 came to us from Marian County fire rescue where he worked for three years he is currently attending Paramedic program at as SPC firefighter EMT Trevor Victor he was hired March 3 13 2024 recently completed his service of four years with the US Coast Guard and served as a boat boatman's mate hopefully I said that right he also served as a volunteer firefighter EMT in Lake Hills Fire Department in Indiana and he'll be attending The Paramedic program SPC this fall and as you can see some of the the things is is what the commission has done as we talked about in the past by offering our our firefighters with experience to be brought into newer steps or higher steps and our incentive program we've been able to hire some experienced people which have helped us along the way to help uh get them sooner into to our driver program and officer programs and and such so with that mayor [Music] okay all right have to do it this way okay do we have all the family members up here I don't want to be missing anybody okay of course I didn't bring my glasses this time okay so I'm not going to read everybody's name again oh I love you thank you um so I'm just going to ask you to just everybody to repeat their names so if you guys would raise your right hand and repeat after me I am my name do solemnly swear to do my duty to do my duty As A Firefighter As A Firefighter for the deden fire and rescue Department the rescue Department to the best of my ability to the best of my ability to serve my commanding officers to serve my commanding officers with respect and dignity with respect and dignity to serve the citizens to serve CI of the Duneden fire and rescue District of the D fire and rescue district with compassion with compassion courage and integrity courage and integrity and to uphold the laws and to uphold and constitutions and constitutions of the United States of America of the United States of America the State of Florida the state of Florida and the City of denen and the City of give these folks a round of applause all right this is going to be a real big picture I don't know how they're going to accomplish it but I'll let you be in charge of that okay do we want to do the badge pinning first we can we have uh you can come forward to the the center here as we do that so David Maya you want to come on [Music] forward yeah you can okay we're doing you're very polite to walk off but no did you want we're doing the badge pinning first and then we'll get the picture oh sorry yes yes okay that would be a good idea okay so David you want to go ahead following your lead Chief I know yay [Applause] okay Anthony bigs going forward Lieutenant Dennison will be now's your chance there [Applause] per Evan Carter okay go ahead and [Applause] okay Robert Sero Dore will be drawing the blood dvy cook got to get pinned first before same guy that didn't know what he was doing earlier that's right that's okay it's usually a [Applause] struggle Emerson Mel who do we got to yeah the families can start to sit down the firefighter will do a big picture if they want to [Applause] Anisha come on gotta have the whole family up here oh I'm got a smile when you're getting there's no blood there you go all [Applause] right Gregory rain you got to get pinned first oh yeah you got to do your PIN too yeah this is getting even for everything that he's done to how many years now1 how sweet yay Alex beaz off they all look they're bracing for the pain yeah like holding my breath [Applause] and last but not least Trevor Victor she's trying to be gentle but I don't know if that a general doesn't work with this okay you're supposed to hit it really hard [Applause] yay okay so can we have the group of firefighters up here stay with us Jennifer you can't it's plugged in underne vice mayor can I have you tiny little three all right thank you guys next generation [Applause] congratulations everyone and thank you so much for choosing to be a part of the city of den Eden yep you guys can go you don't have to stick around I'm not kicking you out if you want to stay feel free [Music] all right we'll wait just a couple of minutes to allow these guys to get their families and a journ when he was up here he wasn't [Music] talking okay that always starts the day off really well you know okay uh we'll move on to Citizen input and this is a time for anyone wishing to come forward and speak to any item that's not already on the agenda if it's on the agenda feel free to come up and speak at that time anyone all right we'll move on to consent agenda which is the approval of the minutes from the June 5th budget Workshop July 9th work session and the July 11th regular meeting we have board and committee appointments for the board of adjustment and appeal the board of Finance the committee on Aging then we have an award of gec service authorization task assignment in the amount of 287,000 and change we have amendment to our American janitorial contract um in the amount of 78,000 and change and we have the award an award of uh RFP to Public Works effici efficiency evaluation in the amount of 144,000 and change we also have a settlement agreement um between Brandon Lewis versus the city of den Eden are there any items to be pulled 2 C and 2D please 2 2 e 2f anyone else okay yes ma'am yeah uh there was 2 D not e not e not e so is C D and F CD and F mayor I apologize the Public Works efficiency evaluation is that e that's e yes please that's what you want yes okay does anybody want the F two F you want to throw it in no I don't I'm just no I do that's a whole point of consent agenda for anybody watching is so we don't have to discuss it okay so I actually I actually have a comment for f if you want if you want to leave it sure okay uh oh you're not giving it to me now we have to actually pull it okay so we're going to pull two CDE E and F so all we're approving right now are our minutes and our committee appointments can I have a motion to approve so moved second okay commissioner Walker and vice mayor frainy is there any public input on minutes or the appointments seeing or hearing none all in favor signify by saying I I I any opposed motion passes unanimously we'll go to item 2 C which is the um Award of the task assignment um in the amount of 287,000 I'm sorry I think that was commissioner Walker did you just have a question uh yes ma'am can you just provide just a little bit of background on this good morning mayor vice mayor uh commission and City staff uh Al Gonzalez the uh staff engineer who's been helping out with this and I'll be glad to uh answer any questions and inquiries that you have today I think what he just asked is a summary okay um a quick summary a quick summary so the there is a FD that is programmed and currently being designed for the intersection of alt9 and Kuru road that project involves uh Road widening new traffic uh lights and new storm being put uh everywhere so they're taking out the old pipe that's in the ground and putting in a much larger RCP concrete pipe to handle the new flows um for their intersection and during that project all the utilities that are in the FD rideway including us Duke Verizon everybody uh enters an agreement called a uh utility work by Highway contractor pretty much we use the fdot contractor to move our utilities out of the way of the do improvements and this this authorization is for a engineering consultant to design the utilities for us because FD has put on a accelerated schedule for this and we need the help of an outside firm commissioner uh okay just quick question I'm assuming that for some of the for the infastructure some this is really we're talking about undergrounding right all of yes all undergrounding okay uh or um yes all of our own underground utilities okay not Duke undergrounding but but all of our own underground utilities like water pipes existing underground utility this is existing okay this is a relocation of our exist existing underground utilities water sewer reclaimed okay that is in conflict with the proposed improvements that do is doing in there right away okay so this does not include any electrical fiber okay right uh those those private firms have to hire and do their their own this is just for the deden existing utilities okay all right now perfect thank you um can I ask a question those Lin maybe we haven't thought about it um the county and Jorge has it in writing not that that means anything but the county has agreed to underground the utilities on the causeway post Bridge development if we're if we're all messing with this intersection is there some return on investment or efficiency to begin at that intersection reloc East no I get it but it's still it's across the street I'm I'm just saying it might be worth actually looking at I'm obviously I know what we're talking about it's our stuff but I mean there's probably going to have to be something done if they're undergrounding hopefully up to all 19 we hope we don't have commitment to that but let's just let's just assume that that's what they would do we have we might want to have to consider that that's that's all I'm saying even if that's 10 years down the road because right now you're just talking about 200 some, for the engineering piece of it it's not even the actual work that's going to be done which is going to be even more money I'm just saying is it something yall want to actually look at and discuss yes uh we can definitely reach back to you mayor when we see uh everybody in the intersection we get to see what each other company's doing so we don't put our own Utilities in the same place so we can reach back around to you and once we figure out how Duke is going to do their own utility relocations yeah it's not to me I'm just saying I'm I'm just bringing the issue up I I'm not trying to bring it back to us I'm just saying I just want to make sure we're thinking about that future thing and I'm glad you actually brought it up because it didn't even occur to me let mayor if I may let's discuss more as staff be May mean nothing but well we're you know we're I we're talking about the Design Services right and uh you know but that would include yeah thinking about how we Leverage The the other stuff yeah um in addition I'm I I didn't realize and again I didn't think about this the okay J hey don't laugh at me yeah he already did see yeah he already did he already knows it's coming but fdot is doing is paying for the the whole intersection Improvement it's been a part of the Ford pelis work plan for sometime it's something we've been fighting for for a long time I don't think I realize that they don't pay when they change something to relocate the utilities we have to pay for all of that so you know that doesn't get talked about at forward penis yeah you gotta love that don't you I'm see he's trying not to laugh no it's very valid point I mean they're not paying it's their Road they're wanting the request I mean we actually asked for the improvements so that's the exact reason that Duke wants us on private property for Transformers because if we ever do a project in our roadway that requires relocation it's the right away they have to pay we pay I see interesting okay did you want to say something it is it is the way it works it's the same in the city right away when when you own and manage the right away when you go to do improvements if someone has a RightWay utilization permit another to move it then then it's it's sort of like then they have to relocate so that they're not in the way of what you're doing with your RightWay and that's by Statute I believe the relocation okay but I don't think anybody realizes that I certainly did and I've been working on stuff on fdot for a long with fdot for a long time and it just never occurred to me all right anybody else have any questions nope you good commissioner okay uh okay um can I have a motion in a second so moved second okay commissioner torga and commissioner Walker thank you any public input on this item seeing or hearing none all in favor signify by saying I I any opposed motion passes unanimously all right uh the American janitorial contract who who pulled that I did okay commissioner did you just have a question yes well um I uh from from our briefing yesterday I'm I'm under the impression that we've done a cost analysis of Contracting out the janitorial services and taking that inhouse um is it possible to provide a summary of that that um analysis was done prior to my arrival in the when this was awarded and um yes I can provide it uh it may be attached I don't know if the analysis was attached but it was um included in the original board item I Jennifer I think Jennifer can give an a summary of what we were doing yeah I I ask and you know obviously the the ask on this really pertains to the dollar figure and um understanding that dollar figure because to me that seems like a very high dollar figure well um I appreciate the question actually because um it's related at um to the next agenda item that was pulled and um the idea of the cost um is how it was calculated at that time and um evaluated at the time with those resources it is a significant cost and the um act enactment or implementation of the efficiency um evaluation and then the resulting recommendations I committed to the this this commission by the way Sue Bartlett Public Works director sorry about that um to have an analysis done of the janitorial as well as other services um by putting in place a way to consistently cost out these Services um at a in a way that would reflect current costs and Market costs um is part of that evaluation and then implementation and it would include janitorial as well as our other activities that we do and so I will be able to come back with a more detailed analysis um but we will provide the one that has already been done and then it will reflect how many resources it would take to replace this at the service level um again service level is what we've been talking about for this janitorial the service level that's included in there that they're currently meeting um and is what this renewal is based on what people yourselves and other departments desire for a service of level that will be evaluated as well so if we change the service level we're comparing Apples to Apples so cost whether contracted or in-house will reflect that level of service so it is a significant amount and we do plan to have this detailed cost evaluation for current services and what that would take in current day C cost and that's the Public Works efficiency evaluation that's correct okay and on this thank you okay um that's a valid point so they did agree to this year fy2 to remain without that cost escalator that's built into the the contract so we will be paying the same amount this year um in the FY 25 as we are currently in FY 24 they are eligible in 26 per contract to escalate up to 3% of the CPI okay yeah thanks and I maybe just to summarize what my understanding is because I think you know it needs to be for the good of the public needs to be articulated um if we if we were to take this in-house not contracted out and you take a look at the um additional employees uh the additional impact to our general fund and that doesn't even include the materials U all the things that go into this it potentially and more likely be greater than it would be over a million dollars I think is my understanding easily easily and so basically the the efficiency gained here by this is um is that we are not having to pay that overhead I think we have a lot more control over the over the service provider in terms of the quality um and there's probably a few other things I'm not articulating so do that can you confirm that that's that that summary based on the information we have is correct um any evaluation that Compares contracted services to in-house Services would include those um overhead costs and that's why I said we need to you know engage that so that we have all of our cost included materials overhead and are very transparent about how many staff members it would take and that includes benefits all those costs all costs have to be included so that you can make a direct comparison yeah I heard a number of possibly eight increasing the headcount by eight and it that's you know so yeah no thank you very much I got it you're welcome thank I am quite sure commission or vice mayor fry has something to say you are quite right go ahead um obviously always been my passion because typically we've never gotten the service we ever got from when we had it in house uh granted you save money but as I've said you know if you save money and it's crap well so what um but anyway it's my understanding after talking the city manager that actually some of the services have improved some of our main users have said it's adequate um so I think it is obviously an ongoing review of service Quality Service cost and savings to taxpayers overall in terms of and we've got new buildings so you can't just think about the money you got to think about the quality of the the care of our new buildings so they stay good for for a long time to come so um yeah that's my comments um I think it's a I almost pulled it commissioner Walker so I fully expected that you would have when he did I was like man now I got two of them it's a two-year uh it's a two-year contract and I just think we we constantly you know some some things we do Better Contracting out some things we don't so I just think it's an ongoing analysis and review so thank you commissioner Toro thank you mayor so I know that we have this has been under review for for years this we while forward certainly after the point where we no longer did it ourselves under with our own employees um the evaluations have been done I know that I spoke with the the city manager again just confirming of all the Departments remember it's not just this building it's other buildings as well and there's a good number of buildings and Facilities that we have to take care of and uh and I've been been assured again and I did talk to some of the individuals that are at some of the other buildings and they were pleased I'll leave it at pleased with with the service that that we're getting and so I I I think it's a good question always bring up but um it's been under consideration in the past Time and Time Again by a number of people so I'm very pleased with the with the results of of this move thank you commissioner anything from you I agree with everything that's been said thank you not touching that with a Tempo po right can you repeat that I didn't understand that well since everybody's commenting I will say that I remember being on the dis when we um reorganized this department I'm saying it politely we let a whole depart small crew go um during you know the Great Recession and um so I think it was what 09 I 0809 10 I don't remember but exactly the year um but it was done for efficiencies purposes um and I I think I do think it's interesting given that you're bringing this forward in the way you did commissioner Walker we didn't consider getting rid of our own solid waste because of the service that we provide while it might have been cheaper it was never going to be the kind of service that affects somebody dayto day you know and there are several other departments that that people contract out that we never did because service is so important you know um to us uh but this was one of those departments that we thought we could do that for an efficiency purpose [Music] um there's controversy all around it could it be better I know where she stands she lets us know all the time um the only area I complain about the most is the bathrooms on the causeway or anywhere really the bathrooms at the Marina at the public bathrooms at the history those things are public facing um you know and keeping those clean I think are really important I don't have an opinion on it one way or another but I know you're doing this effic efficiency evaluation and that's great um and I appreciate the fact that we're hearing that there are some improvements Phyllis I know it's not perfect okay um didn't see Phyllis I would have made her come up yeah she's staying away from you she's not going to let you put her on the spot um okay can I have a motion in a second to approve so moved second okay commissioner Walker and vice mayor fry anybody from the public or the staff wish to comment okay seeing or hearing none all in favor signify by saying I I any opposed motion passes unanimously all right so we did or didn't we pull 2E yes I think we did okay do you just have a was it you commissioner Toro yes ma'am okay did you just have a question well I I did and I just wanted to confirm a couple points about this okay go ahead kind of quickly um so first of all this is this is Public Works efficienty evaluation This Is On Solid Waste correct the entire uh we we actually uh put the proposal out with optional services to include all of Public Works so public services and facilities are included in this agenda item as uh recommended for award as well as sanitation solid waste and Fleet thank you for confirming that because I was a little bit concerned about what was happening here and had the indication that perhaps we were just going to be doing the uh the solid waste I I have a question about this now this is this is a this is what's called an efficiency evaluation yes so what is the purpose of bringing a consultant in at this at this number and would you remind me of where this where this comes from the funds come from just remind me the the funds are um multiple funds they're um you solid waste funds and for the solid waste F portion I yeah I think it's in the it's in the document there and then we have the storm water and um general fund and the facilities fund for the Public Services portion and it is um allocated based on those um stat numbers and budgets so U Solid Waste um included Fleet originally because Fleet is such a big part of their operation so they wanted that as part of the study and um they would impact ultimately the rates that from solid waste so it was um agreed that that's how that would go so I love the idea always of efficient and effectiveness of of of any department and I assume that this evaluation then touches on those elements absolutely and so the folks that are coming in are specialist I read I read about that are specialist in in this whole entire area and we'll be looking at whether they'll be looking at all elements as to whether this should be a department or or what's more efficient of how you run this department or it's open-ended they um they have we put a scope of work out um for certain areas to be looked at and um really I don't think we left anything out of that scope uh for all of the services to be looked at to help us um evaluate any efficiencies and in the field and or our processes as well as specifically to Solid Waste some areas um like um unincorporated picking up um refuges in unincorporated areas and how that impacts our service overall and the rates how it would impact the rates um as well as I what I mentioned in the previous agenda item which is um getting an actual recoverable cost how much would it cost to recover all of those things for an activity any activity including collections of solid waste or taking a tree out in public services or providing janitorial services so contractual or inhouse um are included in this evaluation Jorge wants to say something you would be disappointed if I didn't um so this U effort and I'm glad you you all pulled the the prior item so that we could have that conversation about level of service and establishing uh those type of activities uh for every element of what we do in public works operations uh touching all those divisions so um to your your question uh commissioner the ultimate goal here um is and uh in a previous life Sue and I have both worked with Harry loric and Associates and so um I know you questioned the the amount of the fee I will guarantee you that we will make that money up uh several times over in the efficiencies that they will identify but the ultimate goal is to set up activity guidelines which then roll into an annual plan which then rolls into um being able to measure and gauge against that work uh to identify those things that should be contracted out to identify those things we do better internally um to ultimately roll that into as I said the annual plan which then then leads you to what's called program based budgeting so you're not doing specific line item budgeting now you're doing program based budgeting which is across the organization it kind of drops those silos that exist in departments because now you're focusing on a specific program which can touch more than one department so it's what we want to be when we grow up God love you thank you and if I could add it it also rolls up to the Strategic plan so we will still have a line item budget just to be clear U both will exist they will just be comparable to each other so one will be um expressed in activities and programs and how we're accomplishing them and all of that will come to through the city manager to the commission and to our public um so that as we set up these dashboards the things that are important to them and then we can monitor internally those factors that contribute to those things that are important to our public um bottom line cost also to the public today um actually Lac is here in the audience if um if you would like to hear him speak to um their expertise um as Jorge mentioned he said past life I worked for both pelis County and for Valia County which engaged this consultant um Valia County engaged it at the commission level at the and and uh through an audit and I came after the fact but then uh they did another reevaluation and in penel County I was directly involved in those um con consulting services this was competitively bid and this consultant did um through purchasing and they guided the purchasing process we found we followed that and they still were awarded I say still because we had just worked with them previously to be clear we have worked with other Consultants previously um but we are happy to see this because we've seen realized SA savings like actually reductions in budget improvements in service um for I have for both agencies I work for pelis County for 28 years and for valua County for seven and those improvements were significant in both agencies and I expect the same here this is the evaluation portion I know there's an implementation portion so once uh again they will be coming as as per the scope to you and presenting their final report and recommendations so you will it'll be transparent to you very much so thank you so um a couple comments um do we always have a program at at the level of anyone that's working within those departments to make a recommendation of how we can improve or improve the efficiency or have we have we used I think we might have had that before I don't know if we have that today but so I'm I'm I'm only aware internally of soliciting that information but um I know that this is a very deliberate process that does engage our employees at every level um to provide comments recommendations express it what it is that they see as possible improvements commissioner I think to your question um you know we always solicit input from our employees that are actually doing the work as to ideas that they may have to improve efficiency what um luran Associates do do is in addition to working directly with those operational departments and divisions to identify the work they do um look at the level of service that's currently being provided um identify whether or not we want to change those levels of service um they also work integrally with Finance so that when you make those assessments of efficiency you're looking at what's known as a fully Burden rate you're you're incorporating all those true costs that are related to that activity that's being performed it's not just salary it's benefits it's everything else so that when you analyze the cost and compare it to the private sector you are looking at Apples to Apples um so one of the questions that I have is is what is the ending result of this this is a evaluation okay and what what do you perceive would be the next step and what is the cost of of that next step also um from what I'm hearing then this almost leads to zerob based budgeting where we where we take the whole thing apart sort of I would guess and they perhaps they can respond to that take the whole the whole area that they're looking at or a specific area take it apart and then put it back together again could be it that could be and would you like him to come up I mean you you pointed to him so I wasn't sure if and he's happy to come and talk to you about the process as and as far as cost we we won't know until we do the evaluation um would you like him to speak to that yes this is uh Harry loric for um La Consulting thank you Harry um is yes it is on okay thanks thank you speak really closely Madam mayor members of the council and staff and city manager uh was first of all I want to say you're uh it's a beautiful facility I get to go to a lot of facilities and and nille uh Cher who's with me actually uh is on a committee that reviews these type of facilities I know you guys almost won a national award you should have won it actually but you didn't but uh this is a beautiful facility but anyway um uh our company uh focuses on process Improvement but actually if you you look at our business card it says we help Public Work Work and the reason that people hire us not to do a review they hire us to find something that can help them improve and the example that Sue gave in uh that was a big County but Bia County saved $30 million not not to moving shuffling stuff around they actually reduced equipment they Consolidated departments they did things that made more sense but also to the mayor's comment earlier it's not just about efficiency about Effectiveness it's about giving a good service so sometimes you have to weigh is it cheaper to do something versus what service you could provide so you have to look at both of those things but we we worked with the city of St Pete and we did a complete evaluation of their Solid Waste we also do an evaluation of their utilities we also evaluated their streets uh department and we work directly for the council there um so we're looking for the opportunity you know our our focus is on try to figure out how to make the best use of the people that you have and also look at what are the opportunities now we talked about a contract already that we're making notes over there because we're going to be looking at the Contracting too just because you contract doesn't mean more effective may not be could be but just because it's cheaper to me it's better so you got to compare what you're trying to achieve and look what the cost is but we'd love to work for you I appreciate the honor to even be here today and the opportunity to work for you we've uh we've worked for a lot of agencies in Florida uh our company originally was in California but we now moved it to uh to Florida for various reasons uh mainly because I have grandkids in Florida but that's the main reason when the wife say she wants to see her grandkids she said you can live anywhere so we're going to live in Florida I said yes ma'am but anyway I'd be glad to answer any questions I didn't mean to get off on the side here um Harry Could you um one of the questions I had written is um the next step after an evaluation we do have another step to implement good good question uh The Next Step depends sometimes we identify things you can totally do yourself it's obvious you know I know in in valua and their Solid Waste we found out and the same thing also in Hillsboro we found that the time that people came to work was impacting the work and solid waste how they would transport their they had people waiting for the solid waste to come in so they could move it from the transfer station to actually where they were actually processing it so by simply changing the time of day we saved thousands and millions of dollars so some things could be done directly by just making a decision because you know sometimes you just don't look at things you know you get so you've been doing it so long in such such a way you just hadn't really thought about it so some things can be done by yourself there might be certain things we might come up with a technology thing that you need to do you know because we do look at technology also you know how do you how do you plan the work how do you track the work because you need to have a system in place that it's not a onetime fix it's the continuous improvement process that you have so it be could be a combination of those type of things it really depends so I don't know I don't know what you do you know I would have to look at that I mean like in your Solid Waste operations you would we would look and see does it make sense to do it yourself that would be an obvious question but it doesn't mean it's cheaper is better it just means comparing the service and the cost what's better so the next step would take the the the the game plan create a game plan and then the game plan would be something that you could implement or maybe you'd have to have somebody help you implement it so and so it really depends sometimes in St Pete there was no second step for us it was only a second step for them in valua we did help them do things after the after that they needed to help to move some things and they needed some technology there so we actually did help them we don't sell software but we helped them set up technology and did training and they needed some some Management training so we did some of that so it just depends again you know two different situations two different results that that answer the question I can get more detail of something if you like that's good thank you thank you anything else any questions vice mayor I have one um just uh actually I think it's for Sue Sue when you look at the organizational analysis that got done last year you know in um tandem with the pay study um how do you how do these Jive I mean are they totally different do they have some some s symmetry or um I think that um the the they did look at the organizational structure in that um evaluation but they did not look into the depth of the what we are going to now so they made the recommendations based on the data that they had um which was limited I will say um and so they did their best effort with the information they had this will be much more detailed and so I think it will just build they will look at the organizational structure that was provided and actually that was just looking at um do we have enough staff and then the kinds of staff and then recommended addition I conditions and and obvious um areas of weakness that we needed to beef up so I think this is um I don't know about jiving with it or melding with it but it certainly will build on what was already there but it'll be a fresh look and a detailed look at what do we actually want to accomplish and again that goes to level of service that's decided to what um how well or what level is expected that we accomplish that and how many people does that take so and then what organiz organiz ational structure is the best to accomplish that how many direct reports those things it's very detailed this evaluation so I think we'll get a lot more information from it we don't assume anything we don't we don't start assuming your organization is set up the right way we really you know do look at I'm not saying Breaking everything down but we look to see does it make sense and the previous study we did look at it but they they they came from a different perspective we're looking at a whole holistic approach of everything do you have the right number of people do you have the right equipment do you charge the right rates all those things not just what does it cost right we spend a lot of time with employees when we went with uh St Pete we met with every employee because there's always people that know something you don't know and when you find out the people doing the work sometimes it's as simple as somebody that's doing the work tells you we should be doing a different way and we check that out so we spent a lot of time with the people and that's why uh most of our effort if you would go through the proposal you'll see we spend a lot of time with people because we find if we understand what you're doing and we understand how the people are doing the work we can help them and it does seem like maybe this should have come first because this is the deeper dive um so you know Sue i' I've watched you as you've been here and taking deep dives into this stuff doing a lot with a little um and uh and kind of working yourself through it so in your in your professional opinion you think this is key to making us a more long-term efficient organization absolutely this is really when I met and was um offered the opportunity to to work here this is part of our discussion is how to have a foundation that we can trust that make data driven decisions um essentially even whether you call it zero based budgeting or not but it is really being able to determine it is the foundation and key there's no doubt in my my opinion absolutely well I I like the direction you're going and I and I have a lot of faith in you I've seen what you've done I've seen it in action as you've served our citizens so um I'm putting a lot of faith in you to that this is the next right step so thank you anything from you all questions asked and answer thank you mayor commissioner no nothing the I don't have any questions either thank you Harry very happy that uh we're doing this okay uh can I have a motion in a second so moved second commissioner torga and vice mayor frainy anybody from the public wish to speak to this item all in favor signify by saying I I any opposed motion passes unanimously settlement agreement I'm not sure I don't remember who pulled it I I didn't I just want to make a comment anybody comment that disagrees or or piles on or whatever uh for the last two people that just called me about this two people and there may be more that were wondering what this is about um this is something that we evaluate each one of us and together with the with the city attorney and we come to this conclusion and so therefore it's on there and and probably is not not very what deeply discussed but it was an agreement that was made so it was looked at very in-depth as to what we needed to do just want everybody to know that thank you that was just a comment I wanted to make anybody else I would also like to add that our risk management team does a significant analysis on these items um and of course we don't talk about legal issues on the dis um which is why they're under consent agenda we try not to talk about them okay can I have a motion to approve so mooved second commissioner TGA and commissioner Walker any public comment all in favor signify by saying I any opposed motion passes unanimously thank you okay action items we have an award of bid for our skada system upgrade in the amount of um almost $1.1 million Nan would you let us know what we're doing here good morning Nan Bennett utilities director so on this item a second let me to that um this item was recommended as part of the Water and Sewer Master Plan that was prepared back in 2015 um and then in 2019 what basically what it is is um a replacement of our existing and aging um supervisory controls and data acquisition system that's called scada we call it a scada system and it monitors the process at the wastewater treatment facility collects all the data and helps us control the wastewater treatment process um this G system is related to both hardware and software controls um it it controls all the mechanical equipments monitors all the processes records those we have to report a lot of what we do continuously continuous flows continuous readings on different parameters of the treatment process and things and and this this system helps to do that and it communicates that to the main the plant's main um programmable logic control there's a lot of electronic words in here I'm sorry it's it's not real translatable um so B basically it was determined that that needed to be up upgraded with the master plan so then in 2019 the city hired McKim and Creed to do the design of the new sker system um that was completed and uh it was initially packaged together with the electrical upgrades to the wastewater treatment facility and that was bid out in February of 2022 um and we got bids that well exceeded our budget and all bids were rejected we weren't able to authorize that award at that time because it was much in excess of our budget so then we looked at what we had bid out and we thought well perhaps by mixing this control package with that much larger the electrical um upgrades are the very large project in the the wastewater treatment plant perhaps that was mixing two disciplines and we could get better bids if we separated so we separated it out made it a standalone bid and then we rebid it again in February 2024 um there was only one bid received um and it was nearly twice the engineers's estimate for uh the probable construction cost so we rejected that bid we looked at what we bid we had some feedback from the biders because we did have multiple plan holders that didn't bid and they advised that maybe we were too restrictive um we have a radius of distance that the firm has to have staff to respond because when you're changing over these systems it's critical to have um somebody respond if something goes wrong the wastewater treatment plant has flow coming at it continuously we have to deal with those flows that come at us continuously and so we have a very short response window that we can tolerate we did um increase the eligible radius from 75 to 150 miles to allow additional biders to have eligibility um took into into consideration what was the maximum typ time we could have for that response and so we did open it up to up to 150 mil um and we also determined that there were additional spare parts that we needed to have on hand so that if something went wrong we could respond quickly to getting that fixed and added that to the contract the bid was then retis in May 2024 and we received four bids um there uh there were two lower biders um one that did not meet the the con the other two did not meet the responsiveness of the contract and so at this point um process Automation and controls is considered the lowest responsive bid and we have done reference checks on process Automation and controls and theyve all been positive we also have a letter of recommendation from the engineer of record McKim and Creed recommending that we go with process Automation and controls and the City of Dunning purchasing division has overseen the process and recommends the same um so at this this project is funded by the Water and Sewer fund as well as it is in the umbrella of the state revolving fund loan the srf loan that we're doing for the wastewater treatment plant and it's met all the requirements of that and as such we recommend Award of this bid 24 1268 um for the wastewater treatment plant G system upgrades to process Automation and controls in the amount of 1,989 and I'm available for questions okay questions for Nan I'm going to start at this end commissioner walker uh you know I I don't have any questions commissioner I don't have any questions vice mayor questions could you just clarify so between what we're paying now and what some of the original larger bids were what was the difference I can't I can't do numbers off the top of my head and them just but it was a large difference by re kind of because it's impressive how you kept going back so I'm just curious as to what we saved by part of it is that I wasn't here through a lot of it and so remembering numbers so okay well this is the actual bid so um which you okay this is this bid this isn't the previous bids right I was just seeing what did we actually say by going through all these Renditions of making sure we we're getting good bids I I can get that for you I can't do numbers material I didn't see it yeah sorry I'm just pointing you all of the BS I see the current bids and I see the different ones but I didn't see the prior yeah I don't know if we included the prior bids in this award that's fine I mean you know just out of curiosity I'd like to know but I mean obviously I I don't have any questions Beyond this is obviously a critical component of our system thank you any questions commissioner Toro yes uh one one of them I think was due to responsiveness or perhaps some experience that we're having uh currently but that's really important who who do you have to so we have this we have this big big system controlling all of this and we always want it to work of course and so but also who do we have do we report report results and how often do we report results that come from this system and to whom well to our own staff continuously that are running the plant but but outside agencies we report to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and we report monthly and then we have sanitary surveys where they come and they check things more frequently as they want to and every 5 years we renew our operating permit and the system that's currently operating you does anybody recall how long that's been been in existence and and we do need to update it can you just make a comment about that the the necessity to move as quickly as possible it is outdated it it's the one system pardon no it's the Wonder wear has been updated since I'm sorry um Brian is working furiously at the plant today he's not here he could he could answer this off of the top of his head um but it is outdated at the time it was installed it was state-of-the-art it no longer is there's much better controls hardware and software and so we're we're migrating to that better software that that better controls updated programmable logic controllers things that we can replace uh the electronics Industry about every 10 to 15 years you go totally obsolete so you're you're pretty much on a a having to replace and update those things because you can't even get parts for the things you need to replace thank you I see someone looking through some data there but we can always come back to that if they find something thank you you I'm sorry about that I usually bring Brian with me because he has all those facts in his head I think we understand thank yeah at least 20 and and typically 10 to 15 is all you get out of any kind of electronic system thank you thank you okay I don't have any questions uh okay anybody from the public wish to speak to this item seeing or hearing none can I have a motion to and second to approve so moved second okay vice mayor frany commissioner Walker any final comments no commissioner commissioner commissioner thank you okay all in favor signify by saying I I any opposed motion passes unanimously auditing service less good morning welcome mayor vice mayor Commissioners Les Tyler the finance director uh this item before you is for the selection of our auditing Services moving forward the process of identifying and Contracting with a qualified CPA firm to provide auditing Services is regulated by Florida Statutes uh 21839 one the first step in the process is that the city commission appoint an auditor selection committee and your commission appointed not selection committee on April 30th 2024 there up process uh began in May of this year and the proposals were due on June 18th uh we received five proposals by the June 18th deadline the selected firm will complete the fiscal year 24 through 26 Audits and in addition the contract may be renewed for an additional two-year period the auditor selection committee is recommending three firms and they are listed in order of ranking in the staff room report the firm with the highest ranking was MSL CPA advisors uh The Firm MSL is done a uh our audit for the past 10 years uh the auditor selection committee has as I mentioned uh had them ranked number one if you look at exhibit a in the Staffing there's a memo from the auditor selection committee um that uh States the same thing it states that the ranking the firms are ranked one two and three the first uh number one rankings MSL CPA advisor number two ranking is Malden and Jenkins and number three was Markham LLP uh the the select the state statutes permit that the commission to allow a designate to negotiate the contract staff's asking that the city manager be designated as uh to negotiate the find details of the contract with the firm and the contract will come back to your commissioner for approval that concludes my comments and be happy to answer any questions thank you okay um questions commissioner Walker I see your name on this memo so I'm going to go to you well I have no questions as I participated in this process um comment so go right ahead um yeah anything you think we should know yeah um well I'll say this um you know first of all it was uh it it was very interesting and a privilege to be part of this um there there is no larger fundamental responsibility than making sure that we have a our procurement system is is solid and operates within the bounds of integrity and I I love the fact that um when a selection is made like this it's done with a tremendous amount of due diligence and I my opinion and I've done this with so many contracts over the course of my career federal state local um I uh being part of the city of Denon process confirm the fact that we are really solidly operating our procurement um the right firm was selected and um and it it really boiled down to uh the technical offering and associated with that it you know it it wasn't like automatically picking the lowest price vendor because typically that's you know you really need to take what what's term best value so anyway those are my comments uh greatly enjoyed being part of this and thank you um commissioner gal we had even though there were it was question time uh commissioner Walker sat on the committee so I wanted to get for everybody's benefit do you have any questions uh no ma'am I don't thank you vice mayor any questions I have one um so um I know who is the number one so guess you'll negotiate with them first is that the theory and then um so how do you factor in because I know there's that school of thought where every so often it's just good to have a new auditor because somebody who's done it forever you know could be best friends with you now cuz you've worked together so long what's the school of thought about how that how that plays out in this you know since we've had the same company for 10 years and now they're the top ranked one yeah that's a good question there was uh a dis some discussion about that within the committee uh they have they did discuss that a little bit that topic uh you know in general uh you know different different cities look at it differently different different Publications look at it differently uh one of the things that uh that the firm the the number one firm recommended MSL had stated in their proposal uh was that they would uh guarantee they would rotate their staff and and that and that's important to me because uh they've actually done that a lot the last four years they've they've rotated Partners they they rotated their managers they rotated their their seniors and their their first line staff consistently and that's good because you get a fresh look uh you know from different you know every every um person looks things a little differently whether it's this firm or that firm so they've been really good about that over the past three or four years and they've committed in their proposal uh to do that moving forward so I think that's important but but you know uh different agencies look at it differently uh some agencies change every 5 years there's there's cities that have had the same auditor for 40 years and I'm I don't think that's a great idea but uh we very very much got rid of that yeah yeah so we but I think I think that fresh look is important and and the committee did discuss that when they were deliberating at the topic no that's a that's a great response I think um something happens you get comfortable you know if it's the same person but I think rotating discomforts good in this fresh eyes and and uh not getting too cozy together which not inferring that's the case I think we've had a good auditing and we've had we've got great Finance people so but I just want to make sure that we're doing that and I'm glad that you guys have talked about that rotation I think that's really important thank you commissioner Toro question that I had written down uh after reviewing all of this I seem to have remembered that either we had a requirement for six years obviously we didn't because we've got one that's been longer than six or the state had a requirement are there any state requirements uh for this obviously you must have thought about that so there aren't uh but I just wanted to just directly ask you and and did did we have that I didn't I didn't review it but it seems like my board of Finance days we had something 10 it's five and 10 yeah we we've never had to my knowledge any any six-year rule about about about Auditors or anything like that and you know and the state has no specific requirement that you that your Auditors be there any certain time frame there's no what they have identified the process to choose them and and we've kind of gone through that here and they formalize that more as you guys know this is this format's different than before but there's no requirement uh as far as number of years it's five and 10 so it's this service and there's another one that I can't think of off the top of my head um where we set it up where every five years we take a look at it but there's another service besides this and and it's open to other things where we're required to look at it every five years we can extend the contract to 10 and at 10: we must go out to RFP um and that's because uh what was his name that we had before um start with a c it'll come to me we had the we had them for like 25 or 30 years and that was when we had that Pro Christin I knew it was a c and if you'll remember commissioner Taro we had that problem in um utilities where things weren't being reported correctly and and that was all under their watch and it was big numbers and um and that that led us to then look at our RFP process for different types of services which led us to this well thank you I wasn't aware of that I wasn't either really oh it was it was it was F Utility Billing it was utility billing and how but it was it was storm water solid weight none of our utilities there was a glitch going on I I don't remember what caused it I don't remember the details but it was big numbers it was big numbers it was big numbers and our auditor didn't pick up on it annually which was going to be my question you know I know we do tests if you will um but I do think it's important to just pick something every year and make that a full a full scale review versus just the management you know cursory review test review or whatever I'm not using the right language I'm sure um because that went on for years I mean years and underneath that auditor and yeah we were ruthless about it it was really bad a second second point so we picked the top three so now we're assuming we're assuming we're going to go to the top person and and we're asking the the city manager then to continue to negotiate is that correct that's correct thank you thank you okay any public comment on this all right can I have a motion and a second to approve so move second vice mayor frany and commissioner gal any final comments no no no thank I I will just say that you know having been a part of creating that process uh when I first saw this on the agenda that was my first question how long have they been with us isn't a time to do at RFB so um happy to see that happy to see that the things we put in place for our safekeeping um just in the process of the RFP was important to me um and then your comments to vice mayor about the rotation um because you know all of us are resp if you look at our Charter we are responsible for the budget M which says we're the responsible for the financial well-being and so the people we put in place like our city manager and our auditor who subsequently puts you in place um are critical to ensure uring that the Public's money is being managed safely so very appreciative we'll see you guys another 5 Years thank you very much thank you uhhuh okay all in favor signify by saying I I any opposed motion passes unanimously based on negotiation based on negotiation sorry just clarify all righty deden does compost 2.0 I saw you carrying that little basket in and I'm like oh God what she bringing I thought bring your squirrel to workday Natalie always brings props when she does a presentation all right oh oo food scrap bucket nice bio bags all right no all right while you're doing that I'm just going to go grab a cup of coffee I'll be right back oh Rob left oh I'm going to get started or wait you to wait since there's two gone three Gone John John oh yeah we're going to wait yeah oh okay then well there you go let's wait uh so you have any updates and anything else environmentally or uh okay yeah we'll just quietly sit here and if we get three we'll go you know it's just like Thursday night oh yeah that well actually we have one last cuz we'll have three on Thursday night at least you have a quum m y okay here's two oh we only had two people so we didn't start so so I'm going to go ahead and oh where did commissioner turn oh okay I did not realize that I would not gone to get a cup of coffee let's be a little more mindful of the time of others that way I didn't look that way great vice mayor had a nice song and dance while you guys were gone exactly yeah I started to go in fabulous magic trick I don't know how she did it yeah no I normally wouldn't leave oh there he goes he's going in a whole different are you coming back guess he is now there is a presentation I think it's the first time in my career the Quorum just wandered away well I didn't know he was gone if I knew he was gone I wouldn't have gone up CU I was like well we've got three and then Natalie's like no you actually two Okay Go Okay thank you um good morning this is no reflection on the importance not all God that looks so bad I really do feel bad about that it's all right good morning mayor vice mayor commissioner city manager Natalie gas sustainability program manager for the city of den Eden I am here on behalf of Savannah Bunch our environmental specialist in solid waste she's unfortunately not able to be here today but I am very excited to bring forward a grant proposal that she's been working very hard on and share a really great funding opportunity for the city on her behalf I'll be discussing the USDA composting and food waste reduction pilot project Grant uh Savannah's efforts to develop the grant do the research uh secure Partnerships that will really enhance this opportunity are very impressive for her only having been here a little over four months now so we're really grateful to have her on the team the presentation today will review the grant details time timeline and phases funding requests and benefits I'm happy to answer questions along the way or at the end but the at the the ask is that uh staff would receive consensus direction from City Commission in order to move forward and officially apply for the grant staff is seeking to apply for this grant as it will revamp and expand the current compost program The City offers its residents the new phased program has foundational goals that align with dream D denon's resilient environmental action master plan the city's epic goals the upcoming strategic master plan as well as the penel County Solid Waste master plan that focuses on zero waste to landfill and this will be a interdepartmental collaborative effort between the solid waste Division and the division of strategy and sustain ability the proposal has been reviewed by cqs the committee on Environmental Quality and sustainability and their letter of support uh is attached to the Staffing memo as well here's a look at the details of the grant opportunity uh as you can see this is a fast approaching deadline of September 4th the it uh the grant opened in June and so s did a lot of excellent work in a quick period of time to pull this together the minimum duration of the program be 2 years there's a 25% matching um request for the total share which I'll get into and I also want to point out that the requirements uh for reporting for a Federal grant are very manageable um which is really great to see this so they're looking at just a few progress reports and then the metrics would be number of participants and pounds of waste diverted from the landfill these are the three phases of the proposed program and then the four separate programs that would follow suit so in Phase One we'd be relaunching the backyard compost program and introducing a municipal food waste collection program uh phase two would be looking at residential food waste drop off options and then phase three would be a residential curbside pickup and I will get into the details in uh for all of those in just a moment so the uh staff has requested ing to um is proposing to request a little under $138,000 for the federal share of this grant there's a 25% matching which would make the city responsible for just under $34,500 and the breakdown of the contributions so there's in-kind staff contributions or staff time um pulling from Solid Waste strategy and sustainability as well as our Communications team and then we have biobag they are a leader in providing bags and films made from uh plant starches vegetable oils and compostable products that are used for collection and processing and they're headquartered right here in Den Eden off of Broadway just north of Skinner Boulevard they're really really excited about this opportunity and Savannah's created this partnership um where they're willing to donate uh close to $7,500 of product donations time and service towards this effort that would go towards the matching 25% and then finally is the um just over $5,000 in the solid waste budget for fy2 and this was set aside to repurchase or reorder the backyard compost bins um anyway so all of that kind of comes together to meet that 25% matching uh for this grant do you want to stop here or should I continue keep going good okay great again here's our partners biobag which I just mentioned and then we also have renewable renewable is a company out of Miami they are they specialized in food waste collection and compost processing we've partnered with them for the last two years for the Hop spot Festival in order to make the those festivals zero waste events and have those efforts geared towards that um so they would be responsible for collecting processing uh at their sites they work with Farm and land owners in the region to do this work and they're in the process right now of purchasing their own property so that they can have their their own operation again here's a look at those phases and the programs a little uh detail for each one so phase one would be relaunching the backyard compost program the bin on the right hand side is what we used to initiate and launch the deden does compost initiative um it's a pretty large bin it's had some pros and cons and so we would look to expand options and provide a smaller closed tumbler for residents and these are more um residential traditional composting where you are doing this kind of in your backyard or at your home also part of phase one would be introducing a municipal food waste collection program here at City Hall and our fire stations so when Savannah was looking into this and speaking with other cities who have launched these programs a lot of times they fart they start in the um fire stations because just due to the nature of their job and their shifts they're there they're living there they're preparing food there's a lot higher volume um so what you would get is the countertop bin from biobag and that would go in the break rooms and then we would have the renewable uh drums and those would be serviced weekly I do want to point out with this program and then the two that I'll um go into next they accept all of your traditional compost material but because they're going to get processed at through renewable at a certified compostable uh location they can actually accept more items including meat Dairy and Bones which expands um the options there phase two would be looking at a residential drop off option and this would be targeting 50 residents in apartments and condos who don't have the spacer ability to compost on site they would get the countertop bin and then be given dates and events where they can bring their compost um we're looking at this would probably partner with the uh the farmers market or the downtown market and they would be able to bring their items there this is a pretty common practice in urbanized areas such as New York City that seems to work well and I do want to clarify that we're not proposing a 24/7 unmanned drop off site these would be events where they would go and bring their compost um and they would be staffed either by interns volunteers and or city staff and then the final portion of this program would be looking at a curbside pickup program focusing on 100 residents in single family homes Who currently have our city service and they would get the countertop bin and then they would also get a renewable uh bucket which would go out to the curb and be serviced weekly the main goal of this program at a foundational level is to Simply divert food scraps from the landfill and turn them into a finished compost soil product and there's a lot of great benefits goals and objectives of this program the main thing I want to point out here on this slide is that we would be able to receive the finished uh compost back as a city um and use it in our Parks Savannah's proposing we look at it in our golf club and Sterling Park to do kind of a specific study look at soil absorption look at soil health and see how that can impact storm water um she's spoke with uh Michelle and Nicole Silverman and our storm water department about that as well so a really great opportunity and then if we had any access maybe that could go to Community Gardens or find other Partnerships for that as well so I know that's a lot of information a short period of time um I just again want to commend Savannah on her great work and uh very excited about this opportunity and happy to answer questions and get consensus directions so thank you okay vice mayor sure I'll start so um okay so you maybe you said this but I didn't get it um so like City Hall how would City Hall work so City Hall we would have those in the break rooms and they would get um the janitorial staff would bring them to the dumpster just like they're taking the Recycling and the garbage and there would be a separate bin and then that would get collected weekly okay and then and then the people that were picked to have these compost things they'd put them out on the street just like the garbage pickup and okay okay I'm I'm a work in progress on composting so I'll let my uh colleagues ask a few questions and go from there thank you commissioner Tonga composting interesting the program we have here is really is really based on us getting a grant obviously or we don't do it um what happens when we continue on after that period um are we are we then sort of locked into funding this composting program and and I guess that would depend on what we're talking about needing so for example we have these if we put this out by the curb someone's going to be picking that up um is is that of volunteer or you made a couple comments and I'm just just asking honestly yeah I'm we want to use volunteers or city staff but when we say City staff then that becomes a requirement and and it could become a requirement so could you mind just elaborating on that talk about that a little bit yeah absolutely so again this is a two-year pilot project um the goal is data and information gathering this is not a launch of a city-wide program this is simply a pilot that's why we're keeping at 100 curbside residents and 50 drop off so it's a pretty manageable size um and the purpose is really information gathering there's nothing that's locking us into providing this as a service afterwards it's going to give us a lot of detail and information if we ever wanted to do that or if something happened with penel County where these options come available in the future we've already done uh a test run a little study a sample study uh if you will so again if there's funding in the future that would allow us to continue or expand or change this program we'll certainly go after it um but there's nothing locking us into uh creating this program afterwards after the two years and then to clarify about the city staff so the collections that will happen curbside and at our facilities would be done by renewable staff um which this grant would be paying for their time their service the transportation the processing all of that um and then for the drop off option which would probably happen maybe in conjunction with the downtown Market or other events we are looking to um hire interns and that's also supported by the grant where they that would fund the the interns uh we could use volunteers and then as a last resort maybe myself or Savannah or someone would be there um at the farmers market or At the Hop spot festival or something that maybe we're already going to be at so this wouldn't be designating staff to a full-time um position or anything like that it would just be more support so the results and and I appreciate you listing the one the number of people that would be doing this um but how are they selected in in in general in general if we select people who all want this uh obvious obviously in the end I would I would assume that let's say that they're they're like soccer moms you know I mean they really they really like this and they're they're going to be very supportive of this does that kind of lock Us in what how are they selected do we do we randomly go through a number of neighborhoods and say let's just pick three houses randomly that have a number house number between this and that or or that's a great question so I'm sorry I have to I have to tease you what about soccer dads soccer dad's Rock I mean we got one right here that certainly will be composting I'm just that's I love it soccer moms are more fun so that's a really great question um our our current program is for those who are interested so our current program you have to take a 2-hour video course and then you request to come pick up a compost bin so we really want to only engage people who are are interested in the program and we know that we'll get a lot of those people um and so it it may be first come first serve after they 've done an education course and get a little bit of training on how this works so we won't be like going house to house and picking certain addresses or anything it would be those who are interested are going to come forward and apply to be part of the program um and then it will kind of split between if you're a single family home versus in a apartment or condo so when I read through this information and I really would just app I'm really just asking um the the people that want to do composting um I can imagine there must there must be a quite a large number that like really want to do that and then there's probably a very large number of people that do not want to you know don't have an interest at this point in time are we attempting to create an interest in it or or or where does what are some of the goals of of this outside of outside of running a small program to do a test yeah so education awareness are at the foundation of this program um and I think it's a really big uh step forward in that we get an opportunity for those a lot of people are not interested in back backyard composting either they don't have the space time or interest to start turning their their compost and dealing with you know maybe the insects that are out there a lot of gardeners like that but a lot of people are not interested in that so this gives an opportunity for people to Simply divert their food scraps your food scraps are going in a bin it's just you're going to put them in a compost bin versus the garbage bin and and it allows all of the processing to happen um with someone else doing it instead of you so I think that's a big barrier to composting is that people aren't interested to do it themselves but they would be happy to divert their food scraps and so that's kind of where we're gearing um and again just more education and awareness on what this means and how it can be incorporated into your own life is the goal of the program thank you thank you mayor you already talked right y okay soccer dad and composter and we do compost at home we aren't great at it but we we try we try um what are your measurables what is going to determine the success of this program so the only two measurements that the USDA USDA requires is the number of participants and how many pounds of waste is by being diverted from the landfill renewable when they collect all of the food scraps they're going to weigh that we'll have a portal and a login where we can track all of the different um the data points the USDA has a very long list of uh ideas that you can incorporate into the program to do data collection and so Savannah's gone through a list um some of them are included in the larger proposal that was attached to the Staffing memo but we're going to have to determine what is feasible for staff to implement and put part of the project um but again going back to using the compost in our parks and studying that for storm water and soil health is going to be another really key good measurements to have okay and I part part of the the reason we want to do this right is the amount of food waste that is reduced from transporting it out to our waste of energy plant so will we be able to measure physically you know how many dollars we might be saving or what the reduction in greenhouse gas or emissions might be so greenhouse gas emissions that gets really tricky that's a very complex data point to collect um we can see what's feasible to to get an understanding I can see where we could look at um the price of it going to the landfill versus it going to the compost to get processed and then also look at maybe soil or fertilizer Something That We're Not purchasing as a city in result of using the compost so there's some certain ways that we can look at this in a financial perspective as well okay and are the items that won't be that we at home might consider food waste but is it going to be part of this is there anything that you don't want in there uh plastic well uh just random stuff I mean it's going to be your general food scraps coffee grounds eggshells but these bins cuz it's going to the commercial uh compost site they're going to take meat bones Dairy so that's been another barrier to composting is you usually can't have those in a back air compost um and so you know when you go to scrape your plate maybe in the garbage now you can just do that right in the bin and that will get uh processed sounds like a a great marketing campaign scrape your scrape your plate wonderful wonderful all right that's all that I have thank you m M&M's can go in there too yeah sorry commissioner um I have a question and a comment okay thank you ahead uh first question so you you can leave your comment for after but question I I'll do that uh the question with the the sustainment of the program pass the pilot that was a question I had as well um and just looking at the information that you provided um so the the scraps and all the material this goes to another composting facility to actually generate the soil is what I understand right um what is the cost of that is it that factored into this yes um I can pull it up in my notes I don't have it off the top of my head but that would be covered by the grant okay yeah all right and um and you said the the originating ageny EPA uh USDA USDA you're right it's in the slides here yeah um no I'll rest her comments so thank you uh where are my questions I have the odd qu the Oddball question cuz somebody's going to ask me this I think sometimes people are not only reluctant to compost in the yard because of space but because of vanimal so I mean the the little bucket that you showed um is pretty secure right so you don't have a concern or do you have any concern about animals when they put this and we're not the first city to use this bin or this service um there's others in the State of Florida already using in this this whole method um the bin is secure it will strap on when it goes out to the curb I'm not concerned about that um when I lived in Michigan michig I actually did a program like this where we had a little bucket and we put it out to the curb so I have like personal experience doing it and um it it seems to go well you know if you don't strap the bin on tight like you would maybe the garbage or the recycling bin um you may get Critters and in that Cas yeah well we just we have a lot you know we have a lot of coyotes yeah that that's the real big thing yeah we don't want to attract them right um and not that this matters for this program and I'm sure do a lot more research before doing this but people that do have established programs like let's say this moves on into the next Direction like it's flies out the door really strong a program and we want to implement it full-time not as a pilot do you know what kind of container would go out to the street um I don't if you don't cuz I know you're not there yet yeah I don't know what we what we would look at for a full-time program uh Citywide but I'm assuming it would be something similar probably less of a scale uh compared to like our garbage and recycling containers those are pretty large um yeah that was just a curiosity thing not that I need to know that to make this decision okay anybody from the public wish to come forward and speak to this item all right I'll come back to the commission um can I have a motion to approve the pilot program Grant request so move second okay I'm going to take commissioner gal because he's the environmental guy and then commissioner Walker is the second commissioner gal go I'm so excited I can't stand it oh my God this this is such a wonderful wonderful program uh my concerns are actually that if it proceeds I think there were huge huge mistakes in just recycling in general and the way that was rolled out um going from the small bends to Big bends um that actually has really set recycling back uh decades or years um from where we should be in our recycling so just be mindful of that on the importance of educating uh even those who are enthusiastic such as myself on what you do with this program but specifically exactly what you want this to do what's allowed in there what isn't allowed in there and make sure that whatever we get is clean that once you trying to uneducate people and educate them what we want is just a long road to Ho uh and long row ho composting I just thought that was genius I'm sorry well I was a little I wasn't responding to that I wasn't touching that but we should all touch it we should all get our hands in there and roll up our sleeves and get involved um we we we have a resident in in the back row that didn't come up and speak I'm surprised to that she's a member of our church and this has actually been a long long uh focus of conversation in our church on composting and how we could reach out to our restaurants and help divert some of this food waste so the fact that uh the the city is coming along and and stepping on our toes no and just anything that we can do to move this forward is just wonderful so I'm am I'm in big support but we have to do it right thank you Natalie okay commissioner Walker Walker thank you I did say Walker thank you I know it took me a minute I Afra you're going forget multitasking over here so I I share my colleagues enthusiasm for this and um there's a lot for a lot of reasons um one I I do have to applaud the the effort that went into this I I love how the contribution sources and the generation of those include the inine contributions of the staff partnership with denan business and uh of course we're going to pay for a little bit of that but I I honestly believe it's it's well worth it um and uh I uh we have a personal tie with with the you know you know that denan kind of was the Pioneer for composting and uh the reason I know this is is because there was an individual her name is Nelly Mard wife of yeah I can't remember theard Mr Mard um anyway she is credited with having the very first compost and if I remember correctly it was not just the compost site it was a process that she had patented I I know this because that's one of the uh basis for why our house was uh designated Historical house because this is what she did it was back in the 1940s and uh we should all know this I'm embarrassed den den is is the perfect spot for this the pilot project and uh I'm I'm really hoping that we can we will be able to sustain this in the future and I'm sure with the due diligence that's gone into this that that is not going to be a problem so so it sounds like commissioner Walker's house could be the destination point for us to bring all the waste just yeah I'm more more I'm more enamored with the history actually well and also the the environmental impact I'd just rather have it be somewhere else thank you thank you okay uh Vice May so I have to follow those two amazingly I never ceased to be amazed by the depth of my colleagues and um so I'm probably you know um when I say I'm a work in progress like I you know I I'm one of those people that's like I all about it I think it's great I don't totally understand it and I'm like you know kind of yuck uh the critters and what all that does so um I obviously I think you know this is about and so it was a great question about the critters you know it really was you know you just need one of those knocked over in a street and the whole neighborhood will be you know with a coyote in the neighborhood will be like oh we don't want well in my neighborhood I have coyotes and rabbits lots and lots oh and a whole ton of peacocks but I don't think they care about that yeah well we we'll find out um but have a little farm in my neighborhood especially after the storm you should have seen them all out you have peacocks that just shocks me over there uh but but again I obviously this is about creating learning understanding comfort that like oh this isn't a strange crazy thing um so um I commend everybody doing it now God bless them and um and I um I think that it's important within the group of people that you get that maybe you get a few people like me who would be um o I don't know about this you know get them because I think uh the way that this sounds you could I mean hey how easy is that emptying the you know scraps off your plate creating that put it in this little you know container put it out to the street all of a sudden something that's just like o you know oh well this is easy and we're doing something good and it's great so I would suggest that but I'm certainly in favor of the pilot I think it will create good learning and some comfort zone around what this is and why it's good thank you just a side note um we think we're going to get that in the firehouses oh yeah that's good commissioner Tor thank you mayor since this is a study I just wanted to appeal again one more time that we make sure that we really have this well rounded and placed so it's not just a select group of people or what have you that that may may mislead a study um and we come up with some conclusions and they may be incorrect but I just make that point thank you that's all I have to say thank you thank you commissioner well first I guess in your new new role it's not so new anymore but it's new this year right um congratulations on bringing forward a a new program thank you and I really just again want to commend Savannah on her work this is yeah this is her so I get it but I mean I I really appreciate you know Jennifer went you know on a big put herself out there to create some new positions for this year and you're showing your you and your team are showing great ideas bringing forward and so thank you exactly congratulations for that thank you um sometimes people need to know that we recognize that uh love the idea of the program I I am probably one of those that doesn't work doesn't focus on these kinds of things as much as I should because I get into a very busy pattern and just hope that the people around me in my home will do it for me you know it's one of those things um but I also think that you know if we can get this going on in our city we can possibly get some of our restaurants on it I think it can be a bigger program so consider that in maybe one of your pilot programs maybe there's a restaurant that's really into um thinking like this um maybe they get a bigger bin and it would be interesting to collect that data even if it's just one yeah you know what I mean um did we already get public input I can't remember yes I think you did okay and I guess we already have a motion right yes Rob and I F over it oh that's right all right more okay all in favor signify by saying I I I any opposed motion passes unanimously thank you thank you all right and then we have uh the proposed agenda for September 3rd anybody have any changes or additions no no okay can I have a motion second okay commissioner torgut and vice mayor fry thank you all in favor signify by saying I I any opposed motion passes unanimously thank you okay yes thank you um we are going to take a little break before we transition into our budget um we'll be back in you know five 10 minutes thank you [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] welcome back now we are transitioning to our Workshop items which is the final meeting on our 2025 budget um so the first item is our city manager opening remarks thank you thank you very much mayor and good morning again so as you mentioned this is our third uh budget Workshop we had our first one on June uh 5th of this year uh June 11th we established the maximum millage rate and that was conveyed to the uh um County and then on July 15th we had the budget budget Workshop number two uh there is a lot of material before you today and a lot of this this information you have heard uh for the first time and it's the first time that you've had the opportunity to discuss it amongst yourselves and so I I anticipate some some pretty robust discussion regarding some of the these um these items we are looking in some areas for consensus direction to move forward uh and incorporate some of these into the budget others there may be um additional followup that you're going to to uh request before the first reading on September 3rd um and so we're looking forward to a really good discussion today and with that I'll just hand it straight over to to Les thank you Jennifer uh Les Tyler the uh Finance director I'm here with as Kim and our budget manager uh just kind of go over the agenda briefly that we have today we'll be going over um the uh a follow-up Memo from the last Workshop number two then a general fund update a water Wastewater update risk fund and health fund updates uh a pay plan overview uh fiscal year 25 Personnel requests recommended by the city manager uh then the city commission fiscal year 25 Civic partners and Aid to social organization nonprofits uh Grant process and then the board of Finance report uh City commission comment and Direction and then City manager closing remarks so Les I'm sorry before you continue just procedurally mayor we are going to get through as much of this as we can by noon then we'll break for lunch and then at 1:00 we'll start with a to organization and the um the uh report of the board of Finance um my understanding is at at when we reconvene for a organization you're going to hand the gavl over to vice mayor there is funding for the Chamber of Commerce and that item and you will recuse yourself and leave the de yes will thank you and then once that over that's over someone will come get me and we'll resume where we left off maybe of course if you want I mean I can leave trust me I have plenty of things to do of course we will we play that one by year there you go we'll get you we'll get you all righty okay uh first item is the follow-up memo uh this is the memo for my July 15th Workshop number two and it's item 4A exhibit B and the Staffing report today okay if we can um on that follow-up memo um I what I don't want to do is go through each one of these items if we don't have to so does anybody have any questions on any of the items on this follow-up me Memo I have one yep so uh answer number 12 okay number City commission ask about the status of the online permitting software and would like a transaction survey of the residence to see if it's working the way it's intended response transactional surveys are currently not embedded in the city's EPL system that said staff will inquire regarding uh ability and cost when our trainers will be on site in early August 2024 so um I mean I I mean this with all due respect and politeness that sounds like a answer that's never going to come to be um I'd really like to understand what we can do to embed you know that feedback um and and I'd really like us not to let that drag that we can really have a hard answer of how we can make sure we're getting that good feedback on how well the system is and I mean and with all due respect this is an answer but it feels a little fluffy to me so well vice mayor we we will commit to a transactional survey no matter any which way we do it we will do a transactional survey for eppl whether it's embedded within the current uh process or it's a survey separate from this with the email addresses and so on and so forth but we will do a transactional survey okay than has just such big impact to our homeowners and our businesses thank you if I if I could add to that I I would also say that given uh the 18 years that I've been here and nothing reflecting the current staff um but the comp number of complaints we've gotten over 18 years and the different things we've tried to do to implement improvements I do think it's well worth having someone when they complete their process online having something pop up how was your experience I kind you know that's immediate we will figure out a way to do that yeah yes I I think that's really important um to that mayor may I pile on I I have that also um number two first of all you said that uh the response here was that in early early August um of 24 which is early August is is sort of right now so that perhaps you have information on that or if you don't I agree with exactly what the mayor said um we we need to tag that on there we need to get the immediate response third of all absent of any of that or even if we have some of that I would like to I would like someone to tell us um what what the current status is how how is how is that moving as if as if they interviewed and they could they could interview a few people um that are submitting the information quickly so just to get us just to give us an idea because we hear this and we hear this from people out that that we're talking to about how the city is doing Etc and we talk to contractors and they bring things up and I don't know the re I don't have anything to respond with so if I may please mayor it it's actually APL is working very well we when we first implemented it there were some some bugs in the system if you will um and Community Development and staff the permit clerks worked really hard to overcome some of those issues uh we have overcome the majority of the issues we have not heard complaints in in a while in regards to um the permitting process I think we've accomplished what we set out to accomplish and now the point is to report that that we've accomplished what we set out to accomplish so the transactional survey and and as well we can reach out to some contractors separately and answer those questions immediately as well you know how they feel the process is working now uh and that's relatively easy to do we can certainly do that but the transactional survey itself will certainly make sure that that's done thank you city manager because some of that's really easy we can contact yeah some of some of the folks really really quick and and get some kind of a survey just just to meet all of our our our requirements for for knowing what's happening and and having some sense and I'm and I it may be very positive so I think we I think we ought to do it should be very positive um that was number 12 if nobody else has anything else you're asking if we have something I I have something next as well out of here number 13 are are we going to are we going to discuss this or we just should I make my comments about that now go ahead um based on based on uh some of the things I'm going to be discussing uh later um I'm not really excited about adding staff at this point in time and that does not it does not include the six firefighters um with that with that program but it does include some of the others and so I don't know how how you want to proceed with I think we will do that at the time we talk about the positions later today right thank you any other any other comments on the follow-up items I got a dash I'm dashing good that was the only one any any thing with the followup anything with the followup uh yes 10 real quick um so the the update's good um we're still waiting I'm missing number 10 right there the it's hard for move forward until they have that so so what are we doing about that sorry so so I'm sorry commissioner you you want you want me to answer it so so we met with the boat club uh with penon as well the boat club had a um um uh a path forward if you will penon was going to review that path forward decide whether or not it was feasible um and then and then kind of move on from there they're still doing that analysis and Jorge has been them quite a bit to get the followup yeah so to clarify that um the analysis is being done by penon and the boat club should expect um that information soon soon is always relative sir um yes so um actually Rod Coleman has been uh communicating directly with uh Vince Barnes at penon um we have provided them the um proposal letter that had been submitted by S uh DG um they are looking at it given the analysis they were able to do without cutting holes in the floor and they are also uh utilizing Driggers and Associates The geotechnical Firm that's their sub consultant they're also on our gec list uh to review past data information that was available with the former pram shed site adjacent uh as well as the letter that was submitted by uh Rod to review so we are waiting for their response on that and then there was also I believe a conversation between the city manager and the City attorney on what type of agreement needs to be put in place uh in order to uh allow the boat club to make any repairs to the substructure given that it is a city facility but yeah so I just want to clear so that when you say they're waiting on their response boat club or penon the boat club and the city is awaiting Pen's uh combined uh report given their analysis they've done thus far plus information and input provided by the geotechnical okay yeah no I just wanted to clarify that thanks okay um I had a couple of things um or at least one I kind of bat around with my colleagues so we brought forward the idea and I'm sorry I just I don't know what item number it is um and that was the the general fund analysis on reserves and kind of where we are where we end up versus where we project um you know we all kind of talked about it at the last meeting so I just want to I don't know exactly what to do about it but I do think we have to address it in our budgeting process um cuz when we look at the idea is when we look at our future projection on our reserves that's what we were doing um and you see two years out we like drop down to whatever some ungodly number that we can't live with and then we're making conservative uh decisions which is nothing wrong with that we should be doing that but conservative decisions based on this the world's falling apart number um so when you look at the information you gave us right what we've done in the last 5 years and thank you so much for doing that I appreciate it because it's really evident to me we budgeted I'm just going to read through 2018 we budgeted 17% we ended up with 18 2019 we budgeted 15 and we ended with 19 20 20 we budgeted 15 and we ended up with 17 but budgeted in 21 we ended we ended with 15 and ended up with 14 budgeted in 22 16 but we ended up with 28 budgeted in 23 18 and we ended up with 36 and now and you know what we're looking at now so it it never really is as bad 3 years after out is what we project um and there's kind of a policy Theory I guess um in looking at it that way but I also the unintentional message to the people making decisions is oh my God we can't add a new program because of what we're looking at two years from now that we know is never going to happen and so that's what I don't want for Future Leaders up here um you know once you're here a while you kind of get that gist but you have residents looking at this and you're like how can you be making those decisions when two years from now you're looking at having 8% or 10% reserves and you need a minimum of 15 and so I I think it sends unintentional messages to the public that we're not being fiscally responsible and then it puts an extreme pressure on my colleagues I don't know what the answer is I'm not saying you guys are doing something wrong I I think it's a philosophical thing um I I do think our projections should be somewhere in the middle yeah just a a few comments uh thoughts on that um please when I look at the when I when I look at the first four years 18 through 21 uh to me they're very close in other words 15 to 17 to me is is oh they are yeah so the last two years is where our revenues were very high we talked about this a few times the revenues are very high the last couple years good news but they were much higher than budgeted two years in a row uh and that's kind of how why we have a good Reserve right now in other words it's 30% instead of 15 or 16% percent so the first four years I feel like there is very little fluctuation in my opinion no you're you're absolutely crap but the but the last two there is uh and you know you bring up a good point I was talking to city manager about this uh and and we have another we we'll show a forecast in a few minutes a finance forecast you probably saw already that you know changes the assess value uh projections in future years so I think we are uh conservative in our estimates in future years I think the county has been very conservative on their assess value estimates which we've been using and and so I think that's true uh so so that's something we need to look at and we've talked about that as we as we finish this budget we're in right now and we can talk about more when we go through that slide but uh the other thing I want to point out is uh you know the other thing we take into account every year when we do the budget is is that estimated column is really important as you guys know because as we're developing 25 you know we're using 24's estimate we're not using the budget anymore we're using 24 because we have better information and we're trying to base it off that so so um so those are my general comments that like I said no and I totally age with but I do agree I do agree that we we have been conservative and and I think we can look at possibly being less conservative in our future projections uh at least have that discussion yeah and I and I think on this document I mean I don't disagree what you've got here is fine it really is it it's very what you're not seeing on this document like for instance I'll just say in 2018 well if you look at the 2018 budget document you could look at that and say what did we project for the 2020 or 21 Reserve to be and that's what I'm talking about in the 2018 budget if you look at what the 2020 or 2021 projection was that threeyear out thing I guarantee you you're going to see a number that is under under our requirement that's the number it's not what you're projecting today for today and where we ended up it is that two to threee Outlook that drops and you don't see that on here so I think rather than I I think it might be helpful if that piece was added to this document you can then see because you can look at that oh 3 years before we projected 2021 to be 10% but 2021 I'm picking on 21 um ended up being 15 it ended up being 14 that's what I'm talking about and that's sort of the scare message that comes here and goes out to the public and I mean we hear a lot about it from our residents how can you be making the how can you be adding staff how can you add ongoing operational costs when you're looking at 3 years from now a severe def deficit in your reserves which doesn't give us the Comfort level to do that but we know that that's never going to happen so that's my point so I think if you can add to these sheets that two to three year out projection of what it was at that time I think it shows a message it's not what you're doing individually in this year I trust your numbers I know they're conservative I know they'll be slightly better we count on you for that so I don't want you to I don't want anybody to feel like I don't have a trust in your numbers it's it's sort of the policy of the two to threee out thing where it looks like uhoh there's a problem I remember go when we were deciding to build this I remember that coming up and that was sort of weaponized against us and I'm saying we don't want it to be weaponized we want to see what's real to make real decisions M so that's it again it's not a condemnation in any any way you know one other comment real quick is you know all I T to city manager about this we've talked a few times about this our budget I've worked at lots of agencies and I've never worked at an agency in my life that has a forecast for every fund that's unique and very few cities in Florida have six-year projections for every fund uh most of them have have a projection for the general fund only but um but a lot of those even even those cities they go out three years not General fund's fine for me I don't yeah what I'm I'm just saying we're we're very transparent yes we are and and and along with that transparency I think I think comes some of these questions that come up and it's very good very I totally understand what you're saying it's a very good comment and but I I think that if the city manager agrees I think we can look you know uh looking at uh being being a little more optimistic on some of our the the the AV growth especially the AV growth especially because I think we are a little bit conservative when I look at other cities and counties in the state that that that show forecast a lot of cities don't don't do forecast believe it or not it's not it's not in their budget uh when I look at those I see 5 to 7% growth in assess value the next three to five years and we're much slower than that you know currently so I think there's room there uh to and still be and still be reasonably conservative uh but uh but understand your comments yeah thanks MH go ahead well I was just going to add on to it because I think the and again I you know you guys are I think responsibly doing what you're supposed to do with conservative numbers um I think it is a lot in the projections I I think that um you know some of it is we did better than we thought which is a good thing that's a problem of of a good news thing um because we're trying to you know hedge ourselves knock on wood you know for potential bad news thing and and and where we don't want to throw ourselves into crisis but I will say like where I kind of get my head in this and again I'm just throwing it out there as a thought versus you know I don't have the solution but but the other side of it is sometimes then when we end up to be not in a structural deficit after we've kind of said oh we're in a structural deficit so we can't we got to make sure we stay stable out into the out years you know and then and then basically our revenues come in ahead of our expenditures and we don't really have an actual uh structural deficit you know sometimes I think in people's minds a little bit the opposite well well then okay if they have a high Reserve should should they have given some money back are they keeping more of our money than they need to are they being responsible as we look out so I think there are all things that can be misread in the Public's mind in terms of trying to do the right thing and protect ourselves for for bad days versus good news um but but it is I think it is those multiple perceptions that we can put out and I don't have the answer but I think it's important to talk about it so that you know cuz people can read things differently and interpret things differently in terms of you know what our decisions are um so I I just kind of wanted to put that out there because I always you know I always want to make sure we're responsibly using the citizens money and and and giving the right picture to them but it's hard and I know you guys are working at it's just a again if we were sitting here looking at bad news we'd be saying well see now it went the other way but luckily we've had two years of some good things happening and some Pro actually some projects that didn't get done too that kind of adds to that issue so that that's it I just want to add those I'd like to make a comment as well sure so a couple things have have existed or I would assume have affected some of this and we have we have arpa we have the IRA the uh the inflation reduction act and all of that by the federal government which is which really had played an impact on on pretty much every every municipality certainly certainly us you know taking $18.3 million on one of the programs I mean that that's make makes a major or has a major effect question is will that will anything like that continue out into the future probably probably not based on where where a budget deficit were way past theth authorized level at the federal level so um conser I I appreciate what the mayor is saying I'm not disagreeing with that I'm just saying conservative conservative Outlook is good particularly when you know things occurred uh in in previous years that that may uh that may have mess may have messed that little little diagram that you may have uh for what's what's really happening there was you really have to take that out uh to understand I would think although in some cases it's not a a huge number but it's big enough to to skew what you're thinking and what you're seeing so I'm not against what she's saying at all I'm just just want to make that point that there are things that have happened that have affected us and there are things that on the outside um are becoming more dramatic as far as what we're doing so I like the conservative side certainly mayor I me sure thank you very much I actually this is a good conversation this actually should be part of every budget um and I don't disagree with anything that's been said up here on either side but I would like to say at least I do Venture on the more conservative side I think that's a smarter more slower physical approach to take um I'd much CU it's the farther out you go the more unpredictable it is and I think that's an easier explanation to tell the residents on you know they're not quite sure or to have the story of hey we did better than we thought as opposed to getting ourselves into too deep and now it's a matter of we did this yesterday so now we have to cut something I'm I i' I'd rather just plot along it seems to me we're doing doing pretty well so I would just rather Venture on the side of uh being conservative and explaining that in the future years as opposed to again getting ourselves in a position of now we have to make changes because we we're a little too positive or a little too aggressive in our approach thank you and I don't disagree with you either I'm I'm just saying this has happened over and over and over again where we're we're adding especially with positions I mean we significantly reduced positions in the Great Recession um and as but yet we're doing more work now than we ever did and we have less people doing it and we have a hiring issue you know open positions 40 some 21 40 or whatever it was you told us so when you're looking at positions that's an ongoing cost it's not a ontime project and then you look at three years out it's saying you're going to be at 8 or 10% Reserve how do you get behind the position when it never comes it never has any one of those projections have never come out to be that low ever and I think with all due respect fact I think that's our story any Resident that comes to us to say why are you adding positions now when 3 years out it's doomsday I think that's a story one that's never come to fruition because of our approach and uh look at what we've done historically right and just asking the residents to educate themselves a little bit if you look historically at our budget it's always been doomsday three or four out because of our conservative approach and we're doing the right thing because I'd rather do that than have this and it's not artificial because it's all a kind of a guessing game the future but to all of a sudden look a little Rosier in those future years then all of a sudden we get comfortable with that I'd rather us as a commission ask those questions about three years out that keeps that helps keep me in check versus throw us into a crisis right then all of a sudden oh hey things look pretty good in 3 or four years let's add these positions and then go WTF I me sorry about that um it's okay it's yeah but you know I I'd much rather be a little slower on adding staff sorry because I know sometimes that's important then all of a sudden now you're inflating staff now we got to let people go now we're inflating staff just I I prefer a much calmer approach to well and I don't I don't you know I don't disagree with you but I also I've learned over a long period of time that in messaging in in communicating with our residents it is much better to show the obvious where it doesn't have to be explained than to go back and have to explain it because then it gets into a debate and um I'm not asking for a Rosie picture that is not any I used to the conservative budgeting I'm not saying we should do something different I don't know what the answer is but you called it the right thing it does look like Doomsday every single year and every single year you know that's not going to happen but yet our team is asking us to add costs so how do you make that decision we have a lot of new Commissioners coming up here mhm if I were them and didn't know the long journey that we've seen over and over that that 10% Reserve is never going to happen I'd be saying no to everything as a new as a new person and I don't think any I don't think our sorry I don't think our team wants that so again I don't know what the answer is I'm not telling you to be Rosy I'm saying I don't know if it means that we don't just put in a consistent growth of expenses and a very conservative growth growth on revenues and then don't address anything else I don't know what the answer is but for the last five or six years every time we look and it's kind of Doomsday so I I just think it sends a subliminal message to the people making the decision and the people out there that we then have to tell a story yeah well I'm I'm proud to tell the story I know but also the last 5 years have been really unconventional and so we're now going to base a change in our methodology because of an economy that's been through a pandemic and recovery and arpa and so it's like if we're going to make this kind of change I'd rather wait till we have a few years of sustainability within our economy so that we can get a better idea you may be right and you may be right I'm not asking for a change today think what would be helpful though is if we could put that information on this sheet you know the two or three year out whatever it is the Doomsday projection that you automatically see for every year that might have been three years before 2018 um what was projected than what we actually have I think when you see that doomsday projection in the budget line I just think I that's what I want to see is the doomsday projection that was that happened two or 3 years before we actually did this um because I just think it tells you a lot commissioner Walker you have anything yeah no well no I um so what I don't think you're a new one you're our newest one yeah thanks yeah um yeah so I I don't think anybody up here is saying that we need to make a change to have how we are forecasting the out years because the conservative approach is exactly the right approach and I'm just going to summarize just a little bit only because of the fact that it it kind of builds a basis here but um the one thing that and this is how this is it's all how you communicate the message and for me as the new commissioner up here I will tell you that the decisions that you know that I've made in conjunction with my colleagues um have been based more on the presentation of how we're going to pay for these things you know and the secondary impact to this of course is is what happens to the the out-year budgets because obviously it's it's got a ripple effect but um I think this last year when we went through this process you know we were looking at a budget in a a specific point in time so this is like right now we don't know what that oute is going to so my point in this is in this and again I don't know the answer on how to communicate this but when asked okay why did you you know what was the rationale for voting for you know whatever one of the capital projects last year well um we got you know you make the case that we we we've identified where the is coming from arpa was a big blip on the horizon because of the fact that it was different funding source and it had a specific expiration date that you know we we had to meet use or lose right um the one thing I have seen in terms of budgeting and might be something to think about is and I we we you went through this exercise 2018 to to current year uh me I I it's it's really is telling it really is um if there is a way to communicate the historical okay because you've got um you've got budget estimated actual and then a comparison of estimated versus actual um if there was a way to make to to build a you know Consolidated um number that talks about okay and then one more one more column would be historical you know say historically we are running you know 2 to 8% better than we we projected I I don't know I don't know if that's the right answer but I go in full circle on this I I would say the conservative approach is the right approach it's it's about you know how we we message this and cuz I I agree I you know historically I I what I see here is is that things are things are good anyway yeah hopefully that helped Jennifer thank you mayor um Les and I have had numerous conversations on on this particular issue and uh I'm comfortable with put putting a conservative budget before all of you because I want you to know what those outlying years look like um and everything in this budget that we're proposing through first and second reading is everything that we know now yeah so um and it is a point in time though and it really is and we want to show you the the effect of the decisions that you make now and how they're compounded in the budget in future years but the reality is that that that 10% that 8% whatever it is would never happen because we won't let it happen because you won't let it happen I was going to say that we would never let that happen right exactly so um what I'd like to do if it's okay with the commission is um to work uh with les and Ashley on future reporting and bring whatever we're proposing back to you after you've adopted the budget and it needs to be something that that all of you approve as far as how we forecast in the future it might be you know here's the 2026 budget for because we'll be looking at next year and this is how we're going to forecast if AV is at 5% if AV is at 7% and so on and so forth where we estimate that AV will most likely be given the trend in the past and what we know from from all of the agencies that Les reaches out to in order to to do that forecasting but absent you know when there's a vacuum then we enter that vacuum at the very lowest limit that we think it's going to be um and does it affect our programs moving forward absolutely because we're we can't do this um when in fact we really can and I think that's why we see a lot of these budget amendments and so on and so forth because we have some savings and we're able to to accomplish this project this year or that project this year so um we understand what you're saying and like I said Les and I have had these conversations um I you know the average citizen does not even get that much into the budget all they see is that 8% and how could this be so um let us and that's my concern yeah let us if you will work on how we're going to report report out on this and then bring it back before the city commission but I I would like that that the comparison yes yeah M you know the two or three year out what we because I think it it really shows you and that's not really shown on here I think you're I think your prog your projections are great I really do and I trust them and that takes time um but I doless I trust you immensely um so I don't want you to think it's that three four year out number so if you could give us this back maybe at the the first hearing of our budget or something that has that on there just so that we has one more followup sure it's it's a great exercise yeah it really is yeah mayor mayor if I may sure I'm sorry and this is a great exercise and I'm certainly only speaking for myself as a commission I also don't want to put staff in a position because I consider myself a policy maker I consider staff the experts yep and the moment I start giving my input on how that's calculated if something goes you know I I want to be able to trust staff and if I feel that they are because of policy makers they're changing their algorithm on how they do their job and if something goes wrong I don't want to then throw staff under the bus I agree so I want them to be comfortable in the way they do their job and then it's us to up up to us to improve it thank you for that and and so that's that's also kind of where I'm and I totally agree it is I just want you to know it is not my intention to change it I'm trying to express the end what's happening and what I've experienced in the last four or five years as an end result and you know Jennifer and may come back and say we need to keep doing it this this way or whatever whatever they say I certainly wouldn't right my my concern is they won't they'll try to accommodate and it's best they're going to stay in their Lane and what's true to their beliefs but the more we talk about we don't like this the more indirect and applied pressure it puts on them yeah and and I am uncomfortable with that I got you I I do I got you and I appreciate app that I think your comments keep us all in check and I appreciate that for me I just want everybody to know what I'm experiencing and so it's a direct result of it so maybe that is and if that's the case if that's required then again new people coming in need to be educated on that and understand it as they're making decisions um because they're going to get the same thing and not have the wisdom of institutional knowledge so it's it really is I'm not saying the whole thing has to be changed I'm just saying we have to address what the experience is and that has been my experience over and over and over again that's it okay we have five minutes sorry at least we didn't go through each item I mean there was probably a couple things I could have talked about too so uh all right so the next item on our agenda is the um how about the general fund update let's see if we can knock that out okay all right general fund update we have some revisions to the alarm range plan since the workshop 2 uh this is also in the background section item 4A in the agenda packet on page one uh the revisions are outlined in detail I'll go I'll go over the key changes uh I won't go over all of them if you have any questions let me know we had an increase we increased fiscal year 25 uh interest earnings by $300,000 uh that's trending significantly higher and we expect that to uh continue through 25 we also increased electric franchise fee Revenue by $100,000 in 2025 and we increased U half C sales tax by $100,000 uh in in 2025 the other key change was we added in the 25 budget 40,000 for design cost in 2025 and $380,000 for construction cost in 2027 for the har Master repairs uh we added uh fishing pier and day do project at $150,000 for design in 2025 and then 1.4 million for construction in 2026 we had an increase in property and liability insurance of 317,000 uh compared to our budget Workshop number two we we uh reduced overtime by $300,000 starting in 2026 for the estimated impact of overtime reduction with the six new firefighters uh under the safer grant program and we also increased our fiscal year 26 AV growth from 4.3 to 6% in the general fund and that information came from the county assessor's office about two weeks ago their best estimate in 2026 being uh reasonably conservative the summary of these changes are in the slide above and uh the general fund has increased u in 20125 estimate to 23.6% it was 22.8% in the proposed budget Workshop to the budget shortfall has improved that was we just discussed some the budget shortfall is uh was 2.37 million in the proposed budget and is now at 1.76 million in the uh slide before you today the changes are in red font uh and the changes I just discussed are are the items that are in red font uh in 2026 if the available fund balance is estimated to be uh 15.5% and that was very close to what the the proposed budget was which was 15.9% are there any questions on the general fund updates um vice mayor so this isn't giving an opinion on whether I agree or don't agree with new positions but does this include the new positions the city manager is recommending no that's a very good comment this this includes the six safer Grant employees but this does not include any of the recommended positions that'll be talked about later today so if I may vice mayor we do have the impact um on the general fund as you know and fund by fund of the new positions and can give you an overview of how it would impact will we get there if that's okay the general f and then we we could see a layout of that okay that that would be really important because again as we seem to do better on our Reserve you know I'm not suggesting you're doing this but we don't need to fill the Gap again we need to keep really fiscally conservative about you know keeping a stable budget and I just worry sometimes on the other side because we seem to be getting good news well then sometimes you can get a little bit oh okay well let's we're good we're good let's not let's not be as conservative so I just want to make sure I'm seeing all the numbers um let's see I had something else so and I guess going back to our last discussion if and it's a big if because of course you know not g would again we're only you know one bad economic plunge to you know having to deal with the crisis so I completely agree with a lot of the comments the commissioner GA said about being careful about that and um but if we would continue in the projection on the lower line to actually fill that gap of the red um under um uh deficit structural deficit then actually it looks like we're very stable for a long time does that make sense yes yes that's true right we're as stable as we continue to make sure we're every year being very fiscally you know what do we really need what do we not need so okay I just kind of want to make that observation I don't have any other questions right now commissioner TGA thank you mayor so when I when I saw this these numbers the first thing that that popped to my head was um so many changes big changes when particularly when you look at the when you look at the numbers just the numbers I read the first I read read the explanation and I I looked at the numbers and so some so really really big changes um I don't know what happened or what caused that um and perhaps you can comment about that and then the second thing is um and it was just something that popped into my head and it may be wrong um but it's probably partly right and I'll explain why and that is and that is that the amount of the amount of new new spending that we have in this in this group and and that may have been in a plan but it wasn't wasn't in in that in the upcoming year uh in the 20 in the year 25 lastly in concert with that is I remember having huge discussions on the board of finance a number of years ago probably whenever that was when I was there 10 years ago whatever it was what do you do what do you do if you end up with a reserve that continues down the road that's significantly higher well that could bring a big conversation it depends and it depends on why you think that occurred and it depends on what you think might occur uh the reserve is set aside for those things that that really you just assume might happen but if you know something or have an have have an experience then it would behoove you to perhaps bump that up because you know you you know you want that to be your bottom line not not necessarily your top line so how did you get that that little that that approach to that 15% but would you comment about about that first part is is is the is the revenue uh significant increases in that and then also the expenses that all of a sudden were applied you were just spending I guess what you thought you had perhaps sure uh yeah on the revenues we uh we look at Revenue we we look at revenues to roll the budget out and then we look at them again as we as we get further into the budget process so we had 6 and a half almost 7 months of revenues to look at for this year so we looked uh at the at the general fund especially and some other funds mainly general fund to see if uh if our projections were still on track and and in looking at them uh we had a small AV increase that was just the County's number uh interest earnings uh are sign are up significantly this year in 2024 and we're while the feds are going to reduce rate some uh don't expect them to be huge decreases over over 25 so we're anticipating our cash balance to be fairly consistent and our interest revenue is being up uh you know again next year in 2025 that's that's a $300,000 increase in interest earnings that's huge yeah our interest earnings in the general fund this year will be about $ 1,50,000 in 2024 so that's an increase you're saying 3 well the increase is 300,000 but but our but our uh our interest earnings in in the current year are are up D up quite a bit from prior year our portfolio uh has continued to increase as as we have Investments maturing at at a lower lower coupons we're buying new Investments and also the rates the short-term rates went up as everybody knows so so our portfolio uh has continued to improve over the last 12 months and and that's part of it too but uh but that that's the reason for that increased 300,000 electric franchise fees increased 100,000 just based on Trends uh Hason sales tax same thing increased based on Trends $100,000 in 2025 and uh the on the expense side the Harbor Master building we we talked about that at the last meeting we we the the marina master plan is out now and we wanted to get these in 25 budget for design so we we put the Harbor Master and the fishing pier and day do in to get the design work done uh in 25 and then we put uh the the cost the construction cost 380,000 in 27 for the Harbor Master and we put the the fishing here in 2026 for 1.4 million so we were able to put those in in in the financial forecasting model in the general fund the property and liability we talked at the last Workshop we were still fine-tuning the health fund and the risk fund uh and and still quite a bit of work to do on that uh back in on July July 15th we got better information more final information on our property insurance and it's up it's it's up dramatically it's up dramatic it's it's about 42% over prior year uh two years in a row of large increases uh you know other cities are filling this too but it it is a pretty significant increase so the the impact to the general fund of compared to the budget Workshop too is 317,000 uh large increase that was a combination of the increase in the increase in the in the rates as well as we we were not able to use fund balance this year as like we were last year so that combination caused that increase and then the overtime was just uh we one of the follow-up memo items we have today is uh one of the questions last meeting was what's the overtime savings going to be for the fire department uh working with uh the FI the the fire team uh our estimates $300,000 a year after they're all hired so we started that in 26 and that's why we we reduced labor by 300,000 from 26 to 30 and uh so those are the those are the primary primary ones for for the reason for the change so there was some really significant changes in a short time period of of of some of these yeah yeah some some of these some of these are larger dollars yeah some for example $300,000 is is a great example y so it and then and all of a sudden then we we include some of these some of these other expenses and I just and this is really not not um really not jumaine to this conversation but it is to a later one and that is we have we have a possibility of having three new three new people up on the commission three out of five um uh and they may have different opinions Etc but that's okay we still have to do our planning we still have to move forward um but but when I saw that I suddenly I suddenly said W that's that's a huge swing and I'm not sure somebody new coming up might be able to get it get get their hands on that since some of those have not yet been approved uh even even by by us up here now so on the planning side I realize you put it in there and I just want to make that point that that may that may stay or may not stay I would guess could all right well thank you have any questions on General no okay so we're going to we're going to see the impact of that um when we talk about the new positions yes okay let's uh go ahead and break for lunch cool I think we we have margarites in the [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] a [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] a [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] a [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] a [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] welcome everybody thank you guys for being here and I know most of you were here for the uh um the 1:00 Aid to org um discussion and review for consensus Direction uh I have to notify all of you that because I took my new favorite job as the president and CEO of the Chamber of Commerce I have to recuse myself from this vote um because there is a chamber um funding request um and it would be an ethical violation for me to vote on that so I'm going to do that and I'm going to turn the gabble over to vice mayor frainy so nobody worry about it it's not going to affect you all um but thank you so I I'll turn it over to commissioner frainy and someone will come get me when it's over did you you say it was your new favorite job though so we're not your favorite [Music] now okay then okay okay so uh the next item obviously is a to Civic partners and social culture organizations and I am going to turn that over to Les for presentation okay great thank you Les Tyler the finance director uh this is the aor subcommittee a a org subcommittee met on on July 1st uh this year to discuss the Les we can't hear you that well CU you lean over yeah the uh this is the Civic partner is it better okay this is the 2025 Civic partner and Aid org social culture organization uh Grant request this is item 4B in the Staffing the aid organization subcommittee met on July 1st to discuss the 2025 Civic Partners information as well as the a organization Grant sub uh subid the committee consists of the city manager the library director Phyllis Gori and myself uh the finance director Les Tyler the fisc year 2025 total proposed budget for civic partners and Aid to organizational social culture organizations funding total is 208,000 in 2025 uh staff has increased the amount by $40,000 over prior year this includes $37,000 for civic partner Duneden Fine Arts Center $37,000 for civic partner d Historical Museum and 37,000 for civic partner dunan cares we also have 87,000 for Aid to social cultural nonprofit organizations and there was also $10,000 available to be awarded during 2025 uh during the year this slide is the Civic partner request for 2025 if you look at the farle column it shows the um the far left column shows the recommended funding levels for 2025 and on the right it shows the subcommittee recommendation column uh the total under this category is 111,000 uh for civic partners and moving to the uh Aid to social culture nonprofit organizations and the recommended funding levels for 2025 the far left column is the grant request for fiscal year 25 and on the right column uh titled subcommittee recommendation column is on the right the proposed recommendation by the Ado door subcommittee for each each of the different uh agencies is listed in this slide on the next slide too the total is $887,000 and are there any questions and we also have as as mentioned a number of agencies here to uh speak as well thank you okay that's it um okay so um any questions from the commissioners before we ask people if they want to speak John I'm looking for the I'm looking for the $10,000 here I was scrambling trying to get some information out of here but it so it's it's on here the the $10,000 will not show on the slides that that's just a set aside amount that we have set aside for future grants throughout the year so that's the only thing that's not on this slide that's correct yeah okay correct thank you anything else you good Jeff yeah no no real questions here Mission Walker okay okay so uh well we have the recommendation of the committee and um and anyone who would like to come up and speak you'll have three minutes to speak you don't have to speak if you don't want to speak um but uh you you're certainly welcome to if you do so um hello Madame mayor and Ru Madame vice mayor commissioners city manager Deputy clerk on the behalf I'm the new uh chair for the last couple of months of the Dunning History Museum and on the half of the museum we so thank you assuming It Goes Forth and we thank you no matter if it doesn't we never come into every year assuming we're going to get it and I think it's real important for everyone to understand that but we've been evolving over the last couple of months we've been revisioning what we're doing we got a lot of exciting events coming back up we're taking what Vinnie and the historical so Society had originally done uh we're improving the building uh improving the staff doing improvements to help them help themselves we're looking at the uh systems and we're just and got new events everything from history makers to we're bringing in the Kellogg exhibit so that's going to be exciting that's going to be coming in next week and uh that's going to be in the middle room so we got that coming in and we also have the um uh rule uh which is a Smithsonian level artist that we've had in Denine a lot of people haven't known about he passed away um and left his uh uh house and his artwork to us so we're Alo going to have a little Art Exhibit in there too uh probably right after the Kellogg exhibit but at this time I'd like to introduce rest of our team come on georgeanne georgeanne you know retired from the art center and we've been lucky to be able I brought her on to be the interim director so georgean this was that a conflict of interest I wonder hello I think you all know me I must introduce Daniela gutterz Daniela uh was part of the staff in in January and she has been a godsend to me and so has Vinnie Vinnie Vinnie has done some wonderful things and we will be holding an event next week with the work that he's done for almost a year on the africanamerican community called voices from the Shadows correct um the history museum is very important to this city because so much of The Branding about deden the needen Vibe and why people should come here it has a very unique history I've been to all of the other history museums some are bigger but guess what none have the message that our denan history museum has so I hope to see you all again very soon and thank you for the support Vinnie it used to be the Vinnie and georgean show we would come up together and I know that the director almost for a year Andrea from the uh denen Fine Arts Center is here thank you thank each and every one of you for what you do for this city what you do for the residents and for the Arts and Cultural organizations we truly appreciate it thank you georgean when is that exhibit at the History Museum oh on next um um on the 14th on 14 it's Wednesday it's going to be for what Vinnie is doing it's a talk with Vinnie and AC who is Going to Be Our Guest speaker it's from 6:00 to 8 um and then the Ralph exhibit is working on that that probably be the end of the month but the um Kellogg House comes in in next week next week so we'll be letting you all know we have to actually build the booth for everyone to um go through the house virtually it's really pretty cool and we thank the library U phis it was a great help uh with that your three minutes is done if I don't keep this moving I'll be in trouble from my okay mayor thank you very much don't ask questions exactly that's okay you're good you're good cuz I I I kind of wondered myself um okay uh anyone else hello everyone I'm Terry Scully I am the chair of Dan and car's food pantry and thank you Commissioners vice mayor clerk I didn't know I had to say clerk city manager I have to I'm not I'm not a political person praise God right but I truly want to thank you on behalf of donating cares to be a line item on the budget now we have increased the food pantry has increased over 20% as far as giving food away and I I think what I really want to make sure it's it's a fine line that you as a city representative have to walk when we have the most beautiful area we live in Paradise yet you're not ignoring the fact that there are people that cannot be that aren't being fed and the misconception in this area is that these people are homeless I can count on one hand the homeless people that come to deden food pantry the rest are either on disability or they are working and it is staggering to see teachers in our County coming to us employees County Employees city employees all coming to us because of inflation or what have you but because of your help we are able to stay open we are looking to expand as you all know into another building so if any one even in the audience has any ideas for us to move to a 10,000 square foot any benefactor that would like to give us land if you're here I'd appreciate talking with you afterwards but I really really this has become a true mission for me because I've seen people I know come into doneen car's food pantry and to say that it it just I have chills because no person should have to come to a place like that but at least we have it so thank you once again we're looking to increase that amount as you see and find that money I know that you will and just thank you once again thanks Terry um anyone else like to speak good afternoon good afternoon vice mayor City commissioners city manager and city clerk and all the city staff that are here today I'm Susie Gizzy I'm the scholarship chair from the Duneden youth Guild and with me today is Leslie King our president Sandra Erikson our corresponding secretary and Linda Al the writer the writer of this grant the Duneden youth Guild has been serving the Youth of Duneden since 1964 and we are requesting funding for field trips to enable the students in our Duneden schools to experience the wonderful cultural and educational activities in denan that are at the denan Fine Arts Center the den History Museum Honeymoon Island and also swimming lessons for the preschoolers at Highlander Pool we also fund transportation for field trips to a variety of cultural and educational experiences within the town Tampa Bay Area the members of the dunen youth Guild thank you and are very grateful for all your support throughout the years and we thank you for considering our request thank you thank you ladies anyone else uh like to come forward hello my name is Rosalyn sevel and this is my part and crime Rick Castell hello first let us uh we thank you for allowing us to uh bend your ear for a bit uh we are uh act actors my voice is a little bad we're working on it we are actors and we are uh ambassadors for the senior Actors Guild and education services known as sages and we produce plays with purpose these are very mostly very funny some more serious plays they last about one hour wrapped around very serious messages that are geared towards what I like to refer to as seasoned citizens um the uh one that we have coming up in for next year that we're looking for is some help with the rent that we pay we are nonprofit We do not have our own venue and therefore we are perform all over the Tampa Bay Area wherever we can find a place but of course we have to pay for the rent to use of it and uh we're planning to do Memory Lane which is the play one of the plays that we have done next year at the coni center of the Our Lady of the Lord's church and the rent there they need about I think they charge us almost a little over 19 $1900 we get one day to perform and the night before as like a tech rehearsal um this play is called memory lane and it's geared to showing people how to to cope with being a caregiver to people friends and family who have memory issues um serious problem we know that we have a a pretty substantial population in Theon of seasoned citizens and we like to address them we have the one we're doing at the economy Center this uh next month September is about Falls prevention and then we do one about telephone scams we do another one about people giving up their keys you know so these are all issues that are F faced by seniors um we we depend upon donations we depend upon sponsorships and grants and that's how we get our funding because we're a nonprofit so thank you again for allowing us to uh express our needs to you um thank you thank you all thank you very much okay anyone else wish to come forward and speak Elizabeth hi hi everybody most of you know me I'm Elizabeth faar I'm and I want to introduce Linda Kelly this is our president of our board of directors and we are here today because I am so happy to tell you all that the deden community garden is going to be 15 years old next year this is a great thrill you know but along with that 15 years uh has seen the sorry did I move it okay hi but um so we're so excited that the dunan community garden is going to be 15 years old but along with that 15 years old is the deterioration and aging of the wood which is expected but this of course is something that we need so we have a very humble ask for money to replace the wood that has deteriorated and that is most of the garden beds and I just want to tell you we're so happy that we're still sustaining and not only sustaining but thriving we still off offer monthly workshops for the community not just our members but for the whole community of learning how to grow our own food and just about all things plantwise and um it's still a beautiful place for everyone to come and visit so any if anybody hasn't been there please come visit the dun Eden community garden it's beautiful and if you go right now even in the middle of summer you can see how gorgeous it is all the gardeners are doing great work it's so beautiful we have lots of things growing so please come and enjoy it and relax and it's not fenced in so anybody can come and visit and sit and enjoy the beautiful surroundings so we hope that you will grant us the funds to replace the wood and keep it looking beautiful for everyone thank you so much thank [Applause] you doing good stuff over there so and it is a humble ask um anybody else like to come forward and speak hello um I have it written down so I stay under my three minutes I'm Rosemarie I am the director of the heart gallery of panels and Pasco the heart gallery of panels and Pasco is a program under G Coast jfcs it connects children in foster care with their forever families through adoption there's approximately 500 children available in penela and Pasco right now that are available 200 of them are not in an adoptive placement did you know know that seven out of 10 girls that age out of the Foster system become pregnant before the age of 21 25% of those children who age out of the Foster system will suffer directly from ttsd from being in foster care since the heart gallery of penel and Pasco was created in 2006 we've assisted with more than 400 families and we're hitting 450 this year since we know photos cannot truly portray how unique and wonderful our children are our galleries in the community are are composed of trauma-informed approach by featuring heart art it captures the skill the talent and the attribute that our children have created themselves for some piece some people it may be a piece of artwork for others it could be an actual written poem The Heart Gallery plays a critical role in hoping and finding permanent homes for children in need and your contribution significantly AIDS in advancing this Mission we're committed to ensuring the grant funds are utilized effectively and we recognize the importance of maintaining transparency and accountability as the heart Galler of penel and Pasco continues to develop increasing connections with Community Partners the number of galleries displaying our heart art continues to increase in the past year I went from six galleries to 19 galleries the heart Gallery advocates for more than 80 children on a given month with the increase in community presence and children served we have the opportunity to expand our Capac City and dun Eden more heart art canvases and more locations increases our prospective adoptive parents and decreases the number of Youth waiting to be adopted within the last year the cost of the quality of a canvas the heart Gallery is known for has nearly tripled financial support ensures that the heart Galler is able to retain and build our relied upon recruitment strategies and avoids resource strategies as a former foster parent here in penales county and a Dun been business owner for over 10 years I work directly with children I have seen firsthand the impact that city of deden has on Foster Care children in the community during my career as a business owner I had the pleasure of being part of the Christmas parade downtown Market art Harvest Halloween happenings and much more in addition to increasing our galleries within the community the funds will by this grant will be provided will help us do more awareness events such as these thank you for your time and consider ation with helping us use these funds for art supplies awareness events and our canvases and I did bring a canvas so you understand what we're talking about when we talk about canvases in the community so thank you very much boy you timed it right to the second too I'm impressed that's impressive thank you thank you very much um great anyone else wish to come forward hi everybody I don't spend a lot of time on this side of the microphone although I'm up here a lot um hello to everyone on the dis today and thank you I'm here on behalf of the Scottish American society and we appreciate the opportunity to apply for the city's 8 to org once again we know there were 15 applicants from a variety of nonprofits we thank you for the award of $8,000 last fiscal year with this money we upgraded our sound and audio system we no longer have to hire a sound engineer for most of our show shows and it has almost paid for itself we invested in our education program by purchasing credits for two online resources for our genealogy work group we sponsored a Highland dance C Camp in June for 14 students we purchased and installed a little Free Library outside of the hall in May it's been very well received and I filled it more than a few times and we've made some serious bathroom repairs as you see in our application packet that we submitted um the photographs which started out not so major but became a very big job over the past 5 years we've uh put considerable money into improving this 100y old building as tenants of the city we own the building although we own the building we work really hard to make you proud of the facility um this year's application is for monies that will be used to invest in our education program we're going to continue to subsidize classes and events in our facility we currently open our Hall on a weekly basis to Scottish Highland dancers bagpipe lessons a pipe band rehearsal and a genealogy work group we will assist in promotion of Scottish Heritage in our community by celebrations of all the traditional holidays of Scotland Robert Burns night St Andrews night hogman and Tartan week we bring in entertainment along with either a dinner or a whiskey tasting out of 15 ticketed events this year we held uh that we held 10 were sold out we're always seeking the top Celtic bands from around the country Canada Ireland and of course Scotland we recently partnered with the denan blue jays for a Celtic night at the stadium and we have an event coming up with the Jewish Cultural Center next month sharing our heritage with them in the end we continue to work to share the Scottish American society with our community to enjoy the music dance and culture of Scotland we've opened our doors on a Friday morning for coffee and welcome everyone recently we won a uh we won a creative loafing Award for best whiskey tasting and it will be announced later in August that we've won a best live music venue award for 2024 from the Tampa Bay times we would be grateful for the approval of the recommended $10,000 oops for those of you who are traveling to Scotland tomorrow have a great time have a safe trip and we know that uh Duneden will be well represented say hello to our sister city thank you thank you thanks Jan appreciate it anyone else wish to come forward good afternoon afternoon vice mayor and afternoon anybody who works for the city so I'm gonna include everybody my name is David lamaka I'm the executive director of neighborly Care Network um you all mo you all likely know neighborly better as the Meals on Wheels provider for all of penel County um couple of things I wanted to do before we talk about our our grant request this year uh what we asked for was a little bit to support transportation services uh we're grateful that you're your uh your support has gone up the last couple years we're very app appreciative of that um this past year we provided $78,000 worth of services to Dun residents uh to folks in the zip codes of the city of dun Eden um pretty significant am amount of dollars doing that one of the requirements most of these dollars are federal dollars and there's a requirement that we come up with 10% match for that so we're not here today looking for $70,000 uh but just but getting a is getting us kind of toward that goal that's why we do some events and fundraisers and a number of other things we've also uh with the support of your committee on Aging uh that wrote us a letter of support to the governor's office we were able to get a $1 million Grant this year for taking people off the Meals on Wheels waiting list that waiting list right now is about a thousand people so this this million dollars will significantly allow us to take people off again the same challenge for us though we need to come up there's a million so they're like okay to get the million you need 100,000 10% they got to follow federal guidelines even though it's state money um so our challenge is that you know that neighborly provides not only hom delivered meals but we have a dozen congregate dining sites where seniors come uh we have a fleet of 50 vehicles that picks people up door too um to these dining sites we actually were operational yesterday we picked up seniors and took them to all sites and got them to all their appointments all their medical appointments and everything so in spite of the hurricane uh in spite of the co we never missed a day in operation so uh what neighborly does to seniors really is uh critical services and is is really life savings for a lot of them uh we always talk about delivering the meal the meal is not a big deal it's the social interaction that people get think about I always talk about you know we are the light to some of these seniors yesterday in the storms with power out we truly were the light for some of those seniors um so again we're grateful for your support uh we hope for to continue to grow our services here in in dun Eden but also in all of penis County uh which we serve so thank you for your time and again thank you for your consideration thank you Dave appreciate [Applause] it welcome good afternoon Commissioners and City staff uh would like to especially thank the city staff for grinding through all the numbers here um my name is Greg Howard I'm with the dun Eden music Society I'm a performer volunteer and Lead one of the groups uh with me is Karen Owen and she's also a performer with us and we would like to thank you for your support and I would like to say that being part of this process is humbling uh not because of the grants difficult but hearing all the wonderful things that the people who are also on this board with us do is really it it uh helps us be aware of how important the community is we participate in the community by playing music in the past year we had uh with our combined groups 23 performances uh we see many Commissioners sitting out there on the front row freezing with the rest of us and uh we appreciate the uh Improvement in the facility very much uh we have part of the funds from last year's Grant award went into producing uh promotional videos um very good quality and that have received over 500 likes on YouTube and I might mention those are international uh as a performing group we have expenses of course and your Grant Awards really make a big difference in us being able to get out and support live m music in our communities and provide a venue at times where people can just come and gather and have a shared experience thank you yeah I just I'm Karen Owen and I'm I'm a player um volunteer musician play saxophone with the um pelis community band which is one of the ensembles under D music society and I just wanted to share you know anecdotally what this has meant to me to be able to play with a group of very welcoming diverse um players under the direction of of Austin chook um we our last performance in may we were joined by about six of the dun in high school band members so it was really awesome getting to play with the students and giving them an opportunity to play once school was out I'm sure their band director was really appreciative but um and then they performed with us so that was really good there was diversity of age um I've played in this group for three years we had a we had a middle school student um and then um one of our performances I remember there were some people who were homeless um one person was living in his car outside of the church that we were performing at and I just went outside and said hey come on in listen so I think um I think this organization's been so welcoming and uh just it's just been a wonderful opportunity to be able to share live music and I don't know what I would have done without it because I'm not a super experienced musician but with the pelis community band um it's been great so thank you sorry I went over thank you you're good thanks Greg and Karen okay anyone else Jan okay good afternoon it's nice to see all your smiling faces I'm actually here for the um Janette donu here with the Chamber of Commerce but I'm actually here to speak on behalf of Katie desar and brassi who's our um board chair and unfortunately she cannot be here today because her house got flooded up in Cedar Key so she's up there cleaning that mess up so she apologizes but I'm here to speak on heral half so she um had a letter for me to speak to you guys about and first of all thank you for letting us to this and I'm personally I want to say thank you for letting us resurrect the foundation because it's been dead since 2019 and we're so excited that we can have this back into our community and helping our teachers in in in our community so with that being said Katie wrote at the heart of the dean Chamber of Commerce Education Foundation is a profound mission to Foster strong connections among Educators and schools thereby there thereby enhancing the very fabric of the Greater denan Community supporting our teachers and schools is the utmost importance in today's environment ensuring the retention and recruitment to maintain the strength and success of our education institutions the foundation places special emphasis on promoting the Arts and the music and provides scholarships for both students and teachers additionally the foundation is dedicated to celebrating Den's Educators through organizing special breakfasts and award ceremonies that recognize outstanding achievements this past year we delivered breakfast to 750 teachers at 10 different Denine schools during teacher appreciation week and again as teachers started returning to school we look forward to hosting our large teachers breakfast this January at the newly renovated golf club and can't wait for other events to celebrate and support teachers throughout the school year your generous support for this Denine Chamber of Commerce Education Foundation is greatly appreciated Katie desar PRI and again I want to thank you guys as well because being a former teacher I know this does mean a lot to them back in my Eon days but um thank you and thank you for all you do thank you Janette appreciate that okay anyone else wish to come forward Kimberly yeah absolutely good afternoon I'm berly Cass uh thank you all for having me be able to speak today I am the current board chair for random ax of flowers of Tampa Bay um the handout I provided for you just has the community impact report and then also the Duneden Community impact report and how how many places that we deliver the vase as our volunteers all either live here in Duneden or everything is our warehouses in Den Eden and hopefully you all know we recently moved to a new location which we consider the heart of den Eden 648 Douglas Avenue it was a building that hadn't been used in quite some time and one of our uh donors offered it to up to us and said hey you know what if we help you get this place up to Snuff it had been abandoned there were holes in the floor and that cost did rise we also needed to put a c old room in for the flowers that we get that we repurpose so we did move the new location attracted a lot of media attention uh Charlie beler Bay news9 and the increased in exposure led to an increase in volunteers since October of 2023 Raph has welcomed 57 new volunteers and 34% of them live here in Duneden we have a few from Tampa actually too that come over we are now processing more vase repurposing more flowers and delivering more Arrangements than ever before with this increase the demand has I'm sorry with this increase the demand has come in all the different areas for in the costs going up we have two Vans now and that requires more maintenance more gas and we find ourselves having to repurchase essential supplies at an increasingly faster rate in addition to paying rent and utility costs rafh remains responsible for a portion of the buildings build out costs so your Grant is going to help us be able to start to get that build down we um as she'll look on the impact we do hit a lot of residents and hospitals and assisted living and M big hunk of them are here in town so we would like to be able to spread the joy so thank you very much for the consideration and for my time to talk thanks Kimberly the new facility is great um okay anyone else I see Andrea all right well good afternoon vice mayor uh Commissioners City Clerk and city managers I'm Andrea NS uh for those of you who don't know me I'm the new president and CEO the denan Fine Art Center um I'm also here with our uh board member Steve batty um today I wanted to focus on where your dollars went for the 2023 and 24 year and show you what an impact your dollars made so our funding request was focused on programmatic needs for Youth and adult education uh our award-winning exhibitions and our ability to provide scholarships we added many new classes for Youth and adult education some of which include intuitive painting abstract painting meditative drawing a class called from Frozen to flowing art which is an art and wellness program and in taglio etching for youth we were able to bring back our monthly make it ticket weekends and our family fun nights we added a Digital Arts artists and Residency program called Nom madany which saw many applicants and in the end provided a stien to four artists Nationwide one of which is an artist named yali Elon who whose illustration project for The Residency was called intelligence having fun and yali is a denan resident we added a new youth education assistant to work specifically with children and teens during the school year after school and on weekends on Art and Technology we hired third generation denan resident Emma batty as our children's museum assistant Emma's grandmother Judith Judith Nela moved to denen in 1971 from Chicago she sadly passed away earlier this year but not before instilling a love for denan and a love of the Arts in her daughter Amy and granddaughter Emma we highlight their story and some of Emma's early childhood memories which involve creating in the children's museum in our upcoming artifacts magazine we are thrilled to now count Emma as an employee den and residents received 10% off of tuition on the hundreds of classes we off annually and off of membership we also offered scholarships to den and residents and to others to make sure that no one has cost as a barrier our scholarship program totaled over $330,000 in the 2023 and 24 year our exhibits have an essential Community component where denan residents are encouraged to submit and show their works we consistently host Community calls for art to include in our rotating shows and data shows that at least 40% of theart art exhibited in our community calls come from Den needed residents so our funding requests for 2425 would include the following goals we aim to add 10 new classes for Youth and adult education we hope to add a formal mentorship program for those willing to work in the art wishing to work in the Arts or be involved with the Arts being paired with someone who has made a career in the Arts I thank you so much we're so grateful for the programmatic support you've given us in the past and we're so grateful for your future support thanks Andrew appreciate that okay anyone else wish to come forward and good good afternoon vice mayor Commissioners and city manager my name is an metnal and I'm here representing visit denen a nine member volunteer Board of marketing and organizational resources including the city's communications director CEO of the Chamber of Commerce and the president of the downtown denan Merchants Association our newly revised mission is simple to inspire and promote denan as a unique and inclusive experience the city of Denon recently completed a year plus Community Brand Story alignment project awarding the Chandler to a Chandler thinks an agency renowned for helping communities find direction for the promotion of their destinations visit Den Eden was fortunate to receive a comprehensive tourism strategic plan and I'd like to highlight three of their ke key takeaways from their extensive research regionalism creates denan tourism denan benefits greatly from being part of the larger penela County tourism ecosystem with spillover effects from the strong marketing efforts of visit St Fe Clear Water visit to needen Aims to focus on marketing um denen to enhance the guest experience within our community while much attention is placed on attracting guests it's crucial not to overlook the importance of keeping our local residents informed and engaged also a vital part of our ecosystem our annual March spring training brings robust tourism to Denon requiring little additional promotion during this period our focus is on supporting our local businesses during off peak Seasons we're thrilled to share that the our uh 2024 marketing and business plan is well aligned with Chandler thinks proposed plan leveraging 2021 covid recovery funds visit to needen has made significant progress reaching approximately about 70% completion of a comprehensive brand refresh this fall will unfail new assets featuring a sophisticated blend of modern historic elements inspired by vintage travel posters this refresh branding is designed to create a distinct and recognizable identity for visit to needen another key takeaway from the ch thinks plan while balancing Beauty and functionality with Timeless sense of tradition and quality we are developing a website and comprehensive backend that will serve as a realtime searchable Hub of denan businesses and experiences partnering with the city the chamber the ddma to capture categorized info on over 1700 denan businesses and organizations which will form the foundation of Iden damic and centralized platform this fall we will introduce the Hub to our business partner Community empowering them to engage and further promote you wrap up and sorry I'm going to skip to the last part we appreciate your consideration and respectfully submit the funding request for the design and production of Booth materials that will enable us to effectively represent and showcase denen as a unique and inclusive experience to drive guest and Resident engagement in 2025 and Beyond yeah thank you an okay anyone else wish to come forward okay okay seeing no one um so I think you're just looking for a consensus right Jennifer so uh so maybe we just uh basically go to final comments and just if you're on board with the with this recommendation uh do you want to start with commissioner gal thank you vice mayor I certainly support recommendation but I do have an additional ask within this recommendation uh for the Dunning Scottish um uh Foundation if we could increase their requests by $22,000 what the $2,000 is going to do is going to allow them the opportunity to teach P Brock uh in in our school systems and and uh the city bands and what P Brock is is it is an ancient art of bagpiping that that uh will certainly enhance our our school systems and and our our bag pipe band and a reminder of what the Scottish Arts Foundation does is they put on our Highland Games and our Celtic Festival and uh which is recognized by the county for the economic impact that brings to the community uh not only through the Scottish Arts foundation and our CD band and high school band and Middle School bands uh they've created that Scottish culture in addition to the other uh Scottish organizations in town to uh create a pillar within our branding uh through Communications that acknowledges Scottish arts and culture as a true part of the fabric of deden and so for an additional $2,000 I think that's money well spent so I would uh I recommend uh approval of of this motion with the addition of the $2,000 thank you vice mayor okay um maybe we can just get everybody's comments before we address that specific ask uh commissioner Walker thank you V mayor um so you know it's it's it's really you get the presentations and in any given year you you get to see all the great things that are not for profits do in this town and uh I but I I keep looking at the bottom line here and you know it's we only wish there were more that really is is the takeaway and because it's literally we we get a front seat of just all the wonderful things that um yall do for the city of dened and and uh anyway I I just want to give you my sincere thank you for what you do you truly make our town a much better place thank you thank you commissioner Walker um commissioner TGA thank you I am uh would just like to make the comment that I really appreciate what everybody does here it's incredible you come out and take and spend the kind of time you do uh presenting your programs uh I support every program here um I'm going to go ahead and stick with what the committee has proposed it's a very tough thing to do we have now circulated around and we have that committee being uh those that were mentioned previously um basically their staff it's a very difficult job and uh and so I'm just going to go ahead and support what they do I want to thank each and every one of you especially those um that uh are are really helping folks that that need the help but there's not a single organization here that's not doing that so thank you very much again as as communicated previously I wish there were more um but I'm going to go ahead and support what's been presented thank you very much for your time and your efforts um I'm going to support what's been presented as well I I but I I have to say uh probably similar to what some of my fellow Commissioners said but it's interesting sitting up here and listening to all of you because we know the needen is so many things right and so much of the specialness of the needen I see as you guys get up here whether it's the Arts or history or Garden um you know Denine cares you know we care about other people that we're trying to do things the music um our Scottish Heritage all the things that are special about us and and passionate about us and so so a big thank you to all of you for being here and and expressing that and reminding us all the of the importance of that um so uh so that being said um let me ask you this uh What uh commissioner gal is adding is talking about for ad was that considered in I guess let's let's ask you or or Jennifer was that considered no no was not no okay um would it do we have extra we have a balance in here $10,000 so should maybe you guys look at what uh the commissioner considering and give us I mean that that money will be there in some form for some extra and maybe give us a recommendation on what your thoughts are on that versus us trying to kind of on the Fly uh evaluate how that fits into needing that extra money for other things that could come up certainly would that make sense to the rest of the commission uh well question um of that uh you know that $10,000 is that uh allocatable to I made that word up is it uh is it available to all any organization that's been selected through the vetting process so the $10,000 is in the city Commission budget um is a remainder for Aid to organizations and it has been used in the past for any of your really not for-profits it's not necessarily limited to those that have submitted an application you did one year for example but there was there was a application submitted uh I think pay for new drum covers for the for the band when they were traveling um I can't remember any of the other allocations but you have departed from from those who have submitted an application specifically so so actually there wasn't there was not an application put in for this I'm sorry there was not an application put in for this specific purpose that you're talking about I I didn't see the original application I didn't review that so but I knew it I know it's part of their it's part of their ask what they would do with this money and that's fair enough I mean they would just roll that into what they ask was yeah so John you got anything to add to this or well um I really didn't want to second guess the the committee and and we've always put money we've always put some money aside and so I think maybe that could be Recons I would like to see it be considered as a separate subject matter then because I could speak for everybody out here for certain that's true um I could honestly so yeah and I I'm sorry I I absolutely I absolutely support that um I I think that's probably a topic of another conversation I mean uh I'm pretty sure I belong to most of these organizations on the list and I would love I would love nothing more than to give everybody everything they want um so with that said you know we've got a decision to make um with regards to the remaining amount of money but that should be separate my my op yeah I don't want to see my future be everybody has something else but I respect what you bring to the table I really do and so I think they ask me to bring that forward and so I totally understand and I respect it and uh so but but uh so if everybody's in consensus that we approve this and we treat that as a separate item for a later day um can I just have a everybody in favor say I yes I I okay and uh so we have consensus move forward very good thank you and and vice mayor just to emphasize one thing too is that this funding will be available after October 1st after you adopt the budget sometimes our non for-profits think that they're it's available tomorrow and it's not what somebody out here waiting for money tomorrow okay and thanks again for being so much the heartbeat of our community thanks for being [Applause] here oh you it I think we kind of had it yeah yeah me yeah oh that was everybody coming to speak actually right here he is so we'll just take a quick break and get the mayor back up here [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] and quickness is greatly appreciated Go All You Les thank you mayor uh the next item is the board of Finance report this is item 4 C in the staff report today we have Mel Ora the board of Finance chair and Al Crossman Board of Finance member here today to present the 2025 uh Board of Finance report I'll turn it over to Mel and Al now thank you welcome gentlemen hello hello thank you for allowing us to present our findings uh I'm Mel or chair of the board uh I want to start by thanking Les Tammy Ashley and Jean for all their help and assistance they've always been very responsive and uh and to our needs and also a number of uh City department heads who've we've trooped through our through our meeting throughout the year giving us a lot of information we've got three specific issues we want to address this morning or this afternoon excuse me uh but before we do that I'd like to take just a minute or so to to take a look back uh from our report from last year uh we pointed out that expenses exceeded revenues by 13.4 million this year uh revenues exceeded expenses slightly which is very positive considering the challenging economic factors last year the capital plan exceeded previous year by nearly $30 million the variance this year is down to last year by6 million which is a $45 million change against good positive direction we made several comments last year regarding the general fund and while expenses this year's budget exceed revenues Again by 3.1 million there are some positive developments the fund balance as a percentage of operating budget has improved from 15.6% last year to 22.8% this year the rate of change in expenses to revenues has changed considerably last year expenses were over uh excuse me year-over year were up 9.5% versus revenues of five 9.5 versus revenue of 5.1 this year the revenue rate of change exceeds uh exceeds expense rate by 7.8 to 7.2 so good work um we have three areas that we'd like to chat with you about I'm going to take one of them and then Al's going to take the other the three areas are Staffing uh the marina uh uh master plan and then Capal projects so I'm going to discuss the marina uh master plan for a second we know that's still in progress and I think they're getting close to presenting it if they haven't already uh the master plan which which goes all the way out to 2040 uh there's a significant amount of expenditure that you are considering um and uh we have a couple of comments first of all uh back in 2023 there was an internal study by the parks and rec department and a external uh Consulting Group the rafus group uh and they drew the same conclusions and that is we're under Market as far as the Marine is concerned and as far as far as the other marinas in the area our our slip rentals are 40% below those uh entities the weight list for Boat Owners is around 119 people waiting for a slip and I think it continues to grow so we're having some some difficult time understanding how a business could function with very little inventory selling it is available 40% less than competitors we had made a recommendation to do a firste increase of 25% and then 10% thereafter and I believe the final conclusion was we were doing 10% a year the latest Marina master plan numbers I saw suggested that we're going to be a 10% increase through 2030 which is going to bring us back up to competitive rates with the other marinas in the area we're still recommending a more aggressive uh approach to the implementation of slip runal increases especially given all the Capital Improvements that are anticipated which is going to make the marina even more attractive and valuable that's all I had I'm going to turn it over to Al for uh U Staffing and capting welcome Al I get the fun part so the board of Finance knows how to clear a room uh Dave lefor sends his regards he's on a boat someplace in France good for him and he designated me as the person who had to speak on the things that he wrote so uh we have had several conversations about uh Staffing over the last couple of years years uh and we've met with Teresa uh we spent a good amount of time in our u in our meetings discussing Staffing um there is a a bit of a concern uh with regard to the growth in headcount just generally um if I could just make a a comparison if you look back at uh you know previous years like right after the crash in 2008 um our staffing was actually dropped off and was significantly less than where we're at or what we're proposing at 408 and the only thing I think that we would like to bring to the commission is to kind of put that in context in terms of how the city the residents of the City View the services within the city and I've lived here for 34 years I know that uh Mel has been here for over 40 and I think we both agree as I believe all of you do that the services that are being provided in the city have been terrific uh as long as I have lived in the city I'm in there's they have never dropped anything along the way so I think the point was made if we were able to uh if we were able to achieve a good service level uh over over that period of time when we were in in you know suffered from economic issues with regard to the the downturn in 2008 um and the population hasn't grown that dramatically since that point has been pretty stable I think we just have to ask their question and it may be a rhetorical question but nevertheless I think it's appropriate that from a pure headcount standpoint and then consequently a dollar standpoint does it make sense that we have that kind of growth when the population isn't growing um moving on to the second and third points in that particular paragraph um we do agree with the fire department recommendation it is uh those positions will be staffed um but we would hope that there was an there would be an offset in terms of a reduction in uh maybe some operating expenses and maybe some overtime expenses um likewise in terms of the total overall budget in terms of FTE I think we agree from a from a dollar perspective um that it it makes sense I mean the growth year-over-year is not exorbitant um but I think we would ask the same question there we've had a lot of growth in overtime we've had a lot of growth in in operating expenses particularly in Contract Services which is maybe an offshoot of being short on staff uh and we would ask that we may take a look at it and see if it if it makes sense the second point that um that we have spent and I can tell you from a personal standpoint that we have spent a lot of time taking a look at Capital um it is and you know first of all I think all of the all of the uh of our board agrees directionally with where the city is going from a capital outlay standpoint it has a lot to do with how we're being perceived as a as a community um I think it also speaks very highly of the focus that you all have put the city is put on uh m m maintaining our infrastructure and making sure that we're set up properly uh going forward having said that um we do have a concern that there appears to be some slippage from year to year in terms of the capital plan um we we often see carryover from year to year we see if you take a look at the budget this year uh we've got $ 37.8 million uh allocated in the budget uh for Capital um if you look at the carryover number the carryover number is 31.1 um now in the context of of the way Capital operates we understand that there is bound to be carryover from one year to the next particularly with some of these large projects but it does have a bearing on on the financial piece of it over the long term if you look at the you know good example of a terrific Capital project that came together well that hit all of the benchmarks that needed to hit is this building I mean you absolutely hit the nail on the head but yeah we have other projects that can continue to be kicked down the down the road so to speak in one form or another that is adding to the expense because of inflation because of the fact that it's difficult to get contractors to do the work in interest expense so again we would just take a ask you to take a look at how the capital plan is put together and see if there are some roadblocks is Staffing is a is a problem um we would ask you to take a look at that if we need more engineers in order to be able to accomplish some of these big projects like we had in in water and wastewater that's coming up we would ask that maybe we need to take a look at reallocating some of those do in payroll in order to address those specific issues um other than that uh I would only ask that um if you have any questions uh between Mel and I we would be more than happy to answer those and I think I was brief U mayor oh you were brief and Brilliant all right I'm gonna go to this way any questions of our team uh no questions comments no questions any questions questions any questions any questions no questions com all right you you can sit down and we um of course we thank you all extremely for all your hard work um are there any final comments other than we want to thank them and then we can say our comments when we talk about each item let's do that okay gentlemen thank you so much and give the rest of our committee our sincere thanks as well okay we are going to jump now I guess back to water Wastewater what do we really need to know about that I am so joking general fund is always the most important thing yeah we have a quick this I'll make this real quick we for the general fund we did a we did a a finance scenario I just wanted to share real quick and all we've done here is uh we've taken the assess value and we assume that assess value growth would be 5% each year starting in 207 to 30 that's the only change we made compared to the uh general fund we just went over and we just we just want to show the impact of that difference and you can see uh our discussion earlier about shortfalls you know that that that changed uh dropped the shortfall from 1.7 to 1.2 million we just wanted to share that with the commission that wasn't brief and Brilliant you're as bad as me I did that last meeting sorry last right ahead that's okay are there any questions that we just we we did this last year we we thought we'd show it again it's just showing another scenario with a little more AV growth that's all it is a little bit more what growth assess value growth we've got the assess value growth at 5% each year from 27 to 30 and uh in our budget right now it is less than that it's about 1.5% less each year roughly so it's just another scenario a little more optimistic a growth well we're not you know we pushed out the what do we call it Jeff you called it something doomsday at least until 2028 you know so yeah that's pretty good and and if I can mayor just since you did that I and which kind of goes back to our previous question right you've heard Market drop uh in the last coup couple days and there's concern about employment levels and things of that nature which things can turn on a dime and so are you still comfortable with these numbers given that there's just a real quick reaction to something we don't know what the long-term effect is or even the short-term effect yeah yeah this is just a scenario uh I'm not comfortable uh putting these numbers right now in the in the tenative budget I I'll discuss that with the city manager uh but I just we just want to show an example of the impact of changing the assess value by a little bit you know as far as I think that's important to do yeah good question but you're right there's some concerns out there with the economy yeah no there is but you know jobs are remaining somewhat stable the interest rate is on it's poised to go down um and we have a SE a what's the right word a completely different election ahead of us now so I think a lot I you know I I think the market effect is very likely to be reacting to that just my humble opinion at first glance yeah stock market I agree with some of that for sure yeah yeah some of that yeah for sure that doesn't mean there aren't other things happening but if you look at all the other factors mhm we should always be conservative but the other factors suggest that you know we're still pretty stable out there so anyway any questions on this we'll go to the Wastewater fund if not please okay water Wastewater fund update uh we've been some changes in the 25 budget uh the first change was the utility relocation CER project that was discussed some earlier today the design cost of that we we the changes made were we had a $500,000 estimate in the 25 proposed budget for this project due to recent information that was discussed earlier uh F dos estimates are now are now higher than that obviously and we have a funding request that uh was in 2024 for design cost and then we've got uh 2025 uh excuse me we're put in 2026 we're putting a $3 million uh cost for construction for this project so the net increase to the longarm range plan is about 2.8 million by getting that project in there at a at a a revised budget amount the next is we have a Wastewater Emergency Operations Center this is a belter road storage yard tank this project was uh listed as unfunded in the fiscal year 25 proposed budget uh staff wants to put this back in uh and we the the funding request we have is now a $2 million project and that'll be 200,000 is in 29 and we've got 1.8 million in 2030 for construction for that project and the last item is we have career lading and this was discussed a little bit at the last Workshop that we'd be adding this in and in the 25 budget we've added in career lading for the water Wastewater Fund in the amount of $242,000 and that includes wages and benefits for Clear lad career lading in 2025 for the water Wastewater fund uh Teresa Smalling uh director of HR and risk management will be going over Cur lading a little bit more in in a few slides later and as far as the alarm range plan for the Water waste water fund with those changes just mentioned uh the 25 available fund balance has not changed much it's now at 22.5% it was at 23.3 so just a slight change there but there is a larger change in the outer years uh with the with adding those projects I mentioned of about $5 million out out to 2030 that increased uh our cost in the outer years and we'll we will be sharing this information with our uh our rate consultant we just started our rate study for the Wastewater fund and we'll be sharing this information so they have all these cost and and projected projects in the study and Analysis moving forward and you want to talk about doomsday that's a doomsday scenario right there yeah and keep in mind and and we did we did had a footnote in here too that was mentioned in red font on the left we do have a footnote there mentioning that uh that came up the last meeting and thank you for doing that I think that's really important again if anybody's watching this or if any anybody goes back and reads this Staffing or you know sees this in a budget document it's important for them to know yes we are aware we're working on a rate study yes that was a good recommendation we we'll have that in all the the marina flood and all of them that have this supplies to yeah right any questions any questions on Water waste water uh yes mayor it's and I I know the answer to this so maybe more for public purview uh with the curu uh the intersection in the undergrounding and and what we're doing here especially the 3 million for next year and the 500 for this year I believe it is why didn't we plan better for the why are these adjustments in in August I'll let Hy answer that one oh he jumped right up didn't he I'd be more than happy I'd be more than happy to answer that question um as as you may recall commissioner and and I know the mayor has been involved in in dealing with the dot and Ford pelis that intersection project has kind of bounced schedule wise in the dot Works Dot's work plan quite a bit over the last few years it was originally going to be a design build project then it got shifted back and and pushed out um and then it got moved back forward again so it's it's fluctuated quite a bit um we had basically put a placeholder in there having not had had a detailed design from the dot as to what they were going to uh be um be doing as far as the extent of their project so uh we were recently notified that they've accelerated that project they plan to bid that project uh next fiscal year um and so that was the reason you had the earlier item uh in order to hire the design firm to um to to meet that Target because uh as a part of being uh included in their Construction contract the bid contract then our design documents have to be a part of that bid set and we have to enter into an escrow agreement where we make those funds available not unlike what we did with Skinner so um we didn't get much of a heads up that it was moving that rapidly um so that's why we've had to engage uh the consulting firm to to do that work and be prepared um having done this for quite some time um this is a bit of a Ouija word uh kind of a thing uh we are hoping that it in fact uh does hit uh fiscal wise in 26 because the Dot's uh schedule or fiscal budget runs July to July or ours runs October to October um if they stay on current um track as far as schedule and when they advertise we may need to make those escro dollars available in our fiscal year 25 we're hoping that it's not the case and we can make them available in 26 but if um it could be worse than this it could be needed to be done in 25 but um I think there their schedule is quite aggressive and other agencies may not be able to keep Pace with it which may push it out slightly and they may have to defer when they advertise and in their case they call it letting the project um but either way we have to move or if not we're subject to delay claims because our our facilities are are not uh relocated in time and it impacts the roadway project so um I wish I had a better answer for you but I don't no I I I think that is the answer we have two things going on one it's our utilities and so we have to move them ourselves on our dime but then also it's out of our control on when it's in their plan so we have to move with them and so I just didn't want the public to go well why are you talking about this in August making these changes they should plan better we actually did plan so it was something out outside our our our ability to do and my concern Jorge what you just mentioned was that it they could be too aggressive and so other agencies won't be able to keep up or or organizations or companies won't be able to keep up which may if I understood you extend the project and so now my concern is is how long potentially is that intersection going to be disrupted um and I know that's not something you can answer but I I it's certainly something we should be concerned about I think oh it's it's I'm sorry it's going to be disrupted for a long time I I would say it is I mean atast and part of these improvements I mean I would think it's at least a year to a year and a half possibly two um but the reason for that this is all part of that whole trying to relieve the causeway backup mess and um part of these improvements along with those variable messaging signs in the end will make something that our residents have been complaining about for decades yeah back but yeah no it's a major it's kind of like Skinner I mean it's not as it's not Skinner is a whole another animal but it it's you got to go through the bad to get to the good right it's a major project in a major intersection yeah yeah and to your question on on scheduling you know I've got Brian an Tony and with waist sweater sitting over my shoulder here so he's been working with and we've gone through a couple of dot project managers on on this particular project but uh we were approached well over two years ago I think um because of the um lane widening associated with the intersection Improvement there were going to be um impacts to the driveway access to our uh our Tower that's on the South Side the one with the turtles on it um such Turtle towel to that the driveway was going to be so steep that we couldn't get our equipment in and out so um they being this is partially Federal funded have to go through a pretty protracted process if they've got to work on property that's not their so uh with our staff advancing some funds on our end we relocated fencing we took down some um trees and worked with Craig Wilson at the time to actually shift the location of the driveway access to the Tower to the West so that we could come in kind of at an angle as opposed to straight in off of curu um so we did that two years ago thinking this thing was progressing and all of a sudden it's like oh by the way we're doing this you know next week so it's it's shifted back and forth we' tried to work with them quite a bit throughout the process we welcome the project we don't mind working with the dot it's just it's a surprise when you're trying and I'm going to tell you the shift has come because of funding issues right thank you Hur and I'm sorry if that was a rabbit hole I just thought it was important for the public anybody else anything on Water waste water water Wastewater anything else on the water Wastewater fund questions just just on that subject we're just discussing oh okay if I may so um to try to make this short I talked with the city manager uh yesterday about some of the detail of that and I just want to get this make sure I have this this straight um and I'm not trying to be funny but we I actually said maybe we maybe we need to bridge that whole area for for $2 million and live with it um and I'm kidding um but were we've looked at all different ways of doing that intersection I I know that when I was on uh forward pelis we we we really opened it all up and it was just no really recourse other than what the the current plans are when we do when we spend the money not only on on the design side of it um we're then going to spend the money to to fix it and that's going to be kind of horrendous but is that going to be taken care of that's going to be uh put out by the by fot fdot's going to FCA going to do that we're going to pay for it but they're going to let it out correct correct the only the only cost that the city is responsible for is obviously the design of our the relocation of our utilities and the cost Associated that we would put an escrow once the project is bid for the award of those utility relocation components of the project the rest is on the dot so that's the money we put in escrow based on whatever whatever the estimate is and whatever it comes out to be we have to pay for that yeah very similar to what just happened with with Skinner you know we had an estimate going in they bid the project they came back it's this much and we had to get creative on how we were going to fund that exactly and so the com one of the comments I want to make um we're all we're sitting and saying boy isn't this a shame of how this works but you made a great point and we wish to have this happen as soon as it can from if nothing more from a safety standpoint So the faster this happens I know we're going to spend the money and we also have inflation that goes on with every one of these projects so it's best that we get we keep our fingers crossed at the at this July to July really does cause it cause this to happen early next year thank you anybody else with anything on water and wastewater okay okay next is the risk risk fund the fisc year 25 risk risk fund has been revised uh with more current information since the last uh budget Workshop too the overall increase is increased as well and the allocations across funds the total budget in 2025 is 1.1 million more than 2024 budget and that's due mostly to an increase in property insurance and liability insurance in 2025 over 2024 of about 42% year-over-year that that's high level the only change we've made any questions on the risk fund any questions on the risk okay okay this slide uh I'm going to turn this over Teresa this this just shows the premiums and and make a few comments on that good afternoon uh mayor vice mayor commission Teresa Smalling director of HR and risk management for the city um uh what you're looking at is our annual schedule of projected insurance premiums uh as less remarked um the increas is 42% over last year but you may remember last year we are uh property in property premiums alone were at 83% which was uh low compared to a lot of other entities in the market and our overall increase was about 63% part of the reason is you'll see that our total insured value increased from over 199 uh million to uh over 280 so almost an 80 thou $80 million increase in our total insured values uh that was partly because the Florida Municipal Insurance trust who handles our our property insurance they did an asset survey in 2023 which then created an increase in our overall values we did a correspondent appraisal of our our assets to make sure that you know nothing was would be overinflated and uh worked with the risk consultant to um cut down we cut out about 28 million out of the property premiums alone either by uh self-insuring the asset or place it in what's known as property in the open so we have been working to keep the cost down right now it's at 48% fmit is scheduled to release their final um increases around August 15th um the amount you're looking at is is uh putting in a 5% increase we're hoping that there will be a flat increase which would mean then that the overall amount would drop to about 36% uh the um automobile and workers comp are higher uh due to um having overall losses in those areas uh I can take any questions that you may have on this no I have questions but I can talk to you offline yep well I have to nothing great nothing no big deal um how significant automobile losses talking uh frequency more frequency of automobile acents or one or two big ones or I would say um we had some increase in small ones but there were a couple um the fire truck the fire engines had a couple that um came out kind of Big Ticket items so you know and you know they they insure us for excess Auto we self-insure it up to a certain amount and then yeah I'd be interested in a sheet on that what we've what's what we're dealing with with that that would caused that increase um I don't have anything else but just property wow anybody else questions on this yeah just a in terms of the the increases in the property insurance are you able to summarize what the largest impacts are to that is it more is it more Market driven economically driven reality driven to some degree because when uh assets are being insured now they're being insured at how much it would cost to replace the asset so it would be uh a function of construction costs um whether replace we're replacing it or just you know repairing and as you as as mentioned we added uh almost 80 $80 million to our total insured value so that would be City Hall um the stadium upgrade was uh assessed a little higher than we had it uh and the you know the Player Development complex the EOC all those are are most recent um buildings that you know have been recently reassessed in that asset survey pred and the Premed oh so a majority of this increase then is kind of uh things that we've we've kind of imposed upon ourselves the increasing of the insuring the shared value of 80 to 80 million and overall construction cost okay all right okay no thank you sounds like what happened to our houses we continuing yeah go okay uh next is the health fund the the health fund expenses and corresponding Revenue have decreased uh about ,000 since the budget Workshop too this is due primarily to reduction in expected medical claims uh and reinsurance amounts uh the increase year-over-year in the health funding is now 6% increase in 2025 compared to 2024 and I'll turn this slide over to Teresa to go over some more details on the health health fund uh hello again uh so these are some items that uh we have for discussion just to go over our health fund and our our employee benefits in general before I get started I just want to um you know sort of set the stage if you will so we are in a constant game of Lea frog if you will with our fellow C CI cities and counties the they shortly before we completed our class and comp study olar completed theirs and then shortly after we completed our class and study Clear Water did theirs lgo started on theirs pelis Park so once we set our salaries everyone else came along and if you will messed up the curve realizing that we can't continue to always augment salaries we have been working among staff and with uh our Consultants to come up with uh creative ways to enhance our benefits our um uh enhance our overall work life balance initiatives and we've also um Jennifer in her uh meetings with staff throughout the year has heard suggestions from staff so some of the items that you will see today are a result of those discussions that we've had to try our best to um have effective Recruitment and Retention tools whereas we just can't keep de increase in salaries so just wanted to give you a quick background on our medical plan you may remember back in 2023 human announced that they would no longer be underwriting uh employer Group Medical um plans and so to get uh to be proactive the city did an RFP in concert with our benefits consultant the gearing group uh we released an RFP for medical dental bental uh Medical Dental eapn VIs and we selected siga for our medical dental vision lines of coverage as well as our EAP uh we um had four plans before we now have three because of siga's uh out of area plan is their network is so significant that we really did not need that out of um out of service network POS Network that we had before uh back in last year for fy2 before we absorb the cost of the 4.6% increase uh to premiums for employees on the next slide just a quick overview of the plan offerings that we have we have the base um n base in network or HMO that comes with a health reimbursement account uh a pretty rich buy up in network uh plan and then a high deductible or Consumer Directed highed Health Plan with a health savings account um and I won't go into the details you you you can see what the benefits of each plan is uh we started the high deductible Health Plan probably now about four years ago and um you know there's a lot of um angst if you will about high deductible health plans so as an incentive because it is our least expensive plan we took the difference between the premiums for the high deductible Health Plan and the base HMO and we used it as seed money for employees that take the high deductible health plan so on the next slide what you see are the um the the amount that employees who select the high deductible Health Plan get put into their health savings account in their first year um with the move from human go uh our Wellness Plan also changed we changed from humano go365 plan to the Vitality Wellness Plan the go365 plan was uh sort of built from the Vitality platform so we thought that with this would be least disruptive to employees having to already go through the medical plan change uh the what you're seeing is what commission has approved uh as wellness and in incentives for our employees that if an employee completes certain categories and those are built out by uh the carrier Vitality then they would uh have the amount on the right side uh placed in their accounts for use for wellness you know Wellness benefits whether it's medical dental vision expenses uh last year we only had the 700 550 and 400 because Vitality had those three main categories while go 365 had four so this year uh we've added in and we had it as a TBD so this year we've added in the bronze Plus in which an if an employee completes the online Health assessment and or a biometric screening they would get $200 in their either health health reimbursement account or their health savings account of course we do want our employees to be fully engaged in our wellness program because you know that helps with our claims keeps our claims down gives us healthier employees uh more engaged active employees um and one big change with the Vitality over growth 365 was the employees Vitality status is not dependent on their family members so if their family members don't don't participate they're not held back the next slide uh just a quick overview of our claims experience update uh you can see that medical claims have decreased 8.7% over last year while Pharmacy claims have decreased uh 60% over last year um it should be noted that we had an incredible amount of Pharmacy claims increase not only the amount of claims but the the cost of the claims due to the cost of pharmaceutical drugs the new drugs coming online um that you know uh pharmaceutical companies would be able to charge pretty much what they wanted um the national increases were about 8% um typically Florida is 2 to 3% higher at the beginning of the year we budgeted for approximately 7.2% uh and um we we're going to look at what the what we think is our best deal based on our claims over the last 12 months and just as an FYI the plan expenses are running at about 90% of funding the next slide just shows that for most of our plans we have at least a 2 to threee guarantee uh so that means that our our costs are are will be static at least for the next 2 to three years which is of course is a good thing we do have some changes in uh some of the the plans um that we'll be talking about in a little bit uh so next slide shows that um the actual Pro projection is for about a 5% uh increase to our rates to handle medical inflation and reinsurance with our reinsurance uh we have or it's otherwise known as stop loss basically it's it's been at about 110,000 for almost 10 years where shortly after I got here we changed it from 100 um 100,000 to 110,000 uh the market has gone significantly higher so in um working with the Garing group we we have negotiated uh a high higher deductible but um with some decreases I guess over time because the higher your deductible the lower your premium so some of the things that we are looking at to try to remain competitive in the market as uh with our benefits is uh paying 100% of the employee only costs for the base HMO and the high deductible health plan we did not choose to do it for the buy up because the buy up is a very Rich plan employees if they take that plan it is a higher premium but they're only ever paying uh co-pays they don't have co co insurance or uh other costs as the other plans do uh we also are looking at um transitioning into a four tier structure so as you saw previously right now we have employee only employee plus uh one or employee plus spouse and then employee plus family we do know that you know quite a number of our employees H are single parents so having the fourth tier of employee plus child or employee plus children is a lower premium and therefore we're thinking that will help our those families a lot a little bit more we're also looking at increas in our dental benefits for the PO uh in this area unfortunately a lot of the dentist they do not um take in netor so um a lot of our employees have to you know go with the PO plan so that they can have dental care so um we are aligning the in network the out of network with our in network benefits and as I said before we're changing our stoploss deductible from 110,000 to 130,000 so just going over what I said before the transition to four tier rates the base HMO um employee only base HMO and high deductible Health Plan employee only 100% paid and then uh stop- loss 130k uh we also have a new provider for our short-term short and long-term disability they're actually our previous provider they they used to be siga and now they're New York Life we had changed over to standard in the last RFP but we've had a lot of uh challenges with the standard and so in doing a a um an RFP for those benefits we are now switching back to New York Life for short-term and long-term disability next slide just shows the the rate tiering of going from the three tiers to the fourth tiers and of course being self-insured for our medical claims uh the Garing group worked on making sure that we try very hard not to end up with losing um uh funding um for our plans so the medical PL tier renewal options um basically we're looking at if we maintain the three tier structure uh with the 5% medical increase or maintain a three tier structure and and the city absorbs the 5% medical increase the first plan would be the the um the employee shares the increase and then the third option is the change to the four tier structure the city contributes 100% to the single tier and then the city contribution uh to dependent tiers is shared uh with the employees so uh staff's recommendation is to go with option number three keep keep in mind that those numbers that you see are based on current enrollment we expect to see that that those numbers change as um employees make decisions based on having that fourth tier any questions I'm looking at you you're the one that always has the questions I'll pretend I didn't hear that uh well first of all um the employee only us doing 100 City contribute 100% what um what do we do now it's it's almost like 97% 97% give or take for employees okay so it's not like our employees have a big skin in the game on the health benefit for example the high deductible employee only it's uh about $11 per pay yeah but do the HMO because that's your majority right yes uh so the I think the the um one of the exhibits and I just have to get there one of the exhibits that you had in the packet pardon me it's this one right executive summary that's not oh it does it doesn't say what we paid last year so right now oh was 20 2928 hold on uh the for the for the base uh a single employee pays $13.51 per pay so if we did 100% for the base is are we like the only one in pelis county that would be doing that no this is uh industry yes M jump good afternoon uh mayor commissioner Sean Fleming Senior Benefits consultant with the Garing group um so actually to answer that question we we did a survey of a large number of the surrounding entities and actually you guys are a little bit more the outlier in that a lot of the entities do have that um kind of core plan I won't call it the base plan because you have the high deductible but they do have that core plan at zero for employee only so a lot of your your surrounding cities that you compete with that's kind of what you're competing against okay great thank you and uh my other question is so going to the Fe the four tier structure I think over the years the reason the city didn't do that was because it would adversely affect you know maybe with a family it would just create the family to be that much higher I'm just wondering any any concern with going to the four tier and how it um you know unintended consequences of who's getting clobbered more kind of the more you break get down the more one group that maybe needs a subsidy more gets clobbered just trying to make sure yeah so so the first thing I'd say and and I apologize because we're the ones that made the writing so small um but if you take a look on that exhibit uh that Teresa had referenced so obviously you know your highest impact is is going to be family um I'm looking at you know the base plan so about the middle of the page if everybody has that on the far right um you know an employee as an example with full family coverage is going to go up $14.92 uh a pay so when you look at overall the cost of family coverage um when we've done these analysis as an example for other other groups vice mayor and and you may have recalled this even from the past you you might see like a $100 increase for somebody on family and and a huge redu uction so the what I would say the good news is is the rates were not in a a place where it moved it to a drastic change like that where that is that adverse impact uh what we're really kind of seeing industrywide is as the cost of coverage have gone up the number one concern you hear from individuals is it costs a lot to cover my family and so what we really feel the the four tier helps you do is right now as an example if covering two children I'm paying the same amount as somebody that's covering a spouse who generates a lot more claims than a child and three kids right those those two employees are paying the same amount so this puts a little bit more I'll say Equity but I hate using fair or anything in Insurance because nothing about insurance is fair but it it more appropriately aligns those costs to uh where they're being incurred and and gives especially those individuals with just covering children a little bit of a a benefit of a break which we ultimately think helps the city be more competitive and recruting against other entities that have yeah I think that's kind of where I was going is that you know historically it's almost been kind of understood if there was a little more subsidy for a big family like that's okay you know we you know because it would hurt them more to try to you know spend the money but you feel like this is a good balance I do and the other thing I'll not not and I I I'll just make up a hypothetical example but let's say that I do have two children that I plan to cover well right now there's no I don't know if you want to call it incentive or disincentive like if I have a spouse that maybe has coverage at their job it it costs me the same amount whether they come on or not so I think actually what you you might have is maybe there's some individuals that do have coverage on their own and they're actually selecting your plan and that potentially drives some of those costs up so I think that offsets sort of any of that that other side risk no good thank you anybody else yes please so we um I'm I'm going to not get into the Weeds on this I'm going to try try to talk generalities um what we're really doing here is we're trying to look at some incentives uh for our employees uh period I guess um and second of all when we look at the costs of this program um is is there another thing that we could be offering the employees in the terms of in the terms of cash as opposed to these to these programs case in point case in point wife has got a job somewhere she can use she can take advantage of the insurance there um the person here is off offered this um doesn't really need it um more of a more of a like we talk about a schar sport or more of a cafeteria plan kind of a concept I don't know the all of the numbers that that that that that that would equal but um is there something there that we could that we could look at instead I want to keep in mind I want all of us to keep in mind that that we have a number of of our constituents who of course want to have want us to have have employees but are also struggling themselves um so I I'm I have to ask that question if you want I'll give you I'll let Teresa answer more specific to certain things but I sort of what I heard in there and correct me if I'm wrong was kind of a a broad concept of what some groups would call it an an opt out essentially where we're we're giving someone funds if don't take the insurance is that what you're talking I just want to make sure I answer as as as one idea so specifically to that um you know we do have some groups that potentially offer an opt out so they'll you know give $100 or $200 a month if you don't take our insurance maybe because you could go on your spouse's plan or something along those lines um historically what we see with that is although there may be some benefit right it's obviously less than what you fund for an employee um a couple downsides the first is you do have competitive good benefits so uh I'm going to use a general term here but if I'm sick I'm not going to pass on good benefits for $100 or $200 if that makes sense right I'm going to I'm going to stick with the Better plan so that's that's one thing that we typically see is you may see somebody that's young that really doesn't have a lot of claims they'll take the money but then that that hurts the health of the fund overall uh that's the first thing the um the second thing is you may have a handful of individuals now that are already doing that so let's say I work at the city now and I take a spouse's plan well now you actually need to fund all those individuals so sometimes that cost offsets any of the savings you get on the other side so that's specifically on the opt out and then I can let Teresa talk about any of other items yes well right now our opt out is about $75 by weekly if someone decides to not take our plans because we do require our employees to have medical so they can take their spouse's medical or another plan and then we'd give them $75 by weekly we hadn't really looked at into increase in that right now but we are looking at other options that we we'll discuss later that as a alternative I'm good I don't have to go any further down that road just asking commissioner Walker any questions just so I'm clear um we start talking about four tiers because I'm having a exceptionally I'm having a hard time with this um it's a very complicated document if you haven't been looking at it for 18 years it does take a little while to understand it well here's what I here this confirm my understanding or lack thereof one tier would be employee only MH one tier would be employee plus spouse I don't know what that plus one slash plus one so it' be two people right right uh employee plus child Ren SL plus one yeah so at least one child so one okay and then you could cover three people in that you could uh one or more children so as long as you're not covering your spouse you could qualify for that that tier all right and then employ plus family how many in that family that's employee plus spouse and at least one child okay at least one child could be more all right okay thank you and if it's to and if it's to me no questions it's to you okay no questions okay I guess we can we can continue thank you so the next topic up for discussion is the fy2 5 pay plan uh the items that we'll be discussing an overview of our plan for the 25 pay plan uh City commission salaries Personnel requests recommended by the city manager the utilities career lad program that was mentioned previously um some proposed salary enhancements for Department director salaries and retention bonuses uh proposed policies that we briefly discussed back in the budget Workshop number two so for fy2 we have no changes to our grade structure which we um was a result of our uh 2022 23 class and comp study we will continue education on the classification system because as you will see it if it's used correctly it can uh become a pretty effective tool for retention and uh recruitment and then uh we will continue to update our pay policies including the promotion policy which has not changed in a while as well as make some revisions to the employee Ser it should be service system Sorry rules or the essr so uh the commission had asked us to take a look at um overall salaries in the in the area and you know compared to the current commission salaries so the the slide you're looking at now shows the survey that we completed of uh mostly our sister surrounding cities uh as you can see in the red denan uh is right at the just right just below the just above the median for commission and um also for the mayor but below the current averages so um in looking at what suggestion recommendations we could make uh staff's recommendation is as you know uh as part of the class and comp study we increase the minimum wage of uh employees at the city to $15 an hour uh as of 2026 that would be at a requirement for um anyone having employees so our recommendation is if we put the commission salaries to $15 an hour that would be 15,600 based on a 20-hour work week which I know that you work a lot more um and then we adjust the mayor's salary in the with the same difference that it is now the difference between the 15,000 and the 11,000 ,500 that would put it at $18 3654 per hour or $1 19,100 uh dollar so that is stas recommendation for commission salaries looking then at the updated numbers in the salary commissions the needan commission and mayor salaries would now be above the average just above the average below the third quartile in the region questions so what's your recommendation did you say questions I did sorry well can you make clear what your recommendation is yes the $50 an hour for the commission and $19 uh I'm sorry $18 3654 for the mayor uh effective October 1st okay questions yes ma'am when uh when was the last time the commission voted for an increase uh so it would be a little over three years ago by ordinance uh the commission salaries are supposed to be looked at every 3 years I thought it was five it was changed to three in the last ordinance review if I remember correctly 21 to 24 21 was the last review I believe I don't know I feel like it was like 5 years ago okay which is why we were looking at it this year okay but whatever thank you I could be wrong okay thank you questions okay thank you next next are the personal requests recommended by the uh city manager uh you may remember that uh we brought uh I believe it was a lot more um request basically we last budget Workshop we presented to all the requests made by all the Departments and uh in going over all the requests the following is what we are recommending as um permissible or practical for what the employee the Department's needs are so looking at reclassifications uh we do recommend the reclassification of the recreation technician the special event progr programmer and the um public service maintenance associate that's all those are existing keep in mind all those are existing positions that are just either moving up in grade or moving across their grade uh as well as the TV and seal truck operator also a position re class um that's taking a a maintenance one and and reclassifying it to a TV and seal truck operator for Public Works they do don't uh currently have one the Public Services crew chief is also a reclass of um um employee that is currently um fulfilling the arborist duties over at Public Works the Public Services field technician was requested as a new position but we're recommending that it be an existing position as be used as a a promotional OPP opportunity for an existing position so then it there is no uh there's a zero FTE change and then the last recommendation is the reclass of the sanitation uh the senior admin assistant at uh sanitation uh to be in line with uh all our departments currently have an administrative coordinator as their quote unquote office manager and this has been requested um a couple of years now um and I apologize that somehow was not um given to you uh with the rest of the packet I think you now have the copies uh the new positions that were uh are being were requested and are being recommended uh the grant program coordinator uh we're recommending that as a full-time non-exempt position as a grant program specialist uh this has been a request by several departments over the years because I think there was a conversation recently by the commission of the amounts of grants that are available but you know the employees we we have not been able to leverage it because of Staffing basically and somebody to be able to do that as a full-time Endeavor uh we've already talked about the six firefighter paramedic positions uh its Rec uh requested three positions we're recommending to the its database coordinator uh will have software capabilities and will assist with the administration of our Erp um that has been a a more than full-time position that Our IT director has um spent quite a bit of hours um trying to coordinate and it is uh we we have six or seven modules Michael seven seven modules that we continue to um need uh to administer so Teresa if I may so so the director of the department is really the one doing the coordinating with the training and and so on and so forth in the Erp so this will free him up um for more Visionary activities if you will the um the the department had uh three Network administrators however with uh recent legislation concerning cyber liability um they it's necessary for us to have a cyber security analyst so uh we now have two cyber security analysts and an IT network administrator to so therefore given the amount of infrastructure that we have uh we are recommending the its network administrator 1 uh for um approval uh the librarian it's going from a part-time position to a full-time position to fully support the passport office which um was put in place a little over a year ago uh which is um a revenue producing uh arm of the library at this time uh Recreation leader uh the or organizational review that was conducted over our four operational um units recommended additional an additional Recreation leader position this was requested last year but was pulled back and is now being uh recommended again uh the craft worker one and craft worker 2 positions were also recommended as part of the or review however uh the the public works is currently recruiting for a facilities manager which would be the supervisor for these positions as well as an assistant director of Public Works therefore uh we are recommending that even though these positions be approved that they would not actually be uh posted or you know put into play until uh partway Through The Years uh 6 months into the year so about April first uh and then finally Wastewater has requested an environmental specialist to uh for their fog program as we talked about at the last budget Workshop um to assist with uh and also assist with some of the regulatory uh reporting that needs to be done uh and then on the next slide you will see the impact by fund uh uh the general fund impact is just over $156,000 and then um it's broken out by all the rest of the funds for a total of 600 just over 600 or almost $601,000 with an overall um FTE change of 7.5 not included in the firefighters so the three the top three are all in the general fund top three on the list on the at the very top yes I'd like to just make a quick comment just just for to when you look at the law range plan because this question is going to come up later I think is the impact of the general fund is that number but I want to point out that the IT services positions are allocated to the general fund about 55% and the facilities out are allocated about 50% to the general fund so so the general fund impact just roughly with if you take those into account too is about $348,000 for general fund impact estimate so I just want to point that out okay um um mayor if I may yes Les uh you and I spoke about this yesterday um given our Reserve at 23.6 where does that uh take us where does that take us if the down by just exactly about one percentage Point yeah about one so 22.6 yeah okay I just you're going to ask that later so I do we have a chart to show the impact of this uh we don't have a long range plan but we have a we we have a breakdown by fund of what the impact is yeah which is what we're looking at I mean yes yes yeah so it's 300,000 for general fund 348 about 348 yeah yeah so 350 okay that's how my brain works yeah big numbers yeah okay uh questions gentlemen looking at you guys uh so back to the previous slide uh I thought we had a grant program coordinator in as a new position last year did we not no this is new this year it is you're probably thinking of the legislative thing we talked about yeah well I know we've talk what we've done is is we've talked a lot about grant writing grant program and um I'm I'm glad to see it on there uh and I certainly think it really Bears some consideration and discussion but that answers my question well speaking of that Jennifer don't we I mean I know we have a grant consultant Harry when we when we're going after something specific he helps helped us a lot with other things usually parks and wreck stuff but he helps us with I mean in theory wouldn't this save us some money along long way using um Harry certainly would um no I mean having our own right versus Contracting out well and there's really two sides of this first of all um grants that that we would apply for and submit and then the other part of it is that we really labor with is the admin ation of the Grant in the department so that's kind of divied up uh Department by Department it's not really in one central location which makes it difficult when you're trying to monitor the grants and I see this this position um if the City Commissioner authorizes um um that we hire this position this is going to be a very busy person because we're going to create under the city manager's office and this person would be under um our sustainability um uh division supervis vised by Nicole Delino and I supervise and I consider this person is going to be as I said extremely busy and still need help from the Departments okay chck anything uh yes um on the grant Rider I notice that uh being funded out of general and solid waste water yeah Water waste water um and I know that they're going to be extremely busy is there the possibility that they will be uh funded through additional funding sources yes and we would then bring that back to you if we're finding that that they're spending a lot of time in other Enterprise funds then we would bring that back to you for for a budget amendment to make sure that we've properly allocated the Salary thank you vice mayor so kind of trying to understand the city manager's longtime Vision here because we have added a lot of positions a lot is there a point that you see the hill where the efficiency study and all the things we're doing and you know the grants person will start to actually decrease positions yes I do and and what's your when you think of that at night and you fall asleep and you dream of it what is what's that dream look like to us I think that when we're operating at maximum efficiency in every department so so is that is that when I'm long dead or is that in any yeah just trying to understand well I think that that first and foremost the efficiency study that we're doing in public works is is is a Monumental importance to this to this organization in terms of program based budgeting where we know that we've allocated the staff and we know that that we have the efficiencies in every department and we've crossed those Silo barriers that's what program based budgeting is it doesn't matter um what department is working on it and you're allocating you know Personnel from other departments to work on the program not the line item and so I can see that as we move through the organization and we have right-sized every Department as far as you know program based budgeting and how efficient that we are at that point I can say yeah yeah we we know we're accomplishing our goals we're accomplishing our levels of service and we don't need additional staff I do think that this the Strategic plan is going to help with that a lot in terms of we're going to set up performance goals and levels of service and be able to report to you how it is we're accomplishing those levels of service um and and have all the data you know and the analysis that we need to say yes we are as efficient as we can possibly be so and in some of these for example when you're looking at the grant the grant program coordinator we know that we're really clunky in all departments as far as grants and administering grants even though we're accomplishing it it's still not as good as it can be um and then certainly with its um with those two positions uh they've been asking for positions uh for several years now ever since that I ever since I've been here um the department director is boots on the ground with the Erp and can't get out of the Meer if you will in terms of of of what he's able to do in the department so we need to to to dedicate some labor to that specific activity um and I'm I I want to go through the positions position by position because Teresa already did but I do see a time where we can say that we're we're acting efficiently that we don't have employees working over time to accomplish just their basic fundamental uh job duties um and that that we're satisfied with where we are so as we look at the fact that we are Overcoming By some good numbers where we were pre the Great Recession and when I look at say 2022 379 and we would be moving to 408 that's almost 30 positions I mean that's a lot of positions and so I guess how would you respond to that's a lot of positions like who who who what are we doing well well what I would say though is that um and we heard from the from the gentleman from the board of finance that I will tell you nine of those are golf course so just so you know so right I don't actually want to stick this in the citizens Minds either there are that's right we did add golf course and the golf course is you know generates revenue and and so on and so forth but um the gentleman from the board of Finance um um I appreciate his comment in terms of we were uh delivering a level of service that was exceptional in the minds of some of our residents um with with you know post recession numbers uh on staff and and so what's the difference now and I would say the difference is if you talk to staff and I have as you know twice a year go to all divisions talk to the staff if you talk to staff their position is nobody ever represented it to to the commission that we had decreased levels of service that we had increased overtime and that staff is tired and and they're not operating efficiently they're not um um they're not essentially doing their functions as as well as they could as well as they want to and that there was a cost to that and that we weren't delivering the level of service that we should have been delivering at that time I will agree with that too and I will tell you was here when I left to the county it was a pretty lean and mean staff right and when I kept hearing a certain leader keep saying over and over and over same level of service even though we're decreasing it two letters came to mind B and S I mean not true absolutely was not true um so um okay um okay I appreciate that answer let me ask a couple specific questions about the positions um I I totally agree with the grant writer I I think again I think between the lobbyist the grant writer the strategic planning those are all things we're going to be measuring and understanding and we're going to see is that good money and and and we'll be able to really see that alive and in person you know you hear the the phrase that you know somebody a grant person you know they they eat what they kill so you know to me it'll they'll prove it or they'll not prove it because they either you know they either kill a lot of Grants meaning get them um or you know that that's not going to be a position that will survive um we've talked about the firefighters I'm good with that I I think the database coordinator potentially uh fulfills something that the mayor certainly been going on and on about um just some of our need the software needs some of the things that hit to the heart of even questions I've had in terms of having expertise and not bogging down Michael I'm not sure I'm there with the network administrator I mean I think you know we we just I just think we have have to be careful baby steps on how we're piling on uh more and more positions Library I get it let me ask about direct Rec leader one or two because we've we added a Rec we added the youth coordinator last year and it sounds like part of the justification for this is now somebody doesn't have a anybody under them because they've moved to the youth person who we added last year and I'm trying to understand are we getting punished for adding that last year or I just need to understand it no that that really speaks to kind of the conversation that you and and the city manager were having Joselyn Broadhead Recreation superintendent uh speaks to the conversation in regards to the Staffing allocation and levels of service we were making due with the situation at hand and um the previous supervisor had been overseeing facilities as well as the before and after school programs because of those Staffing levels and with the acquisition of the youth services coordinator last fiscal year being able to allocate those staff underneath that section it moved some of our full-time leaders away from facilities that they had been assigned to uh and most specifically the need Grew From uh the acquisition of the Sterling uh Park and driving range our athletic coordinator still oversees all of his programming uh as as well as overseeing the um co-sponsored Sports organizations and so having that facility plus his other duties uh he is the only time full person with both of those sets of responsibilities so losing the full-time person there is a great need for for him to have assistance so if this position doesn't get approved what's the impact uh we will have to reallocate staff and reassign duties we will be working Chris Hoban to death okay good you essentially I'm sorry did I ask you the question I'm just saying what she isn't going to say fair enough fair enough okay uh okay thank you Justin and uh now the craft workers I did look on the form for the craft workers and where's Sue Sue I'm just I'm just going to the justification for the craft workers was the craft worker one position was recommended by the consultant to cover the workload issue so I I do we do we need these now how many do we have vacant now um should would we be better served to wait till the efficiency study is done all all of the above questions great questions um yes two of those positions were recommended originally by the pay in the pay and comp study um for those additional POS positions we added a couple last year and um I'm as you all know got a big vacancy there with the facility manager we're in the second round of interviews for that um and we do have vacancies that have not been filled because of that vacancy at that level um we do have great registers and current applicants to interview for those vacancies um it's the recommendation in the budget that those positions only be funded in the second half of the fiscal year so that gives us time to have the efficiency study to fill the position the facility manager as well as the other um craft workers there's no doubt in my mind we need those resources we've got to get those vacancies filled we cannot keep up with the current um level of Serv we can't even you know begin to meet the level of service that we need to right now which you're talking about the care of our buildings yes right the maintenance and repair and then capital and when will the efficiency study be done the evaluation um portion will be the beginning of the year uh January that the report will be done but prior to that we'll have several um the the beginning will just be the introduction and the Gathering of data and then there'll be presenting us findings and then um before the even recommendations so we'll be finding out some things before that and we'll be able to change some things um that are brought up right away so final is uh schedule is January okay vice mayor may I add something to that sure of course so so one of the things I think that we have to look at is is these positions comprehensively as they relate to other positions as well um you know I've sat with Vince Gizzy several times and he has he's frustrated because he can't get uh you know some of the the facilities and Parks inspected painted re-roofed and that type of a thing facilities does not have the time to do it and so the parks maintenance um employees are doing that work themselves if we're able to fill these positions first of all do the efficiency study fill the vacant positions and then add the ones that we need as as dictated by the efficiency study um and then we can free up the parks maintenance people so there's an a ripple effect sure throughout the entire organization to all of these positions so I just I just wanted to add that you know that's a it's a great comment um the craft worker how many craft workers do we have now Teresa has a list people doing whatever their title is people doing that kind of work there's 50 two two ones and four and a three two one responsible seven what is that seven seven I I get it and and and you I am certainly one commissioner committed to not letting these buildings go downhill fast and they will I know that um so thank you thank you for that um um but we'll have the efficiency before these people even get hired so that it gives us time to recoup and I don't necessarily disagree that uh we'll find out that we're not getting we're not staying caught up um well you already know that um so uh and then I guess my last question I'm going to ask about the environmental specialist so the job that this person does who who's doing it now n will come up my vision for this position is twofold um their primary responsibility will be to initiate and and run what's called a fat soils and grease program and that will go out to every food preparation um customer that we have and make sure that they are proactively separating the grease and having those grease traps M um maintenanced on a regular basis typically monthly having them pumped so that that grease doesn't find its way into our sanitary sewer system all of the ssos since I've been here have been grease related um short of this weekend short of a hurricane um and so that would help a lot with with the grease in the system is really what causes our sanitary sewer overflows the other thing that this position will do is they'll be supportive in a regulatory way if and when we do have sanitary sewer overflows there is a significant amount of regulatory reporting and right now that is being done by our collection system manager as well as sampling um after the fact and it there are times that he's doing double duty and so they'll pick up and they'll do that as well as run the fat oils and grease program so as far as the program goes who's doing it now nobody we don't have one and what's the impact of not doing it sanitary sewer overflows and so how much I mean how much savings does that mean in terms of being able to do this and try to prevent things before they occur I I haven't tried to quantify the dollars we're we're um it's thousands of dollars every sanitary sewer overflow we I was going to guess it's a lot yes it is it's thousands of dollars I mean we have to sample for yeah days or weeks you know I kind of want to respond a little bit to the finance board because again they're looking at overtime for the fire you know again this is actually not as much a position as it is a program that will save costs and a lot of costs potentially that's right okay similarly with the grant writer right okay I I just want to understand it thank you thank you appreciate that um I I think those are my questions okay and I'm sure it's commissioner Toro's turn we're one minute away from my self- opposed deadline so is getting blown out of the water and we have we only have four more slides left so they left the big the city manager left the big stuff for last so every slide is a big thing I was looking at it did that on purpose commissioner Toro thank you mayor I am going to make a comment and I will try to keep him General um and what I say now is also going to be in at the end when we probably give our opinions or discuss have a discussion or or what have you I don't know oh no if you're if you've got a proposal here I would do it right here no so this is about the employ on employee employ site so what I say some of what I say here is going to comply with with my general feeling about this budget um first of all I have a huge concern currently um within what's happening within our own environment here and part of that comes from having talked to a large number of uh constituents recently that uh that feel like we've got some uh we got some issues that we're having to deal with and that they feel um like like they're really strug there's they know people that are really struggling I'll come down to the three things three areas um that is that's causing this uh without making a comment about it one of them is our election coming up number two is our economy currently and that's in the last three or four days it's really hitting and we've been watching this carefully uh so there's no new new thing there and what's going on within our world today so when I say that um I would I would like to recommend that we wait until the sufficiency uh study is completed in in its totality um I would like to recommend however a slight violation in that and that is that we take on the network uh administrator as soon as possible the librarian is basically basically pays for them pays for themselves but that doesn't mean that we have to bring them on because of that but it make that makes some sense and the reclassifications because the folks are in there I would like to say that we focus on the 41 people that we do not have in place and whatever we need to do to try to get them in place if there is someone that we need more than another person then if we need to keep the grease out of the system well then we should do that um but we may need to make internal adjustments but we've got a chart that's starting to go up with the number of people um and this is this is can become overbearing if if in fact we have any functions that restrict our capacity to take in income in in the near future um That Could That Could in fact happen I realize that we're trying to we're trying to keep employees and that's what HR is attempting to do so as we look at some of the HR presentations that's going to increase our cost of of what our current what our current costs are uh for uh for employees I'm going to go ahead and um and and my conversation about this because and just remember what I said about the election economy in the world if you don't mind and about what I've heard from people because I have another recommendation and that's going to concern itself with Revenue coming up soon okay um I support the positions I understand where they all came from they are all necessary and I would say that um again coming back to the days where we had I don't know 410 or 11 employees and we significantly reduced our employees during the um Great Recession that happened I'll just call it 08 so that is let's see 15 to 16 years old we have plugged away for 16 years with significantly less people that the experts at the time thought we needed and we are doing exponentially more work and more skilled work than we ever did in years past so more power to you all of you and at some point we have to say to our people you don't have to be running around like a crazy person for 60 hours a week to get your job just to get your job done because we're not hiring the people we need that's the way I feel about it I do understand that there's a you know there's a financial impact but it's taking us 16 years to get even closer close to the levels that we were before um I think sometimes too I mean for a long time we were talking about our morale level in this organization again when you're doing more than what your job description is when you're constantly never getting the satisfaction of completing a project because you have so many and it takes so long those are significant things that weigh on an employee and make you feel like you're not appreciated and we've been dealing with that again since the day I walked in the door and I know you have Jennifer so um there was any number of recommended asks that you did not move forward with and you have been very calculated in the ones that you've asked for each year and you've given it sufficient time I appreciate that I'm not going to nitpick at all I absolutely think we need somebody that has expertise in software cuz hardware and software are complet two different completely different skill sets um and we have a lot of software here in the city um I mean not going to go through each one I'm not going to cuz then I'm going to make us go longer um so I'm totally supportive of your ask okay quick question I want to just pull the thread on something that commissioner Tas said um how many open wrecks do we currently have uh 41 vacancies 41 okay all right is there a average latency on that time that those have been open uh probably average of anywhere from two weeks to 6 months I think I think the a lot of the long-term ones we've been able to fill okay thank you can I follow up with that um so I guess Jennifer this is to you because I think last budget session there were 46 if I'm not mistaken somewhere around 45 46 so we're at 41 I mean is is there um a logic to focusing more on figuring out how we get these filled versus trying to take on more in some areas I I realize some are expertise issues but in some areas please Forge with the assist vice mayor if I if I could um I have the benefit of sitting through all all the commission meetings and and hearing a lot of the discussion and um I think some of it has to do um with being competitive uh with other agencies which uh Teresa has tried to address um a lot of it has to do with what Sue spoke to is um we've got directors not directing they're managing because they don't have time to direct um we've got my 2b1 yes yeah I know you are um anything else no just we don't have time thank you well I think that's I think that just proves my point yes it does it's extremely stressful when you cannot get done with things and it really does bring you down because you never I mean I've felt that feeling for seven months and want to shoot myself some sometimes over it it's not a pleasant work environment to be that way and it's certainly not a pleasant work environment to um try to supervise people in that position and get the self-satisfaction of completing things and doing them well so again I just want to say I fully support your requests for employees one more question I'm going to kill you I mean it please do you're a brave man I mean because I I'm going to have to keep going around here sorry just this is the 7 and A2 FTE um that was taken out the six firefighters um and I I get the rationale behind the the positions um but I think what we're saying here is is these are must have new positions the thing I'm struggling with is the 41 wrecks that are still open I'm it that and actually there's a little bit of a cost savings there and uh and you know um I will say this though I I I do support the new positions um I I think each and every one of those has a has a significant role that needs that's currently does not exist and it needs to exist so anyway but I am worried I'm I am worried about those 41 open wrecks and you know we those things have been open two weeks to six months and you know so scratch my head on that one may I so it's been mentioned Now by three of you um in terms of of the open position so what I'd like to do is that um in the intervening period between now and first reading is to give you an analysis of those open positions and why they're not open for example uh why they're still open for example here you don't see an engineer because we have open positions at engineer and we've done some great recruitments um and and you can see the work start to move as far as the capital programs start to move forward because of those recruitments but we're not asking for an additional engineer the positions um that we're asking for when you see are are are essentially a part from the crafts worker positions new positions to the organization to fit into a role that we're not currently filling right now uh for program um the pro uh program coordinator the one's in its um they have those two employees have moved on to to cyber security um and one has been reclassed to uh a network administrator but that was not a position we had before it's required by law and so um really what we're asking for is kind of those Nichi if you will in you know where we see that we have um a need that's that's not fulfilled but I do think that that cuz I hear that over and over again you have 40 excuse me 41 open why is it that you're that you requiring new positions so I'll give you an analysis of what those positions are and what our our our issues are in recruiting those positions and there really are those positions are really the positions that are open in all cities that all cities are really having a hard time filling and that's why you know we're we're continuously competing with with not just the private sector but from other cities in in filling these positions so we'll give you that analysis I think that that in giving you that analysis we'll be able to to address this uh this um this question um uh once and for all to be honest with you so I I I I want to acknowledge that I appreciate the support of the positions first and foremost and but I do want to give you that analysis so you understand why it is those positions are open and how long they've been open and if I could um one thing I do want to point out these 41 positions are not the 41 positions that we talked about at the beginning of the fiscal year some of these positions have opened up as as early as yesterday last week from people who have decided they no longer want to work in the position that they were in or they've retired we've had at least three or four retirements in the last two months so I I do want to put it in perspective that the 41 positions that we have and as Jennifer said we'll do the analysis for you are not the same 41 positions that we talked or 43 I think it was back then that we talked about at the beginning of the fiscal year we've had there's constant change and you know things that happen in our staffing it's turnover yeah yes yeah okay okay I just want to be clear do we do we have consensus for these positions I heard you say it I've said it yes yeah no I'm going to I'm I'm going to support them are we going to have final comments because I want to have comment we have to we're going to have final comments at the end it's fine so I'm going to support these okay I I do not you do not I stand by what I you got your consensus Direction I do thank you very much okay utilities career ladder okay so we're not going to have final comments on this issue okay I I'm sorry I just thought everybody pretty much said a whole bunch of stuff here you want some more comments go right ahead I ask a whole bunch of questions and I'm going to say where I landed so because of those questions and because in some ways I'm supporting some of this firefighters we already talked about grant program is to offset money that we can make and bring in Grants um I really believe in the database one I think we've gotten we've already gotten the fact that two of these uh two of our people are taking up with cyber security right now we know that's a very hot issue we know it's very important and and um if we need to offset that I think we need to do it um talked about the librarian Recreation program if I was going to cut one that might be one as with the the network but truthfully I I can't I got to trust you guys because I I know you're doing good work we've got the best programming there is in the county and uh and craft workers will have time to revisit that if the efficiency study shows differently and environmental specialist of course is being proactive so I guess my point is that that um we have a lot of new regulations we have a lot of new pressures know the least of which is Baywood Shores in North Douglas we have our vulnerability analysis um some of this is about proactive programs to save money in the long run and be smart we have the addition of the golf course we have the addition of gladus Douglas property um again we have the best programming in the recre department of you know around the county um I I think that Jennifer I'm saying this to you this is a it's a lot it's a lot and in my history with the city it's a lot these additions over the last three years I'm looking for that dream that you sleep at night and think about when it starts to take a turn and we start to see those efficiencies and we start to kind of get some of that good stuff coming back but truthfully I'm going with these positions for one reason and one reason only because I trust you and I trust the staff right now that I know is killing themselves I know it I see it I see it in their faces we saw it a little bit today and I'm going to trust that because one of the things that we all know goes very well in our citizen survey is the trust in the service levels of this city and our employees so I'm going to trust this one more year you know but let's really be cautious as we come back to the following year so I I needed to just say that straight out and I did want to bring one fact up just for the heck of it in 19 we've been talking about Staffing levels over and over and where we've been over the years and guess what in 1994 95 guess what our millage was 5.35 what is our millage now 4.1 345 right so granted property increases Etc but that's amazing and so let's not lose sight of some of the good things and let's have faith in our staff but thank you vice mayor next year please and I am on notice anybody else have final comments I say mine just going to tag on very quickly um I look at I view these all of them as having a critical role to play that either will pay for themselves essentially grant writing Grant Program Coordinator um and if you go all the way to the bottom of the list the environmental specialist who is going to be making sure our sanitary system doesn't overflow and and I I know that's a problem because every after the big events we get complaints from over here with regards to the way that the the grease and all the stuff from the restaurants is getting handled and so um you know I I think we view this as if we were going to reference an impact it's a position that pays for itself or a position that protects our infrastructure so did you have anything else you wanted to add or did you say everything you needed to say uh just cuz everybody else has no just a reminder that when we had the big uh reduction in staff because of 2008 that wasn't because that we were fat we just need to get rid of employees it was a recession and those cuts that we did back then were hard it's not again it's not like we had a lot of fat and the fact that we've been running it 110 115% with a lean staff and we're able to provide the level of service that we've been that we have been providing doesn't mean it's healthy for staff it doesn't mean it's healthy for us it's certainly not healthy for a nuclear reactor it's not healthy for us to be running at 110 115% um I we should always be mindful of of Staff but I as the vice mayor said I do I support the city manager I support you all are professional and if you need staff who am I to tell you no you don't uh if I I just have to have the faith and the trust in you that that you're making the right decisions and so I fully support um the recommendations in front of me so thank you well I'll say again um I made my list of here of of who I thought without trying to get into the weeds if you need a grant writer they're all there's a lot of grant writers out there and and you don't have to hire them you can contract with them and get it done but right now I do not support hiring a grant writer and of course if you think they're going to pay for themselves they'll pay for themselves if they don't well then you stop doing the grants question is how many grants are going to come out where are they going to come out and which ones are we going to get how many do we get last year and how many we're going to get often in the future I'm not I'm not supportive of bringing them on I would be more much more supportive of bringing on some of the folks that that the Public's works are asking for um but I don't want to take any more time about that so I'll I'll summarize it later when I do my thing okay I can see we're probably not going to get out of here until 4:30 given the slides that are up next so I I need a comfort break five minutes quickly comments I gave my comments when I tried to close before I'm not repeating them I could oh my goodness [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] utilities career ladder program how can we be as succinct as humanly possible we have hair on the line hello again uh Teresa small and director of HR and risk management for the city the utilities career ladder program is a result of uh what I spoke about earlier with the leap froggin um we've had many challenges with in the utilities field of um competing salaries salaries that at at some points we could not meet so um using our uh the results of our class and comp study our current pay plan uh utilities uh mostly with uh utilities manager uh Brian antonian put together worked with us to put together this career ladder program and I I thought the easiest way to um exemplify it would be to just give you an example of how it works so basically um the employees they we have different career levels that were established in the in the current pay plan and employees would move through the respective groups as they got attained higher license sure um one uh example is the wastewater operator trainy uh that is currently at grade A51 so once they attain the state required minimums as well as the UN job experience uh then they would move to the next grade A52 and also receive a 10% promotion of the minimum of the new grade uh this sort of absorbs what we've been doing beforehand where we had an incentive for those employees on the water side whether they got their uh class one or two license and on the Wastewater side where they got their uh A or B licenses so that's the career ladder program in a nutshell the impact uh we um in working with utilities we uh propos to put it in place as of this month first pay of August which would be an impact of 30 over just under 33,000 the FY 25 impact is expected to be just under 200,000 questions questions mayor if I if I may add I'm sorry does this make us competive better yes better yes one of the things we does that make us comp sorry does that make us competitive with the surrounding area in this particular field we believe so because one of the things we hear from employees is you know wanting to be able to know where they're going when they go into a position so knowing that they have the opportunity to move up and have it almost set out for them I think is is a great incentive because every one of them has a license correct well not not always when they're coming in so at some point they gain the minimum license and then they have the opportunity to move up they're working towards getting yes getting that initial that initial license yes okay don't add to it Nan don't add to it go so um I'm messing with you I I do want to chat it it puts us in a better position uh in the market but this is really competitive and I don't think it catches us up or or or overtakes us it's a retention tool in our toolbox um so one of the things about this this uh career lading that I want to call your attention is that this is really last year this is a program that was developed by Brian Antonio and and PJ Tovar and Ronnie Rainey uh and Nan with uh Jorge reviewing it and Mike Bandon as well worked really hard on this program um really after the class and comp study that department divisions they still weren't happy um the answer was okay tell us tell us put together a program in your department that you think would make your department more competitive which is exactly what they did um I'm really pleased with the work that they did I'm grateful for the work that they did um I I did tell them during my employee communication last round that I would recommend the the city commission that we fund this October 1st um I think it's really important actually that that we make it uh we fund it from August 1st moving forward and the reason for that is that it's been a long time uh they've been waiting for this for a long time and that's my fault because I wanted the full analysis I wanted to run through it I wanted to make sure that we understood it um if they if they had their brothers it'd be retroactive to last year we can't do that um the $32,000 is within my delegated authority to to authorize but I can't authorize that without understanding that you are going to continue to authorize funding of this program moving forward I'd like to look at we'll take this program if you if you support it moving forward and look at other departments as well whether or not it's appropriate for other departments thank you okay uhhuh no question I just want to say that you know in 2020 when I was doing work um at the county it was a big thing you know the certification program and and and uh and basically doing this kind of uh um what do we call them the career ladder sorry but I fully support it I think it's really important I commend you guys for putting the work into it and uh um but having that kind of a a program that literally uh incentivizes um you know just growth and the growth makes us better so this so we value we we get a benefit that but most importantly the city citizens get a direct benefit so so I'm fully supported of this okay thank you thank you uh proposed salary enhancements staff has a couple of recommendations of the first the department director salaries you may remember uh as part of the class and comp study um some Department directors were recommended for increases to get them to the market uh in terms of the rest of the employee population it was determined that uh the department directors would get half of the recommended amounts uh the proposal now is for those directors or all all of our directors to be compensated as following that they get the greater of 25% of the recommended salary increase that they would have gotten or 1% of their uh FY 24 current salary so not all Department directors were recommended for an increase but um in order to be and we don't want to say the the f word but to be to um spread the love we thought it would be good to at least give th those other directors 1% of their FY 24 current salary including the deputy City manager including the deputy city manager I'd like to hear from Jorge do not get out of your seat he doesn't want to talk now I'm not letting him up here he's done any any questions on this yes 1% how many what what how much do that what represent I have the amount afterwards so I I can tell you the cost after I go over the second thank you okay uh then we also looked at um possible um employee retention SL longevity bonus um this is in line with uh because as the commission asked we did a survey as to the other entities that were doing similar uh similar programs and we found that uh 50% of the uh 10 entities that answered do have some sort of annual retention or longevity bonus so uh what we're recommending is for staff to get a one-time lumpsum bonus as of October 1st 2024 and it would be awarded as follows um up to one year or I'm sorry one year to less than 5 years 150 uh 5 to less than 10 500 10 to less than 15 1,000 15 to less than 21500 00 and then anyone 20 years are over $2,000 and that's a one-time uh bonus emphasis L one time the the impact for the director salaries if you if you take the greater of um is about $3 31,44 with um just under $20,000 being attributable to the general fund keep in mind that a lot of our directors are spread over various funds so some of this some of the that 19,000 plus would um decrease when we do the actual cost splits the retention longevity bonus um is just over 209,000 overall the funds um just under 105,000 attributable to the general fund not including any cost splits we are also recommending this for bonus for fire Union employees and that would add another 26 just just under $227,000 for the general fund does that answer your question commissioner my only question on the retention bonus is um the um you're doing this to offset some other increases that are happening competitively with our neighboring communities okay and um yeah and and you know city manager I mean I might be somebody would want to approach this a little different way city manager sorry she I might be one that might want to address this a different way since we're just trying to be competitive but in the interest of you know where we're at now I'm going to support it as a one-time program but I think there might be other creative ways to hit to the you know the competitiveness you know next year yeah and and absolutely and it was designed as a one time and it really does address inflation cost of living type types of issues and next year I don't plan on again bringing back the retention SL longevity so and I am glad you gave it to the fire as well because truthfully all those new people were swearing in it's pretty amazing so we we need to retain retain retain right so um can you just give me an example of 25 % of the recommended salary increase or 1% of FY 24 current salary What scenario driven so for example and a director who was recommended to get a we'll call it a $1,000 increase in as a result of the 20 FY 23 24 uh class and comp study only received $500 so for this G around we would give them 250 of that 500 that they didn't get okay so it's half of half okay thank you I hate to ask you to repeat anything but I'm I'm always Leary of bonuses I think it's a way to cheat employees uh to be honest if it it doesn't become an automatic part of their base pay then it's never part of the future it's always at one time as we talked about um which always concerns me so why did we choose bonuses over types of Merit increases well keep in mind we do have the 3.5 Merit increase right that every employee at least a year is eligible for so this is an add-on to and this is a way of you know because once you put it in the salary then you have the compound in effect so we thought and you know it is borne out by 50 you know five out of 10 including um the county does it periodically they do bonuses periodically but cities just see it as a way of a a a gift of appreciation if you will to say we want you to stay so here's some a couple well we don't do that with Merit increases you know isn't that the point well once again we go back to how do we enhance what we've because once we once somebody else does a pay study we fallen behind right so we can't keep doing a pay study every year but we can find interim ways to say hey we want you to stay and that to us is one way that we can do it and quite a number of the entities have done it because of wanting to be competitive so they've done it as bonuses also commissioner tag on I'm I'm I'm really struggling with bonuses you're kind of where I am and the City used to do longevity bonuses years ago and got rid of it because what was happening is it was overtaking the Merit part of what were people getting and it was it's great to have history and most times the history and the good employee come together sometimes it doesn't so all of a sudden somebody would be here maybe not be the best employee and they were overriding what somebody could get you know in Merit so that's kind of my that's like I agree with you I think there might be better approaches that even if it does add a little bit more to the budget it might be better but thank you for for going there yeah and so I you know for this one time uh I I guess I support it but I'd be very uncomfortable to support it again just I think it's not as good as employees for the employees as other things things we can do thank you mayor anybody else Jeff do you mind telling me what you just I'm sorry would you repeat that so I'm I I didn't get what you were saying bonuses in general yeah yeah I I just think it's it I don't think it's healthy anytime that you provide an incentive to employees that doesn't become part of their future enhancements right so if I pay you $5 an hour I I think it's better for you to give you um a dollar bonus increase instead of $100 or $1,000 bonus right because that $1,000 bonus that I give you doesn't become part of your future increases thank you right if you understand that well and I I will add to that just really quickly again during the recession what we did instead of giving raises is we gave annual bonuses cuz it wasn't adding to the bottom line in the future right it was a method during a a bad time to be able to give employees something so I I I understand and that might be a way to do it but but a lot of times all of a sudden companies get comfortable in this environment yeah you know and I think we're doing that to teachers now when we offer them bonuses instead of increasing their salaries you know so okay anybody else I think so do the um the one time means that a person goes over 20 years they get $2,000 one time yes then 15 one time okay okay I think we all have consensus did you get consensus from that we did thank you okay okay proposed benefits uh I discussed these benefits at the last budget workshop I'll just go over them again uh the asked us we when we presented the paid parental leave we were asked to um find out if other entities were doing it and we in your exhibit the followup there was a survey that basically said that 50% of the the entities are surrounding us or that we got responses from H provide paid parental leave uh anywhere from 2 weeks to 8 weeks we're re we're propos in 6 weeks uh to as as uh I don't know if you want to call it a pilot but we want to go at 6 weeks uh for pay parental leave I'll go this Direction first anything no I don't have anything on this we talked about it at length commissioner twango I have nothing to add nothing that thank you very much mayor commission that was a direct ask from the employees as our so thank you I'm proud we're doing this and it's can I can I say that it's good for both men and women yes okay yes it's yes thank you yes uh next year we'll have grand uh Grand print leave okay good luck with that go get your hair okay that was an easy one to vote on uh business and we don't have to go over that again do we which we have to go over the business plan again no oh oh you're still talking just two more just two more like what are you talking about sorry I thought that was the only thing sorry I really am trying to get out the sick leave the personal leave conversion is another uh item that we spoke about at the last budget work shop um that basically employees would be able to convert uh up to 40 hours of their sick leave or one work week to personal leave that would have to be used within the year and it would be converted every every calendar year um because it would have to be used by the end of the calendar year the last one is the leave buyback program uh uh we we we we talked internally about this some more this is one where employees would be able to sell back up to one week of annual leave or up to two weeks of sick leave at um 50% um they would be able to use it to reduce the cost of their medical insurance premiums or to fund um their 457 or health savings account or get cash for the leave subject to um uh um uh taxes applicable taxes uh one of the things that uh we thought we would want to add in there is that the employee would have to keep at a minimum of 160 hours combined leave um after the conversion because 160 hours for General employees computes to uh 4 weeks of leave um before your short-term disability kicked in so if you had a major illness then you'd at least keep that in your bank and you wouldn't be tempted to sell you know and leave yourself without uh protection if you would so um the impact for the leave buyback program uh for all funds would be about 327,000 keeping in mind that uh they'll be selling leave back at today's prices um versus if they when they eventually leave they would be selling it back at uh well they would be converting it at the whatever um increased salaries that they would be at the time and that's assuming every single employee does it that's assuming every single employee that is eligible does it it does 40 hours um the general fund impact is about um $197,000 and that does not include the city payments for social security and Medicare actually I'm sorry using the 160 Proviso uh it would be 253,000 overall and then 171,000 to the general fund comment that's a lot of money and technically so the the the annual leave when an employee leaves we they they can we pay them their payout is 100% of their annual leave if they have at least um um I think it's for 5 years it's 25% and then if they have more up to 20 years they' get 50% of their sick Le which is why we talked about the conversion at 50% so it's it's it's leave that we pay out now or later anybody else no just I know that they they do this where my wife works ially it's twice a year one of them is for Christmas uh and it's wonderful MH so support this um I support this um I do really want us to review and and I know you guys don't have the bandwidth to do it this year um the paid time off type of programming um you know that's what the county does it it's great I mean the hardest part is the verion time um but you can protect people grandfather people to protect you know some of the things so people are you know are not hurt um but I think it's a great system um you know clearly one thing with this sick leave is you know pay it now pay it later is not always true because if you're over the amount that you're going to be able to take with you then actually that's just all gravy and you know and I'm not saying that doesn't help make us competitive but but the paytime off programs to me are where it's at and um and it just it's just converting to that and I think any I I swear to any anybody who's worked under that system including me loves it I mean you're talking about PTO yeah pay time off vation versus right you just have one big lump sum and then you can do these BuyBacks and then you know and you can and you you know you still get a payout at the end because you can still accumulate so it has a lot of the benefits but it just totally you know it's a psyche of you know this is vacation or payout money unless you're really sick and um and so you just get rid of all that kind of people that are using the sick leave and maybe just you know don't get to use it a different way so they use it so I just uh suggest that we create that as a goal to really look at PTO so I'm good with this for the year um because I think it's a baby step but if we're going to start making baby steps I'd like to just you know just see if we can do the whole thing because I I do think just like Jeff you said I mean um people love it employees love it that have it so y thank you mayor commission torer do we know what this might cost us per year I'm just asking uh the conversion that was the figure that I gave the um it's about 172 to the general fund and 253 overall thousand I was going to say we're talking thousand thank you okay so where do we stand on all these benefits there's the parental leave the annual leave buyback and the sick leave conversion we haven't gotten to the SI leave yet we did we did we did yes okay we good with all of it I I think it's I think it's huge I think Al together it's it's a lot and I think we need to do some baby steps here and I'll leave it at that because I'm not going to design that be here for okay but you're supportive yeah like I said I'll support this for a year but I really think if you get the full benefit of what this is trying to do by the pay now pay pay later we need to go to the full paid time off kind of a program and yeah I absolutely agree with that I got to tell you um you just make these costs additive it's it's a big number but I you know what vice mayor frainy brought up PTO it if you factor in a program like paid time off a lot of this becomes kind of a wash it's and I I think from a review standpoint I think we have to look at the integrated package and right now I'm I'm just seeing silos of cost so I mean I I will I'll I'll I'll support this for a year and let's see where where this at because I think there the the big item is paid time off if we can investigate that in terms of what a cost would look like that make sense okay it doesn't what I'd like to do between now and first reading is because obviously that's a heavy lift um a lot of intricacies involved in that and um see kind of put together the plan for how we're going to review that and make recommendations so um it's it's it would be a new initiative this is a new business plan initiative that we would need to look at you know I mean it would it be horrible to just wait and do the study appropriately yes please before we set something in motion does that make more sense yes please because I'm asking Jennifer and the group say it again you know should we not take this step but you know study the whole step and just go all the way and maybe that makes more sense than to get in anything else taking baby steps that lock Us in somehow yeah you're changing this or trying to pull something back tough my experience right it's hard to pull it I'm gonna I'm going to leave it at I'm going to leave that to Jennifer and Teresa I I think what you're suggesting is what all of us are kind of saying is this plan initiative taking it back presenting it later is that what I'm understanding that would be fine if the commission's more comfortable with that that that is something that we would do I I [Music] am I'm a Believer in this I'm also a believer in the PTO I do find them separate programs they are I don't know I don't know why we need to hold off on this if the focus is whether or not we should do it PTO well or not if I can I think the big difference is you can't totally say this is pay now or pay later because you're actually taking sick leave that could be over above what you'd ever get paid off therefore it's a complete give now when you go to PTO there'll be some gives I mean it's you know it was a big heavy lift for the for the conversion when the county did it but my point is then it's all it's all time that you could use for sick leave or annual leave it's your time and so when you're when you're basically doing the um uh the uh uh what do you call it the buyback I mean like it is completely pay now pay later so it is way better to pay now than to wait until somebody leaves and takes it all so so that's just if that makes sense to you what's going through my mind right now is that if if you want us to look at PTO and and uh the benefits to the organization of PTO what I don't want to do is fund the the leave buyback program at the expense of what may be a really good PTO program moving forward because to protect everybody know it does it does take some investment early on right I think I think you know there's a lot here that you've put uh you've afforded the employees and and um we're very grateful but I don't want to get to a PTO program in six months and say well we spent all our money on leave buyback and now we can't fund it so okay good okay so I'm sorry I'm getting you know I think everybody's supportive everything but we're going to wait on a PTO program for this okay there you go she just repeated it yes thank you all right the bus so you're done right she's kind of saying she hopes so she she want be donees I think no but it's there the next thing I see on my agenda is the business mayor I just want to clarify I'm sorry I just need to clarify one thing that I said here and and really the reason why I'm I'm supportive of of um kind of backing off the leave buyout is because we may have a benefit that's of more benefit to the employees moving forward I agree with you I think way to put it I think that's a good way to put it because it's not like we're trying to nitpick what the benefits are right yes so thank you thank you it's a good clarification anything else Teresa okay we're not going through the entire business plan are we no they don't want to either no that's just information here business initiatives in CIP by fund there's a lot of funds oh no no that's just an exhibit for information only that's all we W okay because when it's an agenda item I think we're reviewing every line no no anybody have any questions on this no what's that and what is it I don't even know what it is the business plan I guess I missed that what just the changes that have happened between last Workshop to we now which we went over 90% okay but your Workshop to to now there you go well could we go over it though I mean would that be okay she's evil just kidding all right there is a time for citizen input I don't think anybody still here from the public anybody want to come forward and speak to any item to so with caution I'm teasing there's nobody here I would never say that okay uh final comments uh Jennifer and then I'll go to my colleagues yeah thank you very much I think that uh uh we've put forth some some great analysis some great programs and I I'm grateful for the discussion and the support of the commission thank you very much okay final comments vice mayor um yeah no obviously I want to thank the finance board I want to thank Jennifer I want to thank Les and Ashley and the rest of the finance staff and and uh Jorge and um faesa and I I just think um you know it's been a good budget process for next year I would suggest we not leave the Personnel to The Bitter End just before a Scotland trip if that would be okay um because it's a lot to take in and and you know we know it's ongoing money um you know I I support the budget uh I um I you know we do have a lot of pressures um sometimes when I'm out talking to Citizens I say you know deden likes a lot of stuff right I mean our residents they're used to good service they want good service our employees get rated very highly I think it's appropriate that we make sure we're staying competitive and do things in creative ways to keep and retain our our employees um I uh but I think it's a good budget I think we've worked hard on it and uh and I think again I'll say My Philosophy has always been kind of trying to be that stable steady budget watching it as we go to make sure we don't throw ourselves in any crisis U but we're responsible and every year we hit hard and understanding what can we cut what can we not cut we've got to stay hard on oursel every year and and just to keep that stability for our for our um uh for our citizens I I will say this though and I have said this to Citizens too that um you know I get a lot of comments about our rates you know our water sewer um not necessarily sanitation storm water CU storm water just went up and people saw it you know I I continue to be someone who's very um um committed to that next level of Penny um trying to you know to put some of that to some Back to Basics areas that might give some relief to our rates um so but based on that I I support this budget okay uh commissioner Toro thank you mayor um I've had some changes and thoughts um about some of the things beginning at the end of last week I know that's very short term um and then I got some of this information and I realized we had added some things into here and I was beginning to suggest that we might want to look at a roll back of some kind um and I say that in advance of of what might be occurring and if it doesn't occur well that's fine um then some of what I'm going to say in a minute applies uh and that is that we can add some things perhaps later uh the new commission who's sitting in here can can add some things if there's the money to do that um so I'm not I I still I'm going to stand I'm going to stand by that as as a possible suggestion uh that we look at some kind of a roll back uh so that our so our residents realize uh that we understand something are happening out there in the marketplace we don't know what they are yet but they're they don't look favorable as it relates to all of the discussion that we had here I'm certainly supportive of our employees and I don't want I want that to be completely understood the last conversation points something out and that is I don't want to I don't want to jump in things too quick I want us to be able to take a look at them and make sure we're taking given the best Advantage where we can uh to the employees not that every everything sounds good but you can't give everything everything so you won't be able to give everything so I would like to make sure that we really do look at that as it relates to some of the people the hirings I'm still supportive of what I said before and remember I talked about uh what's going on in the world what's going on and that applies to to the roll back what's going on with uh with our government uh what's going on with the economy um I would like to uh make the comment again that if we need if we need a grant writer then let's contract with one right now let's not wait um and hiring him and put him into this into this uh environment at this point in time where I'm not sure we should be adding people in fact I don't recommend we add people other than other than the ones that I suggested which was the network administrator um and uh and do the reclassifications and perhaps a librarian um that we'd take a breather and just just just wait just just wait for a couple things to happen or are going to happen by the end of the year um we're going to see a change in our economy if we're going to see one we're going to see a change in in the administration for sure and uh and the world is heated at this point so um that's what I would that's what I would like to suggest we made some changes here and I don't know when I don't know how quick we'll see those but I'd like to see those as quickly as possible uh before we get any CL any any further along in days in time uh to see what some of those costs really are um that were some of the recommendations we made so uh I'm going to I'm going to leave it at that because the mayor's trying to get out of here so is everybody else um and you've been here for a long time and I appreciate what everybody has done here and let everybody know that again we're all concerned about the city we all we all uh not concerned we all want to support the city uh and that's all that I'm trying to do uh I just want to make sure that the employees that we have now um are are happy and uh and I certainly don't want to get involved in a situation where we go from some number way up in the 300s down to the mid 300s because something has happened um and some of those people were replaced by the way by contract workers um so so the numbers you have to look at the numbers and be careful about the numbers you got to interpret the numbers so I'll leave it at that I that's my opinion I would like to see some kind of a roll back and um based on this change in in some of the numbers that we saw and uh and that's my position on on adding adding Folks at this point in time thank you you spoke already right I did commissioner thank you mayor uh long day uh thank you to everybody thank you to the finance board I I spoke earlier um I think passionately I don't know uh history will tell us how I spoke but um in support of staff and the city manager and their recommendations and who am I to tell you how many staff you need and I still stand by those statements but we have spent a whole lot of time talking about salary increases and incentives and and there is money tied to all of that so I just want to remind you that if I'm giving you the power to make those decisions to understand that there's a great deal of responsibility that comes with those powers and um so please take all that seriously which I know you do um uh budget time is always hard for me uh but I am in support of this so far but it seems to me the last two to three years and it's all been Justified but a whole lot of money being spent in Pay studies and and all this money towards making our employees happy and they still don't seem to be and so I'm just trying at least mentally try and figure out what it's going to take to make staff happy and um a lot of us still cuz we're not where where we want to be um so again it's up up to you all to help us get in that position it'll be wonderful to get back to a point where it is just a merit increase and yay we're doing we're we're we're doing good um and um how long it will take to get there I don't know so just every year I get a little more uncomfortable with the amount of money that we spend um uh but uh right now I am in support of the budget so thank you commissioner yes ma'am um I think like my colleagues um as we're going through these line item by line item uh I am getting concerned with some of these dollar figures and the magnitude of these dollar figures um so but I will say this uh our city employees are are the highest priority because without the talent and retaining the talent in still a very competitive labor market um we we will lose a lot of that and so I am in favor of the incentives but I'm I really enjoy the dialogue with regards to talking about as a business process initiative a somewhat broader U leave whether it's paid whatever structure and that's I think that's going to be important going forward um the other thing is from the positions that were presented um as new most of those are highly specialized skill sets and specifically almost to a position will actually enhance the offering that the city provides a grant writer that's that is a very specialized skill set and you know think about in terms of how many grants this grant writer brings in uh the IT specialist um this this this is an evolving highly technical area when it comes to data analysis database maintenance cyber security and we know we need those um anyway I won't repeat what I said said earlier on that I I think it's important that we do that but I'm going to hedge that by saying I will enjoy the discussion that we have once the staff comes back with analysis of those 41 positions because I I'm I'm worried at this I'm not worried but I'm I'm wondering at this point if there's how much overlap there are in those 41 positions and that the S and a half FTE that we give consensus direction to go forward on um so I think I think for the most most part that sums up my uh my comments but you know I if and I made a career of this we need to protect our employ emplo we need to take care of them because that's that's who we are they're on the front lines and I think we need to continue that otherwise I I I think we will lose a lot so that concludes my comments thank you um I want to take this time to thank our team the team that's sitting in this room and thatone of you are watching or will watch hopefully they won't watch the whole day you know but they'll watch part that concerns them the most um this was a difficult budget to put together there was a lot of ask we also have a lot of excess right now and sharing that with the people who created it or helped create it I don't have a problem with that at all I really don't especially since I think we most of us have lived through the times where we had nothing to share I've been through those years where we've had nothing to share we've been through the years of covid where you know government was evil because you might have had to wear a mask um and revenues weren't coming in for anybody so I you know I just I appreciate all of your hard work um I'm glad we we can continue to do something and create valuable programs and try to um improve our morale a little bit each each year I think that is really important um for our residents I think we're doing the right thing I think we provide exceptional service and for whatever reason if we don't in a particular situation we work hard to improve it um this is a city that I I wouldn't live anywhere else if you paid me money um and a lot of that has to do with the people that live here but a lot of that has to do with the people that are in charge of maintaining in and improving the place that we all live and that's all of you and so I think it's really important um to let all of you know how valuable you are so then that reflects in the job you do for the people that live here so thank you nothing else Jennifer go get that hair done we are returned [Music] than e e e for