##VIDEO ID:Rx0ih74ZgVk## e e e e e and proclamations uh resolution number 2024-25 Newman if you'd like to come to the podium and introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about yourself the other side there's a right there okay watch your Stu there we go sense of humor good sense of humor good afternoon my name is David Newman I've lived in Highland Beach for about seven or eight years uh wife and I live in the tow houses of Highland Beach and um in terms of about myself I'm a retired attorney I practiced for 5050 plus years U partly in shortly short term in California and initially I was a member of the U of A of a bar that you may not have heard of but maybe you haven't called the juice bar I was an artist squeezer I was remember of the Florida bar juice bar the Florida bar and the Federal Bar I was member of four bars uh but now I'm retired from all of them I stopped drinking so I'm not do that either um my interest in the uh and this committee is um is the environment which is needs protecting as we all know and um and we live in a beautiful community and it's been a pleasure for us my wife and I really we just very happy here it's quiet we'd like the beach people are nice generally speaking um I really we really haven't had any problems and um but there's some environmental issues that need to be considered in this community um for one the beach tends to have a lot of pollution and garbage most of it comes in from the ocean I mean it washes in with the ocean I'm not sure where it comes from it's probably not coming from the community but it's certainly um it's certainly on the beach frequently I clean the beach maybe four or five days a week I meanless I clean the beach I walk the beach and I fill up a plastic bag or two um and it's a it's a you know I don't think I'm gonna lose my job there because it seems to keep coming back you anybody wants to volunteer to join me you're certainly invited but it's a it's good exercise and uh I feel like I'm doing something useful um the my interest in the committee among other things is the situation with the Leaf flowers which I mentioned or brought up maybe a year and a half ago my understanding is that it became law in California after maybe a one or two year two year grace period so I'd like to see that happen here and I'd like to see the beach cleaners be more the beach cleaner tractors uh be more gentle with the beach because they basically put these these rugs on on the beach these grooves on the beach and it really detracts from the natural beauty of the beach um generally speaking the community is great I don't see a lot of pollution in the streets the the inter Coastal looks nice but there there's issues so I mean there a few issues I'd love to get involved in helping if I can okay great and we'll go through each commissioner with uh their own questions David thank you for coming uh coming for forward and putting your name uh for selection I think it's just wonderful and um uh so I'm listening to what has uh called out to you uh to work with the committee um well I tell you really what called out to me are the leaf blowers we used to live in a little house across the street it was like a COR plug and right next to it was the Tana oh sorry right next to it was a Tuscana U Recreation whatever they call that building and U they had one tree on that property and that property was right next to our little place and seven days a week they were out blowing that one leaf room uh but it woke woke us up or just annoyed us seven days a week and I talked to the manager of the building and he said um he said well we need to keep the property nice I said well I'll do it I I'll volunteer to clean your property for you because it'll be less headache for me than L listening to your because we can't do that so just take it or leave it which eventually we move from there but um and I think a lot of people besides myself are really offended by the noise from the gas Le Leaf flowers it's bad for the bad for the Neighbors bad for the people that hear it and it's particularly bad for the people that are using these things in terms of their hearing uh the gas that comes out is very strong I think their life expectancy is about 12 years or something I'm exaggerating I don't I don't know what their life expectancy is but it's certainly not a very appealing healthy job uh when now there's technology for electric leaf blowers that have no pollution so um so that was that was really what kind of got my Piat my interest I've always hated leaf blowers I Liv in cocono Grove and I used to Canvas the neighborhood and try to get their their maintenance people they cut down on it or to do try to have two days a week where they could just just torture the and torture it's just two days a week and then we have five days off for good behavior so um have have you attended um prior meetings of of the um natural resource preservation board no no I didn't I didn't know I was no I just if you had occasion to do that in the past no I did I mean I met the uh guess the the head of the board You Know She interviewed me but I haven't haven't been to their meeting okay well thank you very much thank you yeah Dave thank you uh I like your shirt if Krabby please return to the beach um uh I love that you go up and down and clean up our beach I think I I see you're out early in the morning I think right are you in the afternoon the uh cuz I see some people out in the morning they were buckets and pick up uh and I love that you coach young kids I mean I admire anybody that does that I see you do tennis and uh Tennis and Swim or tennis yeah tennis right yeah Del Beach and I admire anybody that does especially when their kids grow up and they still coach so uh thank you for volunteering good afternoon uh you clean up the beach do you have a bucket Tree by your uh no we don't we have a we have a garbage can yeah no because we have bucket trees that have orange buckets on it so perhaps if you go to the office and you request one we might be able to make one available sure which helps yeah I think I think they're it's a nice idea I prefer the plastic bag it's easier for me it's easier just to fill up a bag or two if I run out of one I can take I got another one uh but it is a nice idea and I think it should be encouraged I think there could be more communication with the condo association where people could be encouraged to go out and take a bucket or you know we do have them in various condos along the beach so I was just curious if there was one by yours and if not you're no in fact I could ask our our association if they would agree to have one no sometimes I borrow a bucket from further down the and I'll bring it back and I'll hang it on next to our garbage can and I think somebody because there's plenty of buckets and there's not mostly a lot of these condos are almost empty so this time of year yes so I take one of the buckets and I put it next to the garbage can and it kind of gives the idea to people to pick it up and do something and Beach rakers that's been an ongoing issue I'm afraid do you have a suggestion how it could be made better or you might think about something because they've been here we've had people testifying and it just doesn't seem to be a win situation so if somebody else can come up with a suggestion that would work we're open to that well I have some kind of half picked ideas but um I think it'd be something that the committee could work on if I'm appointed to the committee I mean I think there's some things that can be done it's It's tricky because they're on Federal Land and so the commission doesn't have a lot of control over these people well but they they don't rake on the federal land they rake on private land and they are hired by the individual homeowners and there are only two companies that do it and if it's not a straight line you know from here back it's one it's it's hid and miss and when they it up supposedly and they're not raking it creates grooves and if we could come up with some way of maybe getting people because they charge basically the same you know maybe if they could split it and it would be more efficient for everybody right right no they're they're going over each other's work and they're they're they're making a mess I mean sometimes you'll see these circles they do these wheelies and they create all this really uh unsightly I mean they sometimes the beach is beautiful and pristine you know after a rain or storm or just in general and they'll come in and basically they're they're making a nice situation worse I mean General I know they're helping you know to with the seaweed but um I think it's something that we could address and try to figure out because I know I've tried to reach I call them and they now they don't return my phone calls they must have I'm surprised it even rings yeah we that's an on to be fair it's an ongoing issue way back these the people uh um have been around for a long time well thank you for volunteering thank you for applying uh could you a little clarification on the leaf blowing are you concerned about the gas the noise the frequency all of the above or could you just expand on that a little bit I would say not so much the frequency I mean I think they do it in an appropriate amount of times a week or a month or whatever but everything else yes the noise the gas they create a tremendous amount of pollution more than a car we think it's little machine but it's really we're concerned about air pollution that they're doing that and then most of the people that use them do not have ear you know any kind of ear protection so I don't know how it's affecting their hearing but I don't think it's help it and um it just seems like an awful job but you know I mean they're they people that hardworking people and I feel for the people I don't think it's their fault they're just trying to make a living but the but and it is a very efficient way to move the leaves around although the leaves will break down and it's good fertilizer but you know everybody wants a pristine property where there's no you know it grass is perfectly manic so U it's U it is a it is a it is a problem and I'm surprised the commission hasn't moved on it earlier because this has been going on we discussed this over a year ago maybe a year and a half ago so I'm not I'm not sure from your side what the holdup is but you know it's something that I think the community is in favor of I mean if you have an electric leaf lowers it's going to do the same thing um I don't know if the noise will be much better but it'll be less less polluted and I think it's it just became law in California just few weeks ago I mean we finally went into effect a few weeks ago I think the law into effect about two years ago they gave him a grace period of at least a year so the companies could retrofit their you know their machinery and get ready for it and I think we could do the same thank you uh yes thank you for volunteering um I am in favor um I don't have any more questions but yeah I think there's a a lot of uh competing issues on on all of these items that you have brought up and it sounds like you are very well informed and can contribute to the discussion so um I am in favor so if we could have assuming everybody else is as well sounds like yall are I move we approve resolution number 2024-25 B yes commissioner Peters yes vice mayor Stern yes and mayor Moore yes motion carries congratulations and thank you very much for volunteering thank you next item on the agenda agenda is the fiscal year 2024 2025 budget uh presentation recap that's right David's G to bring us in we're so excited again to present this budget again uh our eye is on the future and staying consistent with our five-year financial model um and with your approval over this month of the 2425 budget David will then get in the exercise of updating the model with the current numbers and bringing forth our updated projections uh going forward again our financial position remains strong um but we have a cautious eye towards the future with some headwinds uh but we are prepared to tackle um all of our capital and special projects and uh David's got some new charts we're excited about you know how he gets excited about the budget so uh David if you could bring us up to speed that would be great first of all I want to thank the audience of the fire department for being here to watch this I know that I'm assuming that's why they're here it's just a quick threeh hour presentation just um anyway you know uh a lot of our uh initial uh uh theories and and our our approach roach to to FY 25's budget has remained the same and so not much changed we we did see as we close out the month of July so we've got 10 months of actual data that that we kind of compare to and so when I when I looked at that I I noticed that I was a little bit too conservative on interest income so I bumped that up but overall uh a lot of changes are aren't anything material and so matter of fact some some funds didn't change at all some just changed uh uh line items changed I think at one of the last meetings you approved uh uh uh a 6 and a half% raise to non-union people I had in there 5% just to be conservative I also had 7% for insurance for health insurance our insurance came back at 6.2 so you know these things were were really within line but overall as we've always always discussed is what's going on with property values and we can see here this is this is our Trend right oh year-over-year and and the percentages that you're seeing here these are the year-over-year percentage changes and so you can see right we we just got done with 23 and 24 double digigit growth in that area and so right now for FY 25 we came down a little bit okay and and that's normal uh we also talked about how our commitment to our initial plan our initial Five-Year Plan was to remain at a combined uh millage of 3.58 75 uh also recall that what we decided to do was another one of our goals was to make the water and sewer funds stand on their own right that that that was our that was our goal and every municipality should also do that as well uh and so that's one of the things that that we changed here right we no longer have a Debt Service transfer going from the general fund to the water fund but instead what we did is we converted that to our fire department for this brand new beautiful building that you were successful at at building uh and again all these changes we'll we'll look at through here again this right here is what's changed you know these right here are your millage rates we kept the millage here the same at 3.58 75 you can see the oranges are operating and the blue is our debt service right but but maintaining this line here this is total millage maintaining that at the three uh 35875 that's always our goal the the green that was our water that's what we used to get from the from from the uh Debt Service tax millage and we used to bring it in and then we used to send it over to the water but but we we've changed that and that's what that says there eliminated the water fund Debt Service millage transfer from the general fund so let's take again we're we're looking at high level so here what we talked about and um I'm sorry but when when I get to the new chart you're going to love it because really what it does is it looks at all this but in a chart form it's like the Matrix but not so good anyway so so anyway so you can see here this right here what you're looking at this right here is all of our revenues for the general fund this right here is all of the expenditures now we group them up into Personnel Service operating Capital Debt Service transfers contingency and reserve for for Appropriations on the on the revenue side you'll notice here right here's your property taxes and and that's the increase there and then you also notice here see the yellow that I wanted to bring your attention we're no longer do having to do uh other tr other financing sources what that that line there that's why it's going down that's when we had to take out money from the bank and we had to use it to fund part of our building here in addition we also Drew money down if you recall from our reserves to also help accomplish that task and again that was awesome now what's changed really if you recall this year what we have is if you recall you know we were balancing two fire departments right we had we because we had to keep delway up and running and then we had to bring in the new staff so you'll see here that our Personnel went up right but our operating expenses went down see that that change there that's really what changed there right so we CH we traded off paying delr to now paying for uh our own employees and so that's that's the biggest change there the other one there the biggest change this year is you know no more capital outlay A major all of that there was pretty much the fire department so those are the shifts and again we knew that 23 24 these were going to be major shifts right when we get into 25 we start to settle down a little bit we start to get to normal operating procedures and we'll start to see that this right here is what your departments look like the general fund is the only fund that has departments these departments here you you'll see a town commission Town manager all the way down to Solid Waste Debt Service the major changes here that we did for this year is we shifted legal we shifted legal into the town manager's Department if you recall we also closed our post office right so that's that that's one of the changes there that we saw uh public works right now we have a million doll uh budgeted for what we're going to do with that old fire station and we'll discuss that at the end of our of of the presentation and then you also have if you if you recall here's the the fire department that there's a major a major shift this right here had a lot of capital and balancing to fire departments well now we're getting to normal operating procedures okay and also something new with this we are able to save this and we talked about that right we talked about having the opportunity right now to start to replenish some of those reserves that we took out and that was our plan and so we are following the plan and we're doing great with it all right this is the new this is the new one all right so this right here I know it looks a little catty W but let me walk you through it okay so the blue here this right here is all your rues right look how big and thick this line is this is property taxes and see how it's 75% of all the revenue all the revenue gets flowed goes and flows into what we call the general fund sources of revenue so it all flows into there right then what happens is in the general fund it flows out of there into these individual departments and so we're what we're showing here is we're showing all of the Revenue the $17.7 million coming in a majority of its property taxes you got franchise fees you got interest income you got a little bit of Grants it all flows into here and then it goes out to all the different departments right and then what we break out here on the right hand side is what we call um Services what your local government does so you can see here about 15% is General government well what's included in general government well what's included is Town commission Town manager clerk myself shared services Library goes into something that we call culture and recreation and you can see here that these two major powerhouses here police and fire right make up what what we call your Public Safety so people ask you what services does the town provide that's what we look there on the right hand side General government culture Recreation a majority here Public Safety here's Solid Waste this is for our our trash removal here's public works right here's a little bit of Debt Service here's our little bit of our transfers out and then here's what we're saving onto the bottom line which looks like at about 5% so what I like about this slide is not only does it take the place of if I go back not only does it take the place of this looking at revenues and expenses but what it also does is it breaks it down visually and you can see a majority 75% of our Revenue comes from property taxes you can see like 58% of our expenditures are on Public Safety what's made that up of police and fire you can always look at kind of like what we would call your overhead here for your general government and then how much really is dropping to the bottom line in terms of replenishing uh our our uh our reserves again as we talked about no major changes here we have a very healthy fund balance right we're uh this year we able to put the $250,000 back into uh reserves to start to replenish that especially for the fire department as we look ahead five 10 years when we realize that a lot of this major expensive equipment that we will have to be replacing right we're smart enough now not to put it on the backs of future taxpayers but we're going to do it a little bit at a time and that's and that's an excellent plan but we have a lot of these buckets here right and so this right here you know we have budget stabilization so if I look at about 7.9 almost $8 million that's how we allocate that 8 million Disaster Recovery fire rescue as we build that up and then unassigned means we get to we get to choose it it's not necessarily restricted but we get to choose when we bring it back to you what we want to do with that so now discretionary again on this slide here the main point is this ends right look it expires December 31st 2026 so it's it's it's gone and so what we decided we estimated how much revenues we'll get this year we estimated how much of our expenditures what we're going to use the money for which right here is the list of projects no changes here what what we had talked about uh some of it's for the police department a lot of it's for public work we have a healthy fund balance here but eventually what happens is this top this top line stops stops uh flowing in and so we'll have to address that a little bit later but right now uh 2026 is when it expires the building department the building department overall is doing uh fantastic and so if you recall you made it once again another brilliant smart decision by having that interlocal agreement uh to help this fund balance out when construction kind of slows down here but it picks up in golf stream it's nice matter of fact we have embedded capacity right with our staff and and under Jeff's command to be able to allocate those resources accordingly so it's been doing phenomenal we are anticipating a little bit of a Slowdown we are seeing that just a little bit but at the end of the day the fund is doing very well you know we overall it's we're looking at about a 23% increase in this fund a majority of it is charges for services right I only bumped it up a little bit uh and then our expenses obviously Personnel operating expenses Capital outlay this right here is one of the major things that that this fund is going to start contributing here is oh I'll go to that one here is what the projects that this fund is going going to be using right we're so we're going to use their funds on the city's behalf right to knock out these capital projects here and so again same idea wow where does where does most of the money come from well charges for service little bit of fines investment income right it all flows into this building Department's revenue and then how is it allocated well right off the bat right you can see it's it's almost balanced pretty well right it's balanced very nicely as far as how much is for personnel and pension and health insurance how much is operating how much is capital and then obviously transfers out to the general fund so it's it's it's got a nice healthy balance there that will help it continue to be successful for the long term and again a healthy fund balance uh extremely healthy fund balance uh you know over 600 days of cash on hand that we're anticipating so that's why we're trying to use up a lot of of its stored up energy or stored up cash reserves right to help to help uh some of the some of the uh projects that we have around here resurfacing Town Hall the trucks everyone here wants to see Jeff so he's constantly he got traffic coming in and out and so they're gonna they're gonna do their proportionate share and helping out with improvements around uh Town Hall all right the water fund the last time we were here I only had three Cycles but now we have up through five and the and the water fund people continue to use water which is a great thing right uh they're conservative but at the end of the day uh we do have Peaks and valleys obviously with uh the uh people coming in and leaving for for that short period of time we're still estimating this is the the circled items here are what the the last cycle which I won't get to the last cycle until December right so when we bill out for December right then then that'll be uh for for for the end of the year uh and or no actually October actually when we bill out for October that'll catch that that'll catch me up but right now water right Revenue grew by 13.7% and usage went up by 11 uh almost 12% our usage uh increased now that's just with water right and irrigation kind of we're we're seeing the same thing this is through five Cycles so again um it's it's doing very well we're tracking it we're changing out meters where we need to change them out at and so it's being very successful so overall as you're aware you know we have an 8% rate increase uh that we'll have a public hearing for uh We've included all Personnel uh salaries and and adjustments uh the uh right now we have a slight we have a little bit of of a slight decrease but nothing major in capital right that's only down by by $6,000 uh the the the big the big footnote here for this fund is the reduction in debt service right that's why we're that's why we were able to not take it from the general fund and let the water fund stand on itself the reason why is because again we had another $375,000 that we didn't have to pay out for Debt Service come off the books so we're paying off loans at a at a at a good Pace uh same idea where does all the revenue come in from well comes in charges for services got a little bit of in uh investment income appropriation from reserves to balance right so here's all of the money coming in and again it seems like a very healthy and well balanced fund because all these items here nothing nothing is overly uh exaggerated you know we got a nice healthy health the allocation here with Personnel operating expenses you know those continue to go up with chlorine and whatnot Capital Debt Service and then transfers out so again a very very healthy look at how the money flows in and how the money flows out fund balance uh again it's a it's a healthy fund balance it's at about 102 days that I'm predicting at the end of FY 25 that that we'll have left uh this right here are the major Capital programs that we're going to attack this year that has not changed since our last meeting and this right here is just a snapshot here of the debt that's on the water side of life here and when it matures and the interest rates remember the good old days remember those interest rates were one and two% right those those are good old days anyway uh so uh but at the end of the day uh the fund is healthy and it's operating according to our plan now let's look at the fund same idea with the sewer fund right my my my treatment grew by 12% through the through the first five Cycles right and then uh by when I'm comparing our Revenue our Revenue increased by almost 12% uh as well through the first five Cycles so these are all healthy indications uh for for long-term success again this right here is that big picture we have an 8% rate increase we have increases in our operating expenses the the interesting thing here I'll go to the next slide right see this one here is heavily weighted on operating expenses the reason why is because we don't have any Personnel in that in that in that department right so so this is one of the the the nuances so the town pays delr Beach to treat our sewer now what do we have responsibility for we have responsibility for all the sub lines and the lift stations we have have to get raw sewage from point A back to them and so that's our responsibility but at the end of the day they treat it we have a long-term contract a healthy contract uh we have some Capital here this Capital here does not include the sewer relining and we'll talk about that towards the end but this right here is some of our projects the other thing too which I thought was very very interesting let me go back a little bit grants we got we got $400,000 in Grants and we're already starting to work on those a lot of the lift stations that uh that we got from Tallahassee and uh so we we're we're already putting those into work we already have a plan to rehab a lot of those lift stations and so that's that's very successful the other thing too here is uh appropriation from reserves we're not anticipating any appropriation from reserves to handle these capital projects the reason why is we're getting Grant funds from them so that's that's that's the plan here that's the other good thing appropriation to reserves right now we're very well balanced um but at the end of the day we'll talk about the sewer reigning project towards the end of it and what our plan is going to be for that again healthy fund balance see this one here but see that 308 days of cash you know we're gonna we're gonna start using that some of that up when we talk about the sewer riging right and so and so it's okay and the other thing too you have to understand is the sewer side of life is much more corrosive right uh pumps Machinery the lining of they just deteriorate so much quicker than the water side of life and so this is this is normal behavior overall this is your budget right it's a little bit over $28 million what you're looking at here is this is all your funds right here on the top right here the bottom is all of your expenditures they all balance to zero and so we're matching up the revenue and expenses whether it's by Capital outlay Debt Service transfers but overall this is like your 30,000 foot level of what's where the money is coming in from where the money is going now we'll talk about some of the open item discussions for planning that we we have budgeted for some of these items but maybe not fully but we want to get some input uh from from uh discussion going on forward so uh as David alluded sewer lining project we spoke a lot about that Pat's working with a couple of vendors trying to secure pricing it's not as simple as we had hoped uh but we're working through those details to see what kind of vendors we can get in working off of other existing contracts because of our luck previously of trying to bid out the whole project so we're trying to see if a contractor will extend their pricing uh that they've given to a few other communities some of these larger communities move at a slight slower speed um but we're we're narrowing in on those numbers and getting some prices so it's an open budget item there's dollars there we just have to get those to be able to come back with a concrete plan for you all to say this is what we can tackle my guess in my conversations with Pat is we're probably gonna have to do the side streets first fot really isn't going to let us in the right away so we have an opportunity at least to break it into a couple of projects um and we're prepared to do that we just got to get pric so we could say it's going to be X or Y we just don't know uh those numbers uh but we're getting it in there we also have uh there's uh opportunities where we can uh look at interfund loans which the gentleman to my left will have to look into statute to make sure we don't uh cross any lines there but conceptually what that is is using our fund balance to fund other operations and those Enterprise funds would then pay us back either at no interest rate if we want to be very benevolent or you a minor interest that you maybe would have earned in the bank so we don't have to go through all the financing cost charges and we have more flexibility so we're looking at that uh as an opportunity and then the srf is there um their process is pretty clean the interest rates are right around 2% or less which isn't bad if we have to at some point go for the whole project it may be something we want to look at uh but we haven't really circled back until I get some numbers from Pat and he's working on them pretty well 75th Anniversary you know we don't have exact budget we've had our initial meeting where we're working through some of the details I'm sure commissioner Peters will tell you some of those details um we have funds in that um contingency fund to cover it it just you'll have to do a budget amendment when we get to how much you want to spend and what events when you make those Selections in the next couple of months but the funds are there um old fire station we've circled it uh pgal still working through some of the structural elements we don't know what that's going to look like exactly on those details we do have it funded we just basically it's what 900 it can't exceed $937,500 um police vehicles which we've had some sidebar conversations it's partially funded we had some when David did the interest expense adjustment we put that in for vehicles it's not going to cover the whole thing but rest assured when we start having these conversations over the next few months there are dollars in your budget right now to handle that first push of it if if you decide to give us that green light as we move forward in that conversation so those are items that might uh require some type of budget amendment as we move forward which you're allowed to do I just David and I will have to have a resolution amending that budget once we get into the next fiscal year um but really that's kind of the budget those are the kind of the the open items um again in discretionary sales tax um it goes through 26 we had a couple more years we probably have about close another million that we'll collect in those funds we over allocate to balance um because we don't really know every dollar that the bridge is going to cost us or not so we we take very conservative estimates just to balance the U discretionary fund usually we have a couple hundred thousand dolls uh spill off Doug tailing that a little bit you'll start hearing conversations news articles and our conversations the county is looking to replace the discretionary sales tax with a transportation sales tax almost in the exact amount and there'll be some distributions we're going to work with the county to the greatest extent possible um but against then we would be getting dollars of similar nature only for uh Transportation when you think Transportation think Beyond roads uh the County Administrator made a commitment to really look at multimodal which would cover our Pathways signals street lights you know anything Transportation pedestrian orientation signage all that stuff that works in our roadways and rways would then be covered but we would have some dollars to do that so if that starts to gain traction uh we'll see how that bridge is I may say slow down on the bridge a little bit maybe tied in if it can be it probably we're going to have to address the cracks and stuff right now but any other major major Renovations in side streets let's wait till we get those dollars worth that's all we could spend it on so that's early in the the conversation that really wouldn't start coming in until 27 so we got a couple years so I don't know I say Circle back to the bridge we're going have to take care of the structural elements but maybe not as much as we'd want or could um and you've been petitioned by other residents to do other side road stuff so once those dollars come in there might be an opportunity to address some of that um but again the budget looks good we cover uh all of our strategic priorities uh we maintain our goal and focus on that five-year forecast uh we're replenishing the reserves like we're we were planning gets us back and it really stabilizes and what I see in the bottom there is safeguarding the future of our Paradise is that we're planning for whatever those headwinds may have so we can provide that level of service continually without having to modify tax rates or chase dollars and revenue we can consistently move forward in the future y yeah and so part of the budget process is is obviously tonight we'll have the first of two public hearings right now in between there what we have to do is we've got it advertise in the newspaper and uh and so I've got to put a lot of this stuff into that typical ad advertisement and so but any changes in the future that we want through budget amendments things like that we can take on in in just a a a a normal meeting when when we have those pinned down but uh I'm here to answer any questions specific I have a question for you um so the I don't know if I'm reading your chart correctly the unrestricted balance in the sewer fund is at the 2.74 million yeah so is that what we have AA theoretically available to us for the sewer project yeah and then um so you're saying Marshall if it ends up being 3.5 million which is what we got um approval for we could potentially borrow it from another fund and then pay ourselves the interest is that what you're correct because there is money in the sewer fund and if uh by the time we undertake the project it's mostly going to break fiscal year so there'll be funds generated so conceivably the general fund so long as Mr ruin says we do it properly through the right mechanisms kind of do an in fund transfer which you can do we're just putting an agreement amongst ourselves that if we lend it to the Sewer the sewer is going to pay us back with interest so we don't lose position on that money but you could um so we don't have to go to a bank right and save ourselves the interest R we save ourselves the interest rates going out financial advisors Bond counsels all of that you know 8% overhead you do on financing no longer comes into play and we can just borrow from ourselves and it gives us an opportunity where we could stay at market rate or better if you wanted uh so our money continues to grow and it's a safe investment in ourselves versus you know throwing it out in the banks at least we're putting it in our own infrastructure uh and moving forward so and once we look at that there's a ways to do do it now your your free cash I'm guessing uh David gave me our 10-month overview and variance um they'll probably be a couple hundred thousand dollar as it does every year trickling into that again so that's current at the end uh a trial balance will come in late November early December and we'll see how this current fiscal year shakes out uh we're tracking in a very positive fashion where we should be able to get a few dollars to a couple hundred thousand dollars to pass back into the general fund so that will grow because it'll go into the assigned uh for that so again everything's good news I love giving good news on budgets um after the Great Recession those were tough career years um so this is great we're in a good position we're tracking um your commitment and Leadership to stay on that fiveyear it it's really working out and putting us in a very strong financial position not now but five years down the road we can handle what happens right and you know overall if I I I have I have it overall if you're look at all the cash from all the funds for all the town it's about $25 million right this is just how it gets you know how it gets allocated it's like a uh it's like a partnership or or what have you basically think about it like a 401k loan I don't know if you've ever done those or whatever hey okay so we're used to earning about 5.25% of the funds that we don't necessarily need long term uh you know and so wow okay so maybe maybe we drop this down from 300 days cash maybe we drop that down maybe to 150 you know we see how much that that trickles down you know maybe Jeff is kind enough you know absolutely it or you know what you know whatever you know what the general fund things like that that that we look at you know and so we sit there but as long as you know we pass it by legal and we show it on our financial statements and uh the we we don't do it for a long term you know what I mean we can we can really start to be self-sufficient and not have to uh to do that so it is it is an idea but at the same time srf you remember the water uh let's go to the water U sorry let's go to the water fund remember the loans that we saw here at the water fund you know this right here was the rates back in the day right so so now rates on savings rates I'm getting about 5.25% right and so wow if I can get an srf loan you know for one one to 2% may maybe we look at maybe we look at that aspect but again we we have some options it's good uh we just got to remember to look look long term we'll do that but there are more expenses than that correct it's more than just the ENT oh they Bank in some stuff um they they have some Financial overhead cost financial advisor um but they do group it a little bit with other projects so that that's how they get the interest rates down is they kind of doing grouping and um it usually comes from the clean clean water act appropriation from Congress each year they set aside a certain amount of dollars to go back out they've been doing it for so long that these like it says revolving these states are starting to get repay from earlier projects they have a pot of money that they can lend out each year now we don't qualify for any of the like some of the loan forgiveness design forgiveness but um it's already designed so we just go right to construction so uh we save a few dollars there we don't have to do any of the the earlier on costs that they would get involved with but there's a little bit of a fin cost Ser to issue the bonds yeah and so we're we're looking at that we're looking at maybe doing it in phases right side streets only maybe we pay for that with the cash that's coming in right in in the water and sewer industry you know we call that pay as you go Capital you know what I mean and so again but but trying to that first part that we need is is all right what what's the cost of this going to be how much is it how much is it going to be if we chunk it into various fiscal years and then uh how do we also work side by side with the A1A project so those are the challenge but it is on our top priority and uh but the good thing is is we we have some options so um when we came up with the three and a half million for the project that was we really you you were just kind of guessing so like any any updated guess so that was uh what two 18 months ago maybe two years ago and they they came in like 2.3 so we just said oh man if it's going to continue to escalate and um we kind of came close call with the fire startup cost that we estimated so we gave ourselves a little bit more Running Room we said three and a half million my guess is the project is still probably going to be two to two and a half million um we just got to figure out what those final numbers are um to do it in smaller projects will they give us pricing on linear running linear foot of certain pipe size it's kind of what we want to do and then base it on a larger community so they've got a pretty decent price and then negotiate with them some type of appropriate mobilization fee to start and stop um with two projects so so if it is closer to two the two and a half we could probably pull it off right yeah yeah okay that's great news which is ideal I'd like to not have to go through a lot of financing activities or exercises while the srf is a very appropriate and solid option for uh municipal financing for infrastructure still hassles and it's still issuing bonds for 20 to 30 years it's still pretty big cost and sometimes they entangle you know prepayments and early payoffs and stuff so you you kind of want to stay away from as much as you can right and and obviously there's a lot of covenants too and keeping it internal gives us that flexibility sure much more than if we were to go external so I like that okay any other questions from the other Commissioners just say related question condos and so forth are starting to work on their budgets and so forth the 8% increase in the is that what it's projected and then any change you see going forward on that kind of a percentage increase well you know you got to remember you know we we started out I I want to say 12% then we went to 10% and now we're at 8% you know we we after we get through you know uh there's been a lot of uh Peaks and valleys with the last twoyear budgets right because it's all been uh the fire department right and standing that up and we were successful at that listen I have no doubt that we are going to be incredibly successful with a three million sewer lining project uh but yeah I mean so it as we get through with this budget we now can look at what is uh what is normaly and now we'll be able to redo our fiveyear forecast you know we weren't too far off keep in mind when we did our five-year forecast we didn't have 100% rate increase for solid waste right we didn't know about the Post Office closing down we didn't there was a lot of things but we're still relatively close and I'm still a big believer in let's take what the new Norm is let's start rebuilding our fiveyear forecast for what we think it's going to be at let's still look at hey if property values continue to grow at a very conservative rate because the double digits and the 8% I I I don't I can't foresee that continuing into the future but it's been surprising to me but at the end of the day we'll rebuild that five years and we'll and we'll look at where we're at and then just to to recall on that raap Talis next year would be the first year where we'd basically be at CPI adjustments for the water and sewer rates we're not having to make those big gains to get the system to be independent this should be next fiscally year it should be right you know making sure we should be at you know 3% kind of change two to 3% type of rate change versus this 8 10 kind of kind of number yeah because because the next debt uh I can't see that far but I think those are 30 and 37 you know so we we have these here for a little bit of time right you know what I mean yeah so we got about 5.17 million hanging around our neck for for a little bit of time left uh and this right here is our debt service annually and so uh a lot of the other ones you know fell off but but we still have that I have a question going back to the water usage you had indicated 13% yes that was the number other than the uh changing change off to uh newer meters y um do you think that was the main reason for the increase well you know it's it it's hard to say we we still have you know we're we're all but built out you know I mean as a community most other communities they they estimate how much growth is going to be in there but we're pretty much almost built out but but our structures are massive right and our clientele love their Green Grass and love their water and so at the end of the day these are these are good things from from the water side of life uh but yes I'll I'll jump in yeah meters deteriorate over time and we've noticed and we still even I'm looking at Sergio we just had a conversation about a community where what we meter at the road and what's internal is off three to four 5% just because of the age of the meter so when we start especially the compound meters for the condos when you take something that's 25 years old and you put a new meter in it does speed up um not and it's a newer technology they last longer so we are noticing when we change meters that all of a sudden the next read pops more so than you would expect so the meters are making a difference changing those out especially with those the condos and the irrigation meters I mean you're talking hundreds of millions of gallons of water flowing through that it's it's impressive do you think the construction is also an aggravating effect on this well you know um I you know it's hard to say right but what I'm saying is is that that's why I don't look at that's why I looked at usage right usage takes out the rate component right you know what I mean now we're just talking gallons here I'm talking gallons used right and so when I look and I say all right you know what it's it's uh 10 uh 12% more when I'm comparing it to the same five Cycles this year versus last year when you know when I compareed that and I'm saying you know that's attributed probably to you know uh the new meter usage and also the completion of of major major homes so yeah yeah yep so that's all I got so we'll we'll meet again tonight tonight's meeting I won't go through this unless you would like it again uh and uh and we'll tonight what we'll do is we'll set our mill rate and then what we'll do is we'll then Set uh the the budget amount which you'll see there for the 20 $28 million um and so uh yeah we'll we'll we'll keep moving forward and these right here the next steps that that we have right we we have to advertise in the newspaper we have another meeting on on September 21st that we have to do no we don't oh September the 18th I'm sorry 18th sorry that's the typ uh September 18th and uh and uh then once that's done we'll put these numbers into our system and start the new year thank you since you mentioned the meeting date um it is this uh we have the town Commission meeting on a Tuesday and then the second budget meeting the following day it's not on the same day we had to do that because the county selected the day the book ended the school district and the county itself book ended us so we had to move it into that date thank you very much David I like your new charts I when you first put it up was trying to read the faces and but it does from my end it's really cool I was I wasn't yeah well all right well right no no no I know I know but it flows the shows the flow of funds right yeah I wasn't put wall no that was really uh nice I think just really the point of them is the percentages so maybe just make the percentages bigger yeah yeah no this is my first you know trial at it but you know it does instead of having a pie chart right that shows oh this is it no no no show the width of of those of those things and then show it all coming in and then show where it all gets instead of having the dollar bill remember the days of the dollar bill you see the dollar bill this is kind of the shows it all so anyway I'm glad you enjoyed it yes much better excellent okay moving on to public comments mayor vice mayor Commissioners uh just a quick note in the fire department we like to uh acknowledge and recognize Excellence so we uh make we make it part of our Traditions so we have five fire of the air paramedic of the air Valor so you save lives and so there's been somebody that's supported the fire department through Inception through its development and through now its fruition so we wanted to recognize that effort and the crws wanted to come here to personally make him an honorary fire chief so time manager Fant oh nice wow like the C put it just the small saying thank you for all you do for Public Safety and for the community well thank you everybody it means a lot it really does and um and I hear about all your good work every day so I know this is definitely honorary because the the hats worn by the three Chiefs in the room that do a great job keeping it all moving um truly honored uh it's a very great thrill a awesome accomplishment we were able to pull off together we all did this we all made this a reality and uh this is pretty cool this really is thank you thank you so much this is great this is great right here for the day excellent well well deserved for sure very nice I got it after the budget which was good right thanks for coming thanks for coming very nice any public comments after that Mr Newman you g to do another presentation David no a different chart just a a short comment about presentations um the one thing I noticed on the budget was the uh cultural and Recreation and we have a wonderful cultural part to this community with the library and the activities and it's really quite extraordinary I'm very grateful and I think that's that's wonderful um I don't know how much the recreation uh is part of the budget but I don't see any r Recreation at all um and i' I've mentioned this to the county City Min um but um something to consider is to have some Recreation that could be tied into the fire department I don't know how much Recreation they get but um it would be nice to have some ping pong tables I know I think the Commissioners think that um that all the kind have Recreation and it's not true a lot of the condos have very limited Recreation and I I've been dying to play pingpong and I see all these potential victims over here that I could play pingpong I would probably be the victim but they like paying ping pong too I've come to find out I would imagine or or a pool table or a bot ball or whatever the community can put together but I don't see a recreation department in the city of Highland Beach and think ni thank you for your comment anyone else okay seeing no further comments uh there are no ordinances today uh we have the consent agenda any changes to the consent agenda no changes I had a couple changes which I forwarded to Lena they were just minor typographical um which she has already Incorporated so if we could have a motion um incorporating those minor changes I move we accept the consent agender with the minor changes I'll see that all in favor say I I motion carries unanimously unfinished business the building department recertification program updates Jeff uh jeffre Miss building official town of Highland Beach commission um G to give you an update I don't have uh a really fancy chart with you but apparently game on Dave uh nor do I have a fancy hat I do have some really boring numbers for it but are very important numbers though okay first and foremost uh we have 53 buildings that qualify under the Milestone uh per our ordinance and of those uh as we added two more to the completed and certif list we now have 10 which is about 19% of our uh buildings are currently certified which is a pretty good number it's actually 20% if you take out the other four that aren't even due yet so this is pretty good uh you I thought we were going to gain more than that but it's only those uh four actually only take it to 20% uh we currently have in our queue three buildings because we don't go by associations we go by buildings we have three buildings in our queue that we are reviewing uh their Milestone inspection reports their phase one reports we have nine buildings that we've done reviews for but we're waiting for additional information we had some questions for them based on the report that they gave us uh we do have four uh buildings that have complied with the report but they're overdue on getting the work done um we're working with those buildings I have a meeting this Friday with one of them we have 19 buildings that are currently undergoing restoration right now which is uh pretty good it's pretty good number on that and I have one building that missed the deadline it was just due for September 1st but the only thing that they're missing is they submitted the structural they just didn't uh submit the electrical so that's really not a big deal we have three buildings that we sent notification out but they're not due yet and we have those last four that aren't even on the radar yet to even send anything out because their dates are uh far ahead any questions and that's pretty much it you had um mentioned in a prior commission meeting that there were several um that uh or particular community that was not responding at all was that cured yeah all of that was cured um as soon as we uh release Adam uh with his Cod we had pretty much immediate compliance uh and it seems to uh wake people up a little bit because no one wants that we don't want that we just want compliance which is what we get so we just uh sending a letter saying hey and it it works so I think we're in good shape that's going to still happen as these you know as when I come back as I come back more buildings will be due and some of them you know may go by so if you go hey gez last month nobody was overdue well someone was due and they just didn't make the thing but so we're in great shape and I like the fact that we're down to three buildings to review their documentation for that's great good excellent there go great news thank you for the update that's excellent the Florida Department of Transportation trip R update yeah since uh Pat's gone I guess Sergio will come up and say a few words about what's going on with the f project and uh the commitment they are fot sends a weekly update so Public Works will send that over to y'all so you can see what they're reporting on um but Sergio can give us an update so hi Sergio gonzale assistant Public Works director um the update is it's going as planned uh as you guys can see they've done all the little orange things around the trees they they keep on working down all the way down so as of right now it's going as planned any questions on that I had a question on I know they somebody broke the gas line yes so we should beware when they come down they're on top of that on top yeah they're they're fixing things within about a week or so because I know they're hitting a lot of sprinklers um and I feel the calls and they're within a week or two it's it's it's definitely fixed okay no so what is now the anticipated completion oh God it's still a year right 18 months well 12 closer probably I would say good 14 to 15 months from is is from here yeah okay y thank you I I have two questions one they appear to be skipping areas that have Hedges or things jumping over them to go is that by plan and they to come back and do them it's by plan and design yep yep they'll come back and do them okay and then the other question is do you know what the plans are for the turn lane on uh Linton because that can become a major traffic conjection congestion yeah and sooner than later would be better yeah you know I I don't have the specifics on it but I can get it for you and over yep definitely right I guess I'm next too right C sanitary yeah Ling yeah um so Pat and I have met with about three vendors so far uh we're trying to work with different city contracts to get the best pricing uh obviously the larger the city the the the better the pricing um we are looking at Hollywood city of Hollywood we're waiting for them to to finalize their sign everything and kind of go from there so we're working with vendors um not moving as fast as I'd like but we're going to try to push it Pat and I that's probably the quickest way to get this done right is by jumping on somebody else so you're probably approaching it the fastest way possible rather than starting yeah and cheapest because we're not very big right right exactly well good hopefully you can negotiate a good or get a good for us that's great we're gonna get the updates I think we get a lot of questions on okay Y and I think I'm up next as well too it's three in a row so new business item a um approve and authorize the town manager to sign a surface agreement with pantropic power in an amount of $133,200 [Music] to ensure the generator's long-term operation and reliability so so we have a huge generator right over here it's about an 18 wheeler size um it's about 17 years old it's starting to get rusted out what they're going to do 20,000 of that is going to be to have a generator on the side just in case power goes down hurricane comes through it's already set up so we don't lose power the other 110,000 or so is to actually um take the roof off of the 18wheeler uh coming with heavy machinery and pick up the generator bring it back to their shop take it fully apart rebake it re redo everything on it um and then bring it back put it back in place and put the roof back on so that's that's it in a high level so it's better that to do that then get a whole new right so that's a whole new generator probably be about 500 and up oh W yeah it's it's a big generator so and then how long do you think it'll last when once they uh I think there's a warranty of a couple years um I would say definitely you know 5 to 10 years from there at least yeah I assume all the oil from the president gets discarded not reused is that correct oh yeah that's correct yep everything's going to be brand new well brand new refurbished but we have to have it in working order it's we can't have a situation where it doesn't pass tests right exactly so we have this has to be done yes and this uh p company that we're using now was a lot more thorough than the last one and this is why they found all these different things with it so might as well get it done now make sure it operates correctly have the generator on the side just in case so you're anticipating 30 days yes that's that's the goal yep y have we ever done anything like this before on this gener is this the first time we're doing first time yeah this is it's about 17 years old so it's it's gone through a long life so far so hope we did the muffler the muffler we did yeah about a year ago right fan Bel like a big fan that goes on it and that was hundred some thousand these are these are this a big diesel engine yes so it should last once we fix it it's just uh we should have been doing these things before but as Sergio was saying the last company missed uh some some close looks and we need to replace some parts and Y rebuild the the diesel engine you know what the frequency is to empty the completely and re put fresh the oil yeah I don't know I can find out for you yeah I think we do it annually kind of like an oil change but kind of like we just it has quarterly it has quarterly PMS the machine so I don't think they change the oil quarterly though so but I could look at it let you know okay I I asked the question because my Honda right now we're going to have to do some similar things smaller generator right but one of the things is the frequency and how often it should be changed the oil cleaned out yeah yeah yeah I could send that over to you on y well I'm in favor of doing this necessary repair to the generator so yes everyone is in agreement if we could have a motion I move that we authorize the town manager to sign an agreement with pantropic power in the amount of 133,50 8.33 for emergency repair and maintenance to the town generator I'll second that Mr David yes Vice May Stern yes commissioner Goldberg yes commissioner Peters yes and mayor Moore yes motion carries thank you very much thank you J next item resolution number 202 24-22 a resolution of the Town Commission of the town of Highland Beach terminating the town's 401a defined contribution plan yep as you recall we uh took on the services of sage view which is a financial planner to help with us managing uh the 457 and 401a plans here in the town moving away from icma so we've in uh got that in Place Lincoln is now our current provider of the actual um retirement accounts um but we need to close out we have a lot of ones hanging out in the icma so we're going to go through the activity where they will close out and do distributions to the old um Mission Square I always say icma but it used to be icma RC Mission Square so we Clos that out so we got to take these are the last steps to get them to distribute it back to the folks and the beneficiaries and close that account so it's just kind of like some bookkeeping if you will uh to close that out and again uh thank you on behalf of all the employees having a financial advisor looking at our retirement accounts and giving us some good advice and um not only is it advice but they reck make a quarterly reviews of all uh performance so they keep an eye on what's a bad product what's a good product and Shuffle out the garbage and keep us in the best higher performing uh plans available are employees happy with the yes yeah it's it's much much better and then having uh an independent review it and give you advice and then giving us as a community commission hey this product's a dog you don't want this anymore let's change over to this product and make those changes so everybody's income retirement income continues to move forward rather than stagnate or fall so um it's a really good way of doing it uh Mission Square I you know I feel bad as a city administrator and always being part of icma they just when they switched over to Mission Square they um didn't do it properly and uh they had a lot of problems so I'm glad we got through that and now we have good customer service we got an extra set of professional eyes on everything that's going on so it's good great critically important item that's excellent y I move we approve resolution number 2024-25 I second that all in favor say I I I motion carries unanimously resolution 2020 4-23 a resolution of the Town Commission of the town of Highland Beach providing for annual training for members of town boards and providing for an effective date yes mayor um so at the last meeting we were talking about code board and that resolution where we all we talked about the procedures we did include training in that resolution but the commission wanted to expand it to all the boards so essentially this resolution provides for annual training on at least an annual basis so that's why and ual training to each board um every board will get the government Sunshine Law because they're all subject to it public records high level code of ethics because you have to undergo that county code of ethics and I don't too much of that stuff I think you start you stop hearing it after a while um the purpose and powers of the board and some basic parliamentary procedure motions that kind of stuff but then we do have our three quity judicial boards which are planning board board of adjustment appeals code enforcement board so with those boards will go into the quad judicial procedures you know what the burden of proof is how they operate um disclosure of expart to Communications and that kind of stuff so um this way every board's covered and the training will be done at least annually hopefully when new members are appointed because I know that was the commission's concern is when we'll schedule um the training but we'll do at least annually any questions i' be happy to answer them uh the only question I have is not really for this but it's a procedural question for us going forward what do we do if someone on an Advisory Board fails to take the education or the training if they fail to do their ethics training it's mandatory so I think if they fail to take their e do you might have to you might have to remove them yes yes ma'am public you want to make a public comment which is never fun for a no no that it's never fun to remove a board member Rick Greenwall Tranquility Drive uh seriously just to follow up on uh commissioner David's question I'm all in favor of education and so on so the idea this is fine the the actual resolution is really probably deliberately but is uh lacking on a lot of specifics so there's nothing in there about how long this training is going to be how honorous it's going to be uh until you just mentioned it there wasn't mentioned whether it was uh uh mandatory or recommended or what happens if you don't do it or what happens if you don't do it in a timely fashion is it for everybody every year is it for new members only is it for reappointed members or how is it there weren't very many details in other words again I'm all in favor of Education I don't know how much you have this plan for in person versus online versus the different ways of doing things these days I know I did an ethics and sunshine thing when I first appeared on the uh Financial Advisory Board uh and again I'm all in favor of that but if this were something that like every year I had to show up for that most of these things get in my experience with these kinds of things in other indust indries at least I mean it gets pretty repetitive and not hugely helpful sometimes so I just thought that before this passes there probably should be a little bit more definition as to what the expectation is on the part of our uh prospective board members so that they're well educated but at the same time that they're not unnecessarily scared off by uh by chores that they might regard as uh being somewhat Superfluous so just for consideration thank you commissioner David I believe was talking about the the county training so how this I anticipate this working and I've done it in other municipalities really it would take place at a board meeting it would be at a regular scheduled board meeting it wouldn't even be an hour like it would be no less you know no more than an hour and I know it gets repetitive but but every year like I'll get the same questions especially with Sunshine Law issues and that kind of stuff I think it's good to do it every year for the entire board I that's just based on my experience it's always a good refresher and it's I mean I'm not I wouldn't make people sit there for hours and hours on this yeah I mean based on that explanation I would be fine with it uh it again it just wasn't defined as at least in the resolution so I just wanted some clarification that's all thank you you're welcome well I'd like to comment on that I I think that's a good idea to have the U um uh as far as what if there isn't attendance where I think we would if you want to include it if we have a little more specificity um and I agree that I think just the refresher I mean lawyers have to do it doctors have to do it nurses so so many certifications are required on an annual or every two or three years so I think that's a a good idea uh but tightening it up and just to consequences if you don't I think it it speaks to having it mandatory that's clear um and it's much needed I think it's great I think the training program um um and and I think that by having it um on the book so to speak um we acknowledge that we want that proficiency and the respect that we have for the positions um and consequently the respect they have for the position for taking it so it's all good do we have to have that in the resolution or could we deal with that the way they deal with the Internal Revenue code which there's the code and then there's the rules how to do it I mean I wasn't I didn't get into I wasn't that's not how I was looking at it I was looking at it you wanted something in writing that we're going to do training on an annual basis I didn't then that's why I didn't really get into the specifics and I understand you have no idea what I'm thinking maybe but this is just what I've implemented in other municipalities where once a year usually um some you know it's the board organization but I'll coordinate with lenel to what the best best meetings would be and it would just be during the course of a meeting and I'm not talk you know for this stuff I'm not saying you know you you're not there you're kicked off if if we have to meet with someone individually to go over it that's fine too it's you know we'll be flexible because the goal is not you know the goal is just to educate that's all is your thought that it be held at a meeting and then is it possible that if somebody who's not present watches the tape of the meeting and certifies they watch it that should handle the problem that's fine I mean yeah it'll be done at meeting it'll be recorded if if somebody wants to watch it if they can't make it for whatever reason that's fine you know this isn't meant to be onerous this is just really meant to be helpful more than anything else so this is a little off topic but um so what what do we want to do if you know we have this great training and but someone doesn't someone violates an aspect of of what well it depends there's different there's different penalties for what you're violating so why why I talk about Sunshine Law so much is because that's the most serious one because Sunshine Law could potentially not just be civil but it could be criminal um and then the ethics code well if you violate the ethics code there's prescribed you know penalties so that's you know I just want to make them aware of that as far as procedure and the quad judicial procedures and expart of communications that's really more educ and that's for whoever if I'm there or one of the attorneys from the office are there that's for us to guide you through that process it's just sort of an overview you understand how the board operates but when the board's operating it would be up to me or whomever is attending to guide the board through that process but this you know the only ones that has the sunshine law has violations you know public records They Don't Really deal with the providing that usually goes through the clerk's office but they need to be aware what what is a public record what's not a public record and then ethics if you violate the the ethics code there are prescribed penalties I mean that would go through a separate process so let's say there's a um member who is um uh acts in a in a highly disrespectful way what how how is that covered in the what would your training cover with respect to we would cover what appropriate Behavior would be or how to because you're a decision maker so you're act you're quas judicial which means you're have to be an impartial decision maker and we would advise them you know as far as Behavior advis they all work for the commission so ultimately if somebody is behaving in a way that the commission doesn't find acceptable or the commission believes reflects poorly on the town then it's really up to the commission to remove that person in you know an egregious area if it if it's just you know maybe they misspoke or whatever then we could talk priv coach him through it but if if it's a greedus or it looks like it's a pattern of behavior then ultimately it's probably best to remove the person from the board so your training would say you need to treat everyone with respect and whatever exactly that you have to come in unbiased you know base your decision on the facts presented during the course of the hearing that kind of stuff and then let's say someone is disrespectful then then it would come to the commission's attention and then we would say we covered this in training you violated it it's hard to do I know very hard to do hard to do because it makes everybody uncomfortable to have to call a resident and say your time's up and you don't want to Splash it out there you know luckily Rich isn't here tonight but if it was you wouldn't want the coastal star to pick it up that thisiss member did ex so it's it's a very delicate uh delicate manner but I would I'd like to reiterate what uh Mr Rubin said they serve at the pleasure of the commission you are the elected official so everything they do and in essence funnels back to you so if any of them go Rogue it's a reflection on you because those individuals are not elected you're elected to have these so um it's hard but we just got to remember that the structure is set up and our ordinance is set up that they serve at the pleasure of the commission if you want them to be independent truly independent then they need to be elected but since they're not they ser your pleasure so you'll have to have a pulse on it but it's it's it's quite challenging we tried we don't have a lot of problems with it again procedurally with some of the Quasi judicial I'd like Mr Rubin I'm just looking from a risk perspective we say something out of school we take an inappropriate motion don't disclose something you know they're in the parking lot saying something and breaking the sunshine those things need to be because those really do have consequences and can put us in a financial position to that's not good so um it's a good direction just to remind everybody that you know what it is hopefully we don't have to get into guidelines for interactions I had to do that with the commission Evelyn would remember uh back in uh 19 and 20 we had to put in some rules because everybody was going in different directions and we kind of had to establish some baselines you can do acts you got to disclose this just so people know uh and you keep that communication more you communicate the safer you are um so I think the training will be good it's been a few years so we kind of lost a little sight of it yeah so we'll get back to it back on our regular schedule Oh yes please come you know the last four years of working with volunteers my biggest challenge Lyn has not been the sunshine laws it's been the understanding of a balance sheet most most of my most of the people I'm working with if they had listened to David's presentation they'd be shaking their heads and they wouldn't understand the thing and that's probably so I'm just curious in the training part of it how much do we actually go into numbers not at all I wasn't that wasn't in my plan if you saw how well I did accounting Dave Dave could be a special guest star challenge four years sitting with a group of volunteers all professionals men and women but everyone shaking their heads and at the end when we try to have a discussion most have never been able to go to a balance sheet and start with debits and credits right debits and credits and a chart that's to it thank you the chart Master yeah well I'm in favor of this um I am I am too I move that we approve resolution number 2024-25 I'll s a minut commissioner David yes commissioner Stern excuse me Vice May Stern yes yes commissioner Goldberg yes commissioner Peters yes and mayor Moore yes motion carries okay moving on to town commission comments oh well I I just wanted to add a bit about the the training and the comments uh you know I think that it is um uh by doing this it not only uh enhances um our procedures um and it gives a um I think a feeling to the community of anyone that W that would like to come to um donate their time that they will have the tools given to them they will it won't be that they walk in the blind to a committee that they don't really know how it functions or how it should properly function so this really gives them the tools I think that it it in it looks good for everyone it feels good for everyone and it is good for everyone you know so I think that is excellent the um and Jason I also um it would be great to be able to pluck out all Financial people come in and account in accountants you know um but we do actually if we're we're looking at a finance committee so we are the commission is looking assumably for uh specific skills um so uh moving on from something else I'd like to congratulate Our Town manager again this is terrific we all know what an outstanding job and the commission certainly appreciates um all the work that you do thank you yeah I like to thank David there that was I love that you're conservative and uh and I love reserves you know so uh and it's important for a town to have that for a rainy day um also like to talk about the 75th um maybe we should go Jason go back to the pancake supper and he can wear his hat conserv pancakes but um yeah we had a meeting uh Jason was there and and we we had we had a great meeting we're the same arguments we had here what do we do do we do a mingle jingle do we do uh uh some kind of dance or something but that we kind of put that to Jason this Foundation maybe they could tie in to help the pleas the firemen so that is there but uh the mingle jingle uh when you started with lunch trucks I mean we had maybe a couple hundred people and it's been growing and the mingle jingle we I think much we said were like seven to 900 people in last year yes so it keeps on growing and it seems like people want that and if we can make it better so that's all our plans we're talking how we can make it better be a little more organized instead of last minute be overwhelmed and just try to throw things together so I think I I don't know if we we don't have our full approvals is the 12th the can we we got to wait on the date yeah we're we're working through uh the dates again uh St Lucy church and father Horgan being a great partner in this uh they're looking through their schedule their calendar there's a couple of conflicts so we're it's going to be that first part of December um we've asked for a Thursday we'll see how that that looks it'll be kind of this the same event but uh as uh Jason and uh Jamie our professional planners on the uh committee had indicated they started asking all these questions you know let me see your plans your list of vendors this I'm like ah we got a shot from the hip you know to pull that event off so I think we're going to be in a Next Level type uh event planning where we're not you know running out holding on to the Light trailer and pushing it over to get better lighting and running cords everywhere so I think it's going to be a little bit smoother operation better way to disperse the crowd because we're all kind of crowded at points so I think with professional event planning I think it's going to make a big difference in how people move through the site and um opportunity to kind of again it's the the celebration uh good questions were asked I I think our next meeting we're going to start really getting into the next part of you know creating that experience kind of applying that new concept of design thinking to community events where you get an exper and we continue to grow this community bring people together a lot of people you know gave testimony at the meeting like I met people I hadn't met before sat down and now they're regular uh dinner date friends that they go to do things together so if we could create that experience that strengthens relationships builds communities chance for friendships to get built you know that's you know everything I live for in my weird you know little world of being a town manager I love creating community and those Comm experiences we have that opportunity uh to do that and draw upon the volunteer base we have here that you know skill sets that you know you know raising money I'm a government guy I don't know how to do that I you know just raise taxes no so so but you know Community event planning how do we get that experience there that everybody loves it um an opportunity for the the church and father Horgan to reach out to the community how can we start doing more philanthropic type events and helping the poor and the less fortunate in the community we have that time and chance to do it here uh so we'll be working through that over the next you know uh month or so and two months and we'll just keep giving updates and um commissioner Peters will start asking for money soon and we'll go from there yeah I got Jason that he want that budget yeah the one thing was I think Jason has said it would be a good idea to tie in the community we have a a booth for the fire Department a booth for the police department and even a booth for the commission that people want to come up and ask questions about the town and Marshall can wear his hat thank you ride a little scooter [Laughter] around I think the idea behind the training really was people need to understand that they have to react in a professional manner and not spout off with extraneous things that create issues and maybe you think a little bit before you talk I don't think it's been a major issue but it has come up on occasion and generally if you just talk to the person say look don't do that if it becomes a habit that's a different issue but if it's a one or two off and you can deal with it and say look not appropriate I think that's just that's fine and that's really what we want is people to behave professionally and courteously um I think it is great that we are in such Financial good shape I love that I agree with commissioner Peters I love that we have reserves I love that we are thinking for the future so we aren't going to find ourselves in a problem barring you know the into the world um it's comforting to know that we live in a town that provides wonderful Services I mean we're a tiny little place and yet we provide big city services and we do it well and we do it economically I mean I know people complain about the water sewer rates but they have no idea what they cost in other places they don't know that we are really one of the cheapest around not the most expensive and the fact that we can keep that going the fact that we can make the Enterprise funds self-sufficient so we're not pulling out of the general fund all of that speaks really well to David and the finance Advisory board and the commission itself that we understand this is where we need to go and we're there there we just have to keep it up but we're there which is I think that's great nice mayor first of all uh congratulations on the hat hey guys we don't have to do a review um just a quick update uh Rich Pollock did an extensive review uh interview on the uh electric vehicles and so forth with myself and I know with the people in the uh the fire department as well and there should be a feature article coming out on this thing with our point of view what we're doing in our condo and so forth so keep your eyes open for that I think it's informative and uh I think it's a step in positive direction I nothing more from me town attorney no ma'am thank you okay Town manager yeah yes uh a couple things uh two of us Florida League of City's policy committee we start that up in October um I'm on Municipal Administration commissioner Goldberg Finance taxation finance and Taxation so Highland Beach will be in the State uh policy committees helping uh convince the legislator to keep home rule uh at the Forefront in our interest uh alive in Tallahassee um fire Services uh thank you it was nice the Hat I love it um uh also to let you know we've had some some some good call response that I I I never really got to see not that it wasn't provided by D I don't know but I was glad to see um not only we had a little bit of a fire this morning and I was glad on the prompt response not only by the on call duties Chief the assistant Chiefs uh Mr Remis everybody was called the police department everybody was called out to a small fire we contained it over U at Ambassadors we did a great job responding handling what was a a delicate situation Prof professionally with care and focus on community and people I like that um we're getting out I'll get some accomodations for a couple of the other um firefighters for response with a uh a young lady is um who had some issues and when they went above and beyond to ensure a a healthy and clean environment post response that above and beyond the Call of Duty and those were the commitments we made to you and those commitments are being delivered to you so uh we will make sure we do that and we've done it before with uh police I just want to make sure we include that in the fire that Public Safety you see what uh our commitments are and what that looks like in practice and um I'm sure those folks uh are happy our residents are happy in that type of response we are providing um also uh old fire station old post office we're working uh with our Architects uh not as quick as I would like um but we will uh give him a Kickstart I think Chief's right there texting them right now to where is our plans um but that's really the old fire station the old post office we need to reu reutilize that space for more Community planning events what that might be I don't know might be recreational more cultural who knows we have that opportunity to use some outdated dilapitated space convert it into something that's a little more useful active uh for the community which you guys have been working on for a while I just got to get these plans out of the Architects to you uh so we can start biting off on what that should look like and what you want to do with that space um so that's that's forthcoming other than that Marine accessory uh structures you'll start that conversation at your next commission meeting uh with ing he's got the finishing touches and all the changes working closely with Len to make sure the ordinance and all the language changes are all in the the right places so that project after 1822 two year month two years we finally have a good set of proposals to bring to you with your guidance uh that matches uh your intent uh the training thank you uh makes my risk management side comforted so I appreciate that um again the budget thank you David looks spectacular um like I said it's it's a pleasure doing a budget that's stable and we are on point um other than that I'm excited for this evening to approve that budget at 51 okay thank you very much uh remaining announcements we've got a couple of board vacancies Board of adjustment of appeals board and natural resource preservation Advisory Board I guess we still have one more vacancy on that board and then um upcoming meetings and events uh we have our meeting tonight at 50:1 which is our first public hearing budget meeting uh September 4th at 11:00 a.m. we have a natural resources preservation advisory board September 10th at 1:00 p.m. we have a cord uh code enforcement board meeting September 12th at 9:30 in the morning we have our planning board regular meeting um then we meet again on September 17th at 1:30 we have a regular Town commission meeting and then the following day September 18th at 50:01 we meet again and that's for the town commission's second public hearing budget meeting okay um no board action reports and with that no other uh we can adjourn thank you very much everyone thank you --------- ##VIDEO ID:nDGerAnN84Y## e for e commissioner Goldberg present commissioner Peters present commissioner David present vice mayor Stern present mayor uh mayor Moore present Town manager lab present and town attorney Ruben Pres ah pip ah it's like the void like a is that right ex we could all rise for the pledge signal Al to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for uh so we have our first reading this uh public hearing for resolution number 202 24-24 a resolution of the Town Commission of the town of Highland Beach adopting a final millage rate of 3.04 Mills for the town's generating operating funds for the fiscal year beginning October 1st 24 and ending September 30th 2025 providing that the final millage rate 3.44 Mills is 8.09% greater than the computed roll back rate of 31491 Mills providing for severability conflicts and an effective date and we do these separately correct or do it okay so um are we gonna have a presentation on this or yeah P up your PowerPoint Davis go again exactly we'll do that uh no uh Madam chair this is a formality uh and we have to do it in this order actually right so we first have to set the millage for the State of Florida and uh then once we set the millage as we as we've just done in a public setting we ask for any public comment if there's any public in the uh in the auditorium uh but this is more for uh statuto to be in compliance with the Florida Department of Revenue uh and then the next uh resolution that will establish the total budget and um and that's all any discussion among the Commissioners so I'll open it up for a public hearing any public comments hearing none um the public hearing is now closed if there's no additional discussion can may we have a motion please I move that we approve resolution number 2024 d024 setting the final millage rate I'll second that motion okay commissioner David yes vice mayor Stern yes commissioner Goldberg yes commissioner Peters yes and mayor Moore yes motion carries moving on to Item B resolution number 2024-25 a resolution of the Town Commission of the town of Highland Beach Florida adopting a final budget for the fiscal year beginning October 1 2024 and ending September 30th 2025 determining and fixing the amounts necessary to carry on the government of the town for the ensuing year providing for severability conflicts and an effective date so yeah uh same same I think in your detail uh the far right now remember what we're approving here is the uh if you remember we have all the funds have all the revenue and all the expenditures and the far bottom right hand side I think it total up to be a little bit over 28 million or something like that and so that's that's for all the funds and so basically you know at the end of the day each fund has to stand on its own and I cannot we cannot go beyond that dollar limit for each fund without first coming to you for a budget amendment so any additional discussion uh well uh first I guess I open it up for a public uh comments public hearing seeing no public comments I close the public hearing and if we can have a motion please I move that we approve resolution number 2024-25 adopting the final budget for the town of Highland Beach that's commissioner David yes vice mayor Stern uh yes commissioner Goldberg yes commissioner Peters yes and mayor Moore yes motion carries okay well thank you very much Town managers review um yes as we do uh annually during the budget process um we discuss uh the review we've uh all met in person um and discussed performance the objectives where you want to go um what you thought of my performance uh this year was a little bit different I did a self- review um I also put out a statement for what I expect to be doing the next year um so those were all all reviewed and we discussed um I continue to be honored to serve as your town manager and hope to serve as your town manager as long as you will have me um in the con my contract my performance contract there's a floor and a ceiling on an annual uh uh performance uh pay increase 5% floor 10% ceiling it's up to the discretion of the commission uh you guys get to choose so uh with that I I'll do that but again I I appreciate each everybody's feedback it was great um as I do every year it gives us a chance to sit down um where did we go what did we accomplish we did some great things this year it's hard to look back over the Year and be like oh my gosh look we just we were able to complete and then also at the same time begin to look forward what are those next series of projects and items and uh again with your leadership we've been able to uh achieve all of those goals and our strategic priorities build a high functioning team with great talent everybody in the room here so I mean uh I truly am blessed to have the best job in America so um you know it's it's your call what you what you what you like to do uh well you've done an outstanding job as you have for uh all the years that you've been here um in my opinion the most notable is the completion of the uh fire rescue department for the town of Highland Beach um I think that is um outstanding and deserving of the highest rating possible um I also commend you for uh retaining um top talent for our town and and and being being a strong leader for um um our town and our employees here so um for all those things I'm recommending the highest rate increase afforded by the contract and so I guess I'd like to hear from everyone so um I don't know if there's a anyone wants to go next you wna go okay by may go ahead first of all I I agree with all of your comments and again thank you for your self- review I think that was great and uh as you know it's a great basis for convers ation I think you did an outstanding job and I would really Echo the mayor's comments thank you commissioner David I agree with both of them and I am constantly not surprised but in awe of the job that you do for this town and I hope you're here long enough to retire yeah so yes can I I agree out Outer Limits of the contract requirements thank you yeah I I agree too this town uh keeps going because of you you keep the wheel going and uh you make this town a good place and like you said um you have the best job and we're we have the best town I think around this area so I agree Natasha the mayor um the highest I of course concur uh it has been a distinct pleasure and privilege to be on this Commission in this wonderful town and um it is wonderful because of you uh you have been uh I mean everything that you do for us working with us individually uh helping us along steering Us in the right direction um the due diligence and the proficiency that you show sleep at night very I know I do for that reason that there's nothing to worry about here because I know that you you've thought about it you've analyzed it you've spoken to our esteem staff about it and it's just an exemplary job that you do and I truly hope that you're here happily here and uh remunerated well in this town to show our Applause and our appreciation for your service so I would recommend also the highest available um increase that we can afford you so we hope you know that you are highly valued here and we greatly appreciate your hard work your your talents that you lend to us we highly highly appreciate you and I just appreciate your support to allow me to succeed I it's it's a two-way street to make this work and I got two original Three original people this is seven years I it is talk about time find seven years so um thank you so much again I I truly mean it this is the best job I I talk to people around the country and the count this this is great your support the community support everybody's on the same page moving in the same direction it is outstanding again then also thank you the mayor had said for allowing me to retain uh the best talent so uh kudos to my team H they do great job you see that every time when they make presentations you're like this is great thank you for allowing me to to get them on board and keep them on board well great well thank you everyone this is just excellent um and and I might you know we do all this and having one of the lowest tax rates of isn't that in the area really is amazing really amazing so thank you very much we need a oh do we need a you should have a motion okay okay that in the ethernet I move that we approve the highest rate Allowed by the contract for an increase for Marshall labid salary I okay commissioner David yes commissioner Peters yes commissioner Goldberg yes vice mayor Stern yes and mayor Moore yes motion carries thank you excellent thank you thank you um we have two more meetings this month uh September 17th at 1:30 we have a town commission meeting and then the following day September 18th at 5:01 we have our second public hearing of the budget meeting um and uh seeing no additional discussion we can adjourn the meeting thank you very much everyone have a good night thank you Marshall seven