e e e e e present commissioner David present vice mayor Stern present mayor Moore present Town manager labid present and town attorney rubben present we could please rise for the pledge Al to the flag of the United States of America and to the rep for it stands one nation God indivisible liy Justice for All any changes to the agenda no no seeing no changes if we could have a motion please I move that we accept the agenda as presented I'll second that all in favor say I I motion carries unanimously um moving on uh presentations proclamations there are none uh moving on to public comments public comments will be limited to five minutes do we have any public comments today no do we have oh okay good afternoon uh my name is Tom McCarthy I'm your assistant chief of operations for the fire department I'm here to you I'm here to present to you today the uh Community connect program that we've started within the fire department and basically what community connect is it's an opportunity for Citizens residents to put a personal profile within a database that is very secure it's Bank level encrypted so what it does is it gives us an opportunity to uh do a few things first and foremost it's a deeper level of communication and relationship building between fire rescue the town and our citizen base the other thing it does is it gives us the opportunity to depending on what the citizen chooses to put into that profile have some data available to us to anticipate and prepare to meet some special needs that the uh the person requesting our service is asking for it's a really simple sign up there's a QR code that's attached to this and uh lyel has already assisted us the clerk's office to be able to get the word out in addition to that our our personel on the streets will be also getting the word out to to provide the Flyers we can also put on the Town's website fire department's website this QR code and it's a pretty easy step-by-step process too where when people want to register in they can give as much or as little data as they want in there one of the things that the city of Fort lawdale has discovered has to do with access so their trial run led to a lot of successes in their highrises that have different access points for different floor levels so if by chance somebody lives on a floor level that has a little bit more of a challenge than a routine um trip up the elevator to a specific floor they can actually put that in their first year profile what's really helpful for us with that is when we get a call for service in addition to the dispatch what we call a cad data push that comes to our units via a multi-data terminal we can also see an attachment within that informational push that our Personnel can then tab into and see that okay there's a Nuance to accessing the citizens unit so that Nuance could be this stairwell to this stairwell back to this elevator Etc uh for fire department has anticipated what they call a decrease in vertical time of almost 50 to 80% and that's because people already had that ground level Intel on how to get there so for a lot of reasons this community connect platform is one of these things that we were looking forward to an opportunity to present to the citizens when we acquired first two for some of our um you know record memory systems um data points real to say okay now that we have this up and running how are we going to be able to maximize it uh people are more than welcome to come in uh our doors always open and we're thankful that we have a very engaging community that does like to come in and at that point in time we'd be more than happy to you know let Mr Andor Mrs Smith fire up the cell phone grabb the QR code and literally walk them through it to this morning we did a beta test with a Jackie over in the clerk's office and she was rather amazed she was so she's our actually our first user so um I want to encourage as many people as want to participate in this program to please take advantage of it it helps us help the citizens what that also mean that if there's mobility issues or some health issues because a lot of times when you come into my building I know for sure it's mostly medical yes ma'am absolutely so and actually you'll see with some of the icons that are on there some of the more prominent icons that are on the flyer sheet have to do with uh property again we talked about Nuance as far as accessibility um your people you know sometimes if you're a seasonal resident you know there may be one person here however when the season runs around now we about a half a dozen folks um special needs uh wheelchair accessibility if somebody's on home oxygen those are things that are important for us know to be able to help more expediently um and pets pets are important and uh there is actually a data element uh portal within there where you can put your pet information in there as well uh and it helps us on a lot of different levels it really helps us understand if there's a dog in there that may have a little bit of a temperamental issue so that's good to know uh but the other thing is too that you know pets are a part of these experiences it's not normal for fire rescue Andor Public Safety in general to come into somebody's house and our size and our uniforms all the equipment we carry so it gives us that extra opportunity to understand what we're going into with people's pets too should we besides doing individually have the like the condo do it that we're in they could tell you more about it because uh give you warning in that I guess that would be good for the condo to also do it well Mr Peters to be honest with you one of the things that we've been doing since actually pre- Inception started last summer was our pre-fire planning so in addition to our pre-fire planning we were able to get some of those items that you're speaking of this is something that's actually more specific to a resident within this building so but that doesn't mean by any stretch of the imagination that we do not look for and continue to engage with condo associations in general and be able to have these opportunities uh but at the current state right now this is strictly for a unit uh citizen user thank you yes sir as a suggestion uh to send out to the condo uh presidents or uh president of the boards uh the information that they can post on their website or building link to the uh Community within the building so they have an access and an idea what to do and they can follow through yes sir absolutely without a doubt you know one of one of the best parts about being public safety especially on the fire side is our ability and willingness to have those levels of Engagement we we pride ourselves on being versatile yeah that'll be key right getting the communication out so that people know to sign up so I guess there's the weekly news flash right that I yeah so what is the plan for getting the communication out yes everywhere so we'll put it on the we'll send it directly condo man all the groups that we have we'll put it out there we'll distribute it through the Library newsletter our weekly flashes put it on the website just to make sure it's everywhere for people to slowly gain interest I'm guess it's going to take some time and then uh future community events we'll make sure we'll have uh you know police and fire generally have a little booth or some area out and let people they can even have a computer on site do it on at the moment so absolutely yeah I think printouts will also be key because not everybody's so uh electronic yet so uh print out at building Lobby and Town Hall we like to pronounce for the library might be another important place right and we like to pronounce for a lot of reasons because it gives us that opportunity for that one-on-one engagement as well so for a lot of reasons I I agree with the electronic media blits without a doubt but there're still nothing better than our firefighters walking walking somebody through the QR code scan and helping them fill out the profile right yeah because you want as many people to actually go do it sign up without a doubt more Intel is better for for service yeah but this is great I'm really glad that we're doing this I think uh it's really important and you know exactly what we want for our community so yeah thank you for doing that so so far Fort Lauderdale has done it has other have other cities implemented something like this as well so we know for L intimately because we have relationships once our peer group so once we locked into before lale was doing it especially with being from Brower County uh we really zered in on what they were doing yeah obviously there are other communities that are doing this uh first do is actually a relatively new player to what we would call the electronic data Gathering game within Public Safety they have a really good pre-fire plan platform that that our fire Marshalls office has been utilizing for the better part of a year now so in conjunction with that that's how we learned about first two so that's when we started having these relationships with these other agencies great yeah that partnership is great learning what other best practices from other um departments that's excellent absolutely yeah thank you very much thank you you're quite welcome have a great afternoon mayor may I make an announcement yes of course to the public um the Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections office is looking for pole workers for the upcoming election so the uh you must be a resident of Palm Beach County and a registr voter to uh become a poll worker and they can contact the Palm Beach County Supervisor of election office that's it okay great I guess that's it for public comments moving on to ordinances um we have one proposed ordinance an ordinance of the Town Commission of town of Highland Beach amending article six flood plan management of chapter 20 planning and development of the town code of ordinances to update the date of the flood insurance study and flood insurance Maps adopt a requirement for the accumulation of the cost of improvements over a three-year period and provide for General updates for the town's continued participation in the National flood insurance program commission jeffre Miss building official town of Highland Beach um I'll go ahead and just read this because there's a lot things in here but I don't know how many questions you're going to have so this ordinance updates Highland Beach's flood plane management regulations to comply with FEMA requirements and continue participation in National flood uh insurance program it incorporates the revised flood insurance study and maps that are effective December 20th 2024 and introduces a three-year accumulation of improvement of cost to prevent avoidance of FEMA compliance this ordinance has minimal fiscal impact as most Property Owners already undertake single large projects rather than multiple smaller ones to avoid FEMA thresholds this conclusion is based on recent data and observations showing limited instances of cost manipulation the ordinance will uh the ordinance is integral to reinstating the town in FEMA Community rating system which we can talk about later which will provide nfip National flood insurance program premium discounts to the residents and reduce flood risk the updates align with Fuller to building code and apply to all development applications submitted after the effective date the ordinance includes Provisions for severability conflict resolution codification and takes effect immediately upon adoption so Jeff the biggest change why don't you walk through the three-year accumulation of improvements for substantial Improvement okay that's the biggest change you will see in here otherwise it's a map change um map changes are kind of already in place but that's the largest change in the ordinance that really is going to affect the most Property Owners yeah understood so as far as the the three your change right now with FEMA if you are in a flood zone and just about almost every single property in the town of Highland Beach is in a flood zone and you want to do improvements and the cost of the improvements exceeds actually meets 50% of the value of the structure then you have to bring the whole house up to femous standards and in some cases up north we would you know raise things up off the foundation here it's a little bit more difficult for that we've had this happen here before where we've had people who ended up having to pour six inches of concrete and raay luckily they had 10- foot ceiling so they were able to comply uh they were only off by six inches um but what we have is uh what I've come across in other states and and in Florida is that sometimes people will be at that threshold so what they'll do is they'll go all right I'm going to do half the work this year and half the work next year and it's a way that they use to circumvent the system by pulling them on different years so what we did is uh speaking with our FEMA representative who uh works with us directly uh we come up with a number of three years all right it's very common some municipalities use a fiveyear which is pretty restrictive and I forget which one it was but one of them actually uses a 10year uh program where they make where they track your costs H for 10 years and if you exceed that 50% in a 10-year period Then you have to bring the whole building up so we felt as though starting off down at the three will be helpful for us it'll help us um as we try to get back in the community rating system the CRS program which the town did participate in for years uh and that'll just put us in a better position to give our residents uh discounts on their flood insurance uh premiums so I have a question that 50% standard um how do you estimate for 50% of what the value basically the market value of the home so we the home the structure only structure itself not the land and how do they you know it's pretty easy to come up with the entire property what the value is how do you come up with the value just for the structure so uh it's actually pretty easy because the County Appraiser's office already does that for us it separates land so it's based on the county based on the County however like I did have uh a resident this past year who applied and they were going to do like 60% of the value and I said well and I have to bring the whole thing up and then they went and they got an actual appraisal that was able to show that the home had a higher market value okay than so then we we accept that as long as it's reasonable and it's by a certified you know and and we can use that so then they were able to use that to keep under that 50% threshold okay so you start with the County's value but then if the homeowner can present something else then you as long as it's reasonable you would accept that 100% correct and then it's a three-year window at which you do this Benchmark yes and by implementing this then the residents in the town get a dis will be eligible for discounts for their well once we are accepted back into the community rating system we the the town was in the community rating system up until about I think 2015 somewhere around there and then they just fell out of it but we're still eligible to go back in so it's one of the things that I've wanted to do since I got here and I've just waiting for the timing to be right and with the flood maps coming in it's a great time basically the more the more protective you are and the more I don't want to use the word restrictive in in your ordinance in your flood plane ordinance the more that FEMA likes it and the better off you are with that with as far as helping you in the community rating system because you're rated on essentially like a one through 10 and the higher the number the more you pay the lower the number the less that your residents pay so if we go to a from a 10 we're at a 10 right now we at a 10 if we go to a nine which is no discount if we go to a nine the residents get a 5% discount and in and in the case of what we're paying in premiums that's going to save the residents overall about $55,000 a year in premium if we get it down to an eight they're going to save $110,000 a year you know across the board for for everyone and and I do have some numbers if you wanted them with the actual amount of properties that are well I guess I'm curious like by doing this um it'll go from a 10 to a what would your what rating do you think it would go to I I I don't know maybe the first year they'll just give us a nine maybe we can go to an eight but just having the software system that we have in place now we got a new software system with the support of the Town manager Mr lobid was uh helpful in in being able to secure that um just having the software gives us like aund almost 163 points uh towards this community rating system they're on like a point system and there's other things we have to put in play I'm working right now on getting as many of the um elevation certificates that we can find in the system Lena has been super helpful with that and giving you know giving us everything we can so we can put it into the software system and it's all these reports that we have to send into FEMA to show that we're going above and beyond which is why like the threeyear is important you know in here one of the other things that's in here and I know that no one you never know um we now have verbage in here that was approved uh by FEMA it was it was actually their idea to where you you cannot put a mobile home in a flood zone well legally we can't prohibit someone from putting a mobile home somewhere you can't have an ordinance that says that but under the flood plane you could say that you can that you know that you can't have any mobile homes in a flood plane this isn't necessarily the community for that but it would be IL legal option for someone if they really wanted to but now that kind of closes that door and it makes it safer because as someone who witnessed what happens to mobile home porks during flood events it's not pretty so this thing about the um threeyear what do you what do you call this the three-year with um it's a call it a look back okay this look back this implementation of this look back so is the tradeoff really if we don't do this then people are a little bit more flexible in doing renovations because they don't have to meet this criteria well they would try to circumvent it by just staging over several years they would say all right I'm going to do this part of my renovation this year I'm going put the addition on next year but if we didn't implement it they don't have to do that at all right or is there already that that's right now that's how they can do it right now they have they right now they can circumvent it okay okay by just doing one year after just do SUB do something one year they can just circumvent it this is going to close that because they're gonna have to spread it out over three years which makes it a little bit more difficult you have to really try a little bit harder to do it and honestly I only had one property so far that back thought of doing work because and then they and then and what they're doing is they're actually they scaled back the job and then they were going to tear the house down and they decided not to tear the house down right and then they went to do an addition and then they decided they weren't going to do an addition so they're making up their mind where they're going to be this would kind of help put them in a better Direction so you're saying it um implementing this look back wouldn't really impact many people at all but most of the residents will at least see some sort of discount on their flood insurance premiums hopefully we don't know exactly having this in there will definitely help will definitely help you just don't know how much 5% could be more could be 5% could be 10 I don't know where we're goingon to land again really what they're the fee is working for is the removal of repetitive loss so you get a structure you hear about it all the time in the the Mississippi River Valley oh there's a home falls down they rebuild it it floods out three more years later FS so the concept of this resiliency which we are all part of now and how your your uh your rate structure is determined is is having resilient structures structures that aren't going to flood every time you know the inter Coastal comes up on a king tide and we get a heavy rain or a hurricane so the idea is to I don't want to say make it more challenging but it really does is that you know you that 50% Improvement which here is a lot it's a substantial sum of money but it keeps people from saying this year I'm going to do 50 you know 49% next year I'm going to do 49% they stay away but they never address the the preliminary issue which is to raise the structure so this makes it a little more challenging speds out that time and then maybe uh gets more people to come into compliance or be more creative with their Architects and how to make the improvements uh to the property how would that work with a condo because the first three floors have to have flood insurance uh when you get above that it's unlikely if you're on the seventh floor that you're going to flood you could have water damage but not from rising Tide Water so what would I mean how would it affect it would it affect it for the building itself or for individual units or so it's based on the elevation of the unit if you have probably only your first floor units are the only ones that may be susceptible to this they can't raise it so you have to look at really the entire structure the whole condo is itself so unless the condo itself is going to do some major renovation and have to change their first floors and add take Forest floors and add them to this you know add another floor on top I don't really foresee this the threeyear at all really having any effect on Condominiums themselves this would be really a lot of single family homes maybe some Town Homes but that would be the extent of it maybe some uh apartment buildings which we only have very few maybe 10 apartment buildings in town so a first floor unit wouldn't be subject to that 50% look back thing yeah they can't because I don't know what they're I don't know what they're going to do because they're part of a whole other structure building but if they wanted to do 100% renovation of their unit they can do it right that's never been that's never been an issue before that's not an issue at all they can still do it it's really just a single family home toward single family homes and and other like two unit or four four unit type thing smaller item um because the structure that it's being compared to is the entire structure right right it's it's it's the entire structure and which is why we see all the homes in Bello be being knock and I have more on the list they're going to get knocked down and new ones in there because they want bigger homes taller you know with higher floors um do you know how the 10 rating that we have now compares to some of our neighbors and so forth what's our opportunity I did I don't I didn't bring those specific numbers but I actually did look at them and there are a lot of tens and nines that are around us but there also a lot of six seven and eights around us to too where people are really being aggressive I know you know as far as locally uh the numbers are all over the place it depends if they're you know if they're in a CRS or not if they're not in a CRS of course they're going to be a 10 like we are because we're technically out of the CRS but we're still qualified to be in the CRS what is CRS the community rating rating system so it sounds like there is definite opportunity yeah yeah so that's what that's one of the things I wanted to do is I wanted to get you know have the opportunity to put everything in place to get this Town back into the community rating system like it was once before so that the the residents could enjoy the benefit or less stress of you know having paying less for their uh flood insurance would check having a higher seaw wall requirement help us that's something that I'm going to have to check with them because seaw walls aren't considered structures under the FEMA um rules and regulations as far as where we would have to things but it helps to it helps the community in general so that's something that I would have to ask and I will follow up with one of the femur rep and ask if that's something that would be helpful because that's something that we are doing because we are seeing with the new flood maps that we have people who were not in the flood zone are now going to be back in the flood zone we have people who are currently in the flood zone who are actually coming out of the flood zone in some areas uh on the ocean believe it or not but because it seems to me that if your seaw wall is higher it's certainly going to protect the property and therefore protect the structure it as far as from any type of surging and so on and so forth but if you know your neighbor seaw wall is down low that water's still going to come in and everybody's going to get flooded anyway but it it's certainly going in the right direction if we went to a longer look back five to 10 years would we get a lot more points would we get more I'd have to ask I don't know it it that's part of a multiactor system and that's just one part of of it I would say that yes I think the more restrictive you are the more like if we instead of saying we have to build one foot above um just follow the floor to building Cod and and build one foot above base flot elevation you can do 18 inches or two feet and some communities up north chose 18 inches because the FEMA uh the rating system then gave you credit for two feet above and that lowered your premium so the lower your home is the more your premiums are so the higher you build the home the you get credit and you pay less money so it there's a whole bunch of things that we could add in the future right now I'm just trying to build some of the basics based off the FEMA's feedback and telling them hey I want to get us back in the CRS what can I do and this was certainly one of the things that that came up so I guess I don't quite understand how does this implementing this rule that affects all the properties in the town um how does an individual so but an individual property owner would still benefit from a a credit because of this if if the town participates and let's say we the first year they we're a nine and we get a 5% discount every single resident that participates in a national flood insurance program and pays a premium will get a 5% discount on their insurance rate even if there's no change to their property they're there's no change at all this is not a change for those who do work this is a change for the community as a whole which is why 5% would be about a $55,000 savings right now you know across the board for all all the residents who participate in a national flood insurance program all 2,800 plus so I know I'm the only single family owner and I don't I I don't know if you guys have seen your flood insurance premiums or if they've changed it all but mine went from 2000 I was at 2000 and it jumped to 78 00 nice um got love that so um is that because the base flood elevation increased by a foot and because we have no discounts for our residents well yeah we have no discounts as of now because we don't participate in in the CRS and it's again there's multiple factors that go into your flood insurance rates and one of the big ones is where your house is in comparison where your finished floor elevation is in comparison to the Bas flood elevation and the Bas flood elevation for those on the in coastal side is going up at least one foot on the ocean is going up two feet some people depending upon where you're at I have where the corner of their home is actually going to go up two feet um but like I said we have people coming in and people going out of the FL with with the new maps the new maps are more accurate because the GPS and and data that they put together so I don't know if the condo people have looked at there you know have have this experience I mean I would imagine this this discount would be a big deal right I mean I've noted it for myself I don't remember the exact numbers of percentage but I was very surprised about it so I would think a discount would benefit us right I mean do we want to do a longer look back so that we can or or try to implement more things to try to get more of a disc or or we can just take this proposal now step this is step one I guess this is step one and then you can consider doing more things right every time that we make a change after this first of all this was put together by our FEMA rep all right we have a and this is something that they would typically they would approve so once this is approved with the two readings okay then I have to submit this back to FEMA for them to re-evaluate to make sure we didn't make any changes and then they'll put it into their system system and in the future if we make any changes it's the same thing it's a change of an ordinance and we would have to revisit it um you you're the governing body you decide what you want to do and I'm gonna this is a an upgrade it's a step up and we've cleaned up a lot of language because we don't have a floodways here which are like rivers and streams uh I'm content and I'm happy about the three years right now and we have the software that I can typee in whatever number we can put in threee look back 5 year 10 year and it could be changed again in the future if if need be but it's your call if you want to go to fiveyear like some of the other towns and I don't know who they are I don't remember them all I know some of the counties like col your county and so on are definitely a fiveyear that it's it's your call on what you want to do I'm very happy just having the three based on the amount of of I've had minimal issues in this town because we don't have we have maybe two under 300 single family homes in in the in Highland Beach in 178 or 180 Town Homes I have a question for those um um structures that are now uh below the um the base the Bas flood elevation what impact if any will this have on them this this ordinance will have no impact at all all right uh unless we get into CRS then they can get a 5% discount assuming that we we uh uh get into the CRS yes yes if yeah then they'll they'll get a discount if we get into the CRS if not and they're below base flet elevation that affects their insurance rate their insurance rate will eventually just keep getting higher because they the higher the BF base flood elevation goes up the more expensive it's going to be for you which is why the last few homes that were built on the in coastal side they listen you know I said hey I would recommend that you and they've done it and they went up an extra foot they went to eight feet so the the the community the community as a whole will benefit with the best rate not only participation but the best rate that we can have in the system now we can adjust whether it's two feet three feet or five year rather so then the downside that the the negative impact would be only on that person who is taking on building and looking over the cost of the improvements the 50% or whatever that particular running number is it would only affect them they would have to you know whatever they're doing now they have five years rather than three right three or five doesn't it only affects the people who are doing the work you are absolutely correct and what this does is also incentivizes people to say hey you know what this house has been here for the last 30 40 years it's time to replace it and put a new more flood resistant one up you know with and meet that resiliency requirement and build a new home which is newer home new construction us usually larger and uh generates more tax yeah I mean it's only going to impact people with with homes that are at a lower elevation so the older homes and they have lower ceilings because they're not going to have the ability to fill in the the ceilings and if they want to do a renovation that's more than 50% of their structural value so if it's just a minor renovation it's not going to impact them and if they think they're only going to do a renovation once every so years it's not going to impact them it's those people who are who want to keep the original structure want to gut it or whatever don't have the ability to raise the floor um it's going to impact those and and Jeff is saying it's only impacted one person since you've been here is that what you're saying one or two people the last year when I was first coming on board we had one person down in Highland Beach Drive who wanted to spend almost a million dollars to put a 3 foot tall by 10 foot wide by 17 foot long glass pool on the roof that was going to cost almost a million dollars but it put them Beyond there and at the time Jeff Massie was the building official and he's like yeah it's a just doing that was uh uh substantial Improvement we said so I mean I would be inclined to what we can in order to get the highest discount for the residents of the town so if if we're not getting a lot of issues with the look back period thing because yeah I mean most people would knock down their home um and then but not everyone I I didn't so I didn't I did a a renovation of my home um glad I did it when I did it I guess um and then and then um yeah and then the condos it doesn't even impact you because the structure is so much it it would never really so and you know I can tell you I really would prefer to have a discount you know on the you know get as much discount on our flood insurance so I would say you know let's increase the look back period you know I don't know if we want to look at some of those other factors that would also give us um more points yeah we're going we're going to look into it it it starts with the the ordinance and if you want to take it to five years instead of three I think that's a great move I think I don't know I I don't know if we want to public comments about this if we're ready for public comments but it's it's also going to be the first read and we'll just make a little adjustment yeah from three to five and it appears this is not going to negatively affect any of the condo owners no because the structure is so much right they could do 100% right correct someone on the first floor could do a total gut job of their condo because they would be compared to the entire structure right and would never they would almost never they would never meet the 50% rule to be that is correct now there's certain things that you have to do regardless where with flood if they if their elevation is that low that they have to do some flood proofing but they don't have to you know you can't raise a whole condo because one guy but also in a lot of condos I know that to gut my apartment would be anywhere from3 to $500,000 well that's a lot less than 50% of the value of the unit and I think that that's probably going to be true in most of our buildings that you know unless you're doing something outrageous and well there too okay thinking out loud the amount that it costs to do a gut job in part depends on the materials that you were putting in so if instead of marble floors you put in porcelain that brings down the cost of the job so does that play a factor well there's certain things that we wouldn't even take into consideration for costs like painting and and and even some tile work and so on and so forth these are the the hard costs for the overall yeah me you can put in a refrigerator that cost you $250 or $22,000 or $5,000 so that really shouldn't play into it that and it doesn't it doesn't even come into the the permit valuation thank you appears to be a win-win I think so I sound like to me and um i' I'd be interested to see um what the um the difference is in discount you know between the three threeyear look back and fiveyear but I think that if if it appears that this will have a positive effect for everyone in Highland Beach on their insurance and insurance cost are so extraordinary tonight and they keep increasing so I think um um I'd be interested like you had pointed out in a five years if that gives us even more of a discount what that what do you think if you know that 5% would go to what a discount on on a three-year look back well I again I there are multiple moving parts to this whole thing this is just a part in the CRS and the look back is just a part of it but it's a POS it has a positive impact to it might be the difference between an eight and a nine or an eight and a seven I I don't know but certainly uh it's going to be looked at more favorably by FEMA when they put their whole point system it's a big point system so it can get very complicated I'm not even sure 100% of exactly how the whole thing works because it's done kind of behind the scenes uh so it will absolutely be helpful and it could be the difference between one number or another or it could maybe not make that much of a difference but it has to have a positive impact because it's more restrictive than not having anything at all yeah and if there are other aspects that you think would also help our scoring then we would like to hear them you know if there's other thing you maybe you know now in the next read if you could identify if there are any other things that you think that could help with our scoring that didn't really impact too many people you know but good understood yeah and that's not a problem like it would be great to have you know go to the 18 inches instead of but we're already having issues with people with the the with the driveways and how steep they are because our roads are lower and so on and so forth so that's get it that makes it a little bit tougher okay to be too aggressive Because unless we're going to be raising the roads up and then it's going to kind of be tough when people want what kind of cars they want in their driveway and yeah because we'll be parking like this so have to be within reason if there was a new if we had a lot of new development it would certainly pay for us to say hey this is what we need to do right because now this whole new development could be raised up be real easy for that but we're trying to pack things in you know in in a in a small area and our development is minimal and we make a change in our building code that distinguishes between a new development and something that's currently existing so that if you have it now you don't have to do anything but if you're building something new you have to go the 18 in so that's something that you would put in the flood plane ordinance and we'd have to run out through feema to see if that was if if that if they would even approve something like that because seems to me it would really be different um I would imagine this applies more often to people buying a house and then deciding to maybe it costs too much to renovate that they'll just knock it down and start over because it'll save a huge amount of money and that's what we're saying we're seeing a lot of homes just being knocked down and it's really just going to affect the homes that are very low you know if there somebody wants to remodel the kitchen remodel their bathroom do some changes put a roof on it's not a big deal but it's when you want to do a major renovation and the home is love at some point you have to get with the new firm Maps Okay any public comment about I have a question before we do that is there a um uh a requirement right now if someone uh has a home about buying a home buying into the home and it's low first FL is low um what would happen to them under this situation I mean what would happen they're low they're buying the new home so this is just a matter of just the insurance costs they're not they're just going they're not going to be it's not a knockdown situation no you you can purchase an existing home and move in it no and if you want to pay really high Insurance High insurance if you want to be five feet below base elevation for the next 40 years and pay that insurance you can do that right okay may pay cash and not have insurance right or choose not to be insured I guess right okay s sure I did look I looked at the ratings of our surrounded communities while Jeff was talking ocean ridge is a is a six Gulf stream's a 10 Boke is a seven Del re is a six and Boon happens to be a five which is pretty impressive oh let's go for the six five we excel at everything else let's excel at this too let's if we're jumping in I it's really GNA help us all with these insurance premiums because it's it's out of it's I think we go for it and if we decide to do more later we can always go back in and change it it can be very labor intensive it as Jeff said there's a lot of moving parts to the CRS ranking and FEMA comes in and does a whole audit um Juno Beach is a five but they put a lot of money into it they had like a designated person that worked it's a lot of work to get down to that level so you you have to weigh the cost benefit of that too but we'll definitely find out what you need to do to get lower well I guess I recommend we go with the five is that word let's at least do the five and then if there are if there are some other things like this where it doesn't impact that many people you know that could potentially help our score then we can consider that I will do more homework and I will speak with our FEMA rep and go over some of that and some of the CRS experts and see what we can do um to help things along I I I'm very this is awesome I I I was slightly nervous bringing this but this is good do you need a motion for this or yes so you have multiple options you could send us back to bring back a clean version one you can improve version one with the amendment to a five-year look back and then in second read when that comes back uh which will be advertised will be advertised as the fiveyear I think we can do that right because it's just a simple change yeah it's a simple change I move that we accept the proposed ordinance to for the town of Highland Beach to amend article six blood plane management of Charter of chapter 20 with the change of a fiveyear look back instead of a three-year look back I second that any broke call or yeah okay commissioner David yes commissioner Goldberg yes commissioner Peters yes vice mayor Stern yes mayor Moore yes motion carries thank you very much go get your CFM Jeff right that's one of the factors moving on to the consent agenda any discussion about the consent agenda or anything like that or any public comment about the consent agenda seeing none I Mo we accept the consent agenda second it all in favor say I I motion carries unanimously moving on to unfinished business the building department recertification program update welcome back Jeffrey Miss building official Tana Highland Beach once again brother record okay uh good news on the Milestone um we have eight buildings that are certified uh and um which is good news and uh we there were 52 buildings we had to add 53 because Brar kind of added their garage to do their parking garage separately so that ended up turning into building 53 you know um and they're certified which is which is good so braer Isle Dalton Place Del R Sands is actually good um Highland Towers Highland's Place Villa Magna Villa Nova and Wilshire house um those are the eight that are actively certified right now uh we have five buildings uh that are under review right now and um that means where we're looking at them and we're going through their reports for their structural and electrical reports there are 15 that we looked at and we had questions about what they submitted to us so we're waiting on those 15 um 17 buildings are currently undergoing restoration right now so we have 17 buildings are just actively being worked on which is I was expecting five or six at a time not 17 but there are 17 that are actually being worked on at this time the number of buildings that are outside the code uh ordinance and have missed their deadline zero which is awesome to hear that is we have another four buildings um that the letters were sent but they're not due yet they probably won't be due till the end of the year that's uh L Sanu Tuscana uh Beach Club Tuscana North and Villa Mar uh and then we have another four that some of them aren't even due for Years yet um such as 3200 South Ocean Tuscana South Tuscana West and the Villas at Highland Beach at 3511 South Ocean so we're in really good shape we've come a long way um with this especially since we had the the issues with everyone looking for extensions last year and then all of a sudden we got 18 or 19 of them in at the same time so we have a lot of good compliance and um we're we're over I think really the big hump and we're on our way so it's good news great news that's great news thank you thank you thank you moving on to new business uh resolution number 2024 d017 a resolution of the Town Commission of town of Highland Beach setting the proposed not to exceed millage rate pursuant to section 200.0 652b and setting the date time and place at which the public hearing will be held so the resolution is consistent with our first budget presentation that David and I gave he's going to go over give you another summary nothing's changed um I always like to give good news uh healthc care came in under our estimate so that's good news uh came in at six and a half percent rather than the 10 estimate um that is staying no changes so staying with Blue Cross boo Shield as we advertised with uh the new partners in public safety so everything is going to stay consistent no changes are necessary so our Healthcare program um three and a half% less which is good because it's a big number so that's probably the only change I don't believe we've changed it in the budget yet because we got a few more things that have to shake out but everything is staying consistent excuse me so I was just going to have David do a quick summary for those that may have missed May are watching may have missed what our big picture budget issues are but again we are remaining consistent with the five-year forecast and nothing has changed since uh David's presentation in June yes thank you uh yeah this is again just an overview I I even circled some things that are still outstanding and I also circled some things on this brief presentation that just to remind you of of uh what's going to happen in the next couple of months so again you know we already we already talked about how our property values have seems like it's peaked for now uh and how they're starting to drop down a little bit we also talked right here you could see where we talked about inflation so this right here is property values and this right here is inflation you can see the change right we're starting to come down a little bit and so here but this right here the bottom one is uh the Consumer Price Index inflation marker that we use and again just to recap uh this right here was our operating millage this is the uh Debt Service millage associated only with the fire department and no longer are we going to be collecting a millage for the water and sewer and so again our pledge staff's pledge to you at this point Still Remains that we maintain uh our 3.58 75 Ms same we're looking at the same data the history of it uh the the uh the the the green there uh was the water you know was the water operation and and then we had our our normal operation millage you can see our total millage has went down uh you see the combination La this year what we currently have is we have operating millage we had the uh millage for the which is baked into our operating millage for the the The Debt Service and then that was our water millage and you can see how that's going away again just we're we're just recapping so what we're recapping here is we're looking at our preliminary uh budget of $17.5 million and you can see that as Marshall had had said we we had assumed a cost a living adjustment or our Cola uh for this area at 5% we we adjusted it for the increases in health insurance and and again the the Big Driver here was you know the the new staff that we brought on remember remember we did that shift right we were paying we were subcontracting out for fire Services right had less employees on the fire side well now we're just doing that shift where we're we're getting rid of subcontracting and we are going to be in control of our own fire department and and what that's done so far is that's allowed us i' again recap I I've added approximately 300,000 in for a contingency in our general fund just to see what how this first year fire kind of shakes out uh and we also anticipate adding back to the reserves remember we pulled that $4 million from our savings account right and hopefully what what we're anticipating for fy2 if you recall FY 24 we put $250,000 back started our replenishment of our fired fire department for trucks major equipment that that the the greatest thing about this commission is that they're looking ahead right you know you're you consistently look ahead to your next commission that's going to be inheriting the decisions you make and so this is a beautiful thing where we're putting it back to where it belongs and so that's that's great but anyway so about 17.5 million that we have there and you can see down here it's mostly uh you know uh employees health insurance pension cost payroll taxes and whatnot uh this right here was by the Departments remember I told you I circled some things that I just wanted to make sure you were you were in tuned of right here you can see public works right we put a million dollars into there as a budget placeholder okay because we know that we're going to continue to have other structures uh water sewer we're gonna we're we're going to have other things now that the focus now that you were successful at something that happen hasn't happened in the State of Florida for 30 plus years building your own fire department we're going to move on to the next successful thing and so we've added a million dollars here along with the fact that we have our Reserve contingencies and amount that can be appropriated to our reserves public works that's old fire station yeah that's majority of that money is the old fire station so right uh and again uh okay Architects are working on that now uh they gave me an early August deadline for some more firm drafts after working with the structural so we'll have something here to uh to react to uh very shortly but that's what that money is right right there yep yep so so again $17.5 million our our our general fund uh we we we talked about here is where our current fund balance is and based on this budget as well as where we are at currently we believe that our our our fund balance will will will will get to be about $7.9 million and it looks like it's really nicely balanced right congratulations really to this commission it's a nicely balanced fund balance you have some you have some that are unassigned for whatever the next uh issue might be you have you placed money away for Budget stabilization you placed money away for Disaster Recovery if you recall in 2024 we even put money put $250,000 we started that plan to down the road we're going to need new equipment right keeps on breaking down and and and so we're we're starting to lay that Foundation which is excellent that now that was the general fund sir tax revenue you remember we talked about how this right here expires expires it it it's coming we don't have a choice right but the idea is that we're going to be uh we we budgeted this year about $711,000 uh we're going to pull and it's all going to Capital needs and that's really what it's designated for and so this discretionary sales tax we're going to continue to use it said here are some of the projects that we're going to use that money on right we're going to use it public works police department and at the end of fy2 we're anticipating that we'll still have about $392,000 left in that checking account let's just call it and we'll get another tranch from the state of Florida but eventually that nozzle shuts off right keep in mind you know that nozzle shuts off on that day there so and we'll just continue to use it for the capital needs of the town so that's our that's our discretionary sales tax fund and the reason why it's in a separate fund is because it's it's restricted on what we can use it for okay you have the the building building department you know we we this right here is the building Department's budget uh again it's it's overall driven by uh labor a little bit of operating we have some Capital outlay that that we're going to use the building department is going to contribute maybe to to resurfacing you know we have this this this part here that was nicely resurfaced back here but a lot of trucks come in and out for building activity and so they're going to be resurfacing the the back part of town hall and and other stuff but it's going to continue we left all the transfers the same because so each fund and each department makes a transfer into the general fund to cover their overhead costs right to cover your time the town managers time your Finance accounting your board Clerk's time and so that's all been audited and the Auditors feel like our allocation method is reasonable so they're all they're all fine with that but so our building department is uh the the budget seems reasonable the biggest thing you can see there the Blue Line there that's the change you know we're going to Capital outlay you know it's going from 72 to $412,000 and uh and here's and here's what we're doing with the cap outlay right uh I uh we have some office improvements some repaving remember I talked about repaving remember the software that that we're trying to upgrade right to meet female requirements that's in there and then just some other office equipment uh you know for for that fund but again look at its checking account still healthy right still very very healthy and again you're uh laying out the foundation for fure years of the success of of this town so next is the water fund this is what I've circled the last time I brought you this data we only went through three Cycles in August I'll do another water and sewer billing cycle okay that will that will get me data for June and July okay and so that's what I circled so one of the things that we'll bring back to you next this this is my estimate of where I think we're going to be with water revenue and with irrigation Revenue I'll get actual numbers by the 5th of August let's say when we bill it out so the next presentation that we bring this to you in September um we'll have truly updated but right now your staff has forecasted where we think we're going to be but again it's a nice Trend it's growing we see that it's growing here after the three Cycles and um it looks it looks still looks very healthy but the uh we have a water what you're gonna see in the month of August is you're gonna see a bill notice that says hey the town of Highland Beach is going to have a public hearing on this day I think it's August 10th no no sorry September 18th I'm sorry thank you SE September 18th uh the town of Highland Beach is gonna have a public hearing to consider raising the rates uh for the water and sewer and what's our next rate increase I forget next rate I think is uh 10% on water and 12% on sewer or 10% across off the sea oh no eight I'm sorry eight% I apologize and the most recent this one uh that we're getting the 10.9 what did we what what what what what did we target what was our increase last our our increase there was I think 8% as well oh what it was 10 last year and this is eight and next year supposed to be five or we lower it to three C reach that fiveyear model forecast so now we're back to CIP adjustments right yeah right so we targeted I'm we targeted 10 but we got 10.9 I guess yeah is that what it is and that's probably because consumption went yeah exactly so okay that's good it's good that we're getting what we targeted sure absolutely go ahead I just reflecting that last year it I know for the condos there was significant increase in the water rate right and say 8% well no and I I was right this this coming uh this coming year it'll be eight% uh last year's the rate increase was at 10 per. okay right that's correct that's correct y so we're still on track but what I wanted to share with you here was the fact that we're still waiting on that fourth cycle to actual more data and again this was our our water fund uh this if you recall Debt Service was the big change in this one right it actually went down right and so but that was all part of the plan we already know what Debt Service is going to be for the next 25 plus years but so we have a general 5% increase in salaries related and and other operational expenditures but see you can see here it's got a nice little it has relatively nice mix of where the uh expenditures occur in in this fund and you can see for our Capital Improvements these are the items that staff recommend that we tackle uh this year I'm sorry in fy2 and you can see that even after we tackle it we still have 131 days of uh operating cash and what that means is that just takes how much we need to operate the town's Water Department divided by 365 and then we divide that by how much cash we have in the bank how long can we last if if no one pays their bill if there's an event and so that's good uh on the sewer fund kind of the same idea right Water and Sewer go hand inand same idea we're still waiting for uh the August billing and we'll get trer numbers and be able to really true that up so when I bring it to you in September that'll be the most accurate data that we have when does when do the rates change the rates will go into effect October one you probably won't see it on your bill until December right because what we do is we uh we we only Bill six times a year and so we uh we bill you for the previous two months we always bill on even month numbers so just if you ever was curious and those annual changes have been October since the beginning of time yep y y yeah exactly right so yeah it's effective we just don't see the bill December right yes correct it's a it's a lagged that's it's lagged y so the October one when you start using your water yeah it's it's based on the new rates but yeah you don't get the bill until later until December that's correct yep Y no you're Absol right so clean the car it's your Christmas gift yeah no exactly exactly that's it but same idea uh the biggest uh this right here again if if you recall this one here see operating expenditures what don't you see here you don't see any employee right because we we don't have employees what we really do is we have employees on the water side and we see what we we do a transfer because we know that the water employees have to do certain things for the sewer and that's with the lift stations and things like that but a majority of this right here is Delray right so delr bills bills the town of Highland Beach for its uh treatment of of the sewer all the lift stations pump to delway where delway has a big meter and that's how they calculate our bill and so we we we've anticipated that that increase uh again this one here has a little bit more significant uh days cash it still has a healthy uh fund Bal balance right uh we still have some future projects that we want to C that we want to tackle with that including the sewer lining that that is on our radar that that that's the next thing that we're they're looking at the the old fire station as well as the sewer lining so that's that's definitely uh gotten to a priority one type of project but these right here are the projects that we have right now on the books that we're going to be doing mainly lift station uh repairs at the end of the day this is the this is your summary okay so what you have here is you have all your funds you have general fund uh a discretionary sales tax fund building water sewer total then so this right here is all your sources of income coming in and then down here is where it all goes and so you can see here that you want to make sure that the amount of money that you have bringing in where is it going uh the blue lines there are internal fund transfers that that we talked about how much is the sewer going to the water how much is the water going to the general fund how much is the building fund so all the ins and outs and then you can see here the functions of government right you can see here General government you can see Public Safety is probably our biggest uh so at at the end of the day it's a well balanced budget it's like it's it's a it's a little bit over $27 million uh to to provide the services that we provide to the residents uh and um that's what the millage and that's what this resolution States is that number one it states the millage that we have set there at 35875 and another requirement of this resolution is that it states that we will hold a public hearing on that specific date here is the things that we've checked these are next in line you can see here that we we checked the box here when we had our preliminary presentation we met with f the uh Financial Advisory Board they they endorsed our plan and uh we're right here in July where we have that first reading of the millage rate and when the debt uh when the uh the public hearing is going to be set August if we want to have another round of meetings we can to see how those numbers really came really came in from water and from sewer we we can definitely do that and then the the area that we have to land is our final September here so that that that's what's on the the next round so so the 8% increase for water seems appropriate at this point in time and so I mean there's no at this point you see no reason that's correct to change right right now right that that is correct so that's good yep how how driven the uh the sewer rates since we we are we have an agreement with Del re yeah yeah you know right you know that's just one of those agreements that it's it's a majority of that funds expenditures right I mean look at if my budget is 2. let's say let's Round Up $2.5 million you know $1.5 million is is that agreement uh so we are heavily dependent um on you know on that agreement so and does that agreement as it's set now does IT project the increases y yes yeah 3% through 2029 yeah um and then we agree to renew if no one says anything it automatically renews so right yes but it's also based on Flow yeah it's all flow was my next question it's not a fixed cost it's a variable cost so right right that's correct that's correct okay so yep yep so that yeah that's all I so um I guess my observations the fund balances and all the funds seem appropriate yeah um so that's great um we're covering expenses that you've projected you know for this year and you've projected going forward and so no pitfalls right in the future and and matter of fact we're able to uh We've increased our contingency because remember you know this will be our first full year right with with with our own staff right right and equipment and and so we've added a contingency there okay and then not only that though but we also are starting to replenish in the good times right in the good times let's squirrel away let let's let's replenish that $4 million that that we pulled out uh and so that's another thing that we've done and we' and the third thing that we were able to do is put away money for uh the former Firehouse what do we want to do with that and and so th those are successful things that this commission's done to not only uh keep the town moving forward but also make it that much more pleasant for the next commission that comes behind you hopefully not until 50 years down the road but at the end of the day uh it's you got you're you're just doing everything right at the right time and it's phenomenal so congratulations um I have another question yes I can't read that yeah what do you have um what is the line amount for the hurricane recovery what is and how do you how did you arrive at it oh uh you talking about back here yeah you're talking about for fund balance well actually you know what's funny uh staff made the recommendations uh right here so uh the gfoa the the or the fgfoa the Florida government Finance associations they came up with uh how much you should have in your buckets these right here are the buckets see these I know it's colored colored kind of crazy but these are your buckets right and so we I'm sorry you approved a a fund balance resolution that says you know what of our expenditures in the previous year or or for Budget purposes we will put away this am a certain percentage will put away 16 uh I think it's 16.7% of your expenditures into disaster recovery of your operating funds for the of the prior year yeah so basically what that means is that Shields it it says hey look it I have 8 million and David I want to uh I want to uh the only thing we're missing really On This Town is a hospital A Private Hospital right as a service that the government provides but at the end and and you said you know we want to build that and I would have to come to you and go no no no Madam you can't do that we're we have an internal restriction that says no we've got to you know what you can spend $2.5 $2 million that's what you can spend for for that right now so this is an internal thing that the board has approved that says of our free cash of our and that's what fund balance represents uh a theoretical free cash flow and so what that does is that tells you hey no you know you can't spend we're not the federal government so we can't just print more money uh but what we can do is we can restrict ourselves and and continue your legacy of building a financially Superior Community along with all the other services that you provide okay yeah not yeah I think this is great yeah so I need to I need you to approve the at this meeting I I need you to approve the uh the the rate as well as the time and date and location of uh when the public hearing will be uh public comments yes [Music] Rick Greenwall Tranquility Drive uh one comment uh David mentioned in his presentation that the uh sewer relining project is on the radar and I applaud that it's on the radar but it's not in the budget and uh we had a considerable discussion about this at the uh Financial Advisory board meeting and uh without a formal vote being taken many of us the clear-cut majority certainly but people there felt that this project really needed to be moved up the list and should be reflected somehow or other in this year's budget now that doesn't mean that millage rates have to change we're fine with all of that um this project has been on the on the to-do list now for multiple years keeps getting postponed we had covid in the way cost went way up bids were bad blah blah blah lot of good reasons however if the original assessment that we really are in need of relining our sewer pipes or we Face potential damage and dire consequences then that's a project that we really felt strongly needs to move ahead and there needs to be planning to get that moving along we did not get into at the financial Advisory Board well how do you finance this obviously it's unfortunate the governor veto the line item that was going to give us three4 of a million dollars for that project uh that's unfortunate however the the town you guys have gone to the considerable trouble already and the uh citizens of the the town have voted to approve money for a sewage project relining project recognizing the importance of it and the fear of multiple members of the financial Advisory Board was that we're by postponing this and postponing this we're at risk of a uh self-inflicted wound if we will and that the potential potential and who knows I mean nothing's happened so far maybe nothing will happen uh but you know the the imagery beyond the stench and so on but I mean the imagery of sewage bubbling up somewhere is not one that the town really wants to uh to take on and that therefore this project should be approached with more alacrity and its way worked into the budget and there are various as David well pointed out there there are various ways to obtain funds but that somehow or other it should be reflected by the commission that this really needs to move along I don't think it needs to to change the basic premises Financial Advisory Board applauded the clean audit all the work's been done everything else were in great shape financially but it was really felt strongly that this project needs to move up to the uh to the top of the list thank you what's the status I I know we talked about it um and yeah so you give an update on this yeah so we've taken a a few steps so one our lobbyist and as we were discussing earlier uh representative goset Sidman had pushed us on to oh there's some D grants uh Madison's closing in on some loops on that to see if we qualify if the grants appropriate we've reached out to the state for the revolving fund which would give us basically a 2% loan if we wanted to do the whole shot what we also shared with the um Fab was do we do can we do what parts can we do concurrently with the F do project while we're making a mess can we get ahead of it or could we do the side streets which we contemplated do those now so when they leave we get right back into the F do right away um so we're still trying to work on some project timing um but we we as Dr Greenwald had said we know where the money is how to get it we can if we had to we get an srf loan boom uh that goes relatively quick we're designed we're shovel ready we can just pick up and go um I was having a few few staffers look into if there's any existing contracts that are open with sewer lining maybe we could jump ahead of srf and maybe get the south end of town before they get there hit it and then switch behind them so uh some of those conversations myself Pat Uh Sergio need to start having with fot to determine what can we do while they're staging this project because they already got all the control fencing up it's a good time to make a mass we don't have to pay for that at least um so we're just trying to see if there's a contract contct out there or do we have to go get a contract and I believe Pat has started working with Hinterland who's our emergency contractor he may have a contract or a bid that's out there for the the resin company to come do that so we might be able to start picking up pieces we just got to talk with fot once we figure out one do we have a contract if not we have to go out to bid just to get that contractor that'll take some time but if we have a bid that exists we can do some Cooperative purchasing then it's what do we want to go tackle and then I'll bring it back to you what do you want to go get because the community uh Dr was right the community did approve it so we can do up to $ three and5 million so we got the authorization from the community to go um we have the money for the most part um if we decideed to do it all one project probably a loan would be appropriate because we'll see what the size of that is we also talked about doing it in bits and pieces you know if we got the side streets done some of the South and we wait till next summer when it slows down to get to the other pieces so uh that's a little unknown um we're just one again we how much cost is there can we find a contract that we can lawfully as we say piggyback upon and start lining and what if we get it yes that exists then we're going to sit down and pencil it out what do we want to attack bring in F do what can we do ahead of them it's not that intrusive to be in the right away while F Do's there it's just a couple trucks so um and then you know go through that process but should we make it an explicit line item on the budget at like what what triggers when it actually we all know it needs to be done it's been approved and all that kind of stuff does making it a separate line item on the budget does it accelerate the project does it have any significance at all no accelerating the project are the things we have to do over the next month or two is one is if does there a contract exists a public contract exists that a vendor will extend those pricing to us if yes great we'll we'll tie down a contract with Len and we'll get him on board then it comes into project planning like I said the Public Works team and I will sit down and say what what is reasonable what can we tackle bring the contractor in how fast how quick where and then we're gonna have to double back to fot and say can we do it now or we have to wait um and see what those costs are once we get a contract we can they usually do it by linear foot so it's simple math once we get contract and we can see what those bits and pieces are so I think we will start if we could find something to piggyback on I'm I'm sure uh skender my office will find some contract out there I'm sure a vendor would love to do work then it's how do quickly can they mobilize so we still have some of the project planning pieces but um I'm glad Dr Greenwall came to communicate that the Fab was unanimous and this should be you know public project number one is fixed making sure the sewers in place so um so how do I answer a couple of those questions I'll have lenal put it as an unfinished standing agenda item and we'll talk about it until it's done or you start yelling at me so we are going to get this project done one which some some way if at some point fot says we'd rather not then we could talk about okay we do the side streets and then we go to the srf and do the rest or if the pricing is good we could break it over a couple fiscal years and get it all done I I just want to see I need to see if there's a contract if not we have to go out to bid then it'll change that and then it'll slow it down a bit but we're moving forward so we'll keep it as a standing item so um that puts all of us staff included on especially Public Works staff that this has to be you know we got to figure this out and figure it out now um especially with the Fab pushing on that pretty hard I figured you guys would probably agree so we need to really start seeing what's available and again uh Madison's looking at you know the grant programs that people are throwing at us is there an opportunity there do we qualify again what you find with a lot of the grants is it sounds exciting but you have to be a special qualifying type Community income based some of the grant programs that like through the srf had grants we our income's too high so those type of things usually hobble us a bit in the the general public Grant portals um but we're still there those should be tied down shortly um so maybe it's coming up with a project plan or something with some Milestone deliverable dates so that it we'll put so that it's clear that it's a prior high priority that we are working towards and two new SS really that I need to tie down to see basically the biggest one is is there a contract will they extend it when can they show up and how much then tie down to f. what will they allow us to do in the right away while they're working then we can come back with here are your three options and you you guys are going to direct the ship you know what which way do you want to go with this and then we'll we'll run it from there so I'm thinking it's soon again we I say soon the last couple years you're right I mean then we get hit by these random you know obstacles so um we're moving it's it's happening sounds good any other public comments okay so we need a motion for the resolution I move that we approve resolution number 20 24-17 setting a not to exceed millage rate of 35875 and a hearing date of September 3rd 20 shouldn't this be September 3rd 2024 yep two typos David we'll fix it someone I will second yes you have my second on that that was I didn't know you finished Goldberg commission commission David commissioner Goldberg yes commissioner Peters yes vice mayor Stern yes and mayor Moore yes motion carries okay thank you very much okay moving on to Item B approve and authorize the mayor to execute the interlocal local agreement for emergency medical and fire assistance between the town of Highland and the City of book rone excellent afternoon May vice mayor Commissioners uh this has been uh a while working in the process if you look at the numbers they're not exactly attractive but the general consensus out there is that we're going to be receiving a lot of Aid we have worked very very hard Tom myself and Matt to create a fire department that is self- sustaining and the last uh 10 weeks we have not called anyone for assistance except for the regional has team for the gas leaks which is part of their mandate so we think we'll be very diligent and have very little use for others support but in any situation we got a plan for the wors and the plan for the worst is that if we have a major uh highrise structure fire or something that a multiple casualty incident uh like everybody else in the county uh we will be asking for help now because of our size and the amount of equipment we have on staff many people think that we will not be be able to reciprocate so they're not wanting to B did not want to do a mutual Aid which would be of no cost they wanted to do a interlocal agreement to provide assistance and which is why we have the agreement we have set it up that way I think it's a good start I don't think it's going it's going to be overwhelming for us to provide help to them I don't think it's going be a for them to provide help to us but right now it's one-sided but we see in a year or two when we have some more numbers to prove our point I think our projections so far have been right on point so I don't know that that we'll have a major issue moving forward with an occasional request for assistance if needed would would one of the other plan whether it's a a mutual Aid or the way it's written be beneficial financially financially be Ben have a mutual Aid because the mutual Aid doesn't have zero okay but then we're using and and I mean we have the staff we have the fireman we have the equipment do you think that have the capacity and that's pretty hard for me to do to be we'd have that capacity uh we have the capacity to provide assistance on on occasions don't we need it uh we're able to run two calls um simultaneously we've done it many times in the last 10 days uh 10 weeks um we have the the ability to provide them with Aid they may be requested because one of the rescues they uh requested was denied in the budget so uh you know things change I mean I think experience is the greatest teacher and when people get more comfortable with the relationship they become more comfortable making extending more you know privileges if you will so it's just a matter of time and again that we we anticipated our initial jump into this Fray that we'd be on a pay based relationship just because folks just don't know us how we operate can we operate are we going to be efficient are we going to be responsive so um you know Kudos uh to Chief Joseph and his team I this is where we need to be this and I'm glad bokeh finally came around um we had we' spend a lot of time talking on different fronts and you know hey we' you know same medical director same procedure response procedures we've had the same schedule same Three Man rescue we do everything the same so they eventually came around but again it's going to come with a cost but again um I don't see us as a high use on this agreement so I don't see um the issue with it I think it's really something we need we got it as got a fire department no one thought we could do that either so we're continuing to succeed and uh move forward and progress with our fire rescue Department our big test is gonna be this this winter this just for clarification um are we reaching out or we negotiating with any other like Del Rey or anybody else or are we just limiting ourselves to an agreement with Boker where do we the way the agreements work is that they want your closest neighbors to reduce the response time so we have an agreement right now with palich County but there closest station is off Military Trail in Clint Road there about the next closest station is at Jog Road and Linton Boulevard so looking at a response time at 10 maybe 15% depending on traffic you really want to have your neighbors the closest neighbors be involved that kind of agreement Del obviously is off the table right now although they're changing the Chiefs so who knows know there's the optimism in the air uh Boker toone is our next best option and uh what we have right now is the best we could get in the current circumstance but this doesn't preclude us for having multiple no not at all most departments like bone has a a agreement with uh Gro county delway beach and Palm Beach County and soon Highland Beach and soon soon High be so uh you know you make as many agreements as you can because sometimes if it's a it's a busy situation uh you may get one unit from this one from that one that way you don't overwhelm any particular uh jurisdiction because they have provide protection for their own residents so we try to kind a mix match I can understand why they would go this way because they're afraid that it would be a onesided use agreement will be a leech they're afraid that will be a leech and I get that so we just have to show them that it's not going to be there you go how do we project um uh an anticipatory cost to us is it in the operating budget there's a little bit of flexibility in there but again that's where David has the contingency in there to kind of like you don't know we we don't know and I we will I kind of want wanted to create the sinking fund a little bit in the fund balance too for fires you know we don't know these rates we'd have to have a lot of lot of call really to have a budgetary impact um not that I'm downplaying the cost but again 10 weeks we haven't you know had a call that needed anybody else so how often it's going to be very rare it probably be more rescue related I would guess during season it's my I'm not the professional in the room I'm just talking on my own I think we'll probably more from the calls that I've see come through more rescue side of it more so than fire side so and again the rescue cost is it's not out of out of s so the numbers we're looking at right now are in in with what our projects were we were projecting about two calls per shift we're averaging about 2 2.5 to three calls for shift we've actually run one day nine calls in the 24-hour period the second time we run eight calls in the 24hour period and we didn't call for help because we're able to manage it internally the only time we run into issues if we have simultaneous calls if we have three calls simultaneously it becomes more of a burden to handle now if one of those calls require transport and the other ones are as public assist and the fire alarm we can handle those it's only if we have three transports simultaneously it may present a challenge so and it but then the the Acuity of those patients as well so all those things go into the mix and right now our projections are been luckily you know but you can't tell so these agreements as a contingency just like a syncing fund is if something happens we have a fallback position and since we have no fire but we're getting about 30% of our calls or fire alarm we need to start working on our fire alarms folks that takes a lot of time off the plate when we're responding to a faulty about 15 20% of the time spend so once we get those corrected things get a little better and that's what Matt and and and and Chief Joseph are working on now is getting back into those structures and hey it's time to fix your fire alarm you know because they just go off and we're we go to it and there's nothing there just we two three times to one uh building some T you know so in in the 24-hour period so and we are cajoling in a nice way to hey need to get this under control and most of the time we're getting the text to respond and making changes but you know it it is a problem it's 15 to 20% of Marshall do we have a mutual agreement with the police department too with any of the jurisdiction yeah with Del very functional high high functioning relationship it it's it's working well so I'm gonna go with Chief Joseph say there's optimism in the air I think things are changing over in their side of the house and again I think it's going to take time for things to shake out but I I think over time everybody will cooler heads will prevail in the long term um and and we'll go from there so section number three of the agreement says uh the city will determine whether it will provide the requested requested assistance to the town um it I you know basically it says it's up to them whether or not they're going to provide the assist any concern over thaion that's a standard respond to all the agreements the reason why is we even in the Cy PCN agreement says the same thing if you're able to provide it if you're not able to let them know the reason why is it we want to put them at a deficit to say that hey you must do that because we don't have a contract we have an agreement we have an agreement that says that you know if you have the resources available but I would hate to have them you know deny the citizen Boker tone their resources to set it over here and that's what that Cony language is for okay so um so that's a standard thing not anything you would be concerned about every Mutual Aid agreement has that because you can't drain the other municipalities resources okay so how how we press would happen is like this I would the my captain on shift here decides hey we probably need help on this or we need help on this they call dispatch and tell the County dispatch this is a lad 120 pal Beach we're requesting that you contact Boker tone fire rescue and have them provide us with XX resource or asset either a fire truck in an aial or a rescue at this particular address that request was will go to the battalion chief in in bokeron who manages the entire and he will say okay well I have one rescue that's available to from this area and then they'll fill the request if they can't fill the request they'll go back to the council well we could provide one engine one rescue but and then at that point the captain will call and as well call palich County or call Del re the Del re said they will not do an agreement with us but if we need help call and they'll send it so yeah right right and as far as that section you were worried about that was in our contract with d Ray they said if the truck or the ambulance was out of the house over here they'd send somebody if they could but they weren't making any promises standard so I know you said in the last 10 weeks we just had that the one Hazmat I guess three three or four I think yeah at least three that I aware of three instances where this would have triggered no no no no so here's what happened so uh we P County operates under Regional HazMat team framework so we have four teams around the county that we all pay into with our trash removal it's funded through Wastewater Waste St Waste Authority and it gives each of the F like $500,000 to manage there for that money they agree to uh respond to any request for assist that involves Hass of material so gas leak diesel leak fuel leak say if I have a boat that you know I would call them and that's part of that response profile they've agree to it ahead of time so that doesn't count towards our response to Boer toone if boo sends a HazMat team over here is part of the regional response and we don't get built for that it's not it's not reflected in that agreement so in the 10 weeks that we've been operating there has not been an incidence where this would be triggered no um and do you know prior to you um starting our fire department any idea in the last decade or so like how many incidences I'm just trying to get a feel for in the past how many times would this have even been triggered well can't I don't have that information I'll tell you why because Del would uh you know use this vehicle over there and then use their vehicles over here and that's that's why we had the long response times because it could be coming from like uh German toown you know and so it would take a long time to get here because that unit was in Del doing something or on a so the con the concurrent calls between where the the unit here was busy in the town and they had a another unit come into the town we're looking at 2.5 to 5% per year so uh that that was the average so we we figured I mean if so what when when uh the manager and I were planning this we wanted to be able to respond to two concurrent calls simultaneously now the third concurrent call was over less than 1% of the year right so we figured you know if we were able to so we wanted because you had to balance the cost of Manpower which is 80% of your cost and the cost of uh doing business sure so that's the that's the balance that we're running and so we figured if we could run two concurrent calls easily and the third call comes in and one call one one unit can free themselves up from a basic call to handle it so we have a little more flexibility there so that's a half of a percent chance that we'll probably need to request Aid locally but it's it's a calculated risk but it is a risk but then again everything in life is a risk so so I'd be interested to have updates when this was ever triggered you know like when when this settlement agreement you know sign a check with me I guess I will be not that is one way but yeah I mean I'm just I am curious we have to call for an aid out Marshall will know right away yeah yeah Marshall will know and let us know the way I Had An Origin schedule was I was the only I could call for aid but then it became clear that the the captains were responsible they're you know legitimate people and they could make that call on their own but then they'll notify me or myself Tom McCarthy who's the operations Chief with within the region of my town and then that will trigger my text message to Marshall in the middle of the night response then we'll talk about it when he gets to work next day Chief they're not talking about like uh you get a get a call to Town Line in both jurisdiction to show up so they're not no okay that's generally who gets there first is the one who's run a call just like we used to do I mean it's funny because being an X cop you don't care about politicians if somebody needs help you'll go over the Town Line to help that's just the common sense well I I think this is excellent um thank you not excellent thank you to Boer tone for being willing to do thank you trainer George Brown yeah great um uh the strategy of of um working with other uh book ronans you know uh um was a good strategy um and uh I I think it's great for our residents to have you know some additional Peace of Mind of this official agreement that we will have in place and it's it's an excellent starting point and we'll we'll see where it goes from there in three three to five years we be best friends'll be do all things together well trucks will look the same well not the same color but you know on there but other than that I think we we want to create a a partnership yeah that is with and Bo over the time we'll want to train together so they know where our equipment is we already share a lot of information about the responses in their City hour so we want to have that that that you know seamless interaction but it's going to take time and we are all behind that I can I certain we are all 100% supportive of that absolutely excellent I think it's great and and um even in the agreement having the biannual review every six months yeah I think it's wonderful and you know right here right there it shows that the intent to the great Partners right neutral Partners neutral Partners yes good thank you question thank you thank thank you do we need a motion to approve this okay and while I hope we never need it just in case we should I move that we accept the interlocal agreement for emergency medical and fire assistance with boa Ron I second it commissioner David yes commissioner Peters yes commissioner Goldberg yes vice mayor Stern yes and mayor Moore yes motion carries excellent uh moving on item C designation of a voting Delegate for the Florida League of cities 2024 annual conference I'll put my name in all right who got it excellent excellent It's funny already on the for I don't know what happened would would anyone like to do it this year no you've got it well thank you you got it we can have a motion it was really satisfying I was on the policy committee uh last year um and very interesting uh we had three separate meetings um so I look forward to that thank you well thank you for doing that I move that we appoint Judy Goldberg to the voting Committee of Florida League of cities I'll second that all in favor say I I motion carries unanimously so moving on item D discussion of integrating the use of a special magistrate into the code enforcement process okay so um based on your last uh conversation I kind of went through and provided what I saw are three options I know there could be a fourth but I thought these three were the closest to uh how the the commission wanted to get there I would probably lean towards item three um but the options are we don't do anything you leave it code enforcement forward but we found that we're going to find ourselves in Quorum issues and the inability to handle uh that workload comfortably and there's some of the technical issues are starting to to grow with fire service and we have some some risk issues we would like to mitigate on the insurance side so with that not being the best option uh there's the uh violator uh selection option which is Len's least favorite option um so what that would be is that the whoever in violation could choose within a certain period of time would you like basically do would you like a jury trial or a judge uh judgment so that's an option uh there's a lot of issues a little more administrative work and task and not a lot of clarity to that could could prove challenging but it's a it's a viable op that that is it is permissible and the other one is kind of what we were classically talking about how you would break it up um we have all of our violations uh into three classes already in the code and it kind of tells you what those are so it's pretty easy that if it fits into class one or class two it goes to the code enforcement board class three where that risk really starts to jump up on us in in the technical so the class three and fire code issues would then go to the special magistrate but we'd also insert a provision that if one is unavailable the other could fill in so not one guaranteed is only going to handle you know one and twos or threes and Co fire code but that's the general and then one could fill in for the other um relatively straightforward uh we could do it via resolution uh that's my belief lens shaking his thank goodness it's proced so my legal analysis was good on this one um I kind of cheated I said it to him ahead of time um but basically we could do it by resolution so at point in time we don't have to do it through ordinance two reads it's not as formal in structure so we could modify a resolution at a meeting if something wasn't working or needed to be changed again so we could put this out if you will kind of pilot it for a while see how it works and shakes out if we don't like something we can always adjust by making a new resolution so it's a little bit quicker allows us to be a little bit more Nimble um and the statute and our code allows us to to do it that way so that's staff's you know recommendation I guess the other option I will put out there is that you can just have code uh special magistrate do it all I didn't didn't hear that from you all it didn't really sound like you wanted to do that but somehow to have a a two bifurcated process so uh then three looks like your best option so I could answer any questions if you're comfortable at some point in time and you say this is the direction uh Len would draft up a resolution to effectuate that change and we' bring back to you for for a vote and we would move forward question uh how would we handle a situation where it's class 102 violation scheduled to go to code enforcement board The Violator comes with their attorney and we don't have a quorum we yeah if and and that's the problem with the board if we don't have a quum then we'd have to reschedule it to when we had a quum but even if they thought they would have a quarin and everybody is called it's set up for a particular date Lena contacts everybody they say they're gonna be there and they're not so so what we want to do where we were looking at doing is having a standing day with both so there wouldn't be a huge change uh we did meet staff um myself uh met with uh Kevin Wagner um the counselor for this and he does it been doing it for a long time handles lot big communities and that was the idea was we would pick a date that's circled and held in his calendar and if something nothing's available no but if the code is a few days before not available we could easily move quickly to the special magistrate that we could do um well have standing both so if you can't get a quorum it's not like you have to wait six weeks right we can just push that automatically to um the special magistrate okay because it's not fair for somebody to pay the legal time and show up expecting a hearing and they don't get a hearing that's not reasonable in my book correct and that's where the risk starts coming in if that you know we start doing stuff and we kind of go off off script and they have their attorney present that makes me uncomfortable that we're not in a more structured environment and I think regardless of where we go keeping the code enforcement board we we're going to have to look at some training for them whether that is len giving the train maybe the special magistrate teaching them a little bit on how to be more rigid and structured I think will be very useful over the long term rather than rigid and structured how about professional yes you could say that so I am gonna go with Richard and structured I'm safer on those spaces well I like it um I mean I think that um people like to be involved in the town and this gives them you know some opportunity for people to get involved in the town um it provides for a backup if we don't have Quorum so we kind of cover ourselves with that um yeah maybe I don't know maybe as part of this we also um specify the the training yeah so it's you know it's what you you had here in option three but then you know also as part of that there would be training for the town's code and enforcement board so um so yeah I'm in favor of option number three um then you know let's see how it goes and and we can yeah and it's easy to change like you said um if necessary I think the training to me I made a point last time U I was shocked that we someone comes in we're so grateful so that our people want to serve um and they do it with all best intentions but um uh we need them equally trained and maybe we have to look at um what they're bringing to the table their past experience can they do it um so I think that's that's working with the code enforcements is going to be that we have aord uh so I don't know if the uh maybe the rules I think that we we need discussion about that that has to be um more dependable than apparently has been if I I hear I was not aware that um many times people do appear and there may not be a quum and it's unanticipated now when we have a magistrate that we're committed to he's functioning in other jurisdictions other towns as well um so he's not going to have flexibility and it's hourly it's it's not a salari position you hear on once a month third week and when you know Wednesday something like that so I I like I like this uh I like having the magistrate and and the the community uh I favor three as well that case distribution by violation class because at least we know that if there are any violation class one and two or three and three and all fire code violations that the Magistrate will handle it do do we know in advance when there's no Quorum or the people come up and we find out at that meeting sometime like what would the last one but I think the last one we thought there was a quorum and nobody showed up I guess or not enough people it that that happens from time to time the clerk's office locks it down they do it ahead of time and then oh I forgot I gotta go on a trip or I'm not ill I got a doctor it's okay it happens U but it's happened a lot fre more fre ly than it should especially on this quasi judicial board it's not as um I mean all of our uh Boards of commissions have a hard time getting a quorum uh Fab included right so I mean they we we have a hard time so um you're right we we have it and then at the last second it falls out we have to go through the rescheduling R notification process hopefully get ahead or don't make a mistake and communicate get to the petitioner before they show up we've had a time where we didn't have a quorum fell through we didn't notify petitioner petitioner shows up with Architects a lawyer I mean they're paying their foot in the bill so that that stings a bit to have to to eat that Crow If you will when they call me um but those are the things that you know we try to do and then also the composition we do stipulate on the code enforcement board that these type of individuals have to be on it I don't think we've we meet the mark on a lot of those so now we're going to have to we have an opportunity to when it says you should have an engineer uh a business person an architect we could work to solicit those skill sets which the code says should be represented on that so um those are the you know we have the opportunity now to to maybe be a little more selective potentially and then uh you know I've I've asked for a quick change on there um on the application now especially uh not pick on the Fab shair here but uh you know can you be available on the summer when we review the budget I mean those are questions maybe we should have a checkbox exist because that's critically important as you heard you know from Dr greenal today you know they didn't have it they couldn't make a recommendation Corum fell apart so um we want to make sure folks that if you're on quasa juty you got to be here you're round it those it's kind of a requirement it's tough I get it you know but we should have the ability to start working on that meeting sorry I'm sorry how often do we have meetings for the code enforcement board monthly monthly and there's always something for them to hear yes yes sometimes they all comply beforehand but generally there are cases every month that was my question too yeah and when someone gets a code violation is it on that notification what class it is it's very obvious what it's not on there because the classifications actually are in the citation schedule which is sort of part two of The Code Enforcement so it's not um that's something that would be more internal that if it's a class you know depending on the class is how the town would route it okay so how would that how would that work then so there's a code violation we would tell them so code enforcement officer would see what the violation is right now everything goes to the code board so it's not to focus on it so there is no right now there is no distinction of what Plass we say there's a violation now we would go into in that section of our ordinance where it spells out and it tells you what's considered one class one here's two here's class three and then now we're adding fire code specifically to one you we'll know how to distribute it and we can put that on the notice if we move in this Direction that's an internal change that Jeff and Adam would make in the code enforcement process and if it's not that clear they probably just always do the highest class so if it's kind of a blend of two and three they would call it a three something that nature I think we would move to more of a restrictive or more higher elevated type code or if it's something so out there that we don't know exactly how it fits we'd call Len and he'd help us put it in the Box yeah like I've been doing the I was doing the code for years they not that unusual lot of work without a permit majority right right that is the majority of it so but there are other unique ones that come up so most of ours would go to the board sounds like I think work without a permit might go to the magistrate I believe that's a yeah I believe that's a class three violation work without a permit um zoning code violations would go to the magistrate which makes sense based on the expertise and as Marshall said fire code as well again that's where most of our risk is because they can start assessing high levels of fees if they decide or move off cuff with comments then all of a sudden we're assessing $50,000 $60,000 of penalties we said something inappropriately or maybe not tightened up the case enough to collect it and process a lean that that makes me nervous as your manager I get nervous there like we got to make sure we're not missing a step so um I also kind of fall in the camp of three um more rudimentary stuff until we train up the codeb it might come a point in time where the codeb can handle it with time you know and it's and again I'm not there's no indictment on the code board it's just right now we're short of folks we're not getting people that meet the the the types of individuals or professionals that are supposed to be on that board and at times we're we're little risky um so it might also come to a point where people are like I I don't even want to serve on this board because I don't want to penalize my neighbors for for things and this magistrate is going well let's just leave it to a professional I mean it could go might go that way it's not it's not an easy board to be on fact especially in a smaller Community like this absolutely because you know they know the Violator but yet knowing a violator is not a conflict so you're passing judgment on your neighbors and right right it can be a tough a tough position to be not a which may there there may be a social conflict there's no legal right there could be a definite social conflict leg conflict any public comment on this no so this is just a general guidance just a head nod move forward with developing the resolution for our conversation for the next meeting for consideration yeah yep I like yeah I like option three with a little bit more formalized on the training for uh code and yeah well but also more formalized on the training but also more formalized on when it would trigger going to one or the other if somebody's not available because there may be times when something has to be done with limited time and the Magistrate's not available okay so so for the record can you repeat or clarify your uh recommendation so I can capture it properly in the minutes okay I'll try recommend that we use option three but the resolution should have specificity as to training for board members and as to background of board members and also when it there would be a triggering event to go from the magistrate to the board or the board to the magistrate if one or the other isn't available I agreed agreed yeah with that I thank you and I think that that it it could be written with as far you know you have the training I think it when it comes to the background it may be more difficult to put it into this resolution so I don't know if it's possible that you can also use and it's still official um um like an administrative document that would be prepared that would we could give out to the public saying that if you have a background in this kind e your experience or education this is what is needed for that position okay so that because that we can work on from time to time we can include take off or okay next item discussion of the 75th Town anniversary celebration sure uh so uh ad hoc committee would be great uh so I put that out there uh again special thanks starting with Father Horgan uh graciously agreed to be on the committee um most likely because we'll not only need his facility but he's been really uh stepping up and wanting to be a greater part of the community and and linking the two together which is great so we we've got him then it came to the Comm right so I'm GNA I I took a poll so the two to the far right are the two highest vote Getters so we have Goldberg and Peters as the Commissioners potentially to serve I will also caveat Anita's name came up yeah so don if you don't want to do this then maybe Anita will step in and help us out I be willing to do it I actually voted for the two senior members well I was just collectively who got the most names uh put out to would be good for that um again the commission liaison would also then be the direct communication back to this commission like we need about x amount of dollars here's the timing kind of keeping everybody in play we will also um get a one or two off of the police foundation they've acknowledge that they want to also participate and help during this time period so that will give us a group of about four or five um put your hand down Dr Greenwall i h you can participate too so we got another one nominated see shows up Republic com and we grab them right so um you know so we just G to get the group together uh staff will do a lot of the push and collecting data research we're just looking for creativity thumbs up thumbs down on what we select what we don't select I mean commissioner David wants fireworks so we're working on that part too so we're trying to get all of these items in play and we thought it'd be better we you know casting that into the community to help us pick out those events um and move forward so that's kind of where we're at um we're looking to do that right around or tie into the mingle jingle time frame so we could have multiple events what December December December early December Christmas yeah between the holidays I think would be a good time uh because we've also had discussions in the past that we wanted a to you know it's not a fireman's ball it's a public safety ball kind of fundraiser thing that could be good for the 75th Anniversary starting our fire department getting something there um again the church has got a great place to do it that to kick it off they have a nice banquet facility and I think that's I think those are types of events to have multiple events just all the details the giveaways the vendors the food what we want to do side events all of that uh that's where we really because originally I was just like oh we're going to do this I was whoa whoa whoa whoa that's a terrible idea this is a 75th Anniversary um staff shouldn't be making all of the calls on what we do uh so that's why we kind of wanted to to cast that net out it won't be intensive there won't be like 50 meetings um so we can you go that that direction Dr greenwald's gonna be the chair thank you again I don't know how this well that that's going to be that time of the year also is going to be um there's going to be a lot of vacations taken but so some folks said that they you know they won't have a lot of availability but again we could do a few meetings kind of get some ideas bring back that so just to keep staff pointed in the right direction then we'll come back and you could say h yes no that way we don't pick something that isn't appropriate or not something that's requ you know it'd be just good to have that in there because it's it's a big event really and these meetings could be on Zoom there's no yeah they could be requirement that there be a quarum no no this is again this is ad hoc there's that's why there's only one commissioner because if it's two then it's a public meeting right um not that we can't do that we could do it too and have a public meeting so how do you handle that one right who's it gonna be so Don and I cannot talk about it even though but you both can't be on the Comm right really only one should be on the committee on the committee if not then it's a public it and notice and so if just one and then one is the liaz I'm back to the commission to say and again there's nothing that we're not really going to be teetering on oh it's going to be a future agenda I don't know that it's that hard on there but we it's safer just to have one and communicate back people in the public it's our 75th Anniversary please talk to your neighbors we're going to want everyone to to bring and participate um you know we'll have to make a little budget amendment to say we're going to act allocate acts to the event so so is going to do that On's gonna do it Don's gonna do it all right buddy thanks all right I got Nita behind me so like a twers two yeah and I've been I've been talking to some in our community I know Phil laua said he'll help Cal we'll get Phil in there nice and Jack has that great mailing list yeah yeah other people can contribute ideas just grow organic I don't want to exclude anyone but I just wanted a core group to kind of move it forward because again people go on vacation somebody have somebody goes out of we just want to be able to keep moving in um and engage folks in in the process and it it'll be good to to to get to this I think it's going to be an exciting fall um we get some I think we could really make some great events that'll be fun we can raise a few bucks for the foundation um you know it'll be good I also offered my building manager if the committee wants to uh have a part of the uh committee or as part of the subcomittee nominated thank you thank you so yeah so again um now that I have some names I will call an initial meeting and we'll go from that over probably kick it off in late August we're doing a lot of the ground workor right now uh but we want to be able to get the group to to take off rather than what do we want to do so um we'll get some of the basics together and that way we can you know maybe we meet uh talk Calla Horan maybe we'll meet at the church to look at their facilities and it's a good spot kind of off campus what do we want to do and go from there and see where everybody's heads at and uh have some fun good I'm looking forward to it it'll be fun thank you for volunteering I we had a lot at the mingle Jingles so if we get that much or more that would be I imagine the mingle jingle being we were teetering with you know 700 to a thousand based on our Our Guest moving through we're going to be hitting a good thousand people I would imagine on our 75th Anniversary um a couple of the other events might be more limited on Space right uh I'm still waiting for a pancake breakfast at the fire station we got to have one of those or breakfast with Santa is a really common one at the station so we'll do that you know we could tie some of those things uh into it and I think that's really where the community our next phase the next 75 years what does it start to look like and that's kind of where we start that that measure that Benchmark so what is the condition of The Old Firehouse now rough I'm sure I couldn't thank you enough for building them something new because that place is a dump um and I say that and those are probably better terms it's it's not good uh it's in rough rough shape rough shape it was I think maintenance when that we made the initial decision I think maintenance kind of just fell off um people just didn't care for the facility as much after we pulled it um but it's it's it needs a lot of work it's it's bad so so there's nothing that can be done even on a um on a minimum basis that can clean it up that it would be a usable space for this event as one of the events no but what we will do is after the next meeting we'll go for a little tour okay and I'll walk you guys through the old station if you hadn't been there and you it's so fun so we will go over there and go for a little walk sounds like a good job yeah right it's gonna trigger the flood it's gonna be great we're gonna have the bag pipes back but yeah so I I'd hope that we could do the the old station that's not going to be available for anything or even the new space that's something through the next whole fiscal year or slightly further depending on what selections are made by the commission but um you know we could also do some other side events as part of this to try uh I've been wanting that I thought this setup out here would be great for a Green Market on a Saturday could be something interesting for folks to walk in and have a few vendors you know vegetables flowers coffee veget me I think that'd be kind of neat try it it's a neat little set off space next to the fire department we could do something small and see if people like it more towards once people are here in season right could be fun and that's something i' hopefully we could tie into when we design the old fire station space what we do with it how it canx into more outdoor Gathering and use um and see see what everybody wants to do what they want what they want or need and try different things that you see and other communities that we should be able to do here uh once we get the space great excellent moving on to commissioner comments commissioner Goldberg I'm always first yeah yes you are well we I already mentioned to mention again that um Florida League of cities and their annual convention is coming up in August uh three days and we will all be there um representative of our fabulous Town um and it is um I'm going to continue uh my participation in the policy committee and I'll see about the advocacy if that follows but it's available to any one of us um and it's wonderful um feeling and being a part of this great state where focal point in the news for everything is always a commentary I hope I read the New York papers having been from New York every day and it amazes me the the full page ads for Real Estate businesses coming to Florida so uh this is a great opportunity we may be small but we have a large presence there um and our participation is important for the state and for us so I thank you it's a great meeting we we got a lot accomplished a lot of new stuff yeah I'm glad about the budget I I like the millage rate and i' just like to thank boa for uh this agreement and thank Chief and all his men for getting it I think this is a first step and uh and all I can say is we're gonna have a great 75th and anybody that wants to help out just give us a call that's all right thank you I agree thank you to boka thank you chief that this this is absolutely the right direction to go in and I think we are doing that with a lot of things now we're moving forward cleaning up things that need to be cleaned up and getting on the right footing and that's the direction you want to go with a town you want to go up not back so thank you everyone for your efforts uh one or two things first of all um want to thank the chief and the department they've been going through and really doing really good inspections what I've seen which is hasn't been done in a long time which is great uh also Matt's been working with our building on the batteries trickle chargers uh uh bicycle uh and we put together a bunch of rules that we just approved this morning which Matt asked us to send to him he may want to use that as a model to distribute for other people's leads and how they can put together on since it's such a great fire risk with these batteries and especially in garages and so forth so you'll be getting that uh shortly a question the second leak on the uh uh was that an F issue that caused the gas leak do we know or uh yes it was uh so here's the deal we have a standing meeting every Tuesday morning at 10:30 with the contractor that's do to work on there and the meeting this morning I brought that up and so what they're saying is that uh Florida Power Florida Public Utilities did not provide well they provide them with the as buils where the lines are located but only for the location of lines the main line they don't have the branch lines laterals going into the residences in that asilt so it's a HIIT and Miss kind of thing so they're trying not to do that they anticipate but there will be more uh they're finding their you know a lot of infrastructure underneath that's more uh closer to the surface than the asil is saying so they're using tractors because they have to to make you know move the project along they can't do it by hand and so what we're having is that they're hitting those lines and uh no they're small lines you know uh they're usually on the control right away usually an hour hour and a half but they don't have plan yet to how to avoid having leaks so it's probably going to be an ongoing issue we're going to buy some tools to address a leaks right away so we could reopen the road and get traffic moving again so that's G to be a bill you're going to see in a few minut next couple of weeks because you know you don't we don't want to shut down the road for an hour two hours waiting for response from other so we'll be able to shut the leak down get people moving and then Florida appr utilties was it's going to be on the scene to to fix the leak one other option they're exploring is to have a Florida Public Utilities person on site so if a leak occurs they'll get right on it un fix it they'll have all the tools ready so that's being discussed right now I'll wait till next week's meeting to give you I'll give you an update if needed or through the manager's office thank you question okay some bad communication some good communication I happen to be coming over the bridge on the second league and there was a Del re officer with the stanions and I roll down my window like my window and I asked him is Spanish River open to go around and he said absolutely not that's the bad news so he said either make a uturn go back over the bridge or go north okay I went as I was going over the bridge the good news is I called our police department at the desk she got a hold of a officer on the road Road and communicated yes in fact it is open all the way till past the sand so anybody who has to get to their residents and so forth and I asked that to be communicated as well so I think our department did a very good job I think the officer who told me to turn around didn't understand or didn't know and wasn't communicated well to transfer that information to other residents who might be coming over the bridge so I just want to make that comment I didn't realize that they were going to close the road completely at some points I mean they indicated to us when we spoke to fot multiple times that the road would always be open that there'd be delays that it would be traffic going on one side or the other and but they never said that they were going to just close the section of the road completely what what I'm referring to is when we had the gas Le oh the gas Le oh that's that's separate okay that's that's different yeah no no that has been my experience has been with the uh road closures they've done a done a very good job they have a traffic light there and it and it hasn't been of course it's not seasoned but there hasn't been any major long delays they've done a pretty good job of moving traffic I think okay thank you for clarifying that that's yeah so in the spirit of um building rapport with our neighbors and um Building Bridges again um I had a nice uh informal uh conversation with the mayor of dely beach it was just uh you know uh an hour over coffee just uh trying to get to know each other a little bit no no specific requests or anything like that just a uh meet and greet try to get to know each other so um I wish the best for dely beach and hopefully you know I expect that we continue uh being friendly neighbors and um so and I'm expecting we will continue to move forward positively and all all the best for all the things that Del has in front of them to accomplish so you ask pick up the golf course out didn't talk about anything except for just trying to get to know each other and uh Town attorney uh no mayor thank you okay Town manager um I'm just gonna Echo everyone else is sediments uh fire department smashing job thank you um city of bokeh uh my counterpart in bokeh George thank you that was uh very kind uh to to be an active uh partner with us um moving forward on the budget salary resolution will come next uh the next meeting on the 6th again kind of reflecting uh what we've done every year it's kind of what we do for the non-union employees that's that's coming uh next that's pretty straightforward um you will also I'm working with Chief Hartman uh recruiting retention for police officers become more and more challenging so we have some um some another option that we are going to present to you Chief's going to present to you to to you know help improve that situation to keep us in the marketplace and keep us consistent consistent with the other agencies around us um as that continues uh to be a challenging challenging area um other than that I do not have anything else thank you okay uh moving along to announcements um we have some board vacancies board adjustment of appeals uh one vacancy natural resources preservation Advisory Board we have a vacancy uh um and so meetings and events coming up so July 29th at 10: uh we have the board of adjustment and appeals regular meeting uh August 6 at 1:30 we have our next town commission meeting August 8th we have our next uh planning board meeting at 9:30 in the morning then August 13th we have our next code enforcement board meeting so August 20th uh because of the uh election day primaries we are closed that would normally be our next meeting um so is I'm just looking on the website so is our next meeting Thursday the 22nd I see that okay so just so we all know that our next meeting would be August 22nd at 1:30 it's that would be for a special meeting do you guys want it do you need it do we okay that's a good question right do we need it we need it I don't know that I don't have any other regular business pending I haven't seen any indication that you have concerns over the budget where we need to take a deep dive into any operational component any po do we need it I don't think we need it is my thought and then we would come back for the September 3 where we'd have a regular meeting followed by the 501 for the first public hearing that would be our next meeting after August 6 we still have meeting on August 6 in a couple weeks then we're um okay so next meeting August 6th no other meetings in August okay and then we'll have a few meetings in September right yeah we have a few meetings okay and then on here it says July 27th um is that possibly a typo okay okay so there is no um Financial Advisory board meeting on the 27th okay and no board action reports uh reports and with that I think we can adjourn yes thank you very much everyone thank you thank you