e judgement while we expand our effort efforts and time for the benefit of our community amen let's have a moment of silence good afternoon good afternoon honorable officer's retirement trust that that included in this report is the results of our federal single audit if you turn with me to printed page your property planning equipment um as your property planning equipment um as of as of year end and a new category this year titled or caption subscription base assets which are your a sort of intangible that is not million as of year end September 30th 2023 so as notated a very healthy position for the town um notating a healthy unrestricted net position um and impact fees or or certain intergovernmental Revenue that's restricted the net effect of your expenses minus your Revenue gives you your change in net position which was north of 26.4 million cash and Investment Portfolio are the capital assets or that infrastructure that is needed to produce the services for the residents following um printed page 24 you have your statement of revenues expenditures andity operating activity non activity operating activity non- Capal activity financing activity and investment activity that's on printed page 25 and on printed page 26 we show the reader the towns and pension and the police Pension funds Investment Portfolio as of year end um these Investments um we test them to the investment policy that has been payout of those principal debt payments so it gives you the history of what the purpose of the debt was issued for the interest rates and when it's going to be paid in full following the state original budget that was approved um the final budget if there's any variances and then we compare that final budget to the actual amounts that we give an opinion in and the last column shows you the variances any positive and negatives um under floral law um the town is required to offer certain benefits when uh employee retires or separates employment um or they don't have to cover the the the entire cost in in its entirety but by the time of by the time of Jupiter for the fiscal year which was north of 3.1 million um as part of this based on a risk assessment or risk and apart from that on the on March 28th we released um simultaneously with a document a communication letter there's you know the the operations continu this was a very robust year for the town there was a lot of activity so it called for a lot of time and effort not only from our part but from your Town staff so I want to thank them for always giving us the information spent on these three audits with the new accounting standards correct so from our end we had we're approximately over 600 hours we had we're approximately over 600 hours so I could just imagine how much the town because they had to prepare Reserve balance our fund balance is that is healthy 52 million uh higher than 48 last year so really healthy to see I was also pleased to see with our revenues coming in and I just want to say this is a really interesting um with our revenues coming in and I just want to say this is a really interesting uh document to read the ending in particular you can see the number of employees over 10 years this is 10e Trends in our budget uh you can look at the rate of return um for the retirement fund different retirement plans our millage rate so that 10-year comparison is really interesting to see and that's all thank you thank you for all your work come with me uh no questions or anything thank you for all the hours of you know probably intense labor that you guys put into this I'm not sure you know I'm not too Savvy on the new accounting standards but I have heard they're pretty intense so thank you you know for your work on that and thank you to the finance department for all your guys' hard work so I hope you guys have enough staff uh if you don't please let me know and we'll make sure you guys get the help you need so thank you councelor have four very thorough excellent um very heavy it's a lot to take in but you're um the presentation makes it all fit somehow um the the bottom line from what I took away from it is there's three audits that the town went through and every aspect of the audit all points to the audit we passed correct so it points to an extremely healthy town uh Financial position and of course that goes to our our finance team outstanding job um three audits at once sounds almost sickening to to think of but to also incorporate new accounting standards on top of that and I realize it's been a really lack 12 months for the finance department you didn't have anything else to do in the last 12 months very good job thank you very much we're we're obviously in very good hands thank you just um you don't ask for uh on page 58 where which provided the total long-term debt as you referred to it if you the amount of long-term debt yeah you on page 58 I'm not asking for the amount I'm asking for you have any uh observations to make about that amount of long-term debt okay so the the one of the things that we do is we compare the town of Jupiter to peers so um in terms of of of reviewing the debt on hand we didn't think it was significant as a matter of fact we expect that in the near future outside of the net pension liability there won't be much debt or commitments unless you issue new debt for the town of Jupiter as of year end um when it comes to the net pension liability the net pension liability this year has did increase because it reflected the activity regarding the market in 2022 the market in 2022 was a difficult year um not only for the town of Jupiter but for all municipalities if if you there's a page if I could go back to you um that the the net pension liability has recovered but in 2022 if you turn with me to printed page 101 unfortunately in 2022 the pension plan for the retirement the municipal officers plan reported a net investment loss of 20.2 million um that is not unusual because 2022 was a difficult Market year um nice to say that in 2020 2023 the the pension plan reported net investment income of nearly 8 million again it hasn't overturned the 22 the 20 million that was the investment loss in 2022 um but that is a big swing um so that that was a impacting significantly the uh net pension liability amount for the police officers if based on print to page 101 um the plan fiduciary net position as a percentage of the pension liability in 2021 on a gap basis accounting basis that that plan was overfunded 104% given the 2022 Market Trend unfortunately that dropped to 80% again we expect it to smooth out for fiscal years to come but um that's that's uh the impact of why your net pension liability increased significantly um as years as compared to years past right appreciate you pointing out no I was I was just personally focused on the total long-term debt um because first let me just say that I believe that um the annual audit is perhaps the most important accountability that those of us on the council have um to make because it's the opportunity to represent to the public if we've been good Financial stewards of uh you know of of basically the Public's money not ours um and you know I'm kind of I'm delighted with we've got our long-term debt down to 8.1 million and I'm aware of the uh and while it is disappointing the market in in 22 universally was horrendous on anybody with a retirement account right um but you know I just want to so thank you again I this this is a significant U and again to get another clean you know audit you know that doesn't happen hasn't always happened but it's been consistent recently just just thrilled it's an unreasonable expectation for it to always happen but it is something to really celebrate yes I just want to say further that as an elected official you know we get quarterly Financial reports you know from our finance department on everything uh and they're generally very timely I mean we got the yearend fourth quar financials uh for the year ending September 30th we got this report on December 8th so on December 8th I knew generally what was the health of the town and uh our staff is that's they're just used to you know sharing that sure it's subject to an audit but they're pretty confident and I'm pretty confident when I get it that it's accurate information I can rely upon so I really I was waiting for this this want to emphasize to the staff how grateful I am you know for their work and then your work uh you know on auditing that because again there's no higher accountability we have than to uh be fiscally responsible with the Public's money so thank you thank you and I have one quick question just to uh um I see that we've we've received again the certificate of achievement for excellence and financial reporting correct the certificate is included in the package yes so following the table of contents the the town includes the certificate of excellence so um the acfr is being submitted to the gfoa which is known as the government Finance Officers Association so in the State of Florida each municipality is required to have a financial audit um the town um exceeds that requirement by putting together the acfr this is optional you don't have to put the entire you don't have to prepare this entire document because this includes information just specific for the G once this document is submitted to the gfoa they compare it to the program and they give you the certificate of excellence if you meet all the criteria of the program um and I believe this is the 31st year of that the town U receives the pro the certificate we at Markham a service of nearly 52 believe 52 municipalities in the State of Florida and not everybody participates in the program just because of the robust requirements um it it also has a March deadline so it requires you to to submit the information before March 31st thank you just one last question of I think it should be to our finance director yes sir um I was expecting to see the audit for the U fire rescue MST what's the status on that you mean the financial disclosure uh requirement uh within the uh contract with yeah year ended September 30th I haven't seen anything we have requested that on numerous times mayor we have yet to receive that um they basically had indicated the last time that we communicated with them they want to wait until the end of March um primarily because they're doing the same thing we are with the close of the books uh we have reached out to them again we still have not received the financial disclosure you know when you're communicating with them I would have expected to see the end of year results before they're audited but okay we haven't got those now we don't please uh please uh keep impressing upon them we need to get that that those financialist to understand how fiscal year 23 ended thank you you're welcome okay um with that um we'll move on to the consented to the citizen comments this is the time for non-agenda items and they're limited to 3 minutes anyone wishing to speak is asked to State his or her name and address for the record prior to addressing Town Council uh do we have any citizen comments on non-agenda items yes we have two first Linda Smith after Linda it's going to be Heath Wentz okay Linda Smith um 17976 via Rio Jupiter Florida uh also representing the Sierra Club I come to these meetings once in a while to speak with you about environmental issues I know that you know the fire department issue has taken up a lot of your time and the Public's time and it is important but B during that time the environmental task force has not met I believe they're to meet quarterly and they were waiting for the approval of the strategic plan which I think happened just recently I hope they can now get started on the important environmental work for the town such as but not limited to a strict rainy day season June 1st through December 1st ban on fertilizer applications Testa has passed theirs years ago doesn't do much good if the south side of the wild and Scenic loah Hatchi river is still enriching the water with too much phosphorus EV charging station in town vehicle purchases thank you I was able to get a parking spot in the two spots over in the parking lot last time they were full reducing the use of single use plastic on Town property you can write it into the vendor contracts for food trucks Etc that is still legal in the state of Florida while discussing single-use plastics it's my understanding that there is not a standard commercial property recycling program individual businesses such as Walmart and Publix may have their own programs but what's the average Commercial Business to do with their recycling case in point I have recently joined a gym I know it's a work in progress um but it is a fairly large gym and I asked and was given permission to pick through the trash cans what I have in this bag is 3/4 of one day worth of plastic and cans after being crushed I call it today's Harvest this will get picked up in my residential recycling bin I have now purchased two 50 galon blue recycle bins and it's not enough maybe I'll stop going to the gym as often I leave it to your imagination what happens to this plastic when it's burned at the County incineration facility and I thank you for your time ethn thank you uh mayor VI mayor cers uh uh I come to you to to speak about the Jones Creek vegetative trimming project um first of all I want to say thank you for all of your help in uh preparing the construction documents permitting bidding and and Contracting uh of this work uh this is taken years to get to this point uh since I last spoke to you obviously that this work got underway in in October uh and in in November uh I I finished up my my seaw wall and I actually got married in them in my backyard on Jones Creek uh my bride joined me today uh unfortunately I left my wedding ring on the dresser before we left to come over here so uh I'll pay for that later um anyways what I wanted to speak to you about was the progress of work uh there's been great great progress in uh opening up our Waterway and uh I'm very appreciative for the work that sh loock trees has been doing uh I've been and I'm also thankful to town staff for their coordination work in helping administer this um ongoing construction inspections take effort and uh I'm I guess I'm I'm I'm blessed or cursed with the ability to read and prepare engineering construction documents and and so I've been able to to read through some of these and and I think there's been been a a few disconnects uh and some differences of interpretation and some of the contract requirements uh I understand precedence of contract documents and that technical specifications can take precedence over drawing details uh and that front-end documents also take General conditions take precedence over uh technical specifications um the issue I think is that the the prescribed width of trimming that's supposed to be provided ided uh I I I feel it's falling short uh the this effort was undertaken to try to open up the creek and try to get to try to get as much sunlight as possible uh to the creek to try to uh uh bring down some of the bacteria levels that we have are which are are still about a 100 times greater than what may close a a beach so I believe that the you know reasonable differences of opinion can be made uh at one point or another I've I've surveyed the creek myself with neighbors and marked up drawings to to highlight the areas which I believe are uh uh not quite up to standard uh I believe that uh We've fed those back to the contractor through town staff uh but I believe that there are some areas that uh it's still falling a little bit short and I want to try to offer my services in whatever way I can to help uh provide Clarity there uh but finding the appropriate measuring stick for all to measure completion I think is is uh is important to to bring this to closure so that I appreciate your time and I appreciate your concern thank you just just on behalf we don't normally discuss these but on behalf of the council I I do appreciate you coming by and and sharing that observation we we do I mean this was an important project you you and others advocated it for a long time um and to the degree that this could be what we would maintain it at I think you bring up some good points um and I trust I'll you know our staff will follow up with you and and um Cu uh and I like the way you put it there can be reasonable differences of opinion but uh uh and certainly anything was going to be an improvement but I think the standard we should look at that we whether we're done or not and see whether or not there's basis to readjust it I appreciate your offer and I'm asking sta going to ask to our town manager or staff to get with you and if you will point out to them the areas that you believe fell in your your opinion a little bit short thank you thank you any more citizen comments that was it right that was it okay uh Council we have before us the minutes of the April 2nd Town council meeting and we also have some uh corre revisions on the Das if there's no other revisions I'll take a motion in a second MO to approve second Motion in a second all in favor signify by saying I I I motion carries unanimously moving on to the consent agenda this is items number three through 15 on the uh agenda um is there any members of the public that wants to pull a consent agenda item no mayor none um Town manager any no mayor Town attorney none any m of the on the Das want to pull a consent agenda item number 12 number 12 okay any others no no okay I'll take a motion in a second on amended consent agenda we're moving item number 12 uh motion to approve the amended consent agenda second uh we have on the uh consent agenda ordinance 824 second reading I'd ask the town attorney to read it on short title ordinance 824 and ordinance of the Town Council the town of Jupiter Florida amending chapter 27 article 11 Division 44 section 27 3191 to increase commercial and Industrial linkage fees providing for severability providing for the repeal of laws in conflict and providing for an effective date okay we have a motion in a second all in favor signify by saying I I I motion carries unanimously moving on to um agenda item number 12 pulled by councelor May what's your pleasure you want to presentation or no I just real quick I just wanted I mean I'm not sure if it's available but um I was trying to research this company I couldn't really find a whole lot because I was trying to see if I can find uh an example of some protocols that would be offered for fire rescue if there are any available I'm mayor Town Council Daryl Donado your fire chief here in the town of Jupiter uh so um there are no protocols that are currently in existence and those protocols will be developed jointly with the medical director at the medical director's guidance once he's an employee or I'm sorry a contract provider for the town okay and are there any other agencies that currently uses medical director he was previously the medical director for Martin County fire rescue for a period of five years okay um I don't remember the exact dates but uh 20 20 plus or minus so okay okay that's it um and if possible if we if we can get with the medical director from this company just if he has an example of stuff he used in the past with Martin County um if I could get those sent over just so I can take a look at him um just for my own knowledge that'd be good like whatever he used while he was at Martin County as their medical director types of medications you know so you're looking for what he was using previously when he was previously at Martin County that was maybe three years ago when he left there so yeah I just I would request if I can get a copy of that at some point that' be awesome we work on it and get it to you awesome thank you you're welcome just a comment I'll have is you know I'm appreciative that uh you and town staff recognize the uh importance of this getting this going um you know this really sets the stage for making sure that the public safety is of paramounts uh important so I'm certainly fully supportive of the ass thank you very much thank you I'll take a motion in a second to approve uh motion to approve second Motion in a second all in favor signify by saying I I I motion carries unanimously moving on to public hearing ordinance 524 and first reading uh turn it over to staff good evening Town Council uh for the record Thatcher har planning and zoning department uh the application before you tonight is the subject property was dedicated to the town on December 23rd 1983 um it was dedicated for the Perpetual use for the public and establishment of a conservation easement for the preservation of open space the proposed rezoning of the property provides consistency between the zoning and future land use maps as called for by the comprehensive plan and as noted in the executive summary there is a reverter clause on the property should any development occur on the site um the surrounding neighbors have approached the town recently with interest in pursuing land swaps with portions of the town property um however contemplating any transfer of the property could jeopardize the town's ownership of the parcel but i' glad to uh answer any questions you guys anybody on the D have any questions I do you say um they could jeopardize the ownership is that a probable Jeopardy or is it a remote can you characterize that the language based on the Plaid is unclear as to what would trigger the language that's on the plat um but generally any development it states would trigger uh the Clause so it's a legal decision be a legal interpretation I believe so okay do we have any members of the public on this item no mayor okay seeing none um I have a quick question uh in terms of uh the drainage for this property I had heard is there um for our storm water or water systems do we have a culvert uh or the end of the pipe is that on the property is there storm water infrastructure on that property there is an easen that uh over lines with where that Culvert is located for uh servicing purposes okay and that's in the area between 951 and correct and I believe it also aligns with their property okay thank you um no further questions U I'll take a motion in a second motion to approve second motion and a second I just want to comment I appreciate staff taking initiative on something like this to bring it forth so we act upon it thank you uh Motion in the second all I guess I'm sorry this is a ordinance I'd ask the on first reading I'd ask Town attorney to read it on short title ordinance 524 an ordinance of the Town Council town of Jupiter Florida amending the town's official zoning map to rezone approximately 1.72 Acres of property located approximately 30 ft Northwest of the intersection of town hall Avenue and Cain drive from the residential single family zoning District to the conservation preservation zoning District providing for severability providing for the repeal of laws in conflict and providing for an effective date we have a motion a second on ordinance 524 first reading all in favor signifi by saying I I I motion carries unanimously moving on to reports Town attorney I do not have a report thank you Town manager thank you mayor just a couple of things briefly uh again I wanted to thank the finance department um Scott Reynolds Don Clark and the entire staff you know we had that presentation on the audit and you know as I said previously in a previous meeting you know we get this audit report once a year this is a year round process for them and they work extremely hard at it and you can tell that um that they do an excellent job with it I want to publicly commend them and to thank them for all of their hard work um also uh I know we've had a lot of interest in the playground Replacements so I'm sure you you noticed in uh my last report to you that the plans are well underway with the addition of a new playground the East View Manor neighborhood and the replacement of playgrounds at multiple Town parks in fy4 uh equipment for the Eastview Manor playground is scheduled be delivered to the town on April 18th and uh it looks like the contractor will be given the notice to proceed in early May with 60 days to complete that project um barring any significant delays we're anticipating an opening of this playground in August of 2024 and it will include modern equipment fencing and we heard very loud and clear from from our residents is uh Sal shade structures and so uh we'll be including that as well and um and then also um I just wanted to let you know that on the evening of Wednesday April 3D five new pickle ball Courts open for play at Abacoa community park and uh and uh people got at it pretty quickly so um just want to update you on those things mayor and that's my report thank you sure may or may you're looking over there so I don't know we both passed just a quick thing um I had the opportunity this week to meet with uh Joe Chason from jup Inlet District regarding the dredging project going on in the uh Inlet um I just wanted to give a quick update on that I asked them to send me over some information based on what we talked about so uh the project uh itself it's a $2 million dredge project um and I found it interesting that they are actually dredging out 139,000 cubic yards of sand um which is more than double what they normally do normally they do about 60,000 um and then they're dumping it back onto the beach on the South Side starting at about ocean Trail moving south so thankfully we're able to get more Beach going south because uh just south of the inlet has stayed pretty wide since the last project so um the I talked about the turtles because I was very concerned with Turtle season opening back up beginning of March and he said that they have worked with loggerhead marine life center they're performing daily and nightly uh operations to Monitor and they've already moved three nests uh have been relocated uh before the dredging got there to make sure that those Turtles were safe and then they're looking to complete their project by April 30th so uh not not too far away thankfully um and I then at the last connect with Council spoke to a lot of residents about the Jones Creek thing um I'd like to um repeat that I'm interested in pursuing dredge a dredge project for this Creek if we can get State you know hopefully get some State grant funding and maybe put together some of our own funding if possible as we come into budget um to see where how we can get that done because as important as it is to cut back the creek I do feel if we were able to get at least one more dredge on it cuz the last one was done about 20 years ago um with the bu annual trimming then this will probably be the last time we would ever really have to dredge it um if we can keep it cleaned up so um I'm in support of that if we can you know staff can start working on something like that um and I know the mayor already addressed the the issues that were brought up earlier by Mr Wentz for that so I know staff's going to work on that and then one more thing regarding the pickle ball courts that just opened uh which I'm really happy for because I know a lot of people want them um I was hoping that if we could look into uh potentially putting a large awning over that area um I've seen courts in our around the area that have a covering over top of them um to keep them protected from the weather so that way if there's rain or something like that potentially we'd have an area where people could still maybe play pickle ball even if it's you know lightly raining outside or something like that so I think that that Court where the roller rink used to be might be a good fit to put a covering over top of it so if we can look at that and get a an estimate as to what it would cost to do that so that's all I have than speaker uh let's see I I love the report on the inlet and what was happening with Jupiter Inlet District I do think it might be worth having them come and give a presentation one day they are a wealth of information and I know a lot of boter really appreciate that information as well as beachgoers and everyone else um I wanted to say I also really enjoyed the connect with Council event uh there was a lot of discussion around ebikes and so I was glad to see that jpd is stepping up they've got a full campaign enforcement they were out en force that night uh they are out and force in our community as I saw first hand uh when I recently did a ride along with them which brings me to my next point I sincerely want to thank um officer sire Hansen rhs and others or rad and others uh just for allowing me to do a night uh ride along with the Jupiter Police Department Department I did I conducted My Ride Along from 8:00 p.m. to 3:00 a.m. Saturday night and as they would say I got The Full Experience uh so a lot of different things happen but I I learned and fully appreciate just the way they interact with fire the way they respond to just a number of incidents uh I compare it to you know running a race making an arrest and then writing a term paper because they really are so fluent in all of the laws all the statutes they have the software at their disposal they have to write a term paper after every arrest um they have to sit there and write a narrative and check the statutes and they have to be strategic and what they do uh they're very confident just incredible incredible experience and so I really want to thank the officers um that were with me and I'm so proud of you know of all that you're doing and thank you C four um yes I want to thank uh counselor uh May for that feedback that you gave us on the interet that's excellent and I I agree with um vice mayor sunstrom on having a full presentation by them in front of us I think would be excellent um the the health of the river is important too I think the majority of our citizens so that's very important so thank you um I my one takeaway from tonight is I'm nearly giddy over the audits we've passed I'm just can't get over that and that's fantastic news for for us I agree with the mayor that is probably if not safety might be our number one uh um focus but I think second to that is our budget and you we're relying on numbers that are presented to us and good faith for us to make decisions on and it's outstanding to have not one not two but three audits confirm the Excellence of our department so thank you very much it'll make it easier for me to make decisions in the future knowing that these are audited numbers and it's not just audited it's not just the numbers either you complied you were open there were several points in there that I thought were fantastic much more than just the numbers so again thank you very much that's a wonderful take home tonight thank you the um just two items to touch on uh one one the topic that's keeps coming up on ebikes you know again had a opportunity uh during connect with Council to talk to people about that and you know um I have said this before but I just want to reinforce that when at the transportation planning agency meetings this has become increasingly you know more and more conversation of concerns with every elected body locally um so it really has more pretty quickly so we're we're not alone in this you know when I was hearing some of the descriptions um you know about well you know motorbikes I was reflecting back on my youth where it used to be where um somebody mechanically incline would take a part a lawnmower and fix it to a bike and it was a motorbike and you know everybody did that but really what's concerning here to me and I've tried to emphasize this is these are mass-produced so you know the creativity of oneoff kid or whatever making these things is one thing these are M mass produced by manufacturers um and they're on the market and that's why they're so pervasive so I want to emphasize I don't think our police and while I do appreciate everything they're doing they're not in this alone this has to be handled also at a at a broader level so just want to really emphasize that um so we ought to and I know talking to the town manager about it I'm sure those conversations already happening since we have legislators right here on campus um so thank you for taking ADV advantage of them um to see what maybe is done at a Statewide level and lastly and I touched on this before but tonight but you know the transparency in fiscal matters is incredible you know Scott Dawn and your whole team these quarterly reports that you boldly just put because that's the way we do things in the town about transparent fiscal it's incredible it wasn't always this way I know it's a lot of work hopefully a lot of it is standardized so it's not as much as it but thank you it is important and uh it's because we get these quarterly and you take actions quarterly and the leadership staff that we end up with a good audit doesn't just happen so thank you I can't overemphasize appreciate it and uh you know with that the time is uh 7:58 and uh call the meeting to close thank you e