##VIDEO ID:bdV-x3Rx2NY## the time is now 7 pm and I'll call to order the town council meeting of Thursday August 8th um and I'd ask uh if you will join me if you are able and stand as we'll do an invocation followed by a moment of silence and in the pledge dear God help us find the solutions to our concerns and Implement actions that promote the well-being and happiness in our community amen let's have a moment silence please join me in the pledge Al flag we have a roll call please mayor ketky here vice mayor sunstrom councelor Delaney councelor for here councelor may here Town manager Kito Town attorney be BR Lashley Lashley BR Lashley found number Tom be okay uh tonight we have uh a few items uh up front um of the normal agenda or the regular agenda uh first item I'm going to be presenting a proclamation uh be presenting it to Jonathan tourus the publicity chair with the Florida water and Pollution Control operators Association about the water Florida water professionals month Proclamation and I'd also like our utilities director uh Amanda Barnes to join when I present that and whoever else um a proclamation of the town of Jupiter Florida declaring the month of August 2024 as Florida water professionals month whereas the Florida water and Pollution Control operators Association organized in 1940 is a nonprofit trade organization that promotes the sustainability of Florida's water utility industry through Workforce Development to protect the health of Florida Citizens and to preserve the state's water resources and whereas this organization offers water and wastewater treatment plant operator and water distribution operator training courses required for the state of Florida's operator licenses eight voluntary certification programs and continuing education programs for operator license renewal and work whereas this organization in recognizing the importance of the Florida Statutes and administrative code that regulate the water you industry acts as a Layon between the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and Industry personnel and whereas the Florida water and Pollution Control operators Association recognizes all who have played a significant part in operating and maintaining Drinking Water waste water and storm water systems and Florida by celebrating Florida water professionals month which applauds their constant efforts to protect our health and environment and whereas water professionals are essential first providers as defined by Florida statute 43.86 5B during storms and other catastrophic events working to ensure safe drinking water and safe disposal of waste water for our communities now therefore I Jim kety mayor of the town of Jupiter to hereby Proclaim August 2024 as Florida water professionals month in the town of Jupiter and extend greetings and best wishes to all observing Florida water professionals [Applause] month e [Applause] okay now um we have a presentation uh by uh Miss Amanda Barnes director of utilities who will be given a presentation on the 2024 Southeast assulting Association greater than 5 million gallon a day membrane plan of the year in the water environment Federation 2024 utility of the future today recognition thank you thank you good evening mayor and Town Council and I do want to take a moment to thank um Jonathan Torres for being here tonight um our entire utility staff from the business office to water field to the water plant operators um maintenance staff do attend the fwpca continue education and certification programs and have done so for years and it it's a great organization and um it provides a lot of um instructional resources to our to our town and our utility so I just wanted to thank um Jonathan and the fwpca so tonight it's my privilege to come to you to recognize our staff again for several awards that they recently received um on June 4th at on June 4th the southeast assaulting Association also known as Ceda um had an annual Symposium and at that Symposium we were recognized as being awarded the membrane treatment plant of the Year award for large membrane plants which is greater than 5 million gallons a day um it's a prestigious award it's highly sought after ceda's region extends from from Florida up to Virginia across to um Kentucky and then down to Alabama and um Mississippi so um it's it's it's a well-known award um many utilities desire to get that and are um proud to have received it um I just want to tell you a little bit about the people that made that award possible our our water treatment plant is under the leadership of Christopher McKenzie he's been he's now the Utility Systems um manager he's worked his way up through the town utility um starting as a meter eator I believe he's been here for 34 years he provides excellent leadership to his staff Allison felsburg is our utilities compliance and operations manager she makes sure that we um stay in compliance we have many regulatory um compliance regulations and submittal that we have to make every month and Allison make sure that that gets done and that our operations stay in compliance um underneath them we have a dedicated hard hardworking and resourceful maintenance staff um consisting of 13 people including operations technology electricians process control technicians mechanic and Main M operators and technicians we have 10 licensed water plant operators um led by Daniel Reed who is a chief operator we have three certified laboratory technicians Matthew Smith is our lab manager we have an asset management and P purchasing specialist and an administrative assistant and those are just the staff at the water plant the water plant was the um the plant that was Rec recognized for this Ceda award um our treatment plant has a rated capacity of 30 million a day 94% of that capacity is membrane treatment Advanced membrane technology um and so we are able to produce high quality drinking water that meets all regulatory requirements and wins Awards we have two membrane treatment facilities a reverse osmosis a reverse osmosis plant which consists of nine treatment trains and a nanofiltration plant which consists of five treatment trains we have pre-treatment facilities including booster pumps horizontal sand filters many pneumatic valves cartridge filters we have 12 floridin aquifer deep Wells that's 1,200 to 1500 feet deep we have 49 surficial aquifers 150 to 200 feet deep we have post treatment facilities for both membrane plants with Odor Control equipment we have 13 different chemical systems we have a concentrate treatment facility we have well pumps booster pumps feed pumps chemical pumps transfer pumps High service pumps blowers and remote pumping facilities we have many many pumps we have 12 emergency generators we have chemical storage tanks finished groundwater storage tanks and the associated equipment necessary to dose chemicals into our treatment as required we have miles of raw water mains um each of these facilities includes electrical equipment instrumentation Control Systems Communications equipments valves pipes security systems and many other compon components that must operate properly be controlled properly be maintained repaired replaced and be reliable it's a tremendous amount to keep track of to take care of and to be responsible for so thank you to our asset management and P purchasing specialist and our water plant Administrative Assistant who helps to keep that all organized and accounted for our water plant is manned 24 hours a day 7 days a week 365 days a year so that includes weekends and holidays um so our plant operators we have two operators on shift um 247 365 many of our plant staff are required to report back to work after hours to address um emergencies equipment failures and they always Faithfully respond taking care of Jupiter's water treatment plant and producing award-winning drinking water that meets all regulatory requirements requires intelligent skilled and dedicated people and I'm proud to say that we have such people here at Jupiter I could not do what I do without each one of them and I'm grateful for them and I'm honored to recognize them tonight but if that isn't enough in addition to our outstanding water plant staff we have an amazing customer service department and field Representatives who take pleasure in answering I think mostly take pleasure in answering our customers questions and taking care of our customers concerns under the leadership of Travis Sanders we have water distribution operators and stormw field Crews under the leadership of Rodney Carroll Chris Craft and Shane kedler who take care of 480 M of pipe 3,870 hydrants 7,361 valves one of which broke today unfortunately and caused a boil water order I apologize for that three storm water pump stations 5,511 Town dra Town owned drainage structures 171 mies of curb outfall canals ditches sailes and more all of that is required to be maintained repaired replaced field staff report to work to repair water main leaks and brakes address areas of flooding and other concerns 247 24 hours a day 7 days a week 365 days a year including holidays our administrative team consists of Engineers Steven montor Rebecca Wilder field inspectors Mark Molina and Cody Camp Administrative Assistant uh bu uh Britney George our business administrator Dana Shelly our accountant and and our business analyst Ryan silio they provide support for construction of improvements at the water plant and in our in our service area and also support the functions of the utility we have a proven track record and consistently meet Regulatory Compliance record requirements we all work together as a cohesive team to meet the needs of the town's water customers and residents and to provide safe and reliable drinking water provide flood control and protect Jupiter's local natural resources such as the Loach River our water supply aquifers and other environmentally sensitive areas our team is forward thinking we plan for the future we look for ways to improve our processes in order to have long-term Financial stability and be a leader in the municipal water and storm Water Industries for these reasons the town's water and storm water utilities were also recently recognized by the water environment Federation as a recipient of the utility of the future today award so I would like to invite my staff that is present some of them are out on that leak that um occurred today um so they couldn't all be here some are out on vacation but i' would like to invite the ones that are here to come up and take a photo with Council if that's okay [Applause] for gratulations guys know Amanda could you uh come back to the podium I just wanted to ask you to share another U asset of the team you have you know we're in hurricane season and you know we certainly learned on Council how much there's a you know Statewide team that helps one another and if you could just share that perspective because I know members of your team for example went to the West Coast last year help out could you just for the benefit of the public explain that that's the process yes so um the town of Jupiter and many other municipalities are part of a an organization called Florida War um Florida War provides assistance to well they kind of coordinate assistance between um utilities uh across Florida up north and south east and west across Florida whenever there's an emergency it could be storm Rel ated emergency or any other type of emergency um we our crews have gone down they went down to Key West um after the hurricane that hit there several years ago um a couple years ago last year can't keep track of time we went over to the West Coast and help them recover and our crews basically go there and be they do whatever is needed become one of them um repair water main brakes that was mostly what they did on the on the west coast was help repair water main leaks um other times we've provided emergency portable emergency generators to um other facilities Wastewater plants sometimes need them if their lift stations go out um and so we we're just available and our staff is really um we're usually the first to respond in Florida waren because our staff is eager to help others hoping that if we ever needed help in the future that they would be there to to respond to us and help no and I want you to sh that because we we all appreciate that you know in the aftermath of significant sto hurricanes it may well be that it is the case that sometimes uh utility staff can't get you know can't have issues at their home or whatever are not able to get uh to the plant so that's it's incredible that there's such a network of helping and and then hopefully it'll never be needed in Jupiter but if it is I we appreciate the fact that uh you're going out and helping other Utilities in their time of need thank you yes thank [Applause] you uh next I'm going to ask we please welcome Mr Sergio padra director of community engagement and advocacy who will be providing an update on discover the Palm Beach's tourism it is good to be here uh Sergio Pedra director of commun Engagement um and advocacy for discover the Palm Beaches um and I think I've been uh good evening uh Mr Mayor may members of the council City staff and I've been with the organization for 24 years and I think this is the first time we've addressed the Town Council here so it is good to be here U probably long overdue we're going to give you a quick tour of what's happening in tourism not just in the county but also in Jupiter this is a couple more things about our organization um first of all discover the Palm Beaches we are under contract uh with Palm Beach County government uh we report to 24 member board seven of which are appointed by the county commissioner um we are under the umbrella of the tourist Development Council which is a full County department which includes also the poman County Sports commission uh the poman county cultural Council film and TV commission also um rework with different partners like palage County environmental resources the airport the business development board and so forth um and all of our funding um almost a little sep for a little small percentage of it all comes from the bed taxes um that are paid on hotel rooms the 6% bed tax um so it is a public agency but quite a bit of private involved with it and the good news is I'll start the good news and we are always in the good news business when it comes to tourism that 2023 was our best year ever for the entire County now look at it this way from Jupiter all the way down to bokeh all the way out west to The Glades uh we had 9 a half million visitors come to see us um and enjoy the things that to do um we're on Pace for a similar type of year um but uh maybe a year from now I'll be able to report you know a better number so let me just first say that one of the reasons we are here is that Jupiter is vital to what we do um we are yes we are part of palom County government but we represent all the cities all 39 cities in and all other communities in un Incorporated areas are extremely important to us and Jupiter um well what's to say I mean the lighthouse has become a symbol of our County and we use it wherever we go you can see from all of our from our website to our visitors guide to our social media Jupiter is part of the story and it's a great story to tell and being a St Louis Cardinal fan well you'll find me at Roger Dean uh during the springtime so like I said we're a marketing agency it does promote tourism but we're also something different and evolving to a different type of agency yes marketing is part of that reduced sell uh to Leisure travels Travelers into the business Travelers in our that come to our community but we also want to start connecting with our communities Out There Our cities our leadership out there um and also to the residents who we ultimately feel re serve is the residents of palage County and bringing economic um Prosperity throughout the entire region and we'll get to some of those things we do here and when I say community some of the things we're doing are just a little bit differently from just marketing the county marketing hotel rooms and beaches you can do that all day long is we do promote job fairs um we are also involved in cleanup opportunities we also are we involved in different events going on different cities uh we want to be there we want to be a front-facing organization not just promoting tourism but promoting quality of life in every city and every part of the county and so we I just want to remind you before we get into some kind of the deeper stats with my colleague who's going to join me here in a second is that discover the Palm Beach has works for you um and we try to reiterate the point like I said some people may think well you're under the umbrella of the palach County Government and stuff like that but as a reminder like I said re work for you we represent everyone including Jupiter including boka including West Palm Beach and so forth down the line that we have evolved as an agency so uh let me bring up my colleague who's going to get into some more the deeper numbers thank you um my name is Gustav liel I'm the vice president of research for discover the Palm Beaches I'm going to dive into uh some specific stats that we have on tourism to Jupiter in in particular first I'm going to uh show sort of what how we get data here so we have a lot of different data sources that we subscribe to we have uh primary research that we do uh inhouse uh and we uh use multiple sources of data to uh to drive all the all of our statistics if you will uh and some of the sources are have the ability that we can dive into cities and regions uh very specifically uh that that we have access to today some of those uh we have the ability to go further into there so if that there's interest in diving more into certain statistics I can definitely look into how we can do that specifically for Jupiter so first of all off visitation into Jupiter which uh Sergio just mentioned that 9.5 million visitors to Palm Beach County uh we use geot tracking uh to look at different cities and regions and uh which is looking at how devices are moving how cell phones are moving where they're originating from and isolating just Jupiter we have 480,000 visitors to Jupiter 430 thou 430,000 are from outside of pal Beach County so you have 50,000 Palm Beach County residents that are coming into Jupiter on an annual basis and then about 5% of total visitation into Palm Beach county is coming into Jupiter and on the the uh chart here you have all the different markets in there so New York is by far biggest Market into Palm Beach County also into Jupiter in there you notice that St leis there is at only 1% so we're only tracking what we call a visitor uh being temporary so snowbo birds and seasonal residents aren't counted are in there and I know there's data out there that shows there are a lot of second home owners that do reside I guess primarily through the year in St Louis and come here for spring training terms of uh s sales in in the uh tourism industry here so from the fora Department of Revenue we get this based on different sectors I have uh the two Jupiter ZIP codes in here so they give us zip code level data so for 33458 and 33477 uh here's 22 versus 23 spending in there on restaurants $34 million this is spent by everyone so this is uh locals and residents all total spending at restaurants in Jupiter uh countywide information we know that about 40% of uh all sales in the restaurant sector are coming from uh from visitors so if that holds true for Jupiter that would be about $120 million or something that is going directly to restaurants from someone uh that lives outside of of Jupiter on the recreation side $180 million about 60% countywide of all Recreation sales are coming from visitors so uh that would be like 110 million and then lodging that's all that's res uh visitor spending in there next uh on terms of Hotel performance we do isolate different parts uh we do have some city data but with Jupiter having only eight hotels which is about 927 rooms uh we have a North County uh comparison in here so that would include everything north of uh bluin Boulevard is what we're considering North County in here you can see on the occupancy side um uh the uh north county is performing a little bit better than the county overall on the rate side it's a it's a little bit lower in there so if we go back to this 72 million in spend there so this is total onproperty spending in there not just a hotel room room spend so everything that they're spending at the Jupiter Beach Resort or the Windom Grand on food and beverage uh parking and all those things we be include in that 72 million and every year we do a resident sentiment study so we go out to all Palm Beach County residents and we ask them a slew of questions about how they feel about tourism um and we ask them where they live so all all the respondents let say they live in Jupiter we uh we have the following statistics right here which the the big number that we ask is do you feel that tourism is a positive or negative you know 67% of Jupiter residents they uh tourism is a positive thing for the community uh and you can see here 92% in 20 23 uh compared it in 22 78% saying that horom creates opportunities for entertainment such as restaurants and shopping uh on the quality of life side you see here that it was a big jump from on the 30% range to half of residents feeling that tourism enhances their quality of life and the public services that they get result we measure all of our marketing campaigns all of our Aver advertising we have uh sales convention sales we have contracts with all those groups that come in and we do analysis on uh the effectiveness of all of our advertising in there so in 2023 uh We've we've attributed about 40% of all the room kns that are uh consumed in in Palm Beach County was a result of either one of our sales efforts or a marketing campaign that we did and what that means is we were able to gener at $31 million in bed taxes U and that 31 million turns into every dollar that we spent on Advertising returned a160 in terms of bed taxes now they're not just spending money at hotels as you saw they're spending it all over the community so every dollar we spend actually ends up being $109 in economic activity into the community what I want to leave you with is uh if we did not exist if we did not do what we what we did we would have those drops over it would be about a two-year period are there's longevity in all the advertising sometimes it takes two years to get someone to see that first ad and then come into into the Palm Beach uh area um but needless to say that if we close chop we the the economy would would shrink about 5% without our efforts out there in the marketplace and with that I'm going to hand it back over to Sergio to wrap wrap up thank you uh Gustaf um I'll give you these final last slides to kind of think about our organization like I said in an entirely different way um what we're trying to do is transform the entire visitor experience and we're doing that both internally and externally um and a quick thing about our way the organization the way we see what we do for tourism for all the different communities in palage count is the begins like a visit someone comes to see someone comes to Carlin Park someone goes and climbs Lighthouse they see Jupiter as a fantastic area they may try to live here part of the Year full-time year depends on the day so um and that leads to an opportunity if they say they move here they may be working nowadays out of the condo or they might be working from their house or they might be going to an office building but they're investing in their Community which is Jupiter here so way they we look at it is you visit you live you work and you invest but it all begins with one visit it just takes one one visit one person to kind of spend and see Sunrise from from Jupiter Beach and they're convinced so and I can well I don't have to go into the reasons why but also very I mean I won't bore you with every detail on it's on this thing this seems like a very complicated slide but suffice to say that um our organization is has some pillars for the future and some of that is revenue optimization some of that is internal things we are doing and I'll touch on the master plan but also collaboration with our TDC agencies of our residents our community stakeholders such as we're doing right now and our advocacy efforts this is advocacy and action um but we are also looking at sustainability issues and accessibility issues one of the biggest things we're going to do for 2025 and 2026 is accessibility travel um and also look at our environment we have some campaigns that but like I said our main goal here is quality of place and quality of life improving that and internally like I said some of those simple things might be used in artificial intelligence in a very good way increasing our digal platforms and also our new Palm Beaches collection which includes Jupiter and some of the other main cities you might see throughout palmach County this campaign is active right now we'll probably go for the next year or two um and you can find us on our website the Palm beaches.com where you can click on Jupiter and it will take you to a page kind of further explain things to do here and kind of give you an idea of what there is to do here and bring more visitors and bring more dollars into this area and we also are for the first time last year started developing a campaign called love the Palm Beaches which is dedicated toward residents um we want to remind residents that when the visitors are here that's great but you're here all year round um and so this has been a very successful campaign driven through social media offering opportunities for uh giveaways but also to be ambassadors uh the best sales people we have out there are our residents inviting friends and family uh for a visit preferably in a hotel to help pay our salaries but nevertheless we encourage um the residents uh to be those ambassadors for us um and cities as well um to share the love for the Palm Beaches and one of the bigger things we are doing oh I'm sorry I missed the slide there uh is one of the most important things we're doing is our SE to preserve Campaign which is going also into its second year is protecting our environmental resources um we understand that beaches are the number one reason people come here still um and those beaches in our natur areas like the lockah hatti river and also the palage county natur areas you might find up here in the North End of the county need to be protected but one way to protect them is to encourage people to see them visit them um have an adventure out there so that's the seat of preserve campaign it's geared toward residents and visitors alike but it's also to protect our environmental assets which are extremely important in what we do and finish up here there's a couple last slides here um number one we're beginning a uh certified tourism ambassador program um this is something we're going to reach out to our cities Chambers um and all of our Community Partners um is to become certified to be able to welcome um visitors um and learn a little bit more how the industry works so more about that in the future like I said everyone we've been working quite a bit of the chambers who are very interested in some other Community Partners and we want to um bring this also to the cities and most importantly like I said I've been with the organization for 24 years you know um and the biggest undertaking in those 24 years is the creation of a tourism master plan uh my colleague Gustaf has been deeply involved with this since the very beginning but the tourism master plan will help us really answer the questions is what is the future for tourism in this County Jupiter here and all the other cities for the next 25 years or even longer than that um or is it going to be are we reaching a status of over tourism are we stretching out our assets um do we need more buildings do we need more attractions do we need more Hotel space um these are the questions that the tourism master plan is going to answer um but the only way we can do that is to find support from our partners out there um not just you here at the city level and the county level and so forth um but also our residents we want our residents to be involved in this effort um we can leave you with a few of these um a simple QR code that anyone can pick up to be involved in this process it's going to be over the next year to year and a half before this is fully realized um and then of course implementing the plan um like we say at the office this can be the most expensive book it's on your desk or it can be a strategy for the future that will protect our community um from over tourism and make sure that we continue to be an economic engine um and also a good place to live for our residents so like I said the tourism master plan more to come on that we'll reach out to uh different folks and we've been doing this for the last 6 to 8 months is going out there talking about this plan so uh it's good to bring that news here um so again on behalf of discover the Palm Beaches um I thank you for this opportunity and we look forward to working with you on the master plan and continuing to promote Jupiter is kind of that bright shining star in North County um led by the lighthouse so um we're here if you have any questions but if not uh um thank you well uh we thank you for coming tonight uh presentation was very informative um I think you mentioned that you're here so we can get to know you and I thought I'd just share something on behalf of the council and the town so you get to know us you know um because in the last slide you talked about prioritizing funding for tourism infrastructure projects so you may be aware of this but um you know we are partners with many different uh governmental and uh private entities in with Roger de Stadium you know getting a major renovation so it can continue to bring in the tourism that it has Le the town recognize at least from data that we were given that one of the most significant U sources of bed tax uh revenues was the baseball tournaments that are somewhat enabled by uh the amount of baseball fields that exist to conduct a tournament and this council is uh has decided to invest in improving the infrastructure there's a quad of fields that we provide that we we literally did prioritize um that investment um so it is also uh upgraded you know to last another 20 years so you know interestingly that's to just even Main main what we have right you have to do that so I just thought I'd point that perspective out some of we are mindful of doing our part and that's just one example I wanted to leave you with that's a terrific example um in sports travel like I said one of our partners is a sports commission that we work with very closely they're one floor above us so we appreciate those efforts um to continue that going not just in spring training but year round you can play these families will bring their folks and bring their kids to play baseball all throughout the year um so thank you for that effort thank you and then next um you know we're delighted uh to welcome U the Jupiter Inlet District I don't know if uh is George here well the executive director Joe Chasm who's going to be providing an update um and we're delighted because jupit Inlet District is such a phenomenal partner with the town and uh we're grateful for things that you do and we appreciate getting the update uh for us and our residents well thank you um thank you very much for the opportunity to come here in this beautiful new building it's my literally my first time in this room and it's stunning so um my name is Joe Chason I'm the executive director of the Jupiter Inlet District and I'm going to be um kind of giving a synopsis of what we are and an update on our most recent Inlet dredging project there we go um so just as a brief um explanation of what the Jupiter Inlet District is we're an independent special district established by the state legislature in 192 which kind of means we just had our Centennial a couple years ago just like the town is going to be having their centenal here we have a can you be closer to the mic so sure yeah I get that a lot I um uh we have a 92 mile 92 square mile District boundary inside which we uh Levy an adorm tax that District boundary includes the entirety of Jupiter the entirety of Testa Jupiter Inlet Colony all of Juno Beach a little piece of Gardens and a lot of unincorporated Palm Beach County we are um we're governed by a board of five elected officials one of whom is with us here tonight commissioner Gail Whipple um and we focus on managing and maintaining the Jupiter Inlet and portions of the lockah hatchee river but what I'm going to be primarily discussing tonight is our most most recent um Inlet dredging sand trap bypassing project we um we operate under a state approved Inlet management plan and this Inlet management plan um sort of lays out the framework for the management of the inlet from a sediment from a sand standpoint in our area um sand primarily moves from north to south long transport um is uh not not 100% of the time about 80 to 20% of the time sand is moving from north to south so what the inlet management plan uh attempts to do is ensure that our Inlet is not capturing any of that sand and not having a negative impact on the adjacent shorelines and how does it do that by establishing a bypassing goal of 75,000 cubic yards average per year to be dredged from our sand trap and placed on the downd drift Beach so when I say sand trap it's not so much a a thing or a structure as it is a shape it's that rectangular vaguely rectangular shape inside the inlet which is designed and optimized to capture sand coming into the inlet on an annual basis and what we do is every year or pretty much every year 20 uh 19 of the past 23 years so we try to dredge it every year we put out a sealed competitive bid we contract with the dredger to come in and dig that shape down to minus 22 22 feet deep generally speaking and place that material uh suction cutter head dredge so it's a it's a piece of equipment that has a rotating cutter head it suctions the sand off of the bottom pumps that sand water slurry down the beach and is graded into a placement template um this slide sort of shows our timeline for this most recent project but we typically dredge in the spring we're not allowed to do Beach operations or placement during sea turtle nesting season uh there's a little bit more on that later in the presentation one of the most important parts of our project is um communication it's as you guys know it's hard as a governmental agency to get the word out to the public so we WE Post on our website we set these signs up we share this information with all of those municipalities and uh we look to try to uh make sure the public understands the work that's being done uh this slide kind of shows our website and and where those QR codes will take you and then equally important is to make sure that we're maintaining access to the beach and to The Jetty um that that sand and water slurry I was talking about earlier is pumped through this uh 20-in hdp plastic pipe there from the inlet down the beach as you can see in our webcam shot in the lower corner and we require the contractor to install this access ramp over the pipeline to ensure access to the jetty and also in install these sand ramps at every um walkover at every lifeguard and I think every 200 feet down the beach to make sure pedestrians can still access the shoreline and a really important part of the project is H compliance and the most important part of compliance for us is water quality is important but also um see ET Turtle nesting we're really fortunate to have um loggerhead marine life center as a partner um for these projects they begin hourly nighttime monitoring ahead of the project and are performing that throughout you know every night they have to they coordinate with the contractor and clear any section before they can advance and relocate uh as necessary we try to avoid requiring relocation but they are the permit hold ER for relocating sea turtle nests and then post construction this piece of equipment here is a tiller we till the placed material to a depth of 36 in to ensure that it doesn't cement anything like that for sea turtle nesting and it's not a it's not a very glamorous project but here's here's what it looks like on the beach side um that sand and water is pumped through that pipeline onto the beach into an approved placement template and it's graded to pre-specified lines and grades an important thing about our project that's really uh tricky to convey is that like I was saying earlier what we're doing is it looks a lot like beach nourishment but it's not a beach nourishment project per se what we're doing is we're bypassing that sand that makes it into the inlet it helps the longevity of the county and the cores uh Carlin Jupiter Carlin project and it certainly helps to stabilize that uh shorline down drift of it but unlike a beach nourishment project where the the goal is the fill on the beach and the payment is calculated on the beach what we're doing is we're Excavating that sand trap we start at the North End or we start at a location on the beach and they go south until they run out of sand in that trap and another nice thing about our project is our material is always very good it's always very coarse light colored sand because it is active material from the each slope and then here's some there's going to be a lot of a lot of colors coming at you soon but this is sort of meant to show how our process works since um we put it out for sealed competitive bid of course there's a proc you got to put your plans and specs together you got to advertise them review and a and so forth so for the purpose of doing this work in the spring we have to do our initial survey in September so this last year um you'll see we had quite a dramatic year with sand in the inlet in September we measured 50,000 cubic yards in our sand trap um you can see on this image that's two boys to the South and Jupiter Inlet colony to the north east is Road of the inlet is over there this trap always fills from the front to the back you can I'm used to looking at this but you can see that sand wave advancing into the Trap there from the throat of the inlet the back of it is still minus 22 or deeper those blue colors but then from there to construction it was quite a dramatic year where and when we came in to do our preconstruction survey we s that 50,000 cubic yards had nearly tripled we had 139,000 cubic yards in the Trap just a few months later you all may remember there was that sh that had popped up and it was very um dramatic right in the middle of the inlet there and we were coordinating very closely with uh with the Coast Guard and uh the marine enforcement units and we you know mobilized dredge as fast as we could but this is immediately preconstruction and you can see how fast this work goes it's just a few weeks later that sh had been addressed um just like Amanda was talking about earlier our operations once they started 24 hours a day seven days a week until completed this is a a progress survey in the in the middle of it they tend to Jupiter inlet's got a lot of current so they have to face it into that incoming current so they tend to work west to east and a couple passes across the sand trap there and then uh lots of colors here but that was a that's our post construction survey so um this year we moved removed 127,000 cubic 128,000 cubic yards from the trap roughly double our typical year annual basis uh I'm so used to looking at these I can see it you see on the East End that little shape there it's already starting to come back in even as they're even as they're completing and surveying the completed project and um one of the challenges we're facing right now whatever the reason may be we're we're studying that actively right now is an increase in the volumes that we're collecting in our trap and we're seeing annually this plot here the last 20 years and you can see most years we're performing these dredging operations and that trend is is increasing and you see in these last three years dramatically so in 2019 we had 27,000 cubic yards and this last year we had 128,000 so that is something we're working closely with the state on studying and and monitoring and a couple more slides here that um this is from our webcam which is mounted on the ocean Trail building number 400 I'm sure you're all familiar with it it's a it's a great service um the shorelines doing very well I'm I'm sure a lot of you can remember not that long ago where this parking lot had uh what was that the the Thanksgiving storm of 90 something where that parking lot was falling into the ocean you can see this Shoreline is uh Dow drift of the Inlet and is stable and this next one is really hot off the press I just got this a couple days ago and this is a recent survey of another challenge we're facing right now and that is like I said we're seeing a lot of sand coming into the Trap uh maybe I need to explain this you can see there's the inlet and north and south um that orange and yellow colors are what we would call saw the E shol complex that's the bar outside of the inlet a lot of you may already know right now for navigation vessels are having to tuck that South Jetty come down the shoreline and then pop out over by the condos because of that very robust sh there we're also working with the state to look into um incorporating some management strategies having to do with that EOL and uh yeah that was just a couple weeks ago and here is the sand trap also from a couple weeks ago and you can see it's a little more volume than we would typically expect to see this time of year and as we said earlier you see it filling from front to back there and um of note you know the there's the intra Coastal the the actual Federal channel of the inter Coastal there um Bo I feel like I really raced through that but I I'll be glad to take questions well I appreciate the information very informative and just won't extend gratitude for you know it's interesting I never thought of it the way you said it you said this is not uh um you what you described is you really just moving the stuff that goes but significant to be diligently doing that year in and year out um cuz that keeps the Continuum of sand then to be able to migrate further down so uh thank you for the good work and being so diligent about it it's extremely important to the to the region we have uh one of the one of the images in our Board Room is um an aerial from 1945 which was the last time the inlet was closed so you know we know that our this work is important not just for bypassing in shorelines but for you know keeping the inlet open one quick question uh the Shing yeah leaving the the inlet heading east is that um the most significant you've seen it where's it's it's pretty robust yes you know it's it's grown a lot yeah yes I i' lived here my whole life that's the worst I've ever I mean you could on days walk out there it's ankle deep yeah I've never seen that before in my life I've never seen it so shallow I know for years you take you hook you know the s j you hook right head um you have to go a little further now there's one one sh on there it's you got to run to ocean Trail shoot out um I you know I spent the day there a few weeks ago teaching and uh you know we watched at least three or four boats put themselves on that on that troll just unfamiliar with the area you know rental boat or whatever it was and we're just watching them come in and they just run run run and stop and then they got to kind of back themselves off and stuff because it's just low tide you're not getting across that that uh that shoulder so would the Coast Guard ever think of putting day markers there it's um you know I had meant to I had meant to bring this up earlier in my presentation the the Jupiter Inlet is uh what's categorized as a non-navigable Inlet it's not a very uh complimentary term but what it means is there's not a federal Channel established as you'd see at like uh Port Everglades or Lake Worth Inlet um it's very common most inlets in Florida in that category your Sebastian Inlet bokeh Inlet Hillsboro Pointon yeah they would put a safe water buoy out half a mile out or so correct if it was Federal oh yeah oh yeah they'll have SE buoys and it'll be well marked and they'll be dredged to minus 36 for the whole channel so we're in that other category where safe passage requires local knowledge um it's a very tricky thing in 20 2020 yeah when we had that the first occurrence of that sh popping up in the middle of the inlet it's a a very complicated question that we coordinate really closely with the coast guard on the question of what is what is um more hazardous having the sh in that location or or placing markers which can you know cause um could be hazardous in and of themselves right right yeah hello okay um just one quick question the in terms of management for this I mean your scope seems narrow it's focused on the sand trap in the inlet is that correct so how what management options are available you mean um in regards to well there's you know it's easy to think it's just the sand trap but the Jetties are part of the system and they've been mod ified multiple times through the decades um most recently that South Jetty was extended in 97 with that recurve as a as a function to Anchor that Shoreline and sort of prevent the northern migration of sand back into it there's no current plans to modify the Jetties themselves um but that's actually what we're working through with the state right now is um trying to see what uh strategies could also be added into the inlet management plan to allow for other management options thank you yeah um yes thank you for the presentation it's very useful very helpful thank you um I've got very similar concerns that my fellow counselors do that scholing I've I've had a master of vessel uh commercial captain's license for 37 years here it is the worst it's ever been in 37 years and it's uh you described the the need for captains to go out the inlet and tuck in and run south problem that is of course is you run the risk of broaching a vessel as soon as you turn against the waves so it's a it's a critical safety issue it's not just an inconvenience we're going to have probably a loss of life before long um Karen you described boats running the ground we've seen it too flat out flying along stops that's in itself dangerous but what happens next can be really dangerous any kind of following Seas or breaking Seas on a boat can roll a boat we've had fatalities in the inlet before this is a a dangerous Inlet and I you described some type of markers that might be more problematic than beneficial did you explain that a little bit more why we should not put markers out there yeah that was more specifically related are you worried it might attract people that will think that it's a no that situation was when we had that sh and I don't have a pointer but the mid mid Channel inside here and the idea that that was crazy yeah that was a weird strange thing that nobody but what do you think about putting markers on the sh out the inlet it's it's um it's something we're looking into it's very complicated it would be it wouldn't be our decision we'd have to coordinate that with the Coast Guard and that sh though it looks static moves a lot it's actually we calculate that it's transporting 180,000 cubic yards a year across it so it's it's forever moving but it is uh I agree it's a hazard and uh marking is something that we're looking into I would urge you to to prioritize that please the very potentially fatal problem it's it's a it's a hazardous Inlet thank you very much again if you mark an inlet like that I used to boat out of chatt in Massachusetts and they had a similar situation and the Coast Guard were daily mov the day markers and they had it was a aluminum ball with a with a stick with a radar reflector on it we'd go tuna fishing come in at 3 in the morning and you're waiting to find the channel on your radar it's gone it's it's a quarter mile to the South they you like you got to get back out and it's foggy it was so that's a daily maintenance issue so it's it's really tricky you know doable but Coast Guard would have to put some resources into that so Joe I just want to thank you so much for coming today I think I think I had warned you that if your presentations get too interesting we might have you up here um to speak for our voters and the community that really value the inlet and the work you do is important the partnership you have with our town we value um it's wonderful to get to learn more about your organization the work that you do I think the visuals are really engaging so thank you for bringing them and thank you again yeah thank you thank you Joe I think too I don't know if it's possible I'll get with staff and stuff but maybe we can put together some sort of uh using our our uh Team here we can maybe get a social media PSA together with a video or something like that showcasing you know the danger the danger of that show on the outside of the inlet and probably get something out there um I'll be more than happy to help help do that yeah and and I forgot to mention also that survey that we just got I think it was we be posting that okay on our website trying to link to it wherever we can great and we'll make sure I'll make sure uh staff knows that maybe we can share it from the town's social media page as well thank you okay moving on to Citizen comments uh this is a time for non-agenda items limited to 3 minutes uh a citizen and anyone wishing to speak is asked to State his or her name and address for the record prior prior to addressing the Town Council we generally won't be discussing those items this evening but any issues are referred to staff will follow up uh do we have any citizen comments yes we have two first lean Lebec and then constant Hol good evening my name is Leanne laak I live at 17710 Carver Avenue um I just wanted to request and um remind the Council of the promise for squz fire station to be good neighbors to those on Carver Avenue in the surrounding area and I want to make sure that any future plans uh include noise abatement measures for the residents there um as well as any steps we can do to protect the property value we already have several people selling their homes after uh the decision was made to put the fire station there and unfortunately they're having trouble especially now that it's visible to anyone who comes to visit that there's going to be a fire station in the park uh so it's a big concern for me and for my family because it will will affect our ability to move out of the neighborhood if we have to if the noise becomes an issue and um having noise abatement measures I believe will help protect the quality of life for the citizens who are there in the meantime um thanks hense Holmes I'm not used to speaking so I've got my sheets all lined up uh good evening my my name is constant Holmes and I'm a resident of the neighborhood of Pine Garden South located on uh 2053 Street I've come to speak to you on behalf of the children that I serve in a soccer program organized by the American Youth Soccer Organization I operate a region here in Jupiter called region 1639 we use the Jupiter Elementary School field since 2015 with the cooperation of the Jupiter Elementary School principles Jupiter's youth have been able to run to the school's field through an open gate and receive a recreational soccer program so we're serving the children primarily who attend Jupiter Elementary our beloved Jupiter Elementary Title One school and we'd like to continue doing that um our players often come from families without the monetary or Leisure Time resources to participate in other area soccer programs I'm asking you to please help us to continue helping them please refer to the demographic information that you will find behind an email from Dr Clement have they receive them Miss kahill oh here it comes are you going to pass it out yes I later or now yes later oh later oh excuse me then I'll tell you all about it uh Dr Clement is with the school district and he's a research analyst for um for the district and there's a gold report and he pulled together some demographic information on our community in Jupiter elementary school last year the 2024 Jupiter Elementary student body uh consisted of 70% no 79.4% Hispanic children do you know how close that is to 80% meaning that eight out of every 10 children walking down the house followed Halls of Jupiter Elementary are Hispanic oh another interesting statistic that Dr Clement had was we have 9800 students in our Jupiter Public Schools 33% of them are Hispanic meaning that one out of every three school-aged youth in Jupiter are Hispanic I mentioned that to you because I'm I'm an advocate of underserved children I like to provide opportunities to all of Jupiter's Youth and so I've chosen to to go after that particular Community plus they're my neighbors in Pine Garden South in 2015 Jupiter's Elementary principal was Dan Smith I asked Mr Smith to let me tell him about our soccer program I sat down and gave him what our intentions were and what we were able to do for the children he had no hesitation to request the town to put our AYSO program on an Ila Hot Topic now I know Mr Smith agreed to unlock the gate if I would agree to keep his program affordable for the families who would participate we created an accessible and affordable program further we agreed that I would provide the families of my participants with information on the town's Recreation programs which I have done and will continue to do so on a spit and a handshake this program was born in 2015 I know from personal experience this program has served many of Jupiter's youth whose families do not have the monetary Andor Leisure Time resources for their children to participate in Jupiter's wonderful youth programs this year AYSO 1639 will be charging each participant $20 for the school year that $20 will cover the insurance requirement and then I will request a $5 donation from each player each time they come to the field this fee schedule provides a manageable cost for the families we serve and it provides a field of opportunity for more of Jupiter's youth the location of the Jupiter Elementary School field is Central to our success in serving these children we are accessible and affordable there is not one outside I want to speak on defense of the principles now there is not one outside program that would be allowed to step on any school field without the principal blessing counselors please provide our principles with the opportunity to unlock the gates at their schools which lead Jupiter Jupiter youth to a better quality of life I came here this evening to request that you are Town leaders upon whom Jupiter residents rely to make sound decisions that will improve the quality of life for all residents and particularly tonight to address our Jupiter youth please go the extra mile with the school district and renew our ilas show our youth the benefits of cooperation these ilas provide so much more than just Recreation among its many benefits Recreation provides a person uh provides a person to reduce their stress excuse me develop self-esteem and Leadership qualities and improve their overall mental health and fitness now is your opportunity to make a decision to cooperate with the school district and together you will improve the quality of life for more Jupiter's youth choose Jupiter's youth sign the interlocal agreements I have every confidence in you that you will make a decision which will better serve Jupiter's youth thank you for this opportunity thank you the town was the one that initiated Ila agreements to make Fields available um so we're we'll certainly follow up on that item but I can assure you that town was the one most of us can remember I can't as a child we would hop over the fence at the elementary school we playing the ball Fields back then no one ran you off but uh but we we have pursued the ilas before and we'll uh we'll get on whatever the holdup is okay um with that Council we have before us the minutes of the July 16th Town council meeting with a small correct Amendment on the Das if there's no other Corrections I'd take a motion in a second motion to approve is amended second Motion in second all in favor signify by saying I I motion carries unanimously okay moving on to the consent agenda this is items 6 through 13 is there any members of the public that wish to pull a consent agenda item no mayor any member on the dis no seeing none I'll take a motion in a second of to approve the uh consent agenda Mo to approve consent agenda second Motion in the second all in favor signify by saying I I I motion carries unanimously okay moving on to the uh regular agenda um we have one item u under public business resolution 10024 and I'll uh turn it over to staff okay good evening mayor uh council members Scott Reynolds I'm the uh Finance director for the town of Jupiter um before we start this evening I just wanted to quickly introduce a couple of members that have uh this evening uh that was part of the team uh in relation to the commercial paper issuance uh we have Nick Roka with our uh pfm which is our financial adviser for the town and also Bill Capco uh which is the uh Town's Bond Council which uh most of you all may already know bill so the town is currently in the process of completing the engineering and design stage of two fire stations um the stations will be approximately 14,000 square ft uh estimated a cost anywhere between $8 and $10 million a piece um the town will be bringing back uh uh our staff will be bringing back to the Town Council a design Bill contract uh for consideration of a ward um most likely at the next uh Town council meeting um in addition to Station cost uh if we uh proceed forward with the commercial paper Loan program uh it can help pay for furniture and fixtures uh that can go into the building along with other Capital uh type items or for the implementation of the fire department uh what we're seeking this evening is a uh authorization to Pro proceed forward with resolution -24 uh for the interum uh financing through the uh commercial paper program uh that's a short-term bridge loan financing tool it's being proposed for the financing cost uh anticipated the council's original decision to proceed forward with the uh the fire department one of the things that's occurring today uh in relation to interest rates we're all very aware of it uh interest rates have been uh increasing over the last couple years uh based on what the FED has been doing to try to curtail uh inflation uh that's starting to come down we've all been uh we've talked about that in our budget hearings we've been seeing that over time that inflation is indeed coming down uh rates are expected to decline over the next few years uh if you've been watching the news especially here recently uh they've been talking about uh reducing the rates going forward uh we are anticipating that over the next 18 to 20 months uh those rates are going to decline uh there is a program uh through the Florida local government Finance commission's uh commercial paper pulled Loan program that allows the town to draw funds over time and only pay interest on a portion of the funds that are used similar to a short-term line of credit or a HELOC uh which is more of a residential type tool um due to the town's cash position and exceptional credit uh the town has been approved through that program to be able to borrow up to uh $50 million obviously we do not need that amount of money uh but because of our excellent credit uh the uh cash that we have available uh we have that ability but uh while we asked for is up to $20 million uh for the two construction of the two stations uh we only will draw what we actually need as we go through construction over the uh uh 18 to 20 months uh and at the end of that uh hopefully the interest rates have come down uh to a more what we would consider to be an acceptable level uh at that point we will do a longterm de debt issuance uh at a cheaper interest rate for a for a longer term so what are we looking at as far as the interest rates uh for the commercial paper issuance uh right now when we did these analysis we were basing on the uh May 2024 uh interest reset rate of 3.77% uh I will tell you I looked today uh to see what that rate is and it's already went down to 3.64 so uh the rate is declining but with that uh there's additional uh charges that are included uh but because of the uh Town's exceptional credit again uh We've uh received a reduction on our letter of credit as for a total of 63% for a total of 4.4% on the interest rate for the uh for the borrowing of whatever the town borrows and that's a monthly reset rate by the way and those rates are uh could change month-to month uh we are watching it but we are anticipating that those rates are going to continue to decline over time just like the Fed rate so other issuance costs uh full disclosure uh with the program uh there's a $2,000 per million doll draw uh with a lifetime maximum of $440,000 so if the town were to draw 20 million we would pay the full $440,000 uh also there's Bond Council fees that would be included with the issuances uh and of course the finan cial advisor we're paying them to also assist us uh we currently have those funds budgeted in in the fire department uh so those are no additional costs above what we already have available there will be a contingency amount uh that we have to fund uh the funding is is at14 58% of the draw amount of what we've drawn and for example if we were to draw the full $20 million that'd be $28,500 uh the contingency account has set up for fluctuations in the interest uh to be able to help uh offset some of those costs uh but at the end of the program when we're complete uh those funds will be return back to the town so we we've perform some analysis to see what the cost would be um based on a hypothetical draw um as you can see here what we've worked up is every other month that we would draw uh $1.6 million just over $1.6 million over the term uh just to come up with a hypothetical for $20 million to see what that cost would be it's just over a million dollars over that term of what it would cost at the 4.4 now we've kept that uh that interest rate static for illustration purposes but as you can see the the rates are actually going down another thing I want to kind of point out here when we talk about the $20 million um when we first started this back a couple years ago looking at the uh the the cost of the fire department we were estimating over $40 million but that included the cost of purchase of land we obviously now know that that's uh not a requirement for the construction of the of the stations but uh one thing to consider also is that uh we can utilize other funds to offset the uh borrowing uh that we may have to do such as the infrastructure Sur tax money we currently have $6.5 million available uh if the council so wishes to be able to offset some of those costs of the $20 million so that's also available so how does that compare if we were to uh do the hypothetical where we pull the full $20 million compared to taking out a bank loan today because that is the point we're trying to save money uh based on on an issuance that would be done later in time uh we're projecting that the uh savings would be 7 $175,000 uh over the life of that uh term we are projecting a a 15-year uh issuance I I know uh councelor Delaney you've asked what what we feel the term would be on that right now we feel a possibly a 15-year issuance uh maybe in store at the future so with that I just wanted to ask if you have any other questions any questions um I do excellent work again um a lot of stuff we've seen before thank you for for circling back on it um the one question I have you said it's going to be a monthly uh possibility for rate change is there a monthly cap on how much that rate can change and is there a life cap on it uh no I don't believe there is a cap yeah I don't believe so but the trend right now is the rates are going to go down we're seeing it happening with the feds um so the rates are currently going down but again it's only based on what we draw right okay thank you I was just going to ask this would be obviously the bond would be paid back using Debt Service on your tax bill it it it would be part of the uh the overall operating cost of the fire department it won't be a separate debt line item on a person's tax bill gotcha okay thank you just um I want to just say a few words and then bring up one item uh for I think we you suggested we talk about number one you know I I'm grateful for the financial guidance you know and this now this proposal to go with the pool commercial paper Loan program want to stay on the record in my opinion the town's been well served by our finance professionals and Consultants that keep bringing this prudent uh recommendations to us so I think in light of where we are right now um basically we're going to be Bond free with the general fund correct if they not already so this year correct um and what this does is just enables us to use this for a period of time expecting that just like betting on if you were to buy a house and get a mortgage now I think we all would expect it should go down so it seems like it's prudent based on what I think what most of us believe so thank you for offering that as as opposed to just going with a bond it's it'll be higher um and just just to point out real quick mayor um when we talked about the comparisons uh we did make some assumptions because if you were to go out and You' borrow the money up front of obviously you're not going to spend it all at one time uh and you're going to accumulate some interest so to be fair we we we put those interest earnings in there uh to make that direct comparison to see if that offsets some of that savings and still we're we're looking at well over $700,000 in savings right so you know I um just kind of get the dialogue going here um I certainly support uh the resolution and the idea of it that it is authorizing a not to exceed amount of $20 million um but I also want to M uh a voice uh that and I've said this in a number of occasions but the council hasn't taken action yet we could deny it or we could defer but with regard to the remaining ctax funds I know you and I have talked about that before um and I have a little bit of a change position after having gone through the CIP but I do think it's appropriate for us to consider whether it be or uh doing the budget conversations uh selecting what we want to use the remainder remainder of C tax funds for and uh I do think there's some Logic on number one I see in the package that we we've gotten and we'll we'll hear about uh next week that um we've got a new Public Work we've got an increased scope for new Public's Works building that's about a million or whatever I think that portion is a logical ctax use and uh we can talk about that further but then I would propose that the remainder would be used for one of the fire stations so we've then would have made a policy determination on you know the funding and you know in lie of that and that uh by assigning it to the Public's work new building we're using less having to rely Less on General revenues correct and then uh what this would do would enable uh us to be drawing Less on uh this commercial pool paper account um so I think that's a prudent but I want to kind of open it up to my colleagues uh I think the agenda is to at least decide upon the resolution and the amount and guess you've heard my position but the cerx we can either act on tonight or can postpone but uh with that I'll just kind of move down the line this way and then cross vice mayor so I am in support of the resolution and this would be available to us we could draw on it as we need it so as we need it right and the term is pretty short this is short term this is 18 months so um there is this fluctuation month to month but over the over the term we're dealing with a very short time period um with regards to ctax I think this would be an appropriate use of ctax dollars these are onetime capital cost dollars we have used um these for Public Safety before uh with the PD data center we've used it with the town hall if we look at our projects um I think it makes a lot of sense I also I think it's a good idea to look at it in terms of the budget and CIP but um you know in terms of percentage we can have more discussion there but I do think that this would be an appropriate use we also have the audit committee which reviews all of our CeX dollars and provides oversight so I do think it's appropriate you know I am open to discussion on that and and that's it um no I'm I'm good with the ctax utilizing some cerx money I'd like to know I guess a little bit more your recommendation about how much s tax you think we should put towards this versus keeping some aside for the Public Works building uh Renovations and things that you know we're looking to do um and another thing that I thought of and chief I know he's going to catch up by surprise but um one thing I'm big on is water safety especially with PD um I know that the boats that we currently have for PD are you know one's a little older I'd like to see us kind of expand that Fleet under know we've added officers to the you know program so I'd like to kind of look at uh an additional vessel for PD that we could use sir tax money towards so I'd like to you know kind of see what those look like and then how much money sir taxwise we could put towards fire tax the SE tax is is more for the capital meaning a building yeah uh but if you were to take in like the mayor is suggesting uh towards say the Public Works building where you're freeing up General revenues yeah uh to be able to come back for other it items if you if you so wish yeah so but I'm I'm like I said I'm good with using utilizing C tax money towards it I just I guess I like no more information as to how much you recommend we we put towards we would have to come back with a resolution anyways okay for the council's consideration okay great so can the SE tax money be used for vessels it would have to be used more for buildings buildings right okay um yeah I'm I approve the res of the resolution and I'm open to discussion of the sir tax money for the um um uh for the stations or the um the Public's work building and just to note The public's work building has been needed for years and I mean it's not necessarily tied to fire um maybe it'll be larger because of fire but it's been long overdue so um but I've been definitely willing to discuss you know options for appropriating the money from both cases counselor I'm going to second that after visiting the uh maintenance facility it is in dire need of repairs in terms of timeline that I think should be a priority I agree with both those comments it is in a very sad state of disrepair and it's a necessary structure so it is something we need to look at I'm fully for the resolution that's one of the easier resolutions we faced in this fire department build up um you saved us money you looked underneath another rock and saved us a lot of money and I I appreciate that thank you um as far as the surtax goes I agree at least in part I'd like to see some proposals for that um maybe not 100% of it but possibly but I would like to see your proposals I'm certainly open to suggestions but I'd suggest uh it's clear we have we're unanimous on the resolution as presented and I would ask that uh you come you propose doing specifics doing you know the workshop sure upcoming about uh desert tax uses so you could have the numbers before us we presenting that just again just to emphasize what I was suggesting on the um you know that Public Works facility we really had a project that was that existed last year that's already been somewhat funded it's really the expansion when I was looking at the budget um you know going from the scope last year to this year appeared to me that there's a new building that's supplemental well then that new building is a nice clean defined scope that would be what I was just suggesting as you know the nice CU she was saying the ctax uh uses have to be a clean project right yes and that's that incremental building if you will and then which doesn't consume quite frankly much of the remainder of the balance but between those two suggest that we ear mark it but if you'll come back on that sure I'll be prepared at the workshop next week uh we can talk about that okay uh Council uh we mayor we have a public comment for this item lean Le back hey I just wanted to make sure that addressed any uh potential risk in the numbers that were provided um one of the things mentioned was uh in regards to the rates from the Federal Reserve which have not yet dropped they are still um not dropped uh even though inflation is decreasing the FED has decided to keep the rates steady for the current term um and uh Powell has made comments that while there could be a drop in September um there's a potential for zero drops throughout 2024 um I'm not as familiar with the rates of the Florida local government Finance commission and what variability there is but given The Upfront origination costs I want to make sure um and given the 18-month term I want to make sure that we are financially covered for converting to a loan at that time and uh make sure that we're addressing any risks of upfront cost that may not create a payout in the end uh if the rates remain not dropping like most analysts had originally thought that they would and um the the rates in the uh diagram listed they were pulled from I think April or May uh those curves are no longer really uh valid the rates are higher still because the anticipated drops hadn't happened yet but I think overall the CP will still provide a potential savings especially if our rate for the CP is lower than what we're seeing in so far and things like that so but the other risks I'm concerned about okay uh I'll look for a motion in a second on resolution 10-24 motion to approve resoltion 124 second have a motion in a second all in favor signify by saying I I okay motion carries unanimously okay moving on to reports uh first town attorney thank you mayor um just one update um regarding the lawsuit the town is engaged in against the political action committee I'll just refer to it as the pack for purposes of my report um as you may recall um there's a summary judgment hearing coming up next week on Friday um both sides have filed uh a motion uh responses to those motions were just recently filed um in response to the town's response to the motion uh the pack has recently filed a motion for leave to amend the petition that started um the the whole litigation um essentially trying to amend the petition to address a lot of was brought up in the town's response um there's some some serious deficiencies in the petition that the uh pack is trying to address and in order to do that it needs leave of of the court to do so um more specifically there's three issues um that the pack is trying to address in this amended petition the first being when the when the pack sent out the petitions for the signature and the referendum uh there was two versions of the language and one of the versions got roughly a 100 signatures Which is far below the threshold required for a referendum the other got substantially above that um however when the pack filed the petition the language it submitted into the petition which is what it's asking the court to force the uh secret uh to force onto the referendum uh that language was the one that did not get enough signatures that was pointed out in our response so the uh the pack is now trying to amend the petition to include the correct language that got the sufficient level of signatures second um procedurally the town never had an opportunity to respond to the petition for RIT um meaning the motion for summary was premature that the town should have had an opportunity to respond uh we've pointed that out as well and the T and the pack is requesting that the court if it grants this amendment order the town to then respond uh to the petition something that hasn't happened thus far and finally uh the pack is trying to add the supervisor of elections as a party to the lawsuit um because in our response we pointed out that even if the court ordered the town to submit the referendum uh the secretary Secretary of Elections has stated that it will not be going on a November ballot um and that it doesn't have any jurisdiction over the Secretary of Elections so the pack is now trying to add uh a new party at this late juncture um to the lawsuit uh and and I bring this up because as I said the summary judgment hearings are next Friday um it's unclear at this point if the pack is going to try and postpone that hearing um it hasn't been raised to us as of yet um there's likelihood of getting a hearing before next Friday is next to zero so we'll see if there's an argument raised at the hearing to try and push off the deadlines um which again is it's something the pack has been trying to expedite because they've been trying to get this language um placed on the ballot in November so um it's it's a bit of an ironic stance giving the expedited nature they've been trying to take and now uh given this uh late request for an amendment it would certainly delay things um how much it's unknown we'll see what the court does we'll see what the pack decides to do strategically um the town's going to oppose it obviously we're planning on going forward with the Motions for summary judgment that are set for for Friday of next week that's been set for quite some time and um that's the only update and we will obviously provide an update when we have have an additional one thank you uh Town manager thank you mayor um last week the town was informed by the F inspector that the quiet Zone application we submitted was suspended notice came less than 48 hours before the quiet zones were to go into effect although the town worked with the F inspector throughout the process of establishing quiet zones the scope of what the inspector is now requiring to establish the quiet zones was beyond what was originally communicated to the town staff met with the F inspector throughout the process who did not identify any major issues that would prevent the F from approving the quiet zones it is noticed the inspector identified some deficiencies in a very vague manner a week later we finally received a 66 page report listing what needs to be addressed staff has going through the report to determine which regulatory agency including the town the Florida Department of Transportation the Florida East Coast Railway and Palm Beach County as jurisdiction of the elements identified in the audit an initial review of the audit identified that a large number of the elements are outside of the control of the town of Jupiter upon completion of the full review the town will work with the responsible agencies to have each element rectified and I will update you on the plan to move forward as we navigate these challenges I just wanted to update you on that um tomorrow morning the town will be celebrating the ribbon cutting on two on our crosswalk um cutting the Dakota drive and lockah Hatchy drive crosswalks with the ceremony at the new crosswalk located at Lighthouse Elementary these two crosswalks are the first of 12 that will be improved across towns in the months ahead the ceremon is going to begin at 9:00 a.m. and the town has invited students and staff from Lighthouse Elementary to take part in the ceremony for participating that we'll hopefully get some students to be able to cut the ribbon for the new crosswalk as we promote that the whole safety issue there I'd like to thank Thomas Hernandez and the and the team for pushing ahead so diligently to get these done also this Saturday at 9:00 a.m. the town's going to have another ribbon cutting ceremony and our newest Park East view uh Mana Park we're excited to add this neighborhood park our list of amenities for the residents of Jupiter parking for the ribbon cutting Ceremony be available 775 West Indian Town Road and we have a short shuttle to short shuttle to transport those attending to the park beginning at 8:30 a.m. and uh or um those attending can make the short two block walk to the new park which is located the corner of East Apex Circle and East Whitney drive and this park has shade and uh and so we heard that very loud and clear from our residents and so hopefully uh I've had an opportunity to see the park it looks amazing and I hopefully uh the residents will appreciate the shade features uh there as well and uh and then I want to take an opportunity to again congratulate the utilities department uh I think uh our director Amanda Barnes did a phenomenal job of explaining all the complexities Associated uh with the challenges that a utility staff Works through on a daily basis and uh and they're really doing a great job they're winning so many awards as you guys know they probably have to use some of that surch tax funds to build a new building to put all the trophies in um but they are they're doing a remarkable job really proud of them and uh and then also I want to take an opportunity to congratulate Sergeant Mike lillienfeld uh of the town of Jupiter Police Department for 25 years of service I've had the opportunity to work closely with the sergeant he does a great job great asset to the town and um and we're lucky to have him so congratulations on 25 years and there that's my report just one item in event you wanted to respond um that uh I'm interested and I would expect most on the council may be interested in getting a copy of the 66 page summary punch list um and I'm going to be careful not to find fault with anybody here but it's kind of disappointing that seemed like an awful long scope um that you know even if we weren't doing the quiet Zone I just want to kind of have seen that so I can learn from it um because I know I've been contacted by other jurisdictions looking at us and then following in our footsteps so we all really need to learn um what's in the 66 page punch list so if you would share that I'd appreciate it we see send that up tomorrow mayor okay um moving on to council uh councelor 4 I was I was shocked when I heard the 66 page number myself and and also asked for a copy as soon as possible for for learning curve but also to see if it's some type of retaliatory move on their part against us it just seems odd that everything was good between us for so much of the the pre-marriage and then boom right right at the threshold we get kicked so there seems something slightly a Miss I don't understand why they would that that professional's been concerned about Public Safety I mean just the long-standing record so I'm just going to assume that maybe we should have seen this sooner but it may be valid but let's see it and get on with it I'll Reserve judgment till I see it exactly right and I I as you as a professional engineer very very concerned with safety so that that does come first but this isn't something new um these we're way down the line in municipalities that have accomplished this so I would have thought that some of these uh suggestions would have been given to us by that um entity disappointing I think but we'll find out as we look into it um I want to give congratulations to the 25 years for the sergeant as well that's excellent and a huge shout out to Amanda and her Department as well I brought this up at a prior council meeting I've been here um 37 years now scores of hurricanes not once has my water been turned off because of hurricane not one time only time I've ever had any problems with water was an occasional boil order but I've always had water I I laugh at people at the Public's hoarding water never once needed any of the water we hoarded all those years that always is on it's a fantastic thing not to mention it's excellent tasting water and nobody really brags on any other utilities but we get to brag on our our water department which is kind of fun it's very nice um I I I like your style of giving us the bad news first and then giving us keep that up give us the bad news first um that's one of the the skills that you exhibit and one of the things I would like to bring up is our uh review the town manager and where we going to discuss that tonight we were but I was going to do that at the end just go through the every other item and then we'll I just didn't want to miss my opportunity um that's basically all I have I think it's great that we're having these ribbon cutting ceremonies on the U crosswalks excellent very good and we're getting our Parks fixed there's so much positive stuff going on in the town right now it's really really good thank you good job it's funny you mentioned that I had a meeting with Town manager the other day asked if we is Jupiter always sustainable during Hurricane event for water supply and I think you said it's never gone down so um and I I've been here almost 20 years and it's always been available so and congratulations to amander and the staff um another you know welld deserved award and thanks to our uh finance department um Scott and Don everybody involved and I saw Bill cap go here earlier and thanks again to him for everything everybody's done that's it vice mayor I just want to quickly reiterate how important water is to our community and the water utility um it is public health it is Public Safety it is quality of life it is also quality of environment so the more we can do to help them become you know and they already are they're excellent they're a part of the culture you don't live here long before you learn how incredible our water utility is and how great the water tastes um so I'm really just pleased to see see this continued progress and you could see her team as Amanda was speaking just how unified they are how cohesive they are they really are a team they're really close um it's really good to see that um regarding the quiet zones I agree I share um the frustration with this and I would like to see the 66 page report you know I'm curious too because we have quiet zones to our South you know if there's learning in in that process if the standard is being raised if it's kept the same I'd be curious to understand that a little bit so um thank you for sharing that with us um regarding good news and ribbon cuttings thank you so so much Town manager and town staff for sharing more good news um I learned recently that you know the town would finish a project and then move on to the next project and the community wouldn't necessarily know it was built or completed it' be what moved on to the next so I really appreciate the ribbon cuttings and the social media because it lets the entire Community know what resources are being made available what progress is being made available share some good news so thank you for that um and with the playgrounds you know I do just want to say because we had talked about the shuttle and things like that this is a neighborhood playground the way that Abacoa has neighborhood playgrounds daily park you know a neighborhood playground and so I would um just ask you know because we're sharing more on social media about Playgrounds I'm very excited we all are about what we're doing Recreation but maybe to share a Global Perspective just because as we share playground by playground people may not be able to piece that together and what we are doing and I know when we talk about the CIP coming up we're going to talk about the schedule for all of The Replacements discussion around a flagship playground a larger playground that we can really focus on but to kind of understand each playground or each investment in context in Greater context so I think that could be really helpful um but overall I think it's been great to get more comments thank you for the survey um to parents and to community members you know asking what features they'd like to see um on future playgrounds and it's just wonderful um the last thing I want to share is that I had the opportunity to go to a k9 care event um with WD Shaw uh recently and it was it was everything I wanted to see you know we saw Recreation jpd and um jfrd Under One Roof and helping residents sharing experience being interactive um it was wonderful so thank you for inviting me to that and I'll leave it with that thank you count vice mayor if I could there's another one of those events tomorrow tomorrow at 4:30 tomorrow at 4:30 okay thank you coun may um same sentiments for the water department uh very important what you guys do and I I get to see it from a a little bit different level than you guys do is um the fire hydrants in this town have the best pressure out of like anywhere so you never have to worry about uh you know how much how many gallons per minute you're getting out of a fire you know if you grab a fire hydrant in the town of Jupiter you're getting you know 12 13,400 gallons per minute out of them so it's pretty pretty impressive there so um and just real quick I just wanted to kind of give some information that I received about Dolphin Drive I know everyone's kind of wanted to look at that um and it interesting to see what uh staff kind of looked at and came up with as far as um a solution and one of the solutions they gave was not necessarily to just widen the road all together together cuz that would require taking a lot of uh footage from Mostly The Neighbors on the west side of dolphin drive's front yard and I don't think any of them were really interested in losing their front yards um one of the things that was kind of brought up was adding um like a valley curb kind of thing which is about I think about 4 feet 2 feet on each side um but when I looked over the list there's a a Litany of cons as opposed to the uh Pros to this um and one of the biggest things was cost um we're already facing a you know $540,000 deficit in the budget from this um just because of material cost and things like that doing that would add another $568,000 uh to that so you're looking at you know over a million dollars in uh project cost to do something like this um and just you know as much as I would like to see a road wiing and stuff like that I just you know I haven't seen I haven't had enough residents really from that street come at me and say wide my road so you know I I appreciate the information that staff got um but right now I'm not really I'm just saying on record I'm not really interested in adding that into our CIP budget uh for this year um until I can you know further get some more information from the residents of that road uh you know if if this is something that they truly want to see because the other thing too is if we did add this it would push the project back a year so I know they're trying to get this done it's been an ongoing thing so um I didn't want to delay it any further and incur the the additional cost that was going to be needed for that so I just wanted to provide that update um for my report that's all I have okay um so moving on to the uh plan topic um you know we had we we're required per contract with the town manager uh to provide a performance evaluation uh for oneyear periods which end May 31st each year uh and then as a result of that evaluation it's incumbent upon us to decide you know if there's any comp the appropriate compensation rewards uh uh to provide um so this we're now in year two of doing this um and we've have discussed it in Prior meetings um and I trust that each one of us have done a performance evaluation and actually gotten with the town manager um to discuss same with him I do think in respect for people that's the appropriate place to do it one on-one um so unless somebody feels compelled to make any further remarks about that for the tonight and you're welcome to if you want um really this topic that I had asked you know a few meetings back to be prepared to discuss is to having done this individually uh the performance evaluation to decide upon the compensation rewards uh we this is our second year doing it we discussed last week last year um two components potentially base pay increase which would be retroactive to June 1 I just want to make that clear per the contract and then number two would be if we wanted to do one-time performance a one-time you know performance bonus we had discussion last year which uh we weren't prepared to reach a final number uh but it was discussed um and uh we were kind of close to agreeing to that so it's up to the council whether or not um we consider what kind of was unfinished business from last year or not but you know with that I'll open it up um to the council I can go but U just a we just go down the line and uh you know kind of suggest what you think an appropriate compensation adjustment would be and then we see if there's some um I imagine we each have our own numbers so we then see if there's some you know consensus that may emerge uh that makes this quicker we have further dialogue about it so uh let me start with can I start with you uh counselor um sure um I think last year we um well I'll just start off by saying that our the town manager has um I know we're looking at this past fiscal year but since he came on board in my opinion he's gone above and beyond exceeded All my expectations so um this you know as soon as he came in you know there was there was a a Litany of I don't know on the whiteboard in his office of probably 100 tasks um got through most of them next year added you know loaded up again plowing through them he's just um he's diligent he's he's there every day he's I know I call him he stays late he he puts everything into the job so um he saved you know you know he he really sought after and suggested to us let's take a look at you know with the whole you know the fight the fire department situation of Is it feasible for us to do it let's look at it we did um and that's going to save us millions of dollars over the next 10 years so I think um just his diligence on that and just coming up with innovative ideas um he's also in he has a new software program in the in his in his office and it's it's it's data gathering for just efficiency uh with the staff projects updates communication um it's just um it's just really streamlined the whole whole town manager um system up there so um [Music] I'm I'm open to discussion on you know increase in base salary I know last year we we talked about a $10,000 bonus I was in favor of that um it sort of fell flat but I would still be at that 10,000 bonus range and I I'd like to hear what anybody else thinks about it did you uh I'm sorry just I'm trying to take notes as we go down did you propose a base pay increase I think we had in the budget generally for all staff totality was 5% was 5% this year yeah right I I would say at least 5% so um this was my first time reviewing Frank and I have to uh say in the the 12 months I've been involved I've been very very impressed from an outsider prior to that time it seemed that the uh Town prior Town manager had uh created some friction that took a lot of work to recover from and I believe uh Frank's done an amazing job of recovering we've seen example after example of how various teams within the town staff have excelled and been recognized uh not just within the county or the state but nationally he's he's developed a morale within the staff that appears second to none and the benefit to the town of that is enormous um awards are nice but these awards are given because of the outstanding job the individuals and the teams are doing and coming from a small business owner in my mind uh the leadership at the top has a great deal to do with how all these things come to be so I'm extremely happy with how he manages the staff um you called it a whiteboard I I look at as a warboard the items he has on there it's just an amazing list of things he has to keep track of and that was exploded by the introduction of a a fire department which he leaped right on no complaints he's physically conservative he reaches out to all of us when something happens in the town that might have a little bit of uh social issue to it immediately calls us or texts us or emails us hey this happens this is what we're doing about it very proactive um he very transparent he he he tells his staff what he needs what he wants what his expectations are he demands high performance but he gets it because of the morale I think it's a a speed of core it's a lawn and that's something that's almost uh hard to put a monetary value on I'm very much interested in a in a base pay raise I'm thinking something more like 7 and a half% um we're talking about for all uh employees we're talking about I think 3% we were talking about earlier in the prior meetings three to five so five is what we have in the budget five right now so I think he's done Way Beyond an average job um I'm not saying that the other staff are just doing average jobs but the leader has really created a difference he's he's above and beyond I've found him exceeding expectations and all the categories that I rated him on and I'd very much be willing to entertain a 7even and half% base pay so I just want to say um I last year I had spoken um I was in favor of something like 7,500 I'm now in favor of 10,000 uh we we weren't able to come to consensus last year and every other employee received um the inflation subsidy Our Town manager did not despite all of the work he's done so we're now a year further ahead um you know with inflation what it is so I mean at least that you know so that is something I support I did provide a written evaluation of our town manager and just a list a couple of these accomplishments I mean the town hall building on time and on budget um you know our our decision on fire was in part because of our faith in our executive to execute on that decision and so that's an incredible um to put that faith in and to see it come to fruition and then to see him hire the talent that we're seeing now in Jupiter fire rescue is really incredible um you know the the Cost Containment there as I've read in other um evaluations um just developing Future Leaders in the town with staff just some of the organizations looking internally looking to develop leadership in the town staff looking to hear from them any concerns that they have to have a committee to just listen and to address um you know quality of life of staff is incredible the roundabout the CRA Amendment which took going to the Treasure Coast Regional planning Council the master plan for recreation actively pursuing and having the town manager's office represented in Tallahasse for one of the first times and then receiving $2.4 million from the state for traffic mitigation on Indiantown Road all of these things are very incred you incredible to me it's a very busy um culture you walk into the town manager's office or the Executive offices you walk into the into the town hall you just feel an energy people are busy they have purpose there's a lot going on um it's wonderful to see and I think you're right A lot of it comes from the top so you know I'm unfamiliar with I this is an executive position and it needs to be compensated differently at an executive level I'm unfamiliar with in terms of the base pay you know what what to look at and I'd look to guidance from my colleagues there but in terms of the bonus is onetime bonus I think we have to make up for what was done last year uh look at this year look at the inflation and make sure that we're compensating our chief executive properly um I agree I I think uh you know we didn't we weren't able to come up with a bonus amount last year um I think it kind of it took me off guard a little bit so um but I agree you know a bonus is is uh doe for him and then um you know I always kind of look at it as and I made this mentioned last year I think whatever base salary increase should be consistent with what we're giving to the employees of the town as well so I know that what was proposed a five I actually was asking for a six um the number I was provided to go from a 5% to a 6% for the town employees was is like $27,000 which I think we'll see we'll talk about next week um so I'm okay with being consistent giving him a base salary increase that's consistent with the uh what the town employees received this year so I'm I'm obviously asking for a 6% so I'd be fine with going with a 6% for him so long as we can get a 6% for the town employees and then you know uh I agree if you guys are amicable to doing the $10,000 bonus um I'd be amical to agree with that as [Music] well okay um can I add just one thing to it before we get into the numbers a little bit more I just want everybody to consider what it would do to us if he were to leave the flip side of this coin we've talked about all the great things he's done for us if he were to leave retirement or to go to some other job location it would hurt the town tremendously especially right now he's the conductor of the train and and we need him there badly so just consider the the possibility how however remote that he could consider retiring or leaving so we we need to really make sure this is worth as well good performing executives are very high demand and people are watching other towns are watching so you know he could get offers so I I think it's it's a different position than just um the you know the I call the regular employees but the the he and they're all important but he's a CEO so it's it's it's a different uh percentage increase I would think so it holds a more a little more weight well I want to kind of weigh in my mind I wanted to hear from everybody and I'm not sure that I heard from everybody Maybe myself a little table here and I'm not sure that's necessarily was important but everybody's spoken I'm just going to kind of give my uh thoughts number one um as I advocated last year I do think that um it's appropriate that an executive portion of compensation does typically include a one-time bonus that means that there's not an adjustment in pay that onetime bonus it's a one-time bonus and then the following year you know you have to earn again a bonus so that's that's the distinction between the two I want to make that pretty clear um and you know I'm not splitting hairs up here none of us are we're trying to cess on something I um we and you know this it's been a long time since we've actually done this as a council because our last Town manager in his contract that had the annual increase was part of the original contract therefore the prior Council didn't uh there was no action to be taken because he already had a an annual increase doesn't matter no I don't uh but the point was it was negotiated with the original contract so there in I'm just emphasizing you know how many years it has been so you know this is kind of un awkward but I just wanted to I do believe that it's appropriate for us uh to consider both base pay increase and some you know portion which is a bonus but making it clear the base pay is retro to 61 per the contract the bonus is just a lum suum you know payout um I do believe we were close to having a consensus last year um with three um I'm not saying we wouldn't had more uh but you know I sit up here as the you know mayor meeting you know to get to three and um we didn't we didn't finalize that because uh you know a member wanted to and I'm not pointing out anything negative here but a member wanted to P think about it more we didn't bring closure then I didn't bring it back up as a council member uh member of the team here so uh I do believe that we should make right if we were inclined to what would have been last year it's passed um and um I think I heard um I think uh I heard uh C vice mayor that you were thought we had we were agreeable to 7500 is that correct so I had said that for last year yeah last year understand because then I think I know that we then had at least three that were supportive of that last would have been supportive of that because uh councelor Delany and myself for suggesting 10K so 7500 then would have had three consensus of three and I to agree councelor uh before you weren't here last year I kind of wanted let's kind of close last year based on last year's evaluation which you had no part in right no I think he went he got the 5% or whatever the and I do think that the during year and we can change it but the the budget that we're working from is the budget for fiscal year 24 um so there in we were talking about we don't know what 25 will be because we're still into the budget process now that doesn't mean we have to go with that but um so um so you know I was inclined and also I do want to say um and I want to be careful because conversation discussion can could end up with something that motivates someone or doesn't motivate someone and so to the degree that we've done our reviews we want to reward appropriately and I'm going to say this cautiously because I don't want this to be a demotivator for our town manager but I was stunned with the compensation level of the Palm Beach Garden City Manager I don't even want to say what what I read that was did you see it okay U well beyond what would be ever considered within the town but nonetheless it it is representative of what a nearby similar sized um uh you know local government does so I just want to have said that and individually you all can go back and check that but uh but there was a news report on that uh about three weeks ago I think it was um so yeah and so um you know and that was I think what I read was just just a base salary was so of course that manager has been there for long long time and and all that but um so I'm and I'm open I'm just now as we went down the line reporting what I kind of had on paper here um coming in had I not heard everybody else I was kind of looking at a 5% base pay increase uh providing for the Retro from last year then quite frankly um I thought it was such an extraordinary year and based on what I had done last year is I was considering I'd say a $25,000 bonus this year but again we have to kind of come to a number together and so I might be at the high end I might be in the middle but let's see if we can't go less on what the numers should be so three numbers base pay increase maybe we come to an agreement on that first um so your so your your bonus is is building in a sort of um a makeup for last year that he didn't get I want to call it that I want to call it out as that it is last year it we kind of dropped we all kind of dropped the ball on that he should have got something we have a responsibility and I have a responsibility I agree um so let's do we have consensus on a or let's talk about the base pay increase I think it's it's hard to separate the two in my mind because you know it's it's an overall package I would support lowering my expectation for a base pay of down to five increasing up to a bonus of 25 I support that readily well maybe you hadn't realized that we having a bonus component so so you're okay with 5% I think it's valid and I think it's an excellent point that you know the two are structured differently one um compounds year-over-year and you know the main increase is done this year but it continues to reward every year um versus you know the annual review and then the onetime annual bonus which can be very motivating and you know it's just for that year and it re and it it justifies and um congratulates and recommends the actions taken in that one year alone and so um I do I do like that a lot um I agree that we should um you know I'm comfortable with the 5% I think you know that's what um Town staff had recommended for staff and they've worked very hard to compensate our staff year over year they've worked hard if we look at our um health insurance and we'll talk about this later but what they've done in terms of health insurance for employees just every year they've continued to really do a lot for employees and this is their recommendation you know looking at at everything so having those um having a 5% makes sense to me I had said you know last year I'd said 7,500 looking at the employee um inflation subsidy and then looking at the recommended um 10,000 and kind of finding somewhere in between um but now that with the delay you know it's unacceptable on our part and I'm glad that we're making uh making this right and I had said you know I'm absolutely in supportive of 10 and if not more and so you know looking if we were to do 10,000 last year you know and then this is the year you know that fire and all these other things have come du this is the program period um that those things really were accomplished um it would make sense so you know I'm supportive of that as well a 5% um you know it could be 20 it could be 25 but I like 25 right now just because um of the time it's taken us to get to this point and I do appreciate that we are having these evaluations of our town manager that there are public records available and that we are you know having this discussion so it's it's been a while and I really appreciate it can you just clarify um because we are converging I believe um so a base bait increase of 5% did you say 10K as a year one retro so yeah that's so that's the question how are we these are one-time bonuses so are we talking about one total bonus of 25,000 for this year talk about them as being two separate to be separate okay so then that would be what 7,500 for year one and 25 for year two is that right is that well is that what you were proposing when you were speaking with Council um whatever we had a consensus on the year one retro because that's the prior year and then I said 25 for year two okay so we're talking about 25 plus 7,500 so that's that's more than I thought but um yeah yeah I mean I'm supportive of that this this is one this is one of the biggest years in our town so I'd be supportive but you know I want to continue to I it's also one time it's not compounding so the uh Council for's recommendation for the 7 and a half% salary increase um he he indicated he withdrew that realizing 25k I I think we'll reach consensus quicker okay if I would draw that and go with a 5% sounds I just wanted to comment that I I like the 7 and a half% because it really addresses what you could call market value of the of a town manager a town manager's performance and you we see we got you know just south of us but if we reach consensus at five that's fine but I I you know because he he comes every up every year for review it's not like he's going to get a you know an increase next year so look you're looking at motivation and and just keeping up with the market also so I think we're going to look at the market value of that we could look at the market value of that and come back to this yeah I'm not I don't desire that I'm just I'm just throwing it out there but I want to say also I think it's number of years in the job and we all know you know in gardens that town manager has been there for a very long time the municipal campus is named after him they want to keep them obviously that's right so if you look at years of experience you know a number of years there's a lot to be considered there y but I don't have those numbers in front of me I wasn't necessarily prepared to have that discussion I didn't either so I'm I'm more meritocracy than longevity and he's really proven his Worth to us in just the last couple of years so that's very strong in my mind I I I appreciate Garden's position and having somebody who's been there a really long time but longevity in itself is not a strong motivator for me it's performance performance performance performance meritocracy and I think he's really performed well May yeah I'm good with a 5% pay salary increase uh and then the $25,000 bonus for year two then I guess are you guys all in agreement for 7500 retro for year one yes sure okay you want a Motion sounds like we're unanimous all right motion to approve 5% Baye salary increase $25,000 year two bonus and a $7,500 retro year one bonus for down manager kso second motion to Second all in favor signified by saying I I motion carries unanimously um well thank you all for moving that along and the time is now uh 920 and we'll adjourn the meeting that yeah yeah e e