because in my my previous experience Commissioners never had to vote on putting something on the agenda so this is something that is new and seems to be total totalitarian thank you thank you public commentary chrisy maroy port St Joe I have the actual testimony from Chief Ry uh during that uh interview from during the federal trial that involved ly Haven so I'm going to give you guys a few of you people what the testimony actually says um it does say Chief Ry said sir I'm a cop 24 hours a day 7 days a week that was his testimony as Miss Parker said if he didn't feel that way he shouldn't have sworn an oath that said was testifying that's what he said it goes on and it talks about his standard his standard he was asked what his standard is in his testimony in the mission statement policy it says Serve All citizens with respect enforce the law in a fair and impartial manner to serve with Integrity honesty respect fairness compassion the use of race gender sexual orientation religion background racial we don't do that basically is what your profile says that's what guy Lewis asked him because that's what Chief Ry put on his profile and chief Ry said sir that's our standard yes sir there are some other things in this testimony that I find disconcerning and I guess that's why I keep coming back to you all and probably will continue this is this is a long line of things that are concerning and so there's inappropriate comments that goes into that it's that Ricky Ramy bought a condo from James Finch that is something that's disconcerning it's about the gun situation with Michael White I find that that disconcerning I've got three copies I'm going to give one to the attorney one to the attorney and expect her to give it to the people I'm not giving it to but out of support for commissioner peoples and commissioner war I'm going to give them the testimony and if I have to spend $330 cense to give it to the rest of you I'll be happy to do that but that's what I'm going to do tonight if you leave all of those copies with the attorney please she'll disperse them after the meeting additional public commentary right May's report Mr scay have to sit up closer so we can see you forever Ryan scay um I didn't see a fin a sign in sheet I thought we were doing that starting this meeting where's that going to be located that's going to be in April in April okay where will that be right at the main door okay just want to make sure everybody knows where that's at um a few questions I have so I thought that we're going to be doing more periodic meetings of the debt review or financial Review Committee um when's the next meeting of that occurring we'll answer that in our report thank you and then also um what is the total amount currently owed just overall the total amount not broken out into separate areas and uh according to the last report it looks like it'll be somewhere after fiscal year 31 that it's p all paid off is that still accurate because I I had heard there had been some changes um the Florida Avenue revitalization Grant I know that there was some engineering going on with that could I get a status update of how that's going and then um also I just want to confirm are Anonymous code enforcement complaints being pursued because according to a law passed in 2021 in Florida they're not allowed to according to County and Municipal somebody said that there was one that was done Anonymous that was pursued and uh just curious if that law is being followed I would assume it is but a verbal yes or no will answer that and then lastly I just want to say it took a little bit to catch catch up on this one but I bit it in the uh co-ed softball league um great League really appreciate what the sports programs become where it's where it was when I moved here in 2020 to where it is today completely different I mean obviously I know I moved here right after you guys are dealing with hurricane Michael stuff but just the advancements that have been made under Justin and especially under Justin and I mean I don't know if it was ties to decision to hire him or who's but they made a good call he's doing great things out there his whole team is and I look forward to all the other sports activities and outdoor recreation activities that are coming out he's got a lot of ideas I've spent time to talk to him and that's one area as a citizen I'd love to see more investment in because this is a nice area for that and it's more than just baseball I mean I know everybody here loves baseball I didn't grow up at baseball not like everybody here seems to um but baseball's covered I love seeing that other things like volleyball and basketball and football and adult leagues I know Vicky I know you were a little hesitant on those adult leagues I think they ran a good program I think everybody us courteous and professional and stayed you know calm enough so thank you all right thank you additional public commentary this time we move on to the mayor's report a proclamation for Harbor Day whereas in 1872 J Sterling Morton proposed to the Nebraska Board of Agriculture to a that a special day be set aside for the planting of trees and whereas this holiday called Arbor Day was first observed with the planting of more than a million trees in Nebraska and whereas Arbor Day is now observed throughout the nation and the world and whereas trees can reduce the erosion of our precious top soil by wind and water water cut Heating and Cooling costs moderate the temperature clean the air produce oxygen and provide habitat for wildlife and whereas trees are renewable resource giving us paper wood for our homes fuel for our fires and countless other wood products and whereas trees where they are planted are a source of joy and spiritual renewal now therefore I mayor Jesse Nelson and the city commission by the virtue of authority invested in Us by the laws of Lin Haven reclaim April 24th 20 for as Arbor Day and encourage everyone to join us in celebrating Arbor Day to support efforts to protect our trees in Woodlands Mr Ferris I'll keep my report brief but will respond to some of the guess questions that were asked and then of course the financial questions some of those will be covered I believe in our audit presentation and then the city manager can cover some of the other ones uh in regards to someone asked about timeline I would just say I spoke with the city manager and she gave me um timeline in regards to our treat our chief traveling to and from um Panama City Beach so that's where I received my timeline from uh in regards to I guess addressing that item on the agenda we did have a special meeting for that um where we did discuss that uh Believe Miss Parker un attendance at that special meeting so we had a special meeting where that was on the agenda um and we discussed that particular um agenda item and as a commission we voted to say that we would try to allow uh things to work out in the next couple of weeks but at that time we would bring it back if it did not so um that's what we voted on but that is something that was addressed and we did actually have a meeting just to um to have discussion um on that particular uh issue uh as as well uh concerts in the park those when we were able to have it it was uh it was good I know last week U we got rained out and so uh or the rain preceded the concert and then when it was time for the concert it wasn't raining so um but got great reviews and feedback from the concert in the park with true Soul so hopefully it doesn't rain out our other ones look forward to having those Easter always great um people you know were texting me the morning of asking were we still doing it um due to the weather and things and so people always look forward to coming uh from all over Bay County to Lin Haven to participate in our big Easter egg hunt so I always love the way that it's organized in the way that um there's opportunity for every child of every age to get uh to get eggs um because sometimes we just let them all go at the same time you have the big kids the little kids and the big kids outrun the little kids take their baskets all that kind of stuff so um sometimes it's not fun but uh but I love the way that we organize that and just how we continue to have events for the community um the more we're able to get our community out in fellowship with one another and to enjoy our city and what we offer I think that c ly um helps with the unity um in our community in facts the apathy um that we have here on certain issues but really looking forward to um again the other concerts that we have coming up uh unfortunately due to weather we have not been able to have our grand opening um this spring season but uh Spring ball is still going on nonetheless and so excited for I think uh we had over like between coaches and players like over a thousand participants um and part of Spring ball this year year and they just want to continue to grow and get better um as people want to come to Lin Haven and play so that's really exciting as well so that is my um report for tonight commissioner pees thank you mayor uh I attended the Easter event as well was it was excellent um a ton of people were out there a lot of eggs brought my two-year-old out there and he loved being able to take pictures with the Easter Bunny well there's two Easter Bunnies which was actually kind of nice for us adults because we could split the lines up between two Easter bunnies and but uh there was there was food trucks out there and um there was uh the city did a good job of having some extra eggs for maybe some children that couldn't make it at right at 10:00 and it was it was a really cool event and I hope that it continues um I know that people look forward to that every year now uh I also attended the benefit concert for for Mike Williams uh Sheffield Park that was awesome thank you to the city for allowing that to happen um a lot of people showed up great music was played by everyone there was a band out there where there was people that were probably 14 15 years old playing music all the way up to you know senior age people playing music for this benefit concert and I was really impressed I mean I've played guitar for most of my life and those 15-year-olds would have put me to shame it was excellent job by everyone involved and uh I'm so so thankful for everyone that that came out for that benefit concert and then today uh I believe all of us uh at separate times met with the uh CPA for the financial audit and was able to ask questions that we had and so that was great so uh was able to ask questions and things like that and with that uh I'm going to say thank you to our First Responders and our fire and police and staff and everyone at the city because I didn't get the chance to do that well I guess I always do and I and then commissioner perno or commissioner work says it but I'm going to say it first this time so but and I know we're just joking but I really do appreciate all of you um keep up with the good work Mission perno thank you mayor thank you commissioner I think it's I think it's great that we all stand for the same thing on that though we really do appreciate our city employees our department heads and our First Responders and our dispatchers um I get to see you guys uh Always In a Different Light a as department heads and city employees you you you you most always carry carry your heads high for the city of Lin Haven and it's appreciated trust me um the group you're talking about one of the groups the young kids they did play at St Patrick's Day at vob Brady um and um Pastor Stevens um they they go to his church they're they're Catalyst Church members um they um they're in a a youth group called The School of Rock and they a they range from age 13 to 19 um I learned a lot about them because having seen them play at Martin Luther King day and of course they played for the Williams uh benefit and uh and and uh we we we hired them to play at beo Brady's and made a donation to their to their group everything everything they uh they get they they buy new equipment and they they keep themselves going they're really really a proud group of kids so um and they're right here in Lin Haven so it's uh it's great to see um I um I also attended that event and but uh the thing that got me since the last meeting was uh attending the retirement ceremony for for um assistant fire chief uh darl Hernandez uh it was really touching it was at the firehouse um uh they they they had everybody there they pulled the trucks out and you know they moderately decorate a little bit and um assistant chief got a little he he got as choked up as he could be he's level-headed guy but he you could see it on his face but you know there's nothing like when a call came in and we thought it was a real call and then they they signed him out and talked about his career and whatnot that that really got me so it was it was it was great to be there so um and I'll keep it short as well and thank everybody and that's my report thank you commissioner wart yes so um I also went to the uh the concert benefiting uh our police uh police officer who's going through a lot of medical stuff right now it uh had a lot of great energy and appreciate everyone that came out and supported them and continue to support them um I also went to the Easter egg hunt um the staff did a awesome job uh getting an all up especially with all the rain that came in before that so a lot of them got wet and um and and and still made it happen so a lot of happy kids and uh yeah it's always a great event um I had my time with the commissioner this past Saturday uh had about five people show up four of which uh were people uh have never come before so it it's good to see uh new faces and of course the big subject was about Chief Ry and um I kind of gave them my perspective of course I can't tell them everything uh that I know but I do want the residents to know how I feel about this um how I feel about it and why I feel about it why I feel the way I do um I do have a lot of respect for our current police chief Ricky Ramy um I believe he is a kind-hearted person who wants what's best for the city uh however I do have concerns about keeping him on as our police chief and it pains me to say uh what I'm about to say um I first found out about the newbies incident involving um Richard Ry on February 15th when someone messaged me about it as soon as I found out about it I text message to city man manager and about 5 minutes later I received a call from Ry giving me his side of the story next morning I went down to the Florida Highway Patrol Panama City station to see what information I could receive about the incident the captain the major were not in at the time and later that day I received a call from the captain and he informed me that I would have to submit a public records request and wait 60 days from when the police report was written before I could receive any information unless I was the victim or person involved in the incident on February 20th I sent a fla Highway Patrol public records request for all records involved in the incident later that day um I spoke with the city's labor attorney for about 45 minutes that Friday February 23rd we had our pre-commission meeting and afterward the city manager asked if I was available to talk I end up having to sit down with Richard Ry city manager and HR department head on March 6 I received my FH Florida Highway Patrol public records request I sent it to the city manager who sent it to all the commission I then uh sent an email to the city manager uh which reads today I received my Florida Highway public Patrol public records request pertaining to the hit and run accident in newbi parking lot involving Richard Ry after reviewing all the official information available in conjunction with Richard ry's own statements he has willingly provided I find it jusful to terminate his employment with the city of linh Haven I understand the criminal citation is still open and awaiting trial regardless of that charge being dismissed or not this still calls into question Richard ry's integrity and conduct this is not the first time he has brought negative publicity to the city due to his actions the police chief is a unique leadership position requiring conduct Beyond reproach and above suspicion this involved refraining from any behavior that might be harmful to the city of lyh Haven and that might be viewable viewed unfavorable by current or potential employees or the public at large regardless of Duty status additionally as police chief he is held to a higher standard especially when it comes to enforcing abiding by Florida state laws it is also worth noting that Richard Ramy works at the will of the city and may be terminated at any time for any reason with or without notice except as prohibited by law I know I am only one of five Commissioners but my professional position is that Richard ry's employment shall be terminated if not terminated then I would like to request to have an agenda item added to the next commission meeting for discussion reason I'm sharing all this with you today is for two reasons one that the residents understand that I as a commissioner am not turning a blind eye to this and have been actively involved with this matter as a commissioner we should ensure we have the facts and data we need before we take any action two to answer the question of why is the commission's duty to look into and discuss the future employment of Richard Ramy for a city Charter the heads of each and every Department shall be appointed by the city manager with the advice and consent of a majority of the commission for this reason is why we must look into and discuss this it's important to keep in mind that the police chief position is not under contract and works at an will as an will employee what does this mean if you decide you would rather work at another job you can leave your employer any time and they cannot take action against you however the converse is also true you can be terminated without cause because for instance your employer wants to hire someone with more experience and typically you would have no legal recourse against them unless it goes against law as a police chief since it comes with great Authority and respons responsibilities you cannot be outstanding in most areas you must be outstanding in all facets of your job for example a police chief must have a high standard of Ethics this is important to reassure the public that their city is in good hands and feel confident they will be treated fairly during enforcement of the law the police chief position is a unique key leadership position that not just anyone can fulfill Richard Remy has done a lot of excellent work with our Police Department such as the department being officially accredited by the commission for Florida law enforcement accreditation as a commissioner I appreciate ry's dedication and service to our city however as confirmed by our HR attorney during our special City commission when I asked if someone receive three civil citation and because of that person's prior actions had brought negative publicity to the city could that be a viable reason to terminate someone and his answer was yes that could be a viable reason as your commissioner I believe that due to Richard ry's actions not just with this sens but multiple incidents in the past have brought negative publicity to our city and he should be terminated is this an easy decision absolutely not but to but to do what is best for the city we need to make difficult decisions like this what we must do what must we must do what is morally and ethically correct so I really need to get that off my chest to make sure that all the residents know my position on it and why that is and I'm more than willing to sit down and talk with anyone about that thank you right commissioner Vandergriff it's been very [Music] interesting the emails that I've received on this topic I've been accused of being stupid corrupt in the good old boys group um I'm not stupid I'm not corrupt I'm certainly not in the good old boys group but I am smart enough to listen to the advice of three attorneys with over 40 years of legal experience dealing with Personnel issues and so that's what I'm going to do until we get all of the information I will reserve my comments that's all I have to say all right thank you city manager warant L first good evening are there any questions on the warrant list thank you mayor before um Mr Clark comes up with James Moore to give us uh the update on our audit I Just Want U to remind a couple of things uh April 5th this Friday if the rain HS off and we're hoping it does Anthony Peebles will be our Entertainer for uh spring concert series April 6 is International Food Truck day from 2: to 700 p.m. there will be entertainment of different nationalities so we hope that you come out we now have eight teams signed up for adult volleyball we hope you also participate in that starts April 8 and we still signing up for adult basketball over the age of 35 uh so please uh go in and sign up for that as well we're also signing up for summer youth basketball that was such a hit and as Mr scay was saying we are growing all of the programs Justin ward has done an excellent job I actually snagged him from the girls and boys and girls club he was a unit director there very um versed in all of these activities and work with kids and adults Alik so he's done a really great job um I also attended the child child care task force so this is a very interesting task force because right now Bay County is lacking quality child care for people who are trying to work so people are waiting whether to stay at home or to work and um right now Child Care is pretty expensive and we don't know have enough child care providers so a task force has been formed to help out try to get people certified find places for people to set up businesses it's also affecting our our militar they come back into Bay County uh they are having a hard time finding child care until all the base has been rebuilt so that is going to be a um a great task force for the for um Bay County uh we are working on the midyear budget we're not quite finished we have a couple of more departments to go uh we have not had a finance or debt review committee meeting since simply because that one of the things we wanted to do was to be able to show them um and them to look over this midyear budget before it comes to the commission uh we're in budget season I think it mentions in budget season um that uh the finance reviewer should be involved so their next meeting is April 11th and I'm sure um by then we will be very close to finishing up the midyear budget that will come um the last meeting in April as it has been for the P um past couple of years we we do need um Arbor Day proclamation to continue to be a tree City uh City so um thank you very much for that yes uh code enforcement um reports are uh asking for names you cannot submit something anonymously um normally if I get them I forward them on to code enforcement it has that person's name at the bottom so uh we are following that law I think that was that everything oh and then uh the debt as of right now is $42 million as opposed to I think it was 64 62 million uh a couple of years ago and if I remember the last loan payment that we would make and I think that is for like the 17th Street ditch project would be like 2047 that is the longest one yes you are correct okay we we paid off I think about 7 million in last fiscal year we continue to pay down our debt that is our Focus uh we have not borrowed any money since I've been city manager and I think the commission has been very very clear about um not boring money and paying down the debt that's my report thank you um and then now Mr Clark will come up and give a overview of um the audit for the city of Lin Haven he is with James Moore out of Tallahassee all right good evening everyone how are you guys doing good thank you my name is Ben Clark and I'm with James Moore and Company so I'm the CPA with James Moore that has tasked with over um completing the audit every year so we kind of come out with you guys every year and we kind of meet with you one-on-one and make sure that you guys understand kind of how the audit went and answer any questions and we kind of take our time during this part of the meeting to make sure that the public and that yourselves obviously have a good understanding of as far as how the a it's going and how things are um going on that front so I'm going to kind of go through the slides and um we can answer any questions or anything like that that you have for us um so again my name is Ben Clark I've been with James Moore since 2015 and we've been the Auditors for the city since about um I think 2019 if I remember correctly so this is our fifth year doing the audit so we love working with you guys you guys are a good client to us we work with a lot of States um local governments around the area whether it be counties or cities things like that and so you guys are um all on the family of clients that we serve and kind of that area so without further Ado I'm going to flip the slide here and um first time doing it in this room so this is pretty cool the the building looks really nice so congratulations on that um I was used to being in the trailer across the street so I get to spend all day in in the nice new building over there and the room so it was really nice to see that as far as the audit goes keep in mind this is as of September 30th 2023 right so this is going to be a few months ago now um it's obviously March now so we're talking about six months later but we do our audit as of September 30th it's due to the state by June 30th and you guys usually like to have your audit done around March so we're doing in a consistent time period um with last year as far as the overall audit report goes inside the big audit there is basically five separate um audit reports that make up the audit there's um we kind of have them listed there and I'm going to kind of walk down them with you and kind of tell you what they mean the first kind of bullet point there is the audit report so that's the report we take your financial statements and we say are they correct not correct there's there kind of deviations from accounting standard these are um the first one there it says unmodified opinion that's the best opinion you can get so what we're saying here is the numbers that are in uh your accounting uh your financial statements those are materially correct so that's the best opinion you get that means you can rely on these kind of numbers as of September 30th for decision making purposes or otherwise there's no deviations from accounting standards as far as the uh single audit report goes whenever you spend more than about $750,000 in federal or state money you're required to what's have effectively as many compliance audit over your federal or state grants and so what we do for that is we kind of take your grants we kind of look at them in depth and make sure that hey are you spending the money correctly are you complying with the compliance requirements that either the state or the feds depending on Whose money it is ask that you to comply with uh this year you did have two major programs you had FEMA which is kind of the consistent major program for the city as far as that goes as far as FEMA goes um we looked at kind of all those funds and kind of looked at everything there as far as how they were spent and any other comp iance requirements are required and then we also looked at the multi-use trail Grant and um we didn't have any findings or comments in those areas and so you'll find that um inside the audit report as far as the Third Kind of item down there that's the internal control and compliance report so that's really what people talk about when they talk about um did we you know a lot of times people ask me did we get any findings this is usually the report they're kind of referring to with that so we did have one kind of recurring comment that's been there for a few years now and I kind of um walked through that a little bit today with you guys basically what that comet is is um whenever where is the Auditors um required to come in and help you know bring the accounting records up um and do some adjustments in those areas and they're um they raised their material kind of adjustment we have to kind of put a comment in there for that so really a lot of the adjustments that we had surrounded fixed assets it's um really complicated as far as how fixed assets have to be recorded at cities and it's a lot of information to capture so we worked with kind of the accounting and finance team here to make sure that those numbers were all up to Snuff and all the record keeping around that is correct so we did have one um kind of current comment there but otherwise as far as other findings goes segregation of duties or other things like that might raise a level of concern we don't have any other comments in that area and also just want to point out that you know a number of years ago when we started the audit back in 2019 we had lots of findings um so we always kind of say it's not the findings you get it's what you do with them so since 2019 there's been a big effort to kind of make sure the findings are kind of remediated and I think with this one um kind of finding that's hanging out there I think the finance teams pretty excited to kind of work to remediate that so I think I think we'll work with them over the next period of time to make sure that that happens as far as the um last two items there the chapter 10550 audit report so that is the audit report that's kind of like the all else audit report the auditor general requires um cities counties Special Districts all of those kind of things to basically have another report in there that um talks about other matters basically um some things like deteriorating Financial condition Financial emergencies everything like that would be included in this report if there were issues there but there was no issues as far as um anything of that nature so this report is a clean report as well as far as the last item on the uh the slide there that's the independent account examination report this is the report that we're required to issue um with regard to compliance with State statutes around Investments um if we did have problems in the as far as how the city's Investments were invested or things like that we would be required to report it in this report and we don't have any comments to make in that area and the last little as down there is just a reminder that the CR does get a separate audit issued and we did include that with the overall city audit but no findings or anything else there and if you have have questions you want to interrupt me we can do it as you go I can do it all at the end we'll Reserve our questions for the end right sounds good all right the next slide is is a little slide that kind of shows um a picture of just the general fund as a snapshot and it's going to show the fund balances in total um going back to 2020 and then it's also going to show you into five different buckets so keeping in mind that as a city government your fund balance if you want to think of it is divided into five buckets with nonspendable being like the most restricted you can't spend the cash down to unassigned which is um almost like reserve freed and clear to spend as the um commission direct or as needed so since uh 2020 the fund Balan has went up six from 16.6 million all the way up to 20.4 million with 15 million sitting in um unassigned 15.8 million with 1 million 1.6 million being an assign assign is kind of like you you assign it for a purpose usually in this case it's for the next fiscal Year's budget is usually how that works um just due to timing and other things of that matter um when we kind of talk about the unassigned fund balance with um especially with the city of Len Haven knowing that also there's This Disaster Recovery Fund kind of hanging out there we kind of have to look at both we can't just look at the general fund in a silo and so usually what we do with that is we kind of take those numbers and we say okay well two things first of all the Gen the government Finance Officers Association they recommend a two-month Reserve at 16.7% as a minimum kind of Reserve level you guys are over that but also keeping in mind that for a coastal area like yourself it should really probably be in the 30 range 30 33% range to almost double that for a four-month reserve and so you're over that as well but then when you kind of think about the Disaster Recovery Fund um as the kind of pairing matter for that um general fund balance um you start to kind of understand that hey we do have a general fund Reserve that's healthy but we also know that that's kind of there um as as This Disaster Recovery Fund um comes to a close over the next couple of years so as that fund kind of comes to a close um really the the true picture of where the um the need if there is a need to close out that Disaster Recovery Fund will come to um kind of fruition and so on that kind of matter um I already talked about the CRA that is um restricted fund balance but on the kind of second bullet point Down The Disaster Recovery Fund this year that fund alone had 8.3 million in FEMA revenues and and 1.3 million uh Insurance kind of reimbursement recoveries associated with it and then 19.2 million expenditures you can see that in this year Alone um the fund balance is now at 5.7 million and I think talking with Vicki today it sounds like there's maybe um could be about 7 million more in FEMA reimbursements coming down the pike at some point so it sounds like there's still a tiny bit of FEMA money um yet to be received so where this all shakes out is still probably a little bit in the air but it's um sounds like over the next couple of years we're getting to the point where all the disaster recovery and FEMA reimbursement process is kind of coming to a close and then as far as the um remaining whatever remaining kind of uh Bond balance for the disaster recovery Bond at that point is left over will be kind of how it all shakes out with um whatever decisions are made at that point to close out any bond if that's the decisions that's made or if there's any decision to um close out the Disaster Recovery Fund as far as the arpa fund that is another fund that you guys kind of have at the city that is the um going of goes back to American Rescue act plan and so as far as that goes the the arpa fund is now sitting in a signed fund balance so those funds are not restricted um externally anymore those funds are um resigned by the commission for its purpose and its discretion as far as how it wants to spend the money at this point and so as of year end September 30th there's still 6.4 million sitting in there um for use at a future date um speaking of debt there is no new debt issued as um during the year as Vicki kind of stated in her um report there were 7.1 million in principal payments and then as of September 30th there was 47.5 Million outstanding obviously since then some some more principal was probably paid off um being that that was a bit of time ago now on this slide we kind of look at um we kind of before we were talking about just the general fund alone now we kind of take those numbers and we throw them we say okay well how much is the capital assets Worth or how much was paid for those and how much is the kind of other long-term obligations to kind of give a holistic picture of hey as as one person put earlier what is the city really worth and really when you kind of look at that you say okay back in 2020 we had 35 million in total governmental activities net position now we're up to 84 so obviously you can see the capital assets of the overall City have increased dramatically um and that's really due to kind of recovery efforts and kind of all the um kind of things that go along with that so that's just a general picture to kind of say hey from a trend basis not that we have $84 million in the bank but kind of saying how does this overall city and what is kind of what is the numbers looking like as far as the full kind of picture of what everything has been um kind of captured as far as total Capital assets debt and all these other things so what we like to see here is a positive trend uh increasing and that's what we see as far as the water sewer and storm water and sanitation funds go this is just the unrestricted net position of those funds so it's not the total net position for each fund uh it's just the unrestricted portion so really it's excluding um some of those Capital assets and things like that and really what we look for here are Trends so um one thing is we want to see you know um if we saw like a recurring negative and growing negative Trend um to the negative that would probably be a sign that hey we need to um maybe fund this a fund more or something like that we don't see that in any of these instances and knowing kind of what we've learned throughout the audit um the the stormw fund for instance it actually had a net income of about a million dollars this year so we actually are kind of doing that fund is kind of starting to function um healthily it's a little bit of a change from the past couple of years so we're starting to see that and we're also kind of starting to see Trends towards the positive in other area so um and that when it since with the storm water being negative um that's really just the case of we kind of spend money to kind of put you know back into infrastructure on the ground and made some Capital asset improvements so that kind of um changes which bucket of money things go and that sort of thing but um as far as um from an audit standpoint we don't see any um concerns here with any of the unrestricted net position balances um for any of the Enterprise funds and last couple slides here this is the uh Pension funds so we always kind of throw this slide in for um a lot of our government clients to kind of remind um them that hey in the overall numbers that you have in your financial statements there are um pension balances in there so there's large liabilities so that doesn't mean that the city kind of owes in this case for using the general fund as example the general pension plan they don't owe 3.9 million per se at the end of the year but that is really the obligation the net pension liability of the fund uh of the general pension plan really what we look for here for cities is is the fund funding percentage healthy and are they making the required minimum contributions and the answer to that is yes in both cases you can see that in 2023 the funded percentages are uh in the 80s 90s and um in one case over 100% funded for the police plan and so that's um a good thing that u means that the plans are being funded at a healthy level and um they're not getting into a position where there may be 40 50 60% funded or something of that nature um so as far as that goes that's kind of what we put the slide in here to kind of remind you of that and I think that is the last slide and I can answer any and all questions if you have them any questions from the commissioner all right thank you and that's my report thank you do have a guess a couple of questions that were from public commentary uh do we have any updates on the Florida Avenue uh Grant I forgot yes Ben you can come give an update on that we're working with the um Florida Department of Commerce on the amendment number one that was um approved by the city commission a few months ago um we're still waiting on a signature on their signature the mayor already signed the amendment um the consultant Florida Architects is ready to go um but I don't want to give them the green light until we have that Amendment signed because that's is directly connected to the Grand amount and I don't want to make any Financial give any financial obligation here to the uh consultant without securing the grant first right thank you and then [Music] also and I think you you answered that but um if there was any are we abiding by the statute to not follow up on Anonymous uh code enforcement calls correct yes I answered that one too is that when I when I get any and any code enforcement uh anybody wants to call in anything and not give their name they will not take it it has they have to give their name for that report right thank you for your report our City attorney I have no report do we have any questions for the City attorney while she's here no questions right all right catch her before she leaves right uh moving on to the consent agenda approval of minutes 31224 regular meeting minutes approval of minutes 31524 special meeting minutes approval to temporarily close Highway 77 for the annual 2024 4th of July parade between the hours of 7:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. approval to allow the city manager to close all city offices July 5th 2024 and approval to appoint Michelle Basher to the general employee pension board is there a motion for this agenda motion to approve second motion by commissioner Ward second by commissioner pebles uh any comments from the public well no City man if you call the vote commissioner War yes commissioner Peebles yes commissioner Vander Griff yes commissioner perno yes mayor Nelson yes motion passed Mo new business discussion and possible approval to amend the green South Solutions LLC contract to include sludge cake hauling at $1,000 per 20 yard rolloff thank you mayor um yes this is to modify the existing contract with green South Solutions um to add the cake hauling form of sludge to their contract at $1,000 per 20- yard rolloff um you all approved the interent viws to be rebuilt I believe in uh January or December of last year um it is coming back next week and we should be able to start dewatering our sludge and get out of the liquid hauling business hopefully for good and save some serious money um just to put some perspective on the dollars the existing contract is $105 per th000 gallons Each truck is 6,000 gallons to so it's about $630 per load and one of these rolloffs should equate about four liquid truckloads so $1,000 for four of the truck load what we're paying now there any questions for Mr Lightfoot is there a motion for this I had a question I just had to push the button um got to be a quick on the draw um we're cleaning out the lake what's the the progress on that so we've got about 12 Ines left in the pond there um I would say within the next two weeks we should have it completely empty and they will be down in there spraying everything out and getting the rest of it out um hopefully done with that by the end of March the The increased um sludge hauling bill will hopefully come back down at that time any other questions for Mr Lightfoot is there a motion for this motion to approve second motion by commissioner perno second by commissioner pebles any comment from the public city manager if you call the vote commissioner perno yes commissioner pees yes commissioner War yes commissioner fer Griff yes mayor Nelson yes motion passed discussion and possible approval to award RFQ 23231 for professional utility Engineering Services wastewater treatment facilities designed to M McDonald Florida LLC so as as we've been discussing the past several months um we are required in 2024 to begin design of expanding our Wastewater Plant um so we put to work uh or put out an RFQ and um we had our scoring team score all of the submissions and M McDonald is the the winner of that um they are a very qualified firm to help design our Wastewater Plant and will'll be great to work with to get that project off the ground and get it rolling forward any questions from Mr Lightfoot I did notice when we look at the three scores there was a big discrepancy about 30 points I guess in the total and so what were the major I guess concerns between the highest bidder and then the the next two cuz the next two are close in their scoring they're like one point difference but then there's like a almost a 30o difference between when when we put this RFQ together we really put a lot of emphasis on experience and design um the other two firms definitely capable of doing wastewater treatment plants for sure um but the scoring team just felt that that M McDonald exceeded what we were after and have the experience you know a little more experience than the other firms to be able to complete this project okay right any additional questions Mr Lightfoot is there a motion for this motion to approve second any comments from the public yes sir um I realized this is just for the engineering portion but the overall overall project is going to be obviously very expensive during the audit he said there was arpa funds that are released 6.4 million can those funds be used for this this sewer project they already ass signed to projects commission I think two years ago approved all of those projects for that aror money okay and it has to be spent by 2026 okay thank you any other comments in public city manager if you'll call the vote commissioner perno yes commissioner Vander yes commissioner Peebles yes commissioner Ward yes mayor Nelson yes motion passed discussion andoss approval to change out the lighting and take over the monthly cost for the street Lighting on me by Boulevard in front of North Bay Haven Charter School due to safety concerns Mr Baker uh yes this is the lights in front of the north behaven school on milb Boulevard from 390 North to the little Bridge currently nobody has been paying for those lights I say currently they haven't been paying for them for years they used to be under the HOA they quit paying Florida Power no longer Services these types of lights and they're to the point of taking out all the equipment and the lights since nobody's paid for them so one of the options is for the city to pick them up to do that to reduce the cost we're looking at removing a lot of the lights and replace them with a standard street light which is much brighter so we the report says 24 there's actually 26 we're going to reduce it to 14 lights which will still light up the area very well but unless we do something and it's really a safety issue in front of that school unless we do something they are going to pull the lights out of there all right any questions for Mr Baker I know uh at pre-commission meeting we talked about this and I'm all for the city taking an over but one of the thing questions I brought up was the HOA do we have we gotten with the HOA yet to see if well the HOA originally went to the school and asked them to pick it up and they said no right they're just they're not going to pay for them can we get that in writing from them so that they can't turn around and say but we wanted to do this Teresa Holloway is here um she is FPL she's the one that Yates with them so um Teresa could you speak on this he had contacts with the H this issue facilitating this yeah me I'm sorry yes um I was the point of contact in 2020 when the HOA reach out to me and they made the request that they no longer wanted to pay for the lights north of the bridge because they felt like it benefited everyone not just the residents anymore understood do you do we have any emails or anything like that no I I had the digital file and of course with the timeline I was telling Bobby when I assumed the role I've been with FPL for well Gul for 20 36 years so when I moved to lighting it was quite overwhelming and um all of the digital files basically they have a a timeline when we moved to fpl we lost some of those things okay all right I mean the HOA it was um I remember the president's name and they were trying to reduce cost right that that was why they made the choice at that time to change the fixtures within the residential area and then FPL has left them on since 2020 because we didn't want it to create a safety hazard for the students okay thank you thank you now we are scheduling or we've been trying to schedule a meeting with uh a myself uh Mr Baker City Manager have been trying to SCH meeting with them to discuss not just these but all of the lighting um that is there in the HOA so at that time we can ask for you know verification you know written verification that they are relinquishing or they they relinquish their responsibility right um to pay for the lights that we're now voting on um so we can you know get their information and writing from them at that time okay I appreci you know what I'm getting that it's once you do it and then someone's like who whoa we wanted to do this and no I just don't want that to happen definitely understand so yeah we can um we can definitely make sure we make a note to get that from them follow it with them on that um any other questions for Mr Baker is there a motion for this the moved second motion by commissioner vff second by commissioner perno any comments from the public city manager you call the vote commissioner vandagriff yes commissioner perno yes commissioner pees yes commissioner work yes mayor Nelson yes motion passed discussion only of chapter 10 articles 1 and two of the city code and so one of the things we you know have discussed is that we will begin working our way through uh the codes so that we can discuss those and uh and get those updated um chapter 10 is really the discussion on animals though we discussed some of this a couple of years ago it was it wasn't for the entire code I think it was for some specific um issues that uh parks and wrecks needed us to parks and grounds need us to look at at that time um however now we're going to look at the entire uh chapter um we're going to be getting uh feedback from um City staff city manager uh director of parks and grounds um other um individuals as well to make sure that we are uh getting a comprehensive look at this and seeing what are the trouble areas that they have when it comes to making decisions and giving feedback um to Citizens uh as as well and so uh our primary discussion will be on uh during our pre-commission meetings um and then we will have like we did previously with the uh International property maintenance code we'll try to provide an update on what we discussed and some of the changes that we made during our commission meeting um and so uh is there any additional discussion we didn't get a chance to get into great detail on discussion but is there any any additional discussion on uh on chapter 10 articles 1 and two I guess for me is uh I sent a list to the city manager with probably like 10 or 15 clerical updates and some suggestions so I didn't know if there's anything that any of the Commissioners talked to the city manager that they want to add or or change no from what I've seen so far I I couldn't find anything additional that need to be changed I mean I'll probably look at it more this this coming weekend I looked at it this past weekend but I didn't nothing really popped out at me so I appreciate you doing that you you want us to go ahead and send our recommendations to the city manager yes okay any any other discussion on that is there anything you want to highlight uh commissioner pebles there's just some uh really some like I think we need to make sure that when to pre I guess really to prevent loopholes and things like that from happening we have certain there's certain words in there that talk about like when it's describing what livestock is it lists like three or four animals and then just says Etc well we need to get rid of the ETC and say what those animals actually are because if you you don't want to getting an arguing arguing match between a citizen and code enforcement that's what we kind of want to uh try to prevent for everyone involved for code enforcement so they don't get frustrated for the citizens so they don't get frustrated um and then there's just some terms in there that uh like maybe we don't want to call animals dumb you know like 20 years ago dumb meant something different than it does today um it just just means you know that animals that don't have the same intelligent level as human beings but just little things like that um and then there's one section that talks about uh um dogs that or animals that are a nuisance I think we should uh maybe add something in there that said there's nothing in there that specifically States like if someone's animal is on my property that that's an that in itself is not a nuisance like the way it's written the way I read it is they have to be doing something to destroy my property which means that I can't just call up animal control and say hey there's a dog that I don't know who it belongs to I'd prefer it not be on my property please you know um so maybe we can add something to that or maybe be more specific on what the term nuisance means um but yeah I mean I sent a list of a lot of things uh but those are really the big ones to me uh yeah that's all I got so mayor just just to uh picky back off that one of the things that Ty and I went through both of these uh articles and just looking at the wording um it is so ambiguous in so many areas that yeah when you get to a point you want you don't want to Banter backwards and forth with whomever you're dealing with at that particular time so we really are looking for some clarity um and making sure that we can explain what we mean because there are places that's just it's a gray area and I think that we have highlighted most of those I think I sent them to the Commissioners as well um just to look at those maybe for some different language um as well as just some a little bit more meat to those two articles looking at uh what what you mentioned commissioner pebles in regards to like section 10 to prohibited nuisances where it says molest passer by passing vehicles and you you do mention here that it's vague if a dog charges towards the street to protect property territorial but stops before leaving the property is that uh is that molest and so I guess it depends on if the dog is in a fence or if the dog is not on a leash because there's been times where I've been walking and dogs have not been on a leash and we have a leash law but I don't call you know animal control and say hey this dog charged at me um and defied their owner when the owner said stop so the dog charged at me which then you know I don't know if the dog was going to bite me or not uh but the dog you know does stop uh however that was not an offense thing I was not actually even near the person's property I was across the street and again they didn't have their on a leash which we passed the leash law with that so if the dog was on the leash that would have been an issue because the dog would have been under control but the dog wasn't um so guess this as an example that yeah they might have been protecting their territory um but I wasn't in their territory and then if the dog if the dog wasn't so for me the dog was a nuisance because now okay well I can't walk down that street because and it's a it's a public road but then you're not keeping your dog on a leash and then I'm in I'm the bad person if I call animal control and say hey this person's violation violating the city code because their dog is not on the leash so uh just and I'm not you know debating what you're saying just just trying to get I guess clarification in a scenario on what does that what as you said with with it being vague what does that really look like um when we say you know they're molesting or they a nuisance it's once a week we run into a situation that we we look into the ordinance over something that's just really unique and that's when we realize it's either silent very subjective in nature or in many times it conflicts with an area that you know is opposite of it in another part of the code so I think we just need to get in there clean it up let's get some clarity to it and I think that's what what we're looking for so I think for that one I think some of the clarification might you know come into the the leash law you know obviously if they're on the leash and they charge well still you know in control the owner still has has control um whereas if they're not then that dog could attack you so but uh not that we have to Hash it all out here today but just just some feedback on on that um I guess Mr Ferris could you help us or answer looking at 10 101 in regards to the the the chickens um so of course we we have some people that have asked about chickens and things like that but I actually I don't know if the other Commissioners receiv received it or not I actually got a email um asking that we include Ducks um I think foul was originally intended as any any bird or feathered animal so that's something that we would need to clarify because they did say hey I read the code um and they were asking Ducks because their daughter is somehow allergic to chicken eggs but she can eat like duck eggs and so um that was you know was a real you know a health concern but when they look at the Cod it only said chickens as as as we say foul um so I guess as it unless we change it as it is I can email that person back and say you're okay to have Ducks yes sir um commissioner peoples one of the things we have to be careful of is not get ourselves in another situation where we name 14 different animals and for some reason we leave one out and that's just the that's when we realize again an incident will happen where it won't adhere to the to the ordinance so I definitely agree that we need to clean it up and maybe maybe we can look at what all we can include in there all right well we'll make someone happy tonight that they can there you go they can have duck eggs all right any other uh discussion on chapter 10 articles 1 and two and and please continue to read ahead um um and submit those uh the city manager and then we can try to discuss those um during pre-commission meeting and of course we can discuss them during our uh during our commission meetings as well um also we as I mentioned during the pre-commission meeting um we will be bringing chapter 2 to us uh in regards to the the public meetings ordinance and ideally what um City attorney has recommended and uh Miss Amy if you want to chime in on this that's fine as well is that we actually uh not so much change the ordinance um in regards to the you know what we want to see the public meetings happening as or the the guides guidelines for our public meetings but actually putting in the ordinance that we would make those guidelines by resolution um therefore wouldn't be as hard to adapt those when needed um if we do it by resolution instead of having you know to have two meting and then um you know broadcasting and all of that then we were just able to say okay hey this is the one meeting that we discussed this and we would want to change this and that would be sort of moving forward so what would happen is is that we would have so I guess my question uh City attorney is do we have to if we're going to insert the the language that we're going to update the ordinance to having you know the resolution placed in or that we would update our guidelines by resolution and make that a part of the ordinance would we then have to wait until the ordinance passes before we actually pass the resolution yes okay but you could adopt the resolution immediately after your adoption of the ordinance okay so therefore so to be Clarity um it actually be our second meeting in April that we would try to adopt that resolution so we would have the ordinance read first reading of the ordinance um in the first meeting in April second reading of the ordinance and then probably right after that on the agend there be the adoption of the resolution but we'll discuss the resolution before then okay so that'll come to pre-commission meeting and we'll discuss um the resolution for the guidelines and primarily the guidelines are going to be based upon what's already in our ordinance but just shifting that out so it won't be as tasking to try to update that um when necessary and there's been um some good updates that um the attorney U Kevin has provided for us uh to consider you know with some of the things that he's seen in other public meeting ordinances and and guidelines as well so I just wanted to update that so that people the public wouldn't think that we were skipping over chapter 2 that we are coming back to that um and then we're going to continue to discuss chapter 10 and then we will actually have an ordinance to approve that um once we get through all of the discussion so uh thank you all meeting adjourn