e good evening I'd like to call to order the Board of Commissioners bu budget Workshop meeting Wednesday July 24th 2024 4M city clerk would you call the role please Mayor Brooks here vice mayor tagini here commissioner Kerr here commissioner MC here commissioner gabay here all are present we have no public in attendance so we will move on from public comment to discussion items budget Workshop number four deliverable good afternoon mayor and commission I'm Robin Gomez the city manager you will hear I'll provide a brief overview of our Workshop this is our fourth workshop for our budget for fiscal year 20 25 which again begins October 1 of 2024 runs through September 30th of 2025 uh you will also hear from Andrew Laughlin our finance director who will do the majority of the presentation and also our department heads are here uh should you have any specific questions to any or each of the Departments just wanted to begin of overviews I said we we still have a couple of more workshops so we'll have one in August and or one more Workshop before the budget and then in September we will have two uh public hearings and two public meetings to adopt uh the millage and then to hopefully adopt the fiscal year 2025 budget I think as all of you are aware we are required to to have a balanced budget that means our revenues must equal our expenditures what we have been discussing and proposing have been balanced budgets uh and also keeping I think as you're aware the general fund Rises the largest portion of our budget and the single largest revenue source for the general fund uh are property taxes followed by a variety of other taxes and fees that we collect uh and then as you're aware we have multiple other funds a building fund archal fund uh parking those are some of those are Enterprise or their business like operations where they generate their own Revenue to cover at least cover their expenditures and we do have two utility funds for our sanitation and our storm water but we'll get into a lot more of the of the detail behind it um our second largest source of Revenue this is a question that we that I do get asked pretty frequently I think as all of you are aware is from our parking revenue and starting with this current fiscal this current fiscal year or last year we created the parking fund last fiscal year last so fiscal 23 we actually separately accounted for all of our our parking revenues in a separate fund other than the general fund we also account for parking revenue and the archal park fund is that is essentially type of an Enterprise fund but that's where we get the second largest single source of revenue from parking U receipts people who pay to park and also fines uh as we go through the workshop please feel free to ask any questions anything for clarification a uh most of what we're going through we've already presented at prior workshops we do have a page and Andrew will go over the details of just a few changes from the last Workshop based on some of your comments I think a couple of items that we needed that needed a little bit more clarification and but we will certainly go through any any detail any other questions that any of you uh would like we are proposing to keep the same mil back to the general fund we are proposing to keep the same millage rate at 2.75 Ms which will be our the fif fifth or sixth consecutive year of keeping the same um millage rate again we're not proposing any increase nor a um decrease property values are expected to increase um I think approximately about a 9 and a half% uh increase from the current year to from the prior year to the current year that are utilized for next year's um budget so with that again if any questions at any time please feel free to ask we are also uh proposing a few uh fee increases um including parking um and our business tax which is actually a tax that has not increased in some time um and then some fees in our community development and in our Marina the marina being a a business or an Enterprise function against some rates that have not increased in some time um and also the final that I will make our we do spend the most of our budget in the general fund on Personnel costs obviously salaries benefits there is we'll go over a chart in the packet that shows all the Personnel across all departments and all funds and there is a a slight increase from the current year to the next year in total full-time equivalence that we will go over that so with that I'll turn it over to Andrew awesome all right thanks so much Robin so budget Workshop number four on page four we've got the agenda so just want to kind of give you a general outline of what we'll be discussing so number one that ad Valor analysis now we know what the roll back rate is that was provided by the property appraisers as of July 1 um so we've got that information and now now including that in our ADV arm analysis uh worksheet that we'll go over in some detail and request your feedback on that so I'll I'll cover uh in detail what that means and then as Robin mentioned summary of changes from the previous Workshop just so you know what numbers of changes changed from what we last went over to this uh this current budget then the 2025 budget and fund by uh by budget by funded Department same format as you saw last we also have included uh 2024 accomplishments and 2025 goals and objectives by department so you can see not only the quantitative analysis in our budget but qualitatively what are we looking to what have we achieved and what are we looking to build upon and Achieve further in the next upcoming fiscal year and then uh same thing 2025 personnel and capital project information those are a lot of those same charts uh and tables containing Personnel details and and capital Improvement plan over the next five years those details are also included and then uh we'll wrap up with any Q&A and prep for the August Workshop so with that said let's just walk through this ADV vorum analysis that's on page five so what I added here is the uh roll back rate so you know what that roll back rate is and what is the definition of the roll back rate is is based on property values so will naturally by increasing property values our Ador revenues would increase so the roll back rate is what that rate is um that that that essentially eliminates that uh property value increase so that your Ador taxes from one year to the next are essentially the same doesn't take into account new constructions so it's that that reduction in rate to keep your uh property your advon property taxes consistent with the prior year and so that's moving that rate uh and that is all dependent on on property value increase and so that's moving that rate from 2.75 Ms down to 2.53 Ms we just need them if if you all want to uh go to the roll back rate we only need a majority vote for that if we want to do higher than the roll back rate but we can only get a majority vote then we need uh then we can go up to 2.67 4 then is the uh 2third vote the maximum rate allow out at a 2third vote and um and since there's five of you it would actually need to be four out of five um because three out of five is less than 2/3 so we need to have four out of five of you so if there's one denter then we need at least uh four out of five of you that would approve uh up to 2.94 one4 and that's where I stopped uh because our staff recommendation is to maintain the existing millage rate of 2.75 so to main the 2.75 existing millage rate I need at least four out of five of you to agree on that love to have unanimous opinion that yes let's keep the rate as is um but wanted to open that up for discussion knowing that those are our limitations that I'd like to get that clear in this meeting uh Because by the end of July I need to go back to in the what's called The Oasis trim system set by the state and enter our uh tent millage rate uh that will show up on the that will appear on the trim forms for all Property Owners with with that millage rate as well as all the tenative millage rates of all the other um uh locals within the city madir beach jurisdiction which all those are on the next page on page six County general fund County Health Department penel County EMS school state law school local board Etc so then I also updated up my analysis to say okay what is the um the reduction if we were to go to something uh less than the current rate of 2.75 so if we went to 2.53 or 2.67 on an average $700,000 piece of property that would result in $154 tax savings if we went to the roll back rate annually or $53 if we went to 2.67 and then you can also see what the um increase in Revenue will be from FY 2024 budget collections so you can see it's right abound flat which it should on the roll back rate difference maybe being new uh uh re Ador from new construction uh in the current tax year and then if we uh went to the majority vote maximum rate allowed that would result in 321,000 additional um tax revenue dollars um if we kept it at the current 2.75 rate which is um staff recommendation that will result in additional $481,500 of tax revenues if we want to increase it above that um to 2.94 one4 that's the maximum we can do at a four fth vote then that could be uh 883 742 of additional Revenue and then I present the historical as Robin mentioned back starting in fy2020 we've been at the 2.75 Mills uh that wasn't that increase occurred because we issued that storm water debt and felt and this uh City recommended increasing um the millage rate in order to accommodate The Debt Service payments of the general fund would be transferring to the storm water Fund in an annual basis to make those Debt Service payments on that outstanding debt so that's what's in uh page five that analysis if you have any questions let me know on that as well as then page six that's the same analysis we went through also um in last Workshop I've now just updated it instead of using an arbitrary 2.25 mils I've updated that to the roll back rate so if we went to the roll back rate what would that tax savings look like to your average taxpayer for both a Homestead Property a non-homesteaded property um and then the combination of the two so if we just look let's say for example a single family home the average tax savings to a homesteaded single family home uh if we went back to the roll back rate uh would be two uh would be $93 annually right and then what impact would that have on the city uh that would result in a l a loss of Revenue of about $450,000 460 is take $481,000 minus 19,000 so that's the impact to the city and then then that's also the impact to your average single family home taxpayer homesteaded single family home non-homesteaded taxpayer could be looking at a reduction of their annual tax bill by $136 if choosing the r back rate so I'm going to stop there I know we went through this um last Workshop so you understood what all the components of these two worksheets mean um so I don't want to belabor anything but certainly I'll I'll pause to answer questions you have based on this or welcome healthy discussion on on what you all feel is the um uh proposed rate that that we should be um putting forth uh due by the end of this month uh to uh apply to the trim notices any questions Adam mayor may ask a question the reduction in the ad tax um would impact the city but how would that impact the budget in other words where would we have to be sacrificing if we were to lower the military right well that's a consideration to make because right now the budget assumes we are maintaining a 2.75 um millage rate so that 2025 projected out of warm revenue is 5,781 153 so I would need if if we said no we need to to drop that down to the roll back rate then I'd reduce that number by 5 million to 5, 38,6 60 at which point then you could also say well we need to find areas where we need to cut expenses or cut personnel or take out or remove this Capital project or we just absorb it and it would reduce our our reserves our our ending fund balance at the end of the day so those are decisions you know expenses are what they are we're presenting you with our expenses and then here's the revenues to support them the inflows to support them both revenues and then any fund balance carryover from existing fund balance that we have from accumulation of Prior years uh to balance the budget so your budget is balanced based on 2.75 correct and then the balance the budget would remain balanced if we didn't want to cut any expenses by pulling more from from fund balance from accumulated fund balance our Years thank you I have some comments I'm getting the evil eye from commissioner Kerr I'm nervous hi Andrew how are you you're doing great um couple of points okay so if we based on what you have here if we do nothing approve the 2.75 um we look to gain 600,000 roughly from from 2024 budgeted collections we would gain 481 th000 481 th000 okay and we have in the budget right now proposed anyway to increase salaries by 6% is that correct correct that's yeah what's that look like and what's that look like sorry roughly the the impact of the 6% Cola I can I can pull that up and and and provide that to you okay um and then uh in the last year I think we how much did we spend on um retirement that retirement change it was supposed to be roughly 800,000 or so and it kind of was double that I think where I'm getting to is I I don't see any way that we should reduce the budget I I'm not in favor or the mill rate I'm not in favor of increasing it but I just want to bring up these things as food for thought and then um you did a great job with the breakdowns on the homestead and the increases and what it would mean and what it wouldn't mean but just doing a quick calculator here thing um the average home Homestead home I think you were using $700,000 as a taxable value that Y correct okay um if you're said the maximum increase could be 3% it might be two might be one but the maximum it could be is 3% which would be 21,000 so if you took that 21,000 and you multiplied it well it's what my understanding it's 2. 2.75 time 21 correct y okay for per per thousand yep 2 7 versus 2.5 times that so we have a 0.25 difference times 21 what is that it's like five bucks it's not so for the homestead residents who I feel the most allegiance to we're not we're talking about a $5 change if we maintain the 2.75 rate the city will increase Revenue to offset basically what we're asking to do to keep our staff our valuable staff with us and compensate it well and um we we just did uh for the fire department I think we just had a huge increase so the board has been um don't don't know what the correct term I'm looking for uh scrutinized for spending a lot of money in the last year year or two this board has been scrutinized for spending a lot of money I can't see reducing the rate to save five bucks for Homestead or residents um and and future boards having to look at scrutinizing what we have available for staff for fire um not even talking about our capital projects so just wanted to point those kind of things out thank you I'm also in favor of keeping the millage rate at 2 2.75% I agree with commissioner Kerr um we're spending the money to look forward to the future we have a great team we have great department heads we have great new equipment coming in um the projects we're doing is great for the city the citizens I've spoken with they the 2.75 modes rate is fine with them and it's fine with me so let's uh continue to look forward to the future I'm in favor of supporting the 2.75 Millers rate I am also in favor of keeping it at 2.75 I think in addition to the great staff that we have in the city and projects that we have going we have more projects that are coming down the pipeline and to reduce our taxes now would not be thinking forward to the future so I agree with everyone to keep it right where it's at thank you 2.75 is also my favorite um and uh we just have to also understand that uh there are a lot of uh residential units that are not totally vested so we you know so this Miller rate applies to them even though like a 3% increase every year per residents um would would not be affecting them in other words U I don't know if I'm making any sense but if if we have we have rentals those rentals are are not vested so uh we can enjoy the 2.75 that we bring in more money from from them so I'm in favor of it appreciate the feedback and just to address commissioner Ker's question as part of his observation total Personnel cost Citywide in 2022 was 5.6 million in 2023 it was 63 million in 2024 year to date it's 6.58 million so yes Personnel costs are rising and we appreciate the the support you've you've given us through the coal increases um the the increased benefits in retirement um and but it it validates your point that yes we're you know costs to run the city are increasing so um the increase in adorm is certainly helpful to to offset that okay so uh when we get to the uh first public Hearing in September so that's the other piece that I'll be uh submitting and that will be on the trim forms is the is the uh that millage rate of 2.75 that is subject to change so we can make a change uh at a at a future date just not a change upward and if we made a change upward we'd have to remail all the trim forms and if you made me go through that I might I might leave the position before I do so let's not do that um and then what we'll do is vote on it at that first public hearing so from what I'm hearing I anticipate a unanimous vote love that hope we don't throw any monkey monkey wrenches in that it should be a very quick process you'll just vote Yes to the millage and then vote to the proposed budget book that you'll have already seen on you know three different workshops previous to that um the uh the uh proposed millage date that we have right now and the meeting schedule will be September 11 at 5:45 p.m. and that would be right before our uh regular meeting at 6 PM right okay we're all on the same page I love this you're making my job easy thank you very much you made it for easy for us to understand yeah I try and please any feedback on things I can do on the next Workshop um for example commissioner Kerr I we'll go through this I did add a kind of an operating analysis pulling out the capital so you can see just from Pure operational standpoint Where Do We Stand fund by fund so I did add a a schedule for that and we'll go through it momentarily but again uh commissioner tagini the rest of you anything that you want to see in addition please talk to me separately or email me or uh vocalize it here anything uh I can add to these workshops that can help clear your understanding or give you more context I'm happy to do so so the next one on page seven is just that summary of changes from the previous Workshop I feel this important just to summarize it so you know from what we what was presented to you last Workshop to this one within our budget software when we can we can lock down a version and any changes it notates that so it's it's easy uh uh for me to identify what those changes are and then and report to you in this fashion so just going kind of going through uh each of these item by item um the first one's in the city manager Department we have the military court of honor project that was that's been on on the budget for a while and then with some project delays we feel we're going to now be uh needing to wrap that up in fiscal year 2025 um and that's an and an added 250,000 of uh increase um to that U EXP uh Capital Improvement uh GL account and that's for that military court of honor project then we've got um this administrative Services allocation so I go through an allocation uh calculation so it's not arbitrary that hey these other funds are going to just give the general fund a certain amount of money we go through a detail worksheet um for various um Citywide expenses that are borne by the general fund paid out by the general fund but other funds uh reap the benefits of that for example um insurance right so Insurance funds all aspects of of of the city and different city buildings um but it is all paid out of that non-departmental general ledger account and then we go through this allocation methodology and through transfer in and out we transfer the that allocable portion that should be in uh charge to other funds back to the general fund so we do this annually I'm going to finalize that before the next budget Workshop so we could still maybe have some some small changes in that ad administrative service allocation but these were our rough estimates and then um through my discussions with the city manager we're also uh we haven't allocated before but felt it was prudent to do so for this upcoming budget is to add an allocation for the use for the law enforcement Services contract with panel County since that's not just impacting the general fund but also impacts other funds much of which uh is the parking funds that's why parking Management Department had that biggest uh proposed budget increase and I'll again I'll finalize the administrative service allocation uh for our next final uh Workshop in August but that's what that relates to uh we also have a seaw wall project that we have Capital Improvement uh uh expenses already set but we also are expecting to realize $100,000 of State appropriation uh for that seaw wall project some of those costs are going to be incurred at the marina uh for this stretch of seaw wall that will be overseen by Marina and then some of it will impact uh archal uh to be overseen by the archal team so we've uh allocated that Revenue 7030 split but anticipate $100,000 of of State appropriation to fund The partially fund those Seawall projects and that was not in the previous version and then we also included uh an extra $30,000 for a seawall replacement at 141st Avenue for the archal that's on the expense side that we didn't have previously the next one's just adding a 05 FTE that's a storm waterer uh technician I believe that was uh in uh current year and director weer can correct me if I'm wrong but we had an IND individual that was splitting time between Marina and storm waterer and now that that position is moving into Marina full-time but we want to retain a a vacant uh funded 0.5 ft position for storm waterer technician so that's uh that position is not filled current uh for FY 25 but vacant but we want it to be funded and in the budget and then parking management we I think it's a was just a little a little confusing in my discussion with the city manager we both kind of concurred that we just have this kind of phantom $5 million placeholder for a parking garage but I think we know by now we're aware of the intention for the project but we just know so little at this point to be able to quantify it so admittedly five million was kind of a pie in the sky number so at this point we just want to remove it and then in fact that is a I believe an item on the on the workshop for tonight and then once we have a better idea of the figure let's go ahead and if that's not available by the time we issue the finalize the the uh budget book then we can just do a create an amendment during fiscal year 2025 to allocate uh budgetary funds and appropriate whatever the the the expected costs are going to be for that project but for right now we're removing it from the budget um since um it's we're not able to more accurately quantify what that true cost will be and then the rest most of those are just the law enforcement allocations of their fund increasing that administrative Services allocation that will be funded to the general fund and you can see these are the other funds that will be paying the general fund through transfers for a total of 1. 475 million and then I'll just kind of wrap up the this meeting with um and I apologize on page eight and nine the font is a little small because we try to fit it into into one page but this is basically showing you your revenues and other inflows by character taxes permits fees special assessments intergovernmental Revenue Etc and then you those are your um that plus any fund balance carryover that we need to use to balance the budget by fund and then we have our total uses which are your Personnel Services your operating your Capital outlay your debt service grants and AIDS and then other uses like those transfers out that we talked about and then um if the total revenues and inflows exceeded total expenses and other outflows then we're um then that's creating an increase in your fund balance net position available meaning we've got more revenues than we have expenses so we can park that as as reserves for the next year and so we see that in the impact fee fund where we're collecting more in Impact fee revenues than we have planned expend Capital expenditures we only have I think one project for a fiscal year 2025 for $45,000 um I believe that's in within Recreation where we're um paying for a recreation um Capital Improvement project for uh for with impact fee dollars so that's drop on 140,000 that's going to be available for next year and then same thing in the Marina fund we can see in the marina fund we showing we call it like a profit right a profit of $768,000 640 that'll be available for uh as in reserves for future use in the marina fund and then parking fund you can see we've got a a big increase 2.1 million and that's because we eliminated that um parking garage Capital project um until we know better right so we can use that accumulation to help to help fund the parking garage and more considerations will be need to be made right the the size and magnitude of the project do we need to issue debt for that so a lot of questions will come as we mature in the process of uh parking fund parking garage evaluation but for now that's why we have now a big figure that's dropping to the bottom line in the parking fund um that 2.1 million and then the next page on page nine so this was a request from commissioner cage just to say hey just show me where we at on revenues minus expenditures not including the capital stuff so we can see on um your total revenues taxes same thing taxes permanence fees special assessments all the same from the previous page and then we just pulled out Capital outlay right so our expenditures list capital outlay um are in the line below then we have your excess of revenues over expenditures and if there's a deficiency then that the deficiency um is is uh is shown as a negative right so um just about every fund except the general fund and the storm water fund are um are showing as positive so archal 1.2 building fund 536,000 Etc then we have our capital outlay and then other um other sources um which the largest other source is those administrative Services allocation those other funds paying into the general fund for the uh those types of shared allocable expenses and then the capital outlay self-explanatory and then any uh other uses by fund and so like for the general fund for example that big other use is that um is the transfer to the storm water fund to pay storm water Debt Service so that's what it looks like overall so total Citywide were in the black or positive 5,357 939 if we didn't per uh undergo any capital any Capital project activity but we've got 15 three million of yeah capital projects point out is right we have 15 million in uh capital capital outlays this coming budget year okay thank you Andrew yep so that's what that looks like um and then I'm not going to go through unless you all want to we can do another page by Page we did that last time and you kind of had asked some questions at the departmental level and we can certainly do that again but I'm not at this point I won't do that unless you ask for it I'll just see do you have any specific questions on any particular pages I just have the same question I had last uh meeting on page 11 the 74,000 on Group Insurance that's a e that's an either or either salary or insurance at least at this point I know it's a discussion item in a coming meeting but um you're right I think I failed to make that change I think what we wanted to do and let me notate that again maybe do three and I don't know three salary two insurance or two salary insurance I mean you could do worst case and just do whichever is higher and times five and call that the budget which the group in insur I think is higher the group insurance would be higher so it's up up to you or or you your or you could do you could do you could do a mix but I'm just um it's it's kind of like holding that five million in for the parking garage it's not we we know it's not there right it won't that that amount will not be expended because of the either or right scenario understood because it it looks might be more newsworthy if we take out the salary versus and leave the group Insurance wait did I say that out loud no I didn't well we'll come back and I I just pointed out as something to be considered it's being double double listed as you pointed out last one we correct yeah yeah we can do a hybrid that and just and yeah so your budget will be less than than what's listed by probably 40,000 or thereabouts it'll be less yeah because really you didn't have any increases other than that as again the the group insurance is a little more expensive than the salary I think the budget this year is 14 per uh fulltime per full-time employee it's 14,000 uh let me pull that up right now and again the salaries are 10,000 for the mayor and 7500 for each of the Commissioners you're volunteer stiped rather so we've got 14,000 for Commissioners and 18,000 for all other employees and the reason for the difference is that we the city funds um a portion of the of the dependent coverage whereas we were only budgeting for individual coverage for for all of you the Commissioners for any of you anything else on on um within here that you have any and thank you for that commissioner c i can I didn't notice anything that we didn't talk about previous budget but um leave it to others do we include grants in in our budget we do have grants yep so that would be a part of the revenues uh many of those revenues are in the nonp departmental meaning they're not really assigned to any other particular department so that's in the non-departmental department and that is on page uh starting on page 28 speaking on grants um I know we had talked about adding either an employee or or um I I guess it was it was addressed by Megan director webford that we have that outsourced now with through cers so that's one of the through that engineer of record they will do and have been researching for Grants and the availability of Grants we're also using the Florida Li of cities for availability and applications and likely bring back to you in September some of those grants that we'll be looking to apply for okay we're going to apply for those traffic grants as well there are some those are a lot more complicated than others but yes I mean we'll look at okay all that we can qualify for or may qualify okay just want to make sure we make any deadlines that's all yes okay I'm good thank you I don't have any questions any questions um if we have plans for instance to add and I'm and I'm just saying this because I've spoken to some people um let's say if we want to add some maybe boat docks to the rag Park would we include that as a part of this budget we have that coming up on a workshop don't we to discuss the previous plans of the boat docks I think that if if we were that would be that would take some time it would not go on to next year's budget probably not but but again we can always amend at any point in time and that would those would likely be some out of the marina and some out of prob I mean the general fund but we would bring that back and as right now I don't have really estimates other than what the city did a few years ago I'm sure those have changed and we would also um there is opportunity for grants for boat docks so yes when do you think we'll have that on a um Workshop to discuss it's either September or October okay thank you yeah um the first of the budget meetings I think we go over the capital capital outlays the U plan capital outlays for the next three four five years um so that's typically where it's ated in but it can always be added in later good question so if nothing else the next plan will be the August Workshop our goal will be to just put the entire budget document together with City manager's message additional narrative on the budget itself the different funds so it's really the full budget book that you see that's posted online just in draft form um make sure that you're comfortable with all pages of that um and then also have separate deliverable on again any changes from in that budget book to what you're seeing here um so we can have a little uh separate document containing uh that that wouldn't be in the budget book and that's what we can just focus on for the next uh Workshop so that can be a quick and easy one anything else um just one final it really has to do with the budget um but it also has to do with the boatto when you put that on the workshop I think we had talked about the peers down at um John's Pass Village as well I don't know where that is is probably in that same yeah it's discussion yeah the two at John's Pass off the boardwalk and then here at off of Rock Park all right thank you yeah I think those are our only two places unless we add some more at the marina I don't think we have space so yeah those are be the two locations um just another question I was goingon to ask it just came to my mind uh this is probably more for Robin um the Honor Court I know we have a budget of 250 right um do we have we actually sent it out to bid to see if to yeah we'll do that hopefully within the next couple of months okay so we don't have an exact number that might change thank you anything anything commission it is 4:45 we are adjourned for