okay e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e good evening everyone Welcome to our commission Workshop the date is um June 20th 20124 the time is now 5:38 Madam clerk roll call commissioner Kelly pres commissioner bass here commissioner Williams here vice mayor irin here mayor Taylor here as we stand for our pledge of our invocation and Pledge of Allegiance um by commissioner P father we thank you Lord God for this day we thank you Lord God for our family and our friends we thank you God for our city father God we ask that you will continue to be with us guide us lead us and protect us in Jesus name amen amen I pr Allegiance of pledge allegiance to the flag United United States of America and the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all all right we're going to open up for public comments and remember because this is a workshop we ask that you stay gerain to the discussion items at hand which is the special events and the ARA funds uh public comments is open Audrey Dominguez 1147 Jen Avenue um I went back to an arara Workshop that was done July 18 2022 I would encourage everyone to see the workshop at which some of you were there and present and you could see what was stated and promise at the workshop the city received $8 million from arpa funds 400,000 was paid to an independent consultant firm who recommended what the arpa funds can be used for the balance of $ 7,600,000 75% of the arpa funds was allocated to infrastructure 25% was left for the commission which was 1.22 n million to recommend where they would like to see the money go to um beautification projects illegal dumping abandoned structures faking Lots Community involvement swailes gateways waterways medium Parks residential commercial property appearance the Gateway appear uh Gateway estimated cost was 298,000 in a time frame of 18 months months it's been past the time frame as you already know we still don't have any gateways Sesame Street bridge design and construction start date March 2022 and end date April 2023 the cost 93744 was allocated 800 was still and it's still not started yet I've seen the signs but I have not seen anyone start on that project remember it was March 2022 when this project supposedly started residential uh painting program ARA funds um which was 20,000 and I know some of the commission even stated that that was very little money because you could probably only paint maybe four houses depending on what uh what the the resident need and I've yet to see any house painted with these funds um Park appearance and programs 620,000 ongoing we should have had the swing sets by now with that money long time ago the historic fire station restoration project cost 42,3 start date was January 2022 end date September 2023 I have not yet to see anything go through um with the historic of fire station the HR building start date January 2022 end date September 2023 the cost $125,000 and it was just for demolition building is still there um as I stated before a lot of items were promised everybody was excited about what was coming about for the city with these arpa funds yet if you if you see something tell me because I haven't seen anything done so my question to you is why aren't the audits complete and to me they're all connected to the arpa funds thank you commissioner what what was the meeting that you referenced the date of that meeting July 18th 2022 thank you all right right um public comments is still open public comments are closed all right um Mr manager we're gonna turn it over to you for shepher this process and we're gonna start with special events thank you so we'll start with special events um and then we'll address uh some of the comments of former commissioner Audrey Dominguez uh which would be presented by uh Miss Adelina gross since those are capital Improvement projects and her critiques are going to be are directed at her progress in those projects and we'll go through those one by one um but we're starting with the special events uh we requested this Workshop uh because this is the budget season and um we wanted to have a conversation with the commission and get feedback from the commission on um the direction that we want to go to or the direction that the commission would like to go to with regard to special events um I'm our financial support services department uh forly budget is going to be helming this portion of the of the workshop I'll just give a a brief 30- second overview um fiscal year 2022 we spent 42,000 um $42,000 on special events uh fiscal year 2023 uh that number jumped up to 158,000 and we still have uh we still have some expenses from uh credit cards that I didn't see included there so that number is actually a little bit higher uh and then for the current fiscal year we've already gone through 110,000 and 128,000 so you can see that we're on track to uh triple our expenses for our special events so we wanted to get some feedback on the commission on at at the request of also the state um on how we are going to uh budget and allocate Kate so what we did to kind of assist that conversation is we have some recommendations and and some caps and I'll let the uh the financial support services department uh lead us in that conversation Mr manager I missed the last part what's the expectation of the commissioner tonight so while he's doing the presentation we can know what you expect in the conversation yes so we did send a email with the project in it uh hopefully get some guidance on the commission this is the budget season so we do need to have a conversation on what the budget's going to be what events will be included uh what the budget would be for those events or at least some guidance and recommendation uh for us to take now this isn't our budget Workshop but at least if we get some guidance from you guys uh when we come back for our budget Workshop we will have a kind of idea of what you want to see okay so this is not okay that that's what I wanted to hear I have some changes yes course Mr Mayor commissioner Kelly I have just one question before I get started the presentation and the numbers that you're recommending or will be suggesting are based on on what millit rate the current millit rate the current millit rate that's correct sir okay thank you yes sir ahead yeah Nick it's the second second PowerPoint sorry we jumped the yes good evening commission mayor uh Dake schwarte senior Bud budget analyst here at the city of opaka uh I have the honor of speaking to you today about our special events uh Nick if you can go to the last Slide the city manager did a wonderful job of introducing our historic uh what we spent historically and what the budget team has put together on the very last page is what we're proposing for uh fy2 uh for an appropriate budget in fy2 we feel the number for special events should be about $120,000 in total uh so to get to this number some things are going to have to be postponed delayed until the following year uh and other line items as you may see we have uh decreased uh the allocation to those uh I want to point out a specific line item that does say commission discretionary uh I think everybody at the Das understands that the state will not allow us to have that anymore I only put that in there so that you all can use that funding if there was something that was a Miss uh so that's kind of um a reserve or an addition to if you would like to see any additional programs so the 7500 divided by five yeah 15 $100 each you know we start getting into a place where if we start changing some of this then other parts of the city have to then be looked at and scrutinized a little tighter when it comes to the budget process so um with that I open up to any questions concerns how do you all feel about what we've put together uh I think some of the things that we put together uh are geared more towards the children you know we feel that kids and a want to have a great place and want to have an opportunity to celebrate so those are some of the items that we put together and uh with a little bit of a focus on the children yeah and I think it would be helpful um to the commission to walk them through each one of the proposed items uh the first one obviously being uh postponing the Arabian nights um the Arabian Nights we estimate on the low end is going to cost the city about half a million dollar um and we had set aside $250,000 of seed money uh and was looking to raise the rest uh so our first recommendation is how the commission would feel about uh postponing the Arabian Knights uh to uh support um having an event budget of $120,000 uh given that we started with $40,000 and now we were I think we were over $150,000 last year so postponing it until when 26 yes and you're suggesting that if we take away Arabian I will then have the 120 well well this is a proposal this is just recommendation so that's one of the things that we said that uh if we uh postpone that that's a quarter of a million dollars right there that we have uh that we can put back towards some of the items in the budget okay I'm not of course of postponing it because we postponed it three times so far since I've been here and I would rather us work to raise the money for the Arabian Nights if we start now and create a date NE next year I think we can through donations and sponsorships get the money needed to have a successful Festival but that's just me Mr Mayor Williams so I'm gonna I'm going to be honest um I don't like it I appreciate your honesty you it's our best it's our best approach it was what we and I just I mean I want to tell you why because um and I've said this before we sit up here and we basically are always we and I'm saying we the five of us are always robing Peter to pay Paul for any events or anything that we do um we granted some of them may go over a little bit but that's just because that's the nature of the Beast um it depends on whoever is planning and possibly may not give us accurate budgets but that happens every day in the city every day especially what I saw on my agenda briefing today um but I think where I'm concerned and and I just got be honest is we this is nothing compared to what our neighboring cities do and for us the five of us to have to actually be short changed and go down when there're all these projects that we constantly passing all these projects over and over that norense the CIP happens I mean like I'm talking million dollar projects and I get it it's Capital Improvement that's important it's infrastructure um but there are a lot of other things that that I believe we can take a look at the budget and decrease projects that other departments are doing and those things can be decreased so that we can so that we can um be able to do and it looks like a it looks like a long list but I'm tell it's not compared to the our neighboring cities um and then of course we know some of the things mean we can see year-to-date expense there's holes right there so those some of the things weren't even didn't even happen um or they didn't require any budget they may have happened but didn't require budget in terms of probably outside um expenses or um donations or Etc can one or two things go down I'm okay with that but to say we're going to take away Arabian Knights 100% against I feel like since I've been up here we have pushed push pushed as a matter of fact this is too low that number is absolutely too low um I don't know I I see our new marketing um firm here so I don't know if it's out of order for her to speak on what that would look like but I'll ask her to come up in a minute um but it's just we're being we're being short changed I don't like it I disagree with all of it as a matter of fact I'm just I disagree with this I mean it just really makes me feel like like the city just like well y'all stuff aren is not important and then even to say like this is for the kids so we feel like it's important well the five of us feel like everything we do is important for the whole city whether it's children or seniors or women or like the statement alone just I don't know I I don't like it I'm done I I apologize the statement was my statement not not not that of the manager the reality but that is the reality as to why you know some of some of the stuff has been cut um I'm just saying and those that are blank may not have happened yet like juneth we have you know I mean that was just yesterday those things that are blank we didn't happen or could have been um um yeah could have been done or they're future they're in the future they may come in the future exactly so yeah but um it doesn't necessarily mean so I did want to go back and I don't mean um Mr Mayor to take up all the time but I wanted to go back the commission discretionary fund can you just elaborate a a little bit on that a little bit more if I may so uh we were having a uh a budget meeting uh you know we we started this whole process with trying to figure out what the commission wanted to do for travel and those kind of U budgetary items so we were putting together the budget and Brian hunter from the state was in on the very first meeting and I believe Mr Mayor was with us in that meeting and it was a complete surprise to us when he turned around and said we're not allowing that discretionary line item anymore um I don't know if you saw my face but I kind of said oh I I you know we didn't know anything about that so then I believe there was a second meeting that we had and commissioner Kelly was in on that and again Brian Hunter spoke up and indicated that and I believe if its memory serves me everybody on the dasas was spoken to by Mr Hunter saying the state is not going to allow a commission to have a discretionary fund all they would like us to do is to plan and say hey in September I want to do this and now this the managing you know the city manager we now have a events coordinator that can help us put things together in a more timely fashion uh I think that you know that's what the state is looking for think ahead be able to be Pro active than more than reactive and say hey this is what the state is looking for let's put it down on paper let's put it in the budget that's all so you know one of the line items I definitely going to make sure that's going to be in there is a fishing tournament because that doesn't show up in here but I know commissioner Kelly likes to do that and that's what the state would like to see so when we present the budget to the state it will show a line item that says fishing tournament twice a year once a year three times a year whatever it is and have a line item there and that should appease the state should Madam um commissioner if you don't mind okay so I I remember that meeting very well and as I say like I said then I didn't agree and I understand streamlining the events however our ordinance says and I told you about this Mr manager that the commission has the right to vote we set the discretionary fund that's a law that we passed here in the city so how does that how is that I guess that's the question to the the attorney and the manager I get it but the ordinance says that the commission sets the discretionary fund um through our events policy yeah well I can answer it from um from administrative standpoint uh the the state has a contract uh with your city manager's office uh with uh with the permission of the commission uh to provide them with oversight of our expenses uh including budget approval Authority so he's operating on that I did uh share the ordinance with him as I told you uh and let him know that that's there uh so it's it's going to be uh I would rely on legal to give some type of opinion of what would be controlling but I did share that ordinance with the state all right and commissioner Williamson has the floor but I will say this I don't I I understand the whole streamlining of the events I I get it and I think it's it's necessary because these are real Curr things and we know what we know what we doing in the city however you know that's where I was a little challenged because yeah and I'll give back to commissioner because she had the floor commission Williams you finished all right um mayor commissioner Kelly it's a million things on there and you out to talk about fish I just the national proba probably because it was the least expensive and probably his favorite he wants to talk about fishing I am I am a fisherman so that why yes well then you should increase that line at him more um seriously speaking I I've had this discussion um with the manager's office and and quite honestly uh we're in a tough situation we're in a tough situation I don't agree with the um position necessar of the state I understand why they want us to do it um because they have so many challenges with how we're procuring and they feel like we get stuff to them the last minute and it's not planned out and we don't have a a a followup to say how it went and an analysis whether it was effective so all those things need to be encompassed I get that side of it but I'm going to go back to the say that the mayor says that the commission sets policy now we go outside of that that's a different story so I I'll leave that to the legal uh Department what I want to look at in the events going from 2223 and what you're proposing um now and I hear my colleagues the Arabian kns and and even wanted to increase it Etc I've been back now two years when I got back it was a one amount we're going to build on that it was 250 amended and now we're talking about postponing it um again but what I want to ask a couple of questions and some of the items and my colleague alluded to some of them are have no expenses um related to them and some have obviously more the real question I just have is why did we allow this to occur because we know we're in financial emergency we know what the line items are with within the budgeted amounts and yet if we've exceeded them or wasn't budgeted um to mean there should have been something said even way before uh before now um and that's a frustration I have and I'm saying going forward you got to do a better job even of letting the commission know if the events that are being proposed what have you are over budgeted not you know sufficient enough ET ET because when you look at 23 from 22 it was you know really nothing there went to 23 and even with the commission discretionary the way it's broke down it really went only over by 4,000 so to say that the commission's discretionary has some big impact am I correct in my numbers Mr uh I'm on 23 yeah because that's so so what was budgeted including the commission discretionary fund at that time was 104,000 and we spent 158,000 so no but I'm saying the discretionary 50,000 for the commission when you break that down and all of those were quote unquote commission discretion it only went over 4,000 so it wasn't a whole lot in terms of what the commission um actually went over now some of the ones up to the top um you know they seem to have some differentiation but the ones the commission actually did did not go over by a whole lot so I'm kind of challenged by hearing the statement that I heard earlier and then with the marketing and some of those other line items that I'm sure the commission must have passed or someone deemed necessary as an expense um those things have to be um taken into account now two things that I want to just notate and we ain't got to spend all day you got to propose what you want us to do some of my colleagues already weighed in on how they feel about ravian KN so to me that was your um that was your hope right there because 250 was going to get you down uh really low it was going to get you down to 196 that was really doable so you have to put anything or more that that was your your hope right there um correct yes sir yeah correct so having said that it was going to be like if you took away Arabia Knight 19 six and that's how you kind of was looking at the rest of the items you kind of nibbled off of each one in your uh proposed um 2025 um now I do want to say because since this Workshop let's just put it out there I notice you got Bingo 24 but you're proposing six so I hope the commission sees that and I only say that because Bingo is one of the uh Premier things that happens in this city that everybody in the city regardless of young old diverse whatever attends and it's become very popular now I'm not to say that where that amount ought to be but if there anything needs to make sure it's covered in a sufficient way it's being go because all of us all five of us have seen the impact and U the positive impact it's had on the community and the diversity even within our community everybody participates in bingo so I'm a little challenged by seeing commissioner K before you move on based on a resolution passed by this commission Bingo we set an amount for $3,000 going forward per month and that's also not to his point is not included in this this budget at all that amount is actually is included what he's talking what Mr Schwarz is talking about is a recommendation so this is just a recommendation for the commission that if you wanted to uh start with the a start a discussion with these numbers well the challenge I have Mr May to pick it back if the commission has passed 3,000 okay unless we decide to do it differently in the new fiscal year then it should have been allocated at 3,000 now commission the manager's office is recommending six total which takes you down to almost you know y'all do the ma so how much 500 a month 500 a month and I I I just don't see 500 I'm just being real so but the commission passed legislation I think that's what a heartburn I have some of my colleagues we've passed things that we know as a could the pass and you're budgeting them if they're not sufficient enough you need to come back and tell us there's a reason why we do it we don't pass just to pass it you got to come back and tell us this exceeds whatever and let us decide which way because the way this reach now you're putting 6,000 in Bingo we all know sitting up here $500 for a bingo is not going to do it right 200 people eat with spaghetti in a roll but the way we do Bingo which is very nice I mean I'm not knocking that and obviously maybe we need to look at some sponsorships and I got that but that number is just too low but I I'm bringing it up because of the policy side if we pass policy on some of these things for Bingo to be 3,000 per whatever then to me that number should have been there and then say to us could we half it or could we quars we are doing that if you look at this current fiscal year on page five for fiscal year 24 which is the Year we're in it's 24,000 wait a minute what page you on page five okay I'm on five oh if you look at that top column uh for Bingo is 24,000 wait a minute now my page five is not your page five so yeah it is it's the last page but it's still it's the proposed fy2 budget it's a proposal so it's a recommendation we have a fucer obligation to make recomendations is this the one where you're saying Bingo is 24,000 Curr year to day is 11,4 6 yes 18,000 that you'll be saving that's the pro that's the recommendation now because the point I'm making is Mr manager if the commission pass 3,000 a month I you don't age with and you say that's too much that's fine okay but the commission has already set a policy whatever 3,000 times whatever yes sir that's what it should be now obviously that's going to be a high number that's what's here what the commission passed in the current fiscal year is 24,000 and that's what's here okay that's what's here so basically 18,000 is a cut the cut is 18,000 from 24 give me a give me a second commissioner yes that is the recommendation of of the financial support services but I believe he also said that you have a discretionary money that you could allocate to any additional one of these events and maybe bingle's the one that we should do how much is that uh 7500 7 $500 so if you add it $1,500 each so 7 if you wanted to add that $7,500 to bingo then you're up to 13,500 and then if we could you know these are all recommendations you might say um you think we should be well if we if we keep the Arabian kns we are going to be looking at you know a very high special events budgets and I you know I I heard what the you know commissioner William was saying and I and and I understand uh we've got Mii Gardens to our North which has a 100,000 more residents in us uh a much larger budget so it's very going to be very very difficult for us to keep up with those kind of expenditures um uh we've got North Miami we've got halia we've got Miami Lakes we're the smallest city out of all the cities that surround us so these are just recommendations from the financial support uh financial support services department to say hey how can we streamline at the request of the state how can we streamline our special events this is not written in stone uh what we're doing uh we're on track right now to hit 44684 cents uh for this fiscal year uh if we push forward with the Arabian Knights as planned uh which will start those expenditures uh securing someone that will you know create a deck um um secur in uh create a deck for fundraising uh a contract put a RFP out for a management company those kind of things right there um so we just wanted to well the department wanted to take I directed them take a first stab at it don't just walk in there and and have the commission uh have no recommendations for the commission so this last column fiscal year 25 is just those recommendations um and any way that the commission wants if the commission says you know um we want $150,000 for the year um um and we want to add some additional Monies to all of these uh items or some of these items that's one items if you agree to keep it at 120 but you want to shift things around uh we can do that if you say we might be able to get it down to $100,000 and do a little bit more cutting on some of these events or shift some things around that's the purpose we want to get hear from you all um I guess the first question is uh what's the willing the commission on the recommendation of $120,000 annual uh special events budget Mr for the mayor I'll give y'all that wonderful question I had one more question I wanted to add and I'll be done part of the discussion that the state did um bring up and I didn't see it here is a form or something that would take place after every event to show some kind of analysis of its effectiveness and its impact have you all put that form together yet so there are going to be two parts to the answer to your question that's being worked on now by the new uh special events coordinator uh Mr vet um we wanted to try to take a stab at this in two parts uh one part being the the numbers and then one part being the policies uh I imagine that one of the things that the state will respond with is yes you do have a special events policy and you're not following um one one of the things in our special events policy that we need to get some guidance on is do we want to go with the current special events policy do we want to make some changes to it because according to our special events policy uh yes there should be there should be a meeting after every uh special event to discuss Pros cons recommendations did you go over what the changes are uh special events require 90-day lead time so according to our own special events policy if you haven't announced that this meeting is this event is happening within 90 days it can't proceed so um that is a part of going to be a part of the conversation but we wanted to get the numbers first um and then have the commission give some guidance on how you want your special events policy to look I I brought that up because you you are recommending the decrease in some numbers I I just assumed somebody had some discussion to say um instead of it being 24 it's down to six or instead of being five or MLK now it's down to three because somebody's had some discussion to see based on what was expended that recommendation so that conversation somebody's had a conversation for you to decrease these numbers in some form but you haven't done it in a form or document you just did it verbally in a meeting that's my understanding that's what this document is is it not Mr Schwartz that's correct okay it's it's based on what data so what data is being used to determine that let's just say the oh I understand what you're saying again I didn't direct them to do that I said we hold one second if we spent if we I used the bike thing if we did the bike thing and it costs bike opaka and it cost $1,000 and we spent $1,000 why would you decrease it well if you don't have the money you have to decrease it you have to decrease from somewhere there's an assumption that we have $500,000 and I think the concern is we may not have $500,000 to spend on special events and what the impact is going to have now again rightly as rightly uh noted yes if we do spend $500,000 we will have to shut down some of these Capital Improvement projects if that's the will of the commission we based on the cost savings yes okay that that's what we're trying to that's ask what data are we using to get the number we're here to we're here to support we're here to support Mr Mayor commission oh I'm sorry floor sorry and then I'll go to you and then vice mayor after I'll just pause I'll just pause let let me beef for a moment go ahead okay commission William and then we'll go to Vice go ahead I can wait oh okay um so just because of the cost savings and I did mention Capital Improvement but but then again and and going back in my memory bank we're constantly increasing a lot of those Capital Improvement projects as well so so I think where I'm I'm what I'm saying and the reason why I'm saying that is is I mean and I love to J at Kyro Lane but I'm going to J at it we're constantly saying we're going to spend this and we pass a budget and then we come back and we spend more but we find the money somewhere to increase all these other Capital Improvement projects that we've been doing which have been quite lengthy we had a presentation on it um this looks like a big list and I get it maybe two things two personally I don't want to cut nothing but maybe two but nonetheless because because again they're all near and dear to our own personal hearts and these are things that we feel like will benefit uh the community in some way um so I think this that's the thing for me the reason I mean we know the mayor liked the bike right so he has a pin with a bicycle on it so as a Lael pen so I mean like if this is this is someone's passion and you know or um gospel in the park or you know the Memorial Day pool party which by the way let me tell you something you slash that Jaylen coming for you but the the I just think that they're all so important and special to each one of us in so many different ways that now we're saying we're going to slash this budget by $300,000 isn't that what I'm seeing 300,000 and um but there all these other projects that were constantly increasing because we thought the demolition company was going to do this but now they want $30,000 more we thought this was going to happen and now we need $20,000 more $500,000 more like why how is it that we can we're constantly finding those monies we're constantly ratifying uh agenda items but we get slashed like I don't like it and I think that's my issue that I have so let let me address that dig the the notion that we're not slashing all across the board and every single Department that's that's not correct um we took extensive cuts across several departments um before even having this conversation about any of the items uh on the special events um including the police department including the parks uh including Capital Improvement projects uh and also uh the notion that we're finding money to do Capital Improvement projects that's also not correct the uh carolan is a perfect example um carolan's cross the the more we learn about carolan the more expensive it becomes um to the extent that um Northwest the 27th Avenue Canal is now looking at looking like a billion dollar cleanup uh based off a toxic toxicity analysis that we have now we're already in the conversation based on some documentation that we found uh to demonstrate the county would be responsible for that cleanup and we're having that conversation with them um but Carol Lan's cost is already ballooned to almost nearly $10 million and the most that we could possibly allocate is is is likely six and and so we're having those we're having those conversations uh what can we do how can we move these projects forward and what and and what projects are just have to be postponed no I and I get it I don't and Miss gross please don't take any offense to it thank you appreciate it um no and I understand and I I get that but I think that's the thing because the commission doesn't know that and so like you're you're saying that now but we did not know that and this is the first time I'm hearing that every department is taking a slashing or every department is taking a beating we so we're sitting up here with an Assumption of what is happening and that's why I'm saying what I'm saying constantly um you know each meeting but because we don't know that information yes so those conversations started just in this budget in this budget amendment um um budget season so I haven't even gone through I've only gone through uh police uh Public Works CIP and CIP uh so that's only three of the departments we still have to get through uh eight more departments um but those being three of the largest uh we started cutting on those right away when the numbers came back uh the simple thing is is that um our City's not growing enough you know it's it's budget we all we all budget you've got to have more money come in to match your expenses where our expenses are growing but our revenue is not growing up at a nice PA we would need to be growing the city at a much faster Pace to see our tax revenues increase it's not matching and that's where the rub is our expenses are going up like this and our revenue is like this so that's precipitated I think we only had like uh was it like uh less than a 5% increase on our tax revenue this year um so those are the numbers we have to work with those are the conversations that we're going to be having with you when we go into this budget season that um if we're not going to if we're not going to this if we're not going to grow this city or at least uh if we're not going to grow this city we've got to cut back on these expenses Mr manager I'm sorry now I'm a little challenged if we set a budget in the beginning of the year based on the revenue that we knew was coming in and money was not expended on those projects then there should be a savings correct correct all right for example so so then to commissioner Williams's point we ratify a lot of things because we're spending more than we're taking in because we're using money for other projects instead of using the money for the project we set it so we said that we was going to spend $5 on Parks we should have only spent $5 on Parks but when we're getting ratifications that okay now we're gonna ratify that we spent another dollar then that dollar adds to another dollar and then that we found addition so now you're telling us that we didn't spend the $250,000 for the Arabian kns so that's a savings in but you're taking that away it's we're not taking it away these are recommendations for the commission to choose if they like and not choose if they don't like these are only recommendations we're not taking anything from the commission uh we'll be more than happy when we get through the budget season and we get through all the Departments to show you all the cuts that we can find uh we're not taking anything away this is not we are on the same team we're on the same side these are recommendations based off this is we get the we get the budget season starts when the county gives us what they expect our tax revenue is going to be for the next year the moment we saw that number those numbers we met and said we're not making enough we're not going to bring in not projected to bring in enough money from our tax base to cover our rate of expenditures right now what do we do but the project that we did not do this year was a savings so that should roll over to the next year corre on October 1 that will as as he demonstrated to you some of them even though you saw you they're zero lined out it's because they just haven't happened yet juneth being one of them no I'm not talking I'm talking the overall the overall picture of the city the overall budget because there are a lot of projects that we were supposed to complete or start this year that we didn't go forth with but they're still budgeted so they would it wouldn't go over as a say if you didn't do the project and you do it the next year you're still going to need that money to do it the next year correct so it's nothing saved it's just the time frame of what you're going to do it changes so the so that money rolls over to the next year yes to do that project but at the rate of expenses so it's a equal equal like correct so if you didn't increase your expenses which we have which we're doing if everything doesn't increase like the resident say then we would be fine but that's that's that's not the case but we didn't that that's my point you're you're proving my point we save money in parts of w yet you're cutting if we save then it should be what we save plus I'm trying my best to explain the process and I don't know where I'm insufficient in the explanation but these are numbers um we'd be happy to sit down to you or or have you show us where we're missing where where we're where all these savings are that we have the three of us have not been able to allocate and identify but I just don't think that's the case uh we've gone over these numbers over and over again these numbers are what the numbers are um we will do everything we this is the will of the commission we work for you all um so whatever guidance that you give us we will move forward with but this is we have a a fiduciary responsibility to let you know where we are oh I'm sorry Vice May I'm wait okay thank you hi um I hear you we can we can probably do this till next week I understand that you're just getting some feedback from us so that you could move forward let me give you my feedback okay maybe instead of us doing a weekend event with Arabian Nights maybe we have to do a one- Day Festival can we do it for 250 we could try I'm sure okay um with um our Christmas celebration I'm not I mean looks like it's going to equal out things are going up every day unfortunately um I would like to see Christmas definitely not go lower if anything possibly a little higher um I know we I don't I'm not sure what kind of tax revenue we get from apartment complexes but I can tell you with our Christmas toy drive a lot of our residents come from apartment complexes um I would like to see that increase um our tree lighting um our tree I'm not sure listen the tree that we had this year was absolutely gorgeous decorated and everything if they could give us the same price we had last year and that M Remains the Same I am happy cuz you know the tree was nice and it was decorated beautifully compared to the year before but I'm not going to talk about old stuff there's no cut there are no Cuts in the Christmas tree celebration or the Christmas lighting okay and I'm not sure for the city's birthday celebration I was heartbroken when I saw that it was only a $15,000 budget I was heartbroken because the year before it was 20 and in my head I still had 20 however maybe there's a way that because we do on that Sunday a gospel portion um maybe that gospel in the park can be combined with the city birthday I don't know if that would help us in any way I'm not sure um I could tell you that Easter when I was in the store this Easter those baskets ice baskets were starting $15 $20 for Easter baskets and you still haven't given um you still have to have like the music portion of it you still there's a lot of other portions that you have to have for the the Easter event um Halloween I'm not going to cry too much about Halloween um there was a time that we used to charge like $3 for each person to go through the haunted house I wouldn't want to bring that back but um I'm not going to cry too much about the Hol that one um Fourth of July fireworks are rather expensive if you notice for the uh vice mayor yes uh this was the only event that I weighed in on that's the only event I weighed in on and we actually increased that by $5,000 if you see here it was budgeted for 20,000 uh and we increased it to 25,000 because we have never been able to get the fireworks for less than 20,000 correct I understand thank you so much sir yes ma'am and um I'm okay with the juneth um karaoke you're gonna negotiate something with our karaoke guy I see um a decrease here so you're going to negotiate that Mr negotiator that would fall on my office okay okay because karaoke has to stay um I like our MLK uh walk it was um our school book bag giveaway um $4,000 I kind of thank you for not changing it but that's a set thought of $20 per bag yes but we also do other stuff well I'll get some donations okay because we feed the families and provide other little we made it almost like a family day out in previous time um the track Invitational meet I'm not sure what that is I see we took that away completely correct yes yes okay because I don't know what that was um and and I shouldn't be selfish I should discuss all of them but we discussed Bingo already um as Comm my commissioner Williams say everything is near and dear to us but we have to do what we have to do um I know that our community after not being able to do community events for so long I can tell you that they are hella excited that we do do events now and um I would like to be able to continue to do events for them um because it does make a difference it's sending your child to school with BOS on when everybody else have on Nikes and that's how we've been for so long we're doing nothing but all of our surrounding cities are doing something and we do nothing we did that for so long and I too have to say I'm glad that we're able to do something for our residents um here here as of late [Music] um yeah I didn't have my glasses on but that's all I can see for right now okay thank you thank you may commissioner Williams had a hand up okay thank you okay um thank you Mr Mayor I just um we can just circle back to Arabian Nights really quick is it possible through um the mayor Mr manager I can have Miss mockins AB come up really quick absolutely thank you I know I'm putting her on the spot I'm so sorry the street said they didn't recognize you miss SP hello how's everyone doing Jessica modkins hip Rockstar 12386 South West 82nd Avenue Pine Crest Florida hi Miss marus hi um great to see you great to be see yes so happy to have you back um quick question if you can give us and I know this would just be hypothetical or just assumptions in terms of Arabian kns um we did budget it $250,000 um I know you do events for other cities and of course we know we would have to start off small before we get to specific scale um my question multiple questions is that a sufficient amount to start off something here in the city of course it may have to just be like a one day or thingy um just I guess what are your thoughts around this budget and can we swing it in 2025 okay uh can you swing in 2025 we're 6 months out May I say something else before I answer your question so I've been listening to this conversation and there's several things that I see that hasn't been discussed nor do I even know if it's something that you have considered my experience in other municipalities I see these things missing Revenue they charge for things I don't know that opaka charges for anything those things that I have been involved with with the city has has always been free they charge annually they have Decks that are put together that talks about all of the events that they're doing for the entire year benefits of their relationship with with the city and whomever that Corporation is is solicited those sponsors are brought to every event every month you have different sponsors or the same sponsors who bought in to that sponsorship for that event and it's not necessarily an annual sponsorship it's multi-year you sign a contract with Pepsi as your bottler for your parks department that is a multi-year contract it's not just a oneoff event and then the last thing is other cities have nonprofit Partners so the city actually has a nonprofit entity that solicits for sponsorship Andor to pay out for whatever it is so for example one city that we do their their event with the money that they raise goes into a fund to to assist the residents to be able to pay bills their utilities that they may not be able to pay so there is this fund that is pulled out and it helps so all of the things that I mentioned um kind of cover and assist in you all being able to give back to your stakeholders going back to your question now six months um are if it is in the summertime of next year I think that you have enough time to fund raise to be able to plan and have an an event $250,000 no because I have heard some of the vision of what it is that you all wanted Arabian Knights to be and $250,000 when I heard the manager say that was seed money that would be seed money you would need about half a million dollars to do that to do okay going back to the the city that you referenced with the paying the bills if we did a festival equal to what they do there what what what does that look like here I believe you're asking me financially MH it would be a half a mill yes so if we did that here can do we have time to commissioner Williams point to raise that money let's just say Springtime what are we looking at Spring April April April of next year no if we start off with the seed money of 250,000 no okay but if you decrease what you wanted to do use existing things that you have within the city and not come with AV is the n is the main thing it's going to eat up your budget the jumbotrons the stage the lights it it would go to almost a third of your budget would go towards just getting it to a point where you can have an artist of a Anthony Hamilton per se get on stage to perform and Anthony Hamilton be $20,000 no five 5000 5,000 that's it that's all so let me ask you a question oh that that was a joke that was J that is was that was a joke was their event do you remember how much they spent on that event roughly is can I look in my computer but but Mr Mayor remember I've always said it's going for us to do this I didn't say great as a nice starter it's going to be $500,000 it's going to be every bit of we did source that those numbers so we went to other cities I one of the uh contractors I met with was uh indeed Jessica mockins as well as two others we went to two other cities I met with the city manager of one what does these costs look like and based off of what they did and what we wanted to do that's where we got $500,000 and the determination was made that at that time uh we could set as we could set aside $250,000 and raise the other $250,000 as our goal commission Vice I I I mean we are in the process of redeeming ourselves and I want us to be mindful when we start talking about sponsors and stuff like that people still they're still watching they're not so that we can do what we're trying to do yes we are changing the narrative but there's a lot of sponsors that's not going to come our way and yes ma'am and and to add to that um when the question came up can it happen in April and utilize the ability to raise the funds the funds have to be raised with a relationship it's not just going to be that we have X amount of events for the calendar year there has to be some sort of relationship where they deem that they want to invest in what you're doing they they see the value and your residence and that is something that has to be projected so I'm sorry Mr Mayor so you mentioned one thing you mentioned was fund rais who would take on that task whomever you all decided we we've never decided that never came up until now yes ma'am I was just pointing out a couple said was great know this no I mean I'm saying well we decide but I what I guess what I'm saying is would that be someone from the our city Side would be that person or how does that no no ma'am he said no okay everybody said no okay the other the other places would that be a contracted service out yes correct yes ma'am so it's more and then my next question you talked about Revenue if I was Pepsi the owner CEO um would that look like they see all these events that we don't charge um you mentioned Revenue before um would they feel like they're going to get return on investment if they gave us $20,000 for Arabian kns but yet we're not charging for anything so maybe our residents are so conditioned to think that where everything is going to be free that Arabian Knights may be free as well and may not want to pay I'm just curious would that be I'm thinking there there is a um through the mayor I'm sorry uh there is a learning curve that you have to consider uh I'll liken it to church when you're constantly having events for your parishioner for free you can't just one day say we have William Murphy coming and we're going to charge $50 per person there has to be a um you have to teach them for lack of a better way to describe it if it is something that ending up saying we do need the support of the community and we would like to charge for these events then maybe uh youth groups these youth groups get free tickets uh these schools get free tickets and outside of that it's a nominal fee and over the years you would raise it to assist so that the city is not having such a burden but I would never recommend for you to come out and in the beginning stages have these fees uh for your residents if they're not accustom to it I pay taxes I'm notay Mr Mayor commissioner Kelly um the question is going to come down to what the commission wants to do uh what Miss markins is saying is the same challenges why the Arabian Knights eventually didn't go any further years ago because it got to the point where the city was subsidizing it so much much and some of the other cities that she's worked for initially were subsidizing until they had to go out and get sponsorships and charge Etc and that's that's what makes it long-term viable but what the city should have done years ago which was a major challenge um even from the Das was to create that nonprofit arm to really do the fundraising to take on that whole task and take it out of the city's hands and so if you're looking at longterm that's probably where you're going to need to get to anything short of that I don't care if you push it back another year two years whatever to make it really viable you got to she said change the um culture the mindset I will say the Arabian nights as a as an as a festival was not all everything wasn't free you know there there were folks who had booths everything they had to pay for the boo you know the lemonade people that came in had give you so much and they calculate that based on what they thought they could sell it's so that that can be done um I I think for me um at some point we've got to have an araban nights Festival we really you know all of us talk about it you a lot of our residents have talked about we're going to be doing it and I've been back now two years we still haven't done anything so I'm just saying whether we start on a small scale you know if it's not 250,000 if you're going to wait for another year that there really is a commit commitment uh since you're here to put all those things in place even if you don't want to start but you got to start somewhere otherwise we'll be in 26 and still don't have an Arabian Nights Festival I'm not trying to compare to JZ the gardens or North bames uh whatever or highers whatever but um we've got to start somewhere we've got to start uh somewhere and so that means part of the uh charging for events and that's going to be bit peel the swallow but again Arabian kns itself was free to come in walk around but the vendors were paying you know there was other things that people were city was selling T-shirts or whatever so there was Revenue being being made and then it comes down to the timing of it because a lot of your artists depending on what time of the year is they're cheaper to get than they are other times you know if it's cold up north they really want to come down here in the in the winter time that's why raban kns was so successful early on because they want to get out of the cold and come down here so I think it's um it's doable Mr Mayor and to my colleagues um Mar give you some some some good um analysis I'm just saying if we're going to commit to Arabian nights and we're going to do it we have to start the process somewhere whether it's not a three-day if it's going to be a two-day but you know if you want to push it to 26 because I'm out of time but we can't keep saying we going to have a festival and it's 26 and never have anything you know because we're study spending money on other stuff so um you know we need to make that decision I I would hope Mr Mayor um because I know you've been talking about it with some of um prior to us coming back as you've been budgeting for it so if we don't do uh the raban night is really what the manager is suggesting but if the commission's will is to do it and I think we need to say very succinctly to the manager what we are looking at for that first initial whatever it is and when it would be um very clearly and need be done within this budget uh process but I'm going to go back to the same statement I started with regarding all of these items whether we keep them slash them and some of us have weighed in on and I didn't even give my mind what I thought should be added uh but some have it's all based on the same millage rate that you currently have please don't lose that the translation because that has a major uh impact um in this whole dialogue and discussion thank you Mr Mayor Mr Mayor I like to ask a question and we're all opans here before the Arabia kns went Belly Up didn't we start charging when it moved over to the airport yeah we Char and it went B belly up okay thank you all right okay never done that but my my recommendation Mr manager for the this events is that you have individual meetings with us because we we have not accomplished anything and we still have to do the Opera I gave my suggestion because there are a lot of things that are on here I have a lot of things that I want to add to it and we have been just talking in circles for an hour in change so I would like I see your face but I I suggested this two months ago that we have individual meetings to get the input and then you bring it back at a later date in a more opportune time Mr Mayor so that we could and then you that way you can State your claim as to why and this is the reason why and because a lot of the things you said tonight to commissioner William's point we wasn't privy to so it yes sir but again that's just my suggestion thanks I'm Mr Mr manager you meeting with us individually uh do you have time for that like is it is often very very difficult to meet with all members of the commission individually on any items I know extremely difficult but we will try but we have agenda briefings every every other week so you can do it at that time which is when we have MS so this is important so I would assume that the commission would make time yes sir the budget season and then by the time we come back to talk talk about this during the budget season we should be prepared and ready yes sir and Mr Mayor commissioner Williams and I I would completely take make time albeit school is out I am still working but the children aren't there so that's oh uhhuh so I can definitely make all the Time in the World to meet with you thank you thank you thank you all right so moving on so our hearts and minds are clear as it relates to the special events budget hopefully all right so moving on to the um Opera part of the workshop all right so um I I'd like to um I'd like to address some comments that were made just to clear the record um I'd like to uh invite Miss Adelina brup uh to aggress to uh give a progress report on the gateways uh give a progress report on all the efforts city has made and time spent to move forward with the Sesame Street Bridge um give her findings uh with what we found with the HR Administrative Building and those and those costs uh and all the hard work that you've put in to try to move those projects forward please good evening commissioner mayor oh major and Commissioners sorry ad CIP manager um just to clarify July 18 2022 we did had a workshop it was a CIP uh Workshop to present all the projects and all future projects for the city as well in that Workshop it was included uh so ARA recommendations that the staff completed at that moment um that included sub and drainage and also some Bradway uh work that was only recommendations not adopted projects or projects that were currently happening or in the case that they were currently happening they were in earli stages of design and regarding fire station HR building that project did start the design January 2022 however the city requested that an investigation was completed through the architect to see if the building was actually a national historic building as it was claimed my apologies as he was claimed uh that took Al around six to8 months to be completed it turned out that it's not historic as part of the national record or state record that's the information they was given to from us to the from the architect and the building was in stly age of design at that point by April 2022 however uh that Pro was stopped by previous management and it was stated at that two Us in administration and that Pro had to stop because it had an point that s the SE the building was going to be knocked down so the the HR building the fire station the HR building and the fire station for okay yes because this is a combined project when was that that was um informed To Us by the previous was the time a April 2022 2020 I April 2022 202 do you have two years here okay APR 22 2022 yes so by July um it was the project was uh BR back it was again the design started again so survey electrical and all that planning had to do had to be completed through the architect that has been already the project the plannings are currently at 90% as as as I stated a few minuts ago uh we were going going to be receiving the plans in 60 days that's still the the schedule of this project and we are still uh haven't break uh we haven't still put out that proposal for construction yet so as far as the estimate that is written in this budget or that was presented back in 2022 is an estimate from 2022 as we know uh prices have changed and construction has increased and Sesame Street bridge that project was in early stage of design we had we had a hard time getting permits for that particular project from Miami day County because we have a canal and that Canal is going to be not affected but it's going to be um perturbed when we do the and we do the construction so they had serious concerns also there's a forc m a SE Force M on that section that goes to under the the Sesame the the Sesame Culver so that was an issue for the county so the permit we actually got it last month to be honest last month um and our all and all the records are there so we went to design arifi answering to the county reviewing the design submitting again having all of this so now the contractor is ready as it was stated earlier yes the sign is put everything is completed um procurement U process is completed from the contractor shop drawings need to be approved for the project because this is a very sensitive project it's not only a road that you putter it's actually a cver that will convey water and it has impact order infrastructure not only the road yes we want to finish it but we want to do it well gateways and G G weights so last year it was is there was issue an RFP for this project we issued the RFP with the conscience that we were going to be um restoring the two main uh entry gateways that will be the ones on shasat and the one on 175 and the rest were going to be modernized and the idea is to make them all look the same so an RFP was issued June 2022 June 2023 sorry a contractor was selected by September because in the meantime resolution and all the rest stuff by September the contractor was selected we had several issues with the we have several delays with the previous contractor um regarding documentation and that contract was terminated as per convenient for the city that's the uh the term that was used at that moment and we are looking for another route the other route is piggybacking uh a contract with already established price that can provide all the services and restoration for those uh for those ENT Gateway signs we are already working on that item has been submitted to the administration to present it to commission so you will be seeing that soon any other concern that I may address mayor but the Gateway is was that already a part of the original oper plan no I have okay so what was presented in 2022 was the Leist of projects I don't have them here so we presented uh 4.2 Millions for stone water and roadway projects we presented um 2.1 for water and sewer infrastructure improvements and that was a 6. 370,000 uh 370,000 that we that was allocated not even allocated it was proposed or recommended by a staff at that moment over time those projects and priorities have been not modified I will say because um B I will step into your presentation for today but where is that that you're looking at I don't see that all screen that's what you were referring to commission oh that's July 18 2022 that was the presentation on the screen at the moment that presentation commission K thank you I I'm I'm I'm G try to maintain my calm yes sir I'm really trying to maintain my call Mr manager I'm looking at something from July the 18 2022 they ask do with Opa infrastructure now I won't speak for the vice mayor but we didn't come in until um end of the year 22 I asked when I came back anything related to ARA anything the commission had passed or discussed I never got this information I never got the information that um the fire station ETA was trying to find historic designation 68 months to find out that it wasn't distored I never I never heard that never got that never knew hearing it now maybe was told to the commission my colleagues including the mayor they they were here so maybe they can help me that it was stopped in April of 2022 but I didn't hear you say it was stopped by the commission no it was stopped by the manager yes so the question I really have was the commission notified that it was stopped that or why that I don't know sir that was the previous manag previous manager yes okay who who was handling this before you got here uh Mr AR Austin okay well then Mr manager Mr a ought to be to tell us because the projects haven't changed and so that's my frustration managers might change staff ain't changing and I'm going to say that it relates to the seson Street Bridge because when I brought that up way back to meet me Monday almost a year and a half ago we had challenge with the with the procurement process because the bids that came back were higher than what we were proposing or what our Engineers had said I said then we need to get on top of the fact that folks are giving us the price that it's going to cost $5 and all the bills are coming back for 10 it went back out and it still came back where they wanted more am I correct because I I want you to you know am I correct it came back it still what they wanted was still more than what we recommended or our Engineers thought so we had to change the whole thing and so he still why up paying more again staff doesn't change even the managers change so I have a challenge with seeing this this long in the process because it's not new now the Gateway signs or the commissioner made some some uh modifications pass some legislation so I won't deal with that one but I want to get Madam clerk Madam clerk I want to get all of the documentation from July 18th Workshop meetings whatever that was given to the commission at that time I want to get all of that all of that because I'm hearing and and and M Bross is referencing stuff that I don't even know and my colleagues mayor you all might know how to remember it but I don't because I'm challenged that it takes eight months to find out that a building is not historic and who how much do we pay do we have a consultant that we hire to find it out or we do that internally the architect that's uh completing the design for abilitation of the building was in charge of that part of that portion and it took them well you said 68 month yes so it took them that long to find out yes because they search National records uh I took overover CIP on M that was already happening uh and by the time we received information we what they notified us is no National records no State records recognize this building except for city of opaloka records as a as a historic fire station or historic building okay I'm going to say this in the context because where we are now is not going to to go backwards we got to go forward and I'm saying is really to my colleagues and to the man's office going forward with these projects whatever they are we have to do a better job of the time frames the timelines and holding folks accountable eight months is too long to find out if a building is historic or not I mean I could probably Google and find out something histor quicker than that and then they're getting paid I know they're getting paid they weren't doing it free no course same thing with the Sesame Street bridge I said with the engineers and Architects we hire in that group and it still keeps happening even now where they're coming back saying to staff saying to manager management is going to cost 100,000 when these folks be on it it's 250,000 there's something wrong with that analysis when everybody's beaing much hiding we're projecting then we got to come back and that's where you got to find extra money yeah that's where you got to find extra money to make it work so this SES Street Bridge from originally from where y'all probably thought back in 22 or whenever I'm quite sure that price has gone up for what it's going to probably cost well no they bid on it we wind up selling with some amount but again we got to do a better job um with that with the projects but I want to get that information because I I have not seen that I asked for when I first got back um and again managers may change staff ain't changed that much so there's no excuse to me so Madam clerk if I can get all of that I would appreciate it um because I was not here and I would theer to my colleagues on it was stopped and where they notified and all that good stuff but okay true the major to commissioner Kelly uh commissioner Kelly I do understand your concern it has been a concern that our contracts that we have currently for either Construction engineering or other services that we procure are not strong enough and that has been a concern from our department that is not strong enough that we cannot enforce uh for our Engineers to provide us or to go after them if they give us a price and then that price changes we do understand that price changes because they just work with a if with an fdot lease of price of lease that of price list that uh that provides an standard number however when the is not only changing on prices but also changing on these signs because there was an oversight on their end we don't have a way to hold them accountable for that I I appreciate you saying it I've said that numerous times and I'm saying that to my colleagues now as well because going forward with whatever we wind up projecting or whatever is recommended and the commission passes you're looking at 6 million whatever the number more projects coming on board or being uh put out there and if you're not going to have close numbers you're going to still want have the same challenges going forward so I I Mr manager I would suggest that you um maybe get with the attorney to find out how you can tighten those things up because I I've said it too many times you on staff is saying as well so it's something the commission needs to pass to make our process more stringent because I've seen it numerous numerous times and with these projects that you're probably going to be mentioning or talking about in a few minutes some of them could fall in the same category we're going to get told that it's $5 and the number is going to come back in $8 you know um doesn't make any sense Mr Mayor one Madam attorney one second commiss you madam attorney yeah I just want to you know kind of weigh in here um when Miss gross says the contracts are not strong enough we were just talking we have no idea what she's talking about because what happens is when when they go over the amount it's supposed to come back for you all to review it it's not supposed to be just them doing the work and then it gets ratified or an amendment later that's not supposed to happen so if it goes if they reach an amount that is not contract for the work stops and the work is supposed to come back to the city commission to do a do a do an amendment to the contract for the new amount to extend the time whatever it is but what's happening what's happening what's actually happening is you know Agreements are being made and work is being done and and you all don't see it again until it's comes back to us as write it up for a ratification so we don't even know that this stuff is happening and in addition to that we don't determine whether or not when you put out an RFP whether you decide to do a bond or not or whether you decide to do any other thing a lot of the stuff is being done as a part of the RFP process so these are there we don't approve that they're bidding on that they're putting it with a contract and that's what the contractors are supposed to be held to but in all of the contracts there's a date there's a period of time they're supposed to complete it in there's a scope of services there but but when decisions are made that exceed the scope of services that exceed the time that exceed the amount those are not things that are defects in the contract those are management contract issues and so I just want to be clear you know what we're talking about here so we've gone you know back and forth a little bit and trying to explain that to the um the CIP director and I I guess it's just not designating in any kind of meaningful way so well let me just say this let me say this what I what I've said I've said I'm very clear on what I said and I think Mr manager and Miss gross because it's not the first time you've heard this and I'm really saying for the benefit of my colleagues because there money that's going to actually have to be spent as you get these projects off the ground hopefully get the ground particularly theseal with OP because they got to be encumbered and all that good stuff by a certain time so futuristically going forward whether it's contracts or or has to be ratified or it's the attorney State needs to be done and come back um you know you can have those discussions but I've mentioned what I'm saying several times now and here's another example of right here so thank you Mr I don't hold time I want to hear about the projects Mr one second one second um Mr manager I just wanted to go back to the Gateway through the mayor the Gateway and I didn't want to if if I recall did wasn't the previous um marketing firm involved in that Gateway project as well the firm they assist they assisted with the RFP but they had nothing they had no involvement with the contractor that was selected and move forward move forward on the uh I guess what I'm saying is I recall because I was excited I mean we were all excited um to have that Gateway um done but I recall having these conversations inside not only on the DI but you know our our um weekly meetings or whatever so every other uh the brief and and those gateways were a solid like it was solid the plan was solid it was ready to go they were it was it was going to happen and so much so that the the marketing firm themselves a particular person also was involved heavily in the design and and uh what that's going to look like and and spoke with a few of the members of the Das about you know we're ready to go with the gateways and now it's like all these months later it was like what was it the the the was is it cement like the whole thing has to be redone because it can't even be but it was I mean literally I'm just saying the language has to be so clear when we're having these conversations with Commissioners because remember you all are having your conversations and then the conversations that we have are like kind of Hit or Miss or we you know and other people are involving themselves because I do recall that particular marketing firm involved themselves in the Gateway and the discussion of how it's going to look and this is going to be it's ready to go so when we when we convolute conversations like that it's not on you it's just it's when we convolute those conversations and make it seem as if this is a goal it's a Sure Fit when it's not I think that's my concern I keep saying that it's about backwards planning we're not backwards planning if we look at things Global I don't know I think I feel like I'm a broken record if we look at it Global and then we work our way up to the goal then we won't always have to keep moving the goal post but every time I turn around we're it's a goal and then we have to move the goal post more because we can't reach the goal of where we as a boore establish and I think that's why it's frustrating and I keep and I'm going to say it again it almost feels like we're robbing Peter to papay for Paul right now so we have R and I've said it so it's not like you know the um anyone else but so we have these constant ratifications and we have constant you know agenda items where we're increasing other things and so in those increases now let's decrease the commission budget in order to pay off some of those increases that have to be have to go other places and so that's the part that makes me think like something's happening here that if the commission has to suffer and we have to have our budget slash because everybody else because it's called planning proper planning not piss poor planning I'm sorry I got to just say it so that planning is not happening because we're not we're we keep moving the gold poost and every time we move the gold post we're moving it higher higher EV that gold poost is getting more expensive and we're paying more to other things all these other little 50,000 100,000 and 500,000 that adds up and so I think the commission we we need to stop and step back and look at how many times in this fiscal year we've moved the gold poost or allowed the management office to move the gold poost and because we're going yes yes yes to certain things and nobody's saying to us well by the way this is going to impact the budget and decrease decrease what we we got to increase over here but this is going to take away from over here we're not if those conversations aren't being had here we are right now it's being had and it feels like it's it's it's not a good feeling because I remember that Gateway should have been done contor M Madam uh vice mayor uh to commissioner Williams there are a couple there are a couple issues here that are completed I want to go down those directly um because it seems like the notion is that uh as you said piss poor planning or the incompetence of staff and and I want to sorry I didn't say that I never used the word incompetence so I'm I'm actually take that back okay I'll take that back I never said that I never use prer to be called prefer to be called incompetent rather than piss poor planning but I'll take I'll take it's called planning so it it's um this the statement pport planning let's let's talk about this and I and I can recite these off the top of my head and it's not to the pport planning let's talk about the gateways um every document that we ever looked at said that the date ways were constructed this way that um they were built of a certain center that they had a certain Foundation every document we have every document we relied on one of the gateways happens to get struck and hit so we go put out a RFP we get cost based off of that information one of the gateways get hit and we realize that it's Hollow not only is it Hollow so then we knock another one down and it's Hollow too which dramatically shifts the cost of those gateways and then we have challenges with the vendor so then we are going back and negotiating trying to move forward but the notion that is his Port planed on our parts because all of the documentation that we have says that those documents were solid and they're not and that dramatically changed the prices let's talk about historic City Hall historic City I went back to 2016 and histo all the documents in historic City Hall and you can attest to this because I had you look at it as well had the elevator system constructed a certain way with a certain amount of Motors that could be utilized when we start to go in there when we start to go in there we realize this is this is all of facade this whole thing has to be replaced and that is not pport planning on administration's part we review let me finish we reviewed all of the docu we reviewed all of the documentations that historic City Hall it wasn't pport planning it was Discovery now let's talk about let's talk about the police station the police station had legal undocumented fuel tanks in the ground and we discovered one um I went through the county I went through the state which those are supposed to be documented no city has the authority just to put a fuel tank under the ground that has to be authorized by the state and the county that you reside in city of balaka put fuel takes underneath the police station not one but two with no six yes yeah yeah talking about the two we just six fuel tanks in the ground which is an environmental hazard with no documentation whatsoever so of course we're now we're now have a demolition cost and we're kind of fighting in the blind so we docu I think we had uh a budget for four and we discovered two more fuel tanks there was no way for us to know how many fuel tanks were in the ground and and that is a great transition to the conversation of ratification ratification is something that we do to save the city money and to save and save the commission time it's also Al administrative decision I as your city Manor have no problem whatsoever ending the ratification process completely but let's talk about what the ramifications of that is going to be every single time a ratification is required we will call a special commission meeting to see if that project can move forward so if that's the middle of the night if that's a Saturday that's what the special commission meeting is going to be to say hey this is what's going on we need you guys to make a decision on this immediately so we can proceed because if that doesn't happen if that doesn't happen a project that cost $1 million could cost $2 million and never be done why because we saw that happen before I wasn't here but we saw that happen with the historic City Hall when a vendor stops working on a project it is extremely difficult to get another vendor to come down there and finish their work sometimes they can't get bonded sometimes they're just not willing to do it because they don't know what the cost is going to be or what their work is going to be so when we do a ratification when we do a ratification is so that we can preserve the cost that we have moving forward with the information we have again I have no problem suspending the whole ratification because it's an administrative policy and procedure so we will never I can direct them to never do a ratification ever again we'll be calling special commission meeting we run the risk of not being able to complete some of these projects that are underway so this is not this is not something that's done that the ma the management team is pport planning or we're just doing whatever we want and we're robbing Peter to pay Paul um again the issue here is is not that we had cost overruns at at some of these because all of these projects have uh Mo not all of them many of these projects have contingencies and many of them have stayed within their contingencies because this is construction this is development we understand uh here in the United States that you get a cost whether it be your home or whether it be this building you get a cost for a million dollars it's going to turn to be one million point1 commissioner Kelly walked us all through that process when we're we're looking at the cost for the air conditionings it's it's a it's a fact so the issue here and it's not it is not to point the finger the issue is that the city's tax base is not growing Swift enough to cover the expenses that we have projected that's what it is uh we had a very very very low uh uh tax projection that we got from the state about what our revenue is going to be so if we're going to continue to have Arabian nights and have these expenditures we have got to grow this city we've got to uh we've got to get some shovels on the ground we've got to put some multi-million dollar buildings up we've got to do some we've got to complete some things so that we can uh so that our tax base increased so that's the reason for us you know having these conversations with you about the budget so I just wanted to you know say those things to kind of clarify let let me um let me just respond so in all three of the examples the discovery should have happened before it came to the commission for RFP and because there was no discovery of the the tanks or the elevator or everything else that that is increasing for every project that we're doing because it does most of the projects that we're doing are being increased for whatever reason I'm saying why is that discovery not happening before it comes to us before it comes to the commission make sure I understand your question understand statement mhm it is your position that Administration should have known about the elevator before putting it out for the RFP should have known about the tanks in the ground before putting that out for R and should have known about uh The Hollow Gate if there's a if there's a systemic issue happening and what the systemic issue is is we say 1.5 it ends up to be 2.5 or we say 500,000 it ends up to be 700,000 that's systemic that's happening what I'm saying is is then why are we going for RFP for 1.5 when we know systemically things can happen in our city that's why I say if we have a goal we keep moving understand what saying because we don't have the authority to continue that when something's outside the scope of work so if the scope of work says a b c and d even if it doesn't change the cost if we're if we're going to allow them to do e we have to bring that back to you and I just wanted if you don't mind um Madame vice mayor if um the City attorney can um respond to the ratification issue so it's not only the ratification issue it's um doing amendments without them coming back to the city commission so I actually just pulled up just by putting in a word search email sent one just this year February of this year to miss gross and Mr Willams and um Bas M Miss sha basically saying um you know I'm following up from uh a a meeting that they had and that I pointed out standard language in the contract and all which is in all of the contracts which talks about if you're changing the scope of work or you're doing additional work you have to bring it back to the city commission and you have to do it in a form that says what the project name is the description the project cost the estimated cost for additional change so that's the stuff that we're not doing so there's no issue with the contracts the issue is so you have an example of that excuse me I have an email that I sent to you it was February 27 was February 27th 2024 at 1:45 p.m. and I'm telling them what language and how it has to be done so consistently what's happening is things are not being brought back and then they're just being either just done or um and maybe there's no change or there are the people are just billing them um and then the city is somehow paying and I don't know whether it's coming back or not you can't even track it I don't even know um but we're not getting these amendments unless we're getting ratifications so that's what that's what kind of the issue is the issue is not a contractual issue the issue you would be protected if you followed the process of the contract so I don't I'm I'm not sure if I answered your question but it's you know it's a it's a miror of of different things that are happening and and I don't know how they're being tracked quite frankly Madame vice mayor yes uh to commissioner Williams um this has been an issue uh that the CIP manager has been attempting to resolve uh with the attorney's office for over a year there has to be at least a hundred email requests can we do this can we do that would you help us would you and more than importantly uh when we have our next meeting what I would like for the I will I'm requesting that the CRP manager be present with all of the emails at least for the last 18 months where there's been requests to support and change this change these contracts in a matter that would be fashionable in support uh of the cities of the cities and the administration's request so that would be provided to you in writing and we can walk through those please do Madam attorney Madam attorney excuse we're not going to do this today thank you so I'll be more than happy to provide that documentation to you as in black and white and emails I'll provide it to all members of the commission this is not an issue that we've been trying to push uh to the commission we've been we've been jumping through hoops to try to keep these projects moving forward I've uh intentionally told the CIP manager Let's do let's do whatever workarounds we can but if this issue is going to be bubbling up to the commission we will provide all members of the DS with the documentation that the Administration has been attempting to resolve with legal and just for the record I have no idea what he's talking about with relation to this issue because this issue of a question about ratification and my the point I raised about not following Amendment and amendment process that is something that can be done right now it's not something I I have no idea how he's blowing this off on something that legal is doing so I'm gonna move on because I don't want this to be about you know our department or anything like that but it's ridiculous thank you Miss Madam um vice mayor yes I want to go on a record to personally apologize for my comment um because I know it's going to be flipped as if I'm speaking on speaking to the man to then all the employees when that's not the comment that I made but I know it will be and it was so I'm going to personally apologize for that comment and um because I know it will be but nonetheless um I don't want to go into I think that's the frustration that I'm having and it's been four years um and I would I was hoping that in these last two years I would see some movement in a lot of the arpa projects when you talk about July of 20 2022 um I was the mayor then and so having not seeing those projects that should have been happening should have taken place of a a something a a boot on the ground and it's it's a little disheartening because we do see other projects happening in the city and other people's again I think we have to prioritize and so if the commission is asking for certain things to happen it we should see it happening I don't I think we'll be here all day with the arpa because there's so many conversations that have happened I know um there was a community workshop with the arpa as well and the community wanted to see some other projects happening I don't know where that fits into this Workshop as well um we saw beautification I don't know where that fits in this because I I don't because the backup like it's not much um backup to to from 2022 to now and I apologize for that I had requested that all of the workshop documents be included in the backup and apparently that didn't happen so I do apologize for that commissioner Williams we will get those documentation to you uh of all the previous work work shops and uh thank you so much Miss gross uh and we'll have the financial support support team uh now walk walk us through the projects M um um Madame vice mayor yes before you move on I just want to State for the record since I've been drug into this situation um I have asked for since the last meeting when I made it clear on the record that you all had not come had seen ARP of uh funding come back before you I asked Mr anathan as a public records request which I shouldn't have had to do to provide any and all email that he would have had with the consultant so I could try to figure out what in the world this stuff is um he gave me any and all email and it basically had nothing in it that was substantive the only um the email for the most part like 80% of it was about the guy not being paid but it had no contracts it had nothing that he had prepared it had no advice that they had given um I asked for then can you give me a recording of any meetings that you may have had with the ARA consultant so that I can kind of figure out whether these things on this paper that basically tell us nothing fit within the legal requirements of what funding is supposed to be given for arpa I still haven't receive anything what you have is what I have and I just want to put it make it clear on the record that if anything comes back later where this is approved and something is not done um consistently with the arpa funding I have nothing really in the descriptions to even look at and try to figure out and the consultant that you all have paid thousands of dollars to the staff has nothing to justify what that would have been I don't know whether these were telephone calls that Mr anathan was has was having but he's asking questions nothing's coming back as responses and and they're still sitting bills so um you know go figure but I want to put it on the record to make it clear that you know we still just like the commission's asking about what supporting documentation uh there is we don't have any as well thank you thank you Madame vice mayor yes so um since we are clearing the record I I I want to give the full background story there the original statement that was made is that the administration had not even gotten approval to secure Consultants um and and legal stated we where did you get these Consultants where did you come from I don't know who these people are when this was actually an item a resolution that was approved by legal so that statement that was made was compl completely false I'd I'd also clarifying the record i' I'd also like I'd also like to say that Mr anathan has worked hand inand to keep the cost down with the Opera Consultants I was very concerned about spending $400,000 for somebody just to talk to us which is essentially what they do to say you can do this you can't do that so he was very judicious with getting on the phone with them um I don't know why there was an expectation that he could have recorded it I think that would have been a great idea Mr Jan had you recorded it it would as I had asked you for some of those documents a year ago uh it would have been a great idea had you recorded it uh however the the notion is that Administration is somehow just doing whatever again doing whatever they want and not bringing stuff to the commission and and uh we don't know where these Consultants came we don't know where these Consultants came from and again we are following the request that the commission laid out that the commission approved uh to the letter and uh at this stage it is my as at this stage is my understanding uh that we are presenting all of these projects to legal for their review uh at our future at our future commission meeting so if the if legal has all of these projects will be presented again to legal in one resolution uh it's already been prepared if the commission changes anything tonight or it be the will of the commission change anything tonight we will update it and edit and brings all the projects back uh for a one-time approval so it not seem to be peac mail which was a concern that you know uh every two weeks we have a arer project that gets approved and and not the whole package so we would be bringing the whole package that's the purpose of this Workshop you know following the last Workshop we will be bringing the whole package forward after we have a discussion with you and you have any feedback on anything that you might want to say and we actually have a recommendation too um with the historic fire station with the historic fire station um the cost that we have as Miss Adelina Bross had put uh for the admin building is a lot more higher so one of our recommendations if there be the will of the commission will you let us take the Mone some of the money that was set aside for the fire station and put it toward the HR building because we have enough money to do one but not enough money to do both so we look forward to um having this Workshop getting it complete getting your will getting your feedback and bringing it back to you next week as a full package for review and approval thank you one last thing um no okay no thank you Mr anathan was about to speak so yes thank you I do have to make one statement really quick um Mr manager if you can get a old school shade put um put so many times up here well they put the they did put the for that have maybe what you saying that they'll do it I've been telling this for the longest I've never received that from you sir flag yes that might help I've never I've mentioned that several timesed to you and to lost well they we talked about they put the put the flag that's not enough flag they put a we'll get a shade we'll get a shade for you okay it's gonna work I'll side back some I don't know if we're done I know Mr anathan is gonna come up with more presentation but I think my expectation um for this Workshop was that we would go back to see what was discussed from 2022 um and there was a lot that was discussed in 2022 I know commissioner Kelly you may mention that you know you weren't here so it's almost as if we had with 2022 is a long time ago and we were also in still in the in the pandemic kind of sort of coming in or out I don't remember but it there was a lot of um discussion and a lot of changes um a lot of conversations not just on a diet but then of course what there was a a a community Workshop as well and so I think my expectation what I thought what I think I would have wanted to see out of this Workshop was I'm G say it again backwards planning um what we what was talked about and these were some of like nice little bullets of these are you know I saw those three but that was pretty much it and then here we are in 2024 and then and here's what we can now check off what was done from 2022 to 2024 and I'm saying I if you're able to do that because I can't do that like I can't see I can't quite understand with this backup what so that we can say okay this was done or partially done and now I can we can now move forward with the next item or the next you understand what I'm saying thought what I I mean we haven't gotten very far in the offer portion of the workshop I thought that they would give let us know where we are what we expecting to have done and that kind of thing but we're not it's not here though 2022 isn't here so if there's a separate like slide U Madam um vice mayor to commissioner Kelly excuse me uh commissioner Williams um yes the it's all the same information the information from 2022 to date the projects have not changed so there uh what you see uh on page four that's all of the community projects that were selected and what you see on page five are all the other projects so there is nothing that was discussed on page 22 oh excuse me in 2022 that's not on pages four and five but we talked about beautification in 22 that was a discuss with the commission yes um but these are the projects that were that the commission gave the direction to proceed on okay so I'll wait because I I guess I'm trying to find it and I don't I don't see like when I go back to what I'm looking at but go ahead mday thank you very much if you could um do your presentation in a way that it discuss all of the projects um what's been completed and and I starting with Pages four and five yes sir good evening Bob anathan financial support services uh before I before I do that I'd like to make one point the what you saw before was a CIP presentation of which the arpa portion was just one part did not have arpa had nothing to do with beautification or anything else the only thing that was referenced in that cipe presentation said arpa money is going to be uh spent on the Utility Fund so during the presentation the workshop an awful lot of things were covered but they were funded from different sources only only thing that was going to be funded with arpe is water sewer and that's basically where ma'am POS possible to get that slide back up again um Mr anathan is going to pull up the the slide from that work from the workshop please than thank you if you see right there there are three different groupings the ARP of thing down beneath it it says storm water water and store had nothing to do with beautification or anything else so at the time we talked about six to seven billion dollars of water sewer storm water projects and that's what we're talking about today so if there's confusion about beautification being in there other such things I I apologize but it was not in there and it was never intended to be in there so the commission individually never met with anyone to talk about our plans for arpa as well we didn't have that conversation not just we've had workshops that we said we were going to focus on the utility funds and that was uh that was where the money yes ma'am sir okay there was some discussion about Community work well let me just cover the schedule very quickly if I may please go back to the arpit presentation please very quickly okay next slide please right here is the history of it there was discussion about the community uh involvement there were uh one and a half million there were six project different packages put together $250,000 per the community was given a chance to pick four of them which would accumulate to million dollars project so the community input was uh recognized at that point and will be addressed again tonight during the presentation next slide please next slide please these are going back to what we talked about a moment ago these were vice mayor I don't know you want us to hold all our question in or how you want us to do it yeah we could just yeah yes please cuz will'll never get through it if we okay he just got to remember the questions that's all good gu okay he got the answers he got them we'll try so very quickly this was the community Workshop this is what the community selected it is a million dollars as you can see it was broken into one project had to be broken into pieces because of fourth and fifth projects time but this is what we're going forward with and this is as I said a result of the community community involvement to select the projects are interested next slide please these were again this is what I showed you on May 22nd I'm sorry I'm going to digress for a second the City attorney I'm going to get into the fry I apologize but it was brought up as me being non-responsive and that's not the case at one day she said I need to see all the emails it was given to her 36 hours later she sent me a follow-up set of questions I answered every one of them that's the last I heard so that that all occurred within probably a two-day period so anyhow back to this this is the project so we're presented two weeks ago and uh basically I can talk through them or I can answer any question anybody H may have at this point in time I will point out that the Consultants bottom line we did have a contract with the Consultants which we used to guide us to keep us out of trouble we as the manager said we use it very judiciously we said please take a look at the project we want to do are they sufficient under arpa they came back and said yes did we have a did we record it no we did not uh I should point out the uh $735 for the Consultants that's all we think we uh are going to spend it this time because it's our understanding based on the commentary of the May 22nd meeting that the projects would be basically vetted and overseen by the City attorney so we don't see additional expenditures there I can address address any other line item that is of interest that we didn't cover two weeks ago okay commissioner Kelly thank you uh let's go back to your page two yes sir um we engaged the consultant in on June 10th to 22 yes sir the community had a workshop on the 23rd of January correct yes sir tell me what happened between June 10th and January 23 we did not move forward with all speed we knew we had the December 31st 24 to worry about we want to make sure we all the projects we identified would be in state to be uh encumbered by the end of December of this year so from June 10th 22 to January 23 we didn't do anything we worked with the Consultants to get we had an initial meeting with them uh recognize how they were going to staff it we decided we did not need that level of support we did ask them the questions between that that and uh as as time uh progressed after that so we decided that we were not going to need them no sir what we decide we when we had the first meeting with them they ended up putting something like 10 people into the meeting which really didn't contribute to anything so as the manager said we recognized how they were going to do business and we decided we could be much more effective just asking questions of them getting guidance when we're in comtable with something so so what did we accomplish that's what I'm trying to get at since we weren't paying them because they had too many people so we decided to do it ourselves so we weren't paying them no sir we decided not to have these big meetings that were the staff for we're not paying them because we're doing it oursel now uh okay on the calendar you can see at the moment we had a contract that was based off a state management contract let me let me remind you Mr an I wasn't here so whatever occurred I'm I need to know specifically you have a consultant engage on June 10 yes sir from then until the 23rd of January 2023 where that Community Workshop was held that's the time frame you're saying they brought too many people to the meeting you decided there too many we don't need and we're going to do it in house is that what you I said we were G to use them judiciously we we didn't spend any money well as you can see we spent 7,000 bucks over the last year and a half so we only spent 7,000 so we've not spent 400,000 no sir okay so he spent that amount of money so we had the community workshop on the 23rd um now again my colleagues are reference and beautification whatever and I'll wait to hear those comments U that was part of that the initial um I guess April July 22 meetings okay so then May 24th I remember the workshop I remember the community came out and they decided you know on the proess I I remember that so that 1 million there I'm not really referencing but we knew that that was 1 million that the community had said and and you know we were going to go by that so from January 23rd to May 24th tell me what has happened what has happened is we knew what projects we want to do we want to make sure that they were going to be in good shape by so they could be fully encumbered by December of this year as it turned out one of the projects that we thought we were going to do uh because of design is isues we had to take off the list but we did not we were just making sure the design all various projects were ready which project is that we uh the one that had a drop off the list was Pump Station 12 it's not on the list anymore so all of the items other than Pump Station 12 um that have been identified are there the 1 million per community and so from the 23rd of January up until now oh well until May 24 of uh this year where this consultant says contract expiration we've gotten everything together yes sir why is it taking that long to get them together and I don't know what together means you got to Define that for me uh in most cases me is making sure the design work is uh done in time so that the uh construction can be encumbered and who was doing that work who was doing the work who was doing the design and all that Engineers uh ours uh that we hired I'm saying that the city has is a part of our yeah contracted Engineers not city employees no same ones that I referenced earli gross about EXA not giving us numbers right and all that the same folks yes there it is again my colleagues there there it is right there and January 23rd to May 24th in essence outside of the 1 million projects that were selected by the community um and now we have May 24th the consultant I guess contract expired we no longer need them anyway I guess cuz that's not a question not need them but the contract for the moment has expired okay so the contract expired we've only paid them $7,000 right some dollars so does that contract need to be continued because I just heard you mention earlier that the attorney could vet the things now or whatever that was our that was our understanding from the May 22nd pardon me I said that was our standard from the May 22nd meeting that the attorney would vet them that the contracts that uh she was the one responsible for ensuring that the program adhere to the arpa requirements why would the attorney be responsible for the adherence of arpa contracts that I'll um because I'm trying to well well then why do we have them in the first place okay and then now I'm picking up on the back end vice mayor and um through the vice mayor I'm picking up now on the back end not even knowing I said I haven't heard anything since what I mean by that is I still have no descriptions of this you all directed in the last meeting when you talked about this for the management to get with me and and come back nobody got with me the only thing I got was the email I requested from Mr um anathan he sent me you know basically stuff that didn't say anything and now I'm in a position where they look like they're putting it in my lap so my recommendation would be yeah go back and get whoever you had before to look at whatever else this is because they obviously have more information than I do right now to say yes go forward in whatever form they did which sounds like it was just verbal so I am I am uncomfortable with with this I don't know what all of these things mean or what they go for or what what the projects were supposed to support I have nothing and and it's supposed to be um procured all of this is supposed to be procured so that's unclear even what what procurement took place so with that I just I I feel like I've adequately put it on the record and I'll be quiet okay let let me get my other questions out and then my colleagues can um okay so that time frame till now nothing has really occurred other than the community weighed in I won't deal with the contract for the consultant you made a presentation on the 22nd to the commission meeting I remember that and um obviously having a workshop here um today now I want to go into the projects themselves because I thought as my colleague said that's why we were kind of here um to really do this the community selected projects this is your page uh what I know three Community selected projects a million other projects Etc what is the total amount of ARA funding currently not encumbered it must be done so by the 31st 31st of December right right the on the last page you'll see the expenditures the only one that is act an active program what page are you on well I'm talking to let me STI stick on page four of the six five projects listed there the only one that's active as it says on the right hand side is the rental assistance and that's been $155,000 so far today both so the rental assistance is $15 5,000 yes sir okay so that's the only one that's at the I'm sorry I'll take that back the I think the uh the line above it the uh one that says Helen Miller seal Ingram Park renovation has been fly covered sorry where where you at on the same page page four yeah but I think it's better one line above it okay so the the hel Mill Eagle parking Park renovation yeah uh manag just suggest we go to page seven which shows what's actually I believe what you're really asking commissioner Kelly is p what you been spent what have you spent what have you done right there I just try to wing it from page four but I think that what he's asking is so this is all together commissioner Kelly is asking about Community selected projects yes sir this is all cumber together of the community selected the two are the rental assistants and the one of bottom hel Miller SE Ingram Park Renovations okay Community all right so you got a A all right the community projects that you have that was brought forth by the community um you mention rental assistance and you mentioned Helen Miller and you go to page seven that's 180,000 151 yes sir so those two total is all you've those are two have been either expended or incumbered at this point yes sir okay um so if you take those two numbers and again I'm trying to to look at the community what the community selected because Community selected all of these but yet we only have two of them that's partially encumbered or whatever and then I'm looking at the rest of them are ifp underdevelopment underdevelopment um Ingram initial phase which phase is that is that for the Ingram side the seagull side how M that's for the uh singal park that's for uh the pathways and parking it's under contract so we actually have a contract that's been for that just been told yes been told yes I thought the answer is yes but it's been confirmed so that's the pathways and what else lot and a parking lot so we have a vendor encumbered for that which is supposed to start when and the contractor will be starting next month next month yes okay so assuming no I'm not going to assume so that's the first phase Pathways that's under contract so we can count that because that's encumbered 155,000 from the rental system is encumbered and then all of the others that you have on page seven um in various pieces are encumbered so total you have a million3 th000 incumbered out of 8 million yes sir okay so in terms of um all those that are encumbered but not worked on that includes everything else I guess so good everything that outside of that that's encumbered but not worked on yet fit under the it's not encumbered in some cases the rfps have come out and back in other cases the rfps still have to go out okay um so the community projects that are under development RFP are they all do back by when they haven't those rfps have not gone out yet they they have not gone out yet you ask Artscape and trees those have not gone out yet uh fire St HR building has been talked to that has not R out yet okay and it says the commercial grants will be presented in June so that's presented that was I know I missed the meeting so no it has not been presented I checked today apparently it's in the pipeline been submitted for approval for legal sufficiency as I understand has has not come back yet okay um so basically much of nothing has really been encumbered although you got them there yes sir so we're still waiting on rfps for development on two of them in terms of Artscape and trees the Helen Miller seagull Ingram Park the pathways and the parking and how much of that is is that um contract as we saw on the other page 188 that that part is 188,000 yeah that's the part so then for the Ingram seagull Helen Miller you only got 70,000 left left to go yes sir to go that yes sir okay and the other projects that you have listed here the um on the other projects that I guess your your list yes sir um given that the community voted on those I'm I'm real hopeful that they're going to come back um real soon to get to the commission so we're not under the the the the quickness of having to approve something to get it encumbered and then have the challenge later on on all of these um that are infrastructure related or engineering related we're still using the contract as Engineers that that group that we're I referenced earlier that's still our point2 group yes sir okay so the arpa for the water main 500,000 and going all the way down the list that total equals 6.9 correct yes sir okay um want mention Caroline so how much money do you have after the million for um the community projects assuming the perfect world they don't cost anymore because you're only 30,000 I guess over if if I understand the question properly there is going to be a million dollar allocated but I'm not sure if I'm answer your question properly I mean it's a million allocated but according to your your numbers um of what you've expended in C already you you're going this would be a million3 already yes sir today correct okay out of the 7 million n we obviously have about6 million n to go terms of incoming yeah that's just not right you got six I haven't got there yet so you got 69ine on the other projects correct okay but my my biggest concern with all of these [Music] um none of them are really ready to roll and a lot of them are still under development why is it taking that long to get these that far I may have to defer good evening again and I will go project by project so we can we can discuss it um I think this is page five please 135th Street water main there is a water pressure issue for fire hydrant in that section so that's the reason this project has been included this is the recent added project to this because this is an emergency project basically uh Rodland water main meter relocation no no I'm not I'm not you don't have to explain the project yes what I want to know is why is it taking so long yes and the RFP is underdevelopment or just went out or haven't come back nearly complete all those things on the right hand the explanation given the fact that they've been identified through whatever process I'm not I'm not challenging why you decided or why you picked the project why is it taking so long considering I go back to the time frame of May I mean of um 22 and even getting to June to January 23 here we are in May 24 some of these that I look at and again I could be wrong um you knew you they were issues you know you're going to you were going to do these why is it taking so long to get the RFP under development why it Tak so long that the um RFP has not went out so most of these projects that were selected on like pump stations all of them were the on the early stage of design once we complete design design usually takes between six to 9 months sometimes even longer we have to go through the permanent process and then after that ADP is developed by the engineering company with the specifications for all those projects okay I I don't want to just belab the point but I'm looking at some of these pump stations some of these rehabs some of these things they're not new that they're not new in terms of needing um work done I I won't get into specifics they're they're not new but yet I'm looking at some of them where um the RFP like I said to be develop under development when we've known over the course of time the challenges now maybe we didn't have a funding and so we're going to use arpa funding but that that's where my my questions really are and also like station 9 16 and even the 133rd Street relocation you got proposed received they reive so when do they anticipate coming forward commission one thing I wanted to point out the first three project I mentioned a moment ago that pump station 12 had to be taken out of the list the first three are new within the last two to three months so that's the reason why they're not under not fully uh developed veloped at this point in time I I'll defer again to Adelina in terms of the technical question but I want want don't you understand the first three are new and that's why they seem to be lagging behind the rest of the projects okay then Caroline I guess is the moving Target it says it's out until July and that's because we've seen some what some other changes and the RFP Su it to be out in July we are still under permitting with Miami day County so so we spend the 1.9 of arper you're saying other so to complete that is going to require another 3.7 that you already I'm just looking at the same thing you're looking at is it grant money sorry sorry I I didn't follow that question okay you got 1.9 you says other 3.7 oh yeah and the RFP is out it's going to cost a total of 5 it's going to be 5.6 million right so the .7 I'm saying we already have that funding yes sir from other sources we're just going to use arpa 1.9 to correct and it says RFP it's Ted to go out as Adel just said you know there's been a permit issue so it's just I think we just got the permits approved within last couple weeks RFP is not going out yet okay um just to clear the record we haven't yet me we haven't received the permits yet just to clear the record um yeah so we uh we actually I had to get involved with that one commissioner Kelly and have a meeting with durm and and send a message to Mar kava's office and also had a meeting with the uh County CFO uh because D durm had refused to provide us with uh permitting and it was until after those meetings that they uh were uh directed uh by the uh leadership uh down at the county to move forward with our permits okay uh my last statement and my colleagues I know they have questions my my concern and and what I would hope to see from uh the manager's office all of these underdevelopment um you know 2B whatever we really got to look at them almost on every two week basis or something to keep the commission really informed of where they are because outside of that we're going to get to September or October uh you know with a whole bunch of last minute trying to encumber stuff and probably still not going to hit the ground with any shovels until January but at least we encumbered um and that that's really concern I have with looking at these but I thank you for your your answers um thank you madam vice mayor you're welcome are there other questions I might be able to answer um I think must one more out there well I don't know if it's a question it could be um just I just wanted to and I'm um I'll repeat it when commissioner bass comes um through the vice mayor uh the minutes for the July 18th meeting were just handed to us I am employing imploring that's the word I can't that the Mission read these minutes page by Page get a highlighter get multiple colors because you're going to see from two years ago that we are here talking about the exact same thing that we talked about in July 2020 22 right here it says commissioner dominges acts at the city has a time frame by which the American Rescue plan act fund needs to be spent Capital Improvement projects director Miss gross informed the commission that the arpa funds needs to be encumbered by December 31st 2024 and spent by 2026 I am going to tell you you're going to see when you read these minutes why I'm frustrated why the mayor's fr frustrated because these minutes are glaring and I know you just got them so it's hard to understand why I'm saying what I'm saying but I'm telling you read I'm asking every member of the Das read these minutes because this this by by far and it is Page by page of Mayor Williams asking what's the million dollarars going to we discussion on ification I was just told nothing has to do with beautification what's Artscape that is beautification I I stand corrected medians and swells I stand corrected um renovation of the parks that wouldn't fall kind of sort of I think it would because it beautifies the parks see what I'm saying it's that it's that back and forth I got people out here no no beautification I know and it's Pages where I know that I spoke on beautification yes ma'am I believe beautification there is a much bigger expenditure than what arpa was going to be used fortification I believe is Mr anathan please go back and read the minutes yes ma'am I'm asking you to yes ma'am and everybody else that that is involved because there were when the million dollars was presented to the community beautification what would you like to see under it and it's there this what would you like to see under that that's why you see it there under Community because we allowed them and we quite frankly only gave the community $1 million to to do what they you know thought to to to be done if anything moved that should have moved like nothing else fine I could have sat here and saw underdevelopment I mean I wouldn't have liked to see it but we on page three of the minutes mayor Williams asked what percent of the May arpa funds is being proposed to go to Capital Improvements Project Director Adelina gross said 70 to 75% of the funds are being proposed for Capital Improvement it's there yes ma'am and I think that number has gone up to probably about 90% exactly y did we vote on it I don't know did we vote to to take more and and you see more and more where I'm asking what about this 25% what about this percent PE Commissioner of at the time vice mayor Taylor we're all asking questions I'm just saying now if you can't see the frustration that I'm having yes ma'am it's it's outlined what we wanted to see and so again I'll say it again because whether I'm here today or another commissioner is up here those of you all that are new here you're going to be frustrated that you're talking about projects and ideas and you want things to move in the city and it's not happening so I mean I know commissioner Kelly you know broke down but really nothing Community selected projects I mean underdevelopment underdevelopment initial phase I don't know why anything should have taken this long the even the rental assistance didn't even take up the whole amount no ma that's Progressive as people appear but is it happening we don't know because we're not getting briefed on that we don't know we we I don't know I haven't gotten a brief on the rental assistance in a very long time when it comes to um to under ARA funds so we're left to sit here and just guess what what is happening here I know you didn't get to other projects I think you did because I was too busy reading the minutes and getting even more upset but it's just I don't know so when I see things should have been done because it's on record it's right here it's on record it says December of 2024 well what's next December what's next December 2025 2025 and then we 2026 the the funds got to be is done we're on track for that and I'd also like to point out everything you mentioned is on page four it's it's there the Artscape program is there the trees program is there it was said that nothing fell under beautification I was say that that is in accurate because I said that no man because he corrected himself but but you know no I remember this yes ma'am I was thinking you were talking about uh trash pickup and things like that I was wrong because that was all part of the beautification portion Madam vice mayor yes just for clarification I was wondering if Mr anthan he said something earlier about um something waiting legal sufficiency and I was just trying to clarify what he was referring to when I checked on that today I was told I was submitted to the city attorney's office and had not been uh I think it was originally scheduled for the June 12th uh commission meeting and when I checked today I was told it it had never come out of the city attorney's office you mean it had not been sent to us correct no man my understand that's not true I'm trying to that's why I'm trying to figure out what for some time the commercial R program that you have said significantly that we need they Community Development has submitted it to you for several times and you say it's not sufficient it needs more documentation it's not ready but it's been s admitted to you for several times for legal sufficiency let me let me um Let me clarify because that is absolutely um inaccurate so what we were what we were asking what we were told was that something fell under arer funding and that we should look at under ARA funding right and then just today I actually asked about the same issue was it dealing with historic homes is that the is that the issue do you know what do you know what it was about Bob because I'm trying to figure out what you're talking about because what I'm what I'm and that's why I'm doing it in in the open because this is the only place I can do it but there had been something that had come out was it do you know what it relates to Bob so that we can track what you're talking about there was a can you Bob it's commercial grants I know I understand dealing with historic property no that that was the question I received today the uh the agenda item on the historic uh historic properties have anything to do with arpa money Bob answer the question commercial BR no well answering the question I was asked today answer the question I directed you to answer the subject that is under arpa is the I'm sorry now I'm sorry the commercial grants thank you indicated there okay so is that the item that's on the next agenda dealing with is it on the next agenda is it on the next okay is that the item that we were giv is that the item that we were giv that we were given an application for with no backup is that what you're referring to well I'm not sure what you're I'm not sure what you're stating but you've been presented with the commercial grants program in several different reiterations and you you've rejected it several times for lack of legal sufficiency not sufficient backup and uh We've presented you with actual uh applications from and several different other cities is never sufficient that's what we're trying to figure out because we neither one of us know what you're referring to are you talking about an item that's going on the next talking about an item that's going on the next agenda because I don't want I mean we wouldn't be M attorney yes let me just say this you know I I I try to trying to stay calm in my last few months um to this commission until y'all have so we not y'all so we have a meeting and get all of three folks on the same page we're going to have this challenge we can't keep ignoring the elephant in the room okay we can't keep ignoring the elephant in the room and I'm not going to do it I this a workshop so we can't pass nothing or really discuss nothing we're not voting on anything but I'm going to put that on the record it keeps coming up with information regardless of who you believe something is not correct and for the city to move forward with all of our challenges under State emergency with oper funds that still have not been uh encumbered we've got to deal with that and the mayor's not here so I'm just saying it but I'll say it again next week as well we have got to deal with that you cannot move a city forward where your three folks are not on the same page they ain't got to agree on everything they got on the same page and we're not getting information we're not sure about certain things even amongst ourselves even with the presentation and this is the last thing I'm going say and I'm going to not say anything else I tried to scam this and the more I scam the more frustrated I am looking at some of this stuff vice mayor you ain't had a chance to look at it yet but when you look at it I'm scamming it some of the stuff I've seen that was projected and proposed and looked at and even got project cost and funding or whatever and has not been done I I'm going to look at the whole thing but um for the Workshop you know we presented the information um we can't do a whole lot because everything is really under development but when you tied to look at some of the things that I've seen here there is some some glaring question as to why the process has mooved um so slowly but I appreciate the uh information that's been given but I'm going back to the statement I just said this commission is going to have a real heart to heart with our um three appoint folks you can't keep ignoring that it's not good for the city it's not good for the progress of the city and we saying that ad M be it's in your hands Madame vice mayor the clerk just gave me what we think the manager is referring to which actually is something that was pulled man pulled by the manager excuse me Madam attorney yes ma'am can you and the attorney talk about this I'm sorry can you and the city manager talk about this but but we we have done the that's the thing so but um but anyway we can try we've tried but the the clerk just gave me verification of what I'm talking a little harder because we we're not gonna do this well back and forth back and forth we're not doing it I I just wanted accurate information out with all due respect it puts us in a position because the stuff still got to come to us so they got to be on the same page for it get otherwise we got to ask question and these timelines and whether it's sufficient It ultimately comes to us and we're put on the spot we don't get paid to get put on the spot we get paid to set policy to legislate those things come from the three appointed officials and they've got to be on the same page I we don't want to do this in the meeting so we got to set some kind of setting to where we individually want to talk to them corporately want to talk to them but this keeps happening and it can't keep happening I agree and they ain't going to talk they they can't obviously work it amongst themselves so this commission has got to to deal with it because otherwise I don't care how many millions of dollars you got and you go back to what you just said earlier and the marketing person and commissioner with on the in wonder why people don't want to deal with us if they're watching this Workshop would you want to give us $500,000 for the Arabian kns or $200,000 or $100,000 for Bingo no no that's the real issue so we need to to deal with that I appreciate the information I'm going to look at the other document the bottom line is we've got about you you know 67 million we got to get encumbered before December 31st so I'm hopeful by the next meeting that some of these will be further along we get some updates on because I'm going to be asking about them every meeting just like all of us and I'm going to read the other documentation but you know we're gonna have to deal with this thank you thank you are you finish Mr Anthony thank you very much Miss Adelina gross thank you we done Madam Vice May I'm sorry yes just one last thing and I'm not I'm not going to be a dead horse is beat broken and dismembered but um and and we only can use these Workshop settings to have these conversations with ourselves and I'm sure um mayor Taylor will either watching or we'll go back to watch but I'm I'm speaking to to the commission if you look at the past if you look at the past here in op um City the great city of opaka if this stuff when it comes to millions of dollars that are this is federal money that was you know given to our city um and quite frankly all the cities all municipalities and and was you know was given this money and um this may have been pretty a pretty a pretty good Lion Share that was given to our city at the end of the day when things don't work out our three charter members the only thing that's going to happen to is they're going to get fired no I mean like that's just what this the what happens in our city we still have to deal with the aath regardless but we're the ones that are in the news and we the ones that take the fall for the things that happen in the city and we'll we will be the on not we're but we will be the one take because we're making decisions and we're not really wrapping our head around these things that should be happening because when we're talking about federal dollars and we're we're saying yes and no and yes and no and a lot of yeses and maybe not enough NOS to certain items but we will be the ones that will be in the news so we need to really at this point take a strong look at what's happening all over I get it maybe you know I mean I'm G to tell you my mama always said and I'm G say it again silence means consent silence means consent so we got to really take a look at what is happening in the city when it comes to this budget because money will land you in jail and I'm not it's not going to happen because you've never seen a city manager go to jail they just get fired all I'm saying is is we have to start taking a look at all of this information and I'm sorry Mr Williams you can look at miss all day I'm not it's not personal I'm just saying this has been the the history of opaka so you can look at Miss Lawson no big deal I'm saying it's the history of opaka the history and I'm saying I'm TR I'm nervous I'm troubled and I'm not going to just keep letting this happen while I stay on this board that we don't take a real long hard look at what this money and what's happening to it and if we don't understand it and we need to go out and find some people that can can explain what what is happening and explain it the way we need to know but I'm going to be honest I'm quite frankly I'm very nervous that we're not going to meet our mark because we keep moving at goalpost and spending more spending more and I'm I'm sorry I'm I'm nervous and I'm just gonna put that on record thank you J move to a journ okay meeting a journ