##VIDEO ID:UTNutkGL5NI## please rise for silent invocation followed by the Pledge of Allegiance amen I pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all with the clerk call the RO here here here here as we all know we are here to talk numbers and that's exactly what we're going to do so on item four discussion of the tenative C City millage and tenative City budget for fiscal year 2020 uh five I am going to read the following off of paper thank you Mr attorney the public hearing is now convened to discuss the milliter and budget the fiscal year 2025 Budget commences on October 1st of 2024 and continues through September 30th of 2025 we will begin with the city of Port Orange City Council discussion of the tenative millage necessary to fund the fiscal year 2025 tenative budget for the city of Port Orange the city of Port Orange is the taxing Authority in the current year tax able value for operating purposes is 5 billion that's billion with a B 5 b519 mil 2,51 the tenative millage rate is $44.97 Mills per th000 of valuation which represents a 7.84% increase in ad vorum tax revenues above the roll back rate of 4.61 34 in addition to the forgoing tentative millage Levy there is a voter approved millage Levy of 1720 Mills necessary to fund The Debt Service payments on the 2006 General obligation bond for Public Safety Capital facilities which were refunded in 2016 so at this point uh Mr city manager will you comment on the need for the increase in millage over the roll back rate and the specific purposes that increase the proposed millage of 49750 is an increase of 7.84% over the roll back millage rate of 4.61 34 and is related to the following operational and capital needs within the general fund I've got it broken down basically of operational cost and capital to to see most of it is really related to the contracts contracts for our Personnel so we have Union contracts with a vast majority and we also have civil service in addition to that uh in addition to that we also added funds to streets and sidewalk maintenance those about $300,000 we put into additional Street and sidewalk maintenance there were some four new positions including the two community service officers that were using to direct traffic at the elementary mentary schools we have health workers comp insurance increase in property Casualty Insurance increases in our vendor contracts so Med median Maintenance Building Materials Sports officials fireworks things like that have gone up in addition to that the capital projects that are impacting the millage rate include about $2 million for Parks projects including City Center Fields Causeway Park and All Children's Park improvements a million dollar for a police department generator uh we have about $200,000 in matching funds for the for the FEMA grants for all those homes there's about 52 homes that were part of the program coming out of Ian and the other hurricanes to either Elevate or demolish and so of that money there's about 200,000 is our part the rest of it is all coming from FEMA but we pay up front and get back when it happens so that's that's part of what's affecting this um Main Street Bridge has some repairs and then our 1990s telephone system is being replaced so those are the the highlights and the principal reasons why the millage rate needs to go up over the current rate okay appreciate that uh Council discussion one thing I wanted to point out I I circulated some data to you guys and the reason why I did that is I always like to Benchmark I like to see where we are compared to other cities and keeping in mind that wherever we're going up in millage does not represent the same increase in our budget because uh the millage rate property taxes only account uh for a portion of our total revenue uh we have funding from other sources including sales tax revenues and things like that so to go up 7.9% in millage that was required to be able to raise the budget 4% uh so to a general fund of $ 61.1 million to increase that spending by 4% we got to raise the millage rate by 7.9% just to get to that 4% need and and frankly I'm I'm not unhappy with that because on that second sheet there when I compare us to the 19 taxing authorities in the county 16 cities the county the sheriff's department and uh blushia County Schools you'll see on there that we are near the bottom in in the size of our budget uh expanding uh there are 2 three four five 6 7 8 nine budgets that are expanding by double digits uh only Pearson vucha County schools in Orange City have uh budg are growing their budget by a smaller percentage than us so like I said we're near the bottom uh there are 15 government agencies that are growing their budget more than us so I appreciate Wayne last night uh Public Utilities when we had that presentation we talked about gaining efficiencies there's two angles to that certainly gaining efficiencies in quality of service and gaining efficiencies and costs are two different things but they're both very important one is how we take care of the taxpayers and the other is the obligation that they have to be able to receive those services so it's great to see that we have that commitment and I appreciate that now I'm not going to sit here and and say with all this poana good news that uh that there is not room for improvement because there always is and that challenge I will always put that to you uh and I'm sure the next mayor the next Council will do the same as this Council has and will continue to do uh and we appreciate that because any organization that stagnates goes backwards we always have to look at systems of continuous Improvement okay so I kind of let off and usually I kind of set the table uh I I gave a little bit more than I normally do but uh what I wanted to do is because I shared this information and the benchmarking information with Council I wanted to give you guys a chance to look at that first as well to see where we're at but comments on uh where we are for the discussion item four uh Reed why don't you open yeah I think we hashed a lot of stuff out at the max millage um I appreciate the additional information mayor I thought that was actually rather interesting when you see uh how much above roll back a lot of these cities are um where we rank in that regard um you know never want to have to spend more money uh to get similar results but unfortunately that's the way of the US and global economy right now um things things are just not cheaper than they used to be um I think Wayne said it quite a few times bullets still cost what they cost got to have them and that's just one example of everything that um that goes into running the city so um I think staff work really hard I'm glad again I think Wayne now this is three out of four years that we've set a Max millage and you've come back in under that and that always I'm appreciative of um so that's all I really have to say for now okay Drew what you got well just looking at the numbers it's I I mean I mean I think it's fairly impressive to just mention that out of all the municipalities and I'm not saying like the the sheriff or the uh you know the school board or anything uh we were one of the few that actually lowered our millage rate the Max from our current and we have one of the lowest percentages it looks like top three of the actual increase over roll back at 7.84 and then for the budget to only increase 4% basically um I think it speaks volumes as to how um you know things are going behind the scenes and these department heads and and their employees doing things I mean we just praised uh Public Utilities last night with you know everything they've saved just in chemicals and the the technology and all the all the things that they're doing to save that department money and it's showing in the way we're we're doing things and um I I I kind of like where we're at the numbers look good and yes the budget's going up but I think we minimized it um fairly well can you can you tell me the cost of anything that stays the same in this country the way things are going right now no no everything's and and some of the things like our insurance you know the healthcare and the the benefit P you we have no control over that and our our outside vendors they're you know the people we have they're charging more and so all those things add up and a 4% increase MH I I I I I think it's outstanding well who knows maybe Wayne can come back even CU he's still got two weeks just saying Tracy what you got I have to agree with councilman Bashan when when you look at inflations being at 7 and 8% nationally and we come in that we hold things at 4% it just shows the credit of all the staff and the management what you guys have done um we have costs that are constantly going up payrolls goes up we have to battle that we have insurance costs that is across the board everybody feels that pinch city does too so the question is always is where can we do these Corners not to cut amenities but to court um costs that does not sacrifice the amenities that we give back to our citizens we don't want to fall backwards where we have deficiencies in our City we want to make sure that we have the percentage right that it doesn't cost people Beyond where they need to be but also sacrifice what we give back to them so for staff coming back with the budget the way it is at 4% thank you and uh uh Steve your team uh presentation last night that's just one of many many things that the city has done and it's amazing how something so small uh can change that can be 100 ,000 savings you know that's it's huge what something small can do I always tell people pennies add up and they they crucially do so yes they do any piece we can do the the better we can be for next year and the next time we come around Scott Wayne can you touch can you go back and touch B you had mentioned about the the FEMA project and purchasing some properties and how that's impacting this year's budget and how those dollars are coming back to us just kind of go back and recap how that hold whole thing actually works out how that's impacting the budget this year so the the federal government authorized money through multiple storms so it be easier to say it was Ian which is pretty much what drove it but they it's eligible through all of those storms that we had over the last couple years and people were eligible to join the programs the County's doing some some we're doing internally here but they were eligible to participate in either having their homes elevated or acquire they could either Elevate their homes or we could acquire and demolish their homes we end up with about 52 a little over 50 to to that were interested in the program and some of them like the ones where the people going to stay in the home and elevate it they end up paying themselves so there's a federal match and then there's their own money the ones that we're going to acquire that we would just clear the Lots we would end up paying the match that the resident would pay they're going to sell the house and get out so in order to do this it's all paid upfront so we budgeted the money for upfront when it's all said and done if all 52 homes come through it'll end up costing the city about $200,000 for all those lots to to acquire own and have the homes removed so the the program and the value of that is sometimes we've gone in and looked at the cost of stormwater improvements and you could spend $4 million on a stormwater Improvement or you can spend $200,000 to remove the houses that would need the 4 million doll Improvement so we're trying to look at the storm water issue from every angle we can you guys saw the resiliency program and the vulnerability assessment that's going to give us a 50-50 match on Storms we're doing small projects we got a storm water master plan this is just one of the other ways but it does ultimately come back and cost us some money to acquire the property that will ultimately be the cities and it'll have to stay open land and and I guess what I'm trying to wrap my brain around then is the timeline of that and how does that impact a single Year's budget or is it impact on a multi-year budget how quickly do we think we would get our funds back or not at all you know what I'm saying like understand that whole angle a little better we're showing it in this year's budget because it was the year where we have to in the programs we have to show them that we have our match in order to for them all to be eligible so that's why it's showing these had not in the past happened fast at all they were four or five years out I think most of the people were here for the 04 storms the properties that we bought I started here in 07 and we were just buying them in eight I think when I was here so it's usually multi- years what I understand from this is it's a lot faster we're actually expecting these to start happening now next year for some of them now as those properties get purchased they're coming off the tax rolls too right the ones we own that would be correct so that will that's going to impact that in future budgets yes sir to do that indeed what else you got uh I mean I I Echo a lot of the same the same thoughts um that everybody else is I mean I I I would like to see us roll back the rate even farther than it is I get that it's challenging and it's hard but it's it's it's challenging and hard right now for for uh the taxpayers and all of the homeowners it is nice to see that staff has worked towards a budget that doesn't sacrifice existing services or existing quality of life while other cities are having to actually either stay at their current millage rates or actually increase it so it is nice that we've been able to thus far see a um a reduction in our tax rate from last year which is good um where are we can you just recap I know the last time we talked I think there were still some State dollars that we hadn't accounted for yet on that have them all the the the update that I sent you guys last week was the last one that was the gas tax revenue and we had the final number the state just found an error and corrected it so we did lose about 120 Grand that disappeared out of our sidewalks and streets so that that with that in there now that update that you got I think it was Friday when we sent it so that's all of the state revenues now okay that's the current okay one thing I also want to point out too in this discussion is is that whatever we do with millage rate Port Orange is not the largest city in bua county yet we have more homesteaded properties than any City in Bia County by both number and percentage so that we can do what we want with the millage rate our homesteaded properties are capped at that 2.97 uh save our homes so we could double it triple it do whatever we've got more People Protected because of that homestead exemption however that also means that our businesses every time we do this shoulder a burden and it's because of that 2/3 1/3 ratio we have that we remain in the lower quartile of millage rates in the county because our businesses do uh we have sufficient businesses to pick up that slack we don't have a mill rate the size of Deltona who has very little business in it because they have so many homes with that I just want to say thank you to our businesses it's important that we invest in them as they invest in us because they pick up a large part of the tax bill and help keep Fort Orange affordable for everybody that lives here so it's a symbiotic relationship we take care of our businesses they take care of us and hopefully that continues to add to the quality of life so to not recognize their role in all of this uh I think it's important that we do that as well so the balance between saves our save our homes that millage protection with the homestead and and what our businesses do for us every year um it it it's important that we remember that as well mayor we we're still sitting on the percentage of homesteaded properties it's it's over 60% still I think it's just over 60 yeah yeah that that's that's huge yeah it's tremendous that's a lot of Homestead Properties so with that uh we need to hear any comments that the public has regarding the proposed tenative millage uh you'll be allowed to address a council make comments ask questions at this point would anyone here care to speak to uh the discussion seeing none back to councel any other comments before we move on to the resolutions uh with that on to item five which is resolution 2434 uh Matt could you read that into the record for please a resolution of the city council of the city of Port Orange bcia County Florida adopting the tenative adval property tax millage rates to be levied for fiscal year 2025 October 1 2024 to September 30 2025 providing for scrier errors and an effective date move to approve resolution 24-34 adopting the city of Port Orange fiscal year 2025 tened of rate of 4975 Ms per 1,000 valuation I'll second that we have a motion proper second the items open on the floor for discussion on the tentative city city military Council comments I know we've already hashed it a little bit what else have you got anyone not on the mil I just my only comment and we've already had this discussion I know I don't think there's an appetite for the rest of council I just think that with everything else that's going on with homeowners insurances and everything else that I would have liked to us to see uh support to to use more money out of Reserve funds to try to offset some of this for this year but that's a discussion we've already had so okay any other comments there being none would anyone here care to speak to the item back to us final comments call the rooll councilman Foley yes councilman grubs yes councilman Bastion yes vice mayor steltner no mayor Bernett yes 41 the adopted tenative millit rate of 4.97 five Mills per $1,000 of valuation is a 7.84% increase in adorm tax revenues above the rolled back rate in addition to the forgoing tenative millage Levy there is a voter approved millage Levy of 01720 Mills necessary to fund The Debt Service payment on the 2006 General obligation bond for Public Safety Capital facilities and that were refunded in 2016 uh item six resolution 24-35 tentative budget for fiscal year 2425 Matt would you read the resolution please a resolution of the city council of the city of Port Orange valan County of Florida adopting the tenative operating budget for fiscal year 2025 October 1 2024 to September 30 2025 for the city of Port Orange providing for appropriation and procedures providing for scri errors and an effective date motion to approve resolution number 24-35 adopting the city of Port Orange fiscal year 2025 tenative budget I'll second that you have a motion proper second the items open on the floor for discussion Council on the budget comments or questions there being none would anyone here care to speak to the item there being none back to us final comments call the roll councilman poy yes councilman grubs yes councilman Bastion yes steltner yes mayor Bernett yes I V the budget includes all operating and capital cost for fiscal year 2025 and the budget includes the general special Revenue Debt Service Capital Enterprise and internal service funds the proposed Citywide fiscal year 2025 budget for All funds is 25,7 9,722 uh at this point I wanted to point out that uh uh this is the first reading on the budget if there's any opportunities staff finds between now and then to squeeze a a little more Mills we're always looking to squeeze that sponge a little bit farther but otherwise we will reconvene for the second reading of the budget on Wednesday September 18th at 5:30 here in these council chambers with that does any other business come before us Matt have I cover everything okay thank you very much everybody have a good night