##VIDEO ID:fUOR19WKfcE## please rise for silent invocation followed by the Pledge of Allegiance amen pledge alance to the flag of the United States of America and to theu for it stands one nation God indivisible with liy and justice for all all right let's play ball for the clerk call the role councilman Foley here councilman grubs here councilman Bastion here vice mayor sner here mayor brette here all at present we have a full Quorum with that the public hearing is now convened to discuss the final milliter and budget the fiscal year 2025 Budget commences on October 1st of this year 2024 and continues through September 30th of 2025 the city of Port Orange is the taxing Authority and the current year tax will value for operating purposes is 5 b519 m25512 final budget for the city of Port Orange the T tenative Mill and proposed final millage rate is $4.97 f for $11,000 of valuation which represents a 7.84% increase in Ador Revenue above the roll back rate of 4.61 34 in addition to the forgoing millage Levy there is also a voter approved millage Levy of 0.172 Mills necessary to fund The Debt Service payment of the 2006 General obligation bonds for Public Safety in capital facilities which was refunded in 201 16 Mr city manager would you care to comment on the increase in millage over the roll back rate and the specific purposes for such yes sir to to repeat that the the proposed millage rate of 4.97 is an increase of 7.84% over the rollback millage rate of 4.61 34 it is related to the following operational and capital needs within the general fund uh this time I'll start with the capital last time I did the other we have capital projects and these are these are rounded num num but approximately $2 million in Parks projects including items such as a city center field rehab Causeway Park and All Children's Park about a million dollars for the police generator about half a million dollars for the Main Street Bridge a little over $300,000 for a phone system replacement couple $1,000 to participate in the elevation demolition of houses that were in in flooded areas in addition to that operational costs include the contracts uh for personnel wage increases including the ones that we just adopted uh last night with the Union contracts in addition to that there's a handful of new positions including the two community service officers and the police department that assist and and directing traffic at our elementary schools to help for safety in the community uh we have the uh Insurance increases in both health and workers comp as well as property casual casualty we have vendor contracts that have increased Clauses in them and also this Council has has adopted about $300,000 more dollars in general fund to support sidewalks and streets so for the first time we we're putting a lot of proactive money into making sure that our infrastructure is maintained and taken care of going forward to prevent future problems Council discussion on the reasons for the increase and uh uh in opinions U when we start with Reed any comments no nothing really um I think we hashed everything out the first reading Tracy I agree with Reed we've we've went over and over with this uh the management has come back multiple times uh being under 3% on uh the fisical year from one year to the next which is pretty incredible but we do have inflationary costs that come in and uh as a council we we decided that we're trying to be proactive as city manager said to maintain what we have instead of having it crumble underneath our feet and US scrambling to spend Millions more up front so that that maintaining is something that I want to make sure that we carry forward so we don't have to be behind the eight ball again quality that's coming to price yes Scott I got Drew anything I I I agree with Tracy just we hashed it out you know and and talk in length about it at the first budget hearing and um that you know they did a staff did a great job and the manager did a great job of of keeping it the increase that minimum and um we just got to move forward and keep being the city of Port Orange and delivering a high quality product that the people expect I've done some peer analysis on top I shared that last time I've since updated it because a lot of municipalities have updated their information and uh keeping in mind that 7.84% increase in millage only represents an increase in the size of the budget of 4.2% a lot of that has to do with the fact that we have more homesteaded properties both by percentage and by number than any other city in vucha County so you basically have to go almost twice an increase in millage uh since a lot of people aren't paying that because of the homestead cap just to get that 4.24% increase in budget the mean between the the mean Budget increase between the 16 cities the county the sheriff's department and School Board the the average is 9.47% between all our peers there's only three agencies with uh a smaller increase than us so uh when it comes to the inflationary pressures and US keeping in mind what we have to do to provide a quality product uh and just maintaining what we do we are near the bottom in budget uh increase in size of the budget and uh that is a lot of hard work this Council was Resolute in making sure that we did everything we could to increase efficiencies increasing efficiencies comes uh two ways one doing it better just because we improve uh the quality of service doesn't always mean that we improve the price of it so certainly doing it better than we did before and certainly the improvements we've seen in public works over the last couple of years public utilities and the like uh dramatically it goes throughout all the Departments but just doing it better uh with the same basically the same resources uh I'm very pleased with that and then of course the other efficiencies are are indeed price efficiencies which help keep us well below the mean increase between all our peers uh our millage it itself is still near the bottom quartile of all the cities and the counties so uh there are some agencies more than half the agencies were in double digigit increases in both millage and uh uh the size of their budget so with that and looking at what we did compared to our peers uh I hate doing anything it has to do with the words increase but when I compare us to what other things are going on and we all know what's going on in our country with inflationary pressures I couldn't be more pleased with the hard work that uh Wayne you and your staff have done in response to what we've asked you to do with that item five uh wait just got to take public uh discussion before that looking at the script no oh no we do that on the on the two actual items uh just make sure ask Council announce the following ask councel there no changes so we go on to item five and uh this and we will certainly hear from the public on both the budget uh and the uh uh millage rate uh with that Mr City attorney could you read the resolution of the record for me please resolution number 2438 resolution of the city council of the city of Port Orange BL County Florida adopting the final avalor property tax millage rates to be levied for fiscal year 2025 October 1 24 to September 3025 providing for scribers errors and providing an effective date to approve resolution number 24-38 for final City millage a second we have a motion to approve the resolution number 2438 which adopts the city of Port Orange fiscal year 2025 final millage rate of 4.97 M 4975 Ms per thousand uh dollar of valuation with that uh uh Council we've discussed it let's go to the public would anyone here care to comment there being none that comes back to us there being none I tried you tried H you're not a nobody I'm not a nobody I'm Sean Geer at 5501 St reges way Port Orange so you have made a comment about uh the Departments being efficient and working hard and you living in a city you see it every day and and it's something to be excited about and we I feel like Port oranges the you know the IDE NE City to be in I've been fortunate enough to be elected to be where you're at next year I just want to make sure that you know being efficient and doing a hard work is going to be are we going to have the financial tools to give your city manager and their department heads the finances and the financials to be available to take care of those employees you know the theme throughout our department seem to be oh you know hey you know the culture is great we love working for the City but the problem is is is staying at a level where the incentives to work here and to recruit people who are retiring it's not just keeping people that are here working throughout their career but we're going to be losing people in public works and we're going to be losing people in utilities and firefighters are going to retire rightfully so are we going to have the incentives in place to recruit people with the experience to fill those spots and I want to make sure that we have that in our budget you know going forward in the future that we're looking at the people who are being efficient and the people who are working hard you know to keep it in line I mean that's are we taking care of them and I just want to I don't I'm not asking you a question I just want you to to think about that and we go we I guess we're reducing our millage for next year and we're going to still raise a little more money based on assess values and so forth you know what I understand is we're at 4.99 now and you're going to go to 4.97 on the exact number but it's is that enough to reward the people that are dedicating their life to the city I just wanted to share that thank you thank you certainly hope so we approved three labor contracts last night right yeah so and like I said just to recap we will be increasing the millage over roll back by 7.84% which represents a a 4.24% increase in the size of the budget Council any further comments yeah the City attorney wants me to read the full motion again that's why I repeated it yeah so uh the motion will be move to approve resolution number 24-38 adopting the city of Port Orange fiscal year 2025 final millage rate of 4975 Mills per 1,000 valuation that was your motion that was my motion and I seconded that I will that and that was why I read it in just in case to get it by mat but no he's got to be so efficient down there thank you Mr City attorney any other comments Council they're being done on resolution 2438 call the rooll councilman fley yes councilman grubs yes councilman Bastion yes vice mayor steltner no mayor Bernett yes 41 in addition to the foregoing final millage Levy there is a voter approved millage Levy of 0.172 Mills necessary to fund The Debt Service payments for the 2006 General obligation bonds for Public Safety Capital facilities which were refunded uh in 2016 mayor can you announce the adopted rate I know we just said it but can you just go ahead and announce that as well the final adopted millage rate of $4.97 Mills per $1,000 of valuation is a 7.84% increase in adorm tax revenues above the roll back rate Matt you happy thank do okay just check go good to go I brings us to item six resolution 2439 can you read that into the record please a resolution of the city council of the city of Port Orange bu County Florida adopting the final operating budget for fiscal year 2025 october24 to September 3025 for the city of Port Orange providing for approval of the final budget for fiscal year 2425 providing for appropriation and procedures providing for scribers errors and providing an effective date motion to approve resolution number 24-39 adopting the city of P orange fiscal year 2025 final budget I will second that we have a motion proper second the resolution 2439 is open on the floor for discussion Council any other additional comments beyond what we've been talking about these past few months all good there being none would anyone here care to speak to the item I did I I checked Sean's Direction this time there being none back to us final comments Council there being none on the resolution call the rooll councilman poy yes councilman grutz yes councilman Bastion yes vice mayor steltner yes mayor Bernette yes 5 this budget includes all operating and capital costs for fiscal year 2025 the budget includes the general special Revenue Debt Service Capital Enterprise and internal service funds the adopted Citywide fiscal year 2025 budget for All funds is5 mil 719,000 and uh $79,700 I didn't see any pennies after that so I think I'm covered uh Wayne I just wanted to thank you and your staff for your hard work on this whenever we do budget work and we get to this this might be the end of approval but it making it work on an operating basis is a day-to-day thing for everybody and uh nobody gets it right all the time when you're very good at your job you get it right A lot of the time my thing is when we don't get it right question we jump on things and and and we fix it and make it right and that's what good customer service is all about and we are a customer service organization on behalf of our citizens and the businesses operate here first and foremost you have a budget now you have a charge to go implement it and if there's anything else you need from Council say so now or for ever hold your piece at least for the evening all right thank you very much everybody appreciate y'all for