##VIDEO ID:yGW1xLkT2xE## e e e e that's like old agenda hey if we can get the tech guy out from behind the Das oh Jesus okay can you s sign me you can take it with and the city manager to show up you need anything from me my name right that's open on Monday place so we will begin this special Commission meeting of the 26th of August with the Pledge of Allegiance please Mike's not mic's not on h m are on hello testing testing perh you're hearing I do a roll call oh roll call roll call roll call sorry vice mayor Rich here commissioner Clark yes commissioner Collins here commissioner goobi here commissioner Reed here now we can do the I to flag United States of America and to the for it stands one nation God indivisible Li and all who will be administering Mr bagot will now administer the oath of Bas and just for everybody here the this is an informal uh swearing in so that the Commissioners can participate in the two next meetings but there'll be a more formal presentation with family and friends and pictures during the meeting at 5:30 I doar I do solemnly swear I do solemnly swear I will support I will support honor protect and defend and government Constitution and government of the United States of the United States and the state of Florida qualifi qualified to hold office under the St florid under the constitution of the State of Florida under the of the city of steart and under the charter of the city of steart I will wellfully perform and that I will well and Faithfully perform commission commissioner on help me God [Applause] congratulations so this is a simple matter this meeting this first meeting is presentation by our budget manager please go ahead why always let the boss start first I I am going to hand it right over to you anyway then for the new Commissioners this is Jolie B our our Lewis I guess to be more formal our finance director um he is going to present to you the uh currently balanced proposal why don't you have at it um commission and new Commissioners welcome now you're in for it um now there's no stepping away from it now okay so last time we met uh was the phase where the department had made their requests and so after when we came together the department request outweighed the revenues that we were aware of that time including my personal projections on revenues we were out about a million two change million three so after that meeting we went back and we had some brush up meetings with some of the Departments to go over some entries we found some additional puts and takes before the manager had to get hold of it and also the some of the state revenues that I was waiting on came in all of the state revenues that are presented to us by Tallahassee that we have no control over have now been entered into this budget narrative this iteration of the budget is presented to you balanced so typically what happens is the Departments ask and I've likened it to a game of Go Fish where the department say this is what we asked for I say this is what we have and we find out how short we are there's only been like one time where they came back and we had enough money and hey we had some extra so this is usually a session between the manager and myself s and it's a living breathing document that changes right now as we're doing this presentation I'm sure that there is a person who's reached their anniversary date a police officer has been you know promoted or a firefighter has been certified so it's always changing by the minute but this is our last best shot that we did and so this budget unless you make changes to it would be the budget that we would roll forward and present at the first trim required hearing on September 9th we try to coincide those those State Statute required meetings to be with your regular meetings rather than having a special meeting if possible hopefully that makes it easier for everyone but what we're going to talk about today is how the manager um directed me to get this budget to you today with this amount here so where we stand is actually this year the certified taxable value had come in in time for that last budget Workshop so that hasn't changed our July 1st certified taxable value is 3.5 billion based on our millage the commission directed us to not change that millage we kept the millage at five and that generated $17 million in avalor for the budget now that's there's a formula we required to budget 95% at least and so this is the 95% number I don't I don't manipulate that there is a way you know some some Finance directors sometimes will go to 96% to shave off the rough edges but that's where we are so the adval this budget is 177 million I presented this graph last time to show where the taxable values have happened with Stuart so after the recession in the fall and uh the two call out numbers are there to basically show it took us from 2008 to 2022 to get back to our previous taxable value and now here we are today at the 3.5 billion this is the history of the millage in Stewart and you know to one of those things to say in 2001 to 2025 the city of Stewart hasn't increased its millage by even one full Mill U so we have definitely what as they would say tow the line so it's it's been a pretty straightforward ride and we've had five Ms now for the last uh four taxing years in a row this is where the budget has gone coinciding with it as far as the avalor number and so avalor does not make up our entire budget but it is the one Revenue new source that you as the commission actually control and this is the change in taxable value for the city and you can see here as we reach those those years and then after the recession the city's taxable value actually you know declined like not only went down but reduced and now we've had a you know a somewhat slope earlier today I was speaking with one of the Commissioners about you know the math of the slope and so you could see that the trend was going up Ward and now I only brought to the attention of everyone on this last at the last budget Workshop uh we've actually seen a decline in the taxable value increase so the taxable value did go up but in kind of a rolling backward forward so uh we're still above where we were but I would just bring attention to the fact that we need to watch that the taxable value increase did not keep Pace with what it has in the previous three cycles and then just to zoom in so you can see even though that was an increase that it is now sort of going downhill I would want to watch this for next year's taxable value as well and of course that brings us to the CRA because the city's taxable value and its millage along with the County's millage drives what is what is contributed to the tax increment Finance in the CRA trust fund so the cra's original base value is 299 million the current taxable value for the city and this is a subtle new wants the city and the county have different taxable values because of certain exemptions but our taxable value is 883 million that gives us a 500 million increment and that means that the general fund at five Mills would owe the CRA $2.7 million and as a side note to fund the CRA trust fund the county payment to the CRA at their current millage that's being proposed in their budget uh would generate $63 million or sorry 3 $5 million bringing the total Tiff contribution to 6.3 million so the CRA will receive 6.3 million in new Tiff funds for 2025 where the 2025 budget has been and I I often warn them you know so giving access you the Commissioners now know that you have access to the budget documents and those those reports and documents are live and a lot of the Departments like to go in and keep looking to try and see what the manager has cut or given them and all along the way my you know my email teams phone goes off at one time general fund was $4 million in the whole and Mike you know calls me in a panic I'm like just hold on just this is how the ride goes it's not it's not going to be $4 million out of balance so you know it's puts and takes as we do the union negotiations as we find some Capital requests that were left out maybe they need to go in revenues change and shift so it is a it was a wild ride but basically we brought it down to a balance number where we feel confident that revenues and expenses could exist at this point balanced with each other for the 2025 year we have allocated all the available sources that we currently would go to uh we we did not use fund balance to balance this budget so the manager did not dip into savings account to balance this we found it either through projected operating revenues or other operating Revenue sources that we have there's no debt financing in this we haven't proposed to borrow any money make this budget balance and if there are any grant opportunities or oopses larger than the managers contingency we of course would bring budget amendments before the commission as needed U as I said those State revenues have come in half cent sales tax local option uh gas tax Municipal Revenue sharing Communication Service tax those have all come in the collective bargaining agreement fiscal impacts are reflected in this so uh the iff and the PBA contracts uh have landed and those number effects have been rolled in here including all the subsequent benefits related to it and the manager uh related to those collective bargaining agreements and for the non-union employees the manager has proposed a cola in this budget and it is balanced with those collective bargaining agreements and the cola that the manager proposed how did we get there well the uh the manager made the following puts in akes so that's what we call the additions or the puts and the reductions or the takes uh there was a last minute request to add uh repairs for the U Brussel Holloway track repairs and most departments had some kind of cut I mean almost every Department had something taken from it there was a direct $186,000 worth of cuts the manager eliminated two FTE totaling about 170 F fulltime employee yeah oh sorry yes ft fulltime equivalency so that's a an actual full-time position at 280 hours uh we split one full-time equivalent position into two departments so two departments are funding one person so they're they're going to utilize that employee to fill some gaps created by the cuts uh we also took some full-time positions and budgeted them for half the year and covering them with part-time instead hopefully we can continue to do that until we have to fill those positions at part-time and that's always available the manager also froze positions so there's four positions that were vacant that the manager froze and said you know I'm not going to fill those unless you absolutely need them so there'll have to be a a song and dance request to the manager directly to fill them and so th those positions as well as a you know just a general if you need to fill one of your vacant positions you're probably going to have to justify it and so that netted out to about $887,000 in cuts that the manager took to the last line I I brought it in as close as I could you know to that and said well you got to get me the rest of the way we were still about fish sh a million out so after those cuts uh we we could smooth off the rough edges and right now the the 2024 adopted FTE were 33 positions uh the manager has included in this budget 17 new requests below is the detail of that there's three police officers per the commission's Strategic plan that was adopted the the future year 5year strategic plan a police dispatcher 12 firefighters again that is per the Strategic plan adopted by the commission and you know U Milton leet and his divisions have discovered that we spend an awful lot of time hiring outside HVAC uh services to outside corporate so this is one where bringing a full-time HVAC person inside would help manage those air conditioners and avoid uh replacing more units as possible and get as much life out of the tax dollars as as we can and so then along with the two cuts that brings us down to the positions for the 2025 budget at 328 that includes general fund water sewer CRA sanitation and storm water the funds that all have employees under them the position impact so of the new positions added the four police positions total up to and as I say tax tag title this is benefits now not equipment not you know their uniform or radio or whatever whatever equipment those employees need is is not in this number but this is just the actual fiscal impact including F FRS FICA all the things that we pay on employee was 372,000 for the police a million one for the 12 firefighters and 880,000 for the building maintenance that's not their salary that's just the salary plus the benefit package and then as you can see the general fund Revenue Pi so for those I was saying earlier avalum is only 3 2% of General funds budget so this tax pie like half of General funds revenues come from taxes and of that that's that's not that avalor is half of General funds revenue avalor is only 32% of General funds Revenue so the rest of those taxes are the Communication Service tax the half and sales tax all those other kinds of taxes that are charged around the city and by the state and collect it on our behalf as well as charges for services intergovermental revenues miscellaneous judgments and fines being tickets and parking fees false alarm bills those are all rolled into that pie and then here you can see the changes uh so there are some increases in the thing however the total 2025 budget is less than the total 2024 budget but that's because we had some large Capital items in last year's budget so I wouldn't play that shell game with you it is lower but only because we just don't have some of the low the large C Capital expenditures from last year running through permits fees and special assessments that includes the fire assessment and also the building permit fund but by State Statute the budget for building permits is equal to the cost of collecting those permits so jod nentwick and her Department up there for collecting building permits whatever their budget is we make the revenue equal to that amount intergovermental revenues are those kinds of transfers from the state and Tallahassee those very important revenues that we don't have any control over but make up large portions of our budget and then charges for services that includes things such as the souls Point contract and other protective inspection fees those sorts judgments fines and forfeits are those ordinance violations false alarms parking tickets miscellaneous revenue is everything from refunds from insurance on a damaged vehicle that we may collect to interest earnings on our investments and then other sources are those transfers in from other funds from fund balance if we ever did dip into savings and then Debt Service expenses and so you know those large transfers in last year included transfers from other sources to fund capital projects and some debt financing so now you can see actually I would say that the 25 year at 4 million has returned to a sort of normal State and actually last year was actually a little off the regular Mark so there you can see at the bottom the 25 budget is less than last year's here's where the personal Ser here's where the operating made up and it's Pi so again personal services is the largest portion we are a service industry here so we have a lot of employees to serve the public and to provide the services that we do our operating expenses include those such as the fuel electricity uh the paper you know anything that's going on that the City consumes on an ongoing basis Capital outlay as I said there's been a decrease in that Capital outlay purchase we don't have as many large ticket items in this year Debt Service I was meeting with another commissioner earlier today and other than literally the leases for copers and radios and the Wells Fargo building which the least property fund is covering by the rent collected on the Wells Fargo Building general fund is for all intents and purposes debt free and you know we have an an a rating for a credit rating on our bonds and then grants and AIDS those are the ones that we give out so your transfers that the commission has directed to go to different uh pseudo organizations around town that number is smaller because we had some arpa Grant payments out budgeted last year that aren't in this budget those payments have now been allocated and then other uses those are our transfers out to other funds or into Reserve accounts we set aside a reserve for our self insurance on the health insurance insurance plan and the manager sets aside money for Capital project reserves and the other like to help us you know stay solvent in the future and you know not I would never recommend that we run you know by the skin of our pants so uh that's where all the expenditures are allocated out to in the pie and then here provided are those numbers that you can see where the head-to-head change in numbers again that grants and AIDS went down by 500,000 that was part of that arpa allocation the capital outlay numbers you can see greatly reduced from 8 million to 3 million uh Debt Service that's just the increase for regular interest payments uh grants and AIDS oh I'm sorry I already touched on that one and then other uses you see that we're actually banking a little more of those transfers and Reserve fundings I also provided the same look for U each of the funds that are presented in the operating budget so the landfill management that is the portion of the landfill that we lease out to a couple operating businesses located on the site and we continue to generate revenue from those rentals as well as the monitoring of the expenses for making sure that any kind of plume or anything underneath the landfill is monitored and and managed as needed with Laboratory Testing and other sorts of um remediation effects and then the cdbg the city is still currently participating through the CRA in a community development block grant program for uh housing and some Redevelopment projects so we are required by their laws the federal law to keep a separate fund for cdbg both revenues and expenses the CRA itself this fund the you'll see the 3 million5 I had referenced there coming from the county as an intergovernmental revenue and then down there in the other sources is that 20 Mill includes the payment from the city along with that other sources because a commissioner asked me about this there are projects that are in the CRA that have been ongoing and so each year the CRA is a standalone fund any Tiff revenues that the CRA collects if they're not spent goes back to the cra's fund balance back to their savings account and so here the CRA director is reflected these rollover projects being funded from that saved money in the prior years and not utilizing just the current year Revenue to pay for it so we are using some of the new six million to fund this year's projects but we're pulling out of that fund balance the money to fund the projects from the current year and the year before that are still ongoing and then on the expense side you would see here's the expenses where they're going including those operating which uh some of you made note that there is a design expense in there of 800,000 to going there some capital outlay for those infrastructure projects that I mentioned are rolling over from last year grants and AIDS out the CRA participates in a lot of community involvement programs and helping with Redevelopment projects and then down there in the other uses the four million includes transfers back to general fund for some projects that public works and stuff handles for the CRA as well as a transfer to their fund balance of unused funds out of the new $6 million uh the least Property Management category so those properties that the city owns and has least uh for various purposes where those land operating leases uh this is the culmination of those rental payments from them uh the commission can see in the detail link I sent them exactly who the payers are and what they're paying and what they are including outdoor dining rentals uh some commercial restaurant operations that they pay as lease for the property and others as well as in the expense to maintain those properties and also that transfer down there that other uses includes the payment back to general fund to make The Debt Service payment on their behalf so we are still cash neutral in that we are still generating enough revenue from the rentals at Wells Fargo to cover the debt service payment on the Wells Fargo building so that's still a neutral impact for us and then the police special Revenue category the police collect uh funds from seizures of bust that they make is bust a appropriate word I can use okay yeah so so various uh interdictions on the police department behalf and when they seiz certain you know assets they're allowed to keep some of that also um $2 off different uh restitution payments going there into what is known as the law enforcement trust fund and Law Enforcement Education fund and those are monitored separately along with Federal forfeitures and so you know we don't really budget to bust people we don't really anticipate you know making large drug deals so we simply are showing the uh Revenue coming out of its fund balance uh that I was talking about so we're pulling that $84,000 out of its fund balance from prior Collections and prior years to cover this year's request those include investigative cost and other equipment needed to do that and then in the water sewer fund uh you'll see that they have primarily charges for service that is the actual sale of water the treatment of sewer including irrigation lines and reclaimed water where we provide back irrigation services to large customers such as golf courses for reclaim water and then also uh their funds from their impact fees and interest earnings that they're allowed to use for the operation of the program and miscellaneous revenues from vehicle accidents or inspection fees that they do and then where their inspections go so the Enterprise funds are heavily regulated and their fee structur is built so that it's designed to fund their people as well as their future Capital request and projects so um this this current budget reflects uh the rate increase that was brought before the commission as well as the sanitation fund the sanitation fund here as well represents the revenues generated from the collection of both residential and Commercial garbage uh some recycling we run recycling collections for commercial Ventures as well as yard trash Collections and those Billings for that those rates are highly regulated and their interest earnings and pulling from their fund balance as well for some truck Replacements and vehicle refurbishments in this year's coming budget which you see in their Capital outlay represents some new it's a residential side loader Peter is that what it is yeah residential side loader yeah I I knew the answer I was just giving you a chance to shine man that's all um so yeah no um that that's in there and and you'll see that and then lastly storm water is our storm water maintenance fund uh which basically comes down to baffle boxes and gutter runs things like Retention Ponds all that kind of stuff where we try to collect and allow the water to be treated naturally through either our Creek projects Haney Creek po Creek all of those runoff collections where we try to allow the environment and natural living shorelines and what have you to treat the water before returning it the river try and prevent the collection of human activity into the environment before it goes in there uh basically driven again on our monthly utility bill for uh water sewer garbage those same customers participate in their storm water fee based on their impervious area so any part of their you know property that's paved and what have you and generates runoff there's a calculation to determine how much of that storm water fee they pay and then any grant opportunities available go into the maintenance of those storm drains runoff areas Retention Ponds and the creek runoff system as well and so at this point I suspect there's questions but that's the numbers and each of you have access to the detail underneath any questions commissioner Forbes my only question or con is my mic on yeah yeah my only question or concern was for the bright line for us paying for the design portion of 800,000 in the CRA budget um that's my only concern in the budget I just got it on Friday though so I haven't had a whole lot of time to go through it I can respond to that the um $800,000 is not actually being spent at this time it's just budgeting it into the budget so that it's a different resource or opportunity as it relates to bright line in lie of like the initial intention with bright line was to um move forward this summer and do design and um instead of going out and borrowing the money in advance of the design uh Julie and I put together this budget so that we could pay for design up front and then determine how much is actually necessary to do the project because obviously the numbers that were presented back in December were significantly higher than the probably cost of the project would ever be and as a result by having these funds available we don't have to go out and bond the project only to find out that the building being smaller and the no parking garage and no other stuff you you know if you went out and bonded $30 million you'd start paying on $30 million right away so what we wanted to do is defer that till February or March or anytime so we could number one get the design finished see what it actually look like figure out what the actual cost is going to be so that the amount that needs to be budgeted could either be reviewed internally to determine whether or not we could figure out a way to make payments annually as it came due have an opportunity to seek outside funding like from the state and other places as well as um working with the county in the event that the money doesn't need to be used for any purpose on bright line it doesn't have to be spent putting it in the budget just means that it's reserved so that it's available to be spent later it doesn't actually mean that it'll be spent or not it could be carried over to next year it could be not spent at all and return to the um pool at the end of the year friendly Amendment Mr manager also there are some organizations that to apply for a grant or to apply for uh intent to reimburse if you were going to borrow money later they want to see the number in your budget like it was it just something you pulled up today so by having that commitment in paper and having the commission make that commitment often unlocks those future funding opportunities any other questions for now commissioner goob um I had a question regarding Professional Services but I didn't have a chance to write down what section that was in there's question is well it could be it could be um if it's I don't know which department it is but there's multiple departments it's like in the city legal department we reserve I think $75,000 a year for Professional Services and they need in the event we have a conflict or need to hire outside councel in the public works um we have multiple engineers and multiple um needs for outside Professional Services in um the fire department we have the uh medical director that we have to pay that would fall as a professional service and outside uh services that we'd have to pay the Martin County medical director to keep the licenses for the fire department in the development department we have both captech and kimley Horn who do independent reviews of submittals received from other people that we budget to uh have their funding available to be able to do those outside reviews so I'm not exactly sure um what this particular one is but you and I can talk about that too between now and the next time once we there's a line set aside for Professional Services in each department well and not each department but the bigger departments like you know public works so the roads water utility sewer and then in development it's the engineering firms that have to review designs and Architectural plans and things like that and then I mentioned the fire department it's obviously the the medical so in the fire department our EMTs have to uh provide essentially Medical Care and they have to do it through a licensed medical doctor and the medical uh examiner for the county serves as that person but we have to pay for that service but in each one it depends on which department it is but there's several of those so we can address that as well similar to the 800,000 that the mayor spoke about or that the manager spoke about for the bright Line This is a budget and so they they've projected that they might need Professional Services on a project or something there's absolutely no guarantee that we're going to spend that money this is just to say that it's set aside and reserved for that so it doesn't get spent elsewhere however there is most of these numbers are based upon historic expenses and things as well so it's not likely if it's $226,000 I can guarantee it's not going to be zero yeah they're going to spend something it's going to be something they're going to spend something right Mr Mayor um yeah I was just going to ask commissioner giobi if she was done I'm sorry yes I am okay thank you first of all I'd like to say I'm so happy you are sitting next to me again commissioner Clark I missed you way down there thank you commissioner Clark do you have any questions yes um commissioner Sean I appreciate you but thank you he's standing up we can't see anything over there we got to get thate eye no that's a good point blocking our view we can't see anything yeah we going to work on that um you can switch with commissioner um so yeah so anyhow um I'm just so I know the decline you can do that uh over the 24 years or whatever that showed up and down 2008 and then we're in the declin but as we go on to our final budget uh approval and everything we're still hoping to be at five millage rate yes ma'am I mean you told me to make we're going to stay right there yes ma'am yeah yeah okay' looks looks you know I know that there's a lot of issues with the values and so on but yeah so we're still within that range and we're going to keep that we're not in the range we're right on right on it understand uh commissioner Collins do you have any questions I did I had a couple Jolie the um I believe it was in the city Commission Section but I might be wrong it's 58581 what's a section I don't know if that helps you toggle it up real quick that's the grants and Aid section uh I was just curious what aids to other governments um I saw Business Development board and and Steward Housing Authority but uh 58581 AIDS other governments and then aids to private organizations that is a other government Main Street that 70k um the State of Florida dictates who these um what these account numbers are and so it's simply that if it's not that they're actually a government or not it's just that they are that's the category they whether they're whether they're classified as that and so we put it under organizations because it's a organization right here versus a government established with some other things so actually St I think the business development board is probably more of an organization than a government so the these two are interchangeable that's not we're not violating anything by moving between these two objects commissioner no I'm just asking for a clarification on what it is is 58581 Main Street because I saw 575 and then it went goes to 70k no sir what's in 5851 in the commission is business development board for 50,000 and 20,000 to the steart Housing Authority perfect and then in 582 yes is 200 to downtown Business Association 500 to finded 70,000 to Main Street agreement which CRA gives us the 70,000 for that so that's a wash to general fund anyway y 28,000 is the uhou between city of Stewart and University of Florida EAS 5,000 for shared services Network which was with Martin County 250 to the Chamber of Commerce and 1,200 to NAACP yes sir and and then the difference in the AIDS to private that was the arpa money that 603950 was the difference yes sir so that that was very large last year because of that so okay and then I was just going through the different you know police fire 10th Street some of these different buckets the regular salaries and wages within fire rescue represented a 20% increase there would be 12 new employees yeah yeah that you have the that's a significant it's amazing you guys were able to make this work yeah yeah but we also we we knew it was coming obviously since they started construction of Station 3 but it wasn't like there was a big pile waiting I can tell you right now that's amazing well notice I don't have my goatee so then we shaved everything that's why yeah we shaved everything and then generally it all it all comes down to um priorities commissioner and that was one and the manager said make it work within the police that was another one that that I found uh made my eyebrows go up was the fleet vehicle leases are going from 346 to 590 that was a pretty significant right so what happens is it's it's been our long-term plan to get into a lease rotation schedule so let me tell you what's been happening thank you uh for the last prior for the last five years now uh each year we were spending in general fund alone we were spending $400 to $500,000 a year replacing vehicles and then also banking away 300 to $400,000 a year for future vehicles that we were going to buy and so what happens is we very proudly very proudly we have a proud long tradition of this of driving a vehicle until the tires fall off okay and then we sell that vehicle on a there's a website called go deals and we sell these vehicles for $200 for 500 bucks Enterprise lease Fleet Management has approached several governments in the area like Palm Beach Gardens some of those and what happens is they take your vehicles and now they say okay we'll provide you what's called The White Fleet so your Pursuit Vehicles your your pickup trucks your F-150s that kind of thing our code enforcement Vehicles the planning inspection vehicles and then what they do is you say well you'll run it during the lease SL warranty period and at the end when the vehicle's still worth something you trade that vehicle in and you now have a down payment towards replacing it to buy down the cost of the next vehicle to keep it that way we've actually had some of our early adopters have seen some successful things with that I have banked away $27,000 in payments from the sale of those vehicles to offset the cost of future Vehicles the police department is one of those very highly intensive vehicle departments they have mile uh well not just mileage I'm saying they have 64 police officers I think right something something like or 64 employees in total with 40 something Patrol right so there's you know 40 vehicles on the road and we still haven't replaced all of those vehicles yet and put them into the lease rotation program but that expense you're seeing there in the police department what you're not seeing is my giant transfer to fund balance to fund his future vehicles to be replaced so when I came to Stuart in 1995 we literally were pulling up in the parking lot one cop would get out and another cop would get in and drive off in the same car that's not that's not an exaggeration and so those Vehicles would have 300,000 miles on them you know two new transmissions multiple things and they're like we've been driving this car 20 years I'm like yeah we get eight miles to the gallon and I put two transmissions in it so these cars have a lower maintenance expense so we are seeing our maintenance expense drop along with that so I think when the program is fully adopted and now this next year is the first really big year I think the fire and Development Department were the first early adopters who've seen the vehicle trade in and get money back towards the new one this is going to be our first round of really big vehicles across multiple departments this year to trade that back in and so that's what we'll use we'll use those trade in values to buy down the payments on the subsequent vehicles that replace them so it it's one of those things like it looks like an increase but it's something we need to just have faith in ride the program for it to be long-term successful and then I had a bit of an Ask was U along the lines of reserving money not necessarily spending it but there had been conversation about an environmental attorney and if there was some consensus from us that might be a direction we want to go into um this year I thought now might be a good time to bring up reserving 200 300 potentially for an environmental attorney but that includ the pargal if the if the it depends on what the I hear commission giobi saying uh paralal as well if you're talking about a full-time position for an environmental attorney you're probably looking at 300 uh for the attorney um and just because the if I said the attorney charged 200 for them to leave their firm F FRS contribution is 35% and then you have social security health insurance Medicare and other expenses related to it so it probably be around 300 for the attorney um I can obviously this budget that was presented is balanced but I can sit down with the finance director and go through and cut things to make that be there if in fact it includes a paral obviously the number needs to be higher um my recommendation would be at this point like I was going to say do the 300 up front and then we can we can do a budget amendment at the time anyway if we find it so in a situation where you want to add a pargal we can always do that mid year or do whatever anyway and come back to visit it but um I wouldn't recommend 200 just because I don't think the to get a high quality Environmental Lawyer to leave a private practice 150 or 125 isn't going to get the job done so you know I would recommend having it a higher number and then I'll just have to sit down with Jolie between now and September and squeeze it out Mr manager I I can say with a high level of confidence that a $200,000 attorney or $190,000 attorney would cost you 300,000 out the door tax tag title tax okay so okay so if there's a consensus from the commission to pursue that there's there's no consensus here um I would prefer to put this for a DND there are I attend the most meetings by far with environmental groups and if any Environmental Group saw that the city of Stewart had an opportunity to go forward with a suit they know that they can come to me and that I would do everything I could to create that opportunity I see this says a little bit of a a disrespect to our new attorney one of my very first meetings with Mr bagot I bought gilmart and Eve samples in and we sat down and we talked and it was it's not very complicated Mr bagot is well aware that there is nothing more important to this community to me and I know to you Mr Collins than the fight for clean water if I didn't know you personally I would see this suggestion I would think you're working for Big Sugar because they would like nothing better than the city of Stewart to waste their time energy and resource and throw a monkey wrench into the loome agreement we just finally got signed they're saying that the discharges to the river could be cut 98 to 99% they would love for somebody to come in and go oh no this is not right we're going to sue you or something I don't I mean I don't even know who to sue um not talking about Mr I don't I just don't want to go down this road here I've been to two annual Marine Resources Council meetings where all the the most academic mics in the state come and talk about this and it's run by who oh my gosh Jim Moyer he lives in the city of Stewart I've been his close friend for 30 years I have attended the Everglades conference twice 500 people whove been fighting for clean water for decades in some of the most powerful environmental groups I don't believe you have attended those Mr Collins every person I see there I go I'm from the city of Stewart you know we have the best opportunity for standing if you see any ability for us to go forward in a lawsuit please tell me I'll do everything I can who's that run by oh our own Mark Perry who I've known for 40 years and Mark knows very well that I would do anything I just I do not see the need for this now if the opportunity arises in fact we took a very good step recently with um Eve samples and she came to down and we signed on to in what Manner Mr bagot did we sign on as could you I mean oh to we're serving as a um Friend of the Court I guess in theel I'm secur and what she said and she's right she says this is the best opportunity the city will have to gain standing I absolutely sure that the only person in this room who is engaged in a suit against governmental bodies like that is myself I sued the federal government 25 years ago it took me two years to just to get standing and lots and lots of my own money now we're talking about somebody else's money here and I got a three judge panel to come down from Washington and we had three days of hearings there were 25 lawyers on the other side the head of the firm from Miami came up to me he said thank you Campbell you sent my kids through college we're talking about so much money oh and then I sued Walmart so I am not naive about what it takes to for a little David of Stewart to go up against these Goliath this is not the time we have loome signed we're involved with Eve samples the the case was appealed by Big Sugar EXA which is my point it's exactly what big sugar wants it's appealed to the 11th District they're going to hear it in November let's just let this run a little Mr Collins you get bring anybody to me who says here's who we can sue and here's the manner by which we can accomplish it I will 100% support it it does not exist right now I'm sorry would you like make a comment I'd like to make a comment excuse me I'd like to make a comment commissioner goob yes okay first this was never about disparaging our attorney we know that Lee is busy with other things within the city so to split his time and energy towards something environmental would be unfair to our attorney it had absolutely nothing to do with his abilities he's a great City attorney and he does a great job but he has a job and it's full-time okay so that's number one number two you're right the Army Corps of Engineers have guaranteed that they will not release uh any Waters but that's only based on rainfall if it reaches a point they will have to release it and so all of the work that has been done would be reversed we would now be dealing again with algae and whatnot being put into the rivers so I just think it was something that maybe commissioner Collins brought up for discussion that's all if we want to put it on for a d and and get gilmart and Eve sample Mark Perry and what I can do is I'll I'll sit with the finance director and bring back for the September meeting um both so I can bring back a budget with it in it and a budget without we can do a uh meeting prior to or discussion prior to as it relates to it because as it relates to putting it in the budget we're we don't have a lot of time we're going to have to do it at the first meeting in September so we're not going to have time for uh to go down the path but I will bring back something so that we can address it either way at the next meeting and treat it as an agenda item that was the nature of my ask was to see if you could find it and and just to be clear Mr bagot would not pursue this litigation he would have to hire someone it would be a separate fund and at considerable expense so no I I I never thought that Mr bagot would pursue this but he would know that there was an opportunity and he would come before us and say we need to hire an environmental attorney to pursue any other questions for our budget director sure I have a question on the whole bright line thing so it being in the CRA budget right now is that basically granting our city manager or CRA to spend that money right away as soon as this budget would be approved because it's appropriated in there the yes and no first it's not like I'm going to write a check for $800,000 to anybody MH but assuming that the county adopted the interlocal agreement and that the bright line project moved forward and that the rfps in September qualified Architects and Engineers that started and were hired to do the initial design in an October we received a bill for $445,000 then the County and the split City would be splitting that based upon the breakdown in the inter local agreement assuming that our finance department and the um people that I would be hiring to do the review on behalf of the city as described in the agreement said yes that was a reasonable charge for that then we would pay that $38,000 bill moving forward but if it gets approved in the budget on the second meeting of September then it would be as the bills acred or and again this has come up and we haven't decided how we want to do it yet there was also some discussion about either getting conventional financing or even doing a bond issue and using future CRA Revenue to pay that off that would obviously be a decision for the commission to decide this money is literally just set to put us in a position to not make a decision regarding any bonding or anything else until after design was complete commissioner the the appropriation does two things it does authorize the expense but it also authorizes you even you the commission aren't allowed to just spend money without an appropriation so that's why it's called an appropriation non expense so this is giving you the authority but you then have other levels of protection in place so we have a procurement policy that then the manager doesn't have the authority to go just to sign a contract to someone for 800,000 so then you would then be presented with the contract to approve and there'd be things like that so it putting it in the budget covers you and him but then there's still multiple stop Gap points along the way okay any other questions Mr Reed I just don't think it should be in the budget I think they should be paying for it that's my biggest concern you know we're talking about spending money and stuff um 800,000 is a lot of money to be given away to a private company I agree so so the the distinction for me is it's not a currently or since December 13th the city of Stewart had been obligated to participate in the funding so if in fact Martin County adopts that inter local agreement either tomorrow or at their next meeting then if I don't budget it and we have to come up with the money or we're in breach of contract I've breached my fiduciary duty of presenting a budget to meet that obligation so the the question about whether or not bright line you know it's just like if it was a if it was Memorial Park if somebody said well I don't think Parks Parks don't don't make money therefore we shouldn't budget money to maintain the park well I've got $300,000 in this budget to maintain sailfish ball fields even though 12 to 15 kids from Stewart use them but it's still I know that the commission has directed me in the past to maintain sailfish Ball Fields as a baseball field I have got to put the money in the budget or else there won't be the funding to maintain the baseball fields now if in fact the commission along the way said terminate bright line and bright line get terminated then I wouldn't spend the money just as if you said terminate sailfish ball fields and said stop providing baseball at sailfish Park even though the 300 ,000 is budgeted for sailfish Park that money wouldn't get spent but I can't move forward in the next year facing an obligation that I know exists and not budget it because the state law requires us to have a balanced budget that budgets for any obligations we have and right now that's an obligation we have that I can't just ignore so would it be a big deal if that money stayed in the general fund then until we found out it's not general fund C do correct so it'll never go to the general it'll never go gotcha okay okay any other question additional question regarding go regarding the bright line and this is for you Mike um understand all that you're saying do we have any recourse if Martin County goes along with the current interlocking agreement do we have a recourse as the city when you say recourse um if the if Martin County goes along with it ads the agreement then we would be following the agreement unless we terminated it but I mean if we terminated depending what the obligations are under the agreement we would be the you know you know I don't have to pay my mortgage but if I stop paying the mortgage there's probably an effect you know the bank would probably start calling me but if in fact Martin County adopted the agreement and then we backed out we would be breaching the interlocal agreement that to be honest with you I don't think steuart's ever breached an interlocal agreement before so I don't know what would happen but they could sue us no I was just asking did we have recourse to get out of the contract okay so are there are there methods to get to back out of it if the county well first of all let's complicate it because if the county didn't adopt it there might be methods that are different to back out of it if the county did adopt it then honestly I would probably defer to Lee or defer to others and you know have it reviewed or or or looked at it's probably this discussion probably be better at the end of the general city commission meeting just because we're starting to run late and it's not really a budget question as much as it's a policy issue um but we can discuss it further okay thank you well we have a few moments here before we have to begin our next meeting so I'm adjourning this meeting thank you Mr Mayor I'm sorry oh I'm public comment I'm sorry may I also get a uh approval of the agenda approval all in favor it's a little party for that one comments from the public comments from the public it's my first meeting I'll get it doing great it was like 430,000 or something like that it started at 365 and it's been indexing at about three per year so it's well over four not including taxes 424 297 that's the rent and then on top of that they pay the adum taxes on the property yeah 424 29 424 297 the commissioner was correct that's the rent they generate and then whatever their contribution is to the community from property tax and sales tax and other stuff but the least agreement with us is 424 no no ma'am that's proprietary information the Department of Revenue will not let me know what a private company makes thank you can I adjourn it now Madam clerk media Jed got