##VIDEO ID:xj1LuSCDnis## okay good evening everyone it is 5:30 calling the meeting to order Rio commissioner Lama here commissioner sty here commissioner vascara here vice mayor excuse me I'm so sorry vice mayor llama's here commissioner Joseph yes mayor feton here we have a quum great thank you um going ask everyone to rise for the Pledge of Allegiance the audience as well please I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you are we playing the um opening remarks all right so then I'll just make a quick uh uh statement since we do have a few people in the audience this is a special commission meeting so unlike other commission meetings we just have a few items however uh unlike workshops you you can participate so we have agendas in the back as well as public speaker cards since we only have two items if you would like to speak on something I'm going to just give you an opportunity to go and get one of those speaker cards um to fill them out and then you would give them to the clerk um once the item is called you can still fill out a public speaker card until the uh public comment is closed so if you wanted to do that just to grab one just in case I'll give you a few minutes no okay all right Mao the first item is a public hearing regarding the military it's 38 a resolution adopting the city of s's Beach tenative adalum tax Mill rate at 1.800 Ms per $11,000 of taxable assess value which is 3.49% more than the roll back rate of 17393 Mills for fiscal year 2024 2025 great thank you city manager mayor vice mayor members of the commission this establishes our millage rate at 1.8 Mills per 1,000 uh which is a reduction from last year uh from 1.9 to 1.8 thank you great thank you and um was very appreciated um and just for this for anyone that's in the audience or listening this is this is the taxes that you pay directly to the city of Sunny Al Beach this is the second year in a row that we have lowered the millage um thanks to the work of the uh finance department Tiffany and the city manager and although it is a small amount um every little bit counts so do we have any public comment no ma'am all right go ahead have any questions or comments from the commission yes please go ahead okay so I believe that with the um property values uh have skyrocketed and we have um many condo owners uh throughout the city are suffering regarding their assessments that it's um and first I'd like to ask um Mr city manager how much do we have in our Reserves currently go ahead please I'd have to call up Tiffany Let's uh settle that first I just just a reminder for for everyone in the audience and everyone sitting up here that um we just want to make sure that we maintain the Quorum let's just do everything through the chair okay commissioner thank you good evening good evening okay so I'm actually going to refer you to a page and this is estimated um as of right now so if you go to [Music] page one second okay you go to page 48 that's our budget summary and so where we are estimating at the end of this fiscal year total funds is 93 million however 81 million is in general fund right okay thank you um okay please if you would and um on that amount how much have we earned in interest this year uh our interest earnings would be on page one second so that's going to be uh it actually goes into our miscellaneous um and we have approximately about about three and a half million in interest earnings how much three and a half million three and a half million okay so and another question is we have um many millions in um an account for uh uh reconstructing the playgrounds correct and um I think there's about 40 million uh for Heritage Park reconsideration correct uh not budgeted for next year but in a fiveyear plan it's about 40 million but not budget it for next year but it's in a fund it's currently in a fund correct it's reflected in the capital projects funds yes capital projects funds that's where it's reflected but it's a fiveyear plan so that 40 million is not all in next year right I understand that okay so I'm proposing to lower the military rate to 1.7 since we have absolutely the ability to do it and we need to assist our residents in that regard are you making a a motion I'm making a motion to amend this okay yes I need a second 1.7 yes 1.7 and okay in favor all in favor all in favor I I any Nays Nay Nay Nay can I explain why no when say your time to speak it's okay so the motion fails okay two to three all right um since you wanted to speak next please yeah I mean I am in favor of lowering the tax uh the milit rate uh but obviously you know I need to see some documentation I would need to see some numbers so I just can't you know just like this you know say say yes to that so I would like to see some information before I go ahead and uh and do this so yeah that's why all right I just want to remind um everyone that's uh listening and in the audience and especially uh my colleagues that uh a lot of conversations and work and workshops and emails and uh feedback have gone into creating this book um so this isn't just something that we um restart every single time that we discuss the budget um so while I appreciate um vice mayor your your question about that um at this point we need to proceed so that we wouldn't be able to start asking for any additional the commiss no no I'm saying that the reason I said no is because obviously there's um calculations that go into this budget of course and we already had talked about lowering to 1.8 everything all the work had been done to lower it to 1.8 so my my my answer is that I'm not opposed to lowering it more but we had already voted on lowering it to 1.8 or the work had been done to you know I I just cannot vote yes or no on something without having the information before me and in this case I don't have the information before me I do not like to vote you know without information got it okay no I agree with you that the there's there isn't evidence that supports that okay um I agree I agree with with the vice mayor and also we already took the 1.8 vote right we already did that and so this would not be the time to change great okay commissioner ston did you have any questions no all right so then I'll take a motion for 3 a for the millage so moved need a second second okay all in favor I I no okay thank you next item please the next item is 3B and ordinance of the city Commission of the city of sanal Beach Florida adopting an operating and capital Improvement budget for fiscal year commencing October 1st 20124 through September 30th 2025 pursuing to section 2.65 of Florida statutes authorizing expenditures for funds established by the budget authorizing incumbrances authorizing issuance of checks providing for Grants and Gifts providing for local and federal law enforcement trust funds providing for post audit providing for cability and providing for an effective date and just to clarify mayor this is uh adopting the tenative budget right okay thank you do we have any public speakers no ma'am okay wonderful um who would like to go first if anyone from the commission with any questions or comments I I have please go ahead I don't need to go first but I I did have some um questions can I sorry you I apologize you had an opening St it's okay I just wanted to do a brief opening apologies commissioner as you know we've been working for many months to put together the budget and we've developed this based on the premise of lowering the millage rate so this is an unprecedented 12th year in a row that we've lowered the millage rate for a residents per your direction I also want people to understand though they may see a fund balance and I think it's a great thing that we have a requirement that we hold a certain amount of money certain percentage of money in reserves to ensure that uh we cannot spend the monies that we have saved further as part of that we also have a special set aside of $10 million just in the event of hurricanes and we know that that money can be quickly spent if we have any kind of disaster so from that perspective I also wanted to mention that there are other cities that have not only had an increase in property valuation but they have also raised their taxes which we've not so thank you to Mayor the vice mayor and Commissioners for your direction and working towards lowering the millage rate and part of our process so that people understand we initially had a philosophical workshop with you where you gave us directions as to your goals and objectives and from that we developed a tentative budget which we then had a workshop with where we received additional feedback and that allowed us to build the budget that we have now so from that perspective we're happy to present this budget to you and for your direction on developing uh the budget along with the savings and the reserves that we have now I feel that our city is in the best financial condition that it's been in thank you thank you commissioner viscar um well I believe that I'm GNA need Tiffany so all right Tiffany you don't mind coming up please hi so I I was um looking at the capital project section that where a huge chunk of our monies uh are allocated um so I have some questions on that um some of it is basic but um figure you can just help us out here in C1 which is the forfeiture fund summary um I was I didn't know what reappropriated fund balance what does reappropriated mean that's just the estimated carryover so we reflect the forfeiture funds in our budget even though it's not truly a budgeted item just for transparency purposes so related to the um automatic license plate readers it's a carryover from this fiscal year okay so hence the reappropriation terms okay uh let's see this might be more of a Susan question maybe in um C13 the beach erosion mitigation strategies it talks about uh Breakwater structures at the North End of the city are is are those artificial reefs the the Breakwater structures yes ma'am okay and I'm in um so in C15 which is the central island drainage Improvement it it says that we have a resilient grant for uh 11 million and then I recall but maybe I'm wrong in in c18 which which is the urban trail wait sorry or maybe I'm I don't see a grant there what weren't we supposed to have a grant for the urban trail or was that already may I yes please um we were awarded a an appropriation for $250,000 um however it required us to redesign the trail that would make it less desirable and um was having to meet all these other f. requirements that was bumping up the price to cost more than what the grant was going to cover so we declined the Grant and we voted on that did we vote on on maybe believe you did maybe I just don't remember we okay came to our attention Okay let's see intra coastal sports park um this is not a Tiffany question so like I was maybe you already told us when we expect that to open because we're well underway the bid is out and opens this week I believe or next week the bid does not the park the bid opens okay this week for construction so design is complete um and the in C30 the sun's Boulevard Street improvements that's the parking um are we expecting that is that going to be metered parking is there is currently no plan to add parking there we have not had any cooperation from the fot to add the parking they are concerned about the flooding and and having enough flood um retainage that was one of the initial um intentions and we haven't removed it um however we're keeping that in there it's mostly the improvements to the um pavers I don't know if you recall on one side the south side of the street and by Gateway has pavers the rest is the old concrete and then some places there's like a random red stripe in the concrete so it's to finish out that project okay okay so then we don't know I mean because I it does say here additional parking lot and the new pavers and I was wondering that was if that lot was going to help um mitigate some of the cost or or generate any income if we do get to the point of being allowed to have parking there it would be metered parking just like our other Lots okay and would generate revenue and I think that that's that's it for me so you got easy most of my questions were for her I guess thank you you're welcome thank you commissioner ston okay so did you need Tiffany ER just to say that you did a fantastic job um for the first time I see all the legislative updates I never seen that before and that was amazing so thank you you and your team I know it's not you all uh but it was really good the way you guys put it also um the way you explain the budget especially at the very beginning of each section it will help people to get informed so a lot of people don't know exactly how government function and reading this give you a very good um understanding you know so I really thank you for that really you did a amazing job can we give an Applause so thank you yeah so I don't think I have so many questions for Tiffany um I we not goingon to try to go a little bit fast um and I'm not going to give us all the details that I would like to give for certain reasons but okay when it comes to the Heritage part the uh commissioner Joseph he just touched on that the $3 million that we are requesting to be budget right now it's going to be basically for a design purposes what page is that did you okay this will be c22 because um one of the reasons I I I am I feel very uncomfortable with the budget in general is that by we approving the budget we are pre-approving what is in here in these projects and here um we are talking about the design of Heritage Park and to build there a Multipurpose Building the design phase apparently is going to take around 18 months to let's say to two years so we are voting right now to put money for a project that if a start is going to start in two years and politically even most of you guys are not even going to be here anymore so the person who's going to sit down here is going to have to vote for a project that probably as of right now the majority of the people is not going to be in favor of because instead of taking green spaces we want more green space and we should take in consideration what just happened with the Oleta River Park and with all the parks in the State of Florida that they were considering doing certain Construction in there people spoke out and they the majority of the people I believe rather have more green spaces than new buildings so we want to take the biggest H land for for what I understand which I think 3. acres in in Heritage Park and to make there a building if anything again we have so many buildings in the city and I would like to see more green spaces um I rather see this $3 million best spend in something else and that is one of the reasons I don't feel comfortable at all or that I can support er er this budget um another thing that we should have the opportunity to do the right thing is the 2.1 that is going to end up being over $4 million over the years over the next two years at least um with the government an next Cafe and building for the building department we are talking that right now in the budget we have 2.1 millions and that is not going to be ready again in at least one year and we just passed in the commission meeting h of of August the construction of the annex to accommodate those new new people that the building department need or will ER hire which another conversation that maybe we should be Outsourcing some of these jobs so the building department for what I see is a hole that keeps growing and growing not because they just have the money they should be spending it h Community H Parks and Recreations like I said with Heritage Park I see that a complete mistake and I will never be able to support unless the people come and speak that they say that's what they wanted but for what I for the people that I spoke until right now um they don't want to see a new building in Heritage Park especially a one that according to the parking Recreation master plan it was going to be around $60 million um um I do have actually a question about the $250,000 for the Town Center Park meditation Garden because I thought that we were finished with that and I see there is a $250,000 that will be C32 and then c33 is $3 million for the renovation of the Town Center playground according to the equipment that it is in there and I've been using with my children the playground for the last 17 years um I cannot imagine how we can spend $3 million in the playground unless it is also considering the renovation of the bathrooms if that's the case then it will make a lot of sense and please do the as soon as possible with with the bathrooms so um overall like I say I thank the finance department for putting this together and I know that you're following the instructions of um management um but with what's going on with Heritage Park and what's happening with the building department I can uh support this budget thank you Joseph okay first um I have a question for Susan um regarding a uh lifeguard Tower at 167th Street is that's in this budget when you say 167th do you mean Pier Park north of Pier Park there is not one plan for north of Pier Park okay I I believe that that was requested by um um our lifeguards have you not heard that the lifeguards have not brought that to my attention no okay so I can help you with that okay okay if I may um he is making reference that H we were speaking about a new H Tower actually around 160 that's where we need it because that is in in in the last uh meeting that we have in the senior Round Table uh we we we spoke about it in in the presentation North yeah that's that actually that's South that's south from the P but it's 160 because the two towers that they cover that section they are too very they are too far apart so we do need one in there and thank you for bringing that up because that was part of my not but I don't have it here with me if we could consider adding one station at on 160 that one is in here yes yes okay so that is that's that's the one I was the new one additional one mhm oh okay perfect okay perfect okay so now I've received um many um complaints regarding the building that's proposed at Heritage Park um originally I know we had discussed that um that was going to be built as a replacement temporary replacement to Pelican Park correct it is intended to um offer space while Pelican Community Park is renovated corre um but it would be a a Legacy Event it would it would be a a park that would serve the community for many many years to come it would not replace um what we would do at Pelican Community Park okay now we didn't take any input from uh residents on the north side of the city regarding that didn't we we took input from the entire Community multiple times yes regarding regarding our plans for Heritage Park we don't have a plan yet right so they really didn't have an idea what was intended so how could they say yes if let me just um interject here this this is in response to the parks master plan this isn't specific to any part of the city or any actual design fora now we're talking about 40 million at some point to be spent on something in Heritage Park that people don't want okay so Mr city manager if you could just clarify how how that part of the budet works so you have monies that are set aside in the budget my spending Authority and it's good for the public to know is limited to $50,000 so anything under 50,000 requires our purchasing department to go through all of the same bidding requirements anything that's over $50,000 has to be brought back to you as the commission to give us direction for approval so they those you may see money that's set aside for future projects nothing has actually been approved yet because it has not brought been brought to you so when it's brought to you and presented to you the public is welcome just as they are now to provide any input or feedback so thank you thank you for clarifying that okay so um getting back to my um opposition to the building at Heritage Park I believe um we need uh the bathrooms refurbished there we could do well with a uh refurbished or a new water feature um also um the memorial now let me ask also what is happening with this uh meditation Garden is that are those Gates locked most of the day or are they open no they're open during the operating hours they are and is it being used much I was told it's not being used very much I I know we spent over a million and a half dollars which I was against but um is it actually being used I can get some stats for you I know that staff has commented to me about the usage some good and some bad right okay um now we had spoken about um using uh maybe moving the memorial from Heritage Park to the meditation Garden area I had not heard that well i' I've had it brought to my attention that that might be something that uh might be advantageous in order to allow for more usage of Heritage Park for some tennis courts or volleyball courts something such as that that is all news to me well just uh throwing it out there it's uh the residents who don't want the building we saying that that might be uh since we have uh the meditation Garden that's really not being used for much that that might be a spot for the memorial okay um thank you commissioner Joseph um vice mayor yes so okay referring to the uh to this sheet which is the summary of the changes so I see here $150,000 due to adding improvements to All City operated restrooms so I was trying to find so from what I understand this is only making some improvements to the restroom is not it does not include um the upgrade to all of the restrooms because I believe all of them need an upgrade so just wanted to know where the actual budget for the upgrade of the bathrooms is if it's being um added to each let's say park or are we kind of having a separate line item for that and then I just wanted to know if we already have a plan in place to go as fast as we can in the upgrade of those restrooms mayor May um the $151,000 that is in the facili operating budget is for upgrades to some of the the smaller bathrooms Town Center Park is a full rebuild um we had just done on billone beach access we did not really include any major upgrades to Heritage Park other than replacing some fixtures and um some minor repairs in there Margolis Park was actually most of that was covered in this fiscal year which they're working on they just had the plumber out there last week um to improve the drainage there that was a renovation of what is there it wasn't actually building a new one um so greater ventil a new fixtures new flooring all of those things that um we had talked about and then Gateway there was really no intention of doing much more there the interior ones are still in great condition and the exterior ones just had new flooring and some improvements done there um pure Park we do have money allocated to do some improvements at pure Park okay that restroom and Samson was just done we are doing some minor improve improvements there that seems to be ongoing and and and know the ones that need a rebuild that money has been budgeted correct the major rebuild is in the the capital project that commissioner Stant mentioned all right um also talking about the capital projects um I see a lot of there's a line item for the first year right that the capital project takes place and I see a line item that says Construction uh I understand that behind that obviously there's there's planning there's perhaps surveys and everything like that so I was just wondering going back to c22 Heritage Park there's a $3 million line item under construction does that include plans that really should have design that should have been in plans and studies so so yeah so I see that in in in all of the uh these one sheeters for the Capital Improvement so if we could put that in the correct line item that that'll be great yes on some of the ongoing ones it would gen it would be in construction for example C20 uh because design was in the the previous year yeah and it'll be and it'll be good to to e because obviously let's say year one of a project the fiscal year 25 right for Heritage Park you know it be good to separate what's construct instuction and what's plans and study because right now we have a $3 million line item I would like to understand how much of that is allocated to to planning and and and studies or design and how much is actual construction so we get a better sense of how that money is um broken down all of it the 3 million is for plans and studies the 3 million is for plans and studies plan studies permits doesn't make any sense okay and but that is is an estimate because we haven't gone out to bid yet okay okay yeah once we get well obviously we'll have to approve that if it comes to us uh but yeah at that time I would like to see a breakdown of that 3 million absolutely um what else okay so Newport pre- improvements right just um it says here design that's c25 there's 1. 575 million there and it talks about design and construct improvements um is that what we had spoken about when we met with um with the cornfields yes sir that is the project that we are looking to partner with them on so that all the improvements would happen at the same time their designer is working on it okay it would come to you for approval before anything happened understood whatever that design is yeah I just wanted to make sure is that that's what um we're talking about there yes um okay and uh that's it for me at this moment I might have other questions okay thanks thank you anyone else have any questions no I just want i' just like to verify that there's no money in this budget for the sister city program is that correct yes that is correct okay and also we uh remove the money for um the hotala am ambulance that is correct okay thank you yeah but but I see that there is $110,000 for donations and scholarships under the city commission so what that mean that now we are going to be deciding who's going to get those scholarships yes we reinstated that no no I see it here yeah but before we never were part of the process that's that's the the question that I have and another thing that I see that is under the city commission is $122,000 for the community resource Fair what is it under the city commission and know under like uh CCS or another department that's that that's an event not for the commission it's about for the whole city so I don't think the the program should be that is Page 96 uh that should be under the city commission um budget thank you okay um May I yes please go ahead so question the $10,000 that is when I brought up the donations again and is that meant to be that we each have some money allocated so we could go ahead and make a donation obviously with the approval of of the uh the commission the donation line item and the scholarship are two separate okay in our budget so you will determine the scholarships and you will also you will each be allocated funds for donation provided that they meet you know the program re yes sir which we still have to determine the which we still have to determine yeah mhm okay yeah okay thank you with that I'll take a motion so moved I need a second second okay this is a voice V uh roll call Mayor roll call go ahead commissioner Joseph um no commissioner sty assent no commissioner viscara yes vice mayor Lama yes mayor fetchen yes the ordinance passes on first reading 3 to2 second reading is scheduled for September 12th 20124 at 5:30 okay I just want to say a few things really quick before we we adjourn for anyone that's listening uh I urge you to attend that that meeting it will be posted on social media um you can have an opportunity to speak to any of us uh ask any questions you can come in person um we our goal is to be as transparent as as possible and I want to thank the um the staff uh Tiffany and the city manager Deputy manager for your hard work on this and and listening to all of our input um it's it's not easy especially when you're lowering the millage so it it is appreciated and I do want to remind the public that these items still all get voted on individually if they are over $50,000 um and then lastly before we adjourn uh I want to mention um a few days ago um there there was a horrible tragedy in in Israel where an American citizen was murdered um along with five other hostages um I I would be remiss not to to mention them especially since this is uh something horrible for for Americans but the the uh um the Jewish Community especially so I I didn't want to mention them um okay thank you rej thank you