##VIDEO ID:_E5ilST5nHA## e e e e [Music] [Music] thank you all right welcome to the 5:30 p.m September 26 20124 final budget hearing for the city's proposed budget we do have a quorum so I'll call this meeting to order would you please join me in a moment of silence and the pledge to the flag I the United States of America to the rep for it stands one nation God indivisible withy andice for all city clerk would you please read the rules to speak uh yes sir the following is the procedure for public comment at the special city council meeting individuals wishing to speak on agenda items must complete a signup card prior to the item being introduced sign up cards are available on the table next individuals wishing to speak on non-agenda items May do so under petitions from the public present citizens will be given three minutes to speak on all agenda items and finally all signup cards and Exhibits being submitted to city council shall be placed in the box on the table thank you very yeah very merch very much uh city manager yes sir uh good evening mayor vice mayor mayor city council uh this is the final budget hearing and I have a presentation to provide Council and then uh we'll get to get to it next slide this is the process we began um with the uh budget being presented to you on 23 July the proposed millage was 6.58 17 with the debt millage of. 1936 budget Workshop was held on 8 August with the uh with me setting the reduction of the operating millage rate back to 6581 Mills first public hearing was held on the 12th and this is where we're at today these are the resolutions um City attorney or ordinance to be read by the City attorney ordinance number 28 2024 an ordinance of the city of tville Florida providing for the millage for the operation of the city of tville and voted that service Levy for fiscal year 2025 and providing for an effective date ordinance number 29 2024 an ordinance of the city of tville Florida adopting the general and related budgets of the city of tville for the fiscal year 2025 and providing for an effective date ordinance number 30 2024 an ordinance of the city of tville Florida amending section 21241 and 21243 of the code of ordinances by amending and increasing the schedule of rates and charges for Water and Sewer Service providing for separability repeal of conflicting ordinances an effective date and incorporation into the code ordinance number 31 2024 an ordinance of the city of tville Florida amending section 16116 of the code of ordinances by amending and establishing an increase to the residential monthly charge for solid waste recycling and additional cart fees and by amending section 16117 of the code of ordinances by amending and establishing an increase to the commercial dumpster and Commercial can monthly charges for solid waste and recycling fees and increasing the commercial dumpster rental fees and by amending section 16118 of the code of ordinances by amending and establishing an increase to the extra charges for special services provide for severability repeal of conflicting ordinances an effective date and incorporation into the code ordinance number 32 2024 an ordinance of the city of tville Florida adopting the Enterprise fund and Capital Improvements program budget of the city of tville for the fiscal year 2025 and providing for an effective date Flor statute at both states that at both the public and the final hearing city council must adopt its operating millage rate before it adopts the the capital budgets public may speak and ask questions before city council adopts any of the proposed budget related ordinances this is the proposed fy2 revenues 146 m69 1,741 and the sources for the those revenues and the expenditures the same amount and where they are being expended I'm required to read this publicly the city of Titusville Florida is the taxing Authority 6. 3536 is the rolled back millage rate the operating millage rate to be levied is 6.5 817 Mills the percent of increase over rolled back millage rate is 3.59% which is characterized as a tax increase the voted debt millage rate is levied is 1936 Mills the fy2 budget is built at an operating millage rate of 6.58 one7 which complies with the 10% on prior year revenues in accordance with chapter 34 uh 430 laws of Florida during the public hearing city council must discuss the percentage increase over millage and the roll back rate if any to the general fund budget and the purpose for which the adorm tax revenues are being increased here public comments and in and the increase of AD adorm and the millage rate the FY 25 budget is built at a 6.58 1 ms which is 3.59 above the roll back rate of 6.35 36 Ms generating 1.6 million in additional Revenue over the FY 24 adopted budget for ad theorum the proposed budget uses these additional dollars to fund a 3.5% Cola to attract and retain the best-in-class workforce it also funds the public safety technology vehicles and equipment and funds an increased cost of consumables due to inflationary pressures the uh the general fund uh revenue or the general fund budget is 63 million 200 two two 23,7 $38 and this is the sources of those revenues the expenditures and as you see 45% of the expenditures is public safety of the general fund the city enjoys the lowest per capita advel Orum per resident in in Bard County the low the one to the left of us is in fact Bard County this is the general fund millage comparisons of our uh peer cities in the county this is our property tax house a house valued at $240,800 that is homesteaded that tax uh bill would be $3,533 as you see the 38.888421100000 Ville and 21.9 4% uh to bouard County at 7 um $68 this is the utility rate changes this is a summary of the utility rate changes the storm water management utility has been approved for a $213 uh annual increase Solid Waste proposed a 1644 and U for a commercial dumpster of 14852 or 10% this is a comparison to storm water and some of the other cities that we we were comparing against have different Revenue funds such some actually use general fund for it so um we you can see where we're proposed where where we're current and where we're we're proposed Solid Waste rate comparison residential we're on the low end again Solid Waste commercial on the low end in summary a typical residential monthly bill for 5,000 gallons uh for residential customer that increase will be $458 a month on a typical commercial with a 3/4 uh inch line or meter at 5,000 gallons the increase will be $5.90 a month the typical commercial monthly bill for a 1 in at 15,000 gallons we we'll see a $162 increase the rate comparisons with our Pure cities these were uh these rates that we're showing do not include any of the increases or proposed increases from any of the other cities um so I know that they will definitely go up but you'll see that we are very average and in the middle of our Pure cities okay the action items for fy2 follow-up items adopt a millage rate of 6.58 17 which generates an ADV valorum revenue of 1.6 million over the FY 24 budget there's two options that city council can do um make additions to the budget which would require an offset or reduction two or greater than the uh addition or make no changes to the city budget we have read the related budget ordinances um mayor I think you have opened the final public hearing and um you may amend the tenative budget as deemed necessary by city council and these Your council's Action Council go ahead I'm sorry go ahead are we good yes sir all right uh Council anything to follow up with that member stokel yep I just had a question uh probably for Kevin to see when looking at the solid waste that we were on the low end have you heard anything because I know we have our own solid waste and uh some of the other cities contract out have you heard about their rates going up or what that looks like yeah most everybody the contracts Waste Management has an automated increase matching CPI for garbage service so so they don't always have a annual disclosure because of that but that was in their current contracts as far as I know them and was Pro are both doing CPI U adjustments okay and I just wanted to bring attention to that why I think it's good that we still are doing ours um within the city yeah and I know you've mentioned that several times and I'm glad to see that as well I think that um and I'm sure Waste Management does a great job but I don't want to contract that out if we can help well yeah and even just thinking about the hurricane that was hitting like they were able to say hey this is hitting let's go out earlier and have that control so just want to say thank you for that member Nelson uh just a question and I think probably for Kevin I understand the storm water um rate went up tremendously for Orange County do you recall what it was yeah I think there's are projected 50% or 65% increases on their storm water for Orange County and do you know what kind of projects they're looking at no they they have a they similar to us they do a lot of project work they don't have a soil for the water quality side so imagine they're doing a lot of flood prone area work uh they also hadn't adjusted their rate I think in two decades so they're playing a catchup at this point but I don't know what projects they're planning well it sounds like we're playing catch up too in some ways oh yeah wise for sure okay okay anything else from councel all right then we will um call the cards um we're going to do the first two first yes sir since the millage in the budget is the same conversation and we'll open the public hearing so the public realizes if you want to speak as to the millage ordinance and the budget ordinance we'll provide you three minutes per ordinance and you could do that so I would suggest providing speakers six minutes for each ordinance to talk about the millage and the budget and we'll handle those together they put them together yes sir all right um and city clerk hopefully you have that clarified up there so go ahead and call the card and give us a minutes uh yes sir we have four cards alog together that have signed up for both ordinances 28 and 29 I'll set the timer for six minutes the first is Dwight sers so these will be for six minutes both ordinances hello Mr sers good evening for the record my name is Dwight sers a longtime resident of Titusville taxpayers former City attorney and retired City employee I first want to thank Mr robotti and Mrs Butler and others who supplied me some information uh earlier in the week I appreciate that as well as posting the 2023 annual audit I previously have expressed to you my concern about the city tax is going up above the roll back rate and for myself who retired from the city in 2011 they've gone up 42% my city pension has gone down 40% in purchasing power and I also expressed some concern about the rate increases my primary concern is I believe there are certain expenditures which are inappropriate or out of line I believe it was a wise decision for the city to accept approximately $8.6 million from the American Rescue plan I commend you for doing that at my first appearance before you my wife and I's appearance we asked several questions uh we did not receive any answers I put them in writing to all of you as well as certain city staff as of September the 23rd all of you should have those as well as staff I'd like to hear the answers to those questions I will let you do what you're going to do and then what I would say is unless the council member wishes to address any of those at this time then we can address those um as as we finish uh member Nelson and I will say my apologies I got a new self Buton everything's deleted so but I did did come in early to get your letter so I was was able to read it okay well I I certainly think your staff could answer them and pro is a courtesy provided me with some answers but I have received nothing and as I read Florida Statutes we're allowed to ask questions and I assume the legislature doesn't need to tell you you need to answer them I think that's obvious but I receive no answers and I would agree with you with some of the things you were were asking were certainly not things that I can tell you I'm overly familiar with I I'm not here I don't work here I'm not in HR well the first question I asked out was retirement contributions which is significant impact upon the general fund is going up $690,000 that's a very significant impact and I asked the simple question why I asked the the F follow-up question Whenever there was a significant pay raises in 2022 to 2022 23 that you the council and staff allocate additional funds for the pension plan to cover that as a matter of fact you greatly reduced the pension contribution in that year to 1,792 th000 and now is 3, 259,000 why regarding the significant increase in pension contributions was that due to poor management of the plan which I doubt poor rate of return or for some other reason as we all know the council hires and fires and controls salaries of the city manager City attorney and assistant City attorney and on page 60 and 61 you can see what the contribution for the retirement fund goes up and how much it goes up in addition in accordance with the city manager budget message you propose a 3.5% Cola and uh I asked staff and they supplied me that represents an increase in your budget of $737,500 increase per employee on the average rather than a 3.5 I said at the last meeting I think you need to look at that and I gave you concrete examples reason why because many Public Works employees we get $1,158 others will get $1,750 you make $50,000 per year whereas in accordance with this budget the city manager will be getting $772 is that what you are authorizing that's a question for you I would say uh I would say Dwight that uh 3.5% Cola raise is something we were excited to give to our employees and I can tell you that when I was the uh a teacher and a coach at Titusville High School making between 30 and $45,000 depending on how long I've been there uh when that 3.5% or 5% or 7% whatever we were able to get came down um my principal got more than I did even though it was the same percentage and if you were a teacher who was there at the top end you got more than the teacher who was there at the bottom end so that part mathematically it's just going to be that way um so so I'm just I'm just saying that that's not uncommon a 3.5 is a 3.5 and if you're making 100,000 it's going to be more than the guy making 40,000 well if you make more than $200,000 I'm just telling you that's was my reply to that well I I fully understand that but I think the the col is to help people absolutely and that's why we were excited to be able to do that people at the upper end need help and I think your public your city manager your personnel director can tell you there's different ways of Distributing a pay increase it doesn't have to necessarily be across the board I've had experience seeing that it's the City attorney for Titusville so it can be done and I'm not saying that's not something can be addressed in the future at this point I felt like 3.5 and that's what was presented to us um and certainly I'm thinking uh fire police clerical Etc and uh again if um as a coach and a teacher uh fighting to make $40,000 a year I i' take whatever I could get but I realize if the superintendent got that he certainly made a whole lot more than I did he probably got more of an increase in a year than I got in a lifetime sure so I understand that from the bottom up certainly the I the labors Internationals typically have always done that here in Titusville and I noticed you approved the AG this last last I disagree maybe some creativity could happen and I can tell you as I'm down there and the superintendent was up there I was wondering that back in the day the other concern I have and perhaps I'm stepping on toes but I do not think it's right to increase the disparity between the boss and the assistant between your City attorney and your assistant City attorney which you hire you're increasing the disparity by $3,000 is that what you want to do I'm saying we wanted a 3.5% Cola for everybody and just like again if you use the military a general is going to get more in 3.5 than a Corporal and and that may not feel good to the Corporal that went home and and having a tough time paying his bills but I wanted to make sure I think our Council wanted to make sure we were able to give whatever we could get and that's how it's presented to us and I don't disagree with giving a pay raise I disagree when you have such a disparity which I believe in looking at other budgets around Bard County the upper level there's quite a disparity and I don't think for example the assistant clerk should make $60,000 less than the city clerk and she's been here a long time I don't think that's right and you likewise are making it worse and BR Nelson I sort of look at a cola not as a raise but it costs a living to keep Pace with inflation so I don't look at it as raise and as a state employee it was always across the boort um we were happy to get it there were some years we got nothing um but it was across the board and two I look at it and go um the person who is making 40,000 a year and I won't tell you what I made when I started at the state attorney's office but I was like oh my God can I live on this um but you knew that after a year or two things were going to get better you had the opportunity to advance sure and this the same way with these guys that are starting at the bottom you have that opportunity to advance so the reason why I'm addressing you is because you set the budget right you you set the budget who else can I address oh I and you are addressing us I I don't again I'm the guy that was the first year teacher of $15,500 so I it's not like I'm the guy sitting up there in the penthouse you got a lot of money I I felt like it until I had to pay my bills um but so I I understand what you're saying and I appreciate the sentiment I do I really felt that way when well truthfully I got to be honest with you I was very excited if we got a 7% raise and if I could just get to 20,000 and then to 30,000 I'm not kidding when I got to 30 I was feeling proud of myself I didn't think too much about the fact that the superintendent or the principal got the same rise as I did except theirs was probably if mine was $600 theirs was probably $6,000 I don't know but that's um you know that's the math of it and I'm not saying that there can't be some consideration um when this goes around because that's kind of the first time I've heard this this expressed but I certainly can't say I didn't feel it um as it went down and I was on the bottom end of the totem pole sure I understand with regard to my questions will they be answered I I have some others that I put in writing I stated at the last meeting you all have them or should have them and staff has them for I was talking also about the Zone I had questions about that and I put them in writing anybody want to make a comment on the Zone I feel like I've okay my part uh member Nelson I will and uh I'm not sure who would be the best at answering this I think there were some reasons that we were talking about constructing the sewer lines along Highway 50 and especially the lift station I think for me the liit station was a problem so Richard Scott Terry sure sure I know I I've read the report there definitely was a problem with this Li station it couldn't handle the capacity of the new addition I understand that and I understand but likewise I think your codes are quite clear and you simply didn't follow the code and as I have said I mean you expect expect everybody to follow the same code and it seems to me depending on who you are for example The Great Outdoors that was a question I asked getting $400,000 for irrigation as it turned out somebody made a campaign contribution to the gentleman's campaign and turn there's another contribution given to that person's campaign and it's interesting how that works it's should not be that way and I have respectfully suggest to you why don't you do something about it it's not right I think that in the future we need to pay increased attention to those issues certainly perceptions uh and especially perceptions I think probably Scott can answer why we went this route as opposed to going through our code or Richard I can't answer about Great Outdoors that is not City related correct I'm assume you're talking about the county Zone that did that The Great Outdoors was County that would the city would not be involved in that it's all so city and county appointees it it's happened inside the city limits as well as outside the city liit with regard to the certainly County tax dollars not city tax correct it was a county project with regard to the Sewer those were Tiff dollars that were put into the Zone Tiff it wasn't out of our funds it was money that went into the Zone earmarked as Zone dollars and that was pursuant to a grant under the criteria of the Zone they came to the city because they needed permission to use our portion of that Tiff money towards that sewer line that qualified for a Zone Grant under the terms of that Grant so in Ence we spent some money right certainly it's $885,000 of Ador taxes payable through the city of t hold on two seconds so we paid some money toward that sewer line project the Tiff The Zone dollars paid for that the money that was put into the Zone Tiff per the formula for the zone that was created that money has to be used for Zone projects and that came to you as his own project that qualified as his own project and qualified for those dollars and would it have been better to have gone through the process and basically Force the developer to pay for those lines I mean get my question is why do one it's opposed to the other I can't answer why they went through the Zone versus another route I can just tell you it came to us as a Zone project and our involvement was whether or not given the project and the fact that it did provide capacity for the city and Sewer capacity to the south in that area and getting septic off the river as part of the project whether we thought it was a wise or appropriate use of City dollars through the zone that was the analysis for us right all all I know is it's asarm tax money that's paid to the city of Titusville right and you have an ordinance on the books that says what it says it's very clear and apparently I don't believe you were aware that that ordinance even existed and I think you should be aware of it I'm not sure that I was I'm not sure the others were aware that that ordinance existed at the time I had forgotten about it but I do know it exists does that make sense so pardon I screwed up well all I know is you got $885,000 per general city ordinance that money could go for pay raises go for a lot of other purposes it seems to me and I think at some point in time you need to consider that rather than I mean I would you know we can talk about the Zone a lot more but I think as a policy matter whenever the city is is reviewing how its money is being spent and the 2, $200,000 is spent for the benefit of private individuals I think you need to look at it and apply city ordinances City purchasing policies and regulations not just let the Zone do what it wants to do particularly since it's your money and you have to prove the purchase if it's over $50,000 I would agree a further discussion was probably warranted however on the other hand I sort of look at it and go hindsight I I admit hindsight but I look at it and I remember Dr jacobe saying the worst thing that we can do to the river is have septic tanks along the river I don't see that as an option I I think that's dramatizing a situation that would never had existed I'm just saying that's what he said um he was saying that that's just a tremendous problem yeah I think that certainly clearly easy Avenues and Mr broom is quite familiar with it because at the end of gome Road he negotiated a contract for the extension of the sewer line all the way down there with a payback agreement okay there there are clear historical options that exist that the city has done you have every right if you're benefiting a property to assess them for the value of the benefit you have ever right to do and I think we did that for uh Victorious yes yes I remember that yes so I I certainly hear what you're saying I would say that I feel like that uh uh and and your points are well taken but I would also say that I'm not on the Zone I do sit in on uh meetings as aais on and listen and I'm pleased when we got here they had just kind of helped get the uh Miracle City Titus Landing project complete and that's really had a lot to do with where the Zone was going and now I have sat and listened to them working hard on the Sears town with Jesse and I hope that something happens that way if that's the proper way great if it's not well then we maybe some Paradigm shifts okay my other questions I mean the first question is why did the the retirement Contra up 69,000 if if Council will allow me I think answer a couple of those questions your question was did why did the retirement go up so you singled out a couple of departments but actually it went up Citywide and the reason is it did go up Citywide the reason is the city budgets based on an Actuarial determined amount they provide us those dollars every year and that's what we put into the budget and it's then based on the percent of salaries within that department so there were significant increases between FY 24 and fy2 and we budgeted very close to the exact dollar that was given to us by the actuary so that is determined outside of the city they're provid with information and that's what we we put in the budget and a couple of your other questions do we um change the retirement rates based on salaries yes so the pension is uh the actuaries given are uh salaries every year so that they can do their calculations and then they provide us with the amount so they get the salaries every year and we put the amount in that they give us so we don't calculate those they give that number to us so what really telling me they were way off in their calculations I couldn't tell you if they are or they aren't they they have their own logarithms that they use to calculate this I can provide you with these two documents that I used to bring tonight it shows that the police officers and firefighters Public Safety pension between years went up 35.3% and the other General employees uh contribution between FY 24 and 25 went up 19.4% so that that's the amount that's given to us and that's how we budget that okay okay thank you thank you okay Mr steers appreciate that yes sir next card uh yes uh Suzanne n copelan thank you hi Suzanne Noel Copeland I'm a resident of Titusville um I'd like to start by thanking the city staff who answered some questions that I had about the budget last week in an email they were very prompt with their response and it was very helpful for me um I've done a review of Department by Department resource counts and salaries and I'm going to address the notion that everyone is going to get a 3.5 increase um based on some information that's available on gov salaries.com um between 2020 and 2023 the mayor salary has increased by 76% wow um the current budget proposes to increase it again Titusville mayor in 2025 will have no experience as Titusville as mayor so I don't see any reason to increase the salary of the role uh the remainder of the city council has seen a 35% increase over the same four-year period of time at least one if not two of the counselors will also be new in the role um I would propose something for the council if not the mayor and the Council of a base salary within a um with a graduating scale if they retain their seat election to election rather than just automatically raising the rate for people that are coming in with no experience in the role say that again say that again real quick because it sounds interesting so rather than just automatically increasing the city councilor's salary year-over-year you start with a base you say that's the incoming rate and if you win your next election you get a x% bump because now you've got however many years enroll rather than everybody just coming up at a higher rate and then you may have somebody that has been a city counsil for six years and they're making the same as someone who's coming in with no experience and that's a common way that yeah kind of like a beginning teacher making the same thing as a 10year teacher right yeah so that way you can adjust you're not just automatically raising everything up um the city manager has enjoyed a 34% salary increase over the same period of time which puts the city manager salary at 133% higher than the average city manager in the State of Florida his department has proposed also to have an additional 3.5 salary increase in the proposed budget um I part of the materials that I got was uh the org charts and the salary information from the adopted 2024 budget and the proposed 2025 budget and I want to point out some areas where it's not a across theboard 3.5% uh code enforcement had no change to their number of employees but they have a salary decrease of 4% Public Works admin has a decrease of FTE by 70% but they have their budget decrease is only 14% similarly the water and sewer admin uh has a decrease of 40% % but their salaries are only decreasing 20% um the Water Production Branch had an increase of 22% in their resources but they have a 72% increase in salaries um Reclamation branch has a 21% increase but has a 57% salary increase the overall public works department which is departments that are 1500s and 1600s have an overall 5% decrease but an 8% increase um there's a support services department that appears to only have one person in it but it's kind of hard to tell the way the org charts are written um and that person has a salary over $200,000 and a proposed 3 and a half% increase and again that's unless there are other salaries that are being allocated to that department that are not evident from the paperwork um the purchasing and Contracting Department have no changes in their FTE and they have a 16% proposed increase in salaries uh the development department has no changes in their FTE and they have a 19% salary increase the neighborhood services has a no change in FTE and they have a 30% salary increase conversely permits has a slight decrease in their salary budget although they have no changes to their FTE and finally the customer service department which is the department that has one of the lowest average FTE salaries per employee their uh proposed budget has a salary increase proposed of less than 1% so I think that someone needs to look at these numbers more and look at how the 3.5% increase is being distributed truly to the employees and across the Departments and and really align it better to you know where people to your point earlier 3% makes a lot more difference to somebody that makes $100,000 than it does I mean I worked out this this uh increase for the customer service person and it comes out on average it comes out to less than $30 a month increase I've been there yeah but there's if you're saying everybody's getting 3 and a half% why is that department getting less than 1% yeah I don't I can't say I'm aware of that part so I I just think that all of the before this actually goes into effect and people start getting increases somebody needs to do a deeper dive on Department by Department there's a lot of employee movement between departments one of the pages that we had in the deck from last time said like two people mooved from here to here and one person moved from here to here but that's not the real picture there are great swaths of departments that are shut down and reformed and so it's hard to track the money you know because and there's a you may have somebody that's a director but they're that role shows up in several departments I can't tell if that's one person or if that's five people so that wouldn't be me either thank you very much yep anything you want to put in there are you good go ahead if Council will allow me I can tell you there were some changes this year in Shifting the Departments around for a couple of reasons one of them is we follow the state chart of accounts and it's all based in government on function so if an employee is doing a certain function we have to per the state chart of accounts make sure they're in that function so Kevin went through his most of his staff that's where most of the changes were and we did move people around based on their jobs what they were doing and what their function was so that part of it is I can't assure you having built the EB budget everybody in the budget is getting 3.5% next card please oh hold on hold on I'm sorry I got a couple people here hold the card um sorry member Nelson as far as Council and City Manager Go didn't we do a pay study yes ma'am and wasn't the result of that pay stud saying we were getting like $4 an hour it was pretty bad yeah I should have probably said that anything we did there was a pay study and I can tell you before you get too excited about my 30 some perc increase I think I'm up to 12 I think I'm up to 12,000 I'm not exactly sure even but some I think was making eight when I started I think it's like 12 I think I don't know but that was a big percent it's a huge percent REM me my teaching days I'll take it uh go ahead mayor council members um yeah in in fiscal year 2223 we did a pay study and we communicated micone those results to you the microphone I'm sorry and fiscal year 2223 as a matter of fact uh the message in FIS in uh 22 when we did the pay study from a consultant took into account uh not only all of the employees in the city but also the charter members meaning your assistant City attorney attorney uh city manager were also evaluated in the same methodology that all uh positions in the city were and um here's a spreadsheet for your own information I see we'll pass him down and then one for M St ahk you you're welcome everybody got one there you missed us here on here got one oh yeah the council members were also included and I apologize but I do have that information if you need to follow up with the council members uh study at the time as as well I just remember something like when they added up the hours it was like correct me if I'm wrong but it was like $335 an hour yeah I I have that information I'll be happy to present it to dist we also um we did um a benefits analysis as well as part of what benefits do you have can and we allowed um a survey done throughout Bard County Joe and here cities and um you do have the ability to contribute to the 401K now I'm not excited yeah I $1,000 into a 401k other cities had from that paay study like I I think it's West Melbourne they have health insurance we don't have health insurance so there's different factors that go into it so I think just keeping in mind the amount again that pay plan study that we did was very beneficial and I say I was excited to make $4 an hour yeah so I shared with you the same methodology that all of our other employees were classified the charter members were also classified and that's the information that you have in front of you you um we share our colleagues within the within the county and um this is the current survey this is just for the city manager that we sh our colleages yeah we can share oh we got cup here don't need a chair and this spread sheet um shows the different cities within the the uh County the population the current sality is city manager as well as the benefit so um the um document that I passed out uh established the uh competitive salary based on the methodology um at the time of the study and then a cola were applied subsequently that uh landed on the current salary that you have now which I think you you'll see that's very competitive with with the population and size of all the cities in bravard County all right thank you vice mayor yeah just one question for this round uh for staff does longevity pay a role in the the salary longevity I'm sorry what's what role does longevity play in staff salary so um with respect to that document that you see um the consultant applied uh in their methodology um the tenure of the employee with respect to the tenure in the city M at the time that they were hired to the time of um their tenure at the time that we did the study we also took into a and that's why you see a hybrid approach we also took into account the date of their classification meaning if they were promoted um subsequent to being uh hired uh that time frame was also computed so um that was the hybrid approach that we took um several years ago to arrive at the salaries that you that are uh referred to in the budget if I could just interject um along those lines that's a good question that you asked vice mayor uh Titusville city manager is the longest tenur city manager in the county by by far and the highest paid is Melbourne and Palm Bay the two largest cities and Titusville is third so in the pecking order that's exactly where it should be and that's what the pace studies showed but as far as uh Palm Bay and uh Melbourne's I think that their longevity is only two or three years and our city manager has been here almost 10 years and the rocklet city manager is right there with tid much smaller town and she's only been there for two years so I mean that's an important factor to consider when you're looking at the salary levels yep and to add that to that I was going to say also population of City So when you say the average of Florida for instance I would venture to say Titusville like when I go to florid Lega cities events I talk to cities all the time and I'm like oh you only have a thousand in your population so thinking about the population of our city that we have our own solid waste that we have our water facilities all of that I think you have to at least for me when I go to the floor leag of cities and I see what is happening across the state um I feel very confident in what we're doing and that we are paying people appropriately and I appreciate that we do have colas I I think the mayor and I you know both being in education there were several years we went without pay increases I mean I can tell you and so I think being able to work the budget to pay our employees to have as much going to infrastructure to looking for Grants to getting other funds I I'm very happy with what we're doing it's not perfect but I think that we are moving in a very good Direction member Nelson and I got gotta say uh given that our general fund budget is 60,000 and we probably get another or 60 million and we probably get another 30 million in Grants our employees are doing doing well so we appreciate that vice mayor yes another question along the same line is that um when um are all your salaries when in hiring staff especially regular staff not the chared staff everybody HED in at the same rate prop each position hired in at the same rate M microphone Joe Jo Jo M okay I'm sorry so to answer your question it takes into account no not necessarily we establish a a minimum for the pay range and it depends on the applicant if we're talking about a new hire may come in above that minimum salary based on their qualification ations their experience their tenure and they may come in above that that minimum salary of the range we also take into account though however you know our our incumbents the people who are working in that particular position not to create conflict with the new hire and the incumbent so all of those factors to answer your question or take into account there number of components that take into account we just don't hire a new applicant at the minimum because there are other factors to consider and and that's important to bring out is that when you're trying to um determine what an individual uh salary should be it is so many uh factors involved with that and uh as some of them was the person's skills the person's education the person's experience and uh in similar or um or like jobs all of those things all those factors have has to be included in this process okay that's all I have for now anything else Joe thank you all right call next card Chelsea frell Chelsea Farrell city of Titusville good evening mayor and council member I'd like to address a proposed budget correspondence the city has received dated September 23rd 20124 I'd like you to note that these thoughts are my own and Richard probably prefers that I not speak on this matter but I feel that I'm the only one who can articulate my experience in the city attorney's office I am not sure why our salaries are being called out but I would like to address a couple aspects of this correspondence Richard broom has been with the city of Titusville since 2005 first as the assistant City attorney and then in 2011 he was promoted to become the City Attorney Richard has never asked for an increase in pay his pay increases have always been according to his contract which was the same contract Dwight seers had when he was employed with the city of Titusville quoting from Dwight's 1998 cont contract to become the in-house City attorney the city council agrees to annually evaluate the employees salary and to annually adjust the salary consistent with the department heads of the city or to such amount as the city and employee may agree the same sentence is copied in Richard's contract dated October 2011 and in my contract October 2013 Richard does not believe in being wasteful and spending money when not necessary and therefore we are still using the same office furniture that was here when Dwight sers was here his work ethic is beyond reproach he comes in early he stays late he skips lunches he has never missed a city council meeting since he became the City attorney in 2011 he has always adjusted his schedule to meet with council members to coincide with times that are convenient for you guys by staying early or coming in late whatever whatever the case may be coming in early you're staying late Richard was born and raised in Titusville and with the volume of institutional knowledge that has been lost due to turnovers and retirements in recent recent years Richard has had the responsibility of educating and training incoming department heads on the basics and minutia of running a city Department there is no need to rehash tonight the many details of the pension reform that took place in 2013 but I will just say that there was a significant incentive to get senior employees to retire before the pension multiplier was decreased since I started working here there was an entirely different Council a different city manager the risk manager has changed twice purchasing head has changed twice there's a new community development director a new building official a new Finance director and a new fire chief many of the department heads have come from out of town and were unfamiliar with the history of the city in general Richard is never too busy to offer his expertise whenever needed and his doors always open for questions I can tell you that former employees still call Richard to pick his brain about random issues and sometimes it is people who he hardly knew because everyone knows that Richard can usually come up with a way to handle almost every possible situation that comes upon the city we are so incredibly blessed to have him at City Hall I am the assistant City attorney I graduated law school and passed the Florida bar in 2012 and I began working for the city of Titusville in October 2013 just one week after Dwight's last day here as the part-time City Attorney at the time at that time I had minimal experience both as an attorney and working for a municipality I moved to Florida to attend law school in Jacksonville and I had never heard of Titusville before applying to the job I have today at the time I was hired the starting salary for my position was a mere $45,000 due to the economy a few years later a thirdparty consultant consu conducted a city-wide pay study and I received a significant raise over a three-year period And I believe that my salary is now at a competitive level for my position Richard had roughly 20 years of Private Practice experience prior to joining the city he has been the City attorney for 13 years and I feel that he is 100% deserving of the salary he receives I support the city manager's proposed budget with cost of living pay increases just like every other employee who works for the city of Titusville a cost of living raise is important because it is a compensation tool used to keep employees pay on par with Rising prices for basic needs the government issues colas related to Social Security benefits but employers may also apply these percentage increase increases to employees yearly wages a cola is a necessary tool to try and retain all employees that we currently have maintaining our current Workforce should be a primary concern of city council as you approve the budget each year I appreciate your time and attention to these matters thank you very much Chelsea appreciated that member Cole I uh I couldn't Let It Go by when we question the salaries of our city employees I've said this before prior to getting on city council about two years ago I felt like I must have slept through my civics class when I was in high school because the intricacies of running a city like Titusville I mean it's mindboggling and the people that work in the city of Titusville are dedicated and I it it it's abhorent to me to question the salaries of the people that keep our city running thank you member Cole Next card please I yes sir Stan Johnston he has a hand out can would your hand that out please Stan Johnston I certainly appreciate uh the speakers that spoke before me that did very fine uh regarding what Dwight Caesar had had to share is has also been spoken of by myself is that uh uh it's it's mathematically true that U when you have a standard increase in Cola rate is that it the rich get richer and the poor get poor it just that's the way it happens but there are sometimes there are adjustments that are made like for example what just Chelsea just shared with with you and she got an increase when uh it was um uh comp s was compared with others of her her near equal same happened with our surveyor ly Sanders he got a substantial um adjustment in his increase in his pay uh when he was compared with other um City Engineers uh so uh uh what I did today was uh I was babysitting um some grandchildren and I uh I I gave them three fables uh and these fables I did because I believe they're especially um appropriate uh in comp comparison for some of the activities with the city of Titusville and those fables are uh Get Up and Bar the Door uh the axe stuck in the wall and the emperor has no clothes uh the U Get Up and Bar the Door has to do with a man and woman elderly man and woman in bed and they uh Get Up and Bar the Door mean get up and shut the door and it was cold and the wife wouldn't get up and close the door neither would the husband and so they just they just got very cold the whole night long which was nonsense and the U uh the axe stuck in the wall is is a case in which which the uh there was an axd the wall and everybody just moaned about it's a horrible situation because it's going to fall down and hit somebody in the head and and caused damage and yet so the axe just stayed on the wall which is nonsense and the U so the third one is I'm I brought to your attention a number of time is that is the Emperor has no clothes because we I I end up with nonsense I'm going to say it's nonsense that I explain for example uh right now is that the the city is looking at a survey of us inj Oaks and by golly uh it it violates uh all these other surveys around it and surveys done by the city uh surveys approved by the city and uh I even have the mayor and and the uh vice mayor out there looking at it and showed things that are you just do a driveby you can see well there's overhead electric it's not showing on the on the survey Stan is this going to have something to do with the budget pretty soon it absolutely does I haven't heard it yet you're almost halfway through go thank you okay well that this has to do with in other words some of the things the city is doing is is is a just and I'm that's specifically a thing is that is that right now is that many people are suffering and there's everything on that site according to the survey is somewhere else located than where the survey says it is so there's not anything located within the boundary properly and I can I I I can write it and swear to it and everything like that because it's just not there I've measured angle also and the angles measured way off the um uh and it disagrees with so many other surveyors every surveyor that I know of except for the um original surveyor who was sick when he did the pl so um uh I'm saying is that that's nonsense to continue to approve a survey that for example Brad Parish knows is wrong budget pardon budget talk about budget so in other words I would like the budget to to look into these matters for example of of absolute nonsense no look here uh is that is that right now I've got a picture I got a picture of me right there on sitting on my car and in the background is the fountain is uh fountain at what do you call it uh San Point Park Fountain was left on standard have you said anything good bad or ugly about the budget yet that has to do with our budget in other words there's so much nonsense going on that you would you would think with all this money being spent is is that that there would be some sense applied to it and they're not there's not I mean so I I I complain to to the to the council meeting about for example I complain about the uh uh the survey that I just told you about okay that you you and vice mayor went out there and and it's it's causing a lot of problems uh uh already and yet the city is not moving forward to to u to solve the problem and the same as with sewage spills coming to the end of nothing on the budget I think it has everything to do with the budget nothing on the budget is is is it you can you can look as far as uh doing education on on what is what is honest and truthful and and and fair my goodness you're normally better than that you can spend well I believe it is so thank you for at least trying to listen to well we listen I kep waiting for the budget word in there no that is that that is budget and in the beginning didn't I okay stands back next card that's all right um you know you're going to take well let me see first of all is there anything that counil would like to add uh I certainly think we've had some good discussion well there is one thing I'd like to add um I had it planned on has a card who has a card okay we had talked about doing a public hiring a public information officer and I think Mr lce found a way to hire one without including it in this adding to our budget correct yes ma'am okay so apparently we will get one October 1st or no we have to go through the hiring process October we'll go through that hiring process okay you can't like snap your fingers all right then this is where we do that the thank you for mentioning that so it's clear I was just going to say thank you for mentioning that since that was discussed at our last he that's right good point yeah so I appreciate that really wanted to see a sort of um tout our successes you know because we've had quite a few and uh I'm not sure it's getting out there as well as it should so just uh so Council understands what we've done we've taken a funded FTE that's already funded and we're going to defer that to midye with the other um deferred FTE and we'll evaluate that at midye okay very good go ahead and do your thing members uh member Nelson okay I move to approve ordinance number 28 2024 the city of tville levying an operating millage rate of 6.58 17 which is 3.59% increase above the rollback rate of 6 no wa 6.3 3536 and to Levy a voted dead Serv service millage of 936 I'm glad think I got it I'm glad you're an attorney all right we have a motion from Member Nelson we have a second from Member Cole roll call vote member Cole yes member Nelson yes mayor diesel yes May mayor Robinson yes member stok yes that part passes unanimously um well mayor also I'd like to point out this time that the percentage increase above roll back rate is the percentage increase in property taxes that is now adopted by council is that stated correct there or she needs to oh it's just announcing okay all right member Nelson take your time okay I'm moveed to approve uh ordinance number 292 24 adopting the general fund and related budgets of the city of Titusville second I have a motion from Member Nelson a second from Member Cole roll call vote member Nelson yes mayor diesel yes vice mayor Robinson yes member stokel yes member Cole yes pass is unanimously city manager do you want to lead us into the next thing uh this will be uh the adoption of ordinance number 30 2024 amending and increasing the schedule of rates charges for water and sewer uh Council vice mayor no we'll have to open the public hearing on this ordinance tell me again we'll open the public hearing and take cards on this ordinance right um it was member uh vice mayor had his light but I think that's from his vote okay call the cards please on ordinance number 30 2024 uh yes sir we have three cards the first is Dwight receivers these are three minutes yes sir thank you sir for the record my name is Dwight sers uh certainly I understand have seen over the years uh various increases in water and sewer rates but frankly nothing like what is projected over the next uh few years um and future councils having to struggle with seven perhaps 8% increase it's unfortunate some of these issues weren't addressed a number of years ago which the remember Nelson certainly agrees should have been addressed and it's hard as I heard the last meeting for some people to uh particularly those who rent struggle passing on the additional costs that may be incurred I'm a member of the finance committee and leadership team of my church we've been discussing budget for next year and of course I have to pass on that utility storm water Solid Waste Etc would would go up I do not hear anything council members toal recommended that the staff consider looking at the tier rates and perhaps the lowest tier not uh increasing that and charging more for upper tiers uh I would respectfully having had uh six children uh three uh daughters uh teenage daughters and the water bill going up I don't think that's good for families and particularly lowi income families you you already have a conservation rate and I wouldn't recommend doing that and I don't see that in the current proposal as such especially those are three daughters right yes in addition uh I have a question with regard to Water and Sewer impact fees I noticed they were last adjusted in 2019 as a part of this budget is there any suggestion of looking at those since costs have dramatically increased since 2019 and then in order to carry out the year code section 34-44 is the intent of this section to provide for the assessment and collection of impact fees on on new development occurring with this city so as to ensure that such new development pays its fair and proportional share of the cost for water and sewer improvements to accomodate new development and my I guess my last question is how much money do we have in reserve from tap on fee or whatever in the bank that we've been setting aside for this [Music] purpose thank you um do you want to comment on the uh set aside money or and I'll get to you in just a second Kevin I don't have an exact Reserve number I didn't know that question was going to come up tonight I can certainly get it for you we're getting ready to prepare for year end so anything I give you is just going to be an estimate at this time until we finalize our books but I can tell you what we have right now I can run it tomorrow and give you what I have right now okay do you have an idea I don't I haven't looked at it in about two weeks looks like Kevin yeah we got it go ahead Kevin not for impact fees but the total cash and equivalent is around 28 million okay at least we have money in the bank to for expansion thank you next card uh Vicki Conlin good evening Vick Conlin 2920 Royal Oak Drive in Titusville I have no objection to the 3.5 Cola increases but I do object to the increased taxation I'm fiscally fiscally conservative with taxpayer money and I think 5% water 5% sewer 7.5% for trash 18.5% storm water I think that's way too much of a hit on our residents everybody's struggling going door Todo we're talking to lots of people and you are as well this is too much people are struggling to make ends meet nobody in our community many don't get the 3.5% many don't get any percent of increases in their wages and what they're earning in their limited income and so I just think that we are creating an oppressive financial burden on all of our residents and all of our businesses by having these increases I really urge you to reexamine those thank you I I have always have to say and I'm not going to be here a whole lot longer to say it but I would say that every meeting there's always that talk about um you know is this going to raise taxes can we lower taxes everybody wants to lower taxes but every Everybody Wants to improve Services everybody wants to we we we have a $40 million infrastructure project coming because we are so far behind on keeping up with that everybody you know our TR our our Solid Waste people were out today in the storm uh when we have a hurricane and they work extra they're there uh these things cost money and now that being said I'd love to have no tax increase ever now let's out all that it's been kind quite an inflation era and um you know gas is is is like playing the the stock market these days is it 349 today or does it go to down to 319 and so I I that being being said I totally agree let's lower taxes let's get rid of taxes and all that stuff but we have to have Services too and that's the problem remember Nelson and the other problem is we want a clean Lagoon and I think we're finally at the point where we're starting to see that progress and it's been eight years and these guys have been working like crazy on it but we're seeing progress we're seeing seagrass reappear and so do we say gee this year want to forgo the projects for the Lagoon and which is what we did for years Mr saers to tell you we did that for years and didn't have any projects and now I when I came on Council I felt like we were playing ketchup um and trying to get the INF infrastructure straight so I think there's there's got to be a middle of the road you won't want to go crazy crazy but you have to realize that you have to do the projects to keep up and and certainly this is my place to say and if you don't know it especially in the position you're looking at uh our city leads the county uh uh with completed projects for the in your River Lagoon 16 the uh the one in front of us is Bard Zoo if it wasn't Bard zoo we leave the leave the whole conference and uh that that takes money and and uh any River Lagoon uh Association is awarded us and they're proud of us um and everything costs a little bit of money so uh member Cole well you know I no one wants to raise rates on water and SE nobody wants to do that nobody wants to raise their taxes but when Kevin goes out to buy chemicals for the water treatment plant and goes out to buy things for the sewage treatment plant and the prices have increased who's going to pay for it we've got to pay for it so we have to generate money to pay for these things we look at the budgets and when the increases come in I mean unless the members of city council are going to pay for it I guess it won't be paid for so those increases are necessary to keep the city running like we want it to run like they say you don't miss your water till your well runs dry you don't play the increases and your well is going to run dry yeah and I would just reiterate and it's well taken let me me make it clear this is your your words are well taken but nobody wants to raise taxes nobody sitting up in a place like this wants to raise taxes nobody running for an office wants to raise taxes nobody wants to raise taxes but at the same time when a fire engine goes from and if I get these numbers wrong correct me but it's like 600,000 800,000 to 1.2 million uh can you toss that number at me is that right 800,000 to 1.2 million we got to have the the firet trucks and um you know again I just you know wish that there was we could just flat tax out out of the way no problem but uh agree don't want to raise taxes uh member Nelson can and can I say this this is what I understand I haven't verified it but we're the only city that has seats growing so we've done something right so it's been a long road and it's been a hard Road and we spent a lot of money getting there and the guys have done a lot of work but we're headed that I would have we've had a lot of uh citizen support um you know and not to get all into it but when I first got here in 16 we started working with the tree team and we got a tree ordinance that nobody else has and we have a low impact development ordinance that nobody else has but those folks have been very helpful with that as well and I want to make sure I tip a hat to that group um M stoko yeah I did also just want to add on that with that we also have our lowest millage rate now then if once this one just passed in 16 years which is important to note because as we're saying yes there's a 3.59% tax increase that not everybody is feeling that so some people might actually have a tax decrease it depends on if you own your property if it's homesteaded if you're under save our homes versus if you have rentals so when we say that that's like overall but some people are actually receiving a tax decrease some people are I I can tell you some people are getting very very minimal tax increase on that and this is also important why we are trying to increase revenues and through development and increasing our tax base as a whole as we diversify all of that feeds into that so we can continue to lower that millage rate and hopefully eventually make sure that we may be able to go to roll back rate um and you have our citizens paying less and maybe the businesses and the industry is paying more so it's not an overnight fix some of us have been on here for eight years but to come in back in 2016 and say that was one of my goals was to lower our millage rate and you do that by increasing your revenue and diversifying and getting it elsewhere and so yes while this is not ideally what you know we would want nobody wants a tax increase um I I feel like we've come a long way and I think staff has worked really hard um on a lot of these initiatives to help us get here thank you thank you uh next card Stan Johnston Stan Johnston 860 Point said I a former engineer here who uh uh I had very good performance valuations when I worked for the city and I had license of a PE and PLS and I was considered okay but now I'm uh when uh when I'm here at before the this Podium I'm just disrespected and offended just what happened just at the last time I I just spoke who said and I I I spoke a number of times about what other people spoke about and uh in this but let's talk about sewer uh sewer has been a a source sour spot with me however thank you for the change that now we have been headed by Mr cook instead of Mr staler because I had I written uh I had spent many hours and hours and hours a time of trying to get the Su the found started off and uh and now now when I when I ever I speak about it it's as if it never happened but it did happen we got photos of it all kinds of witnesses and so forth of the sewage bill that was denied by a city that still happened it's a terrible thing that happened but I'm I'm thankful that that Kevin Cook is there now and I don't think we're going to have the problems like we had but uh um there's a there's a lot of good service that we have had in the past and I'm looking forward to a continued uh performance of Mr uh cook in handling uh this department which has been I mean I didn't I couldn't even get phone calls returned when the sewage spills make phone calls nobody return bring the phone nobody answer leave messages nothing happened so uh this is insulting and it's disgraceful and it's an insult to my and to my profession thank you thank you Stan we're on hold I think and you know the next words next card please thank you uh Michelle Albin hello hi my name is Michelle Alan 3593 parlan and um I don't want to be your Pio but the inflation rate is 3.2 so 3.5 coal is not that bad I don't think that would be that bad but and everything every time I've spoken to your city staff they've been more than helpful and really great so well thank you for um I guess my whole thing is I I feel like that there's an elephant in the room there's I I agree with everything that you said about raising taxes because we have to fix the infrastructure we have to fix things but there's two major grp ways of lowering it would be one is the impact the impact fees I agree um lowering those I don't see why we need to do that and then two and I know this is a little tough but the suing the our own citizens for $165,000 you know to sit down and and we talk about trans parency we talk about working together there's got to be a way that we can all sit in the room and and fix this and the these lawsuits don't have to continue Tony doesn't have to continue working and trying to raise money on something that was that was run so those your my comments um member Nelson before you say that thank you I'm just saying thank you she's gonna talk to you or say something I don't know he's going to do but I did want to say thank you for your words this is the attorney view of it so you have a state statute and says these are your rights and you cannot create more rights and that ordinance or Charter amendment was trying to in my view was trying to create more rights and so what you're trying to do is get a judge to say okay this is how we can read them together which is basically um this is what this means and this is what this means and stop that conflict between the two but we're not doing that in a way we're doing that in a lawsuit both of them you have to do it in a lawsuit I don't think I I mean I don't have a law degree so I wouldn't be able to sitting here and argue but I it just doesn't seem correct you know when we're talking about so many things that we need to be spending money on lawyers that's somebody suggested to me I won't say who that we give the judge a note and tell the judge to make a decision and unfortunately you can't do that so it's sort of a crazy way of doing it I I get that yeah I just can think of so many other ways that we can spend that money oh yeah I like your idea I mean wouldn't it be nice we just all get along correct yeah put us in a room next card oh yeah next card that's it sir all right uh Council anything on this particular one uh member Nelson um do it we are we are on the third one 30 20 24 24 I do have a question for Kevin um would a tier rate How would how would that work would that be something that would be in your view appropriate we utilize a tiered rate already for water conservation purpos the more water you use the more money you pay we do so okay so residential is tiered currently in four tiers first tier starts at 5,000 gallons okay okay and we do and and I think that um memb stok could probably clarify this form if she had a little maybe addendum or addition to that but that may be something they want to talk about with the next Council or whatever but I know we do that on the tiered system but M stal yeah that was my question at the last uh our first hearing was if one if we could I think we have it it starts at 5,000 and then goes above that and just from looking at I feel like a family of four probably uses more than 5,000 but you I think you said our average is not that um so I would be curious on that and then yeah I think to say if maybe we didn't raise the rates for those that are at that first tier and then made those that are at the higher tier that are using more those rates increased more so so those that were at that lower um had more incentive and then weren't hitting getting that additional cost if that was possible or is that something that we can do for the next year look into yeah so the rec consultant uh Trevor our average user right now for residential about 4,500 gallons a month so they all so the bulk of our citizens do fall within the first tier on on a residential standpoint the concern with not raising the lowest tier and raising the higher to recover the revenue that's needed to operate the funds those those higher tiers are going to proba to change substantially or our fixed cost has to go up because the rates are being set blending all these the customer uses together so by holding one tier down the others have to make up for it um and then by creating higher conservation goals that also means the fund is probably going to need to raise fixed costs to make sure we do fund the fund as needed to maintain cash reserves to keep the capital programs going I think that was the concern when we when we try to hold one tier customer down it does affect the rest of them whether it be the commercials whether it be the fixed meters the the the revenue needed to operate the fund is still going to be there it's just going to be recovered elsewhere and the higher tier structure may not result in the need as much as maybe changing the fixed cost would certainly if that's the desire of the council we before we can talk to the the next rate study about looking closer at how the tiers are adjusted U from a standpoint of if there's desired space them differently I would say looking at other communities the starting tiers are 3,000 gallons in some communities that push a higher conservation rate oh god there are places like Melbourne that don't use a conservation rate they're fixed rated at all tiers so there's a blended way of doing it there's really no no set piece for everyone but we can certainly look at anything the council would like to look at for the next go around I'm thinking maybe just next year we have a couple options just so we can make a better informed decision with that um and then in regards to the impact fees I want to say not long ago we did uh look at our impact fees we did yeah we have an impact fee project going on right now for all the impact fees except for transportation which is the B County impact fee structure but all other impact fees are currently being reviewed by a consultant both the engineering firm and a Financial Consultant is actually is our our same consultant does our rate study for the water so we'll be coming back in the near future with adjustments to all of our impact fees including fire police Park City Hall uh on top of the connection fees for water sewer okay and I think that's something that we can look at and again those of us that have been on Council for a while we know back when we were waving them because we were begging for development here during those tough times and now that we're um we have a lot of projects going on that something as mentioned where we can get additional Revenue so I agree thank you for that information all right uh did you do the motion yet I didn't okay I moved to approve ordinance number 30-22 24 amending the schedule of fees for Water and Sewer Service by increasing the charges and rates second I have a motion for member Nelson a second for member Cole roll call vote mayor diesel yes vice mayor Robinson yes member stokel yes member Cole yes member Nelson yes passes unanimously city manager bring us in the next onto ordinance number 31224 which is the code of ordinances uh for solid waste service charge and rates all right thank you Council anything you want to say vice mayor I'm sorry okay no problem uh see none call the card please uh yes sir two cards uh Miss Conlin uh you did indicate this one in your did you want to speak on this okay thank you and then Stan Johnston she's not going she passed I'm not sure sometimes I come here and I'm thinking I'm not allowed to speak because I'm I'm who I am you're always allowed to speak just speak on the topic baby okay I believe I was on the topic but I was agree to disagree go ahead yeah we're free to disagree but don't take my time okay please all right so if you want to disagree about this you can okay all right so uh uh let's keep on topic okay because we're talking about Solid Waste y we are what have I told you about Solid Waste before do you remember you have you been paying attention you think he's doing a good job thank you thank you same thing happening okay and we have what is how how does our listen are you listening to me I am how does our system compare with other other uh cities and so excellent no it's more it's more than excellent okay oh okay so you missed there stay messing with me today and we do have a a very good mayor he's done excellent things but that has nothing to do with solid waste I'm sorry I said said that I I spoke out a turn okay so I'll stop there all right thank you than keep keep him here okay make sure don't work him too hard thank you yeah I'll be out there with you looking at him I don't know about that all right um there was another one yes that yes sir that was it okay um member Nelson move to approve ordinance number 31 2024 amending sections 16-1 116 and 16-17 of the code of ordinances by increasing the solid way service charges and rates second it also includes 16118 I'm sorry oh and 1618 right that was not there it include I have a motion for member Nelson and a second and a second for member Cole roll call vote vice mayor Robinson yes m stok yes member Cole yes member Nelson yes mayor diesel yes pass unanimously City manator onto uh ordinance number 32 2024 adopting the Enterprise fund Capital Improvements program budgets for the city of Titusville for fy2 anything from Council call the cards please uh yes sir two cards the first is Miss Tony shiff hey Miss cheffo good evening cheffo Tropic Street I don't really know very much about the Enterprise fund and I think I know what Capital Improvements programs are so I wanted to speak on this last thing so I can speak about all the others above it in just a few seconds and that's because the young man that normally stands up here and says well 5% it's just a little bit to you but it's it's a lot well 7% That's just a little bit to you but it's a lot so he's not here so I feel compelled to take his place because I've been doing some running running some of the numbers and stuff and there have been a lot of numbers so I'm probably inaccurate but with the 3% over the roll back which was already at 6% that's about 9 or 10% on the property taxes oo that's going to be a couple hundred um at least and the water and sewer that was I heard 18.5% and 7.5 and I figured that up at 26 and then I heard there was 5% and 5% that's 10 and there's still 18.5 on the storm water so that's still over 25% increase and then I heard the figure well that's only about for the average customer $44.58 a month for water and $5.90 for for sewage that's only 1048 a month and I figured that up golly for the average customer that's only $125.3 a year so there's all those and then I figured Cola on social security and at my rate that would be around 600 and then somebody got up and said Cola wasn't 3.5% it was 3.2 so I had to refigure and it came down it's I'm only going to get a little more than $500 increase and yet I'm going to have several hundreds of dollars increase because it's only a little bit on the millage and it's only a little bit on the water and sewage it's only a little bit on the storm water and heaven knows how much it's going to be on the capital Improvement projects and so in honor of the young man who's not here I hope he's watching I'm saying this it's only a little bit but it sure adds up quickly for the average poor folk and there's a lot of us out here thank you thank you I'm sure he appreciates you're representing him um next card Stan Johnston yeah I'm the same person that's been speaking here just few minutes ago same guy Stan Johnson and uh I believe we need to spend more money in Capital Improvements and prepare more for it I think we're behind schedule I'm saying that by reading what the storm water master plan City's way behind on the Storm waterer master plan big time and what does it say SP water must what does it recommends anybody know I bet nobody knows here but maybe maybe Mr cook knows but it says what we it recommends is that we get Federal funding to uh to to work out this stormwater master plan I'm not saying we should do what it says to be done in 1966 but we should do something something that that that uh needs some Capital Improvements and it recommends that what we do is get federal assistance and at that time it said uh how uh where where to go to get it so I don't know where uh where we should go now but uh uh with sea level rise with storms getting bigger U we're in in much better shape than coil cables car coil cables that's it got one got one right thank you thank you for helping me this time and Fort Meers and and uh other places we're not going to have the surges like they they had that's going to affect us but we we do have sea level rise y Miami's in big trouble we're going to lose it I think maybe they'll be like NE I don't think they can be like Netherlands because the water comes up from underneath yep so uh I'm I'm for it and I think that uh uh we we're probably going to have to increase it and get Federal funding thank you thank you Stan any other cards thank you very much uh any vice mayor you need to say something no you good all right member Nelson I'm just going to say St when we looked at the Capital Improvements there was a recommendation of this level a recommendation of this level we sort of met went in the middle uh we didn't want to tax people any more than we trying to keep it that we were trying to keep it that all right go ahead um I move to approve ordinance number 32 2024 amending the Enterprise fund and capital Improvement program budgets of the city of Titusville second I have a motion by member Nelson a second by member Cole roll call vote member stokel yes member Cole yes member Nelson yes mayor diesel yes vice mayor Robinson yes passes unanimously City Mander you're on petitions and requests anything you speak about of course should be related to the budget I think we've covered just about everything and I appreciate you guys for being here and for those who have left come on Tony if you want to come up yeah well you're here I'm sure there's more that's why we have petitions and request get up here thank you shipo Tropic Street I want to speak about the process instead of the annual in-person Workshop this year it was decided to do an Invitational lonely survey 300 forms sent randomly only 549 responded the voice of 53 citizens who sought out the survey online were not included for some reason probably fear of their voices being heard because they cared enough to participate the results are astonishingly negative in all aspects surveyed yeah while the consultant showed you some positive strengths the survey results itself showed much negative feeling about every aspect of life in Titusville resp the results actually show deep disappointment in the quality of each facet of livability the only facet rated above 50% for excellent or good was availability of Parks and Recreation to the residents every other facet from protection of the national natural environment to education arts and culture inclusivity and engagement of the citizens that means not inclusivity of minorities or anything like that but inclusivity in the process and engagement was rated pretty low anyway even though I almost flunked statistics in otherwise Stellar grad school career I learned enough to read the results of this survey which should have been alarming to you Council because you think you're doing such a spectacular job and the people don't and staff should see this as an indication that the gig is up on pulling the wool over the eyes of the citizens R the responses seem kind of skewed too only approximately 1% of the total population responded and 34s of them were over 55 over one half were women four fifths were white and only one fifth were renters so a small bunch of old white homeowner women probably cat owners too deter determin the citizen input on the budget for this year and while just over half rated Titusville is a good or better place to live 66% think the overall direction the city is taking is not good and I have a whole bunch of Statistics which I carefully worked out and I'm going to skip over so I can get to the meat of the heart we need to not be increasing funding in areas that got rated high like um I will go back a little bit like um they loved law enforcement fire and Emergency Services they got really good ratings over 50% um even the library got 75% favorability what we need more than 23s want better quality utility infrastructure may I have 16 more seconds you may they want better designed residential development and more attention paid to Street repairs only 23% of citizens feel informed on issues and 76% feel a lack of transparency most alarming only 28% feel you're acting in the best interest of the community with only 26% having confidence in Titusville government so instead of hiring a public information officer why don't we look at the things that we already have in the budget and educate the people with workshops reach out for more involvement and maybe next year have iners workshops again instead of that survey or or hybrid a little bit of both maybe I think that would work thank thank you Tony and Tony Tony don't pick on cat ladies don't take on cat ladies don't pick on cat I I wouldn't but the statistics ma'am only 1% and and really over half were women and and four fifths Tony good job I would be the first to tell you I think that was a a flawed survey I think that uh the numbers were not good and I would also say that um you know and I can start seeing a little more of those kind of things as I head on out but uh I've been blessed to coach with my son at CoCo high school and went backtack state championships amen I will tell you the phone calls we get are from the people who aren't happy the point I'm making is we don't have a whole bunch of people come to meetings said let's hurry up and go up there because we want to tell them what a great job they're doing and I can tell you it's being up here is a lot like being a coach I don't care how many state championships you win they're happy they think you know they're happy but the people who aren't happy are the ones who call you so that being said all I can say is this group here that group there and and thank you guys you got to do your very best and you got to look yourself in the mirror at the end of the day and say I hope I did my best and that's all you can do coach teacher firefighter police chief whatever it may be you got to do your best and and uh stand you do your best so that I just thought i' toss that out there for the heck of it but anyway go ahead yeah yes sir and I'd like to thank this team here who U began the budget process back in January um it's a very very professional team works together very well together so uh I applaud them for putting a very good budget together for 2025 and I would say also to your thing there Tony um the concerns that you express those are things that you have to have tax do to improve those are things that we we nobody wants to raise taxes nobody wants to do that but you also we want better roads we want better so I'm with you it's got to be a compromise it's got to be in the middle thank this whole group all of you every day all the way and again thank the budget committee and thank you guys for being here holding on to your hats as you go out it's probably pretty windy out there are we good one more one more what do we got left I got me oh that's right says vice mayor go ahead sir yes um I want to say thank you and and and do we have cake and soda tonight only if you're going to ra you're going to have to raise tax dollars for that one if I'm going you're going to raise tax money for that if Joe's the employee of the month all right with that thank you guys thank you guys appreciate you uh I don't know if we finished the petitions part yeah I think St I don't know I don't think we finished it cuz Tony spoke I didn't know if we had anybody else before we adjourn St you better wave to me Stan are you passing oh I can't speak SP all right thank you [Music] dismiss for