Okay, we'll call the city council budget workshop to order. Commissioner Smith, will you give us the prayer and the pledge, please, sir? Our father God, we thank you once again for the blessing bestow upon us with this opportunity to serve as servants of your cities. Oh God, we ask we come at
this point in the budget hearing that we be good stewards of love, the resource you provided for us in order we might to make a difference in the lives of the residents. This we pray in thy son Jesus name. Amen. Amen. I aliance 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. Okay. All right. Welcome to the public meeting of the city council, city of Apka.
Please turn off all cell phones and or set them to silent. City Council permits and encourages input and comments by members of the public on all matters which may come before the council for action. If you wish to address the council this afternoon evening, please make sure that you have filled out a card with your contact information and
presented to the clerk. When called upon, please proceed to podium and speak clearly into the microphone stating your name, address of record, organization of any and direct comments to the city council and not to individual commissioners, staff or members of the public. The council and city staff urges constructive criticism. However,
personal attacks are prohibited. Please observe general rules of decor and civility. Speakers and members of the audience shall refrain from rooted inter derogatory remarks, shouting, disruptions, reflections as to integrity, slander, abusive comments, propendandy, vulgarities, and statements as to personalities. Any violation of
these provisions may result in the issuance of verbal warning, including warning for trespass. If violations persist after such warning, violators may be removed from the council chambers. And with that, Bradley, get us started. Good evening, mayor and commissioners.
Rather Williams, interim city administrator. Uh, tonight we're going to go through the city administration budget, the parks and wreck and facilities maintenance budget, and then the finance budget. Starting off with our city administration. This includes the mayor's office, city administrator's
office, city clerk's office, city attorney, human resources, community development, economic development. Uh the pie chart up on the screen shows a distribution of what these departments comprise of. The city also has an information technology department, facilities
maintenance, fleet maintenance and sanitation. And as I mentioned, parks and recreation, public works, utilities operations, police and fire department. Those will come later in the week. That city administration budget comprises $7.6 million.
And this is a budget highlight of FY25 to FY26 proposed. The mayor's office uh is showing a proposed budget of $679,788 for a minus 1.9% change. City
Administrator's office for 582,771, an 18.5% increase. City clerk's office 424,761 for an 8.6% increase. Human resources uh 2,307101,
a 21.3% increase. And we'll get to those increases here shortly. Legal and risk uh 3,346948 for a 3% increase and economic development 324,436 for a 24.1%
increase. Overall total for the city administration offices we are seeing a reduction of 4.4% across those budgets. Some key changes in these apartments. the mayor's office. Not a change, but a continuence uh of the Apaka youth works
and Apakka youth council programs. Those combined for 42,200. In the city administrator's office, we are looking to move the city commissioner's training from the mayor's budget into the city administrator's budget. The city clerk training and travel,
I'm sorry, training and travel. Correct, mayor. Travel and training. The city clerk's office uh does need to fund a standalone election on Tuesday, March 10th, 2026. That's a $40,000 budget request. Uh legal and risk included a 10%
increase to legal fees and insurance costs based on the current FY25 trend and the FY26 estimate. human resources uh cost of health benefit benefits are increasing 11.5% due to our claims in FY25
and we also placed contingency line of a million dollar 96,267 for police salary adjustments and compression fire union salary increases and general employee pay plan adjustments. some new initiatives and programs uh
identified for these budgets. A city clerk is moving towards an online cemetery search and map for Edgewood Greenwood Cemetery. So allow uh residents, family members, guests to go online and search uh the grave sites and search for their their loved ones in the
cemetery. Human resources uh has increased some funding requests for teen dynamics and leadership training programs in the amount of 49,900. an online employee development training application which would be citywide uh
$50,000. This would allow our staff to um go and prove themselves uh and their competencies online and receive uh tracking and certification for that. Implementing a citywide lockout tagout training program at $70,000.
We did also include some funding for the FD uh union negotiations which are coming up this year and they're working on uh making electronic all the personnel records and backgrounds. Legal arrest risk is work working on
digitizing safety and risk policies for improved communication compliance and accessibility citywide. And then as uh we announced at the last council meeting, our new economic development director begins on August 4th. And we're excited to see her step uh join the team and step into her role
and and and really continue growing that department. Okay, those are the key over overviews and highlights for the the um city administration offices. I'll put this back up on the screen.
and take any questions. Any any questions from commissioners? Yeah, I have a few. Thank you for presenting this. The I guess the the first question is why is this so much different like this setup or pattern or how this is being presented than years past? Before we had kind of sidebyside
very good uh direct comparisons between previous years to understand patterns where some increases we may be seeing that we didn't budget for. Uh I know last year we incorrectly budgeted for overtime in many departments. So trying to understand those trends helps us to budget properly. I guess why are we not
seeing it in that format this year? Are are you speaking of the the line item budget you have in front of you? I'm speaking about the entire budget itself. Why is it not being presented in the same way that it was last year or previous years many years past before it was you were able to compare
year to year not just one year back but I it to understand budgets we see patterns so it it helps over it can't just you don't see patterns over year to year it needs to be multiple years so why are we missing those other very important components in the detail that you have with you
this year is just showing you the 25 what the concern was last year is that you couldn't read that information, you know, because it was so small. So, we gave you FY26 information. Yes, we did increase overtime throughout the um city
within this budget. Um some of those details will be discussed as we go through the budget process, but again, that doesn't I I can't see year to year. So, that we have the 24 and 25 projected. Is that what you're talking about? Yeah, all of it. Where are we at to date
on current? because there's then and after these questions I'm going to go through some of our more specific stuff but it's hard for us to make a decision or or understand kind of where we're going if we don't know where we've been. So how do we properly make decisions without knowing what exactly what
happened in fiscal year 23 4 25 and that information was shared with the departments and it was in the in the budget in the departmental meetings we did discuss it and those trends were looked at at that time I can get you that information if you'd like but that
the results of it is what we have here in FY26 I understand but again it helps us to understand you know so my I always joke about My my wife doesn't like that I go to at the end of the movie or whatever before we watch the whole movie. I like to read the last chapter of a book before I read the whole book to understand where we're going. Most people don't like that. But
again, I've done the same thing to go to let's go to Wednesday's meeting. What are we going through? Okay, we're going to keep the military the same as what you're proposing, but why are there increases that we need to be making in certain departments that maybe we're hearing from the residents over these few days that need to make adjustments? And I can't see
where we may be taking increases or decreases. These are just kind of like the overall big changes versus the dollar for-dollar changes that you got in the overall and that's what we're presenting here. But the details is is another which was again last year. So how do we get kind of last year's setup to where I can click on it. It gives me detailed
report and I can see the trajectory over the last three to five years. I'd have about three to five but I can provide you what we have done in the past. Okay. That gives you the 24 hours. And so the the reason for the change is just we couldn't read it last year. Yes. I was trying to get it more
readable. So, I took some of the columns off to show you just what we're talking about so it be more the focus on the FY26 budget. And you've got that's pretty readily a I mean you you can have that to them tomorrow, couldn't you? Yes. Yeah. So, just send them all all
Yes. All the budgets show the column. That's fine. That's fine. I mean, I refer because I still have the books from last year. Yeah. So, I mean with books on books on books. Yeah. Yeah. I know. I have the books. So I trying to accommodate one need and then that's how I did it. So
so well I think that it just limits what we know or like how we can go back to give detailed understanding of again where we're going why we're seeing the growth. Insurance is obviously I'm sure going up. I know it's going up. Overtime is another one where we haven't budgeted correctly in the past that's going up. So to help see the trajectory there we
understand how to budget properly or maybe we've overbudgeted some years on some line item that we can now go back to and say let's reduce it. Again I'm not saying that you guys haven't done that exact thing. It just helps me understand the story better so that we can make those decisions as well as the public. The public needs to understand why those
decisions were made as well. So, it's not just for me, it's for the public. I need the public to understand the decisions that are being made tonight as well and tomorrow in in perpetuity. Again, I I'll get you that additional information. Can we get it posted for everyone to see? Sure.
Thank you. the um let's go back up to this is for the city clerk's office. There's a $40,000 standalone election. I for the when we got a special election quote for the cost of that it was like
$15,000 for I want to say it was maybe the annexation uh South PK annexation uh referendum I guess. What's why so much of a bigger difference there? So we have budgeted for standalone
election early voting which is a standalone also. So that was so that's like functioning separately then. So that's that's not the same. So all of the contracts they come to that amount. Okay. Understood. Thank you. Uh and then for
on legal side on on for our attorney's fees, do we know how much we spent again that I I would know this answer how much we spent in previous years to understand our trajectory that we're going now? Um we've spent um probably about 400 and
some thousand. We're projecting to spend this year about 500 and something and we increased it about another 10%. Okay. So, does it and I guess this to the council or to the mayor who city administrator finance does it make sense to bring back I guess why doesn't it
make sense to bring back an in-house council that's on salary versus having an allocart uh triple the cost attorney is there any rationale for that because we could see a significant savings just in that alone a couple hundred thousand.
Yeah, I mean that's we can we can certainly put the position back out for an in-house attorney. Okay. And see if there's interest in in a candidate pool. Have we I mean again you guys have been working on this month, six months if not more. Has that been part of the conversation? Have have you taken a deep
dive in that or is that just something that is not been looked at? No, the mayor and I mayor and I have started talking about that and looking at looking at and assessing that to see if there's a if we want to go back out for an in-house attorney. Why wouldn't we want to?
Well, I think we've our our luck with attorneys have not been all that great. I guess we've had two of them that have left because of their um didn't get along with counsel. So, I guess that's we can sure take a look, but so we just need to update like a hiring
process basically kind of go through a better vetting process potentially or they just need to tell you yes, I guess is really what it boils down to. I mean, that's I mean, you you you hire attorney to tell you what you need to hear, not what you want to hear. And uh so didn't and I I love that you're
throwing shade at this right now because I just want to hear yes, you got all of opinions from all of our previous attorneys that no one voted on that you have got thousands spent on those. So, and you've had attorneys just sit quietly to make sure that your agenda gets through even though it may not have
been the best thing. So much of the BTRs when that was getting pushed through. So to say that it's me that just wants a yes man. I want an attorney that just wants to work honestly and fairly. So that's a really inaccurate characterization of what's going on
here. So is that you don't want to look for an in? Absolutely. So that yes, we're going to find some savings in this. Now when will that be posted then? Well, we hadn't got anybody yet. So, we got to see what I don't know what the
market what the market looks like. So, we have to look at the market and figure out what that that number looks like and see if we can find somebody that's that's qualified. Okay. I think that would be a val actually I know it'll be a valuable savings that'll save us a couple hundred
thousand right there in budgets and have uh more opportunity. I know staff has said it in the past that it's valuable to have somebody in house to talk to daily um as needed. So, I think that'll definitely be a value and a cost savings for the city as well for hundreds of thousands. Uh, in reference to the
contingency line 1700, the police salary adjustment and compression and then the fire union salary increases. Walk me through the difference between salary adjustment and compression and union salary increases. So, salary adjustment and compression is
for the uh police department staff. The union salary increases is a number that'll be determined during the union negotiation is my understanding. No, right. Actually, it's what's in their second year of their contract. Oh, I'm sorry. What's in their union contract?
What we have reflected in the budget and the salaries and wages for the fire department is a a flat 5% like we did for everyone else. But what their contract requires is a three and a three and a $1,000 payment out. Okay? So that it represents
the differential between that 5% and that 33 and and 1,00. Okay. So it's basically 1% plus 1,000 per person. Yeah. Or per Exactly. Exactly. Okay. Understood.
Um let me see what else here. Again, it's hard to make decisions or or opinions on this without having the kind of that full story. So, those are the questions I have on this section for now. Um, I'm sure I'll have more once we get that additional information to understand how these years have been tracking. Thank you,
Commissioner Smith. Um, under legal and risk, um, what is a PD advisor? I'm sorry. Can you repeat that? Under legal and risk management, right? Uh, it says there's a PD advisor.
$70,000. What's a PD advisor? Public I mean the um police vehicle. Police. Yes. They have their own They have their own legal legal advisor. Yeah. Police department. Yes. And what was the salary that we paid the
in-house attorney before? It was around in total benefits. I'm going to say about 265 with benefits. Is it that much? Yeah. I think from what I can recall
what's standard Joe about 50% for benefits. Yeah. About 30 something%. 30. I don't think it's that much. I think it's just But I meant I meant that what we were paying um Michael Rodriguez. I want to
say he was in the 130 140 range. So he had it I think it was less than 200 but yeah we can get the number. Yeah, I'll get the exact number for you. That's just what Yeah, I'm I'm recalling but I'll get the exact number for you. As we look at that cost benefit
analysis, we'll show all those numbers. That work? Yes. Okay. and the uh the decrease in the mayor's budget was only because we took travel away from the mayor's budget and put it into the administration budget, but that hasn't occurred just yet. That's that's something that we're
talking about doing. So, I think the decrease and we also moved uh the receptionist to the HR. That's exactly what it is. That's that's exactly what it is. Yeah. Okay. Um and then just one other question uh
in reference to the cemetery. Um, our cemetery is growing and so is it possible to get a I guess a directional
sign uh posted in interest of the cemetery where we can post whoever has been buried on a particular day then with directional signs as to what area they're going to. Yeah. So, actually Susan and I have had a conversation about this recently and she's working on some directional
signage, permanent signage for the cemetery that we should be able to get out of this year's budget. Okay. All right. That was something I've seen at other cemeteries that I find is very helpful. Right. And it is a large cemetery and there's a lot of different roads, so it would be helpful to have some directional signage there.
All right, that's all I have. Commissioner Vasquez, I have a few things here. I saw 18,000. I'm really just from the first one that you gave me. First, I have to say this. We didn't really have
any preview of this agenda. We got it Wednesday night. So, we had a holiday weekend and um and today you gave the adjusted book. So, well, I just print out the original book
that you gave us on Wednesday. That's what I'm working on. Okay. So, I feel like I'm getting into the weeds and not into the big things. Um, because the the book that the first budget work book uh workshop book really doesn't have anything of the bigger
picture. What I'm trying to The only thing we added is the presentations. You already it's the same sheets that you have, right? They're just attached to the appropriate presentation. Okay? So that you can follow it with the presentation. you'll have the details
behind it. But the other book was just to give you an opportunity to see it prior to to see all the numbers. All right. Again, I mean, I saw the discretionary spending that we have and um the one
thing I I'm going to be consistent about is that we do need a policy. I've been asking for that for a few years now, a couple of years. A policy regarding the discretionary accounts and the funding
that we provide to different uh organizations that are, you know, considered legacy organizations um a policy on how we fund um those organizations and we still don't have that. But are you showing those expenses
here? Yes. and Ratley is going to go into the details of that. I know we're working on a policy for those community events that I think you're referring to similar to what we just did for the nonprofit program. He's going to and I think he
mentioned it before recommend something like that for that type of program. And then I believe commissioner is speaking about the $10,000 discretionary funds as well as well. Wishing for a policy on that and the policy on the discretionary funds. But yeah, both.
So I saw but what is neighborhood restoration? What do we use that for? That's a new program that um I know that the mayor wanted to implement. I think it's that's your program. Yeah. Well, we've it's it's been in the budget. We just haven't had anybody that
that took advantage of it. It's like for front of a neighborhood. Somebody wants to dress up their their entrance to their neighborhood. What line is that on? That's on That's in in the mayor's office. I'm still there. You'll see it that from the original
book that we Yeah. on that. Yep. If you go to the current book, if you look under the details, it's number eight under operating supplies 25,000. If you go behind the PowerPoint.
Yeah. Oh, there we Okay, you found it. So isn't and and it was my understanding that if we offer a program here, Orange County has a much bigger budget for their program. I went to a couple different of their workshops. If we offer it, that neighborhood or group has to come to us first, kind of get
denied basically or we have to expend the funds all until they don't have access to it and then they get to go to Orange County since they have a much bigger budget. And we got rid of that I think last year too for the same exact reason that Orange County already has a program. they're funding it well and
they have it's a welloiled machine. Let them run with it so that the 25,000 doesn't get in the way of the four, five, six, I don't know what the number is right now, but it was a healthy number that I went to the the workshop at uh to to help the same neighborhoods, right? So, I don't want to disable us or our
neighborhoods by having that program or disqualify us. Okay, we take it down. Well, is that how is that details of the program that we research? Is that the program? They we are there's already a program. What's the name of the program? It was last it was they've had it for
years. It's uh I can look it up or I can find it, but it's um I went to their neighborhood um Orange County has it. Yeah. 15,000. Ours is is 25, but no one's we don't have anything in place.
Well, I think it's important that we have something here within our city that they can actually come to the city for. And I agree the ease of access absolutely makes sense. The problem is if we have it, it disqualifies our neighbors from getting the bigger funds. So they have to apply for us first.
Correct. They I and I may be wrong, but I think it disqualifies them if we the local municipality has a program in place. So I think we should look at just to get the facts of it first before we move from the budget to make sure that I'm not I'm fine with that. Questioning it. Okay. No, yeah, I'm just questioning it.
That was so we'll gather more information on that one on both. Okay. Um So the train So you're saying the training for the commissioners are they being moved out of here? Yeah, travel and
not the travel. It says training, right? We're going to move the travel and the training for commissioners out of the mayor's budget and into the city administration budget. So, um, if we decide to go like to a leadership class with Florida League of Cities, it'll come out of this budget, we're going to
move the funds, as Ratley just mentioned, from 10:10 to 10:20. Okay? So, it'll be coming out of 1020. It hasn't been done yet, but we will make sure that happens. When I come back in September with the preliminary, all the changes that you talking about here, I'll make sure they're reflected. And
if because last budget when I went for the training for leadership they took it I paid for it out of the discretionary. I understand and that's something I'm looking into for you. Okay. Yeah. So commissioner Yeah. in the budget
the proposed budget is 4,000 for commissioners and 2324 which is $1,000 per per commissioner. And that was for the Florida League of Cities Commission or conference. Oh, that was for the Florida meeting, right? The line item travel included $8,000
for the four commissioners, that's $2,000 per commissioner. Okay. So, and again, that was intended that was budgeted for the Florida League of Cities conference. If there's a specific conference or training you want to add as a line item to the budget, we can certainly do that. or if you want to add
additional or reduce this is the time we need to do because that that so that way she won't be going into discretionary funds that's really needed for the community for us to attend trainings because I think that's what you had to do right even for um
for uh for newspapers magazines and periodical dues um that was also taken out because I I think it's important for the commissioners to get the I mean we do get the Apoaka Chief and the Apocha Voice on the internet, but the business
journal, the Orlando business journal is is something that I find as an important resource. Um, so I know that gets paid out of the discretionary, but I see that you have large amounts. Um, well, you
have $1,000 here. I know some of the other departments have some um fonts put on the side for their their information, but uh one of the things like Orlando Sentinel, which is the newspaper,
do we get it here? Do we get it mailed here to us? Nobody. Okay. I think it's important to have besides just the local newspapers to have sort of a central newspaper that we
can kind of refer to. But um again it's I feel like I'm getting into the weeds so we can discuss that. But here's this one here which I was uh found uh interesting. What is consulting services for the Rescue Act funding
opportunities? $18,000. Oh, that's our Grey Robinson contract. our federal um contract with Greg Robinson, the lobbyist um for federal opportunities for grant funding. We get a newsletter every every um I
think every month about okay here's what's out there. Do you want to is any of these they it runs the gamut from you know tribal which we don't obviously qualify for to to water to wastewater to
um economic development all all of them you know a lot of them we don't we don't qualify for they just send it out as a blanket to if there's things so we paid them $18,000 a year correct and it was last year was 15,000 I think so I requested kind of an update on
their service data things of that nature because I know it was in one of our uh dispersement reports recently and we didn't really have any data to kind of back up. Um I haven't seen anything of of the the things they've been doing. I mean maybe they can come here and present to us just to allow us to ask
some questions to understand what they're doing because I haven't gotten any type of update or or literature to show their efforts um to date. I can sure send you their um the last monthly just came in a couple days ago. So, I can send that to everybody or I have I'll have Riley send it to you.
Well, I think we should be on that same email. Have them send it to us monthly if they're providing something like that. Sure. Okay. All right. I did get an email um from a resident regarding our memberships.
um which they include Metro Plan, Apakka Area, Chamber of Commerce, uh Florida League, Tri League, but again they question the Tiger Bay membership. They said it's a private that's a private club
and I thought last year we voted not to do that and then I saw it in this year's again report. You voted not to add yours and Commissioner Velasquez, which we've never I've never been a part of that club ever. So, I know, but she had added it then it
came off. Okay. No, I think when we had discussed it was if it's a membership because the the other um annual memberships, we can attend those meetings. Mhm.
Um they're open to us all of them. Um so that's the membership which includes the the council but the Tiger Bay was not. It has to be individual um memberships. So it's a private membership.
It's considered a private membership because the only one that has that membership is the mayor. And that was the only thing the reason that I removed because I remember uh Commissioner Neesa said, "Well, why can't we go? But it has to be individual
memberships." Yeah. And and during the workshops, I added membership fees for both you and then at the end you said to remove those off, but we didn't remove the mayors. Okay. So, I'm just kind of making it public that I did receive an email
saying that the Tiger membership is private and should not be paid by taxpayers money. That's what I was told. That's why I'm questioning it. Okay. Mayor, what's your I mean, you want me to take it out of my discretionary, that's I'm perfectly fine with that.
I I mean, I think we get a lot of benefit. I mean, every elected official is there. So, I I think it's a it's a worth, you know, you know, we've got congressmen, we've got Orange County mayors there, we've got state reps, state senators, but it's not open to the rest of the
council. Correct. Does other cities pay for it out there? I'd have to find out, but I I what I It's not open to any of the cold council. So, I don't I don't know what the benefit is. But
yeah, I let me pull up the old research that we did last year. And let me find out if others are paying for it. And what I recalled is what he just mentioned that and you had shared that with me that it is for elected officials. Well, it's more than elected official. It's it's the movers and shakers in
central Florida area. I mean you're you're so I'll get more information on that. Okay. If you don't mind. Okay. Sure. again. I just feel like I see you do have the Orlando Sentinel digital subscription
that's under legal that goes to Orlando. Is that um do we post any legal notices in Orlando? Okay. for cemeteries. I go back to that really quick. Uh did it's been a conversation for years at
this point of the Bay Ridge Cemetery. Uh what are we doing with that? So the plan for the Bay Ridge Cemetery as of right now is to go treat the area twice a year for weeds and and Roundup.
Um there's I guess it's back to the council if there's will to want to take this cemetery over, but um I mean years ago the council did already vote for that to take it over. So what have we done to continue those steps?
Uh we still don't have um any documents from the caretaker or the Perth point of contact from that current cemetery. I think that was we're doing some research, right? Like we couldn't determine who actually had Yeah. Well, there is somebody that's
listed as the care of um it was in her family. Okay. But we still don't have any other doc. She had no documents of the cemetery. Um the cemetery would also need to be annexed into the city. So the property owner
would need to go through that process to annex to the city and then the city could take ownership of it. Okay. because there's I mean I've been out there multiple times and it's it's very overgrown. There are projects that have been done there which is cool to see that people want to they want to
preserve this but we're kind of in this standill. Yeah. It would take a it would take a full commitment to fund to make sure that that is maintained on an annual basis. Well, first we have to needs to be city property. Correct. Yeah. Well, years past we did vote on that.
There was a consensus. It was I believe we budgeted $75,000 to start that process and get it going in years past. And yeah, we still the first action is this the owner needs to annex into the city. But we couldn't determine who the owner was. She's
the person is just a caretaker of the it was from my understanding it was in her family but she's listed as a care of with the property appraiser. So, we have to figure out who's the owner of the who can make who could make that decision to annex to
the city. Or I guess at this point we could partner with Orange County, not annex it, and just show that there's historical figures that are buried there, assets to our community. So, let's partner together and maintain this. But legally, are we allowed to? I
mean, if I guess we probably need legal opinion on this because if we don't have the inure of who who's responsible, who's the person that's responsible for the We could certainly we could certainly get with Orange County and see if there's an avenue for partnering on this. It it does sit in the county right
now is the county. So, I think that's the quickest, easiest, most efficient use of taxpayer funds and resources is to partner with the county to get this taken care of because again, the the people that are buried, the families that are buried, there are historical
figures from our community that built this city. So, I think it's very important that we help to preserve and protect that that area. And it's not a massive lot either, so it's not going to kill resources to make sure that our history is preserved. All right. So, I mean, I had some
questions on the building inspections and I see you have the breakdown here. So, um, Commissioner, that's uh, Mr. Hansen will be presenting the building just in just a few moments. Say that again. Mr. Hansen will be presenting the building budget here in just a few
moments. All right. We were just discussing then the mayor's Mayor, city administrator, city clerk, human resource, legal and economic development. Oh, okay. With the economic development
department, I know that we are uh bringing the new person in August 4th. Does she have like a staff who's going to be like her staff that she um can rely on? Uh right now she is the only staff person
in the economic development budget. Uh we are looking at uh working with her to possibly establish a a um internship program with one of the local colleges in the area or all the local colleges in the area. Um there's also possibly some
opportunities internally to reorganize some of the staff to maybe give her some additional help. Um I think that's important because um again I as I had u articulated during
our um during my agenda review that I want her to feel like she's valued, she's important to us and I just don't want her to come in and have no support. Absolutely. for her to try to figure out, you know, who who's going to kind
of be her support when she needs information or some whatever it is. I, you know, that's important to have. Let's not set her up for fa to fail. Absolutely. No, we want her to be successful and bring a lot of success for the city.
Where's her that department? 4022, right? 4022. And then what was the significant increase there? the reasoning for that significant increase
of 24% 24.1% increase. I think some of that was in the health insurance. Oh, here it is. Yeah, 24. If I can just go back. This is such a clunky way to do this and half my questions would be answered if we had
those previous years uh to compare that. This is so clunky and I can only imagine the frustration the residents experience trying to navigate this. I just got to say that. So yeah, so it's health insurance and what else?
What else was it? some of some of the other the programs like OEP I think they went up I think partnership I believe 5% you know increase and everything like that and the benefits basically is what related to that
um I see yeah other contractual services 50,000 what what is other contractual services under that economic development so we had the uh we had that partner that contractual service where they did
the uh that's the retail strategies. Retail strategies. Yeah. But that was that was in last year's uh budget, right? It's a continuing I think it's a three-year. It was a one-year mayor. I'm sorry.
So, what's the other one? We have the other we have the other remember we couldn't do but the one year with that particular contract but this allows them give them a budget to continue that program if we choose to do so is what the mayor is saying. Yes. Can we can we get I guess I guess we
should start. I'm just curious to kind of see where what were there any tangible benefits to that retail strategies. Um we'll definitely have uh our new economic development director look at that when she gets in. And for this budget, we left most of this really as
is to give her some tools when she gets in to come in and see what contractual services would be beneficial. Um, uh, what publications and memberships would be beneficial for for her needs. And then I mean, what did we do for because 17,000 for books, subscriptions,
publications, and memberships, and that's outside of the Orlando Economic Partnership. So, what do we how do we get to 17,000? Is that what we spent last year? That's what we had budgeted last year. Yeah. Is that what we spent last year? Um I'd have to we'd have to pull that. I don't know if we spent that year to
date because remember Michelle left in February, but then what she did when she came into office, she did some budget transfers to move things around that for memberships and contractual services for things that she wanted to do. So
So were they spent again? I don't think so because Michelle left. Yeah. But I can get you the year to date. But I think it's important to keep this in here so that way she can kind of move things around that she actually have a budget because we don't budget for it. Then she can't It's just placeholders. So I think it's important to keep it there for her.
Yes. Did we work on the contract at all this year this budget year? The the one that we had signed for retail retail. My understanding, this is my understanding and I sent you an email um in regard we did get the information
that we requested and it's something that is available for our use as needed. That's my understanding. So that information does exist. I think they'll be down here in August and I think they're g we're gonna try to get them to come to city council.
Be for the um that what's the big international or the national ICS? Yeah, ICSC. Okay. So, we're hopefully get them down here for that. What's ICSC? You would ask
the retail retail. It's about all the retailers, they they try to hook up with a developer on a commercial property. So, if you got a a Starbucks or a Walmart or any everything in between, you would you go to the show to find a here's a here's a
location of popka. We want you here. So, it's International Council of Shopping Centers. Okay. It's not exclusive to developers either. There's it'll it'll have a in place tenants that either want bigger spaces or want to rotate. It's a valuable uh event to go to for our economic
development director to make the contact she does and sell the spaces we already have in place and things of that nature and attract businesses here. It's definitely valuable to go to so technically under the mayor's um office here I am. I keep going back and
forth. How many employees or staff is under the mayor's office? A number. We have two, the mayor and um Stacy. And then we have the comm the four commissioners. So we have two which is full assistant. Yeah. Four part time
and then the four commissioners. So that's um six. when um the former uh Steven where was he his position his his he had a a position was it under the mayor's office or was it under HR I
I don't know where did you carry him that was under it wasn't under the mayor's or HR it was under public service under public service public services okay so there's only six under the as the
staff for the mayor's office. Correct. So, what's the difference between regular salaries and wages and then other salaries and wages? Regular salaries and wages is your regular time. And other salaries and
wages could be time for like if you're out on jury duty, different things like that. Which one? So where where is the decrease? It says the FY25 it was 692,967
and then the FY proposed is 6,700 9,788. It says a decrease of 1.9. What what changed? That's what we just talked about. We moved Oh, that was the training. No, we moved the one um staff member to HR, which is
the the receptionist. Oh, okay. It was the receptionist. Okay, let me just put that down. I mean, there's the other one changes are all kind of minor. Receptionist was now under HR.
Correct. On salaries, I have a question too. So, regards to the commissioner salaries, that's how's that salary set? That's it was a salary and then there's a there's a every time we hit another thousand people in the sea it's a bump
it's a bump in there in the salary there's so it's there was a flat rate many moons ago and at some point for every thousand people you everybody gets you get a bump oh so automatically happen automatically yes but now may the when this question was
asked last year we took a look at it and actually the calculation indicated that you were exceeding that amount if I can recall correctly. So because Jacob did look at that last year. So what is that? What are we based off then? I I'd have to go I didn't do the
analysis. I'm just aware of what was the results. So I'd have to get that information. But from what I can recall it was this what you're getting paid was higher than what that calculation came out to be. Well, we need to get that corrected.
Get the calculation corrected. I know the calculation I think is 25 cents per resident. I'll see if I can find any information. It was done many moons ago. Yeah, many moons. But he he did look into it because this
was requested last year and he did look into it and and that's my understanding, but I will double check. Okay. And pretty much I I mean I I with the
mayor's office the only thing that I'm concerned with is is to have a policy in place with this budget. I mean a policy in place regarding the expenditures of taxpayers uh funds uh to organizations
discretionary funds. I think that's important um for a policy to be in place. Makes it easier for the public to understand um why we support some of these organizations the way we do and partner with them and um how the
commissioners and the mayor um uh provide donations and that to uh different or you know different organizations within the city. I think it's important to have a policy in place. Well, and to to what extent we can use those because I had a town hall that I
couldn't use discretionary funds to fund police here, my first town hall and then I had to use personal funds for that and then now I'm hearing that I don't have that it could become out of discretionary. It doesn't have to. So, there's a lot of inconsistencies there
of what we can. I planted plants throughout the city at dur different city-owned parcels and that was a fight to get that uh done as well. So a policy is definitely valuable um to understand what we can and can't do and if there is
certain rules for some and not rules for others, we need to know that. I think we talked about that because I know that when I want to do a town hall, I too had to pay to use for a town hall for the community. I I too actually had to pay as well to use the community center. I couldn't use my discretionary funds for it. So I do think we need a
policy in regards to that because we are coming out of pocket to to serve the res to serve the residents. So understood. We'll work on that. Can we go back to So other salaries and wages at 73? Let's wait. Let's Okay. No, you can go ahead. Let's get Commissioner Anderson. She hadn't had a chance yet.
Okay. So, everyone's pretty much jumped in with me. Yeah. No, you're finished. I'm finished, but you go ahead. Yep. I actually I'll wait. I don't have anything right now. That's right. You can commission. So for other salaries and wages on the mayor's office, it's 73,395.
On administrative services, it's 35,000. And then for city clerk, there's none. And it could be that rolling right there is the in the mayor's office. You're 17,000. Parttime. Yeah, that's what it is. It's part-time, too.
You're right. So other salaries includes part-time salaries. Yeah, it's part-time. However, that's your 17,000 because it's considered debt. Do we know how much we spent on that last year? How much you got paid last year?
Well, I do need to know that, but no. How much was that allocation last year? I' I'd have to get that information. Keep in mind, we still in last year. Okay. So, the only thing that I will be able to get you is an a projection. Correct. So, how much do we budget
effectively for each department? That's that's what I'm missing here. Yeah. If you're looking at 25 budget, yeah, that's what we're going to add that information. And for contingency for human resources for police and fire, that wouldn't come out of their budgets.
It is going to go out of their budget. What we do is put it there and then once we get the actual amount, we transfer that over to cover that so we know what the final impact is. Why wouldn't we just allocate it now? like the estimates that we're putting in
human resources, why wouldn't we just put those in the departments now if we're going to do it anyways? Again, it's something that we can do, but we kind of, if you noticed last year, sometimes it generates a savings, because it is an estimate, right? And we were able to use some of those
savings to help support some of the overtime. So, you want to keep this in a general fund versus going into It's still general fund. It's still general fund. whether it goes into PD's budget, I think it would tell a fuller story of what's going on. It's still general fund though versus HR
because it I mean it makes their budget look a million dollars more than kind I mean and we put the two million there before the same it's not it's not anything new that we haven't done when we did the Well, I can't see that. I'm okay.
Yes, this I have the old remember when we had the salary study was about 2 million and we had it in the contingency too and even with the previous with the union contract for the first year last year we had that those funds there
and are we doing HA employee survey again? We're going to try and do one every year. When was the last time we did? When I did one uh two years ago. Two or three years ago. Three.
I think it was 22. So 22. What's the I guess what's the motivation to do it annually now versus start stop start stop? It's normally done annually across the board. Yeah. So we should have been
doing this already. We should have been doing it. Okay. It's up to an or every organization is different but sure most organizations do it annually and this will give I guess walk me through the timeline of what that looks like because I don't remember that
timeline last time. Do we get how quickly do we get results back? And so the last time we did it we we did it inhouse. Uh we did it on paper so it took a little bit longer to do. uh just to uh
help the employee. It was the first one we did. So, helped the employees feel comfortable when they dropped it in a box, you know, it was a locked box and then we we got everything back uh tallied everything. We we actually still have the uh ballots and all that stuff,
the surveys, but um we did the um the calculations inhouse. Uh we also did the you know I did all the charts and so on and so forth to come up with an analysis of basically
was very simple analysis of where we stood. So is this bring in a third party independent third party? This is a third party correct because there were some questions about okay well why did you do it this way other than this and I based it off other surveys that were normally done within
an organization. Mhm. So I thought uh I think it's best if you bring in another organization to do it, a third party. That way there's little question about you know the the uh integity integrity or whatever. So
so is it like an online based system that they'll have that inset versus paper? Yes. So we'll get a little bit quicker. They'll be able to start right. I didn't do it online last time uh only because uh there was a lot of hesitancy between the employees and doing it online but I
think if they do if we do a third party it'll be better. Okay. Okay. Understood. Thank you. Any other I I forgot to tell you they will also present and do all the calculations and so on and so forth. Excellent. Okay.
Thank you. I did have one other question. Uh in in the uh facilities management budget uh 10:22 uh the 275,000 for the citywide genatorial services. Does this include
the fire departments? Yeah, we I'll present that budget in a little bit, but yes, it does. Okay. So, we're getting to that one though. Yeah, we haven't done that one. I was going to say I'm like, did I miss that already? Okay. No, but it's in this budget. That's why I asked the facilities management,
but we haven't presented on that yet. Yeah, presented that one yet. Oh, I'll present that one. Okay. I have one more question. So, under 1020 administrative services, we have that $100,000 nonprofit
sponsorship, which we just um appointed to uh a committee. That's the grant program. Are we still using last year's $100,000 or we're adding another 100? Yeah. How is that? How is that? What's No, we're still we're getting ready to
roll the program out now that it's been finalized the last council meeting and we'll be using this year's fiscal this fiscal year's money and then this would be a rebudget to run it again in FY26. Okay. So why aren't we carrying over what's left over before we rebudget?
The when we discussed program, the will of the council was to go ahead and get the program out and use this year's money first and then now we are putting it back in to rebudget for next year. And at this time we don't know what to carry over, right? Because they haven't rolled it out yet.
So there our funds still carry over and we would have to rebudget it because we don't know. Yeah. But then if we rebudget it, you're going to have that $100,000 again sitting there where we can allocate that $100,000. I don't think it's going to be sitting there because they've already wrote a
program and people are excited about it. So I don't think I think now we have a program in place. We actually already so I think it's definitely going to be utilized. So yeah, I I would re and we're getting ready to roll the program out to uh the community
this month to August 1st to then award this fiscal year. Um the next timeline would be October 1st. Now we could wait on October 1st and do April 1 instead or we can do October 1 again and reissue it
right away. But remember, we did put in uh you can only hold one of these grants at a time. But this is just putting funding back into the program for this coming fiscal year. At the same rate, we haven't spent it was a lot of money we haven't spent yet.
We haven't we haven't utilized it. I'm not I'm just saying right now with all the departments, we have $100,000 that we have budgeted that we haven't used the first $100,000. We only have a month,
month and a half maybe because by the time they start sending their applications in, we still have to have a committee that sits down and decides what how much is going to be awarded. And the maximum is 5,000. Am I correct in saying that?
Correct. Um so unless you have um you know what over 40 people I think 40 times high what's a you're not going to get to a h 100,000. So the I think the question would be
what do you what would you like to fund this at for FY26? I would like to just see us at at 100,000. I just I would like to see us utilize the $100,000 that sat through the entire last year's budget. Let's go through
that and see how that works for us and how it works. We should not roll the program out, get the community excited about the program and then not rebudget for the program. That makes absolutely no sense. We then put committees together to I mean we we got it rolling now, but to roll out a program and not fund it for the next year doesn't make
any sense to me. But we haven't touched that but we're touching it now. We're in the process of about to roll out something to touch it. We are rolling it out. I'm just saying we can hold off on rebudgeting it entirely on October 1st. Maybe we could
do it April. As I unders that would take a budget amendment to come back. So, but as I understood it that everything started over as of October 1st, right? Remember, we were trying to get on that one year period and as we we had that
little gap in between because of how we're starting the program, but each year October 1, it starts again. And you know, so we all we're doing is putting the the money out there for the upcoming year. We'll see where we stand at the
end of the year and if we have funds left over, I can, you know, and I don't know what the rollover is going to be at this point in time, we can come back and if we know by before the final budget, I can add those additional funds if that's what you choose to do. But this is to
continue the program in FY26. We did discuss that and it it was that we'll spend what we can spend this fiscal year. If there is any left over, it gets rolled over, but to rebudget it again so that there's it's a kind of a backto-back program almost is what we discussed to make sure that people can
get it now and then but they can't apply twice I think was the rule. It was a year a year from uh grant award. So it would be able to spread out a lot in in a shorter period of time too. Yeah. So, that is what we discussed pretty
specifically. Um, then Okay. All right. Any other questions? I had a couple qu Yeah. And I maybe the last one's on this one because then we'll do we're hoping to building and No, we're doing We already did Did we do
building? No, we're doing community development and building next. Okay. Oh, we're doing community development already. No, we haven't. No, they're next. Y but we did econ economic development. Correct. Yes. Okay. That's somewhat out of order then. All right.
Uh, okay then. I will wait for community development then. All right. Mayor, if you don't mind, I want to make sure I got every comment and all the changes. You mind if I get a recap here? Sure. Um, as I understand that we Riley has
mentioned to you about moving the commissioner's training from 10:10 to 1020. Traveling and training. Travel and training. 9,000 for travel and For training, I'm seeing 4,992 for the four commissioners and
ethics trainings is 1,000, but that's covers everybody. So, whatever that component is, we'll move to 1020. And Blanch, I think we're going to adjust that to 5,000 and that would be 1250 per commissioner for the instead of that 4992.
How much is the training per uh the ethics uh course for each commissioner for each member on the So the con the FLC uh FLC annual conference this year was $600 per person and you're taking that out of that budget of training
correct or is that being taken out of travel? That's being taken out of training. Travel is it travels for the hotel. It's local this year so there's no hotel stay. How much did we budget last year since it wasn't local in
last year was 199 a night for four nights was 796 per person. Mileage was 31758 per person. Meals was 192 per person. Parking was 13120
and the cost was 1,43678. But we didn't spend all that money, right? Because I don't think all the commissioners went. Did all the commissioners? Right. That was per that was just broken per Yeah. per person. But not Yeah. I mean, but that wasn't fully spent though. So,
yeah. I don't I don't put And if we're not going to use that this year because we're staying local. input. Well, I mean, that's that's the thing is do you you can either raise the budget every other year or lower the budget every other year or just leave it. We just leave it the same. But
um but you got Yeah. So you it's a 2000 just for the just for the FLC training out of town. It was like like he like Bradley just said 143678. So at the end of the year, you had 56322
left over from with travel and with the uh training for the FLC uh annual conference. I think if we leave it then if there's money left over, we can probably attend other conferences that we want to attend.
So I think the question on that would be first come first serve on commissioner who be my question or setup for that then to allocate those funds or would you prefer to identify Florida League of Cities a standalone and then do you
again will the council do you want additional funds dedicated for each commissioner for additional training? Do you want to take that out of discretionary or can we identify the trainings that we would like to go to and present it during the budget workshops
as line as specific line items? Yeah, we kind of already know you can get that information to us that would be great. Yeah. Okay. So, if I can Okay, keep going. I'm sorry. That's okay. And we're on hold trying to get additional information for the 25,000
for the neighborhood restoration. Okay. Um, in regards to the Tiger Bay, I'm going to look at the old research there that we had before and try to get more information on that. And we just talked about the training amounts that in the ethics training that
we're going to move to 1020. And you're going to give me a list of additional training, traveling training that you would like to incorporate in the budget. Then we got I'll I've got I'll get Bradley the Gay Robinson monthly newsletter. Uh then you're going to work
on the pay raise for the commissioners, how that's calculated. I will try to find that information. Yes, sir. That's been around for a while. Okay. And then we the policy for the discretionary spending. Yes. Okay. Yep. Okay. All right. With that,
we'll open up to the public for anybody back from the public want to speak. I saw him. [Music] Hi, Minnie Mouse. Cinderella's Castle is my address. Um, it doesn't sound like it's going out.
Can you hear me? Okay. Uh, the council as a whole runs the city. Um, the mayor directs the staff and everything at the behest of the council. The council should not be thrown the
budget a few days before the meeting. There were empty holes in the budget. Um there were typos. Um, and it's not on
the um CFO because the there were other people that were supposed to be involved. Um, the CEO and the administrator
should have been hopefully working on it and um, Mr. Smith, Mr. Ernesa, Miss Velasquez, and Miss Anderson should have been on it way before it was released and noticed.
And um they should have had an opportunity to see what was up there and they would have seen that their discretionary funds were labeled as going to stop signs and redoing streets and they would have caught that
instead of me pointing it out. Um, this is once it gets approved, this is a legal document and they needed to have that information. Um, it's been it's a year in the making and
they need to have that access. And yes, last year um we had um there was information presented and I just forwarded some of it about the the Tiger Bay Club and it
is a public you can anyone in the public can join it. It says right there on their front page that anyone of any age, any resident can join it of any age. So that does not make it an exclusive political
club. And last year sitting here um I spoke and explained it and uh after a debate the mayor said let me get rid of all the polit all the private clubs and
he agreed to that. Um, and he was uh had been president and it was out of his private office that it was being run. Thank you. Mayor, commissioners, uh we've got in my
opinion at least another flawed budget uh with raising many concerns. I raised concerns last year and effective october 1st of this year for the current fiscal year you already started making budget adjustments because the work wasn't done
on the front end. Uh on a report I received as a request I got 8 I identified 88 staff positions that were open. Do we know how many staff are still open now? Anyone? Well, moving from that, that says we got an issue. Nearly one nearly
one in five employees are off are not positions filled, which means work isn't getting done. Mayor, thank you for shaking your head. Which spells job dissatisfaction, rate of pay issue, benefits issue, or supervision and leadership issues. I asked for a preventative maintenance schedule. I got
garbage. uh maybe one or 2% of the information I requested came in and it showed dates of the next prevent preventative maintenance being in 22 23 and 24. So there isn't a preventive maintenance schedule. Uh hearing
Blanch, we'll get you more information. You should have that information. 30% of our resources according to the prior public services director indicated that we're past the normal lifespan. That's
not addressed in this budget. When I asked the per the city administrator last year, which of the budgets don't meet the needs of the people? None. None. Absolutely none. I don't know where the status is this year. And referring to this, just if you can't
see, is a little trash can. Garbage in, garbage out. That's what we have for a budget. We've got to do a better job. Last year, I asked you to ask it one question of each department head. None of you chose to do so. Does this budget you just presented represent everything
you and your department and your staff needs in the way of people, supplies, materials, equipment to allow your staff to be successful to meet the needs of the citizens of Apopka? Only three department heads indicated yes and the city administrator said no.
None. It's unexcusable. This year I have four questions. That question and three more be based on the preventive maintenance. Is every piece of equipment in your department on a preventative maintenance schedule? Is the schedule followed? And finally, do your spot
check to make sure the work's done. We got to do better, everyone. Anybody else? Okay, Red, I know you wanted to respond to the the staffing issues. So, just to update on the current
situation with staffing. Um, we do have 62 full-time positions that are currently open. Uh, majority of those are in uh we have some in fire, police, uh, police has 26. Of those 26, five of them are seasonal.
Uh the other big load parks and wreck has 29 listed but of those 29 24 are seasonal. So overall out of the 91 vacancies uh 62 are full-time, 29 are part-time um seasonal
and we are actively hiring. Would you repeat that again? You said currently we have 62 vacant positions. We have 62 positions that are open full time. 29 that are part-time seasonal. And you said how much what's percentage is fire? 29 or part-time.
Um police department has 21 full-time. Fire department has 11 full-time. That's okay. That's included. Yeah. Okay. Okay. And I know with the police it's, you know, they had to we could have hired
more, but I know that the chief was didn't want to overt tax the the trainer to train the trainers. And so that was from the the police stand. Is there anything else I'm missing, Joe? I believe we have some in the pipeline right now, right Joe? Well, for instance, fire they promote
from within first. So they promote and so they have empty positions because they haven't filled those from internal yet. So if that makes sense. And then also we've got six dispatch we probably won't fill because we've lost the contract with uh Maitlin. So we
probably will not have to fill that those positions. When did contract went? October 1st. I think it was four like a $400,000 income to And it ends this fiscal year. Yeah. Who are they transitioning to?
Internal or are they going to I don't think they're going to win. Are they going internal? I think it was internal. Yeah. So, okay. So, and that was $400,000. Yes. And we had that in our general fund. We were carrying that fund as a revenue source. Yes. Revenue
source. Is that somewhere in this? Did anybody put that in? It'll be It'll be in the fire. Yeah. I mean the police, I'm sorry. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, it's in the Okay.
So, okay. As of October. Okay. So, Mland is no longer I'm sorry. Yeah. In the 911 dispatch, right? We no longer have that revenue source. We'll only have Eatenville, right, as of October. That's listed somewhere in this these presentations though
in the millillage. Yes, sir. The revenue is when I present the millillage on the 9th. It is only eaten vote you'll have. Yes. And are any department heads going to be presenting for their departments? Yes. So Bobby will be presenting for
community development. Mr. Anderson will be presenting for building and then uh department heads will present tomorrow as well. Okay. Yeah. I'll be presenting for finance and you're doing parks and correct. Okay.
Thank you. Going back and forth city administration. So next up we have community development. Okay. Now we're gone. Good evening. Bobby How planning manager and John Hansen is sorry to interrupt. Does is the
millillage conversation in this? No, sir. That is on the um the Wednesday night, the special council meeting. Thank you. All right. So, myself and Mr. Hansel will be presenting the community development department budget this evening. Just a
brief overview of the budget, key department staff as staffs, we have 22 positions. of those 22 uh one of which is the city engineers paid for from our budget, one of is a secretary in public works and there's two inspectors that are paid for that are based in public works that was done in last year's
budget. So 22 of those positions are covered under that. We had 67 development plan applications processed. 53 of those were discretionary um such as or 67 development plans were site plans um major development plans, those types of things. 53 discretionary
applications were like annexations, future land use, 1,63 residential building permits, 211 commercial building permits, 6,72 subcontractor permits, 2,633 residential plan reviews, 113 of those commercial plan reviews,
and 29,936 inspections. The total department overview for the budget is 3,739,765,000. You can see 63% of that goes to planning and 37% of that goes to building. Uh of that is $2,848,0005
2008 $2,848,567 is personnel costs and $858,198 is operating and 33,000 is capital. Capital would be a truck that is being requested by community development to go out on inspection sites. We currently
have an electrical vehicle that does not go on on construction sites. As you can see, planning division's budget increased primarily due to salary and benefit costs. I think we had kind of established that fact in the previous presentation. And building division's
total budget decreased from fiscal year 25 to 26 due to reduced capital needs. Main initiative in the planning division this year will be the rewrite of the land development code. Now that the council has agreed to transmit the rewrite of the comprehensive plan to the
state, uh we're working on sending that to the state. Uh once we get the adoption done, we'll start then the focus on the rewrite of the land development code. We budgeted $500,000. Usually those costs on a land development code rewrite run about $250
to 300, but with the things cost of everything going up, go in a grocery store, you see that. Um, so we anticip we wanted to budget a little bit higher and Mr. Hansen will talk about the needs in the building division. Mayor, commissioners, John Hansen,
excuse me, building official. We didn't require any additional capital as we have two high mileage vehicles are being replaced in 2025. And uh, we were able to give up two positions that we really didn't need to fill. They were two uh, permit clerk positions. So, human
resources and fleet maintenance got a couple of freebies from the building department. Thank you, John. Yeah. Any questions? So, the inspectors do we have it?
How many inspectors do we have? Five full-time, one part-time. Five full-time and one part-time. How many inspections does one inspector do per day? We average,
I would say 20 per inspector per day. 20 inspections. Correct. So when they go out to inspect, they have a list of what? Correct. They do. Yep. Some days are more, some days are less, but that I would say on average 20 per
inspector per day. That's interesting. That's a lot. But a lot of them in the same subdivision are not traveling around back and forth. They just go there and that's where most of their stuff is at the stats that were provided about the
permits and things of that nature. What uh like time frame is that from? What are we pulling? I did um I did from July 1st, 2024 to present July 1st, 2025. Got So that's I mean that's a
pretty spot-on to date right number. Yep. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. Who does the COS? The the the when they issue the COS, who does that? Myself and Jeremy. If the fire department's involved in it on the
commercial stuff, how many COs did we issue between last year and as we're coming up on the end of the fiscal year? How many COs did you I would have to get you that number.
I think I just We just did that though, didn't we? Yeah. But I I'll get you that number. Sure. Because the CO's are per unit also, right? Or is it the Absolutely. Abs. Yep. So that would tell me how many residents we have added. Correct.
I used to get a list from uh the former James H where he would kind of give us a yearly of what how many residents you have. Can you sure get me that? Absolutely. And also the number of cos that we from Sure.
that year. Um okay, that was that. Let me see. This is again just clunky to look at and it's not in order either. The for community development we're we're budgeting $100,000 for bikewalk central Florida.
What I feel like last year then 18,000 is the number I'm thinking of, but I could be wrong. We put in $100,000. It's for the active transportation master plan that's going to be worked on uh with bike central Florida. Okay. So Okay. So, it's a whole it's not what they've been normally doing. It's a
much broader uh Yes. service that they'll be providing. Okay. Because I say that was actually I think they reduced last year their cost. Uh and then obviously that was a just it stuck out obviously. So, and then in here we have $6,000 for postage for BTR
tax receipt, $1,000 for BTR envelopes, $150 for BTR membership, and $1,000 for BTR uh business tax receipt conference registration. So if it for your department, do you want
BTRs or do you not want BTRs? That was put in prior to the ordinance that was presented. Uh that is contingent upon if that BTR stay in place. Uh the BTR campaign has kind of died down a little bit though. Um but the BTR is really an action of the city council if they want
to keep that in the in the laws of the city. Okay. So this was when you were going through your budget, it was budgeted with BTR, correct? Yes. Revenue and expenses. And I mentioned that that we do have it in the budget and then I can adjust it with the final budget based on the decision of council.
Okay. And please remind me of the timeline for when we have to transmit certain numbers or what budget to the state, things of that nature. What what are our timelines that we're Department of Revenue Property Appraisals Office? Um, I have to have
the millage set by when? By the end of the month. Yes. End of July. End of July. It has to be submitted to them by August 1st. Yes. Okay. So, because there's quite a bit of unknowns and lack of
ability to compare year-over-year, do we anticipate having additional workshops to kind of go take a little bit deeper of a dive to truly understand? If necessary, we can have additional workshops. I'm planning to have additional workshops on other issues as well. But again, we once we get to the
end, we'll see how this impacts it. Shouldn't change what we're doing because if you look at the special meeting, we're not recommending the increase in the millillage, you know, right? But again, it's it depends on what the comparison between us. Are we actually budgeting accurately? Did did
we properly increase overtime pay, things of that nature to supplement what we were doing last year and all the adjustments for that as well as an increase because we're a bigger city. We are having more needs and we're getting becoming bigger department. So, and I will have all that information for you on Wednesday.
Okay. And and again, if we can get this posted as well for residents to review, we need their feedback as much as possible and this just limits their ability to compare and contrast community development. We have a million dollars in salaries and wages. Is that more? Is that less? Is it So, we
don't know. And that that's the point here. Oh, I get it. But again, the the objective here was to try to get it more readable for you because that was a concern last year. So, just made some adjustments so you can clearly read it and understand what we're talking about in regards to 26. But we can add the
other columns back again and kind of make it smaller to be, you know, a tinier read, but we'll do that. And what about the I mean because we had like an online platform two years ago. Can we do that? That's where we dump it from. And then I tried to make it a little bit more,
you know, user friendly. So why aren't we We should just be using that then exclusively. I mean, because then I can point residents back to that. I can explain exactly what's going on there. Let's get that published. Um that part as far as publishing it. We're still working on some of the it's hard with that system getting it
published with the numbers. They were still having that challenge. They're not reconciling. So, I wasn't comfortable with it. But we dump it out. But I'll see what we can do. We may be close on that. But I will only thing you missing now is like the columns that I kind of hid to make this more readable.
So, which will include a 24 and a 25 budget. And that's what I'm just going to open up those columns and reprint these which again I mean we're we should be able to not have to print we have iPads so we should be able to zoom in as needed things of that nature if it can
be online based it fixes a lot of these issues and again for our residents to be able to understand where we're going with all this and they they will have access to the posted information. Do we pay for that program? Yes. and we do have information in
there, but when you roll up these various reports and it's a data driven system, database driven, everything doesn't always match up. It's just like any other system. Is it a data input issue? I mean, there's Why are we paying for a program that doesn't work? It's a report issue.
How can we get this fixed? Actually, I'm waiting to go to a new one, but we're trying to fix it. We continue to try to use it, but we're going to a new system. I thought we just implemented this two or three years ago, maybe four years ago. before I came. Before I got here. Yeah, before I came
the online based system. I know open gov was here before I came in December of 2022 and you know that one year I think because that was the first year you know you wouldn't even know whether the information was right or wrong. But
I thought when I I had first gotten elected in 2022, it was Gladimir was the uh and I feel like I'd met with her and they were walking me through this new system, this detailed system. That's the first year as I understand it. Okay. Then the second year,
the second year was my first year. And then remember that's when the the system wasn't designed to the way it was set up. It wasn't designed to roll something forward and just blew up. remember do we have two different systems that are we're trying to get meshed together
or it's one complete system or program? It's one system you do input information in there. So how do we get it right that one year because that was probably the first year and it didn't have the roll forward. So that was the first year then that wasn't here years before. My understanding. Yes, that was the
first year. Okay. So that was the first that wasn't pre anybody. That was Yes. Okay. My understanding that was a very useful tool. Yeah. and we're going to have something even better down the road. But we're trying. We tried the same thing this year. But
we've gotten way far backwards. Hopefully, we can get way far forwards then. Um, again, I have the information. I only hid the the columns because I want you to be able to read the details. I understand that. Okay. So, I'mma open it up and it'll still be a little, you know, smaller
read. Okay. And then we're doing So, it has five iPads for planners. Shouldn't that be under it or No, that was in last year's budget, so we carried it over in case those iPads tear up or something, we can just use that to
order the iPads. Okay. And that's not customarily under it at all to my knowledge. No. Okay. The department's covered. Okay. Understood. All right. That's all I have right now. Thank you. Any other questions for one question? Have we the fees that we
charge the developers for permits? Just reviewing commercial um residential plans, commercial plans. Remember I remember there was a discussion about increasing the fees so that we we would
be online like other cities uh that they charge. Did we do that? We did last October. We did. Yeah, we did. And are we still compatible with other cities? Yes, absolutely. Okay. And quite honestly, what that's by John and his team implementing it, it's
that's what saved us the the staffing is that we got this online correct platform. So, absolutely. It's really made a difference. That's where we didn't need the other two permit text. So, now with the online stuff, it really helps. Yeah. So, I'm going to ask the question.
Do you have everything you need for your department to function uh to the satisfactory of providing the quality services that our city res You're putting me on the You're putting me on the spot, aren't you? That's okay,
though. If I get the two new vehicles that I got in this year's budget. Yes, I do. Okay. I do. Okay. Yep. Okay. So, I'm putting you down as a Yes. Put a put a check mark by my name. Yes. Okay,
Commissioner Smith, you got anything? Uh, my only question was to to Bobby in reference to do we have enough planners or we still have vacancies in that department? No. Um, those postings were posted because of their immigration status. Uh, so those had to be posted online. Yes.
But we're fully staffed. Okay. Mr. Anderson, anything? Okay. All right. Just one more. The transportation. Do we have do we have a transportation? It was his first day today. He works in public works. Oh, yes. Okay. Yeah.
So, he's no longer So, no. So, in your office, you won't have because before you had the transportation person, right? Yes. They will that the transportation position will not sit in in your office. That transportation coordinator has been
moved to public works. Reports reports. It currently is still under community development. Let me tell say that now budget but right now because we moved that last year and that hasn't changed. They're talking about this reord now and we haven't reflected the changes of the reorg just yet
because I don't I don't even have that information. So, but it will be in the final. What information don't you have yet? The reorg that the public service re the details behind it. What details? I think Ratley presented at the last
council. Yeah, I thought that she's she's speaking of the position the actual we have not moved the positions yet the changes to the positions. So, but I thought we moved that to your point last year. It was we moved transportation coordinator to public services or works last year. Just the opposite. We moved
it back to community development. The city engineer and the transportation coordinator went back to community development. Yes. Interesting. I I I thought it was the exact opposite. Well, not the opposite. I remember that was some uh there were
some issues with staff at the time that they didn't like that move to public services. Correct. That was during the year it was transferred over to public service. That is correct. But within the final budget, we moved it back. I didn't know that. Okay. And now you're
moving it again back over. Well, I got to see the details of the reorg. That's what I need to see because it's just a reporting thing, you know, as far as I'm I'm concern. Sure. But it helps to understand it more accurately reflects the budgets that we're dealing with. Yeah. Okay. Because you just approved that and so
once we get that, that's some of the other stuff I'll have to update. Okay. Okay. Anybody from the public wish to speak on community development? I agree that um the incom the incoming community development
um director needs to have a major say, um, I don't understand where all these numbers came from, um, without a community development director at this time, and I hope that those numbers are
reliable. Um, and that they're reasonable with the changes. Um, I do want to I have concerns about the shuffling that goes on. Uh, one example was in the previous department. um under
administration talking about moving the commissioners out of the mayor's office, the mayor's department into the administrator's department. Um that looks like soft shoe to a negative um a reduction in the mayor's
numbers of 4.1% um in an election year. Why would the commissioners be moved out of there into the administrative section instead of stay in the mayor's
office? Um why not make a new section for the commissioners if that's the issue? Um what do they have to do with the administrator when he doesn't answer they don't he doesn't answer to them and
they don't answer to him. um it just makes no sense other than to try and do a shell game. Um the same thing with moving people around in other other departments from department to department. So it just seems to me like there's some shuffling going on. Um, and
uh, when it comes to spreadsheets being available to people, um, many, many, many people that work with spreadsheets put them online as a, uh, spreadsheet that you can see. That's an
actual working spreadsheet. And people can actually go online and uh pull them up and view them and be able to adjust columns or disappear columns or sort
them online. And that would be great for the um council, but also great for the citizens. Um we could slide it back and forth. We can pull it up and down. We can disappear columns and use it as a
regular spreadsheet um online. And it doesn't have to it it wouldn't be the original CFO spreadsheet. It would be saved and put online so we can see it and um be able to access it. And I've
used that at universities and everywhere else that I've worked with. And then we've been able to discuss it. Two people can get online together and discuss it like a council person and the citizen. Rod Olson, just a clarification. Uh, and
I'd be happy, maybe Susan can do it, is forward you as commissioners, the mayor, my public records request and the response. The 88 was not a number out of my head. It was a report on May 14th that I received from the city. Um, in
that Commissioner Vosquez, thank you for asking the question of Don 2, three, and four. All your equipment not preventing the maintenance schedule. Yes. Is it followed? Do you spot check it occasionally? Probably not as much as we should.
All right. Thank you. Mr. How Bobby, where are you at? Does your budget represent everything that you needed and your department needs in order to complete and keep us happy? All your equipment on a prevented
maintenance schedule. Is it followed? Do you spot check? Thank you. I'll come back to Radley later unless you want me to do it now. Bradley, same questions. Everything rep the budget represents everything that you need
and your department needs. Okay. And uh everything, every piece of equipment's on a preventive maintenance schedule. Our fleet does a great job. Yes. Okay. The Well, fleet. Fleet. I know you can't get gas if you go past the hours. I know that's monitored. All right. But
every other piece of equipment, whether it's copers, whether it's printers, the other cases, all in preventing maintenance schedule, we take care of all. Yep. And it's being followed. Yes. And you spot check it? Yes. All right. Thank you. Anybody else? All right. Move on to parks and wreck. I
just had two questions and and there was points made here and then it brought up another question, I guess. What what do other municipalities do or what line bud line item do commissioners kind of office or expenses go under in most municipalities? What does Orange County do? What's average?
Again, I I don't know, but where I've been, you can put them in a separate cost center if you want them in a separate cost center just for the commissioners to take them, you know, segregate them from the mayor's budget. You know, you can create a separate cost center for the um commissioners. So, you
don't know what what any other municipality does in that? Not off the top of my head. No, I do not. One of the things I can say is that I know it's actually kind of easier to communicate, I think, um, with our um, city administrator in regards to those funds because we can't directly talk to the mayor. That's the reason.
It's almost like it's a So, I actually like it there because I'm able to communicate. Well, it didn't change anything actually. It was the same exact It's the same process. It's the same exact process we've done the entire time. But a lot of times what happens, they have to kind of reach out to the mayor and ask the mayor because it's in his budget. So if it's out of
his budget, then we there's really no communication with the mayor's direct communication because always like I got to talk to the mayor about it honestly. I mean that's kind of when I ask for it. That's what they say. I have to talk to the mayor about it. I mean when you ask for the funds what do you you get the same thing or you have to
No I um I send um anything with the discretionary I send to the attention of the CEO Lanch and Tammy Tammy because Miss Tammy is the one that actually is keeping track of our
discretionary and she's very good in always sending me an email telling me how much is left and she shows me the list of where the funs have already been um sent or you know that I've asked for. Yes, it would be the same process. I think it was more so when when I was
trying to use the community center for for an event for the residents and I had to kind of go back and forth with in between the mayor because there was really no one else to make that decision. So I think it is I think it' be better. So we have to completely cut off their communication. Well, so what and I was just handed this from um Commissioner Christine Moore of
Orange County from their constitutional I guess officer's budget which I'm happy to add to the public record. Um it is public record but I'll add it to ours is it breaks down the citizens at the top kind of a a hierarchy and it it shows that the county mayor and the board of county commissioners are two separate uh
like you said cost centers almost. So two separate departments, offices, whatever you want to call it, right? So that may be u beneficial to um and and and even if it is separate, it still would be managed. Yeah. Same same concept. We're not changing the same exact processation.
Yeah. So, you still have that same oversight. And then the other question I had, and we didn't discuss this during um it can't our our elections, the city charter and the ballot that that's supposed to be on in September. Do we need a special separate funds for that
or what's going on with that? What's the update on that? How do we budget for that appropriately? That's supposed to be September 6th or second. You added $10,000 to this year's budget for the special ballot election. Yeah. So, I don't know where I think you may
had the first one. You waiting on the second reading. Y I think y'all had the first reading. I I think you require second reading before you can proceed. When can we expect the second reading then of that? We're ready. Who Who has an answer to that?
I guess whenever you're ready, they can put it back on the agenda. Probably can't do it next week. We have to do it the following. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Okay. So, we can expect that on the I think he's saying August 20.
So, it wouldn't be on this July. Would it be on August 6th? Yeah. Then, okay. So, August, we can expect the second reading then. Yes. Okay. Thank you. All right. Parks and recreation to just make a note that he will get me how many
cos I did. Okay. Thank you. I made that. Thank you very much. All right. Got the parks and recreation department budgets. Next, uh some key department stats.
Uh from the last year we saw 2,436 youth athletic program participants, 156 adult athletic program participants. I do apologize there's a typo on the summer camp participants. We currently have 1,567
uh participants. Of that uh 1525 are camp we wall registrations. 806 are from Billy Dean Center and 322 from athletics. We maintain 479 acres of park space. Uh
we held 28 amphitheater events, 17 community events, 436 indoor facility rentals. That's our community center, Billy Dean Center, and Frank Carlton Center. And we hosted 20 Camp Weiwa retreat rentals. Overall, the parks and recreation budget
request is 14,272,278. that includes the um five departments or divisions. Uh cemetery, parks maintenance, athletics, recreation and events, camp wewa, and facilities maintenance. Uh you'll see parks maintenance and athletics, recreation, events are
the two top uh at 31% of that budget. Facilities maintenance at 29%, camp we at 7% and cemetery at 2%. When looking at the personnel operating and capital breakdowns, uh 42% of the
budgeted costs are for personnel, 44% are for operating, and 14% are for capital. Here's a look at our FY25 overalls compared to the FY26 overall proposals. Uh, parks maintenance, we're looking at 11.3% reduction for a total of
$4,477,161. Athletics, recreation, events, we're looking at 11.2% reduction at 4,394,511. Uh, Camp Weiwa, we have a 19.1% uh increase for a total of $1,34,019.
Uh the cemetery we have a 70% uh decrease from uh or to $196,991 and facilities maintenance we have a 4% decrease at $4,169,596. In our parks maintenance budget, we were
able to reduce our contracted mowing services request by 27.8%. Uh this is based off of the needs uh and what we're actually doing uh with our internal staff compared to the contractor staff. We've uh requested some operating
increases for athletic field turf replacement increasing that 87.5% in the 5200 operating budget and we're asking for 30 uh for some money in 3100 to do a quad one redesign at Northwest Rec
Complex. That quad in particular um has issues with rain and heavy rain and we see a lot of issues with the sidewalks washing out. Um the flow of the water from one end of the comp one end of that quad to the other is uh is
dramatic during heavy rainstorms. So we put some money in for a uh professional service or an architect and engineer to look at that and see what needs to be done to correct those slope issues. Um, and we're not requiring any new
positions uh this fiscal year for the parks maintenance team in athletics, recreation, and events. Uh, we've uh removed the athletic field light repair. Over the last couple years, we've done done some retrofits and upgrades to the
lighting at the sports complex. Uh these lights are covered by a a um a a warranty program. So if anything goes wrong on those, we have a warranty that covers repairs and and needed work on
those lights. And we've reduced the older lights on the complex. So we've been able to reduce this line out of athletics. We do still have um a repair line for lighting in the parks maintenance budget as well. So we did keep the parks maintenance repair lighting but we did remove athletics
recreation events two events uh two amphitheater events uh we removed the spring orchestra concert and the apopka proud concert and no new positions were required for athletic uh recreation and events department.
What what was the spring concert? The spring concert we've had the Orlando Phil Harmonic out a couple times in the spring. One year they did a superhero concert, the next year they did a classical concert. The attendance on the spring one, the the holiday one and UCF
did a Holly one LA this past year. The Holly one always has good attendance. The spring one kind of struggles with with attendance and it's a pretty big ticket item um for that. So look to reduce that. I I don't think the
spring concert 30,000 that we had was a big ticket item. The Apaka Proud concert was a big ticket. We did remove that big ticket item. How much do we lose on the Apaka Proud concert this year, this fiscal year? I don't want to I'll have to send that to you. I can pull that information and
send it back to you. That'd be great because that was one that we didn't agree to and that was already spent. Yeah, that was that was a real problem. Yeah, that was the one I couldn't that we lost money on. The spring orchestra, I think, is valuable. I think it's one that although it may be lower attendance than the holiday one or Christmas one, but
it still has attendance. I think it still brings people out. There's no different than the Saturday Night Sounds, Saturday sounds. Same concept that doesn't have huge Well, I think people look forward to the symphony spring. I know we actually I mean I actually buy
the table and we invite you know so many we invite our friends and family. I think if we market it better too. Last year we didn't did we have the symphonic last year the symphonic this past spring we did not know and I think that's why you had the low
turnout was because the expectation was the symphony and we got something else. What did we get? Uh I think it was a Saturday Sounds band. Oh that's the only reason why we didn't get but I I think a lot of our residents like the symphony.
Well how many people attended it? I guess the numbers would say it. What was the participation? I'd say less than less than 500 people. It was the year before. Yeah. For for the spring concert. Yes. Absolutely. Spring concert's normally pretty low. No.
500 people showed it was I don't I think that's being generous, but we don't know. There's not a hard set number to that. That's I guess you come back with the numbers would determine from there. I mean those numbers are those numbers are always estimated. Sure. So, I mean, and and whereas we What does a What does
a tribute band cost us? Tribute bands around that 20 25,000 depending on the band. Yeah. Sometimes we can get them for 15. If it's a really popular band, it's a little bit more. What's is the goal to replace that event with? So, we did we did we did take some of
this money and increase the Saturday Sounds budget just a little bit. Throw it up for you. like the band you just had for July 4th. They were really good. Yeah, they were awesome. Yeah, I don't know what we I can find out what we paid
for them. So, yeah, we tried to we tried to bring more of the or increase the budgets for those Saturday sounds dates to bring in a little bit more of the little bit higherend tribute band, right? because we we've been using some of the same bands and uh unless they
have their own little following. That's where I'm seeing the decrease is that we keep the same the Saturday song, we keep putting the same bands. I know we spoke about the diversity in that remember last cycle. So, we do try and we do try and go hit
at least one band for kind of every genre as best we can. How much did we budget last year for Saturday concert series? I want to say it was I'd have to get that number. I think it wasund like 118 maybe 118 I believe
somewhere around there. That's a sub. Yeah. 40 grand more increase. Yeah. So we're trying to we're trying to do more of the tribute bands because they are they are popular. Is that still with Birchmore? Yes. So we still have them under contract.
So, and then what's new amphitheater entertainment opportunities? So, that would be any let's say if we had a a traveling a traveling band that we didn't have budgeted for um Saturday sounds, but they're in the area and could get routed to the amphitheater, we
want a little bit of money there just to grab them if if needed. I I mean, we're budgeting so much for one event and then taking away from that orchestra. I think that's a very unique diverse event. I think we don't get orchestras to come to the city often. It's twice a year max. So I think that
blends if we're trying to find a genre in every uh an option in every genre. I think that meets that and then continue to find additional uh different bands to come out or uh performers. Would you like to We could and maybe it's um maybe
it's a a branding thing. We could maybe include it in the Saturday Night Sounds lineup as one of the prime events as an orchestra event. We wanted to do that and it's the same budget, right? Right. We could just I mean we could we could include that as well.
Include it as a Saturday Sounds one of the Saturday Sounds events for the spring and that we're not completely eliminating it. But they're not mutually exclusive though, right? We can do both. We can if you'd like. Yeah. That that event just is not attended very well. The spring
the spring concert. Yes. Do we have I mean that so we started with the Orlando Phil Harmonic and that relationship is no longer. Can we get them back? UCF was great as well though. No, we we we still have an open relationship with the Orlando Phil
Harmonic. Their pricing has been going up. Sure. A lot. And they have had some you know we for these events we try to do a five to seven. Sometimes they like to do a little bit later in the night. Um, so there's just some logistics sometimes we have to work on. I mean, if we change it, it may be o may
bring more people out because then it's maybe not hot, it's not like it may open us up to more people to come out and enjoy it then because I think it's a very unique event that I think is special to Apakka. I've talked to people when we're out there that they drive from Mount Dora, Eustace to Varies to
come to this because it's a special event that they're not getting in their community. show there's an economic impact to these these bigger events like this more than just Saturday sounds. So yeah, it's a pleasure to the board on this one. And again, they're not mutually
exclusive. can continue to kind of build this program uh or programming of of amphitheater performers and and really build out our database of who can perform out there, who can we draw in to perform out there to bring in all
backgrounds, diversities, everything. I think that's what's key and should be more focused on those events. And I think the orchestra is part of that. And so walk us through again the Apoca Proud concert. We're just canceling that alto together. We took that funding completely out of the budget. Yes. Great.
And it was just because of last year's I think the the the last year's event and then the the feedback from the council. Yeah. I just think it's just a lot of Yeah. 200,000. That's a lot. Yeah. So,
what would you like uh the pleasure of the board on or the council on the orchestra concert for the spring? Put it back in. Reduce the sounds. I forget what what month do we do norally like March time frame. Okay.
Obviously, I think it's valuable to do it. Again, it's diversity. That's the whole point is kind of bringing diverse groups out there. And that's one that we Saturday doesn't meet that that doesn't do that box. didn't check that box. We already have it at at Christmas. I mean, we do have an orchestra there for
Christmas. I mean, I you know, uh the question is then if we we bring back the orchestra, then do we want to reduce the the Saturday sounds by whatever that that number is? 30. Well, why don't we take it the the new amphitheater entertainment options?
That's a very ambiguous. Where'd you get 20 grand from? I guess. what what's uh just kind of sometimes these traveling tribute bands come through um and that's about what we spend on on a traveling tribute band. So, but we should know I mean pretty far in advance who we're booking, right? I mean
sometimes yeah months and months and months or what's our what's that look like? We try and get it done. So, we'll try and with the budget coming in this year now I mean obviously October one we try and hit the Saturday Sounds right pretty quick in October. So, so I assume we're already we've already started looking at some of
those for the for the fall. Yeah. part. We haven't gotten to the spring yet. Okay. So, I mean, we can certainly reduce that out. We can remove that if you'd like and put it back into I mean, that helps offset that concert. I again, it just it's somewhat ambiguous to what what
that would do as long as we're planning appropriately. Um, and then who's I guess who's scheduling that or who who kind of annually reaches out and and gets those the company? Yeah. So, our events team, um, Carolyn Ray is our events manager. She works
with our contractor, Birkmore Entertainment Group, and they work together on seeing who's in the area, who can be routed to the amphitheater, what's available. They send us some options, and again, we try and we try and select bands that cover
every genre that we can try and hit. So the Birchar group, do they get paid? They get paid per event or is that a a contract like it's contracted, but yeah, there's a per Okay. It's not like a flat fee that we pay annually. It's No, as it's as it depends on the band. Correct.
Okay, understood. Every band travels with different riders and different sizes and things like that. How much did we budget for the you said we're removing athletic field light repair but there still is a line item somewhere that because we haven't replaced all the lights correct correct
so electrical field light repair maintenance is line se seven on um repair maintenance on page 47 repair maintenance is a 4600 line you know between all these books what page did you just say
the new book you got today yeah page page 47 7 and it's line seven under the 4600 repair maintenance lines. It's about 3/4 of the way down. $20,000. I see. Okay. So, we still that was I we
still needed something budgeted for that. Is correct. We always need a little bit of contingency in case a lightning storm happens or we have a light issue, but a lot of our lights are under a warranty. Um so, we've been trending very good. And so, we're not we're not taking $30,000
out. We're just reducing it by 20,000. No, we had lighting we had some lighting money in the parks budget. We had some repair money in the parks budget, too. That we're moving to that we're staying there and we're we're getting rid of the duplication in the athletics budget.
That was additional funding. Okay. So, we are taking 30,000. Gotcha. What is parks beautifification projects? So those are um projects like we did also Williams Park uh last fiscal year.
We renovated the field um with that funding. It's just utilize at one of the parks in the area that needs a little extra extra lift. So what do we is that going towards Lonzo Williams? We already did that. Um
this year we're still looking at what we're going to use it for. Are are there any parts that have been identified that can actually use the funding? Um there's always landscaping needs. So this could be replacing plants in a landscaping bed. This could be replacing um shrubs. It could be replacing sod
on a rotation if needed. Basically just kind of yeah we kind of try and do an assessment and again it's nice to have a little bit of funding there if something comes up that we need to address immediately. Uh we have a it's labeled as parks tree
bank expenditure for 500,000. What are we doing with that? Yeah, so this is the parks tree bank or this is the tree bank fund. Uh it's funded through the tree bank um process. uh we utilize so this year we're working
on uh doing tree installations along Vic Road in the medians and also Jason Dwelli where I'm sorry you said Jason Dwell Jason Dwelli and Vic Road and Vic yeah so
how how much do we have in that account right now I thought it was like right at a million for some reason was more than that oh we got approximately over a little over two million okay and but we used we're using a lot of it towards Pedmont lakes and their restoration of their trees. Correct. We use some of it for that. It also is
available um for if there's rightway trees that need to be replaced. Our streets department can use that money as well. So this is it just lives in the park's budget. So we'll have to do a budget amendment though should we streets need part of that. Correct. Is
that how that works? No, this this is only for new, not replacing, but new. The tree bank is is Yeah. No, he just he just administers the program, but it's basically for new. But we're replacing trees in Pumont
Lakes. Correct. Correct. Yeah, we utilize some of that funding for should have been new. Yeah, new tree. We took We couldn't We didn't spend it on taking the trees out. We spent it on putting the new trees in. The tree
There seems to be a new my understanding is for new new trees. So again if they taking the old one out and they putting the new one in it that qualifies. I would double check but when we talk because on Jason Dwelli
and on Vic both have trees already. Yeah. Right. We can use it to purchase new trees. We can't use it to take the old tree out. Okay. Okay. Could it could we use this? I mean, we can use those anywhere. Correct. I mean, it doesn't necessarily have to be those two areas.
It doesn't have to be in parks and wreck. Again, this it's budgeted in the parks budget. Well, more so throughout the city. I mean, there's other areas that we could probably use some new trees that we have somebody actually identify locations for the new trees. Yeah. Beautification. I mean, we palm trees right out here out on 441 that
Yeah, we do have there are some on the list here and also on central that again the tree bank fund will pay to put new trees in. When is that happening? That that was that was last hurricane. That was so that was Yeah. Our streets department's working on getting those ordered as we speak.
And I think he came and gave a presentation about how we were going to utilize it if lakes. I remember that. I don't remember it throughout the city though, but I could be mistaken. But he he explained how he was going to utilize it for the year. So, but I do think if we definitely have funding for it, we definitely should be
utilizing that funding for beautifification projects. Yeah. Yeah. Throughout the city. Absolutely. One question because I was doing didn't pay attention and I apologize. What's in the tree bank right now? A little over 2 million. 2 million. Yes.
And that was as of um 9:30 2024 because that's when it's measured. So when when we're out you uh replacing trees or is it to put new trees or replacing trees? It's to buy a new tree. Buy a new tree. That is so loaded. Um,
so I know pie a new tree. Who is actually putting the new tree up? So either if it's a one-off or our staff might do it in-house, but if it's a multiple, we'll go reach out to a contractor to do an install. And that also gets paid out of the tree
fund. If it's a new tree install, yes. If it's a new tree install, then use the funds to pay the contractor. We can't use those funds to remove the old tree or the stump, but we can use them to put a new tree.
Tree in. Okay. Tree and install. Tree in for a tree that we took down. Okay. For a new location. Sure. The contracted mowing services. How's Walk me through how that's being decreased almost 30%. So, we had uh LA
this this current year we had budgeted um the the amount I think it was $450,000 because there were some additional areas we're looking at maybe contracting out but inhouse we've maintained those areas so we've not used them. So, we were able
to to reassess what our actual need is on the contracting service and reduce it by that amount. Who which part parks maintenance is are the ones that are maintaining or doing the mowing? Yeah, our parks m maintenance does all the mowing for the parks uh and the fields, athletic
fields. Our contractor does the facilities mainten facility mowings um does some of our park mowings. And then this is not in our budget, but streets department also uses a contractor service for rightway mowings. Okay. So, it's not a it's not like we're
we just overbudgeted last year. We we reassessed what we needed. Yes. And we dropped the budget. Okay. So it's not a I mean it's a savings but it's we over budgeted for it's a savings based last year we we anticipated needing this sure this now we move through the year we've
been able to look at and go yeah so just properly budgeting it's not a reduction it's just properly budgeting what we needed there okay and then we didn't talk about we yet do we want to jump to there no okay I'll wait not yet no problem
the rebuild of the north orange uh wreck is it sand Oh, the sand volleyball courts 90,000. Yes. And when is that getting done? That's getting done this this year. No, it's in the budget proposal for FY26. So, if the budget were approved,
we'd start playing in that program starting October. Uh the volleyball courts do get used quite a bit from anywhere from the high school teams. We have a recurring group that's out there, I think, every Friday night, adult group that comes out and rents the rents the courts. They're highly used. um they
need some work reconstruction wise. They're pretty close to the slope that runs down to the parking lot. So, we have an area that due to the way they're sloped currently that continually washes out down the hill to the sidewalk. Um so, again, heavy rain events, we have to re get all that sand back up into the
courts. um the net structures, the all that infrastructure underneath the netting, underneath the sand, it's all just reached its end of life. Who's going to do the renovation for that? Uh we would out we would likely outsource that. That's going to be
contracted sand. Yeah, contracted a contractor does sand volleyball courts. Also, I saw billboards advertisements. Where what billboard are we using? So, yeah, we utilize uh two billboards. Uh
one's down here on um 441. And so, we have funding. We'll we'll put our city events up, our amphitheater events up. Um any city messages that need to go up, we'll utilize billboards. So, that's the only billboard we use on
441. There's another one. I believe it's down on that side of 441. So we have and they're both they're digital boards. So we can we can send in changes quickly to the contractor and they'll update the board.
So it's two two big build boards that we use. Roadway billboards. Yeah. The tractor pull barn. Where is that? The the replacement of that. So that's a Northwest Recreation Complex. It's out if you go in gate five. Our maintenance shop is are those
two buildings and there's a they're like blue there's two blueish buildings and then there's a tractor pole barn behind them. Oh, in the back there's like sand back there and Yeah. Okay. And uh we're that barn was hit in the last hurricane. We are working with FEMA to try and get some sort of
reimbursement on it. It's an old structure. We're not sure exactly how much we'll get re reimbured on it. Okay. So, we did put a budget request in to go ahead and just get it replaced. Okay. And then the new perimeter fencing at Northwest Rec. Didn't we just do new fencing out there? We Yeah, we've done some new fencing out
there. Um the the need for this fence is so we've done perimeter fencing down Appy Lane all the way down Appy now has two rail fence. We're looking at some fencing along the entrance to gate four down those soccer fields and then across the parking lot area.
Okay. And then also another So heading south and then west, right? And then another area we're looking at are the south soccer fields. That parking area, those two parking areas trying to just provide a little delineation between the parking areas and some defined spaces and the fields again are going to stop
every ball that goes through. No, but but it helps running kids and things like that helps provide a delineation there. So will we be doing um like dedicated crosswalks then to show to to really define where everyone should be walking to cross streets? Yeah. So, we are
looking at uh especially on that gate four entrance doing some improvements there to get from the football parker field parking lot. Yep. To the soccer fields. Okay. So, there we're looking at a little bit of concrete work to maybe put a sidewalk entrance and then crosswalk there.
Understood. We'll work with our city engineer and streets department on that. Is that the the overtime you have there? $50,000. Is that enough for how much did we budget last year? I think we did a little bit of increase
there, but we did uh based on projections and then we added 10% increase like I mean 10% increase based on prior years and projections and then I'm sorry 4% on top of that projection and I'm going to bring you the whole overtime
on Wednesday. But we did increase overtime. We did look at FY24 actuals. We looked at FY25 projections and we added an increase associated with that. Okay. Thank you. But I'll bring those details to you.
For the park holiday decorations, 150,000. That's a pretty big increase from last year, correct? No, it's that we did 150 last year as well. Is that exclusively uh Kaitland Nelson or is it all parks?
Kitan Nelson Park. Are we able to do some additional decorations and festivities at each park? Alonzo Williams. I mean, it's it got a community center there, things of that nature. The Billy Dean Center. Are we able to do some items there, too, to
We could we could look at opportunities there. I think maybe some standalone structures, but Okay. I I think it depends on what degree you'd like out of that. I just think I I something something similar that it's
still one of our parks and we put a lot of money into it as well and so we want to make sure that it's um it has that same intrinsic feel that we create here have it there as well. So, I think if we if that's uh a direction we'd like to go, I would
request some additional funds into that park holiday for the holidays to decorate um whatever other parks you'd like to decorate. Okay. And I mean, we could maybe start with some photo op photo opportunity holiday
spots at the other parks. Sure. If you'd like. Yeah. It doesn't need to be a major, but just something that's brings everybody together. It's that parks are supposed to be that community feel. So I think that especially during the holiday season kind of again including everybody that whatever their denomination is that just it brings everyone together. I
think that again creating community is the goal. All right. So, um, out of that 150, 50,000 of that is for the tree at Kella Park. Wow. The 100 is for the other lights and the the photo opportunities.
I'm sorry, the tree lighting. The tree lighting, wrapping the lights around the trees. The other is for the photo opportunities. And, um, Chris was letting me know photo opportunities. It could be5 $6,000 each. Okay. I mean, it's up to the board, but I
think it's definitely worth doing something. I mean, that what what's a number that makes sense for L Williams Park in the Billy Dean Center? 20,000. And how much you say tree was? Well, the trees alto together for uh Kitland Nelson Park were 50,000.
And and that and you're saying to wrap the trees to wrap all the trees, not just I was thinking you were just saying just that to wrap the trees. Okay. All the trees. So, I mean, there's two large oak trees at Park. They wrap those and put a photo. Like a nice little photo.
Yeah. Make it festive. Yeah. So, what like 20,000? 25. This is 25 25,000 because it'll give you like a little Christmas park. Correct. So for I didn't realize we No, that's facilities athletic complex. We budgeted
the 50,000 for overtime and then only 15,000 for recreation athletics. Yes. So we utilize I mean we utilize parks maintenance staff more for overtime than our athletic staff. Okay. You know, we have community events, amphitheater events. We'll utilize some
staff there for some of those events. again that it's just something I saw for sure that we we misbudgeted in the past and I want to make sure we're getting it accurate um on for every department. The tennis pickleball temporary office lease
55,000 that's a you told me about this this week or last week. Yeah. So that that um and I've got that update in the capital in the capital plan here shortly. Um we are moving we're moving forward with the final
design of the t uh tennis pickleball courts and the parking that's associated with it in the capital for w rec wreck impact fee request requesting some funding to actually build the parking lot and then build a permanent building. That funding's in here that request
it's in the wreck impact fee. It's I haven't gotten there yet. Okay. Okay. Sorry. I will wait. But the uh temporary building is to be a stop gap so we can open the courts, put a little structure on site. Okay. While we have something there while we're building the building.
Okay. Yeah, we did discuss that. Okay. Yes. Thank you. and and at the amphitheater. Uh I noticed that whenever we have a hard rain uh along the I guess that's the east side east side. Yeah, the wash out
that really washes out. Is that anything that we can do to prevent that from happening? We're going to be addressing that with the amphitheater upgrades uh and make sure our engineer because we do have some improvements to that hill, the seating area, and that kind of goes into that area where it washes out. So, we're going to
make sure when we do those improvements that we consider the impact that we're having on that. Okay. And I know one time we talked about putting a a restroom on the other side. Is that still part of the uh part of the TDT grant? Okay. project is to put a ticket booth
and restroom office building on the gate five entrance. What is the community events grants program? So that is a a program like uh we were talking about earlier. Um we're proposing similar to the nonprofit
grant program formulating and establishing a uh nonprofit community cultural event program similar type structure. So that's the funding mechanism for that. So, we're recommending 75,000 and that's where the uh community
nonprofits that wish to run a community grant, a community event or cultural event could apply through a again almost identical system to the nonprofit grant program and receive fundings. How much did we budget for that last year?
We did not. This would be a new This would be a new budget. Well, we budgeted for events. We budgeted for events. Separate events anymore. So, we're not going to separate events. So, this is one. This would reduce those. This would kind of all those like itemized events. Okay. Put it into a program. How much did we What were the itemized total of those? I think there were 12,000 each.
We did 12,000. And how many different events did we recognize? Was it about five? I think it was about five or six. Okay. I think pretty close to where we're at. So would it be I guess when you bring the program back, it would be beneficial to list out the events that we
definitely want to hit and then I guess open it up to any other different cultural events or things of that nature. So yeah, it' be the it'd be the pleasure of council on that. Yeah, I definitely want to make sure that we're able to steal like events that we want that need to be recognized because there certain events we want to make sure the funding is not used for
other events, but definitely the events that we recognize that were items so we can bring back we can bring that information back to you. Okay. And then what's the partner events for 14,000 just under the same same just under community event grant grants. What are partner events?
Right. So those were the ones that we have contracts. So the um Christmas parade that's stoma soma um and the foliage festival I believe was the other one. I mean up under the itemize events.
Aren't these all partner events? Partner at this point. Oh yeah, actually they are. So so it should be. So just throw that in the the grants program. We can certainly do that. We can come back with you with the list of the historic events. Yeah. and then decide where you want.
Well, yeah. Then we as a council can say we definitely want to hit these ones and then any other additional cultural events that uh nonprofits want to host around the city. We can do that. Again, we're trying to clean up the the process here a little bit. Absolutely. I think that helps to do it. Put that in
one grant fund. But under the mayor's um you have the mayor's you have the breakfast um you have some other events going under the mayor's uh expense.
So those were specific to the mayor's office, right? These are specific to the community events. Okay. Yeah. Um so like last year which I was kind of confused because remember when the Waka Culinary
wanted to use the Apaka Community Center. I had said, "Okay, I will front through my discretionary for them not having to um pay for the the community center because they don't have enough
funds." But you changed the process for me. I had to apply through discretionary then give them the check. It was kind of confusing. I mean is that
required of all of us if we I think that's where they're trying to utilize the whole process. No. So what in that specific instance what we're trying to do is the renter is the group. So Waka Culinary Group is really the renter that of that right facility. They're the main contact our
staff need to work with to make sure we got all the information from them, the start time, end time, who's going to be there as a representative for that group. They then approached you for to help fund it. So you issued the check to them
and then they came and paid for their rental. Do we do that for the other events that we hold in the for if it's involves the discretionary fund donation for that event? Yes, we've moved for we had like an HOA event between it was Representative Benson
and the city I guess or the mayor who paid for that for the I believe that was a mayor's event. Did that check go to Representative Banks's office and then he issue it back to us? I'd have to look into that.
Okay. Okay. So, we're going to now put Satto, the Apoaka Women's Club. What other clubs are we putting into? We can come back with a list. We'll come back with a list of what we've
traditionally done. Okay. And then you can decide funding and then what remainder goes for the program. Uh 75,000 and 14,000 gets to uh 89,000. Okay,
that would be 89,000 total. Okay, community based grant program item. And I think the reason why we we're trying to kind of is because there's such an inconsistency as to what are we
who are we partnering with? um how are we using taxpayers money for certain organizations and then others have to apply for the grant? It's so it's kind of confusing. Um, so I think if we can kind of be more transparent where these
are the ones that we have been in the past committed to partnering with and this is what we are um expending taxpayers um funds with and the rest who we aren't partnering with
have an have the opportunity to apply for the grants. Absolutely. and staff agrees with that completely. And I think that would make it easier for the public to see how we're partnering. It builds transparency, right?
I think that was the whole point of the correct. Yeah, that's that's the direction we were trying to go with this uh this opportunity. The other thing um and I'm going to go back to the cemetery with the coline column bearings coline
and I'll show um when are we going to have the fencing the gazebo replaced? So um just a walkway. Yeah. So that and remember that's in this year's budget. The uh gazebo has been ordered. The benching the new
benches have been ordered. I think we're probably mid August, late August start date for a tear down and a and a rebuild. And once the um gazebo is put in, we'll come back in with the sidewalks and and get the
access into the sidewalk. Okay. just out of courtesy, would you just kind of let us know when that's happening because I I am getting a lot of um uh you know residents who are
asking about the column only because it's the expense of a burial is become now an alternative for for many of our families and um I just want to see as you renovate it to see what it looks like. Absolutely. What I'll do is I'll have
Chris from our park staff, parks rec staff provide an update to the commission. Do we have anything on our website that is providing some kind of visual for someone who gets on and for the cemetery that that is an option for them? I don't know if there's a picture, but
we can certainly put a picture up of the colarian. I just when they go on the cemetery site that I don't think we're we're advertising we're just advertising you know um the regular cemetery plots but someone did ask me about that and I
said go on the website I think they have like a we're starting to sell right but when you go on the website I don't think we have any information on that or just you know kind of a photo of where it's at and
what the post is. All right. On camp wall. Camp wall. Here we go. Camp We Oh, right before Camp Wea. Yeah. So, I had a few people reach out to me in regards to naming rights for the amphitheater. Have we worked out a package with that yet? Uh, not yet. I'll have to get back with
the city attorney to see if we I don't think we got anything back from No, we have not. What is he working on? We had a draft policy and um that one of the attorneys drafted and we were trying to get that finalized and I know Radley's been trying to work with him because it's been over a year
since it's been it's been about two years back. So what's the time frame on that? I think we couldn't decide on what the cost of it. Well, I'll get I'll get with CL I'll get with the city attorney this week and get an update from him. Yeah.
All right. Perfect. Thank you. All right. Camp Weiwa. Uh we are looking at an increase of 19.1%. Uh this is pro primarily to adding um some additional staffing hours. Uh as
the park has uh come online over the past couple years, the uh rental retreat operations have increased. So we need some of that seasonal staff to help operate the camp during those uh weekends. Um, and we do have some capital requests as
well that have have impacted that which I'll get to here shortly. So, we're budgeting on campala a million dollars this year. Correct. How much did we budget last year? 867961.
Okay. So, we're increasing the budget there. How much do we make on that? Because that when this was purchased before I was elected, but this council at the time agreed to it. It was sold as in I want to say it was within five years, it'll break even. Are we close to that?
Yeah, we're not at break even for the park now. We're like hundreds of thousands off. Correct. Yeah. I can get you the latest year-to- date number to update your packet. Now, have we have we done any type of did we bring in any third parties or consultants or anybody to come in and
say, "Here's how you make this not even profitable, just break even." Have we done anything like that? Uh, no. We've brought in, we do have some uh outside groups that come in and utilize it on a regular basis. The uh homeschool groups and then the parental
retreats have been picking up, which you said there was 20 events last year, correct? On average, how much do we how much do we charge for each event? Uh, it just depends on the stay. It can be anywhere from $3,000 to $6,000
depending on the weekend, how many days they're staying, the number of places they're renting. Okay. And like I said, there's some capital uh capital I'll get to here shortly on the cap wheel as well. So that's outside of the million dollars. No, that's included. Excuse me.
It's included. Oh, that's part of the correct. Yeah. Okay. Well, and that's what I was going to ask is is so what what is the current condition of the buildings that are out there? I know there's a lot of roof damage that was out there and just just aging uh
buildings. Are they all usable now? Have we done all them? Yeah. So, the camp is in really is actually in really good shape. We've over these years have done continual improvements on on the facilities. We are wrapping up um the ADA restroom uh renovations in the dining hall.
Actually, there should be done I think this week, which is a big improvement. Um the roofing, we did a lot of roofing repairs and replacements out throughout the camp. Uh so the camp is in a good condition. Uh the the landscaping and maintenance, the trees, everything is
looking in good shape. The big sore thumb is the pool which we're still assessing with a with a contractor. Um, and we Yeah. Didn't we budgeted 75? We have money this year to to look at that. So, have we done that? Do we get We're working with a consultant to try and get an estimate on what a
replacement will be. I mean, that's going to be a seven figure number, right? Correct. And we're not ready. We're not prepared to put it in the request for this year. Yeah. No, I mean that's again I I think we need to come up with some type of comprehensive plan of how do we what do we want with this park? I think we've I've had this discussion multiple times
of what's that comprehensive plan of what do we want to see camp we all become or be or stay at and I've never gotten like a straight answer of what the goals are. So the park right now operates for summer camp programming uh we do operate
swim lessons uh rock wall uh uh programming archery programming throughout the year uh and then for as a retreat center. So, we have a variety of groups come in for retreats. Um, we had the Florida State National Guard came
recently uh came out for a weekend. Uh, we have Boy Scout groups, Girl Scout groups. So, for the weekend use, that's pretty much what the park is utilized for. We have had a lot of construction at the park with the water uh well to water conversion program, but that was required from the state
because of the grant money we received from them. Correct. The water was added as part of the grant as part of our grant application. So, we got and this would be an interesting number. We got a million dollars to purchase it from the state. And how much did the requirements that they put on that grant cost us? Yeah, we can we can spell that out for
you. That's going to I'm guessing that it's going to be more than a million bucks between sewer and water. And then wasn't there a we were looking last year into requirements of what we can and can't use that the the park for because of that grant as well. There are certain stipulations put on by the
state. Uh it it needs to be open use park and it pretty much is an open use park but when we have private events out there it's private right like I can't just go out there on a weekend retreat. Yeah it'd be a private. Is that a issue with the state requirement of the grant?
We have it needs to have a public area. So we try and keep a public area. What area? And looking at the And looking at the operate I'm sorry, looking at the capital spent after the purchase year, we've spent $1.4 million.
So what's total all in then? And that's just capex. That's not that's capital. Yeah. Yeah. What's that total then that we've spent on campa for all capital? Everything including purchase. Uh 6.2 million. Wow.
That's operating. No, it's capital. The capital didn't the operating. Yeah, I got it. Yeah. 6.2 capital. Yeah. That includes the acquisition of 4.7. Correct. Right. No, I understand.
Wow. We purchased it for how much again? Just it was around 4 million. 4 million. Yeah, it was around 4 million. I thought you just said 4.7. I know that was in 2021. So that's why I'm saying that, but it was around four
million. A little over. And to date we we've minus that 4 million we've invested this much into the campus 4.7. Yeah. With all capital from starting from 21 forward and projected just year to date
today is was Bradley quoted was 6.2 that's capital that's as of May. As of May operating is 1.8. And what do we plan on putting next year capex into it? capital we're looking at
75 15 25 and 18 those last ones there 138 I believe the last five yeah so that's 138 so just under 6.4 four million then total. Yeah. With this year coming up.
But when this building was when this camp was purchased, it was obvious that it needed repairs. Correct. Correct. It needed repairs. It needed roofing. It needed uh clearing. So the intent was to actually put money into it. Correct. At this point, my understanding is yes.
There was an intent to get the camp up to up to speed. Okay. So, and it's taken some time. Okay. During those meetings though, it was said that within five years it'll break even. So that's my concern is we're getting further away from that break even. What year was this purchase?
21. 2021. 2021. Okay. Well, if I remember correct during the discussion and we talked about this that this was a a park and and parks and recreation facilities don't make money. They all lose money.
And I think that was our final decision. Mhm. I think we're I mean we're recovery rates typically just under the 30% mark. I mean we're and we're trending as well as any any municipalities in the area. I know that.
So it's doing what we purchased it to do. In addition to that, it's actually bringing people to the community and investing in different small businesses. So it's doing what it's supposed to do. A lot of the retreats are from outside the city. So they're bringing people into the city. So, I mean to to go back to Commissioner Neesa, to go back to what
the park is being utilized for right now is a retreat facility, summer camps, and some programming throughout the school years for archery rock wall. So, this wasn't purchased with the idea to generate income. It was sold at the presentation as in
five years it'll break even. That was absolutely said on the record that that was the expectation. So, I understand that that parks are lost leaders. Totally understand that. It's I mean we're putting a lot more money into it and we continue to and
especially if we're looking at this pool now it's another million bucks plus and we have uh since I've been with the city I have put a focus on trying to be as efficient and conscious with the operating side of this budget because
there has been some large need for capital. So, we have been trimming that budget year-over-year, trying to to at least be mindful on that side to be as efficient as possible operating. Is there anything we can do? I see $1,500 for social media or excuse me,
for summer camp marketing, $1,000 for social media advertising, uh $4,000 for signs, posters, banners, $1,000 for pro promotional items. I mean, again, what can we do to kind of reinvigorate? This is supposed to be a it is. I can't find something like this around. So, how do
we really promote this and create something with it? Because we're doing it at Northwest Recre. That is not a loss leader for us. I think we we uh we need to continue pushing those camp uh memberships, those camp programs to advertise outside of
our area. Um so, if you look at the uh that marketing uh material or marketing funding would go heavily towards that. Can you point me to the line, please? Uh it's under So I just don't see I thought sorry
items was promotion. Does he have that? Yeah. Uh the camp camp marketing and the promotional items. Okay. So those okay the those right there you I thought you meant a separate line on the No, no, no. In that line that's what we you know we're trying to focus on that. So would it make sense to increase those
budgets to get more out there? If you're looking to increase we can certainly we can always advertise more. Well, and that's again I if we can come up with a comprehensive plan of here's what we want to I think kind of coming up with a a totally new or or a an
updated marketing plan for Camp Wea. Let's create it something new. Let's make it exciting and not just old Camp Weiwa. It's new campw again we're putting a lot of money into it and if we're going to continue to do that and obviously the council wants to do that. How do we make this even more successful? So, if you'd like, I mean, we can I think a good
I think this would be a good project to get with our new economic development director. Um, so if you'd like, we could put some additional funding in the camp we all budget earmarked for some of those economic driven outreach opportunities. I think makes a
lot of sense. I mean, again, if we're if this is what the council wants, and it is obviously, then or at least what I'm hearing, then we need to really make this a successful camp then. So, let's invest the money that we need to. What is that number to really make it this new incredible
camp and and park and spot that people do want to go to and even more than what they are? I think the goal is what you guys been doing, bringing it to standard so people can want to come. Yeah, the park is definitely at a point where it's attractive now. Okay. And with the dining hall renovations
that are completing um with some of the items, I've got some photos I can show here in a minute. Uh it's getting that camp from that old old school worn out camp facility and a lot of that's amenities. So restrooms are big on that.
Um so these improvements are going to go a long way towards that. Um the park is beautiful. I mean, the park is in a beautiful condition and we our staff does a lot of work out there to make sure it and and by no means am I saying staff is not absolutely kicking everything to do
everything they can to make it incredible. It's just we need to make sure it's financially viable again. So, we're, you know, Northwest Recre, you look at that, we're getting TDT dollars. We're getting all these other grant dollars to improve that which brings in more revenue as well for that. So, how can we do something similar to Camp
Weall? How do we monetize and create something that's incredible out there? Understood. And one thing that we are finally the last year and a half, two years now with the water installation and then the sewer installation, there's been a lot of downtime that we haven't been able to have people on camp. So
some of those that has suppressed some of the numbers for retreats and rentals. Okay. Yeah. So, I think there is still opportunity that those numbers are going to go up just out of a natural sense, the fact that we're not uh have all the construction going on in the park. But, uh like I said, if you'd like, we
can certainly put some funding in the promotional activities line earmarked for us to help utilize with the economic development team. Yeah, I think that and having her heard feedback is going to be very valuable too again. So, is there a like a and this is I guess a council question or something to think about. Is there a
number where we say okay at 7 million we got to we need we expect this at least you know at 10 million where where do we stop putting in so much capex every year that this becomes not viable anymore. I think what I would ask for and I can give you the revenue to cost uh
comparison. Um what's the council comfortable with as far as a cost recovery number? Yeah. If if we have that and we look at what the operation is, like I said, is a it's a summer camp, it's a programming in the fall and spring for some of the camp activities and then a retreat
facility and the weekends. Um what's the council comfortable with as far as a cost recovery number and that helps guide us for capital expenses and also operating. I think that'd be very valuable and comparing it to other parks as well and then maybe other Orange County or local municipalities as well what theirs looks like just so we get a
fully comprehensive understanding and and can kind of move forward from there because it's okay we can do some cool stuff with Camp Weiwa. It's just how much money we will want to spend and to what amount are we willing to go. So how much are we talking about in regards to if I understood correctly a
marketing plan? I I think let's talk to the economic development director and kind of see what she has to say so we can incorporate it in the final. So don't in the final. Mhm. Sure. Okay. So I think there does I mean
think really make that an incredible property even more than what it is. How close are we to getting a response in reference to uh either relocating the pool or redoing the pool in its current? Uh, I'll need to circle back with our
architect to see where they're at with it. Um, but the benefit of relocating the pool is you can we can kind of keep the pool going while the other one's under construction. Um, but if there's not another viable spot, that makes
sense. We just close the pool for a little bit, build a new one. Um, and also they were looking at some options as far as we talked about some of the amenities for the pool like a zero entry depth opportunity, maybe a few more lap lanes, some extra
areas on the sides for some bleachers if we're going to host um swim meets and things like that. Uh, a specific area that's a little bit deeper for maybe water polo because there's some of those needs that have come forward. So, they're they're working on that to try and get us a better idea of what what that might be. if it hits a certain
level, we might have to go through a formal solicitation process to get that project underway design-wise. So, we're trying to get Yeah. If we're going to definitely install the pool, we need to make sure we're able to generate some it it would need to be it should be
while the camp might be a lost leader, a pool is also going to be a loss leader. But, it's a money s, but you want it to be utilized to the maximum. The maximum. So, you want it to be full. You want to be a full pool, not an empty. Correct. Yeah, because you're gonna spend to be able to use it as well.
Well, you're going to spend that money regardless. The chemicals are always going to run. The water's always going to run. So, again, there definitely needs to be a a full plan on what that operating looks like. Let me ask you, right now that we have
different camps going on uh at the Alonzo Williams um do we have anything at the Frankton? Yes, athletics camp. We do. Mhm. Do we take any of those campers to camp Weiwa? Yeah, we take trips. All the camps will take trips over to Camp Weiwa. So, we'll
utilize the pool. We'll do some activities over there. We try and schedule it to where the camp wew kids, they also take one field trip a week offsite. So, we try and schedule it that way so that the camp staff that are running the activities still have something to do.
Do we open it up for um like any of the churches that have camps going on? Um do we open that up to them? Not at this time. The the summer we're pretty much slammed at camp for those eight weeks. We pretty much have it the whole place is running non-stop.
Oh, it is. Okay. Now, we do have a group that comes in immediately following our summer camp. This will be their third year. uh they they rent the camp and they run their own program and then utilize the pool, the rock wall, archery. So, we have staff that help with that as well. But
that's all built into into the retreat package. Okay. The high schools don't use the pool. They do. They do. Yeah. Oh, they do? Yeah. I don't I don't know if Waka is coming back this coming school year, but Apakka definitely is. They've already
reached out. Okay. All right. and the cemetery. There was a drastic uh drop in the cemetery budget and that's p primarily I mean it's all completely due to the uh no need for additional capital this year. So we've not again we as we mentioned the gazebo
replacements uh underway or bordered um so we just didn't have a need for any additional capital at the cemetery so we were able to take that out and no additional positions are required. Weren't we improving the entrance into the cemetery? We uh just some landscaping, but that's
in the operating budget. No, we're adding gates. Yeah, we were adding gates. Yeah, those are on order. Oh, that one. Those are automatic gates, but those are on order. Okay. There was some pillars on the side of the Were we replacing those or we
were There's two older pillars. We're looking at trying to relocate them. Yeah. Um, I know that uh AJ's looking to try to move them to the the entrance we have and use a a Boy Scout Eagle project to dress up the front with a couple of
that those pillars are really really old and we're just I mean it's a little bit of a challenge to get them up, keep them intact to move them over there. But that we've got a couple Eagle Scouts that are more than willing to do the entrance with those pillars, which is what what I
was hoping we could get done. We would just move the pillars. Yeah, we'd handle that out of operating. Yeah. So that's budgeted in some format. We we we utilize an operating line for that. Yeah. Or staff. It's just staff time and equipment. But for whatever project that the Boy
Scouts or Girl Scouts are doing. Well, they would so the the facade cleanup would be their part of the project. Okay. So, we would just need to relocate it. Okay. All right. And this is our new initiatives and and capital. So,
uh we already discussed the 75,000 for the community event grant program. Uh in the parks budget 6200, uh we spoke of the replacing the tractor pole barn. In 6,300, we spoke of rebuilding the sand volleyball courts. That's a picture a
recent picture of the sand volleyball court. So, I mean it's sand. So it if you look at it court looks like a sand volleyball court but if you look down further on the lefth hand side you'll see some of the wash out areas and then immediately under that sand is a net to try and prevent uh any weed growth or
and help keep the sand stable. That all needs to be replaced. It's starting to degrade and the uh posts and all that. So, we're looking at uh rebuilding that, providing some additional or regrading a little bit to kind of keep the the sand from from going towards the parking lot
area. Uh we discussed the perimeter fencing. We have a soccer a soccer pavilion that needs to be replaced out in the uh southern soccer fields. And then we just have two pieces of equipment in parks. An old Toro Sandpro, which is a field groomer. We utilize
that to groom the infields of the baseball fields, softball fields. and replace a utility cart. The the football scoreboard, how much is that to replace? Uh we were estimating that around like 80 or $90,000.
Okay. And Merritt, so that you have Do you have somebody already lined up for this? I I don't have anybody sign on the dotted line, but I've got a couple folks I'm going to be contacting about it. How uh I guess how high is that need to get it replaced?
Um, it's it's starting to degrade. I mean, it's definitely looking worn. Okay. Um, so would it make sense for us to replace it now and then just have somebody basically reimburse us to for that fee to sponsor it?
Depends. I mean, sometimes if you if you put it up, it's kind of harder to get a sponsor at that point because it's already funded and installed. But you could do it to where you install it and try and sell the ad space at the top. So, it just kind of Yeah, I just don't I mean, if we're
having events out there and it's being rented out, then I mean, it's still functional. It's just it's getting old and it's getting long in the tooth. So, it can go through one more season or it's Yeah, we've assessed that we could move it one more season and if we do get somebody that wants to step up and help
support that, we could do it this year. But if not, we can move it to move it to the next year in the Okay. And then do we have and and do we already discuss this specific to the amphitheater naming rights? You guys we're creating a policy with the attorney in some capacity. We're creating a policy for naming rights period. Yes.
And the amphitheater is obviously one on the top of the list. Okay. Understood. So formal formal procedure and policy on that and sponsorships. And sponsorships in general. We're going to delineate there. There's going to be a difference stated within
this policy. It's two separate. Yeah. And I've shared those drafts with you. You recall last year? Yeah. Okay. I didn't know if there was new ones. No, that's I just can't believe it's taking that long. Okay. No. It's really that we're waiting on this sh We'll share those with everybody.
We'll share with you. And are they using the scoreboards at the softball fields yet? It's hit or miss. A lot of the tournaments do not use them. Literally uses their scoreboards all the time, but a lot of the tournaments that come in, they don't even ask for them.
It means somebody has to run the scoreboard and a lot of the parents just want to sit back. I know. Um but but what if we constructed some kind of a a stand
where schoolboard operator would actually sit and was away from the fans? I probably willing to venture a guess that if we created a scoreboard air conditioned platform, you'd have a lot of opportunity. You say air condition.
Uh but I mean, have you I mean, I I've I've been over to the the Dr. Phillips area where they have their fields and and they have some nice areas where the schoolboard operator sits and they're not acquisition, but yeah, we can I mean, there's certainly there's benches and platforms that are
dedicated for scoreboards. I mean, that's something we could look at implementing. Um, as of right now, a lot of those areas behind the B the home plate areas are not concreted. They're just uh rock or gravel. Um, so you definitely would want
to put some concrete down to make sure you have a stable base for something like that. Um, but we we do leave it up to the uh tournament tournament organizer if they want the scoreboards. We'll turn the scoreboards on and let them utilize them. But we certainly I mean we can look in our operating budget
and see those aren't typically aren't that expensive. So we can see we'll check this year and see if there's any opportunities for that. Look into that. Can we take a two-minut break? I really have to go to Okay. Sure. Before you go on, can we
take just a little break after? Yeah. Thank you. All right. And uh Camp Wea new initiatives and programs. Uh we're looking to renovate the double cabin restrooms. Uh we're starting with one of the double cabins. Uh this um this would
take those restrooms. Again, we have 88 restrooms now at the dining hall that are finishing up. We have 88 restrooms at one of the um bath houses that's just finishing up. This would give ADA restrooms in the double cabins. Now, the double cabins are some of the more
popular uh rental retreat cabins for uh a lot of the groups. So, we're looking to and these are some dated restrooms. Very uh very old school restrooms. So, are what type of like finishes I guess are we putting in? Is it something similar to, you know, in the fire
stations, we're putting kind of more commercial grade because it gets worn and torn a little bit more. Are we doing similar here? Yeah. So, if you uh if you look at and I can show you, let me show you real quick what the what the restrooms in the um
so these are some pictures from the dining hall. So definitely more of the commercial grade, easy clean floorings, easy wipe down walls, and then all ADA accessibility in the bathroom. So the dining hall has four restrooms now
installed. We had only had two prior. There's a look at the hallway. So we we do have four restrooms now in that facility, and they're all that same same type with the double cabin configuration.
Uh this is the current layout. And in this back portion are some like standup showers. I want to call them walk-in showers. They're stand up literally, you know, couple feet wide and then two restrooms uh off the off each side. The
proposed uh up upgrade is to make two fully accessible restrooms with built-in ADA showers. So each restroom will have a shower built into it. It does require us to relocate a hot water heater. So, one side of the cabin would have a little bit of extra storage, uh, which
would come in handy, too. So, the the request is to go ahead and put some funding in to do one of the double cabins this fiscal year and then the following fiscal year come back and try and do the second cabin. How many double cabins do we have? We have two. Would it make fiscal sense if we can
negotiate at the same time to have the contractor do both? Will we get a discount? Yeah. So, what we can do is uh obviously we do have the new GC general contractor uh contract in place. So, this would be a project they would they would quote for us. Okay. We took the $75,000 off of the existing
um uh piggyback contracts and that was $150,000 estimated for both. So, we we took that not knowing what the general contracting the new contract would get us at this time. Okay. So, that it could be 100, it could be 50. It could be I have a feeling it's
gonna be less than the piggyback. I mean, you're moving plumbing, a lot of plumbing. Very very confined though into the into the one area. And those are it's not a raised foundation. Those are cement. Uh cement slab. Yep. I mean it.
So, um that's the plan again to try and get at least one done this upcoming fiscal year. Uh if the if the um number comes back really good, we might come back and kind of look at our wreck impact D funding and see if we have some cost savings in that. Yeah. Get them done at the same time. And
I'm sorry, our capital capital improvement plan funding to see if there's some cost savings something we can utilize. Exactly. And then and again that helps for us to start tracking what needs to be done the next 10, 15 years. It gets on the horizon of budgets decades from now of okay, that needs to come back up and we're going to be replacing those again,
right? And we're pretty good at camp Weiwa. We're we're getting to the point where we're pretty good to it's going to capital improvements are going to become more of like the roofing program, the air conditioning replacement program. So, some of that standard programming. Um, we still just have a few little
items here that need to get upgraded for for the uh convenience of the park. Okay. And I I I too would like to see both of them done at the same time if possible. We we'll it's definitely on the plan to look at that and again depending on where that numbers number comes back we might be able to get some cost savings
to to finish it. It does help with mobilization to only do it once. Yeah, exactly. I'd rather just do that, get it done and we know that those are done for a long time. And then we had uh the front dock rebuild and Gaga pit rebuild. The Gaga
pit is this picture here. It's it's a camp It's a camp game. Very popular with the kids. It's uh essentially like kind of dodgeball that you play on the ground. So you're you're batting the ball around. Kick it as hard as you can at each other. I think it's a you hit at each other
with your hand. So Okay. Um very popular camp game. We Some of the Gaga pits that are in the camp are they're wood based. So trying to go ahead and rebuild those. So we put some money in for that. Would it make sense if we upgrade those to like a vinyl uh
material or like a a composite material so we're not having to because those are under trees it's it kind of we're gonna we're going to look at what the best option is. But sometimes wood is just the sturdiest. Obviously it doesn't last forever. But this is pressuret treated wood. So uh and if you maintain that, you know, we can get some
life out of it. But we'll we'll explore. There's a couple different options of these type of pits. Um but they are popular. So we do want to do some replacements on some of the bad ones. Uh, and then we also put in uh some park furniture replacements. Uh, there's an old wooden swing that's kind of getting
to the end of its life. There's some older picnic tables that we've inherited in the purchase that it's just time to try and replace some of those. $25,000 doesn't go a super long way in furniture, commercial grade park furniture, but this gives us a step to start doing some of the replacements on
the most needed. Um, if we were to replace everything, is there do you have a number for that? I'd have to count every table and that wouldn't be a viable option. Uh I think this gives us enough to I mean eventually we're replacing it all, right? Well, it comes into a rotation. So, kind
of like you would upgrade AC units every so often, you kind of go through year by year and see which ones are needed in park park tables and park equipment and do some replacements. Y Okay. And then we have a utility passenger cart. So, this is basically one of those
carts that it's got two seats in the front, two in the back. Um, a lot of our camp, a lot of our rangers out of Northwest utilize carts like that. Uh, we have an old one down at Camp Weiwa that uh is starting to end end of its life. Uh, and it's a very handy cart for
when we're out at camp to get if we're showing based on a quote. Yeah, it's based on our estimate. Yeah, a quoted estimate. Yeah. Well, is it different than what I would order myself if I were buying one? cuz I've gotten a quote for a six-seater one with
for like 12 grand. Yeah. It just depend. This is going to be a little higher riding cart. That's Yeah, that's with the same tire wheels. Yeah. Seat belts. Tires. Yeah. So, um All right. And those carts, the carts that we get range anywhere from like 14,000 to like
20,000. Wow. Just depends. Okay. And then uh our recreation impact fee budget. Um we've put a request in for two additional pavilions at the inclusive playground. A 16 by 16 and a
28x 20. The two pavilions we have out on site right now. One is 16 x 16, one's 28 x 28 or 28 x 20. Just kind of show you a picture of what the we did have the existing pavilions painted just recently
with the new park upgrade. We wanted to make sure they looked new. So, they turned out really nice. So, it' be another large pavilion and another small pavilion. So, it give us four pavilions around that new park. And then we're looking at uh tennis pickleball facility building and parking
lot. And here's the latest uh master plan or site plan for the tennis pickleball courts. Uh it arranges the courts just like we've shown in the past. The center area is where a building the building would be located. So it's central to all the courts. The parking lot would come
in and we're looking at uh paved parking. Uh we did initially consider grass parking similar like we did at the inclusive playground, but the cost difference when the contractor was on site for the inclusive playground was
minimal. So, we did we are going and upgrading that to full pave parking at the inclusive playground. And since that cost difference isn't that in that much we're anticipating the same for this project, we'll go ahead and do we're recommending full pave parking lot. I thought we were creating buffers
between I thought we were focusing because north is to the east or to the right. Correct. It's turned It's turned a little different from where we This is how the shot normally looks. So, I thought we were going to have kind of parking um kind of creating a buffer between
Rock Springs Ridge kind of to the east. I understand there's some to the northeast there. This is the main area, Rock Springs Ridge. Yep. This is the water treatment area. So, we're looking to buffer this area with landscape and trees. And then just to the south is station five. Station five is down here. So, we'll
buffer There's already trees down here, but we'll provide some more buffer trees down here as well. Okay. So, with the parking lot, you're saying it's it's not a huge expense to do that on top of the kind of the grass parking. Now, Alonzo Williams
Park needs parking bad. Uh saw that at the Junth event where you're just walking through dirt and mud, especially if it rains. What can we do to get a new parking lot down there? So, the the only this the only city parcel right now that's over there is the parcel directly across Yeah. to the
south. And that's where everyone parks. Yeah. So, what what can we do to budget for a a parking lot there? I would just need council direction to because we're doing a full-fledged one for the tennis courts and pickle ball, but there's no parking there.
Plans for that? Which parcel was that? It's directly to the south across from MA. across MAR on the corner of Hawthorne. And you know how big the lot is? Not off hand. You remember, mayor?
Probably half an acre. Might even be more than that. I I thought the idea was that we was going to build a couple of workforce housing housing there and attempt to park in as well.
Um, back when I first started, I think there was some discussion on that and then it got tabled. I think that was a discussion about if we wanted the parking or if we wanted to Well, for sure the parking is absolutely necessary. And we're doing workforce
housing on that other lot already as well, the fueling station. It's not that. It's the Highland. Thank you. So it definitely I mean for the events that we have out there in it's 085 acres. Uh
so it's 36,000 square feet. Uh it's definitely in need of parking there. There's no parking. There's what 20 spots and most of those stick out into the road. So we need some type of true parking there because you have elders that are getting out in the mud
and going across the street there. How many parking spaces we currently have there now? Uh there was 17 I believe put in in the new parking lot off of Washington and there's probably 15 or so in the front
on MA board. What's the capacity the building can hold? Building can hold 50. So and it's not just exclusive to the building. It's those events that we have out on that the new grass and and things of that nature. Junth perfect flawless example of trudging through and there
was I mean there was boards with nails in it. I mean it was I was making sure I didn't drive over those. Make sure nobody else drove over those. So uh that's definitely a need for that park to continue its success. Similar to upgrading the the holiday decorations for that park. Let's really formalize
this park and we're doing upgrades. Let's make sure they're successful. So, what can we So, you're saying the parking lot on this one is 800,000. We had put uh Yeah. Uh we'd put 750 in for this one. Well, I think we have to as a council
agree that we want to utilize that parcel for parking for a parking lot. Yeah. Why don't we bring back if we can dust off that old plan and let's um bring it back to next council. Yeah. just yeah because it's desperate. I mean the Junth
uh event was the perfect example of the parking that is desperately needed for that park. And so the the pickle ball courts we've already budgeted for years two years the last two years we budgeted and that was remember the
phase was some pickle ball and then some right tennis each of those years. this year is the building and finishing the parking. So, we're kind of at that phase now. So, walk me through the and we discussed this the timeline of finally getting pickle ball courts.
Yeah. So, we're um our we're utilizing our uh roadway contractor Newkerk Engineering for the parking lot and they've been working with Helis Construction for the courts uh to ensure we have the right appropriately sized retention ponds for the project as a
whole. Um, this is the latest coordinated uh site plan. I think we're in the probably, if we're to aim, probably in the fall, hopefully get get this out or get them starting to turn dirt on the court
construction. And then what does it look like to actually open them? The courts is only like a like an 8week 8 to 12 week process. Um, the parking lot could be a little bit longer than that. Are we doing these together? Or are we doing the pickleball courts, opening
them, and tennis courts? No. So, we would do construction at the same time. Uh Helis would do the construction of the uh courts and we'd have to get the parking lot out to bid to do construction simultaneously. So, as soon as we get the design plans back for the parking lot, we I'll be
going over to Blanch and with her team. What was the delay getting the pickle ball courts and tennis courts going? That process? Two years, you said, right? Yeah, it's just taken time to work through with the contractor on designing these. Um, and then we've had a couple different adjustments as we've
kind of laid out plans to make sure we're we've got the best fit on the parcel. So, it's just taking some time. Okay. And we've had I've had a lot of people ask me about that. Yeah, we've had a lot of capital pro projects we've working been working through on the park side. So,
yeah, it seems like this year alone you it's kind of like put into overdrive that you guys are actually a lot moving. Yeah. Over the last couple years, it's, you know, we've been trying to move everyone a little bit towards the finish line. And do you know if these are going to be dry ponds or wet ponds?
Uh, I believe these are both dry ponds. So, you have $500,000 for land acquisition for mountain bike park development. Yeah, we just didn't we just have that discussion at the last spoke during the commissioner or the city administrator report. I did provide
an update on that. Um, so this would be for uh the proposed mountain bike park over Apaka Koi. Um, one thing I do, this says land acquisition. This doesn't say development. Your presentation says
development. The budget says land acquisition. It's supposed to be It's supposed to be mountain bike park development. It says land acquisition for mountain park bike park development. And I'm not sure Yeah, we agreed to it,
right? I don't We did purchase more land for that. No, the discussion at the last meeting is it that was $500,000 for mountain bike park development. The discussion at the last council meeting last week was exploring assessing the properties for a potential
land swap. The developer is interested in working with the city to uh help bring this project to life. they see great value in in um a park of this type and potentially this size for the for the community. So, they're they're
definitely interested. What they'd like to know though is if the city's interested because they do want to develop a uh site storage facility either on the property they own right now, right next to this proposed mountain bike park, or on a similar size
type property. So, uh, as mentioned at the meeting last Wednesday, we, uh, if the council would like to explore the possibility of a land swap, I can move forward with getting the properties assessed and bring that back
to council for final review. But before we do that, we'll understand kind of what what each what their future land use in each. What's kind of highest and best use? That was the question that we left it with was to find out what would be the future man use for those properties. Correct. So I'll circle back with Bobby
and his team to see what what where that stands and I will share that with you. Okay. And and I'm just looking at the FEMA flood map too because that parcel that they want to swap with us is almost fully in a so there's some unusable development land but could be utilized for a
mountain bike park because the mountain bike mountain bike enthusiasts like having the different types of terrain which I understand obviously but then we're high and dry developable land but it needs again that's why the assessed values are going to come in play to make sure swap
to make sure uh it's a it's a fair swap. swap. Oh, yeah. And you could have a swap plus money. Correct. It doesn't have to necessarily be a trade for trade. Swap. It could be a swap plus X dollars to to equal the
Yeah. And they're and again they they're interested if the city's interested. So, okay. But so to the 500,000 is for exclusively for development. It is not for land acquisition. Not for land acquisition. That's although it says it in the budget, right? that that needs to be corrected.
The goal is again that the ideal situation would be to get the properties that match or close by and do a land swap to expand it that way. Okay. And then the next one down, $100,000 for environmental studies for land acquisition. Correct. So, there's some properties
that we're looking at potentially through some grant funding uh that are going to require some environmental studies. What properties? They're up in the north um by the Central Florida Expressway. Can you give me specific? Yeah, north of the 429 and I can give you the parcel IDs for that.
I think that'd be valuable. So, and you're talking about phase one, phase twos is what? Yeah, just general environmental studies for uh uh life on property, trees on property, and then the ones, twos. So, what is the goal of uh acquiring
this land uh for additional uh natural park space? So, it's similar to what Orange County has been doing as well. Kind of trying to grab some and preserve some land um in the high density around the high density Kelly Park area.
Okay. So, it's around So, it's not it's north of 429 or west of 429. There's a parcel north of 429 and there's also parcel uh that offshoot to Mount Dora. There's a parcel over there that uh that could be an opportunity.
Are these privately owned or are these like CFX owned? CFX owned both of them. Both of them. Yeah. Okay. I think I know exactly which ones you guys are talking about. I I'll send you the parcel ID. That'll send the council. Thank you. Thank you.
So then we'll get grant funding hopefully not we haven't received it yet but to purchase these and then are we turning them into passive parks just green space? Uh what discussion has been like preserves, trails, natural trails, like something we can use.
Correct. Yeah. Not just not just a conservation area, but an you know area, a passive walkable area. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. You'll be sending that to each of us?
I'll send that to The other thing, um, the public safety building, what do what's the update on that? When I mentioned earlier that we're going to have some additional workshops. I'm going to be bringing in later this month. You can tell me next week if that
works for you all of you to give an update on all of the studies because we do have so they're going to do all the impact fees. someone with them and we'll discuss the public safety
building. Yes, ma'am. How are those two things correlating? And if you can make sure your mic's on as well, how they correlating? Well, Commissioner Lasco has asked what's the update with that building funding and and that's is when the
police and fire impact fees were created. It was created basically as I understand it with 25 million estimated at that time for the Apakka public safety building. So right now we have the design contract underway. We have the Seymar contract that we're trying to
finalize. So they're moving forward in regards to the design work. He have the funding in the budget to support the design work. So I thought we were doing like bonding for this. I thought it was a hund00 million plus $120 million of bonding to fund that. Correct. That you're correct. That is
the that is the next step. But we also a part of it is being funded by police and fire impact fees. And that that is you know generating a rate increase in those. So what when they get here what are they going to tell us? They're going to give
you remember when I had the one meeting and we talked about police and fire and recreation impact fees and we had some followup. So they're coming back with that followup. One of the items outside of the pop the public safety building was the training facility. So and and so they're going to give you
an update on that. So and on the rates we had to make some decisions about what projects we wanted to include and which ones we don't. So that's the update that's going to be coming back. It was a lot of land acquisition that was included in the parks and wrecks. So a majority of that has been taken out so
we can stay within the you know not dealing with extraordinary increases. I think police would and fire still would be but I think it yes they mentioned before that it would probably likely qualify. So are with that in mind that there will be increases is that
something that will become effective FY26 or is this just in the future and we'll get it eventually? The police and fire impact fees and recreation impact fees can be in the future but the normal rate increases
that we have for storm water, water and wastewater and um sanitation will be effective October 1st. So, we got to go through those workshops so you can see how we're funding this budget. So, factored in there. Are you going to touch on that on Wednesday then of how
I think? Yes, I I was going to share that on Wednesday, but I'm also going to bring Raph Tillis in to give you an update, a more detailed. Yes. So, then we will definitely need more workshops then to kind of understand that funding. Yes. And then also make sure that aligns with the budget because if depending on where
we put those rates Yes. affects this budget directly. Yes. I can tell you you know Wednesday what we have reflected I know it now if you want to know um storm water we have a 20% increase right now and for water
wastewater and reclaimed water is 15.5% increase and for sanitation is a 15% increase okay and 15% so we'll have Raphelis come in explain it in a little more detail kind of really
break down the numbers and the understanding But then we need to similar to last year they it was requested a 40 or 50% increase and we only did 20 or 25. I say only it was that was a bit a substantial increase. So what if we need to do that again to where
we say 20% increase on storm water but hey we only do 15. We'll have to kind of come back and adjust the budget in that capacity. Correct. Yes you would. I and I will give you those details on on Wednesday. Okay. And then so it'll be a busy July for us
potentially. It could be. Okay. I just want to make sure that that's the understanding that we'll have multiple because we have to submit then the military specifically. Have to submit that by August 1st, but I also need to get the letters out for the ordinance to the customers on what we're going to increase and that letter is
dated also August 1st. Okay. Okay. Understood. Thank you for going through that with me. That just helps to understand where we're going with this. Yeah. Thank you. All right, the last one I have is facilities maintenance uh budget highlights. This was a 4% decrease. Uh
the budget remained relatively flat. Uh we're not requesting any additional staff in FY26. Couple of the uh maintenance projects we've got lined up for this upcoming year is a citywide door lock replacements uh going through and rekeying door locks uh to a standard key
set. and then uh citywide tool and sink valve replacements uh trying to repair or replace some of the old uh valves throughout the city. We have some painting projects lined up. Pop athletic complex exterior annex building
exterior, the raetball court uh exterior uh and interior uh the quad three building. It's the little league uh utilized quad uh painting utilities lab exterior and
public works admin exterior ceiling. Then we're also looking at doing some uh interior renovation repairs at the Pop Warner uh pad 13 restroom concession building. As far as uh capital programs, uh we've
put some money in for renovating the annex uh upon it moving out. Uh fire station 2 renovations, fire station bay door replacements, uh utility building roof replacement water plant, Joshua
Joshua Ridge roof replacement, the Dorfman Carroll building roof replacement, and Apakka Community Center phase two interior renovations. uh the interior renovations at a popular community center. We're looking at this would be a project also uh run
through our contracted bid or contractor general contractor program. Uh and this is just a hand sketch uh again because we've not officially put this to uh to them to utilize. But what we're looking at doing is creating a back of house uh hallway and a built-in
stage. Uh if you look at this area here, this would be the back of house hallway. This area would be the built-in stage. This area is the uh current uh VFW museum. Are we pushing them out of this?
No. No. So, what this will do is this will uh right now uh we utilize the VFW has a has an old uh basically it's a portable stage. We never move it, but it's essentially a portable stage out there. Uh and there's no backup of house area.
So, somebody's running a nice event or a dinner or a show. Everything's out in the open. The people if whether they have caterers or uh uh sound equipment, those type of things, there's everything's out and open. So, removing walls and things of that
nature. Are we upgrading the kitchen? Because it was my understanding that the VF the veterans own the appliances there. So, we're adding we're adding we would be adding walls and a sta built in a stage in this phase. The next year we'd come back and look to renovate the kitchen and the restroom areas.
But, you know, we we're renting the community center, but they have equipment and appliances that don't work. So, anytime one comes up that doesn't work and we're notified, we do get with them to make the repair.
What does that mean? If if a piece of equipment is not working, we will get with the VFW to make a repair. We will make the repair. No, the VFW we will get with them. If it's their equipment, we'll get with them to make the repair. Have they made the repairs? Because I
mean, I know that we burnt McDunkin saas there. I did the Wakiva culinary and they have appliances that don't work. The last that I can certainly check in with our team to see if there's been any
recently, but the last I know everything is operational in that kitchen. So, I will I can check into that and make sure, but nothing's been brought to my attention that we've had an issue. When we had the Wakyver, my understanding was
that the the refrigerator, they don't allow anyone to use their refrigerator, but we don't have a refrigerator for someone who rents and uses the kitchen. I believe there's a second refrigerator there. One that they keep locked for their stuff and I believe there's a
second one there for the renter to use. Is there? This is my understanding. Okay. Well, I know they keep one locked, but um I remember when Well, we have the awards, student awards,
and they were unable to utilize the refrigerator and they were the dessert was ice cream, and they had to get coolers. So, where's the second refrigerator? I believe there's a second one in there. I I will confirm the kitchen equipment,
but yeah, this would be Yeah, I haven't heard that we've had any issues lately up there. Do we have a goal with the partnership? And I use partnership very loosely with the VFW. I mean, yes, we do. Are we do we have a goal? Do we have a plan? Are we trying to push them out? Are we trying to incorporate them?
What's are we trying to make them because they kind of have a special use there from historically, I guess, being part of that building construction from my understanding. So, how do we formalize that in more way that like these are weird scenarios? How do we stop these weird scenarios so that when
we are renting this building out, it's not this refrigerator, that refrigerator, that's a bad appliance, so don't use that one, but use this one. How do we make this a a true building that that we're using? Yeah. So ultimately down I mean the the goal would be for the city to go ahead
and replace all the equipment in the kitchen and it becomes a city kitchen uh that they could utilize for their events. Really what their agreement is now is is a is for event use. So for their VFW events um and because the kitchen equipment is theirs and because the
table and chairs are theirs, there's little compensation back for utilizing those for all the events. Okay. So, like I said, the first the first or the second FA the first phase was getting all the wallpaper down this year and repainting and cleaning up that
interior look. The second phase we had identified was because the stage is looking a little long in the tooth, too. Um, putting an actual built-in stage in, adding a wall to provide a service walkway. It also provides an additional
buffer from the main hall to the VFW museum. Um and then the third phase would be the following year to go ahead and renovate the kitchen completely and the restrooms completely. Okay. So in priority, we think the stage and the that area to kind of build off of
the improvements this year would be a would be a nice improvement for the Northwest Rec Pop Warner building. Is that the restroom you were speaking about? It's the restrooms and the the concession area. Okay. Uh, and there's like a storage area that there's some interior work
that needs to be done in there. Okay. Some just some rehab work. And then the the $20,000 for Weiwa kitchen ceiling replacement. Is that part of what we uh we're calculating for capex with Weiwa or is this No. So this this uh we can move it to the Wiiwa probably if you want to have
it that full output move it to the Wiiwa. But this is a repair needed on the kitchen ceiling. Okay. Um and and just how I like to see if if it's a property or whatever, everything's on one property that I can look at and say it's this or that. So yeah, this is where sometimes the
facilities budget captures a lot of the other city departments. So that was a drive from the facilities maintenance side, but I they definitely don't need any additional employees either. No. So we've added some staff this year. Uh the unit is working working really well right now and and I think we're at
a good spot. How many employees is currently under facilities maintenance? We have AJ, uh, William, our um, coordinator, our electrician two, Daniel, and then we have one, two,
three, uh, three facility maintenance worker twos. So, six total. How many do we have last year? We've added two this year. Okay. All right. the uh fire station 2 interior. Is that similar
to what we did? I guess it's not similar, of station 4 had an interior renovation, right? And we're like right here close to getting ready to put that out to the contractors. Okay. To bid on that with the IT building. AJ's finishing up a little bit of the design. And again, we're looking for a
whole house picture from them. they'll do the actual drawings uh required for the permit as part of their program. Um but we obviously have to give them what we want. So that's all been uh finalized and AJ's just cleaning up the scope for the both of those bids to secondary bids
to go to the contractors. So station two is that next one on the list to do a similar project. Okay. Try and do some improvements uh to get the station uh able to house a little bit more of the fire staff. Um, so
that's the next one up. And the fire station bay door replacements. We have some bay doors that are starting to reach the end of their life throughout the city. That Are these the doors themselves or the mechanism that it'd be the whole It'd be whatever needs to be done on that door to get replaced
to make it brand new. So there's a lot of old doors that we're we're looking at right now. Now, the Carol building is the one next to the It's right out here next to the Gingerbread. Is that the one? Oh, is that that building? I'm thinking next to
sighting the museum. The COB building. That's that one. Okay. So, that's this one right here then. Yeah. So, th those the we did uh facility maintenance did a couple patches on the roof uh earlier in the year. They're holding, but you know, it's one of those things that definitely
it's at a time where it needs to be replaced. Okay. Is that the cop building? No, the the the Dorfin building. Carol the Carol Dorfman building. Okay. That's the one that's right here next to correct on gingerbread. Correct.
The paper signs that we've had on the doors for years now or a year. Has been a Yeah, that was supposed to be replaced this fiscal year. Yeah, those are still being those are in the works. When can we expect those? I know. I keep
ASAP. They're they're they're such an eyesore. ASAP. They're they're high on my list. So that and that that falls on me. So we'll we'll make sure we get those replaced. Every time I come into the building, I said, "When are we getting rid of all these papers?" Yeah, that falls on me. So we're going to get
that addressed. It just makes us look a little bit more professional. Yeah. It's been over what is it over a year? Two years. I think it's been a about a year. Yeah. Um the other things that the water meter
and lift stations the maintenance for these are where are we with the water meters the lift stations. So that'll be brought back tomorrow during the public works and utilities operations and golden gem. That's all tomorrow's budget presentation.
So this is just the facility buildings, general facility buildings maintenance and the ch sorry you did mention the chamber building that's going to be the new it. Yes. So those two with the fire station 4 are the two that AJ is finishing uh
finalizing the scope uh paperwork so we can go ahead and get a secondary quote to the general contractors that we have on contract. So what'll happen is they'll come in for a scope meeting. They'll get the information. They'll do a site visit and then they'll provide us a secondary quote. Is all that work being done in house?
No, the contract the contractors are going to do that work. So contractor will be selected. The general contractor. The general contractor remember we awarded 11 is just um AJ's just kind of overseeing the project. Correct. And we're providing it. We have to provide a scope for the project. So,
we've worked with AJ's worked with Rob and I to narrow down or define the scope for that rebuild in that building and he's worked with the fire department, Chief Sanchez and his team for station 4. AJ is like Mike uh Ortiz from public services. Like they all have like 10
jobs. Although AJ is excellent. I mean, he never competes. He does he does good work. He knows what he's doing and he you I wouldn't want anybody else overseeing those renovation projects. So, it's right up his alley. And what are we calling this the old chamber
building? What is the new name for this? Uh the IT IT office. Okay. So that's been the I it office. And these are going to be completed by December. What's the plan? Yeah, that's the plan is get them done. We budgeted a quarter of a million
dollars this year. Yeah. Is that's what's being rolled over to apply to it. That'll be if it it'll be the the goal is to get this thing on a PO before the end of the fiscal year. If for some reason we we don't get that, which we we should definitely in the next couple
weeks be having that secondary bid meeting for both of these projects, uh it's capital it's capital money. So if it's not spent on the project in the fiscal year, it will carry forward to the next fiscal year. Sure. But what I guess what's the delay on that one? That one's been just kind
of sitting. Correct. Uh this one. Yes. We've had to work on some back and forth with it to make sure they get what they need and then getting the time to get the scope put together and finalized. So, are we going to have better lighting in their parking lot because there's the
parking lot has no lighting? Uh, we can address that. Yeah, it it um because I mean we used to use that for different meetings, right? And u once the sun goes down it is is there's no lighting in that parking lot.
you. So, you've already gotten a bid on that building though for renovations. No, we have the contractors now that we a month ago, a month and a half ago, we have we approved the general contracting, right? Uh bit. So, we have a list of contractors.
AJ's finalizing the scope the next. So, we haven't done anything otherwise then to that building. No, they've been working that building. No, the building's empty. We've been working on design. So you haven't been correct. So I'm correct in that that we haven't been doing anything to that building. Cleaning it up.
Yeah. Didn't we clean up the the old chamber building? It was the It was gutted by the chamber. It was gutted. We haven't really gone in there to do We've been working on getting the design finalized so we can take the scope forward to the contractors and get that. When did they when did their lease that
I'm going to use very loosely end or did they cancel it? Oh, they vacated it. I'd have to I'd have to look back on that year. Yeah. I mean, it's just been sitting there. I hope that 250 is enough. Okay. Did we budget any additional dollars for that? Uh, no additional money for the IT
building. No, we did not request any additional. Just letting that building sit. I mean, that's I think they're working towards trying. We're actively working on it. We're actively working on it. So, and so
it'll go up to PO end of this fiscal year. the plan. The next couple steps here, AJ's finalizing the scope that we're going to provide to the contractors as part of the secondary bid process. So, the contract requires our approved contractors to have a secondary
bid. So, we will meet with them, AJ will meet with them, provide them that a layout similar to kind of what I've showed you, a sketched layout, give the details of what exactly we want, where, and then they will take that again, one-stop shop. We want them to provide
the architectural drawings required by the building permit and then they will provide us a quote for that for construction materials and a timeline. So you're saying the secondary quote is that just vernacular you're using or is there a primary first quote that we've received?
The first quote was the bid. So remember they provided some pricing in the bid, some hourly rates, some material markups. Okay, I see. So you're in the first quote, correct? Remember we categorized? I do. Yes. I didn't know if it was specific to that building, but I remember just the general Yeah. So that
price per hour, what have you, right? With that price, right? And part of the benefit of going with that model is to we can now have them secondary quote this project. They can then secondary quote the fire station project, they can secondary quote, if we need to use them for uh a
renovation, the improvements at the Pop Warner building. So we can utilize them without having to go formal bid process on all of those or do it in-house. we can then start moving through those processes quicker, but we can have multiple contracts working at the same time.
So that's where we're trying to it's been a slow kind of process getting the ball moving with that contract process, but again the goal is to get these moving to where we have multiple projects moving simultaneously and AJ's coordinating the work without having to
do it in-house. Okay? because some of this like for permit purposes, some of this work would require architectural drawings. That adds another layer in to the process if we have to do that separately. So, we're again we're trying to one-stop shop this through these general contractors
um with the prices they provided on that initial initial bid. Okay. Thank you. Okay. And then just the last few things, just some other improvements. Uh we're we're looking to replace the K9 Kennall Police Department out of facilities maintenance
and then also uh we have some HVAC replacements. Uh this is typically what we budget. This hadn't changed year-over-year. We try and put in $70,000 in case there's air conditioning that that needs uh needs replacement. And then rebudgeting
for office furniture replacements as needed throughout the city. We've we've been trying to move through select offices throughout the city to just upgrade and and renovate the office space. Some of them are dated. Uh have mix and match furniture, old broken, you
know, old chairs, not broken, but older chairs. Um so just some funding and to move through that. And I know Commissioner Anderson's shaking her head because she saw the office over there the other day. So just doing some of those improvements. Obviously, it's not a giant sweep through the city, but
trying to chip away at it uh year-over-year. So, he did put put a request in for additional funding on that. And then uh we do need to replace a facilities truck. You can get a new F250 for 65. Yeah, because we're we're not using we're not looking for DY and we're not
looking for like a So, it's like base base. And we're not doing any buildout similar to I guess what we do at P. No, it's more of like a just a utility bed thing on the back. So that's that's a price that's good price for that we're looking at. Yeah, that's why I'm saying I'm you can get I'm expecting almost 100. So
um and then we're continuing to move through the citywide security access system upgrades. Uh we're we've moved through most of the areas that in city hall annex PD. Um there's some other areas throughout the city that we're
looking to add some security fob access. Some other offices. There's some offices out in parks and wreck that don't have any access right now or restrictive access um and some additional areas out in public works. So just uh trying to provide a little bit of extra money for
that project in this next fiscal year to to keep moving and finalize that for the K9 kennel fencing. It's the the fencing that the the area they already have. It's just new fencing. It's like the enclosure. Yeah. It's it's kind of upgrading and and maybe looking at that footprint there. Okay. All right. and and they and we've
just gotten a light I guess out there for them either last year or year before too. We've been trying to add some lights in certain areas throughout the city. Um and yeah, it's always something if some if if you see an area that looks like it needs a light, just certainly let me know and we can assess it and if it's something that is needed, we can work on
trying to get something out there. That's okay. Anybody from Pellet wish to speak on this one? Thank you. As you know, I'm at the Northwest Recreational Complex need every day. Concerns and something should be looked at is the fact that Central
Florida Soccer Club pays $25 an hour to rent a field for an hour. If you added baseball, softball, football, flag football, and pop order together, it's less than that per hour. All 12 to 18 fields at the same time. They're paying less than a dollar an hour from the
field. $60,000 for the Pop Warner building. Call it what you may on that. They're constantly playing loud music. Parking is all over the place. They drive up on the lawn everywhere and doing it. We need to do a better job of managing that process. Um
the new uh park, new entry to the park coming by the all access. I've suggested many times we make that one way to move in and out. If you have soccer children, you know, on the weekend it take you 20 minutes to get out of the parking lot. If you make that one way like many other
parks do, one way in out, it helps move that. The amphitheater is probably the best outdoor venue in mid Florida. We need to do a better job advertising. We need to know when vendors are going to be there. I can't tell you the number of times I go over there, I bring food with
me because no one's there. And I go there and there's seven vendors there. The next time I don't bring food because I think there's vendors there and guess what? Nobody's there. Need to do a better job advertising, posting, and at the entry just say, "Hey, look, we got six vendors here today, five, whatever."
And if they have regular traffic, I know they'll they'll come better. The wash out area you talked about, uh, Commissioner Smith, has been sold. um uh multi-purpose fields. When when did they come into fruition? We've got maybe a hundred people that play tennis in the
community in pickle ball. We got over a thousand kids playing football, soccer, other fields like that. And it's not even talked about. Is it on the agenda now or not? Um the netting. We talked about netting along Appy Road and uh Jason Dwelly with balls going wide for
soccer kids running out in the street. We need to look at that as well. weekend rangers, I don't know, whatever we have budgeted, but it's never enough because people are parking everywhere, pulling up on curbs, everything else. We need to have adequate people there. The parking lot lights, yes, it is a little bit away
now with the new layout uh for Rock Springs Bridge. Those lights ought to be on a timer so they go off at night so it doesn't affect the homes. Uh the U Gillum Training Center has got a ramp, a handicap ramp that needs to be worked on. I see it's marked now, which is
good. I called attention to that over two months ago. That needs to be taken care of. Camp Weiwa again, where's the promise for doing it? There's so many things could be done. It used to be the graduation point for all elementary schools. They went there for a weekend.
Softball fields and baseball fields. Every weekend we got tournaments going on. If I was a coach, and I know when I was coaching, if I knew I could get something for pennies on the dollar, only six miles from from the softball fields, Northwest Recreational Complex, I'd certainly be looking at that as
opposed to paying $120 at a hotel that's 20 to 30 minutes away. Thank you. Camp Weiwa could be a fantastic place for conservation education and I grew up going up into the Ocala forest to all
the different camps up there with 4 and FFA and doing all kinds of ecological camps. um spending a week to two weeks at a time um studying nature, studying
animals, studying fishing, canoeing, kayaking, and I could see even having uh a a weekend or a week canoe contests uh and kayaking contest or lessons and
and studying the plants and having uh con uh studying the animals and having a ecologist from one of the schools coming out and teaching it, maybe even someone from UCF. And I remember in the ninth
grade uh going to uh Pulk Community College and studying and having taking a college course in um oceanography. Why not having somebody come out from one of the local colleges
and teaching a course in ecology or um animal um studies here at Camp Buiwa. Um kids would enjoy it. It would be a lot of fun. You could have adult courses
there too in um environmentalism and it would be the perfect environment for it. And it could even be a weekend courses that they could come out and rent the cabins for and be part of their fee. Um I also um have a great concern
for getting the trees out there in Florida friendly trees out in the city. Um we've lost so many and we've got to get them. Just because you have the tree bank doesn't mean you're using it thoroughly. And like we said that the
main street, we've lost trees out there. Unfortunately, um the uh Greg was going to come in and reset some trees that were hit by cars and they were flipped over and still partially in the ground and still green and apparently somebody
contacted the state and they came and cut them off at about 2 feet and cut the top off. They weren't damaged, they were just leaning over. Now we have two stubs out there. um instead of just resetting them. Um so those trees have to be
replaced. The palm trees that were knocked off need to be replaced. Um the instead of putting any more grasses out, saw out, we need to be putting Florida friendly ground covers out. Um even in
the playing area, play places, we can put that out. We can put um frog fruit, mimosa, and peanut. Thank you. Okay. Rogers back at 7 West Main Street. Just had some um questions in regards to the
tree bank being an option um to use to replant the trees within the city of Apaka. I think you guys said it was like $2 million in account. So, what I guess what's the mechanism to make sure that we're adequately using the money? Um because just to think about $2 million
in the account to plant a tree where I think there's a lot of opportunity we can use that money for even if you want to buy trees and give them out to citizens to plant them in their yards. That could be an option. Um or organizations that's you saying no to that? Can't do that. Can't give it to homeowners.
So what's the policy on? So basically the city itself use the money just to replant trees as needed or is there a tree plan to put the trees in without throughout the city as a whole? Because I'm just saying $2 million is sitting there. How long is it going to stay? Well, for instance, like we're you know,
we're doing um Pedmont Lakes, you know, we took out all the old world oaks and we're now we're we're asking any of the homeowners that want a tree put back in there in that rideway that if if they just contact us. Unfortunately, we
hadn't. It's really disappointing the few number of folks that have even asked for a free tree, a planted free tree. I think we're at like Bradley is it 40 something or it's it's around 30 30. So, we've I mean, of all the homes
out there, we've only had 30 people that asked have asked for a tree. So, is that a policy as far as that you guys can only use the trees for what city of Popular use it for? It it's it's for our easements and our rideways. Yes, I on Wednesday I'll be bringing it back because I'm going to go
back and look at it. But isn't that I mean that's the rightway though is owned by not the res the residents own you guys have a rightway or we have a rightaway like easement. So but the homeowner still owns that tree. They could cut that tree down if
they wanted to because it's their propert. They have the land rights to that tree. So, and I'm sorry to take your time if we can pause the time for this, but he's making the point that can can it go to homeowners? And these are all going to home owners. It's going on private property. No, it's going on.
You guys, we do not have unfettered access to these trees. Once they're planted, they're planted. We can cut them down, but so can the homeowner. There's a policy, I'll share that with you on Wednesday. The policy of how the money comes in and how the money goes out. I know that basically the revenue
has reduced this past year. I mean the previous year we were getting a lot of money in that kind of built that fund up but now it's is that's going down and that's funded from developers. Correct. Yes. And that is going down. Mr. Becca, I'm sorry to take up time. So does that I guess the $2 million
occur interest in account? Yeah, it's in our books. It's in our books in our reserves. Okay. And I just noticed that you guys always saying that projects are in development phase before being um designed. Is that could that be an in-house designer? Because it seems like
that's always a hold up on a lot of particular um cases where it takes eight, six months, 10 years. This it's like always it's going to be designed. It's been years and it's just kind of annoying when you kind of hear this year after year. Um,
and then just we have a lot of abandoned city- owned properties and particularly one that comes to mind is one on I guess by Dream Lake Elementary School or Poppy Middle School and it's just been sitting there. What's like the plans for properties that we own and it's just it's just sitting there at the end of the day. Thank you.
Which building is there? That's that house by Dream Lake. Um that's Connley House. Yeah, that's the Connelly house. I've been asking about that house. I think it's told me it's on for demolition. It's on the list for demolition. Um, and I saw a budget uh for
demolition. We have $250,000 for demolition. I saw We do have a demolition line and facilities. I don't believe it's $250,000. I thought I saw for demolition I saw $250,000.
Thought I did. Was it 20? Is it 140,000 140? 140. Okay. Still a sizable amount though. All right. Blanch. Yes. Finish this up. Right. I got 10 minutes. I've been told.
So, I'm going to make it quick. So, in regards to the key department staffs, uh before you or chart for the finance department, we have 24 full-time positions. I'm requesting three new positions for the finance department. Um
the divisions consist of finance and accounting and financial reporting, purchasing contracts and procurement, payroll and AP budget financial planning, grant administration and utility billing. In regards to the two budgets, utility
billing represents about 2.1 million and of the 4.9 and finances 2.8. Breaking that out between operating capital and personnel. Finance personnel is about two million. Operating about
700,000 and no capital at this time for finance. I did have the system the new system last year. So that's the decrease and I'll get into that details later. Um utility billing personnel 749
operating 1.2 and capital 180. In regards to that capital of 180, that allows me to have three more um base stations installed on the towers that we have. We have about nine locations and
currently we have two that we replaced, one that we're trying to um add out in the Orange County area. We're waiting on that agreement with Orange County and we added one at the fire station here, fire station one. So over the next few years,
we're trying to have base stations at all of those nine locations. So I have about five more to go and this will give me three more base stations for the meter reading to read the senses. So this is a it's to connect your the meters that we have to communicate with
our systems. Yes. To add more on the towers to help with that communication. Is that are you finding that that's one of the bigger issues right now is just lack of communication between the system with these meters or is there is there a consistent issue with them that you've realized so far? I think it's a combination of things. I
mean, as you know, we we had some old meters, we had to replace them. We had some things that we didn't have the flexet. You know, I gave that presentation a couple of months ago of some of the things. So, basically, it's a combination. you've kind of signified or shown the kind of dead area so to speak or where
you can get better service or where better service is needed. That's the one where we're trying to do with the Orange County one because it goes and I'm the worst with direction but it goes Thank you. wherever it goes it goes and it's a lot I know it's going out almost near Mount Dora. Am I correct
mayor? So in that area, that's where we have some lacking and we're trying to get that one installed on the Orange County. And you don't need any capex for new offices that you're going to be taking over it to build those out differently. Um I'm using I was planning to use the current year budget for that.
Well, reminder, commissioner, we did put money in the capital plan for facilities maintenance for that renovation. Okay. How much how much did we do for that? For FY26 or FY25? FY26. Okay. You did something for 25, right? As well. No.
Jesus. So, talking about water meters, how much how many are still inoperable? Um, based on the numbers that I looked at today, from when we started the meter replacement program, it has gone from a 31% down to a 20%. So, it has gone down
11%. Okay. What went down 11%. The meters that would not reach replacement. So it's gone down. So that that's an improvement. That's about 2,700 meters. But keep in mind, we add new customers,
old customers go away. So that changes. So I'm just doing it on a percentage compared to from October compared to um May. What about the billing? because you know that I see a lot on Next Door and Apron
social media, the billing uh in the thousands for some of the homeowners as a result of the new meters or the flex net as you know there's going to be some back billing and and we're applying the same process that I spoke about a few months ago. We're you know making
adjustments to you know as much as we possibly can and offering payment plans. How far back are we going in the building? It depends on the read that we get. It It depends on the meter and when it stopped working or whatever. It's case
by case. Do you have a number of how many customers are getting bills of over $1,000? Not off the top of my head. No, ma'am. But I can if you need that, I'll try to get it for you. Yeah. only because um some residents
have actually said that they haven't had their meter uh read in over five years. I mean they give me years and so now they're kind some of those residents two or three of the residents said they haven't read my meter in five years. So
now if the meter you replace it are you going back five years for them? It depends on what the read is because even what that final read is when they go out to replace it that determines when it went out. You know, whatever
that read is. It may not be five years. It may be two years, but we've gotten I think we've gotten rid of almost all the no reads. We don't have we've we've tackled I thought pretty much all the no reads. We tackled a lot estimated reads. Yes, we tackled a lot of the no reads, but
that that helps with the meter reader that I have. The difference between no reads and estimated reads? Well, an estimate, they go back to that previous month, that same time last year. Okay. And with a no read, you just don't have that history. You just have no reads.
How do we not have history just in our books of what happened LA the previous year? I would I so my understand would be and you can please correct me is that there's a database that we have of I can look at my house last year at this time the year before that year before that
every year that I've had a uh utility bill and we could go back to that. So is that accurate? Are you able to do that? Do we have a system that does that? Yes. Once they get that final read, we can go, you know, take that here's the date. Here's a read today
in the previous time that that needle was reading. Then you take that different we lose that data. I guess if there's no if no data data is ever captured, that's when it's a no read. So it' be like a newer meter that's broken and just never worked. It may not be a newer meter. Sometimes
it's a new subdivisions, right? Well, yes. And sometimes it just stops. So we never had a reading on it or that it happens. Well, I think what one of the things we've we've corrected now is where we had the flex net didn't match
up to the to the to the actual meter sometimes that that that happens as well. And we've we've we had to get with the contractors, I mean, the the developers because they were moving around and it wasn't been matching up to
the meter. And so, yep, we had inaccurate reads based on these. And so we've told them we matter of fact we find I think one developer already for for swapping out a flex net. How much do we find them for?
I don't I don't want to say but I know it's something we recently implemented. I can get you the amount but we are Is it like a new policy that we're doing? I haven't heard it that we're doing this. Yeah, it's it's happening. So it's not a policy we're doing it. It's a fee that we have Yes.
implemented. So, so how if it's a no read meter and you go and put it in a new meter, how do you fill in that gap? Where do you get the number from? You don't have the data. We can't fill
in the gap. So, they don't get a back bill at all. Not. No, they will not. If we don't have the data, we can't fill it in because we have no basis. We have nothing. Then there's no back data. So, they don't get a back bill. for the meter to
stop working, you go back and find when the last time they had a read. Now, if the meter sometimes when Keep in mind what I'm saying, you can have a meter that's been working. If you had a meter that's been working and it stopped, you're going to have a read.
Okay? So, we can check we can close that gap. But sometimes you have meters that it just you don't have a basic, it just stops. It's not working. It's not reading. And that's not that many of what I'm talking about in regards to estimates. That's only that's quite a
that's very few. But I'm just trying to figure out, okay, I understand you had a a read a number and when the meter stopped working, but then if I come in and I put in a new meter, what do you get this new number from?
When you come in, I I'm tell if it's zero and it hasn't been reading, we don't have a number. No, no, talking about if it was reading and it stopped and now you have a number where it stopped, but now come in, put in a new meter, where do you get that new number from that you charge
if the old meter stopped? Yes. Okay. Then you take the read from the previous when it was reading to the final read when it stopped. You follow me? Uhhuh. Okay. Then you put a new meter in and it goes from there
if it if it needs to be. You would have an estimate. when the no read started. So if the meter fails then it fails in in let's say May and you got a number. Well, you don't have a number because it failed. You'd go back to May of last
year and then you would charge the customer the May of 24 number based on the estimate. Okay. And then when you got so they'll say you get you get it fixed in in July
then you would you would true up that number for May. How do you that up? But that's not fair because if I had 10 people living in my house in May and now there's only two people living in my house. I didn't use much water as I did
the year before. And that's why when you get the reads that's what we have to go back and true it up is what he's talking about. But how does a meter that doesn't work? How do you get that data I guess from it doesn't work, I get a new meter the next two months or you repair that old meter. It depends.
But let's assume what I'm saying that I get it's totally broken. No repairs. It's not tracking anything to this point. Those months that we have no data on, although we can do estimates from the previous year. How are you chewing that up? Okay. Like what what data how is that tracking
per house? Because new starts at zero. Correct. Okay. Let me go back. I'm going to do my best to try to explain this as much as I can. You got a meter that was working. Okay, then it stopped working. Okay, if they go out there or the flex
net stop working, let me put it that way. Okay, and if they go out there to replace it or fix the flex net, we're not getting the reads if the flex net is not working. Okay, but that meter is functioning. Okay, so we get the
difference right here. they get a manual read and that's what we're looking at. So, walk us through the other scenario then where the meter's broken completely. If the meter is broken completely, they're going to get that final read or whatever it is at that time and then they may replace that then you starting
like you said from there but there's a dead area of no data. Are we charging in some capacity for that? Not if we can if we don't have the read. No, we don't have that data. No, no, we we we would they would pay the estimated.
They were pay they're probably paying the estimate, but it may fall in that we go out and do manual reads. If he's where the mayor is talking about where we're getting no reads, that's about 153 out of 4,000 something right now meters. And what my meter reader does, he
focuses on those no reads to give me a manual. What do you do with the residents that that give this exact scenario that I had a family, they kids were all here and all that. They're all moved out. It's just my wife and I this year versus last year.
Can I how how are you going to prove that I did use that water? If we get a read that indicates that you use that water, that's how we prove. But if you don't, then you're not charging for that. Then if we have a no read, we can only do a manual read to get a read. And so we're not sending estimates then.
We're saying we don't have any data for this. We're not charging you if there's a no read. How how much estimated outstanding water bills do you feel are out there right now? Like do you have a number of how much we should be receiving that we
haven't received yet? Dollar amount I don't have as far as the number of bills. That's what I'm sharing with you now. Um as of the end of June, total estimated billings was 46.82. 82 4,682.
Now, of the no reads where I'm telling you where my meter reader focuses on, it's 153. Now, that went up because that was down to actually 13 the previous month. So, it kind of went up a little bit. It was down to 13. it was down, but if he's on vacation or something like that
and it goes up and then I think we we had a little problem just to be totally transparent here with um the census on that because the census would have it but it wasn't going to Edmonds and stuff like that. So, we're looking at it and going to see if it's corrected in this upcoming month. But that was going down
and that's what the mayor was referring to that is actually going down. So for the no reads that we have out there, the no reads that we have out there, they're not getting any bill right now then because we have nothing to go off of. There's zero to read. If we don't have it, we don't have a
basis. So they're not getting any water bill right now. I'll go back and and double check, but that's my understanding. Oh, I thought they got an estimated bill. We the only way the system will do an estimate, okay, is if it has that historical date,
okay, of that same time last year. We do manual reads. That's the way they get a bill for the ones that are no read. And that could be a broken meter or a bad flex net. Correct. Or it's under two feet of dirt.
I don't know. Yeah. I don't know. No, it's true though. Yeah. I don't know. But we're trying. I'm asking for additional staff. I'm trying. Got to be able to beam to the the tower. If it can't get a a direct signal brick over top the
Yeah. Okay. Yeah. We're working on it. We're working on it. We're working on it. We're doing the best we can. We're working on it has gone down. This conversation just helps to for us to explain as well to the residents of kind of what what's happening. um because it is confusing. Of course, if
they're getting a $1,000, $2,000, $5,000 water bill, they have the right to be frustrated. So, walking through that process, I think so. Additional staff will help assist with this. Yes, we're doing some things internally. We're we're talking internally, but I am requesting additional staff. Basically,
the additional staff that I'm requesting for utility billing is um well, let me start let me let me go through this um and start with finance first. I have an accounting specialist position that I'm requesting. I have a temporary person, a temporary staff
person that you see if you ever come in there scanning and scanning and scanning and scanning her life away. So, I'm trying to replace that with a full-time position and get rid of that temporary help. So, it's been costing even though I budgeted 35k, it was actually cost me
about 80k. So, and that's what I had reflected in the budget before I got the position. Okay. So that's one position under the finance department. And the other reduction as I mentioned to you earlier, we don't have the new um
financial system, ERP system and EAM system that I have in this year's budget. So that's being it's not it'll roll over, you know, with the capital, but it's that's why my budget replace this. Yes, that's the goal.
Okay. That's the goal. That's the goal. I mean it's we're working with a lot of systems that are not fully integrated. The objective is to fully integrate. Yes. Yes. We're trying.
So in regards to utility billing, the customer service specialist position. I'm trying to, you know, Daniel works weekends and evenings and everything. um trying to get him to, you know, delegate more and give more of those activities to a customer service specialist so he
can do more of the management and and oversight of the um utility bill and operations. As you know, everything is growing. We get so many calls in. These specialists and and customer service reps are trying to answer the phone, wait on customers,
do billing, do analysis. It's just becoming too much. So, I've asked for I'm trying to establish a call center. So, this is one position that can focus just on answering the phone and that will free up more time for them. How many when you go into utilities, how
many uh service representatives do we have there for c customer representatives there? How many um customer service uh specialists? I have three. Now I'm asking for one more in in regards to the cashiers and the
clerks. Um we have four. I'm asking for one more for the call center here on the or chart. Okay. Let's see. Oops. So I know I was gone, right? And then 3,400 other contractual services. Our budget did go down. We're
decreasing the merchant data fees. And that's it. Um, the other thing was the lift stations. Do we have What are we doing with the lift stations? That's tomorrow. Oh, that's tomorrow. Yes. Yes. Yes. Okay. Any other questions for Blanch?
Yeah. I just got a a couple here just to go through the kind of line items here that you you went over the on the utility billing side. Do we charge more if you get a paper bill versus online bill? No. So more so we don't offer a discount for
going to an online base. No, exclusively because we have not 75 yeah 77,000 just for kind of billing and some notices things like that that's budgeted. So okay I I didn't know if we
offered any type of um just discount to go that way. It wouldn't be substantial by any means but just something to save on on money uh for their residents. The meter testing fees. So, this goes out. They can call us and say, "My you guys are way overcharging me. You're way off.
If we go out, test the meter." Mhm. And say whether or not it's working. And if it is working right, then we charge them back. If it's not working right, no, we don't charge them for testing the meter. This fee may be charged back to customer in the event the meter is not overregistering.
We haven't charged anybody that. Okay. Then we should remove that. And then the 180,000 per year. So it's um to my knowledge. I'll double check, but I'm not aware of a substantial fee, but yeah. And then it's 60,000 per base
station that we're adding. Yes. Okay. Okay. Understood. Thank you. And my question, the the young lady that I've seen standing up eight hours a day Yes. scanning. Yes. Will she be eligible to apply to this
job? She as long as it goes outside. Yes, she does a great job. She really does. She's dedicated. I don't know how, but she's dedicated to dedicated. All right. She really does. Any other questions? And you're run and your department runs
with grant administration and application, things of that nature. Yes. So, is there do we have like a list annually of the grants that we want to apply for that we need to apply for? Is it kind of like a hey, we have a need over here, let's do this one. Now, what like what do we have a system in place for it? We do have a grant status report
that we do and it identifies our current grants and our pending grants meaning grants that we do have you know in the application status. Okay. So and we do have that's a comprehensive list of every grant. Yes. Okay. And we do have um monthly grant meetings
with all of the project managers you so at that time new grants may come up. Okay. That's when those discussions take place. Yeah. Because the last time you I received, you know, I keep everything that you gave me was uh back in April of 2024.
All the outstanding grants. Yes, ma'am. Do we have something more? Yes. And we're trying to streamline that to make it and and give you a report on a more regular basis. But yes, we I I get the report monthly and I share okay
with the mayor and with Rally. But again, we still want to make it a little bit more clean clean it up. Okay. And would it be beneficial for kind of grants that maybe we come across or something that we see just to kind of confirm that it's on your radar? Yes. Because it's I do that.
Okay. Yes, he does. Good. That's great. Yeah. Because I've seen others at uh you know, social media states that maybe would miss this or miss that. I want to make sure that we're any money available. Just send me an email. Okay. So, Florida League of Cities is always announcing different grants for
different cities. If you're aware of anything, just feel free to share it with us. Yeah, a lot of them are this big and it it's not even worth the I mean somebody wants to fill them out, but I can tell you there, you know, $1,000 here or
something and it's you know time you go through all the you know filling it out in forms or I mean I think we want to try to we can do it but you know if you've got a you know you only got one staffer you'd rather spend it on the big the big ones where
you know making sure you got the application filled out property to get, you know, 100,000 or half million or 10 million. I'd rather, you know, focus on those ones where you got bigger dollars that making sure that our application is
just spot on is more important. But yeah, I like free money, so the more we can get the better. The one thing I did forget to ask um Mr. Ratley was the museum. The museum is belongs to the city, right? Are we doing
any improvements in that museum? Yeah, we do have some funding in this current budget to do some uh repairs to the log cabin walls. Um it was one that we looked at. The repairs are going over the $50,000
threshold. So again, with the general contractors now on board, that's one that we're looking at having them work on for us as well. Didn't we approve last year though that those same walls? I thought we had approved. Yeah, it's it's in this current budget. Okay. So, not so it's not FY26.
I think we we may have added a little bit because of cost estimates. Can you point me to that? And I know they were looking for more space, too. I think they're kind of at capacity. So, I don't know what we can
do to increase their their space that they desperately need. I thought they had a funding campaign going on to expand. They they've had a funding campaign, fundraiser campaign for years. I mean, I
I know that they have a a healthy account. Um, so I I I don't know what their plans are and it's for the building, the fundraiser that they have in there. So, I I don't know how that works. So maybe it be beneficial to get an update
from them and just kind of see how we can partner on a on a bigger level. Yeah. Um did you find it in there? Uh so we I know we have money in this current FY25 budget. I don't see that we budgeted anything additional. So okay I think the plan was just use what we had funed building facility that I didn't see. That's why I'm asking.
Right. So we do have money currently funded this year and again the plan is going to be utilized to general contractors to do a secondary quote on those repairs. Do we have any plans for the Lust Road property, the eyesore that's on 429?
We had done some initial just really rough cost estimating for maybe repairing the roof out there. Um, that has a restriction that there's a there are some restrictive uses on that property, but the uh roofing repair estimate was over a
million dollars. So, it's a big building though. I mean, it's a huge building. it it's a could be a very climate control building because the the way it was built. Um but at this point priority wise it wasn't something I think from a funding
standpoint. So there's nothing we can do just on the exterior just to kind of how much it would cost to paint. We can we can maybe paint the the one side that faces the 429. Yeah. Just something. I can check in. We might have some funding this year to some savings to go and what what are there certain uses on
that? I didn't realize there was any. We'll have to look and see. It's something. It was a St. John's River water management property. So, there are some restrictions on use. Um, we'll have to pull that expansion of utilities if I'm not mistaken. I think it was related to utility use.
Yeah. Function. It's that the um not water reclamation, it's for reclaimed water coming out of the Yeah. Northshore to to supplement our reclaimed. That's what that facility is for over
there, right? That property. So, we'd have to look and see there. You can't we can't put put a park out there or right any type of structure like that. Are we using that actively to do that? Not the building, but the
No, no, it's locked up behind a gate. The storage facility like the water reclaimed water. We're not doing No. So, and I can have Vlad in the meeting tomorrow. We can have Vlad get on that. We can do that tomorrow. Yeah, please.
Yeah, that that that'd be great. Thank you. Any other questions? Not public comment. You see adjournments up here. What a deal. Rate, I just know the budget process is very, very arduous and there's no one
that feels a pain more than Miss Sherman. So, thank you so much. I know it's a painful, but this is the second. Last year, I attended all the sessions. This year, I plan to attend all the sessions as well. I've been in management for over 45 years. Every
budget process has a five-year trend. So you can see line by line what's been going so you can get a real look and better generate questions. Uh clearly based upon we're in a sprint to get this thing done. We need to start this process earlier. Thank you.
Oh my four questions, Miss Blanch. Everything is in your budget that you need. Yes. All your equipment is on a maintenance schedule. Yes. It's being followed. Yes. And you occasionally pop in and take a look to make sure it's being done. Yes. We just have copiers in the vehicle.
Mr. Williams, I forgot to ask you for park and wrecks. All four questions. Again, everything you have in the budget is built what you need. Yes. And uh the road the exit roadway is a one-way roadway. Okay. So, exit. Yes. Yes.
Okay. All right. Fantastic. Well, no, that's that's great. Thank you. Rogers back at 7 West Main Street. Just had a couple questions. um particular with the water meter that you guys saying to read and don't read. Is that basically saying that there's no bill
been generated for that location? And if that is the case, because I know your water bill comes in, you got the water reclaim as well as your trash. So, which part I guess is not just the water portion of the bill is not being received. Is that right? I mean, you know, the the
sanitation and the other anything that doesn't require that read is being okay. Mhm. And then it's just a thought um particularly looking at some of the needs that you need in your department. Has it any been discussion of AI technologies kind of for some of these redundancies of activities that a person
is doing that you can actually talk to a machine or of something of that nature? Um you know because people are using it um it's being effective. So it could be something that the city could look at not just her department but multiple departments. Um I know in the past there's been discussion about the upset
of how minutes are read. Um I know you can get auto AI and it read it'll take notes everything verbatim what you say. So there's a lot of other areas that we can probably look into that would reduce the hours that somebody's spending. You know, like she's talking about scanning and all these particulars that we may
need an outside resource because I don't know that's that's not technically I guess IT department, but there is something that could probably be looked into professional wise that can come in and show where we may be a strengthen areas. And then I think just one other question. Well, on on that one, I know
that that Rob Hippler, our IT guys, they're got to be he's pretty nervous about, you know, I AI and and what somebody could extract from AI data. So, he's he's trying to put together a policy that will that will be sure that we're we're using in the right manner
and not um not overextending our AI use for because there are bad actors out there that would that could use that as their way into your system. So, I know he's he's taking a taking a look at that cuz I was just thinking about the water
process. It's kind of dated that people can still drive up and exchange money for a water bill. That's kind of, you know, it's kind of pointless if you ask me, but to each his own. Um, and then as far as you guys mentioned the lust the building on Lush Road, now
has it ever been a thought maybe where I know the city of Aka wanted to do like a shooting facility for the police. Would that be appropriate area for something like that? just kind of out the way or there, but just a general No, we'd have to look at that maybe. Yeah. Okay.
All right. Anybody else? All right. We will see y'all all back here tomorrow at 5.