Hello. Hello. Hello. All right, let's get ready to get started. All right. Shout out to Full Moon. The uh village of Albert budget workshop for 2025 2026 fiscal year um is called to order at
6:42 p.m. We're going to have a moment of meditation follows. Madam clerk, can I please have roll call, please? Roll call. Mayor Nickerson here. Vice Mayor Martin present. Council person Urban present. Council person life is not in. Council
person Winters present. Also present for the record. Janice Jacobe village clerk. Christia Louu village manager. Um Harry Tunnul um CFO and uh Joe Geller, city attorney. Thank you very much. Appreciate that. Um do I have approval of the agenda?
Motion. Motion by council person. Do I have a sec? Oh, was that council person um Winters? orb. It was Winters. Council person Winters. Uh second. I'll second. Second by Council Person. All in favor say I. I.
Say nay. Um here's a good and welfare. Um this is to talk about anything on the agenda. There's one thing on the agenda, but we're going to go page by page, you guys. So, this is how we're going to do it. When we get to the budget, when we get to the budget, every page
you'll be able to speak, okay? One time, three minutes, right? page, page, page by page. Okay. So, we'll So, that's how we'll do it. All right. So, everybody get a chance to speak multiple times uh once per each page. Okay. All right.
Um we're going to have uh go to the agenda items, which is the budget. Um the CFO and the manager uh will be leading it. Um here's your cover page. After the cover your cover page, there's
your table of contents. Go ahead. Go ahead. Say your name and address for the record. Name, address. So, uh, yes, my name is Greg Steer, 120 Northwest 86th Street. Just a general comment uh a about procedure about this
threeminut rule. I don't know when they impose that but to me it's a little uh unfair to the residents who come out uh on their own on their own dime their own time. They're not obligated to be here uh much less get paid to be here unlike
uh staff and council sort of. Um, so I I wanted I mean you you asked for civic engagement and then you impose this kind of gag order on us and I know the mayor has been good about uh allowing people to go past the allotted time, but I would like to see if we could I would
like to propose that we have a a motion to increase it officially to five minutes and also to allow residents who are here who don't speak to donate their time to any other speaker. It's kind of tough to dissect a five and a half
million dollar budget in three minutes. Okay. Go ahead. Yeah. And and speaking of the budget, I just want to make sure that is this it? I mean, it's 17 pages long. It's $5.5 million coming in and going out in one year. I I just out of curiosity. I
pulled up the proposed budget for Biscane Park because it's close neighbor, similar in size, 3,000 people, 900 homes. Their budget is 212 pages. Ours is 17. It used to be 70 back in the
day and then it was reduced to about 40. Now it's down to 17. The Biscane Park budget has 10 columns. We have four. It has prior year numbers. It has year-to-date numbers. It has projected end of the year numbers. It's
much more comprehensive and informative. And I'd like to propose a second motion that we adopt either their format or something similar to make these budgets more transparent and informative.
Useful. Understandable. Thank you. Uh, last but not least, I noticed something on the budget for Biscane Park that I wanted to bring up that's not on the agenda, and that is that they have a clearly marked
emergency reserve account of $2.7 million. What is our emergency reserve account and how much is in it? Because from what I could tell from the budget and the audit, we have a deficit. And maybe you could
confirm that. Uh but that brings me to my third proposal for a motion, which is that we commit this year, 2026, to allocating $1 million or at least three months operating expenses,
whichever is higher, uh and put that in this budget. Thank you. Thank you very much. Any other good and welfare before we get to the budget? Good and welfare. Any other general? You can. You have the come up.
Hi, my name's Tamara Hendershot. I live at 105 Northeast 86 Street. All I wanted to do is reinforce what Greg said. It's really hard to understand for me, and I don't think I'm alone, understand the budget. I don't understand
certain things we're asking for that make no sense. And then I didn't understand there seems to be a request for new police cars, but nothing's uh explained. It's just put in. We're getting new police cars, and the old ones will be
turned in, and it will subtract the the money. Why do we need new police cars when they're only three or four years old? So, there's nothing that's explained, but a lot of money has is increasing. So, that that's my complaint. If we're we're changing
things and increasing them and giving more salaries and getting new music, whatever, I think we need to be explained why and how. That's all. Thanks. Thank you very much. Anyone else general comments?
Okay, seeing none, um we'll take it back to the budget. As far as the motions go for motions like that, for example, for like the three minutes, um that has been there and it was passed by resolution way before I got here. We we have to
pass those motions by resolution. All right. So, we have to have that beforehand. Now, we could do that for the first budget hearing, but then it won't be in place for this particular budget because if it passes for the first like, you know, the next meeting or whatever, the first budget hearing,
then to then put it in place, the first budget hearing would already be over. So, that's the only thing with like those motions. But, we can do those and we can pass those, but they won't take effect until pretty much after this budget season is over. That's the
problem. Okay. I mean, I let you guys go over anyway. So, you know, it t we that can also go in the same resolution with the um thing extending it to five minutes. So yeah, I understand. So what? So they've
had that in place or somebody passed a resolution for them to put that in place. And we can put a resolution to do that, but the resolution isn't written right now. And we would have to do the resolution and put it in place to be passed. And the earliest we could do
that is the first budget hearing. But by that time, if the resolution passes that day, the first budget hearing is already taking place is is my point. So, we can do all that and we're not against that, but it just can't be done right now. Mr. Mayor, can I chime in for a second? Yes.
Also, I like to go back sometimes to the the reason for the thing. Um, so the threeminut limit isn't in place to stop anybody from chiming in. It's just to make sure when we do have a very large number of folks that everyone does get a
chance to chime in. I'm sure you can think of a situation where the first person on the mic says, you know, there's no limit. I want to speak for an hour. By that time, kids are crying, your husband's home, you want to leave, but you don't get a chance to say what you want to say. So, it's just to make
sure that everyone gets a chance to participate. In addition to that, I think also looking at historically what the practices are is helpful. The mayor usually lets everyone um speak over the three minutes. Uh we're a nice um tight
group. I believe that everyone will have their chance to uh opine on whatever it is that they would like to while we go through the budget. In addition to that, remember what the mayor said, you get to speak on each page. So on every page, if there's a question and you say, "Well, I
I want to know why are we switching out these vehicles or what this means?" Feel free to come up and ask those questions and provide yourself with the meat that you need. um as part to understand the budget. I think it's presented in this way and I'll let Mr. Tobinfeld opine on
the format but it's presented this way because sometimes when you give someone a 200page document um the other complaint might arise in that there there might seem as though there's a desire to hide information or it's more difficult to find. So whatever um
specificity you need, I urge you to come up to that deis and speak on that. I know that we will be as generous as we can be. We're not trying to cut anyone off. The prohibition is in there just to make sure everyone has an opportunity to chime in because we do want to hear. And
I wrote down I forget the gentleman's name who spoke first, but I wrote down the question of why it is in the format that it's in. And I'm sure that our CFO will be able to give us some guidance on that once he's able to take a look at Biscane Parks. So that's the end of my comments.
Thank you very much, Madam Vice Chair. Um, we're good with good and welfare, you guys. Moving on to the budget. Okay. All right. Um, moving on to the budget. You have the the cover page. You have your table of
contents there. You have the third page that shows the individuals, your elected officials, um, appointed officials and department heads. Okay, let's go to the budget summary. The budget summary is a is a simple
summary of um the budget that we'll be going through page by page. Are there any questions about the summary? Um come on up. Say your name and address for the record. Greg Steer, 120 Northwest 86 Street. So,
um I see that you break out the general fund revenue in in detail, but I don't see any breakout of the special revenue funds. You have almost a million dollars
in special revenue. Uh it doesn't doesn't really say where it's coming from. Uh in particular, there's a transfer of 357 $352,000. I just don't know what that is. Um and
on the flip side, on the expense side, it's pretty much the same thing. You have almost a million dollars with very little context, very little explanation. There's something called transportation. You're spending $58,000.
I'm assuming that is the the roundabout. Maybe it doesn't say roundabout. It says transportation, but it's a half a million dollars. And I don't see where that's explained anywhere in the budget. And I also assumed that we got some offsetting grants for the roundabout
that it wasn't all our $500,000. That's it. Anyone else for the summary page? All right, we will go by every page in detail also. Okay, I have a few I have a few comments if I
may. No, of course you guys are going to be um so just can you hear me? Uh first and foremost, what you see here is a exactly what it's called a budget summary. Uh this is a notice of advertise this is part of the notice of advertisement that
goes out uh to the public prior to the uh second budget hearing and is exactly what it is a budget summary. If you want to see the detail the detail is made up in the in the uh following pages. Um, as we go through it, more than happy to discuss all the details. Um,
specifically to the questions that were asked, uh, the transfers of the $350,000. Um, uh, the gentleman is referring to, majority of that is, uh, the reserves that the village has from the CIT funds.
Um, and the other thing I just wanted to point out, um, I know there was a comment made about, uh, uh, putting reserves, uh, tucking away reserves for the current fiscal year. Um, if you note on the bottom of the page on, uh, there is a line item there for reserves under
the general fund, there's a $382,988 proposal of funds being uh, allocated to uh, the reserves. So to the gentleman's point, yes, the the the village is in a deficit. Uh I think that's been disc uh
the fund uh the reserve funds is in a deficit. I think it's been discussed numerous times as a result, everybody knows why, as a result of hurricane Irma. Uh it's taken many years uh for the village to get to where we are today. But I'd like to say that where we are today is a lot better than where we
were in 2017. And with the increase in the ad valarum uh with the increase in the population there's been an al as we get through it we'll see there's also been an increase in a lot of the state uh revenue sharing that the village receives um and with this increased
funding and a tightening of the uh of the expenditures. Um we see that uh the goal here is to try to put as much money away as possible at the same time making sure that the village can operate uh properly and function uh properly. uh
for the upcoming year. Thank you. As far as the name 301 Northeast 88 Street. Um so just to to follow up I understand that it's a and the details are behind it, but it
would it would be easier for all of us um to to have clearer labels of what we're looking at. Transportation uh makes me wonder, I mean, are we do we have a train here or um or a car? Uh I
mean, transportation is uh is kind of a nebulous term. So, it it would make more sense um to actually label these appropriately. And if transportation is really the CIT money, um let's just
label it that way. Anyone else for the summary page? Come on up. Sorry, just a quick question. Um, Mr. Toenfeld about the deficit. You said there is a deficit. Everybody knows about it. I don't know about it. What is the deficit? How much is it? And also,
is it 545,000? Because I read that somewhere. Uh, so I just curious to know exactly what the current deficit is. Thank you. I don't have that exact number off hand, but I would refer you to the uh audit that was just uh presented last month
that gives you the numbers as of uh the last fiscal year. I will say that this year we are tracking ahead of budget. Uh I do we do anticipate a surplus uh for this year. So, uh, we do anticipate that number, uh, changing, uh, this coming year. Okay. If you're referring to the audit
that was just done in June of this year, yes. Uh, this Yes, sir. Okay. So, the figure that I got from that audit, which by the way is mandated by the state, every municipality has to do a an audit independent,
uh, certified by CPA. Um, we've only posted one audit, but you can go online and see all of them if you go to the Florida Department of Financial Services. In the most recent audit, it shows that we've been running a de deficit every year since 2018,
including this year, 2024, of $545,000. Now, it also has a public benefit trust figure of 842,000. I don't know what that is, but maybe you could explain that also. Thank you. Sure. Uh those were the developer fees
that uh the village received uh a part of the kavista deal. Um and those that uh amount that you see there is the remaining funds uh at fiscal year end 2024. All right.
We good with the summary you guys? All these questions which we're going through the details they might be they'll probably be answered for you. All right. All right. The next page you guys see there um notice proposed tax increase. Any questions about that
page? You guys go to the next page. General fund revenue. This is revenue. Any questions about the revenue? This is the money coming in. Come on. I guess I'm only I'm the only one that read the budget.
So, just a question about um state grants. I see there were none adopted last year, but you did get 50,000 in state grants. But you're not anticipating any state grants because both those numbers are zeroed out.
Uh question number one. Question number two is uh miscellaneous revenue police. You're budgeting 100,000. Last year it was 56,000. I'm I'm guessing those are traffic violations, speeding tickets. Don't know. That's my
question. That's it. Thank you very much. Um in relation to the miscellaneous revenue police um the increase uh in that line item is due to a policy shift
um in the police department in relation to the offduty program uh that the police department has. uh what you were referring to the police uh as far as the tickets would be the judgment and fines line item where we're budgeting 75,000.
Again, that increase is due to the uh what's been going on here in the village uh over the last uh 12 months. Oh, and as far as state grants, it's all depend. It's all, you know, we we apply we don't necessarily we don't budget and
expect them to happen. Um, you know, we always we do apply year in and year out in the hopes to get them. If we get them, it's always an added bonus. We look at it as an added as an added bonus. Um, so we did receive one this year. Uh, and we do not listen. Again, we we we apply, we get it, great. But we
don't uh include it in the annual budget. My name is Daniel Roas, 60 Northeast 86 Street. Um I just had a a quick question. I I don't know if it'll show up here, but there's there's mention of uh funding provided by the whole kavista
project, but from what I can see, nothing of that revenue is mentioned here or whether it offsets any other cost that it's going to bring to the village with regards to road maintenance, police, all those things. Uh is there any clarifications on that
please? Sure. that's actually detailed later on in the budget under the parks and reccks. A lot those funds are being utilized uh for green space here in the village. Um most a lot of those funds are being used uh for the renovation here at the top lot. Um, it also
includes uh the walking trail, the equipment that was used for the walking trail and um I believe landscaping and land landscaping and then uh also all the trees that the the village is now uh planting and adding uh throughout the village.
I'd like to just add sorry we we're limited with our mics. The um those funds for the um this that uh that special fund from the kavista is only to be utilized green space so it can't be used for the now we did do a transfer so
that any residuals may be able to be used for that but we have to prioritize any green space trees any of those things that was uh earmarked for these funds only so that's why it's in a separate fund that you'll see u later in the budget details any revenue page
about we we we have a public works and a parks area over area. So So yeah, thank you sis. Mr. Mayor, can I also I I know we've we've been doing this exchange of information which I think is really great that you're getting to ask these
questions and receive the information. I just want some confirmation from you that this is the information you wanted to receive. Correct. Do you feel like you're I'm speaking to the gentleman in the maroon shirt. I'm so sorry I didn't catch your name. No. Could you could you come to the
because I I find this useful that Mr. When anybody's going to speak from the audience, please you have to come forward because if the camera doesn't catch you then it's a problem for the minutes. Thank you. I appreciate it. Thank you so much. Like uh the question you had about the grants and you were like, "Hey, are we not anticipating
any?" And the manager's response that we just don't know if we're going to get any like was that sufficient? Yes. Okay. Okay. Um what I do want to encourage you if if Mr. Dr. Tobinfeld is uh giving you information and you feel as though because I think these answer a
lot of questions but if you feel as though that's not happening um also feel free to let us know so that whatever specificity is lacking in the print that you feel like we're augmenting or providing that in the exchange. Um and
then another thing I want you to be assured of is that I will speak to the CFO. I'm sure we all will speak to the CFO to think of whether or not there is an opportunity to um make it a bit although it will be longer make it a bit more specific in a way that that um is
pleasing to the audience. Okay. Yes. Thank you. Okay. Not sure this works. Yeah. Yeah. I I hear it when you when you tap on it. I was I was Anyway, um yeah, what I was suggesting was something similar to the Biscane Park
uh budget which like I said is 212 pages versus R17 and adds a lot more context and color. Um and again I mean I thought a workshop was going to be a little bit more like you know back and forth Q&A one-on-one as opposed to just this
formal council meeting setting uh where we, you know, get three minutes and it's it's kind of awkward but Okay. Thank you. Well, I haven't I haven't turned the clock on one time yet. Yeah. And yeah, we've been asking questions and answering. Um, but also I've written down village of Biscane
Park so that I can look at it as well and uh talk to the CFO about it. Um, but that's the end of my comment. Thank you. Uh, anybody else for the revenue revenue page? Uh, I'm George Alvarez, 165 Northwest 88
Street. Quick question. I have a feeling that the answer is that it's going to be discussed in a um subsequent page. Miscellaneous revenue, miscellaneous revenue police to what do they refer?
Thank you. The miscellaneous revenue line item I guess would be a catch-all beall for any other line item that you don't see here. Um miscellaneous revenue police uh as mentioned before that is the revenue the village receives for the offduty police
program that the village has with the police officers. Can I give you a supplemental question on that? I I think maybe the audience might benefit from examples of what miscellaneous revenue might be. Do you have an example you could share? Um, yeah, sure. It could be something
reimbursement from the insurance company for a a car accident. Perfect. Thank you. something. Um, I'll actually I'll the chief. Chief, you can you uh would you mind expressing what the in an effort to better absorb and to
better help both being considerable con considering the the the residents as far as expenditures and being able to obtain the equipment and the vehicles that we need. The officers donate hourly. If they work an offduty job, they donate five hours, $5
hourly. That comes back to us and that comes back to this fund in order to help pay any offsetting cost for fuel maintenance or in and able to turn over the vehicle fleet. That way, initially, back when I got here, we were in dire
straits with the with the fleet. This way, it it keeps the cost out of the residents. It doesn't come from the residents. We're in a program where we lease cars, we turn them back in once and for example, the four vehicles we're going to turn back in now. Once that
revenue comes in, that pays the down payment on those vehicles and then we just go back to paying a monthly lease cost for another four years on those vehicles. That's that relieves a great burden on our budget and it puts no burden on the residents as far as as uh
taxes or anything else. Thank you. Questions? Does this work? It sounds all right. I have a few questions here. Um, I'm going to go through a little bit of the list. Um, first one I want to spoke about is code enforcement revenue.
Last year, uh, it was adopted that we would expect $90,000 in code enforcement revenue and we only brought in $20,000 in code enforcement revenue. Now, the budget projects 50,000 revenue, but with the recent departure of our code enforcement officer, this target is
very unrealistic, and I assume we will actually uh decrease. Um, so I'm wondering if we're able to correct this in the budget for the um expected amount that will be coming in.
Um the f I guess I I'll answer this I guess more broadly and then I'll get I'll let the manager be more specific. Um when doing a budget obviously we're trying to forecast today what the picture is going to look like in the next 12 months.
Um obviously if we all knew had the crystal ball and knew what was going to happen we'd we we all would not be sitting here. Um so the way I tend to look at everything both on the revenue side as well as on the expense side um is looking at everything more globally
right in a totality um but also maintaining that positive making sure that we're positive right that we're in a surplus situation. So I understand what you're saying where we might there might be you know a drop possibly in code enforcement revenue. I'll counter
that and say to you planning and zoning could be, you know, I'm I'm being conservative at 35,000. That number could be closer to 4550,000, right? Depending on what comes through the door and what needs to be reviewed. So again, when looking at these numbers in totality, I like to look at them at
totality. You may be off a little bit on one number off, you know, one number higher on one lower on the other. But I think again when we look at the numbers in total, we're in a very good spot. again and I look at this year more importantly where again um every year we're getting better
and better um we're finally caught up with our audits which makes us to manage you know the operation here a lot easier and it makes it more manageable um so again I think just looking at more total in totality totality totality
also just add um council person winters uh we do have a code enforcement officer um his name is Steven Alonzo who started today. Uh so we're happy to have him. He has um some experience um uh he's coming from um Palm Beach County or I'm sorry
um that area, but he's coming here um to to continue um our code enforcement. So in terms of what the revenue was the year to date, there were a lot of cases we settled with um uh our uh village
attorney um president and our special masters over this year. Um in the years prior we made a little bit more because you know some some things couldn't be settled or some matters didn't um get mitigation because of their you know um details uh that we shouldn't get into at
this point but we are just um budgeting something middle ground. So, we thought 50,000 would be s sufficient just to cover that um that portion. And we'll see what comes because it may be higher, maybe lower, but we thought that would be middle ground. Since we did um get
about 90,000 um budgeted last year, half of that would have put us at 45. We rounded up. Okay. I understand and understand wanting to bring the totality of the whole budget together, but it is unrealistic. It is very likely they were not going to bring the 50,000 in and
then there will be a gap in the budget. We also can say that we have planning and zoning with uh plus Serbia who's been about to change the code or offer us to have us change the code. I mean, and some of these things that we've been actually going against in code enforcement against the neighbors here
is going to go away. And that's if that happens, it's going to even mean less than we said before, even less than this year. So that it's kind of this is over the double of what we did this year. I think it's just not realistic. Again, I'm not the owner of these numbers. Um I'm open, you know, this is
a, you know, a collaboration best guess estimate or where we think the numbers are going to be open to whatever we want it to be. Um at the end of the, you know, again, looking at the look the year to date is strong this year. Um look, yeah, let's look at the numbers
for this year, year to date and the revenue. Okay, again, we're looking at a particular line item. You know, this is through 10 months. We're at 3,653,000. We're defin we're going to exceed our numbers this year, you know, based on what was budgeted last year. And that's
still being $70,000 short in the code, you know, with the code. So, again, I'm not opposed to, again, these aren't my numbers. I don't own them. These are this is a best guess. You know, based on these numbers, we're s you know, we're guesstimating a $382,000
surplus, which is all anticipated to go to the reserves. um any adjustment or modification to the any of these numbers is is really just going to affect that line item. So again, I'm not opposed to making any changes. This is, you know, being here four, five plus years,
collaboration, best guess, trying to figure out where we think the direction of the village is going, but again, I don't own these numbers. I'm open to anything. I leave it to the village. I leave up to the commission. Let me add would it be more would you be more comfortable if we just split it in half because if our
year to date is 20 25 more realistic. Okay. Thank you. That's fine. I'd like to also bring up another one now. Um so with the offduty police budget um I understand that before uh it was
$115,000 expected. We spent 3,800. So or we I'm sorry we brought in 3,800. We were expecting 115. Um I'm assuming that the 5,000 was decided because it's
close to the 3,800. Was there a reason for that? Uh that is correct. Uh again change in policy uh pri last year the funds were coming to the village and the village was then in turn paying the officers. There are some I think there's one c I
guess we call them a client customer that pays pays the village directly. So yes, again placeholder to have something there for that revenue. So the reason I ask is I I do plan on doing more events for our our village here with different things for every all
the residents here and I want to make sure that uh I'm not undercutting it. If I'm correct me if I'm wrong like if I'm going to be using some be spending money towards offduty police for some of my events um would that change this or is it coming out of a different budget?
Does that make am I saying that right? I'm not sure how to answer. I I think we need to I need a little bit more information. This is I'm not sure. Say again. This is the expected revenue of the you're expecting to make where' it go.
This is yeah expected revenue that the officers are that the village will be receiving from the officers for any offduty for the offduty detail that they do specific to your event. I don't know. Okay. Again, this is just
a a number sitting down with the ma with the manager and the police chief looking at historicals seeing what you know get and coming up with a number that we feel comfortable presenting. I'm just asking I wanted to know more. Thank you. Just answer. Um my my next question um
judgment and fines the revenue spiked from 15,000 to 63,000. Was this mostly from the new traffic um enforcement we've had on second? That is correct. Okay. Um
so this raises a little bit concern. Are we prioritizing safety or relying on fines for revenue? I'm they do a very amazing job. We have the best police force I think in Miami day if not Florida. I want to know
though is this I'll just let you go. We conduct enforcement. The difference will be primarily is because we trained every full-time officer as far as uh the laser. Yep. They're certified. Enforcement has always been part of the of the impact
that we have. It helps immensely with crime. We also had a a large group of residents that asked us to do have a concerted effort as far as uh traffic. The the main avenues are the are the biggest problems and then the corridors
between uh the morning the afternoon traffic. There's zero quotas. There's zero requirements, but they have the officers go out there and that's their job to conduct enforcement. That's a result as 100% zero quotas. Zero
The I guess the main thing is we've now increased our revenue from all of the traffic stops. Now, have you seen that with this increase the traffic going down has actually slowed to a more reasonable or is it still kind of the same amount from the beginning? We've
started more aggressive co um traffic stops. There are some months that are slower than others. Okay. However, I will tell you that it helps immensely with crime. Okay. It keeps crime way down. Great. Thank you. I do have a couple comments. Um because
I think the numbers don't lie. Uh I I routinely hear from the residents that, you know, the code enforcement uh efforts are just to kind of shore up the villages budget and kind of get rich on everyone else's dime. I think the
numbers would show us that there is some effort to um negotiate some of these things. Yes, we want these uh offenses to be brought into compliance, but we're not doing it um in a draconian fashion
that causes um I think undue burden on the residents. And I can't say it in every case, but I think generally we can see by the numbers. I too support bringing that revenue number down to 25,000. I would prefer for that budget
increase to be for their speeding violations because I think that is tremendously impactful and I have on my own witnessed um cars who usually zoom past they think twice because now like other villages they know that they are
being surveiled not necessarily surveiled but there are cars there ready to enforce the speed limit. I think that is important that is a revenue increase that I love to see. Um, but as far as code enforcement, I do support um coming up with really innovative ways to bring
houses into compliance without necessarily um charging the or making the offender pay the full cost of whatever it is that is the amount for the code violation. So, anything we can do, creative efforts to either figure
out programs that might help frequent violators, programs that might help with certain types of offenses like grass or ruse and those things. I support that wholeheartedly. I think we want the village to look beautiful, but we definitely don't want to become an additional burden at a time where I
think a lot of people's pockets are hurting. So, those two things that I see, I absolutely love. I love the chief of police. your department is doing uh an amazing job with enforcement. I see you guys all the time. I see you patrolling all the time and I love to
see this revenue increase. That's the end of my comment. Anyone else for the revenue page? I had a few other questions. Oh. Oh, sorry. Go ahead. Try and get through them quick as I can. Um
the um Sorry. Planning and zoning review um we had adopted for the budget um 25,000 and then it shows year-to- date is
26,000 and the request is 35,000. Now, as I'm going to jump ahead into the actual um um where is it? Planning and zoning with the Cordino group. Um, I'm just
questioning that how if we're bringing in $35,000 in planning and zoning, but somehow Cordino Group is getting paid $108,000, who's paying the extra um $60,000 there?
Is it basically the rest of Alport paying for any person that wants to do a planning and zoning job as we're like allocating the money from other people? I mean, how is that working? So uh Cardino Group does other work other than planning and zoning. The
planning and zoning uh amount that you see here is monies that the village recoups for the services that they rendered for specific residents who require the planning and zoning review. Um I'm sorry. And to answer your other question, the differential yes is paid
by the village. One second. Uh last one for this page is uh actually I have two of these. Sorry, last two. Um interest earnings uh projected rise from 5,000 to 30,000. Where are this interest
coming from? The interest for this year uh was due mainly from the interest earned for the CITT funds that were being held. Um and to note, I did make a reference here prior to the meeting that the numbers
for 26 are too high. I'm going to make that recommendation to reduce that number myself to about 10,000. So, is there a standard percentage we're making on interest or is it just in the market? It was a one-time thing. Um CIT funds were being held for non-compliance. uh
and those funds collected interest. Um once the village became compliant and received those funds, they received the interest on those funds as well. So if the CIT funds are no longer being held, why is the why are we requesting for a higher interest expected
expectation in this? As I noted before, I ma I was gonna I noted in review prior to the meeting that the $30,000 request is too high after reviewing it. Um I'm going to make a recommendation to reduce that number as well. Thank you. To 10,000.
So you said 10,000. Last one for this page for me. Um so licensing and permitting revenue. uh we have that the budget drops from 4,800 uh to 1500 next year despite that we
have local growing businesses and business bases and properties that are probably going to be developed over here. Uh do we feel that's still accurate with all the new businesses that are going to be coming to Albertal or could we reassess this? Sure, we can reassess it.
Thank you. Anyone else for the revenue page? I have just one question. Um, this might be for the manager. Um, so I see the line item for lean searches, right? But in the event that there's a lean settlement, where does
that land in the general revenue page? If someone's in the if we successfully settle a lean, yes, where would that revenue land in the general revenue page? I would let me get back to you on that. I have not seen one.
It's been a long time. It's been a long time. So before I comment on that, my question is would it land in the code enforcement revenue? Most likely it probably would. But before I confirm before I confirm that comment, I want to do my research and get back to you on that. We haven't had any significant ones in
quite a while, but um yes, we'll get that information back to you. But yeah, so I Yeah, that creates a margin of like a plus or minus there that could I mean that could vary wildly depending on even just a single
settlement. We have a few of them out there. Thank you very much, Council Bomb. Any other questions or comments for the revenue page? My name is Velvet Connelly from 355 Northeast 87th Street. I just had a quick question about what is the
difference between where it says franchise fees, electric, gas, solid waste, and then utility services, electricity. Um, and there was another one on here. Oh, go garbage, solid waste, revenue. I
just wasn't clear what what those were exactly. Sure. So, one of them is a franchise fee. So, part of your uh utility uh bills include franchise fees and utility taxes. Um and
the village receives a portion of of those fees every single month. Um, so electric being FPL, uh, solid waste being the solid waste company that provides the services here, um, for the village. Um, I'm sorry, what was the other one?
Um, it says gas. Oh, the uh Oh, the garbage solid waste revenue. Yeah, I'm sorry. That's the the non-adver that the village pays for the solid waste. Um, well, because this is revenue though, right? This is not what the
village Yeah. It's revenue to the village. The expense we the village receives the revenue and then we in turn pay the those those funds back to the uh to the company that provides the service.
If you go into the budget further into the public works, you'll see a line item there that says solid waste 410 garbage solid waste $410,000. That's the fee that the village pays for the solid waste.
Yet the village only collects 383,000. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. Augustine Ramos, 60 Northwest 91st Street. I actually came up to ask a question. Sorry, can you repeat that? Augustine Ramos, 60 Northwest 91st
Street. I actually came up to ask a question about the uh the garbage thing as well. Uh you just pointed out the expense is higher than what we take in. Is that normal? I I don't know. So no, that's not normal. Normally it should equal it should be equalized, but
the the village absorbs that expense. Um Okay. But if there's a we're getting rid of the garbage. We're we're bringing a new contract, you guys. We're bring updated contract for the garbage services. Um, and so that's going to be coming up really soon.
But also, I'm sorry. I I just want people the garbage. Yes, but uh, the these garbage services are go up annually, but it's been the decision has been made internally not to increase the rates to
the residents. Knowing fully knowing the situation with the real estate and the advalar taxes that the residents are absorbing, the village did not want to impose another increase on the residents uh for the solid waste. So that's why
you see the differential in income and revenue. Okay. But if it's not budgeted for, are we at risk for not getting it collected at some point or Well, the bud the budget there's always a risk of not collecting it because somebody doesn't pay their taxes. you're not collecting it. Uh right. So I will
tell you that year to date we've collected 375,000 of 383,000. Um so there yeah there is exposure. Um at at a minimum the differential is the exposure but there is exposure for um there to be um you know I guess not
enough not collecting the full revenue. On the flip side, I will say, you know, if you look at the, you know, the the non-advalarum revenue goes hand inand with the advalarum, right? The property taxes, if you're paying, usually pay in full. So, the point that I wanted to
make to you is we may be not collecting the full amount on the solid waste, but if you look at the advaram line item, the village by law can only um forecast 95% of their revenue. But as you can see here, we've collected more than 95%.
Right? So we're at 2 million47. We budgeted 2,434, we collected 2,478. So there is a surplus on the advaram side, which helps offset the shortfall on the non-advalum side. That makes sense. Okay. But I just sorry I I that's a bill
that's it's a bill that's going to come and it's a service that's needed. So I'm just wondering why the budget is I understand if people don't pay their taxes that's one thing but if we're budgeting less than what we know the bill to be that's not a guess that's a known fact that we that that's true that
the the additional the shortfall would be then passed on to the residents and the decision was made not to pass that shortfall on to the residents. That's the only way to make it up. It's a it's a it's a simple line item that goes on your tax bill, right? at nonadalarm and
that's where the the the village receives the revenue to pay for that service. Agreed. But we're talking about a difference of less than $100,000 between the two on a top line of 4.6 million. So it seems like it's worth finding that to make sure we know we're going to get our
garbage collected and not have it accumulating. Your garbage is getting collected. The garbage service is not stopping. I mean there's no the village is going to be paying for the service regardless of whether or not the funds get collected or not. Right? Again, it's a budget. It's a forecast. We hope to collect it all, but if we don't collect it, we're
not we're still going to continue to pay our bills, right? By law, we have to pay our bills. So, that's and that's the genesis of the question is making sure that happens. Absolutely. 100%. Okay. Um and then just a separate
comment regarding the u police revenue. Uh, I I I hope you you take in more revenue for speeding tickets. Um, and I can point you in the direction of places where I hope you take in more. Uh, everybody was here a few weeks ago uh talking about uh the need to mitigate
speed uh stop signs, speed bumps. There's a whole conversation about that. So, by all means, sir, keep going. Yep. No, but thank you for that. And again, please keep doing it. Yeah, chief. His issue is the 91st
Street that we've been talking about. The west of North Miami Avenue we've been talking about. That's where Merlin Brooks 400 Northeast 98th Street Alporto Miami 33138.
I am looking at a description here. It says street and pothole repair. Where and when was these done for the Yeah, she jumped. We uh that's more that what I'm sorry what the resident is
referencing is on the expense side of the uh transportation. That's further further down in the uh presentation. Transportation fund revenue. 13 13. She's referring to page 13. We're only on page three.
Oh, so we'll answer that when we get there, Miss Brooks. We We got you. Okay. And to follow up what the gentleman just spoke about the speed, I think we need some speed bumps and we need some police giving out some tickets on 98th Street.
98th Street is the busiest street in Elortell because everybody goes on 98th Street to go to Publix. It's time we get some bumps on 98th Street. I also would like to suggest we need to get some tax dollars from Publix because
that's the busiest street. We need to be collecting some money from Publix to do our streets because their wear and tear on it comes from them. Thank you. Anyone else for revenue?
I have a question for the manager or the CFO. Just rewinding a little bit to that solid waste conversation we were having where you guys explained that the village had decided not to pass along those additional costs to residents. I just wanted to know just for my edification if there are other municipalities that do pass along those
costs to their residents. Yes. I mean it's a strict onetoone, right? It's a a c a it's a non-adilarum uh special assessment that gets added to the uh property tax then bill that each resident receives and it's usually it's
a wash it's a onetoone wash what we charge is usually what we pay but not yeah so this is a this is a a one-off case perfect and what we've done in that uh scenario is to instead of further burdening the residents we've decided um
to go ahead and and and make sure that we keep the services flowing without any interruption uh to their pocketbook. That is correct. All right. Thank you so much. Anyone else? Revenue. Moving on to the council page. Any
questions or comments about the council page? questions, comments about the council page. Alexandra Basa, 120 Northwest 86 Street. Um I just wanted to recall the last conversation that we were having about
the salary of the council members. So that has been postponed until the budget for the following year year. Correct. So is that why it's not reflected here? That is correct. Yeah. Not only that, but it stayed the same, right? Because we rescended the
resolution. So So it stayed the same. Hello. All right. The uh the discretionary would like to um discuss possibly raising this
instead of for myself. I was thinking maybe a pool a little larger. So, if we want to do events for our citizens and different types of things that need to be done, maybe we can pull from a pool um for a little bit more than the 2,000 so we can have more uh uh I guess places
where the citizens can learn more and hear more and know what's going on. Can I um open that up for discussion and see what other council members think? Uh, I I have a comment. Uh, so I've never used any of my
discretionary funds at all. Um, have had meetings, gotten donuts, all of those things. Never got reimbured. I think the one time that I used discretionary funds was to make you whole when you came onto the council. So, I just want that stated. I want everybody to know that.
um and just kind of hold on to that piece of information. Um as it relates to your proposal, I do think that um it is something valid to discuss. We've heard in this room um just a ground swell of people saying, "Hey, I want more events. I want to have opportunities to commune with my
neighbors." All of those things. I think these things are valid. I don't think it probably belongs in our discretionary fund. I think prior to when I initially came onto the council, which was at the height of COVID, there was a public events budget. Um, and I will take full
ownership of the decision to scrap the public events budget because at that point my thinking was we're not having any public events. We can use this money for something else. Um, now that we are not having events, um, I can recognize how we've grown and changed and we do want these events. I think that there needs to be some funding of a public
events budget. Um, that lies under the purview of the manager. Um and then we can come up with what is the process through which we uh determine what events we're going to fund and at what levels. Uh we also need to look at strategic partnerships. I have one that
is in the works. It's just a a cutesy little thing. It's uh a local uh fitness studio that has agreed to give Elportal residents access at a discounted rate. It's just a neighbor series. Come out, work out with your neighbors. Come out, do crochet with your neighbors, whatever. uh this thing doesn't have to
cost a lot of money. I do think that there needs to be some funding for, you know, wine and cheese and that type of bit, but um I do think it should belong in a public events budget and not the discretionary funds or within the discretion of any particular council
members. I think that should stay as is. If I may add, um we do have a line item uh under promotional public affairs for promotional activities. So, there is a line item there. You know what? I was waiting until you got to that page. Sorry.
I was I was following my instructions, but yes, I have it written down. Thank you. So, um if I could, uh uh Mr. Mayor, um Yes. So, so I don't disagree with raising the
discretionary in a nominal way. For example, um in the past, typically what I've allocated my discretionary funds to are, um typically it's a split between a project the mayor might have that he needs to kind of pull some funds and so he'll
solicit for uh pooling of discretionary funds and then um I try to reserve at least half of my funds each year to give to the Little River Conservancy because um at a minimum they have a cons constant and consistent need for buying
uh sensors that they use to u uh measure all all manner of aspects of the canal system here, right? So going all the way out into the Everglades. So Little River Conservancy has always been kind of the the entity here locally that I've put my discretionary towards and then usually
there's some manner of special need that arises where you know uh where we use the other discretionary. So, um, to be perfectly honest, there's been years where I wish I had more to give to the Little River Conservancy because I'd used half of it and whatnot. So, I mean,
I would consider an increase of something like $500 or uh, something to that effect. Um, uh, just because I know that it can um, uh, be useful. I know I think half of my discretionary at least is already been used this year. So, I'll
see what I have left uh here uh in just a week or two to instruct the manager to um release the remaining uh balance that I have again to the Little River Conservancy. So, I know that you know there are local entities, local organizations and uh residents who are
doing things that um uh that benefit from this. Um, in addition to that, uh, there's, uh, specific types of, you know, uh, special needs that arise in the form of sometimes emergencies or, uh, just something that's unplanned for,
uh, where the money goes a long way. Thank you very much. Um, do you guys want to make a motion to increase discretionary by 500 or do you guys want to wait and revisit
it again, keep it the same for now? So my original idea was to make something that everyone could pull from like separate from our individual ones, but I do agree with council purp. Um I would like more than 500 to work
with us, but I would be very happy with 500 and and take what I can get. So I'll make a motion to raise the discretionary fund for um council seat is $500 per council member. Um, anybody from the from the audience
want to speak before we do the motion and second? While they're coming, I I want to just complete the thought while they're coming up. Um, I want to kind of uh echo council person Martin's intuition that um that the discretionary fund is not necessarily the the place for increased
activity budget and things like that. Um, uh, let's not at any point forget that those of us sitting up here on the deis are elected officials. So, I'm in my fourth term. So, whether I like it, so during my first term, I like to
consider myself not a politician, right? I still got to kind of not be a politician in my first term. As soon as I opted to take this seat a second time, I lost the ability in life to say I'm not a politician. So that was a major sacrifice that I made because of my um
uh uh genuine uh suspicion of politicians. Right? So I am now branded as a politician for the rest of my life and I'll have to own that. Um but don't forget that many special
events and we've seen this in the past right here in Elportal are technically used as campaigning events. So, I would I would exercise caution in mixing something like an event budget with discretionary where really, let's be very honest, um if you see one of us at
a public event, uh you're not going to be off base in considering that at least a little bit to be a campaign effort by that person. You would be u uh disingenuous, I think, to to paint it any other way. Yes. Say your name as for the record,
please. Hi, I'm Denise White, 173 Northwest 88th Street since I was 12 years old. Um, first of all, thank you um, Vice Mayor for getting that um, membership. Yeah. Yeah. Because I need to get in shape. Thank you very much. Um, Mr.
Mayor said this was a budget workshop, right? And in a budget workshop, we going over the budget to see where we have expenditures that maybe we need to get rid of, right? and maybe move some money around in places that we do need to get rid of. She said she was waiting
till we got to the page. That's what she said. I'm gonna wait till I get to the page because I have a whole bunch of questions. I got pages marked up. I'm I'm already right. But it's a budget workshop motions to give put
discretionary and not that it's not needed. Like we could talk about it, but right now you trying to get us to understand what happened on those papers. We trying to figure out whether we need to add this, subtract this like
the negotiations that you guys were having over what that was a big estimate. That was a small estimate. How we get to the point where discretionary fund we going make a motion? Wait, we going over too fast. It's a workshop. And as far as I understand, Mr. Correct
me if I'm wrong, but it's a couple workshops, right? It's not this the only one. Is this the only one? Yeah. And then and then we have the first budget hearing and then there's a second budget hearing. Okay. So, we got a lot of budget things to do, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. How we get to a potion about the the discretion? We don't even know how much
money we have. And was it me who when Greg said Mr. Greg, Mr. Greg, that was you who said that there was a deficit. There's a deficit. So, we planning to put some money in some places and there's a deficit. Somebody catch me my head spinning. Oh
my god, there's a workshop. Let's get to working on the workshop part. And then after we figure out how we going to fix it so it's not a deficit, we can pay for our garbage. Maybe we could then do the do do the other part where we say, "Hey,
you know what? Looking at the cost of living, they need a little something extra." Because when you look at everybody else compared might might be a reason to do that. Yeah, sure. But right now Oh, Mr. Geller, I love when you raise
your hand. What you you you want I'm sorry, but since you're not running the meeting. No, no, no. I know. I know. I was just That's my comment. They say I get to comment. I get to comment on the on the thing. That's my comment. Mr. Mayor's in charge. Not your comments.
Yeah. Yeah. Comment about your comments. Oh, okay. Okay. No, no, no, no. Absolutely. But that's all I got to say. You know, I'm sorry. I know I talked too much, but there was a deficit. We got to try and figure that out first
and then we can figure out. And I know maybe it won't be fixed this year. Maybe it won't be fixed next year. I don't know. I don't know nothing about a budget. I just got all these numbers. I'm trying to figure it out like everybody else. But right now, we just got shook up about raises the other day.
My boy put it off until to to the 27 the 27 year right now. Okay, that's just me. Okay, thank you. Thank you very much. Miss Francis, say your name. Say your name, address for the record, Miss Francis.
I got it. Hi, I'm My name is Francis Seagull. Oh, may mayor Yes. Go ahead, Attorney Gella. One second. Mayor, as to the previous
comment, um you know, this is a workshop and and that that's a correct comment. Um you certainly can by consensus as you did on on one or two things like the amount of money that you're going to
get uh possibly or that you're going to budget from code enforcement or something. You can suggest corrections, but the speaker was actually technically correct. You really can't have motions
in the sense that you can't take any action because it's a workshop. So, the comment was actually pretty well taken as to, you know, moving to a vote. every council member can express themselves and certainly the manager and the CFO if
they hear you know agreement on something as I think they did on the point about how much revenue to expect from code enforcement they can make adjustments but it is technically true since it's a workshop you really can't take a vote on something so I just
wanted to point that out thank you thank you um if we can let's have the resident speak and then we can answer all their questions um once they once they're finished speaking you guys. But the only reason uh attorney Geller
that we would do anything regarding a motion or anything like this even though it's a workshop whether it's a workshop or a town hall is because in my opinion that allows the council and the residents to have a direction heading
into the next budget meeting because if somebody says I just want to raise this to this and somebody else says no we're not going to raise that to that we have to see where the numbers lie because we have to see are we going to raise it to that or we not going to raise it to
that. So now when we get to the first budget hearing is that number going to be plus 500 or is that number going to be the same it is now. So if we go through a vote we go into the first the next budget meeting with concise direction. That's the only reason why I
feel like going through the voting process is the right thing to do when we come to an impass. Okay. Miss Seager. Hello, my name is Francis Seagull. I live at 214 Northwest 91st Street. I don't know this
is the proper time to bring this up, but um we have a lot of community feral caps in Elportell. And I would like to put a budget line item to be able to trap these community
feral cats in Elportell. They'll be fixed and vaccinated. Usually a cat trapper will charge $50 for transporting the cat and getting it fixed and vaccinating.
And that's what I would like to propose as a line item or somebody would like to donate some of their discretionary funds for this problem that we have in Elport.
Let's be the first city in the United States that all our cats are fixed and taken care of. Awesome suggestion. Thank you.
Thank you so much. George Alvarez, 165 Northwest 88th Street. Uh, just as a incidental, I adopted one of Alpertell's feral cats.
or should I say she adopted me and I was a dog guy and I love this cat so much. That's all I have to say about that matter. Um, I'm going to echo uh Council Person
Bomb's point regarding any discretionary fund. Uh, I respectfully disagree with the concept. I think it's just it's borderless. There's no guard rails. Um, we start to enter into the into the the
the the politicking. We enter into the election season gray area uh usage. I also find it super sillious considering that we've been running at a
deficit for like half a million dollars since Hurricane Irma. I think every little dollar needs to be looked at and while I have no doubt that uh the creativity and the critical thinking and I've heard
some amazing questions from the deis tonight and I really mean that um looking at some of these line items as I have with uh with the residents um but I think the kind of critical thinking that I've heard about some of
these line items from the council people and some of the explanations that I've gotten, they've been great. And that's how we have to think about any future spending, even if it's only $2,500. So, as far as a discussion goes,
I think I think there needs to be utter transparency. There needs to be ethical guidelines when it comes to using our tax money for anything that veers into the gray area of administrative work or running
campaigning or or even if it looks like there's some kind of like hey we're rewarding the people who we like you know whether you know define that in any way. um that can be avoided with transparency and
guidelines. So if the discussion is going to continue about any discretionary fund whether it's individual or pulled, I think the discussion should also include ethics guidelines. I just think that we have a lot other
things to spend our money on right now. Thank you, council. Thank you, mayor. Thank you very much. Mayor, can I just make one comment, please? You want to do it now? Yeah, in ref I just want to make a slight correction to a statement that was made in regards to the deficit.
Go ahead. Since um the village had since hurricane Irma, the village has been in a surplus. The hurricane Irma put the village into a deficit. So I want to make that distinction. Hurricane Irma put the village into a
deficit in excess of a million dollars. We're fighting on fighting and clawing our way back to get us to a positive situation. And I echo the residents uh as well. And I think this budget uh as far as saving and trying to really look
at where we put our where the the village where the residents monies goes. Um and I think that's represented in showing a $383,000 surplus. Um again his it's going to the reserves his just again historically
looking at numbers um the year-over-year and the year-over-year increase for Adaram uh over the last couple years has been roughly in the $300,000 range uh uh up until this year. This year that number is somewhere in around 800. You
look at it, it's 2 million uh about a little under $800,000. A majority of that money, as you could see, is going so the the delta year-over-year, we're talking about a an additional half a million dollars that's come going to the village, right? What
this what this document shows you is that $383,000 of that half roughly half a million dollars of additional funding coming to the village is going to where it needs to go to the reserves to build the coffers to the village so that we can be
so we can get back on stable grounds. Thank you. Thank you. You Oh, go. I didn't see you over there. Sorry. Kathy Ramos, 60 Northwest 91st Street. just in support of not increasing any of the discretionary funds for the council
folks. Again, yes, thankfully we are working in a surplus. We still have a bit of a deficit to recover from. We don't know when the next storm is going to happen. I think we still need to be very careful where we increase any additional budget for line items like this. Um I do like the I think it was
Francis her idea for a very small line item for the trap and release program. We're a bird sanctuary. These cats are killing our birds. saw it myself. It killed some birds in my backyard. Um, but I do want to make sure that we're very cognizant of where we do the
increases. And right now, we're it's just maybe just not the time just yet to increase the discretionary fund. Say your name. Velvet Connelly, uh, 355 Northeast 87th Street. Um, as far as a discretionary
fund, that to me sounds inappropriate for events, uh, for that to be used for events or if the council members are or if that's what they have been using or expected to use if they want to put on any kind of community event. As a resident, um, it feels,
you know, like it shouldn't be a like viewed as a nice to have for us to have commun like things going on in our community. It seems like that should be a specific line item that's a quality of life issue. These are our tax dollars
and I think that should be a function of the council. Something that you know they are expected to do as a part of their function on the council is to plan community events, but they should also have the budget to do that. And I also think because I've heard that a few
times, this idea of council members funding activities out of their own pocket and that being some level of expectation, that not only seems inappropriate, but I think that sets a dangerous harmful precedent for future council members to be expected to do
that because if this council is willing to do that, that's, you know, very nice of them to do that. But I don't think that that's good to set the precedent for council members to be expected to do that because future council members will may not be willing to do that. So, it
just seems like that's um you know a a system that should just be done away with where we should look at the budget, see what we have available for them to be able to create events, give them the budget to do that and not expect them to come out of their pocket for these
things because that just seems like a inappropriate, dangerous, fiscally irresponsible thing. Um, and I did just want to clarify that the CF CFO did say that we are expected to have a surplus. Is that That's right.
Yeah. So, I did just want to because that sound like got confused. So, I just wanted to acknowledge the work that you've done obviously the CFO, the city manager, the mayor, the council to bring us from a deficit to a potential surplus.
Thank you very much. Hello, my name is Gigi Crop and I've been a resident of Elbert Patel for over 20 years and a realtor. So, I've had the pleasure of seeing our values go up. GI, say your say your address for us for a second.
130 Northeast 88 Street. And I wanted to comment on the discretionary funds issue. I believe that that a way to possibly make it more transparent would be to
have an expense report or maybe to give the council members like an expense account and they have to, you know, note all the expenses that
they have and make a report to um to give maybe to the mayor or to the uh the senior accountant. That way we could see exactly what they're spending money on
and they can have it available. Thank you. Thank you very much. Alexandra Basa, 120 Northwest 86 Street. I just wanted to double check. So yes, you you're saying that there is going to
be a surplus, but is uh that you're expecting to recoup money from FEMA is I'm I'm getting confused. No. So the FEMA's we're done with FEMA. There's no more re no more funding coming from FEMA. The what the what I was referring to as far as a surplus is
for the current fiscal year that we're in, right? The current fiscal year ends at the end of September, this current month, September. So the numbers that you see here are through July. Um, right. So, year to day through July, we're our revenues are ahead of our expenses and we're expecting that to
continue for the last two months of the year. So, that's what I ref when I reference a surplus, I'm referring to the current fiscal year. And, uh, what would be the main source of that surplus? Additional revenue and control of the expenses. Uh believe it or not, we're
managing this as best as we can and fighting tooth and nail to limit the expenses uh that the village incurs every single day. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. I have a comment. I do want to pause on that. Uh when you
guys say fighting tooth and nail and y'all we we were really in a rough position, right? And the manager, the CFO, everyone has dug in. Um and we have really been trying to make the decisions that get us here. So this didn't happen
by accident. Um I think we have made really really good decisions and I think what the CFO is saying is that hey barring this event that uh set us back every year we have been running a surplus right which is good news right
we've talked about other ways that uh city administration without being asked by the residents has kind of um taken take bitten the bullet and said hey we we will pay for the overage for solid waste to make sure that services are not interrupted and you guys don't have to
pay additional money. I do think the conversation gets bogged down every single time we get to this portion of like discretionary funds and salary increases and all of these things and I do want to just urge everyone on the day to you know just kind of let this die
down. I think it is evident from everyone in the room that uh salary increases increases when it comes to the council line items. This is not something that is wanted, desirable. This gets everybody's antenna up. And I
think what it also does is it it loses or it allows some of the really great work that is being done here to get lost in some of these conversations. No one on this I don't believe anyone on this day is funding community events through their own budget. No. Uh when I came on,
we got rid of a line item that was for events because there weren't any events happening because it was COVID. So there was no use for that. And we thought, hey, we can put this money somewhere else to work on building eventually that surplus and um shoring up our coffers.
And that was a sound decision at that time. Everyone has come back and said, "Hey, CO is done. We want to get to know our neighbors. We want to have these great events." And we're taking that feedback and it is not anybody's desire to either spend their own money to create these events. I don't think these
events need to cost a a tremendous amount of money. The conversation will come where we talk about whether or not we need to refund or not refund but place some funds into that public event uh line item. um in contemplation of
these types of events. So I think we can move on to the next page knowing that we understand that public events should happen and it's something that you want to happen. There's a correct place for that line item to be and that line item
will be under the purview of the manager and not in control or from anyone on this day is I think that's the right way to do it. I think that's the way we've done it in the past. Um, I think it is the will of the folks up here to
continue the conversation um, beyond anything revolving around uh, council budget and funding. I think everybody should kind of get the idea. I'm getting the idea and I think you guys continue to try to give everyone on the days the
idea that um, yeah, people don't want to see anything moved here and there's no need to move anything here in order to give them the events. uh there's another way to do it and once we get to the events line item we can talk about how to robustly fund it, what type of events
we want to see. I think this conversation about the cats is such a good conversation. We have a dog that is on our street that is the sweetest dog and we're trying to figure out someone who will take this dog. And through that process, it just has become so obvious
to me that like we need to figure out like some solution in in between that kind of helps these animals out. So, I I want to hear more about those ideas. I want to hear about more of the public events that you want to see. I think that we we get the idea about this page.
we should probably just look at it but not propose any sort of uh increases for sure. That's my comment. Thank you very much, Madam Vice Mayor. Um yeah, I'm with pretty much everybody here. The only thing I would say is that um and I've never complained about it. I
never will or I never turn in anything, but I funded events out of my pocket here um many times since I've been mayor. Um particularly the large event or whatever. So, but it's all good. I apologize for that oversight. We're good. We're good.
I have not because I was advocating for you, mayor. I was advocating for you. Thank you. I appreciate it. But um sorry, Velvet Connelly, 355 Northeast 87th Street. Um just as a point of clarity from the last meeting, I wasn't here at the original meeting
where you guys discussed the salary increase. I came at the second meeting and what I heard at that meeting was not that there was that the issue was the salary increase itself. It's the role and responsibility of the council to un
like in terms of understanding what is it exactly that you're doing that warrants you to be paid more. And I think that really speaks to that there is a desire to see a more active role of the council in doing things for the community. And I think that's what
people was I think that's where really the rubber is meeting the road. I don't think it was even though that was the issue where it was like money that sound like that's what the point was being harped on. What I really heard of the was the undercurrent of that was what what do we see that's happening that
would warrant anybody to be paid more because we don't see activity right or we're not clear what are the roles and responsibilities that you're saying you would then assume if you if you wanted to be paid more because I know as a resident I'm open to the idea of you
guys receiving greater compensation. I was very surprised to learn the numbers of what you're compensated, but I'm also very open to seeing and more active engagement of things being done that we all are saying, hey, there's things in our community that we don't even really know who's doing it, who's in charge,
who who can do it, if we need it to be done. And if the council is willing to take those roles on, then I don't think anybody has an objection to saying you need to be paid to spend your time and effort to do something. But I think that's the point that's not being connected, right? It's like just money
is being talked about and then we're still trying to figure out, well, what are we getting for that money, right? And so I just want to be clear to me that seemed to be the issue. And that's why I think it can't just be kind of swept under the rug because I think really what's being communicated is people want to see more change in the
community. We have a lot of people around, but we're not seeing that translated to the streets, right? And I think that's really the issue. No, I I completely get it. I just think that when you're talking about I think
what we're elected or put up here to do, we are supposed to be the legislative heads, right? I don't think that our jobs are to be event planners, right? I don't think that that should I don't
think that that should be something that we then hang our hat on and say well like look at all the effort I'm putting into like this is what I deserve. The form of government that we have in Elportal is a council manager form of government. There are municipalities in Miami day county that function under a
different type of government that contemplate a mayor who is involved in the day-to-day administration of city matters of events all of those things. Those mayors get paid uh comparable to a city manager because it contemplates this day-to-day involvement and driving
of the mission. Our form of government is council manager. We are the legislative heads. We are the people that create that big picture idea of like hey this is what should happen and then the manager, the clerk and the attorney are the only employees that we are responsible for. and they are then
responsible for coming together figuring out what bits of that overarching view they're responsible for to move us towards that goal. There is no body on this body that should be involved in the day-to-day administration. Then that would be by essence of it a violation of
what it is that is our governing documents. So that would be counter to our charter. We should not be um instructing village staff directly. That's the manager's job, right? There is supposed to be this healthy buffer. Now, whether or not the council manager
form of government or uh the strong mayor form of government is desirable, that's a philosophical difference that you can engage in. But there is supposed to be that buffer. What we are supposed to say as a body is that hey, all of the community members say they want really fun jazzy things to do. We have a lot of
new families moving in. We have a lot of preschoolers. We have a lot of folks that we see running through the streets. Let's get some programs started. And we should be able to give that general directive to city staff, right? Maybe we can say, "We've met this really cool
person that owns a gym and they're down to give us like a a class at a discounted rate. We can make the connection and then they do the leg work to create the actual event. We are not supposed to be many event planners. Well, we are supposed to be our
legislative heads of this here municipality. So when I hear the conversation go towards like, hey, I want to do this and then I'll be able to do this. To me, it is directly contrary to what it is that is
the spirit of the thing. We would have to then change the charter and there's a process to do that. Um, but that is the totality of why I think this conversation is something that slows us
down because I think by the nature of what it is that we are and by the governing documents that creates us, this is not necessarily what is contemplated. Can I back up? Thank you, Madam President. I'm back.
130 Northeast 88th Street. As I indicated before, I've been around El Patel for quite a while and I've seen different events take place and I've also seen, you know,
um a mayor's group that that handled many many different things and we can form different committees. So why not form an entertainment committee with
um with with the residents and they can try to organize different different events and try also to get funding which we've done in the past from
some of the the commercial entities that we have such as Publix or or the uh Chevrolet dealership or some of our other commercial entities.
I think that's a great idea. I love that idea because I used to be on the fundraising committee of the women's club and I would go around to different places and get people to donate money so that we could have events.
I love it. We'll write your name down. Thank you very much, Miss Carl. Alexandra Basa, 120 Northwest 86 Street. Um, I just wanted to propose that we we move on. There's like really large items uh in the budget that we are not talking
to and it's already 8:00 PM and we're like in the second page. Yeah, we're moving on. We just want to make sure everyone gets a chance to feel heard. Yeah, I know. I know. But yeah, it's a process. Thank you so much for hanging in there with us.
Thank you very much, Miss Bosley. Anyone else with accounts? Okay, so so we're coming back here. So we had a motion. I don't know if we had a second. Do we have a second? Can I ask a quick question? Uh, go ahead. So on everything I've discussed so far,
we were able to discuss it back and forth between the accountant and the manager and we're able to move numbers around. It was on my understanding that I could not request or ask for a change to that item without doing a motion. Is that correct? No, I don't think No. No. Uh that's a
motion is not required. Uh we can just achieve uh discussion and consensus. And basically what we're doing is issuing a recommendation to the manager and the CFO and at the next budget hearing we'll see which of our recommendations they put in the budget. They were allowed to change
suggest that the administration what you want to see for the first budget hearing really shouldn't have to administr but we have to get the consensus of the council You can just hear from the
members if there's no objection and somebody says yes do it and nobody's supposed to both the CFO and the manager are going to get that message but technically it's a work
I understand my only point is and for every other workshop we've done if we come to an impass we do uh take a vote my only point is in order for us to move forward clearly we have to have clear direction and the easiest easest way to obtain clear direction is to have a vote
and therefore we'll see what the council feels as far as the majority of the council what direction they want to move in. Now I can I guess easily take a poll. I guess you know we don't have to take a motion if you say we shouldn't take a motion. Does everybody feel like we should add 500 to the line item?
Actually no. swimming. Um, yeah, I think with this line item, we're better served uh talking as the resident said about other line items with more impact. Yeah, I think so. No, Vice Mayor Martin, you would say no. Yeah, for sure. I think we can move. Okay. And Council Person, you would
still say yes. Yes. Okay. All right. I think we're going to move forward, you guys. Um, there was there was the vote. It was the same thing. All right, you guys. Uh, moving on. This is administration and finance. questions, comments,
Denise White, 173 Northwest 88 Street. Good evening. First of all, I'd like to know, Mr. May, can I bring snacks next meeting because Yes, absolutely. These these meetings be long and I be hungry. Absolutely. Right. Okay. All right. Um,
so first of all, where do the monies for the salaries come from? That's my first question. They come from the the tax dollars. The tax dollars for these these these salaries right here on this little paper right here. Okay. That's number two.
Executive salary. Regular salaries. Who's regular salaries? Um I believe that's uh the administrative assistant. No, he's an office administrator who functions as a um office manager. He's not an assist like my
administrative assistant or anything. He's just the office manager for your office for the administrative offices. The administrative office. Okay. Okay. Cool. All right. Um then what's the difference between holiday pay and vacation pay if I'm on a holiday? No. No. What's the difference between
holiday pay and vacation pay? Holiday pay would be specific to I believe it's the 12 federal holidays that the village is closed. So all salaried employees uh get paid for the holiday. Uh the request was made last
year at the budget work at the budget workshop. I'm sorry. That I believe the first budget hearing last year, uh it was suggested that we break out the expense uh for 24 and that for the Yes, I'm sorry, for 25. And that for the current the current
budget that we're presenting now, we also include a budgeted line item for that as well. Okay. And and Okay, I'm going to leave that alone. I'm gonna leave that alone. They told me to be good. They told me to be good. I'mma
be good. All right. And um the employee retirement fund. Um what what what percent of the salary is the employee retirement fund?
So the retirement fund is uh state sponsored. Uh the village is part of the uh state sponsored FRS program. Uhhuh. Uh those rates are set by the state. Oh, by the state. Um and it's dependent on the classification of the individual. The uh
executives, the manager, the uh clerk um pay a different uh pay one rate, the council pays a different rate. Uh the administrative clerk pays a different rate, the officers pay, everybody pays a different rate. It all depend. It's all dependent on classification. Okay.
And then the lobbyist. I thought the lobbyist I thought we didn't have a lobbyist anymore. I thought we still have a lobbyist. No, we don't. Uh we cancelled that uh this year. Uh the expense that you see there is the month of October. Uh the
expense from from October. So um there's no expense incurred no further expense expected to be incurred for the lobbyist. For some reason, I thought that the lobbyist we fired I mean we didn't I mean I mean we no longer needed him. Sorry. I'm
sorry. We no longer needed him from 2023. Is that not No, no, we did. We no longer um have the lobbyist as of October of 2024.
they were still working projects for us and so there was something we were requesting um that we did not we and eventually didn't receive but they um did incur some expense from us in October of last year. So that's why this amount made it into this budget. Okay.
But moving forward you won't see that unless we decide to get a lobbyist but I don't see that happening for right now. And I have a I I have a question, but I don't know the lobby the lobbyist and the the grant writer, right? Who who got who got us more money? I mean, we we we
had who who got us more money? Do we have do we know who got us more money? Well, I mean, I get us a lot of money from or the money we've gotten from, you know, us applying for grants and what have you. We do have a grant writer. His name is Robert Rouano. works
for Echo Strrada and they manage the grants for us. But I do the I'm I'm our standing lobbyist. Yeah. Oh, you're the lobby. But as your village manager. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. But I we were able to receive $187,000
this year. This year for for the improvement of the police um station. That's separate from other funds that we've gotten. So, another project, but that um won't be I mean when that comes available after we go through a lot of different hoops that you would see that probably in the next
fiscal year. Okay. Okay. And then um the postage and the postage machine, what's the difference between those postage and postage machine? Why? One is for the lease of the machine and
the other one is the actual postage. Okay. The village uses. Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. And then um okay so so so I looked at and I looked at the amount
for the executive salary and um questioned the amount for a place that has a deficit and he's so small he like a little rectangle right um but then I did a research I was a good girl I did research and the New Times had that
article where they broke everybody's information down, right? And then I realized that really that amount is kind of on the lower spectrum as far as South Florida is concerned and you know the amounts that we pay for what have you.
But as I also did my research, I saw that there were some places that didn't have a city manager. it just had a mayor. Um or places where the mayor got paid more or but most of the time the city manager was paid more like the most
was47,000. That's that's I thought I wanted to be president to make money like that. I need to be a city manager, mayor. You don't she Okay. Right. So I looked at that but then I realized that it's the
lower spectrum right now. So with the with that amount and I don't understand the holiday pay would be paid to her as well and wouldn't that make the amount not 142
but 162? That's my question. Right. So to answer your question, um the holiday pay would be added is the number that you should be added to the uh executive s actually let me I'm sorry
do the amount right let me let me I stand corrected the holiday pay and the vacation pay listed here for the department is both for the executive salaries as well as the regular salaries. Oh it's for everybody? That's for
everybody in the department. Okay. The vacation pay is included in the annual salary of the employee. Meaning, right, you get paid bi-weekly paycheck. You're getting paid for 10 two weeks happens to be at let's two weeks, you're getting paid straight time. It's
going to show up on the executive salary line. Comes a week where there's a holiday, the executives, the individual is still getting paid for the same two weeks. We're allocating one day, nine days to the to the line item. the executive or the regular salary line item and then
the one day is going to the holiday pay. Okay, hold on. I'm not done. Okay. Um, as it relates to the vacation pay, that is a number that is would be added to the totality. That is an assumption,
a line item. Again, being proactive. We're putting a line item into the budget, an expense. It's for vacation that the sal that the person would take um if they go away. Okay. Because when you separate it like that, it looks like, you know, somebody
getting $10,000. I was like, that's crazy because, you know, I'm worried about the deficit. And I know you said we're going to get it all together. We're going to pull it together. But we've been pulling it together for a little while. Um I do know that because when I asked somebody about that
number, he was like, "No, no, no. That's what she's supposed to get. she work hard. And I said, "Yeah, cuz that seems to be a lot with the deficit." And he was like, "No, no, no. Supposed to get that cuz she work hard." So, okay. And the fact that that's not all, you know, I'm sorry. I apologize. I thought she
was banking more than she was banking. I apologize. So, um, yes. And seeing that she's on the lower spectrum, that makes sense. Okay. Um, yeah. Okay. I think that's all my questions. I'm so so sorry. Please. Thank you.
Thank you very much. And uh mayor, if I could just real quick. Um so the holiday pay and vacation pay being separated out is actually a result of last year's budget workshop where people were adamant to understand on a separate line item how
much had been expended on I want to say vacation pay specifically. And so I believe the CFO warned us at the time that he yes he could do that but it might be in the end more confusing. So I just want to clarify that that uh having the holiday pay and
vacation pay separated out on separate outline items was was effectively demanded of uh the CFO and manager at last year's uh budget workshop. And and so uh I will say to the CFO's credit, he imagined it going just about exactly as
it just did and he said as much last year as well. So with the vacation pay sitting at $1,026 for uh the previous fiscal year, I think we are at least accomplished what the residents wanted to see, which was that we're not
expending outrageous amounts of money towards uh uh employees vacations. Does the vacation pay roll over or does it end at the year vacation? So, uh, every pay period each
employee acrews a number of hours to their vacation and sick pay. Um, it does get rolled over year-over-year. So, if you don't lose it, it does get rolled over. Um, there is a cap on how much you
can carry. Uh, I don't have that number off my off the top of my head, but there is a cap as far as how much an employee can have. Oh, I'm sorry, as a cap as what the village will pay, right? So, if the employee decides not to use it, they're only still going to get paid
whatever that cap is. And I'm It also I've been told it also depends. It's employee specific as well. Augustine Ramos, 60 Northwest 91st Street. Um, general question about the
the bank that I guess we keep our funds in and the bank service fees. Um, do we have some kind of assessment of the banks and compare their fees to others? Um, is it Wells Fargo? I ask only because of the Wells Fargo postage
machine. Uh, just we're tied to the bank. Uh, the bank is So, who's carrying the loan uh for the village? Um, so there's really we're not really able to go outside until I guess at the very least until that's paid off.
Uh, is there a condition of the loan to maintain the Yes. Okay. I I work at a bank. I'm not going to plug that bank. I don't like it. I just work there. Um, so I'm not going that route and I want to be very clear. Um, but I just banks do tend to compete for for business of different
kinds and um, just might be worth especially with them going through a merger now um, where they're not going to be the surviving entity. It's going to be pinnacle um, based out of Memphis. It may not be the wrong time to one
leverage the change. That's something that clients do all the time is sort of threaten to leave Um, just thought there. And then I I don't know the woman's name in the blue dress who's a realtor uh suggesting uh fundraising and
and whatnot, but uh and again, not my bank. Please don't. Uh but banks do sponsor things. Um they can put on events, helps them with their uh CRA requirements. Um so just a thought
there. kill two birds with one stone, get them to compete, and also maybe have them put on uh events with swag and exchange. They obviously get to meet people and possibly bank them, but we get free stuff in the process and not have to use village funds.
That's all. Thank you very much, Mr. Greg Steer, 120 Northwest 86th Street. Just a couple questions. I see the grant writer is getting a raise of 20%. And yet you don't anticipate him having any success because you have no revenue
on the front page. Is uh is there any way to find out what kind of grants the grant writer is getting every year? We the grant writer is a he's is a consultant that refers me grants that
come across his um desk and he or you know he's in in systems and gets grants for other municipalities as well. If he finds something that we qualify for then he um goes through the process of the application. The applica application
process is quite tedious. Many times we have to then employ the engineers to come in. So he still working for us whether we get the grant or not. Sometimes we don't see those you know those funds until the next year. So um over the course of a year he will come
with various grants and see if those are items that we qualify for if we can do them. Most of them are for matching funds. So that's another um you know characteristic of these grants that um we have also have to consider. So we are um paying him to also manage and
maintain the existing grants and um right now we're working on vulnerability assessment grant. Uh he's doing the administration on on that one. Um so he's he's not an or he she's not an employee. He's just a consultant consultant. Okay. But is there anywhere in the
website where you can actually see what grants he or she has gotten over the past year? No, I I could just tell you uh but I can't tell you at this moment. I can give you some information. I can give that to you. Okay. Thank you. Uh other question is
lobbyist. Uh I'm wondering why you would eliminate a lobbyist. That's the one person professional whose sole job it is to advocate for the village at the state level. Why would I mean we're spending
all this money every department practically is getting a 15 20% increase and yet we're cutting the the one position where the person's in in uh in position rather to to help us. Why would we eliminate a lobbyist?
Because they were not there was no production of any funding um since I mean it's been a number of years. The last time the lobbyist who was able to get us some funding was the roundabout that's going in now and that was for over 40 years. So it was a bad lobbyist but not necessarily a bad idea to have a
lobbyist. Absolutely not. Right. We we will reconsider it. We just haven't done another RFP at present. So uh during the fiscal year that is ending now. Um I just sent with the team we sent our um
appropriation requests in as we always do and we worked it ourselves. Yeah, but no, I'm not suggesting we forever do that. We would like to get I would definitely think that that's something the council should consider putting back in the budget. I think that's money well spent even if we didn't
weren't successful in the past. Yeah, we would we would like that. Um but also again going towards some cost savings and kind of cutting where things weren't working. We thought that was a savings for that time. Again, in the future that would be something we need to do. But
also something I want to bring up. Once we get these fundings, these funds, these grants, someone has to work them. I have no administrative staff. So I spend a lot of time on this. These consultants are just um you know asking me the questions and submitting through portals, but I'm the one that's actually
working this and this is very hard work. So grants take a lot of money to man manage a lot of staff effort and resources. Okay. So we are looking at those things as well. We would definitely need to expand administrative work. administrative staff. Okay. So, uh that leads me to my other
question about the office manager. So, that is under regular salaries. That is one person. That's a full-time position. Okay. Uh the other question I had was about the IT figure. $45,000 for it. I mean, this is not a big enterprise. It's
basically you and the village clerk and occasionally the mayor. We have meetings once a month, twice a month. Why are we spending $50,000 on it? We also have a police um um police department. Um all of our departments uh run on it. We have
a building department that's all IT related as well. We need uh the infrastructure to manage and maintain that and we have that. We have a cloudbased service and um they are a consultant that provide the service. Got it. We also do they also do our cyber security.
Uh you mentioned Echostrada. Is that a who is that? Robert Rouano. And who's what does he do? He's our grant writer. He's the grant writer. Okay. Grant consultant. Uh the only other thing I wanted to say was like I'm looking at, you know, the budget request of 700,000. You've only spent 565.
I know we don't want to be accused of patting the budget, but you're $140,000 over where you want where you say you're going to be next year. So it seems like there's a lot of a little fluff in there. The difference between what you're
asking for 705,000 what you spent year to date is 565 is he's looking just it's $140,000. Right. So talking the bottom line but 117 the 564,000 is a 10-month figure. Yeah. No, I understand that.
Right. So I'm not sure I understand. So if you want to just prorrate it, you're looking at a roughly a $665,000 number for a 12-month. Yeah. It's year to date through the end of July, right? Right. So, you're still $140,000 ahead.
You anticipate spending $140,000? No. I've been saying since the beginning that I'm anticipating a surplus through from every department, both administrative finance as well as others. Got it. And then, uh, very much if I could, Mr. Mayor, just super quick. Uh, Mr. Steer,
um, I just want to offer uh, Mr. here. I just want to offer a little more background on the lobbyist decision. So, the lobbyist actually got some successes for us. Um, it's just that year, like three years in a row, those were vetoed
as line item vetos by Governor DeSantis. Um, because a lot of the grants that were a lot of what we're asking our lobbyists to accomplish for us, for example, help with septic to sewer primarily, right? Uh, help with budget for our infrastructure. uh for um storm
water uh mitigation. We have the plans, we have the engineering, we even got the outflow. Uh we just need the money. Um and so uh quite frankly, many of the things that we need a lobbyist to get us money for fall under what's now
considered like uh banned words. So for example, like environment shows up in the type of uh applications we're applying for. So, um, so because we were, look, the governor has been taking home
rule away from everyone in Florida bit by bit for years. And so uh so because we've lost home rule essentially on these items that lobbyists have successfully gotten into the budget for us and then we are at the mercy of
Governor DeSantis uh who's now consistently vetoed our projects out of the budget as a line item veto. Um that's where we reached the conclusion that we're throwing good money after bad because uh we we had faith in our
lobbyists. they were getting things done for us but then uh the end result was was nil. So just a little extra background. Can I just ask one question on top of that? Uh madame manager just so I can correctly put this thing in my mind. Uh
in the past three years um were there ever any years where we paid more for having the lobbyists than we received in like monetary benefit from their efforts? So, did they give us more than the 90,000 get us more than the
90,000 we were spending to retain them? Um, well, are you able to last time we received um funding was through the roundabout and that was $300,000. Um, so again, that was
so routinely we were expending this and not really getting weren't getting a result back and so we put it on pause. Yeah. Okay. And comparably for the grant writer um I forget the figure but um if you would say like in the past three years has through his efforts have we
been able to procure more money for the village than we expend in retaining the grant writer. Absolutely. Okay. That's our tree grant. We we're planning those now. Those I mean a lot of these are matching. Most of them are matching but yes he is uh definitely earning his keep.
Okay. in that respect. I think that's a good way to think about it. Um, as it relates to the lobbyist, I too want to see a lobbyist um that is effective. Um, it's not only about getting yourself in the door, it's getting all the way to the end to
actually receive those funds. So, it takes a while to find the right lobbyist. So, I agree with the decision to not throw um continue to throw money in that direction. Thank you. And and I want to just add too, you know, uh the the our our legislators change every few
years and so what worked maybe a few years ago isn't working right now. So again, we needed to step back, assess um what's happening in Tallahassee and we will um we definitely put out an another RFP for lobbyist services. Good point.
Uh George Alvarez, 165 Northwest 88th Street. Uh a couple questions. Uh the first one, actually the first two were literally asked by the vice mayor. Um so, uh we we got an answer. I I would
just kind of like to say that from an outsers's perspective, um it a grant writers increase fee of $5,000 does seem a little bit excessive to me based on what I'm hearing. I may be
wrong. Um I'm eager to hear uh if if so. Um but otherwise uh what the vice mayor and council person bomb said is is is given me some answers and some context.
Second quick question are for for bank service fees are we by any chance charged more based on what our balance is on any given month? In other words, is there kind of like
premium levels? Does anybody I don't Do you know what I'm saying? Like based on what we're carrying, do we get a better deal or are we dinged less? I understand what you're asking. I full disclosure, I don't have the the definitive answer. I would like to think
that the fees are probably based on average collected balance. So, it will fluctuate monthto month based on how much uh money's in the accounts. is there a way and would it be in your purview, Madame Manager or uh Mr.
Toenfeld to chase that a little bit or or is that just like that would just that'd be like chasing the market or something to to chase better rates? I well listen I I'll go whatever
direction the manager and the council suggest I you know tell me to go uh what I again but I'm believe and I'm almost certain that we're tied to Senovas. As long as we have the loan we're tied to Senovas. I I can dig deeper and see what those fees
are, but uh again, we're tied to to Sonovas for Material School 104 Northeast 86 Street. Um I would like just like to have a clarification from our attorney. Um this line item here, it says um legal
retainer every year. Um we had a legal retainer according to this last year 80,000. This year 90 something thousand. Um my understanding of illegal retainer is we are retaining you. You get paid a retainer. Why is that renewing every
year? The simple answer is because we render services every year. But shouldn't that be a fee then and not a retainer? You could use either term, sir. They're for our purposes. They're basically interchangeable. Uh we were brought back
having been council for the village before we were brought back I believe it was November of uh I think of 20. Not question not questioning that. My question was really retaining like the retainer because my understanding is I
pay a retainer if I retain somebody. The the terms are basically interchangeable. We've been paid $8,000 a month for the last five years. It's still $8,000 a month. We haven't gotten any kind of a raise, but that is a
monthly flat fee for however many hours of service we need to render, including sitting here, what I think will be quite late tonight. So, like I said, my experience was a little different if I pay a retainer. That is a onetime thing and then you could call it a monthly fee if you
would prefer that term. It's the same. So, that is basically Yes, sir. It's $8,000 a month. Thank you very much. Thank you, sir. Thank you very much. I I forgot to ask this before. George Alvarez, 165 Northwest 88th Street. How long have we uh had our IT
team? I know it predates my arrival here in 2017. I'd want to say is since 2016, but I'll have to look at the contract if if we've if we've been with them as that long
you and I'd love to get that answer when whenever it is that you know that answer for sure. Mhm. Are our needs such that they are um very active in
what we need them to do? Aren't we just aren't I guess another way of putting this and and this will be a little glib. Uh are they just kind of running on autopilot at this point and sending No, you know, like they don't have to come
here. they they can just be on the cloud. So if you could give some clarity to that and just to to I can to the end of is there a way to get get them to decrease their fee because of that and if I'm incorrect then obviously
the second question know if we can get them to decrease um I'm surprised they haven't increased it but um but I'm not going to look at gift warts in the mouth. We use it every day. It's for everything. You know, we are a administrative staff of five, but you
know, we have contractors who also work with us. And um you know, everything we do, we have to rely on technology. So, we're trying to make things as easy and streamlined as possible for the end user, which is the the resident, but um you know, we utilize it for almost
everything here. So, um they're not here on site very often. Um but you know we they have to come every time we get a new employee or every time there's some issue with the power out it power being out we have them uh come down there in I
think Boca Raton or you know somewhere a little bit north of here but um I've also considered doing a request for proposal just to see what else is out there. Um, so that but also no without administrative staff. I just did the
solid waste RFP. So that could be something I look into this year. I don't know that it'll be less, but maybe it will be. I don't know, but we all have to look into it. We also use other softwares like BSNA for our building department, Gov Pilot for code enforcement. So we need all of those um things. We got
FDLE to certify them through FDLE, which is a long process. That's true, too. I'm sorry. The chief just brought up something too. We have to certify you know our um IT through uh FDLE as well because they have to you know again cyber security other um um clearance.
Yeah. Clearances that are required we have to to follow those protocols too. So we utilize it. Yeah. All right. Unsolicited testimony from uh the lady in the second. Thank you very much.
Alexandra Basa, 120 Northwest 86 Street. Um, a comment about what Mr. you know, Council Orban said. Um, I guess if environmental is not a good word to use, you know, like a good lobbyist would find different ways and flood, you know,
is something that can definitely, you know, call anybody's attention. So, it's like finding a better lobbyist could be something that we could all use, I think. Um, another thing that I wanted to request as someone that doesn't have any background in accounting, I noticed
that like the variances in more than one place um percentage are not accurate. So for instance, this holiday paid, the vacation paid um is shown as 100% and it's actually like 874%.
Uh and that happens in several point you know. So just for clarity I think sure the var I think you're you're not reading the variance column correctly. The variance is is uh FY25 budget
compared to FY26 request. So it's the increase in 26 uh over the 25 budget. So the reason why it's showing 100% for holiday pay and vacation pay because we budgeted zero in fiscal 2025. We're budgeting 10,026,
so it's going up 100%. It's really not divisible, but I put it at 100% because it was went from zero to something, right? But if it's, you know, like for it's or it's easier to read when you say because it's not 100, it's a it's 800. It's not 800. That's what I'm trying to
tell you. It's not divi. The real answer is that it's not divisible. You can't divide a number into zero. I mean, that is one point out of a few that I found. That's my comment. Okay. Thank you. Um, Velvet Connelly, 355 Northeast 87
Street. Um, I have a couple questions. So, one, what is other current charges? Miscellaneous charges, minor expenses that don't fall into the individual line items. Uh, uh, birthday cards for the
staff, um, holiday decorations, um, you know, maybe holiday party, you know, items like that. Okay. So, is that like a type of discretionary fund? No, I wouldn't call it a discretionary fund. Okay.
Um, and then my second question was for the website and maintenance. What? Because that that just seems high for for the website every year. Okay. I I I don't think that's high, but
okay. Um, this is our web master and um she maintains our website. I don't why do you think it's high? Um I mean well unless you guys have functionality on the website that I haven't experienced but just like when I
go on the website it seems like a basic WordPress site and so for for a website that's not having a lot of technical function. I mean I'm you know in in my business you know I definitely know that websites can get very expensive but
that's based on what the the function of the website is right but when it's just like a you know kind of more like a textbasedformational style site those are not usually very expensive to maintain it's usually hosting right is is like the maintenance on it and then if you're needing somebody to update or things like that
so I don't know what the backend is like as far as the development that you guys have of what the site is doing But at least on the front end, it doesn't look like the site is requiring much. So I don't know. That's why I was asking. Okay. I And I don't I don't know how I
can answer that except that I mean it's functioning. We have all departments on there and various ways to, you know, apply for certain things within the village to get information. But if there's more, I mean, I'd love to sit with you offline and talk about ways it
could be better. we do another RFP for web design. Yeah, it seems like in general to me like it looks like there's a lot of opportunity for costsaving just in terms of like but these are things that like somebody would actually have to like you said sit and really go through what are
the range of prices and things like that. So, I was actually going to ask if we could get a line item to increase the administrative staff specifically for like you mentioned the grant writing, fundraising activities, and finding cost savings.
I I understand that, but I think that we have found the saving in making those people consultants. If we make them employees, we'd have to pay the benefits. Those salaries would be a lot more than what we're paying our consultant. Okay. To add to that, the the benefits
portion can range depending on the title of the individual anywhere from 20 to 45% of the individual salary. Uh but are you able to hire them either as part-time or are you able to hire
them as hourly and not salary? There's still a cost factor as it relates to FRS for part-time employees. So there is you still would have that fee. um as it relates to the insuranceances and and and that nature, I guess they would not qualify, but there still would be a cost for the uh
FRS portion of their salary. And also, oh, also I want to this is not related to that, but just about the web um master. This person also does all of our graphic um art um is that included in this feed? Yeah, it's called web master and
maintenance. And so she creates certain things for us um that is distributed in all the flyers but also other documents and creating you know uh art for the village. Okay. Well, if she's doing graphic design then that's low. Yeah. Then that that's a good price. But if it's just for the website then that that did seem
high and I'm sorry. That's why I wanted to make sure I added that because I'm like she does a lot. Okay. Yeah. Then that actually seems good. Um, and I guess my my line of questioning as far as like adding administrative staff is also more along
the lines of if it if we can have the staff that actually is doing functions that drive revenue, right? Like and I guess that's what I'm asking is like because it sounded like you were saying earlier that some of these things are not taking place or not
happening at the level they could because this because it was underst staffed. So that's why I was saying like is that creating another type of deficit in the finances because we're not having dedicated staff to put to some of those things that if we did dedicate resources we could actually have more money
available. That was what I was really trying to get to. And and probably in the long run, yeah, if we did invest into the administrative staff and um and that would increase and improve services and maybe create some other opportunities, but again, that's
cost because we also need uh higher salaries and as you've gone through this, you know how our salaries are, you know, and and it is um what it is, but we need people who operate at a high level. And so I I think that's why the consultants have been um our saving
grace because we didn't have to pay them the 50 60 $70,000 salaries and the benefits. I'm sorry. Go ahead. I guess we can use me as the example, right? I'm a hired consultant. So the benefit to the village is saving roughly
45%. So hypothetically on $100,000 salary, right? As a consultant, the village is paying me hundred thou would be paying me $100,000. As an employee to the village, that cost would be closer to $145,000 when you consider salary and benefits. Understood.
So that's what the message the manager is trying to say. Consulting route is a more economical route for the village. There is that cost, you know, plus I guess cost, you know, positive analysis that you have to do bringing on an individual, right? What is that benefit that that individual brings? Um, but I guess now
we feel that it's probably better to keep every outsource everything right and get the work accomplished that way and try to again save as much money as we can internally. Understood. But then I would bring it back to the specificity of employees that specifically have a
function for generating revenue, right? because if there is revenue that's being left on the table that the village could be taking in because of activities that are not able to be performed on a regular or consistent basis, I think that's worth looking at. Right? If we're talking about the the money that we have
available for the the running and the managing of the entire village. Um, and to that point, I would go back again to the events conversation because I think that is a missed opportunity. I know in my business, one of our main revenue generators is events, right? And so
events are not just a social experience, but they also are opportunity to bring revenue into the village, which again makes these conversations, I think, easier to have, right? Unfortunately though, as a village, we're not really we can't go
out there and generate revenue, right? Our form of gener generating revenue from the outside third party would be through via donations. I mean, so if that's the way you're looking at it, it' have to go via donations. But, you know, to to run an event or bring somebody in
and say, "Hey, we're charging $25 for family and friends to come." That we cannot do. No. Events have lots of ways that they can generate revenue. And I would like to ask also because I did ask the mayor that the other day and I still haven't gotten the answer about what statute is that that you are are going based on
when you say that you're not allowed to generate revenue as the village. What what law is that? There are certain things that are within municipal powers, but they are classified under home rule. Recently,
some of those opportunities have been curtailed, as Councilman Urban said, by the legislature because they've been in invading the home rule powers of counties and cities and dictating who can do what. And that's that's a problem. That's not
to say that we can't have an event where we ask people for some kind of a contribution or donation or something in order to come in. But it's questionable whether or not we can exclude someone
because they say they're unwilling or perhaps unable to pay that if it's already remember it's already sponsored and paid for with public funds. So unlike when a business or some other
private entity does an event, every dollar that's being used is public funds to underwrite it and citizens have the right to say no, you're you know not you're using my money and then keeping me out of the event. That's a problem.
And part of the other issues with with doing that are simply whether you have something that's actually attractive enough. I mean frankly, can I can I just clarify one thing, Mr. Geller? I want to be clear when I speak about events, I'm not speaking about charging the public, right? I'm talking about events that would be free to the
public that would have a sponsorship opportunity because Elportal has a lot of things about it that are very unique and and uh a lot of businesses would want to be involved with things that are happening in Elportal and there are major missed opportunities. We are bird sanctuary. We are a nature preserve.
There are so many companies that would want to pilot programs here that would want to, you know, be associated with the things that we have a federal distinction for because that's unique to our area and events is what opens up that opportunity. So, it's not about
charging the public anything. It's about bringing in opportunities for businesses to invest in our community through those events. And that's what I'm saying is a missed opportunity and a way that events could drive revenue for our municipality. Ma'am, I certainly don't disagree with
you. My answer was only the first part of an answer. Yes, sir. Okay. Because there are various ways in which a municipality can raise funds and secure donations. I wanted to be clear on the part that talks about charging
members of the public. I certainly don't disagree with you about the possibility of raising funds in a proper fashion through sponsorships, although it's a little trickier than you might think
because we are not a 501c3 or 501c4 organization. And there are some businesses may be happy to sponsor and choose to underwrite, but there are questions about and I'm not a tax man. and I have some in my firm. It's not me
though. But there are questions about the deductibility of businesses contributing to a city, which is why some cities organize their own foundations to be able to receive those donations and have the funds be
taxdeductible. But simply giving to a municipal entity, which is an arm of the government, without more is not likely to be taxdeductible. And that's a little bit of a a contrary push about getting those kinds of donations. However, that's not
to say that it can't be done. And certainly many municipalities do partner with businesses who are anxious for whatever reason to be able to sponsor and underwrite. The fact that we're a relatively smaller population
does not necessarily act in our favor. But again, your point is certainly well taken. I'll just point out that um unlike many municipalities where I've worked, um we don't have a deputy clerk.
The city manager does not even have an assistant city manager. Uh we operate on kind of a shoestring budget in a lot of ways to keep all expenses low. And the kind of thing that you're describing is
well within our grasp, but in this municipality, it might take citizens such as yourself who would be able to actually put the fairly extensive time in that's required to
speak to business entities, to negotiate your way through to decision makers, to get them uh on board and and frankly our staff isn't blessed with a lot of extra time to get things like that done. So
there's a couple of ways that that could be done. certainly a very intriguing and potentially promising idea, but whether it requires a citizens board um if there's a a as we've talked about here a
greater role that can be played possibly by elected officials. Yeah. Um and whether citizens themselves can step forward. the mayor's just established a couple of committees that, you know, would be able to help shepherd that kind
of thing. So, it's a very interesting idea. It could potentially generate quite a lot of funds. It's just, as I suspect you know from your description of it, it's just not as easy as it sounds.
it. Somebody has to dedicate a considerable amount of time, effort, energy, not just to plan it and to organize it, but to execute it. So, none of that is to say that you're not completely correct. There's just a
series of steps that have to take place for that to happen. Agreed. I appreciate that, Mr. Geller. Um, and so that is why I will go back to what I originally said, which is I would like to propose a line item for administrative staff that focuses on bringing revenue into the village,
right? that that is their sole function is generating revenue whether that's through like we talked about the events and I also will go back to my original comment about having the s the village council play a more active role in those things as well because I think we do
have the the uh you know the resources available it's just about you know transitioning those resources to focus on these activities because at the end of the day our our village runs off of the revenue that we have so that's one of the most important functions that we can focus on more than other things is
how can we bring more money into the village without taxing the base. And ma'am, let me just say that uh that sounds like a pretty good idea to me, but um I just have to say that part of it. I mean, I'm here to say what we can and can't do and provide guidance. The
the rest of that is kind of above my pay grade. I defer on that to the manager, the CFO, and the policy setting council. Um, it sounds like something that might be an exciting idea to do it if they can, you know, kind of bite the bullet,
put the money up front, invest to make that happen. But that's for not for me. I just say what we can and can't. Thank you very much. Thank you so much. Let me just ask um because I just want everything to be clear. Uh because I think what she's saying is a great idea.
Um, I was always told when I put on events and when, you know, I paid for what I could pay for and if I ever got donations, I was told that they could only be used for that particular event. Like, so if I get a donations for $10,000,
but the event that I'm doing only cost $8,000, I can't carry over that $2,000 and put it in the general fund for something else. Putting it in the general fund is or allocate it for something else. Well, That's what I'm trying to say, man. Uh, putting it in the general fund itself is
is somewhat problematic, but that to some degree depends on the donor, the donor's intentions, and what the donor wants to see happen. Again, there are issues with telling a donor that this is a taxdeductible donation. But there are ways
municipalities solve that problem. And there are ways that I I think it's fair to say what you were told is a reflection of the method in which the donations were solicitated solicited and
how the village operates. So there could be other ways that could be done that some municipalities go to where donations are more general in nature and possibly even taxdeductible. In such a
scenario, it is conceivable that if one event um was less than what was solicited and the donor was okay with the donation being more general in nature, perhaps that could be arranged. It's just not automatic. It has to be
done and it has to be done in a certain way and it involves some questions of tax policy that in my case I'd have to consult with our CFO and with my partners in my firm who are more familiar with how nonprofit donations
work than than I am personally. But it's not it's certainly something that can be explored as our our resident is just pointing out. And a quick thing on that too though, mayor, but a sponsorship and I think that's why that language is important, right? Because sponsorship
doesn't necessarily conflate to donation, right? And so it's like a calling something a sponsorship and having something that you're giving in exchange for that, whether that's the publicity, whether that's access to the community in a certain way, takes it out of having to be classified and then
handled under the distinction of donation. Correct. Yeah, that's what I was going to ask. Is there a way that we can get the language like in the resolution format that's more clear so that we can then or is that just administrative policy or because it seems to be like it seems to
be like we're we're trying to find the right way through but I want that in writing so that we know exactly what the right way through is and put that through a resolution. Mayor, it's certainly something that we can explore per this very good suggestion, but I'd suggest to you with all due respect, we
can explore that offline. It's not really part of our budget hearing except for the part that it's being suggested that there be an additional line item
budget position to focus on acquiring uh revenue. Um there is a difference obviously between appropriating the funds for that and trying to implement it before the program is outlined. Uh it
may I would think off the top of my head we would need ordinances to accomplish that and we'd need to do some research and it's probably nothing that can be accomplished in this budget. But if it's
the council's pleasure to set aside an allocation so that when the paperwork catches up to the idea that funds are available in the budget to fund that position, that would
be the way in which we would go about it if that's the pleasure of council. And whether that, you know, is a a one month or a three-month process, I I wouldn't want to predict at this point because there are some additional policy decisions that the council would need to
make. But for budgetary purposes, um you know, allocating the money, appropriating the money, and saying it's there to be used at the point when the program is ready to go forward. That's the budgetary decision that you would
consider at this time. Thank you. Can you state for a second? Um, I love the idea. I I will be the first one to donate $1,000 to your thing and make it a big event for Elporties. I would love to see the community come back together.
And I want to see this community like be able to talk to each other and be able to express their feelings and their understandings of what's going on. And I would do it for my own business, not from my general fund or anything like that. This would be my personal money. Um, I would like to ask everyone here,
the council, mayor, the attorney, manager. She asked a question at the very beginning. I didn't hear it answered. Forgive me if it was. Is there a law that says that we cannot have revenue because page three is entitled revenue?
I thought I did answer it. It depends on the kind of revenue. depends on the source of the revenue. It depends on how you organize it, how you set it up. It depends on the donor's intentions. There are things that are not legal and then there are things that are legal. So there's no law specifically that says the village can't generate
revenue. That was what I was originally asking. The village can when you say generate revenue, it depends. I mean again for if if there's a foundation, well then probably yes. But is that for the village? That's
not a a a yes or no question. There are laws that prohibit certain things. Yes, there are some laws that say no, you can't do that. Are there creative ways that you can assemble funds and find things like I mean if someone is doing a
sponsorship and they're doing it in exchange for goodwill and publicity and they're paying for something as opposed to writing a check to the village. if they're paying uh the music or something
like that, is that generating revenue for the village as opposed to generating a benefit for the village? Certainly, there are things you can do that would generate a benefit, but you know, whether the check is written to the
village, that's a whole different question and it depends on how you're structured and how you organize it. So, there's it's just not a like a yes or no question. It's a complicated question that can be addressed. So a word smmith can make it happen no matter what.
It's more than words smithing. I mean it's not just a question of how you word smith it. It's a question of complying with underlying law such as tax law. Yeah. But I think the general thing was because what I was told originally was
that government can't generate a profit, right? And so I was asking around that what law says that and then how is the word profit being defined? Right? The word profit could be defined a lot of ways in your question. Government is
not in government is not a business. It is not but government conducts business. I'm not sure what that means but government is not a business. It does not operate to generate a profit. It is
in the nature of a notfor-profit. It is not exactly a not forprofit. But it is in that nature. That's why when people say government should be run like a business. Businesses are in existence to make a profit. Governments are in
business to provide services as efficiently as possible. But they are service providers. So when you say to make a profit, is there a set of occurrences
that can result in money coming into municipal coffers that are different than the amount of money that's being expended? Yes. Is that somebody's definition of
making a profit? It's not my definition of making a profit. But again, that becomes a question of definitions of what the word means. Governments can operate, for instance, enterprise funds that generate revenues. Sure. There are lots of ways that government can
generate revenues, but I don't consider the word revenues and profit the same. Exactly. Yeah. And I think that's the distinction. And it's like if if something happens where the the uh village generates revenue and that
revenue is then spent on the village that doesn't meet the definition of profit. Yes. Right. And that so I think that's what we were talking about is is revenue generating activities but that you are allowed to engage in business activities which is you know uh you know the
government owns airports right they own parking garages right like and so those are businesses right that the even if they're not you know whatever the semantics is on the back end they're generating revenue right yeah they generate revenue
and then that money just has to be reinvested into the community. Exactly. So, I think that's what we were talking about. Yeah. Thank you. Um, you go. I'm try I'll try to be quick. So, Daniel
Roas, 60 Northeast 86 Street. Uh, I know we want to keep going. I just figure uh maybe nitpicking or penny pinching just because uh everybody's kind of talked about everything already. Uh um as per water cooler rental that includes
the actual five gallons being delivered or is just a rental because as I I had to research to take into my office a water filter cost $300 like a top of the line water filter can cost you $300. We're paying $2,500 every year to rent
water filters. That's that seems like a lowhanging fruit. It includes the water as well. Even at that that sounds pretty high. So just like just to echo what's been said RFPs with the IT I understand it it's uh nobody likes spending money IT because
you don't see that money but you use it all the time. It's a lot of set it and forget it. But if you're thinking about also your cyber security it's definitely a good thing to do RFPs or find out what what is what get new quotes on the
service every year because it it continually changes and you also want to make sure you're getting the best the best team to provide those services. So it does sound like it's a really good price but as as uh I guess uh Velvet had
mentioned like with a website the a lot of you bring a new team in yes there's some discovery there's some assessments they have to do and that has an increased cost but for the most part once they set it it's kind of like you set it and you forget it right if you did a good job in the beginning you're not going to have that much issues so it
really like the recurring cost of providing these services is lower um so it it definitely would be a benefit to the village to kind of like how we do with insurance, right? Every year with insurance, we have to get new quotes. With with these guys, it's a service. So, you you you should kind of get new
quotes, see what you can do, if you can do better. And thank you. And you guys are doing a great job. Thank you. Thank you. Denise White, 173 Northwest 88 Street. I I don't have any more nitpicking for me right now. What I want to say is thank
you for being under our scrutiny and allowing us to cross question, massive question, dig in your business and talk about your salary. I appreciate that. Um, usually we're over here and we're throwing, you know, dirt this way and
trying to figure out what's going on over here. um the budget being so many numbers and us being well me being let me talk for myself me being completely new to stuff here um I just want to thank you for being patient with us because I know
that we are digging in your business right so thank you very much for allowing us to be so microscopic with our microscope and dig and to try and understand what our village is spending money on because really and trul Truly,
if you are working with absolutely nothing and deficit and trying to make it, then it's because you love us, too. Yes. So, thank you for loving us. We love you, too. But that don't mean that we're not going to give you a hard time every now and then. God bless all of
you. Every person is here to serve you. All right, you guys. Are we good with administration and finance? Yep. I have a general a general question and I think it just goes across all of
the um departments at least that are under our purview. I know last year we spoke about um executive reviews and formalizing that process. I think for me that would be a great starting point for us to just have a really quick snapshot
as to all of the things that are being done. If the manager is functioning as the lobby, as the grant writer has secured funds, all of those things, I think that's really great things that could be enumerated out in that formal like review process. I think that would be great for the residents to hear to
get some sort of uh feel as to um what's going on behind the scenes. So, I know we spoke about implementing them last year and I think there was an initial blush, but I know that wasn't completed. I think it is of dire importance. I think that needs to be something that
jumps to the top of our lists as a way to um very clearly and straight in a straightforward manner evaluate the performance of staff and justify um some of the numbers that we see on this on
this really great grid. So with that, I do want to just, you know, I know we're not making any formal motions, but I want to kind of implore all of us to think about moving that process forward so we can have a formal process by which we evaluate the performance of the manager, of the attorney, and of the
clerk. Uh something that's really quick that can have them give us an idea of their highlighted issues for us to think about resident feedback, all of those things. All right. Uh, I have a few questions
now. Um, I'd like to see uh consolidation here. This seeing the PTO, vacation pay, sick pay as like line items that are all separated makes no sense. These are all PTO days. I that you guys have to decide that. I'm
just following the direction of from you uh the commission. Last year uh it was recommended and voted uh to present it this way for the upcoming budget. So, if you want to change, I'm I'm I'm here at your discretion. If you want to
change, I guess tell me what you guys want me to do and I'll go ahead and do it. What makes sense is whatever's on the contract. We look at the contracts. If it actually says PTO on their contract, vacation pay, sick pay, yeah, you can have it all line items. But if it's if it's not saying it that way, we need to just consolidate because these these are
all basically the same thing. I agree. Again, I'm just doing what was asked of me and requested. So uh can anyone answer are these all individually line item on clerk and manager's contracts and or is this um
written differently worded differently? So um the manager is different than the clerk as it relates to holiday pay. Uh vacation and sick I believe are the same. Uh the police I is different
because they're under the FOP. So it have to be under the collector there what'sever stipulated in the collective bargaining agreement that's what we have to abide by. Um and I believe the police chief is similar to the manager. Okay. So I didn't hear an answer there.
I just will say if if since we're not voting tonight, can everyone agree to consolidate the PTO vacation pay and sick pay? It really shouldn't change the numbers, right? I believe that's correct. Um, so I'm not sure if that that question is
being directed to me. Um, but again, I'm at the discretion of the commission. Um, again, last year it was voted to be presented this way. Um, just doing what I was asked if it wants to be changed. Putting everything back into the line item. Does anybody have any um
objections to it? One second. We'll hear from you in a second. From the council because we have to vote on this from the council. Does anybody have any objections to putting everything back in one line item if it's all the same? I don't have an objection to it. Okay. Um before we say it's it's going
to go through because we're not really voting, I guess. But I heard I guess I think I heard like a like you know a consensus. But come let's hear you first and then we'll uh go through that consensus. While I respect uh George Alvarez 165 Northwest 88th Street. While I respect
the spirit and efficiency of council person winter's idea, uh I believe it is antithetical to government transparency. If sick pay, vacation pay, and any other nonregular salaries are not denoted in a
public fashion, it can be assumed by more skeptical skeptical members of the public that there is something going wrong. We need to show them transparently. And if they're not going to be on our
budget summary, then there needs to be an issuance of a signed and countersigned contract for each employee delineating those perks. And they are perks and they're great perks
uh each year and they must be stuck to uh and there would be some sort of penalty to the village for not disclosing those otherwise public records. So I think there might be more than more than one way to skin a cat in
other words. But uh I think transparency is is very important. So unless there's a counter move to that idea, I would uh urge you to oppose it. Mr. Alvarez, these items are zero. There's actually no number, no amounts
on them. They're just line items without actual Well, you know, in in pre previous and you're you're bringing up a good point. In previous years, there were empty cells. Like I'm going back to uh 23 for 24, 22 for 23, and there's just like
blank spots that do have a corresponding category like vacation pay, like sick sick pay. For example, in last year's budget, there's no indication that uh some of the staff here were getting $10,000 in vacation pay or $10,000 in
sick pay. And you know, to me, those numbers are a little bit high, but I see the value in them as well. So they're they're not they're they're they're nonzero numbers that in the past were not indicated and were not easily found by the public. So like I said, your
idea, I get it. It's like it's it it makes sense from a a standpoint of like being efficient, but it does not make sense from the standpoint of transparency or or or or sunshine law, I would imagine. But I I would let you know, attorney Geller address that. So I
I would urge you guys not to do that for now because if you do it, there needs to be a counter move, a symmetrical move on the other side. And and and that's not what we're here tonight for. So thank you for your time. I I I hope you'll
keep an open mind to that. If I may add, just to clarify, um the payouts that uh Mr. Alvarez was referring to is not vac is not was a vacation and sick payout which is comes
under PTO which is a line item that is not budgeted because the employee does not have to take out doesn't have to cash out their PTO right the vacation and uh holiday pay line items that you see here is just an offshoot of what I
described before employee norm works a two week normally works a full two weeks they get paid on top line if they happen to be sick or take a vacation, it just shifts to uh the lines listed here. Again, with the exception of the clerk,
uh her contract stipulates that she gets paid holiday pay as well on top of the salary. Alexandra Vasa, 120 Northwest 86 Street. Um what is the procedure to request copies of the of those contracts, the the employee contracts? You can just
reach out to us and provide you email me. I'll get them to you. Okay. Just like I the signed contracts. Okay. Thank you. Uh are we done with the administration and finance page? I had a few more questions. Okay. Go ahead council.
Uh the uh travel and predium located uh for the manager. What uh travel and predium uh is happening and what is it for? Sure. Uh this is something I believe that's also stipulated in the contract. Um it's also it's her monthly
pdeium auto allowance and other expenses that she may incur for meetings that she attends u mainly gas receipts, parking receipts, stuff like that. So this is part of the manager's contract where she gets uh perdem or per a vehicle. Yes,
that is correct. Okay. Thank you. All right. Any other questions from the audience? All right, looks like we can move forward to I believe we're on page number six, which would be the planning and zoning
department. Any comments from the audience about anything that appears on page number six, which is the planning and zoning department? State your name and record. Your name and address for the record, but you're familiar. I have to have you over for coffee one
of these days. Uh, I'm George Alvarez, 165 Northwest 88th Street. Um, I do have a couple questions. um wondering if Mayor Nickerson would be the quickest uh answer of those questions, but uh I'm
I am uh uh definitely a a little bit of a flag for me is is some of the increases not just this year but last year uh compared to the previous year with the fees to Plurerbia and the Cordino group,
not so much printing and binding. Awesome. I think the manager can opine on that. Okay. Yes. Um well in terms of placerbia this these are project specifics um to urban
planning for the village. So we did um in terms of last year we did the um these I think it's called um gosh I want to say resilient streets but that's not the exact name the streets master plan. Um
and other you know things that they weigh in on in terms of the site plan reviews or considerations that are coming for new development. So they um that fee is for that and Cordino conducts our our usual um planning and
zoning reviews and come to the meetings and you know walk our residents and um developers through the process of variances and what have you. So these are for the services that that they're providing us. And with this new development happening in our annexed
area, more work um was required of them and is still required of them even if some of the work does not con does not con commence until the following year which is possible. Yes. Because they're still going through
back and forth. the site plan reviews are talking and consulting with them to make projects that fit in the village or you know fit. So they are always talking and we haven't gotten those plans yet but they are in communication with So when you when you say they do I'm
whoever is Do you mean it Cordino or Pluservia or either or either and both or both? So depending on the what is going on. So, so the the reason that we're paying
Pluserbia $120,000 over last year and this year totaled. Oh, right. And they're also doing our code amendments again specific to projects that they're working on. Okay. So, it's it's not the dayto-day that the Corodino group is doing. So, Blerbia is
the urban planner and they're meeting and doing those meetings, but also doing the projects such as the road um master plan that we talked that I just spoke about from last year and then this year is the code amendments. Now, um for Cordino Group, they're the ones going back and forth on the regular with the
developers or people who want to develop or who want to talk about what the village would allow, what can we do for seven, those kinds of things. That's what they're fielding. So I I I mean do you you you believe that this is
you know a question I'm I'm asking with true interest okay that the work that either of those contractors is doing has increased
that significantly from let's say 2023 until now. um because that that's a a pretty big it's a pretty big increase. Now obviously my experience of Serbia is is a theoretical one. You know they're
they came and they so my experience with plurby has been uh a theoretical one right they've they they came they gave workshops they asked about what was important to people that is obviously 0.01% 01% of the work that
they do for the village. So whatever that 99.9% is, has it increased that much over two years um to warrant these kind of numbers? Or are we or or maybe I'm just
not thinking big enough that we're about to see very very big things in terms of both code like all the legal writing that that that Mr. Geller's firm wouldn't be doing and also like the actual urban
planning of of acres and acres. So I'll So it's that then Mr. the the answer to that to your questions is yes. Um, I'll also add that um over the last couple years, Cardino Group also took over the planning and zoning
uh for the village. And then just keep in mind also, right, there's an offset talk, sorry, talking about generating revenue, right? On the flip side, there's a revenue line item where we pass on the those costs to the res to the residents, right? Because those are project specific. So, there's a line
item on the revenue of approximately $35,000 to help offset what you see here of $108,000 cost for Cardina Group. Wh when when will we be able to get a sense of what those projects are? Obviously, I'm talking about east of the railroad
because we're all curious about that. Um, but also in a more general sense to be able to ascertain for ourselves our our own informed opinions as to whether or not there is a value to these
vendors. You know, I I I I believe you guys. I want to believe you guys, but I do want to educate myself at the same time. I can't speak for them specifically. I'll being the the finance guy, right? I'll talk about the economics, dollars and cents. All right. What these are
these these are items that what's the what's the alternative? Right. It's either somebody else or in-house, right? I think the in-house option the an in-house option you discussed. We've discussed that, right? So again, that's where it comes down to. And I
believe the code amendment again the placerbia uh increase is like the manager mentioned is uh job specific, right? It was the code enforcement uh the amendment to the code to the code, right? So, have we seen it the fruition
of it yet? No. Right. Is it work in progress? Is it coming? The answer, I guess, is yes, right? But I guess we're all in a wait and see pattern to see. Well, you you you you you hint at a a kind of a a way to divide those two. And I think that this is very important.
There's the code enforcement, you know, and I I think I saw uh in our in our budget, whatever was lined in for code enforcement for 2026 was obviously a bigger number, significantly bigger number. So, is
there estimates on uh is that code enforcement of somebody's whose uh hedges are short? I mean, how does that how does that break down when you guys inform the budget? So, what you're uh getting Yes. So, the
what you're sorry, the code enforcement budget that you're referring to, the increase is mainly due to adding uh taking a full-time, I'm sorry, part-time employee in house and converting them into a full-time employee. Oh, so that's where the major increase is coming. Um I let the manager speak to
that. And and again we're going back to project specific when it comes to um um placerbia. Again urban planner it doesn't have to be this um firm but an urban planner would be needed considering what is going to happen over
here. So the fruition the coming to fruition. We're waiting for it too. I would love to see some plans that actually go beyond um you know a very um preliminary presentation to me and Mayor Nickerson, but I mean we haven't gotten there yet.
So I know that they've had various renditions of plans go through you know uh coradino group and they've consulted with Serbia as well about the um trailer park but then we don't hear for from
them for a few months and then come back with somebody else and so I don't know when that's going to come to fruition but that we do need them to do that. Mr. Alvarez, could I for a second just ask a question? Um, also from the manager, um,
would having an urban planner, this master street plan, those types of things, would that be useful in your efforts, uh, with, uh, having people lobby or receive grant funds? Correct? Absolutely. Those master plans that we've created um, with placerbia um, uh,
help us when we are seeking funds because we are now at the point if we have the design or we have the master plan, then we know how we can build out. we can't go and request funding when we don't even have a plan. Um many times we aren't, you know, we may get the design
um funding and we aren't going to get the construction, you know, that comes after, but we have to at least have the master plan. So, we have storm water master plan, you know, streets master plan and a resiliency master plan that's being worked on by Craig A. Smith. So those are things that we are working on but all of this helps us seek funding as
we move those um once those become you know uh finalized and then we go out to find funding. And Mr. Alvarez, can I just layer one thing on top and then I'll address to your question. I'm so sorry to interrupt you. Um it also matters like how these plans look, right? Um
and these specialties exist in local governments. I I can't really name one local governmental entity off the top of my head who doesn't have planners and zoners or an urban planning department. So, there's a need for it. There's a need for it in making sure that the
village develops in the way you would like it to, but also in getting these really great funding opportunities and sources. The real question is just how we do it. to get a a qualified planning and zoning team comparable to what exists in other municipalities, it will
cost us a bit more than quite a bit more than what we're spending now. So part of why we do have a skeleton crew is because we've made this decision that instead of being very heavy as it relates to salary, we would maintain the
nibleness of the village um by outsourcing. So we can engage in a conversation as to whether or not Cordino Group is the right outfit or whether or not Placerbia is the right outfit. But the need for the specialty exists and not only because we want to
make sure our built environment is what we want it to be. But also in addition to that, we want to make sure that we're ready when these funding opportunities present themselves because sometimes it there's a lot of lead time and you can scrap a group together and make something. But sometimes these funding opportunities present themselves in um a
more truncated temporal sense and you kind of need to have your plan ready and see whether or not you can get funding. So the conversation that you're kind of starting is a good one like how do we evaluate if this is the right provider
for the service but the service I assure you is necessary. So hopefully that just adds a little bit more context and I'll let you get back to your question. Indeed and and I mean you you brought you brought up a another another point. You you sort of uh took it further and I
I appreciate that. Um, urban planning, yes, code enforcement obviously important. Um, it's a day-to-day thing and I can only imagine what it would be like if they were not available in a day-to-day way. And, uh, thank you for informing me about the
issues regarding seeking funding through some of that planning. That sounds very important. And I know that, uh, ideas of resiliency are very important to some of you on the on on on the council as they are to me. Um and if there is any
opportunities therein, sounds great. But that does bring to the next the next point that the vice mayor with the wisdom of Solomon uh brought up. Um
the value perhaps we pay Cordino Group X is Cordino Group and its work at level of X dollars the appropriate organization to meet the needs that are being
negotiated right now between Elertell and any new developer. So that's a question that I cannot answer is a question that I've wondered very much about. Uh and this Mr. Alvarez, I have to say with all difference,
we're not here tonight to do vendor selection. We're here tonight to set the most reasonable amount that's going to be allocated to it. So talking about who it
should be really is keeping us from reaching conclusion about what people think about the budget. We're only looking really at the numbers. The question of whether we have the best person, whether it's the best bang for
the buck. Those are separate questions that don't have to do with adopting a number. That's our best most reasonable guess of what's going to be required to do what we need. Thank you. And with all due respect, Attorney Geller, I believe,
and I am not elected, nor am I appointed in Elpertel, so you don't have to do it. You don't have to do a a a thing. This context is important in
figuring out how Elertell is going to spend Elertell's money 2026 2027. It is very wise to invest whatever res research can answer the questions that the vice
mayor and I are are are wondering about. To your point, does it move this evening? I doubt it. It may not. But I would like to remind everybody of the urgency that will be like on us at a
certain point. And it would be terrible if at some point in late 2026 or mid 2027 or golly gee 2033 we discover that we have not vetted and that we're not ready and that there's
going to be an impact on our village that we did not see coming. So that's why I bring it up. Is it about tonight? No. Is it about 2026? Probably not even. But I do think it's important to start
asking those questions. And if it changes the pencil in on our budget proposal, I leave you guys uh gentlemen and gentle women to to to make that decision. I
just, you know, want to say that it's very important. Certainly, there's no question that it is a very important thing to look at. Otherwise, one second. All right. Thank you for indulging me.
Thank you so much for the comment. I appreciate it. I do think globally we need to look at how we are evaluating our service providers. Uh I'd like to say something on that. Mr. Alvarez u had many valid points
tonight. Um how can we adopt a number if uh the PNZ is not functioning correctly? We've already seen this uh at the beginning of today that when we talked about revenue, we said there was $35,000 coming in um and then $108,000 going up
and then I then learned that residents are subsidizing some of the construction and planning and zoning. Is that's not true then? So what is the actual reason? So Corodino Group provides a wide range
of services. One of the services that they provide are zoning and plan review. All zoning and planning review are job specific that relate to projects that are going on in the village. Those projects are those individuals or
property owners I should say are repaying the village for those fees. So the $108,000 that you see is a $9,000 a month retainer for all services provided. The $35,000 revenue budgeted number is anticipated revenue for one
specific job which is planning and zoning review. So we've had a lot of concern residents recently with both P and with Z. Um we've had many errors with caused multiple council meetings to be delayed
or rescheduled because like quarter dino group didn't make their pre preparations. They made many mistakes. We had um residents miss their projected timelines uh due to the fault of the Cordino's delays and errors. From what I understand, I think the clerk and the manager and the mayor are doing a lot of
Cordino's work before the meetings themselves. Um so when these residents report delays that the Corn staff were unavailable due to illness, which is a real thing, I wonder why the village contract with the group is focusing on a
single individual. So the trust and reputation is being lost right now with this group and I have trouble wanting to put any numbers in a budget for uh companies that are losing trust with our village uh residents. So I I would like
to take these concerns and say that I I don't want to see any more problems and wonder if we can request a formal review of post Serbia and Corodino Group um within the next month so that we can prepare properly for the budget line
items for these two companies here. I don't uh we I need more specifics about what you would look for in evaluating these two. I would work with you offline if you want to do that so we can figure out how to evaluate in a way that would
address your concerns. Uh also knowing you said you want this in the next month. Um we may not have that time but um but if you work with me we can maybe put something together so we can evaluate that. I'll be happy. It's not specific to these these companies. It's
just for the the work that is needed. But I'm open to, you know, review of other companies and considering other RFPs. Now, from what I understand though, uh the like plus Serbia, you have $60,000 here. Have we not paid them for the actual code uh work they've already
done? Some of it it was a two-year um project. We we divided it out that way. So part of it was in the last fiscal year. The next part is in this coming up because it takes two years to do the project. It takes two years but also for
budgetary and fisc to try to be fiscally fiscally responsible. We chose to plan it so that we could spread it out over I guess end of 25 beginning of 26 where most of the work is being done so we could allocate the cost into two different fiscal periods not putting the
full burden on the current fiscal year. So, from what I understand, in December, they're supposed to be giving us their plan for code. And once December's over, they don't have any other contracts with us for other items, right? So, this $60,000 is from right now in September
through December, and then after that, they're not getting anything else until we approve it. Okay. Um, I will uh meet with you later, but I would like to have something emailed from you to the rest of the members here so that they can give their input on the
cordial group and give any information they feel. You said you want me to email something to them in their contract. Email them myself. No, no, I'm asking what that is. You said something. Oh, email their contracts. No, a uh a formal review a or something
to let them review them. a formal review. Okay. I'll look online to see if there's something standard that they can review them with and send those contracts with the review documents to you all and I'll review it myself, too.
All right. Um, anyone else for painting and zone hearing? Seeing none, let's move on to the village clerk. Any questions, comments? hearing. Seeing none, good. Move on to public affairs.
Questions, comments? Yes, I do have a question. Uh, can we create a line item for uh citywide events and fund it?
What is the Let me take that back. What is the line item for promotional activities right now? Forot every everything that sorry everything that you're describing. Okay, perfect. Can we change that the title to citywide events and fund it at
that level 20,000 and then at a subsequent meeting maybe we can talk about what is going to be our marquee event and how we're going to Sure. go about doing that. Perfect. Yeah. Let's remember that um the state of the village is what that was kind of
being used for. Um doesn't have to be that much, but remember the state of the village is the only thing that um per charter we have to we have to do for sure. And so and you you've come to like one or two of them that I've done. And so that's always great. And what I try to do is is not to make it because and and you and most of us um
probably have been to a state of the village or state of the city address. They're usually kind of like really like galaish. What I try to do is not to make it that way. I try to make it like a community event for the kids. You know, I do I have the music. I have the bounce houses. I have the food trucks. I have a
I have the characters um walking around. So, I try to make it to into like the yearly fun event to bring all the residents together and the state of the village which is required by charter. Perfect. I love it. I also think that some of those really great uh bits of
advice that we got from residents would be best employed here, which is partnering with the bank, uh the Frost Museum. They do like a a science for kids little mobile unit that they do, but lean on our partners to augment that um and then figure out I know Halloween
has been a really big thing and folks want to see that. I want to see it too because my boys are very into Halloween. Um, but maybe we can talk about what those specifically enumerated events are going to be. We can fund it right here. Also, I'd like to add, um, I know we are
by charter supposed to have the state of the village, but we because we're a tree city, we're also supposed to have an arbory day celebration. So, we do that, but you know, just know that would be something be in there as well. Okay. Okay. I think we have a comment. Um, so what
the public affairs include? Uh, anything that Daniel Ro has 60 northeast 86 street, sorry. Um, public, you know, we discussed the cats and the pearl cats and all that stuff. Yeah, that that could come that would come out of that also. Um, unless somebody wants to do it through their discretionary fund, but because if we
decide on it and through, you know, as a council, that would also come out of that. So, I mean, there's different ways to look into this um as we've been discussing, but and we we may want to, you know, just get through this tonight, but then think about it going into uh
first budget hearing because we may need more money in this line item. Yeah, for sure. But maybe we can reach out to some some different uh organizations that might be sympathetic in that way and see whether Exactly. the humane society or some other outfits and
see whether or not they have any interest in the partnership. Absolutely. Perfect. I'll reach out. And Pelican Harbor is coming up. Maybe they know somebody. Yeah, they have a great facility. One thing that I know I don't know if anybody pays attention, but the iguana
problem keeps not getting addressed. So that would be actually very important for some of us. Absolutely. Thank you. Velvet Connelly, 355 Northeast 87th Street. Um I would like to propose that
this um that there be a specific line item for events, not just kind of, you know, encapsulated in promotional activities, which sounds like that could mean a lot of things, not just just the events uh for the community. And I would
also like to propose that this item goes to the council budget over public affairs. Um putting that back as one of the responsibilities of the council for the purpose of allowing for more civic engagement, not making it an administrative task that then it's now
insulated as government function that doesn't allow for the community to participate. So I would I would ask that the council would take that responsibility of being engaged with the community activities and that they have a budget to do that. Uh yes, I think that's what I instructed
the CFO to do is to change the name promotional activities to citywide events. If that was in uh unclear, I apologize for that. Is that what you understood? Perfect. No, but I was saying that B well and I might have misunderstood what this gentleman was saying, but I thought with his question
where he asked about the cats, I thought the answer to that was that that would come out of promotional activities. That's not how I understood it, but I'll let Mr. Tominfelds explain. Yeah. Anything that Sorry, go ahead. That I think that is what the mayor said, right? That
Yeah. So, so anything that's public affairs that doesn't have its own line item, anything that deals with the public, it would fall under the public affairs. Um whether you're talking about events, whether you're talking about uh anything like that, book bag giveaway,
anything any type of even like town halls and things like that. If it's a villagewide town hall and it's not under specific person doing the town hall, then that town hall like a Saturday morning or something like that, it would fall under public affairs. All of those for me would be events. The
cat thing I thought would be something decidedly different. And I think we can think of where to place that where it makes a little bit more sense. But also, I do want to clarify and just the CFO back me up. Just because it appears under the public affairs line item doesn't mean it's not a function of what
elected officials have to do, right? It's just where it's housed. So, I can say that I want to I'm doing whatever event and I'm taking it from the public affairs budget. It it doesn't matter
where it appears. Uh it's just what the function is, you know. Understood. Yeah. And also if it's important to you that your elected officials um host events and are active in that way, of course. I mean, look out for the
publications, look out for the events. And if they're not doing what you want them to do, you have a very effective way to deal with that, which is to not vote for that elected official. But it doesn't have to be in the underneath the village council budget for it to be
something that is contemplated and done by the village council. That answers I don't know if you asked the question but just to explain that. Understood. So then maybe you could answer this question for clarity. Um I think the CFO will probably answer it for clarity but I didn't ask it yet.
Go ahead. Okay. Um and anybody can answer the question honestly because it's just question. Um, but as far as the city council budget, my understanding was that's the budget that you that is allocated for the council members, not
necessarily this council that's sitting here today, but the city council, whoever those people are that would be elected as you said, cuz you guys may not be the people sitting on this seat, but the budget would still remain. And so I think what I was my understanding of what is in your budget then says that
that's in your wheelhouse and that's a part of your responsibility as the council. And so that's why I was asking for that to be allocated that way. But I don't know if that's what that means. That was that's what I was asking is like if it's on your budget does it then
give you as the council members not only greater authority but greater responsibility then to then use those funds as they've been allocated earmarked. So that's what I was trying to get at. I don't understand it to be such. I think your responsibilities are your
responsibilities as you understand them, right? We all are we choose different ways to um I suppose express our legislative powers up here. If you want to do an event, if even though that line item isn't under your budget, it doesn't
mean you can't speak to the city manager and say, "Hey, I want to use X, Y, and Z funds out of the public affairs budget." Um, so it doesn't really speak to what you're supposed to do up here and neither is there a line item of all of the things that you are supposed to do
or not do. I think it just a lot of it depends. I'm sorry about that. I don't know if I can help, but they oversee that budget. They're the public affairs committee. So they're on top of that budget. They're the ones who give the directive. So this same they would be the ones making those decisions too.
So I think that what you were saying is that you wanted to see it under Yeah. I think for me what they what's more significant is that the public is able to engage on those events that it doesn't get absorbed as something administrative that then is
handled by the city manager. Right. No, it's it's the public affairs committee and this is it. Yeah. And then also that it would be something that is not based on interpretation because then like we are talking about the this is a changing council, right? And so then
every time it changes is based on what they think they should be doing versus no, this is the expectation. And so that's what I was saying is how do we how do we align this so that that's a clear definitive thing that people who sit on the council understand that they would be expected to do and not just the
interpretation of who the person is sitting in the seat this time. So by the nature of the by the nature of the position every elected body is going to have a different idea of what the priorities are. Every elected official is going to have a different idea ba as
to what is going to be an impactful event. So there is going to be variability on that that level. But I understand what you're saying, which is that you want the council to be more active. You want to see events, you want to see engagement. I hear that. And I think the budget and this change that I
just proposed uh accounts for that, which is there's going to be a line item in the budget that says citywide event. Um and everyone, I think up here will avail themselves of that line item in the way that they see fit. But by the
nature of just the position, there is going to be variability. No two bodies are going to put forth the exact same events or think that the exact same issues are those that are pressing. Neither will they be because time evolves. So I think you're getting what
you want. I have I have one example of the Yeah. The reason that I answered your question is because I've been I've been here 10 years and I've seen them change and I understand what you're saying. Yeah. Because when I came here the city council was was putting on events and then tonight you said you don't think that that's a part of your
responsibility because it's legislative again. But I'm seeing what you said tonight. You said that that your role is legis. Could I just finish what I was saying after I'm done saying what I'm saying but I was speaking first but I'm finishing. Um what I said is that I don't think that the primary
responsibility of an elected official is as a party planner. So that is my belief and I think I'm being very transparent and honest with it and you can accept it or you can say no I think something different and both of those can coexist.
So the reason that I chimed in and I'm sorry to interrupt both of you was because I've been here 10 years and I solely manhandled when there was big big events. I think you were here and I think uh Mayor Nickerson was here and I was here on the weekends with my kids
putting all those eggs together and I understand the need. Um everybody has a different view and most of the council members here have different when each council member comes they decide as a whole. That's why I said they oversee and I think I'm trying to get a gist of what you're trying to say. What I'm
trying to say is that I'd like to see that we put forth something that leads to uniformity where it's not then subject to the interpretation of each council that comes on because the community then suffers by people's different mindsets of somebody who thinks that they should do less, somebody else thinks they should do more
and that doesn't lead to continuity within the community, which is what we expect as residents, not to be under somebody else's interpretation of what they think they should do for us when they really serve at the pleasure of the community, which is what it should be. And so there just needs to be a baseline
of this is the expectation and when people go to sit on that council seat they understand that's what they're expected to do not based on their opinion or their interpretation but based on the expectation of the seat in the position. That's right. I'm the one who you would if you want to be elected I'm the one that you would sit in with. And that's
what I explain to a when I sit oneon-one I do a lot of the explanation but I'm telling you from my experience that I've been here a long time. Um, I've had I've had certain council members or certain governing body where they've
pitched out an idea and I ended up doing the idea all by myself. So, they can pitch unacceptable, but it's all different. What happens is that this council that's here sitting on right now came in with COVID. Some of them didn't, but some of them did. And so, she explained it in the way that she did. So, one council member who was
here, she said, she's not here tonight. She stripped the budget completely. There was a budget for it. So if you see previous years, you're going to see that there's okay, Fourth of July, there's here. So that's why people also come and run, I guess, because they have different ideas of how things should be. I'm just trying to say
from my experience because I wanted you to get a little more clarity. Not that I have any say in this and I'll provide additional clarity as well. If you would like to go and look at the budget of a lot of municipalities, there's one big
municipality out there that throws a very very big uh jazz in the garden event. Take a look at the revenue and take a look at the expenditures. Sometimes these events very often these events can turn very easily into vanity
projects and the only person that wins is the elected official. Some of these events are being thrown and the people that live in the community cannot attend. I think that's a shame. I think our job as elected officials are to worry about how to make your life better, how to make your streets better,
how to make the schools in our community better, how to create events lowcost that allows us to connect without having to worry about what's in our pockets. I think it's important work when we talk about the street master plan, which is what I've done. And I think it's
important work to talk about making the community safer and making the uh streets less filled of people who are speeding. These are the things that I spend my time thinking of. I'm that type of elected official. There are other elected officials that love events and
love vanity projects. That is not me. I'm about the work. I'm about making people's lives better. I am about the realness of connectivity. I think that that can be achieved in an event. I don't necessarily think that every event is thrown in that vein. So when I say
that I'm not an event person, it is because I love to think about planning and zoning. I love to think about policing. I love to think about urban planning. I love to think about the streets master plan and how we can really make something exceptional in Elportal. And I know that there are other council members that are very
skilled in events. Um, and they can do that. But I do a lot of hard complex work up here. Um, and I'm proud of it. and that's what my calling card is. So, I just want to offer some clarity on why it's separated out. So, um someone
referenced earlier the only um chartered u like event obligation was the uh state of the uh village, right? So, in the in the charters, it's established that there will be a state of the village.
That's an event. It requires money. So, there's money in the and the budget for it. Right? So there is one other uh mandated activity although it's not in the charter it's just within the requirements to maintain a Tree City USA
status for example. So um so uh one of the requirements to maintain Tree City USA status is essentially to have an Arbor Day event. It doesn't stipulate what the event has to be, but there
needs to be an event that is dedicated to the awareness of Arbor Day. That's one of the that's one of the activities. So, uh that in the always falls under public affairs. So, if we put the citywide events budget, formerly known as promotional activities, under the
council, right? So if I want to put on the Arbor Day event for Tree City USA uh you know uh uh satisfaction then I technically if it's all under just the council then uh if I'm able to get to
that budget first then that entire budget would be mine for the Arbor Day event. Whereas under the public affairs separated out, it it basically indicates that there's going to be a committee decision made on how these monies are spent. Whereas like for example, you see
in the in the council uh page, uh the discretionary funds are basically um lumped. They're not they're not five separate line items of discretionary fund, but that's because it's understood that each individual seat has an allotted amount. If we put something
like the citywide events budget of $20,000 just into the council budget, then basically whichever council person gets there first to that money is going to throw a $20,000 campaign event. So I will say in the years past large events
that we had uh were quite frankly like flatout like PR events for he's not he's not speaking of my event. I'm not Yeah. Yeah. Previous administration. Yeah. Yeah. I'll be very clear about that. And so, so like one like listen listen one event
one event I witnessed there was a it was supposed to be like a backpack giveaway and literally we had like 60 people just standing in the heat for an hour and a half while the mayor at that time went on a tour with the fire truck for photo shoot. like they were gone for like everyone's just standing here and the
mayor leaves on top of the firet truck and then like 30 minutes later mayor comes back and then lets everybody into the air conditioned space while everyone's standing outside for like not like it was ridiculous because everyone had gotten there before and then the mayor goes on the tour with the fire truck previous mayor or a different
mayor so not this mayor um and so uh so so part of the reason the public affairs as she said there was another council person who's not here tonight but uh was adamant that our public affairs in the past had not been used the way it's supposed to be used which is essentially
for the benefit of the residents. Um so her thinking was we don't need this large item for all of these big events when really what we're trying to do is outreach and engagement which does not cost as much. And so we're still sorting through actually what the
reconfiguration of what public affairs should or should not be doing. But but the fact that it makes sense to have it completely separated out because if you just put it in as a lump sum under the council then somebody is going to just take that budget for their own use essentially without the benefit of the
current situation where a committee needs to basically agree on how these things are going to happen and what's going to happen and how much going to be spent. So in the past I will say public affairs events have also been heavily subsidized by the women's club of Elporttowal um in terms of both
volunteer uh preparation labor hours as well as uh donation of um like material and supplies. Uh so in the past we also you know uh relied heavily on uh other organizations as well. So, so I'll just say that in terms of why it makes sense
that this would be kind of separated out and maintained under public affairs. I agree that we would like to see it a little more little more uh uh in view of what we're trying to accomplish with that. Um and that is a work in progress
right now. I appreciate that explanation um Mr. um and ultimately for me the events is not about you know vanity or any of the things that were suggested. I think that
it has to be a priority in El Pal to bring revenue into this village. We have a lot of projects that we all see need to be done and the answer keeps being we can't we we don't have the money we can't afford it and that's not operating in the best interest of the village to
to settle as that the answer is not operating in the best interest of the village and that's just the bottom line you can say you do complicated things but when we have problems that you don't bring solutions to that's not operating in the best interest of the village. We need solutions to the problems, not kicking the can all around and seeing
why it can't be done. And so that's just one way that we can generate revenue into the village. I'm proposing that. Open to any other suggestions of how we can bring in revenue, but I haven't heard that coming from the council this evening. I haven't heard any ideas or suggestions. I've
heard people grandstand about things that they've done. But then as we leave here tonight, we still have all of the things that are not done and all of the money that says that we that that they're saying we need that nobody has offered an explanation of where it's going to come from. So what I'm asking for is people to actually get
accountable about the things that need to be done. Stop playing these games talking about all the things you already do and let's just focus on how do we solve the problems that we have. And to solve problems, it takes money and it takes manpower. So, I'm proposing solutions to get the staff that we need
and to get the revenue that we need to be able to get these projects done because I just want to see a solution. I appreciate that. Thank you. Don't run away yet. Sorry. So, um, our job is to fill the will of
the people and I heard it from you. It's very obvious. I hear it from all the other residents. I'm planning on doing projects here in the next year and I I don't like hearing from other people that these are vanity projects. That's just a scapegoat to get you away from being in the driver's seat.
Very disrespectful. So I I would like to actually suggest that maybe we do break this down because councilman Irvine was correct. There are mandated events. There's a mandated uh state of the village address. There's a mandated Arbor Day.
Um I I heard earlier I think uh Mr. Mayor, you said that we could even use town halls with the uh personal activities which is now going to be called citywide events. Is that correct? Yeah, absolutely. Cuz I I paid out of my discretionary fund for my town hall in March and it I
did I was told I wasn't allowed to use any other funds they were used for other things. I I would like to see some more line items here and break this $20,000 dollars down so that we can say, hey, maybe we break up $500 of it can be for town halls that need to be used. maybe
uh you know whatever amount needs to be used for Arbor Day, whatever has to be used for his uh uh state of the village, but but we should also add on some of these other things we're talking. So I want to do a safe streets Halloween, which means I'm going to hire the police off duty to close off Northeast 86,
maybe fourth and third, and then let all the kids come and and I've already talked to most of my neighbors here in Sherwood Forest, and they're all on board. So they're we don't even have to pay much money except for our to our own police staff. They're going to give out the candies. They're going to put up their own decorations of their house. The whole village is going to be
involved with that. But I would like to see a line item here so I can pay for those offduty police officers for that. So, um I don't I guess we can't make motions tonight, but how does everyone feel about adding uh three line items? We're not adding more to the budget, but
taking it from this and separating it. Having uh the Fourth of July barbecue back, having a safe street Halloween, and having like a small amount for a town hall if we need to have one. Those things are for the public affairs committee to decide. So, the question is, what is the budget for the public
affairs uh citywide events? Right now, we're sitting at 20,000. Does everybody agree that 20,000 is an acceptable amount for citywide events regardless of the line itemization or do we need to change the number to something else? I like that thought. Um, talking about
the numbers and then later on we can talk with residents and come up with the specific items. I think 20 is a little light. Yeah, I think I think 20 is a little light. Um, 30 is it 30? Is that the number? Yeah. So this so this is the thing and
and this may be something that this may be something that we need to think about and then you guys our first budget hearing is next week. It's it's the 9th. It's our first that's another budget meeting next week next Tuesday. Okay. I think that because we may be
here for a long time with this. I think that we may want to think about it and then come back with our ideas. The only thing that I will say is this. I think that it's going to take in the direction that we're going in. I think that it's going to take
it's going to take not not a significant amount like but it's going to take probably another 105,000 you guys for what you guys are talking about. Now the only benefit um to what and I'm not saying we should go back and revisit this but let me just point this
out. The only benefit for the council and for us going through this process, the only benefit from what um council person Winters was talking about earlier with discretionary
is that it allows an individual with their own ideas to do what they want with that discretionary money. And then when it's done, that's their decision. What we're gonna what's going to happen here is what Council President Urban's
talking about mentioned earlier, which is now everything is going to be in a big trunch of money. Who decides what is more important than what anybody else does? Who decides that Halloween's more important? I've been want to do a holiday block party. I think I think the holiday season's a
beautiful season. I think the holiday season is when everybody's happy and joyous and things like that. I think it would be wonderful to have a Halloween block party with with um lights up and down the street. Is that more important than Halloween? So, so we're going to get to a point to where if it's not in discretionary to
where I can just say, "Okay, I want to do a Halloween block party. If nobody else wants to do it, I'll just use my discretionary and that's it." Or Council Person Winters wants to do Halloween. If nobody else wants to do it, that's his discretionary. That's his position. If somebody else wants to do an Easter egg
spring hunt, that's their discretion. They can do that. If somebody wants to do a book bag giveaway, that's their discretion. Now, we're going to get to a point to where we're going to lead to a lot of debate about what's important and what and what's not. And that might lead to a long debate. That's that's the only thing I I want to throw out there. But
I do have a little a little thought on that. We also don't need I think 12 different events. I think if we can agree on, which I think we can agree on three marquee events that we throw our energy behind and also beyond that, you
still have those discretionary funds that you can um pursue some of your independent ideas on. The only thing is if we don't just fund this thing into oblivion, it forces the council to lean on strategic partnerships, to lean on
their connections. and we do have connections and we do have strategic partnerships that we can still create that magic and not necessarily have to expend all of the money. There are different organizations that would love
to partner with the municipality um if not with monetary donations within kind. I know Frost Science has a mobile science unit that my kids love and they would love to do something in the village of Elportal. So does the library
system. It just forces us to think outside the box. I'm not saying that anyone here is doing vanity projects. I'm saying we all know municipalities where elected officials are throwing these events, where they're on a a
firet truck and there are 60 people who don't really need it but are receiving some benefit. I don't think that's right. I think that we're savvier than that and we're more wellconed than that that we can figure out how to get these events off of the ground without
necessarily funding this thing into oblivion. And if we're wrong next year, we can take another look and say, "Well, we aren't as well connected or savvy as we thought." But I think that we are and we can make it happen. Um, with that funding and also in addition to that,
funding that public affairs budget at 3035 and spending the time it takes to think about three blockbuster events that we can put our heads together um and execute. Um, Velvet Connelly, 355 Northeast 87th
Street. Um, to Councilman Winter's point, I think that's what I was really trying to get at. It sounded like with the promotional activities budget that there was a lot of things that was being included in that and it wasn't clear what all of those things were. So for me
it was the breakout of the events for that to have its own number of how much money is going to be spent on events and then whatever other things that are a part of promotional activities that just being made clear of what is that budget for because I think you can't determine
how much you need until you understand what is this money being allocated for which for me under promotional activities or even the change that the vice mayor um proposed of changing the name it still didn't make it clear what is that money what are all the things
that that money is being expected to be earmarked for. So I think to Councilman Wter's point that is the point right is to just kind of understand what are we expecting this budget to be used on and how much of that will be able to go to events. Um aside from that again the
reason I said to bring it back to the council is because as a resident I don't think it should be up to the council of what the events are. I think the community should tell the council or be a part of that conversation of what events we want to see and that be an open conversation, not a a again a
legislative action taken by the council to say this is what we want you to have. But but it be like how they are with the committees where it's engaging the public to say people can propose, right? The public can propose, hey, I'd like to see this or I'd like to have that or you
guys make your suggestion and the public speak on it. But for me, it was more about it being a collaborative process that engaged the community and not just imposed something on the community that was based on some idea that the council had. Thank you.
Wait, wait. Don't run. Stay say. Uh, well, I was I haven't finished talking to her. You want me to just keep my mouth shut? Okay. So, um, what I heard earlier was there was this three event arbitrary
number that we should pick out, but what you said actually made a lot of sense. So, getting the community involved in finding out what makes sense to them. So, some things are obvious. Obviously, we have the mandated arbor day. Obviously, we have the mandated u state
of the village address. I mean, it makes sense for Fourth of July because that's America. We are American city here, right? But uh maybe uh you can speak with me afterwards and we can find out a way to uh get the residents together and and and find out what they want and what
would make them happy and we can then bring it to the budget meeting uh next week and see how everyone feels about it. Sounds great. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Baza. As important as events and community is,
please say address for the one uh Alexandra Basa, 120 Northwest 86th Street. I just believe that there's so many things that are important to the well-being of the city as the police and all sorts of discussions that we haven't
even gotten to the mini part here. And honestly, events are important, but there's a lot to discuss. I'm just saying. Thank you, Miss Alvarez. I'm George Alvarez, 165 Northwest 88
Street. Um, I missed a little bit of what council person bomb was commenting on with regards to these theoretical funds that may or may not be dispersed in some fashion that nobody has decided on uh as of yet.
And I believe you you used the word trunch if that jogs your memory a little bit. Thank you. Well, you're talking about in terms of my remarks of why it makes sense to have this in its own category of public affairs versus wrapped up under the
council. Is this the So again, you know, there is a trunch of money already in the council listed under one item that says discretionary funds. Correct. 10K. Those are not separated out five, you know, one two three four five. It's one line item 10K right so it's understood
or it's yeah it should be understood well I mean it is understood as those us members on the council that we have a allotted amount out of that to us right 2,000 each is that correct something to that effect yes so if you put if you put something like $30,000 is
just a general fund line item within underneath the council there is no stipulation there that says you know each council person's only entitled to 20% of the uh of the fund to utilize for whatever event they come up with. So having it as its
having it as its own public affairs uh section solves that problem of establishing that this money is only going to be spent through committee decision as opposed to uh first come first serve on the council. There is no rules regarding if this money just goes if if we if we up
it to 30,000 and just put it under the council. There's nothing that says how that money is going to be spent. Seating it in the public affairs uh section uh puts all kinds of stipulations on how that money is able to be decided or
arrived at to be spent. Um and so if it ain't broke, don't fix it, I guess, is my ultimate remark in that. Um and again, my question is what is the appropriate amount for that line item? because I think we've established that going forward, we would like to have a
more active public affairs committee. And I think that this being the first hearing on the budget tonight also highlights the fact that we need a more active finance committee meeting uh finance committee. So that headed into something like this in September, we
already have 60 days of notes from a finance committee. Um I think that would go a long way toward so I I think we have a lot of discussion in the coming year about committees and uh committee scheduling. I would like to stay focused
on what do we think this line item total value should be. We stay at 20,000 do we up it to 30 35. So, you know, I mean, I mean, we've devolved into a whole theoretical discussion on how uh the committee should operate next year, and
I'm ready to have that discussion, but in October, what what is that line item in its history been regarded as you you are, I believe, the longest serving council person outside of the mayor. If Mayor Nickerson, maybe he could bring
some context to it, too. I believe he could, but I mean typically uh typically we would see um we've seen a lot of different variations. So if there is an established event, then you might see it as a line item, but typically uh uh I mean this is about
how we look at it in terms of public affairs approach. So um uh listen, I I was talking to my wife because she balances a budget for a nonprofit of 3.1 million down to the penny, right? So, she reports to the board uh fairly
frequently. They have finance committee meetings pretty frequently. So, I asked her, "What's a reasonable amount of detail that residents should expect from our budget?" And she actually thought this was overdetailed to be perfectly honest. But she then said, "I don't know
how it works in the government." Because she works in 501c3 nonprofit reporting, which is very strict reporting. Everything has to be calculated to the penny. But the point being that uh you know talking about the way Biscane Park did it with 200 pages well that kind of
makes sense for a government reality because then you're eliminating a lot of headaches and problems and questions and guessing on the behalf of the residents who don't have a background. The reason my wife can prevent present a very a very basic budget to her board is
because everybody is involved. it's expectations and it's already and there's skill levels that are already there and and base knowledge that's already there. When you're dealing with residents and in a thing like this, you have you don't have those same it's a it's a larger curve and there's a lot more questions and missing
spaces and things like this. So, uh I feel like I feel like it ain't broke. Let's not fix it. In public affairs, there is everything we need in place right there. It's just a matter of decision-m how we're going to go about distributing that money or what we're going to put it towards. But I think moving it under the council would be a
uh a confusing mistake that would not be uh necessary. I'd like I'd like to get Mayor Nickerson's answer on this as well. Uh just for a little a little context. He's asking specifically the public affair this public affairs page in the past. Has it been presented with more detailed line items? Has it always been
generic like this? He's he wants more background. So, a long time ago when I first got on, um, when we had the events that the the public affairs committee would have, then it had the line items of the events at one point, but it was
only like that for a certain number of years. Then it just went to a generic public affairs committee. And h and how did the generic approach the h what was that approach? Part go ahead. Yeah. So partly out of COVID was the was the ultimate result and then with the
change in chair of public affairs there was essentially an elimination of the budget altogether for a re-evaluated approach towards public affairs. Okay. Meaning uh global pandemic. Sure. Yes. And so and so I mean I mean I just can't be more clear. Any
municipality you go to, if you go to a large public event in that municipality, there's the corporate sponsors and things like this, the businesses who are trying to, you know, tell you, hey, I care about your community. You should, you know, uh, we have a symbiotic potential for relationship here, right?
But you're going to have stump speeches. you're go. So, so understand that, you know, I I actually want to see Halloween come back and I would love to see an all-inclusive holiday event take place because I think these things are important community building events, but
as it's presented, we already have Halloween presented by council person winters. You understand? So uh so that is where that's that reality of how it used to be in terms of what these events are and used for. All right. I used to
show up to the public events and then my children would be being photographed the entire time and then published in a newsletter that only accomplished uh campaign accomplishments for technically one person. And so um so there is very real history here and very real
conditions that brought us to hey let's re-evaluate completely what we're doing in public affairs and we're just now a few years removed from that process and we have more engagement from the residents. Uh and so and so I do think we're at a time now where we can reevaluate this but moving this out of
this page and into under the council is what I'm saying is is an erroneous measure. I fully support bringing Halloween back. I fully support the mayor's ID for a holiday week. Um, you know, the uh state of the village is wrapped up in there somewhere. And then, uh, Arbor Day as well. And then we still
have, you know, like other times of the year where there's events. Spring is an idea is is one that comes to mind in terms of a lot of different types of opportunities for events, right? And so the point simply is, do we think that this number of $20,000 is
enough for the next year to accomplish what we think we want to accomplish in public affairs or do we need more? Because the discussion about what the public affairs committee is is for October and beyond. Uh, frankly, like flat out, okay, what what you're doing,
Council Person, is underscoring for me just what a slippery slope this is and just how unbelievably tonedeaf this idea is. This is the third attempt tonight to
push money into places that it has not worked out in the past. People on this deis have mentioned some of the mistakes that have made been made in the past and and and and
so do you think crazy things have happened with previous administrations? I'm hearing about it now. Are you saying that you do think that this page of public affairs should be eliminated and that this two line items should be rolled under the
council? Is that what you're saying? I am saying that irrespective of what marquee events and there may be some and I there's a validity to that that need to be planned ahead. But the idea of putting a trunch, to use your word, and it may be an incorrect usage,
well, until there's of money of 20 or 30 or $35,000 that was mentioned is unbelievably tonedeaf and unbelievably fiscally irresponsible. Now, I keep on hearing in the last few meetings, I've heard people glibly say that residents
wanted this and residents wanted that, but those residents were not here. I've never spoken to those residents. My residents are worried about potholes. My residents are worried about a roundabout that is costing us $600,000.
My residents are worried about people opening their cars and stealing things and stealing things. You guys, so we're at zero. This is This is should be a discussion for another year. I am sorry. You have 2,000 each in discretionary funds to
use. Is your suggestion zero for this line item? It is. Okay. That That's where I'm trying to I'm trying to get there. That's where I'm trying to get is Okay. So, your suggestion is zero for the uh citywide events for this coming year and we'll have an opportunity in
committee to evaluate what the need would be for the following year. we will be able to provide some transparency to Miss Conny's point so that people in the community can register their wants, their likes or dislikes so that we can
make to uh to quote the president of the United States concepts of a plan at the very least which you guys are not mentioning right now. A lot of fine ideas. I love Halloween. I love July 4th. For the record, I'm also at zero for this line item. So, I'm urging you guys,
okay, so we haven't gotten to the meat, not at all, of this budget. We've heard a a lot about event planning, a lot of very wise comments about event planning. We've heard comments about things that were not pertinent to this
workshop, but it is offensive and irresponsible to start pushing money out into what a what comes to a a first come first- serve slush fund without a plan without a plan or guardrails. I'm urging
you guys to end this conversation now and move on to the next points. I appreciate your indulgence. This is ridiculous. I would propose to move the uh item from 20,000 down to last year's expenditure which I believe is 6,000. I would make that recommendation to hold
like not not to zero it out but to put move it from 20 down to six. So at least whatever was accomplished last year. I'm assuming that's the state of the village. Is that right? Yeah. Yeah. We definitely need a budget for the state of the village. The arbor day
can be pulled off with little to no money like 300 bucks probably. Um, so, so outside of having any other commitments already on the books, I would recommend $6,000 as the line item for this. Let me just jump in here. I think we
should leave it where it is for now. You guys continue to think about I think that um I think we have to find a way to balance between, you know, getting the stuff done that we want to get done with the speed humps and those type of things and road repair. Um, but then there's also that
element of individuals out there that do want more community events again. And I think it's a good balance that we need to strike between those things. Um, so I would say for right now, leave it at 20,000. I think for I think we'll just
have to debate about what what events um individuals want to have and what we should. We need to activate the committee. We need to activate the committee. And and could you repeat your suggestion, Councilman Irv? My suggestion is I just turned the page. I
don't have it in front of me. The expenditure of last year was hold on. There I got it right there. Uh 5,470. So my proposal is uh 6,000 as a line item for next year. Okay. So you would like to fund events and I just want everybody in the
audience to hear this. You'd like to fund events at 6,000 and the mayor is saying that you would like to keep that line item at the 20,000 words. More clearly what I'm saying is that we have a plan for what we might need the 6,000 for. We
do not have a plan for what we would need the 20,000 for. And so while we have ambition of what we want to accomplish with extra monies, that committee has not met in a very long time and that committee has no plan for any events at all next year
whatsoever. So, so I take the resident's uh comment uh as fairly logical that that assuming we're going to reactivate specifically the public affairs committee, that's what we're talking about right now. I do believe that the
last year and this year highlight that we need the finance committee up and running as well. But the point being that these I'm saying that but we don't have an activated uh public affairs committee or an activated finance committee right now. And so so in light
of the fact that we do not have a plan for this, I would revert to last year's spending. I'm giving a $530 pad to put it up to 6,000. Okay. I think we should leave it at 20. Um and the mayor's at 20 because I mean
there's things we want to do for sure. the things we want to do and but we have no current plan for those things. I understand. Um Mr. Alvarez is the only one I've met so far that says they do not want to be engaged with the rest of their community. That's not what he's saying. I don't understand.
That's misconring 100% of what he's saying. That's that's not what he's saying at all. Uh that's Hold on. Hold on, Miss Alvarez. That's Yeah. Are we good? All right. Good. Okay. Thank you.
All right. Uh, Mr. uh, Council Person Winters, you had the mic and then we'll go to Mr. I I agree with you, Mr. Mayor. We need to have the funds to do what needs to be done here. You didn't use all of it last year. You had $20,000 adopted. You used 5,400. If I do my Halloween thing, how
Mr. Chief of Police, how um, if I had four offduty police officers block roads for three hours and show it for us, what would the estimated cost be? So that's three hours times four hour officers. So 7* 75.
So but it's but it's also a four four hour minimum. There's a 4hour minimum. You're looking at $300 per officer times four officers $1,200 for the cost. So I could run my event for that. If the
rest of the community, which by the way, the rest of the community has already been been talking with me about this. This event, this is a city. This is my event. I'm sorry. You guys, I think that we should keep it there for now. We're not going to come to a conclusion tonight. Let's go home,
think about it, come back with your solid ideas um at the next budget hearing. I think that's a wise decision. Yeah. All right. We good on public affairs? We're good. All right. Let's move on, guys. Next we have police questions, comments.
Yes, Greg Steer, Northwest uh where do I live? 120 Northwest 86 Street. Finally, three and a half hours later, we get to the part of the budget that actually counts because it's over $2 million as opposed to the party budget
which is 20,000. But anyway, that's the way things go. So, police quickly, uh, public safety, 65% of every property tax dollar goes to
public safety. Year-over-year, they've gotten doubledigit increases for at least the f last five years. In 2020, we spent less than $1 million. This year, we're going to spend over two million.
And this is not to take anything away from the police department uh or any of its officers, especially since the chief is standing next to me and he's armed. This is this is about public policy. This is about fiscal responsibility.
You think a department's budget would closely track its stated admission, which is crime mitigation. So is crime going up 20% a year? Just the opposite. nationally, locally, Elportal is the same. Even the police department's own
crime stats will contest will confirm that that crime is not really an issue here. If you look at the crime stats for 2023 and 2024, there were zero arrests in each of those years.
What we are doing well is not arresting people, but issuing parking tickets, which is probably a good thing. Uh anyway, I think the public safety budget increase request is more than $300,000 over last year.
This is a a small village. We have a very tiny commercial district, almost no multifamily rental until Kavista. It's predominantly owner occupied single family homes for with people that have been around for years, even decades.
People know their neighbors. They may not like their neighbors. They may not talk to their neighbors, but they know them, which leads to a safer environment. We're separated by the river from Miami. We back up to Miami shores, which is like Mayberry.
I'm not suggesting that crime isn't an issue. I just don't think that we need to be spending $2.1 million fighting it. There are alternatives, but my my proposal is that we cap the spending
for the public safety at 50% of the advalorum taxes. That would be about $1.6 million, which is more than we spent in 2024. It's a little bit less than what we were proposing to spend this year, which was 1.8, although we've only spent 1.3 so
far. I think $1.6 million is a reasonable fe feasible amount. And again, we have to consider and remember that we're operating in the red and that there's a deficit and this is our single largest expense. I know I know that. See, thank you very
much, Mr. Ste. I know CFO Tobinfeld wanted to say something and then we'll go to the chief. You're good. Okay. Well, either CFO Tobinfeld, the chief, or the manager want to respond. Um yeah, I guess I can I don't know if there was any specific questions that
that were uh initially asked, but um what I will say uh specifically as it relates to the police the totality of the police budget um a major increase um year-over-year
um especially from I think it was it was mentioned 2020 to where we are in 2025. Um the main driving factor of that is the salaries for the officers. Um and that's just to get us competitive. Actually, we like to think we're
competitive in the marketplace. You talk to the FOP, they'll tell you the exact opposite. Um what I could tell you that when I first started here, I believe it was in 2021, the officer, correct me if I'm wrong, please, Chief, but I think the average officer was making $36,000 a
year. Um we've negotiated a the agreement with the FOP um that's expiring actually at the end of this month. Um which is why you see the increases that you've seen for the last three years. Again, it was to become competitive in the
marketplace. Uh if you if you want ask them again, they'll tell you that they're not competitive and they obviously they're looking for more and wanting more. uh at the same time we're doing what we feel is best and negotiating negotiating the best possible scenario so where the vi a
scenario what the so that the village could accept and something that the officers themselves are happy with at the same time. Um so I think that's where you'll see a major increase. Um the body count of the officers has increased as well. Um we I think again
when I first started I think the number was 10. we're up to, I think, 12 or 13 at the moment. Um, and the plan and a big factor of what you see in this $2.1 million budget. Um, is the is the addition of some additional police
officers. Um, the chief can get into that in greater detail, you know, when I'm when I'm done. But, um, some of the other items that you see here, again, again, getting a better understanding of the budget and some of them, full disclosure, were mish. You look at the
holiday pay, the number this year is significantly higher than budgeted. Full disclosure, a miss on our part, right? What is it? It's the a the rate of pay for the officer, right? Went up significantly year over year over year. It's just a number that I guess got lost
over the years. But now when you know when we're able to uh look at numbers at a clean uh ledger and and see what's act what's what what is what and not have to worry about you know playing catch-up with all the audits. we have a better understanding as what's what's happening
on a day-to-day basis here. Um you look at the special pay uh that was uh the lady was here earlier as I I forgot her name but I she had mentioned to me that was a concern of hers and I explained to her that is uh wages for the police
officers right there's a cost there's a cost for the revenue right we the officers are out there you know policing the streets making sure that they're safe catching all the speeders at the same time they have to go to court and represent and make sure that you know that they follow through there's a cost factor to that So that's what you see
there. But again, we're contrary to what the belief is, we are fiscally responsible, you right, the chief is G is fully aware and understands that that is a cost that gets incorporated in the revenue program of the police department. So if he's generating
revenue for police tickets, any cost associated for those tickets goes against that revenue. And then at that point he has a number that he could work with to add for the additional equipment or any other stuff that uh that is needed. And I guess that's also where you see the number if you want to look
at specific number machinery and equipment. Again that goes to the police the chief will go into greater detail. But again that's taking a program that is now been established for a year. We feel confident that it's working that it's been that it's doing what it's supposed to be doing. So now we're taking now we're going into the next
year with a plan of what to do with those funds. These funds are specific to the police, right? These are funds that have to be specific to police. Sorry, these are funds that have to be spec uh spent spec specifically for the police and that's what we're trying uh to do
here. Um the other other thing that I would point out I guess also is a incremental increase is the retirement contributions as discussed preuh previously that's the pension uh it's adding the officers and then you have uh you know I'm sorry adding the officers
at whatever the rate is and that would cause the incremental increase uh year-over-year. Um that's I guess that concludes my part as far as the numbers. I'll let the chief go into greater detail. Um if there's any other questions after he's done I'll be more than happy to answer them. Thank you.
Let's let's first allow her to speak, chief, and then maybe you can answer all questions to send. I'm sorry. Oh, can you hear me? Denise White, 173 Northwest 88 Street. Um, since I was 12. Um, what do you call it? Where it says uniform and cleaning. I
know we we probably have to perform provide our uniform for the officers, but we got to clean them, too. Yes. It's part of the agreement with the uh police department. And one of the reasons why unfortunately again we talk about salaries the hardest part that I'm
speaking for the chief is retention right uh when you're not when you're the lowest paying uh uh municipality in date county right retention becomes a problem um and one of the things one of the the the the cost of re of not having
retention are uniforms and our uniforms right every time we get a new officer we have to fit them we have to get the equipment Right. So there's a cost factor with it. But do we got to do we have do we have I'm sorry. Proper English, right? Do we have to clean it though? Yes. It's part of the agreement with the police department.
So when when when his uniform is dirty, he just give it to you guys and you send it to clean it. Bring it back. We have an account. I'm sorry. We have an account at the dry cleaners for police uniforms.
So they take them there. But that is a part of um most um departments have cleaning. Yeah, you could think of that as a benefit, one benefit of being u uh you could think of that as one benefit of being part of a union technically is what we're talking about. It's a union
agreement that we clean their uniforms. Yes. But it's not just Elportal, right? Yeah. It's just it's just it's not just Elortal. Not just No, because my friend works for Metro Dade and I don't think they clean his
uniforms, but Okay. Okay. Thank you very much. Um, anybody else for police? Yeah, just a just a quick comment. So, so I actually agree with Resident Ste's concept of, you know, 50% should be the cap. Uh, but that's where we find out
that we really are different in terms of the size of the municipality. Uh I believe uh city of Miami's budget for their police is over a billion dollars. Um and so uh so while the percentage is
upsetting um I guess I acknowledge that the reason that percentage is higher is because we are in fact a smaller community. the chief. Uh I've talked openly with the chief about this many times because uh I
am not what you would call an advocate of uh of the police. Um there have been a few officers who've flat out possibly saved my life by not taking me to jail when I was younger. Other officers I've
seen um uh other officers I've seen would fall in the category what you call bad apples, right? So, I've lived in this county for a long time, over 20 years. And um as I moved into Elportal and started like, you know, kind of
figuring out what my relationship as a resident was going to be with law enforcement because I lived in uh North Beach for 10 years. Miami Beach Police Department uh did not have a good relationship as a resident with them. Uh Coconut Grove uh before that uh did not have a good relationship with City of
Miami Police. And so, um, and so I was so relieved when it got here under, uh, Chief Magnuson's toutelage and then to have, uh, Chief Magnus turn over the reigns. Uh, uh, it was such a, it was such a relief to, to know that we had a
chief who values continuing education, uh, and things like this. Uh, you know, deescalation training, these kinds of things are unbelievably important. So, as a first-time homeowner, uh, I recognize that my home value goes up because we're Patrice City USA. My home
value goes up because we're a bird sanctuary, but my home value goes up because we have our own police department. My home value absolutely goes up because we have our own police department. And so, uh, when it comes to officers pay as as much of an
relationship of animosity that I've had with law enforcement in the past, one of my complaints has actually been we don't pay police enough. Because if you want to keep a cop from going on the take, from doing dirt flat out, from other
activities that are going to bring trouble and drama and strife into the community, uh having well- paid officers goes a long way towards having an officer stand up and do the right thing instead of fold under and uh become part
of the problem. So, I have been consistently impressed with uh with our chief's ability to uh keep a lot of that uh drama out of our village um and away from our residents and and that has been
a a a huge uh source of of eliminating stress living here in El Portal. Now, we definitely want to see more police activity on the west side with the speeders and things like that. I will say the reason Northeast Second Avenue gets the attention is because we
successfully got the speed limit reduced. The speed limit is still 40 on Miami. You got to be doing 51 52 before it's even worth the officer's time to pull you over. I'm sorry to interrupt. Uh, mayor per charter, you need to motion for 11:00. I'll stop talking, but I do just want to say that this
Let's do Hold on a second. Let's just do it right now. Yeah, but we need to do it like 30 seconds. Yeah, let's do let's do it. Let's do the motion because I can wrap it up in 10 seconds. You have a motion. No, it's not a Well, I'll move to continue. We have in a second. Council motion moved by Vice Mayor Martin. All in
favor? I I All right. All right. Um until uh 12:00 midnight. So, I will just I will just say that I agree with the premise that the that the that the that the police budget should
be lower than 65% of the overall budget. Uh but that might not occur until we bring on another development or uh otherwise have increased revenues in the village simply because we're so small. Um, I just want to be so very clear that
almost every municipality in the county outside of our own, including Miami Shores, deals with problem like really problematic police officers. All right. I've not seen any municipality anywhere in this county uh uh accomplish what we
accomplish here in terms of elimination of problematic officers. So um so that absolutely translates to uh better quality of life uh and for those who are
concerned higher property values uh for the entire area uninccorporated data is benefiting from our police department. So um hopefully as the problems subside and unincorporated around us maybe we can beat Miami Shores to the punch and incorporate some more uh residences into
the village. Thank you very much. Any other questions or comments about the police? I have some, but I'd like to hear what M uh Chief Mendes has to say. He's I think he was going to talk earlier, right? Yeah, but I think he was just going to answer the questions, so I'd rather have the questions out because he might not have to say anything if we get the
clarification that we need. Uh well, I am in agreement with Council Per Nurbomb. I feel that these numbers are far too low and that the salaries must be increased. Um I do have a few questions. when I see the uh regular
salaries go up 26% were there increases in amount of officers or there increases in in pay both. Okay. So I I would like to have that May I add to that for one second please? I'm sorry. Um to answer your question is
both but also just keep in mind that we are negotiating with FOP uh collective bargaining agreement for the next three years. So the current agreement is expiring at the end of this month and we're still negotiating the new agreement what the amount's
going to be for the next three years. So we can't actually raise the amounts that they're getting paid or recommend that until 3 years. I would suggest that we negotiate uh
we've we've already started negotiating with the FOP on the collective bargaining agreement. Um I would love if there are recommendations that need to be made. I would recommend that it be done off offline and then we can have that conversation.
Okay. So the next Hold on. I'm sorry. Yeah. I just want to be careful and caution council. uh the council not to get too deeply involved in a public discussion of something. I mean we at some point it
may be necessary probably will to have some kind of executive session with you but the negotiations themselves are confidential and asking too much about them could put us in a bad position. not only negotiating, but at some point
it's at least theoretically possible that it could rise to the level of an unfair labor practice. So, just um I mean, you have to set a budget. I understand that, but just be be careful about the sole topic of negotiations
with the police union. you know, cars and equipment, uniforms, all fair game, but you can't completely avoid salaries, and I'm not suggesting that. Just be careful about things that are the subject of
Let's ask another question with some we're not dealing with right now. In November, I believe they passed uh some new sheriffs in Miami date. We pay a lot of money in taxes from Alport to Miami date government. are we allowed to utilize to supplement and help out our
uh police using any of the sheriffs? So, I'd like to make a public comment. So, uh growing up in Topeka, Kansas, and living other places, I'm just going to tell you right now, we do not want the sheriff's department in Elportal at all in any capacity. Um Miami people of
Miami Date County did not ask for the sheriff's department. the sheriff's union put themselves here and in my experience which is sometimes direct experience. Listen, the sheriffs
being in Miami Day County, you're going to see an increase in human trafficking, gun running, and drug trafficking. You're not going to see a decline. Under no circumstance should we be inviting the sheriff's department into Elartel sincerely
through it through ourou they would respond as resources for us for example if we have a homicide we don't have a homicide uh detective uh anything any any large scale incident we would call on them for resources so
that's the benefit that we get we will get out of it so you you would plan on utilizing them if you have to. We have in the past and we would be required to because we don't have resources for certain incidents. Okay. Thank you. Yes. Can I just make a comment, Greg Steer?
Uh 120 Northwest 86 Street. I I completely disagree with BBomb's characterization of the sheriff. Maybe the sheriff in Kansas is not the same as the sheriff in Miami Dade, but I I don't know what issue you have with the sheriff MDMA bust. Fact is that the largest MDMA bust in the last 20
years was the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Department distributed. That's Palm Beach. That's not That's not Miami Dade. Miami Dade for the first time protect houses where women from the Eastern Europe are. Can I finish? For the first time in 60 years, the Miami Dade Sheriff's
Department has has an elected official, an elected leader. It's been totally revamped. They have 3,000 officers. They have eight district stations, one of which is four minutes from here. And they patrol unincorporated Miami Dade, which completely surrounds Elportal. So,
you may denigrate the sheriff, but the fact is that they're already patrolling east, west, north, and south of us. So, I'm not sure what issue you have specifically with the sheriff's department. They actually contracted with the city of Miami Lakes. Miami Lakes has never had their own police
department. I don't know whether you consider Miami Lakes, you know, a hot bit of crime, but the fact is that the sheriff's department is responsible for patrolling Miami Lakes, uh, Cutler Bay, and I think there's another one. But that is an option that we have. And I think for you to eliminate that
possibility is, uh, is, um, unfortunate. Having said that, I just wanted to just because Mr. Talen Bum brought up a couple of these line items and I just wanted to uh clarify that the court costs uh are what we're the line items that
says special pay is for court costs for officers to go and contest speeding tickets. That is correct. Yes. Last name is Tabinfeld, by the way. Tabenfeld. Sorry. No worries. Maintenance vehicles. It's in here twice.
So, we spent $12,000 so far and then we spent on one item, one line item that says maintenance vehicles and then we have another line items that says maintenance vehicles for $55,000. So, I'm not sure I understand the difference or why we need to be spending $75,000
repairing vehicles that really travel within a 10 block area. So the first line item referenced is really more m repairs um and also includes the lease agreement that we have for the uh the maintenance on the new vehicles. Um and
then the maintenance on the vehicles is a separate line item which is specifically maintenance for the older vehicles. All all the vehicles are leased. No, some you purchased. We've purchased most of them. Um we're
in the process of uh bringing on three new three new cars uh all being supported by the revenue from the police department. So that was my other question. So the the increase that you're asking for the police department is asking for is over $300,000.
Is there a specific list of what items that they're requesting for that $300,000? Is it cars? Is it guns? Is it bullets? Is it is there like do they is there a formal request that they present to the to the village? The police chief could be more specific
to that. That's he can answer that. But I will just cl give some clarity. Um the number that you look to the total number is 300,000. I think if but specifically uh as it relates to equipment that number that you're seeing is only a 60
$60,000 increase. Right. So I just be specific with the numbers. the differential majority of that $250,000 is related to salaries and benefits uh for the two officers that were mentioned and some other minor items. But again,
if you're specifically talking about the equipment, uh the equipment is a $60,000 increase uh year-over-year. We're talking about machinery and equipment. The That is correct, sir. Yes, sir. So, that's vehicles. The It's the vehicles and other stuff as
well. uh the police chief could uh answer that for you. The vehicles primarily will come from the revenue that we generate through the officer's contributions and some monies that might that are left over from the citations. So that doesn't follow
through. It doesn't go through to to the residents. the the nine vehicles that I requested, four of which will be from trading in the the old fleet of Chargers. That will cover a down payment. The revenue they bring will cover the down
payment of those four new vehicles. The rest will come from our fund. And the additional vehicles that I need are to get rid of four 2014 Tauruses that are a great part of that uh repair bill that you just spoke
of because the maintenance is uh is very high and some of the repairs are very costly. Aside from that, it's uh oil tires switching around, maybe an occasional issue with a vehicle, but aside from that, they're under warranty.
Now you said you requested that. So again my question is there is there a formal list that you present to the village you know specifying exactly what you want to do what you want with this 300,000 a list of cars. Anything else?
Yes. I forwarded that to to the manager. Yes. Oh okay. So do we have is that something that we can see? Yes. Okay. Uh only other question was $96,000 for gas. Are any of these vehicles electric? No.
No. Okay. $10,000 in bullets. Who are we shooting at? That's for qualifications twice a year training to for training certification. Got it. That includes rifles and sidearms. Rifles. Yes, sir. Okay. Okay. Thank you.
Thank you. Anybody else for the police, Chief? Conversely, uh our officers are also prepared to assist uh county, city, uh in the events of, you know, hurricane, national emergency. Yes.
All of this as well. So, that's correct. So the the agreements that we do have with any other law enforcement agency are not necessarily reciprocal, but there are some reciprocal components to our officers have the training and the ability to assist other agencies in the event of,
you know, a large a large scale event. Right. Correct. Yeah. Daniel Roas, 60 Northeast 86 Street. Um just again so let's say the gasoline all these expenditures um is there do this I'll make it easier
is there any type of uh accounting me so how can we make sure that you know so we're a small city they're driving around $100,000 worth of gasoline every year are they driving the cars home and coming back and those are take home vehicles yes sir those are all take so so how do we are
they using it for being an offduty jobs type of things. Is this all included a portal pays for all this? Is there any way that we can see and make sure that these these vehicles are used for our portal airport businesses or or is this part of the Well, it's they're only used for
policing here. They do work the offduty jobs, but that's part of that revenue that we get back. I ask them to donate to donate to contribute $5 an hour. So, if they sit in and off duty for eight hours, that's $5 an hour that's coming back. So, the pay automatically gets
broken off into that and it's continuous uh revenue throughout the year. It's just that just looking at the numbers. Obviously, I'm don't tell this all the time, but obviously it's we're spending a certain amount of money to get certain amount of money back and the
more we spend, the less it makes sense to spend that much, right? So, is there any way that we can make sure we hold some accountability on the usage of gasoline, the dry cleaning, $30,000 worth of dry cleaning and and so just to make sure, you know, obviously they're
probably not doing it, but how to make sure it's like, you know, are they dry cleaning their uniforms every single day or is somebody kind of like getting a little too crazy with it or I I if I wear a suit to work, I don't I don't dry clean the suit every time I use it.
Maybe I should, but I try to take care of my suits so I don't get it dirty, right? So just just we are a small municipality. We do have a little amount of resources just to make sure that everybody kind of like uses them as wisely as possible is just just all I can ask for. And from the environmental
perspective, which is very important for me, you know, the excess use of gasoline, excess use of dry cleaning, all this presents a heavy load on on environment and all that stuff. So understood. Thank you. Velvet Connelly, 355 Northeast 87
Street. Um, please, Chief, is there a reason that we can't use uh like solar vehicles? We never petition for them. We get the regular fleet vehicles and it would engage it would require us to
install the the post here. I I visited the ones for Virginia Gardens. They have three charging stations even that might be a a department that you can compare to ours. Charging takes a while at the time.
They're they're tinier than we are. charging takes takes a while for them and they basically have the cars. They don't assign take-home vehicles. So, they just leave the cars there all the time and even then they have an issue charging. They're tiny. We patrol a lot
more than them and we do a lot more enforcement than they do. Okay. So, you feel like that would uh detract from your work in certain ways? As as far as the cost effectiveness, I'm not sure what it what it would be. there would be a big uh difference with regard
to using fuel or charging the vehicles. I could see the transfer of one vehicle to the other unless it's a it's a high-speed charger, which I don't believe we could install here. We had one here for the the little minivan for the program for a bit,
but uh even their chargers, they're not high impact chargers. It's three right in front of the station and the cars have to constantly be plugged in. I can't tell you that I delved into it even more than that because I didn't. Okay, I appreciate that. I I would like
to note that I did uh propose that a few years ago that we do a pilot program here in Elportal to be the first municipality with the with the uh first fully solar uh police department to see if we could have got the cars donated. That was back when we didn't have the
cars. Um, and I and I would still bring that up again to see if that would be uh an an opportunity to have cars donated that we don't have to actually pay for the cars because we're doing a pilot program. And that might then be able to be negotiated that the chargers are also
then installed. Um, and those might be ways that we could save line item on the budget. Um, and I do just want to mention I lived in Bay Harbor Island before I lived here. Uh my son was a part of the police explorers program there and they obviously have an amazing
police department but Albertal has an exceptional police department. I've dealt with the police here extensively and I just think we have the best police department. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I'd like to say something quickly. I did get to visit visit Virginia Gardens and look at those vehicles. They gave me
extensive tours of the interior and they told me how reliable they were and how quickly they did charge. And I asked if there was any problems, anything that they saw at all that was a downside and they said there was nothing. Everything that you hear hears say is not really
true. I know you have friends over there. I would love to dive in more and find out about this and see if there were any actual uh problems that they had with it. But because it would be something to look for for the future and like she said, if
we can get some kind of collaboration with someone, I don't know, Tesla or something, maybe they'll pay for chargers, maybe they'll pay for vehicles to finally create something in a city. And this is a great city to explore it. Are you open to that? I'm clearly open to that. Yeah.
Thank you. Uh George Alvarez, 165 Northwest 88 Street. Uh, Chief, we we met once briefly, but um met a couple of of your officers and just top-notch, really good guys. And uh I
appreciate it. Just wanted to extend that. Um and to piggyback on what Miss Connelly and Council person Winter said, uh that's I think that that's a great idea, too, especially if there are long-term savings. Uh and obviously the uh
efficacy of a police cruiser is important. And if it doesn't get the job done, then that's a whole other thing. But, uh, we live in a great new world with some great new technology. And if it can save us some money while making
an important, uh, stance, why not? I think self-resiliency uh, with individuals and with villages is is a goal. Perhaps never totally achievable, but a pretty cool thing. Um,
I uh I have tough time asking these questions because I am an advocate of for and of the men and women in blue that I've met and that I've had in my family in my
life. But uh there seems to be a theme not just in your budget but in our budget and that is that we are kind of uh stretching at the seams a little bit and that
that the answer for our current costs is possible future development I find as specious and as frightening as a uh trunch of money for parties. Um, Grinch, that may make me uh to the
deis. Fine. So, I wanted to ask you, chief, what is the what is the ideal number of full-time, part-time, and reserve officers for Eltel? And what do we have now?
Right now, we have the the 12 full-timers, one part-timer, and the nine reserves. And the reserve payments are they're essentially volunteers. Correct. Correct. Right. They have to give us they give us the the one shift
every month and aside from that I have some that are specifically assigned to a task. In other words, they're reserve but one monitors the the entire special events program, the offduty work. Okay.
One runs the property room. So he's certified to run the property room. So he'll come in and that's where he dedicates his time to doing it. I have one that does backgrounds, okay, specific to that. So every time we get an individual, he's got to do that and that's where his time goes.
You put them to work and you're efficient with it basically because they're kind of specialized. They know their they know the room. Correct. And we have zero zero administrative staff, not even one. Right. Do you think Oh. Oh. Second question. How many vehicles do we
currently have? And and what types are they? Are they just all I see cruisers and then I see the SUV cruisers and that's four the the white Tauruses that I need to to uh channel out. Those are about 2014 or 20 year 2015.
Okay. The first fleet that we purchased was five Chargers, one of which was wrecked. We got a replacement Explorer for that one. So that so it's four chargers, one explorer should be five Taho
and the three Durango that are coming on now. So the three Durangos would presumably replace the four Tauruses. No sir. No. The one the vehicles that I'm requesting now, part of those would replace the
four Tauruses. That's part of the the wranglers that I'm requesting now for the upcoming year. So, I'm sorry, three or four Wranglers. No, no, the ones that I'm requesting. Yeah, the nine Durango.
Oh, nine. Nine Durangos to replace the four Tauruses, right? Well, only four of those will go to replace those those four Tauruses, and the other five will just be new acquisition be on the fleet. But remember, we're turning with the program that we're in, I'd be turning in the
four chargers. Mhm. Enterprise will sell them. Proceeds go to pay for the down payment on four of those Durangos. That way, we don't have we're not responsible for a down payment on that, which is for upfitting. And then we just pay the monthly uh
payments from our fund. Which leaves us with an ideal total of how many vehicles? That would be four, five, 10, 13, 18 vehicles.
Seems a little short by two. I think we're short by two. At at 18, I think we're short by two. So 20 vehicles for our department. We're talking tw for the year 2016. Assuming that the that we turn over the
Tauruses and replace the or replace the Durango. Yeah, that's what you added up. 18. Maybe that that should be the correct number. Okay. And there's no other vehicles currently in the fleet? No. I did request uh an ATV to to uh patrol
the FEC property. We have uh encampments that we share with the city of Miami about a/4 mile down and that's pretty treacherous to walk on. They can't walk on the track
and the cars run a risk of setting fire on there and they get too close to the railroad track and it's a hazard. Can Can you drive any any vehicle on FC? Oh, you can drive anything you want. I mean, I've had the officers on there
driving and I tell them to get out because it's unsafe. Oh, that's right. I'm sorry. We have one administrative pickup truck that's assigned to a detective that came through a grant and it was paid for uh through that grant
and that's what we consider our high water vehicle. We purchased it specifically for that for high water. Yes, sir. Um, just to be devil's advocate here, I a standing force of 11 plus yourself, 14
and somewhere between, I'm guessing, 18 and 22 vehicles. Yes. plus a potential new uh a ATV.
Correct. That's not for patrolling though. That's specific for FC propert for but but c can't can't can it be accessed can't the FC be accessed from the old roads in Little Farm or is it just Well, Little Farm is a gated and we we
primarily don't have access to that. It's gated to to the part that has not been made or remade public once again. can't get in. So, that's where they hang out. And you have to consider the hazard of walking that day or night because it's not some of them thought it was a good
idea to be on the track. Half the time you can't hear the the new uh train coming down the ways until it's in front of you. Not to mention the training that we got which uh prevent it tells us not to do that and it tells us how far we have to stay away from the track and not to mention who you might be
encountering on the other side. That's the other thing. I do not allow them to go back there by themselves. they have to go at least two because of the numbers that are back there. Okay, thank you for that information. I you know I
I can't help but thinking and this is this is the the the the great irony of El Patel right now. We are growing but we're not growing fast enough to meet some of the fiduciary obligations and requirements that are being asked of
departments like yours. Um, and when I hear sto, you know, when I hear a comment like we're waiting for more development to pay for what we need, that gives me a little bit of of of uh
aida, as my mom would say. Um, I I wonder if if we could find ways if not to reduce our police force in terms of our our
numbers of of full-time or part-time. If we could reduce the number of vehicles we have, is that a possibility at all? because I'm assuming that we are paying insurance and maintenance on those vehicles. It may be a drop in the
bucket compared to the overall budget. But again, um I'm I'm I'm troubled, and this is not specific to the police department. I'm troubled by this this tendency to just kind of let things
grow financially. Do you think that there's a way that that you, for example, could buy a a used ATV to use to get on the FEC? Could we get by with
um the number of vehicles to match the number of police officers that we have? In other words, can we nip and tuck? How realistic is that? and and I I I know this is a triple question. So, I I appreciate your your patience.
Again, remember some of those officers are getting paid zero. So, the the cost is the vehicle and the maintenance, but now you have a body that comes in and provides service and they're not being they're not being paid in addition to that, the nine of them.
I could put two guys in a car, but they're going to take care of one problem, right? So, if you have an issue and you have an issue, then one of you have to wait because I'm not going to drop them off over there and have them respond over here. It just it just doesn't work. And I understand your point
and we strive constantly because I came from the city of Miami, massive budget here. There's no delegation and this is the budget. I understand it. It's considered a biggest the biggest part of the of the
budget for the village, but it's it's a we do it responsibly. We're not exotic about anything. We have dependable good equipment. It helps retain attract and retain the officers that will work for $50,000 a year, which is very difficult
to do and very difficult to retain. We're trying to keep these guys at least two or three years. Positive workplace environment. You put them in a car that stinks or a car with holes on the floor. The w the water comes in. You don't give them a take-home car. Why would they come here?
I tell them all this is a paradise. You know, you go out there. It's different in the city. I love the fact that you feel that you're safe enough to eliminate officers because that's the way you should feel. But I'm telling you, it's because we're doing the job
that we are supposed to be doing because we got the city on one side, got the county on the other, and there's a lot of activity on those sides. We feel it every now and then. My guys get on it. We set up the box. We take care of it. We follow up on the crimes that f that
that occur. And it's great that you feel like that. That is aside from numbers. Anything else, that's the most import. that we're working towards that everybody can go out there, everybody can smile and if you don't like the police, you don't
like them, but you appreciate them and my guys have to respect you and they have to work the way we work for the residents. And that's not an easy thing to achieve because you got guys that have their own minds, you got old schoolers, you got the new kids. I'm trying to combine both. And again, look
at the the budget that we set up with our own revenue and that that came from us to show everybody the interest that we have in not only being having the equipment that we need, but not taking it from the village. So, it's a it's a
conscious effort. It's not just give me this, give me that. Rifles, active shooter, our guys are certified. We're not Ricky Dink. We're certified. We're one of the first agencies that went to a red dot. Now they're all going to red docks because it's a massive liability.
It we don't take it lightly. We don't abuse these cars. We take care of these cars because they know that the revenue they bring in are the ones that are going to follow up and we're going to be able to get other vehicles. But we have to keep the value for that vehicle. I don't let them tear
up the cars. Yes, sir. Take home cars. It attracts kids and the the younger officers. It attracts them. Sure. the other the older officers appreciate them. They know what they have and they take very good care of them. And you you'll see that now as we
go and we option like I like I told you, we're training trading in four vehicles. That takes care of the down payment. So I don't have that's not 50 grand that I have to do the lump sum for the down payment. So that leaves that that 50 grand there for
me to do the monthly payments on nine vehicles as opposed to four. And that carries through the year again. And remember, it keeps recurring. It keeps coming in. So, we keep that fund going. And we're that that fund will also help
with the rifles and that fund will also help with the tasers. And that's a growing fund. Um, it's a recurring fund because the the officers the the reserve officers as well have to do the same thing. They're getting paid zero, but if they work a special event, they're working off duty,
they're paying that $5 an hour as well, right? Okay. So, that fund generates about between 7 and $10,000 a month depending on the amount of of work that the officers do. Is there a version of your budget requests
that you could see would maintain your safety, your integrity, the efficacy of all the equipment and the vehicles that you have that would be a smaller dent in our budget as uh resident Steer mentioned, I think
council person alluded to it also. um if not for perpetuity but for the next couple years. In other words, can you nip and tuck? Is there a way realistically? And I I know I'm putting putting you in a tough position by
asking that, but as as I've as I've as I said before, we seem to be in the habit of of overspending on on things. And uh to quote Mr. Tobinfeld, we don't have a crystal ball all the time. And I know
that's part of what you the part of the contingencies that you have to plan for. There's the X factor that's out there. But based on whatever it is that uh that you have requested, is there a um
more reasonable equally safe version for your employees and for the community of Albertell? Before he answers that, I'd like to make a comment. Sure. Um, speaking on how the chief handles
his budget and his personnel, um, in looking at the year-to- date, if just to give a synopsis, right, year-to- date numbers, police department, thanks. Right. Current year, he's doing fantastic this year comparative to
previous years, right? We feel that he's going to come in under budget. One of those reasons is specifically personnel, right? Similar to what we're doing here. We did it the same thing last year. We're budgeting positions. That doesn't
mean that he knows he had we've had the conversations, right? That's not the green light to start them on day one. Expect them to start on day 30 days out. Day one means right October one. The plan is not to start them. So u on octo well the plan is not to start them on
October one right don't know what the official start date is but my point that I'm trying to make is is that he's very judicious with his budget and he feels the temperature of the room the streets and he knows when to make the right decision and when to bring these officers in and he and it he proved that
to me this year by doing exactly what I just said right he budgeted the position I need the officers for the full year he managed his his department Okay, he put he brought him in later than he should. And on the flip side to answer again,
staff may be high in some people's eyes, but there's a c, right? There's a cost on the other side. An extra officer reduces overtime, right? Sure. Let's look at our overtime, right? Again, man's managing his personnel. He's doing what he's supposed to be doing. We budgeted we budgeted $42,000
in overtime. He's at $13,000. Right? That's all that's all personnel. Strategic personnel. Strategic personnel and having have and having and having the right number of personnel. So as much as we Yes. Again, we look at the numbers. The numbers
scare everybody. Scare scares right all involved. We're very judicious in how we look at the numbers and how we spend our funds. I'm not your should I say our funds, your funds. Thank you, Mr. Tobin. Phil. Thank you. I don't know if you want to add to that, but Yes.
Go I I appreciate that explanation. If if if you wanted to add any any context, please do. I I'm I'm I'm I believe every word you guys are saying about this. Uh but I do feel like we need to keep on maintaining this sort of scalpel to the
things that that that we're always spending on. And as I alluded to, uh, even if it's for the next couple years, because we're now at the point where the police budget is equal to our entire
budget two years ago, right? And it's growing and it's growing. So, in planning for that rainy day when things don't line up well, it's great to have excellent administrators doing excellent administration and personnel work and negotiations,
right? And I know that's that's part of it. Uh but things thing things do happen and you know Alpertell has been has been paying for mis you know some mistakes and some emer some mis
m miss m miss m miss m miss m miss m miss m miss m miss m miss m miss m miss miss miss miss miss miss miss miss miss miss miss miss miss miss miss miss miss miss miss miss miss miss miss miss miss miss miss miss miss miss miss miss miss miss miss miss miss miss miss miss miss miss miss miss miss miss miss miss miss miss miss miss miss miss miss miss miss miss miss miss missed opportunities with regards to emergency management in the past that we're still you know getting out from under. So when we start having big departments add to significant parts of the budget, that's an easy place to
look at to see where we might trim the fat. Fully understand. I just want to make one point. Sure. Uh and the increase I I want to try to drill this point. Um when it talking about the uh significant if you call it
significant increase in the police department budget a majority of that increase is salary and benefits related not to do with the body count of the individuals the number the number of staff
not not to do with the number of staff correct what I'm trying to state is all a majority of it if not all of it has to do with trying to get to a respectable number where we could have a great relationship with the police officers. When I first started here, the salary
was $36,000. Sure. Right. We're at 50,000. We're finishing up this year at 50. That's $14,000 an officer. Right. Let's do the quick math. 10 officers, 140,000 plus tax plus 30% on FRS plus insurance, right? You're
talking about a 200 to two easily a $250,000 number just on salary maintaining the same this is quick off the cuff right but just maintaining status quo. So again, just want to try to make sure that everybody understands that insurance also insurance went up
$50,000 last year, right? All all is is that because we increase the number of vehicles? No, it's strictly it's strict cost of doing business for lack of better words, right? It's just co COI. You got it right. A $50,000 increase year from last uh from 23 to 24. Did we
anticipate we expected an increase? Yeah. Did we expect a $50,000 increase? No. Again, we want to go back to 2010 and see what the number was. I guarantee you we were paying significantly less in 2010 for insurance than we are paying we're paying right now. Good news is 26 insurance only went up a
few th only only a few thousand right to me that's a win unfortun right but again we're managing it. were on it and every single day. My message to the mayor, the commission, the manager was and this is
how I treat it, right? We're we're a nonprofit where we're we're we're a municipality, right? Let's call it nonprofit. I know we're not supposed to treat it like a business. I'm a former business owner. I treat it like a business, right? I'd like to run this as an as a business, as an operation. Just because the numbers there doesn't mean
we have to spend it. And that's the message that I've been drilling since I've been here since day one to everybody here in the comm everybody here. Right. I I think you'll you'll you'll you'll you'll find no disagreement from any of the residents in El Patel, especially the ones who have showed up to this meeting in particular and a
bunch of the the more recent meetings is that there is this concern that just because we've got a matching fund, we've got to go use it for a thing that maybe we could use, maybe not. Just because we've got a scalpel doesn't mean we perform surgery.
Understand? So that's that obviously I'm using metaphor. No, you're using metaphor. Let's get specific to the CIT and I know that's what you're referring to and I guess if we're jumping IP if you want to answer it, I'll just answer it. You have to understand those funds have
has specific use, right? So, we could sit here and say let's not do the roundabout, but those funds have to be used specifically for transit and transportation, but not necessarily a roundabout, although that's in the past. Correct. All I'm not going to get into the
specifics. What I'm trying to say it has to it's it's earmarked for for transit and transportation. Right. It was determined years ago that we were going to use these that that we were going to go ahead with these project and the only source of funds were going to be the CITT
right it's if it's not CITT then it's coming out of general fund right and if it's not so if it's not C then what's the other project we tried other projects right when I first arrived we had a project uh uh uh I'm not sure if anybody utilized it I know very few people utilized it was the freeb
transportation again we utilized it because we were forced to, right? Unfortunately, these funds are restricted and they have to get spent. If we don't spend them, we get penalized and we get in trouble. And the insufficient usage proved the decision that you would then eventually make.
Exactly. Which c which which allowed us which created this surplus reserve so to speak. Right. And now we're at the point where we're at a point where we're commen we're able to start a project. Right. We've earmarked the funds. We have the project ready to go. shovel on
the ground and ready to go. Yeah, I do have a little bit of a comment, Mr. Alvarez, if you'll let me. I want to echo the sentiment that the police chief is doing a remarkable job. It is difficult to retain staff at the salary levels that you guys have, far
less um retain staff that is um high energy, good quality. If you engage with any of our our police officers in Alport, I'm sure that you'll get the same um feeling. I also share your sentiment, Mr. Alvarez, that it's a good
idea to take a close look at things and then, you know, tighten things up at public safety is not one of those things that I want to necessarily trim away too aggressively at because I think on the other side of that is something very scary. What you said is the pivotal
point. We feel so safe because you guys are doing a good job and um I understand that the chief knows how to do the job. I don't know how to police. So, he knows how to utilize his staff. The CFO is telling us that. Um, also the proof is in the pudding. Like, it feels good to
be here. And you you venture a little further out of Elportal. It feels very different. Um, so I see your budget. I see the work that you're putting into it. I do think that public safety is one of the things that we touch last. So,
why don't we move on if everybody's comfortable to another part of the budget so that we can um look at some other areas. I hear see there's one one question. Mr. Alvarez, do you mind allowing um not not at all, but just in conclusion, I just want to say thank you
for allowing me to uh ask the questions and I agree with uh the the the vice mayor and council person. It does add to the value of life as well of our as well as our property values. I do think however uh that there is a wisdom in
keeping our magnifying glasses on all these things. So I appreciate Mr. Tobinfeld's explanation and I'm going to encourage you guys to continue doing that. I think that the community is going to continue to be engaged. I appreciate your time. Thank you for
that. Thank you so much. Okay. Alexandra Vasa 120 Northwest 36 Street. Um, I do want to thank you because yes, uh, we walked late at night with our dog and we do feel safe and that is an
experience that you don't get to have in in Miami date in many places. So, I do appreciate that. Um, I do have a question. So if let's say you buy less cars but you use those funds to increase the the salary of the of the officers
and maybe you know you don't feel so pressure to give them you know more cars or you know given or incentives but just elevate their salary. It's a just a question. I don't know. We need the cars though. They're they're the tool that we need and to keep the
cars to keep a good fleet of cars makes a makes a massive difference with regard to helping with retention and being able to do our jobs correctly every day. Right. But if you have a surplus of of vehicles,
it's not uh it's not out of surplus. if we might have one or two as a as backup cars just because other cars even for service that can go down. We need to be able to have other cars to go to and that that fund that we generate is an
agreement that I came to with the officers and it's specific specifically for that so that we can generate funds obtain cars every now and then without drawing it from the residents. So the these monies are not coming from you.
These are coming from the funds generated by our officers working off duty jobs and some also come from a small portion of the citations that are issued. But that was the whole point to it. That way when we when we got here, you wouldn't see it coming from your
pockets. We're not influencing you in any negative way. We're getting the tools that we need, but we came up with a method to keep it funded. And it's it's a constant it's a constant fund. So it keeps
it keeps building and as the cars go along next year we'll turn in the Taho. That revenue will pay for the down payment of new cars and we would you would just continue with a monthly payments from this account. This is a voluntary account that the officers pay
into and that's how we generate that revenue. So that is interesting but at the same time you know following what George is saying uh I think it's important to try to keep it slim to the most point because there are expenses that you
cannot control like increases in in insurance for instance uh that you know is out of and then it's you have those obligations that you have to meet anyway. You're correct and I'm very clear on that. I'm very aware of that and the manager has that magnifying glass on me all the time. We sat down, we sit down,
we have meetings, and she goes, "That's not gonna happen, and that's not going to happen, and that's not going to happen." And then we fall into the the place that we need to go. Yes, we need to build a little bit. The growing pains will get better because once we have the staffing that we have and we have all
our car, all our cars that we need, the tools that we need, the rifles, uh, if we're lucky enough to get the the ATV, then next year, what do we have to get? Nothing. some bullets, uniforms. Yeah, it's part of the it's part of the doing business. But you have professional
people out there that feel good about coming here. They respect you and they do a good job and we're retaining them. And then the younger guys is they want to move on. They'll say, "Hey, chief, you know, I might put for the city. I might put for the Coral Gables. Okay, let me know how it goes." And now I'm
already looking for somebody else to replace them. But it's a smoother transition. It's not that radical transition where we had before that was like every everything was chaos. People were not happy. Sometimes we have one person out there patrolling. That was terrible. Terrible. Not safe for the
officers and not safe for the residents. How many? All right. Two. All right. Hold on, guys. Thanks, Chief. Appreciate that. Almost midnight. Um, public works.
Everybody remember here uh next on on on Tuesday the 9th when we come for the first budget hearing um if we have a larger crowd and I keep everybody to three minutes. Please let them know the mayor is
is not being a dictator. He let us go well past midnight when we had the budget workshop and didn't even turn didn't even turn the clock on once and let people talk as long as they wanted to. But trust me, I still get complaints.
The mayor is a tyrant. All right, here we go. Public works. Questions, comments. Public works. No. How much How many staff do we have? Uh, council person, I mean warers has a
question. You guys, we have one and a half. Someone pregnant. Works. I'm sorry. No, one full-time, one part-time. Alexandra Vasa, 120 Northwest 86 Street. Um, I just have a question about the
number the trees that are being planted currently. Now I see um you know these items these line items that are from uh tree trimming. So I understand that those trees are you know for a grant or
I don't know how they were acquired and um they like I didn't need I didn't know we needed more trees but now we have adding extra expense um for something else. So going back to how
we should try to find use the resources that are given for things that people may need a little bit more like uh you know yes parks and on and what not like a lot of people we do have dogs or we have so there are other
ways that we may need you know other than just trees I'm just saying and then um I want to ask a little bit. I don't know if that's kind of the same but the revenue from building department and those
that are related but I don't know at this point supercharge I'm just want to ask about the trees and how is that how is that being paid for and if there's any other way to use those resources better. So to answer your question, the the uh source of funds for the tree
planting is coming from the uh funding from the kavista the monies that remaining funds from the kavista uh agreement developer agreement. So planting more trees was the only way to spend the money is the question.
Uh the agreement uh has spec specific Oh, I'll let the manager speak. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Talfell. Um yes, we have a grant from Neat Streets. It's a county grant um for a project that started several years ago before I
even came on board as manager. It's called Greenwalk to School and we would plant trees annually. Um it's a matching grant. Um and we would plant trees annually. So we've done this every year up until about three years ago. We got bottlenecked into a situation with the
contractor through the county um and we couldn't plant the trees. So now we're finally at the point where they say, "Okay, you got 60 days. Plant the trees." So this is from a 2023 grant. So we don't want to send these funds away
and lose them. We wanted to utilize them. We're a Tree City USA. We're We have an urban canopy. Um many people have requested trees and we've been putting them on hold waiting for this tree grant to come through and waiting for everything to work out. So, we want to use utilize these funds that were
given to us two years ago. We haven't applied for them again since, but it's an opportunity for those who live on the west side to have the canopy that uh reflects what's over here on the east side. And we also use these funds to replace some of the trees that were um
dead or had been taken or removed um from that um grant fund as well. So these funds is from a grant for the neat street um greenwalk to school that's being utilized now. That's what what we're planting and we're replacing any dead or you know trees that had to be
removed because of injury or illness or you know that died. So is the is the money coming from that grant or it's coming from the kavista? No no it's coming from both. That grant is a matching grant. The part that we are putting forward is from the kavista
which is a green you know it can only be used for you know green space part you know those kinds of things. So that's where we're using our matching fund is coming from that. Okay. So and again these are restricted remember restricted for certain use which is tree
planting. So we can't utilize that too unless I mean we we we're redoing this park that's going to be open. We just redid the nature trail. Uh it's brand new and nice. So I mean that again restricted funds for the kavista but in terms of the neat street tree planting
grant that's uh different it has to be used for the rightway plantings. Okay. Just uh just Daniel Roas, 60 Northeast 86 Street. Um just want a little clarity
on uh what tree trimming is. Is this $100,000? Is it like the whole village is going to get trimmed? all anything in a public spaces or anything like that or um this is not just tree that's also our landscaping. We do landscaping in all of
our parks and at the village hall um twice a month. So that's the fee with that and and uh the addition is the tree trimming which we do an annual hurricane trimming that's about 38 to $40,000 a year. Okay. It's just it's an increase of
about $75,000 $65,000, right? Yeah. There was also a a a shift in policy. Uh the the actual trimming for the hurricane preparedness was being paid out of the transportation fund. Um
so we shifted and the transportation fund had always been running in a deficit. So to self-correct it, we uh consolidated it with the uh maintenance. Same company comes in and does So, it's shifted over to the public works. Thank you. And then, uh, pest control.
Is that mosquito control? Is that iguanas? Is that No, that's the village hall. We have termites, we got roaches, we got ants, you know. So, it's just our maintenance monthly. They come in and spray. That makes sense. So, no iguanas, please. Iguanas.
That's not part of it, unfortunately. All right. Thank you so much again. Thank you very much. I would be a little concerned right now, manager. Uh, we've been in here with the termites flying around and we're paying for pest control. I don't think they're doing their job.
Okay, we'll we'll check. I'm sorry. You noticed. I'm not sure if this is this enough to actually cover it because I don't know if this building needs to be tented or if some $1,000 is going to cover tenting this building. And we've seen termites a dozen times probably here. So, what what
is our pest control actually cover with that amount? We're paying per month. It's spring. We have been recommended to have tenting. I don't think uh we've gotten any quotes just yet, but when we get to that, I I'll, you know, come before council if it's outside of my
spending authority. Well, many annual companies who do pest control, their control doesn't control. They usually give the tenting included. Do that. We have no contingencies with the company we're using. No, I'll check the contract. Get back.
Thank you. Alvarez. Hi. Uh, George Alvarez, 165 Northwest 88 Street. Um, piggy piggybacking on what Mr. Rojos was asking about contractual services, lawn
maintenance, street trimming with um a significant increase, 182 and a half% increase. What is the scope of or what is what was the scope versus what is now
the scope of all that work that Sure. Um to reiterate, so FY25, the $35,400 represents the uh maintenance uh I'm sorry, the monthly that $35,000 represents an annual maintenance of
through the village for the company come to do uh the respective work. Okay. In addition to that, we they provide a service where they every year like the manager mentioned, they come out and do a tree trimming for hurricane preparedness. they go throughout the village. That runs anywhere from 35 to
$40,000 a year as well. Um, so that makes up the most of it. And then there, you know, there's some other expenses that come up along the way throughout the year where repairs, you know, trees need to be taken down, trees fall down, stuff like that. So, so that so that remainder um
100,000 minus 354 that remainder is not a yearly expense but will be for 26. No, what it is is an annual expense. What I mentioned to the gentleman before is that that the annual service for the hurricane preparedness was uh coming out
of the transportation fund. If you go to page, we're jumping ahead, but if you go to page 13, you'll see there's a line item there that says tree trimming, right? So that a majority of that rep, it's actually tree trimming and it should be hurricane preparedness as well. But that $57,000
represents a $38,000 charge for tree trimming for the hurricane preparedness throughout the village and $19,000 for sandbags that were purchased for the storm last year. All right. One second, you guys. One second. Do I have a motion to continue after? Before you do that, we we we've gone through eight pages in six
hours. We have eight more pages. If we keep going at this rate to be another 6 hours in 6:00 in the morning, we need a motion to continue after 12 midnight per our statute. What's the alternative if we don't move? Can we schedule this the second half on another day, Saturday?
This this I'm not available on Saturdays. Uh can we do it via Zoom? Okay. What are the options? I have to be up in 5 hours to get my kiddies ready for preschool. Um would prefer to not do that
early afternoon of Tuesday. It's a work. Yeah. It's not a this is not the it's not the hearing. It's the workshop. Okay. So, we'll tackle the remainder at the at the budget hearing. We can we can do that. Yeah. I just have no confidence that
we're actually going to be able to We do. Yeah, I know. I hear you. I hear you. We can You mean before the hearing? So, you're talking about sometime this week. Tomorrow's Wednesday. We can't notice. I'm I'm already not I already have to
notice the first It's for notice. It's not enough time. I'd say you let them speak on on whatever the topic is for one page and get it over with because if not, we're going to end up being the same time. So, cuz the people who have been waiting here they
I'm saying she says she only has one concern. I mean this this can we extend it to a time certain like 12:15. Can we do that so that we have like at least a back stop within which that we kind of I mean that's 15 are pacing ourselves. Huh?
15 that's 13 more minutes. You think we can do it? Yeah. Um let's see. Can we do it guys? Can we do it in 13 minutes? George always does more than three minutes. But um I thought that was the threehour. Uh but but let me just say this. Let me
just say this. I think I think it's easier to go page by page because if you start jumping around then it's going to get really crazy. You're going to hear a lot of fumbling up here and they're going to go to this page. Oh no, turn back to this page. Oh no, turn to this page. Once the page is done, like these pages are done, we're not going back to
them. I don't care who wants to go back. We're not going backwards. So, I think page by page is the way to do it. Um, if we could just kind of summarize things a little bit more, I think we can really get out of here. I I agree that we need to do what you're saying and go through page by page. Maybe we start earlier on
Tuesday next week so we can give ourselves more time. We're advertising for Tuesday anyways, right? We're having the we're having time. We're having the hearing Tuesday. Workshop during a hearing.
She's saying that the the notice has already gone. No, no, no. For for for Tuesday, we could get the notice out for a workshop and then for a then for the hearing. We can do that. um mayor, but the only thing I see with this is that you would have to give
whoever comes in to go through all the pages again because that would be the opportunity. It doesn't set up it doesn't set up just pertaining to these uh it would have to be open again to the people that are tonight. Those are rules. I'm so sorry, guys. We're trusting you. 15 more
minutes. Can we do it? Let's do it's 12:04. 12:04. Let's do the 1220. 12:20. Let's do it. 12:20. I think we can do it. That's basically 15 minutes. So, it's 12:04 now. Got to turn the timer on then. If we're going to do this, there's no way it's going to happen. Okay.
Turn it to 30 seconds. All right. So, so here we go. So, we're going to do Do I have a motion to move until 12:20? So moved. Do I have a second? Uh oh. Uh oh.
I don't have a second. Let me let me just say this before you guys answer. I I I didn't want to get personal, but I was awake for the weekend. I traveled 7,500 miles to come back for this meeting. All right. Today, I arrived at 6:30 this morning and I've been up. I'm happy to
be here. I really like to get this finished. I haven't seen my family in six days. So, I'll second. Let's just get this thing done, please. All in. So, we have a motion. Have a second. Thank you, ma'am. Mad. All in favor say I. I I All right. So, let's keep All right. So, Mr. Alvarez, if we can if we can go.
Uh, when will the the hurricane trimming take place? Number one. And number two, can you explain how transpo funds can funds can be used for for that? Yes. Okay. The tree trimming is done
annually in um the month of June. So, it's already taken place. and the uh transportation funds were utilized because it is allowed to um be utilized for maintenance of the right of way.
Okay. Alexandra Vasa 120 Northwest 36 Street. Um I just wanted to ask why were the contingency contingencies um line what was why was that removed? Is that for emergencies? The line item this year was specific to
a project that uh we knew going into fiscal 25 that there was funds needed to be allocated for a specific use. Um this year we don't foresee anything. Um in the on the horizon. Again I remind everybody that there's we're currently
sitting with a surplus of $383,000. It's just a again how do you want to skin the cat? you want to leave the $383,000 as a potential reserve or do you want to take $50,000 and put into contingency? To me, it's 601 half a dozen another. It's the same thing. We're just taking from one place to put it to the other.
We don't foresee anything on the horizon that is not forecasted in the current budget. So therefore, we again we left it uh zero for this coming year. So um like budget for emergencies now that the hurricane season is coming like where would that be?
That would have to come from the reserve or whatever cash and funding we have. But is that is that shown anywhere or no? The re so the village reserves as mentioned earlier right now are going into this current fiscal year are at a
deficit. Um we the village however does have cash supporting cash in you know to operate. at the same time another catastrophe. Um I you know don't know what the answer is to be honest with you. Right. If you have another million-dollar hit there's there I don't
think there is an answer. Okay. Another question just so that yeah the manager reminded me uh last hurricane was a $2 million uh expense to the village. Uh we were only able to recoup a million two. All right.
So again, we're not in a position to take a million dollar hit or another $2 million hit. That's just it's not available at this time. Anybody else for public works? All right, so let's move on. The next um department is code enforcement
questions, comments, code. Yeah, really quickly, the uh professional fees special master, we had 5,000 budget last year. We used 1,800 and there's 5,000 again. Uh I've been part of these meetings. I I see a lot of our residents when they go to these special master hearings having to pay
court fees. Are they not paying for those special master fees that we're talking about? The professional fees? Yes, they pay an administration fee. So, it's coming out of our pocket though, but they're they're paying themselves. So, I'm I'm a little confused. It's not really from us. This
is a fee for a service that we, you know, we hire, we have somebody come in and handle the proceedings. What you see here is his fee to run. I'm sorry, her fee to run the proceedings. I've seen that. I've been at the I'm saying they she charges there's like a
$169. Am I correct? Is that the fee? No, they're paying the, you know, their administr administrative fees. They're not paying for the special master. We're paying paying the special master from our, you know, from this, but what
they're paying for is the things that got them to the special master hearing. So, they're paying a fee and whatever the mitigation is that they're requesting or, you know, not okay. Yes.
Oh, Denise White, uh, 173 North Northwest 88th Street. I'm like a kid who want to go home, y'all. I'm not going to lie. Anyway, um code enforcers, we have one or two. We have one code enforcer or two. We have one code enforce. We have one
code enforcement officer and one code enforcement administrator. What's the difference? Administrator H is handling most of the stuff that the individual is handling is in-house paperwork. But I'll let the manager be more specific. Yeah. And and just more specifically,
the code enforcement um officer is a certified code enforcement officer with trainings and what have you. The code administrator is we would love to have a certified one come um but presently uh she's not certified but looking into trainings. Um but there are a lot of um
um legal um filings that have to be done within time specific. And so the code enforcement officer is doing code enforcement, the code administrator is doing the paperwork. um that's required and the filings and working on the agendas every month and and doing all of
the internal um requirements uh because you know there are dates specific to certain notate uh citations and notices and those kinds of things that they have to keep up with and we we're going to give them a raise of $20,000
now. And I know it's not a raise, it's taking them from a part-time position to a full-time position. instead of going for part-time position to full-time. Correct. So, we're just doubling her salary. She's working going from 20 hours to 40 hours a week. That's all. Oh, so she couldn't have accomplished
all her work at the part-time position rate. Unfort Unfortunately, not. I again, I think the message that I've been trying to get across to everybody for the last six hours is that we're very judicious and and watch how we spend our money, how we're spending your money, I should
say. Um if the increase wasn't needed, you wouldn't be seeing it. Yeah, I know. But like Mr. Alvarez said, George, it's not George. Like George said, um it's important for us to keep a microscope because if we don't, some things might just slip by us and we're
trying not to let it slip by us. That's that's that's why we're a pain in the neck right now. Not a pain in the neck. Fully understand. And that's why we're here. I'm here to I'm here. Like I said, I'm here 6:30 this morning, I flew 7,500 miles. I'm here to answer all your questions. I know. Thank you very much and thank you for wait and I'm not going to do
much longer. Um I'm sorry. Go ahead. I'm I just want to also answer about the you don't want anything to slip through the cracks when we have nobody you know all the departments are oneperson departments. That's very difficult. Sometimes things slip through the cracks when you're doing your own administrative work as well as the you
know the other um the other service. Um so code because it's so detailed with the timelines and the kind of sensitive you have to have that you know. So many times, many days, weeks go by sometimes where the code officer wasn't able to go
out on the field because he's too busy doing uh administrative and and filings. So we had to have that. So understanding that, you know, that doesn't look good in terms of oh this person can't get it all done in 20 hours. No, because it is
spec specific work um that is required to be done for the department to function. We want the services to be the right services for the village and we're doing it at a we brought someone in part-time and trained them to do this thinking, okay, this is a good way to at least alleviate some of the pressure off
of the uh the officer, but because that too wasn't enough. We brought her on full-time. Okay. No, no, no. That's fine. But on paper, it just looks funny, so I had to ask. Right. And then they pay their postage separate from your postage.
No other department pays postage separate. That is correct. The postage is allocated between code and uh administrative and finance. Okay. Okay. And then besides that, I just want to tell the police chief, thank you very much. Your officer,
Officer Shannon, was very helpful in one or two um instances as well as opening the the what's the name of that path? The nature path. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, no, no. He he's the one that get there first. I'm in love with that. Thank you very much. And um yeah, I love y'all,
but I got to go. All right, you got anybody else for code? Oh, George Alvarez, 165 Northwest 88. Is there a projected increase in revenue from code enforcement citations that
corresponds with the extra work that obviously is already happening because we're already yeartodate above her uh projected salary? Thanks. Let the manager speak better to that. Um but I would say yes, it's needed. It's
more hand she's handling more of the day-to-day stuff. there's a lot of more administrative work that needs to be done. Um again, the officer is more focused on out, you know, I guess doing the the off the code enforcement whereas she's handling all the administrative work. Right. The the question is there is
there a projected increase in El Patel revenue from we spoke earlier and decided that we were going to reduce the revenue. So again, there's a pro we don't don't know what crystal ball correct. We never know what the revenue is going to be, right? Because ma
special magistrate can come into play and yeah it deters Thank you. violations. Yeah. Thank you. Anybody else code? Good. Um building department revenue.
Alexander Basa 120 Northwest 36 Street. Um quick question. I heard before I don't know if I heard incorrectly uh the cost for planning and soning um is some of that is absorbed for the people developers and whatnot corino and plus
suburbia uh plus urban um so I want to understand if the revenue and the expenses match exactly 233,000 um adopted and 350,000 And both numbers
um match exactly the expenses versus the revenue. Um so every pennies coming out of the so the building department or the building fund is should be a nonre nonp
profofitable for lack of better words a nonprofitable operation. So in theory all the money that you're you're bringing in is money that you're spending out. It's not a again these are fees that homeowners and residents are paying right permit fees that they're paying. So this is not we're not in the
business to make money right char. So these fees again are being passed through and being paid to the the um the company that oversees it. And then there are some additional expenses that the village does incur as it relates to the building department. A lot of the fees
if not all the fees are recorded via the credit card right. So all the credit card fe majority of the credit card fees get allocated to the building department. So again we took we look at the expenses and we allocate them accordingly and pretty much it's expected to be a wash right you see the year to date you're almost there but
again if there's a surplus you get something that gets carried over if there's a a shortfall again it's just it balances out just like every other department there's a they they have their own uh their own reserves. So planning and zoning expenses general general fund related have nothing to do with the building. All
right. Okay. Thank you very much. Uh, anybody else? Department building revenue. Moving on to transportation fund revenue. Questions, comments.
Moving on. CITT. We have exactly three minutes till 12:20 if we have to do an extension. We're good. George Alvarez, 165 Northwest 88 Street. Uh Mr. Tolenfeld or Madame Aloo. Uh so how how
in the CITT transfer in from reserves transfer in from reserves 90 and 250k each. And then CITT fund expenses uh transfer to reserves
also in the in the expenses chart is that like a clawback is that is that when they because we had not been in compliance in the past and then they No, it's just the surplus that projected surplus remember CITT two different
funds uh transit transportation transit is 10 if you look at the codes 105 transportation was 106. Right. Right. So, what we're anticipating is now that we have the funds and we're carrying the reserves. Right. What I'm trying to show you here is the ins and outs all the money coming in and what
you see on the expense line is the projected surplus for the transit portion of the CITT which on the first chart which would have been five or six the transit part. So transit would be the 26,720 plus the
90,000 in reserve. Right? Starting with the 105 105 and the two line items. So we're projecting $116,000 in revenue. We're estimating $75,000 in expense, leaving the $41,000 balance. Again, to show a balanced budget, I'm just The expectation here is that there's going
to be a $41,000 surplus and the transit when everything's all said and done this year and it's going to go to the reserve to be used for next year. No, next year CITT transit only. These are funds that specifically need to be can only be used CIT, right? That's been a a a big question.
So that 41720 is going to basically be expected to add to whatever our next year CITT transit only. Transit only for transit only. Thank you, sir. Correct. Alexander Basa 120 Northwest 86 Street.
I am so sorry. I'm going to go back because I didn't hear it. But I want to ask about the potholes. Why was that reduced from 42,000 to 3 33,000 when our streets are just getting worse and worse? One second, Miss P.
Um motion to extend for another 10 minutes to 12:30. Do you have a motion? We're at 12:20. I need a motion at 10 extension motion for 12:30. I think we should go ahead and knock it out, you guys.
Yeah, we have. Yeah, like three four more pages. I'd like to make a motion to do the last four pages an hour before next Tuesday's meeting. This is so this this is what I think is the issue. You have to like you can't
like if new people come, you can't deny them there. So then we might end up redoing the whole thing over again. If people aren't here tonight, it's it's too bad you missed a budget hearing. I mean, there's a budget workshop. If people come and there's a budget workshop, we can't deny them from asking
question about the council page or asking question because they weren't here. That's the only thing I'm worried about you guys. Mayor, anybody who has a question, but we'll be in a hearing though. or they can email those questions. The
thing about it is is I think everybody in here has been abundantly kind with their time. We're all people. We all have families. We want to get to kids we want to put to sleep. Some of us are exhausted. We've been working, moming, wifeing, all of the things. And I I think some of the questions definitely
could only be answered by the CFO, but also some of the leg work could have been done prior to being here as well. I think that we have kind of walked this path together and I'm willing to walk a little bit more but I also feel like the
members of the audience um maybe if we could just if we have five questions left maybe pose one of them and email the other four I'll make sure that those questions get answered but I do think that we are extending and extending um I
don't want Mr. Tommen felt to have to come back. I don't want to undo what we've done here tonight, but I do want there to be some at least accounting for the fact that on this end um we want to go home, too. We want to we want to answer your questions and we've prepared these documents and a lot of these
things we've spent a lot of time figuring out and knowing and we want you to get the information but also if there's anything that we can do to make this the last extension that's also something that would be really kind uh to us as neighbors as well and for all of us to kind of take a deep breath and
go home and do it again on September 9th. So, I'm willing to make the motion to extend it to 12:32. All right. It is 12. It's 12:23 now. You want to go 12:33. 12:33. Okay. So, motion to extend at 12:33. You
have a motion by the vice mayor. Do I have a second? Second. Second by council person Winters. All say I. I. I. Continue, please. Yes. I already Yes. Okay. To answer your question again. So
the the transportation fund only generates a certain amount of revenue, right? So in order to stay in balance, there's only the only the amount that we allocated is $33,000 for pothole and street repairs. Also note that the the
current line item also is pothole street repairs. It also includes speed bumps, the speed bumps that were were installed. So there's it's a combination of the two, but again the $33,000 number is to represent a balanced budget for the transportation fund.
Thank you very much. Anybody else? Seeing none, storm water fund revenue. storm water. Um, Alexander Vasa, 120 Northwest 36 Street. I just wanted to ask about the
uh current stage of the Hardin project. Um, just because yeah, our street get really flooded. Thank you. The current stage is that we're still awaiting an outfall easement from one of the residents. So, we haven't been able
to complete phase one of Elhardin. Um, and also to even get started on phase two, we need to get funding. So, we did ask for that funding at uh the state level. This year, we got denied. So, we'll continue to ask again for more funding. And there's uh Durham's been reaching
out to myself, manager, um the head scientists there. There's this thing called the RAP RA that they've been working on and they said they may have funding for us to continue working at Hardin and I'm I'm organizing a Zoom meeting for all of us coming up soon. So, we have that.
Yeah, funding. Um, anything else? Storm water. uh parks and recck uh revenue page and debt service. We're still on parks and recreation. Okay. You have some for parks and rec for the the fund expenses. You said revenue earlier
for Yeah. fund revenue. Yeah. But for expenses. Oh, and I mean I said the fund revenue page just because it's at the top. Okay. It's on the same page. So, um I'm a little concerned the uh repair and maintenance of the fountain in Sherwood Forest was $1,000. It said year to date they spent $700. It has not been running
since I've seen it every time I walk by it every day. And I want to know why we're spending another $1,000 if this actually did receive some kind of payment for repairs. Yeah, the fountain has been repaired several times this year. If it's not running again, then we'll have to send
the tech out there again. So, do we need to replace the fountain? Are we going to spend $1,000 every year till it never really runs completely? I mean, would it be more thoughtful to go and fix something different or change it or something?
That is the will of the council to replace it with a different functionality. Also note that um it's an archaeological zone, so we don't really like to do too much to that um park, but um we can certainly look into um less
invasive replacement if necessary. Then if possible, just by next week, if someone can send an email out saying what was done to the fountain so I can look it over. Thank you very much, Counc. Anybody else? Uh, parks and wreck page.
Uh, debt service page. Okay. Greg Steer, 120 Northwest 86 Street. Just a quick question. I'm not sure I understand. So, the 38,000 is coming in, but then it's going out. Are we paying 38,000 in interest on a loan? Is that it?
No. Um, hold on one second. So, the $37,000 transfer in, that's the general fund supporting the payments for the debt service. Um, and the expense is broken out below principal and interest. So you
can see that of the 37,000 31,243 represents principal with the balance of 5857 as interest. So yes, so we're paying 38,000 in in principal principal and interest. No, 38,000 in principal, 5,000 in
interest. Okay. Yes. 37,100 in principal and interest on a loan. So how much is that loan? Uh the current balance are roughly I want to say 95 or 928.
That's it. It reduces $2,700 a month. So I think it's either 90 somewhere between 92 and 95,000. There's approximately three years left on the loan. So wait a minute. You're paying $37,000 a year on a $95,000 loan.
The loan initially was 1.2 million uh when it was initially started. Um, so these are fixed payments. This is the second um amendment to the original loan. And the answer to your question is it no, it's a fixed principal payment. So the the monthly
payment will adjust, but the uh the principal payment is a fixed amount. It's roughly $2600 and change until you get to the $31,000. So principal balance is roughly $95,000. So yes, it'll take us three years approximately to pay it off and the interest will reduce monthly
based on that because of the monthly, right? But if it's only $95,000, why not just pay it off? I mean, you're earning interest on the revenue page. It says you're earning $25,000 a year on uh some account where you're some bank account.
I mean, do we not have $95,000 in the bank that we can just pay off this loan? That's a question for the commission to answer. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Yeah, we I mean we there's the money there. It's just do we want to put it
into paying off the loan and we can decide that as a council. Miss Bos, I will say that the carrying again just not to expand on it, but three years the
co the cost to carry that loan out will be roughly about $8,000 in interest. So just I guess keep that in mind. If we keep it status quo, the cost would be $8,000 to the municipality as opposed to paying it off. And uh there
I'm sorry. I also need would have to check to see if there's a prepayment clause in the agreement. So that might come into play as well. And just to close on that, that will also give you the opportunity to choose whatever bank you want. Yeah, understand. Absolutely. Uh anyone
else for the uh debt service hearing? Seeing none. Um we don't need any good and welfare, I suppose. Uh motion to adjurnn. So move moved by Vice Mayor Martin. Do I have a
second? Second. Second by council person Winters. All in favor say I. I. I. Good work everybody. Thank you so much for your time. Say nay. Hearing none. The budget workshop for the fiscal year 2025 2026
is adjourned at 12:31 a.m.