Is there a pastor in the audience that would like to lead us in prayer tonight? Do we have any pastors? No. No. No pastors. Do Would you like to lead us in prayer tonight? Well, we're not starting yet, but just come up front, sir. Yeah. If you want to sit in the front, we can let you know when. Thank you so much. Good evening everyone. Um, please turn your cell phones to vibrate silence or off setting. The border county commission allows any person to speak regarding an item on the agenda. The speaker is limited to three minutes unless otherwise determined by the chairperson to allow sufficient
time for all speakers. Speakers shall refrain from abusive or profane remarks, disruptive hours, protest or other conduct which interferes with the orderly conduct of the meeting. Upon completion of the public comment period, discussion by board members and questions raised by the board. This is our first budget public hearing, September 9th, 2025. Steve, can you lead us in the uh pledge of allegiance? Please stand, everyone. Yeah. Please join me for the pledge of
the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Sir, we should have had you first, but come up to the invocation and please state your name. What where where you from? Dr. Eric Truss, Pastor Friend Baptist Church here in the city. Thank you. Shall we pray? Eternal Father God, as we come before you today with this business at hand,
we pray that you would lead us and guide us in the ways that is right and in your sight. keep our hearts and our minds steadfast on you and for the things that you would have us to do. Bless us all and keep us in Jesus's name we pray. Amen. Amen. Thank you, sir. Okay. All right. Delena, do we have a proof of publication? Mr. Chairman, the 50:01 p.m. first
public hearing for consideration of the tentative budget for fiscal year 2526 was advertised in the board's weekly meeting schedule in the Pensacola News Journal on September 4th, 2025 as required by Florida Statute 197.363, the 502 p.m. Public hearing for consideration of adopting the fiscal year 2025 2026 fire protection MSBU and firstear assessment roles for street lighting holding pond maintenance purto key beach mouse and nuisance abatement MSBUs was advertised in the Pensacola
News Journal on August 15, 2025. First class notices were mailed to all property owners in the affected MSBU districts. A notice of street lighting MSBU adjustment was also published in the Pensacola News Journal on August 15, 2025. Okay. Thank you very much. Board, this isn't in the agenda, but if is there any um commissioner comments before we adopt the agenda? Uh no, sir. In light of the folks here, I you get right into it perhaps. Yeah. Okay. All right. Commissioner
May? No. All right. Everyone else good. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Since that's there, do we have an adoption of the agenda? So moved. Second, Mr. Chair, please vote. Motion passes 5-0. Board where board action item 501, public hearing for the consideration of the tenant budget for fiscal year 2025 2026. Assistant County Administrator, Miss Bowers, would you like to lead us from here? Yes. Good evening, Mr. Chairman and commissioners. This is the first of two required public hearings
for the board to adopt the fiscal year 2025 2026 budget. The board later in the meeting will set the second public hearing. The Escambia County Board of County Commissioners approved the 2025 2026 tenative millage rates for trim notification purposes at the BCC meeting held on July 10th, 2025. The law requires that prior to consideration of the tenative budget, an explanation of the rolled back rate be provided and entered into the records. The rolled back rate is a computed
millage rate that would generate the same amount of adalorum tax dollars as the prior fiscal year based on the proposed year's tax role excluding new construction. The millage rates tenatively adopted by the board for trim notification are 6.6165 for the countywide millage rate, 0.3590 for the library municipal services taxing unit, and 0.6850 for the sheriff's law
enforcement municipal services taxing unit. The aggregate of these millage rates proposed for fiscal year 2025 2026 is 4.83% above the rolled back rate of 7.1312 certified by the property appraiser. This represents the percentage increase in property taxes tentatively adopted by the board. for information and to avoid any misunderstanding
concerning the process of this meeting. This public hearing is convened tonight to discuss the county's fiscal year 2025 2026 budget. Because of time constraints, we will need to confine our discussion to this subject. Increases in property assessments, remarks, or questions concerning individual property appraisals should be addressed to the county property appraiser at his office during normal business hours. Thank you. Thank you. Um, county acting county administrator Bowers board. At this point,
we're at Is there any questions or discussions on this item? I have to ask. If I see none, we'll move forward. Uh, we're at public forum. We have one speaker on the tenant budget for FY 2526 milligates. That's Larry DS Jr. Larry, are you here? Yes, sir. Okay, please come up. Is this it? Okay.
Larry DS Jr. Plumbing LLC. Because vehicle matters. Figure I might as well use that as an opportunity to uh promote some business. Um since y'all are uh you know budgeting our business which which is quite quite expensive. Uh is there I just wanted to let y'all know that we should never ever go up on our taxes by double or more than double. That's unacceptable.
So, anytime you go up on a on any type of uh, you know, tax or a budget or anything else, try to do it like in 10% increments, you know, cuz 10% is good enough for our, you know, for for tithes, you know what I mean? I mean, it it's good enough for our church. It's good enough for our religion. It should be good enough for our government. But if you go if you go over the 10%, a lot of people can't afford that. And I don't know if y'all know it or not, but we are headed
into a great recession, if not depression. You cannot spend $10 trillion over a two-year period of the pandemic money, the Corona cares act, the American Rescue Plan, which does exactly the opposite of what it says, a res American Rescue Plan, giving all that money to those huge global corporations, shutting down small businesses all over the country that'll never come back. Y'all need to keep that in mind whenever you are voting to put more burden on the taxpayer.
So that's all I got to say. Just just just try not to do it. Don't do it. And if you have to do it, don't raise our taxes over 10% at a time. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. DS. Please. Um we're just getting started. Okay. board. Uh we need action of the tended millage resolution for fiscal year 2526. Um the chair will entertain a motion to adopt the tendant mill resolution as
presented in the agenda backup of 6.615 mills for the countywide mill rate 0.359 for the library MSTU 0.685 685 mills for the sheriff law enforcement MSTU for fiscal year 2526. All right. So Mike, we don't have public speakers before this. That was the only one for this. We will have several for the MSBU. Okay. I move the item. Okay. Is there a second?
All right. There's a motion and second. Please vote. Motion passes five to zero. Item 72 is the tended budget resolution um that the chair entertains for the totality of the budget resolution of 824,440 uh,000 824,440,50 as presented in the agenda backup. I have a motion. So moved. Is there a second? Second.
All right. There's a motion to second. Please vote. Okay, motion passes 5 to zero. Our third item 73 is announcing the second public hearing for adoption of the fiscal year 2526 budget which will be held September 23rd, 2025 in these chambers at 5:01 p.m. Is there a motion to move that? So moved. Second. Okay. Please vote. Second public hearing passes 5 to zero. Mr. Chairman,
is this one outside agencies have been invited to present? Actually, um Stefan, you want to answer that question because you you know that I think you reached out to all of them and just if you could give the board a backup commissioners, um as a courtesy to the public that have shown up tonight to speak in regards to the fire, MSPU, or any other issues, uh we requested to move uh community partners to the second budget public hearing, which is also in line with uh the board's direction last year. and that that communication was sent out and notified to our community partners.
Any further questions? Excuse me, commissioner. Hey, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on. We're going to have a we're going to have a discussion on MSPU. If you haven't signed up, please go outside and sign up and you will appropriately be able to present the board right from that mic, but we're not going to have people shouting out. Okay, I've already done Okay, then I I will get you. That's okay. I know we have a lot of people here tonight, but we got to make sure that we all listen to each other and be respectful. Okay, we're we're at item f uh four, and this is the public hearing for consideration of adopting
the fiscal year 20 2526 non-advelorum special assessment rule. The board action of resolution to amend resolution R203-71 as amended by R 2025-63 revising the cost of services and unit assessments with no change in the pro proposed fire MSBU assessment. The chair will entertain a motion recommending that the actually hold on a second. Yeah,
hold on. The chair will entertain a motion recommending that the board consider adopting a resolution to amend R203-71 as amended by R2 2025-6 63 excuse me y'all to revise the cost of service and units of assessment used to calculate the adjusted rates with no change in the proposal for for fire MSBU assessment rates. All right, Mr. Chairman. So this is also not the item that we have the speakers here for. This is some housekeeping. Yep. I move I move the item. Okay. Second. All right. There's a motion, a second. Please vote. Motion passes 5-0. All right,
Debbie, we're up to the presentation of the non-advalum tax. Okay. Uh, commissioners, there's a list of all the nonadvalorum districts and rates provided in your agenda backup. Okay. Okay, Debbie, did you read three, too? Yeah, that's what I thought. We You only read two. We need to read three as well. All right.
um that the board adopt the fiscal year 2025 2026 nonadvalorum assessment role for the county mainland fire protection municipal services benefit unit MSBU following the 502M public hearing. Okay. Thank you. Now um we're open to due to public forum. We have several speakers for the MSPU. Um the first one I I don't know Okay, there's a John M. There's probably multiple
John's in the audience. I'll give If you're John M, you have How many speakers do we have on item? Probably 25. Five. 25. 25. Thank you. Okay, John M, that's your last chance. Tim Meyers, you're ne you're up. Okay, come on up Tim to the stadium. And Mary Kopka, chief, you're on deck. I read this at home. It's about three and a half minutes. If you get three minutes, sir, but do the best you can. Okay. All right. Good evening, uh, everyone. Let me preface this with to say that I
was a volunteer fireman in Virginia for four years and know the mechanics and operations involved. I'm a 30-year resident of Muscami County and have the highest respect for the fire department. I've been informed by the scammy county fire chief requested the border county commissioners increase the fire department taxes by 80% above what we already paid from 125 to 226 calling it a nonadvalor tax when in actuality is going to be paid with our advaloring tax bill. Reality is it is intended to be used to build new fire stations that don't service you most of us.
One fire station uh that's currently planned was nothing but a tin garage with one truck manned by 100% volunteers and they want to rebuild on B road. It could be rebuilt for what it was for less than $40,000 with the overage Avengers currently. That gave the residents an ISO rating insurance rating of four 10 which is unimaginable. Notification notwithstanding is improperly noticed by a subscriptiononly news outlet. This is not
coincidence that we had a 250 page budget that was put forward only 24 hours ago. This is well known as old boy system here in Escambia County and keeping information from citizens until it's too late. I do not have the simple request that I made when I signed up for this for overall general budget for the last four years. only that this proposal is simply a Trojan unicorn shell game with our taxes. Here's the 800lb gorilla in the room. Scami County administration is trying to put
lipstick on. Scami County has received increase of tax revenue of $50 million over the last year for a grand budget of 375 million. This 80% increase in department tax will generate an additional $10.7 million for the general tax base which can be used for anything. But they claim it's going to go to the fire department MSBU. This is going to show up on your property and business taxes now and forever moving forward. The Escambia County Fire Department budget is 29,850,000 of which 21
million is from the lost tax fund and 10 million from the Escambia County general fund. Facts are you should be paid you should be expected to pay for your fire service that services your house or your business not for others. This and it's on the back the adorum notice. It says only services people that benefit from the services that are requested should be taxed. This this fact makes a proposal dead on its face. If you live on 9 mile road and what fantasy would a fire truck from Rarity Point show up at your house? Never. They claim uh that the fire station cost $7 million.
They got extra 50 million to deal with it. Uh two fire stations were built in the last couple years. Where'd that money come from? There are no proposals for building costs for any new station by law. Florida State statute uh chapter 12 212 and 197 cannot mandate a tax can be brought back. Mr. Hans and cost. So in closing, uh we should be we should pay our taxes for services rendered to us and Scami County should be good stewards of our tax dollars, but we should also
pay attention to who we vote in office. Thank you for your comments. Thank you. Mary Ken, come on. All right, Mary, you're up. Mary Kenoka, you're up. And Angela Greg Griggs is on deck. I'm Mary Kobka, Belleview Small Engine Repair. Um, this county has a 7.5 sales tax, higher than a lot
of counties in the state of Florida. So, where's that money? Why isn't that money being managed a little bit better? Because builders build, leave, everything floods, and then the county has to pay for it. So those are our tax dollars. We don't like that. How about some impact fees for those developers? Because every building they build affects the sheriff, EMS, the fire department,
animal control, on and on. Thank you. So, I think impact fees would be a great thing. Also, in the Florida statutes, they talk about a lot about tourist tax. Are we are we looking into that? They talk about extra tax at motel and hotels on food, drinks, and beverages. Have we looked into that?
They talk about and this is for counties on the Gulf side of Florida specifically states the Gulf side. Is anybody looking into that? Bars that sell food extra tax. Anybody looking into that? But don't take our money and decide, oh, we're going to do this. We support fire department, but don't ring it out of us like we have money or something. Look at the median income in this county. Not what
you get. You guys probably get two to three times the median income. You need to understand that there's people out here as the gentleman pointed out that we have things to grocery going up, insurance going up, everything's going up, and then you want to tax us more. No. Look at what's happened. Be responsible. I can't believe this countyy's broke with a 7.5% sales tax. and look
into everything you can. I I would be amenable to an 8% tax, but I read something online that said, "Oh, 7.5%'s the highest a county can go." I don't know where that information came from. It was posted online. So, I went back to Florida state statutes and I didn't see anything that said that. So we might be amendable to a 0.5% increase and don't split it with Pensacola. Do not split it
with the city of Pensacola. Okay. All right. Because they already have their fire stuff. Thank you for your comments. I have a lot more to say. Angela Griggs. Is Angela Griggs out there? Angela Griggs. This is your last chance. Angela Griggs. What is the name? Angela Griggs. Thank you. Okay. Sharon uh Isler, I think is how it is. Is Sharon Iller out there? Sharon Ecler. E I S L E R. Okay, I'll come back. James Kenova. Is James out there?
All right. Where are these people? All right. Kurt Burge. Kurt Burge, are you out there? Kurt, please come up. And Diane Bailey's on deck. Thank you all for coming. Thank you. Uh I don't have anything prepared uh to say but uh I just I think a tax increase
of this amount because I I was breaking down the U tax bill that uh that we recently all got and uh it seems like the county tax was about $250 and now it's almost like double that. So, uh, uh, I went on site, uh, online to try to figure it out and and, uh, that's why I'm at this meeting to try to figure out. I also think that, um, for the amount of tax
increase that you're looking at, it should be on a ballot rather than decided amongst 10 people. So, and that's that's all I got to say. Thank you, sir. Diane Bailey, is Diane out there? Diane Bailey. Okay, Diane. Joanne Gibson. Is Joanne Gibson out there? And I don't know if someone's signed these names. She's coming. You sure? Okay. Thanks, Joanne. And Jennifer
Bavakoli. But Kavoli. Yeah, you're up next. Okay. Go ahead, Jennifer. or Joanne, I'm sorry. Good evening. I was very upset when I received this letter. I am one of those that retired in here hoping to be in a quiet Pensacola city, not a city trying to be Miami or Cape Canaveral or Tampa. Our taxes are showing that that's what we want to be. We want to spend frivolous money to update
Navy Boulevard between Brankus and the Bob in the bridge going to base. Yeah, it could use some new stop lightss, I mean some new uh street lights, but that's a millionpoint dollar project. Why can't we deter that money and put it towards fire stations? We have neighborhoods that need uh speed bumps on their streets. I have a friend that almost got killed. her dog almost got killed, but nobody wants to put speed bumps and more worried about this tax for fire stations. Furthermore,
the almost 50% increase is ridiculous. I agree with the first speaker. It should be limited and that should be on the next ballot. We should limit how much it can go up in one year. Thank you. Thank you. All right, Jennifer, and I don't know how to say this last name. B U T A C O V I L I. Okay. Jennifer Bakavoli. I'm District One. Okay. Thank you, ma'am. Lisa Rogers, you're on
deck. It's butter. So, uh, I didn't have anything really prepared, but the more I was reading, uh, the more I kind of got annoyed that our taxes are going up this high. It's uncalled for because the things that need to get done safety-wise isn't getting done. As I understand, you know, fire department is safety, but there are other things. By the way, I'm the one that almost got hit by the car with the dog almost dying. That was me. And I dealt with Mr. Bishkoff on that. You'll be hearing from me on another note. However, as when I got this as a letter in the mail,
I started looking up to see what fire departments were built in the last couple years. I'm fairly new here, been here since 2016, also retired Navy. However, I couldn't find anything. I think I found two in the past five years. Now, you want to propose this to go to $34 million approximately, which would be more because that's the assessment thing was per square foot. I have a small home, so it's not going to be as much as say someone with 2500 square foot. Where's that money going to? Because last year the minimum I think was like I can't remember what the numbers are was
it was a lot less. How matter of fact less than that. It was over 20 million, but nothing was done. So, why should we double our taxes for you guys to do whatever you want with? Again, I'm trying to get speed bumps so I don't get killed mowing my grass. Um, so give us a reason why we shouldn't be upset that we have to pay double taxes. Thank you, ma'am. Lisa Rogers. Is Lisa out there? Okay. Hi, Lisa. And then Regina Russell, you're on deck.
Lisa Rogers, 6036 Suntan Circle. Um, first I want to um say that um I hold firefighters in great regard as I do law enforcement. They put their lives on the line to protect us and they have dangerous jobs and they protect our property um and our lives here in Escambia County. I do have some concern about the large percentage increase in the MSNBU. Um, I know that some believe it's not bad if it's only $101 per property with a home on it per per year.
However, when you add the rising cost of home maintenance, HOA fees, property insurance, automobile insurance, food, health care costs, and the proposed increase to the ad valorum taxes, it can be very hard for individuals and families on fixed incomes that are um at or below the medium income for our county. MSBUs do not allow for exemptions for lowincome widows, disabled or veterans like the adverum taxes do. What's wrong with funding the um fire the fire departments with
the general fund dollars? Escambia County revenues rise every year. Theoretically, our rising revenue should be keep pace with rising cost. I believe that Escambia County has over $800 million for the budget this year. In 2022, the Escambia budget was just over $240 million. That's almost a $600 million increase in three years. It's my understanding that 34 million in loss funds will be used to repair or build five fire stations and maybe a training facility.
Then over 34.6 6 million in the anticipated revenue for the proposed fire MSBU that totals over $68.6 million for the fire department. Am I correct? If both are approved, what is the actual effective tax rate? Because we will have contributed to both taxes. Um although the county has not raised the advalorum tax millage rate, we have had tremendous growth with new subdivisions,
town homes, and apartments, and the property values have increased. This would seem to have count for the increase in the revenue. I I do have some questions for y'all to consider. Have you considered the impact fees to consider um for for the build for the builders to be able to pay for the new fire stations and schools and the new growth? The loss revenue um if we had had the impact fees, the lost revenue could have been used elsewhere for the residents of the county.
I do believe that our firefighters need to be paid more, especially the ones that are coming up, but I do want the commissioners to consider rolling back the millage rate on the adverum taxes. Miss Rogers, please wrap up your thoughts. Okay. Um, it's time that we go ahead and put our needs before our wants. Thank you very much. All right, Regina Russell. Regina, come on up. And then Gordon Morse, you're on deck.
Read the name. Good evening. I'm Regina Russell. I am relatively new here. I'm strongly against this tax. However, I strongly support our first responders and have done that in many ways beside the taxes. I think that the increase in tax needs to be a millage rate. Therefore, everyone pays according to their property value. It's not fair for a $200,000 house to pay the same
as a $2 million house. I think it's important for us to know in general, this is a general statement that has been supported, that Florida has become an expensive place to live with its cost of living significantly increasing in recent years and now exceeding the national rate. Why is this happening? housing costs, the prices of housing, insurance premiums and taxes,
and the high utility taxes that we pay. I think I agree with the previous person that this should be on the ballot, that it is unfair to all of a sudden just increase taxes when so many people, as you know, are on fixed incomes. Even though many people here who only have a small salary or a small amount of money would be very happy to open their pocket and pay a
lower percentage. You've heard that over and over. Thank you for your time. Thank you, Miss Russell. Okay, Gordon Morris. And then Jacob Rockwell, you're up after Mr. Morse. Yeah, I'm I'm going to echo what a lot of people said. It's my the lower tax was added before to each one of their real real estate tax bills and now every house should be receiving those already. But now you want to double in my case what my adorum taxes are going to be. And I think that's
ridiculous that you don't look down the road a little bit when you know that things are going to come up that you might need expanded that you don't add a fee to the builders that are building all of this because the building boom we have is why you're trying to collect more taxes off this nonadorium. And I think that is really wrong because most of us out here or a lot of us out here are not making 80 90,000 a year like you are. We're living on a fixed income and with the cost of living going up like it is at two to two and a half percent a month, that's like 24 to
30% a year and now you're adding to it. It's like you're saying you don't care. We're going to tax them and they got to pay for it. So I think with the adorum the tax that you're adding up here, if you do the advanced fees, you'd be better off then you would have more than money to pay for it without trying to tax people uh ridiculously. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Morris. Jacob Rockwell, and William Pickard is on deck. Good evening, Jacob. All right. In 2019 to 2020,
the county budget was $493 million. The 2024 to 2025 budget is $799 million, a 61% increase. The consumer price index lists the inflation over that period at 26.36%. That means Escambia Countyy's budget has inflated almost 2 and a half times that of the average rate of inflation. This further drives inflation, increases the cost of living unnecessarily. So why do you need another tax increase? There should be plenty of money. So WTF, where's the funds?
The reason y'all have your hand out for another tax increase to pay the firefighters is because you used all the money on your unnecessary pet projects, such as $20 million for fake grass at the John R. Jones sports complex. If we don't have the money to pay for firefighters, we sure as hell don't have the funds to be buying $20 million in fake grass when the stuff grows out of the ground for free. Now, I know there's this money for this garbage over here and that money for that boondoggle over there, but as a taxpayer, I don't care. Ad valorum, non-advelorum,
I do not care. It is all semantics to me. All I see is the big fat tax bill that keeps growing at an unconscionable rate year after year. And all and y'all do this every time. You make darn sure your building projects and whatnotss are paid for and flushed with cash first. I suspect because you know you can't emotionally blackmail the population for 20 million in astro turf. So you pay for that first and then you come to us saying you don't you don't we don't have money for firefighters. We don't have money for meals
for kids at school or whatever else. You do this for maximum emotional blackmail. I couldn't have picked two better demographics outside of blind orphans to garner more emotional manipulation. Now, now, now I'm here to tell you this udder is dry. If y'all squeeze this cow anymore, it's going to kick the bucket over. The taxpayers of this state and county will vote to abolish the property tax altogether. And good luck paying for all your boondoggles then. So do your
dang jobs and find the money in this already insanely in overinflated budget. It is there. Now Strogber, I'm talking directly to you as one of your electors. We voted out Burggosh for this very exact reason. He didn't see a tax raise he didn't like or a real estate deal he didn't want to approve. This budget is 33.64% overinflated. So get it under control. We kicked him to the
curb for stuff just like this. So don't think we will fire your ass, too. Thank you. Good job. Yeah. All right. Good job. All right. All right. All right. I I know there's a lot of emotion here tonight and that that that guy has some some good funies there, too. Mr. Pickard, you're up. And then Walter Buck, Senior. Okay. Um like everybody else, we weren't too happy when we got our tax bill. Uh we think our property taxes were high enough. Uh but then we also got the
uh thing about the fire department tax and it just seems a little extreme. I agree with another lady that said, you know, should go by millillage. That way you pay something, you know, it's based on the value of your home. Um that's going to be it for me. I just wanted to thank you for coming down and sharing your thoughts. Um Walter Buck, Senior. Walter Bucks. Thank you, sir. In Harvey Carol's on deck. I' I've I've been here since 1957. In 72, I went in the army for 20 years and come back in
'92. All right. I have fought for this country. And you guys need to understand that we are not that rich here. Okay? Now, I know it's all about the numbers, but in uh 1992, we voted in the 1% sale tax, and that was to support infrastructure. So, we need to be using that. Okay. And uh it was voted again until 2027 or 28th when it's going to come up again for the electors. Um
that now y'all want to raise the non abaloreium by 80.9% for my dwelling and then I have two 1acre lots behind my house and you're going to raise it 161%. That's ridiculous. Come on now. Um, there's got to be something there to protect the citizens of Florida. And there is. It's uh Florida statute 191 section. 09 paragraph 2A. It contains about how to increase nonabalorum.
Have y'all even looked into that or are y'all going to exceed that amount? Okay. I'm trying to find it here where it says it says right here not abalorum and sub paragraph 2A assessment rates set by the board may exceed maximum rates established by special act county ordinance the previous year's resolutions or referendum in the average annual growth rate of Florida's personal income over the previous five years. Now y'all think we need to go over
that amount? I don't think so. Thank you so much. Thank you, Mr. Buck. Harvey Carroll, is Harvey Carroll out there? Okay, Har Mr. Carol, come on up. And Michael Waldo's on deck. How you doing? My name's Harvey Carroll from District Three. I can't say a whole lot more than what they've already said besides the fact that I know I'm not the only person in this room
that lives on social security disability and this type of tax increase ought to be criminal because I sure as hell can't afford it. I mean, for the first time in 18 years, my wife has to help me pay the bills. She's never had to do that. She's behind the groceries. She's never had to do that. This type of increase is ridiculous. That's all I got to say. Thank you, Mr. Carol. Mr. Waldo, are you out there? Mr. Waldo, and then
Nick Tamarus is on deck. I think I'm saying that right. Good afternoon. Tried to prepare something to make it timely. I'm here to speak about when I saw my tax assessment being proposed for the next year over the previous year. It included a tax assessment for the fire department that was nearly double the previous year. I believe that this group both proposes the potential increase and then after a brief public hearing such as
this meeting, the same group gets to vote and make their decision on their own proposal. On the face, that doesn't sound very good. Unfortunately, I can't think of a really good other process, although I do note what the other gentleman said about having it voted on. I'm of the opinion that may May Mayor Reeves is pursuing a path trying to grow Pensacola and he's doing so at an aggre at an aggressive path. A side effect of that is that our need for public services and in the short term especially is outstripping the funding by taxpayers. Eventually there may be more people
to pay uh the taxes but in the short run um we're being asked to give more. It's either give more or receive lesser services and one of the highly visible services is emergency services such as EMT and fire department. Many people have experienced uh personal observations and encounters with their currently being not enough EMT services. Back in 2023, my next door neighbor had several critical care calls to EMT during that last year before he died. So, I understand I think I understand
uh the justification intended behind the increase. And I'm not necessarily speaking in opposition to the uh increase, but a proposed doubling. I would be very reluctant to support uh uh that idea of an increase. I believe a doubling of the tax should become should not be then become the new permanent norm. Hopefully as the base of taxpayers grows uh the amount per taxpayer will reduce. My actual recommendation to this group is that when you actually vote
on the tax assessment that you include two more statements not merely the assessment amount. one, include a statement acknowledging recognizing that you are nearly doubling or whatever percentage the increase. Make that part of your uh vote that you acknowledge what you're doing. And secondly, include a statement that the increase is will be reviewed each year and that the tax assessment of 2024 will be the starting point in the future tax planning. not making this a permanent uh starting
point. I believe it's imperative to actually include those two statements in your actual voting motion uh when you propose and vote on your new assessment. Merely saying or uh such or putting it elsewhere will not provide the public with assurance of what to expect next year. Doubling a tax assessment surely seems excessive. If any impressions were if my impressions were somewhat correct, then show the public uh your attention to their concerns. Please wrap up. Then show the
public your attention to these concerns and put it in writing as part of what you vote on. Thank you for your comments, sir. Nick Tamaris, is Nick out there? I got that right. Nick T H I M A R A S. Are you in the audience? Okay, come on up. And then Warren Stit Stitzman is on deck. My name is My name is Nick Lamar. I live at North County. I've been living there like 50 years and
I'm in the same boat as most of the people here. I'm retired on a fixed income and I'd just like you to reconsider uh what you're doing here. That's all. Thank you for your comments, sir. Warren Sitzman, come on up. and Linda Son, I think, is the next next uh citizen up. Yes, sir. Well, first I'd like to say that I concur with what's been said so far, which pretty much took all the winds out of my wind out of my sail because the points have been
that have been brought forward were excellent and I think that they need to be considered, not just passed on as disgruntled individuals. But one thing I do have a question about is there's a lot of neighborhoods, mine included, that are gated communities. And so the roads are private, the street lights are private, the drainage ponds are private. All this is paid for through the HOA. And so now you're saying we're going to increase those fees and make
people pay for services that they already paid for. To me, that just seems atrocious. And you know it's I want to know how you would resolve that because like I said there are several gated communities also the the roads in our community or private property and so you have no expenses with which to try to justify what you're asking for. And in closing I would just like to suggest that probably you need to do exactly what the federal government did.
create a Doge team because there is so much waste within this committee that you need independent auditing and independent eyes to look at what's going on. Thank you. Thank you for your comment, sir. Linda Saman is L. Is that you, ma'am? Okay. Thank you. And then Faith Wy I think is next. Good evening. Linda. First of all, I appreciate all of our municipal services folks and I want
to continue to support them as they support all of us in Escambia County. I'm opposed to raising our taxes to pay for these services. I believe we need another way to fund our municipal services. Um perhaps maybe a consumption tax would be fair to everyone using these services. then everyone would be contributing to the service they they receive instead of just the homeowners. I'm opposed to the fact that you can't if you can't pay your taxes, your home is taken away from you. I agree with that. That that is is not right. I I am looking forward
to the constitutional amendment on the 26th of November ballot to end property taxes in Florida. I need the peace of mind to know that I'm not going to lose my home if I can't pay these everinccreasing property taxes. Thank you. Okay. Thank you, ma'am. Faith Faith Wy, are you out there? Faith. Okay, come on up. And then Ellen Perez, you're on deck.
Well, I'd like to say like a lot of others here, I'm on fixed income. I'm retired. I only get so much a month. I can't afford for you to double my taxes. I am not getting any pay increase. I am on a limited income. Now, you have already your county taxes that you do for various projects. I know one that you've
been doing here in the county is for the flood issues you have here. Well, most of it is of your own doing. You allow companies to come in, build wherever they want, build however they want. You don't update any of your uh storm water uh specs. Then that hasn't been done in over 30 years. Then
the areas flood. Then you have to go in put in drainage. That's your own fault, not mine. Yes. You have you have you have taxes that we pay every year. You need to go and learn how to stay within your income like everybody else. Ellen Perez. Ellen, come on up. And Doug Freeman's on deck.
Groceries, gas prices, school supplies, utilities, clothing, home insurance, medical insurance, shoes, services. They all have one thing in common. The prices keep going up. The prices keep going up, but our incomes aren't. We, the families of this county, are making hard decisions on what we cut
from our grocery carts and forgoing family trips and patching up those pants just one more time. But it just doesn't seem like our city is making those hard choices when it comes to appropriating our taxes. Instead of cutting the fat, instead of divesting of the things that no longer serve our community interests or that never met their intended objectives, we are proposing raising taxes yet again. It's too much. We are at a breaking point. Yes. I implore
you to stop increasing our property taxes and vote no on these tax increases and instead pursue other means of finding these funds if they are truly necessary. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Perez. Doug Freeman. Doug, are you out there? Okay, Doug. And then Natalie. Okay, you're up next, Natalie. Hello. Thank you for having this meeting. I was uh kind of surprised to see this notice
come in the mail because it seems like last month Scambia County School Board raised my taxes and didn't even ask for my opinion. So, thank you for that. Um I've been living here for nine years. I moved here to uh to take a teaching job. And as teachers, we don't get paid a huge amount. Um, I've been wondering, listening especially to the retirees here tonight, thinking that in 10 years when it's time to retire, am I gonna have to move away from Escambia County because I can't live here anymore because I can't afford it. the uh I look at the growth of housing within
the county and I you know especially like you know Pine Forest Road and Nine Mile Road all the apartments all the additional dwellings all the houses and I'm thinking okay isn't that increasing the tax base so therefore the past nine years shouldn't my tax bill had actually been going down instead of up if there's a larger tax base and the county just keeps living within their means instead of looking at the windfalls like hey here's more money to spend this year let's make sure we account you let's make sure we spend every dime and every and then we can use we can
use something like like the fire department and I don't despise the fire department not at all but again it just seems like kind of an emotional reason to raise taxes and I keep wondering where's the windfall where's it going um the idea of of accountability to it to say okay have somebody a third party come in to look at how is this where's all this money going for this county? It just I scratched my head and I just I can't figure it out. Um the only thing the only thing
I can figure out and I'm just about done here. The only thing I can figure out is that because the US Navy is in our county that our commissioner board spends money like drunken sailors. All right, Natalie, you're up. And then Cheryl Johnson's on deck. I think I don't have a speech prepared. That's okay. You get three minutes, ma'am. There's my mother. My
father was murdered. She raised three kids on her own back. And you're raising our taxes more. we have to join together just to pay everything. She she's retired. She served her 50 years of life of working and everything. But you're raising the money again. She's not making the money that we're making now at our jobs. I I'm do my best to support what I can, but even my back is strained on everything. I don't know what else to say. Stop raising our taxes. The money's there.
Just resituate where you put it. Yes. It it's we're done. We're having to take care of our elderly people because they're on fixed incomes. This this is our my mother. Your mother, would you do this to her? Would you do this to your father knowing that they're on fixed incomes? No. Why do it now? Why keep doing it? The bunny's there. Don't ask for more. Thank you. Thank you, ma'am. Cheryl Johnson. Is Cheryl Johnson out there? Cheryl Johnson,
one more try. Is that you, ma'am? Okay. Adam Glo, I guess, is on deck. Adam Glo, I guess. It sounds like that's the way it goes. All right, Joe, you're up. I was born and bred in this town. Been here since 72. I work in this town. Yeah. Pull the mic up, man. People want to hear what you're saying. I was born and bred in this town and I hope to retire in it. Yeah, that ain't going to happen. Prices going too high. I live in
Cottage Hill. Y'all want to raise the fire? $100, but yet I got a thousand homes being built within three miles of my house. Every house that's built is another $125 going to the fire department. That doesn't include what's already been built on 297. What's been built in Bula, what's going up in Molino? Where does it end? Everybody that's coming. Y'all act like you
want nothing but the native of Pensacola to pay for everything. Everybody that's coming, everybody that's gets a house, that's another $125. The economy goes down. My overtime has been cut. No overtime. Be at the water bills going up, the cable bills going up, medicine's going up. My mother's retired. My father's deceased. I have to help her out. But
yet, I worked my ass off to buy my own home and pay for it. I never knew that was going to be my only home cuz I could sell it for four times what I paid for it. But I can't afford half with these new ones. And the only jobs you're bringing to this town are coffee shop, minimum wage, part-time, no benefits. What am I going to have to do? Get four jobs just to pay my bills?
I mean, you're getting extra money. Pan Valley is 108 homes. Sanctuary is 285. There's 400 on Neil, 178 homes in Turtle Crossing. Every new home is $125. You're getting the extra money. Thank you, Cheryl. Adam, uh, are you Adam Mitch? Okay. Thank you, sir. And Frank Opitz is on deck. Thank you,
Adam. Come on. Uh, good afternoon ladies and gentlemen. I did not come here to speak. I don't have a speech prepared here. I just wanted to go and voice. I moved to Pensacola. I've been Pensacola 10 years. Military veteran, fellow public servant. I care about our community. I moved to Pensacola originally because I saw the tremendous growth and opportunity that Pensacola had. We have a deep water port. We have all the military bases. We have tourism, etc. It is a great community with our mil for our retirees for the schools that we have here.
great opportunities for everybody to come, but a lot of the population of Pensacola is in poverty. We have a lot of the people, everyone around here are probably people that are on fixed income retirees. When we have we talk about taxes, I know this is not the nonad valorum special assessments is not a tax per se. It's a special assessment which is a flat one across the board on everybody. And in doing so, putting out that assessment, it targets the most vulnerable ones in our community. It targets those. Everyone pays the same whether they live in a $50,000 trailer or a $3 million
mansion. They're paying the same amount. And that's not fair. It's not for the people that everyone special assessments are typically used to help a specific community. When you look them up, it talks about going putting like lighting in a certain area or park that benefits members of that particular area. people are everyone around here is not getting the same benefit from this special assessment and yet the special assessment is being levied on the backs of the people who can least afford it. I look once again we can have inscambia county we have so many ways that we can
develop and bring industries into Pensacola, use the deep water port, use the airports, use the schools, use the military that we have here to raise more revenue but don't go. We want to support our firefighters. We proudly support our first responders and firefighters, but the special assessment of a flat levied rate that targets the most vulnerable, those on fixed income. Once again, people that are on with the special assessments, you have some people that are elderly or disabled that are exempt from some property tax or have some deductions. Those
deductions help those people survive. But the non-ad valorum assessments gets put equally across everybody even when they don't benefit it and they can't afford it. And I just ask you all to once again consider how we can go and raise those funds without going targeting the most vulnerable in the Pensacola community. Thank you. Thank you, Adam. I appreciate your comments. Frank Opitz, are you out there? Frank Opitz, I'm saying OPITZ. Is that correct? Frank, are you in the audience?
There's a large crowd. Oh, they have it as Frank. I'm sorry, Fran. Sorry about that. Jim Pancuch, I think. P A N K U C H is on deck. Sorry about that, Fran. Well, Fran was in front of you. I know you're up next. You're ready. All right. Thank you, ma'am. Good afternoon. I was ready. Um, I didn't plan on talking today, but I've been listening. Ma'am, will you pull the mic up? You
got a soft voice. Um, I didn't plan on speaking today, but after hearing all these people here, I feel that you all need to really listen to what's happening here in Pensacola. I moved here 20 years ago from Miami, Florida, and I couldn't wait to get out of Miami. Okay, it was horrible. if all they were doing was bleeding us every year from more taxes, more taxes, and the crime and everything that came with it was ridiculous. And you need to look at this
very carefully. Pensacola has the charm, okay, that most cities don't have. And we have people here that have retired. They've come here to live a good life on a fixed income. You guys have the opportunity to keep that this way. And I see greed here. I hate to say I it makes me very sad because
when I came here I was so excited. I felt like Pensacola was special. It had charm, hospitality. We're losing that now. We need to get it back. Let destin be destined in Panama City. Keep Pensacola small. And for the people that live here, yes, we've got beaches. We've got so many things. And yet you guys are not listening to these people. And it's very sad for me because I I hope I don't
have to leave Pensacola because I can't afford it. I'm retired and I I just can't stand to see what's happening here. Please don't ruin Pensacola. Thank you, ma'am. Okay, Jim, you're up. And then Ian Gilmore's on deck. Okay, go ahead, Jim. Mr. Cerley, you look pretty good for getting beat up, but anyhow, I've had tough assignments. want to run some numbers by you guys because like in
uh years 2022, do you know what the budget was at $37.7 million? Did you know that what you ended up with? How about in 2023 when you spent 48.3 million? That was an increase of 21.946 basis points that was spent. Then we went ahead in 2024 spent 52.9 million increased 28.733%
basis points. You all knew that, right? Okay. So now we want to go ahead. I think you heard enough from all the residents here that we just really need to go back to the board and sharpen our pencils a little bit and see where we need to make the cuts from the board instead of taxing these people instead of taxing us. We can't afford it. Yes, sir. Thank you. Thank you, Jim.
Ian Ian Gilmore. Okay, sir. you're coming up. And then Bruce Gamari, I'm assuming that's how you say it. All right, sir, you're up. Uh, yes. My name is Ian Gilmore. I'm the president of Redline Engineering LLC here in Pensacola the last 23 years. Uh, and Redline has been pretty good to me. I own several commercial properties uh here around town and I've been receiving these notices letting me know how much property taxes were going up. And um, I'll just highlight one of them here. This is uh 3377 Bill Mezer. When I bought that property
in 2021, I paid $7,97 in tax. Uh the proposed increase without MSBU this year goes up $3,891 bucks. You add in MSBU to that of $1,182 more and we're looking at a property tax increase in just four years of uh 64% which is pretty wild. I mean, I'm not a mathematician, but I'm I'm pretty sure that's something like 16%. I don't know what is that, maybe three to five times um inflation, something like that. And all of my my properties here that we operate out of,
I'm looking at these same things, just absolutely massive increases. You know, if you guys, you know, needed to go up 3% a year, I could totally understand that. I wouldn't be here. I'd be at home right now if it was just going up, you know, by normal inflation. Uh but it's not. And I want to just leave you with something so that you kind of understand the situation that I'm in here. This is my profit and loss statement at Redline for July of this year. Uh we've done $565,181
of business in the month of July. And uh we're we're really taking it on the chin right now. In in uh July alone, we spent $235,140 on the new tariffs. We are doing everything we can to bring as much of our manufacturing here as possible, but it's really difficult. The cost of of steel here is is so high that it's it's making it triple in some cases if I bring stuff here. I'm I'm doing my best, but just for July alone, uh our losses for the month of July were $121,740.
Can you imagine for a moment if you were me, you went to work all week long and instead of getting your deposit on Friday, you wrote the company that you work for a check for $30,000. That's what I have been doing for about the past eight or nine weeks. And you know, when I get this kind of stuff that comes across my desk that property taxes are going up 64%, you know, in uh goodness, four years, uh I just I have no idea where that money is going to come from. I'm losing a lot of
sleep right now uh trying to figure out who I am going to lay off and when in order to stop all of this bleeding. And I'm just taking it from every angle. I've got all of this from you guys and then I've got those nearly a quarter million dollars a month in tariffs that were taken from Washington and uh it it has to end somewhere. It sometime soon I'm going to run out of money. Do you folks have any questions for me? No sir. You you covered a lot of ground. Thank you. Bruce Bruce Kamire
is Bruce out there. Bruce Gamire. I'm saying am I saying that right? G A M I E R E. Are you Bruce, sir? Okay. And then Don Aho E is on deck. Or Dan, I'm sorry. Yeah, my name is Bruce Kamir, 12730 Lillian Highway, Pensacola. My family's been here for 55 years now and I'm here to speak for I'm I'm retired now and I'm here to speak for
all retirees and people that are on fixed incomes that property taxes have become an oppression on the people and every time you turn around someone else adds something else to your property taxes. uh and it's been echoed many times uh uh other folks are on fixed incomes as well that that aren't on social security. So we support the fire department but the fire department the money needs
is the suggestion has been find out how to fund them other ways than taxing property owners. Yeah. And the one gentleman's idea about having a Doge committee to help you is a is a good idea. So, uh, so that's my input. Thank you. Thank you, Bruce. All right. Dan, are you Mr. Are you Dan? Okay, come on up, Dan. Sorry. I Sorry that I I overlooked you. Thank you. I'm also speaking for
uh senior citizens. Uh Escambia County currently has about a 14% poverty level. I'm in that bracket. And here's the reason why. The fire protection assessment that you all proposing is an 81% increase. Now, may not seem much to you, but as of a senior citizen on a fixed income, it's tremendous. In 2025, my bills have increased 34.5%. Since 2023, they increased 135%.
Now I have another 81% increase which brings my total bills 250% increase since 2023. But yet social security increases since 2019 has only increased 22.7%. So I'm still at about a 220 230% deficit. It will take an average senior citizen with this increase
23 years before they can catch up to the 81% increase that you're doing for fire protection. I would like to get out of the system and here's why. I live in a mobile home community. I went up to the fire station one and talked with those individuals. And because I live in a mobile home, a mobile home has a flashback, a flashover, which happens somewhere between 3 to 5 minutes. I drove
55 to 60 miles an hour up to the fire station one. I've never seen a firetruck do that speed. It takes them, according to Google Maps, 7 minutes to get to my address. So I would have a complete flashover where everything in that mobile home would be on fire. In 10 to 15 minutes I have a roof collapse. So if I try to put out the fire myself, which say takes a couple of minutes, then I decide to call the fire department, they get there and they take out their hoses, my my
mobile home is gone. And has it happened in that neighborhood numerous times? So, I would like to elect not to even pay this and be out of the fire protection tax at all because it does not benefit me in any way, shape, or form. Thank you. Thank you, Ian Simmons. Ian Simmons, are you out there?
Uh, are you Ian, ma'am? I'm sorry, Jan Simmons. I Yeah, I apologize. I kept my readers on to see this small print. Robert Pacero's on deck. Sorry about that, Jen. Hello. Thank you for being here and hearing us. From a consumer standpoint, I don't want to be emotional, but I want to tell you that I moved to Pensacola, Florida in 2008 to be with my sweetheart. He passed away last May. Um, so I'm kind of in this force situation of how do you fix the roof? How do you fix these things? I
work as a nurse. You think I make good money? My roof's My one room's falling off. I can't afford to fix it. My roof is probably 12 years old. These are things I don't have the money for yet. Taxes keep raising and raising. Philip had some properties he bought for 30 40,000 back in the day. Taxes don't stop when you're in probate. So, I'm still paying taxes. Meanwhile, I've got investors trying to take everything. he works so hard for. So,
I'm telling you this not to feel sorry for me, but just from a consumer standpoint. I can't fix my roof right now. My one room's falling off. I was doing the lot that we're possibly going to lose because we got investors on. And I get this tax letter saying taxes are going to go up. I mean, it'd be nice if they stopped during probate, but they don't, you know, and I have a good job, but I'm feel like I'm stretched with all these things I can't even pay for and afford. whipping out my credit card to get my car fixed and I'm spending $2,000 and it still stalls on me. I'm
not saying it so you feel sorry for me, but just so you can see the human aspect of I'm struggling. And then at my job, I work with um in the psych ward. I used to work oncology, but I'm I'm pouring my heart into the community that are addicted to drugs and mental illness. And I'm like, I just want to break. I want a relief. I want to be able to pay for a roof, for air conditioning, for my room falling off. Um, I'm not going to attack anybody, but Pensacola is wonderful. I moved from Phoenix, Arizona. We didn't have a beach there. Tourism is great here. Take some
money from somewhere else. And like I said, I have a decent job and I'm struggling. Maybe find the money somewhere else. Brace the taxes a little bit. Thank you. Jan, can I ask you a question? What part of town do you live in? Just I I might help. Olive um olive stonework area and they were sending me a text for a lot that Okay. I just wonder I was hoping I could maybe help you with your roof, but I was just interested. Were you done? Thank you. And the room that's falling off,
somebody built it on a deck. The deck rotted and when I bought it as a foreclosure, um I didn't know that. So the deck that was rotting rotted under the room and now the room is separated from the house. So we boarded it up inside, but yeah, I'm sorry about that. So taxes, more taxes aren't going to help me. Thank you, ma'am. Robert Facero. And then William King is on deck. Hi. I don't I don't have any speeches either. There's a lot of good points um today. You have a lot of retirees
and people that aren't working, but there's a lot of working families that, you know, can't be here right now. 50:02 people are still working. So, I think you should make these meetings a little later, maybe 7:00, so when people get home from work, they can also come here. You might also need a bigger room, but maybe you can build one with all the extra money. I don't know. Um, like everyone, I I I got a We just voted on more taxes and more taxes, and now I have
the fire department. They want more taxes. And I'm not going to beat a dead horse. You You've heard it from all of us. All right. Um, but I'll save you some money. You You You look And oh, and the other thing I tried calling up because they said, "Call up. ask any questions you have. You call up the fire department and it's really vague. Yeah, maybe four or five stations we're going to build, you know, but they don't have any information, you know. So, I say, "Is there a website? Can I go to the website, see what you know what what is this that wall paying for?" There's no website. So,
I don't know what you're building here. You got some high numbers. 8.5 for over here, 8.5 for this one, 6.5 million for this one. add living quarters for a million. Go build a ha buy a house that's already made. I'll save you $ three and a half million dollars right there. Okay, you can get a four bedroomedroom, you know, but um it's too much. And you've heard it from everybody here. Too much. We're being squeezed everywhere. Everywhere we're being squeezed. We don't got much
more. So it hurts. So you have a big turnout here. I hope you I hope you you're seeing this. I also didn't like the fact that you if we don't pay the tax, you're going to come take our house. That that's that's not nice. Okay. Yeah, that is gangster. Um and the last thing I want to say is, you know, I moved down to Florida back in 2018. Okay. So, I I'm new here relatively. All right.
Scambia County and 21. I live in KTOman. Okay. I love it here. It's great. But you guys are going to make it like New York and you're doing it so far with the taxes. You're doing a good job. Okay. I was paying $20,000 in property taxes. So, no property taxes. Dantis has got it right. Okay. We bought the house. So, all these taxes, you're going to need to rethink it. And I hope you you go back and sharpen your pencils. Thank you, sir. William King. William King, you're up. And then
Ken Burnham. Are you William, sir? Yep. Come on up. Good evening, everyone. I just have a little statement to make. As a property owner, we are the bedrock county. If you have any pet project, if our school needs a new gym, if our sheriff needs a new deputy, we support it. We pay for it. And there's never any relief in there for the property owner. Guys, think outside the box. Come
up with ways to raise funds for these things that are community-based. A fire department and a police police department is for the entire the community, not just the property owners. So, make the entire community supported. Yes, that's all I have to say. Thank you, sir. All right. Is uh Ken, are you Ken Burnham? Come on up, Ken. Dan um G U G, you're on deck. All right, Ken.
Thank you. How's it going? Ken Burnham, District 1 for 53 years. I didn't come here. I'd rather not come today at all. Um, but I'm like everybody else who got these papers in the mail. And I've been in district one, like I said, 53 years. I've got a couple low-inccome houses, some vacant property, um, some of those that I purchased off tax deed sales. And what I come here today to say was we pay enough. I'm paying so much in taxes right now. It's it's it's too much. And not only is it too
much, the county already has ways of levying leans on property. And we do not need another way for them to levy a lean on any properties just like I bought the ones off from the tax deed sale to be sold at the courthouse steps. We pay enough. We all appreciate first responders. I don't think nobody's going to deny that here today, but this is not the way to fix the problem. The money's there. Thank you. Thank you, Ken. Dan Dan Gouge Gug G and then Edward Sison's up.
Thank you, Dan. Well, commissioners, I'm here in opposition to this proposed millage rate increase on property taxes. Right now, I have a problem paying my property taxes at the rate they're at. And I think that uh Commissioner Stroberger, I understand that you're opposed to this as well. Is that correct? I had a prepared statement here, but I'm not going to do go through that because I think the people that have come up here have made it clear. I don't know anybody out here
who are your constituents that have expressed favor or want to have this tax rate increase. And Mr. Chairman Kohler, I understand that you're in district two. That's my district. I understand you're for this rate increase. Is that correct? Where am I? I'll articulate. Answer because this these are your constituents out here. I understand. These are the people you represent. You're hearing from your constituents. So, how do you plan to vote? Are you going to
vote the way your constituents want you to vote or are you going to vote because you think it's necessary? Power of the people. Now, I can tell you one thing right now. I know a little bit about taxes as a real estate broker for 15 years. So, I understand taxes, especially property taxes, and I know for a fact that this county right here in the last 5 years has better than a 42% increase in revenue because of the valuation of properties that have gone up because there's
been reassessments. My property alone has gone up $500 in the last five years. That's a $100 a year. I only wish my fixed income went up at the rate of 8% a year, but it hasn't done it. That's all I have to say. Thank you for your comments, sir. Edward Sison and then Daniel Strawbridge.
Mr. Chairman, thank you for the opportunity to speak. and esteemed members of the commission and the county. I appreciate your time to uh talk today. Um it's it's shocking obviously and I came just to get more information because the letter I got didn't have a whole lot of information in it. And um I'm not saying yes, but I'm also not saying no, but I don't have the information. I need information. And transparency is what's going to be key, I think, on whether this sinks or swims. Now, being a lifelong steward of the public trust myself, I know there's difficult
decisions to make, and I know things cost money, but I think the empty space that we've heard from so many people is where's the money going that we're already paying. And the other side of that coin is as a government officials, sometimes we spin plates and we keep spending them and oh, we got to keep spending this plate, but do we need to keep spending this plate or can we let some things go away and do we need to fund this other stuff? So, is there an alternative plan where we are still paying for something that maybe we don't need, but it's because we've always done it,
right? We say that when we work for like this, the way we've always done things, maybe we need to look at some of those things and come up with another option on if you want us to continue to build and add, it's going to take more money. If you want us to reshuffle the deck, here are some things that we propose as your leaders that perhaps aren't a good use of our money. And here's some things where we can possibly save money or cross things off the list. And that's always tough because that's somebody's turf too, right? Like I get that's somebody's idea, that's their program, that's their plan, that's their baby, and so they want to sponsor it. But I think there's more than one objective way to look at it. Um there's more than one way to skin
that to find um a happy medium. And again, I think transparency is going to be the key to say this is the increase and this is why we need it and this is where we're going to use it. It's hard to argue with it if you have the facts and if you can think about it rationally. Um, but I think having that information, being that transparent, and then letting the community, let the letting the citizens decide know this is where I want to put my money or this is what's important to us, I think is what is the win for everyone regardless of what our financial situation might be. Thank
you, sir. Thank you, Daniel Strawbridge. Thank you. And then Josh, you're up after him. Okay. Good afternoon. Uh yeah, I echo what everybody else is saying here that the taxes are too high. We don't want them to go up, but I have another little problem. I live in Mr. uh Stroberger's district and we have no fire protection. We're paying for fire protection, but our fire department was closed down several years ago on Bower Road. They have not put it back in. So,
we checked into this a little bit. Now, I don't want my taxes to go up. I really don't want them to go up when I'm not getting anything for it. So, we checked into it. Mr. Stroberg, do you know where our fire department comes from if my house catches fire? Lillian, Alabama. I do not pay them taxes. We get nothing here for the taxes. We are paying. I don't want them to go up,
but if they have to come from Lillian, Alabama when my house catches fire across 98 bridge and down 98, there's not they'll have my new house built by the time they get here. Thank you very much. Thank you, Daniel. I want to hear about that. Commissioner Stroberger, hold on y'all, please. Commissioner Stroberger, did you want to make a comment? Yeah. I just want to say, Daniel, you're getting a firehouse. you know, you're getting one. And I know that that the I know Lily and Highway are the Lily Fire Department is your they're supposed to help. I don't think they
ever have helped. And your closest the closest fire department to you that will help is three miles from my house and I think it's almost 10 miles probably from your house and it's it's it's the one on in Point Road. Yeah. It's the one on Inerity Point Road. Yeah. Yep. So, but we're going to we're going to rectify that. Okay. Thank you, Commissioner Stroberger. Josh Robertson, you're up. And then Elvis Christopher's neck. Did you have your light on? Okay. Uh Josh Robinson and
then Elvis Christopher's next. Go. Good evening. Joshua Robertson. A lot more people here tonight than two nights ago. Hey, so uh poverty came back up and everything else. Uh you had a public hearing tonight. The trim law was stated right in the beginning because you went ahead and voted the same the same same rate still static. None of you on this board now can say that you haven't raised taxes. You understand that? So what you could have done because I'm by the way 100%
stand behind every single firefighter in this county. What you're doing is showing a hand that if your governor does get rid of property taxes, you are going to you are going to just MSBU us to death. That is what you're showing. You're showing your hand right now. The hospital MSBU then you got the new SB MSBU coming now. You just talked about four or more. In the very beginning of this meeting, I didn't make it here in time to sign up for it before you voted. You could have taken a step and you could have done took the roll back rate of what 6.4 before been the first board since 2009 to lower property taxes in this county
to offset the MSBU to support our firefighters. The coolest thing is is what you did was took 10 million out of the general budget to unpoliticize our first responders from coming graveling to the four kings and queen now to get their money. That's what you did. That's the great thing because the local government should take care of the firefighters. They should take care of the EMS and they should take care of the sheriff's office and everything and and infrastructure. the 500 and some odd million dollars that had the budget has grown in the last five years. What do we have to show for it as a public and as a citizen? Nothing. Crumbling infrastructure. What do we have? I know
you're not going to answer me because you don't want to get into back and forth and I understand that, but I will answer. Uh let's see here. I wrote down some notes here about trimming the fat. Uh taking your house for no taxes. Don't worry, they're not planning ahead just like before. um they don't want to take the road back rate. What are you going to do when the property taxes go away? You're not planning for that. The board hasn't planned for the future. I don't know since when. You're just waiting. You're reactive. You know that timid senior chief you were talking about. You don't have one. That's why you're being reactive. So there's not going to be a
house taken for property taxes. You're going to start taking them for non-avalorum taxes. Your population growth that you say, "Hey, let's build the houses. The population will come. we'll get our taxes. In the last 5 years, it's 3.2%. Since the county is in the best financial shape that it's ever been in, hey, why are we still raising taxes? So, uh, there is one way we could trim it all down. How much do you pay for dinners? That's the people's money, too. Remember, you guys don't have any money. It all comes from the people. It's the people's money. How much do you pay for cater dinners every time you have an evening meeting? That's my money. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Don't
say you. It's back there. Thank you, Josh. Give the firefighters their money. Elvis Christopher, are you out there? Okay. And then Mel Pino, you're up next. Mel, you're after um Elvis. All right. All right. Yeah. Good evening everyone. I'm from District 1 and I'm happy to be here tonight. But one of the main concerns that I have is when I get a letter that's just one page and it's surrounding
making a whole lot of decision that is that's affecting our lives financially. I would really like the opportunity to for us to get that dignity to be treated with dignity and respect. Meaning that okay, the community has a need. Lay out what that specific needs are. Show us where the issues are because we in the community, we not running from we don't run from our responsibilities. For
those of us as property owners, we are not people that run from our responsibilities. Okay? So, treat us with some respect. Let us know where the needs are. Then lay out what the options are, what options we have. Don't just give us we have to raise this money and if we don't our h our homes is going to be taken from us. I have a problem with that. That's treating us with disrespect
and that doesn't give a good feeling at all. And for you folks being our leaders, you don't need we don't need to be doing that. We need to be communicating on a level where we can understand exactly what's going on in our community. And this correspondence that was sent to us, somebody could have take the time and just give us a little bit more information than just one page. give us a little bit more information so that when we come down here we can say well okay we look at option one we look at option two we look at option three and we think option three is what we can
work with and that way we can have a civil meeting and we can move forward and get things taken care of in our community and that's what I would like to see going forward this this this this short message and then just shoving trying to shove things down our throat and then threaten us about losing our home or property. That's beginning to be really distasteful. Thank you, sir. Mel Pino, you're up. Mel, you're up. And then Kevin is Oh, I see. Kevin, you're up after Mel. Okay.
Thank you. Melissino 413 Southeast Bobblets. Um, I went grocery shopping today. I I just keep thinking that I can stop being surprised at checkout and I don't get past the point where I'm like, "No, that can't be right." Every time you go, it's more. Um, friend of ours was at CVS and there was a woman walking around with a clipboard and there were 600 price tag changes on it and he's like, "Whoa, I got here just in time." and she said, "Well, you didn't get here in time for
all the stickers I changed out last week." So, while all of these people are in the room, I just want to make sure that everybody understands that while the state is holding out the carrot, we don't know whether they're really going to do it. It's looking like it, but they're holding this out that they're going to put it on the ballot. I've learned not to trust Tallahassee in anything. And so I want everybody here to be mindful. You know, you guys are catching it. And honestly,
I I it's been it's pretty tonedeaf. And y'all know I've been saying it's getting so bad out here. There's going to be a tipping point. Here it is. I support the fire. And some of these folks may not know that the people at Paradise came who have lost their insurance for a year and a half. And we said it with them. We said, "Raise thee, fire MSBU." And then the bottom fell out of everything. So, of course, now nobody wants that. And Commissioner Hoffberger, I don't agree with a
lot of what you do, but I certainly did agree with one of your first initiatives being firehouses. So, people do need to understand that if you guys don't find a way to pay for them, and I'm not saying MSBU it, we we will not get those extra firehouses. I just want people to know what Tallahassee is doing because whereas the board could have reigned some things in in years past and you know I've been down here railing about development and flooding for
seven years now but now the state won't even let you guys fix it right they've taken away home rule Dantis executive ordered a limitation on the very fees that people want out of contract contractors because local municipalities started doing it and all his buddies in the contracting business, all the lobbyists said, "Oh, no, no." So, we went fiat. We're going to limit what the local governments can do. When you talk about grocery prices, that's certainly not anything you guys
are doing. And get ready because it's going to get worse. Wait until 20 million people lose their health care on the big beautiful bill. So, this is going to get worse. You guys are going to have to get creative. Please fund our fire, but maybe there is another way. You already voted earlier in the meeting, but there's always a will where there's a way. Thank you, Mel. Kevin, you're up next. Destiny Watson, you're on deck. Kevin Wade, 413 Southeast Bobblets. And yeah, the grocery prices are going up up up. The price of homes is going up up up.
We're taking the least of those who get paid in this state, in this country, and we're shipping them off, making them go away right now. Tourism is down 40%. Where else are you going to find the money? You know, brilliant people have voted for tariffs. That's not very smart. That means you're going to pay more. The people who are in this room that
are retired now, most of them remember a time when their parents looked at the possibility of paying a marginal 90% tax. From 1943 to 1963, the top marginal tax rate was 90%. 1963, huge changes. 197 1968, another big bump down. The tax rate that we end
up looking at right now is fairly close to the initiatives that were brought in the mid70s. During the mid70s, the military took huge hits. Absolutely huge hits. Many, many ships were brought back that have been in mothballs for decades and decades. All right. In 1973, the average home could be actually purchased by a family who is making minimum wage.
Minimum wage at that time. At this time, what what would the uh what would the dollar rate have to be for the average home to be purchased by somebody who makes minimum wage? The answer is $67 an hour. How many in this room made $67 an hour most of their life?
There's a big squeeze coming. People voted for an absolutely insane amount of squeeze. It's coming. Home rule. We've been screaming about home rule going away. People that have in power in Florida for 30 years making it so that there will be no home rule. and all these people here want to rule their own home. Thank you. Thanks, Kevin. Destiny Watson and then uh Christy Rosen.
Hi. Uh good evening, commissioners. Um I normally don't do this, but I'm here. So, I'm here tonight as a homeowner and taxpayer concerned about the proposed fire protection assessment increase. Um I'm probably going to say what most of people already have said. Um so, the fallback demands for fairness and accountability. um your sunset clause and reauthorization. If you pass this increase, put in a three to five year sunset clause, so it expires unless reauthorized at the public review. Why? Prevents this from becoming a permanent hidden tax without re-evaluation. Um detailed
spending plan and annual report require a law a line item spending plan with a yearly public report showing what percentage went to staffing, equipment, and buildings. Um why? Keeps them from using the MSB money as a slush fund. Enforces transparency. Uh separate capital versus operating costs. Acts commit to using the lost sales tax for fire stations and trucks and limit the MSBU
increases to daily operations like staffing and safety gear. Um I'm not sure when firefighters equipment tears up, but I'm pretty sure it might not be every year. But if it is, just get that together. And then um separate capital versus operating costs. Did I say that already? Um commit to using loss sales for fire stations and trucks. Yeah, I said that already. Okay. Um let's see. Okay. So, the costs have gone up, but much of the demand isn't coming from long-term
residents. It's from the growth encouraged by all the campaigns inviting people to move to Escambia. I wanted this place kind of like a little Miami because I always travel to Orlando and Miami to go work. But Pensacola is small and the traffic is terrible. There's um accidents all over the place. I'm not sure it's from the new people, the old people, but people cannot drive. Um sorry. Yeah, it's annoying. Um, the sewer part is not, this is separate, but it stinks around here. So,
if it was like a little Miami, it needs to smell better. Um, let's see. Um, I know the MSBU hike is for recruitment and retention of firefighters, uh, keeping up with state and federal safety requirements like gear replacement, like I already said, and then covering costs like insurance, fuel, utilities, and medical calls. Um, if leadership isn't transparent about that, it looks like double dipping. So transparency is best. Um maybe having an independent uh audit review could help. And then um it's not a joke to me or the homeowners paying these bills. So just
stay serious in here. And then yeah, that's all. Thank you, Destiny. Great comments. Christy Rosen, is Christy out there? Okay, Christy, come on up. And then Louise Noith, I think is on deck. Good evening, commissioners. My name is Christy Rosen. I live in district five and I am one of the co-founders of the new community group if not us. I'm here to talk about Adv Texas. Not just the numbers, but the actual people behind them. Holding the millillage fla the millillage
flat might sound fair on paper but last year even with no increase county revenues jumped about 15% because the property values raise rose. That translates into the real hardship for families. The seniors that are in fixed incomes, small businesses owners already stretched thin, renters who see higher bills passed along by their landlords, people who are in disability like myself. These are real neighbors and community members struggling to meet make and to meet. Every
resident has a right to essential services, safe roads, wellstaffed schools, libraries, and emergency services. I know that you've spoken in the past about how schools are struggling. Our children are struggling in your district. That is important to me. Kids are important to me. I want to support. We want services. But we need transparency. We need to know where our money is going. We need to make sure it's going to the right things. We spent $25 million investment in the John R. Jones Sports Complex, which seems out of balance with the urgent needs that we actually
have in this community. And it's time we get back to we've gotten into the habit that people just get our vote. It's time that you remember you're going to have to earn our vote. We're getting back to that point. We are paying attention. these meetings you're seeing more and more people showing up. We need to remember we have rights and responsibilities as citizens. I would love to see where we do a sales tax. Those who are better off, who spend more money invest more money,
whether they're renters or homeowners and those and tourists especially. And those of us who don't have a lot of means, whatever we're able to do, we do. But we're able to invest in our children. We're able to invest in our roads. I'm actually getting ready to go paint rainbows around all the potholes because maybe we'll get this the state to come and paint over them and fix our potholes. So, that's my next project if anybody's interested. Um, but I want to be accountable to you.
I want to be a partner with you, but we need accountability from y'all. Not just one piece of paper saying this is what's happening. We need to know what's happening with our money. Thank you, ma'am. Thank you. Louis Louise Noith, I think that's correct. And then Rosemary DeWolf is next. Good evening. Especially good evening to all of you. Thank you. My husband and I are new residents
and business owners here. We came tonight when this thing showed up to find out more. We moved here because of the culture, the community, and the conversation that we found when we were doing the investigation over seven different states in two years. This, oh my, this doesn't do a lot of explanation. I wasn't going to speak, but for what all of these ladies and gentlemen have said,
that's the conversation I came to hear. That's what I wanted to find out. What did this really mean, including having a conversation with a unformed firefighter in the back who tells me that this has not really been addressed in more than 10 years for a raise? I say to you, district 1, two, three, four, five, where is the fiscal mismanagement? There is fiscal mismanagement here.
And for you to just drop this bomb, especially with the bombs going off in Washington on a regular basis, that will come and hit us awfully hard in ways that none of us ever thought when we voted. And I don't want to get into that. But I say to you, as I said to a council some years ago when they thought it would be a good idea to put a halfway house between two elementary schools, go practice in front of your mirror with your makeup and the things you're going to say when the national media comes the first time they come and kill one of those kids. What are you going to
say when these people start dying and they're out on the street? What are you going to say when they start taking their houses away and they throw them on the streets? Is that what we're looking at? Is that what I'm hearing? I don't know. I'm ignorant in all of this. I can only act by how you treat us. I don't know any of you in this room this way or that way except the guy I live with. I'm not particularly thrilled right now and I'm wondering, did we make a mistake coming to Pensacola? Thank
you, Louise. Rosemary DeWolf. All right, Rosemary, you're next. And that's our last speaker. Good evening. Yes, ma'am. I came and I listened and I'm shocked. I have been in the financial business for 53 years. And in the financial business, you budget money. You take the money from one and you budget so it equals what you need to do. You don't just take, oh, I'm going to grab this and go there. Oh, I'm going to put this here. No, that's not how one
and one equals. One and one equals two. Mr. May is leaving. He is my district person. You know, I have never seen him. Got it. I've never seen them. You people on the board need to know that one in one equals two. You have to think out of the box. Not just in the box. You need to take the rattle out of your play pad and work with it. You guys got a lot of money. Use it for what needs to be done. Don't raise the taxes. Dancers is right. Take the taxes away. Make
us put our money that we're paying to good cause, not wherever. The firemen need to be paid. There's also volunteers that would love to volunteer, but what? Pensacola doesn't want all volunteers. So why why are we even fighting with you people when you don't want to help us? Now, we're the ones, every single person in this room and every single person who lives in Pensacola pays taxes. So, we pay your your finances. We pay your salary for what? What do we get in return? Higher tax
bills and a bunch of BS. Sorry, doesn't work in my financial district. Thank you, Rosemary. All right, board. I think these people deserve some I want to say two things. Ma'am, you you have to sign up. We don't just let people charge. We don't let people just charge tax them. Ma'am, deep water. Ma'am, we use this and have order. If you wanted to speak, you should have signed up respectfully. You make it hard to do. Board, um, we're at the point where we should
have some discussion and and tell these folks our thoughts on this. Uh, does anyone want to speak? Okay. Please, let's be respectful. I mean, all right. Up here. Can you hear me? All right. Do you mind if I speak, Chairman? Yeah. Please go ahead, Commissioner. So, I think a lot of folks here are making an assumption that the board has grown up with a silver spoon and we know I don't
know everybody on the board. I know that I have and I know that Commissioner Kohler didn't grow up with a silver spoon either. Um, I came here 35 years ago next month to go to aviation officer Canada school. I've been back and forth over and over again. And I was living in Scottdale. Where's our where's the person from Phoenix and one day my wife came home and she said, "Where are we going next?" That was in 2019. We're living in Scottsdale. I put
a spreadsheet together of all these places that we've been that we liked. And I kept coming back to Pensacola and I asked her, "Why aren't we already in Pensacola? It's 70% less to live here than it was in Scottsdale. I came here retired. I wasn't expecting to be sitting here. But you're right. It's affordable here. It really is. But you're right. We should sharpen the pencil up and and we're going to we need to make some hard choices. I think that everybody loves the
idea of no property taxes. And everyone loves the idea of Doge. I wonder how many Democrats out there rose are raising their hand about Doge because I don't think that was too popular with them. But the property tax, eliminating property tax, you're being fooled by that. Property tax is a wealth tax. And the wealthy, the ones who have big homes, pay a lot of property taxes.
Now that I'm not making exc I'm not saying that I think everyone should be paying you know more even if you got less. I'm just saying that I've seen estimates of between 11 and 15% is what the sales tax will have to be and we're not going to be collecting it. Tallahassee is. So we are going to lose home rule. we're going to beg and borrow from Tallahassee to get our roads fixed and stuff. So, that romantic idea of having no property taxes is going to fade quickly as soon as we don't get
things that we want. And you're going to have to go to Tallahassee to have these discussions about roads because we're not going to be able to help you. Our property taxes amount to about a third of the taxes that we collect and I think that we control about a third of the budget. Yeah. Roughly, right? Exactly. So, there's a lot of dedicated money. Did you want to say something to the department? Yes, sir. Just saying um the the county's uh general fund is twothirds of that is basically fixed cost and oneird of it is discretionary. Right. So,
but you're right. I I agree with you. I I there's some things I think that need to go on the ballot next year and we do make need to make some hard choices about what we're going to spend things on just like we do with our households, right? And and and I'm prepared to do that. I think the board's prepared to do that, too. I I had some agreement the last time we had a a commissioner meeting about that about rolling back the tax. I don't think there's enough agreement on this board to do that. I don't know. We can't talk to each other. Another subject I want I'm sorry. Well,
please please let's let the board have discussion in it. We all have different opinions about why we do the things we do. I I I I don't think that everybody I I I don't think when everybody comes to these meetings, they seem to demonize the board so quickly. And I think that you've got a lot of agreement up here already on on a lot of different things. I know what's going up. I know. Is everybody showing up at the schoolboard meetings to talk about that property tax? Holy smokes.
The children's rush, the the millage rates the same. I know property the property values have gone up. FPL is higher. We got the fire MSBU insurance. I had my insurance cancelled uh a couple days ago. Um, in fact, not just my my hazard insurance on my house, but my car insurance, too. So, we're we're shopping for new insurance because they don't want to insure us here. You know, those those are my thoughts. Thank you, Chairman. Thanks,
Commissioner Strober. Commissioner Hopper. I I do want to echo that. And um I don't I don't know that any of us were born rich. When my parents divorced, my mom and I moved to Pensacola into Jasmine Creek Apartments. And then when she could afford a house as a single mom on a receptionist um salary, we moved off of Detroit and that's where I finished high school at. Um and I'm very thankful for that. Tonight, I think we have the opportunity to provide some transparency and some additional details and listening to you speak, there has been a lot of misinformation. So,
I took some notes. I'm going to go through what I have here and then myself and Melanie Luna, the district 4 aid, we will work to get a video out to give you guys a little bit more detail. Um, LOST money is being used to build the additional fire stations that are needed for our community, which will help lower insurance rates. Impact fees can only be used for a certain project and they can only be distributed once that pot of money is full. You cannot use impact fees to pay wages for
firefighters. Our current starting Please let me speak. I let you speak. Our current starting wage for our firefighters is $13 an hour. You talk about not being able to afford groceries. These men and women run into burning buildings to save lives and they're making $13 an hour. So this MSBU is to bring their starting wage up to $16 an hour, which is still lower than any other local municipality. TDT money can only be used for things that drive tourism. Someone said they don't
care what bucket it comes from and I understand that and I get that, but unfortunately that is state law. We cannot use that money for anything else. So, I get the ball fields were a big spend, it was a big investment and the ROI was there. When we talk about local option sales tax, that money that we spend on the ball fields will drive people to our community to spend money in our restaurants and at our stores, which will up our local option sales tax. So, we were good stewards with that pot of money to provide a better ROI. Sales tax is 7 and a half% in the Escambia County.
We do not get all 7 and a half%. 6% I believe goes to the state. We get the remainder and part of it goes to the school system. So, we get a step and a half a cent. Is it a cent or a half a cent? Goes to the county. We have the penny sales tax, which is our LOSD, and the half half cent goes to the school board. Okay. So, we get a penny of that. So, we don't get seven and a half, we get 1%. Um, the MSBU, someone said it was a slush fund. It is protected. It can only be used for firefighters.
Same with the sheriff's fund. Um, consumption taxes paid per service. Somebody mentioned that. That's illegal. We can't do that. Um sales tax. We cannot just raise sales tax either. That has to go on the ballot and it also has several steps you have to do to approve by the state. We did check all this. The MSBU that you're talking about is an $8 a month increase. So to take someone who's making $13 an hour to move those men and women to $16 an hour when you break it down per month, I think most of us can agree that an $8 per month ask is reasonable considering we haven't raised
it since 2013. Um we are the only county and municipality connected to us that do not charge a storm water tax. I live in the city, I get charged a storm water tax. I have friends that live in Gulf Breeze, they pay a storm water tax. Same with Milton. Same with Santa Rosa County. So, when we talk about infrastructure and you ask what your money is going to and you ask what we're funding, we are using that money to fund storm water projects. Um, and the additional money that we have been using to fund the fire department from the general pot was about 10 to 11,000. All of
that money has been reallocated to public safety initiatives. What most of you might not know is about two months ago, we signed the contract with the sheriff's office. That was a historic contract for the state of Florida considering the raises and the additional personnel that will be used to keep our county safe. So, that is where that money is going. It's not going to other items. It is going to public safety. I hope that provides some clarity. If you have specific questions, please email those and Melanie and I will try to put that information in the video. Commissioner Barry, I I saw you had your light on for a little while. Yeah. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Um,
and I mean there were, you know, there were comments about the, you know, maybe have it be advorm rather than non-advalorum. That's that's what's been subsidizing the operation, uh, for a number of years. I believe this this past year, we subsidized the uh, we subsidized the operation to the tune of about $10 million out of the general fund. Um there were a couple speakers that also mentioned volunteer, you know, the volunteerism and uh you know, as a as a commissioner that represents a district that historically
had the most volunteers uh just in the you know, 12 years that Commissioner May and I have served, the numbers of volunteers have fallen dramatically as they have in uh you know, many civic organizations. the the the activity and the the interest the interest may be there, but the time or the uh and it may be a financial that, you know, the volunteers aren't they're stipened is uh is very little and and that would mean that you had to be able to afford to run your household while you were also volunteering and and so that those volunteer numbers are just down dramatically for probably a plethora of reasons. Um and it's mean it's meant that in addition, Commissioner
Hoffberger mentioned the pay increases. Um, another big factor in the in the public safety side is just the pure numbers of people that we've had to employ. Additionally, over the last seven or eight years, um, you know, we've had to hire dozens and dozens of firefighters and and EMTs. Um, you know, if you and I, you know, it's a I'm very sorry and I know that, you know, even if hasn't been said to a person on the board, I know that all of the board, uh, you know, is
considering a tax increase with a, you know, with a very heavy heart and a very heavy conscience. Um, you know, I'm I'm sorry that we're having to look at this. Um, but what it comes down to, I don't think that there's an appetite or or I wouldn't support increasing the millage rate and to get the money uh to stop the subsidy coming out of the general fund. It was either going to it was either going to be an advalorum increase or an MSBU increase. Um, you know, we we it's as also
mentioned, it's paying for personnel. We can't you know, we have the need for the personnel. can't just uh decide we don't need the personnel anymore because we you know the numbers say that we do. Um so it's a you know it's a huge deal to increase taxes and and you know as was articulated it it doesn't break out to a big number every month but it's still something I know that each one of us all five of us on the board take very seriously. Um you know there are other fees that you know have been mentioned from speakers on the podium as well as my colleagues where you've
uh you know kind of indicated the cost of you know how much other things have gone up. In many of those instances you have very little uh you know very little recourse very little opportunity to uh to air your grievances. You know in this setting at least uh you know everyone does have the opportunity to come and speak and um you know and the board does listen. Like I said, it's a it's a very big deal to look at any type of tax increase. Um I know Commissioner May and I are, you know, very proud to have, you know, been through a dozen budgets without ever increasing the millage rate.
Um and still, you know, and still maintaining and and actually growing the amount of services that the county provides. Um, I'm yet to uh yet to receive a communication from a constituent that um has indicated they would like less service or uh you know less less of a response from the county when they you know when they have a need. Um you know we end up being the stop gap for uh you know we've kind of stomach through some you know some emergencies uh you know some historic floods as well as hurricanes you know in the in the past 10 years. Um, and the county's had to, you know,
the countyy's been the primary person to uh, the primary entity to get out there and and try to get boots on the ground to uh to aid its citizenry. Um, again, I it's a I'm I am genuinely sorry that this is what we're having to look at, but I I do think it's what makes uh financial sense and and prudence. And you know the the failure that the that you may feel that the board has you know that the board is taking on by looking at doing this I think is probably better uh you know better
articulated as a as a failure to not address it in you know 10 or 11 years prior. Um one of the speakers indicated it's probably something we should have been going up on every year a little bit. You know maybe maybe that's the case. Maybe that maybe that's what we should have done. Uh rather than not having an increase for 11 years and now coming with uh you know with a larger increase. Um but it doesn't change the the fact what we probably should have done over a number of budget years doesn't change uh where we are right now is where we are. And uh and this this increase
is what will uh is what will stop the subsidy coming out of the general fund. It's what will keep uh you know keep fire services and public safety healthy. and um you know it's and then it's not paired with something that's looking at being increased next year or the year after that. Um so thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Commissioner Barry. Commissioner May. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And I I think in all our budget hearings that we've probably had more speakers at this first um budget meeting than we've ever had. And so, you know, let me just say my mind is not completely
made up. And um Commissioner Hollberger, you adequately and eloquently explain exactly what funds could be uh you you and Commissioner Barry. So I certainly appreciate it. And like you these folks, there's a qu and there's protocol in which you know I think we've all been respectful and you know it doesn't move me that someone keeps out the amount of times that I stand up and walk around. I mean that that doesn't move me. What moves me is doing what's right for our constituents. And so, um, obviously when we live in the city, Commissioner Alber, we pay storm water a
higher percentage of of CRA dollars. We pay a higher millage rate. We pay higher fire tax uh just because we we live in this city of Pensacola. And so I represent a large majority of people uh who pay a higher aval tax than many many other uh citizens. And so I do appreciate people's support and quite frankly many of the people that came down to the podium are the very people who uh voted for the people in Washington and Tallahassee that has put this burden on our backs uh that
we're coming forth uh to take care of today. And so it's almost hypocritical for people to come and point fingers at their local elected uh when they voted for people that are putting the very burdens on their shoulders. Uh so for me uh I do empathize and and and not because of any political pressure. Someone said that they voted for me because that's insignificant to me. Every day I wake up to do the right thing and that's why we win our our our race and you know at a a large number. Uh but I get it.
School board increase taxes, children trust. Uh and property values are going up. Uh we have an affordable housing program. Uh, and when we say, well, it's only $110, $150. Well, if you had $100 here, $100 there, $100 there, uh, pretty soon it's a $300, it's a $400, it's a $500. Uh, and for a senior citizen who owns her home, or there's a single mom that, you know, just bought her trailer or a single mom that got affordable housing, uh, when the property values go up, um,
it's not that they can't afford the principal amount of their mortgage. is that when you look into the particularly districts that I represent in the urban core, uh they may come in even with a subsidy to buy their home and have a controlled uh mortgage rate of a fixed amount and each year uh because of the appreciation of their property and not saying that any of us want our property values to go down, uh but the property value goes up. So their taxes go up. uh we add a a new tax whether it's from the school board whether it's children trust things that we
can't control this of this board and people find themselves uh strapped with decisions or whether or not I'm going to pay my taxes on time or whether I'm going to pay my bills on time and the next thing you know someone buys a tax certificate at 18% and so now that property tax is not only uh what we said it was $150 just went up to $210 and so for someone on a fixed income that's a real it. And so that's why I have real reservations about putting tax burdens. And Steve, I'm I'm a
Democrat. And when you say roll back the millage, uh I think Stephen and I have been the only ones to ever vote to roll back the millillage. And I've said I'm looking forward to some of my Republican friends to bring back rolling back the millillage. Uh because we got to do more with less. And so I I I stand on on that principle uh that you know we're going to have to not anticipate but we have to recognize that there are going to be changes in in in property val in property taxes. Uh we you know certainly have seen the direction in which our country and our state is going uh that there
are going to have to be cutbacks and so we have to start planning for that without necessarily putting all of the burdens uh on the people. So, I mean, this is our first hearing, so I mean, you know, I had made my mind up, but I do know that public safety is the number one priority of our board. I mean, all the good things that we do, the number one priority of an elected official is the public safety of its constituents. Whether that be fire, whether that be law enforcement, uh that's what we're mandated today. I mean, that's what we take the oath to do, uh is to put public safety first. And how do we get there? Uh I hope that we can get there in a way that's fair. So
for me, I take, you know, I don't know how fair it is, you know, for someone on the beach to pay the same thing that someone pays on G Beach Highway or someone pays in in Montlair when we have a flat rate. I mean, to whom much is giving, much is required. And so if I have a million-doll home and I'm paying $150 or I have a $80,000 home and I'm paying the same thing, uh, I just don't know how fair that is for me. And I don't know how I get there. I mean, because a family that, you know, has a family home that's only valued at $60,000, they're just trying to uh put food on the table,
uh, but someone who has a million dollars, they're eating out at Jackson's every night. And so, I mean, $150 is a lot of money, uh, to particularly to people, uh, who have to decide this month, are they going to pay their rent? Next month, are they going to pay their power bill? The next minute are they pay their water bill. And they're always robbing Peter to pay. So, you know, when we add all these extra taxes and it ends up being three or $400, it is a significant hit. And so, I don't know if the timing is right uh to put this burden on the back of of the citizens of the
people. I mean, I know we have another budget hearing. Uh, I I'd look to hear creativity, but I've certainly, quite frankly, you know, it was not a majority of the other citizens that I represent that came down here because I represent a lot of the city of Pensacola, but I certainly uh hear uh what these citizens are saying and and I share in that pain. Uh, as I've said earlier, uh, just because if someone can't afford the taxes and they lose their property to a taxdeed sale, I heard someone today said he buys property at tax deed sales. the tax the sales is a a a end result
of somebody of an estate or a family that can't afford to pay their property taxes that someone benefits off of the bad will of someone that can't afford to pay their taxes. And so if we're going to raise taxes, I mean, I just think that it there has to be some other creative way. Uh, I think we have to meet people in the middle and figure out how do we continue to not cut services. How do we increase revenue but mitigate taxes on the backs of the people and become creative uh to
make sure that everyone gets a win regardless of your financial position, regardless of your million-doll home or your $50 $50 home. I mean, we have to bring some type of parody to it. So, Mr. Chairman, I appreciate you. That's kind of my position. Um, and so that's where we are. So, thank you. Thank you, Commissioner May. I want to share some thoughts with y'all because I do listen to you and I didn't grow up with um I struggle with this. I've been working with the comproller.
I started calling them in trash cans at 13 years old to get aluminum cans. I'm embarrassed to say this. I'd put dirt in them, crash them, take them to Alcoa to get sell them. My first job was for a Chinese guy named Chiuan at 14, which had to go in front of a judge. Most of my family lived in mobile trailers. I get it. My mom and dad are still on a fixed income with a very small retirement my dad gets. I know it's going to hurt some of you folks, but I need to explain my position and and and where I'm at. I get insurance is up. I get FPL's going up. I get ES, you know,
the gas is going up. I mean, everything's going up. And I I feel the same pain when I go to the grocery store as everyone else does. It's just you're shocked every time you get the bill. I never intended on raising the millage tax, but when I got here, public safety and when I ran, there wasn't too many people that thought the the firefighters were getting a decent wage. They just didn't. We haven't had a new firehouse in District 2 in 50 years.
The people that live out on Paradise Beach may actually see their insurance go down and this could be a benefit. These are your fellow citizens. Commissioner Hoffber is right. We're talking $8 a month. If we would have done this back in 2013, it would have been about 75 cents a month to support firefighters. With that said, I support the MSBU, but not without a carrot. I understand you guys are in pain and I was working with uh the comp controller today
to look at options that not this cycle but the next budget cycle on the tiff funds potentially changing that number so that number could back I'm going to I'm going to ask this board to put the children's trust on the ballot. I see what it is that would offset that. I don't know if I'll get two other votes but I don't believe it's a fair tax. I understand that the school board, just the school board alone is more than on my tax bill is more than both the county and the um non-advalorum. Just just the local one is $176. This will be about 160 between the non-advalorum
and 60 from the county on my bill. Um but it does add up and it hurts. And so this board, I don't know um at this point, but I would like to look at our ratio tiff funds. I would like the city next year to hopefully we can work with them to have the same uh rate on the library fund and potentially change that. I'm looking at that and like I said, the trust fund as well. And I hope the board puts it out there and and if the people vote for it, you vote for it. But you'll have the
choice. Now, I want to share a little bit about what commissioner, a lot of people want to get rid of property taxes, and I think this is very important. I'm one of the representatives for the Florida Association of Counties that are looking into this. If you want to look at our millillage, I said this the other day, you should go to the Florida Association of Counties and look at where Scambia County compares in the state on millillage. We're one of the lowest in this state. We do have we have a lot of low-income people here in the state or in our county, I should say. But it puts together a lot of different veryformational um things about what
the difference is before property tax versus if they do a sales tax versus if they do carveouts for certain things. We don't know what's going to be on the ballot yet. The other thing I think it's very important like I said I talked to Stfan in depth and the and the property appraiser. I am being told by the the people that are the experts in this that property values are going to be going down next year. Stefan, will you like to share with them what you shared with me so they understand some of the decision process that I'm going through and I don't know if the other board
members know this, but I think it'd be useful for you to share this with them. Certainly, Commissioner. So, um, many of the commenters tonight um are correct. You know, that um home values have gone up over the last few years. Um we are going through a cycle where those increases are going down. Uh the property appraiser uh did come before the board and speak during our July workshops that he is anticipating uh 2% uh increase in property values for next year. Um that
is the information that we and the board have to operate with. So uh previously again we know we've had 7%, we've had you know roughly 10%, we've had you know 13%. Those those types of growth in uh property valuation are slowing down. They are basically stabilizing if you will. So at this point you know this is this is where the board will ultimately have to make those decisions. And as far as uh ongoing budgeting purposes, you know, we will make future determinations
regarding levels of service. Um if we're going to maintain level of service, if we're going to reduce levels of service um and those will be those those future conversations that the board ultimately will have with staff um and and make those determinations to live within the revenues that the county receives. Thank you, Stefan. So, my commitment as one commissioner is I'm for the MSPU, but I won't I want you to know next year when we come up, I will have an offsetting some
sort of tax that will offset the MSPU because I think it's the right thing to do. And but I do believe that we have to support the firefighters. And here's the thing, some people had said, and I wrote this down, and I do agree that if you have a $2 million house or a $100,000 house, you know, a nonadvalorum tax may seem unfair. And I can understand that. But being a nurse and a health care provider, firefighters don't just put out fires. Sometimes they're the first people there that actually save someone's life. I don't know if $8 a month for me is worth me or my
wife's life. And I I really think that we need to think about that. I mean, we have a very robust uh trained fire department and they they're there a lot of times before our EMS gets there. And for me, I look at that that service alone and that I believe is important to me as a as a commissioner to represent the public and public safety. I just think it's very important. Um that's my driving one of my driving factors in this. And I think that it's important to understand that it's not
just about tear, you know, taking care of fires. The majority of the fire calls are for basically EMT calls and EMS calls that actually are helping save and extend our fellow citizens lives. It seems after 11 years, 75 cents a month to me is a fair assessment for that kind of service. I don't have any further comments for me. Yeah, it's Stephan. When does the local option sales tax
go back on the ballot? Commissioner, we're currently having those conversations. Um, the state basically changed the law. So, we basically every two years we're no longer allowed to do that, but we're contemplating 2026. If we do not put it on the ballot on 2026, it would be 2028. And that is actually December of 2028 is when the current iteration of LOST expires. Thank you. And and Mr. chairman, you know, as we do these incremental increases,
whichever way it goes, and I s sincerely uh don't know which way anyone's going to go, but I mean, consistently small increases to citizens is going to it's going to have an impact. I mean, and if we were to lose if we were to lose local options sales tax, I mean, the infrastructure would crumble here. Uh, and as you said, you've just stated that you're going to put the children trust on there and we can't control what the school board has done. School board has made increases. We're going to be looking to put the local option sales tax back on the ballot as well
as giving this MSBU to the citizens. I mean, there are going to be some challenging days. And so, uh, as many of the speakers have said, how do we forecast? And most of us will probably be gone, you know, when it all, uh, happens. Uh but for our children and for those who come behind us, we certainly got to be very cognitive of what tax increases do. The adverse effect of what happens, you know, a little tax here, a little tax here. Ecua is going up. I mean, sewer to septic conversions. Many times they're just septic tanks in my district and many of your
other districts as they put that infrastructure in. The sewer bill is going to go up. Uh FPL is is going to go up. I mean, and you know, we we just have to be cognitive. And I I think that there's no way to have this conversation without having an economic development conversation about how do we create jobs and wages and livable wages for our citizens. Uh if we don't do that and then we're putting more burden on them, then I just don't think that that's good stewardship uh for me. And so I hope that you know as we come to the second hearing we can have that overall conversation because if we're not increasing the wages but we're increasing the fee it doesn't
matter to me whether it's a ECUA or sewer fee or or city fee. I mean it's real money to real people. uh and when we live, particularly when you represent uh pockets of poverty uh that I represent, uh I know that people have to decide whether or not they're going to, you know, let their child be in the band or or whether or not, you know, they're just going to, you know, make sandwiches this weekend instead of, you know, going out to eat. So, a couple hundred, frankly, ends up being $1,000. And when you only make 15, 16, $17,000 a year, $1,000 is a real impact. And
so, uh, we all we will all vote our conscience, but I hope that we can, you know, now have this dialogue. We have a new board. Uh, Commissioner Barry and I have been there, but I mean to me, we have to have the overall conversation, uh, before we make this final vote on doing a increase because this is not the only increase, and we shouldn't mislead people. I mean, the local option sales tax whether it comes in 2026 or 2028, is probably one of the most significant tax that we have. So, if we don't have roads and we don't have storm water control, we don't have sidewalks, there's no way that we are going to get the EMS trucks or the fire trucks uh to put out the fire
in those neighborhoods. If we don't have the street lights, if we don't have the roads, if we don't have the bridges, all that stuff plays a part to me and public safety. So, thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I look forward to further discussion. Mr. I mean, if I just something came to my mind, some of the things that that you just mentioned and and a lot of people I I heard tonight, they want to get rid of the the property tax and I and there was some things said tonight I actually definitely agree with. I do think people on fixed income, seniors, all those there should be some sort of relief for them. Um I'm I'm open to impact fees. I have the board hasn't
taken that on. I think we should reconsider that in the future. But I do think this think about if it if they because they're not they're going to move this money somewhere. It's a transfer. Imagine if it goes to 10% how much you're going to pay when you buy a car. I mean sales tax the people that come from Alabama to come here. They stay in Alabama and because we have a pretty low sales tax over here. So all those things are going to be hashed out. We don't know what's going to be put on the ballot next year, but I think there will be something put on the ballot. And I just challenge everyone if if we lose so much home rule and as Commissioner May said,
we don't get a local option sales tax, it is going to be painful in this county. I mean, we are going to have to make some seriously tough decisions and services would have to be cut. Pay raises probably wouldn't happen for county employees. I don't take this job lightly. I think you could probably tell by my my tone of my voice and how I've calculated this for since a while now, but these these are and I I believe my colleagues are in the same boat. I don't think anyone's up here wanting
wanting to take it to any citizen, especially for fire safety. Um, and Mike, I mean, listen, and I and I don't mind taking an abuse. I mean, not I've taken much more than that, but you know, to be fair, I mean, some people voted and where we got tears. I mean, it's real money. I mean, if you think that this has a direct impact, let me just tell you what tariffs are doing uh to people, everyday people, and those are real things. So, the very people that voted for the people that are imposing tariffs when it would beat us up, you know, for a fire safety. I mean, so there's a I mean, there's a lot going on. There's a lot of moving pieces and and it's
just not one solution. And if it was easy, I guess everybody would do it. But quite frankly, you know, tariffs have caused when you talk about groceries, you're talking about goods, you're talking about automobiles, you're talking about the clothes and the shoes that you wear. look at the percentages of what tariffs have done uh to the cost of living in America. Uh it's a direct impact. All right, board. I don't have any um unless there's any further discussion. All right, then I'm going to ask for to entertain a motion to adopt the fisc year 2526 non-advalum
special assessment role as presented in the agenda backup. So moved. Is there a second? Commissioner Stroberger second. There's a motion to second. Please vote. There's four in favor. Any oppos? Are you four? Commissioner opposed? Four. Okay. Five. Motion passes. 5-0. All right. Board. We're now at number five. Five. The board adoption of the BCC employee pay scale. Uh the chair. Oh, we have two speakers on this one. Um Melissa Pino, you're up first.
Thank you, Melissa Pino. 413 Southeast Bobblets. So you guys just saw all of that pain in the audience. It was really, really real. And I feel so sorry for so many of these people because they don't understand. It's just going to get worse. It's going to get worse on every level. Who knows whether De Santis is going to bring it for property rights. It's all just a property tax. It's just a game to him. It's a game to so many people. I think that what you guys maybe sometimes don't realize is that a lot of your staff is feeling
that amount of pain. They've got all of that going on and they got to come to work every day and they can't show it. The only people that can show their anger, their frustration, and that they're really, really hurting are the unions. And then the unions get war brought to their door. We've got people that are after ECAD again. And quite frankly, the reason that it took so long on the fire
MBU is because the union got a little outside of itself with Doug and it turned into a big war. And that's really unfortunate. And there were times that Kevin and I show up at budget meetings. we'd be here two years early or two hours early with a big book in the back and and commissioners May and Barry can attest that we used to spend hours preparing. So, I am ashamed to say I don't even know what I I'm hoping this is a pay increase and I'm hoping it's substantial. But what I'm
asking the commission and senior administration to understand is that people don't care if you remember that when you were young you were poor. That doesn't mean that it means nothing, Chairman Kohler. So, I'm not knocking it and I'm not being snideed. No one cares, Commissioner Hoffberger, that you grew up on Detroit. What they care about is that you remember what it was like. And and Commissioner Stroberger, the same for you. It I mean it doesn't matter that you and your wife
moved here to be economical when people can't eat when when when the woman said, "Do we have to take four jobs?" People get paid crap in this county, some of them, and it's been going on for way too long. Not a lot of people get paid great, except once you really start graduating into the big time. Please, all of you start realizing that your staff is under pressures that they're never ever going to let you see and they can't tell you and start thinking about them with the empathy and the
care and start taking care of them the way that you think about your constituents and you can your concern for the people at the podium because your staff can't can't come up here and advocate for themselves. Thank you, Mill. I I can just tell you for me, I don't know anyone else, but I take this stuff serious and I don't I mean, I really do. Um, Mr. Wade, you're up. Kevin Wade, 413 Southeast Popitz. Yes, sir. I know that you do take this seriously. Oh, you you showed that last night,
showing up at a neighborhood watch meeting and quite often it's uh used to call it neighborhood watch bleedings, but now you're showing up and it almost looked like a neighborhood watch beating. Uh and you handled it very well. uh the amount of time that you've taken to be boned up on so many of the issues very impressive. I thank you very much. Thank you Kevin. Um the
pardon me the staff like they do need raises and there's some staff that I know that fear for their jobs over small petty crazy little things. Oh they shouldn't need to fear for their jobs and But price of everything's coming up. Absolutely. The price of everything is coming up. I'm I'm hoping this works out well for them. Thank you. Thank you,
Kevin. We have one last speaker, Josh Roersonson. Is Josh still here? Okay, Josh, you signed up, correct? Okay, come on up. That's our last speaker on this topic, folks. I'm back. Hey, Mr. Wade's right. Um I'm sorry, Joshua Robertson. Mr. Wade's right. There are um county staff members that are scared to say anything or uh fear for retaliation or retribution or vindictiveness, but umh can't speak up or say anything.
It's not the county's job to employ everybody in this county. It's not the county's job when you look at raises to give the the floor sweeper $20 an hour. Uh it's just not it's not it's not our job. You know, for the record, I'd like to just put this on record. I I can't I can't sit back in the back. I know for me, I'm going to stand up here because I got 2 minutes 15 seconds, but I will say that I agree that county employees should be paid decent so they don't have to
uh go out and get second jobs. Kind of like our firefighters with their $13 an hour raise that I was told was wrong. I was told, well, by the by the year, their annual salary by the hour employees don't make an annual salary. We all know that. don't mix words. Just like LOST funds do not go for existing roads, they go for new projects. Just like taking the same millage rate you had
last year is voting for a raise in taxes by state statute. So, you can't sit on the board and say you didn't raise taxes. I just want to make sure that we're not misspeaking here to the public and that we're not gaslighting people out here to say that we're crazy and you guys are great. Again, keep thinking it's our money. It's okay to pay the county employees the right amount of money. No one should have to work two jobs when they're out here and they're taking the criticism from the public. They're the ones that you shove us off to. I We don't have the information in front
of us about the budget. You've already spoken to Mr. just a font. We don't most of us that we're here don't know we have to call and say, "Hey, open the cell on the spreadsheet. It's 2025. Where's the open transparency?" If we don't know that that that budget opens up even further along the line to look even deeper and then we get shown a spreadsheet, where is the accountability? I'm just asking questions. I I know you probably won't answer because you don't want to go back and forth
and have a conversation, but that's where we're at. Now we'll get to see it, but uh see something, but we all don't have the pleasure to show up before the meeting and jockey for the money for our positions like the ones I ran into when I was pulling in. Thanks. Thank you. All right, board. Uh that's all the speakers on that item. So, the chair will entertain a motion to adopt the fiscal year 202526 employee pay scale as presented in the agenda backup. Move the item, Mr. Chair. Is there a second? Second. Please vote. Motion passes 5-0 board. That's
uh that's adjourns this meeting. Uh we'll meet next Tuesday for our regular public meeting.