all right Pledge of Allegiance i al toag of the United States of America and to the rep for it stands all right roll call Debbie Dutton present
Jack Lon pres Barbara puffer pres Sandberg present Marian Shey pres Scott Safford present and there's myself Brian Thomas okay yall have the uh minutes in front of you is there any comment or question on these minutes none being do I have a motion for the approval of the minutes as presented motion to approve minutes as presented second
all right motion by Dave second by Debbie all those in favor signal by by s i i all opposed by nay okay approval minutes are done C public comment appears we have no one here for public comment we'll go into item six which is the finance director's report so good morning everyone I'm Joe ank Finance director so I in included in
your packet for the meeting is a summary of the activities um during the month of January um by the finance department so it's it's pretty much just a list of everything that has taken our time um of just a few things that I will highlight for you we did fill the two vacancies um that we've had we had one for the senior accountant so we're pleased have hired Paul Brown um he has a MERS in accounting he's has over 25 years experience
he's had several CFO and finance director positions with nonprofit organizations and he was a former auditor with um price Waterhouse so he brings um a good amount of experience with him and expertise and so um he's already proving to be a valuable asset um to the team then also um I think I mentioned um that the contracts and procurement um position was transferred to the finance department so we'll be overseeing that now and we're pleased to
report that debie glavin was hired to fill that vacancy she has a Bachelor's in Business Administration and education and she also has over 25 years of experience she's had several director level purchasing positions um most notably in the transportation industry and so she with her experience she's really able to um come up to speed quickly and to assist us with procurement issues and contract issue so
we're very happy to have her on board as well um we did complete the performance reviews for our department staff the 1099s were issued on time there's there's not very many of them that need to be issued I believe it's around um 50 or perhaps a few more than that um as you probably remember from our last committee meeting we were working on how to do the final allocation of arpa fundes and we had I
had provided that listing to you last meeting and that was approved by the Town Council and has been accomplished um I did prepare the um calculation of the operational savings that were generated by the town to purchase its own jetb and I sent that out um let's see I'm just is that is that in uh performance now has that been utilized do we know yet no it's no it's on order oh on order okay they they have to uh build it
specifically so it's it's not like you buy it off a lot they actually have to build it got so I think uh June I'm hear that's what I understood yes nice okay um the as you know we were approved to receive the revenue replacement Grant from the state of Florida um we received the signed agreement so it um that's like the last step before receiving the dispersement they told us we should have
received it um towards the end of January but we have not yet received it and then following up um they said sometimes the state takes a little bit longer if they perform an audit um regarding the um dispersement which must be what they're doing since it's now um a few weeks beyond the expected due date but once we have that on hand um there I did present that plan um I think the last meeting or the meeting before of how that would be utilized and basically um it'll go towards repaying the bridge
loan um there has been a lot of effort involved in preparing the RFP document for the cdbg drr planning Grant um there are specifications and terms and conditions that needed to be incorporated that are specific um HUD requirements and since um cdb gdr planning Grant is a h Grant we needed to be very careful that all of that was
incorporated and so that that part has been completed and now we're just um finalizing the language of the RFP um and that's really um with Frankie caek um that's really his um his his idea in terms of um how he's formal formulized the the scope of what that will be we um have finalized the building service provider agreement this is a um
just a a minor contract really it's for um the printing and mailing of our utility bills um it'll be done by a different party now once we switch over to the new Utility Billing software um we're in the process of gathering setup information for um the new short-term rental um software that was is being implemented um so this would be um a better tracking facility of that program
um and it also does monitoring and followup so it's much more automated than the system we had before um I I don't have firsthand information regarding that but we are involved in the process of um providing the information that's required to set that system up um we're also involved in implementing the new Utility Billing System um the company is called um cusy cusi um we're at the point where we're
troubleshooting the D data conversion um and developing testing scenarios um it's proven to be a little more difficult than we were expecting in the sense that there it's a challenge to convert the data from the old system into the new system and so there's been some unexpected um things that we've discovered but it's really basically about um refining the mapping um of the data from the one system to the other once um that is worked through we're
hoping to have a total of 5 years worth of information in the new system um versus the old system I mean from the old system um we began the process of implementing the new um Tyler Erp Pro um as you've all warned me it's quite intense and ingressive and I do I mean I thought I knew that but um the love of detail that
these people go into um is quite amazing but it's also reassuring to know that once we do address all those issues um and the task lists that were being assigned it should be a very thorough implementation process so that part's encouraging um we continue to meet um weekly and sometimes bi-weekly with FEMA program managers for hurricanes Ian Helen and Milton um so that has been tedious and timec consuming alone just to review the information that's
very tedious and timec consuming to collect um and that is done by um Finance staff with the help of department heads so it's it's really requires a lot of um effort on on various members of the Town staff um let's see okay I'll just these are more routine things about contracts that we had helped to prepare um there were listed here because it was time
consuming to figure out um how to do it and work with the town attorney on that um there was an issue regarding how much we should be charging um if if a developer needs to utilize parking spaces from the street that previously were used by the town in order to meet their parking requirements we were needing to determine what the cost would be like what what is the potential lost revenue for giving up
those spots and at this point through calendar year 2024 it looks like we would be giving up $486 per spot and that's at this point is and each year we'll be re-evaluating it and I'm sure that value will go up um once the town is has more visitors coming what do they do with that number well this is um it it it'll probably become incorporated into the fee
schedule and then that would become the fee that would be potentially charged to the developers um who are looking to enter an agreement with the town for like an annual um fee and in the way it's been proposed at this point it's still in the beginning stages but that parking fee would then be calculated on an annual basis based on the average which and this is the first average that was calculated to to give a general idea
of what the amount would be Joe did this money include the $25 for residents on the parking you know yes it's included in a pocket of money it is it's it's all parking Revenue divided by the number of spots um let's see another contract um there is another effort um each year the um the town works with our labists
to present requests to the State of Florida for funding um they so three projects were identified so far one was for the South water tower repair and mitigation one was for um the storm water mitigation on downtown which would be like Old St Carlos there and one would be um the just the general Paving of roads they require that we a match whatever they give us um 50% so it was a
challenge to figure out where we can get some of this funding um in order to provide the 50% match and which is also why these dollar figures probably don't look as high as you might think we would need but we were limited by what is available with our cash and so at this point we're asking um 350,000 or I'm sorry 700,000 for um South Water Tower repair which means we would have to provide
350,000 and that would come from our savings from 20124 um the storm water mitigation that's almost 600,000 I think it's 585 um and 292,000 would also come from savings from 2024 and then the roads um 585,000 so that would be I think almost 12 1,200,000 and that 585,000 would be
coming from what is accumulated in our gas tax Reserve fund that will be presented to the state legislature for their consideration and hopefully approval in in the next session um we are in need and it it's due for another utility rate study um the last one that was done for the town has um
run its course we had rate um increases projected through to fiscal year 2025 so those have been implemented already and now we need to look forward into the future to determine um what the rates should be to be sustainable for um water and storm water um in researching it I learned that um ref telis was the provider for Lee County and since we're associated with Lee County um in terms
of the actual um source of water sore um so they've already and to some degree rapis is familiar with the town of Fort myid Beach because it ties into Lee County and so it seemed um to be um the best solution would be to have them also do our rate study and because there's a contract with Lee County we can just utilize their contract um at this the
same rates that they would be charging us so we're just in the process of obtaining um quotes or proposals for them as to what they think we need to do um they're also encouraged us to um provide at least three years of historical information so that's also part of why we need to make sure that we can convert at least that much from the old software into the new software so that that's just now in the beginning
stages of working with them um we're also needing to to provide funding for tier one um I when it was first when that project was first approved there was roughly a 3 million doll um funding deficit that had not yet been identified as to how that would be covered so we're getting to the point where we need to figure that out um potential funding sources include um increasing the srf loan but to and that's the state
revolving fund loan that's already paying for quite a bit of the tier one but in order to go to the state to um request an increase in in the loan amount we need to demonstrate that our rates that we're charging for storm water would be adequate to um fund the The Debt Service payments which kind back into why we need um a utility rate
study um and then the utility rate study of course would need to know how much that service payments are going to be in order to factor that in so they're pretty much tied together at this point and so it's good timing to be involved in both at the same time um we do have um $3 million of accumulated Savings in the storm water fund and that has been resulting has resulted from the continued collection of storm water fees
over since hurricane Ian so that and at the same time the state gave us um a 2-year um suspension on debt service payments so we were able to accumulate that funding um potential funding there to make up the difference in tier one or potentially to use some of that for other storm water related projects that we're in need of doing so we're we're trying to focus more on that since time
is of the essence there um money has also been requested from the federal government and we believe this spring we'll have an answer um and this would be I think it's a $10 million request um and we'll we'll find out if we'll be receiving that directly from the federal government so that will certainly cover these needs um as well as other needs um and then there's always new grant opportunities that are um consulted Ang Brewer um are always um
looking for um as you may be aware um the town approved um a a system for demolishing personal private property that's in need of demolition of course um going through all the proper um steps in order to do so and then if it gets to the point where the town needs to do it rather than the resident then there's a mechanism in place to collect um or to
be reimbursed by the resident um for the expense to the town and that would be done through the the private um property um private tax um I can't think of the term the tax bill to the private resident so there's an agreement that is in place with a tax collector that they could put it on I'm sorry put it onto the um that person's property tax bill but we're working to
to um to flesh out the details of what the tax collector needs from us in order to do that and so that it's been a little more time consuming than I expected um there was a strategic planning kickoff meeting that um department heads were participated in and now I went to Town Council and this will be ongoing for the next year at least um and but it's just at the inning
stage we are reviewing information provided by the insurance adjuster regarding hurricane Yan claim settlement um I I really shouldn't mentioned anything in public as far as what that would be but certainly we're owed more um for the damage that was done than what we've already received and so we're getting to the point of having a final settlement and so hopefully that will then add to what I've already presented to you here and and when we get to that
reviewing of that report um okay there just some routine business really um what is going to happen to the the trailers the next one you had the well how long is the lease now it it's a 48 Monon lease that we entered into and so they they're just now and having discussions with Mr what how do we go about getting out of
the lease and REM having these trailers removed so I don't have enough dat on that but we we need to be out of here um part of one of the reasons of course um they're trailers and we just can't have the risk of having them continue to be here especially once we move into the new town hall there's no reason to have them and the other reason would be we have the grant for this the Parkland to develop the Parkland and that expires August first so we need to finish that
project um and part of finishing that project means having these trailers removed okay kind of lost my place here let's see um oh that's okay um trailers um just some other contract issues um I I brought to your attention um a couple meetings ago that there wasn't we're looking at the Utility Billing System to
make sure that the correct rates have been charged so it went through all of um the billing itself and I've been able to find you know and note any discrepancies but now there also have been a multitude of adjustments which could actually then offset any discrepancies so that is the next step is just to make sure that these adjustments that we G given you know to see what the impact on these
discrepancies might have and once that's finished I'll be able to provide everyone with final figures or final report on that um but I have not had any time to work on that this last month hopefully I can jump back into that this month um again Joe that's um water and storm water it yes water and storm water primarily water I think storm water is fine um as far as what I can tell it's just the water um it's r it's it just became very complicated in
terms of how the um the changes from year to year or mostly it involved last year how they were implemented in the timing of when they were implemented and just trying to understand um the impact you know if it's minor major and what we need to do to address it but I I want you to know about it and that we're working on it and but to say anything publicly because I don't want
as far as figures because we don't have exact figures yet and I don't want to alarm anyone um but I just want you to know that we're we're looking at it just to make sure we have the exact figures that we can present and then a plan for how that would be addressed is there were a lot of adjustments made after Milton I know I got one yeah there are so and that makes it all the more complicated yeah and because adjustments were made at later times after um rates changed it's I'm not I don't know yet how it was handled in terms of the
timing of that cuz it was done manually and we did not have a system to be able to do it so I that's part of the concern I think having and why we're changing to a new system that these things can be automated so that we eliminate any potential human error from a process like that um we're still working on the audit um or should say preparation for the audit it actually hasn't um begun yet and you know 99% % of the reason is we're not ready for it um but actually
there's quite a bit of work that's been done um despite how busy we've been so that is encouraging um there's been a lot of effort put into reviewing emergency expenditures by our budget manager and um reclassifying things in the in our accounts because originally expenditures were not um tagged with project numbers because we didn't know the project numbers at the time and project numbers
are changing and so we we're needing to go back and do journal entries to back out how they originally posted and post them again with the correct project numbers so it's it's a Monumental task but I would say we're 95% done with that and so I appreciate the budget manager's effort on that um and then our grant coordinator is working very hard to put together our TDC um Grant and application um which is due within a few
weeks um and that's just involves the um department heads that um the grant touches so this would be mostly anything to do with with the beach whether it's code enforcement on the beach maintenance of the be Beach um and then the various equipment that we might need for that the last part of my report is really just an update on funding sources um chart it's kind of a a running report
just so that you have it a ref as a reference what our funding sources are and what the current status is so nothing or very little has changed and I highlighted the things that have changed just to make it easier for you so that one an $1.6 million cdb gdr planning Grant as I mentioned the RFP is being drafted and is being reviewed um further on we have um the $5
million 0% interest loan um which is related to the FEMA projects we've only used 311,000 of that so far um because it's for very specific projects um that they have identified that we can use that for and then as we use it when we are reimbursed by FEMA the reimbursement goes directly to repaying that loan so um we don't it's it's kind of hand inand they they directly reimburse the state rather than
us because the state is the one who gave us the loan um for Beach renourishment um it's just an update on the amount we have that $8 million from the state um four almost roughly 4.2 million has been expended and we have almost 3.8 remaining um let's see the next change really is all the way down be the last change yep I think that's it
so that's that's all of the updates on the funding sources and I could go into the financial statements next unless you have any questions for me now in your report though you said you're still working on reconciliations Andals from yearend yes so does that included in these
yes and no I mean this this is um well I can I say this um it's it's not what is completed is in here what's not completed is not in here okay so I don't I couldn't even tell you I know for example like water and storm water those are more complicated and basically what that is it's it's AC crewing um it's moving things into um from expense
to capital projects in in progress and then also recognizing the loans that go along with it so that's that has not been done yet that's one of the very last things that we do um when the audited financial statements are prepared and really the auditor um helps with that so it's it's not something that's included at this point but basically any actual revenues and expenditures that we've included are
in here it's just that some of it move into Capital at this point it might be easier if we go to that very last page of the report because then I I can tell you this is the one that is the analysis of emergency expenditures reimbursements contributions and related FEMA FM and insurance receivables so this is what I have focused on because this is something that's been I think critical component of what
needs to be done for both the audit for last year and then where we are now so this this brings up brings everything up to date through the end of December and what this shows you are all of the emergency expenditures that we've incurred in that very first column since hurricane Ian and it's broken down by project why why it's and then as a out kind of talk through it a little bit and then back up to try to re explain it so
that you can understand it better why I even was working on this so the ultimate goal is I needed to calculate what our potential receivables are from FEMA so in order to do that you have to start with what were our expend emergency expenditures from there you have to deduct any insurance contributions that we've received so that's that second column and we receive Insurance contributions by project and female
wants to know which project they pertain to and so that's we try to the best of our ability match the insurance proceeds to projects it's not always that clearcut but we did to the best of our ability and if FEMA doesn't agree with how we're interpreting things of course they will change it but as best as we understand it this is matched up to the projects then from there that gives you the um eligible amount of
FEMA reimbursement once you deduct terance proceeds from the expenses then I ALS so that becomes your potential receivable from FEMA from that you deduct anything we've actually received from FEMA and that's that third column and then you are left with the actual receivable from fima that's the fourth column so just to back up again we we had 29 almost $30 million of
expenditure so far then we have almost $15 million of insurance reimbursements and then we've had $18 million of um FEMA payments coming in that leaves us with still $7 million remaining to be collected from FEMA we believe and this is just our own internal estimate based on these these
figures this does not include anything we have yet to spend on any of these projects that would go into that would then become additional receivable from FEMA this is only based on what we've actually spent the One Insurance receivable we know will be receiving and that's a $1 million reimbursement for um the temporary um housing of the Town Hall so that would go towards um you know the expenditures of box
modular we haven't received it yet but according to our policy we're supposed to get the 1 million but they've held off on that because of this insurance settlement negotiation with the insurance adjuster um so but that is one for certain that I think we can put in there in addition to that we should be getting more but I I don't want to put a figure in here until we know what that is so this is like the minimum the minimum of what we'll be getting um I I had to throw in a separate column
um for this refund receivable that's going to go away because we either have already received that ,000 or we have to write it off it's from a vendor that's just carried forward since 2023 um then all of that goes across to kind of calculate out what expenses are not we not going to be reimbursed for and this this has to to do with where fima looked at the
eligible expenditures and they've already told us well we're only going to pay you up to a certain amount so then that difference is falling out into this unreimbursed expense column as well um as well as things that were never eligible for um FEMA so it's roughly $374,000 of unreimbursed expenses that we've had so far to date then we also have almost $12 million well let me back
up um that last column it's unused insurance proceeds and contributions so we have contributed out of the general fund way down at the bottom there that $4.1 million that $4 million is $2 million from savings from 2023 there's another $2 million we just put in that were savings from 2024 and we've budgeted to put in on a
monthly basis um an amount that'll accumulate to 225,000 or $250,000 um by the end of this year so those are contributions coming in from the um the general fund so there's roughly about $7 million of that total of insurance proceeds that we've received that we have not spent yet um some of it will be earmarked for example about a million dollars already is earmarked for the new town
hall to help fund some of the renovation there um some of it has to do with um water system repairs um so that they need to be set aside for that um so but you can kind of look across to see what those projects are and what and some of these projects just certainly haven't even started yet um so I wanted to explain this sheet because this ties
into that middle column is the receivable column so that then ties into the balance sheet for um the emergency fund and that's in that D from other governments now for some reason it's not matching and it did match the other night but it's close I think I can once
I find it I can explain it but um at this moment I apologize every Everything tied out but I think I had to make one final adjustment to this so I apologize it's not perfectly clear that is interesting okay well let me I'll have to double check that because I I the whole reason I did all this was
so that we make perfect sense now it's not for some reason okay and you are talking to the audit committee and I am talking to the audit committee so I apologize because the Deferred the Deferred inflows in the emergency fund and well okay that the Deferred inflows includes the $1 million um Insurance receivable so without that $1 million insurance or if
you take out the $1 million insurance receivable on the Deferred infl line in the emergency column it would become 7, 87980 which ma matches the due from other governments so I mean at least that I can explain that why the 787 doesn't match this I will have to go back and look at that there might be something in here in this receivable
column obviously that I didn't take into account that I think I must have added in at the last minutes so I apologize I mean this just this is just an illustration of how manually intensive putting together the financial statements is especially when it comes to doing receivables and it can involve an error which obviously
I must have so I'm sorry I won't draw on that so otherwise um the bridge loan we're still at $9.6 million we have not needed to really hardly use anything at all the the increase in that balance is just interest Revenue so far this year we have not needed to use anything this year um there's really nothing that stands out
here the American Rescue plan um is completely accounted for so we have $1.2 million left to spend so this is the cash that's left to spend for those expenditures most of that um and all of it needs to be spent by 2026 and we have purchase orders or contracts already signed um for all of all of those EXP expenditures all
right um I did not include the revenue and expenditures in in my print out for you this morning because I I thought it might be easier to look at the budget versus actual but the cash flow is is the next um statement that's that I printed out for you and you can see we our cash is is very good we have almost $ million on hand um so
far there's $4 million in the general fund almost $10 million in the bridge loan we have almost $4 million in the emergency fund so I I think Cashwise we're doing okay the gas tax fund really doesn't have all that much because there's not very much activity in that fund but there is that accumulation um some of which we can used towards um matching that appropriation for um road paving if we
were to receive it from the state um the building fund that's an accumulation of permit Revenue um during the year immediately following hurricane Ian um the capital fund most of the cash that's in there has to do with um Beach renourishment and grants that we are paid Upfront for so that's why that balance is rather large um the hurricane
Recovery Fund that is that $5 million loan from the state that we've hardly used anything of so far but once we have um eligible projects for that fund we will certainly use that it's 0% interest um that American Rescue plan um that's I already touched on that and then the road impact and Parks impact these these dollars need to spent on capital projects related to development and that'll come
into the discussion um as they do that impact Fe study um which is currently in the beginning stages of that and then water and storm water you can see um on the storm water side especially there's an accumulation of $7 million roughly half of that is a result of The Debt Service payments um being suspended for two years um but
then that certainly can be used um at least Cashwise to carry us over until we're reimbursed by the srf loan or it can actually be used to pay for those expenditures if we choose not to um increase the loan amount okay then we have um budget versus oh no I'm sorry this is the calculation
of lost Revenue so there's a little page number 15 at the bottom so as you can see we're actually ahead of 2022 most of it is um tax Ador tax so there is no need to draw down from the bridge loan so far now as we move further into the air you know part of this is timing because the ad alarm taxes are collected mostly in the beginning of the year and so we have
that large inflow of Revenue then um but as we move further through the year this number will probably decrease compared to budget so we'll just continue to watch that on a monthly basis we did um budget um a few million dollars of Need for this year so we'll we'll see how if whether or not that actually plays
out then we have um the Joe just a question parking Revenue down pretty substantial is that a function of not as many people coming to the beach you think or is that a timing calculation I mean because that's a pretty s you know $2 million for the full year coming in and we're already 300,000 behind kind of the couple month budget just curious whether Scott whether that's whether we're seeing less people
I mean traffic going off the beach doesn't seem like it but who knows how much of that is contractor and whoever but well we Lo F first off we lost some spots because of the hurricane and secondly um yeah visitors are are down I mean most most of the hotels um you know February is fantastic I mean February U most the hotels are about 90% so are the short-term rentals but um our shoulder season we're just it October November
and up until about Christmas was just it's worse than it was pre pre got it so the you know the visitors are down the everything's down but it it's it most most of the hotels though had their you know th this month has been really really good so it's just getting people back here in offseason right's going to be a challenge and clarification this is not to budget this is compared to compared to 22 so oh yeah got it okay
y good clarification thank you and that that is also the total for the entire year so obviously timing plays into it as well y but the three month to three month is we just like you said we just haven't got it people back I mean it's it's just not if you look at TW I mean just from a hotel standpoint and just it from 22 to now we're we're way down we're still way down yeah so makes sense yep okay we could always increase density I nobody's talking
about that that's an option okay couple more big towers throw them in come on let's go then I I just provided for you um the budget versus actual by line item and this is just for the general fund so you can see that we're $1.8 million ahead of budget um
and this is trying to convert the annual budget to a three-year year-to dat I'm sorry three Monon year-to dat amount and compare our three months of actual to that to come up with um that variance so we're doing well again most of the revenues is Varian is coming from the taxes um on the expense side we're also doing I guess so for the tax obviously we're getting the taxes early but then you say your budget's really low
shouldn't you just budget that you're getting the taxes when you're supposed to get them I mean just calendarize your B just dividing by 12 or just dividing by 12 yeah rather than that maybe you should calendarize you know what you expect ideally yes just we just don't do that we don't have a month-by-month budget but I I understand that the suggestion and appreciate it we just we just plug in an annual figure we don't we don't have a month by month um maybe
with the new Financial systems you'll be able to do something I I if if yes I mean time permitting we can we just we just haven't gone through that kind of analysis to do a month by month we I know we should we just haven't had of time annual this especially with the seasonality of this yeah no I I do appreciate that and it' be something we can have a goal to do eventually um so so back on that with people that haven't done demolition required to do
Town's going to add it to their tax role I mean at what point is there an ability for the the town to claim imminent domain on some of these properties if people are going to basically abandon them we haven't even brought that up at a meeting I mean if they haven't paid their taxes and they haven't demolished their building and it's been three years now right I mean how how serious are they what's interesting is we still yet yet have to have had to tear something
down right so just the threat of us tearing it down is is where it's been effective been really effective interesting that's interesting I could bring that up at the next meeting I'm sure it' be greatly popular among the population but at some point people have to do something with these props you can't a lot of you know there's I think 90 properties that people are still hoping and waiting for for FEMA to uh you know like if you want to lift your house and you don't have the funds
you can apply to get your house lifted okay but you have but FEMA has to give you the money first and from what my understanding or our understanding in our last meeting it's being held at the state level right now okay and they've had five different directors in the last two years since the hurricane so that funding just is is not happening quick enough so that's one of the reasons why there's still 90 structures just looks like they're abandoned looks like they're sitting there but people are generally trying to you know get
help it's kind of a catch 22 where you know everyone's is tired of looking at these structures but you know the backstory is some of these people are really trying but sure you government's just holding holding them up good clarification I didn't realize so is that the same with the commercial properties no commercial properties were I mean we're on it I me we we've you know Neptune started this weekend windom's in
process so it's the same thing you know we we finally said look you know we're we're we're going to knock it down if you don't so that's that's been the driving force to get these guys going are you giving them deadlines MH I'm down by the window it's a snails crawl uh looks like it that's that's a factor of who they chose in my opinion but um yeah we we give them what we notice them so they have 30 days to to
act on it so but that's just a starting point right yeah all they did was move the stuff out so now we got a trash place and a bed I totally understand I'm not arguing with you going forward maybe the council would think about putting a deadline if it's legal to do yeah I mean I could bring that up I wouldn't be opposed to it and you know empty lots look a lot better than U
what we're looking at now right but if you calendarize the budget then we you wouldn't have to have that explanation every month saying well we already got the taxes we we have to wait I understand there's probably it wouldn't have to be all line probably something like that the ad Borum tax maybe the bigger couple of bigger line items to start with to again make it a little less cumbersome for you but people would follow it better because the majority of line items probably
straight line and it is fine you know it's not pick it off the variance but some maybe couple of line items where you do have huge variances of timing that might make some sense just just looking at historical data ratioing it it's is is it that try to work but we are you're you're right once you do it that's a good point on the parking too is you know January February March is one we get
most of our parking Revenue yeah and that could be helpful for things like that to see how far behind you really are kind of relative for those things that really do have some seasonal variant you know do we have a problem do we you know where are we running behind on that shoulder period way more than what we thought we were going to run behind exactly and the other thing too is you know to help I I remember from last year um we offered free parking for certain times of the year just just to generate some business down especially
in the downtown district so these a lot of these guys I recall you know May June July they were they were just they they needed any any help they could get so that was one of our decisions is just wave of parking so we can get more bodies down there yeah so I don't know if we're going to do it this year we we'll see how season goes but or offseason sorry okay um well really I provided this um line item
so that and I tried to do a descending order of variance so that you can kind of see where where the issues are um or to help better understand why the variances are is what it is um so the regular wage line item that's really has to do with the vacancies we were struggling with finding qualified people um so that's that's why we have that variance there that second large expense line item
landscaping that's at a stero Boulevard project it's almost $800,000 that we have budgeted for that but um it's not very much has been done yet but it it's going to be soon from what I understand so once once that happens that line will go back to normal um otherwise I guess if you see anything that looks stranger needs an explanation um just let me know um and
if I don't know I will find out for you but I just wanted to provide this for you so then the total variance for expenses is 736 th000 which means at this point on an average in terms of the first three months we're at almost $2.6 million positive variance to the budget um okay and then this is this the department one is exactly the same thing
hopefully it matches a better match um yes it does match okay but it's by department so and against in descending order of variant so we can kind of have an idea of where where the issues might be um that might need explanation okay um then we have the C cash and Investments the one thing I point out
here is for a long time we had those bonds that had a pathetically low rate of return but now now the last 12 months through um September they they don't this information isn't readily available it just comes out periodically so the most recent um rate of return was for f fiscal year ending September 30th and that was at 9.72% um but that's where we have those I was just getting ready to move those because
it just seemed very low but um and our last certificate of deposit that had a pathetically low rate was was redeemed in October I'm just leaving it on there um as a placeholder for the rest of the year but we don't have any plans of ever going back with that um so but we have very good rates of Returns on on just our normal banking accounts so we're we're happy to leave it there for now um
it's much easier to deal with and it's all readily accessible that is all I have I'm happy to provide anybody any questions on the finance director's report all right there being thenone I'll I'll look for a motion to approve said report second second
Bara all those in favor signify by saying I I I all those opposed nay all right member item and reports do we have any member item and reports today all right there being none we'll notate next meeting is Monday March 10th um question I know you said Joe the town clerk yeah so it seem like the meetings are not necessarily voluntary unless we don't have a quorum is that right in terms of the
date that's correct I mean the for the for purposes of scheduling out into the future the town clerk has asked that all of the individual committees like stick with this schedule that they have sure now if if there's a a desire to find a different date in general we we can see what's available and then move it to a different date going forward but um that's that's up to you certainly I mean there's something to be said for certainty my question was just more of a
it didn't feel very voluntary but it is what it is so well you don't have to meet every month I mean no I love meeting I'm just it's just it's got to be the second Monday of the month I just seemed a little I get there's a schedule so I cleared it up for me okay all right I try not to be a contrarian all the time um okay well if there's no other business uh before our committee can I get a motion for adjournment motion
to I have a second okay all those in favor signify by saying I