to uh the budget the budget hearing. Uh at this time, would you please join in a short word of prayer and then we'll we'll do the uh pledge. Let us pray. Dear heavenly father, we thank you for your mercy and your grace. Father, we just come to continue, Lord God, praying for the victims of the
flood, Lord God. And Father, we just ask that you continue to be with those families, continue to comfort them, Lord God. Uh we just pray that you continue, Lord God, to just walk with them through this through this rough time. Father, we do want to pray for the United States. We thank you, Lord God, for for all our leadership, Lord God, from the White
House down to the local level. Lord God, we just thank you for law enforcement, our first responders, Lord God. We just thank you for our military, Lord God. Those that are laying their lives on the line every day, Lord, we just thank you for for keeping them, Lord God. And we just pray, Lord God, your blessings upon G County. Bless this board. Bless the
people in this room. Bless our families, Lord. Father, we love you. We appreciate you. We give you the praise, the glory, and the honors. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Please join in the pledge. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which
it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right. Good morning. Welcome to the uh to the budget uh hearing. Uh we got a
few things that we have to cover. Um, Mr. Mr. Hammond, you going first or Miss Herring? Uh, I'll I'll start if that's good, Mr. Chairman. And, uh, I'll just give a couple of rundowns and then if you want to kind of go out of order, we can take
the constitutional officers first since they're here and then then we can go through the whole thing. Uh, this is your initial proposed budget. It was delivered to you as required by ordinance on the 15th of July. U, it's working document. So Sherry always wants me to put that in
that that things will change up until your last up to your last September meeting. I'm going to ask you to set uh maximum millage rates where we can certify to the property appraiser for the uh general fund and for each of the fire control districts to set the zero
rate for the MSTUs which were uh paid off last year and uh and then set some dates and times for your uh proposed budget meetings. One, the first one have to be on the trim notice. So, if we want to just hit the highlights right now, uh
we're proposing a 5.6 millage rate countywide. That is a reduction of three uh ten of a mill. That means that every single homesteaded property owner will have a tax county tax reduction if you approve this deal. Uh it is about a 5 uh
5.2 I believe reduction uh overall. And of course, if they're homesteaded, the maximum they could go up is three. So, it would be a reduction. Uh by reducing the current millage rate from 5.9 to 5.6 uh you save $1,191,985
for the taxpayers. If you'd done like many places do and say we're going to hold the line and keep the millillage the same, you would have brought in another $1.2 million. Basically, uh this will be the fifth year in a row
that the county has been able to reduce the millillage. Uh again, long time since Hurricane Michael. So, we're one of the lowest millages of any county in Northwest Florida and I think only Walton is lower than we are right now in in the panhandle and the second lowest of any small county. So, we're proud
about that. Uh, if you want to go to the constitutionals, we'll do that and then I'll start back at page one. All right. All right. Thank you, sir. All right. Let's go. Miss Miss Forehand, you got anything you want to come before the board? Yes, ma'am. Come on. Put you on the
spot. As noted in my budget request, um I am asking for a few adjustments to some um pay raises uh for some salaries for my employees. Um I am asking for some
equipment for the tax department. Um and that's stated in there. Um, other than that, I'm just trying to do some updates in the office to kind of bring it, you know, more up to date. Um, and of course, I know those things are costly
and that's So, so on page 11, uh, is the is kind of like the cheat sheet. U, it shows across the board a 5% pay raise. The the big change was changing from 35 hours a week to 40 hours a week. So you you in the
old days all the constitutional officers in the courthouse work 35 hours a week. Uh I think the clerk was the first to change and and so this is this is something that's needed. So this will make all of her employees 40hour a week instead of 35 hour a week. Uh she
mentioned that three pay adjustments. Uh and then we had to make some estimates based on uh insurance numbers. So, we put in uh the the insurance uh 7% is what we estimated for insurance changes. So, the technology was the other big
item, but hopefully this is a one and done deal. All right. Thank you. All right, commissioners. I got any questions from Mr. Just want to say thank you, Ashley. Trying to get a sense so we can get those lines shorter. I know you've got some lines. I've seen her out there at
lines out the door. So yes, I think this will help you help you get that. I hope so. Anyone else? Thank you, ma'am. Supervisor election. Rhonda, you good? You good? Okay.
Mr. Burke. Okay. Thank you, sir. We We love to hear that. I'll give you a real quick in in terms of our budget. Um, we do not have an increase. Matter
of fact, we're like $45,000 less than where we were last year. Um there may be some adjustments once Sherry uh gets all that taken care of, but um
just real quick on the tax role, uh the county is currently up 11.9%. 009%, excuse me, from last year. School board's up 6.16%. Um, city of Weiwall is up 9%.
City of Port St. Joe is up 11.48%. Um, again, I want to thank the county and the commissioners for lowering the millage rate. I noticed the city is still the same and you're right. If you leave
the your millage rates the same and your tax goes up, it's a tax increase. So, u that's city staying the same with that. Um I hadn't heard back from the city of Weiwall yet, but um I guess we'll know
that a little bit later. Um our uh new construction, we had 158.5 million on new construction. That's a reduction of 19% of where we were last year. So, still a
big increase, but a little bit lower than where we were last year on new construction. Um, anything else? Questions, Mr. Mr. C, can I ask you just to explain because we get a lot of calls about the difference
between the school board and the county because the assessments are different because of the the caps and whatnot. Can you explain? the um the school board they they don't take in I think the second 25,000 of the homestead exemption
and they also on those that are not homesteaded there is no 10% cap it goes straight to market value. So when you look at the school, you know, they're at 4.75 4.75
billion. County is 3.9. County has a 10% cap on non-homestead. And of course the homestead is whatever the CPI is. I think this year it's 2.9% instead of three. So your capping has a
lot to do with your taxable value in terms of school and county. That's why normally your school is always going to be higher. And you said a 10% cap on the county.
Yes. If you're not homestead, the county does have a 10% cap. And that's good and bad. I give you the one bad example. After the meltdown, they had a lot of a lot of lots that sold very cheaply. And uh this one
particular deal was uh right across from the college. You had lots that had sold for 140,000. Somebody built a house on homesteaded. Lot next door sold for 140,000 and then it sold at auction for 10,000. But when
it gets put on at a low level, it takes 20 years to come back because that $10,000 lot, assuming it was assessed at 10, can only go up 10%. So, I could own a lot next door and it'd be 10 times the assessment on the same lot because of
that cap. So, that's that's a little bit screwy, but that's what the law is, right? And you you it's it's never the same unless you have two exact properties that are valued the same and they're all built the same time and they go on the
tax roll the same time, then you can sit there and compare the two. But if you own one 5 years prior and someone buys today, even if it's the same type home, same size, same everything, it's going to be different in terms of your taxable value
and what you end up paying because of the capping situation. But I encourage anybody that that don't understand that, come by our office. We'll be glad to sit down and just go over it with them. The more we educate
people, the better. All right. Thank you, sir. All right. Clerk's office and Leo, we're good with everything is presented. Thank you for your support. Yes, sir. All right. Share.
Good morning. Good morning. Um, I think we're pretty good with everything. Luckily, we've been able to find uh funding from a bunch of different sources that's coming in. Uh, of course with the uh Lisa funding that's coming in through the state to
offset and increase our uh law enforcement salaries, that's helping us out a good bit. also going to try to uh do um two more positions this year through our uh LEAP program, which is our law enforcement apprenticeship uh program. And that that will allow us to
um fund positions while they're in the academy. But uh again, I I I struggle I struggle all the time with uh uh recruiting folks in uh either I'm going to have to recruit from within the county, which LEAP allows us to do that and the apprentichip program allows us
to do that. Um, but it's hard getting people. There's nowhere here for them to uh uh live. And I encourage y'all, I know y'all are working on it and have been working on it, but workforce housing is is is huge for uh deputies.
Um, and I know y'all struggle with it for uh county workers as well. So, appreciate y'all and what you're doing for that and continue to make that a priority. Um, appreciate it. Um the u couple of just minor adjustments.
I I don't have any uh major personnel that are are planning on retiring this year. We up the uh um the leave payout. I'd like to switch 20,000 of that back up to uh um operations. I don't see us
going over that 30,000 um mark there. I think the reason because the last couple years you had go I have had Yeah. And uh I'm not I'm not don't have uh last year I had two key ones that were going out that were 25 years plus if with us. So uh need to
make some adjustments there. And uh but uh beach patrol I know that's up due to our permits and everything. So we're able to get a little bit more funding out of that. Again we struggle with uh having having proper personnel and having uh um enough coverage to cover
everything. But uh beyond that uh we'll make do. We didn't get a whole lot of increase in our vehicles. We'll have to have two new vehicles for two new positions. Um, didn't get much of an increase there, but we'll have to pull from a couple other sources. And like I said, with the money coming in from the
LEAP program, maybe that'll offset it. And we might not have them in those positions as we did this past year, we might not have them off of FTO training and everything until uh midway through the year anyway. So, uh, we'll we'll we'll make through that. But uh um but just other than the minor adjustments
there, we're good. Sheriff, what is the LEAP? What leap? It's a law enforcement apprenticeship program. It's a it's a uh um appropriation um through the through the state. Um it's through the deputy sheriff's association and what it allows
us to do is go out and recruit locals here. Um and uh we can we can get them and they pay their salary while they're going through the academy. This past year, we we started out with three. We ended up with two. Um it paid their salary throughout the entire time they
were um in the academy. They were full-time employees with us in a non-sworn capacity while they went there. We provided them um with with transportation up there. It also covered their schooling. Um the cost of their tuition and everything while they were in the academy. Uh it took them about
six, seven months to get through um a few delays in there. finally got them out, got them on the FTO program and once they were on that then normally two or three months to get them were there on their own. So, uh huge help to us in paying them and it's where we can take that chance of sending someone you know
it's always been I've I've had to be at this point uh of if you bring me your law enforcement certificate, I'll consider hiring you. But, uh this opens it up a little bit so we hopefully can get some uh uh locals and that are already here that already have a place to live. That's the plus. And uh but
again it's appropriation through the state. So let me ask you one more question sheriff. Uh so you got two people in the elite program. So they take care of your your vacancies from last year. So I mean do you got any vacancies now?
I've got one as of this time a month ago. I was good but I've got I'm one short right now. So, uh, um, but hoping to, uh, uh, we're going to advertise to hopefully get somebody in to fill that position so we can stay up to where we're at and then with the two new positions coming in from the TDC funds,
uh, that that'll really help us out. So, Sheriff, are we going to, you know, we talked about the, uh, I call it third shift. I don't know what your terminology is. Where are we on that? what it's it's going to be a realigning the zones um to where we put more of an
emphasis on on the and using these TDC positions in the tourist corridor and uh they would be handling the traffic in the busy traffic uh areas where the tourists are concerned. Um those are the positions where we'll be able to get these other two and I'm hoping at full
staff we will be able to do that and what it does it just kind of spreads coverage out throughout the county. It moves us from three on an ideal shift. It moves us from three to four. And making the three zones instead of two north and south, we kind of make one
that would cover from uh if you will St. Joe west up into uh Beacon Hill and then north up into Over Street. And it frees that north end deputy to cover the north and it frees the south end deputy to cover more in towards uh um the Howard
Creek um White City and then of course Simmons Bio and areas down there. So we'll be the next step close to that again at full at and and it's hard to keep you know all the positions full. it is. And uh you know, as we are right now, you know, we'll be we'll be
advertising for one, hopefully get some in. But uh if we're at full staff with these two new positions, we should be able to do that at least a a portion of the time. So So what do you have now? Do you have two in the north and two in the south at all times or how does that work?
No, sir. Um I have uh on shift three. um one in the north, one in the south, and a supervisor that floats. Now, what we do is have a swing shift, and the swing shift comes in for the busy hours, sometimes between uh um let's say 10 and
10 or 12 and 12. Um and they're able to uh pick up the slack during that time, but that's not always the case. um where we've got those uh position. I've I've actually went from uh uh the last year um with one investigator position uh
vacant and we've just filled that in the last filled that in the last uh actually filling it today. Um so u but still again one one position short. Hopefully get that one going pretty quick. Investigation was running behind on so much of the stuff of what they do up there. some of the stuff that's never
seen. Uh obviously crimes against children, sex crimes, financial crimes is so time consuming and they were they were really getting beat up with just two of them and really working up there on on those. So uh we've kind of realigned a few things and uh I'm hoping
to uh get that position filled and and give them some relief up there. Any other questions? You have two working the beach, two officers, I mean rotate. I have I have one that's out there full-time. Caleb's out there full-time.
Uh what we've been doing as much as we can on the uh um obviously during spring break when things start kicking off, we get the second person out there, run it during spring break and then pick back up Memorial Day. We run a second person from Memorial Day to Labor Day. It's
just in those months that really it slows down when we kind of gauge it. Caleb's been out there enough. He knows the call volume, the activity that's out there to the point where, you know, I'm I'm communicating with him and saying, "Are you good right now? Can we cut back to one?" We cut back to one, we move his
hours a little bit where he's got more days out there. And right now, they work four 10 hour days. Well, it doesn't work out exactly like that, but hypothetically they're working um four days a week and they have an overlap so they can do some uh um stuff together as
far as enforcement on the leave no trace. I know we've had some uh a lot more pressure on spring break now than we had in the past. We've had a lot of college kids coming down and a lot of things dealing with on the beach far as
uh holes being dug and stuff like that. I just, you know, I just curious you know, that during that time kind of allow for more, you know, coverage. And we did this past year. I mean, we had somebody out there when um the uh spring break kicked in, we had somebody
out there the whole time this this this past year and hope to be able to do it, especially with new positions coming in, be able to float some people out just to make sure it's covered. And the additional money in the beach funds frees that up, too. Um, you know, traditionally, um, you know, years ago that was just a position that was
covered by overtime and, uh, now, you know, luckily we're able to keep somebody out there full-time and all year round and then have that second person supplement throughout the year. Yes, sir. And I I know um, probably right after
the storm, the cake area out there, it's always been more rentals than than full-time people. We know that. I've been on about St. Joe Beach because if you ride out there now, that whole first tier, those are not those are rentals now, right? Those were full-time people. Now they're
rentals and they're bigger. When they rebuilt the traffic out there, plus I'm not even going to get into the windmark today. How how that has changed. What's happened is is we they flooded the market out there. So now you're putting two and three families in a $100 a night, threebedroom, two bath house, parking everywhere and everything else.
So, I guess what I'm saying is is I know we got patrol out there, but we've got to get back off of that 98 corridor into those. Oh, yeah. And and and I I do see how Caleb I know him he's he does good. It's almost like we need a Caleb out there. You know what I mean? That's why I've
been preaching that third shift because they make um you know, the residents make contact with that person and I can guarantee you there's people out on the Cape that know him by firstname basis. And so when we go to that third shift and even and when you go to the north end when you have them dedicated to
there they make a I'm going to call what's his name you know they they feel more confident in it. We've been putting a lot of money in the shares. If you look back over these budgets it's been a lot of money going in there. It's our largest expenditure for this county. So it should all counties it should be. That's that's why we do that's why we
pay taxes. So I guess my thing is is is as we're changing Yeah. I want to make sure that that is a that is a priority going to that I call it third tier. I don't know. Give me give me the name of it again. It's it's where we have three shifts. It's three zones. Three zones. Yeah.
Yeah. We're working three. I think that makes it a lot better, more palatable for everybody. You get more coverage. We learn the officers and stuff like that and they and our citizens will feel better. So just well I and and again I know there's such a a focus on on where all the people are
but still our majority of our calls are on the north north end and we still got to make sure that we're taking care of the deputy up there and having sufficient backup for him so he's you know on island by himself sometime I wasn't I wasn't saying what I'm saying is we're putting this money in it we got
one vacancy and then we're getting two more. Yeah. Can we just let's just run an ad to keep one in the paper. just have a stack of resumes in there so at any time we can pop them out. Are we doing that? And I know Sheriff and we are Are you doing okay? We get calls all the
time on, you know, from our residents, permanent residents, people, you know, coming in County Speed and just tearing, you know, and I've seen it myself and and uh I think that my understanding we had 17,000 cars come into Port St. Joe
on July 3rd. 17,000. So, uh, I'd love to see you beef up a little bit on, you know, to little more stronger enforcement on some of these. I mean, they blow into town like it ain't no tomorrow, you know, like the beach is going to be gone, you know. So,
all right. Well, and they're not they're not in right mind when they come either. I'm telling you, they're coming to go crazy. Yeah. Based on the request, I'll go ahead and put it in right now and see if we can get it figured out. Maybe four more positions in on top of what I got now.
We might be able to get it covered. Yeah. Uh but I mean we're spread thin and and it is it's and I'm not getting a whole lot of help from FHP. I was thankful to see them in the media in here, but that's commercial vehicle. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Most time it's for parades and
I'm going to give you kudos. I've seen your cars more on the, you know, doing some traffic control on different places. I have I have seen that last few weeks. Yeah. our traffic is uh stops are are up significantly and and of course it's the blend of uh
keeping people safe and uh keeping people happy you know and uh you know the main thing is is keep keeping them safe pulling people over and uh uh correct that behavior you know relatively speaking I mean when you look at number and I've went through and trying to dive in and maybe grants and
stuff on getting some of uh the traffic grants and uh you know are unfortunately one death on the highway is too many, but uh our our our deaths on the highway are not um up to the point where we qualify for some grants. I've looked into that. So, a lot lot of digging
around there, but uh um yeah, we're we're getting in the right direction here. Getting a few more and uh I think four per shifts really going to help some things out and uh we'll do the best with what we got. You know, keep on going. Appreciate y'all. Appreciate your support. And uh um you know, as as the
cost of uh living gets higher here, uh we we might have to look at an adjustment on what it's going to take to recruit to get people in here. I mean, the state's putting everything out there. They're getting a $5,000 signing bonus for new law enforcement officers. That's great. That's a plus. There two
new ones that I got. They'll be getting that bonus here within the next month or so. And uh things like that are great. But I just I don't know what's going to be the the answer to the problem of getting more and recruiting law enforcement officers into this county. So, uh we'll continue to work on that
and do the best we can. Well, Michael, we did when we went to the legislature this year, it was on every one of our list to talk to them about workforce housing for our law enforcement and our corrections officers and our teachers. Yes. And and medical staff. That was something that was on there. So, know
that we are as a board, we have done that and we're going to continue. I mean, we ask them all the time. Yeah, sheriff law enforcement. I mean, you it's something that you probably you you you grew up, you know, wanting wanting to do and it's just not a lot of people in line
trying to, you know, these days trying to be law enforcement officers, unfortunately. But, uh, if you, like you say, if you continue to put the word out, hopefully, you know what I'm saying, you may get one. Oh, yeah. If we get one, we're doing better. So, appreciate all you're doing. Okay. Thank you'all.
All right. understand I see Brett here. We go ahead and talk in insurance real quick. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Commissioners, um I don't have a whole lot. Um we've submitted all our stuff for our renewal.
Um FMIT has it. We should have something back uh next month. Um, but Dwight, our agent of record, he's saying possibly a 5% increase plus whatever our work comp
payroll based on any, uh, payroll increases right now. So, uh, really on that, that's all I have. Um, as far as our health insurance, uh, as most of you know, we went to a from a 101 renewal
and, uh, to a January one renewal. So, u later on we'll have something there u on that. So, saying that, uh, that's really all I have right now. And we plugged in 7%. plugged in 7% for for healthare although
the numbers don't appear to be trending bad but we'll we'll see and we're and we're hoping for a better uh rate on workers comp too we continue to go the correct direction on that so and our our experience mine right now is like a one so
and it was a 13 about five years ago so that's you know so instead of paying 130% we're paying just 100% and hopefully we can get back to like 85% that we her a long time ago. So, so, so have so the only question I have
is uh so we received so so my wife had to be uh had to go to UAB and so we did receive a letter from UAB saying that um they were in negotiations with United Health and it's a possibility that it would be terminated. So have you heard
any update on on UAB accepting United Health? I have not. U that's news to me. Uh but if you want to get get me that letter, I can work with Reed. Okay. Um Torus
and I know they be in negotiations and and then they go back and forth and then it's settled, but we we hadn't heard anything. So I ain't know if you may have heard. I haven't heard anything to that nature. Okay. I I do know that Sacred Heart had a similar something about three months
ago and then of course they concluded their negotiations and everything change stayed the same. But yeah, if we Yeah, we definitely need to follow up on that because a lot of people use that and I can't imagine something as big as United and something as big as UAB would not get together but we need to figure that
out. Yeah. If you want to get me that documentation, I appreciate. Yep. Y'all have any questions? Mr. Chairman, we'll start on page three. Countywide uh assessment as the property
appraiser said is up 10.97% 3 bill973 million St. Jill Fire Control 2.661 billion Tupelo 224 million Over Street 114 million Howard Creek 59 million
the uh Northport St. Joe CRA DRA whatever it is that this particular year is 44 million that's up 7%. We're proposing a 5.6 millillage rate that is a reduction of 5.08%. So again if you're a homestead property
and you're going up the 2.9 you're going to have a a 3% cut in your in your in your property taxes on the county side. We're recommending all the fire control districts stay at a half a meal and recommending zeroing out the MSTU for the beachfront interior and bayside at
zero. The countywide millage will generate 22,250,000 St. Joe fire control 1.33 million Tupelo 1 point excuse me 112,000 over street 57,000 Howard Creek 29,932.
Page four, the general fund which would include public works uh all combined is 56 54,674,000 finding forfeite 1.2 million secondary road and bridge 1.288 288 million mosquito control 219,000
EMS grants 280,000 ship at 350 CDBG 102 general grant fund 23,603 the old raffield CDBG fund 115 at 80,000
industrial park 299,830 BP and restore Act 2,975,000 county development 3.1 the hospital fund 6,290 911 grant 71,475
911 services 539,740 disaster fund 9,583,000 TDC 16,852,000 TDC number two 467,000 Um, General Parks and Recreation 532,000.
Public improvement debt service 3.454 million. Capital Projects 10.7 million. Oak Grove Water System 26,95. We've been going to eliminate that for about 20 years at some juncture. Commissioner Mcronone and I need to come
up with something to to zero that out. We've been thinking about projects, but we need to we've been out of that for at least 20 years. You talking about the Oro money? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Uh the golf course fund 1,525,000,
solid waste fund 2.276 million and the water system 3,577,000. The fire districts St. Joe fire control 4,680,000 Tupelo 298,000 over street 148,000 Howard Creek 136,000.
the MSTU number there, that is the last payment on the bond, which we could not by law repay early, but the money's in there and it's at 1.250 million. Uh, in the there there will be money left over after the last payment is made and
that will go to a beach related something. I don't know if we can I don't know if we can use it in time if we needed it for the underwater structures project, but we probably I can figure out a way we could probably borrow from it and pay ourselves back when this is paid off. But this will be
paid off next year. Next October, November. November 1. Okay. Okay. And there's going to be some extra there. And I don't know what that I think it's going to be four or 500,000. Yeah. So I think it's less than
so it's going to be in the 400 plus thousand range that will be left over but that will zero that out. Total proposed budget 150,772,767. The positive that I would say that that that we can be proud of is the vast majority of that is grant funded. So out
of that $150 million budget, your your tax levy, remember, is only 21 20 adopted last year 21 adopted this year 22. So less than 20%. So very very very positive. On page five, it just
breaks those down into the into all the things that I've just read. Your proposed budget is 2.02% 02% above the roll back rate. And again, I said that, you know, if you didn't cut taxes, you would generate 23,442. So, you're saving the taxpayers
a million, too, by coming back down that 3/10en of a meal where every homestead property owner will get will get a little bit of a tax rebate. Page six is just a breakdown of funds by all sources. How we get to those totals.
Again, all Avalon taxes including the fire districts is 23,780. That is a reduction because again the uh MSTUS went away. Local option and fuel taxes 9,89,000. Other generals 141 permit fees and
assessments 801 federal grants 4 million payment L of taxes 147 state grants 22,468 state shared revenues 5.288 288 million state payment L of taxes 6298 other
grants 500,000 charges for services 7 million24,000 judgment fine 16,000 miscellaneous revenue 1.181 million and include your transfers and your cash carry forward page seven
it's how it the expenditure side is going 19,603,000 Public safety 24,32,000. Physical environment 30,919,000. Transportation 7,135,000. Economic environment 8,130,000.
Human services 2.829 million. Culture and recreation 3,840,000. Court expenditures 465,000. And again, your transfers out and your reserves restricted and unrestricted. If we could, we've already handled 10
and 11. We'll look at the revenues on page 12. Um, starting at the top, you got a,125,000 in new Avalor revenue that is with your cut. Small county sir tax went up a little
bit by 181,000. You'll notice building permit fees. We cut 70,000. Uh that's about a 12.7% reduction. The building department pays for itself though, but it's getting a little closer now
that we're getting a little bit less, but anyway, we're being prudent. We we assume that they're going to bring in 480,000 this year. Um inspection fees went up a little bit. Uh we've had some more participation as we brought the light on some of the ones that hadn't
been playing by the rules. uh planning zoning fees. Uh we're projecting a 25,000 increase there. Uh fewer HCP permits, so we're dropping that by 15,000. County revenue sharing's going up a
little bit, about 9.6%. Half cent sales tax is going up a little bit and then a couple of the other half cent tax sales taxes are falling slightly. fees from the tax collector are going up uh as proposed 14% that's 50,000
law enforcement that is that is a pass through for the sheriff that's 65,000 and that was included in his uh budget not on the board side but at the bottom line ambulance fees are going up 200,000
um that's pretty much the gist of Not much change in in cash carry forward and restricted reserves on page 13. And if you want to, unless you need some detail, I'll just go through these and kind of speed things up instead of going line item by line
item. On the others, the board budget uh was actually a reduction of 325 that included a proposed uh we have to estimate because the state never gets it till the very end of September, sometimes October, but uh that that was a basically a move out for one of them
was a healthc care uh audit that we have to pay for every year that for retirees. It's just something that we have to to do that was being paid for and we we we're actually going to pay for that in something that makes a little more sense. uh county administrator uh went
up again. Uh that is uh part of our transition that we'll talk about tomorrow. But the the gist is as I get closer to retirement, uh we're having to move some things around and make sure that we don't have any gaps in service. So that's part of that. We've already talked about the clerk, the property
appraiser, tax collector, um risk management department. Uh it is an increase. uh there was a salary adjustment and the uh I think we actually moved what we moved from the board uh for the insurance deal over into that line uh for that audit purposes. Insurance
department again we're we're making estimates uh but we think we're good there. Uh value adjustment board no change. Audit services that's going up slightly. Um,
again, this is paid force. TDC pays some. How's that busted out? So, the TDC portion is not is in the TDC side. So, so again, uh, that was part of the the deal when we when we negotiated when we hired the the
latest auditor, uh, our budget was one-third of what it is today. Everything changed after Hurricane Michael, so I couldn't really argue with that. So that's that's a $16,575 increase. OM U that's mainly payroll changes.
County engineer the same. It's an increase of 9520. County attorney 4% increase. Um planning and zoning that that we took out we had a pay adjustment. We took out a an employee because of the kind of
everything slowing down. and Doug and I agreed that we didn't need to fill that at the time, so we took that out. GIS is going up 16%. It is a reduction of 21,000 again that's mainly employee changes
dealt with the supervisor elections county courthouse complex 11,000 increase again that's where you pay your utility bills no just just to turn the lights on this place is 300 grand a year it's crazy number
county services a big increase but that is a just transfer in and where we're paying different things out of um the sheriff we've already handled fire coordinator uh
that that is the 50,000 increase so remember last year we started the program in first year and we put $100,000 in 50 from St. of fire control 50 from the board. I've increased that this year to 150. So, uh that's the vast
majority of that increase is for that. And at some juncture, I know that we're going to be busy for for a bit, but some juncture probably uh in September. I'd like the board to have a workshop and let's let's figure out what changes that would be wise to make on that program,
how we can tweak it, make it better. uh the two or three things we want to workshop, but but this is one of them and and maybe change the rates and change what we pay for and you know, we put everything on the table. There've been a lot of good discussions. Matt's got the the data for a year now. Uh, so
we know uh we know what it's costing and and what the the the runs are and uh so we we put that in there where it gives you some free rain to to make some adjustments that might be needed.
Fire control services that is what we pay the state for the so and it's just based on the acreage for the county. So that did not change. uh county jail. Uh it went up. So one of
this is a is a half of a position that was was half part-time dispatcher, part-time correction officer. It's going to be full-time corrections officer now. And they've hired somebody else in dispatch. Um and again, we did get some but not all of our money from the state
uh that we lobbyed for when we went in. They did give us a portion of it for the for the payraises for the correctional officers, but we did not get it all. So, that's included. County probation, that's just insurance and and pay raise.
Building department, uh mainly just payroll. Uh 1250 search charge, that's just it is what it is. It's based on what's in the account. and we rent a tower and we do some maintenance on that is what we're paying. Is that correct? So Duke lets us
use their tower for free. We have to rent the one in the north end. So still cheaper than being in the tower business. Dispatch and communications again that is a half of a employee increase. And then just salary adjustments. EMS and
and this is a this is a big one. Uh Jody has got the ship running in the right direction and this isn't all of what he asked for, but it was all that I could handle. And so Clay and I kind of split the baby. And uh again, it's for
more discussion. But this this number, uh if you remember what we bring in on the other page versus what this number is will tell you that how upside down we are. And uh part of that is We're going to have to have some more help uh with
the hospital on these transports. So, we've got to up that. So, I think we've got a a meeting in the next month or two on the healthcare committee that we've got to get some more help on the the transports uh going to Panama. Uh that ties up for at least three hours every
time we do a transport. They're going to be gone out of the county for that amount of time. And again, I think they've worked out the non-emergencies. just everything's an emergency is the way that kind of works. So, but we had gotten to the point that we had gotten
that deficit down to $500,000 a year. The deficits ballooned. We had to do what we had to do to cover the shifts. We got the shifts covered now. Uh but we're never going to be able to to make it break even. But, but we do
need to kind of narrow this gap some because that's an astronomical gap. uh we might go 14 hours and not have a call and then you get three calls in five minutes and that's that's what you never can plan
for. So we've got a lot more coverage per capita, drastically more coverage per capita than if you go to Bay County. Their system is they may run 13 calls per shift a day and we may run one or two depending on the day it is. But they
have paid fire folks so they can dispatch their fire departments to these calls which helps them cover and do what? But anyway, that's that's a that's that's a major number. Yes, sir. Hold on one second. Michael, can we So we got September for for Matt and the fire thing. Can we do
like an October for EMS? I know it's going to be Can we look at that? Maybe you'll have your meeting by then and have some numbers from through the summer. and and and I've got I just brought it with me in case y'all had any questions. Jody has has broken out and I I'll get
y'all all a copy of this about the calls on each end by month and and it's it's uncanny. The the north end is is very consistent. Not true. The south end is just volatile and the and you can tell
you can tell when March comes it gets crazy. So, well, Michael, you put 17,000 cars on, you know, July 3rd, you're going to have, and people don't realize the strain that it puts on EMS, puts on the share. It's tremendous. People, all they see is we got more people, we got more value in
homes. Well, those those people put a strain on services. And I mean, that's just a plain fact about it. So when you when you uh everybody wants to grab about taxes, but when you add up the sheriff and you look at the cost of the jail,
you got EMS, that's half your money you're taking in. Over half. Over half. Yeah. So correct. Correct. But so I will get y'all a copy of that because it's it's eye opening. And again, between Clay and Jody,
they've they've rung all the the extra out of me, but but anyway, got to do it. I I believe so. It's our recommendation. Um medical examiner, this is a contract, longterm contract, which has kind of worked out great
because it cuts out the volatility. Uh the six counties of the 14th circuit are part of this. Bay County runs it and then they just send us the the increase every year. So, not not that bad. $1390, but gets us out of paying per like we did in
the old days and it was a pain. Extension. Uh that's just payroll change at 7,800 U conservation management. This is what we do with Calhoun and Liberty. Yeah. The Tuplo. And so we pay a portion of their
secondary cost, I believe, is how that works. a third of of the employees any but that's that's just payroll changes probably beach maintenance that went up a little bit u drra it is what it is and so it
went up 8.36% uh ec uh little bit VSO that's mainly just payroll changes was it okay and so we were paying part of that out of out of out of the grant funds animal control
uh that's Ronald's budget okay it's going up 2.97% Humane society 5% increase all the outside agencies that that we fund. We did 5% across the board. So that'd be 70,119.
Uh health department, no change. Uh hikra, that's again it's this this is Medicaid requirement. Most folks don't know that the county has to pay the Medicaid match. It's $337,722
this year. Mental health, that did not change. Public assistant services. Sherry, help me with that one. Public assistant services. Okay, that went up 5%.
No change on development disabilities. The library went up 5%, $7,393 voting improvement. That's a grant. It went up 15,000. And then some minor changes from the state attorney, public defender, and court technology.
Your reserves, uh, again, I try to keep Cherry to keep those at the at the maximum level. So, your reserves are at 5 million. Uh, we we moved the termination payouts to another line that was more reasonable out of reserves.
Your working capital stayed the same and your restricted reserves went up 1.3 million. I'm going to skip unless y'all want to go through the fire departments. They they are what they are unless you want to talk about them. U
TDC uh a big change. U so let's start on 64 U 64 and 65 because of the law change that was positive. It went it it was really a
screwy screwy screwy year, but it wound up other than the than the rural renaissance bill not passing the the TDC bill went from absolute disaster to something that I would have probably wrote if I could have wrote it and got away with it. Uh
they're allowing small counties uh to use some infrastructure money now out of the first three pennies. So, uh, we have, uh, because of all our park problems, uh, we have set aside a million dollars, uh, from TDC money, uh,
to go to to y'all's parks to catch them up. Now, there are some hitches as as a match. So, in another line, I've I've put your match money in, but uh, it will allow us to get White City Park fixed and Gasket Park fixed and Oak Street
Park fixed and Kate Palm's part fixed, you know, so that we've been working on peace bill, but late we'll be able to go in and get these things brought up the way they need to. So again, y'all tell us how you want to do it. I assume y'all going to split this like you did last
time, but we have set aside the TDC money and the match going forward. First of all, that was a legislative thing that we pushed for. That was another win for us. I mean, that that snuck in there at the very last second, but that's huge because we we've always
said that when we have tourists down here is we're having to increase law enforcement, EMS, and all that. Also, it's a strain on our parks and uh because when they use the parks, they're not always friendly to them. So, I think it's great. And I I would I would propose to split it like we talked
about, you talked about doing splitting it. and and also set aside some for for uh for for general infrastructure ma mainly water system. You know, we the one thing we didn't win and I'm still very angry about was our getting our our money back
from that we lost from the hazard mitigation program that DEM kind of promised and then forgot. Uh but that would have allowed us to finish our project all the way to to dead man's curve. Uh We're going to have enough to finish our water plant and finish our line and to Jones Homestead, but we
still need some more money to finish that water project. That is the the long-term loop where we'll completely get off of the of the wells on the water. We don't want a Appalachia problem or some of these other problems where these whales go bad on the coast. So, again, we've set aside some of that
that we could use if if we absolutely need to. uh your general go I'm sorry before we move on back back to the water I do believe though us getting the wide city uh station on will will help the pressure at the cape and all Oh absolutely yes
because it takes some of the load off off just just that end of the system know that so so our long-term plan and again I hope that in the late fall we have that plant online our long-term plan would be to next move directly to the
booster station in Jones Homestead. So the the this what I would call the southern end of of the system would be totally independent. But the next line of funding is to run that line on to to Lucy one and and and again take those
those wells on the coast offline and produce all our water inland and and and have those as emergencies. But but we just use those for booster stations with lots of backup uh with with capacity and u you know and and again better pressure
better everything. So and we are building those for increased capacity. Absolutely. Absolutely. Yes sir. So our our goal up front was to have three days of water uh capacity. I think we're going to easily have that.
Um, I don't think to talk about HHRP anymore. Hope hope hopefully that won't be in our packet next year. Uh, General Parks, there were some changes, but but but again, and Sherry, I'm going to have to help you with this because I one of the commissioners asked me some of the
the minor changes on the park funds. We try to take out uh every park's not equal. If you're on a park that's on water and sewer, you're getting a lot more fees than you are if you you're on a well and septic. So, uh,
we try to take out the the guaranteed cost up front and and then go from there. I do know that the the flag bill we we've been having problems that and and Raymond and I had a discussion about this. They're not making them the way they they used to because they're not
holding up. we we actually ran out and it's an embarrassment on my part and I I'll take the blame but uh we we we lost suppliers or the people we were getting them from and we had a couple spares but Fourth of July weekend we changed the flags out excuse me for the for the
dedication we changed the flags out and and and literally in a week and a half uh we had one the the P flag was was not flyable. It was that bad and it had only been up less than two weeks. Uh, and we had a hard time getting that back. And
then I think we ran maybe ran out of some more after the fact. So, you want to give the board an update on that? We we're going to get a bunch, but yeah, we got them now, but we're going to get a bunch and and to for spares in the future, but the the quality is just not holding up. And so, we need to look
at that and and and and we're way over budget, too. So, yeah. Where we've been getting them, it's a third supplier company. They outsource it. So they're it's not a typical size. They're 8 by 12 service flags. That's a lot of don't even do it.
Anyway, the uh they had a staff change and then the outsource change. So, they only do it not some kind of blend between polyester, but that's the only thing they use these flags now. So,
that's what we're stuck with. I've actually put some calls out to other people and to know well one of them do it over twice as much and the other company I called they don't go that big
we have we got them on site now they're flying they're here we'll see how they do express my concern on not holding up no time we'll see sir Mr. Chairman, we've been tracking
that pretty hard. Those things ship on the 13th, which was the day they said they would ship and so they're they're here. We'll get those flags up ASAP. So, I apologize. That is the I see it every morning uh you know on the news that that you know they show that
picture. It's a beautiful picture, but u they take a lot of beating uh when we especially when they have these thunderstorms or whatnot. And again, we don't want to fly a flag torn and and whatnot. And and again it's it's a lot of it is the different suppliers the cost the
American flag is is is a drastic change by supplier. So what are we paying for those US flag and and some of them are nearly three times that cost depending on so so he's found the the best price and
and the American flag seems to be holding up a lot better than the than the service flags. Uh we we've tried everything including a seamstress to to reso them and that just it just doesn't work. So we'll try not to run out again.
Uh any you want to talk about parks at all? I can answer any questions but basically what we do is we go through and um cover all of our calls, all of our rentals and leases, all of our utilities.
Some parts have cameras, those type things. So we go through and budget all those costs and make those estimates and then what is left, we give an equal portion to each district. So those numbers is what you will see when you get to your district level. Um
you'll see on page 72, you'll see basically from 10,000 down all those numbers the same across all districts. Um and We have 11 parks that are have their own
individual uh form. The other ones would be covered under the district. So, we do have some that have utilities cost in them like uh district five and district three and district one both have utility
cost that their part that there's not enough activity in that park for it to have kind of So it's covered at the district level, but we make sure all known required. You got to pay the light bill and the water bill and all that. So we cover all those
costs first and then each district gets equal funding. So So the amount of savings on Beacon Hill by getting off city water was astronomical. I did notice that. But but we've had a couple of major uh problems on water leaks and people breaking
things and and we've really got the windmark uh turnoffs are the maybe the worst now. It used to be selenark turnoffs I think. So we're having to monitor that a lot closer because uh a few days of running water can eat our
lunch. I mean, to the point that we had several multi,000 water sewer bills uh in this past year from some vandalism and some just bad luck. I guess that that windmark we talked about it right now. It's a twist on. If you
get the punch on push button, it's going to save a I think it's because I've watched them. I go I sat down there for an hour of the day and watched they'll leave it on and they they stole the head off of it one time and there's a lot that goes on there and it was like 600 bucks for a for a month and so yeah
that's like you did out there that that'd be huge if we can get those push buttons. We'll change them out. That sounds positive. uh talk about the capital fund and I'm going to ask you to vote on the last two
pages on this when we get through but current current year uh some of these things that we leave in uh admin vehicle GIS a plotter and again these stay on I I think we've had this plotter budget
for a couple years so we we put it in there in case the thing goes out but we're not going to buy it unless it does I don't think anyway uh canopy for the uh fuel depot. That is one of the greatest things that we have ever done in my tenure is getting back.
Uh and again, I didn't think it was ever going to get it done, but Raymond and Mark did a great job. And and again, the the efficiency and the savings is has already paid for itself, but at some juncture, we need to be able to pull up and get fuel without getting wet. So, uh
we can't afford a real canopy. We priced those. They're about a million three. Uh so we put in 250,000 to do a makeshift probably going to be a pole barnish building. Raymond,
[Laughter] I uh I've actually reached out to a company down south and one out west on a rooftop. I haven't heard back. I've got phone
calls back seen yet. It's on the ground level, but it's going to be that is that red iron columns. Yes. Okay, perfect. That's that' be way better.
Um, so a change deleted. We bought machinery for the supervisor elections uh last time. So that's coming out. Uh we're back in the in the moors and the vans and the trailers in the in the hopes that we're going to get more work
crews maybe one day, but also just to keep up. Uh that's the trailers do not last. Everything else we can get good mileage out of, but not the trailers. Uh building department, we keep a vehicle in there and a drone this time.
Uh emergency management. This is the Oh, yes, sir. I'm sorry to take time here, but that the drone is that would that is that with the software for the roof inspections? Yes. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Perfect. Cool. Y'all please
interrupt me now. Got any questions? Uh the safe room. This is I guess this is our match. It's our build out. Okay. Build out for the safe room. So, the co-op got a a grant to to do a safe room, and we're going to have a office
or a room in that safe room to be able to to run emergency management out of 911. Uh, it's a little bit of reduction, but still 87,000. Uh, EMS, I don't know what this addition is, CL.
So, EMS that is match on an ambulance or I'm sorry, an equipment grant match an ambulance um a combine tool which I believe is like a battery operated type
tool and um some building additions for St. Joe. I I hope we have been uh very fortunate over the last five years on amuses of just getting the grant and just having paid the match. Uh but in the event
because we can't fall behind because Jody, what are your mileages now? The the two that we have here are well over 200,000. They're 215 16,000. And how and how old are they? We got
them in 2021, I believe. So, in four years, we got 200,000. That's our frontline trucks down here right now that we're running out. And the newest one in we how many how many miles? I couldn't quote that right off the top of my head, but it's 75 or 80,000 already.
They keep them running. So, we have to we have to keep up and and again, if we get behind, you know, then there'll be a lag. I mean, sometimes it take We were very fortunate to get a a demo one time that was was there. didn't have to wait. But what is the lag time right now?
16 to 20 months is what they're telling me on buildout times right now for the the type that we run out of. You you may get lucky. Even the the last few demos that that I had inquired about, they went by the end of the week when they
sent out a list of them. I think they were 10 or 12 on the list and when I called and inquired about them, they had already been taken. So, it's very um competitive right now getting trucks. But the the type truck that we typically run out of that we would like to run out
of is 16 to 20 months which has come down it was two years but they they've told us 16 to 20 months right now. I got a question. Yes sir. Can you go back to that again? I I didn't comprehend all that. Say that again. Oh, just repeat what the items are.
Yeah. What you what you went through just then. Um so 20,000 for the Port St. ambulance building edition. 32,000 for the combine tool. Um 320 for an ambulance and then 150 for
grant match. Okay. Thank you. All right. Uh water department. Uh that's infrastructure and solid waste. Uh that is a loader and a grant match. That is for the transfer
station. That's the the flat tire. What do you call it? Solid tire. Flat tire. Okay. It's a flat solid tire that that pushes the garbage. Uh beach maintenance. No change. Uh took
that vehicle out of uh bag. Here's Mark's line about that heart attack. So many paper and roller that some of you had asked about u the lull. I don't know if the next item is going
to be enough. And we just put it in there like we did with the boiler and we eventually had to use it. But we already have a problem with the chiller. So I don't know if 75 is enough. But we've got one that's out in the process.
Okay. So that's one of four. Yeah. So constant pressure out. You got a compressor out. What gas you running in that? 14. So,
I think it's the last two pages in your handout. No. Or is it the last page? Is it just the last page they have to vote? So, so I need y'all to approve the So, you don't have to approve the current one. And you'll do that in the
budget. This is the the future plan. What do we call that? The out years. Yes. This is our capital plan. Capital reserve plan. Again, this goes from 2627 to 3031. Uh got fire trucks,
uh supervised collections, infrastructure, vehicles again, work crews, work vans, mowers, towers, equipment replacement, that's a constant problem, too. Uh ambulance. This is uh solid waste grant. How much
are we getting on this solid credit? 93750 is what we get in the grant. So, anything over that we have to pay. We have to match. Okay. So, we're putting the match in for that. Uh keeping the chiller boiler in at 100 uh
this rideway equipment that is that is the income from the contract with the Yeah. to do the state rightways and that's just we we buy equipment with that because it goes out regularly. uh water system improvements, booster
station, and south transmission line. Again, these are placeholders in the event we don't get the funding that we're entitled to. But either way, we're doing that next year. So, I need y'all to vote on this last
page if you will or if you have any questions. All right. Thank you, sir. Commissioners, any questions? I just want to bring up that we talked a little bit about the um the paver and the rollers um or the roller um that's
something that we're we're definitely don't want to get in the paving business. However, more or less what I think Mark is thinking is the patch crew can become the paving crew instead and we can eventually get to a point where our intersections are paved by the
county and our continuous pothole repair is going to be severely diminished uh whenever we're able to do that. So, I think that's a I think that's a wise use of our money. So, um just anybody else wants to talk about that's fine. I just want to make sure we did talk about that so people don't
think we're trying we're not we're not getting the paving business. Um you know we don't want to be CW Roberts or Roberts Roberts or whatever. Um Anderson Columbia by any stretch of the imagination but um we we do want to be able to take better care of our intersections and that's tends to be where in my district that tends to be
where the problems lie. So I just want to make sure we we did mention that today. and you have a because like you just said, we don't want to get it against them, but then there's those little small projects it's not worth them coming down to do that we can then handle. And so I mean, I'll just be
honest, I got three. Wait on me there, bud. I know we all do. Everybody down here does anyway new roads, but it's it's a good thing because they they cut two two of my new roads. And I'd like to see it that we may I hate to say Jeremy policy, but we'd almost need to tie that
in there. So when we got this machine, if they cut our road, well, either we charge them or outside. I don't know. Just that down the road. Not now. But thank you for getting that. So maybe on the workshop, the same thing. I think we do need a policy because we don't want to get in the road paving business, but but the potholes
you're talking about. Uh I I had a perfect example when we bought the water system. The original line going to Indian Pass was on the edge of the road. Well, we got a grant. We widen the road and now every time we have a tap on C30 headed toward Indian pass, we have to
cut our own road because the the road got the line got covered up after the fact. I would think these outside agencies that are illegally cutting our roads that I want to put in jail uh that that they can pay a contractor to come fix them. But the the other thing that I I talked to one of the commissioners
about was every now and then we have a covert that goes bad under a our road. That's a perfect example where we have to replace a covert. We could redo it. So, if the board would work with us on a on a policy that says this is this is when we do it and this is when we're
not, then it's not commissioner getting sideways with public works or administration over the thing. It's we got a policy that says this is this is what we do it for. I think I think that' be a perfect I got we had one farms and you know that that'd be perfect for something like that.
Definitely don't want to get into a big project. And as far as the rules go, Mark and I had this conversation yesterday, but his his work is cyclical. So in October when it dries out, that's when your potholes are going to really really shine through. So there's going to be certain times of the year that you can't pave.
There's going to be certain times of year that your potholes are really showing through. So there's going to be an an abundance of work at some points throughout the year. So your November is going to be paving, you know, more or less before it gets too too cold. So, there's going to be certain times of the year that there's this paper's going to
be used or certain times it's not going to be used at all. When it's like this week, it's going to be raining. You're not going to be able to get that that done this week. So, um so anyway, there's going to be certain times of the year. So, there's going to be a lot of money different months of the year that's going to be expended u more more
so for this PA especially. We don't have to wait like 18 months to get it in or something like that. Like an ambulance, right? the city. This is city road 71, right? Yes, sir. We got about three potholes out there. And that's a state Well, I I think I
think it's a state responsibility and I'm not positive about that, but I think it's a state responsibility. Uh and and again I think they're actually fixing a redo of the part to Jack. They're fixing I wished and again we can't get anything
because if we if I make the recommendation probably go to pot but they need to get rid of that concrete and and again that's a I know it's beautiful and old and whatever but it is never going to be right if they don't fix it. I think DOT wanted to and the city decided not to change it, but this
is a perfect time to get it straight. Why you I wish somebody would There's a bad hole third and 98 in the middle of Fort St. Joe and know I can't believe somebody had you know what I'm talking about right there, man.
I know. I know. I just I can't believe nobody from the city, you know. Anyway, so I need to approve this if any more questions, commission sir. All right. Motion to approve the updates
on this last last page. I'll make a motion. I got a motion by Commissioner Piden. I'll second. Second by Commissioner Husband. Any further board discussion? Anyone in the public on this one in the public on this page? Any opposition to the motion? All
right, motion pass. Five and0. I'm getting I'm getting closer. Uh I want to brag on the uh country club and Jordan have done an excellent job with that and I hope we have a ribbon cutting that the board can attend pretty soon.
It looks great. Uh and again, we're still doing some more things and and uh but I can't imagine it being more successful. So that that's kudos to to those folks. I want to back up. I I meant to bring
this up when we when we were earlier we when we brought up the Humane Society. I wanted to say uh that and again we've got this on the agenda tomorrow. Um I I hate Facebook and I the test when people talk about stuff and blow people up that
they don't have a clue what they're talking about. Uh that total misconception about this uh ordinance has nothing to do with any changes at Humane Society. We the commissioner Mcronone and I met with the Humane Society when this came up about the ordinance that we had that was not being
enforced. It was not there were a lot of parts to it that were never going to be done. Neither city would adopt it. The only dogs that the county is taking the only dogs that the county is taking or that this would have any effect on this
change are dog bites and vicious dogs. That is the only ones. And we agreed, the humane site agreed with us that we would take Ronald when he would impound those that the county would take responsibility for those. All the other animals that are picked up or turned in or whatnot are going to be handled by
the Humane Society the same way and they're a no kill shelter. So I I I hope that we can put that fire out that again I think we've had a pretty good relationship working with with Diana and the and the Humane Society. They always
need more money and I I totally understand that and them losing the inmates was a was a blow just like for all of us with cutting grass. But the gist that we're going to kill dogs after five days and do the family pet and all that kind of stuff, just a croc, a bull, and a lie. And and what we were trying
to do is take the liability off of them because one, it's a problem for their staff, but number two is uh you know, they're no kill shelter. So, some of these vicious animals have to be put down. And again, I think Mark's done an
excellent job. Uh, and and I think Bay County's actually been helping us with that. We when we have to euthanize a dog bite that we we send them over there. But, uh, again, I think got blowed totally out of proportion. And again, we want something that because most of the
problems are in the two cities, we have they pay a little bit uh to to help with animal control, but they need to adopt the ordinance and it needs to be an ordinance that they can adopt. And there's absolutely nothing wrong with that one. We just made just better uh
explanation, I guess. But again, no change with anything other than the dog bites and the dog uh the vicious dogs. Michael, let me say this to you. We're not putting any limit on the Humane Society. If they want to keep a dog,
that that's their deal. If they want to keep a dog year or however long, we're not. Absolutely. But we're taking the vicious dogs and and the bite dogs. But far as us putting a time limit on the Humane Society, that is not the case. Correct. So, correct.
So, I just wanted to get that straight. Uh I the board some time ago gave me permission to negotiate with the port authority uh on their loan. Uh they finally have a full board and I
think we might have a meeting tomorrow or Wednesday. I Gary and I I was gone and then and Gary and I have been playing email tag. Uh I would like the thought from the board. Uh they need a
revenue source and again it it it's it's a great asset for for the county to have them their their their ability to get uh grants. Uh if I can work out with them to to extend the the deadline on that loan, no payment, y'all have already cut
the interest to zero. uh if we can work out something where they will allow the county to to to get this uh academy on their land across from from the old mill side across from the eastern side. Uh if if I could work out something to get
them a little working capital for the next two years out of the economic development fund. Sherry, will you for the for the uh industrial park rental deal? Uh, and I'm thinking in the maybe $25,000 a year to help pay for
their insurance and their overhead. If we can work out something where they will give us that academy across the street, is that something the board would look favorable on? Oh, absolutely.
Absolutely. Yeah. So it what a gorgeous thing that would be if we get that academy over there on that land tied to where you got the ships and the and the over when we get the when we get I'm saying I'm not saying if we get I say when we get the dry dock that is a gorgeous model. Absolutely. That that
puts it all in there. You know you taking a site now that's really does when you come over that bridge it doesn't look real good but you can see a marine academy over there and that place will grow. I mean, we'll talk about that. I know at another time, but I totally would support that. Thank you for that.
Okay. So, I'm gonna try to work that out and then I'll bring that back if we get an agreement uh to the next meeting for the board to ratify it, but it'll probably be extending the the that loan for some period of time without payment uh you know, and and and give them a
little working capital. I think that's a great idea, Commissioner Pritch. I I appreciate you bringing that to the board on on that academy because I was watching TV the other day and they was talking about AI and and how the the coding jobs for computers and all AI will be doing that.
But the one thing that's not going away is plumbers, electricians, footers, HVAC and and electricians that those jobs are never going away. We got to have those jobs. But the jobs that AI can do are going away for human beings. But but I
appreciate the commissioner bring that I think it's a great idea and a win if we can pull that off. Thank you. Okay. Uh solid waste fund. Austin's done an excellent job with that. Uh I will say that that as building slows down if
if if the numbers uh and and our usage goes down. We're going to have to look at adjusting those fees next year if if if that continues to go down. uh Ken done an excellent job and built up a reserve, but right now we're projected to to start losing money this year if we
uh if we don't get some more volume. The only way that that that we can keep ahead of the the game is to get more volume. And right now that that again with building turning down a little bit, that volume will go down too. And the water system looks good. Don has
done an excellent job with that. Uh, I've got a couple things I need you to vote on on set some millillage and some dates. Uh, I would say if the board's got any questions or if the public's got any questions, I'll go after those.
Any questions, board members, in reference to budget? Yeah. Yes, sir. It's not really a question. It's like I want to take the opportunity. This is this is would be really myself and Commissioner Mor. This our first budget really we had input on. And I would like to take this
opportunity to thank chairman, vice chairman, and and and Mr. Husband on their foresight in the past years. I know you guys have taken some hits about why don't you just borrow the money? Why don't you go out there and do this? Well, now we're coming in and we're
going to reduce taxpayer dollars for everybody's homestead. You're going to get a tax decrease. We're going to cover our needs in public works and all of our constitutional officers and we're going to get some things done that we want to get done. You don't you know how many people are going into it and I I this is
a real quick one. My for in my former life they're starting this year with a $12.6 million deficit when we're coming in here with a good fund balance. We're having everything we want to get done and we're cutting taxpayers. And it comes from y'all holding the guns
previously and putting it. I know we got a lot of new growth and all that, but you didn't just go out there and just spend, oh, we got new money. Let's go spend it. And so, and and for staff preparing this budget, I just kudos. That's what I'd like to say. Done a
great job. Um, thank you for appreciate it. Thank you, sir. Um, just to echo what Mr. Pig said, uh, it it takes all five of us. Um, and like I said, we got a great staff. Um, sometime Michael tell us no, and we really want
to say yes, but he keeps the, uh, he keeps the taxpayer in mind. You know, it's it's about saving saving. Um, and he's good at saving. Um so um we really appreciate everybody who's uh worked hard and uh and I'm and glad that we can
be we can actually be a blessing to uh the uh other government uh offices u all the other elected officials. So, uh, Michael, my question would would be, uh, and if the market was to crash tomorrow,
how long do you think G County could could run? We we would we would be okay the first year and then some then some massive changes. But, but yes, we we're in a position now that that uh we're we're five years ago with our disaster fund.
Uh, we're where we need to be with our reserves. Uh again, uh be because when Mark doesn't spend money, he turns it back in. And because when Carrie
doesn't spend all the office money in my budget, they turn it back in. And because these ones, can't remember what the clerk turned in last year, but it was an astronomical number. Uh that helps us build up the rainy day fund. So right now, the rainy day fund is in is
in really good shape. It's in fact it's where I I want it to be. So yes, we're in we're in great shape with again Don left me in a great position uh when he left and you know we thought we were perfectly fine. We were the only county
around us that didn't have to go borrow money. Now it was close. We asked the constitutional officers and they did to to cut their budgets. We wound up later in the year the board gave that money back to them. But uh we're in a position now that uh the be I believe the best
that we could be for for downturns. Again, we we haven't overhired. We haven't over spent. So we don't ever want to be in a position when and nobody was on the board then today that uh that we were in 2008 2009.
uh half the county lost half of its value in in between 06 and 09 and we had to lay off quite a number of employees. It's gut-wrenching when when somebody that's got a family to feed you have to lay them off. So we're in a position
today that we wouldn't have to do that and I hope to never be in that put ourselves in that position again where we would. So yes sir, we're we're in a good good spot. Let me say this. Yes, sir. And y'all heard me say it before and I appreciate all our staff, our department heads, and
you might not always agree with Michael on his politics. Sometimes people want to blow him up and but the man does a tremendous job managing this county financially. And and Sherry, she don't always get the kudos, but somebody's got to be the police. And that's what I call Sherry.
She's the police. And and and she runs a tight ship. She manages well. and and and I appreciate all our department heads, Mark, all our department heads, Brad. Uh and if I missed you, I'm sorry, but but everybody does a great job. Matt
Herring in the back, but uh but but there again, Sher Sherry is the police and she has the she rub you wrong sometimes, but but hey, she does a great job and she keep keeps it keeps the train running as Michael says. Thank you.
Yes, sir. With with that being said, I want I want to add one more thing. Uh like I say, uh Mike, you you do a heck of a job with the with with your staff and making sure we got a good a good budget. And I know we get we going to give raises across the board to uh all the you know to all
the staff and constitution officers for their their staff. Um but the board uh I think it's been five years since we had we negotiated a contract for our um administrator and um Michael has lived up to that contract and and I'm just
thinking and and you guys can chime in. Um one one policy and I throw this out there before before I I I talk about other thing is one policy he we got to get him to work on is with dealing with kids. So that's That's in his contract.
Am I right, Mr. Nova? Yes. So, we got that in there cuz I think Michael has to uh uh he needs some kids in his life like that to keep him a little a little younger. Uh keep him going, keep him a little bit happier. Uh but uh with that being said, we the only
way he he and I think he deserves it. Uh um and and you guys, it's up to the board. The only way he gets a raise is if the board the board has to vote on his raise. and only way he gets a raise is through merit uh through the merit process when we negotiate something. So
I just want to know how you guys feel in reference to cuz he hadn't got anything since we negotiate that contract in five years and he probably want he won't ask for anything. He's not he's never going to ask for anything. Um he just won't do what's best for the county. So I just want to know how you guys feel if we
were to go back and uh negotiate some to give him a raise also. Yes, sir. I I'll I'll say something here. Um, so there's basically what what you're saying there's basically Michael has the ability to perform all the reviews for the employees, but he
doesn't have anybody to do his and he hasn't been doing that. Um, so would it be acceptable to the board to nominate the chairman to to to do that for us? I think it would be difficult if all five of us were to do it because we have to
do it separately. Um, would that be acceptable to the chairman to do that or to the board for the chairman to do that? That'd be an annual thing. Annual thing. Yeah, it'll be fine with me. Yeah, I'm good with that. And like I
said, I mean, if you look at our county, how many years have we lowered the millage? Five years. Roughly five years. I mean, a great indication and but I if you went through
if you were here during the hurricane uh devastating uh we were on this board, me and your chairman and u but Michael I mean stared us right through it and never borrowed a dime of money. I mean I mean it it was it was a tough
tough time but but I appreciate you and I want to say that if if that's if that's that's the route we're going to go uh my my only recommendation would be um the budget is the great evaluator. Um
he's I mean every time I mean he's saving us we saving we saving plenty of money. Um and we're not being like saying he's making sure we're not being wasteful spending money. Um, I mean, so if this can be one of the tools,
um, we go by it, I mean, I'm I'm all for it. I mean, I'm just throwing that out there. I think it's a good idea. I mean, I was looking at the numbers a while back, and I mean, if if what I'm looking at is correct, then there's a possibility that
Clay might end up making more than Michael, you know, because he hadn't been getting the race. I mean, if I'm looking at that right, Clay's smarter now. Y'all understand what I'm saying? Yeah, for sure. Got you.
I I think it's definitely warranted. Um, for sure. There's there's a lot that goes on. Um, and like Commissioner Cron said, you may not agree with everybody all the time. However, uh, you can't dispute the success that we've had. So, um, I guess I'll I'll I'll make a motion
to nominate the chairman if he's He hadn't given me any kickback yet for for doing that for us. I'll second that. All right. So, I got a motion by Commissioner Husman. Second by Commissioner Mcronone. Any further board discussion? Yes. Part of that working with children.
I got three grandkids in town. Michael, I'm dropping them off this afternoon. I'll pick them up tomorrow afternoon. We can make it through there. Let's see. We can make that happen. So, the chairman made me uh dip ice cream for about two hours for one of my deals. I I I like the hamburger flipping
better. That's what Or the rib cookie. Well, that's I forgot about that. So, you have been doing that for the last few years. So, yeah. And I got your schedule for August 2nd, correct? You do. Have vacation Bible school going on this week, too. Yes.
That sound that sounds like a plan. Sound like a plan. All right. Any further board discussion? Anyone in the public on this? Yes, ma'am. Come on up. you call up and state your name, address for the record. I'm Annette Ryan and I'm at 157 Parrot
Headway. Okay. And I was just going to ask where we can get a copy of the current proposed budget and also ask if next time um for the next budget meeting if we could be provided copies when we come in because we really couldn't follow the detail.
Okay. Yes, ma'am. So, this one is just a working copy. It actually changed the day it was printed. Um, so we don't post this one. We post the ones that are required. So 48 hours, which we always do it much more than that. The Thursday before the first hearing, the first proposed that that
will be the actual proposed tenative, it's posted to the website as required uh by trim. So it will absolutely be um that's all required. So this one isn't because like I said, it changed the day it was printed. Um but that one which is you know for full public consideration
is posted to the So, you should see it. We haven't set our hearing dates yet, but typically that Thursday prior, but it's required by law to be out there two days prior. Okay. Um, and there are So, we kind of jumped off and got started. I did put some summaries here for the public. So, I
apologize. I did not announce that at the beginning, but you're welcome to take. So, so the other thing is we we don't print the whole thing. We'll print the hot sheet or cheat sheet, whatever that we started. Commissioner Pen recommended that a couple years ago, uh, because it's like 100 pages. So it would if if
we printed 50 copies of it'll be on the website for everyone to view. We don't print paper copies. Um but we have like little cheat sheets, hot sheets, but the whole book will be on the website. You're welcome. All right. Thank you, Mr. Ryan. All
right. Anyone else? Anyone else? All right. This is I want this to vote. Can we vote this one? I'll come back to what you just said. Okay. All right. Any opposition to the motion? Most pass five. Yes, sir. A quick one. Um, Michael, we talked about the hot sheet when we done a good
job on this. We got this thing that y'all put together is perfect. I've been talking with Mitch possibly. Mitch sends out the trim sheets and we talked about this and he said, Mitch, get me if I'm wrong, he could probably print some of your hot sheet on the back that he sends out to voters. So all voters when they
get their trim sheet will see the back of it and see basically what our, you know, reduce the millillage, what our big goals were, you know, and stuff like that. And there's a timeline. That's the only reason I'm saying it now is there's a timeline, right, Mitch? So Michael, is there a way we can get with staff with his office to just an idea for if that's
all right with you guys? So basically, when they get their trim sheet in there, on the back of that trim sheet, they'll they'll have, you know, our our our hot sheet. other counties. I'm just saying other counties. The only hesitation with that is it will
be as of the date it's given to the property appraiser because those trim notices. I'm not sure the date those get printed. But um we will be making changes throughout up to that meeting. But I mean it should be close. Mitch, how they do it back out again?
Come on up to come on up, Mr. Burke. Come on up, Mr. Burke. The actual information that we were talking about would not be on a actual trim notice itself. There's a letter that goes in with the trim. I'm sorry. Yeah. Not not your not your
form, but the letter to go that you send to the tax. Yes, sir. And then you can actually if the county were to decide they wanted to put additional information in there, it can be printed on the back side of what we send out.
So So one pager is that? Yeah. Yes, sir. Okay. Yeah. Just it just adds on to what you're sending out. So you're going to talk about taxable values and all that on your letter. It just gives a snapshot of where taxable value is, the preliminary tax role, what and the increases that were
from last year. And if the county were to want to add something to that, then we could put it on the back side of put a little. You see what I mean? That way every taxpayer gets it. And what because I think this is a great, you know, Bay County has been doing this for years. They've actually supervisor
election has put information on that about getting people out to vote and those things. So, it's just not the county commission side of things, but they've also put other information in like supervisor election information. Just just another vehicle to get to the
public. It's it's a cap. It's a captive audience and it's free. That's why that's won't cost us anything. What? August 4th deadline. What What would my deadline be? I I have to get normally send the trim notices out sometime middle of August.
So, it's getting close. I've gotten kind of what I'm going to put in there. Um, I we probably need to get that rolling pretty quick. We can get it out to our people that actually mails that information out.
So, what I would think is five-year trend in 2020 millage was this 2021 right on down and then your hot sheet from this year. If that's good, we'll condense it to one half one one side page. That's it'll be one, you know, front and back.
That's right. But yours going to be on the front side and ours be on the back or Yes, sir. Okay, that's fine. I I think one page would be plenty. Yeah. I have a question. Yes, sir. Or I have a request. Um would it be possible to put the $150 million uh
where our taxable values increase 150 million on that hot sheet? Uh, it's on there. Okay, good. It It shows we all We all get Yes, it'll show developments. Yes, it'll show taxable value for
Guff County, school board, Port St. Joe, city of Weiwall. And I was I was just saying once you once you do the math, that 150 million allows us to reduce the millage rate. Exactly. And that's if you do the math, it's almost within a couple thousand dollars of that number. Uh, so I think that's a
very So they could actually get that information and once they flip it, then they can see the what the county's proposals are. Yeah. Very simplistic, too. I wasn't trying to get into the weeds, but just the top bullets of it. That's what most
of y Thank you, sir. Appreciate it. Yes, sir. All right. Any more questions, commissioners, before I go to the public? Are anyone in the public with any questions or concerns with the budget coming before the board? You got any questions or concerns?
Anyone? Any of our any of our elected officials? Any more information questions or concerns? Good. You're good. Good. All right, Mike, you got anything else?
I want y'all to adopt some things. I'm just see if Clay or Sherry had anything before we go to that. Okay. I need you to adopt the maximum millage at 5.6 mills countywide. 5.6. Yes, sir. Which is a 3/10 of a mill reduction.
All right. What's the board? I got a motion by Commissioner Piden to adopt. Second by Commissioner Mcronone. Any further board discussion? Anyone in the public? Public. Any opposition to the motion? All right. Motion pass five. Ask you to adopt half a mill each for
the four fire control districts. What's the wishes of the board? So move. Motion by Commissioner Mcronone. Second. Second by Commissioner Mmore. Any further board discussion? Anyone in the public? Any opposition to that motion? All right. Motion pass 5
and0. ask you to adopt a zero levy for the MSTUs that will close those out. What's the wish of the board? So move, Mr. Chairman. I got a motion by Commissioner Husman. Second. Second by Commissioner Mcronone. Any further board discussion? Anyone in the public on these? Any opposition to the
motion? Motion pass 5 and0. Ask you to give permission to administration to certify Sherry's going to certify to the property appraiser uh those millages that you just adopted. What's on the board? So move. I got a motion by Commissioner McRone.
Second. Second by Commissioner Michael Moore. Any further board discussion? Anyone in the public on this certifying this? Any opposition to the motion? All right. Motion pass 5 and0. All right. So the school board's picked their first date which is 94. So we
can't do that. Uh the proposal is for Wednesday uh Wednesday 93 at 501. Uh and then we'll talk once you do that one. Uh we'll talk about the last one. The the last one gets hairy because I
have PTSD for hurricanes. Uh when when we drag them out to the end, we have been caught where we had to postpone meetings and that's a disaster. U so if we can agree on the first one, then we'll talk about second. When does the school board, you said 94?
It's Thursday at uh 5:15. This is You want to do the 93? You say don't Well, I was going to ask at 501. Could we do 92? No. Per trim requirements um because your
calendar can't start before July 1. The earliest you can do it is September 3rd. Well, we ain't got no choice but to do a 93 then, right? Well, you you technically could. It gets a little screwy, but you don't want to do it on Friday typically, which would be the And so I think you could do it the following Monday, but you could do it the next week.
The the only problem with that is we get the advertising calendar gets to be screwy. If we don't, let's do a nine. No, I'm good with 93 now. And I know it's church night, but the the thing is this, if we get in and get
out, everybody still make it. All right. What's the wishes of the board? I'll make a motion to do it Wednesday 9:30 at 50:01 p.m. I got a motion by Commissioner Husman. Second, second by Commissioner McCrome. Any further board discussion? Anyone in the
public on this meeting? Any opposition to the motion? All right. Motion pass five and all right. So, that one will go on the trim notice and that one can't be changed. But the the the next one u then it just is a is a mathematical calculation and again I prefer earlier
than later but but go ahead Jerry won't say something to you about the pop. No you're fine. No I just it's it's always tricky. Um we have from the time you have your first hearing you have 15 days to start your advertisement. After your advertisement you must have the meeting within two to five days. So it
with a Thursday newspaper it's you basically get two options. What's the option? So your first option is Monday the uh Monday the 15th is your first option. Well I'm sorry two week options. You get
two days for each week. You could do it Monday or Tuesday. That's 10. Yeah. And the and the latest we could do it based on her deal is 9:22 or 923. I I prefer the earlier ones just in case we have an event. I mean
9:15 9:15 and 9:16 give us a day. If we do a 96 that'll give us a day to one one more day. 916 week day versus coming here on Monday morning or Monday. I guess it's got to be at 501 has to be at 5.
Either way, I'm I'm fine. 9:16. So, and the only the thing Sherry always worries about and we haven't thank God in in many years, but I can remember some horror stories in the in the early 2013 2014
range uh where we had six-hour budget meetings and and there were a lot of changes. If the board's not going to make substantial changes, it's really easy to get it advertised. If the board's going to make substantial changes at the last minute, then getting that updated and changed and advertised
the next day is is is somewhat difficult. So, I I don't foresee massive changes. If if the board's not going to do that, uh I don't see any reason why we can't do either one of those first two.
9:16 Tuesday 501 9:16 Tuesday 501 do a motion I entertain a motion have a motion motion by commissioner pri second by commissioner mammore any further board discussion anyone in the
public on this date any opposition to the motion motion pass five and I want to thank uh Sherry and Clay and Clay got a new name for Clay Kennedy I think he's think 15 or something. I
forgot what, but uh specifically Sherry because I see her night and on the weekends and all hours and uh takes a lot to put this together. So went through it pretty quick today, but we start with the budget in January
and uh we get to the to the end on July the 15th. So, uh, appreciate the questions going forward and and again, there'll be some tweaks, uh, when we get final numbers from the state on constitutional officers pay. When we get final numbers on some of our workers
comp and and property casualty insurance, these things will change, but but for the most part, I think we're we're set. All right. Thank you, sir. All right. Any questions, commissioners? Uh, thank everyone for coming out to the uh the meeting. I entertain a motion to
adjurnn. So move. Motion by Commissioner Mcronone. Second. Second by Commissioner Husman. Any opposition? Motion pass.