And welcome welcome to the town of Highland Beach Town Commission second public hearing um of our budget. Uh and uh today is Thursday September 18th and it is now 501. And I'd like to call the meeting to order. If we could have the roll call,
please. Commissioner Chanovski present. Commissioner Goldberg, present. Vice Mayor Stern, present. Mayor Moore, present. Town attorney Town attorney Ruben present. Town manager Labberty present and Commissioner Peters is absent. Thank
you. If we could all rise for the pledge of the United States of America to the stands indivisibley and justice for all. Are there any changes to the agenda?
Seeing none, if we could have a motion to approve. Yes. Motion uh approve the agenda. Second. All in favor say I. I. I. Moving on. There are no presentations. Moving on to second readings, public
hearings. Resolution number 2025-022, a resolution of the Town Commission of the Town of Highland Beach, Florida, adopting a final millage rate of 3.4159 mills for the town's general operating funds for the fiscal year beginning
October 1st, 2025 and ending September 30th, 2026. Providing for the final millage rate of 3.4159 4159 mills is 7.12% greater than the computed roll back rate of 3.1889
mills providing for severability conflicts and an effective date. Um will you be taking Yes. Oh uh yeah and again that's the operating millage and so what you'll see on your tax bill obviously is our
operating millage of the 3.4159 4159 MS plus we have the the debt service millage of 0.1716 which is combined to be our total millage of 3.5875 any discussion among the commission
I don't have any additional uh questions I think uh uh for my purposes it was well uh reviewed in a pre prior uh presentation. No, I must say any any discussion, any questions, any
anything? Yeah, this is our second uh yes uh reading of this. So, not surprising there isn't any more discussion. So, I wanted to open it up for the public. Are there any public comments on this item? Seeing none, I'll close the public
hearing. Um if we could have a motion to adopt. Yes. A motion to adopt resolution number uh 2025-022. Second. We can have a roll call, please. Commissioner Goldberg, yes. Vice Mayor Stern,
yes. Commissioner Chinowski, yes. Mayor Moore, yes. Motion carries. Thank you. Moving on to item B. Resolution number 2025-023, a resolution of the town commission of the town of Highland Beach, Florida,
adopting final budget for fiscal year beginning October 1st, 2025 and ending September 30th, 2026, determining and fixing the amounts necessary to carry on the government of the town for the in ensuing year, providing for severability
conflicts and an effective date. Yes, thank you. And uh just to add to that, as part of the attachment to the second reading of this uh resolution, uh we uh not only advertised it in the uh appropriate amount of time that the
state of Florida requires us to do, we had uh all the advertisements checked for accuracy and uh compliance with the state of Florida. Um and so uh that that's always a good thing. And just to
add that the total budget for all funds which include the general fund, discretionary sales tax, building fund, water and sewer fund, uh totals $32,241,42. Any discussion? I know this is the second time. Not that I'm expecting any.
I have nothing to add. Okay. And I'd like to open it up for public hearing. Any comments from the public? Seeing no comments, I'll close the public hearing. We could have a motion to adopt. Yes. A motion to adopt resolution
2025-023. Second that. We can have a roll call, please. Yes. Vice Mayor Stern. Yes. Commissioner Chinowski. Yes. Commissioner Peters. Oh, sorry. Mayor Moore.
Yes. Motion carries. Thank you. Thank you very much. Moving on to new business. Resolution number 2025-024, a resolution of the town commission of the town of Highland Beach, Florida, adopting the fisc year 2025-
2026 schedule of fees establishing fees and charges for town services, providing for conflicts, providing for severability, and providing for an effective date. So um the highlights again is 12% to 12.3% reduction on the the building
side. Uh water rates 5%, sewer rates 5%. And just a point of clarification and thank you vice mayor. We uh took a clo deeper dive on the transport EMS transport fees and made the adjustment that you have on your desk um from the
numbers that were on the original resolution. So we are more in line with our neighboring communities. Our big jump up uh that was kind of the unusual is the advanced life support 2 was significantly higher than other communities. Everything else was pretty much on par. So we made a few tweaks uh
moving away from what our uh billing consultant had suggested. We went and took a look at all the adjacent communities and adjusted our numbers. We're not way out there on the advanced uh ALS to transport. Could you uh sorry could you explain how it is
that our residents get build for the for these things and would you know the fire chief is here um the billing come again we only build when we transform
you come in take you off you back to bed there's no so uh when we do house um transport to the emergency room then we raise the level of care
BLS is just a bandaid sorry BLS is just a band-aid and um basically you know a little bit of oxygen maybe nothing major if you have an IV established we run an EKG that would be ALS1 and if you have full cardiac arrest
where we just empty all the drugs and everything we do. Uh that would be an ALS2. Now, according to Medicaid, Medicare, we could build up to $1,500, well, actually $2,000 for that care. Uh but the prevailing rate in the
neighborhood is about 750, 850, 800 bucks. So, that's what we decided to reduce it to. But uh usually we'll bill the patient at least three times as required by Medicare.
So but Medicare would cover it. So yeah. So yeah, Medicare allows us to bill a certain amount, but they only cover like $850 of it. Okay. So um generally we pay we're required by CMS, which is Medicare and Medicaid to
build a patient for the difference. So if you have a secondary insurance company, they would pick up on that. So supplemental insurance, they would pick up on that. If you have a it's like some people work and the wife work and they have an insurance and they're they work and they have their own medical insurance. So would bill their medical
insurance first. And if uh there's a secondary insurance say from a spouse, then we bill them for the the balance. Okay. So Medicare says reimbursement could be up to 2,000, you said. Is that uh Yeah, we could bill up to 2,000. bill up to 2,000 but they wouldn't cover the
full 2,000. They would cover 850 850. So by us charging 850 does that mean Medicare would cover the entire thing or is it the bulk of it? Yes, the bulk of it. Only if you transport us to the hospital only if you transport. So the remaining
amount would get build to the individual or their their responsible party which is the and by keeping the rates kind of low that means their share is much lower between medical cover or your interal cover and what you have to come out of pocket. Okay. Okay.
Chief if they take care of me in my home and they basically we recommend you go to the hospital and what we've seen happen. No, I don't want to go to the hospital then there's no bill. There's no bill. No matter how much time spent. Nope. And just to reiterate, you said you send
a bill for any short form, I assume, three times. Three times. And uh if there's no response, what happens? Then we talk to the manager and see what he wants to do with that. Okay. Do we have a fund for that?
No, we can talk about the I I'll give you updates offline. Okay. Okay. Okay. But it's not really a real expense, right? I mean, it's like it's just part of your daily thing. Some people just have different situations, right? And uh, you know, they could appeal to me or to the manager and say, "Hey,
I can't pay this." And I'll talk to the manager. The manager will probably talk to you and decide what you going to do with it. U, but it's it's a process. I can't just say, "Well, I'm just not going to Right." No, I know. Just write it off. No, I can't do But if it doesn't get paid, it's not like we need to set aside a certain
amount of funds to pay these type of things. It's just part of the operating expense of there's no reason to set up between you and the manager. Right. Now I I have a another question. It's not a financial question. Uh but we have
um uh if if there's a senior or or anyone living alone and they're in distress and uh they're able to call and and uh have someone, you know, call emergency services, what happens if they
cannot open their door? Well, we have strapping young men with large tools, okay, to make that a thing, not a thing. Okay. So generally what will happen is that we have if you would live in a condominium there we have a Nox box and the Knox box
is available and we put all the master keys in there and the only people that have the key to the Knox box is the fire department. Okay, that's it. So if we go there and it's after hours there's nobody in the building and there's nobody generally they will put a a key for a person who may be disabled in there. If we get into
the building and we get to your apartment, we have tools that are minimally destructive to uh force that open. And if we can't get it through it with minimal destructive, we have saws, we have, you
know, so we actually have a very small saw that's battery operated which we just purchased and we'll just cut the lock through the door. Mhm. And all you have to do is replace the lock and you're back. So, uh, we do minimal destruction to get to the goal of
getting to you. Okay. Isn't that Isn't that why we want everyone to sign up on the information so that So, good point. So, Community Connect, if you have somebody who's disabled or maybe disabled or is elderly and maybe in distress, uh, there's several ways around that. Um, leave a key down in the
lobby. Uh, maybe there's a a box that you could call, I don't remember what the name of the box is, like $300. Knox, I did it. Matt Well, fire marshall. Uh, Knox actually has boxes that you can order
for your home individually. So, we have the big black ones that you see like mounted on this building and all the all the larger buildings. Um, but if you own a home in Highland Beach, you can order a box. if you're somebody that you know wants to provide that and we have the electronic key would open that just like
it would any other box and we would be able to get in. Otherwise um the only other option is what Chief's talking about is you know either having to cut a lock break a lock right minimal destruction damage as best as possible.
All right. I think that'll be very comforting to to the community. It would be better if they had some sort of if they considered that as an option if you know you know that you may not be able to get to uh open the door um because
when we leave the building we can relock once we open that door with any other method it's difficult to So going back to uh what the vice mayor said about the community connect. So a lot of our locks nowadays have a key punch on the outside so you can actually
unlock the door without the key. So if you put the code in the community connect which is a secure just secures your bank and if we get a call to your house we'll pull up community connect page and you just punch that code in no fuss no m do what it needs doing and
when we go we put the code back in and lock it up your house is secure because again bank encryption on the connect no damage there's no delay saying oh we don't have a key we have to go back to the truck get so all the things that will expedite this process is already in place. It's
just a matter of participating in those programs to make uh your life a little less reduce the risk of any long-term consequence or delays. Okay. Thank you. Yeah, that's a good reminder about the community connect. I didn't think about
that. Um putting the code to your lock in that uh vice mayor is always on good suggestion. Yeah. No, good bringing that up. That was excellent. Great. Any else? Any other questions from the chief? No, not from me. Thank you.
Thank you very much for the explanation. Any other questions about fees? No. Any other discussion? Um if none, I'd like to open it up for the public. Any public comments? Seeing no public comments. Um if we could have a motion uh to adopt.
Yes. A motion to adopt. Uh, resolution 2025-024. I'll second that. We could have a roll call, please. Commissioner Goldberg, yes. Vice Mayor Stern, yes. Commissioner Chanowski, yes. Mayor Moore, yes.
Thank you. Motion carries. Moving on to the next item. Resolution number 2025-025. a resolution of the town commission of the town of Highland Beach, Florida, amending the town's fund balance policy for the general fund and creating a fire
rescue sinking fund and a public safety capital project sinking fund providing for conflicts and providing for an effective date. So, this memorializes um some of the conversations we had where we wanted to one David was suggesting
adding a few more dollars to the uh the fire uh rescue syncing fund and then we continued to have conversations that we're going to do budget amendments into the reserves to go get these capital project dollars when the projects come forward. Um I prefer not to have a lot
of unassigned dollars when we know we're going to need them. So, the idea was to formalize our conversations into our fund balance policy that allows you when you need to via resolution to go in, but we're assigning some of that un uh unassigned funds. That was like 4.2
million. We're putting 2 million in because we know we've got the marine facility, the fire annex, we've got the entrance building, uh the fire security realtime security center. We have projects. We're going to need money, but we haven't got there yet. So, it's basically to allocate and assign those
loose dollars or unassigned dollars um and commit them to future projects. And then um in the fire side, we cleaned up some had some old language in there from when we originally did that back in 21. And then this allows us moving forward when we have a capital projects that we see coming down, we can move those
reserves over and kind of get plan for future projects. So, and again, doesn't mean you can't go get it. just takes a resolution which would be the budget amendment resolution saying we're going to go get reserves and pull those dollars over. Thank you. Did you did a lot better than
when I asked Alexa to explain the sink? So, this is kind of like an ear marking, right? It's like it's not like as official as restricted funds are. Like restricted funds you can't touch no matter what you do. Um, this is kind of like a little bit more officially
setting it aside for these things. And like if a hurricane comes and we need the the money for something else, we just do a resolution. And does a resolution need two readings or whatever? Just one. No, just one reading with purpose of why and what we're doing uh taking those dollars for. Generally,
you don't uh my preference uh from administrative side is not to have a lot of unassigned. No, I totally agree with that. the public starts to say, "What are you just holding back?" No, no, we're holding the money because we got these projects. So, we put it into a scing fund, which is a designated purpose similar to the budget stabilization. So, it's just more
exacting with why we have those dollars sitting there that we're not just earning interest, you know, right? You know, making money with other people's money. We're actually holding it because we have these projects approved and now we need to hold those dollars for that and we don't all of a sudden, God forbid
something happens or changes in commissioners and they're like, "Oh, we're just going to spend it on this." Oh, no. The we at least got 2 million is only for public safety projects. We've assigned it. You could always unassign things. I like it. I I because I know when I first started I that's what struck me as
a little odd was how big that unassigned was getting and you know was that the best use of those funds or whatever. So um I think it it is very it's informative um like you said so people can kind of know what that money is
being set aside for but it isn't set aside for like this restricted thing where we can't move that money if something comes up you know for some or some reason. Yeah, that is true. And uh always if we ever
have to exceed a budget, we always have to come to you and we have to ask for a budget amendment because that's what that is, right? So, so if uh if any of those funds that I that I talked about, if any of those funds exceed that
dollar, then uh then I've got to come to you and I've got to ask uh I got to bring you what it's for and that we're going to be pulling it from reserves. Now, when we pull it from reserves, uh let's say it's something that that we didn't plan for, right? Then that comes out of unassigned, right? We we couldn't
predict that. Uh but if the if down the road it's specific and and public safety comes to us and says, you know, uh these vehicles, we we really need to start looking down the road to to uh procure one. Uh then at that moment there we we'll then we'll then bring to you and
we'll say at this point we're going to pull it and and and you you have cart blanch you can say well how about you take half of it from unassigned and pull the other half from uh the amount of money that we've earmarked for it so we don't drain that. So and we will do
exactly that. So Dave in the association world reserves are very important in the association world. If I listen to Marshall, what he's saying, it's not a number one priority to continue building the reserves because you don't want to have that much in there. Well, you know, um
unpurpose. Yeah. Right. Yeah. On on purpose, you know, uh it's always good because for the foreseeable future, this commission uh has uh has has placed this town in a
very financial secure manner, right? And so, uh, in the foreseeable future, we're not looking at borrowing funds, right? We're not looking at interest expense and interest cost and going through all that, right? And so, we we move forward with a with a purpose based on our
five-year plan. And, uh, at the end of the day, we will accumulate uh those funds needed to carry out a project. And so uh it's it's really uh one of the best strongest way to do it with respect to the amount uh that's
designated in on exhibit A which is incorporated into the resolution. Uh the I I'd like to know what was the reasoning behind it. Uh for the fire rescue syncing fund it was 750,000 and for the public safety capital
projects is 2 million. So, the capital safety public projects we have and I have this such as in there. Those are projects that we had budgeted, but uh David and I explained those dollars are going to fall off because we couldn't execute those projects this fiscal year.
So, they're projects that are one if they're over a threshold been authorized by the community. So, these are already planned projects. Those dollar amounts are basically a million for each of those projects is sitting there for the fire rescue for the um marine docking
facility and the fire annex. The 750 we're getting it close to unfortunately those rescue vehicles are a little expensive. So we've got to get a number close to a replacement cost. Um we got lucky getting the ladder at
$850,000 but it was used. Uh those Hortons are about 5600. So with time we need that 750. So when something breaks because the Horton is a 2017 that's our highest used vehicle
that will break down probably and then be replaced in the 3 to 5 year window and we'll need six $700,000 to replace. So it's based on like replacement costish, right? Um out there, right? And we and we review it annually in any event. Yep. Yep. Yep. So, uh, by the way, on I
don't know if it's a typo, uh, but the exhibit A, if you see the top line, it says resolution number, uh, and the number is not consistent with our resolution number today. That was type. I'm going to blame it on
L. No, I'm kidding. Uh, it's probably So, that should be No. Uh, that should be 2025-0. Yep. Yep. Thank you. So once we set aside um those amounts in
the fund uh policy, how much will be left over for unassigned? Do you remember? 2.3 and some change. Oh, we still have 2.3. So yeah. Yeah. So I guess this really um put more in there
because we didn't spend the money when we thought we were that that's the reason right specify that we need it still working on project kind of just right putting them here kind of serving those
that specific purpose. So should um the public say hey what what are you doing with all No, it's capital projects. We we have something, we're just reserving it for that purpose. And it just keeps getting delayed for one reason or another. Yeah. Just designs taking significantly
longer than necessary. But it's uh we're we're in queue. We should have plans for both for three of the projects here. October. Is that the date? October, November. We'll really see. So we'll be out to bid for a few of those projects.
We know the Army Core issue kind of hammered us on the uh the the dock. So, but those all will be going hopefully this year at the end. But it could be that when we start to bid
design, it doesn't go until next fiscal year, right? So, we're just putting the money aside saying when we need it, you'll authorize us to spend it when we bring a contract for you to execute. Right. And with the sewer lining project, I mean, it went in our favor, right? Because then you ended up finding
a really great deal. Well, as long as FOT doesn't keep delaying. Yeah. Well, hopefully not. But I'm I'm just saying that's really it's that's they're they're putting us in a a spot beyond, you know, right away flooding issues. It's they're delaying a project that we had planned
and they're pushing us out six months now. Oh, so now our sewer project's being pushed out six months. Well, it was supposed to They were supposed to be done in May, right? Could have started in June. Oh, October. Yeah. But now we're October. Now they're saying November. They're not going any
faster with the rain. Mhm. Maybe it's December. Maybe it's like when are they going to let us in? And at some point there's an opportunity cost or there's an extra cost that we're going to have to realize with that contractor. We may have to give them something at else
an amendment or something for delay in cost. you know, what happens if resin or pollen goes up or there's some market change there, we're going to we've lost that opportunity at that cost. So, it could cost us more. Are they not yet? They're they're being good about it. But how long, you know,
are they still going to do the side streets like in September? Well, or or was it that like was it we're supposed to start in second week of September? Like right now, we should be in your neighborhood, but that's not happening. No, because EPOT won't let us out into the rightway. So the contractor while
he's he'll start in the side streets knowing that when he's done there he can move directly into A1A. He doesn't want to start and stop multiple times mobilization charges. Um so they want to be able to start on the side streets to buy time while FDOT's departing and go. But FDOT's not going for longer and
longer delays. So um I'm hoping you know I I I doubt they have not kept to any schedule. So, November that they're saying now, it could be December, it could be January. And then sanitary sewer lining in season
is not a the best idea is turning bypassing condos that are full while we while we line the pipes. We wanted to do it when it's still slow. So, it's going to put us we're going to have to make some calls at that point, too.
Hey, a quick question on the dollars on those funds that are set aside. What happens to the interest? Does it go into those funds or does it go into the general interest? No, it it it goes to the to those funds. Well, we right. It it it actually gets disseminated, right? Because our policy
is a certain percentage goes to budget stabilization, a certain percentage goes to disaster relief. Uh uh and then we have special earmarks, right, that that goes to. It goes to contribute to to that to that. Yeah. Yep. And and again,
it's uh staff enjoys it because we have a sense in the future of how much we can do because, you know, there's going to be new stuff that that that pops up, right? And now we can't say, "Oh, well, we've got uh $4 million to to do this
project." No, no, no, no. We'll adjust it in the books after this budget hearing. Nope. That goes down. and you know and so the next the next thing that isn't included in these but you know rest assured that uh you know if if anything foreseeable happens uh we we
have the funds and the means to uh to take care of the residents of the town of Ham Beach. Yeah, that's great news. That is excellent news. Well, I'm in favor of earmarking the dollars as as presented here. Any other discussion about it? Um, I'd like to
open it up to the public. Any public comments? Seeing no public comments. Um, if we could have a motion to adopt. Yeah. Yes. Motion to adopt resolution 2025-025. I second that. We could have a roll call. Commissioner Goldberg,
yes. Vice Mayor Stern, yes. Commissioner Chowski, yes. Mayor Moore, yes. Motion carries. Thank you. Moving on to item C, ratification of collective bargaining agreement between the town of Highland Beach and the Palm Beach County
Police Benevolent Association effective October 1st, 2025 through September 30th, 2028 and authorized the mayor and the town manager to execute the agreement. So, uh, you have the contract in here. We just moved it up a year earlier. We
had to do some cleanup work. Um, some of the language changes recognizing a holiday that was missed. the assigned uh vehicles uh giving some more flexibility. The union agreed to give the chief a little more flexibility in recruitment and uh do the adjustments to the salary table
uh to stay in the market rate. So uh we came together. They uh were good to work with. Uh no legal fees, sorry. Um but uh you know, so uh it went really well. So it's before you for consideration. They
unanimously approved it. That's great to hear. Any discussion? No, I think that's excellent. Uh we remain competitive. Yes. Yes. And uh and reward our esteemed police department. That's right. Thank you.
Yes. Thank you very much. Um open it up to the public for public comment. Seeing no public comment, if we could have a motion to adopt. Yes. Uh motion to adopt. Uh there be a motion to ratify. You want
a motion to ratify? Okay. To ratify. Yes. Motion to ratify. And that is uh the uh CB the um PBA contract the collective bargaining agreement. Yes. Um and authorize the mayor and the town manager to execute the agreement.
Perfect. Thank you. Second. The vice mayor seconds it. If we could have a roll call, please. Commissioner Goldberg. Yes. Vice Mayor Stern. Yes, Commissioner Chanowski. Yes, Mayor Moore. Yes. Thank you. Motion carries. Moving on to item D. Approve and
authorize the mayor to execute an interlocal agreement between the town of Manalopan and Highland Beach to provide code enforcement services to Manalapan on an asneeded basis. So, uh, Manalapan found themselves in a
situation needed a a certified code enforcement officer. They reached out to Jeff and I. Uh Jeff felt comfortable that our code enforcement officer had some capacity in his schedule. Um so I was willing if they covered the true
cost of his time, uh we could help him out uh until for a period of time or until they find their own person. So we're just kind of pitching in. Um so I'm comfortable with it. It covers our cost. We don't lose money on it. um and
helping out a neighbor. Again, it's 30-day out. So, if we if it doesn't seem to work out because code enforcement can be a tricky business. I And again, how much do we want to be doing that in another town because code can have a a negative resident and I just don't want
that to wash back. So, we have a quick out if we need it. If it starts getting a little hairy over there, we can say, "No thanks. We're just helping out." So this is kind of more of a fill in for a little bit for them till they figure out what they need to do. So So does he drive the Highland Beach car or will
That's that cost is all built into that hourly rate. Okay. So yeah. So get slopped on there and he changes his shirt. Oh, okay. When he goes it'll it'll say it'll be like a Manala pan. It'll be like a magnet. It says he gets there to the offices, throws the magnets over our logo.
I think that's better. Well, eventually right now he's still got the the racing stripes all over it. uh there's a new vehicle because that one's having some problems and it'll just cover the logos and then he changes his shirt into a Manalipan shirt and the residents wouldn't know any difference but if it again it could escalate with
commission and then I'm out. I'm out. I don't want to deal with other people's commissioners. So um you know what is the um where are the hearings held? They do it. It's a very it's a similar structure to
us. They have a special magistrate. They have the same process. So, it's very clean. Um so, it's that's why it made sense. We could do it without a lot of headaches of learning a new process, this and that. Um they follow they mirror our process, the special magistrate process.
They don't have a code board, which I would probably say would have said no, but since it's kind of like a judge doing it, it's a little bit cleaner and simpler for us to help. And that's at their cost. the magistrate. Oh, yeah. We don't cover anything. No. Okay.
Any other discussion? No. No. Okay. Second. Uh, open it up for public comments. Seeing no public comments, I'm in favor. I, uh, definitely want to help out a neighbor. Um, so, uh, I'm definitely in favor. So, if everyone's in favor, if we
could have a motion to approve and authorize. Yes. A motion to approve and authorize the mayor to execute the interlocal agreement between the town of Manalopan and Highland Beach to provide code enforcement services to Manalopan on an
asneeded basis. Second. All in favor say I. I. I. I. Motion carries. Moving on to town manager reports. It is done. The budget's over. So, uh, now we go into audit season. Susie,
ready? So, um, here here we go. No, so this, uh, thank you for approving the budgets. Everything's going well. We're financially sound. Everything's in great shape. Again, just tracking on our radar screen. You're going to hear the energy and conversation about property taxes.
It's picking up. Um, that could really throw a wrench in the spokes, if you will, on uh, local government. So, just keep your eyes open. If you have questions, let me know. Um, I'll feed you information as I hear it from the
legislature. They meet Monday is uh the the uh what is it? Commission special commission on property taxes. They're meeting up in Tallahassee. All the legislators to start going over some pretty wild stuff. So, see what happens.
Is there a a leading proposal at this point in time? One just came out today. It's it's going to be so complicated that I don't know how you would communicate it one to the general electorate. I mean, we know inside baseball cuz we're we're in the game.
The general public is going to have a hard time. We roll this back. We're not going to roll that back. Then we're going to do a a search charge on a sale. So basically they want to put a real estate 5% real estate tax basically when you transfer property as the one time for your local and then they're going to
do a 5% sales tax on hotel rooms and then they're going to find it's it's so so complicated and then what we have to ask for the money we justify and so it's I get what they're trying to do. Everybody kind of gets no one likes
taxes, right? That's just the American way. We don't like taxes. So, but what they're trying to undo is complicated in a home rule state, right? We are a lawful jurisdiction. So, unless they're going to do away with local governments, they can't take away our only source to
to move forward. I was just talking uh with Len, if you think about debt, all your debt is pledged on ad valorum taxes. So, if you can't do tax, does all debt currently issue become defaulted debt? we're going to create an economic crisis because we're the third largest
state. Think they want to do that and so they'll have to be like if this then that. Then it becomes so complicated. So hopefully they'll probably end up somewhere in the the homestead area and increase the homestead deduction or something. is probably the only way you
could cleanly sell it to the public that they could understand because if you're say we're going to roll back school this much, county this much over these three years, then we're going to regress this and we need what is the the electorate, what are you going to vote on? Like, oh, this is pretty complicated. So, that's
the first proposal. He went out the the legislature, he said, "Somebody's got to say something." So, he put the first thing on the table. He knows this is going to get beat up, but there's a lot of money tied up. And then if um like I said, the Florida League of City has some communication pieces that they have
there. I'm going to try to get those out as we get residents coming back to understand and start communicating. Um it's it's it's it's complicated to to just undo what is constitutionally authorized. But again, my biggest thing
is like you have debt issues like you have we have federal grant dollars that require advalorum pledge. So you how do you undo all that? I could only imagine like I mean revenue bonds I guess is a little bit safer because you're pledging system
revenue, but you're doing roads and stuff. It's general fund debt, you know. Um I I I don't it's a pretty complicated process to try to to move that needle, you know.
And how do they or do they do you think they even care to try to keep uh local governments whole as far as what their budget is? Like they do you think they're going to just say you don't
care? You know, $32 million like Well, there'll be some that say that. Trust me, there'll be a handful of legislators that could care less if we existed to be honest. and that's their perspective generally from areas where you don't have a lot of local governments, right? Um,
so there are some that are going to say that, but our constitution grants home rule and then we have all of these other rules and regulations established over time that would have to be undone. I I just don't know you can quickly and
easily like just eliminate. It's not that easy. So once you start, you know, get into the how to to make or effectuate that kind of wholesale change. Um I, you know, if they were to call me, I could tell them a lot of solutions to help, you know, tamp it
down, you know, but yeah, I would I would actually even sell the Highland Beach model that we always had a stomach ache with capping, you know, the we can't spend more than 350,000. I mean, if you really want to make it so the residents are driving the bus more, well, put those type of limitations and
referendums to raise taxes or do huge projects require the voters do, which they do for bonding. You have to have voter approval. So, it's all built there. I, you know, it's a lot of political theater, unfortunately. Um, but I'm nervous because they could throw a monkey wrench into it and then we're
all going to have to then try to figure our way through it, right? um the unintended consequences that they're not going to think about is it's really technical. It is. Um so I'm hoping that there there are some good legal minds in the legislature.
Hopefully they come to bear and can walk them through how challenging a quick vote isn't going to undo. Right. Well, keep us updated. Uh that's definitely an interesting topic. I mean,
if there were a way to if they were to do a way, you know, whatever, do some something drastic. I just this stuff and it's complicated, right? Like I I can't imagine trying to just go to a general uh voter and say, "Hey, we're going to do this, but you got to do this, then this, and then this incrementally, and you got to
move this piece, change this." Your eyes are going to roll back, right? So, it took us, you know, 150 years to get to this point. You just can't just, right? You know, it's going to be interesting. Yeah. Legislative session is going to be
definitely a circus. Okay. All right. Um, moving on. Uh, our upcoming commission meetings, October 7th, uh, 2025 is our next town commission meeting. And with that, uh, we can adjourn. Oh. Oh, do we still Oh, sorry. We one more
item. Yeah. At the last meeting, I requested uh from uh Matt a update on the building inspection program and did get an email. Terrific report. What I would ask is we can send it to the whole commission and to [Music]
send it to me and I'll send it out. Thank you. Very good. Appreciate it. Now, now we're good. Okay. Excellent. Okay. Okay. And without that we can adjurnn.