testing i did it exactly oh I see what they're doing okay figure out the water they don't Good evening the time is now 6:45 and I'll call to order the community
development agency meeting of Tuesday April 15th uh we begin with a roll call chair Kretzky here vice Chair Sundram here commissioner Choy here commissioner
Delaney executive Director Kitzero here commission Attorney Bears here okay we begin with citizen comments do we have any citizen comments no mayor none um council we we have
before us the minutes of the February 4th uh 2025 CRA meeting i don't see any corrections uh if there's none I'll take a motion and a second to approve the minutes as submitted motion to approve second motion in a second all in favor
signify by saying I i i motion carries unanimously the one item we have on the agenda tonight is a presentation town's uh town of Jupiter CRA fiscal year 2024 annual comprehensive financial
report by CBiz CPA firm welcome thank you good afternoon board of commissioners executive director of the Jupiter's Community Red Development Agency um my
name is Moza i'm one of the audit partners with CBSC CPAs and we're a CPA firm engaged to audit the Jupiter CRA and as part of today's agenda package you should have received a copy of the audited financial statements for the
fiscal year ended September 30th 2024 so if you would like to follow along I'm going to make reference to the printed page numbers so if you turn with me to printed page one you'll find our independent auditors report
and this is in essence the conclusion report regarding the audit that we performed um the first paragraph titled opinions makes reference to what we've audited and as mentioned in our report on printed page one we've audited the financial statements of the governmental
activities the major fund of the Jupiter CRA a which is a component unit of the town of Jupiter Florida as of and for the fiscal year ended September 30th 2024 the following paragraph which begins with in our opinion um is our
opinion paragraph which I believe is the most important paragraph within the report which makes reference to um the fact that the accompanying financial statements that are presented as part of the document uh present fairly in all material respects the financial position
of the governmental activities and the major fund of the agency as of year end and the respective changes in its financial position In essence it's a clean opinion um and it's the only opinion you as a board want to be associated with in terms to what we
perform which is a financial external audit following the auditor's reports if you're following along on printed page four you find the management discussion and analysis and the purpose of the MDNA is to
provide the readers of the CRA financial statements a narrative overview regarding the financial activities of the CRA for fiscal year 2024 as compared to 2023 so these pages which are put together by management highlight the
financial activity of the CRA not only its assets liabilities um but also its revenue and expenses for the fiscal year as well as future um economic factors in the next year's budget and this runs through printed page nine and the nice
thing about the MDNA um is that not only does it provide you that quantitative information but management what they're doing in their view is providing the readers the underlying justification or reason of what's driving that activity of 2024 as compared to fiscal year 2023
following the MDNA if you're following along on printed page 10 you'll find the statement of net position where you have the assets liabilities and the difference of both classifications of assets and liabilities equates to your net position as as of fiscal year end um
the largest assets being the capital assets also known as property planning equipment um and then there's liability for the events due to the town of Jupiter the difference is your net position um and as mentioned here there's no unrestricted net position
because outside of what is invested in your capital assets your ending net position or your equity balance is restricted for community development following on printed page 11 you have your statement of activities this shows you all your ins and outs on
a full acral basis we start off for accounting purposes under government accounting standards with expenses those are netted against your program revenue and at the bottom we take credit for tax increment revenue and investment earnings just wanted to point out that the net difference of your inflows and
outflows equated to a change a positive change in your net position of just shy of 1.8 million be bringing your beginning net position of 8.3 million to 10.1 million for year end the following statements are the uh
modified acral basis statements of the CRA related to his general fund on printed page we have a balance sheet the reconciliation of the balance sheet to the statement of net position on printed page 13 and then on printed page 14 on a
modified acral basis your statement of revenues expenditures and change it in fund balance and then they'll close out on printed page 15 which is the reconciliation of modified acral change in fund balance to your full acral change in net
position following the statements on printed page 16 you will find the notes to the financial statements um just wanted to highlight one of the footnotes making reference on printed page 19 is as we know the CRA does not have any employees and therefore does not have
any related benefit costs within these financial statements as a component unit of the town of Jupiter the CRA um uses town personnel to perform its operating activities and pays the town an allocated fee for such services and therefore you don't see payroll costs
within these financial statements following the footnotes if you turn with me to printed page 26 you have a budgetary comparison schedule we have the original budget of the CRA as compared to the final budget
that was approved by the elected body and then the third column is the actual amounts under a GAP basis gap stands for generally accepted accounting principles that's the column that reflects the amounts that we've audited and then the difference between your budgeted amounts and your actual amounts are shown in the
fourth column as the variance variance between actuals and your final budget following along on printed page 28 we have our yellowbook report also known as our government auditing standards report
um on the printed page 28 we make reference or explain to the readers our responsibility over reporting on internal controls over financial reporting and at the bottom of printed page 28 third paragraph under report of internal controls uh we make reference
to the fact that during our audit we did not identify any deficiencies in internal controls that we considered to be material weaknesses if we've had material weaknesses to report um we're required to do so in writing and we would use this report as a tool to
report any deficiencies on printed page 29 we make reference to the test that we did in terms of compliance with certain provisions of laws regulation contracts and grant agreements and as mentioned um
our test disclosed no instances of non-compliance in regards to the CRA the final document on printed page 33 is our examination report we make reference to Florida statute 163 um
which stipulates certain provisions that the CRA must adhere to in terms of what operational activities or expenses could be covered under the CRA um as an entity and as mentioned in this report we test the expenses or expenditures that are
that flow through the CRA to ensure that you're in compliance with Florida Statute 163 and as mentioned here we did not come across any expenditure that is not allowed under Florida statute under the purview of community redevelopment agencies that summarizes the audited
financial statements for the CRA um we are presenting the financial statements today on April 15th but these were issued and released to the board in on March 28th um if you have any questions address any questions you may have
anybody on the commission have any questions just uh once again thank you um for the u audit um I think all of us up here consider this perhaps one of the most
important functions we have you know is to make sure that uh that we're uh very transparent and and uh accurate in in our budgeting and expenditures and uh the fact that you've given us a clean opinion again we we're grateful for that
but obviously our staff earned it and u that's the bar we like to have thank you thank you okay turning to reports commission attorney no report executive director no report
mayor any commissioner comments seeing none the time is now 6:55 and we'll adjourn the meeting cra meeting good evening the time is now 700 p.m and I'll call to order the town council meeting of Tuesday April
15th we'll be uh we'll begin with an invocation followed by a moment of silence and then a pledge of allegiance if all those that are able please join me in standing dear God encourage us to assemble together in a true spirit of unity
embrace all races and beliefs and reflect empathy and compassion for all amen amen let's have a moment of silence please join me in the pledge of allegiance to the flag
of the republic okay uh first up uh we have uh a presentation on the town of Jupiter's fiscal year 2024 annual comprehensive financial report by CBZ CPA
firm good evening honorable mayor members of town council and citizens of the town of Jupiter uh my name is Mora with the CPA firm of CBIS CPAs and I'm here today to give you a brief presentation regarding the annual
comprehensive financial report for the town of Jupiter for the fiscal year ended September 30th 2024 and this is a very lengthy document um nearly 150 pages so I'm going to do my best to summarize it for you and just highlight certain key items first being
the auditor's report so um if you would like to follow along on printed page one you'll find the report on the audit of the financial statements the first paragraph makes reference to what we audited and in this case the town of Jupiter reports
governmental activities business type activities you have your major funds and also the aggregate remaining fund information for the fiscal year ended September 30th 2024 the second paragraph makes reference to all these financial statements both on a
full acral basis and a modified acral basis making reference to the fact that the accompanying financial statements in our opinion are presenting presented fairly in respects the respective financial position of the governmental activities the business type activities each major fund and the aggreate
remaining fund information as of fiscal year September 30th 2024 and essence a clean opinion and it's the only opinion you as a town council want to be associated with the third paragraph provides the reader a disclaimer to the fact that within this document they're
going to come across information regarding the municipal police officer's retirement trust fund and we make the readers aware that that information that relates to the police officer's retirement trust was not audited by us because it's audited by a separate auditor that is chosen by the board so
we just make reference to that because we are relying on those numbers and those statements and they're just inputed into the ACFR because it's a requirement of the government accounting standards board for you to present those financial numbers following the opinions paragraph
the section titled basis for opinion summarizes what we as your external auditors follow in terms of professional standards we follow two sets of standards united States generally accepted auditing standards and because we're in the state of Florida the Florida Auditor General requires us to follow government auditing standards so
we follow two sets of standards following the auditor's report if you turn with me to printed page five management of the town put together the management discussion and analysis and I mentioned that this document is over 150
pages but the MDNA is nine pages and although the entire document is important I strongly suggest that you read these nine pages these nine pages were put together by management highlighting several key items in terms of financial activity for the town as a
fiscal year 2024 as compared to 2023 and it separates it between governmental activities and business type activities um and also provides you a forecast of some budgetary highlights um and also the economic factors and next year
budgets and rates and um some projects that are um in the forefront of town management in terms of priorities so again summarizes in terms of financial activity of the town of Jupiter in terms of 2024 some highlights some key items
as well as comparing the 2024 activity versus 2023 and providing the readers the underlying justification explanation of what is causing those drivers to change if you turn with me to printed page 15 you'll find the first statement
the statement of net position on printed page 15 we show the readers all the assets and deferred outflows of the town of Jupiter between governmental and business type activities in this statement we do not capture the pensions financial records because the
pensions are not at the purview of the town those assets are not to be liquidated for your use they're protected for um members of of the pension following on printed page 16 you have all your liabilities um starting between nonc your current
liabilities then your non-current liabilities that are due within one year and those that are due in more than one year um after your liabilities you have your deferred inflows and the aggregate formula amount of considering your assets plus your deferred outflows minus
your liabilities and deferred inflows equates to net position which in terms of accounting is another word for equity within that equity you have different classifications what is not invested in capital assets or restricted is unrestricted for the use of the town of
Jupiter which is as of fiscal year ended September 30th 2024 was just shy of 188 million in terms of unrestricted net position so in essence what is net position if you were to liquid or or um
liquid all your assets and pay off all your liabilities what will be the residual equity or net position as of year end so that's what we reflect in terms of accounting if you turn with me to print to page 17 you have your statement of activities even though it doesn't look
like a profit and loss statement that is the purpose of the statement of activities in terms of government accounting we start off with your expenses so that's the first column to the right of the functions and programs those are the expenses in terms what does it cost for us to run general government public safety engineering
public works and the business type activities to the right of the expense column is your program revenue if there's any charges for services operating contributions capital contributions and grants that are that derive from these types of functions and programs and at the bottom for
accounting purposes we segregate general revenues which are considered to be non-exchange transactions the net effect of your outflows net of inflows um the difference of those two factors equates to something known as change in net position i don't want to call it a net
income but if you want to think of it as a net income is your change in net position which was a positive 35.2 million for the entire town of Jupiter for fiscal year 2024 starting off with your net position of 558.1 million considering your net
change which was positive of 35.2 two we ended the year or the town of Jupiter ended the year just shy of or just north of 593.3 million for fiscal year 2024 following the statement activity
starting on printed page 18 you have your governmental funds which are represented in modified acrruel uh we show the readers um current year activity for assets liabilities in printed page 18 and then a statement of revenues expenditures and change in fund
balance on printed page 20 between printed page 19 and 2020 and printed page 21 we reconcile for the readers what is what components should be considered from going from modified acrruel basis to full ac cruel basis of
accounting and if you turn with me to printed page 22 you have the major enterprise funds uh statement of net position these are the three enterprise funds that are intended to at a minimum cover it service costs um providing a
service where you have a billing or or structure billing rate to cover the cost of running such services for the residents of the town of Jupiter that's your water system fund your storm water fund and your building fund and if you turn with me to printed page
24 for these three enterprise funds I could show you the charges for services charges for services are generated for your water services and storm water and then your building fund receives fees or collects fees for licenses and permits net of operating expenses you have your
operating income which is the third category in the statement of revenue expenses and change in net position for these enterprise funds that work to provide a business um with an associated service fee we provide the readers with cash flow statements this
what's the purpose of a cash flow statement it shows you all your inflows and outflows of cash your beginning cash and your ending cash you start off with your operating activities consider capital related financing activity and then cash flows from investing
activities the net effect of those three categories shows you a net increase or decrease in cash and cash equivalents uh for the water and system fund it was a decrease in cash due to the fact that a lot of its cash resources were used for the um acquisition and construction of
infrastructure so at the bottom of printed page 25 we show the readers we started off with a beginning cash of 61.7 million considering the cash outflow and the net decrease on cash on hand of 17.8 our ending cash position
was 43.8 million if you turn with me to printed page 21 you'll find a statement of fidiciary net position for the police officers retirement trust fund on printed page 27 you have all the investments of the
pension of the police officer's retirement trust net of its liabilities as of year end have a restricted um net position for pension benefits of 114 million if you would like to see the additions and deductions throughout the year for the pens police pension that is
reflected on printed page 28 following the statements we reach the notes to the financial statements just want to highlight some key footnotes that I like to just touch base um the purpose of the footnotes is to provide more granular detail in regards to the town of Jupiter's accounting policies
and some of the numbers within the statements um within the financial statements of the town of Jupiter if you turn with me to printed page 44 on printed page 44 what we try to show the readers is a snapshot of all
the cash cash equivalents and investments held by the town and the police officers pension fund as of year end as you can tell the town does have investments heavy investments in Florida class Florida trust Florida Palm and Florida Prime as expected these are
highly liquid investments that you could that they could be liquid in need of cash um to cover cash needs of the town as of year end while the pension um invests in um what I would consider more long-term investments um given the fact
that pension plans are to operate in perpetuity for years to come um so as you can tell they have more of an appetite for um higher higher risk investment securities um as as expected following that footnote just
some other footnotes I'd like to touch base um on printed page 54 and 55 there was significant activity in terms of capital assets capital assets is the term that we use in accounting for property planning equipment so on
printed page 54 you have a schedule or roll for schedule of all your additions and deletions and your ending balance for your governmental activities and on printed page 55 you have the same schedule but for business type activities your water your storm water and your um building
fund following that footnote starting on printed page 56 you have your non-current liabilities what we show here to the readers is all the long-term liabilities between governmental activities and business type activities your beginning balance your additions
reflect new debt that the town took upon itself deletions reflect payments or repayment of debt service payment and then the ending balance is the second to last column the final column is what portion of that ending liability is due within the next year so what that
reflects to the readers what is going to be my cash outflow in the 12 in the upcoming 12 months following that role force schedule you have all the amortization schedules of every non-current liability um which reflects is if I'm not going to pay a liability
in the next 12 months what is the payment schedule going to be or cash outflow in the years to come following that if you turn with me to printed page 65 this will be the last footnote I touch base on which is your employee
retirement plan footnote so the town of Jupiter administers um the single employer municipal police officers retirement trust but it also covers or participates in the Florida retirement system and the health insurance subsidy
trust fund u both which are multi-employer cost sharing plans so what we do in this footnote and the reason I highlight it is because the largest liability of course of the town of Jupiter just as to many municipalities is their pension liabilities which again are not due in
the short term they're due in years to come because pension plans operate in perpetuity so what we do here is we we show the financial statement readers the net pension liability the significant plan provisions um and changes in service costs for all these three plans
so that takes you into printed page 65 which is showing you the net pension liability per plan and within the footnote itself it shows you components of what are the investment policy and the actual assumptions that are taken
into account when calculating the net pension liability as well a sensitivity analysis of the fluctuation of potential liability if the town was to adjust um through collaboration with its board the discount rate that is using to calculate
the net pension liability again that's that's the um note 10 employee retirement plans following the um footnotes or the notes to the financial statements you have historical information dating back to 10 years
regarding the pension plans that's the police officers your FR your participation in the F FRS and his schedule start on printed page 101 and show the reader 10 years history of net
pension liability as well as pension costs so on printed page 101 you have a 10-year chart for the municipal police officers u retirement trust um and then on printed page 104 you have the same
schedule or similar schedule a little bit different because the cost sharing plan for FRS and on printed page 105 you have the same schedule for your health insurance subsidy participation which is also managed by FRS the last liability
schedule on printed page 107 re relates to OPE ope stands for other post-employment benefits which are required under Florida statute uh to be offered you don't have to fund it but it has to be offered so that again is a significant liability that's reflected
on the financial statements of the town following the RSI schedules uh we provide more granular detail starting on printed page 108 for the non- major funds so in the face of the financial statements you have your major funds and
then there's a a column stated as a non- major in the aggregate based on a formula that we follow under government accounting standards we identify what is a major fund um those that are not presented as a major fund are presented in the combining schedules which um
start on printed page 108 which is your balance sheet and on printed page 109 is your statement of revenues expenditures and changes in fund balance which could be thought of as a profit and loss statement following the combining schedules you
have your statistical section um which provides historic historical information regarding not only accounting records but demographic economic statistics um history of headcount uh regarding
um the number of employees that it takes to run the town for the past 10 years as also and also capital asset statistics following the statistical table if you turn with me to printed page 136 you
have the reporting section the reporting section makes reference to government auditing standards as mentioned on printed page 106 we did that we did not identify as your external auditors any deficiencies and internal controls that we were required to
report and then on printed page 138 we make reference to the federal single audit which relates to the schedule of expenditures of federal awards if you could turn with me to printed page 141 you'll find the schedule of
expenditures of federal awards what this schedule reflects is all the grant expenditures that incurred during the fiscal year so it to clarify it doesn't include every grant that the town of Jupiter received it just reflects grants that
have been provided by a federal agency that were expended during the fiscal year and once they become expended they're subject to audit um the fact that you receive an award but haven't commenced expenditure or that program has not commenced it is not subject to
auditing until you actually start using the funds um based on the risk assessment that we are required to follow under federal law the federal grant that was selected for testing was the corona virus state and local fiscal recovery fund uh program program
identification 211027 and as mentioned on page 143 um there was no items or expenses that were identified as u being in non-compliance um in terms of um the major federal
program testing that was performed which is um I would say quite different than performing a financial audit when you perform a financial audit you have a sense of what is known as materiality where something's off by 25 cents you probably won't report it or 10 cents you
won't report it when it comes to a federal single audit it's not subject to having a threshold of materiality it's either you're in complian or you're not in compliance either you spend the funds for what they were intended to and did you report and submit quarterly or monthly reports when due there's no
exception if a report was due on the 15th of the month and it was sent on the 17th we don't have that leeway to say "Okay it was only two days late you're it's okay we still have to report it." So again a very high level of of requirement and compliance testing that
the town is subject to but again as mentioned here based on the fact that we tested that one program we had no items to report separate and apart from the annual comprehensive financial report on March 28th when we release this document we
also release our communication letter um simultaneously that makes reference to what we believe are the sensitive footnotes within the document which are the ones I covered related to your um pension plans given the fact it is the largest liability of the town so we make
reference to Gazby 68 which is the accounting standard that covers recording of pension plan activity and we also make reference to GASBY statement 75 which covers recording of the total other postemployment benefit plan
liability within that document or that letter we also make reference to if we had any issues dealing with your town management in terms of the audit and in this case we performed the audit of the town we performed the audit of the CRA
and we performed the audit of the federal programs so we had three audits this year um I would say it was a robust year due to the federal grant expenditures that were reported by the town and as mentioned within the letter we had no issues or encounter no difficulties with management in
performing the audit and once again was completed in a timely manner um your finance department and the town manager's office um were very helpful to our team we're here twice a year not only doing the fieldwork of testing the actual activity of the audit but we're
also here during interim during review of internal controls um and as always they provided us the information in order for us to finish the audit on time which was um released in the month of March i know that was a lot but I'll open up
to any questions you may have any questions just a couple uh and I know the I may or may not know the answer already but um we had spoken at the audit committee meeting earlier today and how many hours do you think
your firm spent on this audit given the size of it correct so in terms of this year where we had three audits we had the town of Jupiter ACFR audit and we had the CRA standalone financial statement and then we had a federal single audit it was north of 500 hours
so it's between 500 and 600 hours that we were here um with collaborating with your finance department thank you for that and one other question was um we had received and I believe we're in more than 30 years now
31 years of receiving um this award if I can pull it up so it's called a certificate of achievement for excellence in financial reporting um how many people choose to go through this process which is slightly more
rigorous correct so so yeah that's a good question so the town of Jupiter participates in a program that is administered by the GFOA known as the government finance officers association for the US and Canada and it's a voluntary program so Florida statute
requires you as a municipality to receive an audit on on an annual basis um an audit under government auditing standards and generally accepted auditing standards um and that audit would be of a complete set of financial statements what the town of Jupiter has
decided to do is to go beyond the minimum requirements and produce this document which is known as an ACFR annual comprehensive financial report the reason you produce this report is because you participate in the program not everybody participates in the program because it is a heavy lift um
because it's going far and beyond not only into looking at financial information but some operational statistics that makes the document quite lengthy um once you participate in the program after the audit is complete you send this to the
GFO and then the GFA has a committee that compare this document to the program requirements and if you comply with the program requirements then you receive your certificate of excellence um I would say that in South Florida
um we audit and work with about 60 government units um in terms of municipalities public utilities and I would say just about half of them participate in the program so from our experience not everybody participates in the program uh for various reasons um
but um from I would say about 50 to 60% of our clients participate in the program the rest um adhere to the Florida statute which is uh not as cumbersome as as this requirement and one last question the statistical section in the back okay are you
responsible for that section or is town staff in preparing this document so town staff is is um responsible for the statistical section our responsibility is to read it and to see if it's reasonable in terms of going back 10 years in history we are not going back
and auditing 10 years of history throughout this document but we do read it and if something seems unusual or not consistent to our expectation we'll have that that dialogue with with town town staff and see um if they could help us
resolve any of our inquiries wonderful thank you any questions yeah just um um count vice mayor Suns stole my first question was the amount amount of hours you spent on producing the document which is that's
expensive yeah so something that is less expensive as if if the town wasn't to do the ACFR is that the question no no I'm just she stole my question okay i I appreciated the amount of hours you folks put on it and this just seems this is like you I've been here for a few
years and every year we get these presentations and it just it just shows the uh the excellence of our finance staff this true total transparency we know where every penny goes you know everything's out in the open with the public so Scott and your staff again
thank you for all the hard work you put in and I I appreciate the work you folks put in producing the document also so thank you very much i just want to agree um the amount of hours that's put into preparing this document and to know that we're going
above Florida statute commend the staff commend your firm excellent job here and it just shows again total transparency and what's going on in town of Jupiter thank you a couple uh questions um so um you
indicated once again we've achieved a clean opinion correct what percentage of your audits uh end up being clean opinions so good question so in terms of getting a clean opinion um there's two two phases to that so I
would say um many of our clients do receive a clean opinion but is not unusual to receive deficiencies um there's different levels of deficiencies there's always material weakness there's something known as a material weakness a significant deficiency or a deficiency
or a general recommendation in terms of what we produce here for the town of Jupiter we had no material weaknesses or significant deficiencies i would say that would be a more comparable um unitary item to compare yourself and I would say it is not common to receive no
deficiencies um we are not shy to report deficiencies um we we have a job to do which is report on internal control deficiencies that we come across um and we do that quite often um given the fact that there's always room for improvement
so um the fact that we didn't report any um it's not that um there's it's not that we're shy to report or it's not it's not it's actually very common for us to report deficiencies and um in the course of your work are
you familiar with and do you ever at least look at the quarterly reports that our finance department puts out correct yeah so as part of intram so intim meaning that we come before you close your fiscal year end um we're required to do uh a preliminary analysis of your
financial information um in order for us to make sure that current year activity that's being transacted for the first six months is in line not only with what is expected but there's also testing that we're due against your budget when you put together your budgetary document
for the town it's you put together it's it's voted on by the elected body that goes up to up to public notice and that becomes your budget or your approved budget subsequent to that you might have budget amendments but once again those budget amendments should go to you um in terms of looking at the quarterly
activity one of the big things that we do is we compare that to your budget because your budget is pretty much tells you what can we expect for the town of Jupiter to transact during the fiscal year under audit you know how many um how many of the
firms or municipalities you audit actually do those quarterly reports in different manners um I I would say the majority of them um probably do them more semianual and in some cases when they do provide these quarterly or
semiannual reports sometime is not to cover all the opinion units because you have governmental units you have majors non- majors and then you have your three enterprise funds uh so sometimes it's more condensed information um so it depends it is it common yes but it's not
it does not provide such granular detail to what we've seen here you know and I asked that because uh you know I'm grateful for our finance department we within one month after a quarter is over we get a report right so throughout the
year then we uh uh feel very comfortable with information is very transparent and available for us to understand where we're heading um and then um so again once again I appreciate uh uh the efforts of your firm and you um you know
it hasn't always been the case that somebody has walked through the report as you do um I know you've been doing it since you've been doing the audits i do find that helpful and in fact so when I get the book ahead of time I know what
sections to look at yes and I'm already looking at them and actually comparing the year to year so in no case did you point to anything I didn't have highlighted from from that so I we appreciate that um so again thank you and I'm going to save the really tough question for our finance director i told
him I didn't have any questions but uh see Scott he thinks I was joking i didn't think I had to there any questions on this but okay no this is I could have asked but uh the consultant but um it's always important to us and
the vice mayor mentioned this but you know our audit committee uh you know um reviewed this met earlier today and um and I think it's good to have that on the record we have an audit committee and they engage in doing you know a
separate review and and um what was the outcome of that it could and then also any of those members in the audience because we'd like to recognize them uh I don't think any of them are here uh but they are volunteers mayor oh I know they are no I know they are i just I did want
to recognize them if they were here and I know I think the vice mayor goes to that so uh she does yes if I can make a quick comment on that too so because we did meet just before this meeting um all of us and they did have a couple of good insights in terms of extra metrics they'd like added for the next time and
Scott quickly took a note and said "Yep let's add it for next time." So um we're going to be even more diligent if these are CPAs and they are residents of the town and not every town has an audit committee so it's just one more layer and contribution point for the town uh
uh to your point Mayor I think it was back in 2015 we started this process with the founding mayor uh member which her name is Susan Present uh she we started with one member uh and then from there we actually grew the the the committee uh I
know you were here and we we uh created an ordinance and and appointed them or a resolution I'm sorry and uh Susan has been on uh the audit committee is actually our chairperson uh she was out sick this time could not could not be here for health reasons today but uh uh it's a very diverse group uh they ask a
lot of very good and pointed questions sometimes which is welcomed uh there's always like Mo has indicated there's always room for improvement uh they take Mo to task and staff that's there as well so they're not only the audit committee but they also review the uh the surf tax expenditures they're also
the sir tax committee so good group uh uh that that comes together and they review all these documents as well thank you thank you okay next up we have a presentation um on our Jupiter Fire Rescue Department uh
an update from our fire chief looking for the presentation here there it is this work there we go uh good evening Mayor and Council we're here tonight to provide a presentation or an update on
Jupiter Fire Rescue but before I begin that I want to introduce you to our newest member of our team this is Division Chief Robert Ramirez so Rob is our division chief of training safety and wellness rob's been in the fire
service for 23 years now he holds uh degrees in fire science and public administration he's a state certified fire instructor 2 fire officer 2 health and safety officer and live fire training instructor and since 2005 Rob
has served as a rescue team manager for the Department of Homeland Security FEMA urban search and rescue task force 2 team out of Miami he's deployed on dozens of national and international high-profile USAR missions including the
Haiti earthquakes in 2010 and major hurricanes Katrina Harvey Florence Michael and Ian he's also an instructor of fire military and special operations classes for an allhazards national training company rob is also the founder
and lead instructor of Mayday Mindset Consulting and Rob travels nationally and internationally as a guest instructor speaker and a keynote at various fire conferences throughout the year rob's also a published fire service
author he retired recently from Margate Fire Rescue and he retired from there to join us here in Jupiter and we're so excited to have Rob as part of our team so Rob thank you Chief uh Chief I'm extremely grateful for this unprecedented opportunity i I share your
vision as far as everyone here i look forward to working with all of you over the next year or so and I am extremely honored to join you on this journey thank you very much welcome thanks R appreciate you coming up um and so tonight we're going to talk about a
few of the major projects uh that we're working on and we're going to kind of focus focus on these current projects as opposed to what we've accomplished in the past including our fire rescue transition of services from Palm Beach County obtaining our COPCN for EMS
constructing our new fire stations assuming ownership and renovation of the Abakoa fire station adoption of a fire prevention code by ordinance our new firefighter traininee program and uh our
efforts on developing the proposed FY26 budget so we'll begin with a transition of services and you know it's the town's intent and it's our tangible effort to continue to be a public safety partner with Palm Beach County Fire Rescue in
the interest of our residents and the visitors of Jupiter uh the town's agreement for fire and EMS services with Palm Beach County includes a provision that allows the town to explore programs and enhancements that improve service delivery and based upon the town's
desire to ensure a seamless transition of fire and EMS services the town is pursuing a phased approach to transitioning these services from Palm Beach County to the town and so while the agreement officially terminates at midnight on September 30th of 2026 and
the town officially assumes full responsibility for services at 12:01 a.m on October 1st of 2026 we don't feel that it's in the best interest of the public to transition these services by kind of a flip of the switch at midnight uh and to that end uh
the agreement itself provides for and we're proposing a phased transition of services between the town and uh Palm Beach County so the town's pursuing a plan that would include joint training between Jupiter Fire Rescue and Palm Beach County Fire Rescue prior to our
assumption of services and a joint response to emergency calls beginning in August of 26 uh prior to our full assumption of services on October 1 of 2026 um as you're well aware we're working our certificate of public convenience
and necessity and the town must obtain this from Palm Beach County to provide EMS services there's several steps to this process the town filed its application with Palm Beach County in December of 2024 and on March 20th of
2025 the Palm Beach County EMS Advisory Council met to consider our application and they unanimously recommended to the county commission that the town of Jupiter be granted a COPCN for EMS services uh the Palm Beach County Commission is going to hold a public
hearing on June 10th to consider our application and then once approved Jupiter Fire Rescue can apply for its state EMS provider license we are construct constructing two new fire stations and construction is underway at both Piatt Place and the
area adjacent to Sinquest Park so uh I'm sure you know site work at Piatt Place is almost complete and vertical construction should begin very soon and the site work at Sinquest Park is underway with a new road for resident access through the park expected to be
completed and accessible in May of 2025 both stations are still on schedule to be substantially completed for the town by April of 2026 uh the Avakoa fire station uh back in
1999 the town attorney Mr baird wisely guided the town through a process of establishing a reversionary interest deed for the Abicoa Fire Station uh in accordance with this deed ownership of the Abicoa Fire Station will revert to the town of
Jupiter when Palm Beach County Fire Rescue ceases to provide fire rescue services to the town great foresight Mr barrett um we are working with Palm Beach County Fire Rescue and our trans transition plan for that station we've had some very meaningful discussions
with them and we'll be meeting with them again soon to prevent a very formal transition plan a fire prevention fire prevention code so the town uh with the assumption of fire services will also be assuming fire prevention and fire code enforcement services like with fire
services the town is pursuing a phase transition of fire prevention and fire code enforcement from Palm Beach County to the town uh we'll be hiring our fire marshall soon and we'll be presenting you with a fire prevention code to be adopted by ordinance in the near
future our firefighter trainee program so the town of Jupiter has this very longstanding tradition of providing its employees with professional development and growth opportunities and for over 20 years the Jupiter Police Department has sponsored trainees through the police
academy our current deputy police chief is a beneficiary of that program uh Jupiter Fire Rescue is continuing that tradition and we're providing town employees with this once-ina-lifetime opportunity for professional development so five town employees have accepted the
opportunity to become the town's very first firefighter EMTs and in August they will begin their schooling uh these town employees are all in the preparatory phases for their EMT and minimum standards program and our team is mentoring them and will continue to
mentor them throughout the process and again I just think it's so really neat that the very first firefighters for the town of Jupiter are existing town employees now that's so cool to me
uh so like the rest of the town departments uh we're working on our uh upcoming budget for the 202526 fiscal year uh Jupiter Fire Rescue will begin providing services
next year and we must budget for we must purchase all of our equipment all of our supplies vehicles software and we have to hire all of our people in the next fiscal year everyone has to be on board and they have to all have completed training before October one of
2026 so back when the town's consultant drafted their proposed plan for the creation of the Jupiter Fire Rescue Department in 2023 I might say he proposed that our operational employees would be on a 56-hour work week well as part of our upcoming proposed budget we
will be proposing to the council a 48 hour work week for our operational personnel uh yes this will uh mean that we'll need to hire more firefighters but that will put us in line with a generally accepted work week for firefighters across South
Florida um and while required to hire more firefighters um this increase in personnel will be offset by some reductions in overtime and other operating costs that will continue to keep us in line with our future budget projections uh so I might add that you
know the savings that taxpayers in Jupiter will see is the difference between the cost of Palm Beach County services and the cost of Jupiter services on a dollar basis um and it's anticipated that that difference will
continue to grow over the years today taxpayers pay county today 28.2 2 million for fire rescue services and Palm Beach County Fire Rescue's future service are expected to grow significantly their most recent collective bargaining agreement uh
included a 12% cost of living raise over three years a reduction in the county's work week from 48 hours to 482 hours that's moving to a 24 on 72 offshift schedule or a four shift system that's in January of 27 and a three-year
cumulative cost of this agreement is estimated to be $106.2 million countywide so back in 23 as we said the consultant's original projections for Jupiter Fire Rescue were $25
million our current FY27 budget projections for Jupiter Fire Rescue are still $25 million remember today's Palm Beach County FY25 cost 28.2 million and Palm Beach County's FY27 which is our 25
million cost to taxpayers has um expected to be 31.5 million if we had not terminated the contract with the county so that's the differential that we can expect in savings some might ask some have asked how is the Jupiter Fire
Rescue Department going to maintain a $25 million budget when we're hiring additional personnel to implement a 48 hour work week so included in the consultant's 2023 projections was both mandatory overtime that is required for
firefighters on a 56-hour work week and the cost of debt service on the land for fire stations and the cost of the land was expected to be $23 million uh we're no longer purchasing land for fire stations and the elimination of the
mandatory overtime costs combined with the elimination of the debt service on land and some other operational efficiencies is going to allow us to maintain our projected $25 million FY27 costs while meeting the market demands of a 48 hour work week it's also
relevant to point out again Palm Beach County is moving to a 42-hour work week and those costs would have been passed along to Jupiter taxpayers if the town had not terminated that contract um as you heard tonight from the town's auditors the town's in an outstanding
financial situation it's positioned well to create its own fire rescue department the town has been able to use interest earnings to fund all the fire rescue costs so far uh the town will be able to use general fund balance to fund next year's startup costs without
jeopardizing the health of the health of the general fund reserves that the town maintains for its rainy day and uh and I'll leave you with this as past updates uh the Jupiter Fire Rescue Department remains on schedule and on budget
vice Mayor any questions no questions any questions i do could you just explain on the five employees that are going to have the opportunity will they have this training program um explain to me how they're going to transition in from an employee to
training for fire yeah so currently they're town employees they're still today reading meters building parts of the town and maintaining facilities working at public works uh in August the uh beginning of the EMT program begins and they're enrolled in what's called a
combined EMT fire program so they'll go from one program straight to the next uh in August they'll transition away from their current jobs and they'll become trainees and employees of Jupiter Fire Rescue and they'll begin going to school and their job will be go to school
full-time they'll get their EMT courses classes training and certification and roll directly into their fire training uh they'll go through that training and get their certification there and then they'll roll into being actual firefighters for us upon completion of
that training i think that's a great opportunity it's really neat you know I I love telling this story this is the one that touches my heart uh one of those uh trainees I don't I don't know if I get the times right about eight years ago on
his own he wanted to be a firefighter he went to fire school and EMT school maybe it was a little longer than that 10 years ago went to fire school and EMT school on his own but at that time some personal situations in his family his
wife uh became pregnant they were having a child he needed to get a job right away he took a job with the town he's been with the town for eight years dutifully serving this town one of the top employees in town just a great guy
and but his dream his life dream was to be a firefighter and now he has that opportunity because of the town so love that great story one comment um great job by the way i know this is a very heavy lip um so the
the county is going down going to the 42-hour work week with an increase of you $102 million over three years uh yes so I think it was 106 but I'd have to look memor is not that great 106.2 million uh countywide not
not injured countywide right over three years three years that just shows one of the many hidden costs that was involved in that 10-year contract if we had stayed on board with that so this is just a perfect time perfect decision to
to go our own way and um just really appreciate all the work all you folks are coming in and welcome to the new members sitting the back up there so appreciate you coming on thank you appreciate you um comment question and you don't have to ask the question here because it may be one to take back but
um you know we had some I had some conversation with personally about and you had explained to me um how the it was going to work with the fire marshall with the town and then also the fact that we we will be adopting our own fire
prevention code uh so I don't know when um we're going to do that but I know you had an idea about following the state uh code so um it just seems to me that in the overlap period of time
perhaps it should be longer for fire marshall because they review plans before construction correct so uh um therein if the county is fire marshall is doing a plans review on something
that isn't going to be done until you know after we take over service then it's going to be reviewed to you know potentially a different standard and I'm sure that uh the businesses or residents or whoever that are impacted by that would appreciate
getting you know the review consistent with what the town will require um so I know in the scheme of things that's a small item but you know we're always hearing about the impact on the fire marshall so uh can you take you can speak to it now but can you also take it
back and then you know one of your next updates explain how you know efforts are being done with the county to transition that because it seemed to me need that needs to be before August 1st that it is certainly on our radar and certainly a
topic of discussion that we've had with the town manager's office um and it's also a part of our uh transition proposed transition plan that we're working on with Palm Beach County again we've had a couple meetings with them and uh planning a future meeting to make
those proposals much more concrete um and and that is included in that that it's our desire to transition those services to begin to transition those services prior to October one of 2026 and we look forward to trying to work uh with them and doing what we think is the
best uh for the residents taxpayers and visitors to the town of Jupiter right and again I realize the priority is you know the firefighter paramedics uh that that transition is happening and that's where the numbers and the emergency
calls but again I just wanted to bring that one up to ask that that one may need to have a separate transition date if you will or at least as a goal but I'm sure you work that out with Palm Beach County but just want to emphasize us up in the DAS that's no less
important to us as well yes sir thank you thank you appreciate it okay um mayor there was a citizen comment for this item okay normally we I'll accept it but normally we would accept it under citizen comments so uh
we'll accept it here but let me also introduce introduce on citizen comments that uh that's for non-aggenda items limited to three minutes and anyone wishing to speak is asked to state his or her name and address for the record so will you come forth and uh Linda
McDermott good evening linda McDermott 107 Chadwick Drive um thank you for the update um I just have one concern on the update is keeping within the 25 million even knowing that the schedules have to
be changed i realize you can reduce operating it and and overtime but I just want to make sure that other things in the town especially police and other employees we don't go with not filling their vacancies or not giving them
appropriate raises in order to stay in line i don't think that will happen because again uh Jupiter is in a very good position which which we're grateful for but my concern is with the changes in politics in the state and looking
towards uh all the talk about reducing certain taxes so I'll I'll speak more when I talk about the fire assessment but um I appreciate the update and um I just would like to see a little bit more detail on the updates um which I think
that will come um I am still looking at this and I'm in a position now where I want to help make it work i want to help with the fire assessment i want to help with the budget um I think you guys have really moved it along on schedule which is pretty good for doing a new
department thank you Timothy Murphy regarding the minutes for April one meeting the town council had wish to speak my name is Tim Murphy i'm a member of the steering committee of the
concerning citizens of Abakoa i'm here to thank you for your clarity in an early in this newly elected majority of town council on the no increased density for the
Abakoa town center subd district our organization the concerned citizens of Abaccoa will continue and we look forward to working toward a more appropriate suitable development proposal for the last vacant lots in
town center thank you that was the last one okay um moving on to the minutes uh council we have before us the minutes of the April 1st town council meeting and additionally on the dism uh uh
corrections uh if there's no other corrections I'll take a motion and a second on the amended minutes so move amended second have a motion and a second all in favor signify by saying I i motion carries unanimously
moving on the consent agenda this is items 4 through 11 on the agenda is there any member of the public that had wished to pull a consent agenda item yes item seven item seven any member on the DAS wanted to pull a consent agenda item six so moved
10 six and 10 okay uh I'll take a motion and a second approving the uh the amended consent agenda consisting of four five 8 9 and 11
motion to approve second motion and second all in favor signify by saying I i i motion carries unanimously moving on to uh first uh consent agenda item pulled item number six pulled by councelor
Um Delaney uh what's your just a question for staff um so it's been a while since I heard anything about the Taylor property going to be clearing exotics correct yes stephanie Thurn planning and zoning oh sorry i'm just saying my ne
name for the record okay um so I haven't I know there was some sort of some plans for what usage of the property and you know um some enhancements for water flow and the shoreline and all that is there anything lately i haven't really heard anything i was just curious about what
was the is this is it just clearing exotics or is there any movement or you know construction not construction but you know um enhancements other than that there that plan was just a dream it wasn't it wasn't approved by council it
was um it was related to um Jones Creek and trying to do some water quality improvements but anything would have to come back to the council so Um once we get it cleared we'll have a good idea of what's there and then we can look at
restoration okay um we want to be very careful there is a bobcat that frequents the property so um we want to make sure we maintain any habitat and that's why we're doing it in stages okay i look forward to that i just hadn't heard anything i was just curious so um I'll
just wait to hear what after you see what you guys find okay thank you appreciate it just just to follow up on that um so um this like any other property we acquired when we get around to coming up
with an improvement as a plan that would be something that would likely come through the budget process correct yes absolutely and and I mean you know in the past what they've done is what what has come up is through either the strategic um priority process um you
know uh whether or not it comes through the CIPs um you know just we we're very fortunate there is access to the property because it's bounded by two rights of ways um and then actually the rightway goes to
the north um and provides driveway access to those to single family homes so that is also the town's right of way um so there's good access to the property which is a little different from other properties where you would have to you know make your way in um so
it it has you know it's providing habitat and you know functioning per the goals of the open space program and then this parcel was acquired um with a partner Juper Inlet District and we're obligated if we were to when we are to
do improvements to be collaborating with them correct yeah it I believe their their um participation is 20% of of ownership and so we have been in in um um coordination and we collaborate well
with Jupiter Inlet District on this as well as other properties so um you know and they're great because they're right there so they have great surveillance no I just wanted the public since this one got pulled to understand what would be the process in that case in the district
would be involved as well so could be in their discussions as well as ours th this purchase was a home run and the collaboration with J was perfect so it's in perpetuity it's never going to get developed it's just done correctly so
very proud of it and it's very great project i have one small question just related to the process um so we are working with a partner and they would be involved in the process but is there any formal process when working with multiple partners i mean that would be something presumably we should always
have on our radar is it something that goes before their board after ours or is there any we we can look into that i mean I know when when we I I want to go back to the agreement that we had um when we when when they helped partner
with monetary funding for the the property but I mean we've gone before their board so um you know to to request money for other projects so it you know we like to do that regardless um so uh
you know whatever the council we can come we can bring that back or potentially put it in a weekly update once we get the answers thank you i think the weekly update is a good approach um and we all don't know the fine words of the uh of the
agreement but I imagine they committed 20% to the purchase and they committed 20% of an improvement that they agreed with so I imagine we're the lean owner and if we had a project we wanted to do that they weren't
supportive of then I would imagine but reported in the week report the provision has they don't have to contribute okay I'll take a motion and a second on approving uh agenda item six second
have a motion in the second all in favor signify by saying I i motion carries unanimously um moving on to agenda item seven i think that was pulled by a member of the public
mcdermott 107 Chadwick um I just want to say that uh Sandy Newbour who's the director of Accentra who was selected i'm really pleased that the town selected this company i've worked um I've had years experience working with Sandy and um reviewing uh the fire
assessment and the way that it's done so with that said I'm just asking for um full transparency along the way especially task number eight in preparing and presenting the assessment report before any ordinance or initial
assessment resolution to allow public input um maybe like a media blitz announcement sufficient notifications are important so the taxpayers will be able to review the impact of the selected aortionate method on their
property and what I mean by that is there they'll present you with various different ways that you can do a partial fire assessment it'll be half of a millillage you'll use some of it will be fire assessment depending on how the town wants to do it because as you know
EMS you can't cover so it's not like it's going to cover the whole fire department 25 million but um in my experience in um where I work we had three different uh pricing changes through many years and there is a lot of
work and um I thank Scott for starting this early because you will need it uh their contract is very thorough and um they break out the whole schedule which I'm very pleased to see and I ask the public if you're really interested to
read that contract which was displayed in the documents tonight because it is very thorough it will explain it to you so thank you for selecting them any other any um questions comments
on the dice i just wanted to indicate to the degree that there's been a lot of u misperceptions out there you know the council has not made any decision on this you know I trust mur McDermott knows that but I just want to say to the
public so you know we're we we we are embarking on an assessment program not knowing where we're going to end up and consider it kind of part of the budgetary process so uh we we'll see where it goes and certainly that whole
process is transparent so uh with that um I'll take a motion and a second approving uh agenda item seven motion to approve second motion is second all in favor signify by saying I i i motion
carries unanimously okay moving on to item number 10 i believe that was pulled by the vice mayor yes I need to abstain um my neighborhood is one of them is um mine is also but uh town attorney do
we need to abstain on that if our neighborhood's involved that was my advice to the vice mayor so the same advice goes to you i'll be abstaining okay
um do we have a quorum with you okay that's what I thought is that new that you'd have to abstain on a something that's affecting your neighborhood because I don't recollect that well it's it's ultimately up to the
council member if they are benefiting in some way financially from the approval of a grant for their neighborhood for a vote on approval of the grant for the neighborhood okay so not having a quorum then
um we can't take action correct you can take action on the the other items okay that's what one I was trying to get to right so you can pull those two items out and vote on the remaining items
is there a way to restructure it so that we could Well what I suggest we can move as we wish provided it's uh it's legal i would suggest that we do a motion i I'm going to ask for a motion in a second to
approve an amended uh matching grant awards excluding the two neighborhoods with the conflict but with our goal to come back you know I guess when we have a a third member when we fill the vacant position
we can do that I don't know any other way to do it is there a way to split it into two items or take turns or Yeah I don't know well it No of course the goal would be that we could come back in you know a
couple months and act on that when we fill the vacancy could that interfere with the neighborhoods though what's that could that interfere with their project i know for yours or or they could reimburse themselves i mean yeah
okay okay that makes sense y if they have funds they should all have you know funds yeah but I think the commitment is I was trying to structure it so that there's the commitment that we're not not acting on it right we are not taking action tonight
uh with the objective of you know trying to come back on those two for me what's that sure i mean we could we could do that okay correct okay i'll take a
uh motion in a second on an amended uh matching grants uh for four uh temporarily tableabling uh the two items Cove and Valencia at Abakoa so moved second
motion in a second all in favor signify by saying I i motion carries unanimously and the direction there to staff is that we we've just table those other two with the goal of trying to
figure out how we can come back on those okay um moving on to the regular agenda agenda item 12 this is a quasi judicial uh does council have any expporte disclosures i stopped by the site
yeah I um I stopped by the site and I spoke with um let's see Jack Thompson the service manager and a few other employees there okay okay and I uh I have no expert disclosures and I would ask that uh this
being quasi additional that uh any members u of the applicant and staff that will be given testimony if you'll please be stand up and be sworn in do you swear that the testimony you're about to give in this hearing is the
whole truth and nothing but the truth okay uh I guess if the applicant will make his presentation well thank you uh mayor and council members uh for the record Zach Cer with Cutler and Hering and Jupiter um I have
been sworn in i'm here on behalf of Marine Max and Jupiter um to request a approval of a PUD amendment to reduce the required side corner setback along the west property boundary from 35 ft to
17 ft and this will really accommodate uh the storage buildings that are out there today which are necessary to facilitate the uh successful business operations of Marine Max and their working waterfront use which is unique here in
Jupiter um so uh to start off the location Marine Max offices are located in the Utiki property uh just east of the new US1 bridge and from an operations standpoint Marine
Max uh team consists of two departments at least at this location here uh first being the service department which staff is uh mainly located and working in the boatyard and then the sales and admin team uh which is located in the 2,000
square foot office space so right now without the service sheds uh service employees need to basically walk around the site um around the perimeter fencing back into the office to complete a very minimal uh inventory logging task or
something along those lines as well too um so this approval of this request here tonight really helps the consumer the customer of Marine uh to enhance their service operations and the request here tonight is to ultimately reduce the side corner
setback as you can see here in blue the four storage buildings are 17 feet away from the property line and then 70 feet away from the bridge so uh technically it's adjacent to a rightaway this is why it's deemed and interpreted as a side
corner setback which the requirement is 35 ft if this was a side interior setback this would be required to be 10 ft so we're exceeding the side interior setback but we're uh out of compliance with the side corner setback but it
really reads uh and can be interpreted more so as a side interior setback given the um intent of the code and you can see the elevations here for our storage buildings that we painted uh consistent with the Utiki
property and in closing we've collaborated with the reef ball foundation uh to install artificial reef modules along the seaw wall at the Utiki property so um I will defer to staff and uh I look forward to all your feedback and here to answer any questions thank
you very much good evening council for the record Garrett Wats with Planning and Zoning the application you have before you tonight is an amendment to the existing small scale PUB to reduce the side corner setback for accessory structures to 17 ft from 35 ft uh last month the
planning and zoning commission recommended unanimously approval of this project made a few modifications they wanted to limit the location of this waivers's applicability they also wanted to require some additional screening along the fence to screen from the bridge as well as landscaping to help
screen from the US one side at the time of the meeting there was one additional shipping container that was not shown on the plans but that existed on site the commission had looked at the area where that existing container was near the dumpster it may still be out there today
i did not drive by today Chuck but um and they wanted that waiver to be applicable for all of their storage needs so since that meeting the applicant revised the plans that you have before you tonight in attachment B and that proposes to move that shipping container underneath the existing dry
rack system so staff has modified the area of the scope of the applicability for that setback waiver to just under the existing dry docks so that is the only place the 17T setback will exist for accessory structures if you approve what the resolution
tonight uh as part of this request they're also asking or planning to install artificial reef modules on the waterfront to en enhance the environment and to provide a public benefit in exchange for the waiver as required by the code staff included a condition
within the resolution that requires a marine stewardship plan which we've seen a lot of lately from developments on the water and that will make sure that these facilities are maintained long-term uh and they're they're healthy and and they serve their
purpose uh there was an issue brought up by the commission related to the occupancy of the accessory structures uh it was uh previously discussed as storage um we found that there's some sort of office occupancy in there whether it's limited or not um so we
have gone through the report and we've just noted as as accessory structures for now uh we are going to we have a a site plan application that's administrative that's currently on hold it's eligible to be reviewed administratively we're um going to be applying reasonable
standards for that space if there's some sort of office space and maybe it operates more like a contractor's office we'll apply parking rates for that and traffic rates for that to make sure that those are accounted for as part of the site planning process um we also have a condition in there that they update the
master plan and that will establish those uses as part of the master plan along with the location of the applicability of the waiver uh if this request uh is rem approved tonight we're going to follow through with that administrative site plan uh unless you would like to see it
go through the process uh if you wanted to see it you'd have to add a condition in the resolution that it come back to you all for approval um absent that we'll continue with the administrative site plan process assuming this is approved with a 17oot setback after that site plan is reviewed
and approved we'll be reviewing building permits and making sure that the building receives certificates of occupancy that align with its use and that align with the approvals um for tonight as well as for the administrative site plan so with that I'll conclude and I'd be happy to answer
any questions thank you okay um I um come back to the council uh does any member on the dis have any questions directed to staff or the applicant applicant
first so as I stated earlier I did I was down there for about a half hour walk the whole property and um so the the container that was um in question that's already back moved back under the under the racks correct correct that's the
fourth container that we've added originally at the planning commission last month we had three on the site plan now it accurately is reflected at four okay so where was it on a different part of the property was it out in the corner it was shifted to the left of the boat
rack i got okay south and so and I I did step into one of the sheds or what the buildings it looked like there were two small offices one left one right but I understand why they're there because to go back and do anything administrative you have to walk
all the way around the corner it's sort of arduous and back into the main office to do that so I understand so I I agree with SAP just called them ancillary structures i small office is not fully occupied i had one question about safety about is there concern when you're
racking a a boat on top of the rack and is under the building of failure or someone getting crushed or is that covered or has that been looked at at all or is it being safe yeah I I understand the concern on that i think they're uh you know an anchored
correctly and I don't think you know that that is ultimately a concern for uh Marine Max but I just wanted to make a point on you know you understand why they are there to facilitate operations and make the make the distance shorter to travel into the office but um none of
their employees are are uh solely working out of there the service staff members are in the boatyard working on boats all day so it's really to come in and log inventory or something very minimal and then go back out it's not something where someone's occupying as
as an office all day i observed that i observed that when I was there i I just kind of stood off and watched and um I didn't see anybody going into the office guys are just you know running around doing their thing your manager was down on the dock um on a boat talking with someone so I went down and saw him and
it's not like that people are just occupying those offices you know 9 to5 so I understand the operation it's narrow it's small you know it's it's fairly tight obviously people just can't shouldn't just walk out through there correct you know into that yard because you have the the uh Nobody from the
public is allowed inside there okay okay um that's it for now we'll come back no questions i'm good okay we have no questions then um with that I guess moving on to back
to council uh I'll sequentially solicit comments or position on the application to move this along i trust staff to take care of you know yeah I think this is very limited in
scope right this is only the setback the site plan all that would be handled by staff with building permits on top of that and if there were any additional use that we weren't seeing through the application it would be parking everything associated with it and we know our staff are very vigor vigorous
with that so I I trust them or for an efficiency of their usage and it enables great public services the only place to lift the boat right it allows for the working waterfront which was the desired outcome right originally
so no I agree with all of you and I staff's done a good job here explaining it and again likewise to my colleagues uh you know I recognize this as a logical efficiency enhancement to the project that we had reviewed so kind of
grateful that something like this even you know comes back but you know really is consistent with uh I think what we had envisioned back when so and then the fact that it's the distance that it is you know from the bridge is significant
and this is a one-story structure so you know any impacts would be minuscule so it's not visible with the grade right which has been discussed at planning and zoning and I'm grateful for planning and zoning also for discussing you know
because what was represented was storage and what was seen was something different so just catching that visiting the site understanding the grade really appreciative of our planning and zoning for the scrubs and I think I feel comfort I feel better because of that
knowing it going in they really dissected everything they went through it very thoroughly i watched that yeah one one point about it's not if you're driving it's not visible but the pedestrian walkway if you look down it will be visible so I would appreciate if because I know FDOT has the the rightway
that's their responsibility but if your side if you can keep it not looking urban or run down just it's keep it in the the spirit of Jupiter everything looks nice i I'd appreciate if you could work on that that'd be fantastic so that was one question I had actually because I
agree with planning and zoning modifications for landscaping there and uh just looking at screening uh but that is FOT is that correct and were there Yeah are there any concerns with that or has there been discussion with them or is that likely
to be able I'll respond i'll defer to Garrett but uh we'll have to coordinate with FDOT but we I can tell you that we are committed to installing landscaping unless there's some restriction by them that we can't okay but the landscaping you're doing is
going to be on your property correct yes okay so I don't know that you have any objections but thank you did you want to add anything no I would just add that um we're going to review the FDOT standards and see if
there's opportunities for landscaping that's a drainage area on the current plans um but we'll certainly be working as part of the site plan process to ensure that there's appropriate screening materials on the applicant side for those lower level structures thank you okay I'll take a uh motion in
a second on resolution 3625 motion to approve 36 resolution 3625 i'll second motion a second all in favor signify by saying I i i motion carries unanimously okay moving on to uh public
vis business thank you public business uh agenda item 12 um 13 excuse me approving the health insurance fund premium holiday i think this is Mr reynolds
presenting this good evening Mayor council uh Scott Reynolds the uh finance director for the town um I have uh actually pretty excited to give this presentation to you this evening uh been
a a lot of hard work uh from the town's perspective over the last 10 years uh so why are we here annually the town reviews through its budgetary process the town's funding needs for its health insurance and benefit program for its
employees through the evaluation of the town council uh every year uh we've uh maintained that we'd like to see a funding goal of our reserves of $10 million for the funding of its reserve balances that's through uh uh through
the last 10 years we we've had ups and downs and I'm going to talk a little bit about that this evening sorry thought it was already up there thank you Sean but council expressed through the uh annual budgetary process that they uh
wish to that once this uh insurance fund reached its goal that it may be appropriate to provide a what's called a premium holiday for the participants of the program which is the employees of the town and also the town itself uh helps fund the the uh
premiums through the adoption of uh resolution 50-25 which would allow for the uh premium holiday for the month of May and June 2025 is up for consideration this evening so a little bit of history uh we talk about this during the budgetary
process each year uh back in December of 2014 uh the town council created the town's insurance fund uh and appropriated startup funding uh that funding actually came from uh uh um rebates uh from the previous health
provider on January 1 2015 the town moves from a fully insured or to a partially self-insured model the town's insurance fund initially struggled uh due to low rates and high claims costs
uh initially and most plans when they start out new like that they do struggle uh then in 2018 to 21 2021 uh to stabilize the fund uh the town implemented a series of rate increases from 10% a year uh to uh the last year
in 2021 of only a 5% increase to help stabilize the fund the rate model that we followed uh uh from uh initially was an 8020 split meaning 80 80% of the cost uh was bore by the town or the taxpayer
and 20% by the employees uh in FY24 uh that model changed to a 9010 split uh to if you remember right back then that we were having uh recessionary or not recessionary inflationary pressures uh wanted to try
to help the employees uh by lessening the cost of the health insurance burden on them again the uh history of the claims uh expenses you can see here uh in the uh the model down below back in 2015 the
claims line here uh exceeded uh the funding level uh of the reserves of the fund um the town uh after we implemented the 10% rate increase the rate increase stabilized the fund and allowed it to
meet uh or exceed the state required reserve funding each year uh the town has to have an actuarial evaluation of the fund and its reserves and send it to the state uh to show that we're able to uh meet the obligations of the
fund uh in FY24 the claims cost was $4.9 million uh the in reserve balances is 10.9 uh one thing I want to uh make sure that everybody understands is that the uh the year the claims year for the health insurance fund
is January 1 to December 31st uh so if you were to look at the audit the audit would end on uh September 30th uh that $10.9 million will be a little bit less than the less than this number that you're seeing here is because those additional 3 months of
accumulations but over time the claims cost did stabilize along with the uh the rates and the uh reserve balances grew uh and we again we discuss that every year through the budgetary process and we establish the $10 million uh goal at
the end of each calendar year uh the town reviews its reserve targets and claims costs which are reported to the state office of federal or state of Florida office of insurance regulations uh you can see uh to the to the right here the income statement uh that we
provide to the state uh that uh we're just over just under a million dollars uh over the uh $10 million goal that the council had uh targeted uh it was stated this past year
specifically that if we exceeded the $10 million goal uh that we were to consider a premium holiday uh and that's why again we're here this evening to discuss that uh we're currently in the position to be able to offer a two-month premium
holiday for Maine in June of 2025 so if the council decides that that we are to uh do the holiday who would be eligible for the premium holiday it would be all full-time and part-time employees uh that's benefits eligible who are currently enrolled in the town's
medical plan retirees and plans who opt out are not eligible uh another question may be is is the dental or vision affected by the premium holiday no those those will continue as normal uh will employees who currently opt out of the
medical coverage get any kind of extra benefit uh in their checks no uh can I expect to receive a premium holiday in future years now that's that's a good question it's it's very possible uh but uh it's part of the review process that we'll do each year and based on the uh
levels of funding that the uh council agrees to uh during the budgetary process so what does this mean if if approved for the employees in the town two months of premium holiday savings for the employee only participant of the
HSA plan would be $172 uh for the family HSA plan it' be just over or I'm sorry $55 for the two months you can see over to the right uh what the uh taxpayer is expected to receive uh you can see uh
$1,561 for the employee portion of that coverage and the family plan uh $4,627 uh is what would be expected to come back into the town coffers for the taxpayer the HMO plan they will also receive the the benefit uh if approved
uh we have very minimal amount of people that are uh participating participating in the HMO plan uh and when I say minimal I'm I'm uh it's less than 20 people in the whole town so you've got uh 62 thou $62 for the employee only and
just over $2,000 for the family plan of people that are participating in the HMO so if authorized there will be a reduction in the premium revenue to the fund uh which will require the use of fund balance again it would be drawing down that balance back to the 10 million
mark that the council has set uh and the re re uh use of the reserves is intended to reduce that balance so what does that mean as far as just the overall savings uh you can see here for May it' be a total of $56,000 for the town itself
$486,000 in June uh 56429 and the town 4490 these are based on estimates of previous year's expenditures and historical uh estimates but just over a million dollars in holiday uh savings uh coming back a
portion of it largest portion to the town and also the employees now what will happen as we go through the year obviously we'll accumulate additional funds uh going into the last part of the year we will again start reviewing that as we get closer to December i know
during the budgetary process the council indicate that uh if possible they'd like to do something maybe at the end of the year uh we'll look at that if the council recalibrates its goal possibly during the budgetary process we'll look at that as well uh but for right now all we're asking is that uh we uh the
council will will allow us to do the premium holiday for these two months that are being proposed and with that do you have any questions um I just want to make a couple comments to pre uh in advance of my couple questions um so number one is
you know I remember well how this process worked before we were self-insured we'd have a history every year we would go out and get a insurance quotes we had a company that would help us to get in theory to get competitive
quotes and um it was always the case by recollection that if the prior year we had incurred less expenses than the year before on which the premium was based insurance company made money we
got nothing back then when it went the other way um and because you know relatively a small population I know it's more than a small business but relatively small population
because one year we had you know a couple of significant medical uh uh situations for employees it went up uh the history so the insurance company's quote for the next year was
assuming that that uh history was going to repeat itself so it was going to be a significant increase correct yes at that point we decided well we could look in history we felt that wasn't a good representative year yes it can happen
again and we went down this path to self-insure seemed insurance companies never lose money that's the way we looked at it and and I think the health here of this plan to me tells me that we made the right decision back then but I I think
you indicated that uh partially insured but I think do we have what is what insurance do we have it's it's it's called stop-loss insurance it's basically for catastrophic events right that we pay additional uh funds for about $600,000 a
year right and I just wanted to because that really mitigates that extreme year if you will as we experienced once correct that is correct so I think this is a nice uh it helps stabilize the the the the the rate the claims that are
coming into the town right and then um you had indicated on the slide that a year's worth of expenses was just under $5 million correct that is correct so in fact we have a we've got $10 million we had
established uh the council did some years ago we've hit it um um number one we're somewhat mitigated by the other insurance coverage you have but
um just at least for a newest member and also um the public this actually came up on last year's budget cycle i know in one-on-one meetings it might have come up in our public hearing as well because we foresaw the trend and uh we had
discussions about what do we do when we get 10 million and so this didn't come out of left field you know this was something that was predicted by our finance director and we had already some of us had given
guidance yeah we're open to that so to that degree um I'm certainly supportive uh of that it's consistent with policy conversations that we've had um and I'm glad it's working out that way we're very proud mayor i will tell you uh from
the employees and from the historical back in 2018 when we did have to raise rates uh before that we had an employee committee uh for the health insurance and those decisions weren't taken lightly uh to raise the rates but the employees understood uh they saw what
was happening with the fund was very transparent as we talk about this evening uh they were part of that process uh and now once we got to the end at 2021 where we're actually able to stop raising rates uh now we haven't raised rates since then uh and we're
still able to accumulate funds but now we're it's like you said it's the council has given a policy direction that we're able to give some back uh to the participants in the plan like a dividend and so while I appreciate uh your uh presentation had anticipated
questions and gave answers and I'm sure and the employees would want to know does this send any precedent no it doesn't however we've got the commitment on 9010 we've got the commitment on a $10 million uh balance we want to
maintain so uh while not an obligation I would suspect we would deal with it similarly but that's for council next year or year after if if and when that happens again and I I will and I think I say this too during
the budgetary process and if I if I'm repeating myself I apologize but uh you know we do meet with the broker uh periodically and our uh actuary that reviews our plan uh we're very proud of it and they they they they give us kudos
to because a lot of jurisdictions are not in this position uh that they are faced with these doubledigit rate increases every year uh and so we're we're very fortunate where we are currently
just one question i think this is very positive is there any criteria for how long an employee would be here before they would qualify if they're here and they're and they're participating in in the plan they will receive the benefit immediately okay good
the 10 million milestone been talking about this for years and I think y'all vote you know decided to do this the year before I was on council and one of my first meetings with you and probably Mike Balo with you talking about the self insurance and all that so but
they've come a long way i mean you always wanted to get there so I give you credit for that nice job excellent thank you yeah I'll say that as well i think I'm I know we had discussions last year but I do remember this discussion for years really and the 10 million target very specifically and so it's kind of a
celebration we made it something planned for for many years now so um wonderful and I don't see you know I personally first of all I want to emphasize you know I talked like I had been there and I was but it came out of staff as a staff
recommendation way back we had conversation about it so uh grateful to staff having recommended it or would have never have happened um and um I
um I don't foresee in the short term of years a reason why I would want to increase that the way things are going at this point in time i just want to kind of emphasize that for the record
that I do think that the 10 million that established because you know what some of these policy uh directions get established and they and new council members come and they don't even know they were established right but new council members should
know that any policy direction can be changed at any time right um so you don't you're not stuck with a direction that was given some time ago but I just wanted to kind of reach out and just have weighed in already because you know
why it's likely if we were to have the claims history that we've had you know we've been having that uh you know potentially we would be able to repeat this um and without and we wouldn't have
to uh increase the 10 million and I just want to have weight in for our employees and you to know that and just want to emphasize uh all these whenever we do this we treat all of our employees the same including those that
are in our bargaining unit um and so it never would occur to us that this is something that uh we wouldn't do for an employee because they happen to be you know in a bargaining unit i just really want to emphasize that to the degree that Um there's always been a policy of
the council and the town manager and finance to to do to treat it that way so uh and u just wanted our police to recognize that they're appreciated very much okay uh can I get a u motion in a
second on approving resolution 5025 so moved second motion is second all in favor signify by saying I i motion carries unanimously moving on to 14 uh selecting the town of
Jupiter vice mayor for 2526 if I jump in here as um vice mayor currently um I'd love to recommend councilman Delaney for this as
we have a new council member um still you know getting used to the dis um but I also just want to state that I really love the town's tradition of passing this hat uh we've been very collaborative as a council I'm grateful
for this tradition we have a mayor that is elected but the vice mayor hat gets passed around and everyone gets a turn and it's been wonderful for training and learning it certainly was a learning experience for me this was my first time wearing this hat um and you know while
it doesn't really change much in terms of up here and you know our conversations uh it can change how you are perceived out there uh so it's just it's a wonderful um thing to experience that we all get
to experience it is a wonderful unique Jupiter tradition and so um in that spirit I'd just like to um make a motion maybe uh given our limited number currently uh that council
member Delaney be named vice mayor just to u to add see there was a motion on the floor do we have a second i'm sorry there was a motion that was made do we have a second then I'll second okay and then just for discussion
um I think generally the practice has been that in fact we take nominations and then we vote generally speaking it been a consensus no no I just for future years this is a logical one but uh I just wanted to have said that i don't
know how many years ago that was right that's good to keep in mind yeah i figured given our limited number yeah so I I certainly support it i was if councelor Choy hadn't seconded I was going to pass the gavl here and second it
so so certainly uh welld deserved um okay so we have a motion and a second on uh uh selecting uh councelor Delaney as vice mayor for 2526 uh all in favor signify by saying I i i
motion carries unanimously okay uh agenda item 15 we have a staff uh presentation on this or someone presenting it do good evening South Oakan with neighborhood services um Jupiter Police
Department so last but not least my favorite thing of the year the charitable donations about 20 years now the council has contributed in support of taxexempt nonprofit organizations serving the Jupiter area who seek to improve quality
of life and offer valuable programs and services to town residents that are not offered by the town for this fiscal year the budget for the program is $50,000 this year 22 organizations
requested funding totaling $179,300 so staff analyzed the applications received determined that 20 of the 22 were eligible to receive funding based on the eligibility requirements of submitting an application by the
deadline and being a nonforprofit by IRS uh standards serving the town of Jupiter service area and delivering a service that is not offered by the town of Jupiter so the available $50,000 of funding was
divided between the 20 eligible organizations based on the number of residents served annually to determine possible funding levels and you should all have that chart okay thank you um I appreciate that staff has handled
this every year um and um it's evolved over the years how the evaluation has been done based on the circumstances of that year so as I view it
staff proposed an approach um I'm reluctant to comment about that approach other than to accept it u but I'll leave it if anybody else has any uh so I I would support the recommendation
i fully agree with that i remember when this was a $25,000 budget and we were consistently going over budget so I'm grateful that we um have raised the budget to match uh what we were actually giving i'm also grateful for just the
clear criteria to show that we're being fair um you know we've learned that there's a benefit if we don't fully fund an organization just to show that the town of Jupiter is supporting an organization can be helpful to them as they go out for other grants or opportunities funding opportunities so a
number of these do provide services also that the town does not provide so just for the benefit of residents um you know like the Palm Beach Shakespeare Festival is great for recreation for um full-time residents in the summer months um specifically but bush wildlife also and
animal rescue things like that so uh you know it's wonderful to see uh this formula work out and thank you Satu for that um and also just as a side note um really pleased to see uh Andrew Red Harris Foundation back this year i know
they were not um involved last year so that's I would be supportive as well yeah I agree i love this new process in years past this is sort of a it was like a free-for-all up here everybody's trying to figure out and we always on a budget so this is just and I trust
staffs spent the time they have the judgment to get this done correctly so I would agree with the mayor to support the staff's recommendation i think I'm grateful that I'm not here for the free-for-all because I like the way the staff has presented this i also
like that you've gone across the spectrum we you've reached out to many many organizations and I think staff did a great job i would support this completely okay i'll take a motion in a second to approve the town's charitable donations
for 25 motion to approve second have a motion a second all in favor signify by saying I i i motion carries unanimously moving on to reports town attorney just one report uh mayor I have
previously distributed a memorandum from myself to the council in regards to the appointment or the filling of a vacancy on the council in the uh most recent past when
this came up the council established a a process um and so I am suggesting that you establish the process this time um the charter provides that you have two opportunities to discuss filling the
vacancy by appointment and if you can't reach a decision on who to appoint um then it would go to a uh special election for that seat and uh as council knows the uh supervisor of
election doesn't fund special elections uh she only funds the municipal elections and so uh the council would have to fund that election and that's a a pretty substantial cost that's not a
reason in and of itself of course to to not go that route but uh the process is yours you decide how you want to go about it town manager thank you Mayor um a few things first of all I want to thank Scott Reynolds and the staff for all of
their work on that audit and I was really glad to hear the questions that you you all asked you know especially noting that that's 150 page report with auditors spending close to 600 hours on site talk about being put under the microscope
transparency i mean that's harder than any internal affairs investigation I've ever seen and so um I really want to say thank you to them they do a great job and they work extremely hard at that um also uh this past week the town held its
annual employee awards ceremony the mayor and uh several of you were there um I'd like to congratulate the following employees who were recognized by a committee of their peers our employee of the year was Kevin Albone from the building maintenance and janitorial team which is part of our
engineering and public works department our leader of the year was officer Diana Zites from the Jupiter Police Department and our team of the year was our building maintenance and janitorial team i would also like to thank our employee awards recognition committee for viewing
all of the nominations and selecting our winners and the human resources department for planning a great ceremony you know I've been affiliated with this for a long time as both as a police chief and as town manager and I don't
think I've ever seen so many nominations as we had this time and so I know that committee worked extremely hard in uh you know to reach the conclusions and a special shout out to uh our planning and zoning director John Sickler who's
chaired that committee and I think for the 20 years that I've been here he's been he's been chairing that committee so I'd like to thank them for all of their work um I'd also like to thank uh recognize Roger Hell many of you know Roger he's our senior director for
community development who earlier this month celebrated his 30th year of working with the town and so uh kudos to him and if you haven't heard I'm pleased to announce that the Florida Department of Transportation opened all lanes of the US one bridge yesterday this
includes two lanes in each direction for motorists a bike lane in each direction for bicyclists and a sidewalk in each direction for pedestrians this marks the first time all four lanes of the bridge have been open to traffic since March of
2023 community relations shared this information with the public throughout the town's website social media channels and email distribution lists as part of the town's ongoing education and outreach plan the Jupiter Police Department has scheduled two ebike safety and information events for the
coming weeks i wanted to make sure you're aware of the first will be held this Thursday April 17 from 5 until 7 pm at the Jupiter Community Center and the second will be on Wednesday April 24th these events will provide crucial ebike
safety and cover uh relevant laws and regulations and attendees will also receive a free bike helmet fitting and bicycle lights to help them ride safer the town is also hosting a bike safety fest at Abakoa Community Park on May 17th
um continuing with our cent centennial celebration this Friday at the historic train depot in Sawfish Bay Park um we'll have an open house um and the children's archaeological dig it's pretty exciting uh you may have noticed on your way in
that the town green is nearing completion and uh it looks great and so we expect to celebrate its opening in about two weeks and um and we soon be begin uh working on as a matter of fact you see the area fenced off by the PD uh
for the Jupiter uh police department memorial and then the town council memorial will be working we'll be starting work on that simultaneously um Our connect with council open house is scheduled for Wednesday April 30th and if you recall I
had talked about having some breakout sessions in my last report the breakout session topics will include ebike safety parks and recreation master plan and and playground renovations and an update from the Jupiter Fire Rescue Department and then finally I just want to thank
SATU and the neighborhood services team for all their work with the charitable donations program you know that's a lot to solicit those u requests and then grade them and evaluate them and distribute the funds and we held them
pretty tight to that um to their budget and we managed to meet the task so uh that's my report Mayor councelor Choy I just start
well I want to tell you the last few weeks have been um very busy for me and I want to thank the staff i think I've met with every department head in this town and when I tell you gracious and very um it was very
humbling for me i've lived here for a long time and I can tell you I didn't know what really went on behind the scenes but we have an amazing team and I am so proud to sit on this side of the dis and represent the residents in in
Jupiter thank you Vice Mayor uh just quick just thrilled that the bridge is completely open i drove over it twice today just went out of my way to go over it while I was down at the marina but um Just a lot of good things happening here lately and tonight we've
covered a lot of good ground so that's it councelor Sstrom it is a celebration if you think of all the long-term projects first I want to thank staff though and Scott with finance um I didn't thank him during the audit item um so I'm really
wanting to do that now and and our audit committee which I really appreciate you know he has done so much and our finance team has done so much to creatively save the town money and you know I'm looking at page 119 in the audit investment earnings i mean that was a big change that meant a lot to the town and to
Jupiter Fire Rescue and our health insurance program so that was that's huge um I just I'm so proud and you know I'm also on a number of boards i'm on the League of Cities i was on a water task force meeting today um with them
one question I'm getting from a lot of people is our ebike safety program so people are watching they're taking notice they're asking questions and so I'm just really proud of our police and all that they've done um for ebike safety uh and that is a hot topic for sure so I'm glad that we're hosting it
with our connect with council um and I think that's it for right now okay um moving on to the district one town council vacancy um we wanted to finalize
the process for selecting fulfilling that vacancy um so I'm just following up from last week do you have any criteria yep so I had mentioned criteria the last time uh we appointed and I'm grateful our
charter is clear that we shall appoint that's not always the case so we know um and if we can't reach a decision then it may go to election but I think we'll be able to um so in that first uh appointment what I had said was uh district one is the preference but maybe
we want to specify that it needs to be district one so that we don't get a bunch of district 2 applicants which we did before um I appreciate also that staff are uh confirming Jupiter residency because we had non-residents apply but that's an obvious one um I
would say you know involvement in the community and that can be in a broad sense just someone who's volunteering or out you know out and about in Jupiter um serving giving back or has a history of giving back uh would be something to look at professional experience can be
very helpful as well uh can come from a variety of backgrounds from water um small business engineering um really anything um but you know just having a professional background that could contribute uh to it uh I think
understanding how the town works some understanding of how the town works our code is different from the codes of other municipalities so you know not everyone attends our meetings in person many watch um I remember before running I watched five years of council meetings
so you know you can you can learn so much by just following town affairs and showing an awareness maybe in a letter of interest of of how things work um and I'm trying to think of of what else but I think those are my you know and
then affection for the town that was one more thing I had said you know there's knowledge of of a of a thing but just affection for it as well and just um you know warmth and and a temperament maybe that lends itself uh to this type of work government governance is a very
requires a certain type of temperament it really requires collaboration it requires listening to all residents um thick skin and so you know having that temperament is helpful as well just moving down the dire um you know I
had asked last time uh and council did send us uh the the process and schedule that by which we had looked for candidates and certainly you're hearing up here i second it uh that last time we
weren't clear on which district residents had to uh reside in and so uh and I said last week and last meeting and uh councelor Sunstrom had just indicated likewise only ones need apply are those
that are from district one live in the town uh would be eligible uh to have run for election uh but uh you know I think I think the seat should be filled by somebody that resides in district one so
I personally would like to follow the same scheduled timeline um we got a reasonable number of uh applicants with resumes um while I ditto owe what uh councilor Sunstrom had indicated leave it up to each applicant
to make your pitch on why you know uh in your resume or application letter why uh you think you would be a good candidate to uh to fill the vacancy uh through uh
the uh March of 26 when that seat you know is up for reelection um so just going on down the das vice mayor yeah I I agree with everything stated um district one residency required obviously town resident um have
we so did the town advertise how how did they solicit the the resumes well they they staff advertised and they gave us a book of all the applications and we had gotten a town manager do you want to thank you mayor so we'll take care of
all of that okay um I would just need to know how long do you want to advertise for okay and then it sounds to me like you're you're requiring a cover letter and a resume um in the advertisement we're talking about district one
residents only we'll define what that is um involvement in community professional experience understanding how the town works you know showing awareness of you know the interoperability collaboration those type of things um to include in
the cover letters we announce what you're looking for i think that's what I'm hearing now is that correct yes and can I also ask I know the town I believe the town sent an email out through its email list um which was helpful I think in getting some of the you know the number of
candidates we got but it would be very helpful to have especially if we're specifying the district the map that's on the election website so a visual because many people in Jupiter Farms believe that they are Jupiter residents and they're not um so you know for both
purposes and I think that'll save a lot of staff time as well as they sort through even the district one strip that comes down yeah because it's a bit strange a lot of people think it's north of Indiantown it's Tony Penna and then route one as well which people think is a third
district sometimes so I think the visual would be very helpful in any um social media or email advertisement we'll include that i'm trying to remember was it did you have 30 days or what what did we have last time time frame now well I
would say we accepted what the time frame was last time so just go back to whatever that was complicated yeah because we ended up with good a goodly amount of candidates that's what we want to see yeah i just wanted to put in there I
think it's important that whoever it is understand that governance is should not it doesn't need to be the top priority i think their reputation credibility and integrity within the town of Jupiter and know that
they are coming in to work with the staff and they can learn they can learn a lot um but willing to represent all the residents not just a specific issue and that they're making
some commitment for the remainder of the year and uh one last point mayor I'll have our um I'll ask our HR director Ashley to work directly with you so we use if you don't mind mayor and the HR director
as a coordination point sure so we're all in agreement with that okay there's a unanimous uh a couple other items uh number one I it was kind of awkward on the neighborhood grants but uh I want to
suggest something here and it was left for staff meaning the town manager and whoever he determines his staff but um you know it seems to me that the neighborhood grants we have a budget every year we were within
budget and uh it's not fair that a neighborhood that happens to have a you know council member residing in it be harmed um I and I agree with an abundance of caution on uh from an
ethics standpoint uh but I hadn't recognized I thought there was opinions on something like that but I'll just leave it at that uh and I'm just going to propose something not for discussion but to ask staff and the attorney to is this
appropriate uh because again I just want to seems like if the two items were split up on the consent so one neighborhood and then the other neighborhood um seemed like then we
would have uh you know a uh quorum to be able to vote on that so I just want to make that suggestion but as again I emphasize nothing's being pulled up here because we were below budget on the grants uh so every grant everybody that
applied for a grant was awarded one you know and it just so happened that um you know two of the neighborhoods happen to have council representation living in their community um so I just propose that uh town
manager and then because then you could bring it back on the agenda um and then it seems like I'm seeing a nodding of heads up here on an agreement on that approach that's the only workaround right now where we have a four member council and that that could be on the next agenda
i thought that that might have been an option i didn't I hadn't done all the research obviously we were in the moment but I had thought that that might be a workable solution at the time but I don't know how the structuring of an agenda works or I didn't know if I could make a motion to change proced agenda yeah I'd want to and it is
a small sum so I do understand the reimbursement and that's a workable option too if it goes through because you know we don't know but that is and and it shows um the importance of an appointment too because four is difficult we'll bring back those items
on the next agenda thank you so then um just a question you know it's interesting it and this comes up and even in the um this comes up more than it's always come up people are confused by residents
believe that who's my council member what you know oh I'm in district two who's my council member and I can't I probably said easily hundreds and hundreds of times the council districts are simply to make
sure that everybody doesn't live in the same neighborhood period but everybody covers you know the count the uh town at large you know at large so I just you know even just put that in there even in the invitation we have to
continue to drive that message um and then secondly another question that I get and if I get it everybody's getting it right so I'm not really but just since we're talking about filling a um so can staff in the
next few weeks in the weekly report just give an update on the district boundaries um because occasionally and I know this but do they ever change yes they do because they've been uh relatively 50%
of the town is in one district and 50% in the other but the boundaries have changed and it's been a long time and it may be because the the population hasn't changed but whatever that case may be you know could you report in the weekly report so we all know that and and could
answer that when we're questioned i think we actually have a requirement to look at that yeah and so we may have done it in the 10 years i've never seen it yeah no because I think it may come out after the census but that's why I'm asking staff just to uh to comment about that because it has happened in the past
like district one wasn't always US one to the south i wondered that myself and somebody just did that as well it's splitting a town in in two so I just I just want to make sure if we were at the point that we needed to change district boundaries Chris it wouldn't affect fill
in a seat now it would just mean that we would have some action to take before the next election i just want to emphasize that so I'm not I'm not uh Was it ever done by population trying to break it up to make it an even amount with one it is that's the purpose for my
recollection i'm having staff not go by my recollections the staff to report out what uh and is there a need in in their term to revisit that since it's been so long i think
was developed as as it was being developed yeah as it was being developed um at one point um even US1 was kind of split um almost along the Tonipal line if you
will my recollection uh but then as Abico was developing out that put more you know population if you would voter population and south but west of the inter coastal
and it was adjusted but that's so long ago again just these questions we get asked and in the interest of transparency um I just think it's good to get an update on that um I just want to kudos to FDOT on the
bridge construction uh their management ultimately you know they incentivized the contractor to finish two lanes early and um had they not done that it probably wouldn't have been done on schedule uh because I can tell you that
contractor was incentivized and for a while was trending ahead of schedule um and so I'm I'm really grateful and it's such an amenity um you know to have bike lanes in those liberal sidewalks
pathways so the bikes that don't feel comfortable it's incredible so just really grateful uh so yeah and I know that uh FOT really you know FDOT really worked uh some days
24 hours um to make that schedule so just a big thank you to them um the u you mentioned the town green town manager um I'm anxious for when the new parking area is going to be
opening um and because you know I didn't go there tonight but that's really going to free up you know parking spaces you know for the community center uh when uh we can start using the parking space you know back here uh is
that following the schedule of the town green opening yes mayor that's following the schedule we're already working on a parking plan for all of it and uh we should have everything ready to go in about two weeks okay generally speaking I always try to look is that door open
is that parking space open it seemed like they were marked off but there's a fence up you can't can't get through it they're marked off we're we're putting finishing touches on things but Understand let's see we should we should have them ready by the time the next council meeting comes
good well that's what I was wondering yeah we have to be on the lookout yeah i'll put a sign out there for you no no but we normally like I the direction I come is I don't drive that way because I come off of Indian Town Road and I cut
in uh you know by the police station after Wendy's so um okay uh and then like Ditto uh on eBike safety I really appreciate uh uh the leadership that our police have done
um I asked for some well I had seen in the weekly report and I asked for uh some additional information but um it's and so I had some back and forth with our police chief but if you think about it emotos were illegal to be on roads
but they were and they were the most dangerous because of the speeds they can go upwards of 50 plus miles an hour and if we noticed the police were starting to tow because if you're on the road you weren't supposed to and they were towing them so my understanding is nobody's
taking emotives to school anymore because they know if they leave it in the school it's going to get towed so uh that's the the highest danger risk uh has been eliminated i just want to say thank you for that and the ongoing
um ebike initiative by our police and our uh communications department uh to get a message out every week really grateful for that and like uh councelor Sunstrom indicated I think we are clearly leading that's why others are
looking um and I know with being on the uh TPA is that we had the first education efforts six months before even the TPA was promoting that that municipalities do that so again kudos
thank you and with that the time is now 9:17 and we'll adjourn the meeting thank you