--------- here on this almost bright first day of spring Friday morning as we kick off this workshop. Uh this is the first one of these I've had with y'all. Our newly appointed city manager tells me that uh this is free flowing and other than a kickoff, I think he's going first and
then Justin's going second cuz Justin's got a hard stop he's got to go do in his department. Um other than that, it's going to be kind of free flowing. We'll talk, we'll discuss. Um, and this is just a chance for us to all get together and do a professional huddle. So,
looking forward to it. And, uh, with that, kind sir, the floor is yours. >> Yes, sir. Um, thank you, mayor. So, you're right. Today is just going to be free flowing uh through the departments. Justin will go after me and then we'll just kind of go from there um per department or whoever wants to go next.
But today is the feedback that we want to give you all of what we we plan to prepare for the next fiscal year budget and kind of in the in the years ahead as well. We'd like to hear some feedback from you all on if there's things that you see that maybe you don't agree with or things that that are missing. Um or
take it all in today and we can discuss it later in one ones and in future budget workshops and commission meetings. Uh but this is kind of our goals for next fiscal year and the coming years and uh to ensure that we're all on the same page with the same priorities uh for the city.
going to be more glasses. >> No, they're so we've uh had a lot of talk on the zoning and and new changes. So, based on those conversations, we got a proposal to look at our zoning and change
everything or convert the city to zoning. Um it's going to be approximately $200,000. It will take about 6 to9 months to complete. This includes public workshops, uh, the data, the maps, the map creations, and then everything that has to go before the
state. So, approximately $200,000 to achieve this. We do want to talk about that in future budget workshops and see if that is something the commission does want to move forward with and if you would like for us to go on budgeting that exper 27.
We currently are looking at a fleet lease program. We've met with Enterprise. Chief Wager had a another company that we're probably too small for them. They haven't been really interested in giving us the proposal yet. We're working with Enterprise on the official proposal. We don't know yet
if it's going to be cheaper, but it would be for our white fleet and our police vehicles. It would be all of our pickup trucks, our SUVs, the public works facilities, parks, um fleet youth, uh sports and run to replace those vehicles on a 4-year program. We're
looking, we have given Enterprise all of the information and they're going to put together the proposal on what it would cost year 1, year two, year three, and year four. >> We should have this number back. We're meeting with them again on April 12th. We will look present this during the
budget and if it's cost effective, we will potentially present a year one optional in fiscal year 27. As you can see, of course, I use the worst looking vehicles we have to show this, but we do have some aging vehicles. We have several vehicles over 100,000 miles and we have several vehicles in especially
the fleet and the sports and wreck and the community services department that are 2003 to 2007 vehicles cyber security and IT. So as you all know we've recently had a cyber security attack or fishing scam that we had some
issues with. We're looking at Cory has put together a proposal for an RFP uh for some IT needs. Going to review that in the next week or so and potentially put that out and we will look at see what it costs to have some of our of our IT needs contracted out. Maybe a little
more cost effective and efficient for the city to do. Uh we did have a vulnerability assessment done when a previous IT director was here and we have got some issues that are high risk and we need to get addressed. So we will be putting money in the budget to address those cyber security issues. make the city a little more or a little
less vulnerable than it is now. This is just a little bit of the cyber security analysis that our vendor did. Kind of shows where we're at now and where we will be once we complete the work as they recommended. Website needs, it is a requirement to be
ADA compliant by 2027 on our website. We want to improve our video and agenda software and also incorporate a public records module. We added that funding in mid year. It's approximately $21,000 to get that started. It will increase our dues annually for our Civic Plus
website. Um so the annual dues will pick up going forward, but we will have if you look at Bay County, it will be something like their agenda video um software. If you watch a county commission meeting, if you want to see item 12 on the agenda, you click on it and it takes you right to that segment
in the video versus having to scroll through and and find it in the video. Um, it will go right down the agenda and you can video log everything there. It will also make CJ's life a little easier. Right now, every department head is emailing the car, the agenda packet, the resolution. She's getting a 100
different emails come at her for to prepare the agendas. That will all be in a software. So each department head will have access possibly their admin. They submit the the agenda packet through that. It goes through the the phases from the department head to legal for
review to procurement for review or whatever the roles you create and then it will get to CJ good to go. She'll see that everybody has made the proper reviews and then she'll be able to convert it into the agenda back. >> Can I ask a question? >> Yes sir. >> So two things. So the workflow that if
they can always kick it back if there's something wrong with it and then go. So >> for example, if a if public works puts an agenda item in to purchase a vehicle and it goes in and there has been no there's no state contract or there's
been no proper procurement process, it can get kicked back out before it goes to the agenda. If it has, it can be reviewed by uh Corey in procurement. It can be reviewed by Amy and legal or whoever legal it is at the time to make sure that the the contract has been
approved and the proper procedures have been followed >> and it keeps an audit of all that stuff. >> And then the other thing is I think I know what you're talking about with the counties. You're talking about where it shows the video and it has the agenda packet and it shows where they're at and
the actual video. I've seen that at other cities and it seems pretty standardized and it's pretty clean and um easy to follow if you're trying to do it online. >> So even for us, for staff, if you need to go back and listen to, you know, a meeting, you have to get on you're on
YouTube and you're trying to remember exactly where it was and track it with that. You just click right on the item and it takes you >> I've had to do that many of times. >> Welcome to 2026. No, cuz I I brought this up quite a few years ago and >> I didn't go on.
>> Yeah, actually you said it, you know that we did several months back. >> Yeah. >> This one is actually through Civic Plus website. >> That's the one that's more I think more standardized, more familiar. >> Yes, sir. And Civic Plus, if you look at municipal websites all over the country,
every website looks basically the same. Civic Plus has not been >> on municipal websites. But I think the more the initial setup is the most expensive part. Once you set up then it's just an annual subscription. >> So it will be uh the the setup for all
of this was it 21 or $23,000 uh >> 23 >> 23,000 to do the ADA compliance starting the video and agenda software and then the public records module and that was added in your budget. So we've got that proposal executed and they will begin
work on that very soon. So, as we've talked about, um, we did budget this fiscal year to have a salary stud done. They've actually been on site this week doing the employee interviews in one months. Been going great. Um, but we will get the results from that. We don't know what the results will be, but
very likely it will be that we have short balls in some of our departments and not all. And you will need to develop and implement a plan starting fiscal year 27 to get those salary needs in place. Utility rates wastewater plant kind of
beating the bed horse here. You all pretty well aware of this. Raph Telus is working on our rate studies and as soon as those rate studies are done it will be a joint decision to be made between Lhaven commission and which route we want to take and then the Bay County Commission if that's the route we want to go with them accepting the proposal
from us if that's the intent >> and what's the current ETA on that Chris >> about 6 months >> any um concerns with meeting deadlines with D or anything like that? No, D is so DEB has had significant turnover in
the past year themselves. So they're running very behind on things, but they they know what we're working on and as long as we're making board progress, they will work with us. Um if we weren't doing anything, we would have have issues, but they know all the work that
we're doing and working on. >> Then a couple miscellaneous things. Talk to some of you all about it. You all did get the investment policy. made the decision to have the finance review committee review that their next meeting they'll review it. Uh, Commissioner War, you and I had talked about potentially
an ideas program or something along those lines for staff, but they save money and they get they have incentive paying that to look at implementing something along those lines. It may not be exactly like you and I talked about to fit what we're legally allowed to do,
but something that empower employees for saving money. um regional storm water ponds. We'll talk about that near public works and the CRA and economic development as well. Uh but we are working on the east side regional pond and then working on grants for west side as well. So hopefully that can be
something that can help incentivize especially the CR but economic development throughout the city. River has gone to several triumph funding board meetings and looking for ways that we can get some triumph funding for some industrial growth here in the city. over the next 35 years, we
will be able to capitalize with some of that money. And then city growth, we need storage. One of the options we're looking at, I think I presented before, was purchasing 1315 Illinois Avenue, I believe, is the address right next to public works. A portion of their parking
lot will be lost during the 390 expansion. Uh but we will look at purchasing the building kind of moving our public works staff into that and then utilizing the existing public works building for storage fleet and sanitation. But we are out of storage.
Justin and Tai especially with all the stuff they have from the different sports programs and parks. It is very tight around there. We've got stuff kind of stored everywhere. We did in the past year eliminate all of our storage units and all of the rental storage cups. >> We have one left and this is the final
payment this month. So we've got to in the next 2 to 3 years find us some alternatives for sports for sure as our fleet grows as our equipment grow different items that we have for different events parks and schools. >> Um is it possible to explain what
triumph funding is and what it can be used for? >> Yes. So the triumph is the money from the BB oils bill. There's a board that they have a very very tight grip on that money. Um, River has attended some of those meetings and seen how difficult it
is to get it. We met with them two or three times in the past, I don't know, three or four years of looking at maybe some money for wastewater treatment plant expansion. Like, it doesn't bring jobs. We want something that brings jobs. So, we have to get very creative
how we submit those grant applications, how it plays into creating jobs and expanding industry in Linhaven. Um, but as that money sits there longer and longer, we do feel that their grip will get a little less tight on that and maybe open up some doors for us in the
future. >> I know when I got the tour of the Lance Event Center, it's one of the things he brought up, but I don't think they'd be a good candidate for it, unfortunately. >> Yeah, it's the regulations they have on it and the control that the board has is very tight.
>> Yeah. Thanks. Questions on any of that? go back to the zoning uh slide if you would please for just a moment. Just so the company that you're looking
at that got these quotes, is this the one that's been working with Callaway? >> Yes. >> Okay. >> As well as vac >> What's the name of that company? >> Um Ray Greer is his name and his company is called >> I just call Ray Greer. >> No worries. This is one of the most
important things I think we can do in terms of planning our work and then working our plan in terms of future growth. I don't know how Lin Haven's not had zoning for 20 years. And I've talked to Walt Kelly. I've talked to some of the old-timers and Antonius Barnes said, "Why did y'all get rid of it?" And they
look at me like I'm crazy and say, "We didn't get rid of it on our watch." So, everybody's kind of doing this. I don't know how it happened. But we definitely need to reook at this and figure out a way to make this happen. $200,000 is a lot of money, but
we really need to get this done, especially moving forward. Smart growing, effective growing instead of just the kind of patchwork growth that we've been doing as a city. So, would you all like to hear Ray Greer speak on what the results would this be
before we commit some money and and how it will? >> And I honestly think we need to do this sooner than later. >> So, would you would you like to do a workshop, a standalone workshop with Ray and kind of discuss that? How would you
like that? >> Standalone work. >> I think I believe so cuz I think there's going to be a lot of qu questions I have. I'm not going to make it sound like I'm an expert at I I'm not. There's a lot of things I I have to learn. Um there's a lot of things I've learned so
far, but there's still a lot of things I've just got questions on and I don't think I got the full picture. So, we can I can reach out to Ray, get some available dates from him, then coordinate with five. We'll set up a workshop for it uh prior to even budget workshop so we know exactly what we want
to do and have a plan going forward for that budget number. >> Let's get the whole team here. If zoning is part of what you do or you have some skin back, let's huddle and let's go through it. >> Okay. >> If this is something we plan on doing,
we're going to have to do a good job of selling it to everybody on why it's important because it failed on the ballot. >> Mhm. >> So, it'll be really really bad if we put it on the ballot. >> I think it would fail because the price was inflated. It was it was it was what the question was worded were added of an
extreme cost, >> right? >> And I think Chris brought the cost down considerably on on his estimate. We'll see where it goes. >> I mean, we actually sat down with Ray, Bobby, and I >> the original numbers we got were like something like in the and the cost was like somewhere around 800 grand to do
it, you know, to get a zoning map and do everything. And his numbers are lower than that right now, I think. And not only that, I don't think a lot of people understood what it was. >> I think it's I think it's one of the most important, as the mayor said, it's an important investment in the city's
future, especially the the way to grow, right? >> Not not to have >> four gas stations on every corner. >> Smart growth. >> Yeah, I agree with what all your guys are saying. I'm just saying we got to all all this stuff that you're saying right here, we need to make sure that
the citizens understand that >> cuz if they just go we voted no, now we got it. What gives? >> Right. >> You know, >> you have a pretty creative guy doing a Facebook post right now. So, we'll make sure we can Facebook put a workshop out there.
>> Yeah. Nature boy Ric Flair this morning. That was >> You've got a gift there. Anything else in that beside aside from the planning and zoning and we'll get a workshop scheduled? >> Thank you. No, sir.
>> Okay, >> Mr. Ward, the floor is yours. >> Can I can I say something before everyone? >> Um, I just want to let everyone know that I know a lot of work has been put into this. I know that this is not what we've done traditionally in the past.
And so I'm sure as you go through these, we're probably going to have a lot of feedback as far as um maybe things to improve on or what we'd like to see. What I don't want to happen is you take it as criticism as more of collaboration. We're not what
we're trying to do today in my opinion is not perfection cuz this is probably for some if not most of you this is new to you. So, I just don't want you guys to leave disgruntled or disappointed if if we ask a lot of questions or we're like, "Hey, we'd like to have more
information on this." And I'm glad we're starting early on this cuz we now we have plenty of time by the time it comes up to budget season. But I just wanted to make sure that when we when we start pinpointing things out that you don't take it as a bad thing, but and I know
I've talked to Mr. Lightoot quite a bit about this and I know you, like I said, I know you guys did a dry run in that. So, I I know a lot of work has gone into this and I just want to say thank you. So, and I'm really excited about this cuz I think a lot of good things are going to come out of the this whole thing. So, just
appreciate it. >> And the answer to your question, um, Ray Greer is Design West Group. This is the name of this. >> Design West. >> Design West. >> All right. Goals, staffing and budget 27.
All right. Our department goals. We would like to provide a safe developmental fun and competitive learning environment for all levels of youth and adults. Um we would like to establish a brand for marketing our own sports, recreational activities and tournaments. So when you see the LH, I
want that to be a sign for LHaven sports department. Um 444 tournaments. Um people ask what is 444? um zip code 32444. We're trying to provide our own sports tournaments now. We want to start those and get them off the ground. Um we would
like to establish credible sports tournament partnerships. We currently have a few of those at the sports complex. Um UTSA, we had the Worlds, which is kind of the biggest adult softball organization. Uh we would like to develop a miracle league, which is a baseball league for children with
disabilities. Um we would like to establish a Len Haven Youth Soccer League. We get asked about this probably four or five times a week um about a youth soccer league. We would love to increase female participation. Um and our biggest one right now I highlighted is retain our current league
participants and league quality. So when I came in it was all about growth. Where we were at post hurricane our focus now has shifted to from growth to retention. It's quality over quantity. Mind >> if I ask a question. So, have you have you been getting a lot of people
reaching out wanting looking to have like leagues in our city asking requesting that? >> Absolutely. So, the beach calls all the time about field use. Um, soccer has blown up. So, if we had >> So, they don't have enough room over there. >> No.
>> Wow. >> And we get overflow all the time at the sports complex. >> Okay. >> Thank you. Um, the Miracle League field that's you got to have you got to have a field a Miracle League designed field for that
and it's got to be turf and you and I know you're good at getting sponsors. You do you have then do you have an area in mind? I mean, you're not going to tear down one of the fields. We haven't put a Miracle League field. No. >> So, you got space available and do you have something in mind for someone to
help build it? >> Not yet, but I'll have that post later in the presentation. Okay, >> we'll get to that. Yep. All right. And right here is just some of the numbers that we have currently. And our flag football league, uh, we had 530.
Volleyball, we had 296. Spring ball, as you all know, 1323. Um, fall basketball, we had 379. And then fall ball, we had,35. So that's a big jump from fall ball to spring ball. >> I figured a larger drop off in fall
ball. That was crazy this year to have that many in football. >> When I was a kid, it was only like 25% of people played football. >> Yeah, because they're all playing football at that time. >> Like a couple years ago, wasn't it? >> No. >> Were all these participants increased from over last year at every sport?
>> 100%. Increased in every sport. >> Uh, one last thing. So, the just brought to my attention the the MAR develop a miracle league. I think that's awesome. But uh one thing that brought to mind is
I don't know if he reached out to you or not, but there's a guy name uh his last name is Duncan. He runs an organization called the alternate baseball organization >> and it kind of falls within the same thing where it's a baseball league for with adults with disabilities.
>> And so I don't know if that if you want you might want to reach out to him. >> We we we are um we tried to host their game last November. They counledled on us, but we were going to host it here at the sports complex. Yep. Awesome. >> So, we're trying to take that over. They did the first game, I believe, at G Coast.
>> Yes. >> And, um, I tried to steal it from G Coast, so um, hopefully it'll happen. >> All right. Our organizational chart, obviously, you have me. Then, we have a sports manager. Um, he manages our day-to-day um, operations.
>> Oversee our five coordinators. They're are full-time. Um they're basically one responsible for organizing and implementing our recreational programs and they're responsible for the daily maintenance of our sports facilities. That's dragging, that's top dressing, um overseating,
um quick drying, drying up fields out the rains, all that good stuff. Then we also have five um recreational specialists. I call them my customer service. They're basically ones that are setting up and breaking down games when they're at our games in the afternoon. Then we have four wreck assistants and
they're basically the ones that oversee the splash pad. It's seasonal work hours um next physical year. Um Kiki, we're asking for one additional part-time recreational specialist to cover the gym. This could possibly be seasonal. Um somebody from March to
August. Um, due to the increasing weekend rentals and participation in our facilities, the gym is currently open from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 pm Monday through Friday. Saturday, we're open from 8 to 5 unless we have a tournament. And then Sunday is rentals only. Um, the gym is
currently booked until June. Um, that's from Special Olympics. They rent the gym out every Sunday. And then at the bottom here, we already have eight basketball tournaments that has been booked inside of the gymnasium. So that'll be Saturday basically from 8:00 to 8:00 and Sunday basically from 8:00 to 8:00. So we
asking for an additional staff to cover those summer seasons. All right. One of our goals to keep a a safe fun environment. Obviously we do um Ardan Park fall and spring. We have one this afternoon. That's why I requested to go now so I can prepare for this afternoon.
Um we partner with Lin Haven. Um we do uh Linhaven Elementary. We do the Linhaven nights. They do volleyball, basketball in our gyms now. Um, we've begun to sanction our baseball and softball leagues. It makes us eligible for the World Series. And you guys know that we had a 10U softball team that won
the World Series last year. Put Lin Haven on the map. Um, we're currently the only municipality to run an official NFL flag league in Bay County. Um, our teams are not eligible for the regional NFL flag tournaments. Um, I know you see the Cowboys on there, right? Um, so I
appreciate you guys approving that for us to get the uniforms this year. great feedback from the community from that. Um, with that I'm saying they're eligible. They're now they can go play in these regional tournaments where there might be the Jacksonville Jags, the Atlanta Falcons. If you win that tournament, you represent basically that
stadium and then you go into basically like a Super Bowl. I'm the Atlanta Falcons cuz I won that tournament and you go play for that. So big growth for our leagues. Another thing for the safe fun environment behind the scenes what we do sports and wreck. are responsible for all aspect of field maintenance
in-house. This includes top dressing the ball fields, dragging the maintenance of all nine, adding clay, edging. Department staff also manage post rain, drying, chalking, fields, performance summer overseeding, winter ride grass, um, all of that good stuff. So, this is
a before and after. Fields get like this in spring. I have my staff go out and edge everything. Takes us a week to probably do that on all our ball fields. >> Um, top dressing kinsaw. We know it's ruddy sometimes up and down. I'm trying to grow the fields back for Fourth of
July. We'll take the tractors out there, some sand, but top dress Kinsaw. We'll do that probably in late April. Um then OB, obviously every day, daily maintenance. Um we're dragging all the fields, all nine fields. It takes us about 45 to 60 minutes per field to get
that right. Obviously, if it rains, um this can extend the preparation time for games or even cancel. You would know about that, Commissioner. So if we get a rain early in the morning, it might cancel games in the afternoon or even the following day. >> So Justin. >> Yes, ma'am. >> So even though we see sports and wreck
as fun, there's a whole lot of behind the scenes labor going on, right? >> Whole lot of behind thes scenes labor going on for us. I mean, >> non-stop. A lot. Yes. Yes, ma'am. >> With young folks, that's young folks >> out there every day. >> Good on you.
>> Coming back sometimes orange um because of the clay. But yeah, rain, rain, it doesn't matter. We're out there trying to push word off the field. So, we got to do what we got to do to make sure people can play the game. >> And he's been out there wearing a tie, pushing play, too. >> Yeah. Yeah. Some days I'm out there and Yes, we can tie and pushing it around
trying to get the game prepared. >> So, uh fun story about that. During winter co-ed, it was wasn't supposed to rain. It wasn't even on the radar. So like all the teams showed up and it just showed up like rain just started coming
and so and then it stopped like 30 minutes later. So like all the teams go out and we're all like squeegeeing water off the field to try to play. We get ready. We're about to start >> and then it just rains again. >> Yeah. So the story with that >> prepared the fields. It rained that
afternoon. Um and then we did everything we could to dry the fields up. Then right when it's time to play it rains again. So, I'm getting calls non-stop. Oh, we still want to play games. We still want to play games. Well, I'm like, listen, I don't have staff anymore. If you guys want to play games, all the captains and teams need to get
out there and help us like clear the fields. And sure enough, we had 20 adults out there trying to clear the fields out. They clear it out and it rains again. >> Yeah. So, >> it's crazy. >> All right. Another goal, establishing
our brand. You know, we have the robot, the turf tank. when I talking about the LH now I want to put the LH on the fields um so at flag football and we're going to start putting LH in the middle fields maybe this baseball season we'll start putting in the outfields and this is the uh logo for our 444 U sports
tournaments that's what we're going to start using so we start seeing that that's the brand and marketing that we're going to start preparing our capital improvement projects the top one to complete phase four construction
build another outdoor sand volleyball court with lights. Uh water-based resurface for the gymnasium. Uh we need new temp fences for the sports complex. Artificial turf, right, for the ball fields and additional batting cage for Kane Griffin
Park. Start on this good one. Um this I'm going in my fourth year, so this is my fourth time saying this. Um phase 4 construction of the sports complex. It's what we get calls about.
Legit, every day we get a call about this. Um, originally it was for three multi-purpose fields. Now with the growth of baseball and softball, we we cut it down to two multi-purpose fields, which is still allow us to run our
soccer league and grow our flag football league. As I told you guys before, our flag football league. We had to practice at the sports complex baseball fields because we did not have enough green space at Kinsaw, right? So, we wanted to add the two multi-purpose fields and now
one double A baseball field to help with the growth and alleviate some of the pressure of Kang Griffin Park. Um the multi-purpose fields, those two fields with lighting is 1.2 million. Um like I said used for soccer, flag football, lacrosse rugby and then the baseball
field would cost approximately 730K. We use 6U 88 U baseball. Um for everything is 2 million. That's not including parking. If we were to add parking, it'll be somewhere around 4.5. I think somewhere around 4.5. I'm willing to
compromise. We do not need parking. Grew up playing sports in Linhaven. We never had parking back there and it ran smoothly. So, I'm asking if we could just at least get the fields and one baseball field $2 million. >> Justin, that goes back to the soccer league discussion that you had earlier.
You could do your soccer leagues there, the football fields, and it will help alleviate the pressure that Kinsaw gets from the beat down on that grass. >> Yes. >> Do other cities in the area have um a lot of soccer, football fields, and that?
>> So, does Yeah, Callaway does. And then you have Bay United that's at Harters. Um >> baseball field >> that it's in um where's Harders? >> John Pitch Road. >> What is that? >> John Bay George area.
>> Yeah. So all of our residents are driving to Callaway or Bay >> only two in the beach. >> Okay. >> Are they doing anything on 23rd Street at the old RO Turnerfield? I can't remember what the name of that field is.
>> RL Turner. No. No. Okay. No. Um I know they're trying to redo Frank Nelson in Panama City. Um that's right there. That's where you're talking about. >> Um but no, I I I strongly believe if we start soccer that we will take over soccer cuz majority of those kids are
from Haven. >> Okay. >> All right. Phase four. Phase four. I'm say it four times. Before you go, >> that is something too that we've looked at triumph funding and the reasoning is
if we keep bringing industry and growth to Bay County, these people need a place to live and something for their kids to do and there was a no-go on that um as well. >> Well, not only that, if back to you're talking the traveling teams and that I mean that could spur growth of other
businesses like hotels and stuff like that. >> Sure. I don't know if that can relate to triumph funds or >> so you look at the public sports complex and the I mean they built a hotel in the complex. I mean >> yeah it >> hotels
>> interesting. >> All right. >> Yeah. >> And I and I want to say this again. I said this before. We're we're at max capacity. Um we're going to have to start capping our sporting. So that's why we switch to
Linhaven residents first. Um but going forward if we grow any more anybody that's moving into Linhaven we're it's it's going to be hard to accept any more participants than what we currently have. We can't accept another team at Kang Griffin Park. >> It's a good problem to have.
>> It's a great problem to have. >> All right. Um outdoor sand volleyball courts. We've seen increased participation in volleyball at sports complex. Um, you know, that was one of the major issues about indoor space, so we built them an outdoor space. Um, now they're requesting another court. Um,
thank you to Bobby. Our public works department was able to build um a beach volleyball court for us. Saved us approximately $20,000. We're able to build it for 10 grand. Um, but we're requesting to try to build one another one of those in the next fiscal year
with lights. Lighting for that would cost approximately 22K. um most efficient way to light up those volleyball courts without going to the same Musco system that we currently have. If we went to those same systems, it cost us around 100k. So, these will be solar lights. Um for four lights, it
cost us 22 I'm sorry, 22,000. Um lifespan on that is approximately 20 years, but we'll have a 8-year warranty for those. All right. Gym floor. On average, a gym floor has a 8 to 10 year lifespan with proper floor maintenance. Regular
cleaning and recoting will extend the life before a full floor sanding and repainting is needed. Right. Currently, um, we resurface those floors every year. Y'all know that's when I shut down the gymnasium around Christmas, New Year's, um, for a week.
We currently do what we call oilbased option. Cost us about $6,000 a year. I would recommend us going to a water-based option. Um the reason being oil based it has a process where it's called ambering. Um it's has a yellow
tint to it. So we have these nice blue borders with a yellow tint added in there. It makes it turn greenish. Um all those white lines end up turning yellow and we're starting to see that now. So I would like to switch to a waterbased option which would cost us additional
$4,000 a year. M >> that's that's not cheap as >> not cheap. >> You you you know that you got a company that does it. Have you did you bid it out? >> Yeah. >> So you know there's several companies. >> Yep. Um we actually switched to the
company that does all of Bay District schools and G Coast. >> Yep. >> Can you >> That's the cheapest you're going to get. >> I got selfish reasons. I want to share I want if it's possible you share that information with me. >> Copy. We'll do
>> got a VCT floor needs a drink for >> all right. Um if we continue with the oil base in the next two years, I feel that though we're going to have to repaint the white lines, the volleyball lines and the blue borders. Um pricing that I got on that will be 5K and then
the 5year look ahead which I said before the lifespan is 8 to 10 years. The gym has been there for 3 years. So that'll be our minimum um lifespan 8 years. we would need to look into a full sanding and restriping. It's going to cost approximately 350 to $4 a square foot.
So, if the gym needs a full resand in 5 years, we're looking at approximately 50 to 60,000 to redo that floor. Um, >> how long does it usually take to redo it? >> Um, 2 to 3 weeks. >> We just shut down during the Christmas
break. >> That's probably the slowest time. Yeah. Spend time with family, right? >> But Justin, if we went to the water, >> it's still the same >> with it. It'll still need to be redone.
>> Yeah. So, a full resand is because you're going to get chips in the floor. Yeah. >> Um deep scratches. Um eventually, you know, you're recotating. They sand it down, but you're putting basically surface on top of surface. So, after a while, that that top coat is not going to stick. So, they recommend you sanding
it all the way back down to the to the wood. and resurfacing it again. >> Are all floors like that where they're eight to 10 years? >> Yeah. >> Okay. All right. >> All right. Well, we're trying to do the extended life. Maybe we can get 12 years
out of it. I don't know. But we have the gym floor covering. Um use in the event of a storm or any major activities inside of the gymnasium. Um we've put that out. It looks great on the floor. Um, and then we would like to get a floor machine. Uh, currently when people
spill things in the gym, we're spot mopping, which is something you should never do. Um, I'm not saying we need to have the fully autonomous machine like they have in Walmart. Um, but we would like some kind of self-propelled machine that we can use on the weekend uh weekends to kind of get all the dirt off
the floors. That's going to cost us approximately $10,000 for that. These are the temporary fences. Uh temp fences at the sports complex. We've had them since we opened up. So they last three years, but each temp fence is approximately two grand. Have them on four fields. So next year we're
requesting eight grand to replace all the temporary fences at the sports complex. And you can see them on those fields. Um that allows us to play different age divisions. So the sports complex fields are currently 300 ft to the home run, right? But we can bring bring in that
home run fence line to 200 or 175, whatever we want to do. So we could play different age divisions on the fields. Y'all get that? And then this is my dream big um artificial turf for the sports complex. The sports complex is set up for
tournaments. We know that it's beautiful. Um again, I would only like to artificial turf the infields to save money. um approximately cost 300,000 per infill. Um maybe we can use uh
commissioner like we said naming rights for somebody to pay for that. Um I'm not sure but approximately 1.5 million for the project for the sports complex. Talked to the city manager. He's asking how we can stay ahead of the game. I feel like we are the premier sports
department. Um but artificial turf will definitely be one way that we can stay ahead of the game. And this goes back too to the conversation earlier about rain, bad events where the staff is out there, you know, spending hours trying to get a field ready where we had one of those Florida afternoon showers. North Bay Haven went to Dothan, played a
tournament last weekend, they had rain. Exact same thing. The fields are turf on the infields, grass on the outfields. Within 20 minutes of the rain quitting, it's ready to go. It's not like how we have now in clay and you're having to dry it up and get the field ready. It's ready to go all the time. You also don't
have to do the work that Justin showed where they're edging and and replacing the clay. So, it would eventually pay for itself as well as cut back staff time. >> All right. I think this is this is the important part with things like this metrics.
>> You know, how much what cost cuz I'm sure there's some cost savings to labor, right? >> Um have less people on shift um >> in the long run. I'm sure, you know, I don't know how long um artificial turf lasts for. Um but yeah, this is
something I think would be important to have some numbers on as far as >> for sure >> what are the potential savings in the future and things like that. >> We will gather all that for you. >> Artificial turf is thought to last 12 to 15 years
>> if it's installed properly. >> Right. Well, so also at the public sports complex, for example, they play tournaments non-stop. There is no healing time for the field. They're finishing a tournament on Sunday on
during the uh summer and another tournament's rolling in starting Monday. And that field never misses a beat. It's it's rolling. So, you don't have the beat down of the fields like you do in the grass and clay. >> Well, we're like now for us, Kinsaw truly, we couldn't play another league
on there until June. um that field was beat down. All right. And that goes back to another one of my goals. Allow us to establish a Miracle League um and attract the bigname tournaments, the UTSAs, UFAS, etc.
Picture uh Commissioner Preno of what I was talking about with the Miracle League, uh smooth surface, you can have wheelchairs, etc. on there. Um then artificial turf like you were just saying Chris will allow us to prevent cancellations as it's playable within
minutes. So that is why we can't play games. If that happens that feel is no good for the entire day. All right. The additional batting cage for Kane Griffin. Um are we keeping up with our league growth? All right. Currently there are only four batting
cages at Kane Griffin with four playable fields. So, we have eight teams that practice, but only four of them can use the batting cage. So, I'm requesting to build another batting cage right there within that sacred area. Um, approximate cost. Hey, I'm dreaming big. Um, per
Bobby, $85,000 to $100,000 for another batting cage, but we need to be efficient. >> And that's all I have. Any questions? One thing with the batting cages that we got to figure out how to enforce is only
allowing uh teams to use them when it's designated for the team. You know, I there's been >> like well I guess it should say like this it's there's a sign on there that says like for example a travel ball team
can't just come in there and use our cages without reserving them. But there's definitely been times when that happens. So the batting cages are definitely we always say first come first serve. Now during our league or practices we put up the practice schedule on every batting cage. So we
know that this batting cage is dedic designated for this team during this time. Now outside of those times um we they're basically first come first serve. But if a team was to call me and say we're going to go up to such and such batting cage we will make sure that you get that batting cage. I would have
a staff come and say you have to move out. >> League takes priority. >> Okay. >> Do they have any kind of locking system or code system? >> No. >> Any other questions? >> No, I'm just going to say uh I know that
program has come leaps and bounds. Appreciate all the phenomenal work that you and your team have done. Um, the only other input I would ask, and I don't know if it's something you have uh numbers for, but I know the numbers have grown quite a bit as far as participation.
Do you have past year's numbers where you could graph it all out? >> I can get you that. And uh I don't know if there's a way you can get like how much revenue did it bring in and the expenditures and kind of get an idea >> how much it brings in so we can project in the future if like if we go to the
some of your dream things of some of those tournaments and things like that >> for sure. >> Yeah. I also back to the retention thing. I do have some feedback that I think I would help with retention maybe in a different form but >> Okay. >> that we can talk.
Well, keep up the good work, Justin. You guys, you and your team do phenomenal work. We're proud of you. Um, seeing 13 plus hundred little rug rats of all shapes, sizes, and, you know, backgrounds out there last weekend was amazing. And you truly did a great job
of organizing chaos. So, >> you made it look like a water on the surface, right? He's just cruising, but underneath he's just steadily. >> The sound system, though. The sound system, though. >> Oh my gosh. >> You do a good job at it. All right. I appreciate it. Yes, >> sir.
>> Thanks. >> All right. Who we got? >> She's ready. >> Chief Nah Braves used to be out in the field. >> Good morning. >> Good morning. I don't really know how I
can solve that, but stay right here. >> You can walk with it. >> Correct. >> I want to break it. >> Can you hear me? >> Absolutely. >> All right. >> Good morning, everybody. Um, we're going
to talk about the fire department this morning and the needs. There we go. Sorry. That we're doing. So, in 17 months, we've done a whole reset
for the fire department. Um, we've done a great job with the backing of commission and the city manager about getting apparatus. We're at a point now where we're good. We The new one came in, the second new
one came in on Monday. Um we're going to be doing a push-in party that you probably got on your schedules. Um so on that reset, the last apparatus vehicle that we're trying to get is a second rescue truck. The reason for that
is station two on Mosley Drive is almost reaching the same call volume as station one. here in Pennsylvania. Our call volume is increasing as we go. And you're probably going to hear from every director here,
growth. Growth of the city. How do we stay ahead of it? The one luxury that some directors have is when they're done at the day, they go home, they're good. When I go home, I still have to service and protect 22,000
people. And how do we do that? So, we go to the top line. What level of service do you five expect from the fire department? What do you want? You want mediocre?
You want us to expand on what we're doing to try to protect the individuals? Now, if you follow our Facebook page, you can see that we've signed six mutual aid agreements, and we spent all week this week training at the Navy base, making sure that we know what we need to
do if they have a shipboard fire out there and what landbased support would do for them. We participated in an airport drill. We're third due out there on mutual aid. So we've increased our training and what
we need to do to prepare ourselves and not think in the '9s. We got to think of 2026 and what's coming and what growth is coming with that. So with the apparatus which are very very
expensive and you know buyers expensive there's nothing I can do about that but what I can do is try to save money in other areas. um but not much. We don't create a lot of revenue. So, we don't have that option. So, for
next year, since our apparatus are good, we're going to be looking at growth. Well, within that growth, I have one fire inspector that can't keep up. He's behind right now about 6 months on his inspections. We've only had one inspector um in 17 months. Um Chief
Delange did do some inspections when he left. We're down to one. We're going to be asking for one se or a second inspector to help with that to make sure that all the commercial buildings are within code and stay up to date. With the second rescue truck that we're
uh buying this year, we want to put that second rescue truck at station two to help out with not running that million-dollar fire truck on every EMS call. To do that, I need three people. I need three people so I can put that truck in service and those
million-dollar fire trucks that we bought won't be running on every call. We have to save those trucks. We can't run them on a daily basis only to fires, fire alarms, car accidents, but on the day-to-day what I call band-aid calls,
the sick person, stuff like that, they don't need to run. So the benefit of adding the three people is you're not putting the wear and tear on those apparatus and in the end result the maintenance cost won't be as high. I can
tell you that the ladder truck that you have in service now it's very very beautiful looking but it cost me about $10,000 just a year just in tires. So, the new engine that we got will supplement that truck and we're going to
try to run them in tandem in some way to make sure that we are also following NFPA requirements and ISO. The ISO is your insurance ratings that we have for all the citizens here in Linhaven. Currently, we're a two. We want to stay
a two or be a one. I don't know if we we're not going to be able to get a one because we don't have the personnel for that criteria, but if we can stay a two, that's where we want to be. Um, and the last request is is I have a young lady
that is my front desk person. She's also my community risk reduction person. She's the one that coordinates all the school visits. She coordinates everything within the city for outreach to educate the public. She's doing double duty. So, I'm asking for a front
desk person to alleviate some of that pressure off her so she can only concentrate on doing the outreach to all the citizens in the community. She also does our Facebook page. So those are for next year's budget. That's what I'm asking to do to
alleviate some of the pressures. So before I go into the the the capital part, is there any questions about that? >> I just have a general comment for you, Chief. I think the world of you, I think the world of your department, but to say y'all are stretched thin when the fit
hits the sh would be an understatement. And case in point, um I live in Hawks Landing, so right across from station 2, right across 389. And I've seen two examples. Uh we had a medical emergency. My elderly neighbor lady across the street. You guys were
there in like 3 minutes to help. And your crews did an amazing job. And that big pretty firet truck was there. So I can understand what you're saying there. Last February. And I actually spoke to the commission about this before I joined them uh last summer. Uh, prior
February, we had lightning strikes, thunderstorm rolls through. I know, crazy in Florida, right? Um, but it caused multiple fires at once. Station two had also rolled out and was responding to another house fire and a house four doors down from me got struck
by lightning. Uh, and the entire uh, second floor was ablaze and roof. your resources were already deployed to another fire. When 911 got called and me and another neighbor literally went and got those people out of their house, they were dazed, you know, static
electricity, their hair sticking straight up. They acted drunk and they weren't drunk. It was, you know, afternoon. You had the whole school traffic debacle, right? Fire trucks trying to get in. So, it's a lot of issues at once, but it all kind of came together. It was, you know, school had locked down, the kids couldn't get out,
so the parents and grandparents couldn't go anywhere. It was just gridlocking and you guys were trying to or the Bay County Fire Department came in. We ended up with three fire trucks there, one command and control and two normal fire trucks, but only one of them had a pump that was actually working. So, you had
three fire trucks there, but only one working and spraying water. And by the time the county guys got there, because you guys had deployed to another fire and you couldn't be in two places at once, that house ended up being a total loss. And short of it being your own
house four doors down from you and you're there consoling the people, you had to get out of their house and watching that burn is very eye opening. So we as a community, we definitely and I I say this from the heart and from honest experience right here in Linhaven.
This is one of the areas where if we need some fat, >> if we need to grow and feed more than the bare minimum, it's with our first responders, fire and police. Bottom line. Thank you for what y'all do. Um, we got to figure out as we grow as a
community, our first responders, y'all absolutely have to have what you need. And not only for that initial call, but what about the second call that Murphy's law is invariably going to happen? >> As you know, especially with big storms, lightning doesn't strike in one place and go away. It's all over the place. Right. Right.
>> So, as you have multiple fires at once, how are we responding to that as a city? and how is the county backing us up and local municipalities, you know, can we make that more effective? I don't know, but part of its resources and part of its manpower.
>> I totally agree with you, mayor. Um, the one thing that we have done is we have signed mutual aid agreements with Panama City, Panama City Beach, Tindle Air Force Base, the Navy base, and the airport. So, my battalion chiefs have
full authority if they're in route to a houseire to request that mutual aid on on the way to the call. Um, due to the fact that the ladder truck that we run has two people on it, the rescue truck that we run has two people on it. The
engine over by where you live, we have three, but there's no rescue truck out there. So, we have we by NFPA and ISO requirements, we have to be on scene in 5 minutes and 20 seconds. That's the standard.
We're meeting about 90% of that right now. So, we're above average when it comes to being on scene and meeting those standards. The issue that we're going to have as a city, as a city grows, it's only going to grow one way.
That's east. as far as the city limits go. So that's why with the We'll go back to that one. I'll get there. Um that's why we have an appropriation
station 3 uh up at the state level. Now we've made several trips to Tallahassee to get that done. Um, two weeks in a row I was in Tallahassee. I met with the lieutenant governor's aid. I met with the budgeting
director at the state. So, we've passed the house as far as getting the design and permitting for that station. But that station right now would be built out in the mill by you, which would also cover Dear Point Elementary. Right now, that's an 11minute response
to get to that area. So, we really have to take a deep dive and look at how we're going to get there financially to build that station and the people that we're going to put in it. >> So, I spent 45 minutes on the phone with
Missy last night and there are some concerns budgetwide, I meant statewide about anything that's going to be approved this year budget-wise. So definitely concerned about will we get this as an appropriation of our east side regional storm water pond and the
water main projects. Um it does sound promising but the conversation with Missy was concerning and you know when they reconvene where will it go? There's a lot of you know Senate in the House not working together and not agreeing. So fingers crossed that station 3 design
still makes it through there. 11 minute response at Deer Point late. Not to beat the dead horse and we'll talk about it more later. I bet that's not during peak school traffic time either. >> It's No, that is >> I'd be willing. >> No. And the way that that I sell this
and it's kind of crazy with some of the things that I come up with in my brain is hold your breath for 11 minutes. >> No way. >> That's how long it's taken us to get there. So if that's one of your kids or family members and they're not breathing and it takes us 11 minutes to get out there.
So think of it in that course. >> 15 minutes from my neighbor's house and it was a total loss they responding and trying to get in from the school traffic and they got in and the house was already basing out ambers and making sure other houses didn't go in that.
>> So what scares me most about that area out in that area is the elementary school. If there's a fire at that elementary school, if there's a medical emergency at that elementary school, we have a lot of schools in this town and we have to cover them. That one scares me the most.
That's that school keeps me up at night thinking on how I can make this better and how can we get to the point where we feel comfortable on the response out there. And I know it's expensive.
I know the finance director's like, "How are we going to get this done?" I I understand that you can't find grants for stations. I mean, we can look and look and look and look, but we have to look ahead. And the way that my brain works is I don't think
of today. I got to think of next year, the next year, the next year, the next year because the fire department is so expensive and I understand that. But how do I financially and physically prepare for that? You know, it's not just me
saying, "Hey, Kiki, I need $2 million." And what is she going to do? She's going to she's going to say, "No, I don't have it right now." But as a city and as a group, how do we fix this issue of putting that station out there,
but also being responsible to every other director in this room of their needs? It's not just me. It's PD. Where are they at? It's public safety. Where are they at? It's Justin what he needs to bring in the revenue for the stations. It's from parks and wrecks. So, this is
a bigger issue than just the fire department. It's a city problem as far as growth within all the departments. But for my presentation today is how do we get there and what level of service do you
expect? >> Quick question. as you look forward to plan growth and as we expand east and potentially north one day and kind of fill in the unincorporated areas. Um is there anything else multi-purpose
we could do with the fire station? I.e. you could have a police substation. You could have >> Well, the station 3 could be that. And I probably have to ask the city manager because he was part of some of that project before I got here. There was a police substation put in I
believe in the initial design that we did. >> Yes. >> But the former police chief nixed it >> if I'm not if I'm correct or was it still in there? >> It was just an officer for officer. So whatever that looks like in the future between the commission, the police
chief, the city manager, how we want to create that station, that would be conversations that we would have to have to see if we can maybe fund half and half through different appropriations and different funding from both because police has options of different funding
than than than I do. I'm not going to speak for the police chief on how he's only been here a couple weeks, but you know, that's a conversation that we might have to sit down and have on how can we fund this on two different avenues. So, with the design is not
picked out or committed yet, but it would be a conversation with Chief Blanchard and Chief Johnson, but very likely there would be some type of substation in there. Um, with police nowadays, their vehicles are their offices, so they're out roaming around. So, it's not like we need a substation sitting there with an officer in it. If
they wanted an office or something out there to use, that would be the chief's decision. >> That's kind of what I was thinking. Just uh and it's probably limited use. You wouldn't have a jail in the uh firehouse, per se. But if you have an extra office, right, or an extra workspace, >> we can dual purpose. And I don't know
what other city departments could also make use of that. >> But, you know, just trying to think ahead like you're saying, coingling of funds, synergy of effort. So in my former employment, that's what I did. I built stations. I did those things. So once we have the conversations with me
and chief, you don't have to look at this just as a day-to-day station for police. You have to believe that if we have a disaster or something, how can we house them out there along with the fire department and they don't have to come back and forth. So on the design phase, we would have to really look at what
best fits that station. But don't think of the station being built for 2026. You've got to think about building the station that will last 50 years. >> Yeah. >> And red and and get you there. Most police stations and fire departments don't get built every 10 years. It's
either 30 or 40 years to when they get redone. Now, the only thing that they do fix in new these stations that are older is they go in, they rip out the technology and put new technology in these stations. But if you build it the correct way with the hurricane windows, the block walls, and do the design
properly, this will be a 50-year station, and that's what you have to look at for the future. >> I I know that, you know, that's the biggest part of our budget is safety and security. It just is. It's expensive and
it's tough. Um, so I get it. Um, I know I probably should know this, but um, with Mil Bayou, isn't there already an agreement or impact fees or something? We have money for the station.
So, it's not an any agreement that that we've read where the developers paying for it. Uh, we will utilize impact fees to to construct it, but we won't have enough impact fees to construct the fire station. It will have to be bought. >> Is there already a plot of land set? >> We do have the three acres that's We
have an easement on the 3 acres. It's not deed to us as of now. Just an easement. >> Okay. >> Can I clarify something, please? >> Sure. >> Everything that you've heard thus far, with the exception of the sewer plan, is general fund.
>> Y >> everywhere else that you've heard so far is general fund money. And the only real lever you have for increasing general fund revenues is the
you can tinker around with fees. You can tinker around with registration but your main lever of revenue is the ad. So >> let's add the bad news
that it's on the ballot. It's going to be on the ballot estate wise how to deal with everyone. So we may or may not see some changes. >> Well, let's not live in the world of what if. We we can't live in the world of what if if it passes, if it doesn't
happen. There's five different versions of the Avalorum tax that's going to the House to be passed. None of them in Tallahassee have any clue on what they're doing. The Republicans aren't talking to the Republicans, the Democrats aren't talking to the Democrats, and nobody's talking to anybody. That's why last week they did a
dead gravel stop of session because nobody can campaign while they're doing this. So that's why they're going back for special session to try to alleviate it. Nobody's talking to the governor right now because nobody even likes the Avalor tax bill that's on there and there's four or five versions. So, for
purposes of today, let's not live in the world of what if this passes, let's deal with what we've got to do today. And if that does pass, then we'll have to go back and look at it and see how we're going to fund it because fire department is funded by Avalor taxes. We'll have to deal with that when it comes across the
board. And and I I don't have an answer for it right now until I see the correct bill. Um, moving forward for capital improvements for the fire department. Um, currently right now we have no camera system that guards that station down there at Mosley. Um, we're looking
at putting a camera system in down there for about 25 grand. Um, we're going to try our best to get that priced down and maybe we can mirror the camera system at station one and and see how we can tie that all together. Um, the pricing that you see here, they were just uh bullet
points, but we're going to do everything we can to get these these price points down. Um, our SCBA fit testing machine right now is extremely old. This is the machine that when you come on and once a year you put the mask on so you don't breathe toxic gases. That's how we get
tested and make sure that your mask is the proper size. Um, that machine is about 20 grand. We've already talked about station 3. Um, right now we're going to we're looking at putting a SCBA bottle air filtration system that trains
that fills our air bottles that we have on the back of our backs. Um, we're looking at putting one down at station 2 because that training tower that we have there is now operational. We've already had several municipalities throughout the county want to come out and train in
our tower instead of us going to train with them. Um, it's open to the police department. It's open to the sheriff's department if they want to do close quarters ammunitions or any kind of of their K9 units to use. So, our tower is
a it's our it's their tower, it's our tower, it's a city tower. So, that's where it is. Um, and right now, if any of our extrication equipment, which is the equipment with the jaws of life, go down, we have no backup.
So, we're asking for one new set of extrication equipment. Um, as that stuff gets used, it gets older, there's maintenance on it. But right now, those pieces of equipment, if they go down, we have no backup to put on the truck. ISO,
this is the big one. Our inspection is in 2027. That's our insurance rating for all the citizens in the city and how that goes. So right now, if you see this, we are a class two. Um, we've been
a class 2 for a while now. That's where I said the 5 minute and 20 seconds comes in. That's where the 11 minute comes in at the Mill Bayou area. So, we're doing everything we can to make sure that we stay in ISO 2. We've already started. We've already reached out to the inspector that's going to be inspecting
us to tell us how we can get better and how we can stay to and or gain points on that. We've already had four meetings on this. I have one individual um that's my training officer, but he's also my compliance officer that's doing a deep dive and getting all this information,
making sure it's correct. So, we stay in ISO2 and our citizens insurance ratings don't go up. So, typically right now, what is expected with a from a two to a three? So, a class one typically sees
the lowest rates with potential of 25% or more. the class three benefits for more moderate discounts to 10 or 15%. So, you can see the difference in what it is on your insurance premium and and the uh percentage. Um I don't want you
to get class one in your head cuz we're not going to make it. It's just not going to happen. >> It's very hard to get. It's very hard to keep and it looks really bad if you get it then lose it. So, if we can stay right at a two, a solid two, I would be
really really happy. And I think the commission and the city manager and the citizens would be happy with it too. >> From my understanding, it's very rare. It is for a station to get >> it is. >> Are we even close, Chief, to one criteria? >> I can get you the correct number, but I think we were like eight points from a
one last time. We're not going to get there with those eight points. That's all personnel. That's putting four person on a ladder truck, three people on an engine, two people. It's all about how many people you can get on scene and keep. We're not going to get there with the retention, trying to keep retention
and the people we lose with people even going to other departments. It's it would be crazy for us to even think about trying to get to a one. Now, we can dream, but I I just don't think we can get there. I don't think we can sustain it is what I'm saying. >> Gotcha.
>> Capital improvements for 2728. And this is where we have to look for the future. This is not a today. um problem. It's a future problem, but this is the station. So, when you build a station, it's not just the station.
What's the soft cost that comes with that station? Well, that's a new fire truck, a new rescue truck without out that area. We'd have to put in a brush truck because of all the the woods and 15 personnel just to get that station open. And that's not including when you build the
fire station. If we do it out, do it correctly, we'd have to put the contingency money in there to put in the furniture and all the dispatch equipment that have to go with this. This is not a cheap project. Um, we I the city manager tried to get me to
to get him some kind of price, but with the fluctuation of everything going on and construction prices going up and down, up and down, I didn't feel that I could put something in there and stand by it because I just don't know until we get to design or we get to an architect to say, "What is this and what are the
construction prices at that time?" Because to build this station, is it next year? Is it the year after that? I I can't tell you depending on funding. Now, if Kiki had an open checkbook, I'd tell you, but she doesn't. She It's, you know, she's doing everything she can to
support all the divisions within the city and still stay on budget. So, I I'm not going to put that pressure on anybody. So, you're looking at this fire station now and the process. Solve cost with that is the 15 sets of bunker gear, the SE bottles and packs,
the radios, the generator, ice machines, and station equipment of furniture, chairs, beds, tables, and all the etc that go with it. That's the soft cost I'm talking about. Moving forward to 2829, we do know that there is a
over in the old fuel depot, there's supposed to be a fire station that's supposed to go in there. That is part of that contract or that DO process that they will build us that fire station. We just have to supply everything that goes with it. Don't know where that was. It
was hot and heavy about 10 months ago and it went dead again. But for me, I have to think about it. I have to keep the city manager breast of that and at least put it in there as a holding place if it does come up. >> Is there a location discussed for a fourth station
>> when you Marine Island? Marine Island. That was hot and heavy when I first got here. Um, but like I said, it kind of went dead after they got their they got their doo. Um, but I don't know what they're doing with that. I haven't heard anything in probably what, 6 months. Chris,
>> they reached out to us in December, January, um, with some utility questions, but no big traction. >> So, that station right there is just a holding place for you to think for the future of what might come up. So, and
with that station is the same thing, the bunker gear, the 15 people, everything that goes along with it. Um, future down the down the line, and I'm talking four years down the line, we're going to have to replace some gear
washers and uh we're going to have to replace the the old ladder truck. That's down that's down the road. That's not even on my radar at the moment, but I have to think about it. It's uh it's getting older. It's our reserve and it's starting to cause some issues with hydraulic leaks and stuff like that. So,
we have to at least look at it. >> You're talking about not our newest. >> No, no, no. The old one. >> Yeah, the old Well, the new one's going out of service for 2 months because one of the computers is down. >> So, we have to take it out of service. It was It's
We We'll get there later. Um, and then eventually station one was built in 1988. What do we do with that? Do we renovate it? Do we look at other options? Station two was not much farther after that. It was in the in the mid '90s. So, those
two stations are going to have to be looked at in the future and what we need to do with those um and how we fix them, renovate them, sell the property, buy a new piece of property, renovate it. Um
there's some options that are there. Um it's just where do we go with it? I'm surprised station 2 is that old. I assumed it was newer. Uh I moved here from the Pentagon in 13 and it was here, but obviously that got put in around the same time as the hammocks in the early
to mid '90s. >> Station two. >> Yeah. What year would you say, Bobby? >> Mid late 90s. Mid 90s >> cuz a lot of Lhaven growth has been over there on the east side. Yes. >> All those new subdivisions, town houses, all that.
>> Right. And you know the traffic out there trying to get through that traffic past that station at 3:30 in the afternoon >> for 2 hours in the morning and 2 hours in the afternoon. >> Conversation I actually had with Chief Don before we left. I think it was built for $285,000.
>> Yeah. $285,000 built that station. >> The land was >> Good thing we got our historian here. >> Was that a St. Joe donation? It was part of the hands. >> Okay.
There's a lot of people back in the hand. >> So, I'll go back to my original question for you to think about after this presentation in the days to come. What level of service do you expect?
You tell me. I'll do everything I can to make sure it matches what your vision is for this, but also the level of service to the 22,000 residents that we have here in Len Haven and growing. >> You're kind of giving us the opposite.
Good, cheap, and fast. Pick two, right? >> I'm just giving you the information uh how you take that information and you go with it. But like I said, the beginning, fire department's not cheap. >> Most things worth having aren't, Chief.
>> No. Uh, you know, like I said, when I go home at night and try to sleep a little bit, the 22,000 residents are on my mind and how do I best protect them? How do I keep up with the growth to protect the next 10,000 that might move in? And now we're at 30,000.
And I'm sure that when I get done here and the police chief takes over, he's going to tell you the same thing. How do we get there? Protecting 22 now, another 10 shortly, and another 10 after that as we go, as we grow. So, any
questions? >> Appreciate what you do. >> Thank you. >> The only thing I had was um what I would like to have seen is a like a list of all your vehicles. Mhm. >> You know, what age of it, what's the cost of maintenance for the year? Kind
of like a waterfall thing of like your priority of all, this is the next vehicle we need to replace. This is next one. >> Right. So, we've done a good job. We've done a really good job. And I'll get you the information. We've replaced 100% of our staff vehicles already. So, they're all 20 The only last one is like a 2020
or 2018 is my battalion chief's car, but it's still in good shape. And we've replaced it. Oh, I can get you that list. Yeah. Our rescue truck is old >> and I'll just let you know the boat, our boat that covers the bay is out of service. We put in the water the other
day and we sank it. >> So with that, we do have a grant that River submitted before the first government shutdown for a million dollar fireboat that has a 20% match. Is that >> Yes. >> Yeah. >> So we hope to receive that grant and
then bring to you all um to hopefully accept it and then be able to fund the match and have a new fireboat. Um the closest fire boat chief >> Seattle >> not the closest fire >> um right now Panama City but it's not on a dock it's it's on a trailer. >> So we've had these conversations over
the last week because the county is going to this our new dispatch system. So one of the questions was between uh myself Panama City and the beach is where do we cover in the water?
whose jurisdiction and lines where do they fall and we have to go back and figure this out. There is a boat at Panama City and if they're out of service, the next closest boat for putting out any kind of boat fires is
Destin. >> Jeez, >> if the Coast Guard's in, they may help you, but the first response the way it goes is FWC. who knows where they're at. Next is Coast Guard. If they're offshore,
they're not coming in the bay. And a lot of times they won't come in the bay. So then you got Pan Panama City and us with if we have two boats that covers from the inlet all the way out all the way to North Bay
all the way down to boondocks for West Bay. Steve, whenever the guy hit the power line out here, whose responsibility to resp are we supposed to respond to that or
>> I don't know whose actual responsibility it is per se, but I know we we've had there was that incident. There was another guy that um had a heart attack was actually hanging out there and we weren't able to respond. um we wound up
commandering somebody's private boat to get out there on that one. But a lot of times we'll we'll ask for um assistance from everybody and anybody that can FWC usually comes close by. >> Would that So with that being the homic
or death fatality, do we investigate that or does FWC investigate? Yeah. >> So prime example is I don't know if you remember the jet ski accident we had. >> Yes. we couldn't get on the water. We had to wait for FWC.
So, those are the things that we need to look at. And uh myself and Chief Blanchard have talked about this boat. If we do get the grant of having it as dual police and fire, both of us can use it. We'll put a couple people through some captain schools. If it's a police incident, the fire department would run
down and drive for them. They can do their police stuff if they need us. If it's a fire incident, one of their guys on duty or something could drive the boat while we do fire activities because the boat that we're looking at has a pump on it. It's not just a rescue boat. >> So, but we're doing some kind of joint
effort here between police and fire to make sure that that's happens that we both can get on the water to do what we need to do. >> Okay. >> FWC did everything. >> Yeah. Investigation. >> Yeah. So, >> how much are we looking at for a rescue
boat? The rescue boat that we have for the grant is 950 right now. We're looking at $950 to a million dollars and it's built out of Seattle. It's a specific boat with specific pumps and flotations. I mean, it's it's not just your regular go to the boat show and buy one. Uh, you know, if you're out in
rough seas, the seats have seat belts uh a specific lighting for outside into the water. So, it's a specific fire boat manufacturer. >> I'm assuming that doesn't affect our ISO rating. The boat doesn't know. No, I
know. It's It's more or less I've got Well, with Marine Island coming and they're having a fill station there, >> who knows what size boats are going to be in there. As I've been here, I'm seeing bigger and bigger boats in the bay. Well, if one of those catches on fire, it's more or less let's put it
out. Let's rescue these people and and and move on. If the boat sinks, it it sinks. I'm more worried about getting to the people, >> right? >> Um is not just about fire. These guys that respond to medical calls. >> Yes. On the water, too. >> They had a heart attack, some sort of
medical stress, those guys need to get to quick, >> right? And that's why it's kind of a a thing with me and chief to do that duel. Well, if I send three guys on a boat and they're doing cardiac arrest on the way in, they can't drive the boat. So, we're we have a plan for that. If we if we get
the grant, chief and I will bring back a plan to the city manager and we'll try to game plan on how we're going to do this. So Chris, >> yes. So we're going to do a break. It's either the police department wants to go next or somebody's got a warrant.
Everybody that showed up. So do a 10-minute break and then we'll come back and have turn over Chief Blanchard. If y'all are ready, we'll go ahead and get started again. >> Morning. >> Good morning. >> Morning. Appreciate the opportunity. Um,
before I start, I want to say thanks to Deputy Chief Unfair because a lot of this was already done before I got here. >> Chief, you need to have the mic. >> Oh, I'm sorry. >> Yes, ma'am. >> So, my goal today is to provide a clear picture on how the police department operates, um, how we want to strengthen
public safety in Linhaven and how we want to move forward. Public safety is one of the most vis visible and also consequential uh, departments within the city. The responsibilities are enormous. Uh citizens expect their police department to be professional, responsive,
proactive, all while protecting the community. Uh public safety must also be balanced with responsible financial stewardship. That's extremely important. Uh one of the things I believe heavily in is getting grants. U most of the grants for public safety won't come until October for the next year. So that's something that we'll be working
on u along with our personnel here that do grants. So today I'm going to provide an overview just how the department operates, the demands placed on our officers, the strategic investments needed to maintain and strengthen public safety that we need for the city. So first of all, our mission is to
protect life, property, prevent crime, serve the community, maintain public safety. Um our officers work every day doing just that. Modern police policing emphasizes strong community involvement and strong partnerships. We've got to get out there in the community. Some of
y'all came to the event that we held at Starbucks. Those are things that are positive. I'll be speaking um I just spoke at the Heritage Club. I'll be speaking at the um >> country club. >> Country Club coming up. Uh we've got two other events planned as well. I believe
I'm also going to Rotary Club uh at 7:00 a.m. for breakfast one morning coming up very soon. Good. >> Um so strong community uh partnerships are extremely important and that's something that we certainly want to improve on. our service area. So, not only do we
provide service within Lin Haven, similar to the fire department, we have to go outside and we have some agreements that have been made in the previous years where we cover unincorporated areas as well. So, it's not just Linhaven, but other boundaries. Um, that's extremely important to know.
I'm still learning a lot of that myself um as to how those were done, but it it's part of it. We have to serve the residents, the commuters, and the business owners within our area. Um, police services is 24/7, 365. So, we
do it 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year within the city of Linhaven and within the unincorporated areas. Emergencies don't stop at night or weekends. They don't stop on the holidays. So, we're going to have people out there working all the time. And we must be ready at a moment's notice,
including people that are off duty. We have a shift so that some people are able to respond back in. U maintaining that readiness requires proper staffing level sorry requires proper staffing levels, proper equipment, good vehicles and
everything else that police have to use and they need to be properly maintained. So how patrol staffing actually works? Some people don't understand. They'll say, "Well, we gave you another police officer last year or we just added a police officer." So, with patrol staffing, it's 24-hour coverage. That
also includes the time that they have to take days off, their vacation time, their sick leave, being in court, and training. So, if you say we want one new police officer to patrol the streets of Linhaven, we need actually 4.5 to five police officers to do that cuz it's four shifts a day, one officer a day, all the
time off, all the court, all the training, all the sick leave, the vacation, you almost need five. It it it really is 4.5. It's just hard to find that.5 officer. So, you know, unless you're adding two positions and you're going for for 10, that makes it a little bit easier. But just want to make sure
that everybody understands that when you're talking about adding employee, unfortunately in law enforcement, it's typically not just one employee. Our personnel, we have our sworn officers, we have our detectives, our traffic units, we have records clerks,
dispatchers, code enforcement, and school crossing guards. Um, we're looking at different ways in regards to our school crossing guards. um you know because that's coming out of the budget for the city. So, we are looking at ways. We're meeting with a school superintendent uh next week uh to discuss uh possibilities with them as
well. Um but everything else does come directly under us and for us. Our calls for service, as you can see, they've maintained it around 20,000. Uh in 2025, it went up a little above 20,000, but that's the calls for service
that we're receiving on a yearly basis. Um those calls for service will probably continue to go up each year, especially as we expand and we have more people in the area. Um and then there's a lot of things that we do that aren't included in calls for service, whether it's building checks and taking care of
businesses and going and watching and observing our parks uh to prevent things that are occurring in those areas. School and traffic safety. I can certainly say that this has been the number one complaint since I've been here in the last month. I have multiple emails. I have phone calls on a daily
basis. I have received uh feedback at the event that the mayor and I were just at with Miss Tinder. Um so it's something that's extremely important. We have nine schools. We have five child learning centers. We have morning and afternoon congestion. Uh we have speeding requests. We have constant
requests for enforcement. Uh the superintendent, that's what he's actually meeting with me about. Um we also have a preacher from a private school here that wants to meet because they almost had another incident the other day. um the BCSO and the school campus police, the way the laws are written in Florida, because they're
handled through school police, they handle the campus only. We handle the traffic. We handle once they pass that sidewalk, it's on us. So, going to meet with the sheriff and see what we can do to coordinate because at any given time, no matter how big of a department we
come up with, nine schools, you're just not going to be able to cover that every morning and every afternoon. So I am going to meet with the sheriff who has been extremely helpful and very receptive to various ideas and uh and working well together. So we will see what we can do but it certainly is an
area that is uh up for discussion and how we can improve more. The other thing is we're meeting with uh FDLE in regards to some grants. So they have traffic safety grants where basically you can allow your personnel to work overtime. So, if you do have some officers that
want to come and or let's say they get off shift at 6:00, if they want to work one extra hour till 7 or 7:30, an hour and a half to cover the schools, that could be covered under grant money versus our own budget money. So, those are things I'm looking for. Um, I called my I was big with the governor's office
of highway safety for the state of Georgia. I called my director there. He put me on the phone with the director from Florida. They were actually at a conference together, so he just handed the phone to him and he's sending somebody to meet with me next week to see what we can do to help in those areas. So, what can we do without personnel to
help solve our school zone? So, this is an option and I'm presenting it totally as an option. Um, you might see that they just uh added this over in a city next door, but it's a school zone safety option camera program through Red Speed. If we were to do that, my recommendation
would be that we only look at one school at this time, and that's the area where people are driving the fastest and where we have the most traffic, which would be Highway 390 at Mowit School. It supplements enforcement option for the school zones. So basically, you don't have to have a police officer there. The cameras slow down people. It operates
only during designated school zone hours. So only the 45 minutes in the morning and the 45 minutes in the afternoon. Otherwise, they're shut off. Um it is a civil citation process. Um some people say it's a money generator. First of all, I can be very clear. I do not believe in policing for profit.
Poling should never be about profit. There's obviously profit that comes with pleasing. Uh, we get money on our regular citations now, but that's not what we're about. We're about saving lives and keeping the community safe. If somebody were to get a civil citation through this, it's a $100 fine. That's
the max. If one of my officers was to write a ticket for somebody speeding in a school zone, it's a $400 fine. So, it's certainly not about policing for profit as far as the citations. But, this ensures that one of our most dangerous areas is covered all the time, and it's proven to slow people down.
There's no question about it. Um, national studies showed if you can just slow a car down, if it was to strike a child, if you just slowed that car down by 5 miles an hour, it increases that child's life expectancy by 30%. So, it's something to consider. It's designated
to improve compliance, reduce speeds, uh, wherever children are present. Traffic crashes, um, we handle all the traffic crashes in the area. Each each crash, it requires officers to respond, assist victims, assist the fire
department, direct traffic, investigate the incident, and prepare detailed reports. So, every time we have a traffic crash, that officer is spending several hours at work. And most traffic crashes, if they're going to be out in the streets, you're going to have two officers there for traffic control, and
that's going to be for a few hours. So, traffic crashes is something that we definitely want to work to reduce. Also, they affect the people that we know and love. Whether it's an injury or a fatality, it's something that we want to prevent. >> You're looking at about 10 a week then, Chief, if it's
>> um Yes, sir. Yes, sir. >> Yeah. And we're not talking minor fender bender in a parking lot. These are our true traffic crashes. >> Yes, sir. >> Yes, sir. >> Staffing needs. So, if you're going by national standards for law enforcement, national
standards are that you have 2.2 2 officers per 10,000 residents. Based on our city, that would be 48 officers positions. Currently, we have 38 officer positions. The department goal for 2027 would be 42 to go up by four. Um, what
we also have to remember in addition to the 22,000 residents that we have is when we run the things the the lines across the street from DOT, there's about 60,000 people coming in and out of Lind Haven on a daily basis. Sure. >> So, it's not just >> Yes, sir. >> I was just seeing if Kiki was paying
attention. She did notice the four additional officers. >> Okay. So, it's not just um it's not just the residents here, but it's all the visitors and people that are coming into our community. >> Chief, does that play into any of our accreditation standards as well? The
number of officers we have per residents. >> So, it would if we were nationally. So, back home, I can talk about national accreditation. It would honestly I have not had enough time to study FDLE. Um maybe one of those can speak to that question but I would assume that you
have to have X number of people doing X number of things with response times and things like that as part of accreditation. >> Uh sir when it comes to accreditation process personnel populist stuff like that it it goes into our police department's policies and procedures when it goes with traffic safety traffic
accident investigations other patrolling operations things of that nature. Ask for exact personnel levels. No sir, it doesn't affect that. Okay. >> So, what we're looking for this year is to have a patrol lieutenant. Right now,
we have four sergeants. Um, we need a lieutenant over patrol, an additional two traffic officers and then one community services officer. Traffic is one of our biggest things. So, that's why I want to add two traffic officers. We need to have traffic coverage more than what we have now. And a community
services officer will be someone that's dedicated and solely responsible for all the different plans that we have moving forward with more Starbucks events, more events at the park. Uh we're putting together a touch a truck, teaming up with the fire department to do different events to have the city that can meet with us. There also recruitment events
and things of that nature. So that's what we're looking for in regards to our staffing improvements and uh it certainly would help get us to where we need to be. We're not >> excuse me, just quick question. Community service officer, would that be a badgewearing uniform?
>> Yes, sir. Yeah. So, I'll be honest, just personal philosophy. If we hire people in the police department, most all personnel should be certified law enforcement officers. Like back home, I didn't have an administrative assistant. I had an administrative sergeant. And the reason is is because when you do have a true emergency, you've got all of
these certified people, even if they're in the office a lot. So, instead of hiring, nothing wrong with an administrative assistant. I'm not trying to be negative towards that position in any way, shape, or form, but I'd rather pay somebody a few more thousand dollars a year to be a certified sworn officer
that can go out and do anything for us. So, our police budget trend, um the police department budget remained relatively stable over the past several years. However, operational demands continue to grow, calls for service continue to grow, and as you've seen, we've have uh plenty of crashes within
this community. At the same time, law enforcement equipment, uniforms, vehicles, technology through the roof. What used to cost for a pair of pants from Blau, $60 is now 95. Everything's gone up about 25%. Remain the same
doesn't allow us to get to where we need to be. Um, I've spoken with many of our personnel and they have and sometimes it was one uniform. You know, you're working a three days in a row on a 12-h hour shift. You've got to have three or four uniforms. You need to be able to switch them out constantly. And if
something happens, even during the day, you need to be able to switch your uniform out. Um, uniforms don't come as quickly as they used to, just like everything else. I'm still waiting on my uniforms. I've got one. Um, I've got a few of these shirts, but it does take a while to get stuff, and prices I don't
anticipate are going to be going down anytime in the near future. If anything, they're going to continue to rise. We have to rise to the occasion and move up with it. um some of those years for 24 and 25, it appears that capital improvements or vehicles pretty much helped us get um you know go a little
bit higher in the budget. Um but the bottom line is is we're pretty much staying where we were and it's time that we make at least from my point of view public safety, policing one of the top priorities. Public safety together, whether it's fire, whether it's law
enforcement, it's one of your most visible. The police officers are always out in the field. And then furthermore, we're also one of your most riskmanagement potential issues. So investing in your police help solve what might could become a riskmanagement
issue in the future. Police budget context. Just to put it in perspective, in previous years, LHPD received as much as 12% of the budget four years ago. Our current share of the budget for the LHPD is 7%. In comparison, Panama City is 14%,
Springfield's 14%. Panama City Beach is 31%. The sheriff's office is 53% of the county budget and the typical national range is 20 to 40%. The requested share for this year is 9%. Now, it's not really about the
percentage of the budget. The budget might go up in a lot of other areas, but this does help put it in perspective as to where the police department is at this time and where we need to be to get us to where what I've heard from each of you that you want your police department to be, which is one of the best in the
state and that's our goal. >> So when you say share, what do you mean by that? Share the budget. >> Yes, sir. >> So, so basically our entire budget or is it just general fund? I don't know. So 7% of the general fund. Is that what that means? I'm not sure where he's
getting those numbers. Um, >> general fund >> I know for sure Panama City's number is the general fund. >> They don't include the enterprise fund in that. >> So the general fund budget is $25 million. 5 million of it is for the police.
>> Okay. >> Recruitment, retention, and community policing. Uh, we have to have competitive salaries, experienced officers. Community policing is extremely important. Um, a lot of the problems that we have here that we've been able to study over the last, you
know, few years, we've gone through 45 officers in just a few years that we've lost at this agency. We get these officers, they're here for a year or two. They don't get to know the people. They don't get to know the businesses compared to the officers that you see sitting behind you that have been here many years. They know the people. They
know what to do. They know that when the alarm goes off at, you know, the Home Depot or whatever, it's probably false because the train's coming through at that time, all those kind of little things that they know. Um, they know the different people that are in the community that potentially are causing problems. So, when you do have the
bicycle that's stolen or the burglary that just occurred, and that's what you want. You want long-term relationships within your community along with your police officers so that we can make sure that we have the best type of community community policing possible. uh salary comparison.
Uh it's pretty pretty straightforward. LHPD, I'm sorry, Linhaven right now, if you were to come to us, you start off at 46,000. Once you graduate the academy, and once you are certified, you go to 515. And we just recently with the help
of everyone in this room from Kiki to the city manager and city city assistant manager got us up to the 515. Um, previously to that it was the 46. So, right now it's 46 to start, 515 once they become fully certified. Panama City
is 515 to start, 54 once you're out there working. Panama City Beach is 565. Bay County Sheriff's Office is between 58 and 60,000 with a $5,000 bonus. That's an addition to the state bonus of $5,000. And the Florida Highway Patrol
is 60,000. I took the four that we're losing the most to, which is Panama City, Panama City Beach, Bay County Sheriff's Office, Florida Highway Patrol, divided that by four, and came up with a recruitment salary of 53 with a certified officer starting at 57 for
the That's >> Chief. I just wanted to call attention to the rest of the room here, particularly my commission brothers. Uh, Panama City Beach, notice how they're the highest at the local municipal level. They redid their pay grades last
year. Uh they did a study. They basically were trying to improve their retention and recruitability and so they bumped theirs up and there's been a significant draw from other municipalities to the beach because of
that. You'd think, well, 5,000 a year. Well, it's significant. So, uh in terms of recruit recruiting and attention, that's what we're up against. So, we've got to do this paygrade study for sure. Um, but we got to take a really, really hard look at that. That's the driving
factor in a lot of cases causing us to lose good police officers. >> Yes, sir. Absolutely. In 2018, Lyn Haven was fully staffed and they were one of the highest paid agencies around, but we've not kept pace with recent salaries. All other agencies in our area have uh increased their salaries and
they've taken some of our great personnel away from us. And I've listened to I've interviewed all of our employees in law enforcement and the majority of our few others and they said we've lost some great sergeants. We've lost some great leaders in this agency simply because of salaries. Cuz let's just be real. Um it's not going to be
easy for a sergeant or lieutenant to leave, but you still want to make sure they're paid properly. But all those people over there at the police academy that are going through and they're deciding where they're going to go, 50 cents an hour will make the difference. It just is what it is. People are looking for proper salaries. Um, so when
you've got a when you've got a flyer up that says 46,000 and right next to it there's a flyer that says 57,000, you don't have a chance. They're just they're not coming to us. Um, we have some really good officers. So this next comment isn't meant towards anybody that
we currently have. But we have to understand we don't want to be the person or the department that is just hiring people because they're the leftovers. We don't want to be hiring people that have been fired from other places. Um that is a huge risk management. You can either pay upfront
or you can pay the $3 million when they go out there and do something extremely wrong because that's just how it is nowadays. Um the other thing is is Chief Infringer, myself and and Lieutenant or excuse me, Captain Bla um have been going through when we put the newer salary up on the board, we received a
lot of input. It was pretty great. We were excited. We received about 15 applicants within about a week. So far, after background checks, we've allowed two to move forward. That's the way it is in policing right this minute. Um, you don't have many good choices coming to you. People don't want to be police
officers. Those salaries are comparable to a frontline supervisor at McDonald's here in Panama City. And that's what we have to think of, a frontline supervisor at McDonald's or put on a gun and badge and go work a 12-h hour shift. By the way, those frontline supervisors at
McDonald's, they work 40 hours a week. Our guys work 42 to 43 depending on. So an average employee who's a 40-hour week employee is a 2080 employee. Ours are 2184. That means they work 2 and 1/2 weeks a year more to get the same salary that somebody else does at a 40-we
employee because law enforcement officers come under our 171 rule. They can work up to 171 hours per 28 days and they don't have to get any overtime. We don't pay them overtime for that. And I know the fire department is exclusive.
they have their own rules as well. Um, you know, where they're they're kind of the same thing. But we don't want to be the training ground. I know we're currently participating in a salary study. I know that's going to be 6 months. We certainly greatly appreciate where we've come to so far with some basic salaries. Um, it did, and we
talked about it beforehand, it did create a little bit of, you know, I had to do a lot of explaining to the people that currently work for us that are up here at different ranks that didn't get raises, but as I said, these weren't raises. These were an immediate salary fix for our frontline people that were coming in with a a wage that they
couldn't even afford to live at. So that's why we, you know, agreed that for right now we were going to get it bumped to 515, which we're very thankful for, and then proceed forward with the salary study. Fleet modernization. Currently, we have six vehicles that are over 10 years old.
We have 18 vehicles over 6 years old. Uh, an average police car should last between 3 to 5 years, depending on how it's used. This is a smaller city, so therefore you're going to have a lot of idling time. Uh we've tweaked our policies for when cars idle, but no matter what, you go work a wreck for an
hour and a half, that car is going to sit there and idle, and it has to stay on because the lights and all have to be running. Um the MDTs in their cars have to be usable. So therefore, our cars, even though at times they might not have a ton of miles, they're in the shop constantly for new air conditioners, new
compressors, new this, new that. Um Chris and I spoke along with some others. It's not a 100% yet, but the initial study shows that fleet management leasing is what looks best for law enforcement or even for potentially
other areas. Um if you take a $50,000 vehicle and you lease it and you pay for it over the six years, you're probably going to pay $60,000 for that vehicle instead of 50,000 for it. So yes, it costs 10,000 more. However, if you go on a 5year cycle and sell the vehicle, you're going to get a lot more out of it
in return. Furthermore, your maintenance costs greatly decrease because you're turning them every 5 years and you've got a newer fleet. Number the other issue is is gasoline, gas prices, newer vehicles. They get better mileage. Not much, but better than what you've got
now, especially on your vehicles that are over 10 years old. Chief real quick. >> What are the averaging proceeds when we sell one of those oneoff place? 2500 bucks. >> Yeah. >> Probably 2,000. Yeah. So that's nice
max. >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You you're you're basically if you can sell your vehicles every 5 years and you can get 8 to 10,000 versus the 2,000, you've almost covered your difference in getting your vehicle switched out every 5 years. Now, if you were a city um or government that
had plenty of money, then you don't have to do the leasing program. You could still turn them every 5 years and solve it this way. However, instead of needing to come up with 500,000 for 10 vehicles, you can come up with 1/4 of that or 1/5if of that basically and you can keep your vehicle fleet where it needs to be.
Um lastly, newer vehicles have newer features that are better for risk management as well. Whether it's safety features such as ABS, I know that's an old one. I'm not a car guy, but there's always new features that make cars safer than they were 10
years ago or six years ago. And if you're a police officer, 12 hours a day, that is your office. It's all part of it. And you know, our I remember when I got my Crown Vic that had 15 years on it, I was thrilled. Um
the people that we're hiring nowadays, they walk in the door and they want to know where their new car is. Just it is what it is. It's part of it. And if you want to be competitive, you have to match what other people are doing. Um, that's the least of all the importances as far as that. And I'm not saying the
employee is the least, but the saving of the money, the having the new fleet, it looks good. It's part of community policing, saves on maintenance, saves on downtime, all those kind of things. Lastly, >> can you also hit on the standardization with the safety of the officers where
they get in the vehicle and it's everything is the same, but they >> Absolutely. Yes, sir. Um, last two things in regards to the fleet. Right now we have a hodge podge. You've got different lights, different sirens, a button here, a button there, a button here, whatever was thrown in together because you just didn't properly have
enough at the time to to fund that vehicle. Um, if I'm a police officer and I go from this vehicle to this vehicle, it should be the same. It's just memory recall. Um, I'm sure the mayor can get into all the different reasons why that's extremely important. The same same reason why we wear the same weapons. If I was to get shot and I need
to grab something from my fellow officer, it needs to fit straight there in my weapon so that I can continue doing what I need to do. Um, lastly, and this is not a shop at maintenance or the shop. It doesn't matter if you're using a city shop or if you are using the Ford
dealership or some other shop in the city. The cars that we currently have are going back in the shop repeatedly over and over and over. We had a police officer the other day, one of our new recruits that you saw in the photo. They had to switch vehicles three times in one day. So to switch vehicles, that's
an hour or so. I mean, moving all your stuff, getting it ready, taking it to the shop, getting the new vehicle, getting another employee to come help you do it. It's perception, it's reality, it's frustration, it's all of those things for for employees. Um, so all of those combined make it necessary
to have a proper modernized fleet. And I don't have the exact numbers yet to to show you in regards to how it would be best for the lease program, but everything that I've studied thus far from here and for other agencies, leasing is the way to go. The uh the one
catch is which we verified, it's not a bout clause, you can keep the vehicle at the end of the 5 years, doesn't matter how many miles are on it. Those are some things that, you know, previous governments have done where you get messed up is when you start having mileage limitations and things of that nature. What we're looking at is is
you're turning the vehicles every five years through a contract. So basically, you know, this is how much money is going to be a line item in the police department or the maintenance department or whatever department you use those vehicles from pretty much on a yearly basis to keep your fleet where it needs to be.
For this year, if we were to go with the 10 cars, that's $127,000 annually. Upfitting upfitting on police vehicles is anywhere between 20 and $30,000. So, what I mean by upfitting is lights, sirens, computers, all the equipment that goes within that car, the cage that
keeps the officer safe. Um, one thing we have looked at doing away with currently right now, all of our officers wear body cameras, and all of our fleet has an $8,000 camera inside the car. I believe those cameras are necessary for our traffic division because you're working
DUIs, you're working crashes, and things of that nature. However, we can do away with the $8,000 camera and our other patrol cars moving forward as we go. It doesn't mean we want to take the ones we have and go try to sell them because you're probably not going to get $1,000 for them. So, we'll keep using them while we have them. But where we were
spending 28 to30,000, we can lower that drastically simply because of the fact that we don't have to have incar cameras in all of our vehicles. >> So, when you lease them, you still got to pay for the upfitting. Is that >> Yes, sir. Yeah. Well, you can put the upfitting in to your lease program. The
only reason I would recommend that you you buy the equipment um is because when you go to sell that vehicle, you're going to pull that equipment off anyways. And most of the time, not all of it, but most of the time, I would say about half of that can go into another vehicle cuz
it shelf life is longer than 5 years. Um especially the cage and things of that nature. There's no problem. training and development leadership. Uh training is one of the most important investments a police department can currently have. Um the state of Florida requires 40 hours every four years.
That's 10 hours a year. I'll be honest, that's laughable. Um a police officer nowadays probably needs 100 hours of training a year as a minimum. Our goal now is 40 hours of training a year. Um, we don't only need law enforcement training, but we need supervisor training. Right now at our police
department, if I was to say, "Okay, mayor, you've done a great job as an officer. You're a corporal. Here's the keys to your corporal car, and here's your stripes." No training, no program, no nothing. Same as a sergeant. You get promoted to sergeant, you're over all
these people. We don't have that training program built in. And I'm not saying they don't get any training, but there's no training program. And we need a full program where they understand leadership, they understand risk management, they understand physical responsibility, financial responsibility, the bigger picture, and
they understand the burden of command. Burden of command is easier in a large department because sometimes you're dealing with numbers and you don't know the people that well. But when you're in an agency that's 50 or less, everybody knows everybody and their friends. When you get that rank, you've got to understand the burden of command. You
don't tell your friend what they want to hear. You tell your friend what they need to hear. and you hold people accountable. Um, you just have to it's it's in the best interest of the entire department. It's in the best interest of your shift. It's in the best interest of the city. So, a lot of a lot of training
and leadership development is what we're going to be doing going forward. We're going to make sure that everybody understands community oriented policing. Um, how to speak to our citizens at every single occasion. Um, and then another big one what a lot of people have come forward about and we do have plenty of veterans here and that's
crisis response and mental health training. uh we have very little training that comes from the academy with that. We need to make sure that when we respond to those situations that we are deescalating, not escalating. Uh you might have seen on our Facebook page post yesterday. One of our dispatchers did a great job. She stayed on the phone
with somebody for almost 2 hours, but clearly it was over an hour and and talked them through a situation that they were going through. And he was very appreciative. Um even since I've been here, we've dealt with plenty of mental health issues. We need to make sure that we have the crisis response within all
of our people and that we do that. Now, here's the catch about training. Not only do you need money in your training budget, but it also increases what you need in your regular budget. Reason being, I've either got one of two choices. I pull them off of road patrol and off of their regular duties to go to
training while they're at work, or we train with overtime because you don't have enough manpower to always be pulling people off the streets. the approach that we took was almost half and half. So, it's not always pulling off the road, but it's not going and asking for everything to be under
overtime. Um, but all of those things are extremely important. And unfortunately, it's a never- ending situation. Um, you you've got to make sure that you're continuing to train if you want to be the best. Chief, and just to foot stomp that fourth bullet down there, crisis response and mental health
training. Real quickly, talk about what your top demands are on you and your officers right now in terms of >> top demands of training or critical response training. >> Well, it all goes hand in hand, but the calls that you're getting, the top two responses y'all are responding to, one of the two is domestic violence, right?
>> Yes. Our top calls are traffic and domestic violence. There's no question and domestic violence is certainly with critical response and mental health training because lots of those times they are having mental health issues and even if they're not you still need to be a critical incident trainer and you need to understand deescalation you need to
understand negotiation you need to understand all the things look we're not walking into I mean when I started policing it was I told you to do this and I told you to do that those those days are long gone you know or you walk into the domestic situation well it looks like you hit him you're going to jail have a nice day there's no
conversation Those days are long gone. So, we've got to be prepared to do things. Police officers nowadays, they are counselors, they are peer counselors, they are teachers, they are mentors, they are law enforcement officers. They're they're all these different things. And what you really
want and what the public is asking for and what most people demand in their police agency is extremely tough. You've got the type A personality that's the SWAT cop over here. You got the school police officer who loves to hand out ice cream and deal with kids. But look what happened in Florida. That school officer
who everybody loved stood outside the building when a shooting occurred and he didn't even want to go in. You've got to have the guy that can hand out ice cream and be handing it right over here to Justin, spot and see the threat, draw the weapon, and take out the threat. That's very tough, but it's
possible with proper training and constant training and constantly moving forward and getting them prepared for what they're going to have to do in life. My late grandmother used to say, you can't put a head on old a young you can't put an old head on young shoulders. So you and I could walk in
with, you know, 45, 50, 60 years of life experience and handle a situation a lot differently than a 21, 22, 23, 25 year old young police officer, rookie cop would. Right? That's why that training is so desperately important to protect
our officers and protect our public. Not to mention the fact that we have 19-year-old police officers, you know, and I've I've had it kicked back before. Well, I mean, what's the difference in being a 19-year-old police officer and being a 19-year-old in the military? No disrespect to the military. I believe the military does a great job, but it's completely different. There's nothing
compared to what you're doing as a police officer in the United States, walking into somebody's home to help them versus the assignments that our military are dealing with. So, yes, training is is paramount. Um, leadership development as well. Um, you know, my goal is is if somebody wants to be a
police chief, if somebody wants to be a captain, if somebody wants to leave our agency and go somewhere, let's get them trained up to where they need to be. Um, not that we're trying to get rid of them. That's not the goal. But you don't just not train people because you're afraid you might lose them. People, you
you show that you care, but you're also getting the best out of your agency. Your other people are going to want to be trained and become the best that they can be as well. >> Thank you for that. >> Yes, sir. technology and equipment. Um, we're not asking for any additional money for technology and equipment this year, but
we do just want to keep you up to date on where we are. We have to continue to pay for our body cameras. That lease expires next year, so we'll have to relook at that. My public records and redaction software, we need that. Um, we can move some monies around and try to find it. It'll help us. But at some
point in time, probably next year, I'll be coming back and saying there might be one more position that we need. And that is because our public records are going through the roof. Requests for what happened where. I want to see the body camera footage. I want to see this. I want to see that. I know it's happening
in the city just in general. Um, so it it's certainly happening. Oh, there you are. I was like, I know it's happening in the city, but it's also happening with the police department. The catch is this. When somebody asks us for body camera footage for an hour worth of I mean, that's a lot of work. that might that might take an employee three or
four hours to go through it, do the redactions, get the children out, etc., etc., etc. Yes, we might charge for it, but again, we're not pleasing for profit. The police department does bring in profit. There's no question. We charge for um a lot of the um public
records request. When we write citations, we bring money back to the general fund. when we uh when we have our detectives that are out there working, something new to me completely in Florida, we track all the hours and we bill and the judge basically orders them to pay for the hours that the
detectives had to spend. And I've seen check and check, you know, check after check come across our desk helping to pay for what our detectives are out there doing. So there there is a money component to the police department where we do bring in funds, but that is not our goal. That is not something that we
ever want to talk about when we talk about going out there and solving tra traffic problems. We talk about stopping people and correcting behavior. I don't care if they write all warnings. I don't care if they write tickets. You know, that's just it is what it is. Now, there's a difference. We get somebody for a DUI, they need to go to jail. But
on regular stuff, uh we don't our mobile data terminals and our cars, we can't just use laptops. You know, a $1,000 laptop's going to break in a patrol car that goes from whatever temperature to whatever temperature on a constant basis. So, we use data terminals. Those are around 2500 instead of the regular
price for a laptop. Printers in our cars, same thing. Along with our radar equipment, a lot of the different things that we need for technology. Criminals have the technology. We've got to have the technology in order to do our jobs. cost of losing a new officer.
So, between what we pay them to go to academy, what we're paying them to go to field training officer uh school, what we're keeping them in out there, um the majority of the stuff that they wear can be returned. Gun belt, radio, all that can come back in. But their pants, their
shirts, their bullet resistant vest, which is personally fitted for them, all of that is part of this estimated cost. the recruitment cost, the academy salary and benefits, the field training, the uniform, and the ballastic vest. So depending on how long they stay with us, that's what we're losing every time one
of our new people walks out the door. It's a lot of money. I'd rather invest it in salaries instead of invested in losing our officers. The strategic risks of inaction. Without enough personnel, good equipment, and technology, we can easily become a
target for more crime from nearby cities. There's no question there's other there's a little bit more crime. We do live in a fairly safe city. Not trying to say we don't. There's no scare tactics here or anything like that, but we want to keep it that way. And how do we keep it that way? High visibility.
Making sure they're not in Lin Haven. Um the less visible the police are and response times increase, proactive policing decreases, crime will increase in any city. It takes generally 3 to six months for the criminals to understand certain things, but it happens. There's no question about it. The next complaint
besides they're speeding here, they're speeding there, they're speeding here, is I don't see police officers in my neighborhood. I want to see the police in my neighborhoods. And we hear that repeatedly. We heard it at Heritage and I did my best to explain why we aren't able to accomplish that to the best of
our ability right now. Um, but I'm I'm hearing it constantly no matter where I go and speak. Um, so it's a strain on your personnel. Uh, it's a use of overtime. I loved overtime growing up. I think most of these guys in the audience that are police officers loved overtime. Our
young deputies, our young police officers, they're not about overtime. They're about when do I get to get off and go home and enjoy my personal time, my life, and all of that kind of stuff. Um, the last thing you ever want is required overtime. I've seen it happen time and time again. You start requiring
overtime, your people are going to go somewhere else. Reduce proactive policing. Again, we need to stay out there doing the traffic stops, being visible, and making sure that we're taking care of business, our aging equipment, our vehicles, greater recruitment challenges, and higher risk management exposure. And I've always
said this, whether you're talking about a jail or whether you're talking about your police department or anything else in law enforcement, we are pay now or pay me later game. If we don't invest the proper amounts up front, you will pay it in risk management at some point in time.
Strategic investment for 2627 personnel salary adjustments and positions. That's an estimate based on the suggestion. That's not coming directly from the um the salary study as of yet that's being done. 645,000 training and overtime 40,000 training
programs professional development 20,000 expense for equipment uh in addition to what we normally spend 10,000 which most of that's going to be our redaction software. uh vehicles and emergency equipment 275. It's a total proposed budget increase of
$990,000, which is a lot of money. I totally understand it, but again, it's pay me now or pay me later. It does raise us to a 9% stake in the budget. Um and while that's still below national levels and other levels and even our history levels here, it does get us to
where we need to be. It puts us on the path to be the police department that each of you and that the city stated that they wanted moving forward. Investing in L Haven's future. Competitive personnel, a modern fleet,
updated technology, very well-trained officers, and a strong community partnerships. We get there together. I can assure you within just like the fire chief has accomplished a lot in seven months, within a year or so you will have one of
the best police departments in the state of Florida. And that's the goal is to be one of the best and to make sure that our citizens are well taken care of. They appreciate what we do and risk management is lowered dramatically. Be glad to answer any questions or talk
on anything else if you'd like me to. No, that's a lot of great information, a lot of great metrics. So, that definitely helps us a lot when we start looking at the budget in the future. So, appreciate it. >> I just want to double that up. It was all those numbers and metrics helps a
lot. So, thank you for doing that. >> Yes, sir. I appreciate it. One last thing, um, it wasn't in my presentation, but I will say that what the fire chief has done, if if he gets the grant on that boat, I know we're going to have to come up with a little bit of money, but we've already spoken and he's offered that we could have some of our people go to training to become captains. There
are situations where um the police need to be in a boat as well. Um, I know we talked about one just recently where there was a suicide. >> Do what? Oh, you don't have to be a captain, but it is something that I believe it would be the fire departments, but he's
offered for us to participate in that program as well, and that would be very beneficial for. So, thank you, >> Chase. We also talked like during your interview process and when you first got here, you know, we're not a large agency with different divisions and everything that entices officers to come here. What
are ways that you see that we're going to be able to recruit aside from salaries, of course, um to kind of get some more officers and fill those vacancies we have? So one of the things we're doing is meeting with so like for example the deputy chief is a US marshal um
part-time. So still fulltime to the agency but he can do part-time in that and they reimburse the city for any expenses. Those are things that our officers would like to do. We're not going to have a crime suppression team. We're not going to have all the
different things that you can do out there. So those are important. Um also the fact that we are small. It is a family atmosphere. Those are on my one-on- ones. That's one of the things that people like best about Man is that it is small. That's a family atmosphere. And those do help. You've got to find the right officer for that. Um and and
that fit, but it it certainly helps bring us forward in there. Um the little things that you'll start seeing different. Um you you saw we just rewarded, you know, a dispatcher just with a letter and stuff like that. You got to take care of your people. You got to care about them. You got to show that you're investing in them. Um, one of the
first things I learned when I looked down at all of our different uniforms, this guy's wearing Nikes and this guy's wearing a black pair of shoes from Kmart and this guy's wearing we didn't even find him boots or uniform shoes. So, you know, I know it's a little bit unique or
whatever, but you can go online through our preferred vendor and you can get Under Armour boots for $165. But 1 hour away from here, we can get Under Armour boots for $45 at the Under Armour outlet. So just for $45 a person, we're able to
to fully make sure that we're getting boots around people. Little things like that matter to police officers and to and to any employee that you know they're taken care of. We will be the agency that gives you good leadership. We will be the agency to make sure you're taken care of. Um we understand we might not ever be the best paid.
That's that's that's an under, you know, that that's totally understandable that we're not the best paid. You're never going to compete with the Florida Highway Patrol and you're probably not ever going to be able to compete specifically with the sheriff's office, but you certainly want to compete with the like-minded agencies that are in
this area. Um, it's not quite as important. You got to watch the way I word it. It's not quite as important for those who are like myself or others that have been here a long time, but you're not getting individuals that have been cops for 10,
20 years that are coming to Linda. They're just not um you've got some that have been here, but to get those new kids in and to get them to stay, it's all got to be a holistic approach and uh and we just got to make sure they're well taken care of.
>> Partying shot on your budget. you had 9% there. I teach public administration, budgeting, government, uh, good governance courses as my full-time university professor job. And nationally, the average percentage of a police budget for a a major city or
municipality is somewhere between 10 to 12%. So 9% is not too far away. Currently, the police budget is 20% of general fund. With the additional monies that um police chief is requesting, it
would go to 23% of general. And I want to commend you on your staffing numbers. My little pencil sketch here. You and I are off by $5,000. So, we did a great job on calculating how much the salary increases would be. >> So, I don't know where there those metrics are different. Uh we'll
certainly dig into that but generally if we're talking you said 20% versus 90% >> currently 20% of general fund I think they might have used the entire city budget is what I'm saying. >> So but even then your your t your major
general fund budget um police force in a large city is typically about 10%. Fire would be about another 10%. So just keep that in mind as we look at our own. We're not like everybody else. Once I get all that numbers change and vary, but 10% for fire, 10% for uh police is a
general rule of thumb. Well, you know, every single department's important. There's no question about it. The numbers and the matrix that I provide you with, for example, the 2.2 officers per 10,000, those are national standards. If you want to be a nationalally accredited agency, that's
part of national standards. I'm not saying we have to be a nationally accredited agency. I'm not even asking to get up to those numbers, but we do have some things that we need to improve on. Traffic is certainly one of them, and I don't think it's unfair to say that we need four people out there for
one time um as a minimum. So, that's where we're looking at that. That kind of gets us to where we need to be. >> What What's the advantage of being nationally accredited? >> So, nationally accredited just brings up higher standards, same as being locally accredited for the state of Florida. Um
it can help you with lawsuits. It can send experts in that you know can say they are meeting national standards. They are doing this, they are doing that and you are following the highest level of standards. The other thing is is it's not just your police chief telling you that. It's people that come in and inspect you every 3 to 6 months. They're
making sure you're actually doing it. You have to show reports. You have to show photos. And they don't tell you anything up front. They walk in, they ask for this, they ask for this, they ask for this. It would be no different than an auditor coming in, you know, checking behind finance and and what our city administration is doing.
>> Do you know if that helps with grants or anything like that? >> It does help with federal grants. >> Federal grants. >> Thanks, I'd like to clear up the budget for fiscal 26 for revenues drawn from the
police department activities of $28,000. Yeah. >> It's not even one police officer. >> No. >> Nope. >> Poling is not for profit. >> Understood. >> But y'all do make like $8 a ticket or
something. >> But you don't want police officers placing for profit. That's the last thing you want is them going out trying to get more tickets to generate revenue. You don't want to be that agency. >> Never. >> Good brief, chief. >> All right. Thank you very much.
>> Thank you. >> This is the one I want, >> Chief. That was definitely informative. Let's lower expectations. I'm >> going to say that right up front. I streamline mine down to basically begging. Um, community services.
>> Community services uh encompasses four different cost centers. um the animal shelter and animal control, the Bayou Park and Preserve, parks and grounds, and most recently marketing and communication. So, what I'd like to do is go ahead and start with um animal
shelter first. Right now, what I'm going to ask for in the coming year is an administrative position. And I think the reason this is important is to work in that environment, you almost it's almost like a teacher. It has to be a calling to work with animals. And that
that provides, man, a an emotional stress that I think a lot of us don't understand. You're bringing in animals that have been abandoned. You're bringing in animals that have been hurt. You're nursing these animals back to care and then nobody nobody wants to adopt them. And over time, there's
euthanasia that's involved occasionally. So, it's a stressful on an emotional level, it's a stressful situation that I think our staff, we occasionally see those peaks and valleys where they get stressed out. On top of that, if you've ever spent any time at the shelter, you
can't sit there for two minutes and have a conversation without the telephone ringing, somebody coming in to see an animal, or having to take another volunteer and, you know, switch out another animal. It's a stressful environment for those folks, especially emotionally. And right now, Kiki can
tell you once a month, twice a month, where are deposits? And when we ask, they're like, "We just haven't had time to do them." And um I I think having administrative staff will lessen that stress and in the long term provide more emotional stability for for their
well-being. Um even though we have an older truck, we could almost bypass replacing that truck in the coming year if we can use that funding to help provide an administrative position. Hey Ty, before you go, I just want to let you know I very much appreciate what
y'all do here. >> I spend my own time. I have a house full of rescued animals, one eared and damaged and PTSD type animals that I nurse back to health. I res I support and volunteer with two different animal rescues. Y'all are truly doing amazing
work. I can't say enough about the three people that you have out there, Courtney and the guys. They do phenomenal work. Um, y'all really do a special, unique, just like Justin and his team do special, incredibly niche, meaningful
work across the community. Y'all are the same way. >> Well, appreciate those kind words and I'll pass them on. Um, those folks earn their money. There's no doubt. Uh, between the two ACOs, you know, they're also on call after hours. So they may put in a full 8 hour day and then at
11:00 we have somebody calls. PD may call to say, "Hey, we've got an accident. We need you to come pick up an animal." And it's not uncommon for 3 hours later at 4:00 a.m. a second call comes in where it'll take both officers to get out there and handle the situation. So
>> it's near and dear to my heart and I just wanted to publicly say thank you. Your team does an amazing job. >> I will definitely pass that that along. Um, so moving on to the Bayou Park and Preserve. It opened in 21 and so we're just about
reaching the 5-year mark on this. The grant is a 10-year grant. So the first 3 to four years things look pretty pretty good out there. We're starting to see the wear and tear accumulate. Um, and that's requiring additional work. So I'm
asking for another staff member out there and I'd prefer to have a crew leader. um having two the same out there. They may get along great, but you're going to have to have one holding the steering wheel. Parks and grounds, we're asking no
changes this year, so no money involved in in that portion. Um parks and grounds, some of you already are aware. They take care of cleaning the parks, cutting, what have you. We also support the senior activity club whenever they have to set up or break down. We support
Justin's folks on like Art in the Park. Our guys will go get all the tables, set up the chairs, break them down, and what have you in addition to all of the city events. All right. And we'll start now with the proposed CIP projects for the bayou in the coming years. I've tried to give a
5-year snapshot here. Um, and I'm going to break down each one of those through the slides. So, uh, that's just a quick snapshot. All right. So, the playground, although it's only 5 years old, we're starting to see wear and tear on the turf out there right now, and it's going to turn into a
safety issue. Where that connects, there are little nails sticking up to tack it down, which now becomes a rusty safety issue for a kid running out there barefoot. So, I've already um reached out for quotes and have three quotes, but unfortunately, they're all exceeding
35,000. We're estimating it's going to come in about 40,000, so I'll put that out to bid in the coming weeks. Um, the second one we've already started on. Um, if you've been out to the bayou, there's a ton of wood amenities out there. If you see the handrail on the
right, if you'll notice the color, it's faded and gray and the one on the right has been stripped and we started staining the one at the end. This is going to have to be done every 3 to four years. It just the wear and tear on it. I wish I would have included a picture.
It shows a path right down the middle that's stripped from the wear and tear, but yet everything else is looking good. So, I'm estimating um 75,000 this coming budget year and another 15,000 a year just to kind of catch up. When this was
originally constructed, they use cedar wood. Well, cedar absorbs moisture just that fast. And you'll notice there's a lot of stuff over water. And we've had to replace multiple boards. And a lot of times we don't even realize it until we get a call that says, "Hey, I just stepped on a board and it cracked." So,
this has been an ongoing process. Now, part of the individ part of the the reason I need another individual out there is I'd like to hire a carpenter that would help us with the crew leader position and replacing much of this stuff without having to depend on our facilities maintenance staff to to come
out and help us with this. And the last project we have is something that we really noticed and was exacerbated during Hurricane Helen 2 years ago. The excessive tides and winds coming out of the Northwest just beat
the shoreline to death. Um, and as you can see, we've probably lost 15 to 20 ft of shoreline as a result of that storm. So, Commissioner Pero has been working with us with the St. Joe and uh, St. Andrew Estruary programs to get a grant
and we just missed the window this past year. I think everything was compressed but it look we things are favorable for us to get this grant. That's estimated at 150,000 but that's over a three-year period. The first year we estimate it to be about 100,000. And what that will
entail is um putting out oyster reefs to try and get um seaggrass and what have you growing back out. And I'll give you an idea of what kind of problem this is. The area that you see right there that's eroded is the yellow box right there.
But the pink box is what Jacob's Engineering has identified as needing to be fixed. So we're going to try and get a pro uh a grant to get the living shoreline throughout that entire area. And I think that's uh either 1100 what's it say,500
ft of shoreline. So it's substantial. And the first year we will be able to get everything installed. And much of that, even with that $150,000 cost, includes volunteers, not necessarily hiring a contractor to do it. Um, the second and third year will primarily be
monitoring >> and we are anticipating having a workshop from the estuary program and Jacobs at the April 28th, I believe, is the that commission meeting. Uh prior to that, they'll do a workshop and let the public know. We've got this one in the
area over at the wastewater treatment plant with the retention pond there from that living shoreline. Um so they'll present all of this information April 28th. >> Yeah, the estuary folks have been fantastic helping us to try and achieve a grant. Um just to give you an update,
um some of you have come on board after this this project started. The Bayou Preserve was actually um part of the I guess you'd call it Triumph Funds really. It was Deep Water Horizon oil spill money and we received that
property out there which is 98 acres and we have a $3.5 million grant for operations and maintenance over 10-year period. The problem we've ran into is those are 2012 funds. So we inherited the project in 21, but yet those funds were actually put into
place between 2012 and 2015. So those dollars are not going to be the same as they are today. So we are forecast or not forecast, I'm sorry, we're allocated through the grant to have three full-time and two part-time positions. We have really kept it down to one or
two people for the last 5 years to try and make those dollars stretch. And as you can see, we're currently at the four-year 9-month mark, so almost halfway. And we have we've spent 51% of the the funds. And a large portion of a portion of that was initially to get
started for the vehicle, for the tractor, for some of the equipment we needed to maintain out there. And next, I'm going to move on to the parks and grounds projects unless there was any questions on the bayou. All right. Again, this is a snapshot
over the next five years, and I will in turn go through each slide here in just a moment. If you've ever been out to Sheffield Park following a rain, you'll notice it holds a lot of water. When that playground was initially installed, I'm
not sure why. It was prior to my being with the city, the rubber safety surfacing was only done through half of it. So, the rest of it has mulch and it holds water after every event. And it's two things happen. After every event, kids can't go out there and play. And if
it's a heavy rain event, all that mulch travels with the water and then we've got to go out and clean it up. Um, now what we're encountering now is much of that it's called poured in place uh PIP. It's uh that rubber surfacing is starting to deteriorate with the wear
and tear and we're starting to have to patch it. And the more you patch it, the more often you have to patch it. So we have two choices. We can replace the whole thing. Now, that $65,000 estimate is to replace all of that area with new PIP. And we may be able to come in
cheaper with artificial turf. And that seems to be the the trend in parks now, is getting away from PIP and going with an artificial turf. It's a little easier to patch. Uh, another thing on the on the list this year being that we just completed
the Kane Griffin renovation on the playground, you have a splash pad, a brand new playground, clean restrooms, more than ample parking that's going to turn into a destination park very quickly, and we only have one pavilion out there. Um, so on a Saturday or even
in the summer, the splash pad is non-stop. Everyone's eating under the little concession stand awning. Now, although there is a small pavilion out there, you can't have two birthday parties and they're out there constantly. So, I think there's a need for two more. We will pour the slabs
inhouse and the 45,000 should be enough to cover the two pavilions plus picnic tables. Um, one of the things we just announced that we were going to put up a new playground and on social we got bombarded with shade, shade, shade. It It hadn't even started yet and people
were screaming about shade. When we demoed the existing playground, we tried to salvage as many of the existing poles for the sun shade units. So, I think we can save a little bit of money. That would have normally ran us around 45,000 for that location. I've reached out to a
couple of companies in town because we salvage those poles. They think they can they can shade it for about $30,000. And as soon as the temps start heating up, you're going to see more and more posts on Facebook. When are you going to shade it? Oh, and before I get past this one, um I
don't know if you were able to see the post on Facebook yesterday with with the kids out there. We had sod laid yesterday. So, I went out just to inspect the sod and there were three kids on the playground even though we had it taped off. And I asked mom, "Hey, would it be okay if I take some pictures
and she said absolutely." From the time I walked to the truck to got back, there was four or five more kids. And by the time I finished, there were 15 kids out there, including a kid in a wheelchair. And that's the whole purpose for doing this because we didn't have an ADA park where a kid could get on a a
merrygoround. So, it made my heart smile seeing that yesterday and I had to share it online. So, Ben, thank you for the CRA funding that and it shows that it can CRA money can be spent a lot of places that do a lot of good for our community.
Um, the last time we talked about this, the roof started leaking. So, let's hope that we're beyond that now. Um yeah, that that elephant in the room was what are we going to do with the splash pad out at Kinsaw Park. I think
um regardless of what we do, it has to be demolished. Even if we choose to rebuild it, it has to be demolished. And that cost is going to be probably $102,000, Bobby, give or take. If we leave it as a green space, we grade it, we saw it,
we're looking at about 30,000. And that's on the low end to demo and green space. Um these are the various options that was discussed with the commission previously and again doesn't have to be done in 27 but I would suggest as a minimum we demo and go ahead and green
space. From a parks perspective what our greatest need is pavilion space just like what we have out at uh Porter Park. Any given Saturday every table is slammed. And I I don't know, the last time I spoke to the commission, I told
the story about going out and there were two families arguing because one was there first and that is what we need. And Justin, you can probably >> I can say this. We receive several calls about birthday parties now that the weather is starting to warm up birthday
parties. It's always Kane Griffin Park, Leslie Porter. Um if we have another large pavilion like we have at Leslie Porter um at Kinsaw would be a great addition to what we have. And the reason I think it's so important here is because you see behind you have clean restrooms, ample parking, there's a
playground, and the scenery out there is gorgeous. I I think that would be money well spent. >> Yes. Um commission, just from a a safety standpoint, one splash pad is tough to handle from a safety and liability standpoint. a second splash pad. We're
we're getting into an area on a on a safety issue with is the water clean and slip and fall that people are they certified um you know and I'm not trying to >> these are important items >> from a safety standpoint you see a lot
of cities across Florida getting rid of their these flash pads >> because of the liability and Miss Jen would know more than me on liability but from a safety standpoint having a second one it's going to be quite the issue. you trying to keep it safe?
>> Well, it's not only keeping it safe. In addition, it's staffing. >> I was going to say, keep in mind, there's no adults that want to go out there and monitor in the hot sun. So, we're hiring kids who >> high school kids out there >> who had open the splash pad opens at 10:00 and at 9:50 we're getting a call.
Hey, I can't make it today. So, now I've got to pull a staff member, Justin does to go out there and monitor. >> Like I like I said, Miss Chin on the liability issue, she has way more experience on that than I do. Um, but like I said, from a safety standpoint, employee standpoint, >> it's hard.
>> I would just say this. I spend time at the splash pad because people call in at the last minute >> on a Saturday or a Sunday because we have nobody to >> Was it last year or the year before that we actually put an email out to all employees that they could get overtime
at their regular rate to go work >> over? But I would add that a squirt pad is just on the same level when you have water slick with little to no supervision from the parents. And again,
our splash pad attendants are not guardians of the children. Um, and we've gone through a lawsuit with that and won. They are not guardians of the children. Um, but it is ripe for accidents. Kids are going to
run, scream, slip, fall, break, open up their head, and it's it's yes, it's it is a highle risk um activity. >> And because it's recycled, that also includes the time it takes for
facilities maintenance to come out and prep it each day. So there's >> all those things can be said for any aquatic feature at all. All aquatic features are risk um high risk additions to the city.
>> Yes. So regardless of way that the commission chooses to move forward, I would ask that you please consider a pavilion for sure, regardless of what else goes in there. I I think that's a need that the community would fill immediately. Um, if you've been out to Kinsaw
recently, we've we've started construction on the new gazebo out there. And that's that's the actual uh look of what it is. It's got a very coastal look. And the reason we went that way was so we can start hosting weddings out at Kinsaw. Um, I get calls,
I bet I get three calls a month. Can we have a wedding at the bayou? And unfortunately, our deed restriction prevents that. So, what other park can we have a wedding at? Well, they're kind of limited, but I think this would provide a great venue with North Bay in the background. Um, and rather than
putting picnic tables out there, I think we're going to throw some chairs out there and use it as a community space in the evenings to watch the sunsets and what have you. Uh, the ultimate plan is on either side of that gazebo to put a couple of the pergola swings like we have at Porter out there to be able to
enjoy the sunsets. And we anticipate this should be complete in the next two to three weeks. >> And I'm assuming that if we get that up and running that will be a reservation where we >> Exactly. It's something that we can reserve. >> That is in our office.
>> And the reason I don't want picnic tables out there is because it will turn into a birthday party location. And if you've ever gone out to any of our pavilions on a Saturday afternoon after the parties have happened, there's 4 lb of confetti and shiny. it it's just a
mess constantly and we want to avoid that at this location since it's so close to the shoreline. Um, next, still staying at Kinsaw, that existing playground needs to be replaced in the next 2 to 3 years. As you can see, the rust starting to occur. Um,
we've had to replace a couple of pieces out there recently, and I think we're we're getting into some safety and liability issues the longer we allow this to go without replacement. Anytime you're near saltwater, you can expect a shorter lifespan. So, um, this playground, I want to say,
Bobby, you know how old this is? I want to say this is 10 years old at least. >> At least. >> Yeah. So, it's it's fared quite well, but it's starting to show the the rust now. The piece that you're looking at right here at Porter, that piece right there was 4 and 1/2 years old because of
its proximity to the salt water at Porter Park. Um, some of you may remember we had a 9-week closure during spring and summer two years ago trying waiting on these parts to come back in. The company we purchased this from was sold. So, the new owner was bulking
about some of the warranty issues and we've replaced about $12,000 worth of equipment between those two playgrounds that are 5 years old um just in the first 5 years. So, what I'm proposing is whatever we go back with at both
locations, be more resin based. Minimize as much steel as we can. What steel there is, powder coat it to give us a little added protection. I know this shows a metal slide, but we will certainly go with plastic or HDPE. Um, next a couple of years down the
road, I want to go ahead and refurbish the equipment at Sheffield. It's in great condition, but it's really starting to show its age there. There are no rust issues occurring. And I found a company in South Florida that actually comes in and recotes everything. So, it looks like a brand
new playground for really just a fraction of the cost of replacing it. And I think it would uh it would serve us well to do so in the next few years, especially the use that that playground gets. All right. Here's here's the pie in the
sky over the horizon that I'd like to do. Um, right now the old Bailey Bridge is a fishing bridge. It's bicycles, joggers, walkers, golf carts in the evenings. To me, I look at that much like Kinsaw
Park. It is a diamond in the rough that we can do so much with because of the visibility. You've you're on an elevated basically an elevated park above the water. What I want to do is create a completely unique amenity that's a one-of-a-kind destination.
So, my thought process is to take half of the bridge, the bridge that's closest to to the newer Bailey Bridge, and landscape it, which will still leave plenty of room for golf carts, bicycles. It won't change anything, but I want to
put in concrete planters. We already have a 6-in water line going across there. We have water. All we need to do is irrigate it, throw in some soil, some plants. And when we reached out to DOT, they were like, "Holy cow, that's the only bridge in Florida that would be
like that. That's a destination. That's a one-ofa-kind in Florida." >> Um, I think we would have to do it in phases. And the way I've got it set up, I think if we started with $200,000, we could do it in at least three phases
minimum, probably more. Now, in order to utilize CRA money, Ben and I have talked over the last 3 or 4 years about this. If we can rework the turnaround nearest the bridge to make the bridge and the park contiguous, we can utilize CRA
funds for that. Basically, rework the turnaround and it'll take some design issue work on. We already have a pretty good idea of what we want to do, but the first phase could be going that route and suddenly we can get grants and sponsorships for some of the rest of it,
but it will be partially funded. We're going to have to fund some of it. >> So, what's the one >> the the insurance? >> Yeah, >> I'm going to let Chris talk about that one. Relocating the water lines. >> So, nowadays, you don't put a water line
or force man on a bridge. Um it's DOT won't won't won't allow that any longer. It's all got to be bored. If the decision is made to go to Bay County for the sewage uh treatment plant, we will have to have a a bore under the the Bailey Bridge there. It will eliminate
the forest man that's currently on the bridge. And when we did that, we would also bore a new water man and eliminate the one that was on the bridge. Aside from we could down downsize it and use it for the irrigation if needed. >> Mhm. So, we'd have to move the water lines. What are you saying?
>> Not to do this project. They're going to have to be moved regardless if we go to the county. >> Okay. >> But we could tie in for irrigation purposes at each end of the bridge and still irrigate whatever we choose to put. >> We did recently also have what we assume was a homeless camp under the Bailey
Bridge and they probably move 13 yards of dirt out from under the bridge and have a camp >> um >> underneath. Yeah. >> So there are vendors. >> They actually worked a little more efficiently than some of the contractors. We had um
void under there and we had to actually flow fill it. They use nine yards of flowable filling >> um to fill the cavity under there um that they had dug out. >> Wow. >> Okay. >> And and the water lines are not insured.
Insurance companies will not insure them. Okay. If you ever want to, if you don't believe how limber Bobby is, Bobby got up in that cavity. So, >> did you crawl? >> And it was right below this water sewer line.
>> So, there was just one piece of concrete holding this whole line up. It was about collapse. >> It actually dropped about an inch when it took out some both lines. >> So, maybe not. Not to uh
try to mire in the past, but I know we got insurance money for the bridge, didn't we? What was that for? >> So, there was FEMA money given uh to repair the Bailey Bridge about 1.4 million8, I think, that it went to pay.
>> I know. I know. >> So, as >> I'm just trying to remember what it was for. >> It was to make repairs on the Bailey Bridge, I believe. lights, the piping, um, and painting. >> Yes. >> Um, >> and we're going to have to do that regardless.
>> So, the lights will need to be upgraded soon. We did just put in the midyear budget, uh, 25 or $27,000 to prepare a task order because there is damage to the bridge, not hurricane related, but that bridge does have
damage from the bridge inspection. Um, so we will we put money in the midyear budget to build a bid package and we will have to bid that out in fiscal year 27. >> Thanks, >> Jennifer. Correct me if I'm wrong. Once the water is taken off that Bailey
bridge, if we did this, we could get that insured, but >> I can't speak for the insurance company. All I know is they put a big X on the bridge and said, "We will not insure the bridge >> because of the water lines and whether it would come back as aurable. the
argument that the water line is fine. >> Irrigation. >> Yeah. Irrigation should be treated different, but you never know. >> It's not the volume. >> All right. Another uh another one of those over the horizon projects. Um
we are outgrowing Sheffield Park for events. If you'll notice that the most complaints we have is when we have to close down adjacent roads and we have people parking in front of homes and what have you. And I think again I
mentioned Kinsol as being a diamond in the rough. Um it's a larger space, more scenic. We have overflow parking just two blocks away. And there's no reason we shouldn't have something like this. Our next signature
park. And again, the first design on this is probably going to be again $40 or $50,000 just to design. I have some preliminary work done on it already, but it's a much larger venue. We still have restrooms, still have a playground, and ample parking.
>> And if the future decision is made to eliminate the wastewater treatment plant here, >> yes, >> you will have all of the the area for space. There is potentially some some DB grant money for the mitigation of that. That would be green space only where the wastewater treatment plant is, but that
would expand the the amphitheater and the parking right there. That's right. Baseball stadium. And we we wanted to come up with something that was a tiered amphitheater. So, blankets, chairs, what have you, but also help direct some of that sound up away from the neighborhood. Um, not that there's going
to be a concert out there every week, but it could be a rentable space as well. whether it's weddings, whether it's Kaleidoscope Theater putting on plays, what have you. Um, these are a couple of grant-f funded projects that are on the horizon. Um,
James E. Rogers is our last park that has not been rebuilt as part of the uh the rebuild effort, and I'm not sure where we are on that. I I do know that we had 1.1 or 1.2 million available. Um, I think we can probably get $100,000 a
year in grants over the next few years to try and do that park in phases if we chose to use that 1.2 to help pay down some of the debt service. >> I I don't know. Is that negative? Okay. >> We do. >> So,
>> it was originally budgeted in um 101 FEMA money. Yeah, >> we have the the citywide parks money is the 428 money that you hear me talk about that's funible that we can move from
here to there. Um, and the determination was made not to uh apply for the FEMA money for James Rogers because it was going to delay all of the cash flow. We're trying to get as
much from FEMA as we possibly can. And in order to do that, we have to close out projects. We have to finish this for the money to start flowing again. And it's kind of I know it's confusing, but one way or another, whatever you do with
James Rogers is going to end up coming out of general fund because the FEMA money is >> so we're not going to get that money is what we're saying for James Rogers. >> Yeah, we will get it. We can get it, but it's we're already negative $18 million.
So, it's going to go into a fund that we're already we're going to have to spend $1.2 million out of pocket that we're already negative in. So, it's not it's not like we're getting $1.2 million in hand to build it. >> There is no more FEMA money for anything. >> And I think we have a strong case for
obtaining a grant because it hasn't been rebuilt and it's not serving that neighborhood. That's why I think if we can get a couple of grants over the next three years and build this park in phases, I I think that's a better option. >> So, are we at a standstill right now at James Rogers Park?
>> Yes. >> You all approved approved what design that you wanted to go with back in >> August. >> So, that is designed and ready to go. We just need to figure out how to fund the construction of that. >> Got it. >> If you decide to go forward with James
Rogers, it will come out of general fund. There is no more FEMA moving. >> Okay. One of the other ones that we're looking at right now is trying to get some irrigation and trees on the rail trail. Um if you walk that during the summertime, you know how precious shade
can be. And I think there are plenty of and River, you may be able to chime in on this one. I think there are plenty of grants out there that promote communities planting trees and what have you. I I don't I don't see that as a major factor. Um we get we get a lot of requests for
lighting around the perimeter of Cane Griffin and that's another one that if we can get solar lighting out there, even if it's if it's two lights per side, I think that's going to make some folks that walk out there in the evenings much happier. And I again I feel like this is something that's grant related. And lastly, to rebuild the
wetlands boardwalk on the back side of the sports complex. It is. Um, if you've been out there recently, it's in bad shape. The the boardwalk is pretty much shot, but the asphalt track needs to be reworked as well. Uh, Samuel
>> Harold. >> Oh, Harold, I'm sorry. Whoa, that was that was a blast from the past. >> Shots fired. >> Yeah. Used to things going wrong, I guess. Maybe it was subliminal >> because the last slide is the most important slide.
Let's come back. >> All right. I tried to find a Sarah Mlofflin soundtrack to go with this last slide, but >> the tension. >> Yes. Boy, this is quite the buildup, is it not?
>> I mean, last time you caused the the roof to leak. >> Yeah, no kidding. I'm seeing a pattern here. So, THERE WE GO. WHATEVER WORKS. >> So instead of Tiny Tim, we have Tiny Tie. >> Please sir, may I have some more?
>> The little cup. >> I put his picture in. So the real question is, is it working? Maybe you should sit outside the commission meeting with a cup. >> Sit in the front row of
>> when did he go to >> any question for parks or anything >> or any suggestions things that um >> maybe a different vision or >> No, I mean I thought he described it really well. I mean >> were you lost? I think um
>> Kinsaw is kind of a >> I think a lot of it's probably going to be experimental as far as what's going to work, what's not going to work, and I think we need to kind of start small and working towards like the amphitheater thing, you know. Um I think that's always been something we've always
wondered is like what's going to happen with Kinsaw and I think you got a lot of great visions with that. So appreciate it. >> It's a beautiful piece of property. It is >> and I I think it can be such an asset to Linhaven in the future. >> I got a question. Um
we have recently had issues over, you know, we have people crying about the crosswalk and I know on President's Day we had a little issue with a lot of kids being over here and a couple kids running toward the water in Sheffield Park. And I know you talked about a
little bit, but but um um is there any way to fortify the the the the area that we're so close playground so close to the water there? Um and I know you're looking at fencing or whatnot, but we we
need to try to get it fixed. Especially kids, autistic kids. >> Yes. >> They they they don't even think they see water, they they they run to water. I I went to uh the parks conference last year and one of the things that
surprised a lot of directors were by 2030 any new parks coming out or or the feeling is by 2030 any new parks being built will have to have fenced playgrounds for that very reason and adultsiz diaper changing tables for the
autistic kids that are you know they're almost adult size. >> Oh yeah. >> So there are some changes on the horizon based on some of that. Um, with respect to Sheffield, because of the shape of the >> the circle, you know, the sidewalk, because the shape of the pond, we could
fence it. It would look pretty funky. Um, we may be better off possibly fencing just the playground portion itself and finding a way to redesign. >> And then, um, I know I know we got the grant for Florida Avenue. I know Ben,
you've got you've got you've got you've always we always lean on you for funds from CRA or whatever, but I know we've talked about it and I I I know you put up a picture of the amphitheater and whatnot, but I'm not
going to not say it because I've said it before is that one day we're going to have to tie Florida Avenue to the this area. Mhm. >> This is going to it's in the future basically I think our Florida Avenue
corridor is going to connect to our city hall and this park. It's all going to be an an area that people can come to. Not that the city's going to take over Florida Avenue, but you you're going to need egress between the two. Um and I've
seen it and it's it it lives and breathes in Foley, Alabama. They built a a crosswalk and they got a grant. They got a Cavalry Grant or something or Mustang grant, whatever it was, a federal grant, and they built an overpass,
uh, a pedestrian overpass over over the state highway in Alabama. They built it, and they have it's all lit up. It's a focal point of the downtown area there, and it connects their antique shopping area and their city park. Um, and people
talk about the light, you know, you could see how they light it up and stuff. You middle of Foley, Alabama, and they got the skyline of New York on this crossbow. You know, it's really cool. So, that being said, um, I don't want you to add it to anything, but it's just
something that we need to think about that that that we're talking about Kinsol Park. We're talking about the whatifs of everything. Um, you know, and I think the the big step is this this first little grant that we have for Florida Avenue, but we're going to hopefully end up having a great little
area back there with with shops and restaurants and whatnot and then tie it into this area. >> And and I think it's important sooner or later >> sponsored at this park where people need to park and get to it or a function, you know, and people are going to be running around on Florida Avenue or there'll be
an event on Florida Avenue and people exactly that. So >> in the park over here. >> Yep. Y. >> So, yep. >> It might happen sooner than later. >> I believe we've touched on all the general fund projects. Is that true statement? General fund.
>> No, we still got a street department. >> We still got street. >> Okay. >> Fleet maintenance, but >> cuz pimping ain't easy. >> Why are you to other streets? >> Uhhuh. >> We want them to have a good day. It's Friday.
>> My job. So any anything else with the parks? So lunch will be ready in about 10 minutes. I'm going to go ahead and take a break. We'll grab some lunch and then eat in here and reconvene. Sounds good. Ready?
Treat. Part: 2
spend all >> such a Bobby Baker. >> Is it true that you basically move up here? >> As an officer, yeah. >> All right. >> If you want to make him six.
>> Hello. Here we go. >> Hello. Hello. >> All right. Kiki, are you sitting down? You ready? >> All right. Well, I'm working with two general fund budgets. One of them is fleet maintenance, which is not in here cuz
we're not asking for any capital. It'll just be operating money this year. The street department is a general fund. Currently, we maintain 125 miles of roads. A lot of people are surprised we
have that many miles, but we do. Uh with a staff of seven people. Right now, we've got several trucks that run a monitor system that grades our roadways. It's been an excellent program. It tells
us the grade of all the roads. So, it's easy when we budget for road repairs, we have them in order of need. You know, we grade them A, B, C, and D. So each year we typically try to budget
about a million dollars for roadway paving out of the uh sir tax and then we'll if approved we'll actually you know bring the roads prioritized to the city to get repaired.
So and it it changes every year on the priority. A program we just started is crushing our concrete. We just put it out for bid. We've been restoring this concrete. This is
sidewalks, driveways, curbing, any concrete we take out. In the past, we've had to pay to haul it off, pay the tipping fees, then when we need roadway base, we have to buy it and
go to Mariana to get it. So, this is going to be a huge cost savings. We just got a price in for this at $1,750 a ton. We could use this for road base, which is less than what we're paying for limerock.
So, it's it's going to be a huge cost savings to the city, but we're if the program works as good as we hope, we're going to continue to do this every year cuz we do collect more and more concrete. >> And where do you where do you stockpile
it at? >> At the P Well, we call it the pistol range. It's at the end of Britain Road. You know, you don't know where our storage yard is. Um, if you go down Aberdeene, which we
don't, we go down Britain, the Was it the VFW right there? >> American Legion. >> American Legion. It's right behind it. >> Okay, I know what you're talking about. >> The American Legion used to be part of the that parcel right there. That used to be the city dump and our pistol range
where we used to shoot. The police used to practice. And >> Okay. And >> this is on the agenda for Tuesday. Yeah. the first work. >> Right now, we have a a real good street sign replacement program. We've got a
guy in there now that is on top of it by the name of Justin. He's wellversed on the requirements for the signs. He's got a program set up now where he does it in phases. So he's working throughout the city and
different blocks to bring all our signs up to grade. So that's been a huge help because we're constantly getting them tore down and they're deteriorating and it's just been a big problem. >> Bobby, is there a particular time frame
or lifespan expected for your typical street sign that goes up? >> Well, they'll last 15 to 20 years. to be legible, you know what I mean? Then they start fading off. Some that
face the west, you know, tend to fade out much quicker. A lot of them on the corners get smacked by the semiis and trailers. And there's some corners we kind of go back to regular, you know, just because of big trucks. But
>> just curious if there was kind of an average you saw here in Lin Haven. >> Excuse me. If there was kind of an average like a normal sign here last 10 years, 15 years, >> they'll last good 15 to 20 actually because they're made out of aluminum.
Like I said, the sun is the worst part on them. >> Right. So, if it's facing away from the sun most of the time, it'll last 20 years. There is two trucks that we're looking at replacing.
One is um just a standard pickup truck for the street department. The other one is the asphalt truck. Our current asphalt truck is what 15 years old I think. Right at >> 04, I believe it was
>> 04. Yeah, that one is 04. And it's getting worked more and more and more every year because we got a lot more patches. So, it's really time to retire it. and we'll sell the old one. This is not
an addition. This is a replacement. All right. Now, we're going to get into the enterprise funds. We got four enterprise funds to go over. Um the the water department maintains the drinking water and distribution facilities,
including all the wells, the ground storage tanks, the pumping stations, chlorine injection, and water meters. There's 18 staff members in including two water plant operators and three meter readers and one backflow
inspector. Currently we're replacing the water meters with radio read type meters. We've done the majority of them inhouse each year. We we're doing a percentage each year.
We have a remaining 2137 to be installed in 2007. Uh, which we could do. We could also Panama City Beach just signed a contract with Core and Maine to install these
meters that we could piggyback off of and get them done quickly versus stretching it over a whole year. >> And that is the intent to have you all approved that piggyback contract April 14th. Yeah. >> It did not make March 2014. So,
>> so that is an option, but we're just about there with replacing these water meters with the radio readings. So, we do have a 10-year capital improvement plan for the water system, which we've been gradually working through.
We've also got a 10-year for the wastewater study that's been done which we gradually work through. So, some of these projects that I'm going to show you are actually on this CIP plan. Uh the construction projects we're
proposing for 27 is to rehab well number four estimated 170,000. It's part of the plan. Bradley Circle the water man replacement it's 300,000
it's also part of the plan and the rails to trails water main extension which is 400 what is that 65,000 construction cost. So those are the threes we're proposing >> for this coming year
>> between Minnesota and >> okay >> the projects that we're going to engineer for this year not necessarily build them is design the Johnson drive water main replacement estimated 35,000 and
the replacement of the asbestous water line we've got the majority of the asbestous replaced, but there's some scattered remaining pieces throughout the city we got to get,
which hopefully will finish it up. We need to service the high service pumps. These are I don't Have you ever been to the water plant, the big service pumps? It's time to service a couple of them,
which averages about $10,000. To replace them is right at 50,000. So, the option is to service them. Hopefully, they're still in good enough shape that we don't have to replace them. Uh, replacing truck 16. This one would
be a replacement. We would auction it off the old one and collect the revenue from it. But it's an old locker body service truck that they use every day. This any questions on the water? Go back
to the We've got a lot of big projects. We've got them planned out for 10 years. It's a matter of funding them. The sewer division is another enterprise fund. maintains the sewer treatment collection
facility. Um, lift stations, gravity sewer pipes, force man pipes, wastewater treatment facility. We have a staff of 10 full-time, one half part-time position. So, 10 and a half.
What we're looking at is replacing one half ton truck with a 3/4 ton. Currently, we've got a trailer with a a vac system on it that a one-tonon truck cannot haul it. Since we got to replace
this, we need a 3/4 ton ton big enough to pull that big trailer when it's full of water along with any other equipment they may need like the mini excavators and stuff like that. Every year we put in two to three lift
stations that need to be rehabbed. We have approximately 76 list stations. So even doing two a year, it's going to take over 30 years to rehab them. Now, they've got a certain ones
have a life expectancy to be rehabbed anywhere from 10 years to 15 years. Depends on the volume that they use and the the chemicals and stuff going through them. But this year we're setting lift station 13 and 15 aside to
be rehabbed staffing at the AWP. This is, as you know, been a been been a hot topic. We have four full-time, one part-time budgeted.
We actually have one full-time, one part-time, and we contract out the other three positions as you're you're aware of that contract we have to do that. We we have a spreadsheet, too, that showed, you know, a lot of the conversation was, oh, just
increase the salaries to that to what what we're paying. That spends more money. And we can show that in the spreadsheet. It is the cheapest way to do it right now. the way we're doing it with one part, one part-time, one full-time, and the contractor filling in
the void until we make a decision on the future of the plant. And then we can decide if we want to staff it full time and spend more spend more money. >> Just hard to get staffing. It's not a career people want to get in. the AWT future like Chris mentioned
earlier. Um we're doing the rate study now to see where we decide to go with it or you decide to go with it. Won't know that for 6 months. Storm water. Currently, we maintain the collection
system of little over 25,57 catch basins, 96 outfalls, 52 miles of culverts, 153 ponds, and 44 miles of ditches and
swells with a staff of 12 people. The construction projects we're proposing for next year is the Aberdeene drainage improvements approximately 850,000 and the Merrick entrance improvements
which we haven't got the final cost estimates on yet. That's at the front gate of the Merrick Industries. The vehicles we're looking to purchase is another dump truck. This is an addition. This is not a replacement. We
have one large dump truck for the entire city that works with storm water, streets, water, and sewer. And that truck is just it never stops. And when it does stop, it puts everybody down. So, we're asking
for an additional truck because it the demand is just too much on one because if he's not hauling dirt or debris, he's having to go up in the sand hills and get clean fill and bring it back. So, it's constantly running one
way or another. And then a F250 truck. This is um a replacement for an existing one that we have that's It's another locker body truck that the crews use.
We're also looking at purchasing a adaption of a st a mulching machine stump grinder for the little mini excavator. Currently, we're also requesting an additional mini excavator. We have one
for the entire city and it water uses it, sewer uses it, street uses it, storm water uses it, everybody uses it and it's always in demand and we really do need another one for the water and sewer
to help with them also. But it's our crews that usually help run them. Sanitation. Sanitation is one of our best enterprise funds. We currently run three garbage trucks on the road every day.
Um, five knuckle booms on the road every day with a staff of 10 people. Some days we end up running four garbage trucks depending on the load and Wednesdays our worst day. This year we're looking to replace one
of the side loader trucks. We currently lease a couple of these trucks and the lease is just not working out like we hoped. So, we want to go back to owning them again. So, we'll finish out this lease, but we want to
purchase our own trucks. The lease trucks are not built like the ones that we used to run. So they constantly break and they're just not a good quality truck is what you can purchase.
And replace one knuckle boom and auction off the old one. So, it's not an addition, it is a replacement, which sanitation is solid to the point that it can replace trucks every year,
which is intent cuz these are probably the hardest working trucks in the city. They start in the morning, they run all day, and they got just numerous moving parts on them, which is constantly breaking. But yeah, they are probably
the hardest working trucks in the city. Garbage and knuckle booms. Any questions? >> None. >> What's the total? How much is all that together?
>> I wasn't tracking it because it's different budgets. >> Yeah. >> Well, the storm water is always my first concern. and he's got a half million dollars worth of uh additions to storm water. >> Storm water. Even with the non with the
nonavalore right now, we're barely breaking even with the when you put in the disposables, we're like 100,000 under, right? >> We're not even close to breaking even with storm water >> with the with the disposables or the equipment stuff that they get the
perishables. They're like a 100,000 over budget, right? I thought that was the last number I saw. >> You need you need another dump truck. You need another look like that little mini excavator, >> right?
>> And I asked Chris, do you have oper if you have a second one? You have a second operator. And he said you did. You have operator for both? >> Yeah. Thanks to the program that with the CDLs we just did that program, >> we've got backup CDL drivers now. That's good.
>> That's great. >> It was hard to get them before, but >> if you can't get the truck, you know, hardware. I asked Chris again, but but I just just for everybody to hear. >> I asked about a like a company like Redmond, like David Redmond or somebody,
but he said they want they want to they want to charge you for hauling. So, >> yes. >> So, they you can't lease a truck from them or anything. >> Right. >> There's no lease program for the dump trucks. There is less programs for the dump trucks, but yeah, we've tried the leasing of the larger trucks and it's
not >> doesn't work. Okay. I know you were talking about the trash truck, but the side loader, but I didn't know about a big dump truck. >> Can I talk about this? >> So, mayor, you asked me to put a very simplistic kind of report together,
which I have done. um and it compares the last year of when we were uh including the fee on the utility and it compares it against moving towards the non-adalorum assessment. So the last
year that we were uh including it on the utility bill, the storm water uh department was in the whole a million $100,000 and that's after transferring over a million3 into uh the department from
water and from sanitation. So basically there were $3 million in the hole that last year. >> Okay. Wow. Over the course of five years, uh they're in the storm water department
is in the whole million7, but over the course of five years, we have transferred in $10 million from the other departments. So, in five years, we've been in the whole almost $12 million.
You see why I always say to you the storm water department is my biggest concern for the city. >> Absolutely. >> The nonadvelorum tax barely covers the operating cost. It is not enough to cover the capital cost.
So in 25 the year we just finished in September we brought in a million6 in non-advelour. The department cost $700,000 in personnel and nine almost a
million dollars in operating. Then we had $300,000 worth of project related expenses. That was just last year. It was >> your disposables I was talking about. >> And then last year, of course, we had the very last debt service payment.
So we paid the the debt service over the course of the last 5 years has been 5 million. So that's done. That's the good news. Going forward, we won't have any debt service for storm water anymore. And we were running at a deficit even after we went from three tiers to four tiers on
the non-leaf Lord. And a lot of them literally doubled in a year. A lot of the assessments. I know mine went from like 174 to 350 just boom one year. So there was a lot of movement in that and
we're still need. >> Yes sir. It is my largest concern for the city. >> Copy. We have got as a team y'all. We have to get a hold on storm water. The financing, the funding, it was kicked down the can for many, many years by
folks long long before we were here, even before Bobby was here. >> Um it it but it's a crisis we all have to deal with now. >> Well, and of course it was exasperated by Hurricane Michael. >> Fair. >> Yes. But it those there was a lot of
deferred maintenance and a lot of deferred expansion done for a long time because it was expensive and it was a pain to do, right? So now we have this big monkey on our backs that we have to deal with. >> And what it has in common with the sewer
department is you don't really think about it until it goes sideways. >> No one wants a glass of water till the well runs dry. But without the nonadalorum, it it would be we'd be in terrible shape
>> if we didn't have it. >> Regardless of how we get the funding in, >> I am not a fan of the non-advalorum whatsoever. Um because it's not sunset right now. It's just basically another revenue stream that we've latched on to
and there's no end date. There's no sunset and we're not even breaking even with the extra funds we're making our citizens pay, >> which is bad on our house. It's a box on our house. >> So, we have to get this figured out. And whether it's additional money on the the
water bill, I mean, I think we're all going to have to pay the money. whether it's an extra $30 on my water bill every month for my particular rate or whether I pay an extra $350 right before Christmas. Again, I'm still paying the same money. But it's how we do that,
right? >> We got to figure that out. >> There, in my opinion, there was a serious inequity in the utility bill. Someone who was renting a 700 foot apartment was paying the same as Walmart.
>> That makes no sense to No, it doesn't. So, we really have to plan our work and work our plan in that. >> Um, but that's one big area, y'all. That's kind of our collective Achilles heel. >> So, if we don't fund it through nonabalorum, how would we fund it?
>> Cuz we sit there and we say we want to put on the water bill, but the problem is you have less people that are paying into it if you put it underwater, right? >> Am I right about that? >> Yes, sir. The non-advalum is the fairest, most equitable way you can. I'm not saying it is the fairest, but it is
the most fairest, equitable way method of collecting the money. Now, I I could I mean, I've already discussed some other options, and I think there's some other options as far as how to do it as a non-avalorum.
But, you know, one of the statements you say, and I've heard this before, not just from you, but other people, is there's no sunset on it. Well, if you put it on the water belt, guess what? There's no sunset on that either. >> It's fair. But Corey Langford, he brought up a great powerful quote. He came up there instead of that podium and
said, "As it stands right now, my great great grandchildren that aren't even thought of yet will be on tap for this storm." Now, it gets renewed every year to be fair, but there is no sunset to that. >> But they'll still be they will still be paying a utility bill too if it comes
in. And and I think of it as a maintenance program. So when you say there's no end to it, well, when are you going to stop changing the oil in your truck? >> When I don't have a truck anymore, >> you we are always going to have storm
water issues. The city is at sea level. There's nowhere for the water to drain normally. >> Yeah. >> We are always going to have storm water issues as long as the city is here. And the cost to maintain them is very
expensive. >> It's only going to go up. >> If there's ever been a good example of money being used to help something, it's been storm water. The issues have declined drastically in 5 years. So the money is being used and the money is being effective.
It's >> Yeah, there's been a change. So this nonadvelor that we're all currently paying that increased from the three to five tier and it seems like we had a bunch in the three to four tier jobs that's barely paying salaries for those 12 employees
>> and the disposable so things that they need to do their job. Right. >> Right. >> Um that's we're and we're not even breaking even now. >> No. Well, we're not breaking even because it wasn't increased the way that the original plan was was set forth
either. We we implemented it and then two years it didn't get an increase. Then we had to do a higher increase. So the plan was not followed either. This is year five or year six. We should be at the break even point >> this year. But we are not because the
plan was not followed. So this is why I say regardless of how we triage, this is probably our biggest financial Achilles heel as a city right now. >> Well, >> yes. >> Well, aside from >> the $50 million sewer point
in general, but in terms of an operational >> ongoing, >> right? Yes. >> Fund, this is our largest our weakest Achilles Hill. >> Yes. So, we really as a team have to figure out how to how we're going to thread this needle.
>> Bobby, could you put your slide back up here if you don't mind that shows all the projects for storm water that are current like the ditches and the this and the ponds? >> I think it was the last, wasn't it? >> Yep.
>> I mean, I'm fine with putting on the water bill, but we just have to expect you it had happened. >> We just have to expect that >> it's going to be a lot more and people are going to be like I'm paying what a month for storm water. What I know we talked about it before. What what would
we project it would be a month if we >> put it on our on water? >> 30 to $40 a month. >> It was something in the order of eight bucks a month. >> It was eight bucks commercial, three bucks residential. >> Is that what it was? >> So, >> and it total in the last year $517,000.
I don't know about you all, but the majority of people have an escrow account that they would much rather pay in their escrow versus paying an additional 3040 bucks a month on their utility bill. >> You're going to get a lot more complaints with 30 to $40 a month than
you will. People not even realize they're paying into an esco account because they just do the monthly. >> That's true. If you have a mortgage, it's not as impactful. You just write those checks to the mortgage and the mortgage company takes care of it.
Most of us do not analyze our escrow account with the mortgage. Let's put it that way. >> I forget about my escrow until I get the text the other day that they paid my insurance. >> That's >> so at $350 a year, which is what I just paid. And that was the paying early in
November versus the April of the following year with the little >> with the discount >> little $67 discount, whatever it was. Uh $350 a year for mine and mine's a third of an acre lot. um my that's divided by 12 that's $29.16.
>> But it would have to go up drastically to cover the people that are not paying a utility bill that have >> property that's not paying. >> Yes. >> Right. Cuz the nonaval loan also covers vacant lots. It covers residential. I mean it covers um commercial paying at a
much higher rate than the residential. So if you change to the water bill, then you're going to have to raise the average citizen's monthly >> back. That goes back to what Kiki is talking about. You have Walmart paying the same amount as every residential. >> I don't see that. If if we do go to a
water bill, it would have to be residential only. The commercial, the industrial would have to stay a non-avalor, but residential, we'll still have to look at it. So, I I'm just telling y'all I'm not a fan of the non-avalor. I'm not saying we have
to continue it or we have to kill it. I'm just saying I don't like it as a team. I recognize this is a gaping chest wound financially that we as a team have to come to a conclusion with and whatever the solution is that's best for the city, that's what we need to do.
The other factor is going back to on the utility bill, going to need more staff because there's going to be questions and there's going to be administration. Currently, with it being on your
property tax bill, city staff is not answering those questions. Our phone is not ringing asking why why am I paying this bill? It may be going to the city manager, but it's not going to the utility billing department.
Put it back on the utility billing department. I'm going to need another staff member over there just to handle the added traffic. So, uh, every November, December, we get about, I'm going to say 20 to 40 calls just
from one, people forgot about it, or two, maybe they paid off their their mortgage and don't have escrow anymore, or their escrow increased. And the 20 to 40 calls we get, we explain it to them. It's not like every month where they're calling the utility billing department
because their water bill went up or they had a leak or something like that which would impact going back to the utility bill would impact that drastically. >> Fair. >> And we have a percentage of people who flat out just don't pay their water bills and we have to cut them off. I'm writing those dollars off on a regular
basis. So now I'm going to be writing off the storm water assessment or utility billing or whatever we're going to call it. And and to be fair, there was a big sticker shock last year. I was surprised mine jumped from 175 to 350, you know, with no warning. It just boom.
And and I had to go back and run the tape on what happened. And I watched the whole workshop and I understand the three and the four tiers now. I wasn't on the commission. So I talked to my commissioners and said, "What the hell happened?" And I've I got educated, but
there's a lot of sticker shot there. So that the direction that was given to the consultant who worked up the numbers was this is a quote rip the band off. >> Y'all damn sure did. And there was I wasn't a call but I was a definitely a
what the hell moment and I paid it begrudgingly and and it something I ran on and the rec mayor re recall was we need to take a hard look at this. I didn't say we were going to kill it, but I said we were going to take a hard look at it and we really do. Is that the best
option? And if it is, great. If it's not, what are the other options? And how can we do best optionwise for the city to fix this Achilles heel? >> So, because you are new to your position, we say this publicly. We have
tinkered with this every single year. >> That's probably >> for five years. My recommendation would be stick with it. Give it a while to work out. Give it a while for people to get used to it. But the idea that every single year we
make some changes, tweaks here and tweaks there, and we're trying to address this problem, we're trying to address that problem, it's not allowing the system to see if it works. >> That's fair. General McQueen has a great quote and he likes to say, "Let's not rush to failure." You know, measure
twice, cut once. We really need to do a deep dive into this Achilles heel honestly as a team a frank assessment and then come up with some no kidding potential wayheads and let's discuss it and as a team we need
to figure out what that best option is moving forward so that we mitigate that risk and we do get it to at least a break even proposition and then hopefully into positive territory. I know that's crazy talk for a municipal government, but we really need to be shooting in that direction.
>> Well, and that's the direction we've been going. But if if we wouldn't have tweaked it every year, if we would have stuck to the original plan, we would have been broke even. >> And who was driving those tweaks? >> Me. >> You? >> Yes.
>> The quiet one. >> Um, and I I think we're at the point now where we have got it where we want it as far as the collection. If we change it again, we're going to face this conversation again and we're going to have a a sewer or utility rate increase
as well. >> Again, we need to walk the dog and maybe this isn't the right time. Maybe we need a whole storm water workshop. But um >> well, see, hold on a second. When we this whole storm water thing started, we had five workshops. Five.
I was campaigning. I wasn't even on the commission yet. I went door to door. I told everyone, I say, "Hey, storm water's coming. This is what they're talking about. Not a peep from everyone." But as soon as it goes on their bill, everyone's complaining about it because nobody pay I shouldn't say
nobody, but the vast majority of people don't pay attention. This has been talked about to death. >> It didn't impact them until it did. >> Yeah. And then they cared about. >> But what did impact us before then is the flooding. if you remember the major flooding
>> and CJ >> that we don't see anymore. >> I just wanted to add that we actually publish so many notifications ahead of time to notify people when the hearings would be
>> what to expect what percentages would be what the different scenarios would be and so um the notifications were done that was published I don't what else we could have done to >> to Jim's point August
>> every single year >> August of 2021 we had major flooding that year the same meeting that the commission was going to vote on this non-adalorm the senior center was full but every other person this person got up to complain about flooding this person got up to complain about the
assessment >> the next person complained about flooding the next person complained about the assessment so we do not have that issue we Bill, we have nowhere for the water to go during high tide, during a 20-in rain event in 24 hours. We will have flooding issues. It's never going
to be fixed. But those issues have declined. Bobby and I aren't getting the phone calls on Sunday when it's pouring. Hey, come over here. Look at this. My house is about to get water in it. We don't face those issues anymore. When we have major rain events, I call Adam. I call Mitch. Hey, y'all got any calls for
dispatch? Not one. So, >> yeah. The work we've done with the money over the last four years has been tremendous. We don't get near the flooding cause. >> Yeah. >> So, we we've improved it a lot. >> And I experienced the same thing. I
actually had a poll that went out, I don't know, about a month ago. Um that was a free poll because I'm I was a member of goodparty.org or and they sent it out to I think it was 5,000 people and there was like maybe 30 responses
and the same thing I showed you them. You have people complaining about the assessment fees and you got other people complaining about storm water fixing storm water. It's like you can't have it both ways. >> Yeah. Well, I do want to say I get where
you're coming from cuz when I first came on the board close to 3 years ago, I was super passionate about storm water. Um, especially the non-avaloom and the method of how it was being done. Uh, but I will say
myself and many people have spent hours and hours and hours trying to make this thing better. I mean, I I've probably spent more time running numbers on storm water than any other issue. And I'm at to the point now where I'm like like
Kiki said, let's just see if this works because anytime we need to tweak this, we got to bring back the company and the consultants and pay them to tweak it. We've got to spend money to do that. Um, and there's no question that the money's
working. My question is like you really where you're at is the method of how we get the money, >> right? >> But it's I just wanted to say that I get where you're coming from cuz I've been there,
>> but I want to assure you that there have been hours and hours and hours and hours put into this already. >> This is a a well-known issue. Um, I've been very passionate about it in the past, but I think we're at a point to where we kind of just need to see if it
works cuz we just changed it not that long ago. I mean, it was my idea for the tier system because like I ran all the numbers. I showed it to the consultants and they ended up pretty much agreeing with me is that tier one was very much
uh there was way too many houses in tier one. That's why you saw so many go up because there was way too many houses in tier one. Um if we were trying to to me the best method is it should just be square footage across the board. But um the consultants and the rest of the
commission prefer um the tier system and I'm not going to die on that hill. I if they want the tier system, everybody think that that's good. That's fine. Um but the tiers had to be changed. that was me and um or I was I was driving
that rather and um my main point is I get where you're coming from and I appreciate it. But I also want to add that we have put a lot of time into this already, a ton of it. >> Yes, sir. >> I will say the the idea behind the
non-ador is you have a house that's worth $700,000. They have a swimming pool. They have a shop. they have the money to to afford that $700,000 piece of property. You have a 1,200 foot home
that's worth $75,000 and we're going to put it on the utility bill and charge these people the same money. That's that's not equitable across the board. >> Fair. And I don't think anybody has talked about a single fee. If we've got the tiers and we already have that data,
if for example we were to put it back on the fee, y'all are charging me for my third of an acre lot um of $350 a year. If I am a tier three or a tier four, then I should my address, my water bill account should register as a tier three
or tier four and I should still be paying that city the $350 whether I pay it as $29.50 50 cents a month or I pay you a check $350 once a year right before Christmas, you're still getting the money for me, right? And these homes aren't going to typically change. And if
they do, if you take a 7500 or $75,000 home and you convert it into a new McMansion, there's going to be building increments and stuff, right, that go with that. So, you're going to have to figure out a way to integrate those things in. >> And that was about a 30 or $40,000 charge with mun just to implement a way
to do that. So now, as Kiki said, we don't do that. We get that information from the property appraiser through Stantech. It uploads every year. If we if we go that route where we have to look at every parcel, we're hiring at least three people to to do that. So the
savings that we're we're looking at and not hiring Stantech, that's gone. The methodology is the same, but it's not as efficient. And now we are responsible for collecting that information instead of importing a spreadsheet or a CSV file that we get from the property appraiser one time. That method also we have to
make sure it stands up in port and has been certified. That method has not putting it on the utility bill in that way. The method we do now is stands up in port and has been approved by the by the court system. So even with y'all doing what you're
doing and doubling most of the assessments, we're still not even breaking even. We're not even coming close. So we still have regardless and we can argue about how you get that extra 350 for me for my lot every year.
Um but it's still 350 coming out of my pocket extra to help just like everybody else in Manhagen. I'm not special. We got to figure out the best way regardless of the way we get it in, how we manage it, and how we get to where we need to be as a city, right? To make
sure this isn't the Achilles Hill it is. So, I don't know how to fix it. I mean, Sam's one of the smartest dudes I know, most unassuming. Uh, and he's put in a lot of math and numbers here. We'll figure it out, but we whatever we come
up with, we need to do it as a team, and it has to be clear and transparent. And uh I may have missed it. You know, we're all living our lives and dealing with our own stuff. But I darn sure didn't see that the the assessment rate doubling for the non-aval alarm until I opened my envelope. So, what the hell is
this? Right. >> Again, the original intent was that it would gradually increase. At the last discussion with the consultant, the direction was rip the band-aid. >> That's exactly what they were told.
Yeah. So, everybody's adjusted to that. I assume we're not ripping more band-aids off because it's already off now. Correct. The major increases are over, but there are still increases as as the plan goes. >> So, I won't beat the dead horse anymore, but I appreciate y'all hearing me out
and us discussing this. We all know it's a problem. >> So, how we went down this road is Mr. Baker just asked for a half million dollars worth of capital. So, since we have the storm water
>> since we have the storm water loan paid off. >> Yes. >> How much does that free up money each year? >> Well, annually we were spending about 2.5 million. Um, >> so that doesn't mean we're going to have an extra 2.5 million.
>> No. uh paying it off early. The storm water department saved I believe it was a million3 in interest over the life. >> Any other questions? >> You definitely brought the beehive
today. It's always the bigger money projects that shook the hell out of it. >> Yeah, you guys are expensive. Well, what can I say? >> Thank you, Bobby. >> Good afternoon. >> Good afternoon.
On a lighter note, let's let's talk about the CRA in economic development, too. I want to cheer you guys up a little bit here. This is going to be fun. So, you may or may not know my position. Um, I'm my time here at the city is being
cut into a 7030 split. I spent 70% of my time uh on CRA projects and 30% of my time on economic development. So um when I when I started uh working for the city as a CRA
director back in 2009, one of the first things I focused on was to develop a mission statement with the commission with the public to really understand what is the CRA about? How do we implement the projects that are
suggested in the CRA plan? I'm just going to have I don't know if you had a chance to take a look at the CRA plan, but this is a document that was um developed in 2003 that kind of outlines the issues the CRA
had back in 2003 and uh comes up with a list of uh recommended projects um to fix these issues. So back in '09, we uh decided to um on the mission statement to promote a
familyoriented, walkable community with a vibrant small businessfriendly downtown area that preserves our local small town heritage. So a lot of key words in this mission statement and I'm bringing this up because this is an excellent test. Every time I I'm
suggesting I'm coming up with some project ideas what the CRA should focus on. This is an excellent test to see is this project really a legitimate expense under the CRA CRA rule. So if I I turn this mission statement into a question,
if I can answer the project with a with a yes, then it is a um a qualified um project that can be funded through CRA money. So there are I would say about five um cornerstones in the CRA uh when it comes
to CRA projects. Um we've been focusing on um building a lot of sidewalks and trails in our CRA area. We've been updating with Tai's help um some city parks. Um just recently installed that new playground there on Kang Griffin
Kang Griffin Park. um improving the public right ofway u the infrastructure addressing drainage issues and but also we're offering some incentives so one of the incentives is the residential incentive program so um in a nutshell if
there's a vacant lot in the CRA and Chief Blancher decides to build a new home in Linhaven on this vacant lot we can offer him up to $5,000 just for the fact that he's building a new home um on
that vacant lot. It's one extra family in the in the city that pays a water bill on on existing infrastructure, one extra garbage uh pickup uh account, but more most importantly, it increases the
taxable value of that property. And that's what CRAAS are all about. It's all about increasing finding ways how to increase the taxable value of the CRA. So, and that's why I showed the that's why I'm showing these two pictures here.
Same lot at different times, vacant, it had a taxable value of 50,000 improved it changed to about $300,000. So, the taxable the tax increment is 250 obviously. And that's
not only a benefit for the city, but also a benefit for the CRA to fund additional future projects. Oops. What happened? Errol. There you go. Thank you. Another incentive is the storefront incentive
program. Um, up to $25,000. Here's just an example. Ace Hardware, that property was vacant for for many years. Um then Ace Hardware purchased it. The intent is not to fund
to provide the financial uh funds to to pay for an improvement like this. It's like a carrot on the stick. We want to encourage people to spend some money, but the majority of the funding should come should come from the private
enterprise. Same thing here. This is Arthur Rutenberg Homes, their office um on Ohio and I think it's Seventh Street where they're located or maybe 8th. Um same thing there.
And then also we we've been um focusing on a lot of um sidewalks within the CRA. Um and yes, there is a structure to this. We are just not randomly building sidewalks. We actually developed a sidewalk master plan for the city,
identified areas where people would like to walk to and uh looked at the existing infrastructure and the and the gaps and then focused on the different gaps to kind of fill fill these in.
Not only do we use CRA funds for this, but also some other funding such as mainly DOT to pay for these sidewalks. for example, the sidewalk um that is planned for Tennessee Avenue um that will be on the agenda um this Tuesday.
So, but we don't stop at sidewalks. It's it's also I think rails for trails gave us a kind of like an an idea how excited people can get when it comes to the use of some a trail system. If you look at
rails for trails of any time of the day, you almost always see somebody on there. So, it's it's frequently used. The actually has a traffic counter on our trail, so we know exactly how many people use the trail at what
time and you know which day of the week. We can get some average numbers. So, so we can actually quantify the usage of this trail. And um our ultimate goal is to really to develop a trail network um by
really strategically thinking about where can we add some segments um to our existing system. So we have a trail actually the county has one on 389. We got rails for trails. DOT will be building a trail along 390 as part of
the six laning all the way to 231. And once we're suddenly we're kind of creating a network and things will get even more interested interesting at that point because we can connect more neighborhoods with
your sports complex with the different parks and um so it's it's another option another way how to reach out to our community and how to connect our residents to the public places. This is just an overview of the the
projects. Um we've been looking at again main focus would be incentives and grants corridor improvements on Florida and Ohio Avenue. Um I think Commissioner Perno mentioned earlier the the grant
that we received the $4.3 million from the state. that um grant will pay for a good amount of that that project, but it's not going to be enough. We can we know this already. So
any any financial gap could be covered by CRA funds. And so that's something that we're looking into right now. Um we continue to work on our sidewalk network and we're also focusing on a regional storm water system. The reason why
you're seeing a lot of vacant land along Florida Avenue, our commercial corridor, historic commercial corridor, is that the lots are too small to build a new commercial building on it. There's not enough room
based on our current standards on our current development regulations to put um an office building on it, some parking and storm water. So one thing, one way to approach this, one way how to
fix that problem is to provide storm water treatment offsite. So I'm we're essentially creating a storm water mitigation bank offsite and the developer developer can then purchase or yes purchase the storm water credit for
that assuming that we're treating their water offsite so that they don't have to build it on their particular property. you ever talk to Johnson? >> The following years, um, again, you you will see similar
projects. Um, sidewalks, storm water drainage improvements. I've been working with Bobby handinhand on different projects, drainage projects here within the CRA. We've installed uh or paid for some of the uh >> Seventh Street
>> drainage pipe on Seventh Street. Um so this is a continuous um conversation that we're having. All of these projects are based on the CRA plan. So whatever this is really this is people always ask me is this
something the CRA can pay for and and I always refer back to that CRA plan. This is really my justification. If it's listed in there then the answer would be yes. The the main expenses that I can see for the CRA is really the corridor
improvements. This will be several million dollars. Uh and we may not be able to afford all of this all at once. We have to cut it up into phases and then do it in increments. I think it was the last part. The good news is the CRA was just the time frame
was just extended by another 10 years. So, our new sunset date is in 2043, which gives us um more time to and money to uh for improvement projects here within
our downtown area. Are there any questions about this? >> I know there was talk and uh at state about doing away with CRA. Did we hear anything from this session? >> I think that's kind of died down. Um it was kind of killed. Not saying that
>> won't revive, but for now that that push is done. >> This kind of discussion comes and goes and um yes um Griff Griffiths was very vocal about um his dislikes about the Front Beach Road
CRA which quite frankly got out of hand. I mean they have a hundreds of million dollar budget um and they're only focused on traffic. So, it's um there's there are some reasons why there was this this >> tweaking probably need to be done.
>> One thing I wanted to bring up was back to the rails of trails thing. I really want to look at uh changing the flashing lights to where they only flash when someone's crossing. Yes. So, I don't know if that's uh something we need to we can use CRA funds for like a sensor
or a button, but that definitely needs to happen at some point. >> If it's within the CRA, then the answer is yes. >> So, and only the 17th Street crossing is in the CRA. So, all the other crossings on 26th Street, on 389, Mosley, that is
unfortunately outside the CRA. Oh, we could not use CRA funds for this, but >> maybe through Bobby's office on those and we'll likely add it to the fiscal year 27 budget out of the It'll have to come out of the street department. >> I see those as must pay bill soon, but I
agree with you. I live over there by it. And when these trails came in, they're used. They're popular. They're great. We could use some shade for sure. Um, but other than that, the problem is when people are on that trail, they expect these big moving cars and sometimes folks aren't paying attention and they
just jump right out in front. And we've had people hit >> on bikes and and on foot and they you walk out in front of a moving vehicle, you're going to get hit. They don't stop on a dime. So, >> you know, getting the right whether it's stop or whatever we do to reconfigure
that I think would be a very good thing. Yes, >> they even got stop signs there for the pedestrian and bikes, but >> yeah, I went and double checked just to see >> and there are stop signs for the bikes, but >> I don't know. I think just from a psychological standpoint, if you're
driving and you just see a constant flashing light, you get used to it. >> It doesn't get Exactly. You get used to seeing it. >> Mhm. >> Agree. >> Unlike a school zone where you, oh crap, I got to slow down, you know, and then you creep along. If it's 24/7, you're like, ah. Right.
>> Yeah. >> All right. Harold, can you put up the presentation for economic development? >> Let's talk about economic development for a second. >> Is this your 7030 split? >> Yes. Yes, sir.
>> Okay. >> So, same thing with uh economic development. Um, I'm big about a mission statement to really understand which direction we're heading and that there's really clear communication, not just between city staff, the city commission
and the public. Um, of course, uh, so to enrich citizens quality of life by attracting new businesses to Linhaven by promoting the retention and expansion of existing businesses. So, it's all about bring, keep, and grow. Doesn't matter if
you do economic development in New York, in Tulsa, Arizona, or in Foley, Alabama. It's always about these three components. And all of these activities, all of the the the the actions I take as part of
the econ the city's economic development director, they all fall back to bringing new businesses to our community, keeping the existing ones, having a good business relationship with America industry, Jensen USA, Train, and so on
and local retailers and helping them grow, listening to their concerns. Um, man, I wish I could do this, but I'm, you know, I have some problems here with this with this property. And that's something where sometimes the
city can help with our expertise from a development side and provide some ideas how to approach these issues. Um in terms of projects the economic development outlook I think my top priority would be to look at an economic
development study. I know today that we are running out of inventory which is a good problem to have but it does not help us. If if I had a business that wants to that knocks on my door
tomorrow that wants to bring a 100 new jobs to our area, I would have to refer them to another community because we simply don't have the commercial space to offer them a new home. Then
one >> um we I'll get to this in a second. Um and then I'll answer your question. Um so economic development study really identifies the gaps and uh would help us to um focus on
on a strategy how to improve our economic development footprint. It would also help us when it comes to going after some grants uh some state or federal agencies they're asking for an economic development study.
So, we all know we have a commerce park on Aberdine Loop, Aberdine Parkway, and we have an industrial park um um over on the the west side of the the city. And um
although there are some vacant lots within those those commercial areas, there's a reason why they're vacant. There are a lot of wetlands in this area. back then. These commerce parks or commerce and industrial park they have
been around for a long time. I still don't understand why somebody wanted to build an industrial park right on the water in a wetland surrounded by residential. It's strategically from a location. It's challenging. You have to get all
the semi-truckss through a neighborhood. It's not ideal. Um, but in all fairness, this industrial park has been around for a very, very long time. And back in the 60s, there was probably no neighborhood. All of this kind of started to fill in
over time. Um, how can our community grow? Uh, Chief Johnson mentioned this earlier in his presentation. We cannot go to the west. We cannot expand to the south or the east. I think the only area that that is
somewhat viable in terms of growth is the northeast corridor. Going straight north into Southport, you will be facing a lot of small properties, hundreds of different property owners, and you would have to get the the
consent from every single property owner to annex into the city. Very unlikely. The northeast corner is owned, most of it is owned by one property owner, >> St. Joe, >> and that's a St. Joe company. So my
message here today is St. Joe should be our new BFF. We should have a healthy business relationship with them and at least a conversation with them how we can expand to the northeast whether we like it or not. what whatever
they're doing. Bottom line is this is the only area we can grow. We cannot cross the um 231 because Panama City annexed in the railroad tracks and we cannot cross another jurisdiction to annex in something on on the east side
of 231. Hey, Ben. So, you're saying for over there where like Derby Woods and uh Harvard Boulevard and all that each individual >> person would have to request to be annexed in? >> Yes. >> Okay, >> that's correct. Right. I mean, I just want to confirm.
>> You can't force them all. >> Yeah, I mean I that makes sense. Oh, it just >> I see >> implementation of the ADA transition plan. So I discovered uh through the a grant process that um the city is
required to actually have an ADA transition plan in place. This rule was established in the 1990s and there was a grace period of some two 3 years in the late 1990s to put this into action. We haven't had an ADA
transition plan um all these years. So >> you talking Americans with Disabilities Act? >> Yes sir. So ADA transition plan identify it's it's a
it's a self-p policing plan. There's nobody that is really checking this unless something goes wrong. Then they will ask you, do you have your 88 transition plan? Did you follow your plan?
This plan basically analyzes all the city's infrastructure, sidewalks, buildings, um, and parks and identifies some ADA disability um,
deficiencies. It lists all of these deficiencies with a cost estimate. And our plan is our goal is to repair fix these deficiencies over the next coming years. Right now we have some $25,000
um in our budget to work on that to-do list, if you will. >> And there's 50,000 in fiscal. >> 50. Perfect. So, we've been working with a fire chief
and also public works on implementing um the these different projects. Uh we've identified some some public bathrooms, they're non-compliant. They the stalls need to be a little bit larger. Um it's really specific what's
what based on the findings that we we've identified out in the field. Um so as money becomes available we are um using these funds to make it better. Uh sometimes detectable warning pads are
missing on a sidewalk at an intersection. So those that's a deficiency and that can be that should be repaired at some point. um in terms of um funding or um budget for economic development,
I think the study is really paramount. It's really the foundation that we're building here. And then based on that, more than likely, we need we would need another um commerce park, industrial park here in our area. Um, Triumph GF
Coast uh funding could be an option to pay for that infrastructure. Um, but we would have to purchase the land first, get the funding from Triumph GF Coast to put in water and sewer lines to get these sites shovel ready. That's
the term economic developers like to use to really be ready when a company comes into town that we can say here we we can sell this piece of property to you to build a new office center warehouse whatever it is.
>> So the northeast corridor would likely in 231 would likely provide that opportunity for us. >> Yes. So right now I think the Milb Bayou development the the Milb Bayou property some parts of the what 900 acres or is
it 600 >> 900 >> 900 something acres that could that could be turned into a commerce park for example. So light industrial or commerce park no noise pollution any of that it wouldn't be heavy industrial any it wouldn't be
any manufacturing everything would be indoors. Funny you mentioned that. I talked to George Gonzalez who is the CEO of St. George uh Tuesday. He's out of town this week. We're supposed to be getting together for lunch next week. So, I probably need to huddle with you and Mr.
White Foot. >> Yes, sir. >> And uh get kind of spun up on this. And if we're going to do this, we need to plan our work and work our plan and diligently pro plan for that. The other piece is all of these little nooks and
crannies you see as you look at that map of the carveouts are the folks that didn't incorporate. >> Yes. >> Um and how we try to fill in I mean we're providing a lot of services to those folks already obviously but how do we long-term incorporate that into
Linhaven and how do we do substained responsible wellplanned growth >> to help the city and our our residents? >> Absolutely. Yes, sir. I'd like to end my presentation with an
old-fashioned SWAT analysis. This is this is what we did when I went to school. What are our strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats in terms of economic development strengths? U no doubt quality of life um
compared to other communities, affordable lifestyle, beaches are nearby. Um we have we do have deep water access to the bay um um at the fuel depot. Uh we have excellent schools here
in Linhaven. Those are all reasons why people want to live in Linhaven. It's a safe community. We have excellent schools. Those are all selling points and that's a reason why our our real estate continues the the property values
continue to go up. uh good regional strategic location for aviation, advanced manufacturing and medical sector. I'm starting to see the development of um an aviation business cluster here in
our area and it's all fueled by the airport. IG Arrow is just one example. They're building a test cell at the airport right now. Those are some major major developments that an engine test cell they will never move
this whenever this is built they will stay and it will bring a lot of highquality jobs to our area. um urban core closer proximity to ECP. I had some professionals, some attorneys
reach out to me because they like Linhaven because it's only a 20-minut drive to the airport instead of an hour drive from Panama City, downtown Panama City. They don't have to be right next to the courthouse anymore. the a lot of the the court appearances there are on
Zoom and so the physical um presence is no longer needed which really changes the dynamics in the in the real estate market. >> Ben. >> Yes sir. So last week I had a meeting with the new CEO at the Navy base u when
we were doing our training and his future plans are is to have his area dredged so he can get actual Navy ships into that port over at the Navy base. Depending on the size of the ship, I'm not a Navy expert, but however many
people are on those ships, they're going to need places to stay. They're going to need places to live if they're going to end up porting those vessels there. I don't know the time frame on that, but that goes kind of in the same lines as your airport uh drill. Um he's going to
be meeting with the county soon to have all that dredged out from his area all the way to where the port ships come in. if he brings in one naval destroyer or some of the smaller ships military guys, you know more than I do
how many people are in those ships and where they're going to have to go to stay hotels, houses, rent and all those other things. So those that's another possibility to go along with your economic development for growth to be ready for and to stay kind of on top of. >> And Tindle's the same way. Um, and a lot
of the like the drones and the intelligence and the the fighter pilots and or the F-35s, those are very uh manpower intensive. They have a lot of, you know, higher ranking pilots and senior NCO maintainers. And what do most
military people have that have been in for a while? Families. Where do most families want to be? Good school areas. Right. That's one of, as you said, to your point, that's why Linhaven is so popular. It's, you know, it's a nice area. It's got really good schools, but
with the really good schools and antquidated roads, we have really bad traffic. >> So, you know, you pick your poison. So, if we can mitigate our risk, but improve upon our strengths, that's a beautiful thing. >> Yep. And just to highlight a few other
items here on weaknesses, we don't have any direct connection to the interstate. Um, for landing is good. Um, direct access to the interstate would would be better. Um, workforce is always a challenge and I and I feel like it doesn't really matter
where you go. Qualified workforce. Um, so this is not Linhaven specific. I think that you can see this all across Northwest Florida. Um, lack of shovel ready sites most certainly. Um, we are a bedroom community. We're not a
traditional commercial hub. There is always a reason why there was why there's a a city in a certain place in a certain location because there was a train station, a courthouse, um a port. Lynhaven is a master plan
community that was developed 120 years ago by WH Lin. So, so we have a different story to tell. Uh we don't have a courthouse, we don't have a train station, things like that. Um the existing inventory is not demand
friendly. So we're um more people are looking into uh our area but we don't simply don't have the inventory. Expansion can be a challenge. Um what are our opportunities? um
building these development alliances with strategic partners, Bay EDA, Chamber of Commerce, but then also the private side. Uh so I I see economic development as a like running a marathon. This is not going to happen overnight. We want to
build this positive business relationship with George Gonzalez and and and see it may not happen tomorrow, but maybe next year. So, but I think it's important to start a conversation. Um,
what other threats? Um, undiversified economy. We're we're still we only have a few anchors. Train, Jensen, Merrick, that's it. There are no other large companies here in this area. So, to diversify our economic footprint is
definitely something we should focus on. um potential annexation challenging. It can be challenging. That's you have to get consent from every single property owner and that is the challenge. There's a reason why they're not in Linhaven today because I don't
want to pay extra taxes um because we may not be able to provide utility services to them should they if they wish to annex into the the city. So that's all I got. Are there any questions?
>> Yes, sir. >> Wonder when you mentioned incentives for the for commercial or or businesses, what are some of those incentives to bring new businesses in? >> So, we we do have a commercial incentive
in place up to $25,000 if you decide to build a new commercial facility or new commercial building here in Linhaven in the historic part of Linhaven. um we would pay up to $25,000 for the additional space. Um it's a matching
grant, so you would have to bring at least $25,000 to the table and you have to increase the footprint of the building. So it can be a renovation or it can be a brand new building. >> Okay? >> And we're actually this Tuesday, no, it's going to be probably in April, we
already received one commercial incentive application. So, um, for a business that is moving into that's renovating on Florida Avenue right now. >> Oh, cool. >> And just to bring home the point you're talking about, u folks not wanting to
expand with us, I met with a he's a retired Air Force Senior Master Sergeant, 82 years old, been a resident here since the late 80s when he retired out of Tendle. His wife was from here. They did their career, they came back and retired here, >> and he lives right off of Minnesota
Avenue. and uh he said, you know, why should I? And he's got like a 5 acre lot. He said, I had to put in um you know, my own whale and septic and all that. And then the city came along and said, well, you want to hook up with us, you'll have to
pay taxes, but we'll give you water and sewage. And he goes, I have all that. >> Why? You know, so for the folks that have done that, the kind of I guess the legacy or the long-term folks that had to be self-sufficient when the city wasn't providing those services, now they have those services.
>> So, they don't really want or need our services now, right? That's a lot different than carving out a new neighborhood or carving out and remodeling a track of land and turning a 20 acre lot to 500 town homes. >> Absolutely. I think timing is crucial
because that septic tank needs to be replaced at some point, right? >> And that might be a good opportunity for us to restart that conversation. Is he >> still interested? Maybe now. >> If not him, certainly his children, grandchildren that take over grandpa's
farm or house or whatever when he goes, right? >> But it may not be something where folks are readily willing to sign up to be New Lin Haven taxpayers, right? >> Yes. What's the cost to replace sewer uh box thing is probably about
what? >> It's expensive. I know this. I only know it's expensive. >> It's about 10,000 to abandon it. And then you have to tie on impact beans and a plumber. >> No, I meant uh if you have your own sewer if they have to replace cuz you know after so many years they have to
replace that >> a septic tank. >> Septic tank. >> It's about 10,000. >> It's about 10,000 >> minimum these days. But the way the law reads, if the sewer is in front of you, you can have your septic tank. If it fails and
there's sewer within 100 ft of your property, you have to hook it. >> Oh. >> You won't get a permit to redo it. >> Okay. Didn't know that. >> But if there's no sewer available, then there should be no reissue of permit. >> So it goes back to your point. Yeah.
>> Does that does that sanity check? I mean who checks to make sure sewer is not available is would they have to come check for the permit the health department. >> Okay. >> Does the permit for submit and they'll check with the city. >> Gotcha. >> Where sewer is.
>> So you do have an honest broker factchecking. >> Yes. >> Gotcha. >> Um with us possibly um servicing sewer out in Southport area. Um, since that would all have to
be piped out that way, do you see opportunity that way of Lin Haven expanding out over the bridge there? >> I would say it is possible, but Chris, you probably know more about this. It's the
>> you you have to for people to agree to the annexation. >> It makes us it makes that area unanex. If we're if we're doing the retail billing in that area, providing service in that area, makes it hard for someone else to come in and annex it. Not that
we have rights to it or anything, but it's a step in the process. Is it not >> correct? If we if we become the retail utility service provider, Panama City, for example, couldn't annex all the way down in in that area. >> Oh, but not harder for them to annex
into Linhaven. >> They could annex into Linhaven if they wanted. >> Oh, I thought that's what you were saying. Make it harder. Us being the retail provider. >> Okay. >> Makes it makes it hard for someone to come in providing >> that type of a service. Yes.
>> And the next step would be, you know, fire and police, >> better protection and quicker response on the >> So, there has to be >> you have to kind of do a it has to be a balanced approach, right? Because you're
going to have one customer there every quarter mile or eighth of a mile versus 300. >> No, not anymore. I mean, there lots of subdivisions in Southport that the utilities are in. There's about 4,700 utility connections. >> Yeah. Wow. >> Yeah. >> It's not It's not the early 2000
Southport anymore. >> But I foresee that, >> especially with the airport now. I see a lot more neighborhoods and businesses going down there in the future. >> So, um, >> Jennifer Vigil with Panama City
Destination. I don't know if you've I think you've talked to her in the past. >> Yes. about um vet tax and um us being part of that. Just wondering what your opinion on that whole thing is. >> Absolutely. We should definitely look
into this. >> Jump on that. >> Um it the Linhaven residents won't have to pay for this. It's only the visitors that stay in a hotel that pay the bad tax >> and Airbnb >> and Airbnb
>> and the and the hotel wants us to do >> the hotel industry apparently wants wants the expansion. >> Just a reminder, we have that on the calendar for April 8th for her to come do the workshop at 5:00 p.m. >> Got it. >> So, yes, absolutely. Especially with the Atlantis uh event center now. Yeah.
>> Um I >> I'm seeing a lot of >> movement in that in that type of industry here in our area in our area, especially when Justin continues to build some more or or bring up some more
some um um sports tournaments. That's a reason for families to move uh to travel here to Linhaven and spend a weekend at the sports complex. They have to stay somewhere obviously. It's all definitely some some that would be definitely
something positive for our community for sure. >> I have wor. >> Thank you, sir. fall asleep. >> All right. Good afternoon. I am not going to be long. I don't have any capital improvement projects um for
human resources and risk management. So um if you will just kind of picture it. Um it's a very small department in terms of resources, staff resources. And the goal here this year, the next fiscal
year and the years to come is to move the needle from being reactive to proactive. So if you can kind of picture it in your mind that we are flying this plane as we are building it. And the reason I say that is because due to um
hurricane Michael and some other um incidents documentation although we've had our enterprise resource system documentation and the way the city has operated in the past very paperbased everything being manual although we have the system not
everything was uploaded into the system so that we could act we can access that. So, it is my understanding that several documents were lost and damaged um during Hurricane Michael. And so, to um use it as a lessons learned, we're trying to avoid those things and kind of
move more to a innovative automated way of um operating. So, three objectives here. Increase the use of automation to improve efficiency, reduce administrative cost, and ensure consistent service delivery across the
organization. And one way we can do that is to maximize the existing system. So currently this is how we operate an an applicant is interested in a job. They submit their application through keair.
We take that information. Then we use a separate system docuign to obtain secure information so that we can do the pre-employment screening. Once we have that completed then we do a separate system. and we use a separate system to
conduct the background check. Once that is completed, everything is good to go, the director gives me the green light, they would like to hire, then we have to manually enter all of that information into Munis. Well, Munis has most of
those capabilities from application tracking system, background check. we they have different vendors or systems that could interface with um UNUNICE. Um and if we utilize what we're already
paying for, there are some small savings that the city could achieve. Now once we get into the um the meat the nuts and bolts of um customizing units there may be additional cost but for example if
kale dair is about $3500 a year um based on based on minimum usage um if it costs the city about $3500 to turn on different um bells and whistles within units it'll be an even swap. Another key
strategy is to standardize our digital workflow and convert our routine HR and risk processes um into standardized electronic flows. again um it's a lot of manual you know getting the approvals um
from Chris from Jennifer from the department heads um whereas if we utilize the ERP system all of that could be done electronically which will reduce um manual data entry um reduce the um um administrative costs and increase um
transparency um and again I think I've already spoke on reducing the manual touch points. Um so we do a lot and right now um it's just HR and risk is a a team of one person as of Tuesday. Um the HR
coordinator, she um took a different position. We wish her well. Um so it's just me now and I'm doing the end to end um with the help of Jennifer as well for HR and risk. Okay. When it comes to our workforce
sustainability, um, one objective is to ensure that the city remains competitive, prepared, and positioned to retain and develop talent. And so, several directors have already briefed you all on the compensation
study that we are currently um doing. The consultants were here Wednesday and yesterday. And so we are expecting to receive those results and those recommendations end of April, early May, hopefully in time of budget. But let's
not only think in terms of salaries. Let's think of those fringe benefits that the chiefs mentioned earlier, such as providing um vouchers for our police officers to, you know, make sure that their shoes um are are are adequate and
we don't have, you know, different employees in different types of shoes. Um let's think about policy um changes in terms of I know Panama City for example they have a policy that if your department is at least 50% I think it's
50% um under staff there may be additional funds that employees can receive until staffing is um brought to um an adequate level. um our benefits. Um that's one way, you know, while while
the younger younger millennials, Gen Z, Gen X may be just focused on their salary, you know, that's not the only, you know, population that's applying for jobs. Benefits may be more attractive in terms um of an employee. So, there are
changes that we could make that we're hoping to get results from our compensation study as well. I know Panama City for the employee all of their health benefits are free for the employee only. The employee begins to pay once they add dependence or you know
spouse or the family. So there are other things that the city could look at in terms of policy changes um procedure changes um fringe benefits um right now we don't have maternity or paternity leave that's available. It's just one
one um pool of leave your your paid time off. Some CDs offer employees a different set of pool should they an employee um have a newborn. So um the compensation study is going to be holistic and just not focused on um
salary. Also included in this is the need for training um to keep our employees to to develop an internal mentoring program. Um one thing
one thing that I did in my previous capacity I developed this walk a day in my shoes because for some of the employees who are you know have aspirations to promote you know the position looks attractive but you know once they get you know you know walking
in the shoes they may not they may say oh well this is for me this is not for me. Um so having those mentoring programs internally that will only not only train staff but also help us to retain them as well. And as we move to the risk management
side of the house, this is really where we have been reactive and we would like to move to a proactive model in terms of workers compensation um providing true analysis and into the data. I believe in making
data informed decisions. Um and right now we just don't have the bandwidth to um um invest you know into some analysis right now. So we're pretty reactive um in terms of workers comp trying to go um
avoid accidents um and that's just where we are right now. I work with the police I'm sorry the fire chief um on you know safety standards. We have started doing inspections quarterly. Um there are public safety committees that are
required that we're trying to come into compliance with. Um so we have a lot of work to do. Um and it's not hard work, but what it will require is additional resources. You know, we can't do it with two FT FTEEs alone. Um so for human
resources and risk management um requesting additional to staff so that we can begin to roll out some of these goals. Okay. Any questions? All right. Thank you,
sir. And you're doing the health and we're excited about the whole >> Yes. for you to go back to the >> Yes. Go back up there and do a whole thing on the health. >> So that's all on the staff end. I know the mayor's got one, but we want to take
about a 5m minute break and then we'll do the mayor's wrap up. That's right. So much easier to have it all. >> Mine is primarily for the commission. >> Was it? >> Mine is primarily discussion. super
logos. >> This was a good opportunity for us to publicly share. Guang, Japan. >> I was staying up pretty sleep until kind of me. We wouldn't even
appreciate Wednesday. >> Good kid. >> I just bought history. >> I have no idea. I have no frame of reference for whatever. This is cool. Sam, I appreciate your comments.
>> Y'all know the only reason I say not trying to cut off our nose. We're not just white is the best way. That's not all that. >> Hey, I was only responsible for one of those.
>> Yes, sir. >> What size? Large. >> Extra large. >> Extra large. We never >> Is that what that was? Now we're trying to do all kinds of stuff. Here's the irony.
It's actually think about particular south multiple firefighters. in station two. Tell me when a call comes in, we have a joke in your head. I wonder if it's on. >> Wow.
>> You're up. >> Yes, sir. >> Cool. to get another cookie. >> That was all different. We'll give Pat another minute. I don't want to wait too long.
>> Well, y'all, I get the distinct privilege of being the caboose today. And the only thing other than a kind of a wrap- up discussion keeping us from heading out of here to wherever we need to go. I know, Chief, you're uh your day is probably still just started, but you
know, we appreciate you. Um because of Sunshine Law, it's pretty interesting. The five of us commissioners are rarely able to talk and collaborate outside of the meeting unless there's some kind of natural disaster event, right? So, Commissioner War, Commissioner Perno and
I um Commissioner Peoples had already done his training. So, I was day six on the job as mayor. So, it was January 26. We went to Tallahassee and we were doing uh this 4-hour annual ethics training. And I said, I got a question for you. And coming from a military background
where I'd been a squadron commander three times and I had a director of operations, I had a right-hand person and you know, you kind of had an established chain of command. So if I got hit by lightning or hit by a bus, the number two guy or gal would step up and you know kind of rock on. Said, "How
do I as the mayor mayor will you use the mic for the people?" >> Sure. There we go. >> Sorry. How do I as the mayor uh collaborate with the mayor pro Tim, the deputy mayor, right? And uh the the
state ethics attorney there goes, "Good question. Do y'all have the city manager form of government?" I said, "Yes, we do." He goes, "Well, you basically can't work with the deputy mayor then. You have to go through the city manager." Sunshine Law being what it is. You basically are like Spongebob and Patrick. I don't know. How are you
today, Patrick? I don't know, Spongebob. How are you today? That's about the level of detail you can do. So, coordination between uh the commission outside of a forum like this or our city commission meetings are pretty limited. So, these are a couple of minor things. I am literally two months on the job
today. Two months ago tonight, I swore in here and uh I appreciate the honor and the privilege. Uh in some ways it feels like it's been two days and in some day or in other ways it feels like it's been two years, right? So welcome to the rodeo and be careful what you ask
for, right? I'm honored and privileged to be here with you guys and uh and gal if Judy was here today as well. Uh I'm honored to serve with y'all and honored to be a part of this city and I've gotten to meet so many of y'all. Y'all been very welcoming. Uh, and I didn't keep the rookie guy title too long
before Chief Blanchard came in. So, Chief, thank you for taking that away from me. Um, but I just say all that to say thank y'all for including me, welcoming me. Everyone here has been very, very gracious and I appreciate that more than you know. We're all here because we love this city and we want to
do well for our city, the residents, as well as each other. We really are a team here. Even though I don't care what department you're in, what color shirt you wear, we they all say city of Linhaven on it, right? We're all here for the city and for the residents of
the city. So, um, couple of quick wrap-up things. Again, mostly geared towards the city commission except for the mission statement. Uh, and certainly that'll be a discussion for everybody. But first thing, coins. Before I joined
the commission um back in December, the city commission had authorized the commissioners to be able to mint a coin um to present to folks. Uh of course in the uh the fire and police also coins are a very big thing and Chief Blanchard
has an incredibly impressive collection himself over 30 plus years in law enforcement. Um but so we have this coin on the top. We have this oval style coin using the city logo as it is on our shirts. It's oval style and there was a
really nice back on that with the new city hall and a patriotic American flag and all on it. That's great. We're actually looking to uh reorder some of these. Uh city manager Lightfoot and I have been involved with the coin company. They're out of Iowa of all places and tracking down where those
were amended and try to recreate that without any additional die setup fees or anything like that. But so we have an oval style. Well, I was working on a coin that I could present as mayor to folks just like we did with Justin Ward and and his folks at our last commission
meeting. We handed out the very last of those large oval style coins on the top. That's what we handed out. We are completely out of those now. Um but we were we're seeking to reorder some of those and those are great for like retirement gifts. you can frame them up
with the signed pictures that people get and stuff after they've served x number of years. But so we'll have those and if a commissioner, police chief, fire chief, someone else wants to mint one of those, they certainly could with that that large oval city of Linhaven on the left hand side there with a new back
versus the American flag in city hall. Uh and it would only be one setup instead of two. But the other one I started working up and took the exact same center, the sailboat, the two birds, the bay, and made it into a round coin. And I'm an Air Force guy, but I
did fly, work, and live with the Navy for two years of my life from 2008 to 2010. And the Navy is huge into the rope border around the circular coins that they do. Um, and you know, we live on the water. we have sailboat. So it
seemed pretty logical to jump on the nautical theme. So that's what I did. I actually put together for a coin design for myself. I actually did the office of the mayor with the same core center but round instead of oval. And of course
that's kind of the back that I came up with. Well, in doing this I said well we really should have one an office of the mayor regardless of who the mayor is. you know, for stationery or um logo, business card, it makes
sense to have a formal office of the mayor logo. And then I thought, well, we have four commissioners. It would make sense to have one of this these for the four commissioners as well and one for the city manager. Again, stationary business cards, any type of professional
correspondence you want to do, you can do so with this as long as you're representing and serving in that office. So, this literally came off of a coin design, but the more I thought about it, I said, "You know what? This makes a lot of sense." So, I wanted to bring this to
you guys to uh consider. And again, you see the the oval at the top. That is our official city logo. So, it's the same core, but I've just turned it into a circular design with a rope nautical kind of theme along the outside of it.
And I even made personalized versions, which you could do, and you could do this for your time on a business card or uh your email or whatever, but I literally put all of our names on it, including uh Lightfoot with his recent promotion. So, there you go. That's kind of what that would look like if you
wanted to use that. Again, it's informal, but if the commission is good with the three standard office logos, that would become officially part of our heritage, if you will, as a city, right?
So, when you have four commissioners and a mayor serving in these roles and one city manager, this is what you would have. Okay? It can be informal, but if we formally adopt this or recognize these designs as official office logos,
they could be used as such on official stationery for congratulations letters, condolences letters, you know, anything like that. A coin you wanted to present. This would be a nice official logo. Would you want to put those on a business card as well or your >> very well could be.
>> You could either do that like office of the mayor instead of just the, you know, um or even the personalized one like I showed before like this. You could literally on your business card you could have your name on there with the logo. So again, I
wanted to pitch this to my other commissioners and say, "Hey, here's what I was thinking. I had a creative moment and wanted to share this." The cool thing about it is if we adopt this and everyone that's good with it, these logos will outlive our tenure here, right? So when the new
folks come in, it's just standard. And you change out Dave Lowry for John Smith or whoever the next mayor is and they have a standard logo and this will continue to outlive us. So as long as we have that core logo in the center with the sailboat and the birds on the water,
that makes sense to me to have that. the nautical theme with the rope outline. It It just makes sense. So, um I don't know. Do y'all want to have any discussion about this at all? Do you guys like this or not like this? And what do the rest of y'all think
about it as you kind of see this? >> I think it works out pretty great that all six of us use a nickname so it's shorter for you. >> I can change it however we need to. Light foot, you know, his was the the longest. I had to kind of cram that in
there. But obviously the text size could change. You can make it a little smaller, a little larger as need be. But you know >> what's on the back side, >> whatever you want it to be. For example, on this one, look at that bottom coin design that I designed up for my coin.
Uh, >> personally, the flag looks weird to me. The X, it doesn't look like our state flag. That would be my opinion. >> Yeah, it's offset. >> It's offset. Yeah, it is. I had to offset that for the state flag. Uh and
the problem with our uh state seal, um it's so intricate. The only way you can get that on a coin, even a larger two, two and 1/2, 3 in coin, is to have a vinyl sticker basically printed and applied. >> Would it be better just to have a
statement or something rather than another visual? You can you could literally have and I'll pick on Jamie here for a second just because he's in line of sight, but let's say Jamie wanted to do the city of Linhaven that top oval on the back. He could literally
have one with nothing but raised words presented by Commissioner Jamie War. Thank you for what you do or, you know, whatever. He wouldn't have to have intricate logos or whatever. It can literally just be words. Uh or it could, you know, he could personalize it
however he wanted to. So, but yeah. So, that's kind of what I was thinking of. So, Pat Sam, >> that's good. >> Jamie,
>> is it there's a cost involved, right? >> It Well, depends. So if we were to do something like this for initial coins, there would be an initial setup, but then as we rotate out, basically future commissioners and mayors would, okay,
you use this, you use the official side, and then you personalize the other side. >> Is it cheaper to stay with the coin that we have and add a little something to it or >> I mean, just hand this one out, that one at the top. >> That one at the top. >> Yeah, you can. What's the
>> $3.75? >> What's that? >> $3.75 for the top coin. >> We've already paid for the die and everything. >> You already paid for the die. >> The new coins are 750 per 100, 7 per 150, and 650 per 200.
>> So, but depends on where you're at, too. I'm actually getting quotes on that bottom one at 2.25 diameter. And right now, if I order 300 of them, um, they're down to like 360 a coin. So, pretty much
the same cost as what the first one would be. So, it just depends. >> Two from that. We also have a round coming from the grand opening, right? >> Yeah. >> We've got a few of those left. We're out of the the top ones. We gave the last ones to Justin's. >> Those are all gone.
>> Unless there's another box floating around that we may not know. >> There were 300 of them. The the order in 23 was 300. Can't imagine they got 300. >> Chris found like a box of 20 of them or something. >> I'm going to want to bet there's more boxes somewhere. >> H
>> Did marketing have them? >> Yeah, I assume so. >> They may be in that closet back there. >> Okay. >> All right. Well, let's look and see if we've got more. I'm looking. They look very well received. Justin and his crew. So, >> yeah. I thought that was really cool. >> So, and even if we reorder three and a
half, four months, that's a large coin. That's like a 3inch horn. >> It looks like a felt. >> Yes, it does. >> It's pretty damn >> know what it was. >> But yeah. And then what do y'all think about just incorporating the making those kind of the official logos for
stationary, business cards, whatever. You don't have to use it, but you can use it. And making that kind of the distinctive logos of the office. Is that a color? Is that color right like a navy blue? >> Well, I mean on the screen I mean you
could adjust that. >> Yeah, it could be changed to match that sameish navy blue. >> Yeah, we can do that. >> Yeah, the navy blue. Yeah, >> I literally took this off of a coin graphic I was working on building a coin and converted it, sent it to Lightoot
and said, "Hey, what do you think?" >> The rest is history. But u we can kick it around. I can come up with a formal presentation of it and I can introduce it at one of our next commission meetings and ask for commission blessing to kind of approve
this as optional office logo use or whatever you want to call it. >> I've had other citizens and I've been a citizen for a long time. So this is going to it may sound negative but it's what I've heard from others.
Lyn Haven and sailboats. Why sailboats? >> Well, >> I mean, honestly, there's not a whole lot of sailboats in North Bay. >> Not just that. Honestly, this logo design is 40 years old. I mean, it is so outdated compared to other cities.
>> Well, no, I'm saying the design. No, I'm saying the design of it. >> That is a good question, Bobby. When did this logo come in place? Um, >> I just remember the competition >> cuz >> and sailboats.
>> I got a picture of our original logo. >> Oh, would like to see that. >> Which was city hall. >> Cool. >> Actually, I don't even know if I have it on yet, but I do have one. >> See, that's the thing with competition. >> This was a competition by the res
>> and every time I look at it, it looks like the logo to a Mike House coffee. >> Yeah. I think breakfast competition for >> and you you get these renderings that
are not professional. >> Yeah. and and then you ask the public and then the major you get a majority vote and suddenly you're married to this to this design that >> it sounds like to me we're at a point where do we want to rebrand
>> and the cost to rebrand is not cheap. When we were Chris and I were in Panama City we decided you know Pensacola at the time had Pelican everything so we kind of shaped everything around sales so we could use it so many different ways. was $750,000.
>> When you look at business cards, letterhead, >> think of signs up on the building, >> the cladding on the middle there. >> Yeah. But I I can tell you this is I hear it from other people say, "Man, y'all's logo is ugly. That's old looking." And >> well, you can take the We can keep the
same logo and modernize it, right? Military patches do that. most military units that have older units that have been around since World War I, World War II, um they use the same patch, but they kind of modernize it, right? So the the
the lion or the arrowhead or the whatever becomes more defined and distinctive over time. It's not just like an old Disney cartoon from World War II anymore, right? So we could look to streamline it. It's not a bad logo. It does look a little outdated, but
we've had it for almost a half a century now. So, you know, we could do some tweaking around the edges, but it's kind of ours now. We own it, right? And ironically, if we went back to the historical first city hall or first city logo, which is the old city hall in
front of us, that's like just a historical little meeting room building now. It's not even kind of who we are anymore. So, I mean, we could recognize our roots, but I don't know. But this Bobby, when would you say that was, sir? How long would you say we've had this
logo? >> I think it was before 2000. So it was in the 90s. >> Well, for now, >> and WH Linda did that or
>> was that you and WH Linda did that or >> Reggie helped design it. They put out competition like with the schools or the public anybody. >> Mr. Mayor, have you seen Pensacola's new logo? >> I haven't seen their new.
>> Yeah, they've uh they've incorporated an exclamation point. So, it's a branding that's not tied into one specific. So, >> Ty just showed me the uh
>> Ty just showed me Pensacola kind of rebranded their logo and it's kind of a big eh burger. I mean, I I get where they were going with that. Uh back in the late 1990s, early 2000s, the Air Force rebranded from the HAP Ar Hap Arnold Air Wings, the old Army Airore
Wings that my grandfather wore on his uniform when he was fighting the Germans in World War II. Um, no pun intended, brother. You're you're our German turned Fidian. You join the other side. Um, but in when in World War II he wore that
patch, uh, flying in combat. And, uh, that is still our historical logo. Well, they revised it and made it, we call it the Decepticon logo. It almost looks like the Transformer logo, right? And so, they tried very hard to make it new and modern and cool and just kind of
flopped. So those of us that started out as youngsters with the old half wings and then they moved to this new one, we don't even recognize that. They're like, "Eh, that's not us." But the younger kids that came in after that was the logo, they don't know any different. They're just like, "Hey, that's always been it."
>> But but let's just say that we did decide to rebrand. We wouldn't have to change everything at once. I mean, we could do it by attrition as as it needed to be changed like like you're talking about building. >> What's that? 50-year building,
>> right? True. So, it might have to stay there the whole time. I wouldn't want to change it just because we rebranded, you know, but if we if we did want to do it, I think we'd have to keep that same shape. >> So, I'm getting a glare from Chief Johnson because we did just spend $2.2 million on fire trucks with a brand new
logo. >> So, I didn't mean to get us open Pandora's box into rebranding. I was just looking for head nods on the the logo design, but using our current logo, I wanted to see if my fellow commissioners and the city manager, >> we're good with this concept, even if we
refine it >> and tweak the colors a little bit. I was curious if y'all like it. And then what do the rest of y'all on the team, I'm sorry, this has been kind of commissioner focused. I apologize, but what do the rest of y'all think of those logos? >> I think coins look nice. It's whatever
you enjoy giving out to people relationship wise in the community. It's going to be well received. You know, they're going to enjoy anything that you share with them. I do believe um it's going to make them feel special, you know. But I people do bring up to me the Bailey Bridge a lot as a landmark for L
Haven and I don't know if that would logoish for city hall. So, River's new logo with the the Manhaven 444 podcast has got a lot of good feedback for sure. Justin's 444
with the the tournament that you did earlier. >> I'm not saying you have to have one that says 444 on it, but that that background has gotten a lot of positive feedback. >> Okay. >> So, if anybody other than military or in the coins, it's our cops and firefighters. What do our two chiefs
think of these logos? Just the concept I don't like the part at the top of oval and around the the gold around it. I'm not a fan of the sailboat, but it is
what it is. And I like the office of the mayor because I have one produced right now says office fire logo in the middle of it and then on the back of it it's got the new brand
of new fire on the back of it. If you're going to I mean you have to look at this a little bit deeper. The coin looks great, but if you're going to rebrand or thinking about rebranding instead of wasting money, I think you need to do a deep dive and really look into what
you're going to do before you just jump on. >> Fair. And this intent is just to use what we currently have and make basically a round version and individual office logos. >> I just take you like for you to buy 300 a month if you decide to change it all.
Now you got 300 coins. So, there is the option that Justin has some, you know, he the hats he has has the LH that may look better in the circle than than the sailboat. We could try that. >> L with 444. >> Thanks, Chief. What do you think, sir? >> They look great. I like coins obviously.
Um, I believe they're great for the especially for no matter what department, any employee that does something >> that you recognize them, you hand them a coin because of the good job. Um, I've seen plenty of coins that use the logo and I've also seen numerous coins that don't use the logo. So, if it's strictly as a coin, it doesn't have to have the
Linhagen logo on it in my opinion, but if you're going to use it on letterhead and other things, then obviously you'd want to stick with the Linhaven logo. >> Yeah, my fault. I appreciate it. I won't belabor this too much longer, but again, I did want to share. Pat, what were your thoughts, brother? I was just thinking
that if if we we probably could design something where then the back of it could be the fire the fire the fire department and police department and whatnot. You know what I mean? >> Every department could use this logo right here um on the top. They literally
could use the city of Linhaven and do their own departmental back and they wouldn't have to do a new coin fee. Now, a lot of coin companies, depending on how many you make, um, 300 or more, they'll wave the coin fee or the coin the the mold process, the setup fee, >> the die set.
>> Yeah. So, the die cast and all that. But if you're only doing 50, 100, 150, 200, you're going to they'll do it, but you got to pay for it. So, um, but we have that die. Anybody, if the police department wanted to use that today, they could and make their own back and
call it good. So they can be reused in the future just like the coins. We're we come up with a standard office for commissioners and mayor and city manager that can be used in the future with whoever comes in behind us. Um as long
as we don't again change the city logo and even if you do you could still use it as a historical I guess to Chief Blanchard's point. All right. So a couple other things. This is the city man or the city of Linhaven mission statement that's right
outside the door here as you head out into the main hallway. I I looked at that especially the first word progressively that has a very very politicized political connotation these
days. Um but I know words change over time meanings change things that are normal and for one generation become derogatory in another. So, I asked the LA two of my last three most recent predecessors, Walt Kelly and Marggo Anderson, if they recognized that
statement, and they said no. I also asked our longest serving commissioner on the commission if he had seen it before, and Commissioner Pero said it it didn't ring a bell with him either. So, I'm not sure where that came from or if that's just something the last city
manager kind of made up when she was designing the hallway and put it up. I'm just not sure. But it got me thinking that we probably could come up with a good mission statement that would be clear and would add some clarity for us
and literally taking what's already there basically and tweaking it a little bit instead of progressively I would say diligently, right? But, uh, you can see at the bottom kind of what I come up with. And we're trying to enrich our community's quality of life through
consistent, transparent, and professional customer service, as well as seamless utility provision to all of our neighbors. That's really what we're all about here. So, not something we have to change today, but 2 months in, I noticed that
in the hallway and I thought that doesn't look right to me. Especially that first word, progressively. it it's very politicized in today's day and age and kind of the uh some of the older legacy mayors had never seen it before. So that leads me to think it's a newer
something just got come up with and put on the wall. >> Mayor it that's a product of a strap plan meeting like this about six years ago. >> Okay. >> That we as a team worked on that. >> So you did? >> We did. >> Well, that's a good thing. So, it is
newer and it was a team effort, but it is newer. It's not a a long-term thing. So, I propose that we at least get rid of the progressively term in the beginning and it might be time to look at revising that mission statement. Um,
but again, I wanted to just bring that to the team's attention. Again, two months on the job, I saw it. I noticed it. I find that first word offputting. Uh, and it's something I'd like for us to look at, whether it's the one word or
whether we tweak and polish and modernize the mission statement. And really and truly, a mission statement should continually evolve. Your core purpose stays the same. We are a utility city other than our first responders. That will always continue to be that
way. But that doesn't mean we can't tweak, refine our core purpose as we go along and reidentify. >> I don't think there's anything wrong with updating the mission statement. That's like you just said, it's um from time to time it's nothing unusual to
update statement. >> So I'm not hard wed to the bottom. That was just my proposed well if I was to change it, this is kind of what I'm thinking. Uh I would very much like this to be a team effort and we can put this on the next team workshop to look at
revising the mission statement. Uh again my my sole ick is that first word progressively in the current political context. Um I don't think that's a good word for us to use in our mission statement. And I'll just leave it at that.
>> All my work in mission statements typically less is more. So actually streaming lots of those words out could have a bigger punch and in the future wouldn't be as political, >> right? >> Because the next political world word
word could be diligent. So I think if we make it crisp, it's easier to remember, it's easier to to use, um, less is >> Yeah, that's a fair point, Jennifer, and thank you for that. So Chris, for our
next uh and fellow commissioners, uh our next workshop, that's a minor thing, but I'd like for us to take our current mission statement and look at updating it. And the one word I very specifically want to strike is progressive or
progressively. How we replace and how we polish from there is totally up to the entire team. But if you say in today's modern era, I am a progressive, that sends a very distinct political affiliation, agenda, philosophy. Um that
I don't think was the intent there. So that's why I thought I feel very strongly that needs to be updated. And I'll leave it at that. Also, as I walked the the hallway here, the far so the mission statement is
basically right behind Kiki uh out here in the hallway basically. So, this would be the southwest basically side of the hallway. On the northeast corner, we also have Lin Haven, a great place to live. And I've looked at that wall and
I've talked to uh city manager Lightoot about it a couple of times and it's always struck me as odd that it's it's kind of a hodgepodge. I would think of this as something like uh when you're moving into your first apartment and you have a whole bunch of assorted stuff and
you kind of just put it on the wall to fill up the space. Um if you notice in the bottom leftand corner there are a few pictures of Hurricane Michael damage. There's a little note. There's some cool things about history makers, the first female mayor, first
African-Americans elected commissioner, and those are all great trailblazers. Walt Kelly, the longest serving mayor, 18, 19 years. Uh, but then you have a bunch of just random stuff put up there, parades, you have a 50-year time capsule
down in the bottom right hand corner that takes up just as much space as Hurricane Michael did. I would argue having lived through and rode out Hurricane Michael here in my home with my family and I just hung up my uniform from the military two months prior, um,
Hurricane Michael, not only was it a historically huge moment, the fifth Cat 5 ever in recorded history in North America, but the Western Eyewall came right over Linhaven and it packed a heck of a punch on us. That was a defining moment for Linhaven. It changed the
course of Linhaven in a lot of ways. We had the president of the United States here. We had the governor of the state of Florida here. Um, literally at city hall or what was left of it, shaking hands with the then mayor and commissioners and what do you need? What can we do to help? Um, there's no
pictures of Governor Scott or President Trump here with Margot Anderson or any of the commissioners at the time. And that whole piece of Linhaven is kind of just one little blur equivalent to a 50-year time capsule. somebody put in a
corner. I would really like to revise the northwestern wall and I don't know that that far section with the city seal and then a whole bunch of empty space and then a quote at the bottom from our former city manager. I don't know that that's the best utilization of that
space either. I'd like to look at uh revising that, updating that particular wall and showcase more of Hurricane Michael kind of before and after and our community's resiliency and what happened here. Um I'd also like to add the last
two mayors uh both of my predecessors uh Mayor Anderson and Mayor Nelson, neither one of which are up there. So there needs to be some modernization to that particular panel. And I don't have all the answers, but I'm identifying it to the team that I'd really like to when
people come in the the western side of our hallway is great, particularly the northwestern side. It's got pictures of WT Lynn, uh Bobby's old buddy from high school, and you know, going all the way. That's all great, but when you get to the more modern contemporary side, it
just kind of feels like stuff was kind of randomly put together to take up space. And I would really like for us as a as a team um and Ty, you're really good at this in the public affairs kind of world. Let's showcase our strengths. When mother nature really put us on the
ropes, here's how we came together as a community, right? We had the president and the governor here. There's no pictures of any of that. You know, so you know, I would love to get a quote uh from what was said then from Governor um Scott and President Trump
about Linhaven and put that prominently up there. I'd much rather have those up there than a former city manager talking about, you know, good stuff. I'd talk about the the the tenacity of our community or the strength of our community or how well we
came together as a people, as a team, as neighbors. That's what we want to showcase in city hall, right? So, I share that to say as the new guy, almost newest guy on the team in here, um, I want to get that updated. And if anybody
has any heartburn with that, please speak up. But otherwise, I'm not hard sold on how we need to update it other than the last two mayors need to be included. And I think much more of a focus needs to be put on our Hurricane Michael recovery and how we have changed
for the better as a community since. So, anybody got any thoughts on that? Ber >> I think it's always safer when you do something like this. I'll be real honest. Person needs to have passed.
That's why the other walls seek speak to our history. If you have living people, things happen. >> So, almost every one of those people up there are still living. Uh, and only one of them, ironically, was not elected,
but the rest of them were elected leaders of our community. Uh, black, white, male, female. Um, but yeah, they're they're still around. So, there might be one. >> Well, side not. this side. Only only
Only Vicki is Vicki and Walt Kelly are the only two alive. The rest are are passed. >> Oh, on the left. Yeah, I just had lunch with Walt two weeks ago. >> Oh, that's true. But she's >> with Montiel. >> She's Montiel. >> Okay.
>> Commissioner Miller, >> I just I just And I did would not I would have said the same thing. I'm sorry, but what do you think of this? I think you too. History is history.
>> I'm primarily looking at the the if you look at these as three sections, I'm primarily looking at the center and the right. I'm not really looking to change the left other than maybe that bottom Michael corner. Maybe you put something else down there, but I want to more
effectively showcase Michael and our recovery sense. So, commissioners Any thoughts? >> What's it going to cost to do an update? >> It's about $20,000. >> Not for just one or two panels.
>> It's about 20,000. >> Really? >> 10 to 20,000. It's going to be most of the work will be removing it and then printing the new one and installation. Um, but it will cost we would budget 20 grand for it.
And that's basically printed wallpaper, is it not? >> It's painted on there. >> Yeah, >> it was a uh It's very cool. They set up a track and it's a big printer that goes up and down.
>> So, it's not it's basically a mobile printer on your wall, >> right? You have It looks like a little railroad track. And most people didn't see it because they covered it with a blanket while it was doing it. So nobody would see what the pictures were. And then it just goes
up and down like a big >> like an old dot matrix printer. Pretty much >> all the old folks in here know what I'm talking about. Younger ones are like what? >> 40 grand for the entire wall to do to make your the replacement one. I don't
know if you can just do the portion with the print, but they have to remove the the glass, remove everything from We would budget, we would budget 20 grand. >> Well, the center and the right panels of this one in particular, I think need
replacing, need updating. Um, and maybe we could put Walt and some of that other stuff in the bottom left corner instead. that um whether that's repainting over it or whether it's removing it or if they if they print on top of it, maybe you
actually use a special kind of paint and paint over it and then they reprint on top of that. I don't know. But I can't imagine if they're printing on it that it's going to be that extensive to wallpaper over and then have them reprint. But I anyway, I'd like to get a
quote once we have an idea of what we would like to showcase. that is like the one piece of the display in the entire city hall main hall that's kind of got a bunch of open space and kind of doesn't look finished. So, um that's the area I
want to update with a particular focus on Hurricane Michael and that's what I wanted to throw up to the rest of the group. >> I'll be the other person to make a comment. If we're worried about progressives, are we concerned that some of the things you're suggesting are very political?
>> Adding my two predecessors, a white female and a black male, to the history of Linhaven leadership, I don't think would be progre. >> I personally think as a citizen, it's blue. >> In what way? Well, we have a mayor that
was um convicted of a felony. >> That's my thought as a citizen. Any others? >> I have set this public. It's a municipal building. >> It's not a museum. >> Exactly. >> I don't think any of it's perfect. I think it all should be just
>> Yeah. bleeds into what we're doing. >> How about a picture, Dave, in the back? >> He needs a He needs a glamour shot back. >> Um I'm I'm not worried about a glamour shot in the back. Um I'm not even proposing putting me up there.
>> You got to go. You got you know it's succession. >> The mayors are always >> understood and I really don't honestly side note I hadn't even planned to talk about I really don't like how we did that whoever we is on the team. We start over here. I realize that the old city
hall those were all up on one big nice wall and Michael basically ripped it down. Um, we can I think we need to look at trying to display those a little better. Whether we do it on both sides of these two large pillars versus coming down the hallway and kind of snaking around, I
don't know. But something to look at that doesn't look like all the mayors either since 1911. But again, if there's anything to be updated other than the mission statement, it's these two panels there. And we have a bunch of wasted
space. And I don't think we highlight Hurricane Michael near as appropriately as we should. And those are things that I would very much like to do. And therefore, I am sharing it with the rest of the team here. >> So I will leave that at that unless
there are any questions or anybody wants to discuss further. All right. Well, that wraps us up. Thank you for your attention. Um, I guess now it's just kind of a I'm going to go sit down. We can have a kind of a a back and forth feedback.
>> Yep. Yep. We got a few things. Lots of really great information today. Thank you for all participating. Um, commission, what you've seen today is historically what we've done behind the scenes before we brought you numbers.
This is the presentations that you've seen. We did these internally. I'm thankful that you see the sausage making as it were. Um I'm going to focus on general fund first because that's
the thing that is easiest to digest. In aggregate, all of the requests that you received today for general fund additions over and above what is already in the
budget in aggregate $10.5 million >> and that doesn't include salary increases. >> That includes a salary increases or the police department. >> Not based on the salary study. Just >> not based on the salary study. I have no idea of how to put a dollar value on the
salary study yet >> for obvious reasons. So while we all would love to say yes to everything, you would have to more than double the door to say yes to everything.
So, as has been the case in the past, we will need to prioritize and I'm hoping that you will lead us in that endeavor. We need your input on what is the
priority of the system of the city. What's your vision for 5 years, 10 years, 50 years? How do we get there? We need vision from you so that we can implement the strap plan and then once
the strap plan is solidified then we develop the budget to support the strap plan which supports the miss the vision statement. Does that make sense? In the past what we've done is here's the bucket of money who gets what?
It's reactionary. I'm hoping that we can move into a more proactive budgeting and and strap planning ability. So again, today you heard adding 10.5 to
general fund. We need your guidance on what the priorities are so that I can help you with what that's going to end up being. So with that means that this was set today not to everyone in this room knows
that they're not going to get everything that we put in our powerpoints today. If we did, it would make the jobs way too easy and we would just have everything that we thought the city needed. Um but we want you all to take what you heard today and think about this before our budget workshops. And if you want to
have another one of these sessions prior to budget workshops, we can do that. Um, but as Kiki said, we want you all to help set the priorities of the city based on the needs that each department has set forth today and give us the
direction that you all want us to go. And as far as action items, I know from this meeting, um, to set up a a workshop with Ray Greer for the planning and zoning, you wanted to see the numbers of sports part participation with revenue,
the support and growing the fire department, police department personnel, the list of vehicles and cost of maintenance for fire department for the fire apparatuses. We do want to talk about fleet issues as Chief Blanchard talked about in his presentation. We've got some some things
to talk about there. We have been getting quotes on outsourcing some of our stuff and it may be cheaper to do that. Fortifying the park near near the water at Sheffield. Commissioner Pero stated the push button crossings at the rails
to trails. Update the mission statement. missing anything as far as action items and CJ captured a lot more in her notes as well that we'll review to make sure. But no, this is uh this has been extremely
beneficial. Um how do I word this? Um, as you all know, the commission's supposed to be the one that sets the priorities, but I don't think that culture has been there for a long time.
And so, I want you all to understand that this is new to us. So, when you say you want to know what our vision is, you want to know our priorities, it's going to be a learning experience for us because that's not how it happened in the past.
I think you all can understand that. So, we do we as a commission have a lot of work to do as far as what are our priorities. Of course, safety and security is always going to be the top ones cuz those are the ones
that affect lives, but um but the information you're providing us helps us get to that point. So I I don't know how the rest of the commission feel, but I feel like this whole thing has been extremely valuable for us to be able to do our job as
commissioner. So I just want to say thank you for that. >> Y this is great. >> So do you all feel the need to do follow up to this prior to the budget workshops? >> Yeah. with just I I mean I know you
don't need to see the powerpoints and all again, but would you all like to bring back some input to each department head? Would you like one-on-one meetings? >> I think we got to I think we got to run numbers because I mean a lot of like you said, there's a lot of the stuff that do we want them? Yeah, we do. But then at
the same same point is we're not going to be able to fund everything. >> No. And and our job as staff to build you the budget. We will build a budget. we will pri prioritize with each and then when you all get the first draft of the budget there will be some things missing from today and that will be what we work with
>> to to build the budget and realize what we can and cannot afford >> this process that we're doing is what I had envisioned for quite a while and obviously I got a lot of push back from that and uh so I I don't know what do you guys think
I that's what I'm thinking is we gota we got to run numbers now we know what each department is giving us as their subject matter expert for each area. >> I think we need to approach it as a declining budget from here without knowing the without knowing the the set
first kind of >> we've met with Kiki before when we've done this but but it's like okay everybody presented everything they think they want or could possibly ask for in the next fiscal year. We don't we know that you can't get everything, but
you're you're going to you're going to get maybe your top two items or three items. We're gonna we're gonna yield yield back to y'all to sort that out and then have the number of the budget to work to work from for each department. You all have access to the folders with
the or the folder with the presentations in it. I would ask for you in the next two weeks to review those again in your own time and send me a list of kind of your priorities based off of that of what you feel is a priority and maybe there's some things that that were missing today as a as a capital
improvement priority and we would like to hear that for sure. But if you could email me that in the next two weeks that would kind of help us lay the groundwork of where you your priorities are prior to having another workshop so we're kind of on the same page. Yeah, that's a good idea cuz I think it's important to I'm
sure we all have different priorities. Like some of us our priority might be police, some of us it might be infrastructure, you know, and so we kind of need to figure out where we're at. I mean, obviously we want at least some for every department if we
can, but we have to have a priority. Um, but yeah, I'll get you that. Okay. >> I mean, when you look at how other cities typically do this and you I know you a lot of you've had experiences from
other cities from what I've seen going just looking at their web page and processes and that I think typically you see a city start around May June when they start their budget workshops and then they work from there based on projections cuz the the reason I always
got is we don't have firm numbers. It's like, well, you need to go by projected numbers cuz it's a rough draft and as you get closer, you firm those numbers up. So, I think that's how typ cities typically do it. So, I'm glad we're doing this in March and starting early
because this is going to be a learning experience, I think, for all of us, especially us, the commission. >> Well, this is my first one, obviously, two months on the job, and I appreciate the the collaboration. It's actually nice to get the department heads
together and actually have a team. Uh, and frankly, it's nice to be able to sit down with three of my four fellow commissioners, which we don't get to generally do because of Sunshine Law outside of something like this or a normal commission meeting and have these
kind of conversations and feedbacks and um, but yeah, it's been good. I will tell you, I campaigned on doing all I could to help take care of the police department. Um my priorities are going to be police and fire. Uh I want to
support animal control with their additional uh person. Um and then the rest is where the needs are. But we need to take care of in the air force. You would say there are two types of weapon systems. There's the warheads on foreheads and there's the flesh and
blood weapon systems. We have focused from the outside looking in. up until two months ago. It looks like infrastructure has been the the key focus with a a laser focus almost for a while. Um we really need to take care of
the flesh and blood weapon systems, particularly our first responders. And so I'm just telling y'all all up front. I'm just one fifth of the commission, but that's where my focus is going to be. Anything
from anyone? Chief Chief, >> should we ask for direction on Red Speed at this time? Whether we want to keep looking into it or not? >> We will definitely will and I'm want to set up a uh Greg, I believe was his name, Greg Parks. Yes, sir.
>> Um want to set up a a meeting with each commissioner. Okay. >> Um so they can get an understanding of that. One other big thing that's kind of I think we're all in violent agreement that we need to do it. It's just a matter of getting it done is the zoning.
So, I've already emailed Ray today to get some dates and we'll get a workshop set up and go from there. >> What about you other commissioners? I mean, anything publicly y'all want to share at this point with the team kind of where your heart or your priorities
or your laser focus is in terms of the budget? We got to figure out ways to get more funding from fundraising for things like because clearly we like for example we don't the city doesn't fund uh Easter
or whatever those type of events. We got to figure out a way that we can get more funding through partnerships with uh private private public partnerships. I don't know if that's not really something staff can do or we as commission can figure out, but we got to figure out ways to bring in more money
besides just taxes and fees. Um because if people really want events to happen, they'll make them happen. And we've got I mean we've got professionals that live in our city that know what they're doing, you know, and setting up events. So, if the
we just got to figure out the way forward there, which I'm hoping with this sponsorship policy coming up and and um staff has, you know, Chris and Kiki and on them has been really good about working towards that, but we still
need we need to not take our foot off the pedal on that cuz there's a lot of things that we can provide just by having the land and and um facilities and stuff to facilitate events. uh that we can still provide to our
residents without them having it having to come out of tax dollars. >> Commissioner War, >> I pretty much said what I wanted to say. >> I mean, budget priority wise, >> um yeah, I'm I'm with you as far as the
first responders. I mean, that's I think that's something that's overdue and uh it's going to hurt, but it needs to happen. >> Commissioner Po, >> any budget priority thoughts?
>> Just what we talked about today. I think it's up to everybody to tighten their belts now and get the final numbers in there. I mean, I I don't I don't see how you can't uh know that we're going to we
got to increase manpower in police and fire and and the wages and you know, I mean, that's a given. I believe I think the the the salary study is going to show that. >> Yeah, the salary study was mentioned earlier. The beach did one is the same company um that's doing ours. We worked
with the beach and got their information. So, I mean, they pretty much have all the information here in Bay County already. So, we should see some results on that pretty soon. >> I think I think it'll be plain and just go from there. I think it's going to be
I think it's going to come down to you know, you came you came and asked for six things. You're going to get you're going to get two. What are your top two? You know what I mean? One better be maybe the most expensive and one better be the medium one. You know what I mean? I just don't think that
it's going to be as easy for any one department even though some will benefit more than others but it's that's how it is every year when we do the budget. So >> well we want to make sure it's most beneficial for the city not just the department but >> that's right
>> how do you and and anybody else can pipe in too but I know you worked at Panama City. How did Bandon City typically do it when you worked there to when they formulated the budget and the commissioner set priorities? >> We had a meeting such >> so just like this
>> and then >> what was their next step that they did after that? >> We start hearing hearing back from the commission to the city manager of what the priorities were >> but their priorities and then they formulated a budget off of that and then they had discussions. That's okay. Now, not saying that you all send me a list of your priorities and every one of
those priorities going to we're going to be able to pay for when you pass the budget. I mean, but we will work to set it and then we will tell you if hey, there's no way that we can do this unless you all raise the advorum X or we would have to cut this to achieve this.
>> Um, and we will present that to you. >> We'll then have to work with Kiki to come kind of formulate the budget, get a rough draft of the budget as far as where we're at. Once we hear back from you all on the priorities, then we will have the one-on-one meetings with each department head to build the budget, get
everything in there, and then when Kiki is able to look at the proposed budget or the proposed revenue, we'll be able to tell where we're at. And then when we get closer to time and we get the official numbers, we'll give us a more deadon of >> It will be preliminary, however, as you
mentioned, because we won't know what the property values are until >> June 1st. >> June 1st. June 1st. Um, so >> it's better to have a rough draft than nothing at all. >> I can have a rough draft and I have have it so that I just change the numbers as
they become hard and fixed. >> You wave your magic wand, right? >> I wish it were that easy. >> So, I have a question just to clarify. Um, so if we were to ex all of these projects that we just talked about,
>> right, >> would we stay at the same military right now? >> No. Or was it would it still go up? >> It would still probably Well, it depends on what the property values do. So, it seems nationally property values are
softening. Yes, that's what's everybody's hearing. So, I don't forecast that we're going to have a large increase in property values. We will have some sort of staffing increase. Whether we keep our existing staff or we
add those that have been requested, there's going to be a salary increase. The salary study, I would bet you a dollar is not going to tell us anybody is be overpaid. >> Okay? So, >> I'm just throwing this out there. It the
next step for the city commission will be to sell the new proposed military to the public. So one different approach could be to pick military
and work your way back. >> Say >> which is what we've done in the past. >> Whatever that number is, this is what I feel com at the end of the day. You need to feel comfortable selling that number to the public. If you're not comfortable with that number, we're wasting our time
here. So, but and once we can settle on a certain military, then we know exactly how much money is available to pay for some of these projects that we
talked about today. One other big wild card in all of this is the state legislature and what they're going to do for property taxes. Um we all went up visited uh the four of us commissioners and and uh city manager Lightoot went up
in late January uh and met on that. The the house moved out and did a bill. Uh the Senate has not. They're going to come back into special session and do that. Uh however, as of yesterday, the incoming House Speaker said he was adamantly opposed
and we actually met with him. who's the Orange Park guy from around Jacksonville, Gavin or Galvin, uh the incoming speaker said he was adamantly opposed to uh having the state basically rescue the small uh least populated
counties from this impact. So, there's a lot more to be said and they actually came out with some statewide polling two days ago and when the public was announced that, hey, basically you're still going to have to pay the same money, but you're going to now pay it
user fees to have police and fire versus this, only like 53% of folks were still willing to vote for the property tax to go away. >> Um because obviously there's no free lunch, right? So, um, and it would need
a 60% to pass the constitutional muster. >> So, there's a lot to be said. The Senate has not agreed with the House. The governor has just said he would like to get this done, but he doesn't have to live with the consequences cuz he's term limited and leaving, departing the pattern, as we'd say in the Air Force.
So, there's a lot of unknowns. They're going to come back in the special session and try to hash that out. Uh but we could be looking at what 25 30% of our budget potentially long-term going away >> potentially. >> So based on what the state legislature
does. >> So there are some unknowns that we just don't know yet and we won't know until you know what happens. And when we were up there in late January, they literally the speaker, the incoming speaker, the unders or the deputy speaker, they all
looked us in the eyes, shook our hands and said the same thing. We don't know. The Senate's on one page, the House is on another, and nobody knows what the governor's thinking. So, it's still a big question mark. And in all that, we still have to make
the sausage and make the utilities work and figure out how to make sure >> and that's what we do as a team. The chief keeps us safe and the rest of us do our best to add value to the process.
row and the rowboat together >> chief. >> Um, not from where you come, but Commissioner Peles brought up a good thing. I don't know how much it cost us to do like for example the firework show, but where I come from, we don't pay for any of that stuff. That's all
100% sponsors and vendors. They're paying for the fireworks shows. They're paying for parades. They're paying for all that stuff. The city runs it, but it even gets budgets for the extra police officers that are working, you know. So, it doesn't even come out of the police budget when you have to put 30 police officers out there because they
basically determine how much it's going to cost. Have gold level sponsorship, silver level sponsorship, you know, etc. And it covers all those types of events. And that might not be a lot, but I'm sure over all the events we use, it's at least 100,000 a year, I would think. >> Oh, absolutely.
>> Yeah, usually. So, city manager, as we wrap up, I'll ask you um I guess officially you've been on the job eight months with the interim title, but um what are your biggest concerns? What keeps you up at night right now?
And what are your thoughts as we kind of move forward in this budgeting process? >> Being able to to get a budget passed that everyone is in agreement with. You saw the priorities of all the department heads today. Um, again, need to hear back the priorities from from you five
and we need to be able to build a budget off of that. And we need to know that we're going to be able to build a budget that we're going to get you all to stay in line of whatever increase or whatever rates are going to have to be set to make that happen. Well, we're all a team. It's one team
and one fight. That's what we say in the Air Force. I don't care if you're flying tankers or F-15s or F-22s or you're a cop at the gate or a civil engineer guy or the personnelist or the medic. We need all of those folks to make those airplanes fly and keep those pilots
healthy and fed and flying. So, um we can't make this city work without all of y'all and your teams, your departments, and the commission. We truly appreciate y'all very much. And we're all in this together and we'll figure it out
together. We all got a part to play. We just do it as a team. I'll row it in the rowboat if you will. And with that, good ready break. Y'all have a good Friday afternoon.