Good afternoon everyone. Welcome to our second part of our budget workshop year 20 uh Y uh sorry FY 26 budget workshop um July 15th. The time is now 12:17.
Madam clerk, roll call. Commissioner Bass here. Commissioner Santiago here. Mayor Taylor here. As we stand for our invocation led by our assistant city clerk, Miss Coraba, right? That's you.
Who else is? Father God, in the name of Jesus, we come to you today telling uh allowing you to come into this meeting. Let it be a productive meeting not only for the employees but for the city of Opalaka. continue to keep away all the discord
and let us come into one agreement in Jesus name we pray. Amen. Amen. To the flag of the United States of America for it stands one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all.
All right, we're going to open up for public comments. Public comments is open. Public comments is closed. All right. So, we're going to continue where we left off at from the last budget um workshop.
And I believe who was up next will be capital improvement. No sir. Right. It's going to be page 69 which is going to be town center. Town center. Yes sir. Right. Um I'm sorry madam manager. Did you want to are you we fine? All right. Mr. Mayor, just for the record, the city
attorney is um joining us virtually. Got it. Welcome, madam attorney. All right. Um Bob, can you please repeat the page? Yes, sir. It's page 60 69 69. Okay. All right, go ahead.
Please put 69 on the screen, please. If I make quick point, one of the things I was asked at the end of the last meeting is to document all the changes that we've been made. Doing a budget is very dynamic process. Uh we had one-on-one meetings with each of the commissioners
two weeks ago. Numbers did change a little bit for what you're seeing in the presentation that was put together for last week. uh numbers have changed a little bit beyond it. You'll find by each seat there is a six-page document organized by division. Shows the budget that was
in place for the 101 briefings on the 1 of uh July. Shows any changes between the first and the uh hearing we had on the 10th of July. And I put down future additional changes that came out of the meeting on the 10th of July or other
things that we found. So, you do have available to you how where we started with the one-on-one meetings and where we are today. Any questions on that document? Okay. Thank you. Okay. Town center. Very quickly, as you can see in front of you,
uh what we have for the town center, we have total $514,000 of operating expense. The large items there are going to be contract services and utilities. The utilities are the utilities for this building as you would expect. Contract services. The large
items there are security services and janitorial services. I can go through more detail if you uh looking for additional information. I would point out on the down on the capital line it is a blank. It's zero. Uh we did hold
back due to funding li limitations. That's why it's zero this year or I'm sorry for next year for total compos. Say again sir. What was it? Oh, building improvements. Uh, yes, sir. Down in the capital line. Building improvements. We did leave that as blank just in terms of holding
funding back. Okay. Any questions to Mr. Bob on um town center? Yeah, Mr. May um Commissioner um Mr. Mayor. Okay. We talking about what town center is this building? Yes, sir. This building right here. Okay. Um
uh building improvements of $57,200. What is that for? That's for this year. For this year for Yes, sir. But this is not what we paid before to the band that we own on this uh loan that I know that we already pay off. The loan is a totally different line.
It's it's in a different line. It's called debt service. The debt service fund. Yes, sir. Okay. Other question that I have when we talking about um electricity, gas, and water that we pay here. Yes, sir. in this building. Um,
do we receive anything back from these two company, the gas and the uh uh Florida power line uh impact fee that say we call him we do get franchise fees. Franchises franchises for them. Very significant. Yes, sir.
And that's not covered out this bill. That shows up in the revenue. That shows up in general fund revenue. This is expense only. We don't net uh revenue against expense. That's the way it's the way they do municipal
accounting, governmental accounting. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Bob. Yes, sir. All right, Mr. Bob. The only the only question I was going to ask um Commissioner Santiago alluded to, but he didn't go into it. How much do we owe on the building? We owe Z uh zero.
Bond is paid off as of June 1st. No, I know that. I just wanted you to say it. I'm sorry. surprised me. I want you to say it. I want you to say it out loud. This belong to the great city opal resident taxpayer. Yes. Yes, sir. Okay.
Yes. To all the above. Thank you, Bob. Yes, sir. I'm sorry. I missed I missed where we're going. That that that's a good thing. That's I just wanted you to say put it. And another thing, you know, Mr. Mayor, this is this is part of the savings now that we have in the budget, know that we
don't have to uh pay any more mortgage. That's correct. No. Incorrect. Incorrect. That is correct for next year. That's correct. Or incorrect. That That is correct. Yes, sir. Oh, no. Because I see my manager do something now there and I say it's a long-term savings. It's a long
It's a long-term savings. Okay. All right. We addressed that at the beginning of the last meeting. We did look at something called the debt service fund. And you could see that expense. There's a little bit of expense next year, not for the uh bond on this building.
There's something called 2011 bond. After that, we'll be debt free. All right. At least debtree from a general fund perspective. Mr. Mayor, thank you. Again, I apologize. I had a doctor's appointment. I'm sorry for
holding you all up. Um, what was the monthly payment on this building? I think it we were paying total of uh million2 a year for two bonds. So on
a monthly basis it was about $100,000 and I think maybe half of that was the 2015 bond. So it was it was a long-term bond. Yes. Yes, ma'am. How how
question how again $100,000 when they begin I remember if I may just finish half of it was related 2015 bond which was related to this building there was another bond is another bond in place which will expire middle of next year for 2011 what I
passed on to you is the entire debt service for both bonds of which uh the 2015 bond was probably half of it so maybe $50 $60,000 a month. Thank you. Yes, sir. No, no, it's fine. No, because I I
believe in the beginning that's we pay like $57,000 a month for the loan, but you say 100. That's what I Well, that was two for two loans, sir. Okay. What was 2011? What was Well, I don't I don't know about the second loan. I know about the first loan where we purchased this building. We we
we used to have no place to live before. Yes, sir. Yeah. Understood. But now we own the building, so we're good. Um, thank you, madam manager, for that. Um, go on to the next. Yes, sir. Next page, please.
Risk management budget, uh, objectives, uh, four-fold. One, we will go out for competitive bids next spring. Would like to have done it this this time around, but by the time we pick the agent of record, uh, it just didn't work out. We do have a current agent of record. Thank
you very much. Uh we looking forward to them advocating with FMIT for the premiums that premium rates we'll get in September from FMIT. Desperately need an accident review board which is in the process being uh
thought through in terms of how it should function and then being implemented and we also need a very broad safety program. So those are my objectives. Okay. Okay. The only question I have mad manager, I do remember a couple years
ago that our um insurance premium balloon because of you're exactly right things. Have we ever explored trying to go out to another insurance carrier to see if we can get a cheaper? That's what Mr. um Anathan was speaking about when he
agent record agent record them. Well, that's what we have to agent record for to go out for on our behalf the same as we do with the health insurance. And that if I may add, that's what we'll do in the spring of 76 26. Sorry about that. Just just
We all hungry, Bob. We I There's so much 1776 on television right now. 250th ann. Okay, on we go. Anyhow, Mr. May that was the top line on that the objective is to
actually seek competitive offerings uh next. Okay. Yeah. Okay. All right. Any questions on risk management? Got it. Yes, sir. The the uh the financial portion is on the next page if you have any questions on that. I have held the
premiums basically flat on the belief that our agent of record is going to get in and do some good stuff for us in terms of holding down the premium. The other professional services is uh 95,000 of that 107,000 is uh the agent of record which was approved I think two
meetings ago, right? Or one meeting ago I guess. Any questions of that? You can go to the next Bob. Thank you. Next one would be the IT budget objectives. Uh first and foremost, as you are well
aware at this point is the new centralized financial system known as the enterprise resource planning system or the herp. Uh you'll see on the headcount page on the next page that there is an increase of one. There's been a ro a new position created for a
media marketing services person PR I should add and that's you'll see that headcount next page implement opal lock TV as it turns out that is not a major cost item uh two other things one enhance the IT
infrastructure and backup capabilities and uh continue citywide installation of cameras if no questions that I'll move on. Mr. Mayor. Um, Commissioner Bass. Okay. Only because Bob mentioned it. You
said it was not a significant cost for the OPA TV. Yes, ma'am. And what are we talking about? Uh, Phil I I've got a number. I'll give it to the expert. Okay.
Phil WalkaT. Um, that will be about 470 per month. for $170. Yes, ma'am. That's That's good news. Thank you. Um
Bob, the only thing I have a question on because I know it's been coming up in a lot of municipalities, even some near us, cyber security. Are we investing in our cyber security more? We are. We are. Okay. All
right. And and Mr. Walker, correct me if I'm wrong because I may be using the wrong terminology. Did you just do a vulnerability assessment of our Yes, ma'am. We did a pen test and um we're working on all the vulnerabilities
that we found. Okay. Mr. Mayor. Commissioner Mayor. Okay. Can you um summarize bullet number four and hence IT infrastructure and backup capabilities capabilities?
Okay. So right now everything that we're doing um runs on the IT infrastructure. We have outdated switches, um routers,
servers that need to be replaced. And um all the data that we have um we need to be able to back up for uh continuously uh and um not just onsite
but offsite. So we have uh what we call a one, two, three backup system where we have something on site, something offsite and we also need to have a cloud backup. Okay.
Okay. So in other words, you're just soundproof in our IT department. Yes, ma'am. Okay. Thank you. So then my last question and we'll move on. the needs for the IT department. Is it captured in this budget in its totality or are you just gonna peacemail it if you will?
Well, we're we look at what we need to do for this year and next year. Okay. And then we just go take it take it one step at a time. All right. The only concern that I have is the cyber security. But if you're on it, then we're good. We just don't want to what happened other places to happen
here. Well, we don't know what we don't know. So, we can't say um we're going to protect everything, but uh for all the vulnerabilities that we found, we're working on it. Got it. Well, we talking about protecting everything. What does that mean? What are you protecting?
Data. Security. Data. Infrastructure. Everything in Opalaka that that makes our city run. All of our information. Oh, wow. Okay. Now, now now I got it.
Yeah. Okay. All right. Thank you, Mr. Phil. All right, so Mr. Bob, we're moving on to capping up my favorite VIP. Let's do it. This is uh this is the expense that goes with it. I don't know if you want to spend any time looking at that or if
you've met your needs. Um can she just give us a a brief overview of the projects that we are You want to move on? C. Yes, sir. Where you where you where you why it I had not put up the IT expense yet. I didn't know if you wanted to spend any
time on that or not. Does anybody have any questions on the for the IT director? No, he kind of answer. He answered everything. Thank you, bro. The next page is a very very important page. This is what I started the presentation with last week. I don't
think I made my point. I'd like to bring your attention to the top right corner. We're talking between FY25 and FY26. We're talking about a $21 million investment program. To the right of that in the top right corner, what I've done
is put down the funding sources. As you can see, uh 10 10,200,000 comes from city funds. ARPA is 7.4 million. That's part of the 7.9. the rest of it's already been spent prior to uh FY25 and then we have $3.6 million of
grant. The point that I need to make is that we we have a revenue stream, we have an expense stream. Expense breaks into really two categories. One is operating expense which we meet today's needs with and then there's CIP because we've had the
luxury of having a lot of excess fund balance we have which accumulated at the turn of the decade what we've had the luxury of doing for the last three four five years is to use our current revenue to cover our operating expense
and to fund our CIP through surplus fund balance we should not have a lot of surplus fund balance. We're not a bank, so we we use it just the way we should use. But what we've done now in the general fund and also the water sewer
fund and starting to approach in the stormwater fund is we've pretty well used up the surplus uh fund balance. What that means for FY27 until we change the mix of whether how much we're going to spend on operating
expense versus CIP is in FY27 your CIP is going to go down to maybe$1 or2 million because we've used up all the surplus fund balance and future uh CIP is going to have to come through cutting back either growing revenue, reducing
your operating expense or deciding not to do CIP. So, it's just a sign of what I'd like you to think about because going forward, we won't have the luxury of using surplus fund balance to fund CIP. So, okay.
So, I'm glad you brought that up, Bob. So, per state law, and the attorney's on, I think we're required to have was it three months worth of That's it's two months worth of bills. It's not state law. It is best practices out of the government finance,
but that's what we that's what we use as a measure. Yes, sir. That's fine. But we have we can sustain. Oh yes, that's my point. We can we're down to the point where we're at the two to three month level, but we don't want to go below that unless we got it. Unless you have a major emergency, you can always go below it,
but then you put a plan in place to get back up to it. Okay. But you should have a major emergency. That's fine. And then my next question is now that we we have procured a lobbyist why don't we madam manager we need to explore and sit down with her and let her know listen these are the projects
that we're undertaking this year and we need you to help us find funding for it because the the RFP that you put out she does um local state and federal and then that takes me to the next part which is we need to uh we have a grant writer
right an aggressive grant writer medium aggressive. Okay. We need an aggressive grant writer. Well, well, we to help officers. We we are made aware of an awful lot of grants that do not pass through the grant writer. I mean, we get barrage
with them. So, what the grant what the grant writer is doing for us is he identifies some, he does the application for us. We identify a lot more. We either get give it to him to do the application or we do it ourselves. So what he provides is a
subset of everything that we're going after at this point. Okay. I just want to make sure that we're we're aggressive going after there's money out there and then especially for like the Tyler technology we applied through the state to get it and I'm sorry I'm going back to it. We
applied to the state to get but we didn't get it. So now I know they have monies out there for it. Yes. And we've we are already trying to explore those options both the federal and state. Okay. All right. All right. Mr. Bob, if you don't mind, can um Miss Adelina give us
a brief? I was going to say she's much better qualified there. Correct. Good afternoon. Adalina, CIP U division manager. Um for next fiscal year we are be we're going to be completing the ARPA projects that have been listed and that
we need to spend the funding by December 2026. One of the most important projects that we have listed and is probably the u the most expensive one on the list is Kaido Lane. Um we are going to be completing phase three of Burlington
Canal which will also complete that project. We are currently on phase two pump station 4. Uh we have some grant funding for that project that will go onto construction. We are uh finalizing the RFB so we can release release it uh
after the next commission meeting that will be in September. Uh 171st Street this is a drainage and roadway improvement project that uh will affect but we also have grant for this area. is not a complete funded um
project but we are looking for additional funding from the state or for from the county to fund this project. Pump station 9 rehabilitation. We are currently working on this project is ARPA funded and is listed to be completed by next year.
Are any pump station under moratorum or they all clear at this moment? One right now one remains on the moratorum and it's not purely operational. is for S sanitary sewer evaluation which is
being held up by Gloretta for their collection system rehabilitation. Do we anticipate resolving that issue or we hope we're hopeful that it's going to be done before the November rainy season is over. All right. Thank you.
Um continue with the project. Uh Palm Station 16 is currently under construction. historic city hall. We do not spend we do not spend any capital project uh improvements for that building since it's completed. We are just uh closing out and paying out everything that needs to be paid for
this particular project. And what about the um the fire station and the HR building? Those are not listed as of this moment. We are going to be looking exploring additional options for those buildings. The answer.
Okay. I walk and resurfacing improvements. Uh we are going to be doing milling and resurfacing to continue to improve the roadways of the city. And Bob, can you move to page number two, please? Thank you.
And sidewalks. Uh we have been extensively completing sidewalks around the city. We are trying to make the gaps next year budget. Uh we do have some kind of reduction on the budget but we are going to be adding additional
sidewalks to clear some gaps and adding some additional sidewalks that we that we are missing. Um you have schedule for the sidewalks. I know a lot of residents always ask about that when y'all come to my area when you Yeah, we have area but that's a common question from residents when you all
we have we so we have uh completed the study last year for where most gaps or need or replacements are needed or the sidewall is out of code. So we are basing our our infra our improvements on
on that on that but yeah we have a list of priorities especially where people walk a lot. So madam manager once you all get the schedule for the sidewalk installation and repairs let's do some kind of graphite and advertise it so residents know where we will be.
We will um we also have listed a urban and community forestry grant. This is completely funded by the forestry USD USDA forestry. Uh it's 500,000. We are expecting to start that project on next
fiscal year and is for the installation of trees and irrigation systems and additional maintenance. The grant is a threeyear I think it's three years that we have now and three years uh planned
that needs to be improved. the city was uh granted this money last year. Okay. And can we utilize these funds by the manager to beautify the corridors so 27 37 22nd the medians 37 is included. I think 27 as well. I
will have to check on the specifics because this project was submitted quite quite bad. So I will have to check on the specifics of the areas but uh irrigation and maintenance is included as part of the project. Okay. Um, gateways. We are expected to
complete the gateways before the end of the fiscal year. Alexandria Drive water man. This is a replacement for the current water man since it doesn't have enough pressure and we do not have the needed pressure for fire hydrants in the area.
This Alexander Drive south in the industrial part. Yes. Um, northwest 133rd. This is part of the sewer extension that was just completed. We are in the process of closing out this project and this is mostly funded
through ARPA. So that will mark our first ARPA project completed sewer main lining. This will be for the downtown area and it's expected to cost around 300,000.
the street safety analysis. Um we are proposing this is based on a grant funding that is to be expected. We are proposing 250,000 for next year. We are expecting to receive 2.5 million from the state from the federal government if
we get the grant ADA upgrade. We are in the process of signing the contracts for um for doing the assessment of the of the buildings. Uh the first phase is Sherbondi village since it has has more
uh children and elderly going into that building and also this building so we can make upgrades in the future for it. Railroad crossing of a locav this is a conjoin conjoining project with SFRTA
and and DOT. So the city is paying a portion but the actual project cost around $3 million. the city is just paying the 254,000 that are expected. Um, Ingram Park playground, we are
basing the estimate on what we have place at at Cherbundi Village which is around 210 with some additional landscaping or some other additional work that has to be completed there. Sherbondi uh playground as you may know
is has been completed. Kadat Street is the same as Opaaloka Boulevard railroad crossing. So this is also a SFRTA DOT project. The city is paying for a portion because it's in the city of Opaloka. Alibaba Avenue. They are also
rehabilitating that railroad crossing but we are not paying for anything. That's entirely paid by SFRTA and DOT. Alexandria Drive and the planning in design for this area because we need to
improve the roadway, we need to improve the drainage when we need to improve the sewer and utilities in that area. So we are planning to present this prayer to the commission for uh design and after that going for construction money for funding. Okay. Right. So, madam manager, also put
that on your um radar for a special taxing district as well, Alexandria South, because that's all industrial and you know, those trucks that road and seagull park drainage. Uh we are
proposing a 200,000 um drainage improvement in the park. There are several areas in the park that are u low on on the low on site. So, and there is no drainage in that area. So, we need to to put drainage so it doesn't flat.
Basically, we did we addressed No, no, we haven't. We just talked about it. Okay. I thought we did it before. All right. Um, next slide, please. Oh, you're either it was me.
Uh, the resiliency study. Uh, this is a vulnerability assessment. We had a workshop on June 6 on June 5th presenting what will the the the completion of the what will what the assessment will provide us with this which is basically information so we can
go for grants in the future and this is completely funded by the state this is a grant that we don't have to pay anything code office uh 150,000 so there have there are some
restructure that needs to be done at code um because they need additional offices and we need to do some improvements in in that department. They have additional officer but they don't have offices. Um police station is just reflecting the
plus out or the last payment of the project and the 131,000 for this year. No additional capital improvements will be done to that section of the building. Say we we we done more than enough for the police down that building. We need to go to the next we have other
departments that need too now. Um Commerce North and this is reflecting some additional some funding for a feasibility study. Uh and Bob,
this is the the the lawn. This is this is Oh, this is so fun. Oh, yeah. You're right. My apologies. Uh commerce nerve. This is a visibility study. So, we can add drainage utilities and well move utilities and add some additional
sidewalk for that area. And it will the project will cover from 22nd to 27 between 151st and Alibaba Avenue. Right, Madam Manager? The only issue that I have, we're doing a lot of um drainage
improvements outside of Seagull Park in a lot of industrial areas, but I don't see anything in the residential areas. And for every for every one street we fix in industrial, we have to take care of our residents. They flood, too.
Yeah. So, I mean, we maybe let's because this is a lot of industrial industrial industrial. We have a big problem in that area. But you also have a big problem residential area. Yeah. Yeah. But it's all over the city. I just want us to be fair with our
decisions with our decisions and not just focus on one entity. But go ahead. I'm sorry. I just wanted to put that in your Mr. Mayor. Um um Commissioner. Yeah. 151st. Uh 151st I know is divided in two. Uh
half of the size belong to Miami Gardens and the other side is Oriental belong to Opalaka. And now that you touch the residential area we have in the oriental side um all residents. Okay. And yes, we have a big
problem out there. And I don't know it's creating a from us or from the side of the uh Miami garden, but when it's raining, a lot of people they get water into the houses in the oriental side. Oriental side.
And many people are there. They don't know what to do. See, you know, blame us or blame Miami Garden because this is the division of the city. But didn't Miami Gardens do a a road a road improvement on that street maybe last year before? They did. They did.
They did. They did. They did. They installed drainage and they also redo the pavement. Right. But it's still the problem there when it's raining hard. We have some floor and cars there is stuck because I
go out sometime, you know, to see that and and pick up cars. And I know we have a big problem there in outside both side oriental or 154 whatever they call it because this row is divided in two and that's closer but that's between the big
problem that we have there is between 32nd Avenue and 37 in that section out there and sometimes go all the way down to what is the uh the name for this for the house that you grow grow out there simmon
up to Simon And I think that we have a bump station there if you're not wrong. I've never seen that. Yeah, that's bump station. That's gross. We have a Can you look into that? We have a bump station there right in the corner. We will we will look into into that and and provide an update to the commission.
I was just about to say let's not spend no money. That's something that assessment our public works can do. Can we Okay. Yeah. But what I tried to say u Mr. Mayor and to the manager yet remember it's not only our problem. the other side have to take care of that too
together with us both side because the problem is between us and them okay um so Mr. measure to address the residential area. We are also completing the Nile D the Nile Gardens drainage project which is estimated for 1.3
millions next year. The total PR is 3.5 and that's on page one. My apologies. I think I skip it. And that probably stretch for the narrow garden. And that's actually the whole area. That's from 27 the all all the area that
I encompass the the roundabout and al all all the way down to um 118 128 I think 128. Yeah. Okay. So that's it's not that we are
overlooking residential but we are taking care of it as well. Okay. The only problem that we have in that area the only problem that we have in that area and that's go for community development is we have they are part of
a heavy industrial area and residential in the side and all the trucks that pass by there destroy the roads. I don't know what we're going to do, you know, to change that situation, but what I say you fixing it, but then the truck
that passed by there overweight when concrete destroy the whole thing that you do. Well, I know what she said. Well, the city is going to explore we'll bring legislation for to do a special taxing district in the commercial areas. And I also believe we passed legislation for do a commercial
unit through the police department to address that same situation. Yeah. Okay. All right. You done? No, it's fine. If if you think that we had the resolution for that, it's okay. But what I try to say, we have to do
something about to stop, you know, to make more there or we make it that area industrial or we try to stop the residential, but we have to do something about Yeah. Madam Gross. And continuing on page three, we have
the RScape project. This is the this is an AARPA funded project. We are expecting to do the first spending this year that will be around 75,000 is to beautify some areas of the city to add some color and some additional Oh,
Mar. Okay. Bomb station rehabilitation the 19500 that you see there. Uh we are currently working to survey the area. This is only for design. So because we are having some issues
with the easement. So that's the reason you only see the design um portion of this project. Got it. Any additional questions that I may answer? Any questions for our CRP director? Mr. Mayor, Commissioner Bass, I have several questions. I'm not sure
all is directed to her. So if it's okay, whoever it goes to, um I had a conversation with our city manager in regards to code office. Um so I'm a little bit confused. So, this was already printed in the book and it
will be revised to reflect um a change in that number. Okay. So, let me So, so this amount was in there for $125,000 um to redo code office. After some
research and review and discussions with um with staff, we have decided to allow code to use the office that's currently being used by um CRA because they're they're adjoining
offices and we will not need to use $125,000. So that number will be reflected. But however, it has not been changed to reflect that now because it's still the workshop. Okay. Thank you for that. And as it rel
relates to um pedestrian I'm having a moment y'all. I'm hungry. Yes. Crossing for Shabundi um as well as this building. We have been talking about that crossing from
this building to the parking lot for for a while and I'm concerned that we're not, you know, handling that because it's a lot of persons crossing, something happens, it's on us. There's no marked nothing and it's the same as Shabbandi um coming from this side to
that side. There's nothing there. So, I'm concerned that we really need to look into putting something that's going to protect walkers. Mr. Auster, that's one of our study requests that we have with the county right now and we are waiting for them to give us some
feedback on that item on both here and Shabbundi. No, right now Rail. Yes, I know we did. Didn't we do legislation? Was it legislation for here? No, but it was the crossing from the tri road rail to on Alibaba, right?
We don't need one or Yeah, both of those um went to the county. Yes, it's with the county right now. Okay. You say both of those meaning the areas, I'm sorry. Okay. Here as well as Shabbundi was never one station. Yeah. Hopefully we'll get to Shabbundi
because um you know I walk a lot and it's not there. Okay. There's no protective barrier for walkers to cross from where the food store at or the government center building to walk to our jam of the city. There's nothing there. Okay. So, I would like to see that hopefully.
Oh, from the parking lot from the church parking lot. No, no, above the main street going all the way down as you're harass. Yeah. There's no markings or anything. You just basically wait until the cars come and then you So, that's one. And
the artscape, if I my memory served me right, we had one of our business partners who came to the city wanting to help out with that artscape to to paint. You guys don't remember that? The one who has the event planning
building in the uh business cuz he wanted to do some murals as well. Y'all don't remember that? Oh, you're talking about the one by Alibaba? Yes. Oh, okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, I was just wondering, I'm not I'm not aware of it, but I do
know that this was one of our um ARPA projects that came through some time ago, but I'm not I'm not aware of that. Okay. I don't know if Miss Flores might recall, but then my suggestion is just you meet with the city manager and whoever the entity is and then see if we could do some kind of joint
collaboration or something to go even further. Yeah. And that's a good idea. And Mr. me. It was I'm sorry. There was one more. Yeah. Um the smart cover for the drainage. Matter of fact, this morning, if I had a
shovel, I would have done it. Uh where I saw two drainages on my way walking where the leaves are just on top of it. So, it's not going anywhere. It's just piling on it. So, we do need the smart covers. Uh if you want me to tell you where they are, I can tell you where they are. on
um we can get the location on and commissioner but the smart covers that we are referring to those are specifically for the sewer manholes. Okay. Not the not the drainage structure. Okay. So what what do we have I know I'm probably off topic now that we can help
that situation because the leaves are there so the water can't go anywhere. So I did send Mr. also a photo of something from another municipality um with regards to large objects not being able to get into our drains and you can speak on it Mr. Austin.
We were going to be looking at that but right now after every rain event we are sending uh the guys since they cannot uh clean inlets with the truck. They're cleaning debris from around the drains. Um and we will be addressing that if
that's still the case right now. Yeah, but they're just leaves like from the trees. They're just just pileing it. The water can't go anywhere because the leaves are stopping the water. And that's the different during the dry season, we have the trash and the water brings it to the point of least
resistance where it uh plugs the inlets. And madame manager is correct. She had a technology that's going to help us with that situation where the leaves may pile up, but it will not prevent the water from draining. Perfect. Thank you all so
much. Thank you. I'm done. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. All right. Um, you have the floor. No, you you have something to say. Yeah. I have a lot of a lot to say, but wait, before you say that, I want to comment on the the smart drain covers. Um, madam manager, because I know we had
this issue with the Gloria Gardens when they poured the cement inside of the Yeah. Do we have something where um outside of code and police that that speaks to that if you tamper with this then is it glory the statue was actually
no I understand it in the statue but in the city itself that we enforce cuz I I always go back to the glory of the gardens and nobody would take ownership even though it was in front of a certain business. It's only through code. Only through code. Okay.
So, how do we protect it going forward? Go ahead, Mr. Austin. Right now, we we just hired a person for specifically for storm water enforcement. So, there the code on Okay,
Mr. Mayor, if I may, I had one more that I overlooked. Okay, I know it's not in the budget, but we were all been talking about the district where our our streets have been going to Oblivion based on these cars,
these trucks. Have we considered getting a weight scale? So, that's a part of the um the commercial the commercial enforcement unit through the police department and it's our hope to bring that back in September for the
commission. It was legislation that passed a few meetings ago um for a enforcement unit. We had to do research, see what how much it would cost and what it would consist of. Um Miss Ashley Walker and the and the chief with with the police department. They're working
on that initiative. So, we will be bringing that back and it will it will we will need a scale. Yeah. Yeah. That's revenue. Lots of it. Amazon, everybody else. Yes. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. All right. Commissioner Fardo. Uh thank you, Mr. Mayor. Uh before I
forgot um she mentioning the uh trucks, you know, traveling uh through our rows and all that. Um I think co enforcement and the police department, they have to be more aggressive when something that I see
happen, especially in my neighborhood. Uh, Miss uh, WA uh, people they bring trucks at night time and they parking in front and I can heard the engine for that truck, you know, running the whole night and I
think that I call one night but I don't see anybody go there and they keeping doing it and this is something that we had to take uh, take care of that uh, to avoid you know our roads to be destroyed after we fixing it. Okay. I think the residential area ropes in the west side
and everywhere that I see they they do it in a nice work before but we let people come when trucks at night time and they they sleep in there in the truck. They park in the truck. Um and that's make sometime you know we
spending extra you know morning every day uh damage the road. Okay. And it's not me that I'm recording a snitch or inform. No, it doesn't. It doesn't. But let me tell you, if I see something wrong, I
going to call no matter what I say something. Yeah. Yeah. At least I going to say something because I try to protect, you know, the expenses and the uh cost of the operation for the city that Mr. Bat talking about before. Okay. Um I I heard
that you say that is we had to do something to cut you know the opera expensive operation in the city. Yeah. But what do you mean with that? We had to cut what? Because the city have to operate it. The city have to spend money
to enforcement you know uh people to do the right thing and to fix you know roads to do this to do that. Okay. What what I believe that we really need uh ma manager and everybody here is to try to
create more way to get revenue not only for grants. I heard before um the capital improvement impro improvement program okay that we depend a lot for all the projects that we have. We have projects every day. The only
thing is we don't get it to the end and I don't want to get in into that but for example okay uh Caroline uh Alexandria 127 this is project going for a long time
I don't I don't want to get involved but I say okay we keep and bringing keeping bring but where is the money Mr. But you want me to cut, you know, for the uh uh city operation money to using it for
other things. And that's my point. No, sir. How? What I was saying is that you've got the commission has got to come to a consensus as to what mix of money they want to spend on operations versus capital. At the moment, current revenue
is primarily going to operating expense. And you can, you know, that certainly if that's your will, that's the way it's going to be. But if it's all towards operating expense, then the CIP numbers that we looked at a moment ago are going to be much much smaller going forward.
Yeah. Well, okay, that's good. But what I what I tried to tell the commissioner, what we want is to the city move forward to the future and move forward, you know, to have anything that we need for the residents here. Okay. What I think it is Okay. Well, that's
something that we be talking about is to bring, you know, more revenue and ideas, you know, to the city for the private the other side. Okay. That we stopping a lot of people to do, you know, projects here where the idea that we have that
they're very I want to call them. We have to let everything move like the way other city do and that reason we see a lot of progress in all the city around us. We only want to do is something and counting with the money that we receive
for the Avalarian money for uh the taxpayer that's the correct teams. Okay. But we don't looking for any other way okay to to do uh improvement and the money that we receive to complete all these projects. It's good to talk. It's
good to have some good idea but where is the money? That's the point and that's what we had to starting to think. No money, no honey, sir. As somebody said the other night, no free lunch.
Yep. Look in there. We here. I'm hungry. Come on. Should have said that. Some a couple of dollars, you know, for next year like that. You're feeding us. Commissioner B turn his mic up, please.
But I think we all agree with you um Commissioner Santiago that the city needs to explore other um revenue options. All right. So, um if there are any other questions for our capital, that's what we stop the capital improvement. Then we can move on to Yes, sir. Uh page 50,
please. Page 50 in your books. Public works. Page 50. Page Page 50, Commissioner. Yes, sir. And so we're going to spend some time on
public works, public utilities, and uh sorry, basically the objectives, that's Mr. Austin's area. He oversees about seven or eight divisions. So he has an oversight responsibility in those
divisions. So the objectives are primarily to make sure that when we go after new vehicles, we really cost justify them and we need a very robust safety program. And much of that is focused in public works, public utilities.
On the expense page, the you'll see a reduction of one in headcount. I believe we've had that discussion. It is the recognition that we will not bring a city engineer on staff, but you'll see down below in other professional services the very large increase that is
going obtaining those services from outside. Mr. Mayor, just just so I understand, you're saying that this will not be in-house person. Yes, ma'am. We would have to as we as needed. Correct.
Okay. in the amount of 80,000. Well, it's 15 as you see the uh other professional services is 115,000 that's meant to cover that engineering services. The 80,000 is the increase over FY25.
Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Go ahead. front of the streets and sidewalks. A very focused objective is to improve the sidewalks, get rid of the tripping hazards. I've moved on to the expense page. The
$99,000 is basically uh for black top and concrete for the sidewalks and some roadway patching. You'll see a large utility number there. That is for the city street lights. There no questions.
Yeah, I do have a question on the street lights. Um, I know we were talking a couple, I think last year, the year before that, that they had an issue identifying what lights belong to us versus what lights belong to FPNL because I brought it up about the city being dark.
How how where are we with that? And I know you all were supposed to be doing some kind of assessment or Oh, that's you. Oh, as as part of the roadway assessment, we also completed a street light
assessment. the lights that or the areas that were identified that belong to FPNL uh for being extremely dark, they were sent to an FPNL and they said that they will be looking into adding additional lights or making some replacements of the bolts, but they haven't given an estimated time
of when they plan to start at least. U Mr. Carney, Mr. Carney can answer to that. Good afternoon. also uh public works operations manager. Yes, FPNL uh just
recently sent a email that they want the city to have a discussion with the manager to take over some of those lights that belongs to the city and they'll be responsible to do an upgrade and everything. So, I sent the email back. They haven't responded as yet when
the invitation to talk to the manager. So, so what they're requesting is the lights that we are that we're responsible for now, they're asking to take ownership of them and do the necessary upgrades to them. That's the ones on the poles, right?
Yes. The the pole lights. I mean, we had to pay for it. No, the the FPNL is asking for the city to allow them to take them. They're going to adopt. Yes. All right. But then on the same thing like these lights that come down Opalaka
Boulevard the green lights those are those those too. Yes. But can we now address the problem now cuz some of them work some of them don't. Some some the lights are light bright some are daylight some Yeah. I think our electricians should be able to do those.
Yes. We could do that in house. Okay. If P&L's al also speaking those about the green design lights the green ones. Yeah. As well as the aluminums. Okay. You want to ask what's the catch? Well, we're gonna we're I'm open to the
meeting. We're waiting on them to send a calendar invite to get additional information. Mr. May, I'm sorry because I'm just talking. Um I'm wondering if it has anything to do with the underground wiring that they're doing now. Well, we'll definitely ask those
questions when we meet with them. Um, I'm going to also ask the question, if they take on the lights, will they be responsible for the bill? Because right now, we pay we pay the light bill. That's what I was saying. I'm going to ask those questions. Okay. And if you could um ask them when
they anticipate starting in Opalaka for the underground wiring. Okay. Thanks. All right. Um, they start in 151st with the next and they're going to put a box in your house. Big box. That would have
your property not in mine. Are we moving on? Yes, sir. We're now going to look at fleet maintenance. The objectives are, as you would expect, a robust maintenance program. Uh, no replacement
of vehicles without a very thorough analysis of it and improved uh vehicle repair turnaround. On the cost page, there are three large numbers that you'll see. The first label is other contracted services. Those are for repairs that
were not involved in accidents. The second one speaks for itself. It's your gas, oil, primarily your gas. And the third one is uh relates to accidents. I will point out most of that is covered by insurance, but then we have to pay
for it in our insurance bill. We have a $1,000 deductible on an accident. So on average, a cost for repair probably is in the $5 to $6,000 range. We get a 1,000 deductible and insurance will cover 5,000 of that.
And again, this is a total number. The reimbursement shows up elsewhere in the revenue revenue side of the finances. Question, Mr. Mayor. Commissioner Santiago. Um Mr. Bob, um, can you make clear to me, um, when we're talking about the
insurance company for our cars? Yes, sir. That that would be Yeah. Okay. We have the doctor, will you say a dance? Yes, sir. And what company do we hide in private company like Geico, State Farm? Oh, that's a government. We use Florida Municipal Insurance
Trust, FMIT. That's a government. It's part of the Florida Legos of Cities program. It's a adjunct of Florida legal cities and uh they give us complete coverage for autos, for property, general
liability and even uh cyber security. Yeah. Okay. And this is the only auction that we have that we never go around and see when other company to see if they um take you know our policies you know are
less expensive. That's plan or do you think that was maybe for the operation? That was the intention to do this year. By the time we got the agent of record, the agent of record does that for us. We had hoped to do it this year, but by the time it works it way through the pipeline, we have the agent of record,
but it'll be next spring when we actually go out and seek competitive offerings. Keep it going, Mr. May. No other questions on that, Commissioner B. Um, sorry, Bob. Mr. Bob, can you just repeat that? You said it's FMIT.
FMIT, Florida Municipal Insurance Trust. Okay. Which is a it's a portion of the Florida League of Cities program. Thank you. Yes, ma'am. All right. Mr. Bob, we got we can move on.
This is we're going to take a look at the five divisions that are in the water sewer fund. Uh the only thing I will point out there and you'll see it again when we get to it in the division we call the water sewer finance you'll see a savings of $ 1.9 million that
represents two things that rep the savings represent a the completion of the money we owed the county for uh their services at the turn of the decade and also we had a million dollar settlement in FY25 which obviously we
don't repeat uh 26 that's why you an improvement of $1.9 million. No questions. We'll move on to the first division which will be the water distribution. And again, the objectives there are to
get ready to take over from the county the building and collection activity that they do for us right now. Also, two big programs. one to locate and exercise all of the major said the objective is to what I thought to make prep plans to take over from the
county the billing and collection either we would either do it in house or out outsource it to a third party that's not in this current budget so they want to start future it's not in this budget as you'll see it's it says FY27
yes sir sorry about that so now it's certainly not this year. And the other two are to implement two programs. One to locate and exercise the major valves so that they are will operate when they need to and also a
backflow inspection program. Having said that, you can see the two major items there are other contracted services which is a range of services having to do with backflow inspection also valve location exercise and those that's the primary activity in that
amount of 222,000. The other major line as you well know is the water that we purchased from the county $1.9 million. The county for water rate for next year is charging us a 2.81% increase which is manageable. Uh
you see a slight decrease because there's a fixed charge involved with the county each year. It came down quite considerably in FY26 versus FY25. And the other number that I'll bring to your attention is down in the machinery
and equipment line. $100,000 in FY26. That is what we believe we're going to end up paying possibly could pay the county this year for meter repairs. I know this came up in a commission meeting um a couple meetings ago. I think it was Commissioner Bass that brought it up about the replacement of
the meters. We had a contract with the county and are we working on that cuz that those meters were supposed to last. We have gone through that with the county. They just paid it like that that explain it Mr. in the first workshop.
The the meter's uh factory life expectancy of a of a meter is 10 years. However, uh we have some anomalies in the city where the meters get buried by um by debris and the batteries go dead
sooner than they're supposed to. the so the meters would stop working and the only way to repair that is to replace them or some of them get damaged by other other souls. Miss Austin, is that it? Cuz I need you
to I need to You've been having these discussions to say what it is. It's it's somewhat some some vandalism, but um I guess the manager would hold private meetings to because I don't want
to be accusatory to the county um in their rungs of checking the meters because we have a lot of um so-called tampering of our meters. What do you say before? Vandalize the
meters. So, so it's our it's our impression that the meters that we are getting from the county are faulty meters. They're not they're not good meters. They're not real. Mr. Austin, please talk. They're they're second grade meters. We've
got We've we've started a program now because we've had so many we've started our in-house program to assess our meters one by one and we're finding a lot of meters with the bottom plates that are leaking water. Uh they're just
bleeding considerably at the bottom of the meters. We've let the county the county is aware of this. We bringing it to the countyy's attention. They're aware that there are some defects, but they never got a chance to come out and change those meters because they're still holding on
the factory to give them replacements for those meters. But we have to pay for That's crazy. Yeah. No, no, Mr. Mayor. I'm sorry, Mr. Mayor. This is really frustrating me. I paid an $100 water bill. $1,100 and it's because of a faulty uh supplies
that we got from home ever. Um, I don't know what we're going to do as a city, but something needs to be done because I'm quite sure others got water bills that was higher than mine. Mine was $1,100, y'all. Two persons in my household. $1,100. And we just brought it up by that lady I
told you the same thing. Yeah. So, who did we purchase the meters from? The county. From the county. The county purchased the meters and installed them when we started. No, no, no, no. The question she asking who
we purchased the middle to who? To county. We pay county. Day county. Okay. In day county they sending whatever they have there and it's stuck to us and putting in opalaka because opalaka is the last door to go to I don't want to say the other
thing. Okay. Yeah. That they send the bad things here. So then who's accountable for this? Yeah. Miami date county is accountable for the bad meters. So, what are we doing about it? We are We are holding them accountable for those meters. Okay, Mr. Austin, make them pay it.
I know this is not you, right? Um, it's not on you. Maybe I sound a little bit aggressive and if I do, I apologize cuz it's not understood. I'm just frustrated because how long have we been knowing that this was happening with the meters and having
proof of it? We just started our assessment after the county uh brought to our attention there's a lot of vandalism. We wanted to ensure that it was indeed vandalism. So when when when is just so so recently we've been getting a lot
of complaints on meter tampering and I said everybody is not tampering with their meter. That's a problem. So that's when we started looking into this and going into it deeper and deeper and deeper and we're still not finished. We're not because everybody does not have a tampered meter.
So there's something is wrong with the meter that the water bill's high because they're trying to claim it's tampered. They judge me. Somebody using it, they putting in my bill. So in other words, we we we can that's the way it look like. In other words, we can
aggressively pursue the county and making this right. Is that what I'm hearing? And that's the steps that we're we're trying to we're trying to gather all of our information, all of our facts. So when we do bring it to the commission, it's it's something we cannot we cannot discern positively.
Senator, yes. Thank you. I wanted to speak to Commissioner Smith. We cannot uh discern positively that the leaking on the bottom of the meter is what's causing the escalation in the readings of the meter. Okay. Thank you, Commissioner.
Okay, good. Let me see if I remember what I going to ask you. Okay. Who vandalized that mirror? So, madame manager, who? We don't know who's causing the bad. We don't know because we don't know. If the mirror is in my prop in the
alleyway and is going to my property for example, okay, who dodging it? Or who go there to work and then reconnecting the water where they cut it out or whatever, you know. So, in some cases, people are vandalizing their meters. Everybody is not because we did have some and we we
had the proof that they did but everybody is not vandalizing a meter. Some people don't even know where their meters are. So in those cases we are assessing them one by one. When when we get those issues from the county a water
need to be disconnected because it's a a vandalized meter. We're not just turn we're not just saying yes turn them off. We're assessing them on our own now. We're not just taking the county's word for it. Okay. Now let's let's let's put the county now for at the side for a minute. Okay. Um let me give you a tip okay
about that situation when the middle in the alleys. Okay. I see sometime, okay, people going through the alleys with heavy machines. Okay. And I talking about land
keeping companies. All right. Okay. And we don't have any restriction for them. They going through there. They cop this and they putting out that. And I see a lot of things that they do. You know that that's can be one of the situation
that we have when the vandalized where we calling vandalized. Okay, you see we going there and we can stop and you know things to saving money. Okay, in the city now uh go back to the day county. Okay, what
do we have to do with the water if we not running the uh department? Okay. When all all the all the thing that I heard is, oh, we had to the city have to pay for this. The city had to go to do that investigation. What did they do? They collecting the money and get
rich and all the other problem is for us. According to the contract commissioner, the the county is responsible for everything. Replacing the meters. Yeah. Reading the meters and billing the customers, collecting the revenue.
We are we the city of Opalaka is responsible for maintaining the boxes. Maintaining who who is responsible to maintaining the boxes. The city of Opalaka. The city opalaka. Yes sir. Yeah. And they had to come out from us. Okay. But that's the only thing they do
is collecting money and send the water to the Okay. Um, one thing that I want to know the in the last commissioner meeting or in the last uh uh workshop that we have, we're talking about that we don't owe anything
to them to day county for the water. That's what I heard or not. Okay. You will be finished in August. We'll be finished in August and after August. Okay. Let's let's put in that
way like beginning the next um uh fiscal year. Okay, we already have the right to get the control of the water in Opalaka. We're not prepared for that. We're not prepared. Why? Because we don't have we're we're not there. Our entire We're not there yet.
No, we're not. No, we're not. Technically. Okay. We're not there. In addition to billing, we still need to acquire meter readers to read those meters and and change them and things of that nature. Well, but don't get upset. It's only a
question that I ask, you know, I want I want to see, you know, the water come back, you know, to opala, you know, in the future. I think we all the administration, we all do. And that's why public works and finance are both preparing this year to trans transition from the county in
27. So, we all want to get rid of it. We do. But we have to we have to set ourselves up to have the staffing, the vehicles, the equipment to be able to do it because we don't want to just take it over and it's not right. We want to take it over and it's right. We want to do it the right way.
Because uh it's a point that I want to make it here. Okay. Like we try to change, you know, the face or all the operation that we have in the city. Okay. Um they kind of is a government. Okay. And that's they are they running a water system right now. But you don't
think it's good sometimes to thinking about or that department for example. Okay. Another department to priv privatizing then to make it private when company private private
and like that we get out of all the expenses and outsource it. Yeah. Outsource it. We've also looked into that. I've asked Mr. Austin to look at companies as well. But everybody understand what I tried to say. Is it's better sometime to give in the administration and do and the
maintenance to a company to private company and we only receive you know the benefit for the you know revenue. We take out all the headers that we have. That's a part of our evaluation commission. Oh I hope we can have an evaluation. So
when we come back to the commission, we'll have an option of our staff doing it, bringing it in-house or outsourcing it. So it'll be those options given to the commission. Yeah. Like that will helping, you know, the idea with Mr. B, you know, to reduce the cost of the operation of the city
or increase the revenue. Increase the revenue. That's a good thing. Yeah. Okay. All right. So moving on to the wastewater collection and transmission benefit. It's going to help to pay my bill, ma'am. Uh mayor, my water bill is high. I got my own. Got a lot of them, man. And there's only two people in my house and we don't get home until after
six o'clock and my water bill is high. So, we all in the same boat. Yeah. Yes, sir. Series. I'm on page 59 if you're following along in the book. Again, the objective is to take over this portion of the business from the
county. You can't take one without the other. Uh I'll go I'll skip the second one for the moment. Uh There's a a compliance a compliance agreement with or a settlement with DERM which we have
to adhere to. Uh going to go into the mains with a CCTV program to better understand what our programs are do some sewer lining and also do some point repair to cut back on the INI. As you know I ini adds to our cost
unnecessarily. When I say it's inflow and infiltration, there are no questions on the objective. I'll move on to the finances themselves. Mr. May, Mr. Mayor, Commissioner B. Um, I just need to know uh what is CCTV?
Closed circuit TV. Ma'am, sorry. Thank you. Yes, ma'am. The next page should generate a little bit of discussion uh which I'll put on the screen. Sorry. the sewage disposal line. Uh I mentioned
a moment ago that the we pay the county for buying water from them and have the wastewater processed. As I mentioned a moment ago, on the water side, they have a rate increase of 2.81%. On the sewer side or wastewater
processing, it's 19.1%. a big increase. As you can see, if you look at the finance page, it's an increase of close to $600,000 in wastewater processing for next year. So, that's that that's the big obviously
the big item on that page. I will not go through any the other numbers if they unless they're of interest to you. Bob, can you explain the increase? Yes, sir. The sewage disposal Is it you're talking about the third
line there that was based on the county increasing their wastewater processing rate for next year by 19 plus percent. That's the one where you initially started you said it's manage I think the words you use it's manageable. No that was on the water so that was on the water side. 2.8% is reasonably
manageable. No increase is good news but 2.8%'s reasonable. This is 19.1% which is very very challenging. Is this across the board or is this unique to city of Opalaka? Across the board. Yes, sir. For everybody who has their wastewater
processed by the county. I have a good question after you for you, Mr. Mayor. And Bob, it was jumped from you said 19% 19.1. What was it? What was it this year? Dollar-wise or what? What was percentage? Oh, the percentage rate is 19. I'm
sorry. I'm not making it clear. A 19.1% rate increase. Oh, increase. Okay. Yes, sir. I'm sorry. I didn't. So, where where are we today? What percentage? The rate? Well, the rate would be it's a winter rate and a summer rate. And I think it's
probably about $355, which is a mix of the dry season and the wet season. I'll get back to you on that one. Okay. With the commission. Yes, I will. Yes, sir. We'll have that. I don't have that. Mr. Mayor, um I think you can help me
with this. Uh before in the last workshop, uh we've been talking about to reduce the miller rage. Okay. In Opalaka for that for the taxes, you know, for
um real estate tax, no. Yes, sir. Property tax. Prop property tax. But why? Okay. We're going to reduce okay 2% okay for that revenue that we receive but county the county we're talking
about now the county not the city we keeping send you a higher bill okay for tax for the tax for you property you mean they don't reduce anything they keeping you know raising that what is
the benefits that we're going to have reducing to the resident to us okay the 2% when we don't have it from day county. Okay. Well, I don't think we should conflate the two because one has nothing to do with the other. Oh, they not they different in both. We control the millage rate here and it's good that we are decreasing our
millage rate by 2%. Opal has the highest millage rate in the state of Florida for years and we haven't been under nine in oh over 10 years. So now we're finally actually giving and this gives a break to our residents. That's a okay. A break for that's my point. A
break for the resident. Okay. And that's going to helping uh for example myself in my in my tax tax to the bank because that they collecting the taxes from my loan from my
my mortgage. Yeah. And this this year they're raising my god like almost $1,200 more in my house taxes. Yeah. Yeah. That's my point. Okay. What is the uh the benefits that we have with that? Because I want to tell the bank
next year no opalaka giving you know a uh a low raise now for the uh real estate taxes here. I want to see the different what is going to so your property value your property value went up which is the increase right but because recognizes that what we're doing is trying to offset that and give
our residents a break by decreasing it by 2%. Yeah, because we recognize that property value in Opalaka has gone up a lot. And to answer the next question about the 19.1%, I don't know why the county
did that, but I guess the manager, you can figure that out and give us I think I think it's a well-known fact the county's wastewater system because of rising sea level and everything else, I think they have to revamp. I tell you what, I'm going to give it to the expert.
No, that I understand, but how they came up with the um a 19.1 increase the percent. I I want to know how they came up with that increase there. They Yes, sir. It's they go through with their entire cost structure. We can
share it with you. It's a very it's several pages of calculation. A big jump. Yes, sir. It is. It's a big jump. But the the underlying cause is the fact I believe their entire wastewater system is really jeopardized and they really
have to revamp it. All right. If no other questions on this part of public works, we can move on to the media and ser Well, we are we actually already discussed this service line service line budget. We already discussed this. You'll see we're going to need
you'll see an increased one on this one for uh to really go after the meter tampering program and there's also this is where you'll see the in initial investment in replacement of the service lines we've been talking about. Got it. All right. So, madam manager, I
just would ask that when you come to some kind of conclusion with um our public works and the county's public works that you give the a presentation that the commission mean to the commission regarding the meters and the step forward. All right, I've got the finance page on
the screen if there are any questions. Otherwise, we'll move on to the next division. Um the legal settlements we're completed zeroed out. I see right. Say again. Have you moved on? No. 63. You've moved on. I'm still on 62. Sorry.
Yes, sir. You see the million dollar there settlement uh that we had to pay this year. It's part of your savings. I point out before that the you'll see close to a $2 million savings in this department from FY25 to FY26. million of
it is the settlement. Second half is the completion of the debt we've been paying off to Miami date since uh 2019 last payment in August. Okay. Any other questions to Mr. Bob on the water sewer finance and customer service.
All right. I think Bob that concludes. Does that conclude? No sir. There's two more two more divisions we need to address. Yeah. Uh 65. But I will tell you the numbers on 65 are not the right numbers. They are on page four of the handout that I
gave you in terms of how things have changed. Uh they're close to it, but these are not the correct numbers on the screen itself. What's the what's the change? Change was we put obsolete I allowed us to have obsolete numbers in the first uh
hearing that we not I'm sorry on the one-on-one meetings we had with you. They were obsolete numbers. If you'll look at page four about halfway down, you'll see what the correct numbers are and the reason for it. If on page four, and again, I'm talking
about this handout right here. Second, you wish, please. Yeah. Well, yeah, I'm talking about the six page handout that we discussed at the beginning of this. Okay. This is talking about CIP
management. So staffing say again the staffing staffing came down one but some of the expenses that are on the screen as soon as I put it on the screen are incorrect. These were obso these were obsolete numbers should not have been presented the first time around.
Okay. So you brought it down. It's actually gone up a little bit. Oh I see. up. Yes sir. You can see the bottom line on the screen is 293,000. You can see in the fourth page of the handout, it's gone up to 320 326,000.
Bob, that that's not there. Say again. I'm looking at something there. It still says, it still says 293. 293 is where we started. Come down again. The way it's structured is it's three different points in time. The first line is what I was shared with you
on the 101 meetings around the 1st of July. Then there were some changes. I see. Yes, sir. The bottom line. Yes, sir. Sorry, I didn't make that clear either. Got it. So, those in fact are the numbers you should have seen at the first meeting,
but as I said, sometimes we don't get exactly right the first time. And I see inflation um signs roll. Okay. Yeah. Adjustment. Okay. And again, this cost is shared by three different funds. The CIP management is resides in the water sewer fund but
actually does CIP across the city. So they operate the general fund and the stormwater fund also pay for the expense in this budget. Got it. Any questions to uh CIP management? All right, moving on. Mr. B to
operations budget. We're down to the very last one. Storm water. Storm water is actually not spelled that way, but it came across by the time they converted. Well, they they in before me today what I did is I gave them a PDF package which
they converted back to a uh a PowerPoint presentation and the translation was not perfect. Anyhow, some very important things going on here. A couple major categories. One is really getting after the drainage system. You've approved
this program as a first pass through the end of this year and then it's was also discussed it'll be a five-year program. It's about 350,000 bucks a year. Maintenance of the canal uh remains with the county. We pay about $300,000 for
that. And uh but also you'll see a payment of a penalty has to do with the state MS4 inspection uh which they uh went very thoroughly through all our process and procedures for storm water. and you'll see the payment of that uh
$64,00063,000 uh penalty in FY25. So if there are no questions on the objectives, I will move on to the financial page and you can see in the line called other contracted services. That's where you're doing your maintenance of the drainage
system and also your canal maintenances. There any are there any other questions on that? Oh, I will point out down at the bottom this amongst the three operating funds is most healthy. You can see a $3.6 million transfer to the stormwater CIP. Again, it I was talking
about FY27. This fund will have enough surplus fund balance. It will be able to maintain a healthy CIP contribution in 27. This is one of the three operating funds where that's a true statement. All right, Bob the but this not a
question for you but this is more of a question for um Mr. Austin the um excellence maintenance excellent maintenance of canals per whatever. So what's the schedule for the canal cleanup now? It's quarterly quarterly. So okay so four times a year.
Yes sir. And that's for all with aesthetics being on on demand. Okay. And then I know at one point you all were talking about um redoing the the seaw walls. Are we still doing that?
that project. Um, you want to speak to that? The 127th Street Canal, that was a project where we were going to stabilize the the shoreline and dredge the canal, but that project uh the funding was returned.
No, no, that's not what I'm referring to, but I'm aware of that. No, we were supposed to Oh, god. The seaw walls on the the canals. We We're doing We're currently doing the Burlington Canal. It's in phase phase two of the three-phase project.
Okay. And is that all canals will be done that way or just the Berlin? Currently as needed. As needed, but the Burlington canal was the most in need. Okay. Do we have a wars in the can? They're called
I saw a lot of trash. And then why we never addressed Ingram Heart, the Seaw wall, the banks of Ingram Park. That's phase three. So we will be addressing that next fiscal year. Okay. And then this is off subject, but
we are on the Ingram Park. And I brought this up to the manager. I just want to bring it up to again fencing off Wilmington to stop the boat deliveries and the jet ski deliveries. They're not there no more. No, they there. They still there.
They they deliver jet ski in the middle of the night. I um Good good question. Now that you touch um uh that area there and the lake for Ingram Park, the we have any
uh help from the state in that area? Uh because listen what we see the last time that we there a lot of manatees And that that animal they under protection
of the state and federal government. Why do we do it with them? Like a wildlife grant. Well, yeah, but they be protecting. Yeah, but we supposed to have some kind of help with this. We will look into it. Okay.
We will look into it. Okay. All right. Any other questions for Miss Gross? or Mr. um Mr. Bob or the manager or Mr. Austin for public works. All right, hearing none. So, we can go into the
second part of the meeting, Mr. Bob, which will be special. Yes, sir. There's another part. Um well, the discussion for the military. So, I think we all agree that the mill rate we're going to reduce it. The mission is not
No, we we agreed to that already. Yeah, we did to to the last one. Yeah, we already agreed to that one. Mhm. So, you're supposed to um bring legislation for that. So, we're going into special events. Yes, sir. I have provided a one-page handout. Uh
the information on it starts with the FY25 budget. The uh year-to- date expense as I can find it. What's in the budget for FY26 at the moment, which is 42. Hold up. The paper that you're looking at, please. Yes, sir. It's a one page on one page
handout. Got it. Thank you. I'm sorry. All right. So, um, what you are expecting the commission to do is to make a decision on what events we're going to do. Yes, sir. That would be ideal.
All right. And this covers what you talk to each and every one of us in our one-on- ones and events that it is a start. We've added additional information because, as you know, to conduct a special event requires staff support. Uh we've we've uh pled police I
shouldn't say both. We've pled police uh beautifification division parks and recreation to identify the amount of effort they have to put in for special events. These are not perfect. These are estimates and what uh the two right-hand columns you'll see there. One is what
I've called regular compensation which is people doing work in support of the special events during the regular scheduled hours. The column to your right is where above and beyond their regular effort is their overtime effort. So you can see by the time you get down
to the bottom uh on a first estimate basis it looks like uh staff is providing $18,000 of regular work uh normal 9to-5 effort or 8 to5 I should say and $26,000 of overtime. So it's it's the regular on top of the
overtime. Yes sir. Well you've got two columns. They're not out of their side by side. What it says if it's in the regular column is something that somebody did during the normal work hours of 8 to 5, but uh compensation would be applied to this as opposed to them doing something
else. The overtime is additional expense to the city and this is estimated. Yes sir. What we did is we tried to get hours for uh the three different departments and then cost them out in terms of an average salary and benefit
rate. Okay. So, we have the um the the 5K bike walk, the Arabian Nights Festival. That's inclusive of the city's birthday. Madam manager, does that include um advertisements or
banners and stuff like that? It will. Um Mr. It will come out of that. Yes. Okay. Um I believe the next one is the baby shower. That's Commissioner Bass's event. Commissioner, you met with your good.
I'm sorry. The amount for the baby shower. So, so it's um $2,100 for the baby shower. Then your o um staff cost will be 220. And then Mr. Mayor time
is during during regular hours. But is that is the estimate? But it's still doing regular hours. I believe that might have been Parson Rick. No, because the baby shower happens on the inside. So there's there's no public works involved with this. No
beautifification. All right. But this is an estimate is what you're saying, right, B? I'm still confused. I am. Okay. Zanya Raid, the parks and direct parks and recreation director. What you see in front of you is actually
based off of if you go by the regular schedule of parks being open under the guidelines of ask me. Their actually work schedule will be Monday through Fridays. After the commissioner came in agreements of extending the services of
it being open seven days, we had to reschedu and restructure the time. But technically based off of the contract, we cannot adjust their work schedule to prevent overtime for certain staff members. So
what happened is when we schedule certain events, we put at least one or two staff there and also maintain staff. to cover the actual building doing these events. So, whatever um staff we have scheduled for like the 5K walk, they
technically not at the park. So, we have to restructure their time to be able to send two staff over to cover your request as well as the same with the baby shower. But if the event is inside of the building, let's just say the baby shower is in the
multi-purpose room straight ahead. So you're going to have two additional staff members on top of the two that you already well additional staff members on top of the two that's already maning the building. Actually they'll be doing both jobs. They'll be covering the event as well as trying to maintain the residents coming
in in and out of there is no facility. So there will be no overtime as long as So what you're saying you're going to have one person covering the event and one person covering the front door yet? No, I'm I'm saying there's no overtime as long as the event is within
business hours. So actually way I structure the cover y'all events right now I utilize the part- timerrs and we stagnate their time within that time but it might be at some given time that they might go over that
time to where if they have to clean up anything after those hours after the event is over then that accumulates other additional time after that during that time and right now madam is madam manager the park is is dusted done. Or what's what's
the park hours? 7, right, Miss Ray? 7 or 8. From Monday through Friday is from 8:00 in the morning to 8:00 p.m. at night. But on Saturdays is they actually work from 9:00 is open up in the morning at
9:00 and it close at 5 unless it's a special event or there's a rental. And when we have a rental or a special event, we have to reschedu staff to cover those bases. So that's where your overtime actually comes in at because we have to make sure
we cover the facility for your residents to come out and utilize the fitness room, the pool, those areas, the basketball gym. We have to make sure staff is available to be able to cover those areas when we have events. Okay. And Sundays we're we're still
closed, right? Sundays? No, Sunday we're open seven days now. We're open seven days. So staff is stagnated all through the week. So Saturdays, okay, Monday through Friday 8 to 8. Um Saturdays and Sundays weekend is 9 to5
unless subject to change based off of your special events and rentals. Mr. Mayor, Commissioner B. Um thank you for this dialogue because um I don't know if you all knew that, but I didn't. So that will cause us to
be more mindful on on timing of our events. So, thank you. All right. So, I have Mr. Mayor, if I may. Uh, fortunately, I'm too old to embarrass myself. I had
the backup details. It was handed out to somebody if everybody will check their handouts for this one. Somebody has got a page that is listed as the police department and public works and also parks and recck. So, could I ask that somebody take a look see who might have
it? It says what? There was a backup with all the detail by department and it inadvertently got handed out. So, somebody has a sheet that instead of being total somebody stole Bob's paper. That's what he's saying, right?
They didn't steal it. The dog ate it. Who's the guilty party? Did you find it? The dog ate. I think it just came home. Yes, sir. Okay. All right. No, it did not. It's the same thing. Okay. Well, I'm I'm sorry for breaking
this up. This What are these numbers? You're looking at the wrong. Oh, it I give I give my vice Kelly and we just replace it. Um madam madam cler make sure vice Kelly get a paper. I took it and gave it to Santiago and that's the
paper that Bob was looking. I don't know how I get it. That's one of the Somebody else has got He was like, "What am I looking at?" Yeah, I said I said I don't even know what you know what kind of number is that to the Well, left.
This is the police. Somebody has got the uh parks and wreck and public works. We got another one out. Yes, sir. This is different, too. You giving a different one to each commissioner? Yes, I do. That we can get confused. I'm too old I'm too old to embarrass myself, but I
just embarrassed myself. What is it? That's That's Thank you. This the right one. That's the one he look. I apologize for breaking this whole thing up. That's That's Mr. This one should That's the one right there. Republic. I'm not ready.
Okay. I don't know. Mistake. We're going to need a third uh Yeah. Yeah. This is perfect. Thank you. So, you're missing one more. No, we're good. I say who stole Bob's paper for Nobody sold the dog ate it.
All right. So, real quick, Bob, we'll run through it. So, we have the baby shower, commissioner bath, um, bingo, which is $24,000. That That's about What is that equal to per 24 time 12? Oh my god. What's What's the math on that?
Um,000. Okay. every month. Black History, we're at um $1,500. Uh the book bag giveaway, madam manager, I don't agree with the book bag giveaway because I think we can get those book bags unless you're just keeping it as a
placeholder just in case we don't get donations, but I think we can start seeking out donations like we're doing this year. We can start we can definitely reduce to maybe 2,000 and that'll help cover the food and any the food and any entertainment. That's my suggestion
because if we can last year we we had overabundance and we had a we had over abundance of donations as well as overabundance of book bags that we purchased. Um so 2,00 2,000 good to me. Commissioner Santiago, you have your paper. You okay? No.
Come on. There you go. I gave one. I gave one. I gave him one. Oh, how many you have? I don't. I took it from What's this? All right. So, we're at the um the book bag. Um the the breast cancer
is at 2,000. That was my event. I was spearheading Domino's and chest is at 2,000. Um the Christmas toy drive at $6,000. That's what you always do. cuz that's always the number. All right.
And why we spent uh $6,000 in that event? The Christmas toy drive. That's the police. What is that? And police and uh No, that's for food. Um amusements like bounce house and things for the kids to do. And
Okay. I think they do the gifts too. The toys. Toys. Yeah. I I don't Wow. We we don't get that for donation for outside. No, the city this is what the city budget for it. Well, okay. Hey, I'm I'm not
investigated, but No, it's okay. Okay. No, I only asking. This is why we're here so we can talk about it and and see how we want to move forward. Yeah. Okay. I I keeping going, Mr. I I looking for a space for me here that I don't
have anything. Okay. We have the um the the Christmas tree lighting at $1,000. We decreased it from five 5,000. Does that include That's just Oh, cuz we do it here. Christmas tree lighting. This is for the food that we Okay. And the
entertainment. All right. That's the um the quarterly cleanup $500. Um the commission inaugurations of the square and $3,000. Mr. Mayor, we can take that. Oh. Oh, what you going to say? I was going to request to see if we can increase that
at least by an additional thousand dollar. I know um last election in 2024 it was budgeted at 1,500 and we with that amount we had a hard time trying to
find a caterer and we didn't have you know decorations and we would like to have you know moving forward something nice for the commission inauguration if we can it madam clerk I was going to say the reason I said take it out is there's no
election this fiscal here. So they who say that in 26 we have election. It will be in 26. In 26. Okay. So that so this one is no. You are correct cuz it'll be after October. It'll be next year. So that's why I say it's about There you
go. $3,000. So it'll be in next year's budget. Mr. Mayor, can I say something? I I think you're wrong. No, he's correct. No. We have we have an election in November 2026. Oh, sorry. Thank you.
Excuse me. If it No, no, no, no. It's It's okay. No, go ahead. F the election is uh November 4. Okay. 2026. Okay. And it's me. They are running, you know, a couple of commissioners and the
mayor seat. Okay. Let's see. You win the four. Okay. You're going to take over when? In January like the president or the senators? Remember our fiscal year starts um October 1 and October I'm 30. Ah okay. Now now I got it. Okay. Yeah.
Forget about it. I don't say anything. Oh Bob, there you go. Um there. Um Congo, I see we we decreased it to four. I agree with that. The um we decreasing it to $4,000. Um Earth Day.
What is What are we doing for Earth Day? Why you take the money for Kunga? You don't want You don't want to celebrate Kongalonga. We've decreased it to $4,000 from 9 to 4. In years past, I got donations. So, we
we're good. Um, Earth Day at a thousand. That was Commissioner Williams as you. Yeah, I did it. You did it. Okay, we did. All right. Um, Easter Easter, we did good this year, madam
manager. So, I say keep it the same. Um, the fishing tournament, that's Commissioner Kelly's $2,200. That's That was good for him. Okay. Yes. Yes, it is. All right. Um, gospel in the park. We can take that out because this is a
part of the city's that was a part of the city's birthday that we added it to. Okay. So, go out. So, we actually took it out. It's no budget for it this year. Okay. It's in our budget for this year. All right. So, um I don't think we didn't No, I know we didn't have it this year because it's gumb we didn't do the gumbot back. So, but we're planning to
do it next year, madam manager. Yes, we are planning. Okay. And let me ask you a question then. Why is it here and not in the police budget if that's their event? It's a special event. It's it's considered as a special event. Well, don't they have events in their budget? No.
All events fall under. What do we do in this gun that we collecting? We buy them back and give them to I don't know. Turn them into an agency. Turn them into agency. So, we have um Haitian Heritage at $500.
We have Halloween at 3500. The Health and Resource Fair at 2500. Okay, madame manager. Okay. And I tal brought this up to you before. Health. Why are we spending $22,000 on a health and resource fair? I did when it was free.
Was that based on the Bob, can you elaborate on this number where it came from? Uh, I cannot. It was part of the budget and I just moved it forward. Okay. I The one I did, the only thing we paid for was the DJ and and some light refreshments. It was cost us less than So, are you saying a thousand?
Yeah, let's just do $1,000. It's cuz it's just vendors. They're usually free. Um, so that there you go, Bob. You got $1,500 there. Fourth of July at um $30,000.
Uh Junth at 55, you took it up by 500. Is there a reason why? No, sir. Just inflation. Inflation. Did you expend the whole
$5,000? Yes. inflation. Okay. Um karaoke. We're at um 10,000. That's two karaoke. Um the mayor's business lunchon. Y'all just
slashed the mayor though, huh? That was That was your That was your recommendation. That's not enough. Oh, give me Can I Can I Bob, can I get the Not taking $1,000 back. I just don't I just want $500 more. I
just want Can I get $500? That's all I'm asking. Bob, can I get $500? I saved you $1,000 for the healthare. So, can I get Can I get $500? Thank you, Bob. Man, I suggesting something now. Um,
it's me. There's nobody else. What do we need a karaoke here for? That's another question. I say teams here is too many, you know, like and
but Okay. In karaoke, we spend $10,000. She has two karaoke for the year and it does cost. And it's only a question. I don't say you take it off for nothing. You can keep it out there, Mr. Bob. But I say
what is the benefits of that? We can't answer that, but I do answer that. They've been like that. The the majority I mean um we have two of the elected officials are not here. But I think staff is staff wants to know if is if the commission
wants to keep all of these events. Do we want to go to the nationally recognized events? How do you guys want to move forward in the upcoming budget? I think that's more of what staff wants to know. Yeah. Okay. I only do the quest ask the
question because we're looking for reduce a lot of expenses you know the for the city and the cost and I can see yeah you can have any events that you want at least you get you know donation for outside and not depending
of you you know of the budget but we spending money in some some uh you know events that we we not even get benefits because I know let's see uh the city birthday uh the uh state of est state of
the city that's a very important you know event and that's event that we had to celebrate at that all the city uh I think fourth of July is okay uh uh black history month is fine with me uh the
running uh the first one we have over in January the uh uh the 5k run okay And uh the come the now the the one that is coming that that's going to be the signature event for the city the Aravian
night that is going to be together when the 100 years of celebration for the city okay and is close also to the estate of the city there is that's the event that I talking about that is necessary in in our city for the rest if I want to do
like myself I want to do the Dominican date in Opalaka I pay for I pay for it. It's nothing. I love also the uh uh congal loca because konga local loca we putting together with the uh uh the Spanish
month of her. Yes. Okay. That's something also you know that is good. Okay. To budget but it's a lot of the event that okay I don't I don't think it's fair for us to have that conversation about karaoke when the sponsor is not here. Okay. And so I would yeah I don't even
want to lay into that. So we you can bring it up at the commission meeting when we bring this item back and then you can have it then. Um but I am asking Bob for $500 for the mayor's business lunchon. Thank you Bob. Mr. Mayor I just tee him up.
Thank you Bob. I am not I'm not authorized to make that approval. Madam manager. Thank you. Um, we going to Meet Me Monday. Um, that's Vice Mayor Kelly's event. It has $200 in it. Uh, Memorial
Day pool party. You increased it. Can I Can I get Can I make a comment on that? Commissioner Irvin did say take it down to 1,700. She said take it to Okay. Yeah. Taking it back. Commissioner Irving. Oh, okay. That's a memorial.
What is it? The Memorial Day pool party. She has a pool party every Memorial Day. You said 1700. Mhm. And what day do we celebrate in that the first? I don't I think it's the Memorial Day. It's on Memorial Day. On Memorial Day.
All right. Um uh Mr. Bob, the MLK walk, you budgeted for Vice Melly's event. So you budgeted for 3,000. We spent 1,000, but then you decreased it to 500. Can we can we take it up? Well, that's a budget. Yeah, that was at
a request of of Vice Mayor Kelly. Oh, he was okay with the $500 because the only expense it is Well, you know what? No, the t-shirts and the the food. So, it probably will need to go up. Yeah. Yeah. But we don't count in there. The uh the
personnel that we use that is basically the police court. That's in the other That's in the other one. Okay. I think the the manager is going to have a hard conversation with us about Okay. um that in in in in the very near future after we get over this. So, um, Mr. Bob.
Yes, sir. For Vice Mayor Kelly event, can we take a 2,000? Oh, definitely. I know he said 500, but Oh, 500 will not do it because you have to I shouldn't I should not have I should not have put 500 in. That's an error. Okay. But what what did he ask for? Do
you know what he asked for or I did not bring those notes, but I have them in my office. Okay. Yeah, I think it was certainly $1,000. Certainly. Okay. Yeah. All right. Madam manager, the MLK parade, right? It's kind of It's not worth it for $5,000 for us to walk and sweat.
You want us to remove it? I know the kids look forward to it. Is But it rain every year and I think this is not a point that we got to discuss and now Mr. No, this be discussed now. This a commission thing.
I remove it. M just say remove it. Maybe we can find if we can let's remove it and let's just see see if we can find somebody sponsor the kids sponsor the kids to go to it. I think we can work make a business that will sponsor the kids to go to it. Day we can drop that
national day of parade. He um you had just did the food stuff. He budgeted 15 you budgeted 1500. You all expended 1390. So 1 1500 is is about right. National national day of prayer. Yeah. Okay. All right. Um,
it's because you have two, Commissioner Bass. You have the Oh, that's right. Yeah, we had two. One in the morning, one in the night. Um, the the Thanksgiving turkey giveaway. What What did we spend this year, madam? I thought we got last year we got Didn't we get donations?
The city spent 35213,00 Yeah. Okay. So, we got donations, but we still had to Yeah, we still had to Okay. We did the Yeah. If I may on that one, even if we get sponsors, the expense shows up here because we spend the money. Unless they give us the turkeys. No, they gave us the turkey.
Oh, they gave us turkeys. And in the words of the clerk, we had to get the fixings. I love what she said. The fixings. All right. Veterans Day. Um, we have it at um $1,100. Women's History Month.
Bob, you Oh, okay. Never mind. And what's I see miscellaneous. $14,000. What's that? It can be taken out. Okay. I I definitely agree with Commissioner Santiago
as it relates to the um the these events. And this is based on what you put in your report, Bob, that $160,000 we can sele. I think that's what you said, right?
Yes, sir. Each 1% is 100 $160,000 of property tax revenue, right? So, there's that. So, I think we need to be a little more cognitive on how we spend our money going forward, especially with these events because right now we're at
a lot. Almost a half a million dollars on just events. 400,000. That's a lot of money. Y that that's a lot of money for events. And that does not include staff. and are you looking at another stop?
That's that's a lot of money for events. And then I know, madam manager, we also have this issue because it always comes up, a city event versus a a something else event. Um, can we make a distinction between what what city events are and then the
national events, then we see the ones that we um host and then make a decision. But these are the ones that we host. I know what I'm saying. Well, when I say host, I mean the national. Let's take that apart.
Let's take away the ones that are are citydriven, right? And then ours. Like for instance, the baby shower was mine. Oh, that's um yeah, just kind of separated then we can probably figure it out better. That if we knew this conversation was going to be long. Um
for instance major holidays is what right the major holiday major holidays mean like oh and the city's birthday fourth of July memorial day okay so I have the the the city's birthday we also have the black history
month uh Hispanic heritage Hispanic heritage Hispanic heritage kongaloka no yes we have that Easter. Mhm. Easter. Yeah. Haitian Heritage. July 4th,
Junth. Thanksgiving. That's a good one. National Day of Prayer. Are you under Veterans Day this year? I would like to because I think it's important that we not forget those who fought for us. And do you consider Women's History
Month a National Holy or we just That's a That's just us. That's just us. Okay. Oh, and you have the toy drive and you also have Christmas tree light. Christmas tree light. That's important. Halloween. Can I say something about Halloween? Sure. Okay. Um,
well, I'm one of the person that I don't believe in Halloween myself. I don't either. Yeah. And I don't want to celebrate and spend money for, you know, in the city for celebrating the date of the devil.
Well, well, but okay. This is not Okay. Close. Yeah. Okay. We're not We're not But but hey, if if you want to celebrate it, just, you know, doing it and get the money from outside. But the more important
event that we light hiding there, I think that's the ones that we supposed to, you know, always do it. Okay. National That's how you call it. National national events. Okay. And and things like uh the um the birthday for the uh
city birthday uh the state of the city, they're very important because you bring a lot of good news to us and and the Arabian night the event. All right. And um
so the commission still needs to make a decision and I think this conversation should probably be everybody is here. We can do it on Commissioner. Yeah. Um, but the only other thing I'm going to ask you, Madam Manager, because I know you have conversations with individually, but I
know the issue comes up when we partner with other people and we use city staff. There's a fix. Oh, partner with other people and then you like partner with other like other other agencies and stuff like that. But I think there's a fix to that. We need to have a policy and the policy needs to
spell it out. whatever it is, it just needs to be clear in a policy and we can all follow it. So that's when we partner with nonprofits, partner with Y. Okay. So how does that work? So if now until we get the policy in place,
how does that work now? So if it's not a city event, then city staff is not there. Then city staff is not there. Yeah. No. Or pay if because we have to pay our staff.
And I and I give you an example. Okay. We do something in their church. Okay. In our church and we pay for, you know, for what? Whatever we use, we pay. Yeah. Okay.
All right. Um, so that's nonprofits and what was the other one? Just nonprofits and how we partner. And then how does it work when we're and I know the the the attorney brought this up during the last commissioner
bass when a nonprofit is collecting money on the behalf of the city and needs to come in resolution form. That's what we case by case basis. I think we that that I don't remember that. I don't remember the policy because like you said it didn't pass. I would have to revisit it. That was with the u the basketball. Yes.
Yep. That's your bet. Okay. All right. It's a lot a lot of a lot of things that we do u Mr. Mayor that is coming from our ideas.
Okay. in in events. Um not even not profiting but like I want to touch the police department sign that is already the sign is already and we're going to have a date okay for
that day uh to celebrating the opening downstairs and for sure we know that a lot of police officers are going to be there. Okay. and also uh people for polish work. But but commissioner, I think that's
that's a bit different. We passed a resolution for that. So we're honoring um the past vice mayor at that time. So I don't think that would be an issue. Well, no, it's not an issue, but I want to be sure, but it was at no cost to the city. Commissioner Santiago is what he's I
believe he's saying is that he seek donations for that. No, he's talking about the event itself. So he want not for the ribbon cut. Yeah, that's what I want to know. Okay. Because we have to be ready for that. Yes. Yes. And staff will be ready. Staff will be ready.
Yeah. But my my point is um Mr. Mayor. Okay. We talking one by one about that is me I want to see if we responsible the city for that only for that or we had to bring some revenue to pay it. Um for staff to to set up and work.
Yeah. No staff. I guess it depends on what time of day it is. I'm I'm sure it's going to be in the daytime. Yeah. It's going to be in the day for sure. But then yeah, staff staff will be you know I I'd like to be sure what you know where we are in that.
Okay. So madam manager I think let's hold this part now. Put it on ice and put it on ice and I guess we can bring it up at the commission meeting because we still have two out at this moment. And then as it relates to the
policy for how we partner with or engage with nonprofits, then I guess we can have that discussion in a workshop setting or at that time at that time because I see it is getting Yeah. All right. Any
other questions? U Mr. Mayor, no questions. I just want to reiterate what I my suggestion was is to separate the events um based on national holidays based on city events. When I say city I mean the um inaugurations those events and then
third column with the events that we profit on our own. Okay. So madam manager can you by next commission meeting um define city events define commission initiatives and what was the other one? Personal one commission initiative. So,
city events versus commission initiatives and then Huh. National and national. Well, that that's city event. Yeah. Oh, okay. I think I see what you're saying. Yeah. Give a a breakdown of all of the holidays events that we do and then
define what a city event is and then define what a um a commission initiative is or event if you will. The ease of elimination and then we can do process of elimination. The only time people pick up their keys in church is when they ready to go
jangling the keys. I think we all the same. We'll change. All right. So, if our hearts and minds are clear, u madam man, only thing I would suggest um Mr. Bob made changes the workshop whatever the adjustments that doing our briefing that you all
just review this paper with. those that are not here, the um the paper that the changes that were made, the changes that were made, my suggestion is that you give it to the commissioners that are not here in advance and then review it during our
briefings, our briefings. And madame ma manager, I would suggest that during those briefings too, um go over the the events as well. So that way the first time we hear it's not at a commission meeting and then people already have in their
mind what we're going to do. Sure. We'll do it again. Mr. Mayor, am I adding um that discussion item to the agenda for the next meeting? No, because I do I think the manager is having this this is going to be the
budget is going to be the budget is going to be the budget is going to be on the agenda. So we'll just discuss it at that time. Okay. It's going to be under the consent unless someone pulls it. Just an FYI, right? Oh, I'm sorry.
Okay, I got it. Um, the Bright Home of the Month program wasn't included in the budget. Please add it. I don't know. We We never did it this year because things got discombobulated when the transition happened.
She love it. Um, so if no other questions, concerns, our hearts and minds are clear. All right, that's it. This meeting is adjourned. Thank you. All right.