How many or he can talk under the state legislative session? Well, all of y'all are going to cave and use your own computer. Well, my own computer is way too distracting. started showing up. I'm just saying like there's a lot of
other stuff on there. Oh, okay. Thank Patrick, I don't think you're my I turned it off. Tell me how to speak. Yeah. It's always that last minute.
One minute together. All right, you guys ready? Uh, welcome back to Ovidito City Chambers. Um, I will call this work session to order at 5:30 p.m. on August 25th. We have all members of council present. Um, we will start with our
public comment section. I know representative back here if you wanted to come up and speak first. Okay. Hopefully this thing's on and pleasure to be with you tonight and thank you for just taking a couple minutes. Uh just wanted to say uh it was
it's been great working with the the Ovito city council and the mayor and and uh to to deliver this uh check on behalf of the state which is essentially matching funds to the city of Ovido for the highwater rescue vehicle also works
for brush fire suppression and those kind of things. I think this is a great uh appropriation. These are the type of projects I like to get involved with here in Central Florida because they're going to save lives. It's better to have this vehicle and not need it than need
it and not have it. And I, as we were talking earlier, I really hope uh Central Florida gets through this hurricane season without getting clobbered. We we almost made it last year and then we got thumped pretty good by Milton and Helen. So, we'll keep preparing for the worst. uh but getting
this vehicle in place for the citizens of of Oto I think is the right thing to do and it really is the type of project that I like to lead on in the legislature. So I've uh in my seven years in the legislature coming into my eighth and final session because I'm termed out after four uh four two-year
terms. But uh uh if you need something else, let me know. I've been uh uh successful in passing 29 policy bills uh since I was elected in 2018. And probably what I'm most proud of is 61 appropriation projects. I've kind of
figured out how to get money out of the state to help municipalities, nonprofits, seminal state, UCF, uh, for these good causes. And this highwater rescue vehicle, brushfire vehicle for the city of Ovido is a good investment
in our community and it was great to partner with all of you to deliver these funds for the city of Ovito. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. I don't have any other written requests to speak. Is anybody in the audience looking to address council at this time? If so, please come up to the podium.
Hearing none, I will close public comment and we will move on to our second order of business, which is the 2025 state legislative session wrapup. Mr. Cobb. Uh thank you, Deputy Mayor. The um uh each year uh the city does
participate u in the legislative session through our state lobbyist uh Mr. Chris Kamadyi and Miss Ki aso are here tonight to give you uh an overview of how the session went this year. And I'm going to turn it over to Mr. Kamadei.
Thank you, Brian. Uh good evening, council um and team here. Uh Kylie and I are excited to be here tonight to talk about uh how the session went. Um how long it went, we'll get into that as well. Uh and obviously some of the successes which Representative Smith
already hinted on earlier. Um, so with that, we'll kind of jump in here. Uh, did that work? That's us. All right. We're in different suits. That's good. All right. It helps to when you get into this process, I always feel it kind of helps to understand who's in the room. No different than than y'all, right?
Personalities matter and the backgrounds of those folks that are leading the state matter. No different than it would be in a council meeting, right? How you all interact. Um, so, uh, you can see there 120 member house, uh, 40 member senate. um that was a little shrunk this time because we had uh an unfortunate
passing and then uh some some folks that left early, but essentially 27 to 10 in the Senate with one MPA which happened in the middle of session. It was a very interesting session to say the least. House 86 Republicans, 33 Democrats, one open seat and both of those if you I'll save you the math. Those are both
supermajorities, which makes for also interesting politics as we go into session and next session where um a lot of these votes aren't close ones when you've got that many members of the majority party. So, it kind of changes how things work. So, here's who's in the room, right? We know the person on the top left, everyone in Florida knows uh
who Governor DeSantis is. Um, but the rest of those boxes, a lot of that was musical chairs that now that we're in late August, uh, it's finally updated. But that one next to Dantis with Jay Collins, Lieutenant Governor, um, he, um, Okay, got it. Uh, he was just
recently appointed, but that was an empty seat for most of session. And then, of course, uh, but you go below there, Mary Cla Huard, legislative affairs director. That was actually someone else at the beginning of session. Uh, Peter Cutterman, who left, um, to pursue some further education. um Jason Wida who's the chief of staff. Uh
he was new this session but he was here the whole session. He was previously um the secretary at a Lita Kelly previously chief of staff at FDOT new for this session director of office policy and budget. She heard from me quite a bit on y'all's priorities and a few others because she's the one that kind of
guides the governor on um what to veto, what not to veto and the ones that are coin flips and why they're coin flips and she's the one that kind of helps gatekeep on that. Um and you know because all politics are local. her husband is the secretary of commerce, Alex Kelly, who many probably remember because he was the acting chief of staff when the governor was running for
president. Quickly through the cabinet, Wilton Simpson, that was the one main stay there from the previous election. James Oathmire was appointed uh right at the beginning of the year when attorney now senator Ashley Moody, but then attorney general Ashley Moody accepted that appointment uh by the governor. And then Blaolia, that was an uh CFO, former
CFO Jimmy Petronis took the open seat left by Matt Gates in Congress and ran successfully in March. The seat stayed open from that time until now as the governor was waiting to see session wrap up. So now Blaze is in that spot. And if you have not, I bet you guys know this well because you followed news and
certainly as a local government leader, you know this. Blaze is leading the efforts on the uh the Doge uh effort at the state level. So um he hasn't visited here yet. Uh but you never know. Uh so we'll keep an eye on that. But that's what he's been doing this summer. Uh in the Florida House, Speaker Perez out of
Miami, Florida. uh he's entering as uh this was his first of two terms or two sessions as speaker. Also notable there um Sam Garrison who's the rules chair but more importantly the speaker designate. He'll be the one in charge after Danny Perez in this next session. He'll probably have his highest power.
He's out of Klay County. And then Fentress just the minority leader uh out of Tampa, Florida. A lot of people think she's she could potentially run for governor uh in this next cycle on the Democratic side. So noteworthy there. In the Senate, you have Ben Ben Albrittton, uh, Senate President. Uh, we claim him
in Central Florida, right? He's out of PK County area, Highland County area. Uh, and then Ed Hooper, the budget chair out of Penelis County, and then notably Jim Boyd, who's the majority leader out of Sarasota County. The reason that's also notable is he's uh the next Senate President in line to follow Vin Albert.
And of course, our very own Jason Broer who's the president prom. in the House, no offense to the proims in the House, that's sort of a a name and only uh and most times it's a very militaristic approach in the House where it's the speaker and then everyone else falls in line. But in the Senate where, you know,
it's a little less, you know, kind of militaristic and more everyone can speak for themselves, the president prom legit position, right? The the president is leaning on the president prom quite a bit on multiple things. Not to mention uh Senator Broer had his own subcommittee that he had to chair. So
very important position that our very own Jason Broer had. And then Kathleen Pasadomo, rules chair, former Senate President. All right. Uh, real quickly, future leaders and kind of helping shape the dynamics. I already mentioned Sam Garrison and Jim Boyd is the next go-around. Uh, following Sam will be Jennifer Kennedy out of Pulk County.
Noteworthy for two reasons. Uh, believe it or not, Lakeland's never had a presiding officer. They've had a lot of budget chairs, uh, but never a presiding officer. And she'll be the first female speaker. The Senate has had three female presiding officers, but never in the House. So that'll be noteworthy in about four years. And then Mike Rodondo,
because of term limits, they tend to elect folks pretty early. Uh Mike was just at the end of June designated as the speaker for his class. And so you can see the dates there, 2030 through 32. In the Senate, Jay Trumbull, who's out of the panhandle, will follow Jim Boyd. And then um it's not official and
probably won't be official for another year, but most people expect Tom Leak, who's not far from here up in the Valuchia St. John's County area, will be the Senate President following uh Senator Trump. And of course our local delegation. Um you know them well. Susan Placencia, David Smith, Jason Broer. Um
as you heard Representative Smith say, while he doesn't represent uh much of Ovito anymore, he's still very loyal because we were all great to work you and us and everyone was great to work with him and and he remembered that. So he's always been very helpful when we've come to him for projects like we did this last year. Jason Broer, he's been a longtime member of the delegation in the
House and now the Senate. and then Susan Placencia who represents most of the city uh and we'll talk about a little later carried appropriation and also helped us on um our local bill. Great members. When you see them in the the store, the church, wherever you are, please thank them. Uh they've been excellent uh to work with and they
really do work hard for us. So, uh you probably heard about this and we're going to kind of push through a lot of these slides quickly and can of course answer questions later. These slides are all available for you all and the members of the public that want them. Um, you can't talk about this session without talking about sort of the preession uh boxing match that took
place. Uh, special sessions. Uh, there were three of them. The governor called for one shortly after or shortly before Trump was inaugurated, the governor called for a special session on immigration. You can see there condominium law reform, hurricane relief. Um, the very day he called for it, the House and Senate uh released a
joint memo that used words like unnecessary and premature, which are kind of like fighting words in the process. Uh, and as the saying goes, you don't call a special session unless it's already been negotiated. So, the fact that it was called and the House and Senate jointly said, "No, thank you."
That was kind of momentous or uh for us in the lobby corps and others that work through there. Uh, so the House and Senate gave in a couple weeks later and they immediately gave out and then gave into their own session which was as referred to as 2025B. Passed their own illegal immigration bill called the
Trump bill. The governor was swiftly with the media said he would veto it sight on scene. He did. They had a third special session where they made a couple tweaks to the bill. And now that's what we have is uh what they passed in that session regarding immigration. And as you couldn't tell, a theme ongoing was
both the tension between this governor and the legislature and immigration being a top priority, which you've seen play out this summer. Um so that was sort of what led into this interesting session and kind of carried over for all 105 days, right? Remember, we had 105 days. Here's the bills that were filed.
About almost 2,000 filed, about 270 passed, which is a little more on par of what you expect. 246 bills signed, 11 vetoed. And an interesting that bottom stat, it's the first time this governor's done that. Three uh were allowed to become law without a signature. One was the uh the anti- the
um oh, I could said it any other day. The ones where the non-competes for workers, right? There was one that was going to take away those non-competes. the governor probably was getting pressure all different ways and so he allowed it to become law getting rid of those non-competes but without his signature. Um be interesting to see if
he does that in his final session next year but this is the first time he's ever done that. Appropriations since you already heard represent represent representative Smith discuss that and we'll discuss some. These are some of the ones that were filed pretty similar in both chambers. Uh and then priorities priority issues. I'm going to turn it
over to Kylie to go over the leaders priorities but this is to kind of set the stage. Um the leaders set the priorities, right? The governor and the speaker, the president, they say what's important to them and then that sort of sets the tone for the rest of us. Normally it's Kumbaya on those priorities. This session was anything
but that on Kumbaya. Um but they did at least indicate to us as your advocates and others of kind of what to expect going into session. So I'll turn it over to Kylie. And like Chris said, the one um the one idea that they really agreed on was that they wanted to tighten up the budget
overall. Besides that, they kind of had individual priorities this entire session. So, first we'll start with Governor DeSantis. His main priority was the property tax relief. He went all around the state stating that he was calling on the legislature to completely eliminate property taxes. This would obviously have to go to a voter
referendum passed with 60%. Um, he didn't get anything this year. However, Speaker Perez was very vocal, stating that the governor had this idea but didn't really have a solution to it besides just putting it out to the voters. A lot of local governments were obviously very upset about this. Speaker
Perez was very resistant to it. So, he put his own select committee on property taxes. That'll be chaired by Vicky Lopez, Representative Vicky Lopez and Representative Toby Overdorf. And they're going to look at five main solutions to property tax reform. So, we'll definitely be keeping an eye on
that for you guys this upcoming session. His second priority was the state engagement in combating illegal immigration. And I'm sure you guys have noticed in the news lately that a federal judge, Judge Kathy Williams, stated that Alligator Alcatraz had to be shut down within the next 60 days.
There's also not allowed to be any new construction to Alligator Alcatraz and no incoming detainees. He also announced on August 14th that they're going to have a similar facility out in North Florida called Deportation Depot. The operations are going to be the same.
Lastly for Governor DeSantis, you know, he's had the last six or so years as governor and he's really trying to create a foundation for when he pres we presume he's going to run for president once again going around doing victory laps around the state on what he's done
so far and why Florida is leading the nation in many policies and sectors. Next we have Senate President Albert and his main priority was the Royal Renaissance bill. It was a pretty bipartisan bill. It was actually the first bill to pass out of the Senate chamber. And what it did was focus on
transportation, education, and healthcare, economic incentives, and funding for the rural communities to really give an opportunity to those rural communities that the urban communities already have. Unfortunately, it caught caught in the crossfire of politics between the House and the
Senate during the extended session. Um this the House decided to tack on a very controversial amendment um that would have eliminated CRAAS by 2045 and really not allow for any new projects to be added as well. So unfortunately they had to let this legislation die, but we
expect it to come back next session as well. Next, Florida citrus. Uh President Albertton is a citrus grower himself. He really wants to ensure that the industry continues to grow because they have been facing a decline. And so he worked to gain a significant investment of $90
million to ensure with the uh Florida Council, the Florida Citrus Council, the University of Florida, and other entities to ensure that they continue citrus research. Lastly, President Albertton led a little different than other presiding officers. He really wanted to empower the members overall.
Um he wasn't going to pressure them into voting certain ways or bringing different priorities. Um, so we we kind of got to see the Republicans go at each other even in the Senate. A lot of bills actually p uh failed during committee weeks. We don't which we don't usually see in previous sessions. So, it was
pretty interesting to see him lead like that. Lastly, we have Speaker Perez. As you guys know, in the tax p in the tax package, Speaker Perez was very vocal that he wanted to reduce the sales tax permanently from 6 to 5.25%. The
governor immediately said upon arrival, he will veto that. Um, Senate President Albertin also was very vocal that he believed that there was going to be not only short-term implications but a lot of long-term implications of permanent permanently reducing the sales tax which leads into the spending cuts. Speaker
Perez along with the other presiding officers really want Senate President Albert and Governor DeSantis really wanted to tighten the budget. That was evident when you saw a $5 billion less in total spending for the budget than that of the Florida Senate on top of vetos that Governor DeSantis provided.
But when it came to spending cuts, a lot of the members re-emphasized what Speaker Perez said as well, which is that he they really wanted them to focus on member projects that were in their districts and conservative amounts. So in past years, you would see kind of big asks from members and it wasn't in their
districts. This year they really wanted to focus it on in district and lower amounts, which is pretty different than past sessions. Lastly, under Speaker Rener and President uh Pasadomo, they passed a lot of tort reform. Now, we wouldn't necessarily deem Speaker Perez
as um as tort friendly. He was more open-minded than past presiding officers. So, they were able to hear a couple of bills on um tort reform. And although none of them passed, we do expect there to be some conversation and legislation being brought back up next session.
Excellent overview. And as Kylie said mentioned about the budget, that's the one thing they have to pass, right? All those other bills they file, they don't have to necessarily pass, but the budget is constitutionally required and which is why things sometimes get held up uh in the process. So, um and as I
mentioned, it took 105 days for them to wrap session, not 60. They had to extend it 45 days. And part of that was, this is our joke slide, it took them a little while to load that budget. Um so here's what they ultimately landed on. $15.1 billion. um which is as Kylie mentioned
uh right on par with last year after the governor's veto it was less than last year and no surprise in a state our size and with our demographics healthcare um the largest part you can see there and then higher ed um if you combine K12 and higher ed it's the next highest um so in
the blue transportation ed fully funded the road fund um and as that grows here's another way to look at it when you see the percentages um to help you visualize and then obviously We had some in the budget which we're excited about. You see the the ones there that representative Smith
spoke about and then of course West Mitchell Hammock Representative Placencia ran that one for us at 1.5. And then the public safety training center unfortunately got vetoed but in talking to Lita and some of the others at the governor's level and and we can always have this conversation. That's something we should definitely consider bringing back next year. This the
training centers have always been tricky with this governor. He is he and his team have always taken that approach. Um although they let some slip through. Hence why we say let's file it and see what we can do of well that's stuff that should be paid for at the local level right well under that philosophy shouldn't be paid for I mean right but
um we obviously disagree with that but that's just kind of the approach so um but all in all two out of threes pretty good and then of course we'll talk about the local bill we have that in there as well so we're pretty thrilled for y'all um and excited to work on some of these going forward a few more budget highlights um you can see there and
these are available for you the FEFP per students up by about 1.59% % uh pay raise across the board for um state employees. Easy way to cut a budget is to reduce a bunch of jobs and and it's even easier if the jobs are vacant. So about 2,200 vacant jobs were eliminated
from the budget. Uh they fully funded the work plan. Saddowski trust fund for affordable housing. Um you can see there that was a little touch and go for a little while but with doc stamps but they eventually landed the plane on that. again in the politics of let's reduce the budget, let's cut our taxes, meaning the state sales tax, this
started to get caught in the crosshairs and they knew because they knew it was important to the Senate given Pasadomo's live local act and some of the stuff out of there. Then of course 800 million for Everglades restoration and you can see 3.2% less in total spending. Um big
ticket items. Again, a few more highlights. 80 million for visit Florida. 250 for the rural and family lands grant protection program which uh in Seminal County quite a few properties have taken advantage of. Um budget stabilization fund 750 million. This actually was part of the veto. Um but
this helped bring in the budget in for a landing as far as negotiations. Paid down state debt by another 580 million and then 50 million for the hometown heroes down payment assistance program. uh the tax package which was one of the other than the budget the most heavily negotiated debated fought over uh
portions they finally got it in. You see the repeal of the business rent tax that was uh of the 2.04 billion that was almost 1.8 8 billion of it and then the rest of almost the rest of that funding went to that second bullet, the month-long permanent back to school
sales tax holiday um every August. And then you can see down there uh they TDT was a big conversation. They ultimately landed on some kind of minor doesn't affect our area changes for the Gulf Coast and any coastal areas as far as lifeguard services or infrastructure projects. That conversation will be back
next year we expect. And then you can see a couple others. hunting and fishing supplies, sales tax, holidays, and then um the fun ones, right? Uh we they always say the tax package is like Christmas tree and you just hang a bunch of ornaments on it. Um couple of the ornaments were admissions to Florida State Park. So that's great. Taxree for
us. And if you like to go to a NASCAR race, like if you went to the one this past weekend, that was taxree as well. So you're welcome, I guess. Um all right, line item vetos. Uh we touched on it, but here here they are. And one of the biggest of the 1.35 was the 750 million in transfer of general revenue
to the budget stabilization fund. And kind of to better explain one of the the when the speaker realized he wasn't going to get his tax cut on the state sales tax, he pivoted to just a reduction in spending and also an increase in what they gave to the budget stabilization fund. Um and um part of it
was there's a constitutional amendment we'll see next year that will increase the amount that the state has to put into that fund should it pass. uh Chair Hooper in the Senate who's the budget chair as he presented this this particular uh um constitutional amendment um item to be voted upon. He
said he hopes the voters reject it and part and parcels he doesn't want to tie the hands of future legislators and governors of having to put away so much money because he may need it some years right co wasn't too far in the distant future and then some of these members that are serving now served when we had the great recession. So it's not that
far far ago, right? uh where we had to dip into some of these reserves and the stabilization fund and you don't want to um tie the hands. But here's the good news out of all this even with that veto is they they they unspent almost 11 billion. Putting that into kind of
quantifiable numbers that's one COVID and two hurricanes that we could survive as far as budget spending before we'd have to really get desperate and nervous and not counting on any federal funds. In other words, we've got a lot of funds at the state level set aside un unspent that hopefully we don't need, right? Uh
but we're in very healthy shape as far as a budget. Kylie mentioned the tort reform. There's a couple bills that came in there that um ultimately died, but we put on your radar because that does have an effect on your local business community and impact there. Um local government legislation, I'm sure maybe
now or later you guys want to dip into some of these. Uh Senate Bill 180. This is a bill that largely was dealing with emergencies until I want to say day 56 or day 55 of the 60-day regular session where an amendment got thrown on that dealt with something they did a couple
years ago that made it more broad that went from and and I know you all know what this is. This is being discussed in all counties and cities across the state, but it basically tied to hurricane landings both retroactive and in the future a restriction on a lot of development if not all de development
restrictions. Um, if you're in a 100 mile uh radius of of touch points of the hurricane, which captures central Florida, captures most of the state, given the hurricanes that hit this last go around, as Representative Smith mentioned earlier, this thing is likely going to be heavily litigated and challenged. Uh what they did a couple
years ago is they they had a very um rifle shot approach of under the premise of if hey if a hurricane hit in your area, you shouldn't have to bring your house up to all these new codes necessarily or not all of them because it's going to cost this extra money, you should be allowed to build it the way
you had it if that's what you want for your business. Hard to fight against some of that logic, right? If that's if someone wanted to have the house exactly how they had it before and pay for it. Um this one, as you know, is way more expensive. It was put in at the last minute. It was clearly baked. It was a partyline vote and if even a few
Republicans that were ringing their hands over it and now it's going to be litigated. Um the retroactivity part of it and the going way deep into the future 2027 is what's probably the most ownorous provisions of it. It's one thing if they said today going forward you you can't do anything for a year or
what have you. It it would be painful but doable. Um so I expect this next session both Representative Smith and others to have a lot of pressure and I don't mean to speak for y'all. all may give us different marching orders, but I expect a lot of local governments are going to put a lot of pressure on their local delegations, Republicans and
Democrat, to tweak that bill or tweak that statute um going forward to make sure that something like that isn't thrown in there. We could talk on that now or later. The other one I want to put on your radar is the implementing bill. Uh when they negotiate the budget, it's back and forths and it's I call it
where we you transparently find out what happened behind closed doors, right? They meet like kind of a room like this and they say, "Here's our offer. would you like to accept the offer? As if they'd never seen it before and they go, "This offer looks wonderful. We'll accept it." On the very last day, the last night, the last round of offers on
the implementing bill, which is the bill that goes along with the budget, that's like say they put two 10 million more to fund Lake Jessup cleanup. But if the statutes don't allow Lake Jessup cleanup for whatever reason, they tweak the statutes that say you can spend money like this for the next year. Implementing bill is good for 12 months,
basically July 1 through June 30th. So, in the implementing bill, they added language almost on the last page that said um Doge, Florida's Doge Department, could now uh find local governments if they're not providing records. Now, the city of Ovito, and we've stayed in touch with your team here. I know y'all pretty
much provided most of the records that were requested a while ago. So, I don't expect you'll be hearing from uh CFO Angolia or others anytime soon, but I put it on your radar because that that lever was there. I know that that means the governor gave on something because the Senate was pretty resistant early
on. They early on the governor's office said they wanted this. The senate and house said no thank you. But clearly they got it negotiated in the in the uh implementing bills. So come June 30th that will no longer be the case. But by then they will already have all the information they want likely. And then
of course uh the local special district. Um not every local bill uh passes up in Tallahassee, right? Um so when you see Representative Placencia, please be sure to thank her and obviously Senator Broer. Most of the yman's works on the House side. The Senate kind of takes up a local bill calendar, but they if they
didn't bless it and support it, it wouldn't have gotten anywhere. But to her credit, not only did it pass, but it was one of the first local bills to pass all during session. Uh so now you all will have the opportunity to to take that local bill and that legislation, decide what to do in your special district. But when you see her, thank
her. She was great to work with. She was on it. And like I said, I mean, we were we were moving at uh ludicrous speed. if you remember the movie Space Balls, like it was every time I I thought I'd have a week to breathe and start working the committee, it was up on the agenda again. I'm like, "All right, rep. I'll go work the committee now." Um, she did
a great job on that and she was great to work with. Uh, a couple quick ones were this is slide 27 to 32. So, we're almost done here. Notable bills that passed. Uh, you can see some of these. The constitutional amendment reform. This is really kind of trying to rein in um depending on your view or or stifle uh
the constitutional amendment uh process. This is being litigated as we speak under first amendment uh clauses. Uh fluoride ban, you saw that tucked away in an a bill. There was a provision that basically or not basically took away the right of counties and cities to um put
fluoride in the water. Um state parks, you probably remember last summer there was a big um brewhaha over putting golf courses or pickle ball uh in state parks and both Republicans and Democrats alike. That was probably the first indication that this session wasn't going to be like others when you had
like high ranking Republicans calling out the governor and his office for this provision or this proposal. Uh they obviously pulled it back, but there was legislation filed by people from that area. It was down in South uh kind of uh Martin County area, that park down there. those legislators put forward a
bill that passed and ultimately you could in theory have a golf course in a state park going forward but it would require immense amount of public input and a lot of um votes on that to get to that point which means either if the public wanted it then yes but likelihood
of public wanting it is slim. So highly unlikely you'll ever see a golf course in state park condo law reform. This is something they keep trying to get right. Right. We back up to the Surfside tragedy, which was obviously awful and the legislature immediately did the right thing and tried to respond and make sure no buildings ever had that
happen again. The problem is is when you do that stuff quick, um sometimes you make mistakes along the way. And as they continue to try to tweak it, they realize that they were pricing people out of their condos because of the the very high amount on those um those studies that were required, those benchmark studies after, I think, 10,
20, 30 years. the costs to have in reserves were such that people in condos could no longer afford to live in their condos, right? Uh if they had to pay for those benchmark studies. So they again tried to tweak it. Hopefully this works this time because it's it's not what you want. Whether it's South Florida where they you know that's where all the
condos are, uh at least from the grand majority, but across the state that was affecting everyone because whether you're coastal or inland, those studies are real and there's always a safety concern and if you need to have those reserves, it's it's expensive. So they're trying again. You probably remember uh school start time a couple sessions ago. They passed it where they
were going to require later start times. That um went over poorly, like a lead balloon. And so, not surprisingly, they put a repeal. I say repeal in air quotes. Basically, it now gives your local school board the authority to have a study, and it doesn't even have to be an expensive study, to say, "We've determined that doesn't work for our
county." I expect most, if not all, 67 school boards are going to say that doesn't work for our county, and we're going to go back to the way it was. um do package. Uh note, normally I wouldn't be bringing this up for y'all. Uh doesn't normally intersect with local government, but part of that was the VA,
you probably remember a couple years ago, they put the vaccine bans in in the kind of the twilight of COVID where there was a concern at the governor's level and the state level of of some businesses wouldn't let you into the business unless you had like the 15 vaccine codes on your card. And so
they've made the law that said you can't ban anyone, right? And then they also did some doctor's office that was expected to expire this summer. So they went ahead and extended it further out. Um some of that was a little bit like Kylie said doing the victory lapse of what they did before. Some of that was that there was real concern that if
something ever happens again they don't want businesses discriminating. So that's why they did that. And then brownfields the state's funding and infrastructure around supporting brownfield redevelopments which there's quite a few in central Florida and seminal county area was about to lapse. So there was a significant effort to put
funding and the infrastructure in place so that developers could have a good financial justification to go in and clean up brownfield areas and redevelop them in better ways. So that was a big win for everyone. That's one of those local governments and private developers all support because you know just like
any all the other 40 states you know the the America doesn't have a great track record on how we treated our land you know probably the last 200 years. Now we finally got wise to some of the things we put in the ground and so these help us clean them up. Bills that failed that are notable property insurance. I think you'll see next session maybe some real
movement on that if we don't uh see some breaks in rates. Uh hemp regulation. This is some kind of an ongoing but I think you'll see more on this. E-Verify. There was a bill uh filed that if you if you don't know in Florida Everify is required for businesses with 25 or more employees. Um, so anyone with smaller
than that, which is most companies, you know, we all think of Florida big companies, but most of our companies in Florida are 25 or less. Um, if you if you um, and then as well for the big companies with 25 or more, if they were already employee before E-Verify went in officially like two or three years ago,
the employees are grandfathered in. So largely in Florida, E-Verify, even though we have it, doesn't really affect most of our businesses except unless you were a grandfathered employee and you want to change companies. Um there was a push and it started to get traction this year that would just make it across the board to everyone. The obvious concerns
in that, not that we don't want to have everyone following the law, is that especially in Central Florida, a large portion of our our industry, right, construction and tourism, hospitality has probably likely a lot of undocumented uh citizens working in there. So that's where it got little
friction points. I think it'll be back next year, but I put it on your radar. uh college university presidential searches. There was it we came this close. The governor ultimately succeeded in and and pushing back on it of taking away some of that transparency. You may recall about three or four years ago
when our universities and colleges did a presidential search. It was a pretty open process and there was a lot of complaints about the open process, right? Because if if if UF wanted to recruit the provos from Harvard, the provos from Harvard would announce uh that they were coming for interviews and then now their job at Harvard would be
in jeopardy. So most of them wouldn't announce that they were coming. And so as a result like no one want it was kind of a chicken and the egg situation. They changed the laws that made it become a lot more a lot of it exempt from the public eye so long as the final three candidates finalists were put forward to be considered. Problem is is now every
university when they do that they they do this private search and they announce oh we had three finalists but only the other two dropped out so here's your one finalist. So, it's not transparent at all and that's gotten a lot of criticism probably fairly. Um, and it blew up in
everyone's face when UF had their final finalists that got rejected by the board of governors. Um, and so I expect this legislation will be back next year where they try to tweak it to acquire at least a little more transparency because you can tell people are frustrated feeling like it's all being done behind closed
doors. Gun law changes. Um, ever since Parkland happened and they passed some of the laws that they did that session, um, there's been members in both the House and Senate, more so the House, that have been trying to push back on those laws quite a bit. Um, that this
has it has failed. I expect it will fail going forward, but I put it on your radar because every year they do that. CRA, I know that's a big deal here in other parts. Um, we were activated by your team to weigh in on this. And as Kylie said, the Senate President had to sacrifice his own bill because the House
figuring trying to sneak it on, put it on the Senate President's number one priority, thinking, "Well, I don't think CRA protection is that important to him. We'll we'll get it through." But to his credit, he he let his own bill die over that. Uh we we unexpectedly, our team spent more time than we thought we'd
spend on this, but it clearly was a priority of the House, priority to some in the Senate. Our team spent a lot uh what we call loving the bill to death, right? We need this amendment, we need this amendment, we need this amendment, which makes it impact on you and other CRA in the area less to the point where
the the the sponsors themselves don't like their own bill because no, they wanted to get rid of all of them. They didn't want all of this stuff here. I expect this will be back next session. We expect that on your behalf, unless you tell us otherwise, we'll be working on it to defeat it. But, you know, we'll take a victory lap in the sense and it
was a team effort. There was a lot of lobbies from a lot of different cities and counties. I remember uh Kylie and I and others meeting with Senator Mlan who was the main sponsor in the Senate and others and and negotiating changes here and there. And to his credit, he was great to work with on that, even if we disagreed on the premise of his bill. He
was willing to work with us on changes. Um but they there are just some that largely do not like CRAAS and they feel like they are government bloat. They feel like they are funding things unnecessary. They'll reference parades in different parts of the state. Why are we funding these parades with tax dollars? Uh, mind you, the other part of
it is the CRAAS do a lot to promote business and promote the community and everything else. So, it's kind of a scale there, but that's that's where that's at. DBPR deregulation. This is a bill that largely was good. Um, but it affected what I call you pick on the wrong special interest and you kill your
bill. Um, some of the some it was basically going to carve back a ton of regulation in our state, which is probably going to help a lot of folks, but then it started messing with continuing education requirements of some of our more professional sectors. And that's where it got a little too heavy and it cratered under its own weight. I think it'll be back. And probably most importantly to y'all and
then we can um get out of our way and answer questions. Is sovereign immunity. It's been 11 years since the legislature has done anything with sovereign immunity meaningful. Um and so and certainly 11 years since they've raised the caps. Right now it's 200300 whether
it's um individual or joint several. Um, the one thing that's killed it, other than the previous presiding officers, which was uh, President uh, Pasadomo and Speaker Rener, who were very anti-trial bar, and they weren't going to let bills like that pass, the one thing that's mostly killed it is the trial bar. Um,
that's been pushing for the the caps to be raised, have not just been pushing for, I'd call it uh, track it to inflation or CPA of 11 years. That might be a tough pill to swallow for the city and others, right? But it makes sense, right? It's been 11 years. you just cap it to whatever the natural increases
would have been and you that's somewhere around 4 to 500,000. What the trial bar has been pushing is to raise it up to a million to two million and then um in five years after that 2030 raise it up to two and three. That's a massive hit, right? It would make it go from
sovereign immunity is there to protect the government but make sure people are paid, there's a claims process to it becomes a cottage industry, right? If you've got one to two million or two to three million as far as what a plaintiff could get. Um, and so I don't want to use the word greedy, but I'll use it here just because it's the easiest word
to go to. But the greed of I want it to go to this level has probably killed it because enough in the Senate and even some in the House say that's too much. That's going to crush our cities. that's going to crush our counties because whether you self-insure by yourself or you you do it with a with one of the three major, you know, um uh pooling
entities in the state, that would be a big hit to your city budget year-over-year is you got to kind of allocate the additional resources for the anticipated hits. So, I say that it will be back next session. I don't think the votes are there in the Senate to pass the version that the trial bar wants, but if they put it on the more
reasonable level like I talked about that there are votes there and pass that. Beyond that, it's tough to say, right? Um the Senate President coming in, Jim Boyd, he's got a background in the insurance industry, including those on the side of uh the insurance government insurance trust. So, I do
think he'd be an ally, but you never know. So, I'm sort of yellow warning signs. This could be coming, but so far we've been able to defeat it largely under its own weight because they always ask for too much. All right, here's some dates coming up to put on your radar as we're working on appropriations and priorities next year. Um, because they
took 105 days, they gave us the month of September off, which normally they would meet, but they're going to be hitting the ground running in October. Um, and as you see, uh, they'll have six committee weeks unless we have hurricanes or snow like they this year we had a snow cancel when I doubt snow before December 12th. And then of course
January 13th um first day of session which will go through March 13th. Knock on wood. That is all they need this year or this coming session. And within election years um that's probably all they will need, right? Because they usually try to end on time, but you never know. And the only final thing
I'll say, and we didn't have time to update the slides, is since we sent the slides to Patrick and the team, the one thing that um is very relevant to bring up that wasn't as relevant then is redistricting uh on the congressional level. That is I would say two and a
half weeks ago, I'd say that's an interesting conversation. We'll see to it's very real. It's likely going to happen. whether the feds reaportion us and give give us an extra seat in Florida uh like many thought we were going to get. Last time we thought we were going to add two, we only added one. Um and so and there's all this
politics and the back and forth that I'm not so worried about that. But it sure seems like at least on the federal level under this Trump presidency that there's an appetite to give Florida one and take it from someone else. That will of course lead to plenty of lawsuits. But the governor's been pretty clear and I think the speaker when he released his memo is pretty clear that regardless of
whether they reortion and give us an extra seat that the governor wants us to redistrict. So there will be shake up of the maps which I always call it the dominoes right like so we've got a seat here that's seminal Valuchia county but if that seat shifts to Valuchia or maybe
it shifts more to seminal um some folks might go hey I think I should run for Congress and those people might be sitting in this room they might be house or senate members or sitting in another city council and that creates a domino creates another domino creates another domino which makes 2026 elections very
interesting I'm certain those dominoes will happen because they are absolutely absolutely going to redistrict and based on the population growth here in Central Florida, that probably means some seats are going to push more to our area as opposed to out um including here in Semino County. So, something to put on your radar. We'll obviously be keeping
you posted on all that. I hope all those weekly emails during session don't bother you. Uh I put them in your inbox because I know if you have the time, you like to read up on those and then we're always here to answer questions, including looking forward to next session. So, with that, that's what they call segue. any questions or we can let
you move on with your evening. Thanks for coming out. This was really good. Um, we just got back from the League of Cities Conference and one of the takeaways I got from that was uh property insurance versus property tax reform and the demographics that
they showed us was that people are more concerned about the insurance issue than they are about the property tax issue. What's what's your take on that? I would 100% agree with that statement and it's not just anecdotal. There's plenty of stats on that, but I will there's that. There's the reality and then there's political reality. So that
the reality is that is absolutely true. I we meet with Representative Smith, Representative Placencia and senators and we see groups commercial and residential. We see you know and you name it across the board the same thing. Fix our insurance issues. You know the the rates haven't dropped yet. Now, to
the credit of the state, uh, our insurance commissioner, Yorski, he's probably doing back flips right now because, you know, he needs two pages now to show the number of insurers that are available in the state for residential. That wasn't the case a couple years ago because of people leaving the state. But that said, the rates haven't really gotten too
competitive yet. So, I think that's something they're they are certainly hopeful that by next summer that will be the case. But right now, especially because hurricanes keep pounding us, hasn't been. So, you're right. People keep saying, "Fix my property insurance. I want those rates to go down." Right? That's something they can that that that
feels like it could be adjusted. Um because people are getting the new roofs. They're doing the things we're supposed to do, right? To keep our windows, you know, all those all the things we're supposed to do. Put everything inside so we don't have projectiles. I think most Fidians are pretty good citizens and do what's required. Um they're expecting the insurance companies to help on that. On
the flip side, and I should have mentioned it in Doge, so I'll mention it now. And you've heard it now. I a couple folks, including when I talked to Patrick, what's the point of all this doge, right? Um I I said a couple months ago, and now you're seeing it play out, this completely feels and and it it's
playing out like it's a play to support the property tax reduction conversation, right? The governor is going to be leading on this, right, as he goes into session, they will put he's going to push and I expect the House and Senate will um push as well for some sort of property tax constitutional amendment.
Um, and the Doge effort, uh, is in large part looking to find a number, right? If they can find a number that starts with a B, um, or multiple billions, um, they're going to run around the state and say a billion dollars of your dollars are being wasted by local governments, right? And it's what they
call waste, right? You don't get to tell them what you think is waste and not waste. And I promise you, as efficient as you are, and we certainly pay attention to y'all's budgets as well as, you know, other clients of ours in this space, they're going to find something. and whether it's thousand dollars or a million dollars they're going to claim you're not being efficient about and they're going to wrap all of you in all
415 cities and 67 counties and say here's the number this is how much it's costing you in waste and they're going to beat that drum all summer the bigger question I think is going to be do they get aggressive greedy on the property tax reduction do they make it um
homestead and but for 65 and up and been here for five years so it's not a boon to people who just moved here and have never paid taxes in Florida which in many you talk to folks across the state there is sentiment for that. They're saying, "Hey, you shouldn't, you hear the governor say you shouldn't be priced out of your home, right? You buy it, you
should be able to keep it." There's some economics, right, that you shouldn't keep the five-bedroom house that you have when you only need two bedrooms. And if taxes sort of force you out of that, that's not a bad thing. I'm not an economist, though. I'll let other people say that. But the point is is they don't think, you know, especially people on fixed income should have to move because
of their taxes. Um, if they go that route, there's probably 60% or at least there's an appetite in the state. But if they go what we're hearing to some, the more aggressive route of, you know, a massive homestead reduction, right? No matter whether you're 25 years old or 65 years old, I think that's something that
that will be hard to sell to 60% of the voters because most people I think when you look at the polling and such says, I don't sure I'd like to pay less taxes, but I don't want to get rid of my trash pickup, my police and fire, and that's the other politics, right? um you all are are kind of handcuffed on what you
can say at least at this table, right? What you're in community meetings, you can share whatever you feel. Um but you can share information that says if our taxes are cut by X, we're going to have to cut these areas by X, including police and fire, and then let voters do what they want with that. My gut is they
will be smart and try to do something that fits that window of clearly is important, clearly a demand to protect maybe it's seniors or certain homestead or what have you. If they go beyond that though, I think that's where they put it in jeopardy and they go through this
entire effort. They put you all through the ringer so to speak of the Doge effort of all these records just to have something get 50% 55% which isn't enough. So we'll see where it goes. Um, but we know that's what this Doge efforts focused around is around the property tax reduction. You're going to
hear it non-stop next summer, whatever the package is. And we've been trying to get intel. They've been kind of close slipped. And part of it is because I don't think they know because the House and the House and the governor's office aren't exactly getting along these days, right? Um, and that that hasn't improved much since session ended. So, will the House play ball? Will the House give the
governor the property tax reduction or will they say, "No, I'd rather it be state sales tax because I think that's more fair across the board." I don't know. Um, so we'll have to see. Hopefully that answers your question, but it's going to be a part of the dialogue this coming session. And to add on to Chris's last point about the governor and the house not
getting along, that's extremely evident. I go around the state and so does our team to the different press conferences that Governor DeSantis does, whether it's legislation that he was signing or if it's about lawsuits that are coming up and he uses every single press conference to talk about the speaker.
And he won't ever mention his name. He won't say Danny Perez like he does with Senate President Albrittain. it. They are still definitely at odds and like Representative Smith was saying outside, this is definitely going to continue into next session as well.
That Doge sheet that we sent all the information on, can you figure out somebody in this orbit figure out how to get a hold of it because I would love that information where when they you stack all 415 cities? That would be phenomenal. Oh, sure. Yeah. I I think they they've got to release.
I don't think you'll need my help. I think they're gonna they're going to shut the mountain tops and tell everyone look at this big report and all the billions. But I will gladly I'd like to see the raw data though because that's different from how it will be packaged. You know, to be clear, there's going to be some
interesting information and helpful information that comes out of this. The premise of it I you know, and you can't take politics out of politics. This the feds led with the Doge effort. We all remember that and Elon Musk right before he left, you know, from his special uh employment status there. um which was a
fun day on Twitter if you follow or X now when those two when the president and Elon were going at it right but the um you know there there's going to no doubt just like with any exercise like that there's going to be new things you learn the city of Avito or others about their cities and go oh that's some
inefficiencies efficiencies I never thought of and this and that no doubt it'll have some positives right but but was it done to help you with positive you know I think a lot of it was because it was the thing going on at the fed level and it would seem like the appropriate thing to do in the state and then now knowing the push for property
tax reductions that became the clear focus and and I was saying that a couple months ago and I wasn't the only one but then now that Bla1 Golia was appointed CFO when he was at Orlando and Orange County last week or two weeks ago in his press conference he led right with it. He's like you know we there's bloat all
across this state that's why we need property tax reduction. He wasn't even trying to hide the ball and I don't think they ever really were. I think that was always kind of the focus of some of this. So, but yeah, when that report comes out and some of the raw data, I'll get it to you. Anybody else? Chris, again, thank you for coming out
and giving us the update. Thank you, Kaylee. Thank you. Absolutely. We appreciate you guys coming out. Thank you. Thank you. You got it. It's an honor to work with y'all, your team. Uh we look forward to next session. I know we've had some preliminary conversations with Patrick on potential projects. What I would say in guiding y'all as you guys try to
shape shape projects is two things. It's an election year. So even though this governor and certainly the legislature are trying to prune um you just look at the data, no matter who the governor is, whether it's Dantis or Scott Chris before that election years, they tend to be a little more generous
or or less generous with their vetos, however you want to phrase that, they don't cut as much. Uh because, you know, this is the governor's last act with this legislature. Is this what he wants to be? His final, you know, act with some of his members is thanks for nothing, I'm cutting your project. Probably not, right? That's politics. Um
but then as well it they made the cuts they were going to make was last session. This session at minimum it'll be stable. I don't see them going through the same let's cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut exercise. If anything, it'll maybe increase slightly, certainly on non-recurring or stay stable, which
gives us a great opportunity of if you need it or even if you want it, let's put it on the table, right? I I try not to tell Patrick and your team or you all know on any project, but I will be honest, right? If you say something like, you know, like I mentioned on the fire station and those kind of silos, the governor tends to have a heavier
veto pen. So, we say, "Look, just know this going in. We're going to have to work try our work around that, but we can certainly get it in." Um, so think big. The city, I know, has a lot of priorities and you guys are growing um as fast as anyone in this region. So, you have a lot of demands on uh what you
can do. So, load us up as they say. You know, you heard Representative Smith saying he wants to run more projects. I know I can speak for Representative Plencia that she would like to run projects. And Senator Broer, he has the most projects out of anyone, right? Because he's not only cities and counties, but the colleges and everyone else in his district. But he and his
team never said no. They love working with the city, uh, which he's done since his days as a member. He grew up in this community. Um, we have a soft spot there with him and he wants to help. So, let's, you know, we've got great leaders this next session, you know, and beyond that, we certainly will have them in Plenty Broer, but let's take advantage.
You got two great House members and a great senator that wants to see us succeed. So, we're looking forward to it. Okay. Thank you guys very much. Thank you. Uh with that we'll move on to item number three which is the recreation and
parks state of the department. Mr. Cobb I'm going to let Mr. Belden get set up here. And uh while he's doing it, uh council, we've sort of started tradition over the last couple of years in which uh the uh Mr. Belding comes in and gives you a
state of the department u update uh for the recreation and parks department and where he reviews uh the various uh items that the department has been working on. He looks at our uh cost recovery. And so
this year uh we've uh this is the work session which we uh decided to bring forward that uh that update. Uh he does have a few things that he would like to give some direction on tonight. So I'll turn it over to Mr. Belden and let him well as soon as he gets logged in here,
we'll turn it over to him and let him get going. And I don't know if you want to wait a minute till the mayor comes back. Okay. You can wait for the mayor as well. All right. Okay. Thanks for the introduction, M. Mr. Cobb. Honorable Mayor City Council members, um thank you this evening for
having us. Um as Mr. Cobb stated, this seems like it's been an annual presentation. Um over the years we've we've had to present budget challenges to city council members. We've also provided updates and we're also looking for direction at some times going into the next fiscal year. And this
presentation to you, you know, to to this evening is um similar to those past as in the past years. And um joining me this, you know, tonight is uh Mr. Whitaker, assistant director, and uh Miss Martineis in the background for any special event questions that may come up
later on in the presentation. Um, more importantly, th those folks that aren't here this evening are the the entire recre recreation parks team. Um, we have individuals in athletics, Riverside Park now, parks maintenance, facilities maintenance, and special events. And the efforts that we've accomplished this
year um couldn't be done with their success. So, we'd like to thank all the staff um for their efforts tonight. With that being said, um we just talked about accomplishments and I wanted to start off this presentation is back in December, city council adopted the 2025
strategic plan. And so since that's been adopted, we've actually worked towards um accomplishments. Um the goal was to set new initiatives for the city as we head into the future. And a lot of what we do is all based on the strategic plan. Um, so this evening, uh,
while we presented many accomplishments, you also in your packet, we presented to you the entire city um, strategic plan updates which included all the departmental submissions. But more importantly, we wanted to call out a few um, that Mr. Whitaker tabulated from staff this year that we thought was
prevalent. Um the first being uh at mid year we presented a an item for the transfer of funds to cover some landscape updates at Center Lake Park. Um if you've been driving through Center Lake Park and the and the cross streets that landscaping is ongoing right now. We're making progress. Our goal was to
have that completed by the end of this fiscal year. And we've had a few challenges along the way. We've had irrigation breaks and um I think troubles purchasing um or we you know yeah getting the plantings from our contractual vendor. Um, however, we're
still on target and I feel confident that we'll meet that goal. Um, we've also set a lot of preventive maintenance contracts in place. Over the years, we've had a lot of big ticket repairs such as HVAC replacements and
um, electrical, plumbing, and so on that have gone through the cracks. And it it may have been, you know, due to not having proper systems in place to monitor or inspect these um you know, these issues. And over the years, we've
we've put together uh contractual services for roof inspections. Um we were able to identify, you know, problems and repairs ahead of time. Those that are noted for replacement, we're actually replacing them as, you know, with with City Hall campus, city hall annex, and Riverside Park. this
past year. We have a a HBAC quarterly and annual contractor in place. They inspect every every HBAC in the city, replace the filters, um clean all the coils, and they also um look for repairs for the upcoming budget year.
So, if there's anything that's high ticket item that needs replacement or or repair, we're able to call it out in the in the budget year for the following year. Um, number three, um, this is probably the the one that I'm most proud of is, you know, Riverside reopened this past March for the public, um, as a
senior, you know, for senior center programming as well as youth programming in the in the afternoons. And, um, just being able to open that and seeing users at the park. Um, staff just shared with me that we have 103 senior passholders now at the park. So, it's slowly
growing. Um, we're adding more programs as we speak. Mr. McGarvey's done a great job and he's got like four or five more appointments this you know this week lined up to bring in additional programs to the facility. So we're we're looking strong and we're excited for the future as we head into the next fiscal year.
Another big one this year is we also celebrated the 100 year anniversary of of a veto. Um that was a big task that staff um undertook um with the hard efforts of Miss Martini and her planning and um all the staff members even you know the the support of city council for
this event. It was a a you know a hard task of putting together this event of that magnitude in such a short time period and we're very proud that we we feel that it was one of our um most successful events that we've offered to
the community. Um we we opened up the blueprint of Center Lake Park. We we we invited more vendors out. We had, you know, had nonprofits on site and uh you know, we had 96 total vendors, 19 sponsors. We generated a total of $62,500 of revenue. Um which was pretty
successful in my opinion. We just wanted to call it out because I'm proud of our staff for the efforts they put into it. And um our goal was to showcase the city. I feel that we did that. And then the last item, we have a project at Round Lake Park with the African-American Cultural and Historical
Grant. Um, this past year we u we we brought to you a resolution that um approved the public artist acceptance agreements um with those four artists. Um they're currently we actually recently had a survey that you know um sought feedback from the community on what the theme should be for these
artists. We're tabulating those results and we'll be finalizing that here with the next two or three weeks and then we'll those artists will be working on their on their projects and um our goal is to complete that by the end of December of 2026. That's the deadline. So um
those are the key highlights. If you know are there any questions on on the accomplishments for our department? We feel that we provided you all these um in the packet but we wanted to call it the top five at least for you for discussion purposes. Just curious on the uh 100 year anniversary, was that 62,000? Was was that in sponsorships or
is that total revenues? That was sponsorship alone. Okay. So, I just want to encourage you to keep on keeping on with that. The more sponsorships we get, the better events we can have. Sure thing. You know what the the total recovery was? I'll show you that those two slides.
And again, the the uh Riverside Park thing, kudos to you guys. That's great. Thank you may very much. All right. One of our next um topics of discussion every year is our cost recovery. Um as you know back in uh 2022
um staff directed um staff members to uh you know aim for a cost recovery of 30% for programming, 50% cost recovery for those sponsored special events um that we oversee. And
so since then we we provided you the results of of our cost recovery um especially during the budget year um or budget cycle I should say. And so this first slide for you is our you know divisional cost recovery excluding parks and facilities maintenance. Um the green
categories you know they met the target goal of the of the cost recovery for the department and and their division. Um as you can see Riverside Park they did not meet it this year. They were only open for half a year. Um, so they were at 8%.
But I wanted to share with you that um as part of their their expense, we had the uh the contractor that was performing the renovations, all those expenses are built into that number. So if you remove those capital that that major capital expense, Riverside Park actually goes up to 19%. For only half a
year. Um, and with the additional programs in programs that are coming in, I feel confident that we'll be higher next year. Um, I can't give you a number at this point. Um but it was a success overall for the revenue generating divisions. As in past years, we always like to talk
about departmentwide cost recovery. So in addition to the divisional categories that actually bring in revenue, we actually added in parks maintenance and facilities maintenance. They do not generate any revenue whatsoever, but we wanted to show you the bottom line as a department, including those major
expenses of uh 1.2 2 million for I'm sorry 1.6 million for facilities and then 2.1 for parks overall cost recovery dips down to 19%. Okay. Um if you remove the capital expense of the Riverside
Park facility renovations, now we jump up to 21% as a department. And then the a key metric that I want to share with you is the NRPA cost recovery metrics. all the municipalities and counties that share their data with NRPA through the
through the year um they actually generate and they actually present their cost recovery as revenue to operating expenses. So they actually leave out their personnel and what I wanted to show you was if we were to follow that that metric um if we remove the 3.8
million of personnel cost our overall revenue would be 37%. it. You know, we're going to still report this both ways to you because our strategic plan actually has a goal of achieving a cost recovery model for the for our department and a goal and a policy.
Since we only have direction, we're going to keep reporting the numbers to you, but maybe in the future we can actually achieve this policy formally and and that may mean we actually bring in a consultant to actually review our revenue and bring back to you some recommendations for the on on there. The 27.2 is that the
average? Yeah. So, so then the the national average of those reporting municipalities is 27.2% or beating it by 10%. Yeah. Yeah. Based on these numbers, we're talking when you're doing that calculation, do you pull out the facilities to do it or
are you No, that thatcluding 37% includes facilities and parks in there, but I removed the the the full-time staff from that. Gotcha. Yes. Okay. Just person all personnel was removed from the metrics on that case. When you say facilities, you're talking about the the park facilities, not the facilities
that like the facilities staff like the staff that maintain the facilities and the the the personnel that um like the the building custodians, the the trades workers. But but you are or are not including government buildings that uh recreation
and parks is uh taxed with maintaining like city hall for example. Yes. So city hall is or is not in that. So in the 19% it's all of expenses, personnel and operating. So that would include city hall, the police department, our fire departments
that we service as well, public works. Okay. Facility maintenance. And our department services every city facility around 17,000 ft. So that's another kind of thing that other cities probably would not count the same way because they might be set
up differently. I think each city um I guess tabulates and records their their their revenues, you know, or cost recovery slightly different. We've had these discussions off and on over the years um is do we really want to include facility maintenance or parks maintenance in our cost recovery. So
that's why we showed you the first slide where we, you know, we went by the divisions to only show you the divisional cost recovery because there's revenues tied to it. But we also wanted to show you the complete picture is if you include all of our expenses, what does our overall cost recovery look like? And and now that we're we're starting to learn about the metrics with
the NRPA, we just wanted to share with you if you remove the personnel elements from this, just like other cities and counties are reported to the to the national level, you know, we fall, you know, above and beyond that that national average of 27%. Um, we can go
in any direction. We can share with you any different format of cost recovery as you see fit. We just want to show you these results and if you give us any if you like to see this presented a different way, we'll be more than happy to share that with you in the future. Um, but because cost recovery is one of
our goals in the strategic plan. In the future, we would like to work towards a goal for the city. And it may mean having tier levels for what we offer. It may mean a totally different route than what we're presenting today, but for now, we're just trying to maintain the 30% cost recovery um for programs and 50% for special events. Well, in in the
past I have mentioned an interest in seeing facilities maintenance pulled out a and the portion of that I mean is the part that is not parks and reccks facilities like that that to me does not seem to be how other other jurisdictions
do it and I think it's weird that we do and it messes up your numbers in a way that does not reflect fairly on the high quality of of you know efficiency within your department. So, okay, throwing it out there again. If if that is not an accounting nightmare, uh I
don't I don't know why we would continue. I can show you another slide next year. I can I can show you. We can include parts maintenance, but we can remove the facilities out of it just to show you what that like even a departmental reconfiguration to me would make sense to not have unless it's really the same tasks, but
it does seem like it would be slightly slightly different. But anyway, back to Okay, the main thing. Any questions? Okay. And then last but not least, we always talk about our special event and program cost recovery. So on this
attachment, we provide you the the calendar year, all or fiscal year, I should say, all of our events that took place and programs. We show you the actual revenue, the actual expenses. We always show the profit loss. And then we also indicate the cost recovery. So,
like I said, the green categories met the threshold of either 30% or 50%. Um, the only one again this year, and it's been a common thread, is our Independence Day celebration for the fireworks. Um, this year was actually one of our highest. We're at 17%. Last year, I think we were below 10%. So,
we're making strides to increasing the sponsorships that are coming in um for that program. But overall, everything combined, we're at 54%. And that's well above our threshold that we're, you know, that we've been trying to achieve. We're going to always strive for higher every year by increasing sponsorships
and um revenue. And uh just want to share with you, you know, share these great numbers to you. If you have any questions, I'd be more than happy to answer them. All right. New this year, um we'd like to share with you the um 2526 calendar
of events um at Center Lake Park in the city. um you know so we have the dates and then we also show have the names you've this has been been provided to you in your packet. One key note is as part of the budget we have removed bacon bourbon and blues from the budget. Um
this is the first time it may have been presented to you. Um because we haven't had these conversations earlier but we have removed it from the budget. We think it's been a program that's been here for I don't know five, seven years possibly thereabouts. And it's the
don't get me wrong, it's a great event, but the numbers have dwindled and it's changed in the past where it was uh it was in the entire park when it started. It was interior and exterior and then it's always held in the time of the year where it's been a rainy season. we've had rain that has taken place and then
it developed into an interior event and then we were selling tickets for it and we just felt a time to um reallocate those funds to other events that are already scheduled. Um and then on top of that these are not budgeted but just
some ideas that staff has had during the budget year are some new ideas that aren't are not currently budgeted are doing quarterly open houses. These open houses would are very, you know, like zero zero cost. It's just full-time staff. We would open up the cultural center to the community to get a visual
of what um of what the venue would look like possibly to generate increased rentals for the for down the road. You know, maybe having an an extra wedding or two or or HOAs come on board. Um Junth is a is a program that that I I'd like to see the city um take on and
partner with Johnson Hill Washington Heights community outreach similar to how we've done the the Martin Luther King celebration of the park. We've already had discussions on this and they're they'd be more than happy to to work with the city on this and we feel that it would not be a a heavily
budgeted event, but we would like to put some funds from the city towards the event and do a partnership where we delegate city responsibilities, community outreach responsibilities. Um, another idea would be a country music in the park. This would be like a major
event down at the park bringing in like maybe a couple bands, you know, similar to like, you know, um what we've done like October Fest and other venues where we have entertainment, you know, there's beer, food, um games and activities for the kids, but it would be a country fest and
that would be a higher event that we would need to budget for, but we want to share with you these ideas of possible consideration for the future. And then last but not least, doing quarterly performing arts programs in the at the at the facility. Um, as you can see already, we already have a the Opera Orlando Hansel and Gretle show that's
that we're going to, you know, offer at the park. Um, other ideas could be like small arts festivals type of atmosphere and other performing arts taking place on the stage. And that could be little budget to high high-end budget if we if we were looking at that one. But we want
to show you those thoughts to see if there's any um consideration of looking at adding these to the budget. If we were to add these to the budget, staff would bring back a budget amendment requesting um funding for this for next fiscal year. Are there any questions?
Is there any extra right now to be had to add things because I I think we've got a balanced budget. I'm concerned about adding them right now unless we figure out what it is. I would come back to you after October. Once the budget passed, I would come back to you. I'd like to still work on some of the specifics. we'll bring back
you a budget for each event if you saw a fit for it. And if if if it was a pleasure of council, then we would request to move the funds. It' probably be a fun balance at that time um to cover those new events. Or if you this is a discussion if you wanted to keep the same schedule or if you wanted to
remove any or or interchange any events, we could consider that as well. We just wanted to get your feedback and and have a little discussion tonight on it. or if you're fine with the current schedule as is and not adding any events, we will definitely look at adding these events in the future. Maybe some of these costs could be absorbed in
our in our budget next year. Um, but more than likely we'll be looking at adding a few of these next year at this time during the budget process. I mean, I think there's some good ideas on there. So, I guess it just, you know, sees how the budget shakes out. Okay. So, I don't know if you guys have any input.
So, bacon, bourbon, and blues you're you're getting rid of, but it actually was profitable. It's made money. Yes, it has. Cost recovery. I see. It's always met the cost recovery model. Yes. Um but the numbers have dwindled over the years. It's it's
it's recently changed into something. But now we've implemented the comedy aspect of it too. kind of implementing two programs within one and it's um it's just changed and I think this year during the budget process um I felt this was the time to make that change and transitioning either moving those funds
to other other programs or events because our costs have gone up or this is the time to implement a new program or activity um or especially then I should say that we haven't had the chance to offer based on the calendar it's it's a heavily you know loaded calendar and that there are some
opportunities here to to to throw a couple of these in. Um I love the idea of being more inclusive because when you have a thing called Bacon, Bourbon, and Blues and it's inside and you got to be 21 and older and a drinker to go presumably. I that is not something that in our
family-friendly town people that all people feel is accessible. Um, and on that note, we've got a lot of of events that are perhaps less alcohol ccentric than they once were, but they are still that is a significant component. We've
got October Fest, we've got Bracken Bruise, we've got St. Patrick's Day Festival. Uh, I would like to see uh some kind of non-alcoholic beverage be offered on tap at each of those so people can feel like they are participating in the the festive part
where you go and you get the thing out of the out of you know the whatever you call it the tap uh and don't necessarily have to get an alcoholic beverage. So I don't know what that could look like. I'd love to see one of them not include
sugar if it's you know uh what are those little sugar-free water sparkling water or some something like that. Uh so people who are diabetic who have health concerns whatever whatever the situation may be just we could be more we can look into all those different options.
Right. That'd be great. Thank you. You're welcome. Anything else? Any other questions? Okay. Uh the next topic is I wanted to discuss the designation of organized or sponsored special events. If you recall
back in 2012 um we actually named these top five actually top four initially um everything but the celebration of the park for Martin Luther King Jr. They were adopted as a sponsored special events or organized events by the city and then back in 2014
we included the Martin Luther King celebration of the park. So that gave us our five special events. Well, over the years, um, these events have changed. We either don't offer them anymore. Carnival Screams, we don't offer that event. Um, Winterfest at Snow Mountain,
we we eliminated the snow, so we right now we just have Winterfest, so we don't have Snow Mountain. Um, Marshmallow Drop was a longtime event, but that has turned into Exceptional at Center Lake Park. And Fourth of July celebration, that's still current. Um, we refer to as
Independence Day celebration or or that sometimes. And then Martin Luther King Celebration Park, that's still ongoing and everything. So, what we'd like to do is, you know, what staff is presenting you to tonight is based in our current makeup of events and programs
um for events to realign our sponsored special events to the city. um if if council were in agreeance with this formation or we'll we'll take on your suggestions as well is we'd like to take back a new resolution that would formally adopt these new programs or events as our sponsored events for the
city. Um and we chose these events number one based on the the number of participants that that that actually attend these events, but also um there's a little bit of history with the MLK um celebration of the park. Um but these also meet the cost recovery percentages. Okay.
How many people attended the uh Independence Day celebration this year. I thought the place was packed. Um you're you're correct. It has been packed, but we we we're also looking at meeting the cost recovery model um on the recommendations and because that's under the cost recovery. We felt that
Are you proposing taking it off and not doing it? I'm just No, no, we're proposing to continue with the event still. It just would not be one of our sponsored events by the city where it has to meet the 50% cost recovery threshold. Okay. But we could always include that and add it
back into that if if that's a pleasure of council. If we get sponsors, we can do it, right? We're slowly working our way up. Works it out. Yeah. We had 16% 17% this past year. Um our goal is to get 50%. We, you know, we're we're a long ways from that still. Um
and that's only and everything's a challenge these days. Yes. Um, if we didn't do the fireworks, it'd be easy to hit the cost recovery of July with the fireworks company, right? This year we've got the fireworks and we'll be that'll be the next slide. I think we'll
talk about um the celebration, but we want this is my recommendation to you um to realign our events, but we're open to suggestions and ideas. Um are we missing anything or would you like to bring back the Independence Day as one of these events? Um I would
just to challenge it. Okay. I I'm missing something here. I I I'm sorry. Um designation of organized or sponsored special events. Uh something you said about uh you have to have 50% cost recovery in order to be
designated as a sponsor special events. That's our goal is 50%. That Yeah. So these were these were adopted as events um sponsored by the city well before the you know that 50% cost recovery um was put in place but we that's always been
our goal is to achieve 50% um over the years and if we you know most of them have met it the one that has not met it is the fourth of July celebration Martin Luther King celebration of park it did not meet it for many years but for the past two years we actually achieved 50% cost recovery for that event. Well, you know,
there's there's an intangible there with with the Independence Day celebration in that last year we had the mall was standing room only and those businesses were selling out. Probably the best year, best they've had all year, maybe beside
maybe more than Christmas the way it was packed. So, there's an intangible there that maybe we can help support the local businesses, right? And this year the proposed event is a sim just like last year with a few recommendations that I'll get into here in the next slide is I think that was a very successful program. We actually
brought in a lot of people to these small businesses that didn't see that many people in the past. Maybe the mall might want to sponsor us. The mall we might have some new sponsors. I mean we went from like eight or 7% the previous year up to 17%. We might double it this year. I'm not sure what what the goal is gonna you know what what the numbers are going to be
for this upcoming year but um based on previous cost recovery percentages it was just a recommendation that I felt you know if if our goal is to work on a goal of meeting cost recovery and if we have these events that have generated certain percentages in the past I wanted
to reflect those in our sponsored events for the I say okay I agree I think we should include it too and I also agree that this past year we'll probably get us more sponsors for next year from how well it did too. Okay, we can definitely move it back in
there and we will strive for 50% cost recovery. So, I'm still not understand 100% cost. What are you talking about? 100%. Right. Why Why don't we put all of them on there? Yeah. What does it change to have something on that list or not have it on that list? Because we're going to try to find as many sponsors as possible for
every event. Right. That's correct. So whether it's on that list or whether it isn't, how how does the behavior change by any by anybody that that's what I'm not understanding. Our behavior doesn't change. We always aim for the highest cost recovery, right? Um however, we've had challenges with
with some of them. Some of our events, but why is there a list? Why why why is there a list at all and some are on it and some are not on it? Why is is that the question? So I I'm also now wondering why is there a list? I Mr. I I the the thing that that I look
at is this if it's on if it's on the list if it's a it and it all deals with section 2-19 of the code of ordinances and it was it dealt with you know the events it really was originally to deal with events that
where we granted uh waiverss of different fees and so we defined a city sponsored event as one that has been designated that as a a by council resolution
and the very first resolution that designate Paul if you could go back to that slide the very first one designated those five or you know those five uh up there as the city sponsored events and so since they were designated as a city sponsored event there was a 50% cost
recovery everything else was a 30% cost recovery so the difference between being on the list or not being on the list is whether you have a 30% cost recovery because it's considered a program now or if it's on the list it's considered event. So now it has a 50% cost recovery. So if we took the Fourth of
July celebration or Independence Day off the list then it would have a 30% cost recovery because it would be considered as a program is what it' be done and so that's one of the things Barkin Brew right now the requirement is 30%. That's what it's required to have. But if we
designate it as a city sponsored event, then it'll have a 50% cost recovery. And the distinction between a program and an event is budgetary. It's no, it's designated by resolution. We've designated it as as a city sponsored event by resolution. That's
the way that the the code of ordinances reads. So there's language in that uh entertainment district about city sponsored events that would affect this also, right? Or would that Yes. So only city sponsored offense
would be included in alcohol at the but not programs not programs. So should we put more things on the list? So we are are creating a higher cost recovery expectation for everything and then everything is eligible for the arts and culture district or arts and
entertainment district. That seems if you look at it all of those. Yes. Right now all of those are centerly park events. Are there any that we're missing? We should put the like I don't know maybe
the World Fair, you know, go back to that calendar, call them all city sponsored events and a lot of them already do have excellent cost recoveries. The World Market is in here. We were like the the but then we could have people with their slushies walking around the world market
and that to me does not seem like a terrible idea. And if you review all of our cost recoveries, I mean most of them are higher than 50%. Um can we put them all on the list
to have an art? I would be careful with that to be honest. Uh because In some cases, if like if something needs to go away, if it's a city program, we can make it we can say this is not budgetarily working or this is
pro or this is operationally not working. We can we can sit there and say okay, we're not going to do this. It's a program. Whereas if it's designated by resolution, then yes, we have to come back to you and say this we need this doesn't need to be a vent anymore.
But I don't think we did that for Carnival of Screams. I don't know that we We have still it's still in the resolution. We just aren't doing it. It's just a different name now and it's a different type of event. Well, Carnival of Screams is not there. It was a It was a haunted house.
Yes. But we did never we we never repealed the ordinance that says that Carnival of Screams must happen. We didn't change the resolution. Correct. And that's what that's what we So, we can do we can have the same thing happen. We can put everything on the list right now or you know at a future meeting and then we can just not do it
if it doesn't work with the independence down there. That's fine with me. I don't know if you need you know you need the flexibility on the other events. That's fine. But those five I think I I think what he's saying is that we should have come to council and
changed the resolution in not having those events. Is that is that what you're saying? Yes. We should have come sooner. And but this is one of the times where with the changes to Snow Mountain, you know, Snow Mountain's not there
anymore. uh with the with the changes to the marshmallow drop. Obviously, the helicopter does not drop marshmallows anymore, man. You know, um and so those those the events are still there, but it's just
that they've been reconfigured. And so the idea is that okay, obviously with the Halloween event that we do, it's not on the same scale as Carnival Screams. I mean, that that haunted house took months. It took about a month. We had to shut Riverside down for a whole
month to build and allow the the tours to take place on and it was heavily labor intensive. Uh Winterfest obviously with with the snow and the ice and everything it just uh it became really cost prohibitive is what it did. And
what is the reason for not putting them all on there? I I think we all understand that you should have asked us to pull it off and nobody did and here we are. And I guess the question is, you know, it would not be ideal to do that again, but it does it's not a hard thing to do to put them on and off and just
tweak the resolution, right? Okay. I think I think my biggest thing is is that when I think of the city sponsored event, these are the big things. Okay. Not not the small little things that are four hours. But the arts and and entertainment
district, that's a good point. I didn't realize it was limited to only city sponsored events. Or maybe it's not. Maybe this merits an additional discussion. The language is in there. There's a couple of different things on the list. Okay. I like you're looking this way. Who's back?
I'm getting I'm getting hand signals. So, I was like, "Okay, come on up." Because even a 4-hour little event, uh, we've got vendors in that area who might be able to benefit from, you know, tag
tagging along, supplementing the event. Uh good evening mayor, deputy mayor, council members. Uh it specifically mentions three types of events. Uh in the draft ordinance, so nothing has been enacted yet. Uh entertainment district
shall be pres permitted on city streets, alley sidewalks, park city on a busy and other public property controlled by the city during uh city signature events, city sponsored events, events organized the city taking place within the district. So it's all three of them. So that all counts.
Yeah. Okay. So that Okay. So then it doesn't matter. Hooray. Okay. So So then this list is things that coun because it's because it's by resolution. These are things that council is saying that we want to have and if we want to change them, then council would have to
change them. Correct. Um it would not be at just the discretion of staff. Correct. Correct. So they're like the most important. Okay. So with the clarification, I think the other list can still be good. Yeah. Uh, are we all good with adding the independence on here?
Yeah. Yeah. All right. So, let's do that and then Okay. So, my question Sorry. Go ahead. I'm sorry. No, I was just going to move on. So, if you got something quick, go ahead. Well, so the concern is that I that I've heard is that we're far below the 50% cost recovery. What happens if we hit
20% next year? We've been below the threshold in the past and nothing's been done. We would we're just trying to align our events with more so working towards a goal of a cost recovery model and trying to maintain the the resolution is presented and um we felt that why not have the
events that are successful and popular that meet those cost recovery goals as those those sponsored events. Not saying independence day wasn't heavily you know you know turned out and everything but we have not met that cost recovery. It's a goal to get higher and higher every
year and and unless the resolution that we take back doesn't specify a revenue for that or a cost recovery for that as being the criteria. Um okay. I think we're we're good though. We have consensus. Let's move on. Yeah. Okay.
Uh the next item we want to discuss the Independence Day celebration for next fiscal year. Currently there's $53,000 allocated to the event. very similar to what we just presented to you this past year at the mall. Um, granted, and that's only if we get the the the parcel
approvals to hold the event at the mall. That's that's our first step number one, getting those parcel approvals based on development and whatnot. Step two is we've incorporate the festival inside the mall just like this past year with entertainment, music, um, as well as the
fireworks. Um, as you all know, this upcoming year a lot of cities, counties, and states are celebrating the 250th anniversary of the country. Um, so we've, you know, me, as in staff and I and others, we've been, you know, throwing some ideas together. Some
people are on committees and there's a lot of ideas that are generated. A lot of people are planning well in advance for next year. We thought we'd present to you a sample budget of of these items if we wanted to maybe do something a little bit higher end than what we've done for the fireworks, such as adding a drone show,
um some mapping on the outside of the building and some additional interactive characters and um entertainment to maybe celebrate the our, you know, our our our country's history. And but, you know, it it will be an additional expense of $95,000 that's not currently budgeted.
if if it was the goal of council to add any of these or some of them. You're you're saying 95,000 on top of the 53,000. I wasn't feeling like anything was lacking last time. It was spectacular and repeating that would not be sad one bit. So we're we're currently budgeted at
$53,000. These items down below come to a total of $95,000. That's not budgeted. The total would be $148,000. So how I guess the question would be the eagle drone with fireworks is 75,000 but you get 40,000 up a top for fireworks.
Just fireworks. Yeah. So this is additional fireworks with the drones or the drones adding drones with the fireworks on top of that. So it's a that's more than I think we need. Yeah. We just wanted to share these ideas with you to see if you wanted to, you know, add more to this or if you
wanted to allocate some of these smaller ticket items up in the budget. We had budget last year for the 100red-y year anniversary that we took out of general fund. Looking at Jerry, I don't know. Uh because it's a big event. It's a once in a-lifetime event. This will be a once in a-lifetime event in my life. I'm not
going to see the two the 300th anniversary, I'm pretty sure. So, it's a big event. I think we could get people to dress up as colonial characters just as a funsy kind of volunteer thing as not not in the same
way at you know for you know five hours straight as some of the other entertainers do at our events but even having that if we tell people hey if you want your picture taken with George Washington here's your hour you can do that then of course if we do this you're
going to get 50% of that 148 in cost recovery of course I know we're going to All right. Um, so not as much as it seems. Yeah, it's Yeah, it's I mean, we we're always going to strap for more sponsors. Obviously, the $75,000 drone show is the big ticket on this one to really provide
that oomph of a celebration at the end of the fireworks. Um, I've seen videos of that. It's pretty cool. I don't think anywhere else around here would have something like that. Why don't the county the work we're doing with the county? Yeah. Actually, I'm gonna invite Miss
Martini up here to join us. county has established a 250th committee and they asked us to have a representative of staff be on the committee and so Miss Martini has been going to those meetings and participating with them and so some
of this is a byproduct of learning what the county is looking at overall and then how we fit into what the county's wanting to do. So hopefully county have some money for us. That was
Yes, sir. Um so the county uh has put a grant together and they have submitted it to um get $100,000 from the state that is allocated um a million dollars. The state is allocating a million
dollars to all of the counties and basically it's first come first of who has the best presentation. So that money is not $100,000 that I could go for. It's divided up amongst the county and
some of the ideas are putting money towards uh the school things the schools are doing um countywide doing uh painting red, white and blue fire hydrants. So it's that money is uh
mostly for something that is countywide. We did talk about doing a one-time festival and having it at the um at the airport or at other, you know, looking for someplace that can house something that big because now you're talking 50
100,000 people. Um but it doesn't mean that some of that money won't trickle down here for the addition of the um budget for this event. it would um absolutely heavily rely on sponsorship.
So when would you need a a decision to go forward? I know we're pretty early in the process. I'd like to see how the budget comes out and what Mr. B might recommend. So when's the latest you can get a decision? Well, I I think the goal was if there was consensus to add anything to beef up
the 250th celebration, um we would come back to council with a budget amendment after the fiscal year started um in October. um so we could start planning for this because it's going to take time to get sponsors and vendors and all that and so December.
So um to answer your question specifically um we you're going in that direction we do have to um get on people's radars. So where it's the 100 uh 250th everybody is looking to have
enhancing their own events and um this year the 4th of July is on a Saturday and we have started years ago doing the first Saturday. So it's coincidental that this coming year is the 250 and
it's Saturday and it's the fourth. So we are on um we're pencled in with some vendors and right now have we're lucky enough we get first right of refusal. Our fireworks are good. We are good with the vendor that we're using but the drones
October and we'll talk with budget folks and sponsors potential sponsors. Yes sir. Uh I'm not going to mention one that may be a potential sponsor but they're in the mall and are big. So I don't know if you've talked to them or not but I can.
Okay. Okay. So I guess the direction is to maybe bring this back after I am casually interested in the colonial characters. All the other stuff I think is is too much but increasing the cost recovery I think this is the year to
prove that it's doable. And last year's you having the festival back that that makes it so you could actually get sponsors. So hopefully that'll continue. Okay. Is that enough time for the locking down the drone person or you think we'll lose that one? Wait, drone? Are we Are you seriously
wanting to do drones? Yeah. Seriously? I'm serious. With I'm I'm really serious that I even if we can get 50% of it back. I do not think it is sensible to invest $37,000
in drones when we already are having fireworks. Our fireworks were phenomenal last year. I I just don't see I say shoot for the moon. I also think that's steep though. I mean our Yeah, but our Fourth of July celebration
is awesome. Like we knock it out of the park. So I don't if it was like 20,000 or but 75 is more than the cost of ours. You're just swag. Is that what they say? That those are the quotes I'm getting. All right. I guess I lose.
It's 60. 60 was the lowest one, but um I still have to do due diligence on this. 40,000 fireworks up top, correct? Yeah. So, the the total number would be 148, not to exceed. And that that's all in
Well, that's less than what we budgeted for the 100 year anniversary, right? That's correct. And you guys came in pretty good on that? We came under budget in that one. Yes. Okay. That's that's my logic on it. If you can if you can do a good job on this just like you did last year, that number
is way higher than what we we know it'll be. Does I think we have at least two people who think that it is too high to do the eagle drone. What What's What are you guys thinking on that? It seems high. It seems too high to me,
especially if we have fireworks. So, do we have three people who think skip it on the eagle drone? What's that? Move on. Okay. Um, we're going to move on. Okay. The last item we wanted to bring to you
this evening, um, staff is in the process of planning our, um, holiday parade, um, the MLK parade, and potentially um, homecoming parades. And with that, we have to purchase supplies.
And over the years, we've had different situations that involve um council member participation. As always, staff will like to um accommodate transportation for city council members in the parades. Um in the past, we've
had a city float that we've designed and and put together out of a trailer and we've dressed it up for city council members and we've added the confetti cannon. Um we've also provided transportation to city council members. we've secured vehicles or city council members secured their own vehicles and
we added the decals to the sides to present the the the politician's name and we've also had like this past year we actually walked in a parade um to pass out candy to those kids and um I'm looking for direction from council
so we can plan accordingly is can we can we um come up with an idea to accommodate all the parades for this upcoming year so staff can plan appropriately to purchase the necessary products whether it's we're going to design a council float and all council
members will be on that float together. Will coun will staff provide vehicles for council members and they you know and we'll provide the decals or will all council possibly walk and hand out candy and we'll provide some sort of representation of your names in that
aspect. I'm trying to get away from the safety, you know, I want to remove the safety and liability of staff having to um walk, you know, with the I think last year we had the the John Deere cart and we were trying to load up confetti cannon as well as pass out candy and and there was
a lot of shuffling back and forth and the line stopped and then we were moving along. I'm trying to keep it so we can just entertain the the citizens that show up and we can either just pass our candy if we're walking or we can wave to the crowd and acknowledge, you know, acknowledge the city council members and honor the city in this procession and
then we can shoot the confetti cannon off. I'm just looking for some direction. I want to be concise, but I want to try to create a Was it a safety issue last year about throwing candy from the floats? We don't throw candy from floats anymore. We don't throw candy from the floats, but we can sit on a float and wave,
right? Yes. those who want to walk can walk and throw candy. Right. So, I I I bike. Y'all know I bike. I decorate my bike for everyone. And I hand out bubbles instead of candy. So, that that is the the direction I I would like. I'm not interested in walking. I might
have a new hip by then. Then he does want his confetti cannon. So, why don't we get rid of that? Yeah. Why don't we do a float that has a confetti canyon? And if you're not doing that, you're responsible for your own transportation. Does that seem fair? That seems like a lot of of staff time
and effort to build us to build politicians afloat on which to parade. We set up and decorate. They usually come out and vol. Okay. Well, as long as council is the one decorating, the flow, we've got enough time right now that we can plan for this and order the materials. Um, we've got three months coming up to plan for this. So,
we'll still honor all the council members on the on the banner that goes on the float. It's really we just want to slip but without a sponsor. Please, without a sponsor. Did you bring there? There's funds for for the materials. So, okay. Yeah, we we don't need to have council appear to be sponsored by a corporation,
but for like homecoming and things like that, we should be responsible for our own transportation if we're not doing that. So, wait, are we having a homecoming float constructed? No. Okay. No, no. I'm just saying like Okay. In the past, they've found vehicles for us. We'll provide a city council float for
MLK um as well as our holiday parade. City Council, if you participate in homecoming parade, we we'll ask for you to provide your own transportation. So, is the same float uh we use for the Santa Claus run behind the fire truck?
Is that uh going to be the same float we use for these parades or could we use it? We've worked with the fire department on consolidating um what we have in house so we don't have to buy new and um being very creative in upycling and working
together so that um it can be the same. Okay. vehicle till it saves money. Okay. Okay. And looks beautiful. All right. Good. I think we're good. Yeah. Are we throwing candy still or is there candy involved? Candy. If you're walking or riding, we we'll
have candy available for council to pass out to the kids. We just can't throw it from the float. Right. Right. So, if you're riding the float, you cannot throw candy, but if you're walking next to the float, you can pass the candy. Yes. Yeah. Okay. There was no float last year. So, correct. Yeah. Next year we'll have a float and then or
actually this year we'll have a float and we'll have candy available. So Mr. If you'd like to walk and pass out candy then we will have that available for you. Okay, I think we're good. I think we're good. I appreciate your time this evening and uh that's our presentation for our state of the department. Thank you. All right. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you. Thanks. Go ahead. Well, I got one thing to tell you. I got your real challenge. You know, we heard Mr. Carmen in here today and I'm looking down my list. I got public works,
public safety, storm water, and parks and wreck. Three of those have funding streams. One doesn't. So, the challenge I have for you is if this property tax thing goes through like could be in worst case. I'd like you to develop some sort of
contingency plan so that we can do as much of this as possible because you're low man on the totem pole as far as unfunded stuff that we do. These are amenities. I I'm all for it, but we can't get rid of uh public safety,
public works, and our storm water groups. Correct. So, that's my challenge to you. Challenge accepted. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Good. All right. So we will move on to item number four which is the fiscal year 202526 proposed budget amendments.
Mr. Cob or Mr. B. Yeah. while while they're getting set up. Deputy Mayor, um the August work session has traditionally been one where we get you caught up with what uh any changes that have been occurred since
our last work session. And usually it's looking at the various state revenues that have come in. They've been trickling in through the month of July. And then if there's any other last minute requests that we received uh after the budget document was prepared, uh then we work those in
as well. And it's also to get us prepared for our first public hearing which will be on September the 4th. And so once they're all set up and ready to go, uh, then we'll we'll be able to go forward. And I'm not sure is Kelly going
to hook into the projector. Kelly is going to hook in. I got to go into bifocal mode. Like I'm looking here. I can't see with my glasses there. I can't see without That's tiny. Yeah.
Well, before we get going, I do have a question. Did this the uh school board did they just say we're just not going to pay for as much as we did on the cost sharing? Is that what happened there? Yeah, they are you talking about the SRO's? Yeah.
Yeah. They came back and we had we have nine. Seven of which were funded at 50%, two at 100, and they came back and they took one of the ones at 100. He chased it down to 50. And what was the rationale for that? Just ran out of
money. Okay. We're talking about SRO on the SRO's the unfunding. Yeah. Unfunding half of one. I get that they got no money, but also we are not dissimilar in having limited
funding. It was about the SRO's 100% funding%. How come? How come they reduce the one? Yep. Yes, please. When the uh contract was sent over from the school board through the uh security
captain, the uh request was made uh through each agency, including the sheriff's office, that they reduce one person they paid that they were funding at 100% down to 50%. uh school board the information I was g
uh given was due to cut uh due to reduced enrollment uh reduced funding uh they're looking at across the board ways to save money and that was one of the presentations when it was presented to us I said it's not our decision it would be a council decision to make but that
that's where we that's where we got the and what if we just said nah go back to that I mean they have no way to pay for it I'm sorry do do we have a long-term plan. I mean, I I don't know what what discussions may be going on behind
closed doors, but it is a school related thing and they do have a dedicated funding source. I I how I guess maybe this is more a question for Mr. Cobb or Mr. Kelly, like h how do we resolve this in a long-term
sort of way? If we do this as a one-time thing as a stop gap measure because there's, you know, issues with federal level funding trickling down to the schools, we could do it once. But if if this grows and they say, well, you know, we're just not going to pay for any of them. Well, then we've got the state
saying, you have to have these people in in the schools and also we're not going to pay for them to be in the schools. It's We've got to we got to somehow untangle the funding of this. So, who how do how do we resolve this? Who who do we need to talk to to change the
policy to ultimately fix it? You're you're just figuring out how to make it happen right now. So, yeah, you're off the hook. Okay. But we need to as a council, I think, address the underlying issue. Well, I I don't think the underlying
issue is us or the school board. It's the fact that this the state has pulled funding out from them. And if all we're discussing here is 50% of one salary, I don't think we should make a big deal of it. Well, but if it grows, we should revisit. But as of right now, I don't I don't think this is when we start nitpicking on
Well, we can't this year. We don't we don't nitpick this year. But we have an entire year in a legislative session to figure out who the right people to talk to are and what to ask for. I I think that my biggest concern is that
this isn't a one-year request that this is going to become and it's going to grow. I think it's we're going this will be next year. It'll be the same next year. I don't think they will because we had we had two at 100%. And yet it hits us pretty good because
we're I think only Sanford has more schools than us. And so it I I think that funding this this one one officer at 50% it's going to stay. It's it's not just this year. It'll be from
now on. Uh and I fully anticipate that we'll go back to the original plan that was uh I want to say f at least five years ago where all the officers were were 50%. It wasn't until they started
having the second officer at the high school and then the what they called the floating officer. Those were the two that were funded at 100%. But before that, before we had the second officer at the high school, we only had one and before we had the
floating officer, which mainly goes, I think to the middle schools, uh, every officer was 50% funded. And I I think we're going to end up there one day as every officer will be 50% funded like it used to be. But for right now,
um I I do believe yes, that next year it'll come back the same as it is this year. That that one officer will be 50% funded. The other officer will be 100% funded, you know. So where is this at? What school? Yeah, it doesn't really matter which one. It's I
It's just one of our officers. It's 50%. Yes, I believe it's the second officer at the high. There were two officers that were added a few years ago. Uh there was a second officer at the high school and then there was what we call the floating officer and they were both paid at 100% because it was a
requirement we had to have them. And so this year they've come in and said, "Okay, of those two officers, one of them we want to be 50% funded." And all the other ones are 50%. They're all at 50%. Yes. So I think that's just going to be the norm. That's strange to me that the
school board if this is a requirement, it is a requirement. Yes. Mandated. They set their own budget. Why isn't the cost of these officers in their budget? Amen. Good question. I mean that's an easy they have a way to raise the revenue.
So, but I mean that's it. They they it was a cost cutting measure that they and so they're telling us that they didn't put it in the budget. So, we we need to eat that cost. That's um Chief I I think that was pretty much that it was it was a cost cutting measure. Yes.
Yet they lowered their military. The school board I don't think they did. The state decides it. That's why they're in this pickle. The state lowered their mill rate without them being on board with that. They have less budget. That's right. Because state one under the local board.
Yeah. But uh I want to move on with our budget and we can table this but at least it's on our radar. So, let's move on with our budget. Thank you, Mr. Cobb. Honorable mayor, deputy mayor, council members. Uh, this is the last presentation that we have of the budget uh to you for this fiscal
year. Um, want to bring to your attention tonight um that there are four attachments and Mr. A, I apologize up front. I'm give handing out a revised attachment three. Uh, and basically what it does, it consolidates some of the expenses and makes it a little bit
easier to read. Okay. So, in your packet tonight, you had four attachments. Uh, attachment number one was the budget model that coincided with the uh budget book that you received on July 1st. Attachment number two incorporates all
the changes uh that I just passed out into your hands. And uh attachment number three basically is the attachment that you have right now revised. And then attachment number four, we have the um uh schedules
fee schedules for you to review and to u give us direction on. So with that, I'd like to start off right here where we always start at this uh time of the year where we're taking a look at where do we think our ending balance is going to be during this fiscal year. So, it looks
like we're going to have a more favorable position than an ending fund balance of 16.7 million at the end of this fiscal year. What that's going to be, I cannot tell you. Uh but uh but again, we feel that um we're going to end up in a more favor favorable
position than the 16.7 million that you see right there. So with that, Kelly, if we can go on to uh the revised attachment. And what I would like to do is to review with you the the changes that took place between attachment number one and
attachment number two. If you just blow that up just a little bit more for me, Kelly, please. Okay. Looking at the revenues, uh we still have not received any information from the state yet on the communication services tax. So we don't know if that's going to go up or if that's going to go down. But once we
do receive that, we'll make the appropriate adjustments within the budget. Uh the Department of Transportation is giving us an additional 39,000, but that coincides with um additional work that we're going to be doing on State Road 419 and 426. So that revenue covers the expense
associated with uh that additional work. the revenue sharing distribution came in um uh with an increase of about uh 272,000 as well as the local government halfsent sales tax came in with an increase of $152,000.
So those two combined uh provide an increase to the budget of about $424,000. Now the thing that concerns me about these these two is that they are consumptionbased revenues and things are slowing down a little bit right now and you know we're
hopeful that um we do get the shares that the state has state economists have reported to us but um it's it's um we got to watch those very very closely. Last year with the local government halfsent sales tax that came in about
$160,000 short. So, I'm looking at this number going, hm, is the state really accurate in their projections with the numbers that they're giving us. So, but again, uh this is what the state's provided and um we're going to watch these numbers very closely as we go into
um this next fiscal year. Going down to the expenditures, um so what what do we what do we do to offset this increase in revenues? Looking at these expenditures, uh, basically we have a temporary part-time temporary position over in development
services that's going to cost approximately $18,000. We're also going to purchase the um the outstanding leases on the two uh motorcycles that we have in the police department. So, that's a cost of $8,750.
Um, other current charges, uh, 38,217, those for features associated with the new, uh, police department radios. Uh, small tools, $2,600. That's for lighting associated with the motorcycles that we're purchasing out outright from the
lease. Salaries and benefits, uh, $13,176. And what that does is that increases um the uh police record specialist from a from a part-time FTE to a full-time FTE.
Significant um increase in record requests, redactions, and things of that nature pretty much mandate uh the additional hours that are required to get that work done. Uh Central County Sheriff's Office reduced their dispatch contract by $13,500.
So, that's a little bit of reduction that works in our favor. Uh, we just talked about this a moment ago, the FDOT mowing State Road 434. We've got the revenue source for up in the revenues. Small tools, uh, $96,000 for parks amenities, and that was, you know, well
spelled out in the agenda memo for various different things that need to be replaced within the park system. and an additional employee which basically is a reclass from um uh a landscaping technician in the in the parks department for a new facilities
maintenance technician. Uh basically that that position was unfunded. We're adding that back into the into the budget this year to fund a third person to work in the facilities maintenance uh division to help us with a lot of the um additional work risk management issues
and things of that nature that need to be taken care of. uh in facilities maintenance uh improvements of the buildings some upgrades need to be done renovations to the restrooms both in the city hall second floor as well as fire station 48 that's a capital item
can you explain that more because I've been to the upstairs city hall bathrooms and they are not beautiful but not very many people use them and they flush so I'm I'm not sure what about them might merit
whatever proportion of that $140,000. Mr. Cobb, do you know the background on that? I think a large part of it is that the those restrooms haven't been renovated since I know at least the two down on the IT site have not been renovated
since the building was built and so they're they're very antiquated. Uh yes, you're right, Mayor. The toilet slush, you are correct. Uh but I think that was it. It was just to get those more up to date. Uh, as far as the fire station 48 restrooms, I'm not totally 100% on that
one, but uh, yeah, the upstairs restrooms, it was just to get them up to get them renovated up to current time. I'm not sure that that needs to be done. And how old are the restrooms at 48?
What? Isn't that fairly new? It's the building. I see. I'm trying to remember. Like if it's less than 30 years old, maybe it hasn't lived its full lifespan yet. And I guess upstairs is 30 years old, but if it's not leaking and we're not repiping the building, I'm not sure why
we would renovate a bathroom at this time. Um, some of the bathrooms currently have fire station 48. Uh, a lot of the tiles have cracked that are in the bathroom area and in the shower area. And also, it is to take one of the restrooms and making it more functional. Um, the way
it's designed, it's kind of hard to maneuver in there. So, we were going to open a wall up and widen a shower up. So, that way the uh firefighters had more functionality within their restroom facilities. They have three bathrooms in 48 right now currently and they all are
on one wall. one is the lieutenants uh that I think he shares possibly, but the there is some cosmetic work that needs to be done in there, but also one of the uh restrooms we're actually going to remodel slightly to just open it up more and make it more functional for the
fire department showers is is is too small to use for the size, you know, adults that we have within the fire department. Um, and it's just it's going to by opening up that wall, it's going to give it more more space and make it more functional to where all three
showers can be used at one time. When the guys get back from a fire, they all need to decon as soon as possible. And only having the ability to use one or two of those restrooms now is, you know, it's not practical. It's a waste. Yeah. Correct. And it sounds like you've got crack
tiles. So that's a functional issue with moisture as well. So that one makes a lot of sense. Can you speak to what the issues are upstairs beyond cosmetic issues? Um, I have to kind of relive that a little bit. I know that like Mr. Cobb
pointed out, the build the restrooms upstairs have not been uh really given any TLC since the building opened. And uh that was just our opportunity to go in, renovate, um clean it up, and bring it to a modern age compared to back in the late 80s, early 90s when the
building was first put together. All right. Well, I'd rather pay in a swing set or do something else with that funding if if nobody else objects to that idea, then renovate bathrooms that maybe 10 people in the whole place use.
I mean, I guess that just depends how functional they are right now. Yeah. If they're Yeah. If they're not if they're not functioning, we got to fix them. But if they work and they're just not looking like they were renovated lately, then I I'm fine with that. Well, I think I built my house about the same time city hall was built, and I've
renovated one bathroom twice and one once. So, that's fair, too. And it's they all flushed, but they needed they needed some more. Okay. What is the thought on council? Did you want to leave the um second floor city
hall item in here or did you want to No, I think you ought to do it. I'm sorry. Do it. Do it. What's the breakout? Do we Because we have 139,000 and that covers both. Breakout is for each. I don't have the breakout right in front
of me, but I do have it back there. Oh, can you grab it and we'll come back to this maybe and move on. Okay. Move. Excuse me. Moving on to the next item. Uh there's a slight adjustment in longevity just due to uh some changes in payroll. Uh AUE, Outside
Services. This is the um company that we use to hire all of our recreational summer recreation folks through. Uh requires an increase of $31,525. And that's basically to bring their hourly rate up to a more competitive
position for the next fiscal year. approaching that u that um spot where we are not going to be able to hire or retain um folks um unless we increase our hourly rates. So that was well
detailed out in the agenda memo as well. So with all these these changes in consideration, it requires a slight reduction of the reserve for contingency to allocate it towards the reserve for for capital. So when you take all these items into consideration, you have a
$419,646 increase in expenditures and a corresponding $419,646 uh increase uh in revenues. So the additional revenues uh offset these additional requirements over on the
expense side. Can I backtrack just for a second? Sure. As far as up the top with revenues, I know the county is looking at making increases and some of that is like the gas tax. Does anything trickle down to us as an increase as part of
that? Does that make sense? I think I think it's supposed to, but we need to sign an interlocal. So, that would be something for a future meeting with with the gas tax. It is a specific program, transportation related programs. Part of it is their
microtransit program they're calling scout that they want and mayor's correct there is an local agreement that we're going to be working on with the county. Uh the way it works right now is the state with gas taxes. There's a formula
and we receive it based on the population formula. County receives their their they're they're part of the populationbased formula. Then each of the cities receive it. And what they would like to do is with through the interlocal agreement is to have that
part that additional five cents go directly to the county to fund the microransit and other transportation projects that they've got allocated as part of that 5 cents that they just approved. And so that's what the interlocal groom is about. We'll still
get our regular state gas tax allocations, but the additional is that they would like to funnel that into those specific programs. That makes sense. Yeah. I didn't know if it was like a percentage base and like some of that first. Okay, I'm good. And then we can go back on the bathroom.
Uh revisiting restrooms really quick. So, um fire station 48 for all three restrooms um combined was $75,000. Then for here at the city hall second floor, um since there are three bathrooms upstairs, each restroom uh
cost is $21,600. So when you add in all three, that brings you to 68 uh 64,800. And then the number that you have on the total is including the $75,000 for fire
station 48 as well. So 75 and 68 were the two numbers. 64,875,000. And we already have quotes for those or those are just I have proposals for what we've done over at the annex is the number the base
I use for um city hall here. It would mimic the same thing that we did in the annex and the bathrooms are comparable in size. And then through one of our vendors, we received a quote for not only remodeling the restrooms but also the kitchen at uh fire station 48 as
well. But um the restrooms was the number one priority. So they're not going to take anything out of operation at the fire station while they're doing this, right? Well, they they would go a bathroom at a time so that way they would still have functionality in the building. Okay. Okay.
Thank you. Any other questions on these changes? Okay, Kelly, if we can just go back to the model really quick so we can just recap. Looking at attachment two, uh basically um going up to the very top looking at
the revenues. Uh we're we are budgeting revenues of 43 uh,380,000 uh for this next fiscal year. Expenses that we're budgeting uh uh for this next fiscal year are 42473
resulting in a net contribution to fund balance before adjustments ends for transfers in transfers out and debt service. When you take those uh items into consideration, we have a balanced budget for this next fiscal year. Any
questions about expenses or revenues? Good job. Okay. Everything that we just discussed has been incorporated into attachment two from attachment one going up to the upper right hand corner of attachment number two. Uh
so the budget is balanced using a general government operating millage rate of 5.9610 a geo bond a millage rate for a veto on the park the 2003 bonds of.1140 total millage rate of 6.0750 0750 which
remains unchanged in total from the previous fiscal year. Now I have to tell you that because of the way the state calculates the change in the millage rate um that the approval of this year's budget uh will require
four out of five uh city council members. So we need a supermajority vote to approve that military. Um and and can you tell me the the reason that the reason is because it's enough above the roll back rate because
property value has referred to Jones on that. It's it's it has to do with the way that I don't know the technical answer to your question, but it has to do with the way that the um rates are are are
basically calculated from year to year. And last year we had enough of a rate increase that basically basically threw us into a different category when we compare that category to this fiscal year requires a four-fifths vote again. But Miss Kelly can go into the details for us if you'd like or two.
So I I'll just kind of explain to you the calculation they use and and see if that's helpful. So you're right, it does take into account the roll back rate. So what they're doing is they're taking the revenue that we generated in the current fiscal year in 2425. They're taking that rate. They're reducing it by the city's
contribution to the CRA and they're saying, "Okay, here here is your total revenue for this year. Then they're comparing that against the next year, so 2526 proposed property values." And they're saying based on the revenue you
collected last year, based on next year's proposed values, here's the millage rate you need to set for it to be equal. So the revenue is equal in both years, which is where you get your roll back rate from. Then they're taking the roll back rate and they're saying, "Okay, we're going to increase it." They
um by like an inflationary amount. So they're going to take the roll back rate and they're going to increase it. So the increase this year was um 4.51%. Now that is where the majority vote comes in. It's it's the rollback rate
increased by 4.51%. Okay. Then to get to a um a twothirds vote is what they call it, but it's four fifths for us. They increase that yet again by another 10%. So we're falling in between the two. So we're higher than
the majority or less than the twothirds total, but because we exceed the majority, we fall into that other category, you know. So I mean, you're looking at a roll back of 4.5%. you're looking at an increase in property values of almost
9%. So, you know, it's just the way the numbers fall and where our mill rate is. So, the majority is like 5.8 something was the millillage that wouldn't require that, right? So, so the mill rate So, the
majority vote is 5.8718 mills. And that's inclusive of the bonds or not? No, that doesn't include the bonds. So that would be the still the 0.11 on the bonds, right? Yeah. We would just be looking at the operating millage part.
The 4.51 was CPI. That Yeah, that's set by the state. Everyone's the same on that. Yeah. How are other cities coming in on that? Because I mean it is significantly more money, right? I mean like we're seeing
here this 8.25% that you show on the the left there. In the past that's meant the increase in the amount of money from the previous year, right? Property values. Yeah. Property and property values or taxable value.
Taxable. Taxable value. Yes. Taxes. Tax value. taxable value has increased more than the CPI or the state number that is yeah CPI it's the CPI for personal income is the number they use and they give it to they they set it every year
it changes and for this upcoming year it's 4.51% So you good with it? I mean like it's just the formula. I think it kind of is what it is because they made some definitions and Right. Well, I mean CPI has gone up four and a half.
We're collecting eight and a quarter. Yeah. 1.8 million more taxes. Um you know, we're keeping the millillage the same, but it does represent an increase, right? I mean, people are paying more money and it's and it's more than the CPI would be. Um,
and I've been comparing the um, you know, the budgets from June and July and and August. Um, you know, we've got these in increases on here that this attachment you handed out, whichever one that is. Um, so
that's money that we didn't have a month ago, right? or we weren't. That is correct. So, what would what would all of these things have been a month ago? I mean, did we did we add these because we have the
extra money and we want to spend it or would we have been going into fund balance for these things or um I mean I guess it's kind of clear at some of them but right typically in the month of August what we do is we we fine-tune the budget
with any additional changes that we can possibly absorb within the budget process. So we take a look at um the asks for FTEES and things of that nature and we try to incorporate them into the budget process if at all possible. We take a
very conservative approach uh because the asks for FTEES are much greater than what we're than than of course what we grant. Okay. And the reason for that is because we don't know what the economy is going to be doing and how things are going to perform over the next fiscal year.
So um so yes, what we do is we take a look at the needs that um have been requested by the various different department heads and voted on throughout the city and if we can possibly incorporate some additional things within the budget process. Yes, we do that. And so what you see here in the
month of August is you have those additional tweaks that um have been incorporated into the budget process as a result of the additional re revenues that uh that the state is forecasting that we should receive over the next
fiscal year. And I want to be mindful of that. Um, we really need to be careful with that because those are consumption-based revenues and consumption-based revenues always make me wary. You know, are those materials go are those revenues going to
materialize? Advalorum, you know, that's going to materialize. But consumption based revenues, those are driven by the economy and those those can fluctuate. And again, last year, uh, there was a fluctuation in the half cent sales tax that ended up being $160,000 short. But
none of us can sit here and predict accurately how the expenses are going to flow and things of that nature. So basically, you know, the model is precipitated upon presenting something that's balanced so that we can go into the next fiscal year, you know, with a balanced budget. But again, it
incorporates minor tweaks. The month of August has always incorporated minor tweaks into the budget process. And I I will question to the contingency on there. We have 511,000. So, if we didn't get all of this, it would still I mean, I'm sure some things
will cost more than we expected, but there is still a lot of contingency in the Yeah, that seems to be the case. You know, that's a that's a great point. You know, we we've we've we've um been hit pretty hard with with pricing increases
over the last several years. And this past year is no different. We're still processing budget adjustments right now for increases in the cost of supplies and chemicals and things of that nature. So, um there's still there's still real inflation out there that um it's very
difficult to predict when you go into the budget process. And so, um a healthy reserve, a healthy contingency is designed to offset some of those things that you can't properly or precisely plan for. Yeah. I mean, you know when in uh what
month was this you know July you know we had planned on 248 you know so a seven% increase right in taxable um taxable value right and we had a budget that we were happy with and now we're at 8 and a
quarter and it seems like we've found things to spend it on right um you know c certainly the schoolboard thing that was something we you couldn't predict. Um
I I don't know. I I mean my preference would be that, you know, we have we have money that we didn't have two months ago. My preference would be to to at least take some of that and and lower the millage with it. I'd like us like to caution us on on I
mean I understand what direction you're coming from because we did discuss that I think in the end of June I believe at the June work session. Yeah. But there's some things coming up next year that we really need to be careful for about. Um we've had some significant increases in public safety
salaries that are going to impact our budget not only this year but also going forward. But in addition to that, we received information from our actuary that the uh mortality tables are going to be updated and uh relight which is
going to create significant increases in our pension expenses going forward into the next fiscal year. So, not this fiscal year, but as we enter the budget for the 2627 fiscal year, we're going to have to be able to absorb those increases. And those increases can be
significant based upon some of the numbers that we're looking at right now. Um, they could be very significant. So, any cuts that we make right now to the military are going to um impact the ability for us to meet those expenses
that uh will materialize and they will materialize next year. So when we take a look at these numbers, these numbers are not just derived for this current fiscal year, but they're also uh being incorporated into what's definitely going to happen over the next fiscal year. So this is a forward-looking
document and any again any reductions that we make this year is going to compound and actually impact us in the next fiscal year. So next fiscal year, you know, we also expect to have a taxable value increase
again, right? because we're underneath the um you know the save our homes limits, right? We could property value has gone up and we're still we're still catching up because we can only go up a certain percentage per year, right? So we have property value would have to come down
significantly for us to not have an increase in our tax. The increase isn't really dri the increase is driven by primarily new construction because SAR homes does cap the increase every year on anyone who has homestead.
Right? So you're you cannot increase more than whatever percentage to a max of 3%. So, anytime our property values increase over 3%, it's driven mostly by new construction. So, as long as you have that out there, you will have those big increases. As that starts to slow down,
you know, you might come down from an 8% increase to closer to what the 3% or whatever CPI is. Yeah. So over time with about 80% of us being homesteaded, so 80% will be a 3% increase and then
the commercial 20% could be as high as 10%. But I I think we're going to settle somewhere in the six% probably with our ratios and you may not hit 3% CPI may be less than 3%. So you may maybe be capped at
like 2.5 or 2.6 or something of that nature. But but to his point, we could collect it knowing that we're going to need it next year because we will fall short and use that to buffer against an increase next year. Uh and in the meantime, invest it wisely.
Please remember, too, some of the long-term objectives that we talked about earlier in the budget process didn't materialize because, you know, we didn't move forward uh on the um building of the police station yet because we didn't have the numbers. But one of the things that we did also talk
about uh going into this next fiscal year was to reduce the operating millage rate and use that to offset any increase in the geo bond rate that would be required for the building of the police station. Right. So any decisions that we make right now could have a have a negative impact on
our ability to do that going forward. So there's a lot of moving parts Mr. I understand what direction you're coming from, but the things that we are aware of right now u in regard to um pensions uh that we are obligated to fund for this next fiscal year, the goals that we
had in mind for the um adverore millage rate uh reduction next fiscal year to offset the cost for the increase in the geo bond millage rate that would be required to fund the police station as well as other things too within the general fund. Uh we also need to strive
at some point in time to be able to properly fund our replacement vehicles and equipment. You know, we increase our funding every year as much as we possibly can and absorb into the budget process, but we're still behind in that. So, my concern is, you know, and we've
been blessed. We've been blessed because we've had um the American Rescue Plan Act that have that has enabled us to basically catch up significantly on our capital facilities. But any adjustment that we do make to any of our revenue streams right now will have an impact, a
negative impact on our ability to be able to do that going forward. And we've made such great strides to come out of the hole that we were in prior to the American Rescue Rescue Plan Act. I just don't want to see us lose ground to that again. But I understand where you're
coming from. I understand the desire. But looking forward um sitting here as your finance director I see the need uh the capital the revenue requirements going forward and if I didn't I would admit that to you anybody else
Mr. I now I include cover. Um the last thing is we we did include next year's proposed fee schedule as attachment forgot about that. Um I don't have any specific comments on it. Um but all the directors are here.
So if you have any specific questions on any of the fees, they could address those for you. If not, these will be brought back in September for final approval. September 15th. September 15th. Um, on the the bathroom thought, did did we come to a resolution
from our end on whether doing second floor city hall makes sense? I I do not think it does. I'd rather reallocate that to potholes or something that is going to be enjoyed by more residents and noticed by more residents.
Does seem like a lot. 648. Uh, I think with the age of it, it's gonna it's going to need to be fixed in the next couple years anyway. We might as well do it when we have the money. But we could say that about the roads, too,
though. The roads are messing up people's cars because they need to be fixed and we could fix them instead of the toilets. I if we if we got to choose, I would choose something that more than a handful of people on the second floor. Like, I love I love all the people on the second floor of City
Hall. I like those bathrooms, too. But, um, they're there things that are a lot more that a lot more people would enjoy and appreciate. So, it sounds like I see two nods and three people say, "Fix the second floor bathrooms." Maybe
Could I could I just offer this? Fix the two that are down close to it. the the big one across from the the the handicapped accessible bathroom that's across from the um
from the from the conference room. That one was done when I believe Mr. Sber did the renovations upstairs because that used to actually be in the city manager's office. That bathroom was part of the city manager's office at one time. And so that one's a bit newer than
the ones that are on this side of the building. And so I would say if if we could probably forego the the handicapped accessible one, but the two that are down in the IT area, those I would say we we do need to do a facelift on those.
So I mean that's and they're the smaller ones. So if we I would I would I would that would be my recommendation to you that we could probably forego the one that's across from the the conference room. I would also like to clarify we're not forgoing fixing potholes over bathrooms.
We're going over, we went down our priority list first and we're hitting the next one. So, we're not like skipping fixing a toilet, a a pothole for a toilet. And if we are, obviously that comes first. But it I don't think that's what we're doing here. We just have this much extra that we're
renovating bathrooms. I that that lands weird for me that we have so much extra. We're renovating bathrooms that aren't broken. But I think I'm in the minority. Okay. Well, let's move on. Okay. Uh, I did have a question on the fees
for the minor site development order amendment. So, if Dr. Car come up. I guess I'm just curious on on what constitutes a minor site development order amendment since I think this is like a new ad entirely if I
it is. So we have been having some um requests for um minor changes in the site plan that does not require the whole um review. So we wanted to have a um a lower fee.
So I know this issue has come up with like adding a fence is would that constitute like a minor site development order amendment? A fence is a building permit. It's not a Okay. So, we're still like if it's just a building permit thing, that's not this. This is if they wanted Yeah. This is
change something on changes in in in a site plan that does not affect um parking that would not affect because right now it would be an amendment to a site plan. Um and then we would have to
um I guess could we get an example like of what a minor? So we had um recently Harris is would be the best one to give the examples because he's the one reviewing side plans but it would be adding um like a
carport. There was a business. I think it was a um um a car um like an attached building car. It was Yes, it would it would be adjustments to a side plan that do not
affect parking that would not affect um uh Well, so maybe that's the project I was talking about that turned like the bank into a dentist office and then they added a fence about it. Is that what you're talking about with the carport? No, this is different.
This was Yeah, this was an out place that they wanted to enclose the office um u enclose a section that would not they had parking to to um additional parking spaces that could uh provide for
already in in the on the site. So it would be to give some flexibility for if they are minor changes that does not affect the whole site, we could have a smaller fee associated. I guess I'm on board with that. I just that doesn't seem like a minor fee is my
question. So I was just trying to get an idea of what constitutes a minor site development order and if it actually is minor $3,300 if that's like similar to the cost of what they're doing. That seems a little steep. But I don't I guess I just don't know what examples we're looking at as far as
so how much the fee was calculated. I would have to check with with Harry's because this was proposed while I was on on vacation now. So I did not follow the the the calculation, but I can I can check with that uh and and get back to you. Okay.
And give examples. That would be perfect. Okay. Okay. Thank you. And I I'd like an example of a request for a legal interpretation. Is that something that we make available to everyone at all times? Like we can say, "Hey, tell us what your legal counsel thinks." Like I I would think that
that's just kind of included with the analysis. So to have I I don't know in what situation a person would randomly make such a request, an isolated request, it would not be included in the the other fee that
might, you know, be contemplated. So sometimes we have people that challenged us And then we have to go to the city attorney then to provide um uh their legal interpretation and it's not associated with an application.
Can can you give an example? I like is is this like maybe you have a pre-application meeting and and staff says, "Well, you can't do this thing." And they say, "But I think I can." And then they say, "Well, have your attorney go check with your attorney because we
think you're wrong." I mean I I just can't vision. I'm trying to remember what are the cases that we discussed recently that um we had to involve the city attorney and were not associated with with an
application. I think it was a question enforcement issue or something or there was a question on the lot split. I I remember. Are you thinking of the one where where there was a request for the land use administrator to make an interpretation
and I consulted on it or it was uh one that we discussed on it was a philosophical discussion. It was not associated and you I remember you came to me and said it was this is this applied to an application or is this coming from an application? No, it was a
philosophical discussion. if we need it or not. Um, a survey. Well, so why don't we uh I was going to say why don't we come back with some examples of these two just so we get a better understanding of what we're looking at for fees. Okay. But I'm I'm not against them. I just would like some examples.
Sometimes we have requests from from um applicants that um we need to consult the the city attorney and it's not associated with any application. So, okay. Does anybody else have any other questions on fees?
I is there an attorney's hourly rate because it's fixed price including litigation is what I remember in the proposal. That's exactly right. Uh however in jurisdictions where there is cost recovery where you have cost recovery in one form or another either on particular
applications or otherwise we set a reasonable rate that's recovered by the city not by us. See what I'm saying? So it it goes just to offset a piece of uh legal expenses. So this is I'm going to be talking with staff a little bit more about exactly when this
would trigger. More commonly where you would see it uh trigger in would be in uh an application that comes through and it has extraordinary legal services related to it. And then when you start exceeding what would be ordinary, it's build at an
hourly rate that goes to the city, not to us. But that's just to recover uh that overage if you will. But we'll drill down a little bit more about what would trigger this one in particular. Okay. Any other questions?
Okay. All right. Thank you. That is all I have for the order of business. Is there anything else? No. Okay. Well, it is 8:03 p.m. and this meeting is adjourned. See you