And it shatters my voice. >> Yeah. I don't know. >> Can you guys It won't happen with this one. >> That's what they do. >> Okay. So, I get >> Can you read that? Okay. >> I've got a little tool that does the
>> TDSO. Is it Hanu or >> total dissolve? >> Put it in the >> water out of the hose softener and it was like 280. And then I did it down the other side of the software. It was like 18. That still seems tight. So I'm like, I wonder if I
need to adjust that other options. >> I don't understand. You know, they said the hardness is 10 or 17 or something. >> That's a different number than what I was getting. I didn't know what that is. >> Um >> I'm happy to bring it in. I
>> It might be wise to have it just in case. I mean, she she's she's got the PowerPoint put up on the screen, so you know. So, we got that, >> but yeah, in case they ask a question. Yeah, we might want to get it quickly.
It's just so >> I have a feeling somebody do my laptop. Crazy game yesterday, man. >> Oh, that was wild, man. Don't look so excited. >> Long day.
>> I bet it was >> not a bad day. I heard the other day you're a Civil War reenactor. >> You didn't know that? >> I didn't know that. >> Like a like an officer like No, >> no, not officer. >> I have to get orders here. I don't want
to get orders out there like 25 years. >> Wow. >> But not like now I used to do it once a year. Excuse me. >> Where do you go for? >> Is it the same place you go all the time or >> Well, there's an actual real civil plus the state park.
>> Oh, wow. >> And now that's like the only local one left. All the other ones local have gone away >> for whatever reason. Yeah. >> So, >> did they have one in Crystal River? I heard there was a bank. >> They might. They may still have one way over there, but they used to have one in
Brooksville, Crystal River, Waja had a little one. I mean, there's little ones all over the place, but >> Dominic was tall, man. I had no idea, you know. >> All right, >> that's pretty cool. I knew you love history. >> You see the stuff? >> I'm sure. >> Yeah. He's got the guns,
>> huh? >> He's even got the guns. drug his son into >> I got a so whatever's going on at the mall this summer time thing >> the 4th of July >> yeah I've got I've been drafted to to come to that so I volunteered my son as
well so anybody who wants to see me I'll be there all dressed up >> what is it >> whatever the >> the fourth of July celebration is >> Oh wow >> they're going to do they're going to re he's going to do a civil war >> but I got to thinking what you what
No, you see me. >> So, I got to think they let me bring my rifle to the mall. You know, that's that's one of the things that uh uh >> Terry actually sent me an email. Um
because the Revolutionary War reenactors have musketss >> and whether or not that would be a good idea given this day and age and you know carrying around authentic looking. They're fake but they look unless they're used as such. You
know, they're fake, but they look real. You know, if people would have a >> These are real wackers, though. I mean, they shoot a bullet and all that. You get one shot, that's about all that be about all you got. >> It doesn't do any good to wear the
uniform wool. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. everything on your >> me. Oh yeah. >> Yeah. You have to give us pictures sometime.
>> Yeah. Right. >> You can always tell when one's coming because he grows his beard. >> You grow a beard, too. >> Problem is mine's all white now. So that's Wednesday. >> It's called age, Bobby. It's called aging.
>> Wait, that's not me. Carl, how are you? >> Good on the good side. Good to see you again. >> I've heard that, too. >> This is Bobby teacher, my grandson. >> Oh, no way.
how the shoulder, how the wall, how the hole stand they all start to get formation. >> Where were they? Where did they do this? City. >> Okay.
>> Yeah. But I had jeans. >> Uh, no, he's in he's in he got to go on the field and participate breathing in smoke.
>> Yeah. Yeah. You look good, man. That's not >> I put it on. >> Looks authentic. Huh? reenact the hard. >> I said, "Okay, just drive. >> They all look alike. Just drive.
>> They all look alike. >> We'll live. How's it going? >> How are you? >> Think about it. We barely need him until anyway. So, >> summer. >> I know. I just did the same thing.
You're right here. >> Great. >> Like unusual. >> Alan, how you doing? >> Good, sir. What's going on around here? What am I missing? perform at Steam night, >> I guess. And also a music and movement
performance >> at Stinstöm. >> I don't I don't exactly know what that is, but like probably right now. I think it's 5:30. >> So, Steam nights tonight. >> Steam night also.
>> It's just happen. I mean, >> but they have their little like dance like kindergarten dance on Thursday, so I'm not missing that. >> Yes. Yes. >> But yeah, no, Steam night today. Henry wanted to show me his robot, so I told him that.
>> Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Well, we won't miss micro night. I like to do I'll do I'll do one of the other ones too. >> Sam told me I wouldn't be missing it. So my knowledge that's usually what I was thinking about even when I'm wearing
these things she text >> I've never seen that. Well, and then she sent me It's funny cuz the exam sent me the same type of volunteer for the Apex run and I was like, "Guess I'm doing it." >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> It's fun. >> Oh, so is that you too?
>> No, that's uh internally. >> I was bummed our thing got cancelled. >> I was actually looking forward to that one. >> I'm not a list or something. You didn't get the cancellation >> and they sent it like you were all excited.
>> Okay, this is what it looks like. >> I was like this is cool. >> Yeah, I know. It was like this would be fun and interesting. >> There was like a thing and they were going to do like a tour of Space Force. >> Oh, >> and then uh >> at Patrick >> KFC.
>> Oh, KFC. Okay. I was like, "We should go to this one." >> And they sent like five reminders to sign up and then they sent a reminder to cancel >> cool. Is that like the one we did at Brown Park?
>> She exist. >> You had a rare sighting. >> Just don't get it. I don't get it. Slowly log on. Yeah, I would do it now cuz it's a minute. >> Yep. I have one here. >> I wonder.
>> Hey, Bobby. >> Asking if I'm supposed to introduce him. asking if I'm supposed to introduce him. >> Well, that's cool. But you get to sign them all. >> Oh, I would do it, too. >> I cannot get in. Can you get in?
>> No. I'm >> okay. You got your own. >> Brian, >> are you into Prime? >> Yeah. >> It won't let us in. >> I won't let you in. >> I'm kind of shaking.
>> I'm logged in, but it won't let me like >> Oh, I can't log in. But that might be a different problem. I always forget my password. I see. >> I mean, I can >> I wrote down my password. >> It's just like stuck loading. >> I'll like it. Try it again.
>> I don't want to try it too many times. Get locked out. >> I know. For 24 hours or whatever. >> Even this. Isn't that weird? >> And now it's not even Let me grab an agenda just in case we
start. Yeah. >> Yes. Pass these down just in case you >> No. quiet agenda. It looks like >> you walked up. Look, that was like a magnetic field.
>> Did it work? >> Just got in. >> Well, maybe not. >> Wait, he walked away. >> Come back. I'll make it work. >> Give me your magnet. >> Proximity switch.
>> Yeah, it's like it's having issues. That is quite a stack of >> paper. 60. >> I like refresh and close out. I reloaded >> like Seinfeld signing the checks. >> I mean, I can go off this. So, that's
fine. >> Mine came up. Something came up. >> All right. Hopefully it works the whole time. >> Oh no. >> Oh no no no it's not.
>> All right. I got this. Starting to get stuff here. >> It's not like >> we have two trees. Um, are those mics on that one? >> A decent crowd today.
>> Hello, man. My information comes from a seven-year-old. >> He was the only kid in gifted in first grade. Now there's another one. So apparently they work on a little >> so likely teacher mentioned something about it. So
I I do think it exists but what is it? I don't Is it coming home? I have no idea. like half of Central Florida. Why? Why is he not
>> Maline? Is everybody ready? >> Yes. Good. >> Okay. All right. We're going to get started. So, welcome to our city council of work session. Um, I'm going to call this meeting to order and we're going to
start with our public comment. I do have two written requests to speak. So, when I call your name, please come up here to the um podium and state your name. The first one I have up here is Jacob Leio Leio.
Sorry if I said that wrong. Good evening. My name is Jacob Legio. I'm a registered nurse and I've lived in Ovido my entire life. I'm here to speak about AED accessibility in high occupancy spaces. Cardiac arrest is extremely
time-sensitive and survival depends on access to defibrillation within the first few minutes, often before EMS can arrive. While AEDs exist in some locations, they are not consistently accessible or visible, particularly in
larger environments where delays in locating one can make a critical difference. I'm proposing that the city consider an occupancybased approach to improving AED accessibility, particularly in spaces with a capacity of 300 or more.
I'm asking the council to direct staff to evaluate AD accessibility in these spaces and return with recommendations for improving placement visibility and public mapping. That's all I have to say for now, but I do have these handouts.
>> Okay. >> Thank you for your time. >> Thank you. And if you want to give those to the clerk, she'll disperse them. But all right. Next up, I have Jesse Owen. Uh good evening. Uh my name is Jesse Owen. Been a resident of Avito uh for my
entire life as well. Um I'm here just trying to get more understand the process of how the local government works. Um I've been a business owner for 8 years here in Ovido. Um, I've just become more and more uh interested in politics and especially at the local
level. I think that's uh really important to be involved in. I wish more people were. Um, I don't have a whole lot of comments today. Um, I will say uh I don't have a whole lot of comments today. Uh, I am a Christian nationalist. I completely disagree with the
separation of church and state. Um, so I would like to read a passage of the Bible to use up some of my time. Um, I'm going to go from Romans 1 starting in verse 8. And I'll just read a little bit until my time is done or I've gotten to the end of where I would like to. Uh,
first I thank my God. I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you. Because of your faith is proclaimed in all the world. For God is my witness who I serve with my spirit and the gospel of his son. that without ceasing I mention you always in my prayers asking that
someone somehow by God's will I will not at last succeed in coming to you for I long to see you that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you that is that we may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith both
yours and mine I do not want you to be unawares brothers that I have intended often to come to you but thus far have been prevented in order that I may reap some harvest among you as well as among the rest of the Gentiles. I am under obligation both to Greeks and to
barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome. For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and to the Greek.
For in in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith as it is written, the righteous shall live by faith. Thank you guys. >> I I do not have any other written request to speak. Is there someone looking to address council at this time?
Okay, I will clo close public comment and move on to the order of business. Starting off with the federal lobbyist update. Mr. Cob. >> Uh thank you, Deputy Mayor. Uh Mr. Kur Kurlin is not with us just yet. We know he's in route. >> We're going to skip on item number three.
>> So, >> so residential solid waste rate review discussion. Are we ready for that one? >> Actually, he just he's walking in. >> So, >> welcome. Are are you ready to just jump in or do you need any minute? >> I'm ready to jump in. I really apologize.
>> Perfect timing. As I was telling uh your assistant city manager, I had a little bit of an adventure at the uh greater Orlando airport just um >> that seems to be happening a lot these days. >> So, first of all, Maurice Kurlin, thank you all so very very much uh that I
could be here. Um I'm with the lobbying firm called Calald and Fay. We've been proud to represent the city here for the last eight years. I know some of you I've seen in Washington. um some by just watching your council meetings um and
having some conversations with you. Also, just from a personal standpoint, I won't take too much your time because I don't know how much time I exactly have, but it's like a homecoming for me because my niece lived in Ovido because she's a UCF graduate and a proud one.
And so, um I came here to visit her a number of times. actually graduated about six years ago during the um football seasons when you guys were really doing incredible things with the Knights. So with that, our firm, just as a little bit of background, we've been
doing lobby, federal lobbying for 53 years with an expertise in representation of cities and um we're very honored to represent Ovido and we've had a tremendous uh record of success uh since what they call earmarks
or congressionally congressional spending has returned, which is about 5 years ago. first with Stephanie Murphy. That was uh initially about a $900,000 uh what they used to call earmark, but community project funding request for um
percolation and uh storm water and sewer. And more recently um with Seol County, a $2.4 million um community project funding request or earmark as we used to call it. Um, and that was for one of your state roads
that also was a joint project with Seminal County. So, that that's a little bit of background. And then I know you've got the PowerPoint up here. Um, and so I'm kind of going through these by memory because I'm so familiar with it and working with you all. Um, more
recently, uh, taking a look at, uh, the last, uh, fiscal year 2024, that was a total of 1.78 million, uh, working with Congressman Mills. And I would never say that we take credit for that. You know, you have
you have strong representation in Washington and you're a member of Congress, but what we do is we assist the city staff here in packaging your requests. And there's a real art to that. And that's something that we're well known for. And you have to meet
certain criteria. And uh your assistant city manager knows it in a in a way too because he worked for a member of Congress and he knows that there's real specific things that you have to do and that you have to meet in order to have these requests go through. And it's a year-long process. I mean, I know
Tallahassee just got done and I know there's a lot of things going on there. Um, this year, Congress, there's a few things going on in Washington, and I I mean, and I can get into that through some question and
answer, but significantly, you guys have had a real record of success in actually working with your delegation and are collaboratively working with the city staff here to have these projects submitted early in the process. And if you don't get in early on the process,
then you're out. And there's some communities they're they're just not participating in this or they're not knowing how to do it. And we're able to assist um OVO in doing so. And so, you know, this is transportation infrastructure. This is public safety
infrastructure. This is water infrastructure. And then in addition to that, one of the things I think is worth really mentioning and it's right on the PowerPoint at the very bottom, but it's sure, you know, not least uh in any respect by being on the bottom, but there's another process
which is not appropriations. It's what's called federal authorization, actually getting something to be deemed a federally authorized project. And when you do that, you trigger another way to get money. And it's you see in the bottom there, $10 million project
authorization for water and wastewater infrastructure. We were able to uh help you guys secure that authorization working with Representative Mills. And what that does is that allows the US Army Corps of Engineers to get involved
and they won't get involved if something's not a federally authorized project. And so, um, that's something that we were able to do working with the member of Congress. And in addition, this year, as a matter of fact, not to bore you, there was another these
authorizations come out every couple of years. That one in particular, the water resources and development act, they call it WERA, comes out usually every two years because across the country, there's so many major water infrastructure needs. And so, this year,
we asked for another $5 million authorization. And what that will allow is us to go back through the appropriations process and secure or at least request dollars through the US Army Corps of Engineers up to that amount. And I don't have to tell you water infrastructure in the state of
Florida, storm water, wastewater, clean water, huge issue and it's not going away. So those are some key items um uh that I that I would want to touch about our past success and then you all want to know well what are we doing now and
so here we are in the second year of the Trump administration and so you know even though we're in calendar year fiscal calendar 20226 it's the way the federal government works we're actually looking at federal
year 2027 and again uh working with the city and saying, "Okay, what are your priority projects? What is it that we want to present to a member of Congress?" And I guess for everyone's information also, it's useful
to know member of Congress cannot ask for an unlimited number of projects. They are limited. And this year they expanded it to 20 total projects. You all probably have 20 projects yourselves that you could ask for. The member of
Congress is trying to address the county, other cities, other entities, and he can only do it with 20 total projects. And the good news is last year you guys got in the last cycle you got two. And that was when there was only 15 total projects available. Congress
expanded it a little bit, not by much, up to 20 this year. And you have these two projects that were submitted within the last 3 weeks. Congress just left on Friday for a two-eek uh recess and uh we can talk all about that because we're
still kind of in a partial shutdown uh over funding for Department of Homeland Security, but they did turn to this year's uh project funding request with deadlines that we were having to meet in the last two or three weeks and working with your
staff closely, working with uh the congressman's staff determining what uh his priorities would be. You all have these two projects that that are pending. One for emergency operations center and secondly for this artisia street cover culvert project. So on the
one hand public safety emergency response and in this case um replacing this steel pipe which is important. So we're at the very beginning of the process and those deadlines were two
weeks ago. We worked with the staff um very proactively. I commend them. We got it in and we were following up with uh Mr. Mills's staff. In fact, going into his office and asking what else do you need? What documentation? Because it's not just merely asking. It's what's the
background? and they ask for community support, reflection of community support, letter signed by the city, letters from other community organizations or there could be articles or anything else that shows why these projects are important to your community. And so those have gotten in
and within the next couple of weeks. Um I guess I could say this under transparency requirements every member of Congress has to post publicly what projects they submit. So, very shortly, we will see in the next few weeks what projects that have actually been
submitted. They'll be on the on the member of Congress's website. And that's great because we'll be able to tell you right then and there and you if you don't believe us, you can look at the website what's in there for a veto. Now, we're at the very beginning of the process. It still needs to go through committee, but
at least you're will see exactly what's there up front. And these projects are are very strong ones. And so I have no reason to believe that they will not be included by the end of the process. They can cut the dollars down. You're hearing a lot of discussion in Washington about
funding for lots of things including over our overseas commitments, war, etc. And so um projects could get somewhat cut down, but we're going to be advocating that you get the full funding that you've requested. So um those are a
couple of items uh that are pending right now. Let me see if there's another slide after this. Um, and so I'm kind of already getting ahead of myself. You know, there's subcommittee, there's full committee, then it has to go to the House floor, then the Senate has to take it up. So, all these steps, we're
monitoring it, and I'm glad to be here to kind of tell you exactly what I'm doing every day being your eyes and ears along with my team in Washington in tracking these items and that touching base with the congressman's office throughout the process. And um
all those points I've already kind of spoken to just they have to be posted. There's a lot of transparency there and um it's a it's a year-long process unlike what Tallahassee is which is really a very fast I know they're going to have some special sessions but it's a
year long a full yearong process. Of course this last year it actually bled all the way into January and February of this year of what they of what was supposed to be done last year. Just everything gets a bit delayed. So, it's really important because uh we're looking longterm for your long-term um
for the city's interest. Some other things here. Uh last summer, July 4th, what was passed was a budget reconciliation bill. Uh you heard it termed as the one big beautiful bill and that included some uh tax cuts
um a renewal of tax cuts that the basically were the president's priorities. And there's that's a hu that was a huge bill. I just touched on in this PowerPoint what the key items were that you may care about. One importantly would be uh the reauthorization of
what's called the opportunity zone program and that allows the city to identify lowincome census tracks for potential private investment and you will submit those. This year there's kind of a process kind of underway.
you will nominate or designate certain low in lowincome uh census tracks here in the community to the governor. Governor submits it up to Washington, the US Treasury, and then those arguably would be designated and then anybody that's a private investor could go ahead
and say, "Hey, I want to invest in OVTO." And then they could get up to 10 years of tax capital gains tax deferral. So it's a private sector um incentive I guess is the way to put it and so that's
there. The other items um I think are more global but certainly of interest to you all. Um you know whether it's the debate on immigration, discussions about spending on defense, discussions about Medicaid, um SNAP, food stamps,
but I just wanted to include that because I think it's in the news and people are really paying attention to these items as well. And so, you know, they're they're affecting your residents and your constituents and people that are doing business here. Couple of other major pieces of legislation.
Um, early on in the administration, um, the president was questioning, uh, the value of FEMA. I mean, I see your fire chief is over here, and I think anybody that that is in Florida recognizes how important uh when there's
storms and hurricane season that you have not only uh Florida Division of Emergency Management, but you have FEMA comes in if there's a natural disaster and emergency declaration. There's been a couple of bills that are out there. This is one of them that's pending. Um,
we'll see what happens if there is a a real change um in how FEMA operates, but you know, the president put it out there that it needs to be reformed. Other people think, you know, let's streamline some things. Let's get reimbursements faster. That's a bill that we're paying
attention attention to that we wanted to make reference to. Then also I think across the board in Florida uh housing, affordable housing and so um the Congress has tried to
tackle this first time in 10 years comprehensive housing legislation. um two bills, one in the Senate, one in the House, and right now um each one is passed respectively in the in the House and the
Senate. Um as I noted there on the PowerPoint, there's there's there was the Road to Housing Act and then the Housing for the 21st century act and then the and then the Senate combined it more re most recently calling something the the road to the 21st century housing
act. since I submitted this uh um PowerPoint slide. Either way, this um this bill would provide some additional um incentives for people to increase the housing supply and also streamline things. Right
now though, it's tied up because the president advised that he's not going to sign any legislation until they uh enact what's called the Save America Act, which is related to voting. So even though the House and the Senate have passed these two housing bills, he's
kind of put the gibash on anything moving forward. But the good news is these two housing bills are pending and we'll see what the next steps are. I think there's the last slide here. Uh just kind of a summation of what
we're working on for the city. Um, I have already mentioned these community project funding requests, the water resources development act, another $5 million authorization. Every six years, Congress has to pass what's called the big what they used to call the highway bill. Um, back in the
1950s, that's what actually ended up uh how we ended up with our interstate system. And every six years or so, hey, transportation projects take five or six years to pass. uh excuse me, how transportation projects take usually
five or six years from beginning to end. And so the idea is every six years the Congress will look at housing, excuse me, transportation policy across the country. The last big bill was the uh what they call the bipartisan infrastructure law that was under the
Biden administration. It's already six years. By this September, that bill is going to expire. So already members of Congress already looking at what should be our transportation policy and where should we focus for the next six years and that's something we will be advising
the city about. Housing I already mentioned uh federal grant funding. Every single week we send the city um a listing of potential com what I call competitive grant opportunities. These aren't formula. This is something that the city can look at and say hey yes
this makes sense. One of them um I'll speak to right now um the safe streets and roads for all grant program. This is something that on both sides of the aisle everyone says, "Hey, we got to do something. We got more traffic." I saw it myself on Alfa on my way over here.
Um you know, you've got the university here. You've got kids and students, family walking, you got more traffic. So I think just across the country with all this there was a deci decision made in the last surface transportation reauthorization bill. We need to have a
separate grant program that individual communities can apply for and they call thisa safe streets and roads for all. It's been renewed again um with a notice of funding opportunity that just came out and that gives the city an opportunity to actually apply for that.
You don't have to go through FGO. you don't have to go uh you know necessarily through your no. It's good if you have their support, but you can directly make an application for that. And then last but not least on elections and redistricting, we really don't have
anything to do with that, but we're watching because obviously we have to work with your delegation and we want to see who's representing you in Washington and we've got strong relationships. That's what we do. We make sure we know the member. We make sure we know the staff. And that includes the two United
States senators. And so there are some things up in the air. We'll see if to the extent there is redistricting and how they may change some lives. Um the Congress could change. There's lots of discussion about that. Very narrow majorities in the House and the Senate.
Um you know, if I knew what was going to happen, you know, I'd be I'd be probably on TV um and I'd be commentating about that. We don't know. But it is a narrow thing. But the most important thing for the city to know and I think your staff knows this. No matter who's uh in the
majority, no matter who's in the White House, we've got the contacts and we've got the relationships or we'll make the relationships so that way um this city is properly represented whoever is representing you in Washington. So that way your projects are prioritized.
That's our job. And I just with that, I hope I didn't filibuster or go on too long. Um, I really appreciate the opportunity to be here. It's an honor to be here and I'm open to any questions you guys have and and we're really proud to represent you and and work with this with the city.
>> Well, thank you. Does anybody have any questions while he's here? >> I've got one that comes to mind. It's it's regarding FEMA and Patrick, maybe you can field it for me. We had some issues with FEMA funding for I believe it was the Mag Magnolia Street project.
Did we get those squared away or do we need help with that? >> I believe those were primarily uh with reimbursement. Um and uh they made it to
one level with on the basically they were sending the project to the engineers, the experts to take a look at and um I know that has made it to that level. Um from there uh our we have a disaster consultant as well uh that is
uh well informed of that process and working with FEMA and well as well as our finance team Mr. Tador and Mr. Boot behind me. Um so I don't think we are at the level that we need to engage uh at
that at at that time the we just entered the appeals process from what I know >> it's not resolved yet but we're working on it >> correct >> okay am I correct in that >> yes >> is that the same for the McKinnon project too did we finish the process
with FEMA on that >> I think Mckennon yeah we're on that one it's done yes the Magnolia we we're having to it's almost like an appeals process that we're going through and >> I know when we were when I was up there with Mr. Kurlin, we spoke to Senator
Scott and he offered any any assistance uh he could provide. He gave us some good advice, but uh he said if if we run into roadblocks with FEMA, he could give us direction on how to go through it. >> Yeah, I I would just comment on that.
Um, whenever there's reimbursement that you're waiting on, um, our approach is when the city advises us, hey, you've hit a roadblock, uh, or they're denying, um, a
reimbursement for some reason, and it's usually you're dealing with both FEMA and FDM, then, you know, we'll ask for the particular um, reimbursements that you're looking into and we'll we'll push it. We'll make some inquiries to try to
accelerate the process. I think I can comment fairly um to tell you that you know FEMA falls within the Department of Homeland Security. Um and there were contracts that were anything that was over 100,000 the secret the former
secretary was having to prove that and that was Secretary Gnome and that was a real um item of concern because you know we're talking millions of dollars. So every contract or every item over 100,000 uh the secretary is looking at I mean I
don't know specifically that was the mechanics but that was a real issue. So, there's a new secretary, uh, former Senator Mark Wayne Mullen, and I think he's going to be looking at those items. And, um, you know, the S Senate Government Affairs and Homeland Security Committee and the House Homeland
Security Committee, you know, these were some questions that came up during Senator Mullen's confirmation um, as to, you know, um, it's a big that's a big organization. Um, Homeland Security and FEMA is a huge part of it. and to try to make sure these things
don't get bogged down in that kind of decision- making. I mean, there's certainly a scrutiny to make sure it's done right, but but hopefully now with the new um secretary in place, some of these items will move more quickly. But I'm not exactly sure about ovitos and if
there is a particular delay in that, then we would absolutely um use our contacts with FEMA to try to expedite it and and push it. And so, we're fully available to you all. >> Thank you. and thank you for uh the trip. We were I guess it was last year we came up to see you and that was great
uh great support you provided. Uh we had a lot of good contacts and had a good time up there. So thanks. >> Well, thank you. Um anytime you're in Washington, we make a point to um facilitate your visit there. And uh
recently, for example, you know, National League of Cities, they had some people in town. Some people will come up for that, but that's a separate um item. But if you all come up, um, we we encourage it. We're not going to pull you out of your responsibilities here.
But it is something we encourage. Um, there it's a little bit of a different nature when the elected officials come up to Washington. I mean, they're seeing us as kind of your face and your eyes and ears there, but um, you know, we don't think it's a bad idea to come up
if if it works out uh, for you all. And we encourage it and it's an opportunity as what I my term is to underline O veto. I mean you've got a great relationship with your member of Congress or at least he knows you. You know him. I'm not I won't I won't characterize it one way or the other,
but he knows you. You can go see him. But the real question is the Washington legislative staff. They may not even be from Florida, but they're working on your issues. And so it's an opportunity we go in to, you know, represent you, tell your story, and then if you do come
up as the actual elected officials, you know, to bring your perspective and your background to the Washington legislative staff. And um and that goes for also Senator Moody. She's got or Senator Scott, they've got a mix of staff. Mo, many of them are from Florida. uh maybe
some not from central Florida or you know or from from here in seminal but um that's an opportunity I appreciate uh your comments on that and it we welcome your visit and it it you know in addition to that I would say this if you had a particular interest with a with an
agency let's say the FEMA issue continued to to persist then we would make a meeting with them and uh and push it face to face with you all there aside from what we're already doing throughout the Good. Thank you. >> Okay. Anybody else? All right. Well,
thank you for your time. >> Well, thank you guys very much again. Sorry for my little bit of delay here. Apologize for that, but navigating my way through Obito. So, but pleasure to be here. Thank you. Thank you. >> Okay. We move on to our next order of
business, which is the residential solid waste rate review and discussion. Mr. Cobb. Uh thank you, deputy mayor. Um in 2021, council adopted resolution 4109-21. Uh and it uh increased our solid waste
rates by a little over $2 up to $25. And that has been the monthly rate uh that has been in place. Uh since then we've been monitoring the uh solid waste program uh and we're seeing increases in
costs that we can no longer absorb the wi with within that $25 rate. So we asked our our financial adviserss will if they would take a look at our solid waste rates and to give us an idea of what we need to do over the next 5 years
to make our program sustainable. We also asked them to look at the possibility of having a person dedicated to the solid waste program. We currently don't have that. We sort of do it by committee. And so it uh having that dedicated person
and so will took a look at look at what it would be needed to make our uh our program sustainable. And then they also looked at what it would cost, what would be the rates as far as adding in the new uh a new position. Uh Miss Tara Hollis
is here with us tonight. Uh they've performed the study and she's here tonight to present their findings and so I'll turn it over to her. >> Good evening. Can everybody hear me? Okay. Or scoot it a little closer. >> Okay. >> Better. Yeah.
>> Okay. I'll try to talk a little louder. That's all right. All right. Good evening again. I'm Tara Hollis uh with Uldan Financial Services. go to the >> next one.
>> So, as I mentioned, the key objectives of our study were to identify your total revenue requirements. We need to see how much revenue needs to be generated. Um, so we look at your collection costs. So, you do have currently Waste Pro is the contractor that's doing your hauling. Uh, that contract goes through, I
believe, September of 2027. Uh, you also have disposal costs. So what they do is they haul it to the county's landfill and then you have to pay tipping fees at the landfill. Um so that's where you know you have these disposal costs. Um there also is a franchise fee that's included in the
rate as well as an administrative fee. That administrative fee handles things um like billing, customer service, uh those type of activities that are carried out by the city. Um and then as I mentioned, we're looking at a potential an additional staff member or
a dedicated staff member being added um and what that impact would be on the rates. Uh so the first thing we need to do is once we've understood the revenue requirements, we want to look at what does that mean under the existing rates? So that $25 um is that adequate
sufficient to cover those costs or not? Uh and then once we look at that, we're going to look at um if it's insufficient, what are our projected rate adjustments? And we looked at those with two scenarios. One with that additional full-time person being added
and then if you didn't add that person. Uh next slide, please. Um again, in order to look at this, we look at your audited financial reports. Uh we do have the draft audit from 2025 so we can see
where your fund balance stands. Uh we went through the current Waste Pro contract and the costs that you've been paying Waist Pro. Uh looked at financial information for the historical information from 2023 through 2025. Uh as well as your budget for 2026
and then also again the current rates charged. Um so the Waste Pro has an has built in to the contract um an adjustment for the consumer price index. So CPI of up to 3% that can be added. Um
and we these are on the in the next but they have that. So we've looked at what their charges are as well as the county and the county can increase their landfill their tipping fees. So for and again this is just for the residential side. So when we're looking,
we had minimal growth. We're looking at you adding about 25 24 to 25 customers a year. So that would be new homes coming on that would be needing the service. Uh we went back again through that historical information. So the refues, the yard bulk and recycled materials. Um
and for in looking at that, each household generates approximately 1.49 tons per year of garbage. Um, there also are carts that are in the governmental buildings.
So, your city-owned buildings that those also get passed through to the residential because those are being used by residential customers. Those get so we look at we had the number of those different types of carts and rolloff units. Um, again that additional labor
costs and we had that beginning in 2027. So, we'd look at you hiring a new staff member in 2027. Um, also another thing, currently Semino County does not charge you for tip for a tipping fee for recycle. They are however considering
starting to charge for that. They have notified the different me municipalities that they are looking at potentially starting to charge for that. And if they do that, it would come in January of 2027. So we want what and what they're looking at right now is potentially making that equal to the other basic
tipping fee. Um, so if you do that, we wanted to make sure we ran it and we're conservative running u an analysis with you starting to have to pay that tipping fee associated with recycle. Uh, and then also as I mentioned based on the audit, your starting fund balance
for this year is approximately about $100,000 left in the fund. The fund needs to be self-sufficient, which means we have to have enough to cover the operating expenses. Uh, and so we want to look at that and and see where we are. um because there is there is no other money. It's going to come from the
general fund if it or some other source if you don't have that money in that fund to cover. Um so as we mentioned in our analysis the residential unit collection unit costs we're looking at increasing those costs per the current contract at 3% a
year. We're looking at inflation's been at least three. Right now we are capped at three. So we have that and the government building collection costs at three. Um the county did not do an increase this year in January. Um but they are looking at and have been
projecting a minimum of four to 5% per year. So we have included a 4% per year. Um and then the administrative fee as I mentioned that's based off of your customer service and those type costs. Um so those we're looking at again kind
of inflation with some labor minor labor in there. So that's why we're doing that at 3 and a half% because typically labor costs run in a little bit higher increases are typically slightly higher than inflation. So next slide um as I mentioned um the actual
projected projected annual waste uh you can see in 2024 the waste was a little bit higher um and that's primarily in your yard waste and some of that was basically with some of the storms and hurricanes that we had. Um but in general you're running about that 1.49
49 tons per household per year. Um, so you can see that's about 18,000 18,400 tons. Um, and then that's increasing just by those 25 households per year. >> You said 1 average of 1.449 tons a year
was the average household waste. Did that include yard waste or is that just >> That was everything. So that was all four components. That was recycle, bulk, which bulk. >> Yes. Uh, next please. So, as you can see with the historical
operating results, and you can see up there from 2021 through 2025, um, and that was when using that $25 per household per month. Um, in 2025, you were your expenses, I mean, sorry, 2021, your expenses were slightly more than
your revenues. um that started kind of leveling out in 2022 and 2023 and now you can see we're going back the opposite way again where your revenues are less than your expenses. So the fund balance
um right now we've been working that down and you're down to again from the beginning of this year about $100,000. That was as of October 1st, 2025. So that was for the beginning of fiscal year 25. it potentially is less than
that now as we've gone through a portion of the fiscal year because you're running where your expenses are more than what you're collecting each month um in the monthly rate. So the next slide is what happens if we continue that we want to know if you
kept the 25 um dollars per household per month what would that mean and you can see unfortunately that is in the fiveyear period going forward. So for this fiscal year through fiscal
year 2030 um it it wouldn't work. You would have to find another funding source. >> Is this with adding an employee or just the increasing costs? >> So this is with adding the employee. >> Do we have it if we didn't add an employee and stayed with like the committee? >> Uh I can probably pull that. We're
saying the employee would be less than 100,000 a year. >> I just I'm just curious how much that affects like this chart adding in an employee versus not in just status quo. Well, then you'd subtract 100,000. So instead of being 3.6 >> this one did >> to short. You'd only be 3.5
short because you'd have an employee every year, >> right? You'd have 100 a year. So if you'd say it's not quite 100, but we're saying with benefits. >> Yeah. >> So you took off five, you know, even if that was four years, you took off 400,000 out of that be ending balance, you would >> adds up. So it' be 3.2ish. Okay.
>> Right. >> So you would still be negative. But yes, this I did run with assuming that new employee. And then we have a second set if you what the right be you can add that. Okay. So the first thing is looking at that additional what what the rates need
to be to be sufficient. Uh this next slide would be again you're currently at $25 per month. Um unfortunately we are part of the way through fiscal year 2026. So, we're having to play catchup a little because the costs are obviously
more than the $25. Um, so in order to still maintain a balance in your fund balance, um, we're looking at if you implemented this by June 1st, um, needing to do a rate of about
$29.29. Uh, and then because you've been able to, if you do implement that rate, your next year would be would be less. So that would be October 1st of 2026, you would look at a $2959
per month. Um, and then that would continue to kind of go up by about those inflationary increases because again, you're not you're you're not having much customer growth. So you're that's not buying down your rate increases. Um, so at the end, again, with an additional
staff member, with a dedicated staff member, full-time staff member to storm water, at the end of the 5-year period, you'd look at a rate of $32.16 per household per month. >> Is that taken into account us renegotiating in 2027 that contract,
which could make it go up, or is it not? that could that is one of our caveats at the end is if that goes up more than what we've built in here that you would potentially have additional rate adjustments. So this is assuming similar
conditions as what you have now. And this is again also assuming that the county only does 4%. But they also begin charging for recyclable. So to the extent that the county would implement rate adjustments more than 4% you would potentially have to
look at passing that through as well. So the what we're doing here is looking at trying to tie it in instead of doing one rate and setting it for a 5-year period trying to adjust it each year to account for those impacts of inflation. Um but yes the the if the hauler
contracts come out and are not similar terms then that could also increase or decrease this depending on how the terms come out. This shows what those annual results would be. Obviously this year if you
implement it in June you're looking at just you know almost break even for what your fund balance would be about $9,000. Um and then to try to accommodate any other fluctuations in the rate. We're looking at you trying to keep at least
$40 to $50,000 in that fund so that if rates go up slightly higher um than we anticipate that you would potentially have that fund balance available. Um, but basically the rates are set to break pretty much break even each year for your revenues and your
expenses which you can see in the top graph. It's not exactly breaking even though if we're getting a 9% franchise fee. Correct. >> Because we built in we built that in and then that >> Yes. which does go to cover >> to the general. >> It goes to the general fund. Right.
>> Right. And typically that's to cover things such as impacts on roadways, impacts on other um items, you know, because you have >> heavy trucks on roads, >> right? >> So, >> so infrastructure and those items >> is that set by state statute that it can
be no higher than nine or is this like how do we get to that number just so we can have full transparency because I know residents are asking a lot of questions about is there anything we could shave off? Could we shave off 9%. And where where's that number come from? Do you or maybe that's not a question
for you. Maybe for our city attorney possibly. >> Sure. I can tell you I know we've had that they've had that in there and that's the percent that they've been using. Communities there different communities charged more or less than that percent. Um that was the city had
adopted that 9% historically. I don't know the how the exact date that that was. >> Yeah. I don't know the history of course here in Oto but uh there is no state statute setting a uniform uh solid waste franchise fee that is a negotiated fee
uh that you find on a county bycounty or municipality by municipality basis. It tends to fall within certain ranges obviously but uh there's no state statute governing that. >> All right. Thank you. So then, as I mentioned, if we did not
hire that that full-time dedicated staff member, these are the rates again this year, unfortunately, cuz we weren't even showing them coming in until 2027. So, we'd still have to do almost the same rate. You can see this drops it
where you're pretty much exactly at break even for 2026. Um, and then this does run slightly less um, at the end. I think it's about 60 65 cents less at the end of the 5-year
period per month. Um, so if you go to the next slide, you can see this would again the fir the first year we're showing expenses still for 2026 because we're implementing it part of the way through the year. expenses being higher than
revenues, we're showing about a thousand dollars in the negative potentially if you do that. Um, and then build again the next year because now you'd be collecting that higher rate for a whole year. It gets you back to having about 60,000 in
your in your fund and then we stay at that level where we're pretty much breaking even each year thereafter. Um, so then the next slide shows you the differential. Um, so like I mentioned, if you're not doing the additional FTE,
you would be at $2909 per month um, starting in June 20 or June of 2026. If you were, it'd be $29 29. So that's a 20 cent differential. And this kind of shows you moving forward um for 2027
2028 through 2030 um at the end at the 5-year period you would potentially be at $31.50 versus $32.16 per household per month. >> Why does the monthly difference change
that much from year to year? It's three times in 5 years what it was the first year. So, because the first year we're not actually implementing it in 2026, we'd say a new version would come out in 2027. But because we've had to push technically for 2026, if you had
implemented it, the rate adjustment October 1st, it wouldn't be the $29. It would be less. The break even would be less. But because we're only going to have it in place for 4 months, we have to push the 2026 rate up higher to make up for what the shortfalls that you
already experienced from October 1st until June 1st. >> Yeah. >> So that's that what that's why then that second year there would typically be more of a a gap. So, we made an adjustment of like $2 to the rate what it was actually
calculated to be for 2026 and then we also made a slight adjustment for 2027 um to continue to to get there and then then that new person was >> so it's actually like the 62 cents to 65 is the accurate of what it cost to split over two years. Yeah, that's a good
question. It's just the t basically it's caused because of the timing of this first increase and trying not to spike it up to where if you really were trying to get up to that 40 or $50,000 being your level amount, the 2026 number would have to go up higher and then you drop
back down and then come back up again. Um, so we're trying to phase that in and still account for the the delay in the timing of when this was adjusted. if that makes sense.
So really our next steps are we've we've shown these rate scenarios. We can look at other rate but we're looking at providing direction on a rate scenario. The next thing you would do is you you typically while not required like water and sewer rates, you
typically put this notice on the water and sewer bill to let them know that you know to let customers know that the rate would be going up and when the hearing is and then you have a public hearing to adopt their rate. And then for like I said we are a little bit and it with the more the longer you
delay the potential you having a shortfall for this year. >> All right. So I think it's up >> questions any >> for discussion here right any questions first >> on the solid waste fund balance um from
2022 to 2024 156 2724 was that just storm related where it dropped off to 99 >> slide number seven >> uh seven
>> can you put slide number seven back Yeah, that looks good. That's what you're talking about, right? >> Yeah. >> Yeah. So, a portion of that would have been storm. A portion of that is also at the use when the rate was initially set like I mentioned it was set for a 5-year period. So, it wasn't set at the
it it was looking at what we thought that and I didn't do that one, but it was or I don't know that WA did that one. I did not. um it was kind of set of what the average rate needed to be over that 5-year period. So as you started going on and that $25 was slightly
higher than the expenses at the time and then what's happened is now the expenses have gone above that 25 so it's starting to come back down again. So there's a little bit with customer growth there was a little bit of where the rate was set at the time. Um and again you were moving from a you know we were trying to
they were trying to build up that balance to make sure you were counting forward. And then with 2024 with the storm there, well, there really wasn't. That's why it went back down because of the storm. You had more tipping fees actually with storm related damage. So, you didn't charge people more because of the storm,
but you got charged more in expenses in 2024 um because you had more yard waste to take to the landfill for tipping fees. So, your expenses started were actually higher in 2024 um than they had been. So, that's what started with that year coming back down. And then now all
the expenses, so your hauling and your tipping fees are higher than that $25 combined. >> Okay. So then we're saying, you can jump to slide 12, which goes with the where it's saying in 2027 we're going to
be at 66,000 and we're going to maintain at 66,000 or that one. Same same employee, >> right? We did depending on if you're with the full-time or not. We were trying to get about 50 to 60,000 to keep in that fund to cushion >> and we envisioned that we would be able to
>> maintained at that level. >> Right. Then the rate there, our recommendation is not to set a rate and leave it in place for 5 years. Our current recommendation is because your costs are going up each year that you increase and adjust the rates instead of jumping and having to do the the 17 16
or 17% like you're doing now that you continue to adjust it annually because the components of the rate are going up each year by inflation. So our recommendation is to continue with that at the you know the three or four instead of having to have a 15% jump in
four or five years. Um, when you do the 3% a year and it phases it in, >> right? And I know it's hard. You can't predict, you know, if we get a storm, but if we get a storm out, I guess, I'm assuming that would just eat that right up, wouldn't it? >> So, if you're your cost could eat that
up depending on how much, and again, that would potentially be yard waste. Um, we did see some costs go up back when COVID and more people were home and were generating more waste at home as well. So those numbers in a lot of communities were kind of skewed because
again there was more to take to the landfill. So the tipping fees were higher. Um so there are different things that could unforeseen things that could happen that could push that 1.49 average that we're
saying is tonnage per household up which would then increase your cost as well. >> And what is this full-time employee supposed to do? What what is their job going to be? Let's ask I'm going to let I'm going to let
Wy first. >> You just crunch the numbers, right? You don't you don't say what he's going to do. >> That's a great question, isn't it? What are they going to do? >> Right now, we have five there's five people in the city that actually deal with solid waste. You know, the the term bullpin by committee like in baseball, same idea. Mr. Cobb is involved. I'm
involved. Mr. Williams, who's in the corner back there, he's our all-star when it comes to solid waste. He's he's a jack of all trades. He does everything. Plus, we have two other staff members, Miss Cordis, who's a storm water coordinator, plus Lori Shyrie, who's an admin assistant, and we're all involved. We we've never had anybody dedicated. So, the way I
look at it is there's we're not proactive enough with solid waste. It's always takes a second fiddle to something else. I mean, we have other priorities going on. Usually, we don't uh we don't follow them around out to check on them to make sure like we like
like we need to. There's not enough contract administration. and we're not making sure they're submitting the kind of things they need to. I mean, and I'm not trying to throw us under the bus, but these are things that just don't happen on a regular basis that need to. And so having somebody that's dedicated to solid waste would solve some of these
problems. Do we have to have it? No. We can keep on doing what we're doing. Would it be nice? Yes. I mean, everything else that we do, the services we provide to the city to have dedicated staff members that oversee these things. Well, not solid waste. And so, this is if there's ever an opportunity to do it, it's now when we do a rate study. At
least we look at it. Actually, actually you left out one person. The mayor's also >> Well, yes, the mayor actually runs a lot of the mayor is the a large triage along with myself. She and I think she and I get most of the complaints and uh
and share between the two of us. But >> to me, that's that's the thing. We we have it's not just this contract. >> How many? 11 or 12? >> Uh 11, but I think technically it's nine now. I think Waste Pro bought a couple of them. We we have the commercial
contracts as well and and so I just to give this this was a uh actually the mayor had had an issue with the commercial waste haulers uh coming in at 4:00 in the morning when they shouldn't have been there until 6. And so you had her involved, you had me involved, you
had Miss Cortis involved, Mr. Williams got involved, code enforcement got involved, >> and they're like staking out so staking out. he actually caught the driver. Uh, and so that's the thing is that if we had a
dedicated person, then we would have that person that that go-to person that would be you would have Mr. Williams out in the neighborhoods looking for u um leaks from the trucks and he would be able to go off and do his inspection
duties rather than chasing chasing down the waistro trucks. The good news is we have Eric Saxton over at WPro and he has been so great to work with us uh and and been responsive to when we call and but that I think that's really that we also
with Simol County getting more active with they have a is it a committee or they just pull everybody together at certain times but uh the solid way staff they're they're starting to do more collaborative work and sometimes Mr. Williams goes, sometimes Miss Cortis
goes and and so this person would be able to liazison with the county and to work through solid waste issues that that are ongoing. And so I I think really at least from my perspective, this is this is something so that you freeze these someone who's like Mr. why
it said dedicated to solid waste and that way we're not pulling people from what they're normally doing to try to go catch catch up with what the complaints that we're receiving. >> Is there other cities around us that has somebody like this?
>> Sanford for sure has one. I believe Alimont has one as well. Of course, Alultimont provides their own service, but they have dedicated staff. I know Sford has one for sure. >> Okay. It's a it's it's a it's a it's a growing pain symptom of symptom of you
know just success in a way. >> Understand? >> Okay. I I've got a follow-up question on this. Um I I struggle to see how this could take up a full-time job unless it is expanded to include something like
maybe shuttling hazardous waste. And and I don't know if this is like getting too crazy pants. Uh shuttling hazardous waste from someplace inside city limits to the transfer station or something like that cuz I'm thinking what would it take for me to think, man, I'm getting a
good value out of this. Well, if I don't have to take my extra paint to the transfer station in the middle of the day or Yeah. Or I don't I don't know if they're open on Saturday at normal hours, but yeah, if I could take it somewhere in the city, is that worth 65
cents more a month? Well, yeah, I think so. That that would save >> that would cost us more though cuz we're adding a service, right? I don't >> from a standpoint of you'd have to purchase a vehicle for the for the staff member. >> We had vehicles. You just put all the paint.
>> Well, you can reuse one. I mean, I I don't I don't know. We haven't looked at it from that perspective. I mean, I know what you're talking about. You're you're what if I >> transfer transfer station? >> Yeah. Bug spray paint. >> Yeah. All the weirdo stuff >> chemicals. >> And if we had somebody that was educating people about what we should
not be putting in our trash, I think that could be potentially very helpful. And as we begin the negotiation for another 7-year long trajectory of a lease contract, this person would be in place in time to
help us navigate what sounds like maybe a situation. Do I need to switch microphones? Help us navigate a situation. Maybe it's all of us. Or maybe I was just really loud before. Can Can you all hear in the audience? Okay. Oh, there we
go. Now it's louder. Um, so this person can help us navigate the very, very difficult discussion we're going to have to have about should we have trash and recycling if they both cost the same and it requires us to run
two trucks instead of one truck. I don't know about you guys, but like if I was told you get one pickup of one bin once a week, like I only ever have half a bin of recycling most of the time and this for you five people living in the house
and half a thing of trash. So it would there's there's it's always difficult discussions to have when we're negotiating our our bigger picture contracts. For right now, we have a short-term issue of, you know, what do we do? And should it have the extra
person or not have the extra person? Part of me, I'm I'm kind of torn on that. Part of me wants to get the extra person cuz I I know that everybody is scrambling with their main jobs. Um, but also it doesn't seem like it could fill
up productively an entire day. I mean, most of Is this one working now? >> Oh, no. Here you go. >> No, it was um most of what you're saying is for negotiations in 2027. So, I guess the first question is, do we want this
employee or not? So, input welcome. Is it an open discussion? >> No, I'm open to you know, obviously adjusting the rates. Um, I struggle with the full-time employee and I apologize. I understand what you guys are saying. I
I just struggle with with that part of it. I get the change in the rate with the way that expenses are changing and obviously if we don't do anything, we risk putting our fund balance into a negative situation.
Um, so I get that we have to do something. No, I just I just struggle with the additional full-time employee. Council >> Britain, >> I guess I'm uh kind of leaning that way, too. I'm not sure what kind of skill set
we're looking for in that employee. I I think I'd like to challenge uh staff to look at other folks on uh on staff that may be underutilized that could maybe take on some of the these responsibilities. I don't know if that's the case. Just would like to just throw
that out there. I'm really kind of concerned about the buffer we got there. $50,000 uh each year. I guess that's considered break even, but I'm just not sure with the fidelity of of this information, whether it's, you
know, we get a a big storm and everything goes through the roof and then we've got to come back here again and adjust rates again. So, I I'm almost thinking we should keep it at the the the level where we had the FTE but without the FTE to build up that that uh
buffer a little bit more. Um yeah, I kind of feel the same way about the full-time employee as as you guys expressed. Um I I might submit though on the buffer. Um, if we could go back to number seven,
which I think is 18 on yours. >> That's it. >> Um, if you look at the years on that top graph when we had a storm, so we're looking at 22 and 24,
it it doesn't seem like there's a tremendous bump in uh in actual expenses from those years. So, while I might have thought the same thing, the numbers don't seem to bear that out. Is there a any comment on that from from
staff? >> Did we get FEMA help for >> Mhm. >> for picking up uh storm waste? >> Yes, we do get FEMA help for picking up storm waste. What we don't get FEMA help for is when people take their storm
waste and put it in their normal >> in the normal yard recycling, right? >> The second it goes into the trash and goes into the truck, second it goes into the truck and goes off to the landfill, it's it's just considered landscape
waste. uh the folks that that are serviced by the uh emergency waste hauler uh where they actually measure out the uh the cubic yards of of the of the the trucks of the trucks.
>> Uh those are the ones that we can get reimbursement for. >> So when you Yes. when you have usually when it's a smaller lot, you have a lot not a lot of damage. Uh, a lot of folks will just put it out on their their normal landscape day. >> So, so was there any any comment about
about that about how on the hurricane years we don't seem to have a bump here? Um, like I said, FEMA because the FEMA truck that's that's one thing, right? Claw truck and is it only the claw truck or >> that's typically the the best way to remove it.
>> Yeah. So for bulk loads, I mean they bring in claw truck. It's just larger amounts. >> Is there any kind of thing other than a hurricane that we would expect to cause DCs to go up, you know, spike for one year? >> Well, I would I would point out the
recent freeze that we had. There's a lot of dying vegetation. So I know Waste Pro has seen their quantity of tonnage go up and so I know they've struggled to catch up a little bit. They're in the rears just a little bit because of all the uh yard waste people are brought out. So you could have scenarios like that as
well. >> Okay. So I'm I'm already hearing three people who don't want the added FTE but are good with the rates. Is that what I heard? >> What choice is there but to be good with the rates? I mean
right >> but you all none of you wanted the additional employee. >> We just I struggle a bit myself on that. >> I'm just asking to get consensus. Yeah. >> Uh, council, may I may I ask a a certain
scenario in instead of the the additional employee, would it be possible because we have it right now, as I mentioned before, all of our dedicated um revenues fund specific employees for specific services. Like I said, we don't have anyone specifically
dedicated to solid waste. We, like I said, built in by committee. However, one thing we could do is if you're willing to have a small percentage of what we had suggested as a rate increase be used to fund partially of a of an existing employee for that dedicated
service. Is that something that would be considered? >> So, make it more like a part-time role, but it's funded. >> Yes, ma'am. >> I mean, that makes that seems like a good compromise to me. >> Do we get to the same place as before, though? Because then we would have extra funding for all these, >> right? Right now, if you look at it, the
other enterprise funds are subsidizing that employee for the work with solid waste. >> Yeah, >> I'm just suggesting that solid waste would pay for that employees. >> So, it would make it more transparent to probably stop using storm water and so
is it mainly storm water people do it? >> Mhm. >> Any just straight public works or all storm water? So, >> it's a mixture of well myself you got utilities. You do have storm water being paid. Mr. Williams is also utility. I mean, so you've got different
>> So there's different buckets of there's different enterprise funds involved and there's also general revenue fund. >> There is >> money involved. >> So you got it all tangled up in here. So we are subsidizing garbage unless we do the FTE which might hypothetically let
us reduce or increase less other utility funds in the future. >> I I don't know about that. I don't think it probably moving the needle, but it would be a more efficient way to accounting. It would be a cleaner
accounting way >> if we could if we could fund a partial, you know, I say partial employee, I mean if you fund half of them or less from solid waste, then you can you can literally write it into their job description that that's what they do
and now they're being paid for it. I mean, that's not it's not in anybody's real job description right now and that's where it needs to be. You've got this dedicated person to do it. >> So right now you're saying there's no transfer from solid waste into
>> Yeah. into anybody in that committee. >> Yes. >> Anybody else at all? >> That's accurate. Yes, sir. >> From an accounting perspective, is that are is m Mr. boob is is do we need to
fix this? >> Is that that seems like a problem? Is that like is it and I guess this goes I'm asking you a question but then switching over to Mr. Vos. Um legally are we allowed to make it in the job description if the person is paid for
with storm water? I I would think we could not technically because I like the idea of it being somebody's job description to do these things and it seems like a raw deal to not have it be your just job description and also it is your job.
>> It would make it more appropriate for me. >> It it would make it more appropriate for you. We don't want to put I don't I don't want you to be in a awkward you're in a very awkward situation right now >> from a from >> cuz we put you there. I was going to say this is more of an accounting question than a legal question but yeah
Jerry first >> from a technical accounting question when you're using a storm water person uh for solid waste functions basically what you're doing is you're allocating a portion of the storm water rates to support solid waste and that is
something that you probably don't want to do. So this would fix that. Yeah, I I would probably categorize it more as a don't want to do or contrary to the intention of these enterprise funds set up than being hard ily legal
or anything like that, but I to that end it would remedy that. >> It sounds like three people don't want to do it anyway. So, >> I I have no problem having someone dedicated to it. And I do see the issue with, you know, the people we're talking about have jobs and roles they need to
fulfill. So, if we're pulling them off to not do their job, we're taking away from that. Um, but I also do struggle with it being a full-time thing. Um, but if there's a middle option here of, hey, we're going to part-time fund this, that
seems like a compromise we could get to. >> Madam Chairman, I propose something. >> Sure. >> So, uh, I I like Mr. Britain's idea of using a higher rate for the exact same reasons that he mentioned because when you look at this there's not a heck of a
lot of margin going forward. Uh and so if we use the higher rate and we use um and we only fund half of an FTE uh that should give us a little bit more additional margin to work with in the solid waste fund going forward. Okay.
So, will that be enough to overcome everything that could possibly come at us? Can't predict that. However, it would give us a little bit more margin than we currently have in this current study. >> And Mr. Boop, if we do that, then they could still charge their hours
to the right fund. >> Correct. >> Because we're charging the higher rate, but we're not >> We could either There's a number of ways that we can do that from an accounting perspective. What I would like to do is get together with staff to determine what the cleanest way to do that would be, and the most efficient way to do that would be. So, >> okay.
>> But but yes, >> do we have I mean do we know exactly how many hours are charged to this particular >> all right? >> Yeah. No. Yeah. No need to count them if you're not going to get reimbured. But >> well, >> I would say make it a quarter of a person's job.
>> Quarter of a person's full-time job. that would that would would definitely take that much time to be dedicated to solid waste between contract work going out in the field checking on them following around every once in a while like an inspection you know also on the commercial side
keeping up with that that in itself is quite a bit >> that that >> that's why I said in the beginning we have to have no but it'd be nothing >> I do like council Britain's proposal here because then we have a bigger
safety net and we're talking about 60 cents here, you know, nothing drastic and then we can do that. We can still charge that 0.25T in there and be good with our budget. >> I'm good with that. >> Sound good? >> Yep. >> Okay. >> So, the proposal is
>> the proposal is to keep the higher rate, but we're not going for a full-time employee for it, but now they're going to accurately charge their time to this fund as they should. Um, and then we'll see where I mean I also have a feeling we might be back here after we contract
in 2027 and see where we sit because the way the world is there's I have I have an inkling it's going to go up. So, uh, we might be back here in a year, but I think the proposal is to go with the higher rate but not do the full-time employee, but they can charge their hours appropriately now.
>> Good. >> Good. Y deputy mayor. Um if I may just real quick just as a heads up um of what's coming um in about a month we'll be back here again at a work session to for more trash talk um to talk about service and is there as we go forward
into the next RFQ or RFP is there anything that you want to do differently as far as service and you'll have another consultant who's sitting in the back against the wall who will be up talking to you about what's going on currently in the solid waste industry and different options you might want to think about moving forward. that might
may or may not have potential cost savings. >> Yeah. If it if it costs the same to recycle as it does for solid waste, why do we need two trucks? >> That's a great question. >> Yes. >> And you said that's next month, correct? So, I would also say if you have ideas as someone who works with this, you
know, share them with us ahead of time and then we can come to that meeting when we get there next month and see what I do. >> It' be an April work session. >> April work session. Okay. >> So, how might that change this then? If if we come up with something drastically different now all of a sudden all of this is is out the window or do we just
>> I don't know and I hate and I hesitate to step in it when when the consultant is sitting against the wall over there might say something wrong but think about it this way like Mr. Britain said you can stop recycling. You could go from a manual load to I mean from a a mechanical load to a manual load. I these are these are potential just
things to think about. >> Mhm. >> You I'm not going to offer them like oh yeah we have to do it. But it's different things. John, am I am I right? >> Lots of things. >> Okay. >> You can you can come up if you wanted to speak in >> I'm putting you on the spot here.
>> His time is coming. >> You're next month. You're next month. Okay. So understood. >> Okay. I think we have direction move forward. Any other questions on this topic? >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> Yep. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> We will move on to item number four, our
fiscal year 2627 budget schedule. Mr. Cobb. >> Uh thank you, Deputy Mayor. Well, it's it's uh it's that time again uh where we uh start the budget process. And I can tell you that staff has already started the budget process. We're already thick
into uh creating our uh capital improvement program. Uh we're already have our priority meeting scheduled for uh for next month. But we wanted to come tonight to give you an update of where we are uh as far as this fiscal year and
then also to look at some things that are out there that are affecting us uh coming into the 26 27. We also have a little analysis for you for uh for tax reform. Uh and uh we one of the things
we have for you as well is uh Mr. Kelly is connecting with Mr. Cardy and Miss I'll say it wrong. >> Anto um to uh when we get to the part about the tax reform and can give us an update
of how things are going in Tallahassee. So I'm going to turn it over to Mr. loop and let him start the presentation and we'll we'll bounce back and forth as we uh as we get through. >> Well, thank you, Mr. Cobb. Go go go to the next slide, please. Uh honorable mayor, council members, um we've put
together a number of different slides for you this year. We're going to start off with the general fund uh ending cash balance history. We're also going to talk about the increase uh in fund balance this current fiscal year. this current fiscal year ending 2425.
We're going to talk about the impact on total available fund balance and we're also going to take a look at a forecast for this fiscal year ending as best we know it for this current fiscal year. We're going to also take a look at um
the potential funding or debt scenarios that we have for funding the police station going into this uh next fiscal year. uh the type of options that we have available to us and then we'll go into what Mr. Cobb uh basically talked about, House Bill 203, and then we'll
finish up with the budget schedule for this fiscal year. But what you have in front of you right here is the history of the general fund uh ending cash balance by fiscal year. And as you can see, there's been progressive growth uh in our uh available cash uh going
forward. Going back to 2013, we actually had uh a very small amount of cash available to us. The cash that you see represented here on this slide basically represents the uh ending cash balance as of 9:30. Okay. So you get over into
October of the subsequent fiscal year. So October of 2014 for instance, uh your cash balance is actually much lower because you have not received your tax receipts yet for the fiscal year. At the beginning of this graph here, what has
actually happened a couple times is I received a call from then citizens bank who advised us that Jerry, do you realize your cash balances are below their minimums? We had our minimum cash balance that we had to maintain at the bank. Our cash balance, our our
available cash citywide was so low that we could not fund our contractual minimum at Citizens Bank. So we took progressive. >> What was that number? I got to ask. >> I think it was 5 million. >> 5 million.
>> So including the general fund, all the utilities, we did not have enough available cash to to cover that. So going forward what we did uh basically we thought about other things that we needed to take care of around the city and what would what would we do if we
had a hurricane and we had a significant cost related to debris. So in 2013 we took out a note basically that would provide us the available cash uh if we should have uh the need for it for debris removal. Now that note was
basically trimmed out and used in 2015 for the completion of Ovito on the park. We kind of rolled the dice there if you will because again very concerned about available cash. So as you can see the cash balances grew very slowly uh up
until uh 2018 and they started to grow a little bit more uh after that. in uh 2020 basically what we're looking at as is the impact of COVID 19. So we were advised of the
impact of CO by 19 I want to say correct me if I'm wrong Mr. Cobb January of 2020 is basically when we started to realize that we're going to have a significant potential significant revenue and expense impact associated with CO 19. So we were very concerned about our
revenues. We did not know if we would have the adequate revenues to fund the general fund in that fiscal year. So what we did is we um we restricted the use of expenses. We cut as many expenses as we possibly could in the general fund at that time not knowing what the impact
you know would be on our financial uh resources. But lo and behold the government kicked in and they uh issued a lot of tax credits to the citizens here in the United States. And what that what that did is that increased our tax revenues
up for consumptionbased revenue. So a lot of people had additional disposable income which they started to spend that came back to us in the form of consumptionbased revenues. We started to see the result of that in late 2020 but onward more into 23 in future years. We
could not, if you'll recall, we could not accurately forecast our uh consumption based revenues because there was so much spend out there that um the uh Florida economists could not accurately forecast just exactly what
our portion of the revenues would be based on the state sales income taxes, half cent sales taxes, etc. So we were constantly underfunding if you will or underestimating here. We were basically budgeting 95% of the
state forecast. Well, those basically came in much much higher. So that had a significant contribution to these additional cash revenues as well. Um, one of the things that we started to to experience in 2021 and into 2022 is
we found that our uh, salaries were um, way under market. We couldn't hire people and I think you'll remember that we came to you in August of 2022 and requested a special salary adjustment for the employees which I think was right around 18% just so that we could
bring our salaries into market. So, we had these significant vacancy factor um impacts in the general fund, meaning that our salary expense was way below budget because we did not have full staffing here. I think you'll remember that. So, that contributed to some of
the increases in the cash going back into uh 2021 2022. Took us a while to catch up with that. I don't think we caught up with that until 2023. Now, in October of 2021, we received 10.1
plus million almost 20 million actually in 2022 from the American Rescue Plan Act. And what that enabled us to do uh was to basically um transfer a lot of the capital
projects and capital maintenance that would have impacted the general fund over to these um these special funds that were set up for the American Rescue Plan Act, the ARPA funds. So that in itself too contributed to uh a significant increase in the in the fund
balances because we did not use general fund cash to fund the capital. Um and again going forward unable to accurately forecast utility taxes, franchise fees, all these all these consumptionbased
type expendited uh revenues basically because they were rising at a rate higher than what we could accurately or anybody could accurately predict. Beginning in 2023, uh we had another significant bump and that was related to
um investment income. As you'll recall, the Fed fund rate went up significantly uh beginning towards the end of 2023 and into 2024 where we were getting investment income of approximately 50 to $60,000 a year. In one year, I think it
was as low as 38,000. We're now over a million dollars a year in investment income because of the of the rates. Okay. So, we have reaped the benefit of that. So, a lot of variables have contributed to uh where we were with cash and where we currently are with
cash. One of the things that I wanted to mention uh while we're on this slide too is that back in 2014 all the way through 20 probably 21 uh we had very minimal investments in capital. We didn't have
the money for capital. So what we were trying to to do when we actually budgeted for capitals is that we we tried to squeeze it into the operational budget as a component of the budget for the general fund. Okay. Now that we have these significant increases in cash,
what we need to consider doing and we having discussions right now with finance staff and with Mr. Cob is actually creating possibly creating either an allocation towards the reserve or creating a special fund uh within the
city uh basically to fund capital maintenance and capital projects and things of that nature going forward. So we're looking at that right now. Um I don't know what the number is. I wanted to fund or recommend as much as we possibly can to put in that fund so that
we have a little bit of a buffer going forward. But in addition to that, what we need to do is take into consideration all these one-time revenues that that have contributed to this balance and use them going forward so that we can provide those additional funds into this
capital maintenance and capital uh funding uh process that we set up. Okay, does that make sense? Any questions? Okay, so we're doing some forward thinking. We're trying to think through that. And at the same time, once we make those decisions,
we want to make sure that we keep our fund balance in the general fund in a range between 15 and $20 million. I think you've heard me say that over the last several years. Any questions about that? Okay, going forward to the next slide.
Basically what this slide does is it tells us if we look look at the up uh the upper part up here what you'll see is that we had a beginning funding fund balance of 20.6 million. We had a net income of 2.9 almost $3 million and that
gives us an ending fund balance of $23.6 million. That's the fiscal year 2425 performance. So, what are the major contributing fact pieces of that? Well, here for utility
tax, we had an $186,000 uh increase over our our budget. For licenses, permits, and fees, $232,000 increase, and those are basically related to franchise fees for electricity and and utility taxes for um
electricity. Again, consumptionbased consumption is up. Those tax revenues are up. The next line, intergovernmental was I'm sorry, go back please. Uh the next line intergovernmental was down slightly and that's basically because we
did not receive the grant funds for the brush truck. So uh once we receive those funds, that'll correct itself. Looking at charges for services, charges for services increase significantly because of ambulance and recreation fees. And again, rounding this out,
looking at the revenues, um when you take a look at interest income up $126,000, basically we increased that budget from its original budget by $325,000
and we still came in higher higher than than that by 126,000. Very interesting income is extremely difficult for us to forecast right now. Excuse me. And that's primarily because we can't predict what the Fed is going
to do. We can look at the dot plot charts and we can take a look at what they say they're going to do, but when they don't do what they say they're going to do, we're left with this outcome, which is a good outcome because again, this gives us additional one-time revenues that we can segregate and put
towards capital projects. Uh looking at um the expenditure side, uh basically uh salaries and benefits because of the vacancy factor down $662,000, operating expenses down 1.3 and capital
down uh 835,000. Now, a significant component of the operating expenses and capital was rolled forward or carried forward to the next fiscal year, about 1.1 million of that. So just because they're under budget here does not mean that they're not going to be used. They'll be used in the subsequent fiscal
year. Okay. As a carry forward. So those are the major numbers uh related to the fiscal performance for 2425 bringing a $2.9 million contribution to fund balance going which rounds us out to 23.6 million.
Any questions? Okay. Historical and assigned fund balance. Basically, this shows you this kind of parallels what c our growth in cash, if you will. Um, and basically your historical unassigned fund balance is a reflection of these are the available
resources that can be used that are not restricted in any way, shape or form that can be used to meet the needs of of expenditures within the general fund or any other expenditures that you might want to designate that have not been appropriated for. The orange line, if
you will, represents our 15% policy. So, you can see we're way above policy. So, as we go through our study study this year, as we go through our analysis with what we want to take and put into um a special capital fund or capital
reserve, what you'll see is this 22.7 million uh be reduced significantly. And so we'll get closer down to our fun our current fund balance policy looking at 25. Next slide please. Looking at 25 26. Uh basically uh right
now we're we're about halfway through the year. What we do in the finance department is we analyze every single month what our projected year end is going to be. The closer we get to the year end uh the better our projections are are more accurate our projections.
the more granular our projections are going to be. But you can see a train a trend here right now. You can see that the utility tax and the licenses permits and fees was bas which basically is a franchise fees for electricity and the utility tax for electricity are already
trending higher than what we expected. Don't know how those are going to trim out by the time we get to the year end. And that might be primarily because we've had a colder than usual winter which has driven those numbers a little bit higher than what we would
have anticipated for them to be. Uh in addition to that, no surprise, um our interest income is significantly higher than budget. Again, very difficult for us to predict what our interest income can be based upon what the feds are
giving us. Uh, and as you know, if you follow what the Feds are doing right now, they're basically holding rates steady, and there's even some communications coming in right now about possibly a higher rate because of other things that are impacting the economy right now.
So, said that to say that our growth in revenues is looking very strong going into uh the current fiscal year 2526. Looking at the expense side, uh we've already got a vacancy that's contributed to about a $56,000 variance, positive
variance for us, uh under budget. Operating expenses are running slightly under budget, and we've not used any of the reserve for contingency yet. So basically the way we're sitting right now and it's very difficult to predict what this is going to look like by the time we get to the end of the year is
we've got about an $880,000 contribution to fund balance. One of the things that I am noticing though in looking at the expenditures on a daily basis is that operating expenses seem to be trending a little bit higher than what we have
anticipated. So, I'm expecting that number to come in either at budget or slightly higher by the time we get to the end of the year, unless there's some surprise in there that I'm not currently aware of. Any questions about projected year end?
Okay. All right. So last year, you'll recall that we brought to you um a method, if you will, to be able to offset uh the potential increase in mill rate
associated with the bond issuance for the new police station. So this year, we're proposing the same thing to you. uh if you should want us to move in this direction, we're proposing to pay off the debt of 1.6 million uh and take that
money out of fund balance to pay off two notes. The the only two notes that are left in the general fund, excuse me, the 2012b and the 2013 note that we took out that we that I talked about at the beginning
of of my presentation on cash. So the sum of those two is 1.639 million. Uh we are going to actually we're we're requesting consensus as to whether or not you want us to move in this direction and use these operational
savings to offset the increase uh that will be or could potentially be created if the go bonds are issued in association with the police station. Is that something that you would like us to do? >> Okay, I would say yes. >> Yes. >> All right. So, we will we will we will
do that. >> Help help me remember. Isn't the place we got to last year that we make more money in interest than these bonds cost? Isn't that where we got to right before? >> Great question. Um I I think when we
analyzed that last year, um I think we had a $10,000 savings by not paying off those bonds. Okay, the number should be less in interest. Now, since that time,
your interest has dropped by about 100 basis points, which is 1%. Okay. Uh and uh this value is actually lower. So, I'd have to go back and reanalyze that, but I would expect that savings to be significantly lower.
Great question. But what we're looking for here, the game here, the endgame here is to make sure that we create adequate cash flow in the general fund to be able to absorb that increase of mill rate that is associated with uh the issuance of the geo bonds for the police
station without passing that on to the taxpayers. That's the goal. So, if it's 5,000, if it's 10,000, from my perspective, that small loss in revenue is totally worth noting that expense on to the to the taxpayers,
>> but we're also allowed to just pay whatever we want out of reserves or the reserve for contingency to the police station. So, we could make the >> Yeah. >> So, I guess the the interest rate question there is, are we going to have a higher interest rate on the bond we
have for the police station than this one? Is that kind of >> I would say yes. >> So, wouldn't it make more sense to pay off part of what we're going to the police station versus this one? Keep the lower interest rate safe that way because you're still offsetting the
millillage, but then we're not costing interest. >> That's what you were asking, right? That was also good. >> Just pay the money instead of 7% rate versus a 5% we should pay off what would be at a 7%. >> That's another That's another thought. We could actually do that. That's a
great idea. borrow less and just use the money for that instead. Probably makes more sense. >> We could we could do that, >> but I think we're all on board with lowering and offsetting what we're doing for the police station, but whatever saves us the most money. Um, my follow-up question there too is our you said we should be between 15 and 20
million. Um, the less debt the better. Is there any interest in using some more cash towards that as well to offset it even further? What we're doing with the police station? because we are above what >> my thought off the cuff is >> we could paint the whole thing in cash.
>> My thought off the cuff is that what we want to make sure that we do going forward is have a mechanism to fund capital maintenance and capital outlay and capital costs as they come up. Right now we don't. Okay. And one of the
things that we faced in the early years is that we would have to go out and actually issue a note, a revenue note to be able to obtain enough cash to buy replacement vehicles and things of that nature from the general fund.
>> I'm not look I'm not talking about millage rate. So, >> right, >> and we had a lot of discussions about making sure we have a capital fund and I agree with that. We need to make sure we keep funding a capital project. I'm just saying if we have we've had a few years where the interest rates have played in our favor. We have a little more cash than we thought. If we could offset some
of the debt we're going to come into, is that something worth discussing? >> Absolutely. >> So, and follow-up question on I get what you're going for that it would be nice to not have anything secured against the general fund. And these are the last two ones, right? So, like that's like you
want to scratch that itch as an accountant. And I also kind of want to scratch that itch, but also the math doesn't totally make sense. How many more years do we have before these are wiped out permanently? >> I don't know that off the top of my head. Do you know >> between two and three years? One is two
and the other one is three. >> Okay. Yeah, that's that's quick. Okay. So, we get to scratch the itch really soon. >> Okay. >> All right. Okay. >> We'll look at it. >> So, we're all on board with uh putting the money towards it, but it which way maybe there's some discussion there. >> Understood. Yep.
>> Great thought, great idea. Thank you. Next slide. So, if you are to adopt what we just talked about, um what we're looking at, um is uh a millage rate equivalent of Okay, excuse me, I'm one slide ahead of
myself here. Bas go back. Okay. So, if one of the things that we talked about and we analyzed is what is the total debt service on a 15-year and a 20-y year and a 30-year issue. So, the total debt service for a 15-year issue would
generate annual debt service of $957,000 roughly. And that would be a millage rate equivalent based upon our current valuation of.2201. A 20-year uh note would be annual total debt service of 16 million uh with
annual debt service of 805,000 or milit rate equivalent of 18.52 30-year note total debt service 20 million annual debt service 666,000 millage rate equivalent of.1532
>> and is this to borrow 11.4 4 million. >> Correct. Okay. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Uh so this would be for that 11.4 million and and the rates are constantly changing right now. There's a lot of volatility in the market. So could actually be higher, may end up being
lower. Okay, next slide. So when we looked at um the uh impact on our current millage rate, basically if we were to bond out for the 15-year bond to be 0.2201, 2201
the debt payoff would be.1552 the operating millage rate would remain unchanged to 5.8610 OTP uh.1140 basically projected to be 6.0399 0399
20-year note 6.0050 and then the 30-year note 5.9730 actually slightly lower than our current millage rate. So it depends on what option we would pick. Um and again you know it depends on whether we want to
put more money down on the police station or whether or not we want to pay off the debt. So um those options are available but nonetheless looking at the payoff of the debt. This is this is the scenario. These are the scenarios that we've currently developed based on the
15, 20 year, and 30-year bonds. Okay. Any questions? >> Next slide. >> So, Brian, I don't know if you want to take it over. >> I can take over. Yes. Uh, councils, you know, state legislature has been uh was
they took they took well, actually the House took a large look at tax reform this year. the Senate really didn't. But we wanted to give you an example of what would have been the impact of House Bill uh 2000 2020 203. And Annie, could you
put the put the bill up just real quick for us? And just wanted to show you a couple of things about the bill. And the the one thing that we we saw was some pretty and
here we go. Go to page two if you will. two. >> Yeah, there we go. Okay, right there is fine. You don't have to do anymore. Uh, as you can see up there where where we have the uh lines 29 and 30, there's something that you can't see the
highlight very well, but uh the part about shall be exempt from taxation there on except assessments for special benefits as follows. I'm hoping that the except for assessments for special benefits, that's where our general obligation bonds will fall into and otherwise we it could have it could have
had a huge impact. You can see down at number two is really where they made the big change for all levies there that homesteaded properties would be exempt for all levies other than school districts or other assessed valuations. And so Annie, if you could go to seven,
page seven, please. the uh so that was you know that was really the the heart of the heart of the bill was that they were exempting they they even eliminated the exemptions that were created in the last legislative session that was approved by referendum
that that's good right there thank you uh this is the part here about beginning in fiscal year 2728 that uh public safety would have to be funded either on the greater of the FI2526 or the 2527 uh local fiscal years. One of the things
about this is that this bill would have taken effect if it was approved. It it wasn't approved in the Senate, so it didn't go further. But if it had gone to referendum, if it had been approved, the effective date would have been January 1st of 2027, which the first budget
affected would have been the FY2728 budget. And the thing about that is is that would have also been the very first budget of our new union contracts. And so we're not able to show you what it would be the impact of 2728 as far as
funding the uh as far as funding public safety and uh so and the if you can just go down to the next page and that's just really the part on the next page is about that it takes effect on January 1st of 2027.
Uh as I said Mr. Mr. Kamadi and Miss Enzo are both uh here with us via Zoom. We asked them if they would if they could come in and and give us an update of where uh the state legislature is, what's happening in Tallahassee regarding this. And so I'm I'm going to
let them uh take over from here and hopefully they're the link will come through. >> Chris, can you hear us? >> I can. Good evening. >> Is everything okay? Okay, no echo on your end. >> Yes, we're good.
>> Okay, great. Uh Brian, you covered it pretty well uh there on the slide. I Kylie and I would probably say similar things. So, they did the house give you a quick update of what the house has done and what we expect will occur. They had, as you may recall, their special
committee um select committee on property tax reform that uh met towards the end of last session in 2025 and then this session. Um chaired by or co-chared originally by Vicky Lopez out of Miami and Toby Overdorf out of Port St. Lucy
area. Um Vicky Lopez was appointed to the Miami Dade County Commission. So she left um and then Toby wrapped up the work. They had about eight proposals that they were looking at and they ultimately landed with the one that you just discussed. And the original version
that showed up on the House floor of 203 had originally a kind of a stairstep phase out of property tax. And um on the day it was on the House floor, there was an amendment filed where they removed the phase out and just all at once as you kind of pointed out right there with
2728 um all non-school taxes would would go away. And then of course the the clause in there that said that you had to hold police and fire first responders harmless. The Senate has done nothing with it and they kind of made it clear from the beginning that they weren't
planning to do anything with it, at least during the regular session. So, that played out kind of as expected. >> Sorry, someone asking a question. >> No, somebody's coughing. >> I'm just coughing like crazy. >> You're good. Continue. >> Yeah.
>> Okay. And so, the Senate didn't do anything with it. There was some thought that maybe towards the end of session they would, but it became clear pretty quickly after the House passed that that the Senate wasn't going to do anything during the regular session. Now, we've heard a variety of things. We've heard
that 203 that what you went over um Brian uh is dead on arrival in the Senate that there's a lot of hesitation to pass something like that. You've heard the governor say he wants more than what the House did. He said he doesn't want any exceptions for school taxes or whatever. He wants an a
complete outright elimination on Homestead. Um so you've got that. You know, he doesn't have to approve these, right? He has but he has that these go directly to the ballot if the legislature passes them. But obviously the governor has a lot of influence on this process as he has other levers he
can pull in other areas of our state government that can influence um or use that to influence this particular um legislation. That said, you have the governor, you have the Senate, and the House all with very different positions seemingly. Um,
we've heard a couple folks say that, um, to just do something so that they don't have all this discussion over two years and and nothing occurs that they would just increase the homestead to 100 um and and and possibly 100 plus andor 20%,
and what I mean by that is whatever's greater. So, if if 100k in homestead um property tax relief would be greater than 20% of the value that you have assessed, then it would be 100. If 20%'s greater, it would be 20%. That's one thing I've heard they floated out there.
And then this way it can kind of as your home value goes up, you can take advantage of that 20% if you don't qualify for it immediately. I've heard other situations where they would go um for 65 and up in age and but if as long
as you've homesteaded for a certain period of time, I've heard as much as 20 years to make sure it's not like a um a free-for-all from other all other 49 states if they find out that senior citizens can move here and immediately get their home taxree. That would probably put a even greater strain on
already strained local governments and I think they know that. So they would try to put some if they could satisfy commerce clause and all these other things, they try to put some some sort of 20 year or 10 year sort of nesting period for lack of better terms to to earn that credit uh or earn that waiver
of taxes. Those are some of the things we've heard. Um and then there's another option. Um, as you may be aware, uh, the next governor and the next speaker and the next president will have the opportunity to appoint members of the every 20-year um, finance and tax
commission that the state constitution requires to be appointed and meet. And that group can send items directly to the ballot. So, if they can't come up with any kind of consensus right now, they may still punt or kick the can down the road, um, knowing that whoever the
next governor is, and the folks in charge right now assume that person's going to be a Republican governor, they assume it'll be a Republican speaker and a Republican president. So, they're they're confident that kicking the can won't take away abilities to do something with this. Now, that that group would appoint this commission.
that commission would meet sort of like the constitution revision commission of about 10 years ago. They meet um about the course of 15 months and then put together ballot initiatives if they can come up with consensus that would go directly on the ballot unless there's a Supreme Court challenge. Um and that
group could do exactly what they're talking about now. That group could put something to the ballot that eliminates property tax. It could put something to the ballot that asks for an income tax. That one seems unlikely, but they could do anything that that they want to do in the realm of finance and tax. Um, and so
that's one option. I still think this legislature is going to try to do something given all this discussion about it and they know the governor will kind of be beating the drum and calling them out if they don't. And so obviously the speaker and president are less worried about that because they're not going to be speaker president next year.
But if you're running for office and you're worried about the governor beating the drum, saying you're not doing enough, that that may be enough to sway some of the members to get on board with some kind of plan so that they don't have the governor campaigning against them or at worst just sort of like staying neutral in a in a swing seat. So, there's all those kind of
politics are in there. Suffice to say, there is no consensus yet, though. Um, and they haven't even agreed on when they're going to come back for the budget special session, much less a property tax session. So, the final thing I'd say is is the win. Um, if they pass this, we've heard they might wait
as late as August. I think they can wait pretty much up until the primaries to put something approve something to go to the ballot and have it still qualify for the November ballot. They may wait that long for for a couple reasons, right? It would hamstring I can't see you all, but I'm I'm talking
to you all as commissioners. There's obviously a lot of rules on what you all can say in the public or from the dis regarding ballot measures. Um but it would shorten your time frame to say whatever you feel on that if it's done in August. And then as well it would shorten the time frame of the natural
opponents to this right commercial property owners and that includes apartment multifamily apartment complexes and others who wouldn't have the benefit of these homestead tax reform um proposals. So that that again can't take politics out of politics. If
they're worried they're going to get a a a counter point to these proposals, then they would likely wait until the last minute to put these forward to avoid having too much time for the the counterpoints to prevail. So that's what we're hearing. That's what we're expecting. I would not be shocked if
they wait till August on this. >> Council, do you have any questions for Mr. Kate? I mean, even if it does go to August, is I mean, the Senate is saying they're not going to do it, right?
I mean, what's what do we think the chances are of this actually happening? >> I'd put it greater than 50/50 at the moment. I mean, the governor is still very influential. um especially as much as he and the
House have been pretty much at odds the last two years, he has a lot of influence with the Senate, they've been doing their best to to stay aligned with him this session. And so I think the Senate is going to be inclined to work with him to find something. I they've
been pretty clear with their members um that at least speaking on the Republican side that they're not probably going to go the full full enchilada like he wants but or what the House has but they're willing to do something and so um I
think that they're going to do their best to work with him on anybody Okay. Well, what we did because we and if we can flip back over. Thank you, Chris. Thank you, Kylie. We do appreciate your help. >> You got the junior lobbyist in the
making. Here you go. Say hi. >> Matching shirts. Thank you, Elizabeth. >> Yeah, there we go. Okay. Uh so what we did knowing that knowing the difficulties with trying to actually determine what would be the impact
for fiscal year 2728 what we did we took the we took and looked at the impact of the bill on the existing budget is what we went because we felt like that would at least give us uh something to it would at least give us an idea of what
we will maybe encounter if something like this were to happen in FY2728. It also made it got us got got us really thinking about different ways of revenue recovery of cost savings of doing things
differently. We just started brainstorming is one of the things that we did. And actually Annie, if you could go back to Mr. Boop's um Mr. Boop's PowerPoint. There we go. and I'm going to turn it back to him and he's going to go over the analysis with you to show what would
be the impacts to the uh to the budget. >> Yes, Annie. Next slide, please. >> When you can. Okay, so these this slide here represents the potential impacts to uh House Bill 203 and it's divided up
into separate sections. So what you see uh over here uh on the right is uh the total for non-public safety uh which is basically everything else but fire and police is about 20 20 20 21
million. Okay. But going back over to the left the impact of house bill 203 on our ad valorum revenue would be a reduction of 12.6 6 million leaving 11.9 or almost 12 million in advorum left
over. Going down to the bottom here you have advalorum revenue of uh $18.5. You have transfers into the general fund of 1.5. So that gives you about $32 million in revenue. Okay. and you match that up uh
against uh the $25 million uh allocation to uh public safety, that leaves you with 6 million. So basically, at the end of this equation or calculation, we've
got 6 million available to fund 20 million almost $21 million in non-public safety expenditures. So the net shortfall is approximately 14.6 million. So this is what we're looking at uh with
what we currently know in relation to HB 103. And um as Mr. Cobb said, we have been taking a look at various different things to possibly offset the impact of uh of this legislation.
And you know, it's discouraging to hear that um it'll potentially be uh August until they make a decision because we're going to need some time to really get some things put together if we're going to offset this or whatever other changes
>> you nonappal revenue$ 18 million is that the you know like our storm water fund our sewer fund our waterfront that's not that okay speaking I was like I don't think we can That's general fun. Excellent. Everything left over,
>> your franchise fees, your communications taxes. >> Okay. >> Uh, you know, it's like when we were talking about that one day where we'd say, "Okay, we have this much left over, so >> to be able to to be able to pay off." So, well, we'll go we'll go grab business tax receipts. We'll go grab uh
interf uh not the inter fund transfers, but go grab the permits permits and other things and start pulling until we get until that $18 million, you know, and that goes toward public safety to finish off what what is required for
public safety. >> And we are allowed to use that source of revenue for anything we like in the general fund >> as far as those types of things that are unrestricted. Now that we can't 18 million 18 million is the amount of unrestricted, right? Okay, that's that's
what I'm getting at. I just want to make sure that we're >> Yeah, that's >> all the same thing. I did not realize until seeing this chart in the materials that we potentially did have enough to fund police and fire even if this happened. I mean, that's that's interesting. >> Yes.
>> Yeah. And the one thing I failed to mention, mayor, is that police and fire, that's the all-in cost, that includes fleet, that includes um it includes insurance, all those some of those pieces that aren't actually in the
general fund. They're budgeted for in other funds. So, what we were careful to do is to make sure that we included the all-in cost. Any questions? Okay. To wrap this up, going to the last slide, uh basically as you'll recall
from last year, uh we significantly um changed the budget development schedule and that we made it much more streamlined. So today we kicked everything off with the budget work session just to bring you up to speed as to where we're at. On April 8th, we're
meeting with the department directors and that's our CIP prioritization schedule where we will actually meet with them. We will all vote on uh the CIP uh highest priority to lowest priority
on April 10th. That's when the operational budget needs to be completed by the individual department directors. We'll be working on that uh up until we meet with you uh sometime in May, the May 26th work session. In April 27th, we
will meet with you uh basically to review the CIP and the order in which the directors voted on uh putting it together uh and its aggregate cost. Uh I don't know if we'll be in a position to or not at that point in time in discussing what dollar amount we should
break out of the general fund and allocate towards capital, but we're going to work on that. Um and then uh in June we have the enterprise funds work session. July 20th tenative mill rate. July 31st proposed budget to you all and
from Mr. Cobb. And then August 24th work session if we need to. Then the public hearings in September. So, this is what we're looking at right now. Uh, and I don't know if we'll have any other meetings that we might need to do uh in between, but we will keep you informed. And thank you for your input tonight.
Thank you for the ideas on the debt. That th that's those were great ideas. Appreciate it. >> Okay. Anything else for the budget, Mr. Cup? >> That's it. Mayor, unless there's any qu any questions council might have.
>> Okay. We'll move on to item number five. uh 2627 city council program budget. >> Uh yes, thank you, deputy mayor. This uh this is really uh we wanted to present to you. We've started putting together your budget for 2627. We wanted to get
some input. if there was anything that you wanted us to look at uh regarding the various uh expenses within your budget. It's not a large budget and uh so uh we uh like I said that's we put it all we basically put it into the the
memorandum there if there was any questions you might have or if there was anything that you wanted us to look at particularly uh while we're putting your budget together. So we wanted to come to you early in the process to see if there was any anything out there. We usually go under on this budget because we don't
spend all of that as far as like shirts and not going to Washington every year. >> Yes. You tend to spend less than than what is budgeted. Yes. >> Okay. >> Go ahead. >> So on the uh on the budget document,
there's a whole bunch of stuff in here comes to $333,000 which is significant. our our salaries end up being 80
something, right? 16 each. But there's a whole bunch of stuff in here I don't I don't really understand like water and sewer, electricity. I mean, what what is
how are we incurring water and sewer as council? Uh each each budget does does have a share in the utility bills that the city pays and I believe it's a square footage. >> Yeah, it's it's a square footage
allocation for each in each department. All all departments have those those fixed costs as far as electric, water, sewer. Uh and but yes, it's it's it's on a square footage basis. And so that is
the allocation to the 1100 budget. Does anybody have any comments on this or are we good to keep it as is? >> I can keep it as is. >> Okay, I think we're good. It It's been pretty much the same the whole time I've been here.
>> And I know we've talked in the past, too, about some things we don't use, but we left them on there in case someone wants to do like IMO or go to Washington or whatnot. So, >> Right. Okay, I think we're good. If you don't have anything else on that, Mr. Cobb, >> that's all I had. Thank you, Deputy Mayor.
>> Yep. All right, we'll move on to the program and special event calendar. >> I assume this is Mr. Beldon. >> Yeah, Mr. Beldon. The staff's putting together the uh FY2627 program of events. And Mr. Beldon wanted to come and once again early in the
process to uh go over some of the ideas that they are uh looking at for next year. And also, he's got some new ones up there as well. the as far as the green highlights. So, we'll I'll turn it over to him. >> All right. Thank you, honorable mayor, deputy mayor and city council members.
Um, typically, uh, we've come to you at the end of the budget cycle to share our annual state of the department. Um, during that process, we um try to highlight the the the commitments of our staff and what accomplishments they've achieved during the course of the year. Um, we also go through our cost recovery
of all of our divisions. Um, this year, uh, because we we think there might be some challenges with the budget, we like to just showcase our calendar of events, um, which we provided to you ahead of the game. Um, we're getting ready to finish our budgets, but we wanted to kind of give you our our template, which
everything's asis as of now, but we do want to offer a few new programs or events that we'd like to um, you know, city council to consider. Um, so we've highlighted those in green. Um, I'm not going to really touch upon the current ones because you everybody knows what they are, but the green ones are Viva
Ovito, as you know, that was a great event this year. We're currently in discussions um in doing a partnership agreement. Um, so until that gets finalized, um, that partnership agreement would highlight city responsibilities as well as the nonprofit responsibilities. Um, there may be some city um, finances that go
into that event that I can't share with you yet because we're still finalizing that, but we'd like to work on that agreement. Um, we're also looking at doing a country in the park, which would be like a country music style festival. Um, which would be similar to like St. Patty's Day or Bark and Brew, where we have some entertainment, um, kids events, activities, vendors, just
something that we're we're think thinking about bringing in the mix. We think country, um, would be a great hit. Uh, I think there's a large backing of country music um, style listeners to the radio um, for country music. We think it would be a great success. don't have an
exact budget for you, but we like to consider that through the process. Uh the next one would be Ovito Art in the Park. Um staff has been sharing with me ideas on bringing like an art style festival to Center Lake Park. Um we would try not to compete with any local surrounding Central Florida Art
Festivals because we think we can partner with some nonprofits or work with our current arts board um members to bring a successful event to the to the area. uh smaller program that staff has thrown out is on April 24th, Earth Day celebration. Uh this is being tied with
our our movie night and we would just try to create some um an atmosphere for families, kids in the community to to gather at Center Park. Don't know what type of budget we'd be looking at, but that's um a consideration. And the last one would be Junth. Um I've I'm
currently working um you know with local um supporters. Um we've always offered Junth for the past years. Um it seems like it's been rained out several times, but we offered it at Riverside Park last year. And so we're currently in discussions on doing a partnership agreement to offer Junth as a
collaborative um resource for the community. There would be some city resources that would go towards the event, but there would also be responsibilities for the nonprofit um to offset the you know that event. So everything else is pretty much status quo, but we wanted to see if we can gain
any support of city council to offer these new programs. Um, if so, we will try to budget accordingly. If there's any other offerings that aren't on this list that you'd like to consider, or if there's any considerations you'd like to maybe change around, and that's kind of what we're looking for tonight is council's consensus on this program for
the budget. >> Okay. >> Well, I like the uh the country uh event. Will it include bluegrass and folk or the whole? >> We could create a huge assortment of all maybe. >> Yes. >> Okay. I've had a lot of people ask about
that over the years. So that that might be a good ad. >> Okay. >> No, that's good. I like like what you guys got there. >> Okay. >> So, >> and there's a lot of local talent, too. You can tap into on that. >> We're going to try to tap in as much
local we're try keep our cost down as low as possible. So, we're going to try to see what we can come up with as far as our resources. Maybe tag along with a a radio station or two. Um there could be opportunities out there with sponsorships as well. So, >> I didn't have anything specific. >> Okay. I'm excited about Ogito Art and
Park. I think that's a great idea for our arts board, too. >> Yeah, we got an art board that can >> put that on. >> Yep. >> Now, on all of these, are you expecting that we will be upside down to add anything but vivo veto because that already was break even for the
organizer. So, or close to it. >> I will say that I mean like like our current special events and programs, we like to maintain our cost recovery model of 30% for programs, 50% for the special events. We're always I mean all of our ones currently for this fiscal year are above those thresholds. So we would
follow that suit. Um our goal is to always be 100% cost recovery. Um >> it's a good goal but I I am a little hesitant to it looks like add one two three four things that we don't know are break even or better. I would assume
anything with a partnership agreement with Viva Ovito the city will lose nothing because the city the city had no skin in the game and they are coming back. So, I would imagine no taxpayer dollars will go to subsidize that. I'm concerned that we're adding potentially four things that taxpayer dollars would
need to be utilized for. We've had Junth in the past and if that's just a matter of, you know, lending the facilities, that's not hard taxpayer dollars per se, but the other stuff is more complicated. I love the idea of Ovito Art in the
park. Um, but that's a situation where we may be able to make uh crafted in a way that is very organic, more organic than the parks department has been comfortable doing in the past. So that
that's kind of I think you've got more more than three people with feedback of spend whatever you want. My feedback is maybe it's okay to go more organic and have have it be less of a MC festival and let it be whatever it can be without
putting a bunch of money in it to make it a MC festival. >> I also don't think you should spend whatever you want, but uh as far as testing out new events, I do see value in that. >> Yeah. But like for the for the country of the park, the way we normally do it here, we don't get people from around
town. We just say, "We're just going to go hire this person." Well, it's the same person we hired for the last festival. So, all of our festivals have the same set of people, and we have, you know, the same unicycle rider, the same. It's all the same people at all of our festivals. And we don't need more of the
same festival. It would be interesting to have different festivals with different approaches. Okay. Yeah, we can try to get bring some variety to the event. Um, all these will come with the budget. We'll try to prioritize this list during the budget
process. So, if there's any other discussions on the on the cost of these, we can have those later on. >> Right. We come back with a budget for we cut some things last year, right? >> Um, Bacon, Bourbon, and Blues was the only event that we cut out for this current. >> The only one? >> Yep. And we haven't we're actually not
recommending to cut any of these at at the moment. >> Yeah. Well, so guess so. Budget wise, how Yeah. How do you end up with four additional things? I mean, did we did we budget for >> We're working on the budget right now. So, we will have a higher budget request
to add four things. >> So, >> okay. >> This can be revisited when we go over the budget, >> but this is the initial ask is what I'm seeing. >> Yeah. We just want to get get a gauge to see if there's any of these new programs that definitely don't want to go forth or if you want if there's a consensus to
move forward with a certain number of them or all of them. >> It sounds like we have consensus to move forward. Um and then we'll see what the budget says. >> Okay. >> So, perfect. Thank you. >> Yep. >> Okay, Mr. Cobb, do you have anything else?
>> That is all we have for tonight, Deputy Mayor. >> Okay. And I was just going to mention um I did get an invite from SEO State College. They have their 25-y year celebration. I think it's tomorrow. >> Tomorrow. >> Yeah. So, I'll be there tomorrow at if you guys didn't get the email and want
to come. Um, it's their Ovito campus. So, uh, I'll be going out there to support that, too. >> Is there anything else before we end the meeting? >> There will be a proclamation. So, there you go. Perfect. >> I'll make sure everybody knows if you show up.
>> All right. Well, we're journed at 7:42.