Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for this day. We thank you for the opportunity that we have to shape the city of Palatka for our citizens. God, we ask that you guide us and direct us. God, help us to make the best decisions for all involved. And Lord, I thank you
for those who commit themselves tirelessly to serving our city. We ask these and all blessings in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Please join me in reciting the pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the
United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Roll call, please. Commissioner Davis? Present.
Commissioner Boring? Commissioner Mayor Carreira? Present. Commissioner Jones? Commissioner Campbell? Present. Thank you. We cuz it is a workshop, we don't need quorum, so we are good to go.
I'm going to open the floor up to public comment for any items not specified on the agenda. Is there anybody here for public comment? Seeing none, we'll close public comment. Um on to department budgets, police department.
Chief Shuah. Good evening, Mayor Commissioners. [clears throat] Good evening. >> I'm glad you got to invite me first. Uh This is something that uh not only I I find a pleasure being able to present to you the opportunity to
express our needs um and what the police department would like to do for the next year, but just the opportunity to also go into what we've done before. So, again, um, thank you, and I'll gladly get started.
We'll give a minute for them to catch up with me. All right, the Palatka Police Department's 2025-2026 achievements are centered around the COPS grant, uh, and the personnel. Our COPS officers have continued to perform at an exceptional level,
demonstrating strong dedication to the community to community engagement, safety, and proactive policing. Their efforts have led to reductions in crime and the fear of crime, and areas increased community trust through outreach initiatives.
Our social media social media initiatives have led to more than 3 million views, representing more than 900% increase in content visibility. That's very key because if you remember, um, a couple years ago when I was up here, we wanted to change
our footprint of what was being put out. It was a tremendous amount of negativity, and the only way to, uh, address that is to change, uh, what we put out and what the the rhythm was on Facebook and in our social media. And we've accomplished that.
Staffing levels, we continue to work diligently to find the right candidates to support our goals. And when we're looking for personnel to address, uh, what we need to do here for the city of Palatka, it's just not anybody you fill those slots with, is people who, um,
best complement what you are striving to do in your mission. And that's what we are are we look to do when we, uh, look to fill vacant positions and conduct our interviews. Crime analyst is a new position that we added last year, thanks to you all and your decision for our uh last year's
budget. I like to say that had something to do with my last year's presentation, but um crime analyst was was one of our decision units and and it's been proven so far. So, our crime analyst position has been a proven asset. Uh this year alone, it has assisted in
solving three major investigations and routinely provides statistical crime data to uh the investigations to our patrol officers to help with their initial investigations. The crime analyst, as like we said, move this into the future. We can stop working in the past and the way we've
always done it. Um things have changed, times have changed, and the way we solve crimes have changed. And our data-driven policing is a key for that. So, uh that's been a a major plus for us and it's continuing to do so. Technology and software, this year the
police department invested in a redaction software uh called Case Guard. Case Guard reduces the time staff spends in redacting and exempt the material from body cameras and videos. That right The amount of uh public records requests we get from body
cameras alone could be a full-time position and the amount of software needed um would probably be outside of our means. Um what what uh Case Guard did for us is limit uh how much we had to provide or how much time we had to
provide in our daily activities in redacting those the the the videos from our body cameras. And all of it can't go out. There's a tremendous amount uh time invested in the videos. Sometimes they're extra long videos, and we have to make sure that we we uh redact the proper stuff. We learned that hard
lesson um a couple years ago when information was leaked out from a body cam video and and we really got caught a black eye from it. So, we sought out to find the proper software and be able to um provide the proper uh redacted videos to
the public when we send them out. Next page. So, our police department uh listed uh listed notable operational changes. Again, the the officers for the CRA and our traffic officer position, they focus strictly on the truck route, which
everyone knew was a a very big uh issue in the city, especially for our downtown area and the amount of trucks that was coming through. Our goals continue to be community engagement, uh continue to find ways to reduce crime, increase citizen increase citizen quality of life uh
through development of technology, proactive policing, and building community trust. We build community trust by being transparent, open, and communicating with our public, but also building partnerships. And that's been our goal, and we've been uh doing a wonderful job of increasing that
over the last couple years. Operating budget, next slide. Our operating budget currently is $621,000 and 110 uh proposed total is a $6,700.51
uh sorry, $6,751 uh decrease. Uh and you'll see in the next slide. Our increases, we did increase in some areas. Professional services was increased by $21,779 due to increase in annual cost in
several computer software programs, including Flock, Invest- Flock Investigative, Case Guard, and Cellebrite uh to go along with PowerDMS. Gas and lubricants we increased by $5,000 currently due to the increase, and I'll speak a little bit more of that when we look into our trends. And
memberships and subscriptions was increased. What we did with memberships and subscriptions, that line was increased, but we actually moved it from a different line to put it in where it should actually be being taken out of. Our decreases, we looked at through trends, posters, and freight, building
maintenance, range maintenance, public safety scholarships, and operating supplies, and we looked and decreased all of those areas. The decrease for the areas for our operating budget roughly covered
almost 30,000, a little over $27,000. Um And and analyzing that, we understand where we are first in our scholarships. We are down one police officer's position. Scholarships was generated before when we had four or five
positions down. We wanted to help increase our minority officers. We wanted to try to look as much as our community as we could for our department. And I'm glad to say we we are we are doing so. We're We're doing a tremendous job of that. I believe our
minor minority recruitment has uh surpassed where we've been in the past by far. And that's been great for us both females and for our Hispanic and African-American officers. We also looked at
uh where we are currently in in our levels and we had $20,000 the cost of sending one officer if we needed to school could be reduced, so we reduced it by 10,000. So it allowed us to be a little bit more or more
uh directed to this upcoming year. So that's why we reduced our um our recruitment budget. Our public safety scholarship, I I apologize. Then we went through our professional services, and as you'll see, we looked at a trend, and we were able to identify areas
in our operating where we could reduce it a little bit as well. So the next slide, if you look at the next slide for me, it's going to discuss our trends. We went through a three-year budget analysis for our trends and where we could increase and decrease. Where you find the orange lines, and I know it's going to be a
little bit hard to see for the dark blue, but where you find the orange lines is where you can see our increase. And where you find the blue is where you'll see our decreases. So, our increases we just talked about in professional service was Case Guard, Flock Investigator Services, PowerDMS,
and Cellebrite. Those all increased came Those increases came to $21,779. We also talked about our posters and freight being decreased to the tune of $250 of that $1,200. I can't even see. $1,200 $250. Thank
you. >> [laughter] >> Uh we also reduced the building maintenance at uh from 20,000 to 10,000 I'm sorry, from 30,000 to 20,000. We We We decreased our range maintenance
by 500. Our Our goal is we are putting up our our modular building. We're getting things uh taken care of to where we're looking here, hopefully by next year, to be able to open up the bathroom there, and we can eliminate that cost with our uh porta-potty. So, that would drop that.
Our gas and lubricants, again, we looked at what we are looking at the increase for cost of gas. Um looking at fighting through that some of next year. So, where we are in the current year in the budget, we went ahead and did some slight math and looked at the minimal increase of uh $5,000 currently for
that. Not knowing exactly where it's going to go, it's kind of hard to gauge, but we feel we felt that we should increase it some. Our decrease in public safety scholarship, we just talked about that. And our operating supplies, we talked about that. Membership and subscriptions, we talked
about how that increase came about. Our memberships and subscriptions, next slide, I'm sorry. Memberships and subscriptions was an additional $1,000. It actually came from public from professional services where we felt it should have been pulled to a different area under a
different line. And our capital outline our capital outlay line was our huge decrease. Was a reduction of $167,352. Next slide, please. So, I'm going to go into more of the bigger picture broader picture of our different areas. But, I want to
point out that the our reasoning for making some decreases in some areas it wasn't it wasn't taken lightly. We we looked at basically what the commission we heard what the commission said. We looked at what we we needed. And
where where we could make some cuts. So, we wanted to address those areas honestly. So, our entire operating uh uh part of our budget was addressed with the with the trends. And that's how we approached it and where we could decrease we decreased. Where we felt we
could remain the same we remained the same and so on. Our personnel everything remains the same. We're not asking for any additional personnel at this time. As you know, we did our staff study. We are already above a little bit. So, at the end of that 5-year trend we will be coming back to you with the follow-up
analysis from our staff study and be looking at potentially uh if the city's in the right area for finances to request potential positions. And we'll again support that with the staff study and what it's recommending.
Next slide. Capital budget. This is where we made tremendous gains in the decrease area as well as we looked at what we really need our tremendous needs what we really needed to get through next year. We we we
added. Uh the decrease from the current from 346,696 dollars to 167,352 dollars um, was something that was pretty easy and that's basically due to what we were
able to achieve from last year's budget. We went in with our decision units basically on the the new we have a new Taser 10, the new Taser contract, new body cam contract. Those are the things that we currently have that the contracts is coming to the end and the cost are going up. So, we now have to
remove our Tasers that we currently have uh, have been um, they're no longer being made. They've been done away with. The new Tasers coming out and that comes with a contract that we we can't opt in with the a lesser cost. So, the current cost that we spend on Tasers next year will
increase and body cameras are the same. So, body cameras as you know with with new technology, with AI, with all the stuff that's coming out with body cam technology, the our contract is ending and the the smallest contract we can get in for the number of officers we have in the software we're going to need for our
evidence.com to hold it is at that cost there. So, it's basically entering to something similar what we have. It'll give us a little bit more, but it's the lowest we can get and that's the um, those are the the major impacts to capital outlay, but those are
the things that when we discuss needs, those are definitely our needs and what we we have no choice in the moving forward. Is that an annual contract So, it's a five-year contract. Um, I'm pretty sure the Taser is a five-year contract. It might be a little longer,
but I'm pretty sure it's a five-year contract. What we've tried to enter into those contracts is five-year contract. They actually tried to enter us into a 10-year contract, but what happens with that if you get locked into that 10-year contract, we're actually paying money for older equipment that that doesn't benefit us.
Our range project is wrapping up the hopefully wrapping up the range building. Um we this year we took a setback and we had to slow down that project just a little bit. Uh we would have liked to have had uh the uh apron on the building, the bathroom completed, and the painting completed. But, we took
a step back uh due to some other um that mis- mishaps or downfalls, some time-consumed issues with uh the permits and getting some things taken care of, and then running the plumbing. So, we are beginning to get back on track.
Um we are taking it uh one step at a time to get it done. We'll get electricity in there, and we'll get moving, and we hope to be a little bit further where we can at least occupy the building for the use of the bathroom, and possibly some of the classrooms. And then we'll work on uh finding a way to get the in-house maintenance of the
painting and the apron completed. Laptop computers, as you know, uh while back, several years ago, I want to say it was five or six years ago, we had we were actually in the position where all of our laptops were failing. Uh we were forced to uh provide new laptops
for all of our patrol division. It was at a hefty cost, and we entered into the uh decision to replace laptops uh so many laptops every year to prevent from that cost. And that's what this will be doing, just replacing uh that amount of laptops for the course of the year, so
we don't run into that problem. Uh the portable radios is somewhat of the same with the number of officers we have, the different office the different radios when we really when we went to the 800 MHz system, we basically accounted for uh set amount of radios that only covered for um a small supply
of if anything happens to the radios. Well, our uh backup radios is now in play. Uh we have two radios out getting fixed, and with our offices that we've currently added, we don't have any more backup radios. So, those are going to need to be uh we going to need to purchase more
radios to now take up our backup supply. And a lot of that is uh explained in our decision units. Next slide. Now, this is my favorite slide because I like to hear um what my commission says. And I like to although I wanted to come in here and
I'm not going to lie, I wanted to present a $12 million budget. I wanted to have all the fancy things. I wanted to uh throw in a new building. Uh um You know, I I I I've been here a while and a new building would have been great, but I understand that the where
the city is and uh I understand where we have to be part in the part of the team where we may have to take a step back in some areas. So, we did that. We approached this budget with that in mind. Um there are some things that we still would like. There may be some potential needs and we've been uh
looking at some things trying to obtain uh looking at potentially applying for some grants to obtain those things under different measures. But overall, when we look at our our decreases, you have to take into account that this doesn't um consider or or or include what will we
getting from HR and personnel. But overall in our operating portions and looking at where we were from last year to this year, we were able to pull in a an 11% decrease, 11.5% decrease. And I believe overall, when when talking to the commissioners individually, we
looked at potentially a five, possibly to a 10%, but making sure we included our needs and make sure we didn't um go without uh totally. So, we took our time. We made sure we did our research. We added our trends. And
we uh we covered uh what was the the the definite needs for the department while at the same time um understanding the what other avenues we could pursue for those things that we would want uh for
supplementing the the finances. Thank you so thank you for the presentation. Um no, same. Um great job, Chief Shaw, and um you know, just great job. And I really really
support this, and and I'm with you with the new building. We got to look at that for a future capital project, but we agree. And so, I think, you know, that's something we have to look at for long-range planning. Um just This is a question, and it [clears throat] it doesn't have anything to do with your
budget, I don't think, but you know, today I had the opportunity to volunteer with uh uh safe student safety summit or summer safety summit. And so, it was kind of hot. And and the the representatives from the police department were there in their uniform,
and I said, "You guys don't have shorts? That's part of a an official uniform?" And I was thinking about the blue crab festival coming up this weekend, and I don't know. I was just putting that out there, Chief. I don't know. They looked hot. >> [laughter]
>> They they they are sometimes very hot. I will say that, especially with the summer. We We We have made some changes to our uniforms. I will tell you, Commissioner Davis, I was here when um the police department had shorts.
Um and it just Yeah, we had a short uniform, and it wasn't that pleasant. And I'll say that from the inside. But I have I have I have looked at different ways for us for the reduced heat. We do
provide the different vests for them, the the mesh shirts. Um And I think I I for the most part I mean some of them would love some shorts. But Special event shorts?
We'll look at a potential well we we have looked at some different uniforms but I will say this I'm I'm I'm I'm very particular and being uniform across the department. To include
>> [laughter] >> No problem but I will be out there in the hot heat with the same equipment on this weekend. We'll have a lot of that. Thank you. I'm sorry. I just want to say could you all please be mindful and when you ask some
questions or making comments that you speak in the mic with your mic on please. Yes. Yes, thank you. Thank you. One thing I did want for Commissioner Campbell and I know I didn't touch on it in our
for our achievements under our cops community grant. I did say that that's if it was a opportunity to add that is an area we can add in it would allow for us to spread them out a little bit more throughout the city. We do have two cops
officers who who cover the city in different areas in the community but we have noticed what what when we have officers in the CRA 100% of time what a benefit it can be and the change that it can be. We
noticed what it did for when we were in the Southside Historic District. We noticed what we when we started going door-to-door and providing information on the Northside what it does. The ability to have officers in in those positions in full-time in in a neighborhood or community
I think will will will definitely take us to the next level um and what we would like to be able to achieve to do. What we currently don't have is the positions for it to do it at this time. Um we'll actually be robbing Peter to pay Paul. So uh I will say that if we
are if we did have an area where we could add additional, that'd be an additional add and I did speak to Commissioner Campbell um briefly a couple days ago I don't believe it was right before our last meeting to where we can sit down and get a better idea of how we could actually um make that look uh in the meantime
while we're substitute. Oh, one other question. Um Chief, I know we just got the new lights or you know, the new lights program. Have you guys noticed any um change in those areas or is it too soon? Um I noticed things were very well lit
as I drive around in the evenings in areas that were previously really really dark. So I think it's a little too soon as the project is still in in its uh production. Um I believe we are we are monitoring it um and we that's one of the things we're going to look at. Uh
we'll probably look at it from a 6-month to a year phase to see uh compared to the previous times uh what the difference in the numbers are. Thank you. Thank you. I do have an additional question. Um is there an opportunity and I don't know um how would that be built in the
budget, but Rick Moore recently I've had several conversations with uh students that are looking to graduate and go into law enforcement. Um is there anything that we can do within the budget to uh I guess partner with the school
district or anything of that nature to uh facilitate, you know, those that are interested in going into uh the um law enforcement arena? Sure and for me there's opportunity for us to do
a a number of different things. We will find a way um to reach out to the school board to be able to partner with them and put together some sense of a program. As you know, through the relationships we have in the community as it stands now, we've
been successful at recruiting several of our homegrowns and and hire them on. We just hired on we have or I'm sorry, we sent one of our homegrowns to sponsor the academy. They're still in the academy look to graduate around June We just had a successful interview and
offer to potential PSA officer who's a homegrown who also wants to become an officer. So our recruitment from local has been has been major for us, but we are always looking for different ways that we can increase
and and make that better. So I will take on that task and task someone to not only reach out to the school board, but look to put together a proposal on how we can make that happen, whether it be a program in-house or whether it be a partner program with the school board to where we can
make that work and provide any interested student the opportunity not only to come to the police department and learn more on how they can make that happen. I appreciate that and if you get with me offline, I can point you them to a more direct um uh point of contact so we can facilitate
that conversation. Yes, sir. We'll do. Thank you. Mr. Agamo, planning and zoning. Good evening. Thank you. My budget is very simple. >> [laughter] >> Comparing to the police department.
Um I like to go over some some of the numbers that are related to to the planning department function. And all these number are from October 1st, 2025 until last week. We have processed and reviewed 90
building permits, 33 historic preservation applications, 25 planning board cases, 16 sign permits application, 36 rezoning verification letters,
20 new business tax receipts, and that's far in 20 Well, from the same period of time, uh we have processed about 225 files, which give us an average about almost 1.5
file per day. Um I'm happy to to to report that we are up-to-date with the uh with our work with the the county through the citizen serve uh app. Uh we're on top of it.
Nothing is delayed. Um we also rewrote and reconfigured over a 40 application forms that we have and replaced them, uh updated them because that some of them were outdated, and then it's going
to go into the city website. Since October of uh this year the last year to today, we collected about $23,000 worth of the uh BRT fees. And also we have worked uh
with JB Pro Consultants, you know, on the comprehensive plan. That was a big effort, you know, that on our part. Took a lot of hours. Uh we submitted to the state. Unfortunately, the state, based on Senate Bill 180,
they found our comp plan null and void. >> [clears throat] >> And it was not easy to, you know, to get some information from the state from the Department of Commerce of what the issues were, what were the problems. We finally were able to get a report, a
staff report that indicated what the problems were. And we have already worked with the consultants. We already prepared a response to it. Uh, and now, June 2nd Planning Board meeting, we're going to start
re-adopting again the comprehensive plan with the with the changes that we proposed. Um, and it's going to come to the City Commission uh, for two public hearings like we did before. So, that that that effort is still going on.
So far, we had six Planning Board meetings and six Historic Preservation Board meetings. Next one. Let me go over a little bit about the operating expenses. Um, I'm also happy to report that our
operating expense has been reduced significantly for the new fiscal year. And the major reduction is in the professional services outline item. And we left a little bit of money there, and basically it's because we have an ongoing
contract for ongoing services with the with the consultant to provide inspection for a storm water management during construction and development. Sometime we use them, sometimes the developer brings their own certified
inspector that is certified by the South Florida the water management district. So, sometimes we don't use them, but sometimes we do. And also, uh, also to cover a little bit the the cost of any um,
the plat review for third-party review. As you know, you know, the for now on, you know, the plats are not coming in front of you anymore. Uh it's just administrative, so the staff is the one have to do the plat and approve them.
Uh the statue provided that we only have 7 days to to to respond. So, that's a lot of uh That's very honest, you know, 7 days. But anyway, so there is somebody there that I left uh to cover the cost of the surveyors.
So, our operating budget the current one is 161,710. The proposed the proposed for the new fiscal year is 61,550. So, that's a decrease about $100,000.
Next. Personnel Planning Department has Planning Director, Senior Planner, two planners, and a Planning Clerk. And we propose we don't propose any new positions. We're going to keep the same. >> [snorts]
>> Capital Budget We not anticipating currently any capital outlay. Next one. >> [clears throat] >> So, this is a table showing our our budget, the current fiscal year, the proposed one. In the
last column, you have the difference between one and the other. Uh as you can see, we reducing $90,000 in professional services. Uh We decreasing a little bit school and conference. Printing and binding we're also
reducing. Not by much, but it's a reduction. And legal advertising we reducing. That's That's sort of significant, and I want to explain why is that. Because in the previously um, we were charging $160 for advertising
legal advertising for public hearings, and that was included, you know, in in the application fee. However, we changed that, and now the property owner or the applicant is responsible for the cost. So, we left a little bit of funds there
in sometime we have city sponsor or city propose changes, and we need to advertise that. Uh, the increase that you see are minor, and just they're just to reflect uh, that we have an additional
uh, personnel, and and it's going to have, you know, some additional cost. That is my budget. Thank you. Again, thank you for the cost savings and the presentation. We appreciate it. Thank you. Do you have anything you want to add? Thank you. Uh,
You're welcome. We We are certainly no longer needed for your department. >> [laughter] >> Let Let me point out to one thing though that I I almost forgot to tell you. Uh, in the professional services, we left $10,000. I might have to increase that, and the
reason is because based on the meeting that we had last year last week, we want to uh, to start a parking study for the downtown, and I haven't got, you know, more or less the the the cost of it. So, I might have to modify Okay.
>> because I think that's very important. Okay. I I agree. Thank you. Commissioner Campbell? Do you have any comments? No, Mayor. I'm good. Thank you. Good. Thank you. Thank you. Ms. Pierre, on to the fire assessment
fee. Greetings, everyone. Can everyone hear me pretty well? Yes. Okay. >> [snorts] >> All right. I'm here before you to kind of follow up with the last budget workshop meeting. There were some questions or um
follow-up questions as far as the impact on the different options um regarding exemptions. So, just some background. So, the fire services assessment offers different exemption options that lower how much certain 501c3 institution properties
pay. But, these discounts also reduce the total revenue collected, meaning the general fund must cover the difference. This would require the city to either cut expenses or increase revenue to make up the shortfall shown in the assessment
totals. The commissioners will be asked to make a formal decision on this item at the July 23rd, 2026 commission meeting. And placing it on tonight's agenda for discussion will give the opportunity or ample time to review the options and provide direction to staff
at the July 23rd date. So, the city is considering different discount options for certain institutional properties that pay the fire assessment fire services assessment. These discounts would lower the amount collected. For example,
in the chart, we have the assessment currently is bringing in about uh 1.8 million from tier one and 499,750 dollars from tier two. So, if the city offers a 25% discount,
the total revenue would drop enough to require the general fund to cover about 48,277 dollars. If the city offers a 50% discount, the general fund would need to cover about 96,552
dollars and 10 would mean the city would either cut expenses or find new revenue to fill the gap. The commission will be will make a formal decision on these options on at the July 23rd, 2026 meeting. That's just to follow up with that
information. Thank you. Any questions, Commissioner Davis? Thank you, Ms. Mayor. This is very helpful. Thank you. Commissioner John Oh, Commissioner Campbell, do you have any questions? Sorry. I'm fine, Mayor. Thank you. Okay, thank you.
Yes, go ahead. I move to adjourn. Commissioner Campbell, you second that? Let's go. I second it. Thank you. Thank you, everybody.