[music] Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [music] [music] Ladies and gentlemen, it is 9:30, so I will call the uh June 9th meeting to order. And as always, we will
uh I will ask you to silence all of your electronic devices. Mostly that applies to me. Um but we always start our meeting with the pledge and the prayer. And this morning we are blessed to have Rabbi Yankee Majeski from the Shabbat of North Orlando here with us. Thank you, Rabbi,
for being here. >> Thank you for inviting me. It's an honor to be here representing uh the Jewish community of Semino County. The history of prayer before sessions is almost as old as this country itself. And uh when I was invited to say the prayer this
morning, I asked myself, this is not a synagogue, a church or mosque. So why a prayer? But the obvious answer to me, and it goes back to ancient Israel and in the Bible, the Torah, the Bible instructs us that a Jewish king must write for himself a Torah scroll that
accompanies him at all times. Why does a political leader need a religious article near him? Every human being makes decisions every day that affects their lives and the lives of their families. But government make decisions that affect not only themselves but
hundreds and thousands of people and indeed generations to come. Being human, it's almost impossible to always make the right decision, especially when we take account our own biases, egos, and agendas. This is why a Jewish king according to the Torah had to always
have the scroll nearing. Starting with a prayer helps us stay humble, helps us remember that Hashem, God is watching and listening. And indeed, we pray for the Almighty's assistance that we remain dedicated, honest, just, kind, and
always put the interest of our citizens first. When it comes to prayer, there's no need for me to reinvent the wheel. I'll go back to the original. A prayer composed by God himself, written down in the Torah, in the Bible through Moses in the book of Numbers, still said in
synagogues today. Prayer is a prayer that Aaron, the brother of Moses, was instructed to say, [snorts] and his children, his descendants in our communities still recite this blessing to all of us today. And I'll say it first in Hebrew and then in English. [snorts]
Shalom. May God bless you and guard you. May God shine his countenance upon you and be gracious to you. May God turn his countenance toward you and grant you peace. May God bless the United States. May God bless our commissioners. May God bless all those that serve this
community, including law enforcement and the firefighters and first responders. And may God bless Semino County. >> Thank you. >> Amen. >> Thank you. >> Thank you 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. Thank you, Rabbi. >> Good job. >> Uh, I'll ask uh, county manager. Any additions, deletions, or modifications
to the agenda? >> Thank you, Madam Chairman, commissioners. On the county [clears throat] manager's consent agenda, I have three items I'd like to pull this morning. Uh, first is item number five. I will be bringing that back at the next meeting for a short presentation. Um, it's regarding our AI
policy. Also, item number 13, which was our ISBA agreement, uh, commencing it with the city of Sanford. I will be bringing that back as well as item 16. I'd like to pull that um, as well. That one was regarding Bear cans um, with the
Wakiva Wild and Scenic River Advisory Committee. They had initially requests told us that they had funding. Um they're still looking at that. Um however, we have already received $25,000 from the fish and wildlife. So we're already moving forward with uh the $25,000 grant with them and that will be
coming forward as well to the board. Just those three items, Madam Chairman, and that's it. >> Thank you, county manager. Commissioners, any items to pull? >> Madam Chair, I'd like to pull item number seven for a quick discussion. >> Any others? Commissioners,
>> I'm good. >> All right. Do we have any public comments? >> Yes, ma'am. There are two speakers >> on the consent agenda. >> Yes, ma'am. >> All right. I'll turn it over to our county attorney to read the rules of the day. >> Thank you, chairman. Florida law provides that members of the public shall be given a reasonable opportunity
to be heard on propositions before the board of county commissioners except when the board is acting in an emergency or ministerial capacity or conducting a meeting exempt from the requirements of the sunshine law. Individuals shall be permitted three minutes each for public comment or six minutes when the
individual is an official representative of a formal association or group. The chairman may modify the maximum time for public comment at her sole discretion when appropriate. Public comments on quasi judicial or other public hearing items will will occur during the board's consideration of those items. Public
comments on pending procurement matters or on non-aggenda items shall not be permitted at this time. Members of the public desiring to make public comment must fill out a speaker form and present the form to staff and forms are available in the lobby. Chairman, >> thank you very much. Would you call the
first speaker, please? >> The first speaker is Bill Hyde in opposition to agenda item 14. >> Dominic, would you mind calling the second speaker as well so they can be ready? >> Yes, ma'am. Second speaker is Win Adams.
Mr. Adams, if you would be on deck, that would be great. >> Chairman, are you ready? >> I am ready. Are you ready, Mr. Hyde? >> I'm ready. Good morning, commissioners. My name is Bill Hyde. Live at 2379 Oley Street in Ovido, Florida. Um, just for a
piece of trivia. It's not may not be relevant, but it'll may explain why I got interested in this. Uh, I hold a commercial radio telephone operator's license with a radar endorsement from the Federal Communications Commission. Uh, and I'm questioning the wisdom and the practicality of of the uh the use of
W UF for this purpose. Um, I researched WUCF's coverage. And on the map that you see up here, and by the way, this came from the Federal Communications Commission. It's a public document. Um, this is the 60 microvolt per meter
radius. um and it does not extend to Sanford. Uh the reason why that's important is because that radius that 60 microvolts per meter line delineates what the FCC considers to be local
coverage. Anything outside of that is some is either some kind of a fringe coverage. Now outside of that um they define that you may be able to hear the signal if you have an outside antenna. In other words, if you're driving around your car with an outside antenna, an FM
radio would probably pick it up. But during an emergency, um, people aren't driving around, they're in their house, and an FM radio in your house is not going to have an outside antenna. So, this is this is actually a fringe area
that we're in right now. I would think that the EOC would prefer a station that is local to all of Seol. One more thing is I I tried to find the local ratings for WUCF. It would seem to be a good idea to partner with um a
station that actually has people that listen to it. And to be honest with you, I couldn't find WF's ratings in the Neielson rating. I I did look for them. So the problem is not only do you not get the signal, but I don't think anybody's listening. I think maybe if
you're going to partner with somebody for this, it would be a station that, you know, has more coverage and more listeners. I'll tell you something. I would be willing to bet that there are more ham radio operators listening to the repeater that you guys run uh from
the EOC during an emergency than there are people actually listening to WCF. So, why are we giving WCF $7,000 of our taxpayer dollars? Um, I'll leave it [snorts] to you. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Hyde,
>> Mr. Adams. >> Yes. Good morning, commissioners. My name is W Adams. I'm former county commissioner. I'm also treasurer of our homeowners, our condo association, coach light estate section two. The item that uh I have concern about is item number
seven uh where we're talking about going out and spending close to $4 million on buying a new building based upon what is going on with uh potential tax cuts uh due to the governor's uh actions. Um, I
think that we should talk probably table that until we find out what we're going to do with our budget and that fortunately you're going to be able to do hopefully that today. But, uh, I would highly recommend that you do not pass uh, item seven until you have your
budget discussion. >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you, Mr. Adams. >> Mr. Harris, do you have something to share with us? He I was I was going to have excuse me Mr. Harris um comment on item 14. >> Sure. For the record, Alan Harris,
director of emergency management. Uh so the WCF agreement is a renewal agreement. Uh we [clears throat] started that agreement in 2011. We do test the system regularly uh before hurricane season. We have tested it in this building using a small FM portable
radio. No general fund tax dollars, no property taxes are paid for on this. It is totally paid for out of the emergency management preparedness and assistance trust fund. That is a trust fund that's given to each local emergency management
office using insurance uh costs. So part of your insurance goes to local emergency management very small amount but it goes to it specifically for preparedness and awareness during an emergency where we work with the office of communications. In fact, the entire
process of renewing this agreement, we worked with the office of communications to make sure that they are uh poised and ready to push out when there's an emergency. This is the radio station to tune into that guarantees us
our information being broadcasted multiple times through the day and also at the top of the hour. It's actually in the agreement at the top of the hour. So everyone in Simino County can tune into that station during a hurricane. Now, I'd love to do that with another radio station, but for that cost, that it's
just impossible. So, just wanted to bring you up to date. Thanks. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> All right, commissioners. Uh I'm just going to throw it back to you all. Would you like to reconsider any of the items after public comment? >> I'm ready to make a motion.
>> I have a question. >> Yes. So, regarding the WUCF uh contract, I I don't have a problem with moving it forward today, but would it be possible to show this contract to other local
stations and see what their reaction would be if it's something that we that they would even entertain? I think we did actually. Oh, you did? Yes. And the cost point was considerably higher. >> Okay. So, you shopped it. >> Yes. >> So, you you have already shopped. >> We do shop it. Yes, we do. Every time we
knew the agreement, just like we do with any procurement item, we we seek multitudes of different uh uh proposals and quotes. And uh this one was the most economical. They could guarantee us this. They also do uh they they develop
public service announcements for us that we can use personally inside of the county as well as they can use on the radio station. So there are a couple different components to this particular agreement. >> Okay. All right. Thank you. >> All right. Commissioner Zenbower. >> I will move to approve constitutional
officers item number one. County managers items 2 3 4 6 12 14 15 17- 21. >> Second. I have a first and a second. Any
discussion? All those in favor? Whoa, whoa, whoa. >> I think Commissioner Zar missed eight, nine, and 10. >> Yes. I did. >> How about that? >> So, how about 1 through 21 with the exception of 513, 16, and seven.
>> There you go. >> Still second. >> We still have a second. >> Okay. >> All right. No further discussion. All those in favor? I >> I >> hearing none opposed. It passes unanimously. All right. I'll take it back to item seven. Commissioner Delari,
you pulled this. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. I'd just like to have a quick discussion. And I know that I've been talking to staff about it and uh I know we're we need to purchase or we need to put utility department somewhere because of the rental on the
and the condition of reflections and it does make sense to move them into a different space. I was first under the impression that we'd be moving them into the new county services building because we're trying to centralize everything. And I asked about why aren't we moving that into the county news county services building that we're putting in
five points. And they said it was cost prohibited and they said that the new building over by uh uh Redbug and Tuscala uh by Spring Villa Point uh would run somewhere just above $300 per
square foot. And so then I asked, "What was the cost of the projected all-in cost of the new county services building?" And this is a little over $1,000 per square foot, $1,045 a square foot. That's what I received in an email. And I just think that that's
excessive because I thought that we were going after a class B plus building, not a class A building. And then I looked at it and it said that uh it included the the building, the parking garage, the site work, and the consultants. Well, I
know the class B building, brand new, runs anywhere between $300 to $500 a square foot. I know the parking garage raises it, but I can't see it raising it that amount of money. And I just would like to get more clarification because we are taking another piece of property
off the tax roles. And so that I would hope that we'd have more discussion about this because we as a group have not had this discussion in any great detail. And so that's why I wanted to pull it so we can have that discussion and figure out are we going to move forward or we do we need to have more information.
>> Commissioner Zimb. >> So I' I've gone through this quite a bit and been briefed and asked a lot of questions of staff and thank you staff for answering those. The one part, Commissioner Delari, that I think is is very pressing and we can debate the cost for square foot differences and so
forth, but the building they're currently in is not safe. Um, there's black mold been discovered. The owner of that uh facility has not moved forward to remediate or correct that. Uh, so I think we we have a safety issue for our
folks that are currently there uh that need to be moved out. This also puts them in close proximity to uh infrastructure which they would engage with. Um instead of being at five points, they'd actually be closer to one of our power or our water system plants
as well as remotely located to hit other parts of the county. Um the the square footage number I I called several individuals and I got prices less than a thousand per square foot, but they were significantly twice as much or more than
what this building cost was my experience when I reached out. >> Yes, Mr. Walker. >> Um I've also had briefings with staff and and asked a lot of questions about this. And I think just for the record, the the environmental services team has already moved out of that building and
they're colllocated right now with emergency management. >> Correct. >> So, so we've got we did thankfully, you know, get the folks out of there as quickly as we could. So, they're not still currently operating in that building. Um, we have rented that space
for decades. And when we look at the amount of money that we have spent as a tenant in that building over the years, we could have bought this new building many times over. So, I think it's time. I I do think that the location makes good sense. I think that um you know,
wanting to wait until we are ready to move forward with all of the five points um movement is is too long to wait for them to get into their own place. So, we would wind up having to rent another temporary space in the meantime. It just I I think this is just make it makes the
most sense and so I'm I'm happy to support the just the uh recommendation. >> Um >> do you have >> I I was just going to say I'm I'm I'm glad that Commissioner Delorei brought this up because these are questions that
we have um to um to discuss each time. I also over the last number of days received information from the county manager and staff on this. I would also indicate um that there will be no um
built in. It's already completed ready to go. So that would that is a plus that we would not have normally and all the furniture is already there and we've gotten all of that and they all it all can be used. Now that is not correct.
That's no you're you're >> so those things did add to the price but it is reasonable within the request and also um in a highly desirable area that if as someone indicated we may not want
to do this in the situation I believe that is also enterprise funds that's purchasing this not tax dollars and um that we [clears throat] would probably sell it for a much better price than later on. So, it's an investment. >> And madam chairman, if you don't mind, I
just add and I I appreciate those are all good comments and Commissioner Delar and I have had many conversations about this as well. Um, so u tagging on to Commissioner Constantine's question, this is paid for out of our enterprise fund, uh, the utilities fund, it we
already had a building already slated to, uh, a new building for utilities. As you know, they've been in lease space for quite a number of years. We are wanting our one of our main priorities is to move out of lease space into county owned space. Um we had to
fasttrack this a couple uh this year. This wasn't until a couple years down the road that we were we were looking at at this uh because of the issues in the current facility that uh utilities is is facing and then we had to move them out within a couple weeks and find them
temporary uh temporary space. So, um so my recommendation is to move forward and this building is centralized to our water plants uh as well and it makes sense and um it was never intended for utilities to move into our new county
administration building. Um one there's really no need for them to be in that that building and it is a class B building and we're going to be briefing all the commissioners on that. Um the design team is almost finished with the the planning where where we're recommending for folks to go and so we'll be briefing the the board on that
soon. But as you know, we talked about this at the retreat uh a couple months ago. Uh we listed all the the occupants of the new building um in there and we just know that utility staff was was never going to go into the the county administration building again. we were
looking at another facility to to build them at some time and this just fasttracked it again for a couple years. So, um I would recommend that we move forward with it. >> Commissioners, I've already said every everything that I uh would have said has already been said. I'll not repeat it. Commissioner Delari,
>> Madam Chair, I just wanted to have open dialogue because we haven't had any real conversations about this. Uh with that open dialogue, uh I feel confident that uh we're making the right decision. So, I would make the motion to approve it. Second.
>> Any further discussion? All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Opposed. Hearing none. Motion passes unanimously. Thank you. [clears throat] >> All right. Well, that takes us on to the big portion of today. It is that time of the year again. So,
I'll start by saying happy new year. It's budget season. And I'll turn it over to you, Mr. Gray, for opening comments for our budget work session number two. >> Thank you, Madam Chairman and commissioners. Um yes this is uh actually we have been preparing for this
this budget uh we immediately started working on this budget after the last year's budget was uh adopted one thing that I had told our team um is that this was going to be an easy year [laughter] well it turned out differently uh but
but anyway but we do have a a a in my opinion a great budget in front of you and again I I will be making some opening comments but first I'd to go over uh the agenda for the next two days that we'll be here. Um starting out this morning, I thought with the uh with the
governor putting out the plan with uh the proposal with tax property tax reform and then the legislature approving a ballot uh initiative to go to go on the November ballot regarding property tax reform. I had asked Mr. Oscar Anderson to come from the Southern
Group. And um hot off the presses, uh he's going to give us uh a rendition of what happened over the the last couple weeks. Uh then followed by that, we'll have our property appraiser, Mr. David Johnson, who has uh been working tirelessly with our team on the impacts
of what the property tax uh reform uh would look like. And remember, if this does go into effect, um it does not affect the budget that we're getting ready that we're reviewing now. um that we're going to um that we have to adopt in September to be implemented in
October. However, it's uh there there's a plan a strategy moving forward I'd like to discuss with the board. Following Mr. Johnson, uh Mr. Jex, our budget director, will come to give a countywide uh budget overview. At that point, um Madam Chair, we'll
bring it back to the board and for you all to if there's any questions, concerns that we would like to discuss at that point and then we'll turn it um over to our constitutionals. We have um all of our constitutionals here this morning. Sheriff Lima is here with the sheriff's office. We have uh J.R. Croll
with our tax collector. And then we'll round out this morning with Amy Pinnock, our supervisor of elections. This afternoon will be our court uh discussion. Um but first we'll lead off with the Department of Health with Mr. uh Dr. Johnson. Then we'll go to our state attorney guardian ad lightum
public defender. And then Mr. Mallaloy will come with the clerk of uh court in the comprollers's budget. And then we will finish this afternoon with a links discussion. Miss Hawkins will will be here for for that discussion. Tomorrow we'll open up um uh all the
constitutions again will be done today and then tomorrow we'll be open up to our internal departments. So uh in the morning we'll have all of our operating departments from emergency management, fire, utilities, environmental services. Uh Chief Judge Chase was supposed to be
here today. She has a a court issue. So she will actually be here tomorrow at at 11:00. So wherever we are in the frame, I I told her that uh and I know chairman, she spoke with you through that. We'll accommodate her uh tomorrow morning. And then we'll round out tomorrow morning with uh our fleet
department facilities, our information technology. We're calling our public works, we're calling it moving seminal. Uh there's a lot of great information that Mr. Lori will be talking about with us uh tomorrow morning. our seminal moments and strategic planning. You know, seminal moments is our efficiency
measures uh that we have doing. This is our second uh year. We have some great information to share with the board. And then we'll round out uh tomorrow morning with the countywide uh department budget review. And then I'll we'll just end
with some closing comments tomorrow. Hopefully by one latest by two we can be uh out of here. and then or any other follow-up items that the board wants us from today or in the morning, we can bring it back tomorrow afternoon for the board. [clears throat]
So, with that, um, good morning, chairman, commissioners, and everyone who joined us today as we continue this year's budget work sessions. I want to thank our constitutional officers, our department directors, budget office staff, and employees across the organization for the work in developing
our proposed fisc year 27 budget. Last year, the board made difficult decisions to address the rising costs, growing service demands, and long-term financial challenges. The fiscical year uh 27 budget continues that work by focusing
on essential services, operational efficiencies, and responsible financial planning. The proposed budget totals approximately 1.3 billion across all county operations and reflects a balanced approach to meeting the needs of the growing community. while
maintaining the county strong financial position. This budget includes no new staffing requests and for the second consecutive year results in a net reduction in full-time positions. At the same time, it continues to support the services our
residents and businesses rely on every day. Public safety remains our highest priority while investments in transportation, emergency management, parks, libraries, and infrastructure help maintain the quality of life that makes Simol County a great place to
live, work, and do business. I have three themes to go over with you this morning. The first theme you'll see throughout this proposed budget is our continued commitment to maintaining essential services. As you all know, nearly threearters of the county's operating and capital
budget supports public safety, transportation, utilities, and solid waste services. These are core services residents depend on every day, and this budget ensures we can continue delivering them at a high level. The second theme is operational efficiency.
Through our similar moments which is our efficiency program, departments across the organizations have identified over 50 operational improvement projects projected to save approximately 60 million over the next 5 years. These initiatives focus on improving
processes, leveraging technology, strengthening partnerships, and finding smarter ways to deliver services without reducing service levels. They represent our ongoing commitment to responsible stewardship of taxpayer resources.
And the last and the third theme is investing in our future. This budget reflects the confidence voters placed in us through the approval of the fourth generation infrastructure sales tax. that fiscal year 27 marks the first first full year of collections providing
an important funding source for transportation improvements, public safety infrastructure and other long-term capital needs throughout uh Simol County. Overall, the proposed fiscal year 27 budget maintains our focus on delivering essential ser
essential services, investing in critical infrastructure, preserving our long-term financial stability, and preparing for the future needs of a growing community. So, before we move into our fisc year 27 budget presentations, uh we will begin with a
legislative update on property tax reform. Uh while the proposal currently is under consideration would not impact the budget before you today, it has the potential to significantly affect local government revenues beginning in fiscal year 28 and beyond. And with that, Madam
Chairman, I'll turn it back to you. >> Thank you. And I believe we have Mr. Oscar Anderson taking the microphone and he will bring us all things of wisdom from Tallahassee. >> There's wisdom in Tallahassee. Good luck
>> asking for more is that is that >> um good morning everyone. >> Good morning >> chairman commissioners. Uh always great to see you. Um glad to be back from Tallahassee after special session after special session. Um I I know you've
gotten lots of information about what was in the proposed property tax amendment that was passed by the legislature, but I put a little cheat sheet down that shows you what's in the current law and what the changes are. Do I need to get closer >> or move it forward? >> Sorry. Um, so you have it. Uh, I don't
know if madam chair if you want me to go through it or not or I don't know what you want to spend or you want to talk more color more color commentary. That's up to you. So >> actually think the facts are would be welcome. >> Okay. Sure. Happy to. Um, and you correct me if I'm wrong. That's why I'm
back here because yeah, I'm not >> the facts as you know them today. >> Yeah. Well, that's true. It always changes target. >> Um, okay. So, uh, as you know, um, the legislature, so the governor rolled out his proposal, had, uh, was pretty far reaching.
Obviously, the legislature made a few changes to it. So, I'm going to talk about the final product that incorporates the changes the legislature made. Um, the first one on here is the homestead exemption related to the school taxes. They were removed. They were in the original governor's proposal, but the legislature took them
out. So, that homestead that increase in homestead exemption does not apply to the school military. um for counties, cities, and special districts, it increases to 150 in January 1st, 2027, and then to 250 in 2028.
Um and then after that, there is a inflation adjustment that's in place for non-school homestead exemptions. >> Um there is a they they they have created sort of two classes of residents, for lack of a better description. Um, the existing homeowners
are eligible for the increased homestead exemption right away. Anybody that shows up after this thing is implemented has to be here for 5 years before it applies to them, which is going to be challenging, I assume, for him to try to to implement. >> We'll see if that holds up in the court system. [snorts] Also, a good equal
protection got a got a problem there. Um, it does give the counties um some ability to to shorten it authorizes and gives you the ability to shorten that five-year period if you want to down the road. Um, I'm
not exactly sure why they put that in there, but I guess they wanted to give some flexibility to the local governments. Um they uh they they they changed the cap on nonhomesteaded
property which was at 10% annually to 5% starting January 1st, 2027. That's commercial rental, anything non-homestead that applies to. Um, and then the other thing they did was they put some constitutional restrictions on the use of that of what they called
essential core services. And that included public safety, public education, transportation, storm water and flood control, natural resource protection projects, bond and debt service payments, and pension obligations. Um, those are not I'm going you're going
to have a lot of questions about what that means. It's a great question. I don't know. Uh there I mean I assume that's a decision the courts will have to resolve at some point of what's included in transportation infrastructure. Um there they did add the legislature did add paragraph G
which I'll I can I print it out. I can I can read it to you. I've got lots of paper here because it's an it's an important it's an it was an important piece for the counties and cities specifically. Um and it's uh it was paragraph G. It says one of the other new core essential services they added
was to fund the operations and administration of county officers and commissioners established under article 8 and municipalities and the expenditures approved by such county officers or county or municipal governing bodies except those expenditures prohibited by law. There was a lot of back and forth on the floor
about what that meant. Um it was originally assumed it was put in there to deal with constitutional officers like who's going to pay for elections was a big debate at the beginning but it goes further than that and from the colloquy on the floor it was clear that that's basically anything you approve
that's not prohibited by law is now considered an essential core service. So everything in your budget that you vote on would now be an eligible use. revenue reduction aside from the expenditure side you'd be allowed you'd be allowed to use adalorm taxes for that. Um the
[clears throat] let's see what else did they they also gave some constitutional direction to the legislature to um figure out a way to continue to try to get to full repeal of put a mechanism in place where counties are allowed to
try to reduce the home or increase homestead exemption to 100%. um it doesn't say that you have to um and it doesn't say the legislature has to has to. It just authorizes the legislature to put a system in place. So there will be some a lot of discussion
around that down the road if this passes I'm sure as well. And then obviously the effective date is January 1st, 2027, assuming it passes. Um the there were a couple other pieces that I think are relevant for y'all to know. when it started in the governor's proposal,
there were a couple things that the legislature took out. Um, one was there was funding for the department of revenue to create a website, which you guys may have seen, the Save Our Homes website. I think that was through the Department of Revenue. I don't we're trying to figure that out. Um, and there
was $5 million worth of funding in the bill to pay for that. Uh, they they took that out of the bill. They said, "You can't do that. You're the governor can do it obviously if he wants to right now. So, we don't need to fund it or pay for it. It's up to him if he wants to do that." was the was the back and forth on that. The other thing that the
governor's proposal had that was taken out was a trust fund that was sort of described as a way to backfill some of the loss of revenue by the locals. Um it was there was a a point of big debate in the committee and on the floor and the
legislaturator's opinion was if the people vote to increase homestead and exemption that much and reduce the overall mil overall revenue to these local governments then we'll have to figure out a way to make it work. Um and we're not going to be in the in the business of backfilling. There was a lot
of back and forth between Republican and Democratic members. Republican members typically get more more local projects approved than Democrats do and like it's not fair to our communities and so they just took it out completely. So there is no trust fund to backfill um any loss of
revenue. Um so that's sort of an overview of what happened. So you want to talk about that and then I can talk a little about next steps who has questions that I'll attempt to answer and rely on him to to clarify. >> Any questions? >> Wow, that's great. I think the summary
is that we they've broadened the uses. >> Assuming we have the revenue. >> Yes. >> Do we have it? >> That's correct. >> All right. Back to you, Austin. >> Okay. Um, next step. So, there there's already I've had I've been in constant contact with the Association of Counties in the League, too, actually. Um,
there's already a website created called save ourvoters.com that we that everybody kind of believes is going to be the the mechanism for the legal challenge around it. There's some there actually some great interviews and information on that website about it. As Mr. John Johnson said earlier, there are
some some some serious I want to say serious. There's some deficiencies that probably are going to be legally challenged in the ballot language. Um, you know, even the title itself, save our homes from excessive property taxes, doesn't feel that neutral, um, which is what ballot language is supposed to be.
Um, and there's a lot of other things in there. It talks about the benefits, doesn't talk about the costs. There's lots of ambiguous language in there. Um, and then to the last issue, it does sort of create two classes of residents and under the uniformity of taxation, is that a is that a legal thing to do? It's
way above my pay grade. Um, but there's clearly going to be a challenge, a legal challenge to it. That that process is outlined in statute in chapter 101. Um, and essentially what it does is somebody challenges the courts. They they have the courts I think 30 days at that point
but they have 30 days once it's filed with the secretary of state to challenge. The courts have to obviously move it to the top of the docket. Um if a court says the ballot language needs to be needs some defic has deficiencies that need to be cured then the attorney general gets 10 days to rewrite the
ballot language. Um and then that new improved language can then again be challenged. Um I don't know it didn't I don't know when when that stops. So, I don't know when the end of that process is. Um, but uh I mean I I fully expect I
expect I I presume there's going to be some some changes to the language based on sort of just plain reading of it, but you never know. Um so that that process is going to work itself out. Uh obviously the Association of Counties, this will be the number one topic during
the the annual conference in a few weeks on the 24th to 26th. I'll be down there as well. Um, and so they're they're, you know, obviously trying to figure out what they could can and can't do. I don't expect the association to be a party to the to the uh any lawsuit that
moves forward. Um, they got to get board approval and there's a whole process and this has to happen pretty quick. So, um, and same with the league, but I I assume individual local governments will will join that conversation. Um, that's I mean that's sort of next step. the the the polling that I've seen to add some
color commentary is about 70%. Um the original rumor around the capital was that the governor's office was going to wait as long as possible because they know that every day that it sits out there it loses support. Um and then it kind of
rushed out at the end of special session when he had some more I want to say leverage leverage over because of uh vetos and everything else. So he did it before the budget had been approved um to sort of maximize his ability. So um
that's that's the color commentary and next steps >> questions >> questions [clears throat] Mr. down. >> Not not so much a question, but thank you very much. I know you all were very busy up there and >> I'm glad to be home.
>> Yeah, I bet you are. As we endeavor upon today's task of of this budget, and I know my fellow commissioners aware of this, but for the public, this this is on our radar. This is staff is going to be at some point
bringing recommendations back to us as we move for next cycle's budget. But I would remind everyone these type initiatives were on the ballot in 2018 and 2022 of which were not approved by the citizens of of this state to
increase that homestead exemption. This is not a novel idea, but I do applaud the legislature for giving the citizens the availability and the capability to weigh in on this and make their own decisions on how they want to be taxed. It's our job to ensure that they're
fully informed before they walk into that ballot box to understand what this ultimately means for them in way of quality of life. And I trust that that our people and our staff will endeavor upon doing such a good job that we'll be able to inform our constituents what
this really means when they go in that that polling place to decide which way they want to be taxed. So to me this represents obviously the core values of our country and and the way this this country was founded uh
to give the citizens that ability and I think what we will find at least a citizen of Semino County if properly informed and educated on what these impacts will be have always proven to us to make good decisions. [clears throat] >> I would just point out that this is a
statewide vote. >> Yes. [clears throat] And so we are a very small portion of that. The task in front of us is fairly significant. Uh I think any further comments if not I would >> I may but I'd like to hear the the rest of the story.
>> Can can I add one there? There was a second bill that was passed an implementing bill. This this was all about the the House joint and the joint resolution they both passed. Um the implementing bill deals with stuff that he can explain about roll back rates and things. Um and then also gave them the ability to to go beyond the 75word limit
that's in the constitution or in the statute I guess um for ballot uh language. So that passed as well. Um sorry I just wanted to be complete in my presentation. >> Thank you Oscar. So stand by. We'll hear from Mr. Johnson now. >> Very good. So we're going to kind of
dovetail into what Oscar is there and I've got a little bit of graphics. You know me in a PowerPoint. I cannot go any place without a PowerPoint. So, here we go to graphically represent a lot of what Oscar just indicated. So, here's a current snapshot of your tax role um and
what it looks like uh for 2026 and kind of moving forward. Um so, 2026, breaking news, you probably already know this. Your tax ro has now grown to about 20.3 billion uh in taxable value. of that
about 24 and a half billion is uh attributable to homesteaded property. So that gets back to the conversation we just had which is about 40%. Uh we've got about 181,000 parcels. 107,000 of those uh have a homestead. And um what
this does from a estimated perspective of what you would be generating for tax revenue about 444 million I did not take Tim's 96% math that he did but this is just a quick overview. You generate about $444 million in advorum tax revenue to your
general fund. Um about 185 million of that um all your funds I'm sorry about 185 million of that is paid by homestead property owners about 41%. Um as Oscar pointed out
this impact that if this does get passed by voters in November will not be affecting the budget we're supposed to be talking about today. Okay, I understand it's on our radar and we need to be conscious of it, but it does not impact anything we're going to be doing for the u fiscal year 27. All right,
Tim. So, this is just kind of an outline about what this happens uh in the time frame. Currently, the homestead exemption is about $51,411. That is already factored up by um the CPI, so that's why it's a weird number.
Uh if this were to pass, uh it goes to 150 on January 1st, 2027 and to 250 on January the 1st, 2028. And then as Oscar indicated, there's this nebulous language about, you know, someday maybe we try to get it to
nothing. We're going to give the legislature that authority so we do not have to go back to the to the voters. Um they can decide to do it or not do it. It's just there and gives them some authority to do that. So that's what that looks like. As Oscar indicated,
this does not impact school taxes. The one thing that [clears throat] folks have got to understand, you know, the bumper sticker that's out there that, you know, you're not going to pay property taxes on your homestead is just false because you're going to continue to pay property taxes for school taxes.
So, everybody that has a homestead, whether this passes or doesn't pass, is still going to get tax bill from the tax collector with the school tax on there. So that's and that's about 40% here in Simol County. So that's um fair disclosure on that.
All right. So here's how this HJR1F impacts your three funds that you control. Assuming this were to pass. Um and you know you can you can see the numbers uh for 2027. uh you would be seeing an initial when
the 150 kicked in, you would see about a $50 million reduction in your general fund revenue, about a $19 million reduction in your fire fund and about $600,000 in your road fund. And it's about it stays, you know, about 15 to
17% even though homestead make up makes up a larger percentage who's paying the bill. Those nonhomesteaded property owners continue to pay the bill to this day. Um, so but the impact is real for sure. If we get to 2028, 2029, that
number now grows to 80 almost $85 million out of your general fund, almost 26% 32 million out of your fire fund, and about a million dollars out of your um road fund. Again, fair disclosure, true
transparency. Um, we did not indicate any kind of growth in your tax role going forward from 26 to 27 to 28. We all know that your tax role grows at four, five, 6% a year. So, this is worst case scenario,
but this is just math that, you know, it's it's bad either way. Um, it's just math to give you an indication rather than doing some kind of, you know, mathematic calisthenics. Uh, so we we'll deal with that if we need to. Uh, it just passes. So, but bottom line across
your three funds, uh about $188 million worth of reduction uh in your in your revenues across the three funds. So, I call this my back to the future slide. Um because this is what we're doing. Um if this were to pass, uh
essentially what happens is again currently you've got about a $60.3 billion taxable value tax role. If this were to pass uh the first year we basically take you back to 2023. So you erase any kind of growth that you've had in your tax ro
24 25 or 26 with the $150,000 homestead applied. We go all the way back to 2022. Okay. Uh if uh when the second part of that kicks in at 250. Um, remember
that one mill basically generates about $60 million in this upcoming budget that we're talking about. Put it another way, one mill would generate about $45 million uh if this were to pass. So, that's where
those numbers impact you. Um, Oscar touched on it. Um, but I'm going to elaborate a little bit more and this gets way way in the weeds. Uh, one of the things in the implementing bill that is not affected is your roll back
rate. I mean, we always talk about there's two parts to this tax bill. We always are hyperfocused on the value and the assessments and exemptions and all that stuff because that's I guess sexier. But there's another piece of that equation. The rate, the tax rate
gets multiplied against that value. Nothing so far affects that roll back rate. What [clears throat] will happen is if in fact this passes by the voters in November, it will no longer be called a roll back rate because the roll back
rate by definition in the statutes is the rate necessary to generate the same revenue as the year before less any kind of new construction. You will essentially have a roll up rate. Okay? So the tax rate will actually be
advertised when you have all your public hearings as an tax increase on those non-h homesteaded property owners because the rate necessary to generate the same dollars as the year before will have to go up because we have taken 19
or$15 billion worth of taxable value off. So that's that's the piece of the story that again educated voters will learn over the next number of months. We'll talk about pi adnauseium. Um but that's the that's how that particular
part of the roll back which we'll call rollup rate works. And with that I am done. We'll talk about my budget later on but um we're here um to um answer questions on HJR1F and I know Tim's got
some ideas also. >> So I'm Timothy J with the office of management budget. jump to slide 24 to cover the revenue impacts of the reform as well as [clears throat] >> just check uh see if your mic is on if they can check it in the back. >> Couldn't hear that.
>> I'm Timothy J. >> I don't think your mic is even active. >> Of course, please. And in our little booth in the back support, >> keep testing it. >> There's one next to you. Work one. Yeah,
just hand him that. >> No, come over here. >> The shift. >> I'm Timothy J with the Office of Management and Budget. >> No, it's Tim's. >> It's Tim's. >> We can hear Commissioner Constantine [laughter]
back there. this one here. >> So, the total proposed budget for the upcoming fiscal year 2627 is 1 bill284 million for all countywide funds and departments. This is an increase of 5% over the current FY26 adopted budget.
County revenues are allocated into different funding buckets in order to maintain accountability, legal compliance, and fiscal management. Property taxes are the primary source of revenues for the general fund, shown in orange, as well as the fire fund and transportation trust funds in green. Our enterprise funds in blue account for 18%
of the county's revenues. These are considered business activities. The revenues in these funds are dedicated to provide drinking water to our customers, treat waste water, and manage the county's landfill. 5% of our revenues fund the county's internal service self- insurance funds shown in purple. These are workers compensation, property
liability, and health insurance activities. And finally, 37% of our revenues are generated from legally restricted special revenue sources, including state and federal grants, interlocal agreements, and tourism revenues. Now, we're going to focus on the three funds that are supported by
property taxes. First, the general fund where advalorum revenues make up 77% of the proposed budget. This is based on the total countywide taxable value of $60 billion as reported by the property appraiser. The proposed millage rate is 5.3751
mills. This is the same as the current fiscal 26 rate. After prepayment discounts, we expect to receive 96% of collection estimates. The proposed budget revenue for this uh source is 311.3 million, which is an increase of 15.3 million over the current year.
The next largest revenue in the general fund are sales taxes generated from the state of Florida's 6% tax levy. This is a separate revenue revenue from the county's 1-cent infrastructure sales tax. These taxes are collected by the state of Florida and allocated to the county
through the halfsent and state revenue sharing programs. Semol is a donor county which means that a portion of our taxes are paid by the residents and shared with fiscally constrained counties in the state. We are projecting this revenue flat at $41.5 million. This
makes up 10% of our general fund. Next, we have our public service tax, which is a 10% levy on electricity, water, natural gas, and propane sold in the unincorporated area of the county. The cities maintain their own levies and receive their revenues directly. The
first 300 kwatt hours of electricity is exempt from this tax. We're projecting 25.4 million in the proposed budget, an increase of 5.3 million. This revenue makes up 6% of the general fund. The final major revenue in the general fund is communication service taxes.
This is a 5.1% tax on mobile, data, cable, and streaming service. It's controlled and administered by the state of Florida. These figures represent revenues collected in the unincorporated area. The cities receive their revenues directly, and this makes up 1.3% of the general fund.
This chart shows the total revenues in the general fund from all sources of 43.7 million, which is an increase of 5% over 26. Now, we'll move to general fund expenditures. This chart shows the total proposed expenditures of $400.9 million.
We added the final column on the right to show the percentage of the total fund, which is a representation of where your tax dollars are allocated. 55% of the general fund proposed budget is allocated for public safety. The first line includes sheriff law enforcement as well as the county's
correctional facility. The sheriff proposed budget is increasing 3.8% to 202.6 million. Other public safety functions in the general fund include 911 dispatch, public safety radio network, emergency management, animal services, and code enforcement. We will
go over these budgets in more detail during upcoming department presentations. 8.4% of the general fund revenues are dedicated to transportation services, including mass transit, which is Sunrail, Links, Buses, and Scout on Demand Transit. The second line is a
transfer from our general fund to support the county's public works department who manage our road, bridges, and traffic control system. The proposed recreation budget for fiscal 27 is 28.8 million, which makes up 7% of our general fund. This budget is split almost evenly across county
parks, libraries, and natural lands and trails. The budget, the proposed budget includes $6.5 million for human services, including community assistance, community health, and a transfer to the Attainable Housing Trust Fund. This chart does not include grant revenues,
which are budgeted outside of the general fund, or unfunded mandates, which will be shown on an upcoming slide. The proposed budget includes $67.8 million for general government services. This includes $32.5 million for transfers to our constitutional
officers, the tax collector, property appraiser, clerk of court, and supervisor of elections. County administration cost the general fund 12.3 million. This includes the board's budget, county manager's office, county attorney, the budget office, human resources, and our technology department.
16.9 million is allocated for the fleet and facilities department to manage the county's 300 buildings, 200 2.4 4 million square f feet and400 vehicles. Then we have 2.1 million for economic development and tourism activities and $4 million for the development services
department which includes planning and growth management. Final chart shows county unfunded mandates in the general fund. This includes our annual payment to the state for the local cost share of Medicaid. We have 1.9 million for the medical examiner, 1.2 2 million for the health
department, 21.7 million in support of the courts, 500,000 for veteran support, 6.9 million for retirement contribution rates set by the state, and 3.1 million for water quality protection services. These unfunded mandates are defined by the Florida Association of Counties and
are based on proclamations of law, which require local governments to expend funds in a constitutional or statutoily dictated way. The FY27 total proposed budget includes $158 million for all unfunded mandates across all county funds.
This chart shows the total proposed revenues and expenditures in the general fund. We are structurally balanced with a revenue estimate of 43.7 million and expenditures of 400.9 million. Moving to the county's fire fund, this chart shows both proposed revenues and expenditure budgets which are 100% in
support of providing fire and EMS rescue services to the county. Total proposed advalorum property taxes are 112 million which is an increase of 5.3 million over fiscal 26. This is based on maintaining the current 2.7649 millillage rate which
makes up 86% of the total $130 million fund revenues. Moving to expenditures, we have base budgets of 112.2 million which is nearly 90% to fund personnel salaries and benefits. In our $22 million capital line, we have budgets for fire station renovations and
relocations that were presented by our fire chief last month. Moving to the transportation trust fund, the final adorum fund. These revenues support operational costs for transportation in the county. This does not include our penny tax revenue, which funds transportation infrastructure. The
proposed budget includes a $33.6 million transfer from the general fund needed to support expenditures. The county levies an unincorporated road millillage of 0.1107 mills which generates $3.1 million in advorum dedicated to road maintenance.
Moving down to gas taxes, there's a combined 15 cents per gall per per gallon levied in the county which is projected to generate $21 million. We have a 6-cent local option and the new 5-cent local option gas tax which are projected to generate a combined 12.8
million. The next row shows contributions from the city of Sanford and Lake Mary. from their 5-cent collections. This revenue will go towards the cost of the new 417 seminal connector roadway. Moving down, we have a 1 cent per gallon levy dedicated towards mass transit. And the last two
rows show a combined 3 cents per gallon that is set and administered by the state of Florida. Total revenues in the transportation trust fund are estimated at $60 million including the general fund transfer. This chart This chart shows the proposed
expenditure budgets in the fund. The transfer to links is projected to grow by 100,000. This includes a reduction for fixed route buses of 2.4 million and an increase in paratransit cost of 2.5 million. The reduction in fixed route is due to a service change which took place
on January 2026 to replace fixed route buses with an ondemand microransit service. The current FY26 budget includes over overlapping services which are going away in fiscal 27. Note that the service change resulted in a reduction to links of 82,000 service
hours, which would have cost the county an additional $9 million in fiscal 27. The proposed budget for microtransit is 7.1 million, which will fund 49 vehicles, an increase of seven vehicles from fiscal 26. Moving down to the contribution for Sunreil, we have a
reduction from 11,560,000 to 11,349,000. And finally, the cost of our public works road and bridge department is 28.5 million, which is a $2.4 million reduction, including the five full-time personnel, which are being reduced
through attrition. [clears throat] This chart combines all three advalorum funds to show where your property tax dollars are allocated. Combined, 72% go towards public safety activities, including law enforcement, corrections, fire, EMS, and dis dispatch. 11% goes to fund
transportation. 5% for county parks, libraries, and natural lands. 4% is for BCC general government activities. 3% funds our constitutional officers and 1% goes to community services with the final 4% allocated to unfunded state mandates.
This chart shows the potential revenue impact of the property tax reform to our three advalorum funds. The first line shows the proposed advalorum property tax revenues for each fund with the 96% discount totaling $426 million. The next
two lines show the estimated impact of the additional 150 and then $250,000 exemptions. If we look at the $250,000 exemption, which will impact the FY29 revenues and beyond, the property appraiser estimates an $85 million reduction in the general fund, $33
million reduction in the fire fund, and $1 million reduction in transportation trust fund. This is approximately 26% of our total advalorum revenues. Moving to the last row, we show the total impact to the total projected revenues for each fund in fiscal 29, resulting in
approximately $20 million reduction in the combined revenues for all three funds. This slide is being presented for reference purposes. The top subtotal shows the services excluding mandates. FY27 budgets total $358 million in our
general fund. The 29 revenue reduction represents 24% of services. Uh and the fire in the general fund. In the fire fund, the $33 million loss represents 23% of services. And my final chart shows the FY26 current approved
full-time staffing positions of 1,685 being reduced by 5 to 1,680 in the proposed budget. >> And that's it. >> That's it. >> Back to you, Madam Chairman. Well, first of all, thank you all three of you
for your presentations. Uh before we go into board discussion, I do have a few comments. Just when we thought just when we thought we had fig had it all figured out, uh the universe shifts. Um and while
while we have the reality of what we think we know today, there are so many unknowns that we're faced with. Um and I think chairman Zenau or chairman >> pass
>> still occasionally acts like the chairman Zimbau. Um >> I'll just own that. I'll own the Freudian slip. Uh >> as he mentioned earlier, [snorts] I think we have a lot of things to contemplate and consider and one of them is anything that we do this year does
impact next year. And so while we can openly say that this year's budget is not impacted by this potential new law, we certainly need to be thinking about the future as we're preparing this year's budget. Um
it is very clear that the proposal under consideration by the voters is is significant in nature and is more than likely going to be rather difficult to understand given the language um and given just the nature of elections.
uh we all have daily lives that we live and other than being involved in politics most normal citizens are not that engaged because they can't be and yes I did just call us abnormal because
we are um and quite frankly there will be uh factions I won't say opposing factions but factions with regard to this potential law that are stating it as the best since sliced bread and are stating it as though the the sky is falling. And
neither of those are probably true. In reality, somewhere in the middle is is the truth. So, I think for today's board discussion, what I hope that we will do as the reasonable and responsible adults in the room is make sure that we understand the facts, that we're asking
all the right questions, that we're evaluating potential impacts for future budgets because they matter now. um and that we are preparing for that range of possible outcomes. I think we
owe it to our citizens to make sure that this discussion informs them well. Um for those that are paying attention. So I also think it's important to keep everything in context. Um
there is no right answer. I always say this, there are probably a thousand right answers out there. Just because it's our idea doesn't mean it is the right answer. There is no such thing um on any topic. Um we do have two days worth of
discussion. So I will ask that we are all reasonable and responsible about the rabbit holes that we go down for potentially very small dollars that don't have significant impacts. That is not in my speaking notes to be clear. Darren's probably flinching, but we do tend to do that every now and then, and
it takes the focus away from the bigger issues. Um, we will have another opportunity to discuss the proposed property tax reform in greater depth at our July 14th meeting. So, we will celebrate 250 years of great governance in the United States of America and
happy birthday. And then we will come back to a July 14th discussion about what potentially is happening next. Um, so let's focus on 2027 with an eye to the future and the reality that it will
be seemingly difficult from my perspective to expect that our voters are going to say, "Why no, I don't want a tax break." Although they have done it two times before, the um public relations campaign around this is much
different than it was in the past. and we just need to be cognizant of that and prepare for the future. Um the property tax reform from my perspective is a fiscal issue. I realize that it's turned it well it's not turned
into it is also a political issue. I believe if we keep it attached to the numbers and attached to the reality of what that pays for for our citizens today that we will do our job in terms of informing them. I also
think there's a presumption of guilt. Um and that is that to sweep 67 counties with the same brush is the presumption of guilt that we are all overspending. And I will tell you that I believe there are a lot of counties that are fiscally
restricted. I think there are some of us that are donor counties and I think there are others that do overspend. I don't think we are one of them. Uh which means from my perspective that this will have a more significant impact on the counties that were already fiscally
responsible because there [snorts] are less areas to cut and that's just the reality of it. So that will be for future discussions, but that is the reality that our citizens will face if this passes. Um, so let's keep
everything fact-based. Let's stay to the numbers. We all know I love the numbers. Uh, round them when possible, Mr. Jax. That would be awesome. And keep us focused. So, uh, let's let's work toward a really good outcome. So,
commissioners, I'll turn it over to you for any questions for the three gentlemen who have done a wonderful job at explaining the potential future and the reality of today. >> Yes, Commissioner Lockart, >> I'm I'm hoping that one of you can help
explain to me and and to any any other folks who have identified this. I'm hearing two different narratives about non-homesteaded properties and what the impact to those will be, particularly around um residential non-homesteaded
properties that have renters in them and the impact potential impact to renters in the in the community. When I see the cap or the limit being taken down from the 10% assessment annual growth down to the 5%, when I've talked to commercial property owners in the community, they
love that. that looks really good to them. Um, how could this not be fantastic? Can can you explain how both statements can be true at the same time or are they? >> Absolutely. And I will tell you the the major impact is the increasing of the
homestead exemption from the 50 to 250. That is where 90% of the impact occurs. To your point, taking the cap on non-homesteaded properties, those commercial property owners from 10 to five affects that number, that hundred
and something million$180 something million dollar number by about three or four million. So, it's it's a relatively small piece of the impact. Certainly from a property owner, property uh landlord's perspective, predictability is always
very important when you're trying to come up with fairly tight margins sometimes, especially in this market that's relatively flat on the commercial side. So certainly anything that you can do to shave off an expense that's and certainly property taxes, insurance are certainly an expense of owning a piece
of property. Uh that's very that predictability is very much there. But I will tell you that is the least of the of the impact from this proposal. Um and and certainly um you know creates some level of fairness um moving forward. Uh
you know every year I give you a an idea about how much we have under the cap from the saber homes cap which is eight or nine times the size of what we call the 10% cap which is what's there. um just because um commercial properties do
not grow or non homestead properties really do not really pierce that bubble of more than 10% a year anyway. So 5% is a relatively stable amount of growth. Um and again it's it's not going to be a huge impact as far as the total dollars coming into the county. That's the least
of the equation. >> So follow up if I could. So how do we predict this negatively impacting renters or does it? >> So the there's commentary around the concept that if this does go in fact
effect uh you will maybe see um an increase uh in demand for housing in Florida. That's one issue. So that could raise total prices a little bit. That's one particular impact. The other piece I touched on which is let's call it a tax
shift potentially. Um if you have a roll up rate rather than a roll back rate and you change your general fund millage rate or your fire fund millage rate or your road fund millage rate to something higher to maybe not account for all the
loss but some of it. um those folks that don't have a homestead exemption are going to pay that uh that that millage is going to be increasing. Um so yes, their cap went from 10 to five, but the other part of that equation, the the
rate that we're multiplying that by has now gone up potentially. So that's where it could negatively impact not only renters, but I would think your business owners. Uh again, I just had a two-minute speech about predictability. That's an expense. They love the knowing
what the predictability is. But if their millage rate goes from a 5.37 mills to six or seven, then the homesteaded folks are are happy because they're not going to really see that, but the non-homesteaded people are. So that's where the shift could be.
>> Thank you for that explanation. >> Commissioners, any further comments? >> Madam Chair, I I just want to let's go beyond that. David Fact of the matter is
in this scenario we're cutting taxes. I mean you know there was less money services will be affected. Property values therefore will go down >> potentially. It depends on what demand
is. It's all going to be depending on what the demand is. it would, you know, demand will go down and then the interest, I mean, people will raise uh rent because they're going to be taxed more because they're going to have things. So, it's going to make it less
affordable and property values will likely go down. It's it's predict I mean, it's it's unpredictable at this point. I I think the narrative I've heard more is that this is going to increase demand. This is why that five-year piece was put into
this particular amendment that you had to be a resident of Florida for 5 years before you could get this additional exemption because there was some level of concern that there would be this huge inflow of folks from across the country buying up properties. We
already have a housing crisis in the state. Um and you know, again, median sales price in this county is $450,000. Let's round it to 500,000. Okay, that's that's unsustainable. Okay, I mean that's a huge number. Um it's
sustainable. It's a huge number. So, does that go from 500 to 600 because you're giving someone an additional exemption potentially, but then that creates more affordability issues, but Commissioner Custody, I totally understand quality of life issues. People live in this county for the
quality of life and they have a certain expectation. they have voted themselves tax increases four times to create an additional quality of life uh to tax themselves to increase their quality of life issues. So certainly um that's
there as chairman her pointed out this is a statewide initiative so we can be doing everything perfectly great here in seminal county um there's 24 million other folks in the state that are going to get you know potentially to have a
comment on this. So, um, it's that's just kind of where we are with that. So, >> so I think that the conversation around increasing demand for housing in the state of Florida is a very interesting one and one that I had not heard before
and I will say that it seems to me that that is the last thing we need. [laughter] Let's just call that like it is. I mean, that's driving a lot of the investment that we have to make today so that people and we've self-governed in terms
of the penny tax so that we can get from one end of a boulevard to the other. Insert name here because it's all the boulevards of the county. And we're not the only place in the state that's suffering from that. And I think if you ask both sides of the aisle what the
major issue is, it's housing and the affordability of housing and it's crowding and the the issue that we are having to build more and more and more. So that is a really good point, David, that you made um and one that I honestly had not contemplated,
>> Commissioner Lockhart. >> Yeah. Well, I think affordability is what started this whole conversation, right? And so when we look at uh property taxes being one component of the affordability piece of home ownership, [clears throat] we're we are ignoring the insurance
piece. And I will tell you um I have a few seniors in my life that uh that I'm I'm very well aware of of what's happening with their property taxes and um and we went online together and we looked at the calculator and um you know
right now because the home was purchased many years ago because they have senior exemptions and what have you uh you know property taxes every year are are in the $800 to $1,000 a year range. I I don't know that you can join the Y anymore for $800 a year. Um but just got a
notification from their property insurer that their property insurance is going up $1,000 this next year. So, so we seem to be um squeezing one end of the balloon with the water in it and and
it's just um I'm concerned that there has been a lack of longterm focus on what will happen to a senior who has been living on a fixed income and could reliably count on I know my
property taxes are about a hundred about $1,000 a year that Now, now what is going to happen? The disproportionate cost share of other things that may have to occur um in order to make up those revenues, we could be seeing a a very
negative impact on our seniors and and low-income residents. And I I think it's it's just very concerning. And so, as we talk about this budget and the budget moving forward, especially some of the items that we have like community parame medicine and all of these things that are focused on reducing costs for
Seminal County, We're reducing costs on Semino County taxpayers, serving our veterans, um that that improve the quality of life for everyone in this community. Those are all a part of the conversation that we're going to have to be having. And so, um I am so glad that
I work with a a board and a staff who understands the big picture and that we'll be able to see um clearly moving forward hopefully um the the best next steps. Commissioner Lockhart, can we talk about
the calculator for a second? Um, so [clears throat] the calculator that's currently out there um is wrong. Okay. Because it still does include the removal of school taxes, which Oscar talked about uh in the very beginning that that got taken out in the very
beginning of this process. Um I know they've been made aware of that. Um, but that calculator that's currently out there because if you punch in your your street address and you're assessed at less than 250,000 or taxable value is less than 250 thou,000, it's just zero.
Well, that's just not right because as I indicated 40, you're going to have to add in there the school taxes. Okay? And remember on the school exemption gets really complicated. We're going to go down a rabbit hole just for a second. chairman her. Um, it's not a $150,000 or
even a $50,000 homestead. Your school homestead exemption is $25,000. Okay? There is no 10% cap on the school portion of the value. It's if the value goes up 20%, it goes up 20%. That's
almost half of your bill. So the have out there in the public domain, okay, that says I'm going to punch in my address, shows my taxable value 250, it shows zero. That's just not right. It's not wrong. It's it's just totally
inappropriate. That was what was governor's initial ideas that that assumes all of his ideas were incorporated into that calculator. The calculator is still up. We checked it out this morning. Um, and so, you know, I don't how you take it down that was in
the basement of the governor's mansion or what, but um, anyway, uh, it's it's just not there. It's not right. So, uh, because it needs to add back in the school taxes to be, >> uh, at least a little bit, u legitimate. >> Good to know. And I'll I'll just say
that while that went down a little bit of a rabbit hole on school taxes, uh this is at least one commissioner that says please educate the kids of the state of Florida so that they can grow up, get good jobs, and pay social security for the rest of us that are going to [laughter] rely on it. So let's
not cut school taxes short. >> Commissioner Delari. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. David Oscar, can you also expound a little bit? Is this new uh question on the ballot? Does it address any guarantees to renters if
they rent an apartment complex and the property taxes goes down on a on the person that owns the complex? Does that get transferred down I I want you to say it. Does it get transferred down to the renter andor does that calculator
discuss any of that? >> Absolutely not. Uh there's no guarantee There's no contemplation whatsoever of any kind of tax savings from non-h homestead property owners with their commercial to move back down to a tenant. Um that would be huge overreach
obviously but the focus is definitely on homesteaded property owners specifically >> but there are there is some confusion relating to that that people have actually asked me about and I don't have an answer for them. >> Yeah, the answer is no. It does not guarantee any kind of pass through back down. It's kind of just like the live
local act. There's no guarantee that that that savings gets moved down to the renters either. So, >> thank you, David. >> Commissioners, are we ready to move on? >> Please. >> All right. Thank you. Hearing no further questions, we'll bring it back to David
Johnson is the first up. >> Talk about his >> specific budget. and we don't let anybody talk without Tim Jack standing next to them. So, [laughter] we've got you covered, David. >> Well, this is stuff to go a little bit
less exciting. Um, and thankfully so. Um, this is our annual budget for funding of the office. Um, I always put this slide in there. Uh, as you are well aware, my budget and the tax collector's budget are approved by the Department of Revenue on an annual basis. Uh, we
certainly you fund it obviously. Um and we certainly want to be here and be courteous and respectful to your comments and your questions. Uh but this just gives you a little bit of an idea of the timeline that we have to follow uh moving forward. So June 1st uh we
submit our proposed budget to the department of revenue for their approval. uh they have until July 15th to come up with a tenative approval and then they send that back information back to you as the board of county commissioners and say, "Hey, we're going to tentatively improve the property
appraisers budget. You have until August the 15th to make any additional comments if you so desire." So, that's just kind of the time frame we go through with the budget. Here's our our assumptions for this year's upcoming budget for the property appraisers office. Uh we're
projecting a 3.28 28% or $265,000 increase in the budget. Uh these are the assumptions that were built into that. A 4% salary increase which mirrors what you are doing for your staff and it's in your budget. 7% insurance increase as
you know we we're on your insurance. Um we we fund it oursel we we pay for it out of our budget and this these are the best estimates that we have at this point about 7% increase in those premiums. Obviously F FRS the Florida retirement system rates increase on an
annual basis um and we have to follow that in the statutes and our 48 positions or FTEES have remained at 48 they have for a number of years. So you control three funds we've talked about that several times already this
morning. Uh you will get a bill from for each one of those funds uh for for funding of the office and generally that's how it looks. Um so um 7.1 million of course comes out of the most of it out of the general fund. Fire
funds just over a million and about 30,000 out of the transportation fund. This is just a transmitt letter to the department of revenue. Uh we submitted the budget on the 28th of of May. Uh we submit all the budget all the budget
information all the schedules all the audits are on the website. Uh we're trying to be as transparent as we possibly can. So uh that's certainly there. Anybody that cannot go to sleep at night, this is a great way of helping you go to sleep. Looking at the schedule three of capital outlay for the property
appraisers budget. Um nothing better than get you to go to sleep with that. Um and again, these are the these these are the categories that we have to uh report to the department of revenue and the schedules that they require. And you know, we're we never will not
take a minute to brag just for a second. Uh because why not? Um so county is the 13th largest county in in the state by population. Um we are the sixth my budget is the sixth lowest out of the 67 counties per on a per capita basis.
About $16 per person is what it cost to fund the office. Um the median statewide uh this again gets back to we're all painted with we've got 67 very diverse counties and we all operate a little quite a bit differently in some cases.
The median is about $31 statewide. Uh it goes all the way from $10 per capita all the way up to $82. Congratulations uh to some of my colleagues on that. But you can see how we uh compare to our neighbors around us uh very
comparatively. So uh this just gives you a little bit of idea about what has happened with the taxable value over the years. Um we'll have to adjust that if if HJ1 passes. Uh but um tax role obviously has increased
significantly over the last number [clears throat] of years while our uh total employee count has decreased by over 10%. Again, we leverage technology and try to be as innovative as we possibly can to deliver a good quality product at a very efficient uh rate. [cough and clears throat]
And then this kind of gives you an idea about what has happened um what the the your three funds uh over the last number of years. You can sleep see the glide path uh the rate of increase over the last number of years is coming down for all of your funds. uh that is not
atypical of what's happening across the county or across the state. A lot of this is a function of you know we've talked about demand a minute ago. Um certainly demand is there but because of interest rates that certainly suppresses that a little bit uh and the cost of
almost a half a million dollars of median sales price. Um affordability becomes an issue. So we have certainly seen a a trending down in the growth of the tax roles. I think I've told you this before. If you go back in time over the last 30 35 years and kind of average
out what the county's growth rate has been, we've been about 4% 4.25%. Um that's great times and great recessions. Uh so average all that out. So at a five five and a half% growth rate, that's still very healthy. That's
much higher than inflation obviously. Um and certainly that's something that's somewhat sustainable um and predictable. those 10, 11, 12% rate increases are are not necessarily the best thing uh long term um from from a growth perspective.
And with that, I'm done with the questions about I'm ready to take questions about the our budget. >> Commissioners, any questions for Mr. Johnson? [clears throat] >> I don't have a question. I'll just say thank you again for being so responsive and and responsible with the work that
you do. It's great to be able to count on you. It's great working with your folks. AB. Absolutely. Thank you, >> David. I think we all we all appreciate you, the wisdom, the information, the history lessons, um, and certainly the occasional snark >> because it keeps us laughing. U, we may
come back to you with questions at some point as we go through this process. Absolutely. I will point out that I um, so this has now been pulled out of my binder as the measurement that we should measure every one of us by. This is a great slide and I love it. Thank you,
David, for your time this morning. >> Thank you very much and I will commit to you as we always have. We'll continue to work through this. Um we will deal with whatever we are dealt. Um I'm we have a great relationship with your folks and u looking forward to continue working with them. So thank you very much.
>> All right. Thank you. >> All right. Next on the agenda is Sheriff Lima who has uh committed that he can do this in 15 minutes or less. [laughter] 30 >> 15 >> She's harder than I was. I only gave you
20. >> That's the majority of our budget. I think we >> It doesn't matter what we give it. >> 30 is the number. Well, uh, good morning everyone and thank you so much chairman and commissioners for the opportunity to
present the Seminal County Sheriff's Office proposed budget for fiscal year 2026 to 2027. Uh, joining me as we usually have is Chief Lisa Spriggs, Chief of Administrative Services, and Mary Hope, who's the director of finance. both have
played a significant role in the development and preparing this budget and will be available with me for questions at the end of our presentation. Uh before discussing the numbers, I want to just take a moment to express my sincere appreciation for the
partnership that we've enjoyed over the years. I've had the privilege of working with a number of county commissions throughout my tenure as sheriff and before and I've had the opportunity to serve alongside all of you for a significant amount of time. One thing
that has remained remarkably consistent is this board's commitment to responsible governance, fiscal discipline, and protecting the quality of life that makes Semino County such a special place for all of us to call home. The su the success that we have
today did not happen by accident. Summ county is consistently recognized as one of the safest communities in the entire state and one of the most desirable places to live, work, and raise a family. Those outcomes are the direct result of elected leaders making
thoughtful decisions, balancing priorities, and having the courage to make difficult choices whenever necessary. And I know firsthand that budgeting is never easy. Every single department has their needs. Every agency has their priorities. Yet, this board
has consistently demonstrated the ability to balance those competing interests while remaining focused on the long-term financial health of this county and the people we serve. I also want to recognize County Manager Darren Gray and his entire team. Over the
years, we built such a tremendous working relationship built on trust, transparency, and collaboration. Uh we meet regularly, communicate often, and work through challenges collectively and together. And that partnership between the Semino County Sheriff's
Office, the county manager's office, and the budget and planning staff has allowed us to anticipate challenges rather than simply react to them. In recent months, we spent a considerable amount of time collaborating and evaluating a variety of fiscal scenarios and planning for
potential impacts associated with discussions that are taking place at the state level. And while no one can predict exactly what the future will hold, I am confident that Seminal County is well positioned because we have always approach these issues thoughtfully, collaboratively, and with
a focus on long-term sustainability. Pursuant to chapter 30.49 49 of the Florida State Statutes. I have the responsibility to submit a budget that I certify as reasonable and necessary for the proper and efficient operation of
the Seminal County Sheriff's Office. I take that responsibility very seriously. The budget before you today reflects not only our operational needs, but also our commitment to fiscal stewardship, [clears throat] transparency, and accountability to the taxpayers we
collectively serve. At its core, the budget today is a maintenance and sustainability budget. The proposed fiscal year 2026 2027 certified budget totals $22.6 million approximately, representing a
3.8% increase over the current fiscal year. This is not an expansion budget. It is designed to preserve operational readiness, maintain competitive compensation, and ensure that we continue delivering the services our
residents expect and deserve. Like most public safety organizations, we are a peopledriven business. Approximately 85% of our business is is personnel related. Our budget reflects that. the men and women who are answering 911 calls. They
are patrolling our neighborhoods, investigating crimes, operating within our correctional facilities, supporting our courts, and providing countless other essential services. That remains our most valuable asset. The majority of this year's increase is associated with
personnel costs, benefits, insurance, and the realities of operating in a competitive labor market. These investments are about maintaining staffing levels, preserving experience, and ensuring Semino County remains an employer of choice within public safety.
One area that we continue to monitor very closely involves recent changes to the Florida retirement system. As many of you know, retirement costs represent a significant component of public safety budgets across the state. We are currently evaluating the impact of those
legislative changes and working closely with county staff to ensure the appropriate adjustments are reflected moving forward. As part of that hearing process, we will provide updated information and revised projections as necessary. And at the conclusion of our
presentation today, we'll talk more specifically uh about some of those numbers. Like many of the issues we face, this is something that is very much on all of our radar, and I appreciate the partnership of county leadership as we work through those impacts together. I'm particularly proud
of the progress we've also made through our in-house law enforcement and corrections. Because of the support of this board, we have strengthened our recruitment pipeline, reduced vacancies, and improved our ability to plan for our
future. This budget also continues targeted investments in technology that improve operational efficiency and service delivery. These are practical tools that help deputies communicate better, access information faster, and reduce administrative burdens. That
allows our members to spend more time in the field serving our community. We continue to participate in collaborative efforts that address the root causes of crime, including behavioral health partnerships, youth intervention programs, opioid response initiatives,
and evidence-based strategies that improve long-term outcomes for our community. [clears throat] Those successes are only possible because of strong partnerships. One example of that partnership is the Advent Health Hope and Healing Center, which has become an important component of our community's
response to substance use disorder and behavioral health challenges. While the center is not funded through the sheriff's office budget, it has benefited from the continued support of the Florida legislature since its inception, as well as grand funding and opioid settlement resources, including
funding distributed from the Florida Department of Children and Families and other partners. The center represents the type of collaboration multi- agency approach that has helped Semino County continue to reduce overdoses, poisonings, and the
devastating impact associated with substance use and disorders. Throughout the budget development process, we have remained committed to fiscally conservative approach, needs-based. We understand that every single dollar we receive represents the hard-earned
tax dollars of Seminal County residents and we have worked diligently to align resources with operational priorities while maintaining long-term sustainability. I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge that Flityians will be faced with some important decisions
in the months ahead regarding the future of government funding and taxation. Those conversations will ultimately be decided by the voters. As public servants, our responsibility is not only to provide services, but to also ensure
that people understand the relationship between the services that they value and the resources required to deliver them. Whatever decision is made, I have tremendous faith in the people that we serve. I have always believed that government works best when it reflects
the will of the people. Here in Semino County, we have a long history of coming together, working through challenges, and finding practical solutions regardless of the issue before us. And I am confident that that spirit will continue moving us forward. Regardless
of what decision is ultimately made, the sheriff's office will continue working closely with this board, county leadership, and our community to ensure we remain focused on what matters most. protecting our residents, preserving the high quality of life, and maintaining
the level of service that our citizens have come to expect and deserve. At the end of the day, this budget reflects responsible stewardship, operational discipline, and a commitment to maintaining the exceptional quality of life that residents enjoy throughout
Semino County. So rather than spending the next several minutes walking through the charts and tables and statistics like we've done in the past, I'd like to take a few moments actually to show you what your investment in public safety looks like in action. The charts, graphs, and supporting documents are
indeed available, have already been shared with all the board members and discussed with you as a part of our budget process and are also available on the Seminal County Sheriff's Office website under fiscal reporting. Those materials are indeed important because they provide a measurements and
accountability behind the work that we do. But numbers only tell part of the story. The true impact of this investment is found in the lives that are touched, the partnerships that are built, and the problems that are solved. Ultimately, the outcomes that we achieve
for our community. The video you're about to see highlights the men and women of the Semino County Sheriff's Office, our community partnerships, and the outcomes that are possible because of the continued support of this board, county leadership, and the taxpayers
that we proudly serve. It provides an overview of our organization and showcases both the services our community knows well and many of the efforts that occur behind the scenes. As a modern policing organization, we take pride not only in responding to
problems, but in collaborating with others to prevent them before they arise. More importantly, it reflects the values that make Seminal County so incredibly special. Service, professionalism, innovation, compassion, and partnership. Chairman
and commissioners, thank you so much again for your leadership, your partnership, and your continued commitment to the people of Semino County. At this time, we'll uh show the video and tell the story. The video is 7 minutes, and then we will be prepared to
answer any questions at the conclusion of that. Year in and year out, in times of crisis, our seminal neighborhood policing deputies run towards the emergency. >> Guys, we need to get out. I know it's
your house. You got to get out of here. >> Our service to citizens is anchored by these three principles. People first, safety and well-being, and community partnership. 24 hours a day, deputies patrol neighborhoods and find solutions for
safety issues. After this fatal accident involving a speeding reckless driver along State Road 46, our deputies initiated saturated speed enforcement and proactive safety messaging in neighboring communities.
Our house watch program alerts deputies to make sure that citizens homes are secure when they're away for long periods of time. In addition to our significant declines in previous years,
in 2025, Seminal County saw an 18.4% decrease in the most serious crimes. Those cases are handled by our criminal investigations division, which includes crimes against children, major crimes,
domestic violence and elder services, and seminal financial crimes task force. Three of our digital forensics investigators were recognized by the US Secret Service as among the best in the nation. Our electronics detection canine
Storm helps locate key evidence hidden in devices like mobile phones and digital storage devices. >> Now you need police, fire, medical. When citizens called for help, our communications center handled 182,000
911 calls. Responding deputies employ new Axon AI technology to quickly reference laws and agency policies, translate up to 50 languages. What did you forget to take?
Axon transcription technology assists with report writing via bodywn cameras. Deputies then finalize the reports before submitting. It allows them to handle that backend of paperwork and those calls for service with foreign
languages much quicker to get back to our core of providing community centric services to Semino County. In more than 5800 cases, our victim services unit responded to provide follow-up
assistance to citizens in need. Somebody's having the worst day of their life. And when I arrive on scene, I can't change what's already happened. But it isn't hard to be kind and compassionate and take the time to listen, to hear what they're saying.
Our special services division consists of highly trained teams that provide specialized capabilities for critical incidents and complex operations. Our SWAT team deployed on 55 missions. Underwater search and rescue conducted
27 deployments. K-9 units deployed nearly 260 times. Our aviation section operating two alert helicopters provided critical support on just under 1,400 calls, supporting more
than 100 arrests, locating 30 missing persons. even helping extinguish fires from the air. Our Department of School Safety and Security takes a proactive approach to protecting our children. The team
includes 96 school resource deputies and police officers and two contraband detection canines providing a safe and secure learning environment. Our team of more than 130 crossing guards manned nearly 200 neighborhood posts and
perform 11,000 safe crossings to and from school for our children every single day. They serve as safety ambassadors, helping children develop safe habits. We offer innovative services to protect vulnerable residents
for families of autistic children and seniors with dementia. Our scent jar program provides safe storage of a fresh scent article to track and bring them back as quickly as possible should they wander. Our lockbox program gives first
responders door key access to vulnerable residents who live alone, enabling them to bring help without forcing open doors or windows. Throughout 2025, we took pride in graduating 38 certified deputy
sheriffs and 21 detention deputies from our law enforcement and corrections [laughter] academy. Our juvenile justice division plays a vital role in youth accountability and intervention. The prosecution alternatives for youth or
pay program processed more than 500 cases, giving nonviolent youthful offenders the opportunity for positive long-term outcomes via the juvenile alternative service program and teen court. For adult offenders, our
Department of Corrections offers workforce re-entry training. Our apprentice construction trades program delivered more than 1,400 hours of hands-on training funded via our inmate welfare fund. Our innovative programs
for opioid dependent men and women helped nearly 200 incarcerated individuals have a better chance to break that cycle of dependency upon release. Thanks to our holistic approach to fighting opioid dependency countywide
in 2025, opioid poisoning and overdose deaths fell 19%. Our 501c3 nonprofit, Semino County Sheriff's Office Community Foundation, funds numerous programs through charitable contributions from community
partners. Our shop with the sheriff program provided 275 children with new clothing and school supplies. The Halloween safety spooktacular brought hundreds of children and families trick-or-treating in a safe environment.
Elaborate trunk orreating displays and free snow cones to top off the fun. Our Christmas village program brought holiday joy to more than 500 children and their families with gifts from Santa's toy shop, fun and games, and of
course, a visit from Santa himself. In 2025, our honor guard participated in 64 details and ceremonies honoring fallen heroes and families whose courage and sacrifices will never be forgotten.
You know, that video concluded with uh Deputy Sheriff Robert Moore, who who died on this date uh today in 1975 rescuing inmates from a burning uh correctional facility. So, we we [clears throat] honor that. It's just a coincidence that it happened to finish
up our video with his photograph and and this budget presentation to be occurring on those days. But I think it's our responsibility as a community to never forget our heroes. We've had uh six that were ultimately killed in the line of duty dating back from 1922, 1975, 1977,
1989, 1998, and 2011. Um so, so again, it's an important part of it. Uh 18 1/2 minutes in, uh I do want to talk about something that wasn't uh wasn't mentioned by our friends at uh Southern uh when Oscar was giving the
report. There was also a uh first special session uh that occurred and the first special session does have a fiscal impact uh both on on our our county uh both on the sheriff's office side and and your side as well. And that is the
reinstating of the 1.5% cola that was eliminated with the legislative efforts in 2011. So, if you served in a special risk classification prior to 2011,
uh you earned a 3% COLA per year. Uh the legislature eliminated the COLA in 2011. Uh so then it was zero. So any any years that you had prior to 2011 were calculated at a 3%. Everything post 2011
was was at 0%. So if you were one of the more senior members, you still still probably have a cola that's above 1.5%. The legislative efforts in the special session reinstated a cola to take effect
after 60 months for special risk classification at 1.5%. Again, they would have to wait the 5 years in order to collect it. So, a person on your side or our our side in special risk classification is now going
to be entitled to a 1% annual increase on that retirement fund after 60 months. And the fiscal impact of the sheriff's office alone, I suspect, is in the neighborhood of $2 million. I can ask Lisa to or Mary to speak more specifically on that, but but I did want
to uh lay that out. uh uh the county manager and I had a telephone conversation as soon as the soon as the legislature made this decision and this also is hot off the press. This is this is two weeks or three week three three weeks old uh now. So I wanted to kind of just speak to that make sure that that
uh was on your radar in interest of transparency. Uh so with that unless Lisa or Mary has something that we want to add. >> Not unless there's any questions. about. >> So before we turn it over to questions, I'll just say thank you for your
[clears throat] partnership, for everything that you do for the community, for the good work of all of the men and women that serve in your organization. Um I'll also point out because you you did it um you did it more subtly, and that is that the jail
is typically a county responsibility. And in our county, the sheriff has graciously because of the skills in the sheriff's office taken over the management of the jail. And so when we look at our percentages, they are slightly different or maybe largely
different than other surrounding counties. So I do want to put that on the record. We appreciate your submission of a um budget request that is uh under the amount of the increase this year. it. We were all delighted to
hear that. We've had a rough few years, all for good reason. Um, and we appreciate the work. We also are appreciate your role in Tallahassee this year, and we are hopeful um that you can bring some uh reasonable and responsible
[clears throat] interactions. So, with that, I'll ask my commissioners, do we have any specific questions with regard to the sheriff's budget? Commissioner Lockhart. Um, so near and dear to my heart, um, is our school
resource deputy program. Um, when I was chairman of the county commission, it was something that Sheriff Eslinger and I worked on together to make sure that long before Parkland occurred, we had a qualified, certified law enforcement agent in every single one of our Seminal County public schools. Can you give us
an update on that funding and where that stands today? And and for the record, for those who don't know, we share uh the county [clears throat] commission through the sheriff's budget um shares in that fiscal responsibility with the school board currently. >> Yeah. First and foremost, thank you for
your leadership u very early on. It was it was before many of the major disasters occurred across the country and it was it was leaders like you and Sheriff Esinger and so many others, our board of county commission at the time as well uh that really forecasted the
benefit of engaging with policing professionals with our youth. And I think that when we talk about policing on campuses, I think what rises immediately to our mind and probably justifiably so is protection and safety. But I think what we recognize is police
officers do a lot more than that. Uh they're able to connect the dots whether they're a deputy sheriff or a municipal police officer with something that may be happening at home. Uh abuse, neglect, or abandonment occurs nearly 4,000 times in Small County alone. It's a horrific
um uh statistic, but it it's the reality. And and most of those cases are actually uh initially discovered on the school campus. and those officers and deputies can connect the dots. They also are doing educational training and components and all of these different
things that we know um are so relevant today. Once upon a time, we believe Nancy Reagan said just say no to drugs and it would work. Uh but we know uh now that sexing, texting, cyber bullying, all of these things are incredibly important and and our deputies and
police officers have those curriculum to an age appropriate >> [snorts] >> uh environment. So uh I I think that you know just yesterday we had some conversations with with our folks that are working in in the school space. I believe that the state legislature has
properly funded the schools that there there has not been any reduction in that and I think that we will have ongoing conversations with the school board and the superintendent to ensure that there is no adjustment in the in the amount of school resource deputies that we have on
the campuses. Uh the leadership that we have with Chief Rick Francis uh overseeing school safety and security. Uh that's something that uh we're incredibly grateful of. Uh, it is also rare. There's not another county that I'm aware of that has a member of the
sheriff's office that is overseeing school safety and security even for the municipalities. And I think that uh I think that we all share the same passion that you have for our kids and our youth. >> Thank you. Please keep me updated. >> Well, >> any other questions? Commissioner
Zimbau, >> just just statement. Um, I think it was covered by Oscar about the 1.5% cola for the F FRS when he said, "We're not sure there's a lot of wisdom in
Tallahassee." Um, on [clears throat] one hand, they're they're sending down more mandates and another hand, they want to take the money away. It's supposed to pay for those mandates. Um, as [clears throat] we all know, that doesn't work. But I want to thank the sheriff and your staff, your financial staff, all the men and women of law
enforcement. You make our jobs so much easier in this community um with your professionalism, your passion for what you do, and the compassion of the citizens out there and all the work you do with the faith-based leaders in this community, uh your your neighborhood
policing. It makes a difference, huge difference on how we all interact as citizens in this community. And it starts with the men and women of law enforcement because it's you all that are on the streets each and every day interacting with our citizens. So, thank
you very much and we appreciate this budget this year. >> Thank you. >> I'll close it out with a a shout out to Chief Spriggs and Director Hope for doing all of the work that got us to under 30 minutes today [laughter]
and under five. So, thank you all all three of you for everything. I I thank you all and I mean they're the best in the business. It's it's very rare to have CPAs that that are that are going through the books and digging in and doing that. Um and I'm grateful for
them. I'm also I meant every word that I said. You are true leaders uh in our community. It is an honor to stand with you and and work on behalf of the citizens that we serve each and every day. And look, that does not happen in every one of the counties. You just have to turn on the television and watch
what's happening out there. and I I know you all professionally and personally and I know how deeply you care about this community and for that I am incredibly grateful. So, thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> All right. Next on the uh the list is our tax collector J.R. Crawl.
[clears throat] That'll work. >> Good morning everyone. >> Good morning. >> Well, as you all know, um you know, there's a lot obviously going on in Tallahassee. Um you know, our our office is I'm hoping not going to be as
affected by it. um that you know with with what we currently take it and with our excess fees every year um it it we should still be able to pay our bills, keep our employees and and keep the service the level of service that we wanted to for Semino County. um you know
that's still a big unknown for us still you know but we know this year we're coming up with um you know with what we've already got in the works and I'll go over that a little bit here but once you go through the introduction of how my office is a little different than the remainder of [snorts] the of the constitutional offices.
So in Florida the tax collector budgets determined through the multi-step process and we in Semol County are a a fee office model. Not every uh tax collector office in the county in the state is that way. Um there's a lot of fiscal uh restrained counties that don't
have the funds and we have to like we said we have we're donor county. We end up giving money to help those counties out too. Um but we do do make money in Simino County due to the revenue that we make from the DMV side plus the the commissions on the uh collection of the taxes said our operations are funded by
fees and commissions earned by services rendered and those fees are outlined in the statutes and established by the Florida legislature and we're required by Florida statute to submit our annual budget to the department of revenue the same as the property appraiser. Uh the budget is due on August 1st of every
year and that's when we also provide our final copy to the uh board of county commissioners. So we are a little obviously every year I'm the odd duck out that's a little premature on my uh budget every year because we're not ready yet. We still have you know quite a bit of uh another quarter left until
we finish our budget. Uh the Department of Revenue will review the budget to ensure it's adequate. Let me get through a couple of these. I'm actually missing up here. um to ensure it's adequate for the tax collector's operations and the department finds my budget inadequate or
excessive, they'll return it to me and you know tell me what needs to be corrected. I haven't had that happen yet, thank God. Um and then once it's approved by the department, the budget can't be reduced or increased without their approval. And then any fees that we do collect, which is where we're going to come into the next couple
years, um this, like I guess David said, it would shouldn't be affected this year, but we're looking for the following year, would be um for excess fees in the budget. Um that's excess revenue, and that's what my office has to zero out every year. I'm telling it to the preaching to the choir here. I know you guys know this, but I want to
make sure the rest everyone else understands. Um that, you know, we do zero out every year and return any excess fees that we did not spend within our budget. we spent we we returned those back to the county. Now, here's what's going to get a little little difficult um because of the new
ruling. So, we were we had purchased a piece of land that we were looking to because of the new um county services building that we'd be moving to is not really conducive for having a DMV office there. um between the security access and the parking and how many people I have running through my offices, it just
would be a logistic nightmare to try to make that happen at the county service area. Plus, I figured I can build a cheaper DMV office still in Sanford um for less a lot less the per square foot. We were talking like the 250 per square foot type of building to put in there.
Um, so that that'd be significantly less expense for us and still keep our regular administrative services, tax collection, everything would still be at the county [snorts] services building. Just the DMV part that's now here in Sanford, we would have to, you know, find a new location for. So, we did make
a purchase of this property here in Sanford off MLK Boulevard and um 46 kind of by Wayne Dench and that area, but it's on the MLK Boulevard and that's where we intend to build a new office that we be using for a DMV office there.
That one I don't have that I'm going have to wing it. I don't have that one written down. Um yes, we plan on doing a 12,000t building on that corner. um it's going to be a replacement for the seminal the Sanford uh DMV office but like I said the other other services we
would be bringing back to um to the county service building and then um says here approximate cost we're we're estimating it at 4 million so I am still trying to fund this myself which I should be able to because next year's we
will have we typically have two to three million at least a year in excess fees so I have to put that budgetary and see what can actually budget through um the the the [snorts] do in order to be able to fund this myself and get and get this
building built in a race that I'm having to try to beat you guys from building the the building in five points because I don't know where I'll house my DMV if we have to have a shutdown in between there. Um yeah, our typical budget is under, you know, under budget about 2 million every year. So being with that
plus the excess fees that we do create from doing the DMV work that usually gives us you know a few three usually a typical around three million is what we what we're averaging is what we what we return. So I'm planning this year um a little lighter than that because I am
starting I'm already already started on this building trying to prep the land. I'm trying to get out this money, especially because I'm on a time crunch to try to see what I can get out of this year in order to start the the process of building this building. Um, part of that's going to be the plans, you know,
the site work and stuff like that. If I can get that done as soon as possible for this year, maybe I can squeeze out a little bit more between the next two years to get this project completely finished. Um, but that's pretty much what I had for, you know, right now my my budget going forward. Like I said, we don't have that finished yet, but we,
you know, that's not due till August 1st, but we do plan [snorts] on just thinking what's going to be coming ahead and what we're looking at for this year um to try to to try to finish this project, which became a lot more stressful after after this whole proposal went through with the house.
And was there any other questions or >> So, uh I do have a question. What has been the return to the county over the last few years for either of you, Tim or Jr. >> for Repeat that again? I'm sorry.
>> Oh, exc I mean, typically we're we're 3 million is what we're averaging. Um, you know, it's been a little higher on some and a little less on others. Depends on usually it's our staffing um of how how much we go through that. Um, 70% of our budget is staffing. >> [clears throat] >> uh just because we have to you know
maintain that for the for the DMV side is really where all that all that work comes and and that's the unfortunate part with this with the state I mean we we take such a small piece of the fees that come in I mean example would be a you know a registration renewal $75 the
state takes the majority of it and we get $4.50 50 cents to do all the work. So that that becomes, you know, where we're subsidizing our DMV with our tax dollars is typically how it works every year. And and that's why we try all the tax collectors in Florida now after COVID started having uh when they
realized they could they could say, "Well, that that works a lot better is to not take outofcount residents. You only take your incount because it is being subsidized by the county residents with their taxes." [cough] >> And so what's the anticipated return? Do we have that in here somewhere? No, I
don't I don't have an anticipated return this year. Like I said, I mean, I don't have I got to get some numbers still that I'm working on with with, you know, to find out expenses of what this building and what I could get finished this year. So, that's why I didn't have any numbers yet. Um, it it's coming soon. I have a meeting with them with
another builder on just trying to get quotes and try to get the best pricing. It's so hard with getting from a piece of dirt and say, "How much is that going to cost to go from start to finish?" You know, >> is it fair to say it's going to be close to zero?
>> I I would say not never zero. It's never been zero. Yeah. Yeah. I would never >> I hear Commissioner Lockheart saying I think it's going to be zero. But I think what we need you to say out loud is that it's zero. >> So that we're not delivering zero. I just, you know, like I said, it might be
in the couple hundred thousands as a return as opposed to being three million, you know, because I'm trying to see what I can what I can get done this year. All right. Thank you, Commissioners. Any other questions? Commissioner Zimbau, I'm sure. >> Thank you. Um, some of the state stuff is can now be done online, correct?
>> Yes. >> How's that impacting your workload on some of the services that can now be done online versus having to come into your office? >> Well, I mean, none of the driver's license services besides a renewal can be done online because just for security, you got to make sure you're dealing who's who's getting what, you
know, coming to them. Um, and then surprisingly, a lot of people still like to just come to the office. I mean, I I We do everything to try to make it as convenient as possible. We even changed it where we have, you know, it's if you just do an ef not the EFS, the the echek that if you do an e checkek on on a on
your taxes, you don't have to come in. You can pay online and there's no fee for an echek. So even then they still they still want to come in and write me a check, you know. So, I have to tell you, some a lot of the folks in my district have been a little perplexed about the closing of
the Ovido office and moving to Winter Springs. And of course, since my district is in both, my Winter Springs constituents are very happy now it's closer to them. Um, any plans for a veto moving forward, just for the public knowledge?
>> Yeah. Yeah, for the record, we do have we do have some plans there. Um, we've been holding off on it a little bit because we were waiting on the state to approve. Um, so what we did instead, Ovito was always a a problem for us because it was only four people could be in that office. We couldn't do any driver's license services. So, we were
trying to make a decision. Do we expand that one or do we close that one? That's that was our our two choices. Um, being that when you know the Winter Springs office was open before I got there, I think the intention was to close Ovidito and have a bigger Winter Springs office that can do all services, but then they
didn't close them. So, they both stayed open within six miles of each other. So, now we were, you know, in this in light of deciding what we had to do, I said, well, I don't have the funds to open two offices. The Sanford office is more important to get open because of we're going to have to shut this one down and
there's a larger office. So, um, that's why we had to had to pivot and say, well, let's try to get this in the future. If we ever opened another OVTO office, that's always a possibility, but we had to see how growth what happens growthwise. Currently, we have um a private tag agency we engaged with that
will be opening in that location. Okay. >> So, it is an additional fee if you wanted to use that location for all your your driver services. Just not they don't do driver's license once again, but it was the same as it was. So they can do your tag renewals and and license plates and everything that you could do
there prior. It can still be done. Plus, we had them open a uh a virtual kiosk in the Ovito City Hall that they have there. And that one's come up there like a Zoom like a Zoom meeting. Press the button, they answer, and they can do all your services and have it mailed to you. So that takes people, you know, get gets
them out of there. Once again, at an additional service because this is a private tag agency. And then we also have another kiosk we just opened in um in the Alfa Woods Publix. We had always intended to open it there, but it was under construction, so they wouldn't do it while it was under construction. So
now it's completed. We said, "Hey, we've got a lot of options in in Ovido that we've just expanded to actually even though we're closing the office, it's only for a short period, we're trying to get it open by the end of this month to have that reopen again." And and although we don't know and and since we're already talking about something
that has not happened yet, which is this ballot initiative that's coming in November, since you're going to have, if approved, since you'll have a lot less money to collect, how's that going to impact your workload if at all? >> Well, that then I would say we might be looking at zero for returning of any
excess fees at the end of the year. And I might have to make cuts, too. I mean, that that would be we just don't know. I mean, our our our objective as the tax collector association is what what we would like to do is get our fair share of the the fees for the DMV because of
that un unfair amount amount that they take and we do all the work from. So, this gives us kind of we've tried for years to try to get a push on that and they just keep telling us no, no, no. So, now being that if we're short on it, our options are going to be well then let the state take it back and see if they want to handle it, which I don't
think they will. So they might give us a little more bite on that apple to be able to to afford. >> It seems to be a familiar narrative as as we're the ones that have to run the county. We have other people telling us how to do it. >> Exactly. >> Um great. Thank you very much. >> Thank you, Mr. >> Lockart.
>> So I [clears throat] I am likely misapplying and appropriating my memory on something. So bear with me for a minute while I ask the county attorney a question. Where are we with constitutional officers and
purchasing buildings and and are they deed and how we have some history with this? Again, not reflecting on you, but it's PTSD. >> No, you're right. The but the statutes were amended not that long ago to
authorize tax collectors to own their own property. >> Okay. The only constitutional officer that can own their own property is a tax collector. Okay. And so it's easy to armchair quarterback someone else's decision. It's done to me all the time.
So I I'm feel bad that I'm doing to you what has been done to me and I don't like it. Was the idea of buying a piece of property and building your own building? Like was there something else not available for you to repurpose?
It seems like you've taken on what a lot of people try not to do because it is so cumbersome and is it too late to pivot? Have you thought about that? >> Yeah, we we've looked at other properties. I mean, there's nothing that we could find sizewise with the amount
of parking. I mean, everyone knows the Lake Mary parking situation is atrocious. Um, you know, we're hoping to alleviate that with an office that has a lot more parking and the land itself, um, which is the most difficult part to find something that large that we did purchase. It would be for I what we want
to do in the future here is have another driving course on this side of Semino County since we only the only driving course we have is in Castleberry. So our plan we first build the building, get it open to make sure we you know we're not we're not without the services there or
just blasting my other offices. If we if we close down Sanford, it would be a nightmare. >> Um so we and then we'd have to wait until it was the new one was completed. But we want to eventually then in the future years be able to say we can build a a driving course out there and just for for now it would be just left
grassland, but we would want to make that into a future that we would be able to have that. That was the whole point behind that. And is that property in the city of Sanford or is it in seminal county? >> Yep, in the city of Sanford. >> Bless you, my friend. [laughter] >> So I've heard I got Altoont done. So
Alimont was not easy either. >> So I guess a follow-up question to that is then just in the for the record category, the ongoing maintenance of that building is not our responsibility >> nor insurance. >> Correct. >> Um insurance.
Tim, do you know about that question? >> I'm not sure. Definitely. >> We could Let's check into that that one, >> but to be >> Yes, Commissioner. >> To be clear, it does impact the bottom line of what's returned to the taxpayers. >> It absolutely does. But I
>> that's where the impact is to us. >> We understand that. I think the question is separation of of tax collector and county. >> Sure. my church and state an analogy is that if if you're building your own, we're out, >> right?
>> We're not calling our teams, etc. And and um >> yeah, I've had one of my colleagues in in uh Colombia County, he just built one. He had his his fiscally constrained county. He had to go through an absolute nightmare with the with them to get bonds and everything with his county to
pay it back. And now, of course, he just got this all done. And now he's definitely not going to have any money. He returns, I think $1,500 is what he returns at the end of the year. So, he's really not not going to have the funds there just by a slight, you know, difference change for him. >> Well, I appreciate the level set on it
could be worse. >> Yeah, [laughter] true. >> With that, I think uh seeing no further questions, thank you, Jr. for your presentation. >> Appreciate you and the work your team does. >> Thank you very And I see our supervisor of elections is anticipating the next
call up to the podium. So she is on her way up. >> Thank you. >> She and her team. >> These are short. >> If we still had phone books, we'd give you one, >> right? >> My foot. Sorry. That's maybe not as
professional, but um thank you. I will be quick. Want to introduce Jason Teman uh that supervisor [snorts] of elections and Rebecca too, who is my administrative services manager. You've all met, but want to keep that on the record. I'm very grateful to them for
helping us get to this point. Thank you Tim and your team. Thank you Darren and your team and everyone for meeting with us to move through the questions. Before we get into the presentation, I do want to brag a lot on my team and what we have accomplished over this last year. A lot of people say, "Oh, you're
just an elections office. You only work every two years when you have an election." And that could not be further from the truth. So, here are some fun stats because, you know, I like stats. This past year, we processed 62,000 constitutional amendment petitions through our office. That's a
requirement. We'll reset and we look at every single signature on every piece of document to valid verify if it is a valid uh petition or not and if a constitutional amendment will make it to the ballot. Fun fact, zero made it to the ballot this year. We processed
33,594 votebymail requests. We processed 763,164 changes to voter records. That is address changes, party changes, name changes, deceased records,
uh address I said address that is anything that you could uh have changed on your voter records. We process that. Uh it is not a a bot system that handles that. It is a person handling every
single one of those. We went through two system conversions. We migrated from Google to Microsoft and we of course as you know brought accounting inhouse and within warp speed implemented a new accounting system. We have a new website
that we feel is extremely userfriendly uh provides a lot more information. If you go out there you can now see some historical reports on voter registrations and turnout for elections. Uh we have done 27 office tours over
this past year and for the first time in Jason's memory. We had 100% of our high schools participate in voter registration events. Congratulations. >> Uh we had a couple of schools in the past that had never participated and in
this manner. Uh we changed it up a bit as well and have shared with you that we do uh a mock election in these voter registration events and we put a constitutional amendment question on every single ballot and it is quite fun.
The constitutional amendment as you all have discussed today are very confusing and uh for the record for those of you don't know the authors are generally the people who get want that constitutional amendment passed whether it be the
sponsor of uh the marijuana initiative or the legislation. So, we put a constitutional amendment on these ballots that is very confusing. That is just the norm where we uh let the students vote on if you vote yes, you're
voting for more homework. If you vote no, you're voting for no more homework. And of about the 80 groups that have gone through, we have gotten seven groups that have gotten it right. It has turned into a really great civics lesson. in those seven groups, one
student figured it out and started advocating to the students next to them and in front of them and it spread like wildfire and it was a great civics lessons on being an informed voter and advocating for what's on the ballot. So, a lot of fun there.
Uh, another win, as you may have seen in the news, we partnered with Lake Mary High School to do a 3D printing job that replaced a piece in a cart in in a printer tray for us. Uh, not a not a big deal, you think, but the vendor said,
"We can't give you the part. We have to sell you the whole tray at $125 per tray." Then we'd turn around and throw the old tray into the landfill rather than replacing a 2-in piece of plastic. It saved uh our office $16,000
from replacing. It gave a student some hands-on experience. It gave a teacher some hands-on experience. Uh, and it was a really great partnership and we look forward to doing a lot more of that. We did our first I voted sticker contest. You will see your I voted stickers that
you get this year with uh when you come in to vote. Uh, Miss Arwin Yan from Tuscala Middle School did a fabulous design and we had a wonderful time presenting it uh to her. We have done uh some really great operational efficiency changes in our
office through reorganization and some equipment upgrades. And you will see that experience when we go through the elections this year and for the first time ever our our entire team 100% of our office is election center trained. Uh we send them through
training that's a national program. It is free and we uh have them do that within their first two weeks of training of coming into the office. We had all of our existing employees do it. Uh and it has been a really great uh experience to have our staff get this additional
training. Some important dates as we have all talked about it. There are 10 Tuesdays before election day. 10 Tuesdays. July 20th is the deadline to register to vote or change your party. August 6 is your deadline to
register for vote by mail. For the record, I said we have 33,594 vote by mail registrations. On average, we have about 60,000 people that register to vote by mail. Uh it has been a concerted effort of ours to get the word out to make sure people know that
their vote by mails have expired. Uh so we anticipate some heavy load in the next uh couple months to get them reregistered. August 8th through 15th is early voting and August 18th is election day.
Currently, this is uh qualifying week. So, all the candidates throughout the state are being qualified. By the end of this week, you will know who's going to be on your ballot. Uh and so, stay tuned. [snorts] Um we are in the starting process of hiring an estimated
750 election workers because it takes about that many to help us run an election. And uh one of the things our office did not get impacted by was a special session. Thank goodness because it would affected the tax uh the voters. Uh
congressional redistricting happened throughout the state. New maps were designed. Congress congressional district number seven did not change. Uh what that meant for Semino County is we didn't have to come ask you for $350,000
to do a mailing to notify everybody that their voting that their congressional district changed either by number uh or by lines. And so that was a really good thing for us. So, presentationwise for
the budget, I will um start off with, as I mentioned, we've done a lot of list maintenance this past year. When I came into office, we had 350,490 voters. We are at 337, [clears throat]
and 157. Uh you can see some of the changes here. You can see the history. This is this is kind of average over the last couple years. you see us go up and down based on uh moves in, moves out. Uh there's a big concerted effort right now with the state to make sure that
citizenship is uh is you know we p the state of Florida p passed the Florida version of the save act and so the state of Florida along with us are having to do extended list maintenance to make sure that our voter roles are 100% clean
so that we have um no problems at the polls and um so you can kind of just see the activity that we've gone through over this past year. We're still working on a a bit more. We have identified in our voter registration system, we have
about 4,500 voters that have no identifiers, the required identifiers of your last four digits of your social or your driver's license. And uh we are getting ready to do a mail out for that. So if you see any negative mail, any social media, send it our way. We're
happy to address it. It's just something that we have to do to prevent any issues at the polls. As I mentioned, we went into the high schools that netted 968 new voter registrations in Simol County, which is pretty awesome. All right, the legislation session. Uh
there's three pieces of legislation that have impacted our office. Yes, please. Thank you. That uh you need to be aware of. And of course, there are no funding allocations that come with any of these. House Bill 1205 was passed in the 25
legislative session. How it impacts us is this is a citizen uh or a sponsor petition drive to get something on the ballot to change the constitution.
In uh this past year, there were 21 initiatives out there where groups were trying to get the constitution changed. Again, I said none of them passed. Uh but the legislature has the legislation has decided to make it a little bit uh
meteor, stronger, and a little bit harder for these amendments to make it to the ballot. Petitions changed from one page to five pages. We have to touch every single one of those pages. We have to process every single one of those pages. We also have a requirement now
any petition that is accepted in our office related to these constitutional amendments, we have to mail a notice to that voter so that they have an opportunity to say yes, that is true or
no, that's not true. It's fraud. and they have to send a notice paid for by us, not by the state uh to the state to let them know that their petition was submitted fraudulently.
Uh unfunded mandate again. So in 2025 26 we processed 62,000 petition initiatives. The fail rate was about 54%. So, we sent 32 30,000 pieces of mail out
to voters to let them know we accepted their petition and they had the opportunity then to turn around and mail the state if they agreed or didn't agree that they signed that petition. Uh this is all part of House Bill 125. Again, a cost that we have to pay. We have to
absorb the mailing, the printing, and the postage. uh the si the the nice part I guess if you want to say that of this bill is it uh allowed us to change uh the charge that we charge for signature
verification for petition initiatives only. So we did a cost calculation and our cost to do one of these petitions validate one of these petitions from beginning to end rose from 94% to $4.99.
So, if a petitioner wants to get a constitutional amendment on the ballot, they must pay our office $4.99 to validate each signature petition that comes in. >> Wow. >> In uh 2026,
>> it it's it's Yeah, it's going to be quite amazing. Again, no funding uh available for that. House Bill 991, which is the Florida version of the SAVE Act, passed this year. Um, lots of changes that actually affects
the tax collector's office and our office. We uh now are the stop gap for citizenship verification. If a citizen cannot be verified through DHSMV, they have to come to the supervisor of elections office if they
want to vote and we have to be the ones to determine if they are a valid citizen or not. What that means for us is uh people who don't have driver's licenses, maybe [clears throat] people who surrender their driver's licenses at
retirement facilities or shutins uh homeless and want to vote. uh they will be coming to our office to prove citizenship. Uh this is going to require additional training for us. We've also allocated just a little bit more in litigation because uh we've already seen
three litigation cases related to this. Uh and um I could see litigation coming to us if we uh have issues with a citizenship uh from from the voter. The state department of state right now
estimates that about 5% of the voters statewide are going to have issues if citizenship is not identified. Um if they are not marked identified as a citizenship in citizen in our iss in in our system and they come to vote
those voters have to vote provisional ballots and we have to work them through the canvasing board process. Uh for us that means if we go by state that's about 16,000 voters that we would have provisional ballots for and commissioner Zimbau I know [laughter] can you imagine
processing 16,000 ballots commissioner Lockheart through canvasing board uh did have a conversation with uh with uh J.R. Kroll. We both don't think that in Simol County that number is going to be that high. We're estimating
half a percent. uh over the past year we've removed 15 people from our roles for citizenship issues. So don't anticipate it being an issue but uh it is something that we have to work on. Additionally, part of that bill
removes identification that is allowed to be presented at time of voting starting next year. Not this year. This year is status quo. But starting next year, you will not be able to use your student ID, your HOA ID, your community
ID, or your debit or credit card. And so, every piece of document that we have in our office that lists ID as acceptable use has to be updated and therefore another uh expense in our office. Uh the last piece of legislation
that passed that is going to have a little bit of an effect on us is uh House Bill 967 which requires all government agencies to accept online payment options. Online payment options only. We don't have to do it in-house. So we don't have to have a credit card
system in uh in at the desk. And it's only for statutoily I'm going to say it the backwards way. it. You can only use it for things not already in statute requiring other payment methods. So, for candidate
qualifying, you still have to write a check. You cannot do a uh debit card online. The nice thing about this is it does allow us to pass along the fees to anyone who decides to use that. However, it does not give us funding for the compliance component that you have to
have when you do online payments. So, just wanted to make you aware that there is some there's some two sides to these that are are are good and bad that are going to hit our office. So, our budget for this next year, um, we are requesting a budget of 5.75
million. It is an 8.59% increase. However, I want to give you some clarification on that. 60% of that increase is related to the election that is in this budget. So 40% is related to
the operations, the staffing, the the paper increases, the you know the benefit increases etc etc etc. We are my office is 44% of the entire county's budget. So we are talking tiny tiny
money here for you guys. Uh and we're 18% of the 3% of the constitutional amendment budget that is shown. What is different in your budget that you have never seen before is revenue. And I I'm going to come back to that in a little bit. Um
in this 2627 budget, we have a gubernatorial a general election for the gubanatorial race that is here in November. Uh we will have two weeks of early voting and we have the actual election day. uh and
so that is where the increased costs are of that 60% increased cost is related to this. Uh I wanted to give you some turnout numbers so that you can understand and anticipate what you might see at the polls this year. Generally in
a primary turnout you see well generally last year last election uh in the primary turnout there was 25.46 or 2022 I'm sorry was 25.46 46 uh% return and last year 17.66%
return. I went back to 22 because I wanted to kind of see apples to apples gubanatorial turnout. Uh in the general, which is where you're going to see everything on the ballot, we can anticipate about a 73% turnout. Um
in our budget, what we did is we we do have a net increase of 2.5 FTEES. This is two voter services clerk and a half of a warehouse tech where we have increased him from part-time to full-time. The volume that we have presented to you previously where I was
bragging on my team that was with six voter services clerks. Uh with the increase in the in the legislation, we can't continue at the capacity or I'm going to have burnout. I'm going to have overtime that's going to take us into ridiculous rates. And so we've got to
increase our staff to get uh to to avoid big challenges in our office. I did uh put a 10% budget increase and a 3% cola impre increase operationally. Uh Rebecca wanted me to
remind because this is a very good point. In fourth quarter alone, uh the CPI increased by 3.61%. these you a lot of our operational stuff is ballot paper, it's printing, it's
toner, uh people is a big part of it, but when it comes to elections, uh our expendables are pretty large. And so that's really where all of our money is going from is is going towards. Again, our increased costs are related
to the legislation that was passed. We have increased in printing requirements. the postage. You you may or may not be aware, but the USPS has increased their postage rates once again. Uh they have also changed in recent years how they
charge us back for return mail. And so we are getting hit at higher rates than we used to be where they used to just return it for free or at a bulk rate. We now get charged full charge for return mail that comes to us, which we're legislatively required to send it the
way we send it so that we can do list maintenance based on how the post office sends it back to us because we thought we were going to have to do congressional redistricting. uh we moved faster than than we anticipated and brought the GIS mapping uh back into
our office that we used to rely on the county's system uh for probably the past four or six years. Previous to that we had it in house. Uh we brought it back in house so that we can have some better maps for our constituents and for our candidates when it comes to uh getting
out there and doing your electioneering. And then uh we have seen some significant costs on the security uh prices that we have gotten from our vendors when it comes to tracking our equipment and uh the the license fees
for all of the equipment that we have to have to run our business. what you um have not seen ever on your budget from the SOE office is revenue
and this all office always has revenue that comes in and so what you see in front of you is a different uh it's challenging to compare from past because it the revenue has never been budgeted uh and we have to expend it. So when we
have candidates come in, every candidate, 95% of the candidates write a check. Very few qualify by petition. Uh that's revenue that comes into our office. It's also 100% expense because the state gets that money and the political parties get
that money. We don't get to keep it. But we have an expense that we've recorded on your budget that previously didn't have a revenue on the budget. Uh we also collect a grant for uh some security measures. We get a federal
grant that's very rarely been recorded on here. We also get um the petition verification fees for signature verification. We also get public records requests and we get a couple other little things here or there that have never been budgeted. And so you will see
on your budget revenue uh because a good accountant budgets revenue when you have expenses. And so here we are. Uh and so most of that revenue is passed through. We did budget for the potential of two petition initiatives to come
through our office, which is the biggest bulk of the number on there. Uh if we don't have those come through, you're not going to have the expenses that come through. And so you're it's a wash. Uh we do have a couple of federal grants pending that I want you to make to make
you aware of that could affect uh us in the future. Uh we have submitted a budget to a federal grant to do a 100% refresh on our uh tabulation equipment. These are the tabulation machines that
go out to the elections the polling locations. We are at 10 years of a life cycle of these election machines, these tabulation machines and um we need to start doing a refresh. The vendor has expressed that they are no longer going
to replace the existing ones. They are going to have limited support for them and so we are going to have to uh in the near future replace them. Uh so we have gone out and we've requested a grant for those and then we are
applying for a new grant a new federal grant for the replacement of our secure ballot intake stations that have some additional security measures. Uh over the past several years and several elections there's been an increased attack on
ballot intake stations. Ours are physically monitored. there has to be a person stationed at at one 100% of the time. However, there are people that still try to stuff the ballots or there are people that have put bombs in or set fire to ballot intake stations. And so,
we are looking at uh some that have some expanded security measures in them and if we can get them through the grant, we will. If not, we'll stay status quo with what we have. We just won't uh upgrade or spend them. Um
couple of things that are going to impact uh us over this next year. We did get notification from uh the vendor that our verify by mail ballot vote by mail verifier machine uh will be null and
void as of January. And so we have built that into our budget to replace our initial our initial quotes that we're getting start at $200,000. Uh and we need to start looking at replacing our vehicles which are uh
showing some wear and tear and some challenges uh with some other just minor equipments that we need to do in our office. Um you guys have we've had many many discussions. You've seen our building. And I just want to thank Darren and his team for continuing to
look at what's best for the county and what's best for our office. We are we are on a 18,000 square foot building with 7,000 of that as our warehouse which is the challenge. Uh it's a safety challenge. If we have an issue and have
to get that equipment out fast or if we have any kind of a a personnel issue, we could we could lose equipment. And so, uh, I appreciate your efforts and trying to help us look for something that, uh, that can better accommodate all of the
equipment that we have to have, uh, and and hopefully we'll get there in the next couple years pending whatever's going on with legislation next year. Um, and then the last slide just wanted, you know, this this is we'll go back to
supervisor of elections where he used to like to brag, I'm the lowest cost per voter in the state of Florida. Um, we were at our state association last week and it was the joke honestly. Yeah, he used to brag about it and not sure that
that's something to brag about, which it's great to be the lowest cost, but it doesn't necessarily mean that you get the greatest quality or the greatest return on uh information out to your voters. And so this just shows you the trend of where we are. We're still uh
when it comes to Central Florida, we're still at the bottom. Uh and so uh we're still being as frugal as possible. We're still at the bottom. Uh we're not [snorts] and we're not anticipating trying to to beat and be above our our
counterparts in the the cost per uh cost per voter, but um you know, I think our office has kind of been underfunded for quite some time and we've really worked frugally and respectfully with your team to get us up to up to par and it's
really kind of shown with uh the culture in the office. Uh we've got some very happy staff. Uh when the pe when the voters come in um it we've gotten a lot of feedback. The 27 tours have been very wellreceived. They couldn't believe once
they got in the back. Oh my gosh, this is what you're dealing with. And so, um, with that, um, your question, I'm going to just anticipate it with, uh, with the the several past members is what are
your anticipation in giving back? My belief is I don't like to fluff my budget. So, I'm going to try to build my budget as close to where I think I'm going to land, hoping that I don't have to come back for an ask, but also hoping that I'm not going to be sitting here giving you back hundreds or a million
dollars every year. So, uh, if I could just put that on record, uh, to please anticipate that you're going to get a a pretty zerobased budget from me where we're just trying to make sure that my ask is really what my anticipated ask and spend is going to be.
>> Uh, well, thank you for that. I will tell you that I think we all appreciate a zerobased budget. We appreciate when revenue that's coming in is actually put in the books. Um, >> I never thought I'd be saying that. indeed >> from here. But, uh, but that is is
greatly appreciated and all of the transparency throughout the entire couple of years um has been it's been significant. So, we we appreciate you. We appreciate the team and all the work that you've done to get here. Uh, Commissioner Delari is chomping at the
bit over here. >> Well, no, I'm not chomping at the bit, but I wanted to thank you, Madam Chair, say thank you for your hard work. I mean throughout the year I know you've contacted all of us on a regular basis and you've been keeping us very informed and it's very refreshing. I mean your
professionalism, your team is truly amazing. You've done a phenomenal job and it's you're doing everything right and uh I'm glad that you are the supervisor of election. Thank you. >> Well, thank you. >> Any other comments? >> Well, that was so great. All I have to say is ditto.
>> There we go. >> Yeah. No, thank you. appreciate everything Commissioner Delari said. I I second. >> Thank you, >> Commissioner Zenbower. >> Thank you for putting the revenue source in there. It's something I question this budget the whole time. >> Y >> not to mention [clears throat] observing when canvasing that citizens
would put a dollar bill or 60 cents in the envelope >> in the envelope with the ballot because there was no postage stamp on it. And my question was, what do you do with that money? And it was like crickets. Um, but I will
tell you that I've been to your office four times now, uh, since you started making your changes and, uh, it's a totally different atmosphere. Very professional. It seems like everybody's happy to be there. Um, seems like
there's there's some structure as to what's actually taking place. Uh, good work. Bravo. Uh, I think our citizens are going to be well served and they're going to be uh, very appreciative. So, thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. >> Well, thank you for being here. Enjoy the rest of your day.
>> Thank you. You, too. >> Uh, county manager, anything else to say before we break for lunch? >> No, ma'am. And so, we will adjourn until 1:30. >> All right. We are adjourned till 1:30. >> Late to go take care of the dog.
Hey. Hey. Hey.