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Video-1: youtube.com/watch?v=OLRTvZTdpyI

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ically I mean, it's drastically working on changing what we're presenting to you for, for next year, but it's also going to change what we approved, what we have to go

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back into. And in essence, you know, try to take some money. We budgeted and pocketed for the disaster. That will be the tax rolls the year after that,

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when we get numbers and the numbers are greatly shorter than we anticipated. So it's a funny situation doing this budget. The only time I can

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compare is if some of you have been around a long time and can remember when I first came into the City manager world, it was right at the time before the

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before the real estate crash. The good thing when I was police chief, but I was over here for all eight years of. The city manager assisted her because she wouldn't let me go

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back and be policing. Luckily, she had the vision. And of course, I'm a fiscal conservative. As you all know, we saw the signs coming a year and a half or so before we. We

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saw the trickling that our association saw things coming, that some things might happen on the horizon to really affect us. And we really stopped the whole bunch of stuff. We paused

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things, we paused, we paused a lot, and we had a full year and a half maybe to prepare. And those times were terrible coming in as a new city manager,

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because here I am coming in and I've got this list put aside of, at that time, maybe of 230 employees, at least 40 or 50, that may have to go and you may

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have to call them in. And the worst thing you could do is city manager calling somebody and say they don't have a job, especially at that time, because that was a time when there was no jobs out there available. So you're not just

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giving them time, finding another job. The jobs out there, there were no jobs. You were just sending them to. So that's one of the worst times. And getting through that, I'd hope I'd never see it again. And I didn't until my retirement. But

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obviously we have this coming up. So this is a very difficult one. Obviously, you know, you should have been working and we should have been working on this mid-May, the end of May. Obviously, we had the change of

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situations in May. And really the first thing we had to come and do look at is take that budget that was coming out to you as a preliminary budget. We had to send it back, and you'll

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see this in the timeline there, and you got to hit this thing again before this even goes to the commission budget of this. You know, we got a new world here and we got to do it. So to

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get the best product to you, that's why the delay, that's why I don't know how many meetings I end up putting back of yours and stuff, but we obviously couldn't get started because you and the and the

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commission don't even have the, the revised the revised budget yet to even start looking at. So it's going to be a very important. And we're going to need your help along the

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process to look at these things. There's hard decisions. There's even going to be worse if we have to convene after November and decide how we're going to deal with things, because there

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is no other funds, there is no provisions in the state to save recreation, save library, save something, and we'll get into some of the figures of what it is. There may be some, but

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probably take a state or son a year to make a year to apply. So that's not going to help us in the immediate times of dealing with things. So we appreciate your help. We apologize for being behind the

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reason. I'll turn it over to Ashley, but then I may come back if there's something I think she's got on her list they didn't cover. But we appreciate you. And it's going to be a hard it's going to be a

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hard one this time. So Ashley hi. It's a great time to be in government finance. So I was just going to kind of start from the top and go over our

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budget process, kind of what we've done so far. And, you know, I'll reiterate a lot of what Mark says, but just want to give you guys a just an overview. So, you know, earlier

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this year in March, we, we opened up the budget budget module to the departments for them to go ahead and get their budgets entered. They, they

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worked through that while we were while finance was working on revenue projections as well as citywide costs like electricity and water and those

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sorts of things, we started pulling all that data together between the departments and what we've done. We started to review at the fund level. So, you know, the general fund and

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all the different funds that we have, we were about to start our department meetings. And, you know, we that's when we kind of had the, the change in

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city management and we had to hold off on a lot of things because we needed budget decisions made and there wasn't really somebody in place. And so just everything kind of

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halted. And then even more recently, all the progress we made, we've had to kind of pivot. Like Mark said, we sent the budget back to the departments. Let's do the first round of cuts. You know, what

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can you guys sacrifice right now? Yeah. So we've got through that. We've updated that. You know, they submitted all their stuff to us. We've got our

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system updated. And now finance is in the process of fine tuning the different funds or looking through all our capital,

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our CIP reconciling, make sure that, you know, if something was budgeted in. 26 and they also budgeted in. 27, was that an increase to the project or is it a duplicate because it's

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not going to get done in 26. And so yeah, so that's kind of where we're at now. I'm about

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to start the process of. Looking at different scenarios with Mark on, okay, if the property tax thing passes,

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which is probably pretty likely, what does that look like for us? We've got numbers from the county that I'll pass out here in a minute, but I want to

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provide different scenarios to city leadership of what are our options. And I mean, at a very simple level, you have three options increase revenues,

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decrease expenses or a combination of both. So that will be the next phase of the budgeting process is let's start, let's start playing with

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this and see what we can come up with. With the least amount of pain for, for all involved. So yeah, so, so that's kind of

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where we're at right now. I don't know if we want to do we want to go right into the next item of how many, you know, the dollars that are going to be, I

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think will go into it because it flows in the same, it flows in the same thing I'm going to pass out. This is from the county. This is. Is this the

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property tax reform? Yeah. Okay. So the first page shows the impact for Tarpon Springs in dollars, which I think is

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probably more interesting for everybody. And then the second page is the impact on the actual taxable values, which I need for my purposes. But it's

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really the dollars that we want to talk about this. These figures are coming from the government or where where are these projections? County,

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Pinellas County, and the first page you said talks about total dollar impact. In other words, the red decreasing line is so like that first down at the

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bottom, the. The red sort of graph. The first year here they show it as tax year. So tax year 26 is fiscal year 27. So zero impact because it's

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doesn't pass until you know November. And it starts following January. January of 27. Yeah. And so those dollars

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come to us and. 28 so on this page it where it says tax year. 27 that's our fiscal year 28. So that initial exemption is

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150,000. You know, it's increased from 50,000. And what we're looking at is a $3.3 million reduction in tax dollars. I'm sorry. This is for

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Pinellas County, not for Tarpon Springs. Tarpon Springs from Pinellas County. Okay. Can I ask you a question? If this passes, you're not supposed to, but become effective. Like does

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it become effective immediately after the election or January, January, January 27th is when January 27th is when it would become effective if it passes in November of 26. All right.

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So this date would start from that date. Then the effective date. Well, is that why you have like, maybe this is a significant reduction, I mean, obviously in the budget, but

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the first year, 27 is half of the fiscal year. So it's yeah. Is that why it's because it's half of the exemption. Half of the exemption. Yeah. The following year in 28 the exemption increases from

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150,000 to 250. Right. And so that's where we really are going to have huge impacts. So.

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In fiscal year 27, again, no impact from this reform. In fiscal year 28, Tarpon Springs is looking at a reduction in

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taxes of 3.3 million. 29 is 5.5 million. Fiscal year, 35.7 million. And then in fiscal year 31, 5.9. And so and I

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think it sort of stabilizes from there. In addition, you know, we've got our CRA. They will have an impact as well.

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The and I do have to say that, you know, these are all preliminary numbers. The county is working like crazy to try to get us information because everybody's asking for it, but

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they're estimating the CRA in 28 would be down 100,029, about 250,030 400,000. That's the

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community read. Yeah, yeah. But mainly what we want to focus on right now is the general fund.

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So so yeah, so we're as we're budgeting for 27, like Mark said, we have to start building in ideas and scenarios. That's

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going to be down 3.3 million, right? 3.3 million in just the first year. And really it's that that next year, man, 5.5 million. To give you an idea, our current property taxes for

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fiscal year 27 are 16 million. So then it drops to 13,000,012. Like it just it's this huge decrease. I have a I have a question. This is the money

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that Pinellas County collects and we get or is because then there's also the tax on my tax bill that says for Tarpon Springs. Are you talking about

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which are you talking about money? It'll impact. It'll impact everything. But right now I'm talking about that line item for Tarpon Springs. Oh, okay. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Okay.

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Which is the millage rate of 5.37 per year. So. We're also going to lose money from Pinellas County though, too, right? Don't they support us?

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In some ways, we get money from them. One example, let me give you one example, because we've already started to have meetings with. One example is the library co-op. Okay. We get

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a good chunk of money to run our library because obviously people in the county, not just city, we get a big chunk of money. Yes, battle. So not only are our hit on the library, but

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if we that county money could be diminished down. So that's just one example. We haven't got to all the other examples. Now, what about does the police and fire also get supported any way from county? Or is that all

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through our fire? Just so EMS, I think is covered 100%. And then our fire departments, we

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get like 9.3% from them. Okay. So question I have and excuse my ignorance is I should know this. Our total budget is how

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much? I'll tell you. So we have actuals from 25. We were at 30, excuse me, 37.8 million in expense for the general fund

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right now with 27 budget, which again, this is very preliminary. We're not done with this. We're at just over 39 million. So I

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can give you a couple more figures just to kind of give you an idea for the. I mean, I guess we can talk about the 27

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budget, but so public safety of that 39 million, public safety, which is police and fire, just over 22 million property taxes

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are 16 million. So I mean, right off the gate, I guess I'm looking at it as an overall percentage, right? So if if we

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have a $39 million budget, then we're looking for 8% in cuts, give or take. If you take out 3.3 million, right? I mean, am

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I following my math is pretty close. So I, you know, because part of me is like, yeah, 3.3 million is a lot of money. But

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looking at the, the big number, you know, 8% is still significant as far as the cut, but it doesn't feel like the

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big drop that the graph shows in year one. Yeah. In year two, we're, you know, again, a $40 million budget -5% is, you know,

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11, 12%, 11.5. So it's significant. I'm not arguing it just I just was trying to put it in perspective in my head. So if you're wanting to make sure I was correct, sorry. So

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your approach is to budget as usual and then have a what if scenario. What if this passes? Not necessarily. We're we're already doing cuts to get

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through 27. So not because you're planning for it passing just because of the money that you were referred to earlier. Honestly, it's a little bit of both. A little bit of both.

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Okay. We didn't have that year and a half we had in 2008, 2009. So we have no preparation. In fact, our reserve is way down to a point where I'm not

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comfortable. Most of you know me. I like if it's 20% the minimum I like more than the 35 to 40%. We've been trying to. I know, yeah, I know you have.

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I've seen that so far. The reserve makes me very uncomfortable. Before we had avenues where we could attack it right away because we had

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stashed ready to go. Now we have no staff, so we have to we have to go right into it. Now, we didn't prepare for this because I can guarantee you, and, you know, I'm already

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known kind of as the ogre, but the, the salary study, which we needed and all those raises, stuff that might not have gone waiting till this will go. A lot of things we did this last

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year and money that would have been on hold. And I know in the past, if you look at my criticisms from the past, is projects didn't get done well. Most of the time I was holding back. I like to not borrow. I

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like to get the money and then spend and do it. So I take another year or two so I can raise the money. So we didn't have to borrow it. We just pay for it right out or go somewhere else. So very

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fiscally conservative approach. But that changed. And you know, there isn't preparation for this. So we have to do it this way because we don't have the advantage we had before of I

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forget we had like 1.5 and that's back in 2020. We had 1.5, 1.8 million in reserves sitting there over the what we needed. We had a bunch of money to survive the storm and not hit

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that list of 40 or 50 employees cut. We froze because we did a lot along the year, and we can. And that's what we're talking about here. We may have to freeze more positions that. We've already got a. I've already placed a temporary

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freeze. Any new general fund because remember, this affects our general fund already. They got to go through a hellacious process for me to open up and freeze one position. If we went

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to consultants and did, it would be more than hiring the position. So obviously you hired a position because we're saving money hiring, but a lot of positions, you just have to make do with what you got. Everybody in the department has

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to kick in and make up for those positions. So we've already instituted that right away. But there'll be a lot more. What we're saying is even what we plan for next year, we'll have to go back into that budget again and start doing

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some more of the things we have budgeted, because that money we can kind of put aside for dealing with the big issues, maybe give us more time to have employees get a job because of

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that figure. When you're talking about cutting the number and stuff, what what figure of that general fund money we got to cut is personnel cost for people and

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benefits. 73% is our general fund covers 73% personnel of the personnel. So if you got to cut 3.4 million, and 70% of it

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is 73% of it. Is that where are your cuts? And that's those people out in the streets, out in the. So that's what you talk. Now, obviously, you can cut a bunch of other things and everything. I'm thinking of

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cutting and the things I'm not doing is to save. I'm almost saying, hey, we're not doing this ten 000 item that saves a third of a, of a, you know, a pipe player, a third of a

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custodian. You know, everything we're doing is to save part of a position to go to because obviously cutting services, you cut people too. You're going to cut services more than the

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services. You're going to cut by this thing. So that's why it's a fine line. And we'll have to go in more to try to build up some money elsewhere to try to survive, you know,

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and hope there's funds that come up, availability to apply for, to, to save or other things. But I say this is going to be a, a budget process we're doing throughout the whole

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we're not going to have a break in the budget process this year. We're just probably not going to have it. So yeah, and it's also just want to mention we're pushing as much capital as we

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can to the Penny fund. But I mean, our Penny fund is so strapped and it just feeling all that pressure. So. That's just something that we got to

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be aware of as well of that general fund budget. How much is for debt service now since we borrowed all that money? No, no, none of that does. And and none of it's in the general. No,

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it's a penny water sewer. Okay. And the 39 million you've got on the table now for general fund, how much is raised or do we have raises baked in or no

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raises? Nothing. We're just again, right now we're just trying to get to where we need to be. Again. Like I said, I still have fine tuning to do.

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We've got some little grants out there that I need to factor in. There's more cuts in 26 that I need to factor in. So I

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feel confident that we'll get to where we need to be in 27. It's just it's been a process even to just get to this point. A lot of back and forth with

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the departments and but it's the way it goes. I mean, right now, most of the cities, which is good because we're now meeting every week. The city managers and county managers were, you know, one week in

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person and the other three Fridays we're doing virtually. They're all thinking of trying to give something this year with the knowledge of it could be 2 or 3 years after that.

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Will it be none? So so they're trying to figure something. So so recommendation would be nothing. It might be already

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because whatever little you did give, it's in perpetuity. So it's best just to cut it. And I think we've I think we've done well in the past keeping up with salary surveys and stuff. So I mean, and I know that's

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people's lives. And I don't say that just on a whim. It's just this is the hard time has come, which we've said it's going to come one day and here it is. Well, people aren't going to be able to do much with salaries

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if they don't have a job to get the salary from. So I mean, that's the bottom line of everything we're trying to do is stuff is what have we looked at on the benefits side? So we've budgeted for our our initial estimate that we got,

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which was sort of a guesstimate from gearing group was like 25% increase. So we put in an 18% here. And that's for like health care, that type of thing.

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But we're going to go out to bid and see if we get that cost down. I mean, hopefully we will. And much lower than an unpopular opinion. But I put it

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out here all the time. Spousal carve out. Has that been looked at. It will be. Yeah everything's on the table. Yeah. Even the even the you know the

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tough things. Yeah. This is a situation where everything has to be on, on the table. Yeah. Agreed. And I know for the last couple years I've been looking

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at the health benefits. And the city has always absorbed the increase for the employees. And we've done that like 4 or 5 years in a row. And maybe we

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need to stop. That's on the table that that's already been talked about. And on the table. I mean, again, you don't think you get no raise, and then you have to pay more on this. Going

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to pay off more on this. But you have a job, right? And that's the important thing to realize when you hear the figures and the 73% is personnel, where do the cuts from? I mean, it's simple math formula. You're not going to be

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able to get it from anywhere else. So but you know, it's just something we have to do and we have to look at everything. And then everybody has to realize it and everybody's going to be facing

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it. There's not going to be a oh, tarpons doing this. And we're there's nobody going to be there's no going to anybody going to be doing elsewise because they're in. This is because everybody's in the same boat now, where we used to have

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to compete with the Dunedin's and everything. Well, everybody's on. A lot of cities are worse off because they've been doing some of these things for years, and we kind of just started. So yeah, everybody's the same boat. There's going to

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be nobody looked at and say, oh, look at all the benefits those people got and we're cutting them. It's not going to happen in the state. Yeah, it's I mean, it sounds like the approach is I mean, you're sort of it's a

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big problem and you're kind of attacking it from all angles. So that's great. Just stepping back from a high level. So you think it's probable that this will pass. I mean we don't know.

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But you think it's probable. Probable it'll pass. I mean how are you guys going to vote. I everybody I've been all over Facebook. You have I see I get

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I get your stuff. I don't get anybody else's. I want to, but I get your stuff. And then like I would say, I don't have, I haven't done enough research yet to make that decision. I looked at my own and you know,

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my taxes are, are, are low because I bought a long time ago. I've got to save our home. I've got the senior discount I've got. So you're thinking about it the right way. Okay. But I paid like I, I can't

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remember the exact number, but let's say it's $2,600 a year. But if you take out the school funds, it's like half. I'm only

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going to save half because the school funds are protected. And so it's like, but if other things go up because of that or

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services go down, I don't know. I think I'd rather pay my property tax. So the way I, I mean, I pay a ton in property taxes, so it'd be great for me.

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But if I'm not saying tarpon is doing this, but you know, a lot of places are looking about doing some other sort of, you know, revenue source. So essentially taxing the citizens

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in another way. Well, for somebody like you that's protected because you've had your house forever and all these things, well, now you're no longer protected. So you're going to be paying the same

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amount as. And the guy, you know, if this goes through, then all of a sudden save our homes is gone. Right. And probably the senior discount is gone. Yeah. I think everything

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because everybody will be on the lowest tier. Yeah. And then what happens if it doesn't work. Do we get that back. Well that's the whole issue isn't it hasn't really been thought through logistically of how

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it's going to work. Right. I think they looked at, you know, things like people like areas like Miami or Jacksonville. Okay. Well, I don't know what they're doing, but I know the

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local governments that I've been in, we run pretty lean as it is. We we all wear a lot of hats. So I don't know. I'm I'm

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concerned, but I'm just here to work through it. And everybody does gotta look and study all sides of the issue. We're, you know, we're creating. And it's funny. This is a funny thing.

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So we're prohibited by state law from taking a position on a referendum. That's you can't you have to state facts. But as you saw, state was asking for a whole bunch of money to

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advertise, advertise their thing. They can advertise and stuff. That's a, that's a, not a fair playing field they're doing. But, you know, in the website we're creating on there

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to post things, obviously a lot of the things we post because a lot of things out there are, you know, the ramifications of it. But I, I've told my person, find the people forward, you know, forward the thing to

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because, because we just want to give an avenue and we don't even want people to listen to it. Go out and look for yourself. If you don't think your services are affecting tarpon, come get you a copy, go

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to the library, get a copy of the budget, you come to me and help me and the board and all of us by showing me that 3.4 million where you tell me where it's going to come from and not affect, you know, go do that

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and see. And the biggest problem is this is just, you know, a timing thing. We want to get this out and done. There's no planning, there's no funds for recovering the money from the state, nothing to go back to recreation library.

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They talked at the beginning about setting up these resources where cities could apply for and get the money back, and all of a sudden that takes too much effort and time. Let's just put it to the voters. None of those things in place.

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There's no method to get reimbursement, anything for them. You know, the relief they're looking for may be a good thing, but they've created no mechanism, no mechanism to make up for it or make it fair

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or, you know, they're going to force these cities to do all these additional taxes, raise their portions, raise fees, raise all this, and then where the balance is and, and but if

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the reality of the situation that they're it's going to the vote, all these challenges to it are just language challenges. I don't think anybody's going to stop the vote. They may state may have to change their

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language because it's a little slanted in their favor. But I haven't seen a suit yet, and we've been watching all the suits coming. I don't think there's a suit that's going to stop it. Maybe there's something to composite or

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something, but I just really want everybody. They got a long time to November to research and everybody don't listen to my position. City's position, the governor's position, you know, go out there and do your

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your research and and make a decision. What's the percentage of homestead owners in Tarpon Springs like? Not everybody's a

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homestead. I don't have that figure right now, but I can, I can we're going to have to come up with 8% based on what he

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came up with. What's the percentage of homestead exemption houses, whatever. I mean, this is the dollar amount

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we'll lose, right? But because we need to appeal to the people that are not homesteaded and say, listen, you're not getting this break. And also, if

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there's any increases in fees or if there decreases in service, you're still paying the same thing, but getting less. You know, that's who

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needs to be. Because if the homestead percent in, let's say in Tarpon Springs is, let's say it's 30%, just I don't have no idea. Let's say it's 30%. Well,

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there's 70% voters out there that we need to appeal to, to say, don't pass this. I think that percentage is probably a lot higher. I think a lot more

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homestead. But but overall, even statewide, I was seeing something in the 30s that it would affect. Yeah, I'd have to look that up and I'll have that

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available. Any information that I can put out there, I would be more than happy to. Yeah. You're not restricted. You're not a government using government dollars. Do you have a short list right now of like

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the top cuts you're trying to break into the budget related to this? We're right now we're just having the departments get

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as lean as they can on their own. Yeah. The, I'm sorry, the, the projects that were being funded by the loan will still

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continue to go through. Right? Because that's not general fund, right? Yeah, yeah. But I have to really look and study that. And I know what the intention

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was of it. I've got, you know, it may be a source for something, but I'm not sure of what I've got to really get into into that and stuff. It's not affected by this, but

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obviously. You know, if there's a need or, or something else, you know, it's like people promote it. I mean, supported that loan because it was going

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to do projects that everybody felt were very important projects to do. But I don't think it was restricted to those projects. Was it the projects were mentioned as that was the intent. I think the

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board did try to. They did, but I don't. Again, we've got to really look at how that thing was drawn up, what. We got to really look at all those things. And I'm not you know, I know it was again, I'm coming in here.

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You know, I if I'd have been here, I'd have had a different opinion and a fight about $19 million loan. And I think most of you who know me would know my feelings on going in debt after all those years. We were

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a city without debt. But it's there. It it's it's in reality for a good purpose because you identified the projects that's not going to get done and get it done. You know, there's still some questions out there. The projects that were picked,

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are they really necessary or not necessary? And some of those are going to be coming up soon. But like I said, I don't think right away it's going to help with this issue we're dealing with. But if there's an

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avenue that there may be a recourse. But again, you know, looking at the interest we're paying at the beginning and stuff, we got a lot of money going to interest at the beginning of these loans. So

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I'm still trying to get a handle. We'll probably talk about this in a future meeting when I get more of a handle on it, but we'll just have to see with that, I can't I haven't

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looked at it enough to see. Ashley. You said that this paper you gave us with the decreases may not include all the decreases. Is, is is the

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unknown decreases totally unknown or do we know what other. I'm just sort of reiterating what the county said that. They what they're

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putting out is probably not 100% perfect. Okay. But I think it's pretty close. Oh, pretty close. It's not, I don't think it would be a material amount. Okay. And then mark for you

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when, when you're meeting with other city managers on Fridays. So going back to Ashley's point in the beginning, the three choices of like increasing the revenue, decreasing costs,

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which is primarily been what our discussion has been over the last 30 minutes or a mixture of both. Or are they talking about is anybody talking about ways to increase

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the revenue to maybe offset some of these? Yeah. Raise anything you can think of that we can raise fees. That's what they're taught. And again, it's just it's just in general talk.

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This is the way we could increase our income, right? That's not controlled by the state or something. This is the way we can increase from raising millage rates, raising fees, charging for things we've

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ever charged on. Okay. You know, things such as parking at beaches. I don't want to get into that because as a sore subject and stuff, but you know, anything you can think the city

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can make money off of? And I mean, would it be enough to make up this loss or I don't, I don't, I don't see, I don't see it. I mean, you'll make a little dent in, you'll cause a

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bunch of anguish and stuff and, and put some dents into it. But you can come. But I mean, but that's not even the scary thing. The scary thing is they're talking about putting signs on rec centers and libraries that

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this will. These could close. And it's not. Again, anybody accuses cities of scare tactics. I tell them the same thing. Go to our budget, take out 3.4 million and tell me if that

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doesn't cut ours completely or close libraries, recreation center, anything you can send, we spend on the people that doesn't get money back for, you know, we're not charging $5 per

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book rental for a week or any any of those types of, I mean, rec fees, a lot of them are free. And some of them you got to pay $5 or something like that. We're not going to talk about those things, but things

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that really don't pay for themselves. You know, if there's no revenue coming to generate. The issue coming up with one of the items you

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talked about from the, the loan money, the golf course, say you're covering the difference with that. And, and again, you know, I'm on one side, one side

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of that, that's probably not the side going, but the only difference with that one is they've got also the revenue stream where that's going to generate. And the golf course will be paying back that loan money ten years. Some of these

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other things you're talking about, there's no mechanism to pay back. So it's got to be cut because it's not going to generate revenue. I mean, you'd have to hike recreation fees and do you'd have to hike things so much that again, are

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you really trying to accomplish only the people with money to pay for it can have city services and stuff. So there's a lot of them you can't you can't do that with. So again, that's part of the dilemma. But

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the scary thing for me is, you know, because, you know, I'm here are the things like, you know, you know, recreation libraries and, you know, city sponsored events where we, you know, put, you know, it says,

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you know, you're thinking of all, you know, fireworks going away, you know, events that the city puts on and go away, you know, those type of things going away too. And are they needed? No. But are they the

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quality of life we've been used to in this city for the last ten, 20 years and stuff? The quality of life changing that, you know, that's sad, but it's

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all part of this process. We got to deal with and work with what what percentage of our budget expense has to do? I know we've talked about

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benefits and stuff has to do with ongoing benefits or retirement benefits or anything like that. I'd have to. The

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reason I ask, have we thought about the avenue of looking at what we can privatize, which means if we can contract more services, then we're

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eliminating long term expenses. Because when that contract is over, obviously you're not taking care of new employees or,

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you know, for in perpetuity like we are now, I think just throwing that out there. Yeah. Example, we had a position that comes up that's a general fund

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position. Okay. We don't fill it in, we contract it. We found out the contract is going to cost us way more than hiring the position. So they had to do the department had to do a

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whole analysis of, okay, we got a person who's qualified certified doing this. What are the prices out there if we just contract the service? What I did, prices were way over the

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line. So obviously you're hiring that position to save money because if you go out. But every everything's got to be looked at. That contract services, contract people, that kind of thing has to be looked

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at. If it's project type services, you know what I mean? We might need less manpower to, well, the contract person would be that it's like you say, once

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you hire somebody, then it's a painful process to have to let them go. So with a contract person, it's easy. It's easier to let go because that's the premise of the contract. So that would be one reason to

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look at it. Even even if the cost is the same or slightly more, it's like these contract rates are crazy. Yeah, I know, they just shocked me for, I mean, I this thing a year and a half and some of these, the way

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these contract rates and even on competitive bids and stuff, you know, getting the 145 $185 an hour for the low, that adds

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up. But everything's got to be looked at like that. If there's a way to do it that way, that that's going to have to be

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looked at. I should have brought candy or something for everybody. Doom and gloom. Yeah.

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I don't have to pay for it. I bring your own candy. Yeah. Well, any anything else on? The

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property tax or. Yeah. So I guess the plan going forward is. You're going to look at everything and try to see or you're. So you're having you

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said you have in the departments try to try to go a pass by themselves to see what they can. Yeah. And that's, that's sort of where we're at now. Why don't you go over the schedule? Why don't you. Yeah.

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What are we planning on doing? We'll go over the schedule. What we're looking at then. Well, okay. So I mean, the schedule is more just our

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meeting schedule, but the. Let's see, where are we at here? June 18th. So we have next week

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is the public input. Next week is public input. Yeah. The 24th. The 25th. Yeah. For the budget. For the budget. Yeah. So the

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public will come and say, I don't know all the things they want. This is the mandated charter thing. They put in the charter that before June 30th showed up last year. Yeah I know right. And the draft

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budget just is, is we're still we're still in the draft. So we're going to get you guys as well as the board of commission.

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Excuse me, what's the right term? Yeah. By the 30th is our when we're hoping to get the draft. That's the key part of the schedule. We you guys don't even have we're sitting here talking. You don't have

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anything to look at. The commission hasn't seen anything right. Of course. Yeah. Yeah. But in the stage of the schedule between now and the 30th is that we're going to be going into this extra round of

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cuts. They did okay. And we'll probably be doing now. It's to our level. We gave them a chance. We gave the department heads a chance. If we see things obviously that's not

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means, you know, I'll save my I forget what they used to call me the hatchet man or something. I'll save some of my hatchet for as we get into the process and listen. But definitely between now and then, before

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you get the budget, they'll probably be some other things taken out. And the lens you you described you're taking is trying to preserve positions and, and then maybe look at

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services to, to reduce services at the lens you're using or. Yeah, I'm seeing anything I can do again, I'm trying, I'm trying to do things ahead. But there'll also be things we propose to you in the final

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budget that get approved, that there'll be a whole new set of meetings where you might come back to you. Okay, this went through, but now we know the reality of the situation. Now

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we got to start early, early, going back some more. So this is not going to be the full one. Parent passes because, you know, maybe people do the research and it doesn't pass and you're not going to go back and put

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money back in the budget. So we got to kind of prepare a bottom line budget to get through. But it's also one that will change. And again, I imagine the board will have be calling you all

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together again to work with us. So okay, this one we set to get us back to 27. We need to get as much of that out some more out to prepare for 28 to prepare for 28. Okay, so that's

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kind of the idea, but we're just getting this one that we can get by this year on and, and do the cuts we can early and again, it'll be a process watching positions the whole

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year and it'll be one with things going on and stuff. It's probably going to be a more conservative approach about hiring positions that we can maybe be more at. Can we do

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change around some things within the department, you know, some that have 2 or 3 and way overload work. You can't cut one in the work of two, but some that you got bigger ones you can, everybody can take a

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piece and cover for two positions. I mean, that would be good no matter where this thing passes or not. We need to we need to do that because we need to start getting, you know, these things aren't going to go

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away. So we still need to kind of streamline how we operate as a city, not only for the taxpayers now, but anticipating the future. So that's why it's going to be a 365 budget coming

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up. We'll be working on budget. There'll be no long period from the great period. I always took a vacation after the last public hearing on the budget, from the end of September into

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October, who I can go 3 or 4 months and not worry about the budget. I don't have to worry about that till February. So when we start up, that's not going to be this year. Yeah.

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Lucky me. So yeah. So just kind of going back to this timeline. So the 30th hopefully get everybody the draft of again, it's just at a point in time

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really, because it's going to be a living working document until we know what's going on. Then we should get our final

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tax numbers from the county. Right now they're estimating a 3.7. I can't remember what it was, 3.76 increase for this

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upcoming fiscal year. And it usually, you know, sticks around that and maybe it will go up. Maybe everybody's gonna want to move to Florida because they think they're not going to

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have to pay property. Our first budget work session is July 7th.

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So. Yep. Okay. And then our second is August 4th. And then we do have a placeholder for a third work session if necessary,

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which could, could very well be this year with everything going on. Is, is August 18th. We hope to get the working copy of the

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budget to you guys in the August 28th. And then we have our first public hearing to adopt the tentative budget and

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millage rate September 9th. And I forgot to hand these out. Go ahead. I was going to say we sent it to him, but I forgot

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you made copies of them. Sorry. And then the second hearing is on the third. Thank you. And I

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highlighted in red those meetings. Okay. It's okay. Copy.

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And again, for this board, we've only got a placeholder for what you already said. The the thing we have to talk about before this meeting is over is the schedule of the schedule of

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this board bringing the department heads here and doing all that. Obviously, we're you know, we're behind and it's probably that'll be during the month of July. So just because

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you just see that ten of the meeting, the 25th. And again, you're not even going to have the you're not going to have the budget the 25th yet. So we've got to talk at the end of the meeting when you see this,

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if you look where's where's budget advisory on here? Well, the purpose didn't put it because you need to you need to talk among yourselves and set how hearing this timeline and seeing it where you're meeting is going to fit in this. So

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that's, that's, that's the reason you're not being neglected, but you need to fill it in this meeting, how you want to meet and approach. Once you have the budget to be able to get department heads, have

250
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your questions and, and go through that process. Okay. And then will those will be added to the schedule, you know, from what you decide today. Okay, so

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this is the 27 budget calendar and the next agenda item is the next meeting. So we as you as you just stated. So the next meeting, I think was tentative for the 25th. But since we

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don't have the budget, I don't know if there's a reason to meet then unless others have agenda items that they'd like to cover. If not, we can wait until after the 30th. Yeah, I'm

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not available on the 25th. Okay. That's the only day all summer. It's hard for you to work without having a working copy of the budget to work from. So that would be July 2nd,

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potentially before the Board of Commissioners work session. So which gives you two days to look at. I don't know if two

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days is enough for you or. Yeah, I can do it two days. Well, July 2nd, I think two days is going to be the only that. Yeah. Otherwise we'll miss. Our 30th is the only days I'll be in

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town anyway. Right. And would we just do a budget update, go through the budget and then department meetings. Do we want

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to do that this time or take less of a focus on the department this year? I think less of a focus at the department level. I agree with that. We need more high level

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this year, I think. All right. What do you think about that? I'll be in agreement with that. I agree it's it's like they came in and presented their budgets. I was new, right. And

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we could ask questions and it was like, yeah, I did ask a lot of questions, but it was like I had nothing to offer because I didn't understand where it came

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from and all of that, you know what I mean? I feel a little bit better this year, but I but when we say that they know best draft on the 30th will be at the department level though, right? Like it usually is the

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300 page document. So yeah, we can, I can go through that so we can go through that, ask high level questions from that. Okay. Not going to be around that much. Okay. Not going to

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be around. Okay. So. So, so then what if we just have a budget update? On July 2nd? You

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said you're not available. Okay. And then we forego the kind of department meetings. This year. We'll still go through the

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department budgets. And I guess if we have any questions, we could send them over email if there's anything pressing. Right. Or do you think there's

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an advantage Mark, to the department's going through? How do you feel about that? Do you think? I think what the best thing to be probably is at the

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update as you have questions or in between times for the meeting afterwards. Hey, by the way, Mark Ashley, I've got some questions too. Could you have that direct if you would

267
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individually have to start looking if there's because there's some that are so thin, you could. I mean, there's right. They're going to say there's nothing for you to get. I we already we've already they've already taken it. But

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there could be some where there's a lot of questions on. And then you can most of them, you know, you can let me know. You got a question about something that if I can't answer it, I can get on the

269
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phone and say, everybody in the city be available. You're all here. Hey, come up from planning. They got some questions. We can even do some of those if they come to the second. But as you said, you're not going to have that many

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days to look at when you get the stretch of of from the second to hearing what goes on, because I know all of you either be there or watch what happens with the commission and the budget workshop there, because there'll be a lot of

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information there. So for the meeting, after the budget, after the the commission's first workshop, then you may say, hey, you know, I need, you know, I've got some questions for this one, this one, this one, and we'll have them there.

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But again, the most of them are available even in another building. They're within five minutes of getting here. So, so so do you think it'd be better. So it sounds like it might be better to do our first meeting

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on July 9th to give time for the Board of Commissioners to meet. And then my I mean, if you wanted to update the second. But it's probably not going to be too much. I mean, you might hear, you know, we cut a cut

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off. It might be limited. And so then maybe the ninth and I won't be here. But that's fine. I, I'm going to review it. If I have questions I'll just email. Okay. And you know, if you

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email, email, I don't know what's the proper way to do it. Emails of things to cover in the meeting for you. How is the is there like, she's not going to be here, but there's a bunch of things she wants to get

276
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answered. I got other people to answer so she can watch since we're. Yeah. Televised, aren't we? Yeah we are. Okay. Well, if we do it the ninth, there's going to be a scheduling conflict because of code enforcement downstairs. They

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can only record one meeting. How about the 16th? We can push back or we can do it another day. You're not locked into the

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Thursday at this point. Okay, I forgot about code enforcement. Yeah. 16th. Okay. What if we

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did the 16th as our next meeting? And then if we have any questions, we could email them. Beforehand. Is that true? Are you here on the 16th? No. Okay. I'm pretty much out the

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whole month of July. Okay. Out the whole month of July. Okay. I'm just jealous. But you'll be able to watch, right? Yeah. Okay. So that's why it's important. If not, I mean, you.

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We can cover any. Give the long list of things to cover. I can definitely watch, and I can definitely email questions once I review the draft. So. Yeah.

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Okay. One other question is, is there any recommendation or insights you're looking for from us at this time or not today? Just kind of as we go ahead, go through the budgets,

283
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take a look, make any again, you've already had them talking about, you know, do we have to look at contract, you know, some of those type things. But

284
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again, I think you really need to look have those budgets in front of you. I mean, some general things if you've thought of it, we've probably thought of it. Okay. But you could have something. And

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believe me, if you got something and forget today and say, oh, by the way, I forgot to say, are you looking at this, this and this? You know, I'd love you to I love you to just send that to me. And remember,

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don't, don't copy the rest of the board because you'll violate the thing, but just send it to Michelle. Right? Yeah. Sandra her she'll get it to us. And and if you come up with anything or have you have you thought of. Yeah. The only

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thing that we never really looked at the budget this way, but there's no like category on it to say like, this is kind of like an essential service. It's

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audited. There's a policy in place versus this is kind of, you know, support for the community and then maybe somewhat essential. There's never been like a lens like

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that on the budget, but we might have to create a lens. So you and the public can see that lens because the public needs to see that, you know, they need to understand that too,

290
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right? Like what is essential policy AI driven? I a driven AI. Yeah, you get my point. Three categories. Yeah, yeah. So just

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think about that. I don't know that that's an ask, but just something to think about. Another thing I can provide just to help you guys. You're

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going to be getting this at the the department level. But I can also combine it. We can either do city wide or if you just want to see general fund, and I'll give you like the total

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for each line item. So all the professional services, you can see the total impact on the general fund. I don't know if that's something that you guys would be interested in. And I plan on, you know, if it is the

294
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16th being a long way, but anything I get from the county meetings, anything I get, we plan to forward to you. So anything she gets or if they've come up with things that you'll

295
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be you'll be getting emails. So I'll be updating you right to the 16th if that's if that's the next meeting, anything we get ahead of time, we'll be sending to you to look at because you need to take that

296
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into account as you're looking at the total picture. And again, you know, some ideas you might come up with or you know, anything like that. So, so it won't be a void of

297
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communication between that time we're going to send anything we get. You're going to you're it's going to be coming to you. So we're going to get an initial draft around when the

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30th, 30th, and then our first meeting is going to be the 16th. Susan won't be here, but she'll be able to listen. Okay. And we're forgoing the department

299
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meetings, but we'll email with Michelle any questions or bring it up at the meeting on the 16th. And since we're at the 16th, I got plenty of time to put the all the department heads on notice. They may be

300
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called 2 to 4 on, on that day. But again, if there's specific ones, you know, you're going to need there to have questions on, let me know ahead of time. And then then they'll just, they'll just be there, maybe do them

301
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first and then go into the other ones. But I'll have everybody on because most of them, like I say, can get here to this meeting within five minutes. Right? So they'll be kind of all on standby if a question comes up. And we need

302
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them here to explain something of a level that we can't explain more technical why, why it's needed or something like that, we'll have them available for the 16th. Okay. And then I think the last question like,

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so, Ashley, I know, I know it's in draft, so you probably don't want to comment too much, but we'll get it on the 30th. But do you feel like the budget is pretty well figured out this time? And we just have concerns

304
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about November, or are you still kind of like churning through for this draft? I am still working on capital,

305
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really, and wanting to make sure that what we have in fiscal year 26, because where we end up in 26 impacts the rest of the years, I want to make sure that that is correct.

306
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And we're we've asked the departments, you know, to not do certain things like fill positions or whatever it is. And so I really want to get that part figured out. So I

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have a better idea of if we're balanced in the next year or balance. So it's not really at the department. I'm not really worried about at the department

308
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level there being like issues other than just overall, you know, high expenses. I'm more of like fine tuning. Okay. Fine

309
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tuning. Okay, good. Believe me, we seem like we're behind, but she's done a great job of even you got your hands full. Even where we are now with all have

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to go to not only because remember, we've had finance directors, we've had institutional knowledge for. I mean, it's been passed along the second 18 years and it comes to it's a pass along.

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You're bringing somebody in the whole new system and doing things, and then you've got all these crises with it. So while it seems like a month behind, it would have been far more behind if she hadn't got to

312
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where we are now. So yeah, no, I'm sure you have your she's been feverishly working at a deficit to get where we are now. So I'm very. That's the one thing I'm happy about going back into all this stuff that

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we're. We're even close to where we are now with this budget because I didn't think we'd be this close. So. Sure. Well, that was your primary responsibility in Dunedin, right? When you as a budget

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manager for. Well, we're fortunate six years. That's why they made a good choice. Yeah. That's why they made a very good choice. It was it's in our wheelhouse. So that's great. Yeah. It just figuring out the

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way that Tarpon does things, you know, not everything is how I was expected to be. Not saying it's wrong. It's just different. So, you know, just it takes time to, to learn a place and systems. Yeah. So

316
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yeah, it's I say I'm drinking from a fire hose. Try not to drown. I've been putting a sloppy sign on my door. It's basically say I'm busy. Leave

317
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me alone. Yeah. People just walk in and out all day long because Ron had the door open always. And people come in, they're like, hey, how's it going? I'm like, what do you

318
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mean? Like, I'm barely going to meet this. Yeah, but Ron would do that. And then I'd come in after a ball game or something. Godsend. 10:00. What are you doing in there? Working. Ron, go. Will you please go home or

319
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Saturday I come in. What are you doing in here? He just he just. So he had time for all this stuff because he just stay over and accommodate people. And. Yeah, I had a meeting with

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him this morning because I wanted to get more of a. Because it's hard when you got a one year, four month and two week gap to know to try to fill in, fill in the gaps. So he was

321
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giving me the whole the filling stuff today. And he's trying to enjoy retirement too. But I keep bothering him and, and I know she, he's, he's volunteered to, you know, he's still on like a payroll thing

322
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for a short time if we need him and stuff. And I know she's doing some projects, but and I know you mentioned we kind of went into the reserve a little bit with all the. Can you include Ashley when you give us

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the budget update, slide that reserve balance chart. I think Ron had in previous. Yeah, it's a good idea. It's like year over year, what the reserve

324
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balance is, was yeah, that would be good. Okay. Anything else that discussion or that we'd like to see in the budget update on the 16th before we

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move on to public comments. I just I just had a question. It has nothing it does have something to do with budget. But I have a question. You know,

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I go to all the board meetings and when they're approving funding for something, is that because it's already in the budget and they're just the

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board has to approve that spending, or is it new money that they're asking for? And. Well, because when it's new

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money that they're asking for, this is my point. It's like the other departments have to go through the committee, and then the committee makes a

329
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recommendation to the board. And if they're coming in asking for all this new money, and what are we for? So most of most of the time is either

330
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budget or when they come to that, you'll sometimes see in the paperwork it wasn't, but they're pausing another pause. It'll have the whole path of it.

331
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I mean, I don't know, have they done any words, brand new money out of the. There was a period of time. Yeah. That they were taking things to commission. It was getting approved and it wasn't even running through

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finance. It was just like after the fact, we're like, oh, this got approved. Or as I'm used to, if you if there's something that's not budgeted, it has to run through finance. There's a

333
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form, there's signatures. And then when it goes to commission, when they need their contract approved, that budget form goes with it saying finance is looked at this we have the money, whatever it is, or if

334
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it's a transfer from somewhere. So there was a period of time where that wasn't happening. And so we were playing catch up for a few since I got here for

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a few months. And then kudos to Mark day one. He's like, no, more like, stop everything. And I'm like, okay, thank God. And so we're starting to, you know,

336
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get a better handle on it. But okay, because I've been noticing it's in the consent agendas where a department is asking for money. And I wasn't

337
01:07:33.415 --> 01:07:45.794
sure if it was new money or if it was just, it's already in the budget. They just need approval to spend it at this time. Is that, is there a rule like that that a department,

338
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it's in their budget already. Money is sitting there waiting, but if it's over a certain amount of money, does it have to get the approval to spend? The contract is over. What is

339
01:07:55.870 --> 01:08:07.282
it, 50,000, 100,000? I can't remember what it is. If a contract is over a certain dollar amount, it has to go to commission regardless. They were talking about changes when I was gone, so I got I still

340
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haven't got to. What changed in that area? I'm I'm absorbing all these other changes. But but there is a dollar amount set that you have to do that with. Okay. And as far as new

341
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money that's being stopped with you here, or you'll have or you'll have something that won't be new money. It'll be it's taken somewhere. It's taken from the budget item here

342
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to go to there. And where would that be? How would I know that at a board meeting? If it's new money or you'll see it now, it would be in the in the backup. But and I'm not saying nothing

343
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was done wrong, but it was they had an idea where it's going. It's just in the old way. It went to finance first and then it goes to the process. It seemed like something evolved

344
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and it went to finance. But I'm sure they looked at everything and saw where the money was. It was me. Ron Arie let me go back, whatever back. All the ones that we've been through. They

345
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found the money first and and then you do it. But and the money's there again, it wasn't saying we're just going to blindly do this and do it. I'm sure they looked through and no public public works had this

346
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$30,000 for a project. It could be put back. We want to do this new money, but we can take that and do the project here. So there wasn't anything nefarious or thing. Maybe you could call

347
01:09:22.358 --> 01:09:33.302
it not as transparent, but there was no funny business or or bringing things up. It was just finding outut finance was n the approval, though. They were just at the back of it instead

348
01:09:33.302 --> 01:09:43.979
of the front of it where they were. But again, nothing wrong, nothing moving forward. Any new money being spent will go through, it will be adjusted or we got some funding source or

349
01:09:43.979 --> 01:09:55.424
we got it. It's it has to be specifically stated in there where the money is coming from, because obviously there's no money that's pulled out of the air. Do you agree that that should be going through us to

350
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like, you know, like when there's when there's a question about code or something and that code. Well, remember,

351
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that's a board question because you work for the board, me and our level, we don't mind what the board tells you to do. It's it's fine with us. Again, we I like auditing and I like people

352
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over overseeing because I never have anything I worry about. And sometimes I get things. So. But it depends. Some of them are so simple. I mean, some of them are like a $20,000 fence here, but there's a need.

353
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Something happened, a car crash. We need we need a 20,000 to go there. Yeah. So you just move it to that fence. If they're, you know, over a certain amount, maybe remember, the board has the right to assign you to do

354
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any anything that goes on on a project, on a major project with money, budgetary, the board has the power to to sign, sign you up to do any of that

355
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kind of stuff. So I just don't want to sit here and be a rubber stamp, you know what I mean? No, and I don't want to be involved. No, I don't want rubber stamps. I need you to

356
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challenge us and this board to challenge us and to think of things, because things work out at the end. That way, when you're challenged, I tell my staff meeting and stuff and I use the word ball, but I don't

357
01:11:13.268 --> 01:11:24.145
want a bunch of bobble heads in it because I'm, I'm a bobblehead collector. I don't want y'all shaking. I want you to challenge me. I want you to tell me where I'm wrong. Now, knowing me, I might still do it

358
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anyway, but you challenge me and give me something to think about. And I do change my mind because you convinced me. And that's needed. Because if you just shake your head and rubber stamp, you're not doing any value to the to the

359
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organization and even the people on this board. If some of you know from the past that haven't been exactly my supporters, but gave me a hard time, but in the end it was good because I answered all their questions and they

360
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couldn't do it. I mean, they were good. So that kind of challenges is good. And definitely you're needed to give you because you got a whole new perspective from us hitting in the world of government and stuff. You've got that from being citizens,

361
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from the professions you're in. You can give us that whole other outlook and stuff. And that's where you're saying not just the okay, marking them, presented it. It must be good here. Approved, approved, approved. Right. So okay, so

362
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you will not be that board, that type of board. And I don't think the commissioner wants that, that type of board either. So okay. I'm sorry. I have so many questions. You keep saying

363
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I'm I'm used to you. I'm used to you. We're good. All right. Any other discussion before we move to public comments? All

364
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right then. Public comments. They're with us. You're the only one, Peter. That's why I hand it to you. You. You hand it out to my staff. You're giving it to my staff. You're

365
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it. You're public comments. Well, I didn't want to jump in front of you, but officially, Peter Lack is 514 Ashland Avenue, Tarpon Springs. There

366
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is no wrong bad question that that was good thing. And usually on the agendas they'll put down the bottom fund. And a lot of times they're enterprise

367
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funds. So it may not always be affected by general revenue. But going back to your point about the non homesteaded

368
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people, let's say it's 50% and what they're talking about for commercial properties, instead of the 10% cap to bring it down

369
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to 5%. And you have an option of raising taxes. But I memories a little faulty. I think we have limits on how much we can raise above

370
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rollback rates and such like that. So what does it leave us to? What do you tell those people? Most of them are

371
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renters. I have a house in Holladay and I have a condo here in Tarpon. And I have to say, because I have elder renters, I try to give them the

372
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best break I can. But if this goes through and y'all raise the taxes, my taxes on these properties, what am I have to

373
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do? Sorry, I have to raise your rent. Another 50 bucks, 100 bucks, whatever. Same thing with your commercial businesses. They're going to be having to pay more because you're going

374
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to have to raise the tax rate to recoup some of that gap. What else do we tell the people? Living in Pinellas County and

375
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where we are located? We are going to be affected by what happens on that second page. The county. All right. Talked about the libraries. That's a

376
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big thing. We got two big parks here, Anderson and Howard Park. What are they going to do? Oh, maybe it's only open two days at Howard, three days at

377
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Anderson, because they're using the same crew back and forth. Something you don't really think a lot about because people aren't aware of it.

378
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Whitcomb Boulevard, Gulf Road A number of roads in Tarpon are county roads. Yeah. Potholes. Who do they call public services? They call the county.

379
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Well, we got a crew fixing a pipe in Pinellas Park. We can't send somebody up. Maybe next week, two weeks. So there's ramifications there. I don't

380
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know if y'all noticed. Steve has been bad lately. Haven't he been getting bit? I live over by Legions Pond behind the Baptist church and the fire

381
01:15:40.235 --> 01:15:52.881
station. Get a little rain forms, puddles. I called mosquito control two weeks ago. I didn't get a call back. Mosquito control is county.

382
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There's a lot of things County does for us. And then you look down the list. Juvenile welfare

383
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board and well planning councils with forward Pinellas, Southwest Florida water Management District. How does that affect us here? Well, we

384
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have wetlands. We have areas where people want to put a project in. They have to go get the necessary other governmental permits. And we've got a thing where we got to do

385
01:16:25.914 --> 01:16:36.425
it in six months, and now we don't have staff takes them a year. Well, then you got to reapply for permits. So in the meantime, other options are what have to raise your

386
01:16:36.425 --> 01:16:48.637
building development fees, your impact fees, your fees for review and plans. Where does that go? Goes back to the builder, the developer, or the

387
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one who's maybe trying to remodel a building to put a restaurant in all these ramifications. And I have to

388
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say, this is nothing new. Since early 2000, we've been given unfunded mandates, and little by little they've been chipping

389
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it home rule. And it's more about. Bottom line power that we have to go to Tallahassee and then they can say who you

390
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like. Oh, well, we like what you're doing. You'll get your money, you'll get your grant. I mean, we already kind of have that now with the line item

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veto. So we're not in an easy spot. So what you suggested kind of a playbook. And as Mark said, officials can't

392
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officially go out and as a city advocate for something. But we can put a playlist together. These these are the things that

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are going to be affected. And hopefully. We can convince people that they're better off

394
01:18:07.816 --> 01:18:19.728
paying one fee here than all the other fees. Because you mentioned the county does EMS. Well, they charge for ambulance services, the insurance

395
01:18:19.728 --> 01:18:30.772
companies get bills. They're going to start billing people. And does it get to the point where you call the fire station? Well, what's your credit card?

396
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Or we have it on file. We'll bill you and then we'll send somebody. Do we get to that point? And like Mark mentioned, the inequality of it, you know,

397
01:18:42.183 --> 01:18:52.861
like you said, you know, if you can pay for a rec fee or you can pay to use the pickleball court, you have to maybe pay a $5 to get in the gate or

398
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someone doesn't have it. Do we close the splash park? I don't know, it's not a. So to me, I'm I'm glad to hear what y'all are

399
01:19:02.204 --> 01:19:10.812
doing. It's the right way to do this. But the rest of us have to get the message out. And

400
01:19:10.812 --> 01:19:24.625
whatever you can give us as actual facts, because I know. My one tenant wants to buy the house I have in holiday, and

401
01:19:24.625 --> 01:19:34.035
once they can build their credit and get some money together, I'm going to do that. But when I was talking to her

402
01:19:34.035 --> 01:19:47.549
the other day. She's ready to vote to pass it, even though she's going to be maybe buying a house because she sees, well, if I buy a house and I don't

403
01:19:47.549 --> 01:19:57.225
know, this is a crazy idea. I've thought about it years ago. Part of the biggest problem with the tax increases, let's

404
01:19:57.225 --> 01:20:08.737
say you bought a house in 2002. You bought two for 1998, 1986. Guy next to you buys a house,

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01:20:08.737 --> 01:20:19.948
your property goes up. If they. This is just a legislative thought. If. Once you buy your house, let's say you bought it

406
01:20:19.948 --> 01:20:33.094
in 2012 and you paid $250,000. No matter what the tax millage rate is, that's what you're going to be taxed on. Okay. If

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01:20:33.094 --> 01:20:45.106
he wants to pay 325 down the street, he's going to be paid 325 as his base. The rest of the time you can adjust it with millage, but you give certainty

408
01:20:45.106 --> 01:20:56.417
that you know that just because you know somebody from New York bought the house down the street for 500 and a quarter, you're not going to have to pay the taxes because of him. You

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01:20:56.417 --> 01:21:07.561
know, you bought your house for 250. All right. So the millage goes up a half a mil point or so. At least you know where your base is. There are ways to solve this other than the way

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they're doing it. And thank you for your time. Thank you. Board

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01:21:14.069 --> 01:21:29.050
and staff comments. You didn't give us long to do that. Glad to see all of you again. All of these circuits has been good to

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01:21:29.050 --> 01:21:41.429
see all of y'all. Yeah. Thank you. It's good to see you too, Mark. Future agenda items. Is

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the budget draft. Budget draft I agree. Yeah for the for the next meeting. All right. So I

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01:21:52.874 --> 01:22:11.993
think we're all set. I'll move to adjourn at 318.