all right good evening everyone I'd like to call this meeting to order it's 6: PM March 3rd 2025 and it's our Workshop meeting maryan can I get roll call please Mayor Young here vice mayor ctor here council member Brandon council member
French here council member painter here thank you threw me off first item on the agenda today is utilities department Capital project update and planning good evening Marjorie Craig utilities director I also have Allison
bellsburg our new deputy director here with me um just in case and uh we worked on this presentation very hard and we were really excited to be able to share it with you so today um we have four
things that we really want to go through one is completed projects we want to take a minute and just talk about what we've gotten done in the last few years um and then our planning approach for our path forward moving forward and a financial snapshot of where we are today
where we were um at the end of the fiscal year last year and where we actually are today and then upcoming work that we have planned so um just here's just a list there's a lot on the slide it's a list of projects that we've
completed they're fairly large projects so we didn't include anything that was below $10,000 um and some of them are quite large so water number four uh is complete essentially complete with the exception of the the final restoration
the milling and Paving um so the sign is gone and we're looking at the last pay request um this goes through uh we've got a $2.3 Million worth of projects that we've done in the last few years um and some of them are smaller projects
but since I've been here we started a very programmatic approach with a fire hydrant repair service and replacement and an annual basis we look at um which uh hydrants that we need to replace and we're systematically going to um the
storm water projects a million dollars worth of work in the last few years a lot of that is the pipelining as you know we've had emergent or almost emergency storm water pipelining repairs and that storm water pipelining does
renew that pipe for the next um 20 or 30 years so it's like renewing uh the pipe um biosil we installed a a biosil with a $30,000 Grant the total cost of the project was about 79,000 so they're very
expensive but um do provide some additional treatment uh water treatment system a lot of uh the work that's been done is either related to our scada or supervisory control and data acquisition system and that's the control system
that allows The Operators to see what's going on at the plant and out at the Wells and also to be able to control those systems and also um replacement of a pump at uh for at Oro our reverse
osis R3 which is our deeper well uh for the reverse osmosis plant so it's a upper Florida and aquafer well um one of our team members van we placed or or was
actually able to do an in-house valve rehab itation and save the village $75,000 he's also going to be with Edinson installing the new pump that we've just received at a cost um for of
75,000 so um we do also look at where we can save money as well um so that's and of course the storage tanks you know it looked like they uh they look like almost brand new tanks now so now we'll talk talk a little bit
of our planning approach our path forward um when Allison got here I asked her to take some of the spreadsheets that I had done and make them much better and talk about or talked about well this is kind of what I want to see um and we've put together several
different spreadsheets I say we that's the Royal wi that's Allison um and so this is one of them this is the next 5 years our project plan and the project plan here it's it's more more than you can possibly read but the but the intent
here is to just see that we have a lot planned so um While most of the time we're looking at capital projects the the light blue projects are building maintenance projects and the light green
projects are operating costs the dark green are equipment and onm and then the blue ones at the bottom are of each year are the capital projects the ones that you're using to see so we'll be updating these um
periodically for this fiscal year for the fiscal year that's ongoing we'll be doing it at least monthly so this is just looking at this fiscal year and what we have planned and there's a lot um but we're excited about moving forward with these projects um so
we want to add this particular chart to the monthly utilities update that we provide and with a comment section on kind of where we are and any delays that might have occurred and um you know
we're actually hoping that we can move things along faster that we have planned so let's take a minute and uh talk about where we are financially and I have good news
so at the budget hearing in September this was a snapshot of where we were we estimated that our beginning unrestricted net position was going to be about $9 million here's an estimate of our cash
inflows or cash estimated cash outflows which are primarily either operating costs or Capital costs and then the estimated change in net position that's just what we're spending there um and so
it was it was estimated at that time that we would have in our unrestricted net position we'd have at the end of this year about $7.4 million and that's kind of like our kind of like your savings account
unrestricted funds but this is where we are today or actually February 14th and I've worked with Jeff to come up with these numbers and to discuss what we have planned here with our our path forward
as well so instead of the $9 million that we thought we would have we actually have had at the beginning of the year $12 million so that's about $3 million better than what we thought and so our our n our estimated
cash inflows and are going to be about the same and our outflows what we want to do now and what we're planning to do is to move forward with some of our projects um and what I mean by that is we're back on track financially and what
we have planned is we want to get back on track more with capital projects so we're planning to move forward two of our capital projects that we had deferred because of the the C the cost increases that we were
experiencing the first one is water main number one which is Testa drive and that project you may recall we bid one and four together Testa drive and Country Club Drive and the bids came in at 60% higher than the engineers's opinion of
pro probable construction cost so that along with the fact that they were just starting with US1 bridge and TOA Drive is one of the main arteries we deferred
to Quest a drive and now they're almost done with the US1 Bridge we have more you know money we've caught up with our money financially and we want we plan to move forward with the quester drive the second project is well number 19 one of
our official aquafer Wells it needs to be replaced and so that's estimated to cost a million dollars there is a little bit more uh our Engineers have updated the the cost for the filter plant replacement and the um water treatment
plant improvements we've talked about how the state revolving loan we did not want to move backwards and go with another facilities plan for the plant and risk not being funded at
all so we moveed forward with our existing project and we were funded with all for all but 8.8 milli or $800,000 oops so Jeff took all the numbers and he
provided an estimated 5-year projection so what is that what's the purpose of the slide it's to show that wow you can't see it very well I don't know what happened when it went to the presentation Point um
the unrestricted cash if you could see this shows that it's in at the bottom line that it's increasing every year okay and it's a clear and our backup at least so coun it is okay
yeah thank you okay so the bottom line it shows that we're still saving money and that we can afford to move forward with these projects and then every year we will revisit our capital projects and if we
need to move some more projects forward we will do that we just need to make sure that we retain the uh minimum Reserve coverage and our unrestricted funds for our uh Debt Service so a little bit can you can you
put back back one that note on the bottom about the reserve were my questions I did not see that in the backup so 1.5 thank you I added that to the slide because I thought you probably would want to know that after one my questions after I posted it I'm like
wait a minute that question they're probably going to want to know how much do we need to have in hand so the next slide is about our upcoming work so Allison did a nice job of putting together a project timeline
which is what I want to add to the um monthly report and also to our website and that way you can look at any time on our website and see where we are um this is done on a quarterly basis so each of the squares is a quarter so it's
not a month and we've done the best job that we can after discussing um all of the projects to come up with our best estimate of the timing for these projects and we're hoping that we can do some of them sooner um but we also can't predict any
Supply remaining supply chain issues there may be um I've seen across the state that those are lessening except when it comes to Electrical Instrumentation um there's still a lot of delays in that
and certain pipe sizes and fitting sizes so I want to um tell you that even though you haven't seen dirt moving on all of these projects we've been still moving dirt
behind the scenes on these projects and working hard to move them forward whether it's working on the state revolving loan projects grants um and the approval processes through D to
get things moving and we are um ready to bid the filter media project planning on B bidding that next week so with that I don't want to move it too fast unless with that our goals of course are
to improve our resiliency for now into the Future these projects need to be done as you know the pipe projects have been planned for over probably over 20 years we're now starting to move forward with the projects and we want to add we
want to move them forward even faster and we want to promote the safety and reliability of our critical infrastructure but still still being fiscally responsible do you have any questions thank you margerie Council open it up for
discussion I have my brain here with me too just in case I don't have any questions but it was extremely thorough um both viewing it here and in our backup so thank you so much for putting it together U I might come up some questions as I hear things but as of now
I got nothing thank you one comment one question uh the first I was at a Homeowner Association meeting earlier this evening or this afternoon and they mentioned um the great Leaps and Bounds of these internal project and infrastructure that you've been a part
of that they've you know um um residents who are are watching these things have really paid attention to and that you've done not only a great job executing them but you know the flow of traffic and everything else that goes along with it as well as budgeting uh my question is and I don't know if you just
answered this but the 1.5 million in reserve is the minimum but we're forecasted to even next year be well above that um what's the reason for that is there projects and hopes instead are
these turning into investment accounts or what's the point of going all the way up to 7 million as of 2030 so the one point so 1.5 is a minimum I would say um I'm a lot more comfortable with 2 to 2.5 coverage um
but um as the as any large amount becomes available I'll be coming back to you saying hey we need to do these projects we need to move forward with these this is my
recommendation um it's not uh the nature of utilities is often you raise the rates and so then you have money more money and then it starts to go um um lower and lower and
um it you know I'm I'm not sure why it's showing the increase that way except for the way the projects are planned so we probably need to relook at that so that we're not causing what you're saying a yeah my only point is like a cash
account yeah if there's 10 million in there that's great but we want it back into our village right absolutely okay we want it put back into the village will be put back in the village and if we don't have any more projects to do and we've still accumulating money then
we'll reduce the rates right understood thank you thank you thank you margorie and Allison um at the beginning of your presentation you talked about fire hydrant replacement is that just for the village of Desta fire hydrant like when we do extra territor extr territorial
are we responsible for those that's a good question um because we have about as it's about an equal amount of territorial extra territorial accounts we we do so the village itself is about 2 square miles and our service area is about 4 square miles um and so those
hydrants do include ones outside the village limits so we're responsible for the maintenance of those and the replacement of those and we're also responsible we're responsible for getting like somebody came to us and said a new development we need water it's our cost or is it the developers
cost or the pro or the the neighborhood's cost to if they said hey we need water a new development is coming out so if there's a a new development and there's no infrastructure there then the developer pays for that infrastructure and then they turn over the infrastructure to the
utilities depart to the Village after the construction is complete in addition if there are any improvements to the system that need to be made as a part of that development we put in place a developers agreement and you've probably seen over the years um uh one or two of
those come before for the uh Village Council for approval um and if sometimes the developer is actually building some of those improvements and turn it over and and if it's they may take the lead and pay for it and then we reimburse
them for the village benefit so their benefit they pay for that and if it's anything that benefits The Village then we pay for that okay so these extr territorial fire hydrants um we don't obviously we don't see them on a daily basis because we're not out there doing our normal maintenance and things how
often do we go check on those and What U you know how often are we is it a regular basis is it do we just go once a year it's a it's a regular basis um especially as um uh hydrant meters are put in PL like
if a contractor needs to uh use water from a hydrant we put a hydrant meter on there and then they'll use water from there um we have in the last year looked at and maintained all of the hydrants within our service area okay and
planning on doing that moving forward good the fire department actually um last question um this is great of all the projects we have planned what do we see on an annual basis do you have a ballpark of like things that just come up you know where
we would have to dip into some of those reserves that may be considered excess at time do we just is it is it just is it hard to tell is there an average it is kind of hard to tell but um since I've been here I've had to come before Council on a few occasions and said and
which you probably recognizing and had to say you know this was not budgeted and uh we really need to move forward with with this project um if we if there's a hurricane if there's an emergency that's why I don't like to get too low on those accounts because I want
to make sure that we've got enough in case something happens um so there's always something that comes up yeah where I'm having to to bring It Forward okay um it's hard to it's hard to estimate yeah but it's good looking looking forward to see what those
numbers potentially could be to know that those funds could be there if we had emergency projects we're always trying to do a better job of budgeting and what I've encouraged our team to do is look at things on more of a programmatic basis I've been here like the hydrants and the valve replacement
um they were already looking at it from the storm water also the water plant so that new spreadsheet that you saw um that didn't exist before because uh we're really looking at it you know uh we need to pressure wash uh the plant
buildings every year we need to do um inspect different things we want to um maintain the scrubbers on an annual basis so that it doesn't you you IGN you don't ignore it and then all of a sudden it becomes an urgent or emergency okay and thank you for including that
snapshot as well on a monthly basis on the dashboard that'll be very helpful so thank you thank you very much great job um on the the updated funds slide those um additional pgo recommendations I mean is that the ask are those going to formally come to
council at a the next council meeting or like what's a projection on those I know they're working on the documents um that will go out that they have to come to council for approval and there'll be a budget amendment that comes along with those okay and then on the um the
schedule projection that's very helpful and it looks like as of now the CIP projects for this year are intended to complete within the fiscal year is that accurate there are very few water plant or water utilities projects that usually
can be done in one year um we will get them we believe we'll get them bid uh most of them will be done within a year looking for that spreadsheet it's kind of small yeah
um we expect to get they're going into 2026 that would be next fiscal year yeah it that that spreadsheet actually goes to 20 27 I believe yeah so and the spreadsheets by calendar year not by fiscal year so it separated by fiscal
year and they are they're by quarters not by months too yeah so yeah so there's some budget for this year that are going to roll into next year next fiscal year and calendar year both and and possib right the yes
yeah exactly so for we can just take the filter media replacement for example and the membranes so we have six filter vessels out at the water plant and look I I get really excited about this stuff so I'm going to try not to bore you too
much but um the six uh filter vessels are part of the uh the surficial wells we use the surficial wells to run through that the six filter vessels you can only take two of those vessels
offline at any one time so you can't um do them all at once and the same thing with the membranes we have three treatment trains and you can only take one off at a time and you can't have the treatment the membranes offline at the same time you're doing the
filter replacement right so Alison and I and we talked um to the plant how do we best sequence this so that we can move these projects forward and still maintain that operational um flexibility that
operational uh continuity so that's why it takes longer in some cases so you don't want to be working on those projects at the same time you're doing your other water treatment plant project we can get a bid we know it's
going to take time to get the equipment order for that large project we know that so we want to get in and out we're hoping actually to shorten the filter plant uh project and the membrane plant project by awarding them all at once
rather than just to the way they were originally budgeted was one train you know train two then train one then train three we think we can get a better price by having all three
trains uh together in one bid and then sequencing them quickly and the same with the filter plan okay so when we're looking at at the numbers and the projections so like for example the uh Beach Road water M
that was all budgeted the whole project for this fiscal year correct so if it doesn't if it doesn't finish then we have to do like a what is it a rollover po or so when we're looking at the numbers here like all of any CIP project
that was budgeting this fiscal year is shown on that fiscal year like we already have something that we know we're going to roll over to the next fiscal year and that doesn't reflect that that on here right so there's two concepts one is have you have you encumbered the the the
pro the amount so in um in what we do we have to encumber the entire amount of the project when we award it um and so what happens is as you go past the fiscal year you have to roll
that amount over to the next year and so it may look like we're not spending the money or we're not doing anything but we really are it's just that's part of the procurement process in local government
um and then the second thing um is just the carryover or the if you don't get a project bid or awarded or encumbered in a year then deferring it to the following year okay no and I totally agree but so
when we're looking at the projections though it's what's budgeted right so this will change when we know what projects are going to roll over next fiscal year um and then the last question which kind of piggybacks off what um council member French said is I know Consultants names escaping me but
they did the 20 or 25 year study which KY Horn uh no ra raffels yeah oh us yeah rapis us so they did the study for us which in turn you know had us um do the the fee structure and then the
additional you know monthly Capital charge and I know know we might have to pull the minutes or look at the video but I I know we agreed at some point if there was like an overage in funds right we have too much or if there wasn't enough that we would revisit with a consultant so are there right now I mean
I don't know if we agree to do that in five years or what would be the plan like you said if we are kind of seeing either direction that we might want to revisit it can if I can juster interject first the so this is like the step one to kind of get us back on track we had a
couple deferred projects we you know the this the capital charge has helped us we've seen some additional revenues we didn't have as much expenditures um so part of it was getting back on track we have 20 years worth of projects that we've done a study for so just because
we haven't projected it out five years first we're going to move a lot of projects forward we also have a couple forces working against us we're still working through Pas um and what we're going to do for that there could be some significant charges I know we're okay
right now but the state seems to and even the federal government seems to still be playing with that I mean we'll see as you guys know from the state standpoint we may be losing a sign significant Revenue if they keep playing with the SE charge of the extra territorial territorial charges so um
this is the first step you'll see $7 million but U we're going to we're going to update the plan um and and we'll bring you guys back um a better projection line long term but um that has always been the plan if we can reduce that Capital charge we will do
that we did not agree upon a time that we would do that but you know at at that point a year ago year and a half ago we were you know we didn't see we didn't see we didn't see the light at the end of the tunnel so um I think we're doing better now we're projecting we obviously
um you know from from my standpoint I think we're doing a better job of going to try to track these projects and and and that'll help us longterm look at what our what we're doing so I didn't maybe long winded version of yes we can look at that Capital charge but let us
stand everything up and make sure that we're we're going the right direction you know these projects that you guys have seen tonight I mean you kind of touched on it I mean a couple of these projects are 18month projects and they're not so you see it in this budget year is $3 million but it's probably
going to roll over into the next year maybe even the year after that so um this is kind of a long-term approach this is the first step in that okay thank you right any other questions Council all right any public
comment all right thank you appreciate it thank you very much thank you right agenda item two of Public Works Department annual update on our roadway and sidewalk improvements good evening mayor vice mayor Village
Council have an opportunity tonight just to share with you our upcoming roadway and sidewalk project scheduled in fiscal year 2025 I will be bringing this to council for approval um for the road work next
month and possibly the month after that for sidewalk improvements this is the basic um Road assessment map that we use as a g as a guide each year um on an annual basis um throughout the year and then at
least once a year we go out and we look at all the roads throughout the village and we determine which roads require improvements there are a lot of factors that determine that based on uh traffic volume uh the age of the road the last time it was resurfaced um throughout the year we
have we're impacted by underground utility projects whether they're uh lining projects or storm water or water distribution failures and so so this is pretty much our guide but on an annual basis that may change so for instance um if you
look down at the legend at the bottom uh in the fuchsia color area one those roads have been completed we've Mel and PID those over the last few years and we've now moved into area two if you look over in the country club as most of you know we completed Road
improvements in the country club last year in both areas one and two we didn't complete area two and as much as we'd like to stay in area 2 and possibly you know complete all of area 2 there are things that uh don't allow us to do that uh for instance on River Drive there's a
lot of uh new construction there's also lockah hatchee River District has some failures that they need to address or potential affirs they need to address and we also have some storm water projects on riverdrive that need to be addressed before we're millon Paving we never want a Mill and paver Road and
then we have utilities coming after after we've already fixed the road and they're tearing up the roads again so for the most part when they do go in there we require an open cut they open cut the road um they repair they make their repairs they repair the base Rock
uh they're required to provide density density reports on the compaction and then they um temporarily um fill in the pothole right they they fill in the asphalt after that uh the requirement is that they then go back in Mill and pave
25 ft in each direction of that open patch I'll tell you in years prior um a lot of contractors that were in the village did not do that they'd open up a road they wouldn't provide any densities or any U any Base Rock they throw some
Asphalt in the hole and they wouldn't Mel and pay we're holding them accountable to make sure when they come into the village requester they're following that that protocol and those specifications so in the in fiscal year 25 and I'll be bringing this to council uh this month
matter of fact um we will be let me Jump Ahead here we will be moving to area two uh in the country club we are going to be million Paving Fairway East and West there are some open cuts and some repairs that need to be addressed first
before we do that um so that will be the first area that we will go to also while we're in the country club if you recall there were some manholes on G VI drive that need final adjustments so the challenging part on
golf Field Drive was trying to rebuild the crown of the road and and so when you're rebuilding that crown of Road you get the water off the road right if you have water sitting on the road it's going to deteriorate your road so you want to get that off the road so there's a few things that uh impact that right
over the years people redo their driveways right and when they weren't necessarily following a specification or detail they build a driveway whever they want they put papers in they put Asphalt in they build out to the road there's no swes so we tried to make sure we rebuilt
the crown of the road to push that water off the road onto the properties right and the challenging part is you have driveways now along along the road that go up and down right and now we're trying to rebuild the crown of the road and what we have to do is we have to that asphalt has to meet the
driveways so some of the main holes we were able to adjust but some of them were were so bad that we had to leave that and just make sure we fixed the road and come back now in coordination with lock and Hatchy and we raised the collar on these manholes to meet the
meet the final U Road profile so we'll be doing that on golf VI Drive I know several residents have reached out to some of the council members and they've also reached out to us and they know we're coming back to fix these manholes and make these adjustments after they finish in the country club we will be moving over to
Bay View Estates there are a lot of open cuts and repairs uh over the last couple years and Bay View Estates uh not only from our storm water department but also lockah hatche River District all the repairs are completed in that community
and we're going to get in here now and Mill and pave the rest of the road there are a couple open cuts that we're going to make sure we open up the road uh make sure we have the proper densities and then come back and Mill and pave after that we're going to move
ahead to Testa Pines and the goal here in Testa Pine there are many deficiencies in the roadway into Questa Pines uh we had a lot of storm water failures into Questa Pines as well as lockah hatchee excuse me our department has gone in there U
when Matt was here you might recall lined a lot of pipe in uh into Questa Pines and lockah Hatchi River District is continuing to uh improve their system lining their pipe making repairs it's not only on the mains but a lot of the lateral pipe so what we want to do is go
in there where we can and stay off the main road right now but Mill and pave all the bump out roads so right now we have a button Buttonwood Circle and then um pin Hill Trail which is not Southwest of Riverside Drive but
west of Riverside Drive uh Beachwood Trail both sides of pin hill TR Pine Hill Trail West Chestnut Trail all of Chestnut Trail and also Cedar Hill Lane um just to go back here um that just
shows as far as the driveway aprons this is a perfect example of I sure you see it out there where the driveway doesn't meet the road if need be and when we're repairing that crown of road if it does not meet the driveway apron we have funding available in budgeted to repair
the driveway apron and we've done that where we need to we take out the apron and we bring that apron up to meet the crown of the road and we follow the standard uh driveway apron detail we stay in the rideway we don't go on
private property so we'll make that transition throughout that RightWay to the road can I interject something real quick is uh I think you you've kind of passed over it a couple times but you know we've talked about when it starts raining you know we
get customer concerns or or resident concerns about that water sitting the roadway but what Doug is talking about you know building that crown of the road the water water supposed to go in the in those swells on properties but what's happened over the years is those Property Owners or through I guess we'll
say attrition you know those swells have deteriorated and now we don't the water is sitting in the roads and so we've really tried to address it you know the storm water fund doesn't have a lot of funds to go rebuild those swells but that's what we're that's what we're dealing with we're trying to work on
some a program maybe incentive program to help build some swells back but um I think it's it's a combination of a of storm water and Roads uh conversation but I know we talked about it in the previous storms too but just kind of wanted to highlight you know that that's
that's our major issues with um with some of the we'll say flooding I mean the water's not in on Prop on people's property but it's in the it's sitting on roads or sitting in front of their house or in their driveway it's because we don't have those swells anymore and and
so we we have to work on a an approach to try to bring those swells back sorry no that's a great point that that is challenging and where we can if we have an opportunity to go in there and rebuild the swell to meet the our standard swell detail we will do that I
don't know if anybody noticed on Point Drive we just repaired the road there and it was exactly what I'm talking about the road the water is just sitting in the road and it's just eating the road apart but it can't go anywhere and so it's combination of rain irrigation it sits in the road and so um we went in
there and we redid the swell in front of white hole Condominiums uh built a nice swell there the water rolls off the road and we fixed about 100 linear feet of P um roadway uh in front of the Pines not the Pines uh white hole I know a couple of projects that
we're looking at that's been issues like Yacht Club um we got some storm water over there it's been sitting over there we're going to do some work with a Swale you know part of the issues and then I think North do was a was an area that's been brought up and I was out with our crew um a couple weeks ago looking at
some of these projects that we're going to try to get fund this next year and we'll talk about the strategic planning part but you know part of the issues I mean they got people have trees or hedges in the in the right way in the Swale so it it might be
painful I mean telling customers that if you want this water out of the road we need to take your bush out or Hedges out in order to take back our rideway it's our RightWay and so it's going to be you know we'll obviously have you know kid gloves on and and do our best but it it
might be painful so just be prepared you know we'll have those discussions everybody will know when it's coming but there's a couple projects that when I was out there we're going to have to remove some Hedges or you know maybe even a tree or two you know to to make those happen so um but it's important
for the safety of our village and obviously our infrastructure so just sorry when not top again that's good yeah I ideally when you're when you're talking about improvements and piggy packing on with the manager talking about we talk about this regularly you
you really want to take back the right of way when you're building a project you want to go from right of way to right of way right so if you're just going there and you're just addressing the road you know have you really fixed the problem so yeah uh there are a lot of homes that were developed years ago
that they didn't have any swells they built the they built the Road just I mean the property like this and just to push it into the road and hopefully it flows down the road so there were no swells uh the good thing is uh we're stepping into the sidewalk Capital Improvements now and you know we get
applications all the time people redoing their sidewalks new development um redoing their driveways and so we make sure when they're redeveloping that they're putting in the swes right so yeah it's step by step few houses at a time but it adds up and then a lot of
times neighbor will come out and say oh what happened over here they're pushing all the water onto my property now um so you know you have to handle that carefully with the residents but uh when they can understand what you're trying to do um and and how it helps overall of
not only retaining the value of your property but improving your property improving the roads and maintaining the roads you know we don't want to come back and pave these roads in 10 years because you have water sitting on the roads um so it's challenging um but um we try we can't so let's say
somebody's redoing their driveway and I'm out there going over the the detail with the resident and we cannot technically insist that a resident builds a swell on their property but we make it very clear that when they build
a swell in a new driveway apron we're going to pitch it to one side right and we follow the road profile whichever way the road is draining that's the way we pitch the swell in the driveway and it's simple you know it's it's really a simple process of either they do it
themselves or they hire a landscaper and they they split their grass in the middle of the sale they peel it back they dig out their dirt and they lay the grass they lay the so back down and that'll take the water out of the driveway we get a lot of calls from residents that the water is sitting in my driveway aing especially after they
redo their driveway and they they they're missing that extra step and just putting the swell in the grass right so that's something I think a lot of residents are getting better at but when we're out there and I know storm department does the same thing we're continually educating uh our residents
on on what they what they can do to help uh help the whole area you know the situation so um as we step into our sidewalk Capital Improvements uh we had um so Palm Beach so we have traffic
signalization uh on tested drive and Palm Beach we have an agreement with Palm Beach County where they maintain the traffic signals so we have one at Riverside Side Drive seab Brook um County Line Road and then also um US1 so they're responsible for maintaining them
but anytime that we have um any deficiencies uh any repairs that are needed or if we go in there and we're we're cutting the road or contractors is cutting the road we cut the loop switches in the road we're responsible for the cost to upgrade the
signalization and we're responsible with those costs right so the county was contacted by somebody in the community who's visually impaired or visually blind and now the county contacted uh the village contacted myself and the manager and the County's going to go
install U audible devices for folks that are visually blind or impaired so it's a it's an audible beeping sound that helps them navigate to the crosswalk push button and then it has a sound that tells them when they can walk so um the
county just uh not 100% done at Old Dixie and um to Quest a drive but they have most of the infrastructure in there and then and they actually picked up the cost for that we could have been responsible for those costs they pay for all the cost at Old XY now they're going
to move to uh sebr and toqua drive and do the same thing there so we're going to be responsible for those cost and that's coming out of the capital fund that's in the neighborhood of $ 37,56017 moving forward with that we currently have
$170,000 for sidewalk improvements this year and after the county finishes um it's going the wrong way here this is basically our sidewalk assessment map all the areas in green
have been completed um the only thing you don't have on there which has come off the map all of Country Club Drive all the sidewalk on Country Club Drive was repaired in the last few years as well so in fiscal year 25 we are going to
work on uh repairing replacing sidewalk on Riverside Drive on the north side of Riverside Drive within the village limits and then to Quest a drive from Mars Avenue to US1 not all of it is in need of replacement but there are uh
some sections that are only 4 foot wide although that's ada8 compliant it does not meet the village code and so uh we will expand that sidewalk to 5T and um again not all of the areas
need replacement but we we're after we finish the uh seab Brook uh modifications we will get as far as we can on both sides of Testa drive to US1 and just to step back I didn't give you a price even though I know it's it's in your agenda um we have $710,000 uh
budgeted and approved for Road improvements this year and I have a proposal uh from wind and Suns construction that's the pomes county contract that we're piggy backing we have a proposal for $688,000 and I'd like to say we had more projects
to do but uh you know this is this is the money that's available and uh I think many of you know that um a lot of the money for these projects comes out of the infrastructure sales sales tax that will sunset this year in 2025 so I know in this budget season the manager
and I and Jeff will be talking about how do we keep this moving forward and where does the money come from so we can continue this I know the residents when we get out there are are static about this um very happy to see this and so we want to keep it
going that's all I have unless you have some questions thank you Doug counc open up for comments questions one quick question Doug maybe I missed this but so with go back to the SES real quick I think you said it is highly suggested that if someone's like doing
work on their property that they improve the SES is there a certain point like I noticed on River Drive there's a house that just did a tot every landscape I it appears that they've redone their swes is there a certain like threshold like if they're redoing their driveway redoing their landscape where they're
being required help the SS if they're taking out the Landscaping in the front that'll require a permit and they'll have to qu a sell in okay if they're just focused on replacing the driveway you can't tell them that they now have to replace put a build to swell you know again it's Village property right yeah
so technically most folks you know you maintain M it right you won't maintain your property to the road and you feel likey that's my property it's technically not your property it would be no different than going over your neighbor's house and saying I'm going to put a Swale in over here it's not your property so yeah it's challenging but uh
it would be nice to say you're replacing your driveway well build a swell as well okay you can't do that that's actually written into the code as well so if they're if they were replacing like their sod ripping out all the sod for instance that would trigger yes okay
okay good to know thank you that was a really helpful presentation that's all I got going back to the color chart which I was here when you first created this and it was the most exciting thing for our little
village a lot of so my fellow council members that maybe didn't even live here a couple years ago um The Village before Jeremy and all these fabulous people here they used to just fix things as they would break and then you would get all of as a nightmare so having these
plans and same thing with like utilities just having those kind of an estimate of what's going to be bursting and fixing it before it actually pops so just to confirm the area two in green we're going to jump past some of it and start
in yellow just because there's the complications on part of the green correct that's correct okay yep yep even on Country Club Drive um all the uh I understand why I just want make sure I fully understand
that so when I tell people right yeah when when we put this together or I'm planning for either this fiscal year or the following fiscal year I sit down with Marjorie and take a look at her plans and the work that she has coming up and then also reach out to locki River District and they give me their
look ahead their Five-Year Plan and what they and obviously their plans change as well depending on what's happening with their system but we use that as a guide um you know we've done some nice work in the country club I know River Drive there are some pockets in there that are really bad is one down by your house
mayor that uh I know David is planning to have that road open cut and fixed there um just past your home there that that's a significant uh yeah bump in the road probably bottoms out that is really bad the good thing is though you know um
I spent most of my life in 25 years in construction in New York and so you know when when we talk about roads and how bad our roads are um our roads are in really good shape you know you know I know we're we want things at a certain
level but um our roads are in really good shape and we stay on top of that you know these are the capital projects that we bring forward but myself and the crew are out there all year long fixing potholes uh you know matter of fact there's um
AT&T uh just put in infrastructure um by uh Bermuda ter and B you and when they barded on the road the bore came up and they put a little bump in the road little speed bump so I'll be bringing to the manager
a permit and uh a purchase order to open cut the road and fix the road but you have to watch these people they're out there all the time and all of a sudden you find a hole in the road like who's poth hole in the road here you know and they put a little patch over and they're gone but you know it was pretty obvious
to see that bump in the road so they'll open C the road they'll fix the base Rock they'll provide the densities they'll put a temporary patch and they'll go back in mid 25 ft in each Direction so that's coming up in the next month but again we're out there all
the time um we get calls from residents uh whether they live on a cus doesn't matter where they live we get out there we fix it we just fixed a couple potholes over on Chapel Court Chapel Lane and uh so you know some of the road you know you're always going to have um
uh would I say uh what I would say is aesthetically sometimes if you're actually walking out of the road you know you'll see all the hairline cracks in the road and that's uh that's a product of living in Florida uh living on top of the water table you constantly have the water table pushing up on your
road the sun baking down on your asphalt and you get that reflective cracking that comes from your base you you can't the only way to get rid of that is to replace your entire base and your entire Road and now you're talking about you know tens of millions of dollars we're not going to we're not going to do that
so the way we're going now um we're getting a very good product from um our contractor winning Suns um they are one of the better contractors around they they continually win an open competitively bid process with the
county um I believe it's almost five years now we've been piggybacking on that contract and it's been constantly renewed and so you know the last you know you all live in some of youall live in the country club community that was extremely
challenging um you know there's one main artery you know in and around the loop there and people do not like to be slowed down and uh but for the most part you know we did what we had to do to get it done in hindsight you know I I we had
a debate I had a debate with the contractor I did not want him to open up the entire Road I thought that was too much for him to handle and so a valuable Learning lesson for him him he's not going to do that again because he had he had to do a lot of extra work at his
cost to fix that road once he took off the top layer of asphalt and now the now you had rain he didn't expect the rain so soon he didn't expect that many rain we went through two little mini storms uh when that while that road was opened up so um it won't be a debate next time
you're not can to open up that much roadway that you it's just impossible to maintain especially when you have um we impacting what you're doing the uh the aprons on the driveways when you have to redo them is the
response accepted or is there push back from residents when when we're going to pick that up no the residents like that do we match what they have because obviously some of the newer ones that don't follow the rules and put a sale in a lot of times it's not just the concrete so do we match that or do we no
so thankfully CU I know on Country Club we had that conversation for the sidewalk but I was curious how it's going for regular driveways it's actually a really good point because thankfully we haven't had a lot of folks that have have have upgraded their home and maybe they have so wherever you don't have sidewalk they can build
pavers to the road where you have sidewalk pavers are permitted from the sidewalk to the road but for the most part A lot of those driveways are older and there's been two or three layers of asphalt on top of the road that's been built up and then in the middle of all
of that they redid their driveway and now the elevation doesn't sit right and here we come take all those layers of asphalt off and now either apron's too high or too low so a lot of those are the older homes and the older construction but I I imagine at some point we may come across somebody that
has uh had the most put some decorative pavers there that um um if we have pavers in those sidewalk we'll put the pavers back okay but anything other than the pavers or the concrete we won't do anything anything more than that um regarding sale as a whole in the grass
area not just the driveways I want you guys to know I fully support that when it is capable because just seeing the changes over the last 15 years and I will throw my own property underneath the bus I'm pretty sure my Swale is nonexistent anymore just from natural
filling in from weather and I'm on a corner so the water flowing down around the corn probably pushed dirt and whatnot so I could see I don't have water issues now but I could see why I would probably need to maybe have a soale dug back out to collect the water
also um to support staff and council members who get phone calls it does seem to be the root of the problem of where the water needs to go it needs to go somewhere and it's not the Hurricanes that frighten me it's the tropical rains
cuz that's where we get those floods um yeah there was actually one resident on golf VI Drive um the blue house I don't I don't recall if it was blue but there was one homeowner uh that had substantial water now pooling in their driveway that they
didn't have before maybe it came up 3 feet now it's up 5T and so you know they're going to have to do something with their you know we're the older homes and we have the newer Homes at the new height code and elevations and yeah we older ones get
all the dumping so I completely understand where you're going with the how do we kind of reconstruct a lot of the natural swells especially for the older properties that are surrounded by newer properties with the higher elevation I fully support you on trying to figure out where to put this water
obviously utilties department is trying to do their part making sure the system can handle storm water how do we figure out how to balance that and then it'll remove a lot of the issues for residents yeah even though my jurisdiction in public works is not on private property
I know in working with margerie and and Wayne and the building department although the houses may be at a higher elevation they have to maintain the water on their property but when you get out to the RightWay where we are that's where you're moving water now off the property and down the road or it's
moving towards your neighbor's house that you just referen so it sort of forces somebody to do something at some point well you know I get it I support you guys what you're trying to do I like that both departments you guys are trying to work together um just so our infrastructure matches each other and it supports each other um as far as
mechanics y got one comment one question I think a byproduct of the great roads in sidewalks are my kids more likely to use the skateboards and bikes on our roads especially the sidewalks um that you've repaired so thank you for that gets them
out of the house gets energy out and it's a great thing for our neighborhood yes uh the other question is when we have areas like Bermuda Terrace uh palmach County owned do they have are you aware of their timetable on replacing their roads and do we get a
lot of calls from those residents uh maybe in complaints about their roads not realizing that they're not Village up the question yeah um the county sends out our five their fiveyear plan matter of fact we just got it the mayor just got it U I think Friday or over the weekend and so we'll go through
that uh I was surprised to see none of the roads that we requested are on the fiveyear plan so I'll be talking with David Ricks about that he has another fund that that may come out of but I'll find out what's happening with that but to answer your question they do provide The Five-Year Plan and you'd be amazed
how many phone calls we get on a weekly basis from people that don't necessarily know where they live or where they pay taxes to and so yeah we get those calls about their Road and Bermuda terrorist or a little pocket here and I well you're in unincorporated Palm Beach County or you actually live in Martin
County or you live in Jupiter what we get those calls every week and we're helpful you know is we'll give them a phone number in a department to call someplace else and we try to tell them you know I don't I don't pitch as you know like the manager might but I do
bring up annexing and how nice it would be to come you're here in the village you know once you come into the village and the first question is well what's the benefit I said we have a lot of benefits send them over that way Doug thank you for this uh information one question on the the
sidewalk maybe ex its own category extension you know North over starts at test the drive and it sidewalk just terminates about six or seven houses in is there any thought to or is we ever going to extend that down towards the Constitution Park and the reason I bring
that up and it's multi-layered and a lot of it's Public Safety with the proliferation of these ebikes that is a main and that's the number one source of complaints I'm getting right now is from and I think the village as well um right around North over and short right around
over there youve got ebikes when we have six months worth of um food trucks and things like that that is a very walkable Street and with these ebikes and just traffic do we can we are we going to extend That Sidewalk down to Constitution that is a very interesting
area and I'm glad you brought it up the manager and I have been talking about do for the last year and a half and that is an ideal location for a complete Street project right where we take up take back our rideway ride of way to rideway we
build swes we build sidewalks I know that the manager and uh Jay and myself have been talking with folks from uh the Planning Association in Palm Beach County and different things we can do in the village for connectivity um not only
does it dead end on do but also Evergreen and short and you have a little stub of sidewalk and sometimes they did that when they were building models and they just put on a little strip of sidewalk and they never finish the whole block but yeah that's that's a real important area it's very active
with lot of folks walking to the park and and now they'll be coming around trying to go to remembrance Park so that connectivity is is a classic uh location and example of where a complete Street should go and what it should look like maybe one side of the road for ebikes
right and and scooters and maybe the other side for pedestrians I'm however you work it or maybe if we take back take back the roadway we can put a little median in the middle of the road um but something like that when you when you when you're championing a complete Street project like that you can go and
try to get funding for projects like that when you're just milling and Paving a road right or you're just replacing a sidewalk very very difficult to get any you're going to spend more money trying to chase a grant than than be successful getting grant funding some more to come
perfect but a complete Street project you put those in the pipeline with Palm Beach County and you know your funding may be in three years or two years you know it depends how many projects you're in there but that's that's a perfect example and a great location of a complete Street project
now you might be happy with that if you live there and say take back the RightWay but it's very interesting when you have these conversations the folks that live over there are very happy to make that a complete street because they're going to walk down there but if you live on that road and you feel like
that's your property right we get very attached to our property right I'm no different where I live right it's my property I maintain it no it's not your property and so folks are walking in the street and now you have a swell and you have sidewalk and now your front door is over there and now folks are over
here yeah walking your front door so a couple of things that we're doing with that and it's I'm going relate it to L portal and I got here in 2019 which I know they were getting complaints before I even got here you know the first step was you know it was a big ass going to
be a lot of money was let's let's go see if we can get some money to do the project and so that's kind of where we are with with nor over because the ask is so big that if we do that we do nothing else um so we're we're we're looking for money um I think you know with um with that project I think
there's there's a lot of benefits and obviously I know you know the connectivity that'll be part of the Mobility plan but I think you know what doug was saying we do have that as part of our plan I know with sidewalks and this is a sidewalk conversation you know
unless Council pivots it was always let's maintain what we have let's try to fix what we have first and then we'll look at expanding but Dober kind of fits into another little box where we're looking at a complete a complete project so okay all right thank you you're
welcome uh two quick questions uh you kind of talked about Lessons Learned with uh win and Suns so with the sewer manholes is can that be coordinated in advance on future uh road repaving because now we're going to have these
little as patches and our beautiful new PVE streets we're hoping we're not going to have that we can just raise up the cover um there may be one or two that we have to cut some of the asshle but yeah I was hoping the timing would work out with lockah hatchee um and our
contractor and so timing was a problem for us getting that work done um the contract with um the county had expired uh they had just renewed it lockah hatchee had some other projects going and and couldn't really
address that and I wanted to make sure that we we repaired the road anything that we do in there if we have to modify any any any of the newer Asphalt in there um it'll it'll look it'll blend in and look fine it's not going to be
compromised okay I'll make sure of that and then we've talked about uh chasing the water enough tonight but I was curious if say we repave the roads and we still have major you know pwning issues whether whether there SS or not you know on L portal we installed a
shocking amount of catch basins for that project and it worked there's no flooding there anymore does it ever get to the point and one would staff consider we need to install a catch Basin here or does that not happen because I mean we we did it on Al portal right is there future potential for
installing more catch Basin throughout the community for flooding there is but obviously it comes with a huge cost um so um I mean there are some Pockets now where we get substantial flooding but there happens to be catch basins in that
area um one of them is right out here on taquesta drive and Fiesta and Willow and um that that sort of backs up because we dump into Jupiter's storm water system and so in our last catch Basin we have a weir where you know you can't just dump
the water in Jupiter so it stockpiles on our end and it backs up and it flows over the wear um other than Willow and Old Dixie we had a big major problem in Old Dixie and we found out that the major problem there
was somebody at the seax plant was apparently either emptying their concrete trucks in the main hole it's not our main hole but uh that was they found a lot of concrete debris in the storm system uh which was causing all that backup on Old Dixie it's been much
better the last couple years but you know being surrounded by water and being on top of water water and the water moving in every direction north south east and west um high tide storm there's no place for the water to
go and you can't get out your outfalls you're going to have flooding the good thing is uh anytime we have a flood I know I'm out there margery's out there her team is out there and we look at these areas the manager mentioned one area that they're going to be fixing
over on um Yacht Club that area that one's example there is a catch Basin just down the road but the water's not flowing that way the other one on North Dober same thing there's a catch Bas and there I staring right at it but they said that the water doesn't flow that way so I think that's the part of storm
water that margorie and David tanoko and them like they really I think they really have their minds wrapped around it I think it's the funding issue that which we will be talking about come Friday and if you guys already seen your pack you might even get a a head start on it for the strategic planning but I
think we got a plan moving forward that we're going to be able to address some these things I mean I think I feel good about it Jeet feels good about it and so I think um financially will be in a hopefully better place to be able address some of those and I don't think it's from what I understand and you know obviously we'll do some more digging
there supposed to prioritizing the projects I don't think it's you know major catch Bas and construction work I think it's going to be more along the lines of swells and rideways and which is cheaper but you know there's still a cost that comes with it swales will help
tremendously yeah thank you all right Council any other questions comments can I end with a fun one so Lori was talking about um you know when I first got here in roads and um the council was talking about you know that my directive was to put plans in place
like the the color chart here and so I go to Doug and I said hey let's put together a fiveyear road plan he's oh we've already done that I said all right well how much is it going to cost to replace a road every every 15 years and he gave me a price of $210,000 the same plan now today is
$710,000 so that was in 2019 so it's a huge difference but I think what you're seeing you're you know it's it feels like a slow process but um we're doing good things with roads and I I know I was talking with a Jupiter Finance director they put three4 of a million
dollars toward roads a year not the big projects because you know there's some County projects they got their budget is only 34 a million doar ours is $710,000 so we're we're doing well and I want to correct Doug um the roads does do not come out of the the capital Improvement
plan we have that funded to the general fund so we have that ear marked every year so we're not going to be you know figuring out which what we're going to cut to pay for roads we have a a sustainable plan right now for roads so I just want to correct with what doug statement thank you thank you any public
comment yep you come up to the podium can you come up to the podium and state your name and address Julie bont 94 Fair viiew East um I just wanted to revisit the Swale and sidewalk question or thoughts right now because I was
thinking it sounds like it's a matter of um education I don't think a lot of people realize that they have the right away or you all have the right away to a certain point in the yards and maybe if during
the permitting for work in the yards or the driveway or something like that they there would be something written that was given to the people you know when they come for the permitting so that it educates them well you if you're going to do this you
really need to realize about the soil excuse me and maybe they would do that and that could also educate them about that that Swale area that's part of taquesta is also a viable work area
for a sidewalk these people don't have a clue about it but if you slowly educate them about it maybe even through the uh the letter that you all put out is it every month or something like that I'm not sure smoke signal yeah smoke signals weekly
and quarterly yeah you know they if you just hey did you know made some nice little article about that so anyway thank you thank you H have we have we put done messaging in any of our smoke signals and and we have the Friday weekly too I don't know gone out
throughout the year U years and also when folks come in and request permits they're giving that they provided their information as well yeah and I'm here almost 10 years with the village which is shocking to me already I don't know how it's 10 years
but we've been talking about sidewalks and rideway for 10 years and I don't know if any of you were here maybe Lori was here when we had about 30 people 30 40 people show up to a council meeting
and they were talking about roads and safety and speed humps and speed pumps and and connectivity and sidewalk and so probably 20 some odd years ago when Mike kuzo was here they had a proposal to put sidewalks in the country club and
fix the roads and it was overwhelmingly nobody wanted sidewalks in front of their property and I have these conversations with residents whether we're talking about an adopt a tree whether we're fixing sidewalk whether we're fixing roads and for the most part people that
I come across throughout the village not just one area they don't want a side they don't they do not want sidewalk in front of their house because they feel like it's encroaching on their their living space so Mrs Watkins good evening Pat Watkins 167
River Drive I just wanted to interject here I think the residents also o need to take a little responsibility here my first year in Council was 2003 so we're 22 years down the road and we're finally seeing the paving you know that we all
wanted to see and I walk primarily the country club and down Country Club Drive in the mornings and there's just a lot of people who just water the streets and if we could just put something in smoke signals and in the te a newsletter lawyer wherever you can do it that ask
the residents to please be mindful it's a little thing the directional thing you're doing with your spring course I think it would help preserve the roads thank you agree thank you any public comment no yeah a lot of folks put uh 360 degree irrigation heads yeah the
street out at the street and they're watering the street rather than a 180 head that stays on the property that's something we could put out there too that we don't necessarily put out there education additional like okay well thank you Doug appreciate
the thank you Doug thank thank you okay agenda item three discussion on Council discretionary funds Jeremy uh so as you guys know in July we passed a discretionary fund policy um the allocate you know talked about the funds
and the use of those funds at the meeting in January Mr French uh suggested we discuss this again brought this up for discussion about maybe increasing the fund um and so um staff has done just just kind of analysis of
what other municipalities have for discretionary funds versus training funds for discussion and uh if you have any specific questions um here or to maybe if Mr French wants to elaborate then um I know this was his item that he
was want to discuss but thank you Council open up for disc discussion thank you uh yeah a little background uh I inherited a zero fund coming in I didn't quite understand it and then uh Council was gracious enough offer any funds to cover that if
needed um for the next fiscal year or this fiscal year I misunderstood the discretionary funds and then attending other events legislative uh local or in Orlando for State Legislative events I kind of noticed that there might not be
um enough funds to cover all the things that can go on in a year uh so just after speaking to some people and looking around my idea was the the language for the discretion funds is fined uh I think the last fiscal year or two is an outlier but going forward uh
that the council each council member has an additional $2,500 uh the same as the mayor's uh budget set up for legislative items and that would just give the opportunity for any Council to attend anything legislative that could be Florida leag of Cities state county um I guess even
National League of cities as well uh and the idea for that is that we are very uh productive and active Council that attend many events I see that all the events they're like man you quested people are all over the place and so I just wanted to keep that momentum going
uh for one example and I may be different uh than everyone else up here but tomorrow going to palach County days I don't really have the budget to to fly out there in Uber and things like that so end up driving be honest with you I'd rather fly um I don't really care to
drive 12 hours and missing that difference of time with my family so that may differ amongst the council and opinion but that was one thing I saw that I would like that opportunity if I could fly to Tallahassee opposed to drive and save that a little bit of time I can work at home or the extra couple
hours with the family that that would be um well fantastic and and keep the productivity going from mind as well so with all that said my suggestion is that all council members have the ability to use the additional $2,500 the same as
the mayor as needed for legislative only events Council can I ask you a question sure if you inherited zero what have you no we rest started over in October yeah and we were sent an
updated discretionary fund report so you're at zero right now yes since October yes okay we are I'm just thinking no please free while we're here to ask questions so at this moment well remember I here
at Zero from the temporary fiscal year the first F year it started over in October so you received the full amount correct in October as everyone up here did yes um just be very blunt with you I right now do not see a need to raise the
funds um because for me there's no data to support it I have satten through multiple Mayors um we used to have a mayor who ran to every and because she often had to hire help
like drivers and stuff um she did probably I I've never heard of that mayor going over budget and then another mayor after that never had an issue with the budget this current mayor doesn't have an issue budgeting and I know mayor Mary goes all over as well so I'm
struggling with the data to support why it needs to be increased when you are the first one who couldn't budget secondly this is for everyone Council for me personally and I said this when um Kyle Stone was up here when we talked about this before too it was brought up
by a former council member to increase the monthly whatever you want to call it pay stien stien for Council each month we get x amount of dollars for coming to meetings and doing work with residents and I actually fully appreciate that because I do have a family so yes my
time is paid for essentially but we also do this hope we do this for most of us at the kindness of our heart for our village so I actually don't rely on that as my sole income I'm not saying you do but this goes to everybody I actually
have been known to take money from those monthly payments and put it towards something that I'm doing for the village because I use that because that's taxpayers money as well so I use that towards supporting me to help the village so that's another reason why the data for me doesn't support increasing
the discretionary fund when I could be pulling from the ,000 something that we get for the whole year as a stien so technically it's like 7,000 change plus the 3,000 discretionary I mean we're looking at like
$9,000 I have no problem budgeting it I haven't seen anybody have a problem budgeting except for you unfortunately I I don't know I don't know what you were going to last year um I'm hoping it's all Village related for me and this is for my other
travel expenses when I go to dance competitions or cheer competitions or a sports event and sports events involved in school school covers the sports but if I choose to drive to Fort Lauderdale to watch the game that's on me and again if I have to pay extra for food that's
on me if I choose to take my other children to a cheer or dance competition the studio doesn't pay for extra that's on me so again I'm struggling with the data across the board of why we need to increase anything maybe it's just a
matter of picking and choosing the priorities um how we go on trips all of us whether we're driving car polling with the staff member I don't know about flying with the cost I know Tampa has a cheaper airport people have been known to drive to Tampa and then fly up to
other places I'm pretty sure there's creative ways to handle the budget a little bit more efficiently and that's where I sit right now unless I hear something different yeah if I could just respond to that and I think those are all great points and I agree s your position I would say the same thing
um my um I'm I'm not going to be the same efficient as vice mayor Sartor and the mayor on those travel items and I understand what you're saying absolutely there's other ways to save money but I'm just being up front ahead of time
knowing myself and my family I'm just not going to put that extra to go to Tampa or whatever may be um so I understand your point but I want to make sure it fits my family's um setup schedule and time to go to these other events and I don't want anything to take
away from going to those events because I know that the return on investment form and the experience is phenomenal so I agree I understand everything you're saying and and and please don't hesitate at all because in your position I agree with that what you're saying um just going forward and thinking of next year
I I would like to be ahead of that so I could be at every event possible I and I I fully understand if you want to fly I mean I mean it could be a a reason why you don't want to drive again I totally understand that but again if it has to be a budgeted item you know picking and
choosing the priorities and there are some lunches I you know I don't go to or some things that are in the county I don't go to because they interfere with my work schedule or my kids schedule or maybe it's the cost of getting there and again those are all things I have to prioritize and I look at the agendas for
those things and I I mean if there's something super pressing I mean I will make arrangements to go but again it's for me it comes down to budgeting your personal life and you know prioritizing what we're doing as a team and I'm pretty sure right now the team is very
efficient we always have someone there at everything even in Tallahassee so I mean do we need all five at all times unless right now we don't have anything that's super pressing not like and I think we can work better as a team to be more efficient with the budget that we
are given understand thank you but I I totally understand your choices of why you're trying to fit it around your family I'm in that boat too thank you vice mayor council mayor painter I mean I'm honestly I'm fineing
with whatever Council decides I don't use my discretionary funds I don't unfortunately don't have much time to go to a lot of these events I wish I did um so I personally never had a problem with not having the funds in fact I have a surplus probably every
every well not every year I've only been up here for a year um but I you know I understand everyone has different circumstances so I want to try to make it work for everyone on Council but if it didn't change perfectly fine if yall decide
to you know change the process or the amount or where it goes or do a whatever Kyle St was saying that's fine by me um I and I understand both sides of the comments that were made to evening
by um Miss Brandon and and Mr French I think that uh we could be it a ton more and taquesta could be better than we are now if we attended more and we learned more and we we're more visible you look back at some of the things that maybe
didn't cost money but resulted in money you know I think we got our Mobility Grant because of the effort that our mayor has put into the TPA and things like that um but I think there's also opportunities that we could bring back more more institutional knowledge um by attending more and if that means that
there's going to be a little bit more a cost I don't know $2,500 is is the magic number um but if we don't use it it's money that just put right back into the general fund correct it's not spent um and it's allocated it's not like money's sitting around so I wouldn't as long as
it's used for what we've all agreed upon for legislative lobbying representing the village uh at an event or at a meeting or something and if I I I would not be opposed to it this mean you're have have to use it all um but I think there I wouldn't object to incre I think
2500 might be a little bit steep um and I don't know how much the mayor who does a tremendous amount and it goes a lot of places but a lot of those things might be local and maybe maybe you do utilize that I don't know so maybe the 2500 wouldn't be enough but I think we could
we could be a lot more and we could do a lot more by taking advantage of some of the resources that are out there and unfortunately that does cost money and if we want to continue to grow and and prosper and flourish as a village um sometimes you have to it costs a little bit of money to bring that knowledge
back and that expertise back so we can um you know it could be maybe it's a staff issue or something but I think from an elected official's position and what we try to do for the Village um some of those things do cost money and it's uh and that's just the the reality
of it all so I would be in favor of uh increasing it doesn't mean we have to spend it but having the opportunity if something came up that really was important important instead of having to go to another council member to borrow those funds or say hey can you transfer money over if it was there then I would be in favor of that but I don't know if the number is 2500 Jason but um but an
increase I wouldn't object to because knowing that we don't have to spend that amount of money okay um I would say I'm not in favor of adding an additional fund um it's a privilege to serve up here I think it's a privilege to even have the $3,000 to attend events uh it's taxpayer
money and I think we need to be uh really sensitive to that it's not you know it's not there for well you know I'm going to take a more expensive mode of transportation because it's more convenient with me and I totally respect and understand where you're coming from
because I like you I have full-time job a family you know I balance everything as well um but I I just it's a privilege to even have it I don't think we're being good stewards of taxpayer dollars to add more um I have not overspent I
don't think even either account um I know for sure not my discretionary I don't think the mayor one either since I've been on Council there's always funds left over so and I like said I do a lot so I think it can be done with what we have um
and I guess that's all I'll say about that all right any other discussion can I just point out I was actually surprised by the backup we were sent how many towns don't have any of it I was really surprised that actually just General that really actually surprised me well I you think you could see as
well who it doesn't always correlate but the attendence at some of these uh legislative events you'll see the difference in the the missing cities as well I think what I saw probably as a common theme was you know very similar like training fund as far as the
discretionary funds there wasn't you know as you can see there wasn't many individual discretionary funds like we have which gives you guys some of that multiple reasons um you know in reference when I talked to a couple of the managers was you know a lot of the stuff that happened with Palm Beach
County and even Riviera Beach I believe back in the day with some of the discretionary fund uses being illegal um so you know what they there's there are some cities that have a pot of discretionary funds that the council can use for projects that they vote on
together and say hey we want to support this um I I have talked to some of them it does create some problems because then you start getting into favorites and who who are you going to do and so there's a lot of places don't like those either but I didn't see a lot of IND
individual discretionary funds it was more training funds as you guys can see so I would say doesn't sound like there's a consensus to move forward obviously you know and I'm not advocating to bring this back up if if the numbers aren't there but during the budget process wouldn't I'd recommend
any changes anyway I wouldn't uh recommend any uh um budget amendment for this type of an item and so you know during the budget process if you guys want to have that discussion again or not that's when I would recommend having
that thank you any public comment Mar Mara neelon 94 Beachwood Trail I'm sure that we can all agree that Mr Bradford say it's more than just travel it is more than just travel I'm sure that we'll all agree that Mr
Bradford's contribution to the Narrows which depleted Mr French's discretionary fund was inappropriate not only did it deplete the fund but it also was an exorbitant amount to go to one charity and not that
I'm saying there's anything wrong with the Narrows but the Narrows is not specific to this Village it is for voters and for everyone who you um has the inter coaster so I think we can all
agree on that now you all got my two cents and so you know that my um Bugaboo is contributions reviewing the manager's report submitted at the February council meeting regarding discretionary fund
spending it was noted by me that over $1,100 was donated to a organization called Better World furthermore investigation yielded the this purchased two VIP tickets to a Gaya event at The Pelican
Club now I don't know what your thoughts are but I really feel this is inappropriate I'd like to go to The Pelican Club with my spouse on Village um and especially since my understanding of better world is part of the
1909 um who run the uh incubators from West Palm Beach so so I guess I'm really upset about this because this is my money which is being spent just on someone one
council's personal view of what they think is appropriate and I as a taxpayer feel that's inappropriate I really do feel that way I have no problem with travel but I have a problem with people wanting to fly
there that is inappropriate you don't have to go to every single thing you can one person goes and reports two people go and report this is really my recommendation is to get rid of this discretionary fund
especially the contributions because frankly maybe not all the taxpayers are looking but I am and I don't like it thank you any other public
comment okay Council I don't think there is consensus on this matter to move forward so it dies tonight I agree thank you for the conversation absolutely okay all right moving on agenda item
four annual legal update to the council all right good evening Council so next Tuesday March 11th is the date of Municipal elections in Palm Beach County while we don't have an
actual election our Charter does provide that the first regular council meeting following that date is when you reorganize so that will be on the March uh we we meet March 13th which is the first regular meeting uh and since we
don't have an issue this year in terms of having to wait for election results to be certified and and that sort of thing you'll be able to reorganize which which for us means appointing uh the five of you
appointing a mayor and a vice mayor um as you know you know we do this every year and every year I try and remind you know there's procedurally two paths you can take somebody can make a
motion to appoint one of you to be mayor um and then like any other motion a motion has to be second if that motion is seconded that motion is handled individually if it
passes then you've reorganized in that fashion the alternative process is to make a nomination and nomin the difference is that a nomination does not require a second the person being nominated needs to accept the
nomination but before you vote on it you can have other nominations so you could have you know I nominate this person okay I nominate that person okay I nominate a you could have three you could have five different nominations I
suppose uh and then those get voted on in the order that they were made so it's it's at the end of the day it get you to the same place but there's slightly different process I just always want to remind you that the the different ways to do it there's neither ways more
correct or incorrect than the other it's just two different ways of doing it and the choice is uh the person who either makes the motion or makes the nomination um and I know you you hear this for me
every year but it's a good reminder um because your reorganization is important it will set uh the mayor and the vice mayor for this Council for the next year these are annual appointments so and that's all in the charter um section 2.0
six of the charter provides for that process um in addition to that and and I will take my cues from the council uh I have provided you my annual memo with
um topics that include Council manager form of government how the council interacts by Charter is supposed to interact with the manager versus the department heads um Sun Sunshine Law Public Records ethics quazi judicial
hearings um all of those things uh I I did report at your last council meeting as you'll remember that um one of one of the things in the memo is the annual Financial disclosure based on the current pending litigation
it's still a form one scenario this year it does not uh form six is still um held in AB bance with the federal Court's injunction um and that form one
is same as last year it's filed electronically these days no no more paper and Pen you have to go on the website log in everybody should have an account that that or credentials at this point it's pretty user friendly once you
are logged in it it leads you where you need to go and you just have to kind of fill in the blanks um so beyond those things I I I'm happy to spend as much time as you would like me this evening going over the the
Sunshine Law and public records stuff the gifts and and voting conflicts and that and those ethical topics um as I said I provided my memo in the alternative if you prefer to not
listen to me talk about it all and and simply review it and ask questions if you have them again I'll take my cues from the council how you wouldd like me to proceed tonight um other than the financial disclosure issue that that is pending
really the law hasn't changed um certainly not on Sunshine Law or the ethical considerations that continue to apply to you you know there's every year there seems to be one or two tweaks to the public records laws
in terms of new exemptions and and things like that um this year uh there's a I know at at the Florida leag of cities there was a uh request by the municipal clerks Association to make some of their
personal information confidential um just like Municipal attorneys were granted that exception uh I guess two years ago now uh at any rate how would you like me to proceed this
evening if you'd like to have verbal presentation I'm happy to proceed if tell me whatever you would like okay thank you counseling comments questions for Keith other discussion I've read it I
don't have any personal questions but I'm happy you guys won't keep you go through I personally obviously have seen it heard it um I love the refreshers cuz I I feel a lot a lot of people over the years can just kind of get comfy and off
track so it's always good to get even that ethics training once a year just to kind of refresh it now if we get the driving test to do that that'd be great in general but um I'm going to leave up to anyone else if they feel like they just want a refresher um if they didn't get a chance to read through it while you're sitting
here I mean you're here we're here so I'm going to leave it up to the rest of you not specific questions and U I think I did did fic refresher twice accidentally this year there you go you were very I have I have no questions or
issues maybe I might be a good refresher because some of us are going to be in tassey this week I know there's specific lobbyist rules with gifts and it's highlighted in here anything outside of the gift thing that we should be reminded of when it comes to lobbyist as long as as long as I mean the Sunshine
Law would would would apply if there was more than one of you involved in a discussion and the discussion forese could be a topic that would land back here for you to have action on that that that would be an issue you the the the gift law is very
important you I mean to keep it simple don't take any gifts from any lobbyists and you know there are technically low dollar value thresholds that are accumulative on an annual basis I $100 so you know basically if you got
a lapel pin or a koozie or something that that that's fine but you know the the good advice is just avoid gifts from lobbyists and any of your good lobbyists that that that work for us and and that are up there that everyone's aware of
that that I'm not aware of uh examples recently of lobbyists trying to uh pepper local elected officials with inappropriate gifts I just I'm not aware of it happening um so but it is the law
and you definitely want to keep keep that in mind and again if if by chance there was more than one of you on having a conversation with the lobbyist um and it's about something that that you think might land back
here there's a even if there was a technical no violation because one of you did not say a word or respond to any any part of the discussion and just listen there's Optics on that if anybody was to to
observe that uh you don't want to have to defend yourself and explain and and you know and have people shake their heads and not believe you so um those would be the two most important things to keep in mind in terms of
meeting with your lobbyist and having those kind of or or you know legislators or anybody else so thank you yeah just good reminder not just for being up until hasit really the whole session right kind of that's when we usually see and talk to lobbyists the most is during session so quick question
do lunches count as gifts yes but and and the statute is specific to meals so uh if if there's a reciprocal like like if somebody takes you to lunch and within the next 90 days
after that you take them to lunch it it it's a wash so you have time to pay it back that way but yes otherwise uh it would be considered gift thank you all right any other Council comments
questions okay any public comment all right with that can I get a motion to adjourn so move second all in favor I iir the polar shirt