Good evening and welcome to the special commission meeting for September 8th, 2025. I'd like to call this meeting to order. Now, if we could please stand for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the
United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. City clerk, if you'd call roll, please. Good evening. Vice Mayor Vasquez, here.
Commissioner Sison, here. Commissioner Dicki here. Mayor doctor here. Thank you. All right. We do not have any approval of regular or workshop agendas. Nothing on the proclamations. Um we're going to uh
seeing what I have. Uh we're going to if you want to make a statement, if you'd please fill out a card before 6:15, we will we would appreciate that. Um so that we will now I I will uh move it to public comments.
Um and this will be for the non-aggenda item that we have. If do we have any one? Mayor just on the attendance tonight. Uh the clerk called roll. Um Commissioner Clark checked in with me early this morning had a family emergency that took
him out of town and just wanted to uh be excused. I don't know that I have an whatever excusal power, but anyway, he's an excused absence. Okay, great. Thank you for that. All right, so now uh what we will be
doing is we're going to have a brief, uh solid waste presentation and uh I'm going to ask Gary to come on up. Good evening, mayor, vice mayor, commissioners. Gary Volenac, director of public works.
Um, I'm just going to try and briefly take just a few minutes to run through the current status of the outsourcing effort. Um, you've a lot of you have been asking for qu for answers on certain things, so hopefully I'll cover them really quickly. The the main focus of tonight is obviously the budget. Um,
and we need to get to that. So, I I will I won't spend too much time on it. Um, okay. I'm going to just go briefly over the contract terms that we have, the service rates that we'll be uh looking at uh uh enforcing for this new
contract, uh the disposition of our assets, uh the employees that we have, the schedule of implementation, and then we can go through some quick questions. We're going to be piggybacking the seminal uh the city of Semino's contract.
Um we are using the same terms and conditions of the contract. Both um our finance department as well as the legal uh department has looked at the contract to make sure it's uh not only in good it's a good uh uh contract for our city
but also for our residents and and uh something that we can use for for some time to come. It's it's currently a seven-year contract and there are uh two years remaining under that current uh uh uh term. The the contract does allow for
a 7-year extension. We were able to get Waist Pro to go ahead and sign a letter uh which we have that they have agreed to at this time which is a little early. Usually you wait until just before the ex the expiration of the first term. they are
going to go ahead and honor the seven-year extension if we desire. So, we basically will be agreeing to a seven-year contract under the terms that we have in place um in terms of it's got uh you know the the rates as well as there's an there's an adjustment clause
in it over that period of time, but we can go ahead and maintain that for nine years. We felt that just having a two-year contract was not long enough for for us to go ahead and make such a change. Um, okay. Rates.
The 2025 rate that's currently in place is $28.50 for res. This is residential only right here. Is for residential that includes recycling. We've gotten word that there's a the preliminary numbers are from the county that there's going to be a 10% increase
in in our costs. We basically pay them to handle uh the disposal of the waste that we collect. So, we would be looking at an increase to our current rate. Um, I just felt it was important that we compare this because the rate there for
Waste Pro, that's the 2026 rate that'll be in effect for next year. Well, for this whenever we sign the contract, but this will be in effect. It's $21.80 with recycle. There's a delta there of $9.55 per month per residence.
And uh the invoicing will be handled by Waste Pro. They do it uh uh they they invoice 3 months in advance. Um they'll only be sending four bills out a year. Currently, the the invoicing is done
under the county water bill. Commercial rates. Um again, I did the same thing. I looked at what we currently have, but then we're going to have a a rate increase that will be coming for 2026. Um, so the dumpster rate that we compared was the the the 26
city rate versus the 26 waste pro rate. There's a delta there of 28.49 per month per dumpster per pickup. So if you have um two dumpsters and three days a week, it'll be two times that times three the
number of days. But it basically that's the computation. This most of our c commercial commercial customers have a substantial I mean they take they have two three dumpsters and they pick up multiple times. So they're going to be seeing a savings over over hundreds of dollars a month.
Again waste waste pro will be handling the invoicing. Um but in the commercial case they do it one month in advance. As far as our assets we have five waste collection trucks. We have two broy
hills. We have multiple dumpsters and recycle bins. The um we we contacted the local dealers who currently service and provide these sorts of uh uh trucks in the area. Uh they came out and looked at them. We had
uh we contacted municipalities who might have interest. They came out and looked at them. The best offer we got was from Waste Pro. They are looking at buying our five uh we have five rear loaders and two side loaders. They they are going to buy all of them.
They'll be taking all of our dumpsters and recycle bins. We have a a letter agreement them offering um $385,000 for that equipment. The uh as I mentioned it was the best offer we we had received for the
equipment. We do have two broills. Those are the small units that go around the beach and um we plan on we we shared the cost of those with the city of St. Pete Beach. We're going to go ahead and keep one for the near term just to see make sure there's no bumps in the in the
collection process. Any of those specialty collection areas. Um the other unit will be given to St. Pete Beach to sort of uh as our obligation of shared assets. Uh but that's the disposition of those those uh uh vehicles.
As far as employees go, the the city and waste management uh HR personnel, we met with staff last Wednesday. I was there was over an hour and a half. Um went over the opportunities, whether they
exist in the city with waste pro. Um, I think that, um, I can't speak for staff, but I think they were overall impressed that there were some opportunities that they don't obviously have here, uh, in terms of some driver, uh, opportunities
for larger trucks. Um, they get a higher pay in that uh, arrangement. And also um there's a multitude of other um uh cities that the that Waste Pro currently
serves and they can actually transfer to those locations and in in some cases they're much closer to their home. They won't have as far a commute to to handle. So it it was it was a fairly wellreceived uh meeting. Um I'll be honest with you, the benefits they're
mixed. Uh I believe that the pay is higher but the benefits are not as good. So it's kind of a balance there. The uh waste pro does offer uh several opportunities to reduce your ben your costs of like insurance substantially
through non-smoking programs, exercise programs, things like that. You can actually just keep reducing your fee down. It's still more than the zero they pay right now, but it is it they can reduce it substantially. Um, they also offer they it was interesting they offer
bonuses. If you have a safety record, a good safety record for three years, you get a $10,000 bonus. So, there's some substantial opportunities. Again, I don't want to sugarcoat it. It there they don't have as many holidays. There are the health benefits that they have to pay for, but um uh all in all, I
think it's a they have some opportunities or decisions to make in that regard. I was also impressed by the number of questions that they asked um uh the staff asked Waste Pro uh in terms of uh the opportunities, training, things like
that. There's quite a robust program that Waist Pro has. So, um all in all, I think the meeting went well. Additionally, uh, in discussions with with the finance director and city manager, we've determined that we'd like to give as long as the employees stay
with us through the entire u until the end of the month when the transition would occur. Uh, we're going to give them a four-week severance package. So, so that that was uh the meeting we had with the employees. A schedule we're proposing to start on October 1st. Um,
the first actually is a Wednesday. our staff will be paid through Friday, which is a the third um just to take care of that payroll. But but the the contracted start will be the first. And what we'd like to do is get get um um our mailing
out by the end of this week. That's why I wanted to kind of make this this uh presentation, get get any kind of additional information or questions that you have uh regarding the program. I want to get that to the public as soon as possible. Wastist Pro is also going to do a mail out to all of the customer
base. Um they've ridden the the routes. The uh the customers, the residents are going to see the same generally the same pickup days that they had. If they were a Monday, Thursday, that's what they're going to stay with or a Tuesday, Friday, recycling will all be on Wednesday.
Everything gets done on that one day. Um they waste pro asked me to pass on that residents do get four free pickups of bulk material up to eight cubic yards a a year. They get that at no charge. So
that's um I kind of raced through that. I I I know we've got to get on to the budget, but I just wanted to try and cover a lot of information. If you have any questions I could address. I do. Um you answered the one at the very end as you know. I asked you that
question today on the uh bulk pickup. Now on um landscaping like palm leaves um right now, you know, we put them out on Wednesday and they're picked up. How does the the yard trash work? Yard waste will be put out of the same day as your garbage. So you have two
days. You'll have Monday and Thursday or or Tuesday and Friday. Very good. Thank you. Okay. What I'm still looking forward to seeing what the new budget will look like uh under the new scenario. We have right now uh the budget that that we're
going to be reviewing shows $2.8 million in expenses uh for next year and I I'm anxious and eager to see what what our remaining expenses will be. So what I'd like to see that at some point in time. Uh the assumption is we're getting rid
of all this. So, so that should go down to a substantial number. I if if it only went down to if it went down to half a million dollars, we we'd have a problem because we'd have to find out how we're going to fund a half a million dollars. Well, I believe the current budget and I I know that uh Victor will be addressing
this, but the current budget, it shows we don't have another contract for outsourcing. So, his budget tracks as us continuing through 26. If you know October one if you sign that contract you know for the October one outsourcing
I think it changes everything. So I believe uh commissioner that your question is in regards of whatever task the city is going to pick how much is going to cost the city. Yes. So so right now we are trying to cover
th those services inhouse with no extra expenses. So, if we have to hire an extra person, uh, it's going to be one FTEES and the average is about $60,000. But, but we're going to try to start to pick it up inhouse with no extra expense
to the city. Okay. Is that what your question was regarding? I'm what I'm saying is that at when when this is final, you're going to have to do a budget amendment. And I'd like to see what this looks like wi with this change
is all I'm asking. The the generator fund we will not pick, not the general fund, the solid waste fund. So the solid waste fund is is going to be eliminated and whatever is left h we're going to wait couple months until we pay all the debts from
sanitation and the money that is left is going to pass to the general fund or whatever other fund that the commission decides. Okay. Thank you. Thank you Jerry. Thank you. Thank you very much Gary. Appreciate it.
All right. Um, city manager, um, do I I asking how you would like to handle getting the contract signed? We're in the final stages of review and a little bit of back and forth with that.
Okay. Um, we can we would have that by the 16th meeting. Correct. you think hammered out. So, we'll plan to put it on the 16th agenda
for y'all to vote on and we can sign it that night unless I I don't know. I'll defer a little bit to the council. the mayor or vice mayor Vasquez's um motion said as long as we were trending down in expense, keeping
up the level of service, there were three or four things she mentioned, then we would we would march forward specifically with Waste Pro, which we have. Um I don't think I can just sign a multi-year, multi-million dollar contract unless y'all tell me tonight to
to do whatever our best thing is when we get it done. If they authorize you to do it, It's on agenda. Well, I mean, it's not going to be on an agenda unless I put it on the September 16th agenda. Then then it could then it could be the mayor and the city manager
and the clerk attesting like normal if that's acceptable to you guys. We'll shoot for the 16th. So, we will see that come up uh next Tuesday. Sorry. Yeah. Okay. Great. You you'll be fully involved like they say at Firehouse. All right. Thank you very much. All
right. Uh so let's move on to uh to the one item that we have uh for this evening and uh that item is the first budget uh public hearing and it'll be our first
ordinance to go through first reading. Do the motion. Yes. I move to approve ordinance 2025-21 adopting FY2026 budget with the budget document and prior year incumbents as as of September
30th, 2025 at the first reading with a second and final reading and public hearing scheduled for September 16th. Second. Okay, we have a motion and a second. Uh do we have any public comment?
So, uh Sarah Sarah Pennington. Hi, good evening. Sarah Pennington, um District 2. I'm actually here to read um not my writing, so forgive me. not used to doing that. But um Commissioner Clark is not able to be here tonight due to an
emergency and he had some comments he wanted read. The uh city manager suggested that a resident read those comments and I volunteer to do so. So here are the comments for Commissioner Clark to be read into the record. As your District 2 commissioner, I want to begin by acknowledging the hardship our
community continues to face in the aftermath of two devastating hurricanes. Many residents are still repairing homes, paying rent elsewhere, and managing unexpected expenses. Any city budget we adopt must reflect these realities and avoid adding to the strain
on taxpayers. The fiscal year 2026 budget now before the commission raises several concerns. Based on the current documentation provided, I understand there could be new information provided tonight. I could not support the budget in its
current form. The information made available to commissioners has not been sufficient for us to evaluate the city's long-term commitments and near-term spending priorities with the confidence our residents deserve. Three issues stand out. Personnel cost. The proposed
8.1% increase is significant. While investing in staff is important, increases of this size must be balanced with reductions elsewhere to ensure physical sorry fiscal responsibility and fairness to taxpayers.
Capital budget capital project budget. The city charter requires a comprehensive capital project plan. Past budgets through fiscal year 2024 presented all new capital projects across every city enterprise fund in a single summary document with funding
sources identified. This year that level of organization is missing and questions remain such as the status of more than $17 million in incomplete carry forward projects. Third issue is time for review. Commissioners were not given
adequate opportunity to study revenues and projects before being asked to vote. The most recent workshop provided no revenue information and included a capital project list that differed from prior versions without explanation. Rushed or inconsistent data prevents
commissioners from making fully informed decisions. I believe the commission should take additional time, including a real budget workshop, with the complete budget information, clarify outstanding items, and ensure both commissioners and residents can fully review the city's
financial commitments before the final reading. I will dig diligently work with staff over the coming weeks to gain more clarity and work towards a budget that works for all residents. Thank you. Thank you, Sarah.
and Mark Hoey. I'm sorry. I was confused after his presentation. [Music] Okay, that's fine. I don't have anything.
All right. Thank you. All right. Uh do we have we'll close public hearing. Um what is our discussion up here? Do we have I I don't have any discussion. I'm hoping at this point I was just hoping to see the presentation and then maybe have the discussion after that.
Please. Good evening uh mayor, commissioners, city attorneys, city manager and city clerk. Uh thanks for the opportunity uh for presenting uh the budget, the ordinance and the first uh public hearing.
So I'm going to start with the calendar and and events and just to uh recoup everything we have done. So in July 17 we brought the tentative millage and basically there there was no discussion on the budget. It's just for the city to tell the board that we had enough
revenues that we believe that we had enough revenues with the millage as is to cover the expenses. Uh that meeting was h for for the generative fund which is what covers the millillage and we approved the tentative millillage and it was 3.8129.
In August 8, I brought a budget workshop and we had a discussion here and we went deep on on the departments and and I went department by department with all the accounts and I left them in the in the windows and I I didn't switch the
the slides until commissioners asked all the question that they had and and and that that happened with all the enterprise uh building fund and general fund. Now I I don't like to bring up the the I
did bring the the revenues in the general fund in the tentative mill and and actually I I recall Commissioner Dicki don't agree with some of the projections and then we we exercise some changes and for the budget workshop but
we also discussed now for the enterprise revenues I don't like to bring it until I know the expenses now that we know the expenses I did put the the revenue new erh details and is is I put it Thursday or Friday and is there for the public
consumption and all the details for for the revenues. Um so now uh today September 8th and we are here because this is between 65 and 80 days uh of of the uh certification. So this is the
public hearing. This is mandated by by the Florida status and this is what what I hear. We need a a final hearing of this ordinance. It's going to be in September 16. I I just wanted to do a recoup of what we had done in in the in the last uh three meetings.
So uh personal personal we went and we reduced uh we when we presented the tentative budget we were asking for 10 FTEES but after some discussions we reduce it and we did ask for 3.5 FTEES. So that this was a reduction of uh
460,000 from from last time in personal cost and I'm not going to go through the detail. I can bring it if any of the commissions or or the major wants to discuss it. I'm just discussing the changes. Uh we reduce the clerk education by 2,000. Increasing
children's expenses by 17,000 and this is because uh we got a renewal quote after the budget workshop. So there are things that we we cannot just predict uh without the proper document. Uh insurance went up property insurance by
17,000. So we increase it. Uh we decreased short-term rental software in CDD by and this was also a discussion $80,000 and we just took it out of the budget. Uh we reduce storm water grant writing by 17.5 because we don't need it
was a redundancy of what we we already approve. and we reduce the beach maintenance supplies by 10,000. Okay. So now we discussed the the the expenses and I want to focus this uh on on balancing the budget and the fund
balances because this question has been brought by many of you meeting after meeting how much cash do do you have and we never have the answer of how how much cash available. So we had an idea but now what I what I did h and you are going to follow me through this
presentation I was able to create a reserve for for the year 2026. So there are uh three as aspect of the reserve. One is the the reserve that I'm going to recommend to you and you can up or down
that reserve that I'm going to present my recommendation which is three months of operational expenses. That's a reserve that the credit agencies like and that's a reserve is is a hereditage. We are a coastal community. We should have that reserve. Also, I'm going to
bring a 10% contingency because if a hurricane hits, I want to have money available to cover some some of the uh the cost of the emergency instead of using the the budget for other uh purposes also. Then I'm going to set up another
reserve. And this reserve I'm going to call it set aside reserve. And this is actually what you have the commission and the city manager available to use and and flexibility. It's a set aside reserve. It's not restricted. So you can use it and and you can uh set up
priorities with that reserve. Victor, before you go off that slide, it you have the year 2024 that is that should that be 2025? No. And let me let me explain something about why I'm presenting. So if we're budgeting for 2026, why is he presenting
2024? This here adds some credibility to the numbers because this is coming straight from the financial statements that had been audited. So I I going to bring 24 and you will see how that h do a transition to 25 and 26. Okay. So these that 34 million that we
have was the actual fund balance at the end of last year as audited. Yes. Audited financial statement. So this is legit and this is it just adds credibility to the numbers. Okay. Thank you. So so as you see we we had in 2024 $33.7
million in the bank and this is coming from the bank statements. Okay. and and you see so we are adding uh uh subtracting the prepaids and then uh we have $12,000 of uh green utility
and this is uh for environment that is restricted for for those purposes is not material it's only $12,000 and then we have assigned funds so I'm going to uh reduce it from here but then I'm going to put it back this this $5.1 million is the only
assigned CIP projects that we had in the financial statements. So our Tyler had 35 millions, the financial statement had $5 million. And this is why this year we're doing a zero budget for CIP. And
we're starting again now for the CIP. If you go to the budget meetings and you go to the August 8th uh meeting, you will see the CIP the whole CIP plan there that we submitted in August 8. So the capital improvement is there and is
specified per year for the next five years. Okay. So keep going. So remember we have 29.5 million. So now I'm dividing this 29 uh millions per per type. So general
fund has 18.9 building fund 780,000 and enterprise fund has 9.9 or 9.8. 8. Okay. Now, look at this 18 millions of of general fund. So, I'm going to go to
the general fund first. So, here is how is allocated in the general fund. So, the general fund is is 13.1. A local option tax which is the penny for panelas and this is $2.8 million. Gas tax 302. transportation
trust has non material and the debt service is just the fund that it was left there but that's that fund is just needed there just to pay repay the deps and then the costway had uh $2.7 million now I'm going to go one one by one
starting for with these balances and this is where I bring uh the the first column here is the available funds in the financial statements then the projected revenues and expenses for 2025 5 and then from the general
fund. Remember in last meeting we were giving $1.1 million to the building fund because they they couldn't operate in negative balance. So we ended in 2025 we're projecting and I'm calling a projection because remember we still
have copper days uh uh going and that's another thing I'm going to bring the carry forwards in the very last meeting because we are still operating in 2025. So I don't know how much I'm going to carry forward. So I I prefer to wait until the very last meeting to tell you the these are the carry forwards. I'm
not going to present carry forwards in July when we have two or three months left. U so the the fund balances as of se September 30, 2025 are $15.2 million. And then we did the
same thing and now we're projecting 2026 for um now I'm bringing back in the balance the $5 million that I step back. Why is that? Because remember we're stepping we're starting with a zero
budget for CIP. So, I'm giving the general fund back the $5 million and then the revenues and the expenses for 2026. And then I'm subtracting now the capital improvement plan for 2026, which is $6.8
million. So, we're going to end in 2026 with $14.4 million. This is good news. the these numbers to me they're they're looking good and the reason is right now last time we check for the bank statement in July we had
$39 million in the bank so so we are doing good with the insurance we're doing good and and just informing the commissioners we had not received a single dollar from FEMA and now I'm trying to to push a little bit and and
ask weekly about the the status of the debris which is $2 million I did not budget any revenue from FEMA here because I don't like to budget for for grants or FEMA until we get the money. So that that's even better good news.
Uh same thing with the penny. I'm not going to explain what what I did because uh you know now what what I had done but we ended in 2024 with 2.8 8 2025 with $2.5 million and then after CIP uh that
we are going to use 2.9 from the penny we're going to end in 2026 624,000. I like to use the the penny first when ECIP because when you use the the penny for penel affairs what you do is that you free up the general fund money. So
if we can use uh every penny from the uh from this fund uh is going to be good. So, so I'm going to be taking a deeper look to see how I can use this $600 and free that money from the general fund. This is called cash management and and I'm going to do that for for the
commission. And the same thing gas that gas tax we had uh in 302,000. We're going to end in 2026 with 68,000. And this these funds they don't have operating expenses. They don't have personal. They don't
have any trans uh I'm not going to discuss this. This is non material but I had to put it because it's part of the fund. This the same thing. This is a depth service is is a pass through. We we like to have a 5,000 balance in on the bank
account. Uh so this is just to pay our debts that the two loans that we have and this is the costway. uh this is going to end with $2.5 million. In 2024, we ended in the
financial statement with $2.7 million. Please tell me if you have any questions. You don't have to wait until the end. Okay. Now, we are talking about the building fund. This this one I want to discuss it because this one is the only
fund that we have that is is bleeding and is h is literally out of money. So if we didn't give uh this fund $1.1 million, this was going to be $241,000 to the negative. And we cannot end a fiscal year with that. That's why we we
brought the loan in the last uh meeting. And it's because of the revenues of 2025, we're projecting to have at the end of the year $148,000. And in 2026, we still not having enough revenues to cover uh the expenses. Now,
this is one of the funds that is hard to to predict and this is one of the the the the funds that I can be completely wrong. So, so we we may end getting uh the revenues if the permits for the new constructions pick up, but I as a
conservative uh projection, I don't like to put those revenues there. So, I I want to I want to be run to to that side instead of projecting too much and say, well, never mind, we didn't get that money. So, in this is 2026. In 2027, we have to
come with a plan to start paying back to their general fund because they cannot keep that money forever. Victor, will we have an opportunity uh after you finish your slides to ask more questions about this or if I have questions about the building fund? Can I ask you now? You are the commission. You can ask me
now or after or whatever works out better for you to ask it right now. You can ask now. Okay. uh the building fund and the and the materials that you posted on the website on our website as well as distributed to the commissioners. You know, I I looked at that and it shows
that the expenses for next year for the building fund is at 1.2 million that you see right there on your slide. So, I see that. But as recently as two years ago, ending in 2024, the building fund only had 730,000
in in expenses. And the year before that, 2023, it had 718,000 in expenses. So from just since 2024, that number's gone up a half million dollars. Uh sub,
you know, this uh that's a substantial increase. Now, I expected, you know, when I looked at your f your estimate for expenses for this year of 1.1 million, uh I expected that to go up because that's when we had to we continuously approved additional
resources and everything else. But at some point in time, I think I was expecting that that number was going to eventually work its way back to to uh other than the positions that we've added, and I understand we added those. Are those positions showing up? Those uh
the the the code compliance that does that show up in here or the planning that shows up someplace else, right? Positions that were approved. Yes. Is showing up here. But but in this account or in a different account? I think it's in a different account. Okay. Yeah. Mike Mike just acknowledged. You you are correct. The the code
enforcement is So anyway, so I guess that's my question. is that half million dollars that we spent recovering from the hurricane. Uh, and I and I understand there still might be some spillover, but it looks like we're intending to keep that not just next year, but it we've
got it in the budget for all the future years as well. Commissioner, I can I can go deep uh on on the expense and and send an email explaining that to all commissioners and the measure. I I don't have the information with me because I remember in the budget workshop I brought all the
details but I don't have that with me right now the details of of work I guess let me okay well again before you go I do okay let's bring it is can you enlarge that uh when you get
to that Yeah. Good. Yeah. But I don't Is that the right uh 429? No. No. I was hoping you'd go to the the ones that look like this. It would be page uh page 12 in this package.
There it is right there. Yeah. So even with this budget, if you look at the surplus deficit at the bottom, even with this budget of that extra half million, uh you're showing that for for next year, we're going to operate even with this half million extra dollars, we're going to we're
going to lose $457,000. As a matter of fact, we're going to lose in each of the future, you know, from uh that that that account is going to operate at a deficit the building fund uh continuously. And I think it's cuz we got that extra half million in there. We
haven't taken it out is the bottom line here. If you look at the the very bottom right, I wish I would have brought my pointer there, but at the very bottom right part of the worksheet all the way down, Victor. Yeah. Look at all the one the last line there. See all those negatives there? We're we're in the
negative because we we kept this extra money that we spent during the hurricane. It never has gone back to prehurricane levels. And again, I expect some of that to spill over next into the next year. I expect that, but but not not for the next five years.
I do remember that there there was some uh uh duplicity on on on the waiverss. Uh but that's not presented on the expenditure side. So again, I mean, I have the details here in this other
spreadsheet to see what what is bringing the $1.2 $2 million if you want to see it. You want me to bring it up? Sure. Sure. If you can explain it, let me know what page you're on so I'll I'll catch up to you as well.
So building the vision is in page 62. Okay. It's in in the it's in uh other operating expenses. It's not in personnel. Yeah. And you see here in the page 64. Let me let me
the $1.2 million as a detail. So here are all the expenses and let me see what is bringing. So we have if I can find any big item. The big the big item is contractual
services. Uh that's at $675,000 on page 62. Yes. U let me see if I have somebody from pri Yeah. And prior to the hurricane, prior to hurricane, that was 342,000. So there's 330,000
of the increase. Um, yeah, I think this one came up at the last meeting, too. Um, I think there was some discussion about what we wanted to do with this number. But previous years, we just had a building official and I think a part-time building inspector. Currently, we have a full-time building official and two
inspectors to cover all the number of inspections. So say the bill for MT Cosley that's that is largely the MT Cosley contract and that has gone up significantly with the number of staff that we have have been using. So we budgeted a little bit more this year
because we were in the red this year for it. So we increased it a little bit but um that's that's why that line item's a little higher. And the other item was the um software that we talked about at the last meeting as well. I think that's like a 60,000 maybe increase in there.
The I'm not going to not vote in support. I think that's a very good budget. I just think that one account needs to be looked at harder. So, uh, city manager, if you would uh if you would uh agree to look at that a little bit deeper uh uh later on that uh that
building fund. Uh but like I said, I'm not going to I think this is a very good budget you put in together and I'm not going to hold it up because of this one thing. we've got some extra money in there, then we can we can reallocate it later. Okay, back to you.
Sorry for the Victor. Does FEMA pay any of uh re reimburse any of those dollars that uh that we have? So, we're expecting FEMA money for the building fund and what what we are going to do when we receive that is starting
to pay the general fund. Okay. But that is not reflected in this budget. that we have a probably a pretty sizable amount of money coming back from FEMA. Yes. So, this reflects that we're going to be in trouble at the end of next year even,
but uh with the the FEMA and uh those dollars, we should be pretty close to break, even if not even a little better. I'm not sure about that. If it's going to pass the $1 million, I doubt it. And
uh but right now uh well we're reflecting right here that it would be four 400,000 right? Yeah it looks good but in reality is is negative700,000 remember they have a loan from the general fund that they
have to pay. So okay so do we know what that FEMA expectation is? I don't have those those numbers uh with me. I can bring it uh and report next meeting. Okay, that'd be great. And that's I mean that's going to help
pay repay that loan that we're going to do it. So that that's good, but it's not going to affect the fact that we're projecting for next year 753,000 in revenue for the building fund, but have $1.2 million in expenses. It's a half million almost a half million dollar
loss next year in each of the each of the years out outgoing. So there's a we need to take a harder look at that. Again, I don't want to I don't want to hijack your meeting and I don't want to hold this up. I just think it's something we can look at deeper and and make sure
that that number's uh solid. If it is, we'll go with it. But but that's see that that was the single biggest thing that I thought was a little bit off off the track. So, Commissioner Dicki, it it does carry me as wor. So, I saw the same thing that you were seeing. So, I mean, this cannot continue over the
years, right? Exactly. Er so so uh I mean this is the budget for 2026 but if this is going to continue for 2027 we have to h do something right and that that's number one and then for for mayor the FEMA I'm going to give you
a figure but I'm always very careful when we are when we are projecting FEMA revenues because I'm being wrong before and I don't want anybody to say well you you you said that you were going to receive this amount and we only got this. So that's why I I never project
for grants or or FEMA. What I'm gonna give you is what we had submitted. I don't know how much we are going to receive. So just because FEMA can decide whatever they they are going to decide.
So we may get a portion of that or 100% I don't know for for debris. I know we submitted and we're expecting $2 million. I don't know if we're receiving 1.5. Now, the breeze is the generator fund, but I I will report on on the last uh public hearing
on that. Okay. So, I'm going to continue. Any other question about building phone? Okay. So, now we're going to the enterprise funds. I'm going to go back a couple of uh slides because you see that
uh four one and $3 million That's that's the total of enterprise fund that we said at the beginning $9.8 million. So now we're going to go to the uh enterprise funds and we're going to go one by one again and this is a wastewater
wastewater ended with $6.2 2 million on uh 2024 financial statements and now we're going to bring it back. Uh we're going to use $5.9 million of CIP from the wastewater and this $5 million is
included the master leaf station. So that's a 5.2. The good news is we're going to end with $2 million. But the good news is that I'm telling this board uh today that we have money to pay for the master leave station as is. So any grant money that we receive if any for
the master leaf station goes back to the pocket. So this is solid waste and here I'm gonna uh wait for any questions that you you may want to ask because it is my responsibility to balance a budget and present a budget by September. I cannot
wait for that contract to to do the budget. Now when you sign the contract uh we don't have to bring a budget amendment right away because uh as you see we have 1.8 8 billion uh not billion
uh million dollars for for solid ways. So whatever when when you terminate enterprise funds or any fund you are going to use that fund to actually h exit like whatever we're going to pay the employees or severance or whatever
we're going to use that money and we had budget $2.7 million on expenses so we can use that money. I don't want to bring a budget amendment right away because I want to wait couple of months and just wipe out this fund and eliminate it. Okay,
with whatever is left, what we can do is h report to the board monthly what we are doing with these funds after the uh outsourcing the the the service. Okay. And then the storm water. Uh this
is a a fund. I don't know uh if Gary has some projects, but uh this we ended with 3.7 million in 2024. And we're bringing this uh $4.1 million or 4.2 for 2025
and and we're going to end with a budget balance of $4.2 million again for 20. So it's almost even. We're using $961 million for CIP of this fund. Could you uh go back to the wastewater
fund slide two two slides back? I I wanted to talk a little bit about that. This this account uh it's it's page 16 of of of the handout if if you want to find it. Uh but it's showing uh that's built into the revenue
projections for next year showing a 6% uh increase uh to uh and the rate that we that we charge. Uh and that uh fund has a pretty strong fund balance and I think we could I'm
going to suggest that we consider not raising uh the rate at all. uh it would cost us a little less than $400,000 in revenues, but I I don't think there's there's enough there's a big enough fund
balance in there uh that I don't believe we need to increase the rate at all, much less 6% for next year. So I I hear you and my my problem is when I came here is that I I don't want to recommend
as a fin f finance director any raise of rates if it's not needed. So that's why I I didn't bring an ordinance for rates. What we are using and what we uh projected the revenue on is a current rates
everything current rates for wastewater. What you see there is a budget is I not bringing any raise yet. However, St. Petersburg that they treat our wastewater and they're increasing the cost for by 9.5%.
Because they do charge us 25% more than other institutions. So this is a pass through uh expense. So if they actually increase it, I don't think we can continue operating and keeping those balances if we don't in pass through
those expenses. I think you could. And the reason I say that is I is it shows your other your operating expenses are going up uh to uh to 4 uh 6 million next year from if you look at the estimate we're running at 3.8 million this year. Now, I know that's
lower because a lot of people aren't living in their in their homes, but uh we like I said, we've got the 6% increase in there and we don't we don't need it. We're that that has a positive fund balance according to that which are the numbers. Uh if you can make that
larger to look at the assigned fund balance or the available fund balance and that and on that no don't look at those funds balance because those are doesn't represent what what we have in fund balance. What happened is that with these enterprise fund funds what because it's enterprise
they that's basically the net position net position includes fixed asset and all all of that the fund balance is what I'm presenting in my you said was about $6 million yes but we're are going to end in 2006 2026 with only $2 million.
Yeah. Let let me bring that up again. Well the re the reason for that is because we're going to spend 5.8 8 million in capital uh is the reason for that for that's that's where you have the new pump station correct built in there. So it's 5.8 million that
you had planned on SP. So that's why after after we pay for that 5.8 million we're only going to have 2 million left which is a good thing. Uh but that money we're bringing in quite a bit more money. Uh you can just look at that row
of of surplus. In 2024, we brought in 4.6 million more than we spent. Uh that's at surplus deficit. Uh so so yeah, 2026 will be we're going to
spend a lot more money because of the 5.2 million investment in the pump station, but other than that, this money, this account has has enough money where I think we don't need to do the 6% increase. So my I I can reduce the
budget uh but my recommendation is to leave it. We are not raising this fee and I promise you that if I don't feel we need to raise the fee I will not bring an increment on on the fees and when I bring it is on you three to two decision and and then you
you vote on that. All right Gary would you like to uh to say something? I I just wanted to um to add that the uh the lift stations that we have, we have 11 of them that not the master, but the the remaining lift stations um they all were damaged in
various extent during the storms. We've bandated them together, but we are looking at a a program to go ahead and renovate them all. Now, we're not going to all do do them all in 26, but there'll be a program here. I just want us to not it's not just the master pump
station we're concerned with. You know, we we're we're lining some of the pipelines and also the lift station. So, I just want to make sure that before we get too close, right? So, I was part of the uh Fiscar team. I was the fiscal manager
in 2010, I believe. There is a utility. It's called Glad utility uh Glaz utility that's in the Glades here in Florida. and it was a a small utility and they they went bankrupt because for utilities the waste water the treatment and the
replacement of the part is very expensive. So that's that's one of the funds that you want to have a healthy balance because they can go south very quick one emergency and you you use the the $2 million that you have there. Okay. Well, you said we're not raising anybody's rates right now. You'll come
back to the commission if you choose to do that. So, and then I will put it in front of you if if we decide together with the city manager to bring an item and then you you vote. Okay, that's good enough. Thank you. This happen all the time is that you love this presentation too much. I want
to start over. Great sir. Okay. So here uh so I think we discussed solid waste and store water. Uh this is where uh I we're going to end based on the plans uh like with $4.2 million and
this is available uh to use h before the reserve because now I went through all the all the funds and now what what I'm going to present to you is the balances that we are going to create uh with this budget. So this is the fun part.
Okay, general fund. So, as we discussed, we're going to end 2026 with 17.7 million, but this is uh splitted in in all of these six uh liter funds. So, I'm creating a three months reserve,
which is $3.7 million. And this is just reserve. um is going to be uh where I don't want to call it restricted but I can call it restricted so you can you are not going to touch this money
now you are the board you are over us so you can touch it anytime what I'm telling you is that if we truly want to create a reserve we should treat it as restricted there is no laws in Florida that prohibit you to use this money I I want that that's what I want to say it's
restricted but there's no laws that prohibit you to use this money. Best practices. I want I want to talk about best practices. If you ask the GFO, the the financial officer associations, they like to to have two months there. Uh
now, if you decide to go for bonds and you you want to pay fees and and Moody's for for ratings, if you are if you have two months, you probably end with double A on on balances. Er so they like to see actually 35% and some of them 40% is
depend when when you have a cost community some of them like 40% you ask them in advance so it depend of what you want as a city and but this is my recommendation you can lower or hide it anytime commission wants but this is
what I'm presenting today and then I also created or we uh because we I mean I got hurt from thanks to Mike I want to take advantage to say thanks to my h a 10% emergency contingency. This is something we must have because
um a hurricane may come this month or next month and we want to be able to have some money there. Probably it's not enough because we we paid two $2 million for debris but we have to have something. So I I didn't want to be excessive but I believe we should keep
10% of a emergency. So saying that you still have $12 million to uh set aside reserve and this is the money just for the commissioners and the city manager's priorities whatever priorities then you have this money available and this is
the question that I remember commissioner Clark asking this question and and I want to thank commissioner Clark for his patient with me because I I told him all the time no I'm going to bring it in in the budget process so this is the time I'm bringing it We h we
will have starting October 1st $12 million available for your priorities. Now that money the majority of it uh anyhow is from all the carryovers correct of the the CIP. Well, this is a strictly cash what we're
going to have because Uber I I get that but the reason that the cash is there is that we did capital projects that we never correct correct finished and so that's why the dollars are there. Correct. Okay. So yeah, we we we did very little projects and which is I
don't know if it's good or bad. I in between because uh it's good because we have the cash but we we may not uh not did something that we we had to do like we have some CIP projects that probably are behind. So now is the time to start
building. Yeah. Yeah. We have some very large projects that have to be done over the course of the next few years. So now commissioners with this this budget measure doctor now that you bring it up we have $80 million for 2026 CIP and if
somebody wants to see a copy of that is in the August 8 workshop is one of the documents with with this budget you are not only approving the budget but you are sending a mandate to us to spend the money. So, so we want to feel uh empowered to to
start doing those projects that are listed in the CIP, I mean the the the city and and even if we spend every single penny of 80 million, we have the money. That's what I'm saying. what's what's in the 2026 uh CIP right now that's in that
you've accounted for financially are the uh is the pump station and the public the new public works facility that's in the budget uh right now so this 12 million is not is aside from that correct okay thank you so we we can pay when I presented the
the budget and the tentative mil millage I was presenting a balanced budget I I I knew we had the money to cover all those expenses. So, I was responsible when I said that we can cover those expenses. I mean, to use this just as a hypothetical, so we could we could pay
for a new fire station or public safety facility and not have to borrow borrow money. Is that correct? H if if the cost is less than what we have available. Yes. Okay. Thank you. Now at the end of the day
I do not recommend to uh recommend to use every single penny there because uh let's come next year there going to be more CIP to come and and then if you use every penny here then you will have to find every penny for next year CIP but but it's available for for your use.
Okay. Thank you. This is the the the building fund. uh the building fund. This is including the $1.1 million. So they so I I still want to create a reserve because uh when emergency comes, they're one of the the departments who must use emer emergency
funds. So they have $32,000 and this is three months of operating expenses and I was not able to put the 10% for for the emergency. This is just operational. Uh, so for the building
fund, I only have 8% of and this is something that we need to start building for the building fund. So we can spend that $883 however we want to, right? [Laughter] Okay. Go ahead.
However you want, commissioner. Okay. And then we have the wastewater fund. So this is why I don't think we have too much money in in in the wastewater fund. So remember this is the $2 million that we're going to end in 2026. If we want a reserve, it it needs
to be across every every department or fund that has operational needs to have a three months operational. So if we want to create a reserve also for waste water and and emergency in emergency waste water they the lift station get damaged and all of that. So we have to
spend a lot of money in maintaining those. So uh we need to have at least half million dollars on the emergency contingency and that will leave us only with 200,000 is one emergency is going to wipe this up. But saying that this is a good picture.
We are in the positive. So we are fine that I like the numbers that I'm seeing here. When I I was doing this reserve, I actually triple check because I I couldn't believe this this city is not bankrupt. This city is doing good. It's just to continue good management. I'm
going to be there with you and together with Charlie because Charlie is also very conservative and he he asked me a lot about the expended expenses. Sorry, I call you Mr. uh city manager.
[Laughter] H so solid ways. Uh I'm budgeting in the saying that I don't know if this is material or not. Uh this that what matters here is that we are going to end 2025 with $1.6 million.
And this is m this if we continue I I'm going to set up a reserve because I learned in my career that a contract is not signed until it's signed. So that's what I'm budgeting here. So I'm going to continue budgeting for for this but this
may end not being material at at some point in time. Going back to solid waste is that after we we're into the new contract and everything's going well and uh that money how can be used for other things.
So before using it we have to transfer and do a budget amendment but yes it could be transferred to general fund or it could help any other funds. Okay. Thank you. Uh this is storm water and we're very strong on storm water I believe unless
Gary don't come with a $4 million CIP project and yeah we're setting up a 100 this is a small reserve because the operations uh of storm water doesn't consume much so this is three months of operations and then for emergencies the
the same thing And here is the picture for citywide. Um, so I'm just gonna leave it here for a second so can take a look. You can see we're going to end this year. And this is my projection, but it's
going to be accurate because we're close with $36 million in the bank now. It could be 35, it could be 37. So I I I'm not looking at anything is it's a board pack number. Uh so if we add uh the next year
revenues, subtract the expenses and and subtract the CIP, that's why we're going to end with $25 million in 2026. If we spend every single p penny of the CIP and the operations and that's without any of whatever it is
we get from FEMA and grants. Correct. Correct. So I expect that that to increase the the revenues on on the reserve anytime that uh I I know I I don't like budget amendments but I do like the
budget amendments. uh if I can bring one every meeting I will to the good like every time we receive money I hope I I'm here every meeting bringing a budget amendment and increasing these reserves but uh what what I'm going to do starting next year I'm going to report
on this reserve in every quarter so so and this reserve is not going to change with the money we get and the revenues because we do a through up at the end of the year for the revenues and expenses so the the the reserve will increase if
we get grants or if we get FEMA money and and such things. Then if you have any questions for me, the reserve money, uh h how are you investing that? Where where were you
putting that reserve money so that we were earning money off of our reserves? So, we're smart city. I don't want to bet on on our our numbers. One of the first thing here that I did in the first two weeks when I was hired is to meet
with our investors, the one that carries our our investments. So, uh what what what we are doing right now is to invest uh about $1.3 million uh for one year, but we have 12 of those. So, every year we
we every month we are renewing one. And I I believe we can change the amount, but this is treasure is very safe. Uh I I do not recommend us to go long-term uh investments because uh first of all we
may need the money at some point and and second of all I will not invest on anything that is risky for this city right I I can go with any of you in one ones to explain how we are investing money. Yeah, the reason I asked that is I
noticed that our interest uh revenue in 2025 was 600 a little over $600,000. Uh so that's a that's that's a lot of money and I'm glad to see that we're getting that. Uh on that particular note, because you have asked for
questions, the uh the miscellaneous interest account, you you budgeted only $100,000 for that for next year where it was six over 600,000 this year. And I realize, you know, that the expectation is that interest rates will be coming down. Uh but I'm sure they're not going
to come down that much in terms of, you know, we're talking about quarter percentage points and stuff like that over over a period of time. But anyway, and I'm not suggesting that you change it because I like a conservative budget, but given that this year we had $611,000
in miscellaneous interest and and next year we only budgeted a hundred that there's there's opportunity for uh to provide us a little bit of cushion there. So, so again, I'm fine with that. Uh property tax revenue, uh you had mentioned uh uh before and we had talked
about this earlier this afternoon. uh the county said that we would be down about 5.75% or something like that and you budgeted it to be down 8.2%. So there's another cushion which again I'm I'm all for
cushions because I want to make sure we we we don't budget so so uh fin so precisely that if we have a hiccup we we uh messed up. But anyway, it looks like you might have about a quarter million dollars of of uh of of hedge there as
well. So that and I think I think that's good. The only other area that I thought that we could do better uh and I wouldn't suggest that you change the budget for this, but parking fines, you have pretty much flat with uh uh with previous years
in spite of the fact that we've added those additional resources there. So, parking fines should be coming up, but again, I'm not suggesting you need to change the budget. Is it it looks like we got from those four items that I just mentioned that we might have have as
much as $650,000 of of potential revenue that we didn't put into the budget and and I think that's a good thing. So, if I'm wrong wrong in that way, I it would not hurt my feelings, but I can explain to you all of them. So the 5.7%
that we're going to go down in proper in taxable values. So a good budget, a conservative budget, some some people just increase the revenues just to increase the expenses. I do the other. I'm conservative. I I I don't like to spend. So what I do is I I take the
budget and then I budget usually 95% of that. That's that's called a conservative budget. So it's 90% of what what we believe. Now for the parking ticket, I believe we budgeted 300,000. That's correct. So uh in 2024 it was about 300,000 but last year it was we we
we're going to project like 160,000 if I remember correctly those numbers. So uh we're conservative just because we're coming from a downside uh 160 I don't want to go from 160 to 350. So that's why I projected it the same way. But
again I I don't mind to be wrong on that. Right. Well, again, the reason it was so low this year is for the first five months of this fiscal year, we weren't we weren't enforcing parking. We weren't doing parking enforcement. Yes. We're recovering from the hurricane. So, that's why that that went down so much.
But anyway, like I said, I Victor, I think you and Mike and the staff, uh, Charlie, they I think this is a very solid budget. Uh, I don't go into next year reviewing this budget that that there's a big concern. Uh, I'm glad
we're able to keep the millage rate the same for now, uh, the same rate for the last five years. Uh, that's good. Uh, there's a lot of, you know, you guys did a good job on this budget and I I appreciate the hard work that went into it and and I do feel it is a it's it's a
solid budget. Thank you. I agree with Commissioner Dicki as well. you guys have done a fantastic job, especially with the uh the number of employees, key employees that uh that have been around and we've now got staff
hired and moving forward and I I commend you. I mean it really do. Um now the one thing though uh the fee schedules um that's part of the budget plan as well. Correct. Correct. Um, are we going to be able to see these fee schedules and and make
some changes? Uh, the fee schedule is going to continue. I not recommending any race. What I what I want is the board, but I I have to talk to my my manager first. I don't know if we're going to recommend, but I would like to see a a fee study
done uh for for this city because I believe in in the documents uh that I see that I I saw like a increments for five years, but that ended in 2025. There's no more recommendation after that. And that's something that most
cities and and counties they do a fee study for for those things. So if the commission believe that we should do a another uh fee study, I I think it's a it's a good idea for the next five years. Well, I'm not so sure about the study,
but I think that there are do need to be some changes made. After you and I talked earlier today, mayor, I went and grabbed Victor and Mike, and they had nothing on their mind prepping for this meeting at 5:00 when I grabbed them. But the uh the rate study,
fee study, that's kind of the same thing. Those did expire. So, we should take a look at that. And uh um we do have a fee schedule. Um and if you guys want to adjust it, we can. But if we if
we think we want to adjust it um and I need to hash this out with Victor, and I haven't done enough of that yet. Um we might want to look at a rate study or maybe we decide we don't need one. That's the normal progression. And our
rate studies were done from 2020 to 2025. So some somebody sounds like a lot of bureaucracy is what it sounds like. It it does. And I I'll get y'all the feed schedule. And if y'all say raise this, lower that, leave this flat, then
that's what we'll do. How's our parking um month study going? The the numbers that you're looking at? I haven't looked at them yet. No. Wait till the end of that 30 days and we'll come and present all that to you. It It's going to be this past month,
August, is going to be a hard month to do the uh a very good comparison because two of the weekends, including Labor Day weekend, were wash out uh on Saturday and Sunday for Labor Day weekend. So, we didn't have anybody coming out here. Those were our big weekends. So,
unless we were washed out late Labor Day last year, uh we're not going to be able to do a apples to apples comparison. Chief, however, yes, we did have a wash out weekend, but that two weekends prior to that and this past weekend, we've set a record with
parking tickets, and we're over 300 a week, which we've never hit since I've been the chief here. Good. A week? Holy cow. Correct. Um so that's in well not including the wash out but but we've had those are the numbers I put on my on my weekly report and uh there are some
other possible um I will speak to my city manager about this but something we've never addressed in the city here are parking scoff laws and which is the term he used somebody who has repetitive parking fines and violations. it pops up automatically on our parking enforcement
officers meter how much they owe and we have and and I like I said I'll I'll get with the city manager about this and this is if we want to dive into this there's people that owe as much as 67 $800. So if we choose to pursue that I mean they do owe the city money that's that's
as far as putting a boot on the on the car so their vehicle can't move until they pay the fine. Just food for thought. Something you know if you were talking about they knew their driver's license uh with those outstanding tickets. Not only do they have a hard time doing that, but some of these boots of and
they can come from our actually our parking company that we currently use. They'll provide them and they literally can swipe a credit card and pay the fine right away if they choose to and then the boot will fall right off. So just something to think about for as we're talking about. We've never addressed that in the city and those are
people that kind of just get the parking tickets and wrinkle them up and throw them on the ground. What about parking fines? You recommend increasing those? That's a slippery slope. Um only because there's certain certain fines we can, you know, for the for the city violations, but there's certain things we can when we're writing them under
Florida state statute that can only be a certain amount, which we ran into. I believe that was two years ago when we did that last year. Yeah. Yeah. That we ran into it and uh so we had to change it back. Right. Yeah, but I'm I'm in the middle of just getting all this information now. We're talking with the parking company. I just want to let you know this stuff is on the horizon and if we want to, you know,
take a look at that, I'll get with the city manager and he'll give you a report. Very good. Thank you. Yeah. Well, I I I know I uh have talked with Charlie a lot. Um, I am in favor of taking our parking rates to $5 from Some
of them are $5 already, some are at $4, but uh to go to a a $5. But as important, if not even more important is that I would like to see all of our parking lots um have something, you know, at Heron Park or whatever it is.
And uh and now we put on there, you know, Treasure Island, you know, city parking uh $5 and actually put the rate there because I'll tell you what, we've got lots of folks driving around the city and they keep pulling into some of
these bigger lots and they take a look and say $18 for private lots. Yeah, private lots. $18, you know, for two hours. I'm just coming here to VIP for, you know, a burrito. Um, and so I think that we need to point out that uh
our parking is actually this lot $5 per hour. But if you put a number on the lot uh then dynamic pricing won't really work well. Yeah. But I do understand what he's saying on that because I understand like city of Treasure Island parking absolutely. But if you
put a price on then you can't do can't do the dynamic. Uh no Sanovations would be a prime example of well Sanovations now you can do it. we we know how to operate it. Um, and you could put an asterisk and say, you know, for special event parking,
you know, that type of thing can be can be done. And we could, but I don't see that I think I I don't believe that I would uh want to say it's $5 now, it's $6 tomorrow, it's five and a quarter the next day.
I think a sunset's a special event. Our sunset Well, they are special. That's a fact. They are special. Well, I agree with you. Yeah. I I would rather before we agree to raise the parking rates, I'd rather wait and see this the results of the of
the study that we we agreed to do, the 30-day study. Let's see what what that tells us if it makes sense for us to So, I'm going to throw myself under the bus here because I know Commissioner Ciss asked me like three times about the parking and I I was so busy with the
budget. Remember, I I don't have a budget analyst. So to uh tomorrow morning 8:00 a.m. I'm going to pick up on that. I'm going to send you a brief analysis of of the uh parking revenue for the last year and two years, three years. Okay.
How how and and how the 30 days work. Okay. I'm going to do that analysis. I'm going to send it to you. I apologize to commission. No problem. Okay. And also I'm planning to put in October 7 something that I promised but I just dropped dropped everything I I
had because I was working with this h I want to bring in October 7 a a a workshop to discuss the credit card fees that that I promised I was going to do. Okay. That's great news. Yes. So I I just want to bring it up because
I I want to tell you more. I did not forget about that. Thank you. Yeah. I know that uh that uh Charlie's been working on um this parking. I for one don't think that we're going to get much out of it. I mean with the the
hurricanes that have hidden how we are up and down and I'm just not sure that we're going to see anything other than how many dollars, you know, we actually collected. That's about all we're going to see. And quite frankly, if you compare it to last year, we actually had stuff here.
We had more restaurants. We had more hotels. So there were more people, you know, in theory there were more people coming because it was prehurricane, right? So to even try to do an analysis, I agree, would be it's going to be tough for sure. Yeah. No, it will be. But we did we did all vote. I think it was a 5 vote to do
this study and let's wait and see the results of that before we get uh carried away with park raising parking rates. City Manager, how uh long do you think it's going to take before we can see some results
on the parking fees that were raised? Correct. Um well, we raised them for 30 days. When did we start that? It's just to analyze what happened with those 30 days. All I'm basically my my expectation, and you correct my thinking if I'm wrong, is
to show you the 30 days from 2024 and the 30 days from 2025. And even to the vice mayor's point with what you had going on prehurricane, it it may be less money, but I I can just take a snapshot in time as any 30-day
analysis and show you what it brings. It doesn't mean as we build out that keeping it at $5 or some other amount than $4 won't yield. All right. I would compare it with August of last year and also compare it with July just to just as another
uh thing to compare it with. So we're not just, you know, looking at that. I don't I don't understand that. I don't either. Yeah. I mean, you can't compare July 4th and Labor Day. No, I know. But and you can't compare prehurricane hurricane. I I get your point.
I asked Victor for uh numbers. How about with May? May not that doesn't work. Memorial Day, Mother's Day, Memorial Day, Cinco de Mayo weekend, three hurricane. All right, that's not going to fly. Okay. Well, we just compare August to August,
right? I was going to say compare August 23 with 25 and obviously not 24. Why? Because in August there was a uh a hurricane named Debbie,
right? That one. Last year was tough. But that I was going to avoid 24 all together as you know 24 avoid 24 alto together and just compare August. I mean we could compare all three. Okay. I I think we can we can compare all
three, right? Compare all three. Nobody's nodding vertically. I think we're about to lose the mayor. That's all I got. I guess you have a motion on the go ahead and read the ordinance for you, mayor. Okay. Thank you. Do we need public comment or anything on
it? We already did. We already did. All right. Please come on up. Nope. Come on up. Okay. Thank you. Mark Hoey, District 3. Uh, first off, Victor, great presentation and we talked a little bit prior. He was
trying to feel it all out, but you did a great job with it. I appreciate good information, a couple of pieces and great questions, Commissioner Dicki, too. I think that was worthwhile. Uh at the last meeting on the 8th of August,
there was a a comment and request from the group for Victor to provide a summary of salaries by department and comparison. And maybe I missed that somewhere. Uh was that ever done and was that going to be available to the public? So I'll leave that question with
you. You can get with me afterwards. Um, as far as a fee study, uh, the last time we did a fee study, it was the storm water rates and everybody got rates jacked up. So, and that's been a surplus, which was noted tonight there,
a surplus fund because we've jacked the rates up. Now, that might not last long. I just want to put out there that we should be careful with that. I I know what the purpose if we have someone come in here to help us look at our rates,
they're going to be judged on what kind of increases they come back and justify for us, right? They're going to come back and say, "Look at this. You could do this and that." So, be careful with that if you would. And then uh really lastly was I I saw a gleam in
everybody's eye when Victor commented that there's $12 million in a set aside reserve fund to be spent. Uh I just agree great opportunity. I hope we spend it well and and smartly, but also
keeping in mind what's ahead as we still have a lot of unknowns going into 2026 2027. So thank you very much. which is very good. Thank you, Mark. I appreciate it. All right, we'll now clo
Okay, I'll I'll keep it brief. Um, yes, uh, Victor Ortiz, you did a great job with a very thorough budget for us. I appreciate that. I also want to commend Commissioner Dicki for being engaged and knowledgeable and asking questions about our budget. It's very much appreciated
that you take the time to look it over and um and have knowledge about it. I um a couple things. The parking that you guys discussed, this has actually been on my mind for quite a while. I was been wanting to mention that could is it possible to require the private parking
lots to have a sign acknowledging that they are private parking and they are not part of Treasure Island parking because I do feel if people come and see that very expensive parking they just can get an image of their mind that Treasure Island is just a really expensive place to come visit. And so I
think if we could have them designate that and then possibly designate like Mayor Doctor suggested the um the public lots in Treasure Island and their prices. I think that's a great idea and I love the talk about the parking. But I do want to caution you guys about
something which is in in the real world outside of government we have most of us some of us have a problem called lifestyle creep which basically means you start making more money and you start spending more money and your money just ends up meeting the money that you
have coming in of what you're spending. And I'm concerned that that's happening for the Treasure Island um city as well. It's like we moved into this nice big building a few years ago and I'm looking at everything really pretty much going up on our budget and the few things that
are going down are going down by very small percentages and then we have other areas that are going up and those that are going up are pretty significant. And and my caution is that we're talking about parking and we're talking about property taxes and all of that and the lifestyle creep and how this all comes
together in my mind is if we have another hurricane, if we have a really bad red tide year, if we have some problems that could occur where we're not bringing in parking revenue again, we just experienced this or uh you know hopefully, God forbid, another
catastrophic event and property values continue to go down. So if we're not carefully looking at the spending side of our budget and we're just looking at, oh, we have money and we keep spending the lifestyles creep in Treasure Island,
we could really end up in some serious trouble if we don't get that spending under control if we have another catastrophe. Thanks. Thank you, Sarah. Okay, we will now close public comment and please read the uh the ordinance.
You got it. Mayor 2020, Ordinance 2025-21, Ordinance of the City Commission of Treasure Island, Florida, adopting a budget making appropriations for the payment of the operating expenses of the city of Treasure Island, Florida for the fiscal year ending September 30th, 2026
and providing an effective date. All right. So, we have a motion and we have a second. Uh, please call roll. Vice Mayor Vazquez, I. Commissioner Sison, I. Commissioner Dicki, I. Mayor, doctor I thank you.
All right, it was unanimous. Good time. Good job. Thank you. Let's take a quick look here. All right, I think that uh we are adjourned for the evening. Thank you everyone.