Good afternoon. I'd like to call to all of this agenda uh review for the city of Winter Haven. Can I get a roll call, please? >> Yes, sir. Commissioner Dolison, >> here. >> Commissioner Mercer, >> here. >> Commissioner Gansler, >> here. Mayor BM Yates >> here >> and Mayor Bird Song
>> here. All right. We will have an invocation and the pledge and then we have some proclamations. We just see all of these on Monday night. Yes, sir. Mr. Mayor, the just two points
on this one. Um item 5G that is the graduation of city U cohort number four. So those uh roughly 27 28 individuals will be here and will be presented their graduation certificates and have their
photo op with you. >> And then 5H is uh our strategic plan presentation. We'd like to do that at the end of the meeting if that's okay. >> Yes. >> Thank you. >> All right. We have no developments of note. Uh we have the minutes and then comments
um in the uh consent agenda. >> 10 A. >> Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I'll just go through these is quickly and be ready to answer any questions the commissioners may have. So the first item 10A is an amendment to our agreement with uh for flight line cafe and catering out at the
Winter Haven Airport. So that agreement was entered into in October of 2021 and will expire uh in October of 2026. Amendment 3 extends that term for up to four additional one-year renewals. So it could extend through the period of
October 31st, 2030. We generate about $28,000 per year at present time off of that uh operation there, but it certainly brings guests and provides additional value to our aviators in the surrounding community. >> Sir, quick question on that. Who has the
right to cancel? They do or we do or we both do? And what are the terms on if they decide to leave? So, let me pull up the the agreement here real quick. Um, >> so the lease's option upon the provision of at least 60 days notice in writing
prior to the end of the lease term is for the uh extension of those. Um, unless there's a defs issue of default. >> So they have four options. We don't, >> right? >> So we can't ask them to leave if we have problems with I'd have to go back uh
Commissioner Dancer and look at the original U lease agreement. I don't have that in front of me. I just have the amendment here, but I know that there's termination language within that. When we're dealing with like Richard's Coffee Shop and some of those, they don't
necessarily have the same um I guess conveniences for termination from the city because of with those in play, the the investment risk on behalf of the proprietor is much greater. Well, I guess but I guess I'm asking more for
John. Is it prudent for us to seem like we're taking a risk on this versus flight line? And and we want flight line to be successful. I'm not saying that, but I'm saying what if thing, you know, I'm always wondering if 13 years I've been wondering what if something goes bad, how do we get out of it? >> Sure. I I'll have to look at the actual
original lease that we entered into to see what the provisions are there because those are incorporated into what we're doing. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Okay. Item 10B is also pertaining to Flight Line Cafe. Um, Kinda Kanda
Scarvers is the current proprietor of Flight Line Winter Haven LLC and has expressed the intent to sell that business to Mr. Michael Hudson. So, this is an assignment and assumption of agreement that would formally transfer the lease to the LLC of Precise Property
Adjusters, which is a Florida corporation. uh flight line has changed hands a few times over the years since they've been out there. So this is again Mr. Scarver's is selling that business to Mr. Hudson who has as I understand
has been involved in the operation over the past several months as they've been working through this. I'm looking for Troy. >> So for about the last six months in anticipation of him selling that business to him. Again, this is is pretty consistent with
what we did with Richard's Coffee at the library when Dave Tuttle sold out business uh to the current proprietors. So, they there's an assignment of the lease. Item 10 C. Uh we have a couple parades that are coming up. Uh so, this is the
requirement for us to take official action at the commission level and and communicate that on to DOT. The first one is for the Havenale Christmas parade that will take place on December 5th. That is scheduled from 700 p.m. to 900
p.m. The roads close uh around 6:00 that evening. And what you see on the screen is the detour that we have to provide to DOT. The second permit that we are going to be requesting is for the Jew Alumni Association. They will host a parade a
few weeks later on Saturday, December 20th. uh that will start at 10:00 a.m. and is expected to be concluded by 12 pm. This commences at the Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Church which is uh shown on your map there and it will
travel along First Street and MLK Boulevard ultimately concluding at Ruben Williams Sports Complex. So these are just the permit applications that we must submit to DOT since we're we're utilizing state roads.
Item 10D is for the affordable housing advisory committee. So, in accordance with Florida statutes and the city's affordable housing advisory committee bylaws, members are appointed by the governing body of the local government being the commission um including
recommendations from the AHAC. Those members on Ahack serve two-year terms that commence January 1st and then on December 31st, they are eligible for reappointment. On March 25th, 2024, the commission had appointed Dr. Andy
Organola. Uh the bylaws do state that if you have two unexcused absences within a calendar year, it shall automatically disqualify the person from membership. Thus, Dr. Organola is no longer eligible to serve on the AHACK. Additionally, in
May of 2025, Mr. Joey Hillyard had submitted his resignation letter to uh from the AHACK. The Ahack has to have at least eight but no more than nine members. Currently, it has or I'm sorry, eight, but no more than 11. Currently, it has nine members. Commissioner Dancler serves as a member
on that uh that committee as the elected official. We did receive applications from qualified applicants. Tabitha Keith is the director of programs for Hartford Winterhaven and Bridget Engelman is the executive director of the homeless
coalition of Pulk County. Um the AHAC on June 2nd considered the application made by Miss Keith and on September 15th consider the application made by Miss Engleman. Uh Miss Keith if appointed by the city commission will serve in the
statutoily defined category of a citizen who is actively engaged as a notfor-profit provider of affordable housing being Hartford Winter Haven. And Miss Engleman will serve in the category of a citizen who is actively engaged as an advocate for low-income persons in
connection with affordable housing, that being the Pulk County Homeless Coalition. So, we're at we're recommending that city commission appoint those two members to begin serving on the AHACK. Next item is item 10E, the purchase of
Neptune potable water meters. So on average we install or replace about 4 to 500 meters each month. Some of those are associated with new installations from construction and some of them are just our ongoing replacement of meters that
are uh have been in play for a period of time and their um their effectiveness and functionality can diminish over time. So with a current stock of about 900 domestic meters and 470 reclaimed meters, our inventory is expected to be
depleted by December of 2025. Water department is recommending the purchase of 2,898 meters, which will support the meter change out program through the middle of fiscal year 26. We purchased these through Ferguson Waterworks, which is
our approved sole source provider. The cost for those meters is $999,810. We acquire those basically as an asset. We hold them in inventory and then as they are deployed to be put into use, they are charged back to the uh
respective cost center which is accounted for that expense in their fisc year 26 budget. If they are going to a new build, then that cost is assigned to uh the uh the developer of that property. Item 10F
is a uh ratification of an emergency purchase that we did pertaining to our wastewater treatment plants. Our plants use particularly plant 3 use a belt press system to process bioolids for disposal at an off-site composting
facility. Uh that that belt press transforms sludge from a liquid into a solid cake material suitable for shipping off to a a a suitable landfill. And the process relies relies on
variable frequency drives. Those VFDs or variable frequency drives have failed or on the verge of failure making it difficult to control the system. Uh the water department is currently having the belt press system evaluated and working on the necessary repairs. So in the
interim, Sinagro South LLC is able to provide a mobile dewatering centrifuge system that has the ability to process up to 120,000 gallons of sludge per day for the approximate two weeks while repairs to
the belt press are being completed. Uh we did this as an emergency purchase justification in the amount of $71,000 to expedite that mobilization and get the dewatering process underway. I approved this through an emergency purchase order uh about a week and a
half ago. And so this is a request for the commission to retroactively approve and ratify that purchase since it exceeds my threshold. Next item is um the purchase of 33 police vehicles.
So normally vehicles, you know, they're laid out all these vehicles are laid out in your budget. In the budget, you approve as identified replacements. And if we're buying one police car or one utility truck, we we make that purchase as detailed within the budget and is
allowed for within the procurement manual. But when we're replacing 33, I want to make sure the commission has an awareness of that because it is a large purchase even though it is already detailed in the budget. So, the police department's identified 30 vehicles scheduled for um replacement in fiscal
year 26 and as you'll recall, we are hiring three new police officers this year, and you must have the vehicles to support them as well. Uh staff requested quotes for these vehicles from Cocoa Ford, Inc. through a general piggyback purchasing agreement. We will replace uh
four vehicles uh that are Dodge Chargers that are scheduled for replacement this year with Ford F-150 responders. We will replace seven vehicles uh that are mainly used
in the detective operations with Ford Escapes. And then we will replace 19 of our cruisers or patrol units. and the and also the three new ones uh will be replaced with the Ford PIU Explorers,
which are the the newer um SUV style units that you see us operating. The total cost for all three vehicles is $1,739,379. Of that, approximately 1.5 million is funded through the capital depletion
fund program. The remaining $232,326 is covered by available funds within the police department's operating budget that are detailed to support both the replacements and the additional vehicles. Uh in in summary, the total expense is fully budgeted via the
capital depletion fund and the fiscical year 26 budget. So that will we've already done a letter of intent to Cocoa Ford for uh for acquiring those but have not issued a p purchase order until it came before the commission.
>> What is the typical life cycle of a vehicle? >> Um I'm going to look to probably Britney. You want to speak to life cycle on these and and as also if you can comment on anticipated delivery. >> Yes sir. Good evening commissioners, mayor. Um the anticipated life cycle of
these vehicles currently we have them on our capital depletion program for 10 years. We are working closely with the police department to bring that down. Um just the amount of miles and hours that we're putting on these police vehicles while they're out making the city safe is just astronomical and we're not getting a full 10 years out of those
vehicles. So we're looking to bring those down to seven um to ensure that we are we have a reliable fleet for our officers to be in. As far as delivery time, these vehicles have been ordered by Coco Florida. Um, and they are coming in from the factory. They um can be here. We will start receiving shipments
by the end of the the f the calendar year. >> So, we're paying like 53 grand a vehicle. Is that fully tricked out or when we get them then we have to turn them over and get them all? >> This is this is ready to go into service. They uh vehicles that will be going on patrol will be badged. They
will have all of the equipment that's needed inside. So, this is our total cost. >> So, 53 grand of car is about what it runs. >> Okay. >> Yeah. About 57 almost $58,000 for the Explorers, the Escapes down around 315.
Um and the uh the F-150 responder trucks um are at about 625. >> But those are fully loaded with all the gear the guys need. We don't have to do anything when they get here. >> Okay. Cages, the the hard back seats for transport. All >> reasonable. And that's paint and
everything. I mean, >> they they um they get they get a wrap, >> decals, whatever. Yeah. >> Yep. That includes the decals for the ones that will be marked vehicles. That includes the decals and all all of the fixings that will go in. So, whenever they arrive here, once they go um through a review process by our fleet
team and we have tags and titles and insurance on them, they'll be able to be put into service by the police department. >> So, sedans are not, I guess, being made. So, the SUV is pretty much what they're left with now. >> Yes, sir. So, the patrol vehicles work much better in that SUV style. As far as
the undercover vehicles, we have gone with an escape. Ford's no longer making a sedan. Um, so we selected the Escape for that vehicle to ensure that we are following the standardization of the city's fleet. >> These are not Chargers. These are Okay. I thought these make anymore.
>> We're replacing the char the current Chargers with the Explorers. >> Oh, okay. Okay. So, will we have any cars remaining in the fleet or >> we will still have some to replace next year? >> Okay. About do you know about how many? >> Um, looking at the capital depletion listing that was there, I believe
there's about 10 on the replacement listing for next year. Um, so we're we're slowly going to be working our way out of those chargers, but I think between um fiscal year 27 and 28, those will be the last two years that we have those to replace. >> And will we send our existing fleet to auction that we're getting rid of? Is
that how that will work pretty much or? >> Yes, sir. Typically, whenever we dispose of a vehicle, we send it off to auction and then take that cost that we receive at auction and put that back into the fund. >> Back into the fund, but probably not a lot of money there. >> I I don't know what recent amount we've been getting for uh police vehicles, but
we're not seeing a grand return on investment on those. >> Not much. >> I think what we should do, this commission should consider next year is get a bunch of long black Cadillacs and let's make a Cadillac fleet. Let's get big long ones and put one in. We would stand out, wouldn't we?
>> You You would say that now that you're going off the commission. >> Say it. >> I think y'all should consider that. I can see the Doge officers coming in now. >> Cash, long black Cadillac. >> Sounds good. >> And some of those vehicles that we're replacing that are scheduled for
replacement, some of those are totaled out vehicles as well. So that they were involved in accidents or things and we've got those officers in backups. We do save a handful of vehicles that when a vehicle has to be put in for repair or it's damaged that we've got some
resiliency within the fleet to give them something else while we're working through how to replace it. >> And and Coco Ford is just the best. No, I mean that's >> Yeah, we we usually buy off of either a piggyback from other agencies that have
been able to to procure those vehicles or off the sheriff's contract and they both run about, you know, typically we're comparing those two and whoever can get them at the best price with the fastest turnaround for us is what we're looking for. >> So, it's a competitively bid cost on it.
>> And these are not the like the F-150s. These aren't the F-150 that you or I would go purchase at Jarrett Gordon Ford. You know, they are they're a um a beefed up unit to handle the wear and tear. Same with the Explorers. It's not
the the run-of-the-mill Explorer you're going to buy off of a lot. I can't speak to the Escapes if they're any different. Um I I can't wait to see our our detectives cruising around in Ford Escapes. Um
>> Yeah. like >> it's not a Fiesta. I know that >> it's cool. >> I mean, Escape's just it's a little smaller than the Explorer and is what I'm thinking is >> we have a number of them in our fleet now and they're they're dependable. >> My bad.
>> My mom drives one. >> That's just saying. And with those new vehicles, we'll move on to the next item, which is a mutual aid agreement with the city of Tampa. So, Florida statutes does allow law enforcement
agencies from one jurisdiction to assist other uh jurisdictions via services and resources uh under two situations. One of those is to offer operational assistance during law enforcement emergencies emergencies. The other is under voluntary cooperation during a
routine law enforcement nature that crosses jurisdictional lines. So, this is a mutual aid agreement between the city of Winter Haven and the city of Tampa. Uh, it will allow our police department members to participate in certain training opportunities that might not normally uh come our way
within our own jurisdiction as well as the ability to provide better investigative efficiency when incidents cross from one jurisdictional boundary into others. Uh the other thing that is has been explained to me within this is that when you have large events in Tampa
and they need those additional support resources, you may recall the RNC held their their convention in Tampa several years back and that required a significant amount of law enforcement. Um the uh Gasparilla is another one of those that can can call upon outside
agencies for help. The other thing is if you have a major tragedy, which god forbid we ever do or they ever do, that consumes resources within that jurisdiction, they need help to cover the day-to-day things during that period. So, if we were ever to have that
here, we can call upon the city of Tampa to provide backup and support for us. No financial direct impact with this. Um, and we've had these in the past. This is just the the new mutual aid specifically with that department. Would it go like I
we have one with Lakeland I assume like would it just like go down from like Okay, we got some from Lakeland. We got we we just kind of move east or west as we >> Yeah, we're not the only ones that have that would have one with Tampa. You know, the multiple jurisdictions are
going to have that. It's just creating that pool of resources. But I'll let Deputy Chief Gor speak to that. >> Mayor, mayor prom commissioners. Uh yes, sir. We have mutual aid agreements. We are all in a compact with the sheriff as far as having mutual aid agreement within the county. Uh but as just as
city manager said, this expands our abilities to offer assistance to our neighboring counties and municipalities as well as them offering it to us if we need it. Uh obviously some cities will have greater resources that we may need once in a lifetime here, but to have the paperwork signed and done ahead of time
allows us the efficiency to provide it to our citizens to get those resources here in a timely timely manner. They have some really nice toys over there in Tampa. I hope we never need any of them. But >> do we we would we still use them for bomb or or does Lakeland have a unit?
>> ATF. We've used ATF for bomb more recently. We had a a situation not too awful about a year ago and um we reach out for that and ATF actually provided that to us if I'm not mistaken. I was an officer assigned to them who happened to be in Pulk County.
But the sheriff's department's pretty equipped, too. >> He's got some nice stuff, too. >> No, he's got some toys. >> There's a lot of resources the sheriff has, but there are some just because of the nature of our county that we the sheriff's office still doesn't have. There's no explosive ordinance detection
or bomb squads uh that are housed by the sheriff's office. We would have to contact Tampa, Hillsboro, Fire Marshall's office. There's other agencies and then um other uh devices uh such as for parades that we will be able to get these resources easier,
barricades such as that that are uh used for stopping uh some of those incidents you've seen uh nationally or internationally where vehicles have gone into parade routes, things like that. So >> force multiplier at the end of the day for us if we need it.
>> Yes, sir. Next item. Um, make sure I got this right. Yes, 10i. So, this is the guaranteed maximum price for fire station number five. So, AJ, if you go ahead and advance forward. Um, this is
Lake Cartridge Nature Park and our design build from of Whitehead Construction provided us to just did an overlay onto the existing site so you can see where that fire station will be. Uh in in February of 23, the commission
approved that design build contract with Whitehead Construction. Uh that was for both stations four and five. We did that as a package. In June of 24, the city accepted the design price proposal for station five, which they have been working through uh basically over the
past year. This facility will rehouse the existing fire station 5 uh temporary facility that's located just to the east of this on property that's owned by Champions Church. The new facility includes approximately a 9,000 square
foot public safety facility and as you can see it's located on the southwest side of Lake Cartridge Nature Park adjacent to 20th Street Northwest. The project shall not exceed for construction $5,278,671. In addition to the facility, the public
safety facility, the price does include adding eight new boat parking trailer uh spaces um uh at the boat ramp, walking path improvements, and nature park entranceway improvements to accommodate both the parks operation and the fire
operations there. Um there's going to be some need for us to do some additional roadway improvements on Shore Road, which comes in off of 21st Street straight down into the park as well as on 20th Street to better accommodate the fire apparatus.
Um the weight of those the turning movements, those are c the shore road is a county roadway and so we're working with the county to uh mitigate and navigate those those needs there. If approved, we expect to start construction around the beginning of
November of this year, and it's expected to take 12 months for completion. The budget, it presently includes $5,2,000 for this project. As I mentioned, the the total cost is about 5.28 million.
the um to make up for that delta, additional funding will be covered first through interest earnings that we don't really budget for in the sense of what we receive. Um those become uh somewhat of a contingency fund to help us with our our capital projects and then also
from the general funds unassigned fund balance that exceeds the 30% thresh threshold. Overall, we're looking at about 276 point $276,671. Uh, and we are confident that we will have that within our earned interests as
well as what's available above the 30%. So, we're excited to see this project get underway. Um, you know, once this one's done, I think our next step in the fire station world and talking with Chief New Brand is really looking for
where does number six end up down the road, you know, as we continue to expand, as we see more traffic on our roadways, as we um try and maintain the lowest uh response times possible. At some point, Station Six will have to come into play. as several years down
the road, but this certainly gets us up to where we need to be. We'll also be taking receipt of the two new fire engines in the next probably I'm going to say 60 90 days somewhere in there that we ordered uh not too awful long
ago. So, your fire department's going to be well positioned strategically and geographically uh with the the resources we need to to meet the needs of the community. So, this is exciting. T, can I can I ask a question, Mr. Please? When
I was down there this Saturday at the community day, took a tour, met some of some of the employees down there. They were talking about how a lot of people have transferred out to some of the other U fire stations, and it's not as many people there at fire station one as
it used to have. Are we ultimately designing to fill those up? Are we going to have less people in there permanently because we have them spread out more or how what you what do you see as far as staffing goes because um they were saying that you know they used to have
10 or 12 in there now they don't have that many and I'm just curious what your long-term outlook is. >> Yeah. Good evening. So, one of the things that they did years ago is they consolidated multiple houses into one. And what's been going on over the last few years due to response times and
distances and getting there, we've decentralized that at the same time. So, part of our master plan is to add another unit in the downtown station in that big master station down there just to help with the call volume as it is. But right now, one of the things we're
we're trying to combat and these stations do is response times to other locations, right? So they're not for volume, they're for response times. >> And Commissioner Dancer, I think, you know, when we built that, to speak to what Chief Newbrand said, you know, you
had two engine companies running out of station one. One took kind of the south end of of you know, if that station was at the dead center line, one went south and the other one went north. that one that went north has now been moved more so to fire station four. So, we didn't
have that facility. So, those are the the folks that came out of there. And then we also expanded to pick up station five. One of the things that you may recall when when city manager Mike Herur was here um and I think we we still want to pursue this is partnering with the
county that is there opportunities down the road as they look to expand their EMS services. If we can house some of that within facilities that we have through joint partnerships, does that make sense? Does that create a better service to the citizens at the end of the day? Because we run the fire calls
and the wrecks and all those things, but the transport is done by the EMS services that the county provides. Is they have to deal with the same things. Does it make sense to begin housing some of those operations where we can accommodate that? And certainly at
station one there may be an opportunity for that. Um and we have done that just on a kind of a test basis. They had a fire over there at the EMS station right here several years back and while they were making the repairs, we housed them.
So there may be opportunities for us to to maximize that space for the benefit of the citizens at the end of the day through that shared approach. Um, is this still the right way to go? Uh, when it comes to construction of it,
you know, I'm just thinking how the school board partnered with some of the firms to have like a one build and then they replace the roof 10 years out, 20 years. Is is this still the right way to go for a project like this as opposed to
partnering with a kind of a a lease option or however that that school board school board has done some P3 construction projects that factor in the long-term maintenance costs. So they're
and and perhaps city attorney can speak more to this given his involvement there, but you know, they're they're having a facility built. They're factoring in the long-term maintenance and upkeep costs of that over a period of time and they're paying a lease
payment on that to ultimately own it where that company is coming in and painting and replacing the roof and air conditioning and all that. Um, our approach has been that we if we can anticipate what those needs are, we're
budgeting those out. We at one point had a roof replacement fund where we would set aside monies to uh anticipate replacement of roofs. Um, we don't we that's a hard thing to manage because it it requires setting aside more funds
than you may have. I will say AJ, can you go ahead one slide? I think we have an image of this. So this is what that station looks like. In the designs that we have incorporated more recently, things like roofs, we're using metal roofs that have a much
longer lifespan than traditionally they would. So you're getting, you know, 30 to 50 years out of those roofs. Uh so you don't have that. Um we're trying to use as much of a a replicated design as
we can to keep the cost low. Um, and certainly as we as we're working through so many similar uh stations, the experiences we have with one set the precedent for what we're going to do with the other. We had the funds to do these in this
fashion as we get it, you know, further down the road when we look at a station six or a station 7 or whatever that is. I think if there's an option to do a uh a design not a design bill but more of a P3 approach then and it makes sense then certainly we consider that.
>> And then one other question if you can go back to that one other slide. Sorry. So just opportunitywise I don't know if we've considered this or if this would be too big of an ask or but it just seems like we've got this we've got this
park space here. There might be a a a great opportunity to build kind of an interactive space behind this, you know, between the fire station and the park so that, you know, kids can come and enjoy it and learn
maybe about fire safety or learn about, you know, is there any kind of opportunity potentially for that? >> I don't know there's a space to do that per se with a, you know, an interactive amenity. Um, but certainly when you have
a space like this and you have a park that's close by, the opportunity for interaction between firefighters and children is expanded. And, you know, kids, as you saw, if you went down Saturday, as Commissioner Dans said, to
the the open house, it was it was like a kicked amp pile. There were people everywhere. They they love to go and climb on fire trucks and, you know, work the hose and all that kind of stuff. act this, you know, when you have a fire station like station two out on Lucer
and Park Road, there's really not the opportunity for that. Here you have a captive audience. And I think that's more comes down to um instilling that approach within the men and women that are stationed here. >> Yeah. And and I guess interactive might have been the wrong terminology, but
just, you know, just a space there in the back that, you know, has some educational opportunities because you do have that captive audience and kids will probably want to go over and and see the fire station while they're there or if the trucks parked outside. Just seems
like you you might have that that opportunity. And this I think it was on this station or may have been the LA station 4. But when they pull out of here, there's no sirens, right? It's just they just go out with lights and then they flip the sirens on when they get out to Havenale, right? Because I
know that the residential is real close. So like >> Yeah. The vast majority of the time, obviously, if there's a traffic jam sitting at the intersection to get out, they're going to use what they need to to get out. But majority of the times they don't get their sirens on till they get out onto the major highways because
of the residential areas. Yeah, they're very conscious and courteous to that effect. >> How about this, Commissioner Yates? We put a dog park behind every firehouse and everybody wants to have a dog. They know they can go to the firehouse and get a little fire dog park run. So, just
something to consider. >> I mean, it's Dalmatian though. >> Yeah, Dalmatians. Put a big picture of Dalmatian. [Laughter] The next item um kind of this is a great
segue into this and this is uh the memorandum of agreement with the International Association of Firefighters Local 4967. So on April 3rd, 2014, the Winter Haven Professional Firefighters, IAFF4967,
became the sole exclusive bargaining agent for probationary and regular full-time employees that are classified as firefighters, meaning ones, twos, and threes, fire lieutenants, fire inspectors, and investigators. In October of 22, the city and the IIAFF
enacted a collective bargaining agreement, which is set to expire September 30th of this year. This agreement will remain in effect under status quo conditions until a new CBA is properly negotiated and mutually agreed upon by both parties. As you may
recall, for example, last year the CBA was in place and in the in the interim years, we dis we consider wages and then two other items. This is a full renewal year. So, every article is up for for discussion and negotiation. Uh we
commenced negotiations on July 28th of this year. On September 16th, so just a couple weeks ago, the city and the IAFF bargaining teams tenatively agreed upon the following changes respective of
wages. So the 5% for new positions, new new employees coming on board was agreed to. And all incumbent members that are classified as a firefighter, firefighter one, two, or three, fire lieutenant and fire inspectors/investigators
that are incumbents would receive the 6% pay adjustment to their hourly rate. And the third item is that effective in January of 26 in alignment with article 20 that we did last year, annual rates will be calculated based upon 2,496
scheduled work hours which is res revised from the current 2,600 scheduled work hours. And that pertains back to how we adjusted Kelly days that will take effect in January of 26. So this is a you know we we've not
finished negotiating the entire CBA but we've got wages done which we when we have that situation we bring that to you is a uh memorandum of agreement. So that's enacted while we finish out the rest of it and it it it creates a much
smoother process in terms of getting the employees to their their approved rates of pay. So they did a member ratification vote on the tenatively agreed changes to article 30. Uh on September 30th of the 52 members who
voted, 50 voted in favor of the proposed changes. So all of those changes are included in our budget. That's how we we built the budget this year. and we're recommending that the commission authorize me to execute that memorandum of agreement which will be incorporated
into the yet to be fulfilled uh fully negotiated CBA. Um I want to thank the men and women of our fire union. Uh the negotiations I think went very well this year. Um very happy to to provide them
with the pay adjustments that are recommended here. Uh this is the first time that I'm aware of that in our negotiations with we presently have two unions. We previously had three. Uh I don't know that we've ever had our
unions fully negotiated out on wages prior to October 1st in any of the years that I've been with the city. So the fact that we have that this point that will all take effect with their pay that
commenced October 1st. So very very successful negotiations and again just want to thank the the men and women of our fire department and uh as well as our negotiating team which is uh Sean Dykes our human resources director
and Greg hearing our labor attorney. >> That's great to that's that's new ground. I can say to you as long as I've been up here, I don't ever recall that happening.
And then the next item we have is resolution or item 11A. This is a resolution specific to a debt management policy. Um, want to thank uh our CFO CJ Scott for her hard work on
creating this. This is a strategic plan item that we had outlined and I'm to go through this the the issuance of the and management of debt is an important component of our financial strategy. A clear and comprehensive debt management policy provides guidance on the appropriate
timing, purpose, type, and structure of debt. Safeguards the city's credit qu uh credit quality and reputation within the investment community. supports long-term financial planning by fostering disciplined and consistent decision-making and ensures compliance
with state and federal regulations. Key provisions of the debt management policy that's being presented for your consideration speak. They include the use of debt and that debt will only be used for capital improvements and cannot be used to subsidize recurring operations or
maintenance. The debt objectives is to maintain low borrowing costs, align borrowing with strategic goals, protect the city's credit rating, and ensure affordability, and provide full transparency. For bond maturity, debt terms will not
exceed the useful life of the financed asset or project. For debt structures, preference for fixed rate bonds, leveled debt service, and callable features when financially prudent. Refinancing is permitted when resulting in at least 3%
present value savings or under compelling circumstances. The permitted instruments include general obligation bonds, revenue bonds, state revolving fund loans, direct placements, capital leases, and other legally authorized
instruments. And as far as compliance, annual review of the policy, adherence to Florida statutes, federal tax law, and SEC disclosure requirements. There's no financial impact with this. In speaking with with CJ and we had this
reviewed by um our municipal advisor uh with PFM, Jay uh Jay Glover, who you've all I know have heard from in your time here on on prior bonds, as well as Dwayne Draper with who is our u our
uh bond council. They weighed in on this and and helped us craft this. It doesn't change the way we do anything but it basically for lack of a better for better term kind of codifies the practices that we have in place and the
the methodology and approaches we use when it comes to issuing debt. So, it um I think from a a credit rating standpoint, it is another uh accolade to say that you have a a debt policy um and that you're following that debt policy
and that that policy is is built upon and reinforces the best practices from a financial uh management side of things. And CJ can certainly answer any specific questions you may have to this. It's a it's a rather lengthy document. I think
it's about 10 pages long. Um, it is a good read and uh I think it it positions the commission well and certainly the administration when evaluating how best to attack capital project financing.
>> Go ahead. >> So, first of all, I think this is a great idea. Thank you, CJ. And Mike, I've read the document and I'm I'm a little confused about a couple things. Not not serious. But the um is there is there a third party involved at all or
is this all in-house? So the controlling interest will be you and your staff will be the ones that will be doing this imple implementing this policy. >> And what so uh one of the things you said is your your objective is to make
recommendations is make recommendations to us as a commission. That's what your objective is is to make recommendations to us going forward on any type of bond or debt issues that come before the commission. Is that reason?
>> Actually, it's the way we do things is not going to change at all. We just want a documented prudent plan in place. Um, so let's say we have five new commissioners. Um, and we want to keep this whole process
going. So, it wouldn't be up to me. we'd still rely on um our financial advisor. We'd rely on We'd rely on our underwriter or um Holland and Knight. So, um we're just documenting the process
that we have currently. >> The overall objective though is those organizations you just mentioned to give us better information so that we can make better decisions. That's correct. >> Right. >> And I'm trying to understand why we need to do this through an ordinance. Um, John, why does this need to be
>> resolution? A resolution. Okay, >> that's all. >> That's it's just a resolution. Okay, >> sorry. >> Started with an R. I thought that was an ordinance. Anyway, >> which if we did have five new commissioners up here at at one day we will have five. One day he's going to
retire eventually. We will have five new commissioners up here. Um, if those commissioners wanted to alter this, they would actually have to vote on modifying the resolution and then I would think present a
a reason as why they would truly want to do that. And I can't see anything. I based upon what I'm seeing in here, there's not any foreseeable reason of why this would ever be modified. But if they did, then they'd have to make that case to the public and to the citizens.
And you know, is this being driven by the credit agencies? Are they asking us to do this or is this something you just came up with or what? >> No, they did. Um, on the last questionnaire, they asked if we have a debt policy and we have a fiscal management policy. So, we just thought
we'd um expand on that. >> I think it's a great idea. It's just another thing you guys have to do. But, um, I think it's well worth it and it's worthy. It's a good good exercise for your team to go through to keep us informed. So, you know, bravo. I think
you did a good job. So, >> thank you. >> I've read the document. I think it's a good document. The the other piece with that, so two things I just like to comment on. This is an actual action strategy within the five-year strategic plan. Strategy 6.1.2 two says to draft
and adopt a robust debt policy that complements city's financial management policy and aligns with GFOA's best practices. So, we had identified this as a need in the in the strategic plan. CJ was a part of the development of that plan. Um, and it's, you know, Mayor
Prom, you said when you have five new commissioners up there, at some point you'll have a different city manager as well. And this is a a this is a valuable tool, you know, in reading through this, having even been here as long as I have, you know, I sat down with CJ over the phone to go through questions that I had
with this to make sure I'm crystal clear on it, but a new city manager to have that policy as to how you all govern and manage debt is is very guiding. This may be too big of an ask, but I I
would love to see at some point, you know, a debt elimination guidance policy or or some sort of strategic plan that the city can embark on on to reduce the overall debt. And I you know that like I
said that that's a big ask and I get that um because we're continuously growing and we'll probably need to take on additional debt at some point in time. But I think you know if part of that pillar can be you know h okay how
do we start you know what bonds can we can we call can we eliminate what what uh if we've got any loans you know can what strategy can we put forth to paying those off you know a private individual is going to say well I've got a 30-year
mortgage and if I pay bi-weekly payments I can take seven years off the loan or or whatever that may um is there something that we can potentially put forth that would provide that guidance for the years to come? So in
the in the policy it does speak to defeasence of bonds. It does speak to callable bonds and it speaks to refinancing of debt. So it it notes ways to reduce the debt liabilities for the
long term as um objectives and priorities within that when those are appropriate. In terms of you know fully eliminating debt, I know of one city in in the state of Florida personally being Alamont Springs that carries no debt. Um
and and that's because they have been identify and set aside revenues to account for long-term capital projects. And that's great. That works for them. I'd also argue that when it comes to issuing debt,
there are times when it's most appropriate to issue debt for a project so as to ensure that the cost of that capital investment is not being borne solely by the people that are paying the tax today while the benefit is afforded
to people that come later, you know, in years to come. uh it's it's equitably spreads that cost to all who benefit from it. So that's that's my mentality when you're thinking about debt is one, do you have the money to do the project? Um and if you don't, then you you have
to have debt, but even if you have the money to do it, it may be appropriate to to issue debt so that you're not putting that full expense on your current residence. >> No. And I I agree with that 110%.
At one time the commission voted to apply one mill to go towards future capital projects. I don't know that that I'm not suggesting that we add a mill to retire debt. I'm just saying
I is there we're not going to solve this tonight. Is there is there something that can can be guidance for the future that that you know well yeah we could let's let's target this particular item everything
else will stay the course this particular debt we could actually it's 20 years left on it but we could take it out and >> pick them off one at a time. >> Exactly. >> I will tell you the mayor of Altimont Springs serves on the FMIT board with me and she's a real nice lady and they are so proud of the fact that they don't
have any debt. I tell you every time >> and I and I've talked to her about that about what T said, you know, why don't we spread the risk on people that are moving to Florida. She says, "Well, 30 years ago, our forefathers handed us a a a budget with no debt. We have no debt. Why would we hand off a budget to our
the people that follow us with a bunch of debt?" So, they see it a different way. >> Yeah. And you know, what's their millage rate? What's their you know, there there's a lot more that goes into into that, too, I think. But >> she said, "We inherited a budget with no debt. Why would we leave it to our people behind us with that? So they
that's how they view it, which is different than the way we talk about it. >> I I I just think it's it's just might be something to to examine under underneath this pillar. And you know, if if we can target one piece of the pie at a time,
um it would be a positive thing for for the city. And I think, you know, Mayor Prom, as we navigate this next year of legislative action in Tallahassee, that's going to be that's going to come into play. >> Um because the first thing when we build
a budget, one of the first things we have to look at is what's our debt obligation and what are we paying with that before we start looking at where can we make new investments. And if we have less dollars with which to tackle some of those, that could that could
handcuff us a bit on on that approach. But I certainly respect what you're saying and and agree with you. If we can work them down, let's work them down. >> Mayor, >> there is, you know, there is advantages to debt. Um, and there it's pretty
stable over 30 years. You get a low interest rate. It keeps getting higher every year. So there's an advantage to some of it. So you got to look for the advantages and disadvantages and act appropriately and I think you did a good job on the debt. You've limited to capital. You've done some things like
that and that's what you know is going to keep us all grounded. So >> our debt service only 5%. It's always not >> there's times when it's good. It it is a steady payment and there's times when you get a low interest rate and you can
always keep that and >> it's not bad. >> Yeah. So, just got to be on top of it all. >> Thank you, Mr. Mayor. That is all of your uh your action items. There's no no first readings, no new business.
>> All right. Thank you. And then we'll have our reports, but then uh the city manager's report. Uh yes sir. We are getting ready to uh go out for requests for qualifications for the design build services for the neighborhood service center modernization and renovation
project. That's the facility over on Lake Mod. And uh would like to inquire if the commission desires to have a city commission liaison for that effort. >> Be happy to if I'm still if I'm elected not I would have be happy
to. >> Okay. All right. Um, and then I have just one other item that that's not on the agenda, but I just it's a it's an item just for uhformational purposes. If I could do that real quick, Mr. Mayor.
>> So, we've been given notice that the uh Winter Haven High School homecoming parade is scheduled to take place Wednesday, October 22nd. That happens to be the date of your next city commission
agenda review. Um that uh event will commence at the city center parking lot where Lowe's is at 400 p.m. They'll begin staging the road closures. The parade begins at 5:30 and is expected to
be up around this area around 5:45 the first units and then be completely through the area by 6:30 and then they have their homecoming celebration at MLK from 6:30 to 9:00. With that being a city commission workshop night, I know
the commission likes to participate in that parade when available. And so I'm just asking for some guidance on what you would like to do with the agenda review for that particular uh week if you want to change the time of it,
change the date of it, cancel it all together, whatever your your preferences are. >> What do they think we'll be back here? 6:30. Uh parade concludes at 6:30 is what they're thinking. And you when you all are in the parade, I think you're usually towards the front of the parade
if I'm not mistaken. >> The front, we usually end it down here. >> Yeah, they'll end like right in front of the tennis courts area. >> Move it back an hour. >> I don't even think you need an hour, but six would probably do it. If it starts at 5:30,
>> I would. If I was gonna move it back, I'd recommend you give yourself an hour just >> just because you know you're pretty popular people. >> I'm okay with that if you guys are. That's fine. >> They can drop this off right here. And >> there you go. >> 6:30.
>> Yeah, >> that'd be fine. >> Okay. So, we'll we'll make sure that our advertisements for that meeting and the like are John. We don't need to do anything with a notice or official action by them, do we? >> No. >> Change that one. >> Make sure it's noticed properly. So, we'll go ahead and get that taken care
of and we'll we'll have it at 6:30 that evening. Thank you. >> Ask a quick question. Um, how are the applications going on the um granade for the fill in that seat? >> Vanessa, do you know? >> Off the top of my head, I do not know,
but I can tell you right now, um, if you just give me a moment, I can look up and see how many we've received so far. Oh, Katrina's out of it. We send the applications to her. She says four. >> You have four names that have come in. >> Yes, sir. >> Four. >> So, is staff going to make a
recommendation to us or we >> we'll review those and we'll bring it to you for the commission to make the appointment. >> Okay. So, we're done. We're going to select of the of the group. Not >> we'll make a we'll go through them. The intent was for me to review those, make sure that there's not conflicts within
that. I'm trying to get as broad a a reach based upon the other members that are on the committee so that you're covering the full kind of uh variety and diversity of our community and then we'll present that to you. We'll present all four. We'll provide a recommendation to you on that. But it's certainly at
the pleasure of the commission to select who they wish. >> Are we going to do that for every seat going forward that opens up rather than us appointing one particular member? Okay. >> Yes, sir. >> Gotcha. >> And that was the changes we made. We did a resolution change. >> It kind of went over my head until I got
home and I started thinking about I was like, "Wait a minute." >> Yeah, we needed to clean that up because the the original resolution included specifically specifically named people um and some of those people are no longer there. So, we needed to clean that up and as you have commissioners
that roll off over time, we want to make sure that we have the ability for you all to to make those appointments. So, >> Mr. Mayor, >> yes. Uh back up just a little bit on the neighbor service center. uh met with some of the citizens who are who
frequent the uh center and uh they expressed uh well their desire and they know that uh there is expected renovations uh to the facility and kind of broach that subject and uh they also asked would it be possible to build a tear
down and build a brand new building and uh I told them probably not likely uh in as much as we have just completing the the new culture center which is not particularly that far away and I'm spending about $23 million on that
situation. Um but that was there you know and I understand yeah I I think that uh whatever design it needs to work uh the building uh has challenges um so I think uh is given really and I'm
sure that they will uh but I'm I'm hoping that it will be a much better functioning building for them you know as they go forward because it is uh the program is expanding and growing uh they're doing an excellent job with it and it's just great to uh see it
flourish uh as it uh is currently. So uh you know I would I would like to just be a breast of what you know they are going to do or how that's going to kind of unfold and perhaps u I'm not sure how involved some of those persons will be
in the input relative to the design and what will take place in there and how the building will be utilized. Uh I think that would be a step forward if we could do something like that. >> Yes sir. I've also heard those same comments. Commissioner Dawson, I was had the pleasure of attending a neighborhood
meeting in the Boggy Bottom area yesterday and had a a citizen share that with me. Um certainly the funds aren't there to do a a complete, you know, raising and replacement of that building. That's um
likely in the six plus million dollars at the end of the day for a building of that size. And that may even be a low estimate. and the site the site itself's probably not uh uh adequate to do something like unless you do a twotory or something of that nature. So, you know, I think it's it has its challenges
where it is >> and I think the other the other thing that has to be contemplated from my recommendations to the commission are that to be able to improve a facility like that through a renovation uh as opposed to a complete raising and
and replacement in light of the need for investments in other areas as well. you know, we we talk about, you know, we've got the need for we have really no parks or or building facilities from a recreation standpoint in other areas of
the community that we're going to have to prioritize at some point. And um I think that that has to also come into consideration of where do we have nothing in play at present time and we've got thousands of residents that have come into some of those areas
>> and you know elderly services are are really essential u they have been and sadly Pulk County uh basically has very little to offer itself. Uh there's no adult daycarees, no inhome care. Uh
there's and there's people on a waiting list that uh basically, you know, are just kind of sitting there. Uh the the goal is that to help people stay in their homes longer. >> Independent living. >> Exactly. But the county currently, we're addressing that issue with our county
officials uh to see what can be done because other counties are actually doing something uh to uh assist persons because the cost of uh uh you know care in in some of our rehab facility facilities, nursing homes, if you will,
are quite expensive, certainly much more expensive than a person being able to stay in their own home. And uh so I applaud our our efforts that we are uh providing a place for many of our seniors. It is extremely valuable to them and uh I I'd shudder to think if we
didn't have that available. So we're going to press on to hopefully see more happen with the county itself because I think they could and should do more. Anyone else? All right. So, the last item this
evening, um, commissioners, you know, we do our our presentations on some advancements in the respective, um, strategic pillars. This is an exciting one, and I'm happy to have public affairs and communications
director Katrina Hill. And I think Brandon is going to be her partner in and presentation this evening. Uh Brandon is a key member within our finance department who has worked hard on our open gov platform. I mentioned
during the budget meetings that we have we we launched open gov as a budgeting platform during this the creation of the fiscical year 26 budget. We really piloted it with a few of the smaller
cost centers and departments in anticipation of launching it citywide with all departments next year. But one of the great outcomes of it right off the bat is the online presence of our budget. So I want to have them share
that with you this evening and how that works and the efficiencies that come about for that and the transparency that is expanded. and then we're going to finish with a quick update on another new digital platform we have which is the community calendar. So with that,
Katrina, take it away. >> Thank you, sir. All right, so we're going to start right from the very beginning so everyone knows how to access the new budget. So if you go to the homepage of our website, you'll be presented with the the top header and the video as usual. If you scroll down
just a little bit, you'll see this new set of links right here, the transparency links. This very first one is the online budget. So, if you click that, it takes you off I'm sorry, the mouse is there. You go to the budget
itself. Um, this has all of the same information that's in the printed books that you all receive um each year, but in a online version that's really easy to navigate and really easy to work through. Um the very first page you land on is the table of contents page. So if
you prefer to navigate it that way by just sort of control find the word you're looking for or scrolling through that way you can. Everything is also accessible through the menus at the very top of the page. So this introduction section has things like the reader
guide, our budget award, our organizational chart, um the robust budget letter that CJ and the team put together every year. So all of that content that's right in the front of your book that just kind of gives the um context for the whole budget is all
there. You also have an overview tab. Um and here you've got a lot more background information about Winter Haven itself. So there's a whole summary going through all of the strategic planning efforts you all have done over recent years. Lots of information about
Winter Haven. um full transparency on our budget process and how we put the budget together. Some other things that are in this um we have a 10-year millage rate comparison. So, if anyone wants to see how um the tax rate has changed over
time um and we were just asked today if we could provide 10 years of debt history and we said we sure can. Here's a link and it's all already right here. Excuse the scrolling, but we've already got all of that information there for
the public or anyone who would like to see that at any time. These last two tabs gets you into the budget, the the numbers of the budget. So, under the funds tab, you can see all of the different funds that we use to operate as a city. Um, we'll take a look
at the general fund tonight, but all of the fund overview pages follow the exact same structure that you're going to see here. So, it begins with a summary. Um, you can see the fund number. So, you'll always be able to see the fund and account number at the top of any chart
to know where you are. And you can see, um, the fund summary starts with the revenues for that fund going back two years. And you scroll down a little bit and you can see the expenditure overview for that fund as well.
When you move on down the page, you're going to get to the next section here, which is budgeted revenues for that fund. So, it takes you through all the different categories of revenues that feed into it. So, you can see here, for example, you have advalorum taxes. It goes into local option gas taxes and it
continues through all of those other general fund revenue categories. As you scroll through it, you go past the revenues, the next section you'll get to is expenditures by cost center. So this outlines all the cost centers in that fund and gives you
their their kind of bottom line expenditures. So you can get at a quick glance all the cost centers that are within that fund and how they're made up. And then finally, if you scroll just a little bit further to the bottom of each
fund overview page, you get a section that outlines all of the cost centers in that fund. So, for example, here in the general fund, you see you've got the city commission, legal, city clerk, you have city manager, public affairs and communication, financial services.
Scroll down to other departments that have um cost centers. You've got public safety, parks and recck, public works. The list goes on. There's quite a few in the general fund. Um, but all of these are links to those cost centers where you can then dive into even further
details into every single cost center that we have. So, I'm going to take you into the aquatics cost center tonight. So, when you arrive in those cost centers, the very first thing you see is their mission statement, and you'll see that on all of the cost center pages.
You can then scroll down and this is another um enhanced transparency um integration we have here. So as you know we use a platform called achieve it to track all of our performance metrics that are outlined in our strategic plan that is now fully integrated right into
open gov. So you can see those updates live. So, what you're looking at here in aquatics, for example, if you look at the open swim participants, you can see that in fiscal year 25, they had almost 15,000 um participants in open swim. And
if you look on the far right column where you see the comment, you can see in September, there were 633 of those. You'll also see the fiscal year 26 metric has popped in there. That's because as of 101, we are in fiscal year 26, but you'll see there's no update on
that yet. So, it says last updated 103124. That's because that's when we created the plan and we loaded it in to achieve it. The aquatics team will get um a request to put in October's numbers in the 1st of November. So, you'll see
this throughout the budget that fiscal year 25 numbers are there and then in the first few weeks of November, you'll start to see fiscal year 26 numbers populate in real time as their input. When you scroll down below the performance metrics, you then get to the
detailed budget budgeted expenditures chart for that cost center. Again, you've got a little bit of wayfinding here. We're in the general fund. We're in the parks and recreation and culture department. We're in the aquatics cost center. And here's the actual account number as needed. And you can see in
detail um so here's all of their expenditures that are budgeted for for personnel services, for example. And so you can scroll down and then you get their operational expenses and you can go on to the next section which talks to authorized personnel. So in
each cost center you can see the full-time equivalent um of folks that are budgeted in that cost center. If you see something like the recreation manager there on the top, that 0.15 of that position is budgeted, that's because multiple cost centers share the
cost of that position that provides oversight to multiple teams. Um, and then you can also see um some of the pay grade information there as well. And then finally, the bottom section of each of these um account pages is the
account details. So, there are key accounts that we line item out um to show exactly what is planned to be purchased there. So, for example, the very first one, tools and equipment under $1,000. Those are things that they have planned to buy for the rowdy gains um pool. So, you can see they're going
to get some lifeguard tubes, some maintenance tools, a new backboard, and some umbrellas. And you can see the same thing totaled out for the new Winter Haven Recreation Cultural Center pool. And then all of the capital expenses in any cost center would also be detailed
in this chart. At the bottom of the page, you can go back to the fund, back to the table of contents, or I want to continue our tour and go on to the 5-year capital improvement plan. So, if you click on that dropown, the very first page you can click on is an overview of the
5-year capital improvement plan. You've got some narrative at the top that explains what this is and then you go into all of the overview charts. So, at a glance, you can see where the revenue is coming in for our capital projects.
And as you scroll down, um, it just it outlines all of the different sources of revenue for all the capital projects. Under that same dropdown, you can also click on the project pages table of contents. And here you will see a link for every single capital project in our
capital improvement plan. We're going to look at Third Street Northwest. This is very close to home. It's right out here behind you. Um, and this is the complete street project planned for Third Street Northwest. So, every pro every project page gives you a location. It gives you
a map, the department, the contact, estimated start and end dates, project codes, your strategic plan alignment is there for every project as well. You can scroll down to get some more in-depth detail, including a narrative that is a
project overview, project benefits, and how it ties back to the strategic plan. And finally, each page ends with the budget for that capital project. So again, every capital project has its own page with those details. And finally, the last feature I want to walk
you through, if I can get it to work. Um, we this budget can be translated into I believe it's over 70 languages. Um, and so this just helps with the accessibility and the transparency. We have a lot of,
for example, um, Spanish speakers in our community. So, if we scroll down, >> Chinese. >> Put it in Chinese. I can put it in all sorts of things. >> You got Chinese at Stop. See what that looks like. >> You want it in Chinese? Okay. >> Is it
>> Mandarin? It's probably under Mandarin. >> Yeah, >> Mandarin. >> There you go. Chinese traditional. >> Here you go. >> See, that's not really Chinese traditional because they would go >> stopp. Can you go ahead and put it into Spanish so we can
>> maybe make a little more sense of universal language? >> My Mandarin is not that good. >> Traditional Spanish or >> just one >> just one >> probably Spain, >> but it does translate everything on the
site including you know your your labels within the tables as well. Was that in pesos now? >> No, still still US dollars. >> I'm gonna >> And if and just real quick on this, if you notice all your tabs at the top also
changed. Katrina, go back to any one of those and just click on it. Everything is changed throughout the entire document to the language that you've selected. All right, I'm going to hand it over to Brandon. So, that's the front end side,
right? That's what we've got out there for the citizens to see. Um, but there's some really great things kind of on the back end as well. So, Brandon's going to walk you through that. >> Good evening, Mayor Commissioners. Um so internally we are able to build many
different um reports and uh structures to help our department leaders budget properly. So one of the ones I want to talk for is dashboards. So you can see here we have airport fuel. Um this is as
of last fiscal year and you can see here at the bottom um based off what we have in this budget they budgeted 1.16 million and we have spent a little over a million dollars in airport fuel. Um it
gives you a graphic of how much we have roughly left to spend with that. It's also with a percentage. Um, this can be built for any account that is within our city. Um, the department leaders are able to add a
report tile if they would like to add a different account. They can set it up as as they will. If you click into the settings feature, so it's where we have our views. You can come down here to the bottom. I'm sorry,
this mouse is being finicky. And we can change the display feature. So you has it have it as a gauge right now. But if you want it as a stack chart, you can click it, hit save,
and it will change the display of the account. So depending on how you'd like to look at your visualiz visualizations, you have many different options. There's the table chart, pie chart, the gauge, and
the stacked bar chart. So, not only does this give you this option to look at it as just a quick glance, such as if you're driving in your vehicle, look down, how much gas do you have? You look down, how much money do
you have left? You can click into these dashboards. It is freezing. >> I'm sorry. >> Okay. >> So, I'm sorry. Here you can see we have
broke it down into more detail. You can see by month what we've spent as the city in airport fuel. >> And it goes monthtomonth. This is integrated nightly. Every single night the numbers are updated to produce the
most um accurate information for you. You can change it by fiscal year. So if you want to break down um this is as of last year so but you can do two years of fiscal year so you can change it to the previous fiscal
year it'll show you what we had there and you can also come down here and see a numeric value monthtomonth as the year has gone and how much we have spent within that um account. This
will be available for every department. Each department is going to have their own individuals and which the department leaders will create for themselves and they will share amongst their team. Um and they can utilize this to help budget and properly manage.
So that is what we have with dashboards and open gap. If you have any questions, I'd be more than happy to answer >> questions. I have one. Um would this be for the public because if they go in and change things you know it could really mess it up for >> Oh ma'am this is a completely internal
um function and it is for each department >> um individually. So a different department would not be able to access finances dashboards nor airports uh unless they have shared that information with them. You can come up here to this little top corner you can hit share. You
type in the email of who you would like to share it with and then it is now available to that person as well. >> So this is this piece that Brandon's showcasing to you is from an internal standpoint. How do we man how do you know where you are? And Commissioner
Mercer I I joked with the staff when we we went through this presentation. You'll recall when we used to get green bar reports as staff that would say this is where you are this month and it was a point in time and you hoped it was
accurate. This is live and as they spend money, you know, if they have a particular account that they need to track, we're seeing a spike in fuel costs. So, we need to really manage where our fuel consumptions are or we're watching closely our overtime expenses
or uh some consumable item that falls within a particular cost center and account. They can set these dashboards up and each day open this up and see exactly where they are in terms of managing their budget.
That is a a great tool for internal controls and better fiscal management. I want to go back to the online budget. That is what citizens will have access to or have access to right now. You all have access to that.
It is scalable and device responsive. So if you open it on a iPhone or Android phone or a iPad or whatever you're using, it scales to that. Um, and if you think about the level of detail that is now provided out and the searchability
of that for residents, just even in those CIP projects, the ease of navigating that and getting to the information is phenomenal. Um, when we talk to to folks in Tallahassee and they question transparency of budgeting and
and sharing information, I'm extremely proud to show them exactly how we do this because I've never seen in my time here this much transparency and accessibility for our budget. So, puts a ton of information out there. Um, for
those residents that really want to dig into a budget, everything is right there. Okay, great. >> So, the last thing we want to share with you, I believe, is our community calendar, which just launched last week. >> It did. All right. So, also on the
homepage, um, the calendar's always been right here in this spot. It just looks a little bit different now. Um, so we have partnered with a new calendar provider. It does integrate with our website and come in fully, but it also allows us to do um a full community calendar. So on
our website, it's still only our events, right? But you can click into any of them and get more details about that specific event, but if you anyone goes to events.mmywinterhaven.com or they click that little logo at the
very top, um they can then come in and see all of our events and all of the events from community partners as well. So this launched last Wednesday. It launched on October 1st. um with the goal of kind of doing a soft launch to
make sure we'd worked all the kinks out. Thankfully, we haven't hit any hiccups. Um but we've already had a lot of event submissions. We've had a lot of community organizations put their fundraisers in um put their various events in. So, you can see, for example,
October Fest from Main Street is there um and you've got the farmers market um and the other downtown market that's this weekend as well as Pulk State fallest. Um, so the goal here is to create and there's a homeschool expo in MLK Park. So there's no there's an
abundance of activities that you can do this weekend and all of those have a different host or a different organizer and none of them are us, right? So the goal is to create a hub that um our citizens can really see all that there
is to do in Winter Haven on any weekend, including our own events. So some features of the site, I'm going to scroll back up to the top. Um, you can do some of our our main partners as well as us as a city have our own sort of
categories here. So, if you click on the city of Winter Haven, that filters it down to just our events. So, you can see we're hosting a few online workshops for people that want to submit an event. We'll walk them through exactly how to do that. Um, ironically, a lot of people have already figured it out. We've
already approved multiple events to be added to the calendar. Um, so all they have to do is come up here and hit the plus sign and they put in their information and it comes to us for review and approval. So we've already had people figure that out even without the training, but I do have a few folks
registered to go in through the training with me tomorrow. So we'll have our first one tomorrow. Um, but you can do the same thing for example um with Main Street and you can see all of their upcoming fall events um or the chamber.
We also are tagging and categorizing events for different audiences. So, if you're a family with kids, you can come in and say, "I just want to see events for kids." Or you can search by event type. So, maybe I just want um some workshops or educational events, and
you'll see things like our trainings um and chamber events on there. So, lots of different ways to explore it. Citizens can um add things to their calendar straight from here. They can share things to social media straight from here. They can subscribe to it as well.
And it also has this smart search function which um actually utilizes AI. You can talk to it and say, "I've got a 2-year-old that's really into trucks. What can I do?" And it'll pop up and tell them to come to Hands-On Haven on October 25th. Um so it kind of reads
through the descriptions and tries to match you back to things if you're looking for things to do. So we're excited about this. We're going to be promoting it a lot more in the coming weeks. Um, but we've already received a lot of really great feedback. So again, it's just events.mmywinterhaven.com
to access this. It's also mobile responsive, so you can do it on any device. >> Are you recording the how-tos, like at least one of them, so you can like just put that recording out there for future? >> We can do that. >> Reference. >> Yep. And then can you go back to I kind
of got lost in your clicks on how to get to this page from the homepage. >> Uh there's multiple ways you can get there. If you click on the public meetings calendar, it takes you there. There's also this calendar is embedded right here on the homepage and you just hit the visit the full community
calendar. >> Got it. >> Or just add in events before the URL. It'll take you there too. >> And what are the standards for approval? So, it has to be an event happening in Winter Haven or benefiting a Winter Haven organization. So, for example,
there's one event on the calendar that's happening, I believe, in Lake Alfred, but it's a fundraiser for a Winter Haven nonprofit because it's happening at Adams Estate. So, even though that's not physically in Winter Haven, it benefits one of our partner nonprofits, so it's on there, but it needs to be an event in
Winter Haven. Um, and it needs to just be family and community friendly, but really that's that's it. We've got some written guidelines, but that's the heart of it. Yeah. >> I got to say this is awesome. We've been wanting this for the longest time. When
we first started the culture arts committee, they started doing this. We tried to get HIPP involved. It just became a big mess and nobody participated. But if you can get everybody participating in this, this is going to be a big hit. I can tell you right now. So, you got to just keep keep at it and get everybody to do it. It'll
be a big hit. >> And what I'm really excited about is this new platform makes it so easy. I think that's been the barrier in the past is it's been hard to find a way that just everyone can contribute and put it in one place. This makes it really easy. And if there's organizations out there like maybe Pulk
State College or the chamber or Main Street that we know we just want all of their events on our page, we can actually just set up APIs and make that an automatic update onto the calendar when they post something on their calendar. So, we'll be doing that with select organizations as well. >> It could be churches. It could be
charities. >> Churches, charities, and even, you know, um it doesn't have to be nonprofits. So, like the Saturday market is not a nonprofit organization, but they're on there because it's a great event for our community. >> So, Katrina, you're the the manager.
>> Yes, sir. >> For this? >> Well, and it's it kind of self-manages, too. So, the this platform, you know, Commissioner D, you're right. We've tried to do this for years. We try to get the chamber to do it and other organizations to do it. Nobody wanted the liability of trying to manage it. We
mentioned a couple weeks ago we we renewed a contract with Zen City, our social media mining uh software. Some people had left that organization years ago and went to explore how to do this. And um we had met up with them
through ICMA and they had pitched this to us and the more we dug into it, it was like this makes a lot of sense if it works the way it does. And I think we are one of the first communities in Florida to to launch this. The second
we're the second community in Florida to have this. >> So um it all came down to it's got to be easy. It's got to be um something that doesn't take a whole lot of management from us or create a lot of liability and
Katrina and the team when we presented the idea ran with it. It is very involved in this as well and we're excited to see how it works. >> Great. The things automatically drop off after the events held or do you got to go in there and manually move it? >> No, they drop off. But everyone that's
registered then can say if I've ever registered for an event on here, I could say, "Tell me about future events that are for families or for this." And then they start to get emails or text messages, whatever they opt into. So hopefully it doesn't just be a great thing for event organizers, it becomes a
really great thing for event goers as well to find things. And it's going to be keeping the content coming in because I think that's the problem with account is like this is great now but then six months from now people forget about it and then they so that's my next question
is I I saw the email that went out and I think that went out to like all the nonprofits or >> community leaders and things like that. Are you going to continue to try to expand that list number one of who that goes out to >> and then number two send that out maybe
every three months for the first year and then maybe every six months after that just to continuous reminder don't forget put your >> because because if you don't remind people then it's going to go away and die. >> Absolutely. Yeah. We have a communication plan for this that includes social media posts to promote
the front end and then email reminders and expanding those lists and anyone that registers and puts an event in. We had an individual register and put an event in and so they are now on that list to receive those reminders as well. So, absolutely. >> And so for you all, somebody asked you, hey, is there is there something
happening in MLK Park this weekend? From your phone, you can navigate this quickly and say, yes, here's what it is. Here's all the information that rolloff uh component when I looked at this last week the world wake board championship
event we had at MLK was plastered all over here and it's gone now because the event has concluded we didn't have to do anything to make that happen. >> So again just two I think it's important that that it's responsible government is
about how do we engage the community? How do we disseminate information? Budget is a huge piece of that. Um and and I challenge anybody that wants to say we're not being forthcoming with our budget and and the information that's there. Not we don't get that within our community, but we hear that from
Tallahassee. It's all right there. In fact, that response on debt ra debt service and debt schedules came to me today from a local legislator was asking for that information. I sent them a link to that specific page of debt schedules
within this budget document so they could see that that it's all there. This is about how do we keep our community informed on what's happening within the community, not just our stuff. So very very proud of the team that has has put all this together.
>> Okay. All right. >> Anything else? >> All right. Motion to a job.