[0:01] Closed captioning provided by bufort county.

[0:16] all right, good afternoon. I'd like to call this town council budget workshop. Meeting

[0:21] to order thursday, may 14th. Uh, gonna have a motion to adopt the

[0:25] agenda. I move. We got a first and second. All those in favor signify for raising your

[0:29] right hand. That is six to zero. Ms. Becker is

[0:33] on teams up on the screen. Um, so as we go through today,

[0:37] um, I'd like to, you know, as we go down in, in the presentation,

[0:42] made to ask questions, but, um, realizing we've got a lot of, a lot of material to

[0:46] cover, and, um, if there's a question that's asked if y'all

[0:50] would say that will be covered later on. Um, so, so that we can move forward,

[0:55] forward, uh, in a timely manner and really get the answers

[0:59] question and have that discussion on the, on the items that where we need. So that would be very helpful.

[1:03] um, so mr. Orlando, I'll turn it over to you.

[1:07] good evening, mayor council. Good evening. Members of the public,

[1:13] uh, tonight as it shows on the agenda, we're going to cover

[1:18] several of the funds, right, with first reading. Just a reminder first, and, and for the

[1:22] public at first reading, we rec we covered the entire consolidated budget, and

[1:26] then we broke it down by each fund. Tonight we will cover the general fund,

[1:31] the operating debt service, the gullah geechee, historic neighborhood community

[1:35] development corporation fund, the housing fund, and special revenue

[1:39] fund. At the table with me is john carpenter, assistant

[1:43] finance director, uh, and dave bird, as we know finance

[1:47] director tonight, I would, would ask it as much of a conversation workshop

[1:51] as ever. And so, yeah, I, I, mayor perry, I, I appreciate

[1:55] you saying ask as we go, right? Um, if,

[1:59] if what you ask is two slides ahead, we'll we'll let you

[2:03] know and try to get there. But the goal of today is to have this conversation

[2:08] with you. We talked a lot about special revenues. We talked a lot about those transfers

[2:12] in and transfers out. And we also said at first reading, um,

[2:16] you said at first reading, and I heard you, let's slow down and make sure we,

[2:20] we answer those questions. One for our understanding. And two, for, for,

[2:24] for the community. Dave will drive as much today as,

[2:29] as we're willing to let him. Um, I'm willing to let dave

[2:33] dive into the budget. I, I want dave to dive into the budget conversation with you,

[2:37] not just mine to present, but dave and I to, with john's, uh, help as

[2:41] well. Explain it all and, and answer your questions. So

[2:45] I'll dive in a lot of this stuff. You've already seen a few of the slides based upon your

[2:50] feedback are new. We updated the presentation

[2:54] prior and we updated the packet as well as, as the community

[2:59] thought. So, um, we're not gonna

[3:03] go over every single slide, but I, for the community's sake and so that we

[3:07] can talk through at, at workshop and that have at least some,

[3:11] some perspective of what we're talking about and why I've left some of the

[3:15] slides in, but I won't cover them all, um, for time sake. And so we can get into

[3:20] the budget. We've seen this, um, the community

[3:24] factors, the economic drivers, tourism, healthcare, real estate. Um,

[3:29] we took a look at our island at a glance at first reading. We took a look at our top employers.

[3:34] um, we've realized that gross sales by fiscal year, pretty

[3:38] much flat over the last several years, um, including

[3:42] each portfolio of fun, tourism, restaurant, grocery, et cetera.

[3:48] we talked about strong economic factors and bond rating. I, I don't want

[3:52] to underestimate that, but that is planned. That's not just happenstance.

[3:57] um, and so we're very, very pleased that the aaa bond

[4:01] rating from all three. Um, let us, let us into realize

[4:05] the, about the tax base and the, the property tax revenues and fiscal management.

[4:11] we took a look at open and closed businesses, half our businesses,

[4:15] um, on, on books, our short term rental permits. And, and the other 50%

[4:19] are diversified. We talked that

[4:24] the assessed value and the market value

[4:28] as we see it, uh, has grown approximately 32.5%

[4:33] over the last five years. We talked that we manage

[4:37] about 2000 acres. We don't manage it in that sense, but we have acquired and,

[4:41] and, and have on, on the books close to 2000 acres,

[4:45] 27 parks, 14 miles of roads that we manage and maintained

[4:50] 72 miles of pathways and 24 total buildings.

[4:55] that doesn't include restrooms and pavilions. That, that,

[5:01] uh, I always like to make sure

[5:05] that as we're looking at the budget, we look at our org chart because we are in different pieces

[5:10] of, of municipal business that have grown. And I think the org

[5:14] chart helps us understand what those core functions are.

[5:18] we have 290 full-time employees, 16 part-time.

[5:23] that hasn't changed since the amended budget. Um, and the amended budget

[5:27] increased by six full-time employees aligned with short-term

[5:31] rental program improvements from last year.

[5:37] we talked our first reading about the 10 goals and, and priorities

[5:42] out of the strategic plan that have guided our budget. And then I

[5:46] went over the budget goals of fiscal year 27, which are the same budget

[5:50] goals as as prior years. And we also looked at measuring those,

[5:54] um, a again, or stating those again moving forward.

[5:59] tonight's the workshop. Our next workshop

[6:03] is next week and anticipating a a, a town council

[6:08] meeting on june 9th. So we still have some, some time in between to answer your

[6:12] questions and go over things. We're starting to get into the,

[6:17] the true budget of general cap or general

[6:21] debt geechee, cdc housing and special

[6:26] rev. What you will see after this slide are some new slides. And I will

[6:30] for a little bit, turn this over to dave. Thank

[6:34] you, mark. And dave and I rehearsed a little bit that he's gonna talk slow enough,

[6:38] but not so slow that we don't get outta here till nine o'clock night. We, we'll be done by what,

[6:43] five 30? Okay, . So, um,

[6:47] , so good evening, mayor and council. Um,

[6:52] so after listening to some of the feedback

[6:57] and what the view of a $233 million

[7:02] budget, um, I thought it'd be good to take a step back

[7:06] and kind of explain that it's really not a $233 million

[7:11] budget and kinda give you some information

[7:15] and the public so we can understand some of the nuances of

[7:19] government accounting. 'cause it is a little bit tricky compared to

[7:23] non-governmental accounting. And, um, so I, I

[7:27] put some definitions here together. Um, patsy, that's something

[7:32] I picked up from you. So, um, but really to

[7:36] kind of break down how we show our income statement. And, um,

[7:40] and first we're gonna look at revenue just so we can get a idea of

[7:46] the high level, what are the revenues for the town, which is taxes, fees, grants,

[7:51] sale of land and investment income. And most of these are recurring

[7:55] direct revenues and they increase cash. So

[8:00] when I think of that, you know, you're gonna see $121 million of

[8:04] operating revenue for the town in 2027. And

[8:08] that's composed of many line items, but that's cash that we collect.

[8:13] okay? And then other financing sources, um,

[8:17] bonds, leases, sell of equipment and or vehicles.

[8:21] those are more non-recurring in nature. They still

[8:25] bring cash into the town. Um, but the difference is

[8:29] they're non-recurring. And so you'll see in the budget we have four

[8:34] and a half million for non-recurring revenue and other financing

[8:38] sources. And that's really for the, uh, firetruck lease. We're anticipating at the

[8:42] end of this calendar year. And that's what I would

[8:46] say are the inflows of cash that the town gets.

[8:51] okay? Then we get into more governmental terms,

[8:56] which can make the numbers look higher, but it's really

[9:00] managing numbers within all of the funds we have. And we probably have

[9:05] the six major and probably seven, probably about

[9:09] eight or so in the special revenues fund.

[9:13] and so we move dollars between funds

[9:17] based upon projects or, uh, needs

[9:21] of a fund per se. So when we do a transfer

[9:26] end from one fund to another fund, well that's booked

[9:30] as revenue to the fund receiving it and it's booked

[9:34] as expense to the fund sending it. It's not cash per se

[9:38] because it's not creating any more cash for the town,

[9:42] but we are moving money from, let's say, one bank account to another.

[9:47] and so, um, but it does inflate the revenue

[9:51] from a general fund perspective and, or excuse me, from a total town perspective.

[9:56] and it also makes the expense look higher. Um,

[10:00] and then we have the uses of funds for revenue and the uses

[10:04] of funds are money we're pulling out of the bank look

[10:09] at it that way to cover our expenses. So if

[10:13] we're spending more than that fund balance has in revenue

[10:17] that's coming in, we will pull money from

[10:21] that fund balance as a use of funds. And I kind

[10:25] of call that a withdrawal from the checking account. And, and, and when you look

[10:29] at it that way, once again, it's not new cash flow because

[10:33] it's cash that we've already received. So when we go to

[10:38] expense, same concept, we have our operating expenses,

[10:43] salaries, benefits, contractors, cip, which

[10:47] is really not operating. I would say capital projects are a little bit

[10:51] different there. Our debt service, uh, other just general operating

[10:56] expenses, it software, things of that nature. They could be recurring or non-recurring,

[11:01] but those are checks we're writing that's reducing cash.

[11:05] and um, when you look at our budget, we're spending $145 million,

[11:12] not $233 million, $145 million.

[11:16] and so I think it's important to kind of note that when we kind of go through things

[11:21] and then we have our transfers out. Well, as

[11:25] we mentioned, we transfer money like in our ci capital projects

[11:30] fund, we transfer quite a bit of money to that fund. A lot of those come from

[11:34] special revenue funds. And so that's an expense when

[11:38] we transfer out. That's the other side of the ledger. 'cause the

[11:42] transfer ends must equal the transfer outs. So you can balance.

[11:46] and then we have our fund balance surplus. Some funds we don't transfer

[11:50] out of, we don't spend all of it. So we have, I'll call

[11:55] money a surplus in that fund, but to get the budget to

[11:59] balance, we book that as an expense to basically balance

[12:03] that out from a balanced budget perspective, once again, making the expense

[12:07] look higher. And so all of that leads

[12:12] into change in fund balance. Oh, mark, here I go. I'm not doing the

[12:16] thingy. There we go. So our change in fund

[12:20] balance, if you look at a normal accounting income statement,

[12:25] uh, you could think of this as net income, which is operating

[12:30] revenue plus other financing sources minus operating

[12:34] expenses. So we've got 125 million of

[12:38] revenue, we're spending 145 million.

[12:43] so you'll see a negative change in fund balance this year's budget

[12:47] of just under $20 million. Okay? And that's gonna

[12:51] be a negative cash flow. I mean, we're spending more than we are taking

[12:55] in in 2027 fiscal budget. Um,

[13:00] a fund balance surplus we talked about is a fund minus the

[13:04] fund balance use is also a change in fund balance,

[13:08] depending on if it's higher or lower, will depend upon

[13:13] positive or negative cash flow. Either way you look at that will equal

[13:18] the same number. Okay? And we'll show that in a second. And once again,

[13:22] we always, we have our transfers this year, I think it's like $72 million,

[13:28] which is making that number go to 233 million.

[13:32] um, but we also have a transfer out and a transfer in, they

[13:36] net out to zero. And so our total, this is governmental

[13:40] as well. Our total revenue budget takes our operating revenue,

[13:45] our other financing sources plus transfers in

[13:50] plus uses of funds. And our expense site is

[13:54] our operating expenses plus transfers out, plus

[13:58] the fund balance surplus. So when you take the total revenue

[14:03] minus the total expense, you get your balanced budget.

[14:07] so the net of that is zero, which you normally do see in the budget.

[14:11] so I've kind of have a income statement

[14:15] view to illustrate what's happening. So we'll

[14:19] start at the top with operating revenue, and you've kind of got from

[14:24] 24 through 27 with

[14:28] our projection for 26. And you can see we've done 130,

[14:32] 135 million, 135 million, 121. Now we are

[14:36] going down a little bit in 2020, um, seven.

[14:41] and we've got, you know, grants that are going down for fema. We took down permit

[14:45] fees, we had the nova land sale that happened that, um,

[14:49] is not repeating. We took investment income down based upon

[14:53] anticipated reduced, uh, return of interest and other miscellaneous

[14:57] grants that have occurred. So there's, there's reasons behind the drop,

[15:02] but I would say 121, it's kind of a normal cash

[15:06] operating year this year because we don't have a lot of grant revenue

[15:10] in the budget. We have like a million in grant revenue for fema and

[15:15] a quarter million dollars for ccdb. I can't say those words. Letters,

[15:19] c, db, thank you sir. And so, and then we have our other financing

[15:24] sources. Well, you see 7.6 million in 25.

[15:28] that was the original fire truck equipment lease. Then

[15:32] we did the geo bond and the beach bonds. Well, that was 54 million this

[15:36] year and in the 26 fiscal year. And then we mentioned the

[15:40] four and a half million that's budgeted. So that's the 125 million,

[15:45] uh, our operating expenses, okay, we've got 90 million.

[15:49] okay? And we did break out capital separately to show that. And

[15:53] you can see capital 24 was 27 million, then it went

[15:57] to 31. It was a big year in 26 when we did the renourishment, right?

[16:02] and then we're coming back down to 54, but it is a big capital

[16:06] year for the town in 2027. And so

[16:10] we're spending 145. So we're spending roughly 20 million

[16:14] more that's, we've got all of these different consolidated schedules. But this

[16:19] is the summary of what's really happening from a town perspective.

[16:23] if you wanna look at it from a, and I, here's how I look at it too.

[16:28] you've got 121 million in revenue, we've got 90 million

[16:32] of operating expense that leaves 30 million on

[16:37] a given year to pay for capital projects. You could look at it that way as

[16:41] well, depending on what fund that money is sitting

[16:45] in. And that'll get important as we get down the road and start talking about fund balances

[16:50] and if they're restricted or not, like beach preservation. And so

[16:54] when you look at change in fund balance, the same concept we talked about before,

[16:58] you have fund balance use fund balance surplus. Well, if

[17:03] the surplus is higher than the use, like we have in 2026,

[17:07] it's a million surplus, 1.3 million this year. And in 27

[17:12] we've got 35 million versus 15 surplus. So we're, that's

[17:16] negative 19. We broke out the transfers in and out it because

[17:20] those balance out. And then I threw in the ending fund balance

[17:25] at the bottom of this here, which is right here. So we

[17:29] ended 24, around 230 million. That's pretty close to

[17:33] cash. Um, a little bit different but not too terribly different. Um,

[17:38] and then if you take the two 30 plus the um, change in fund

[17:42] balance in 25, at $24 million, you get 2 53.

[17:46] it's like your checkbook and you have 2 53 plus the one we get 2 54, 2 54,

[17:51] less than 20, we get to 2 34. So that's kind of how we're

[17:55] projecting to end the year from a fund balance perspective. And

[18:00] when you look at the budget and these consolidated roll up

[18:04] schedule, well you do see 2 33 and you do see

[18:09] 2 33 revenue and expense because of the

[18:13] transfers in and the either use or source of fund balance.

[18:17] but really what's happening are the numbers above, which is the 1 25 in revenue

[18:22] and the 1 45 of expense. So we're not really spending more

[18:26] than in 2020, uh, five fiscal fiscal or

[18:30] the projection this year we're actually spending less. And so, um,

[18:35] I just wanted to put this together, just try to maybe answer

[18:39] any questions to kind of give a high level view without

[18:44] a schedule with a jillion numbers on it that I know can get a bit overwhelming

[18:48] when I look at it for sure. And so this is why we put this

[18:52] together. Yes. So thank you very much for

[18:56] that explanation. Um, I had asked for a reconciliation,

[19:00] uh, from our first reading, and you did a great job of laying all

[19:05] this out and you have further reconciliations in the lane,

[19:09] various, uh, variances. Um, and it's

[19:13] important that you laid this out because I'm sure

[19:17] the public, just like myself, had a reaction when they

[19:21] saw the $233 million, you know, when I first saw, 'cause of

[19:25] course I go right to the bottom line , it's like, okay, what's the bottom line under? It was 2 33.

[19:30] and um, and so the first thing I asked myself, are we really removing and cashing

[19:35] out $233, $33 million worth of expenses? And,

[19:40] and you've answered that. No. Um, and,

[19:44] and for me, this is a change in how to read financial statements. I come

[19:48] from a corporate background. We do not do things this way. And

[19:52] so I have had over time the need to learn exactly

[19:56] the differences between corporate accounting and government accounting.

[20:01] and as dave said, government accounting includes corporate type accounting

[20:05] where you look at revenues minus expenses to come to net income,

[20:09] but it requires a second piece, which is not in corporate accounting. And that is

[20:14] if you are moving money from one fund to another fund,

[20:19] you have to report that. And so that is added, as

[20:23] dave had explained. And um, for

[20:27] the public that might be watching or listening, I wanted to give just a really simple

[20:31] example. I'm a town. I have zero revenue, I have

[20:35] zero expense. I have a checking account and a savings account.

[20:40] I have $500 in my savings account and I transfer it to my checking account.

[20:45] government reporting would say, I, I have $500 of revenue and $500

[20:49] of expense because I transferred money. Did I really get

[20:54] $500? No, I just moved it from one account to another.

[20:58] did I spend $500? No, I moved it from one account to another.

[21:03] so it's, when I talked to dave about it, he

[21:07] used the word weird . He said, government accounting

[21:11] is weird. And giving a background of corporate finance, I'd

[21:15] say, yeah, it feels a little weird, but this is what, what happens. And

[21:19] so I started to ask myself, well why, why does government do

[21:23] that? And, um, there's a good reason. It's for

[21:27] accountability and transparency. These are public dollars.

[21:32] and as they're being transferred around, we wanna make sure that it balances

[21:36] that I'm moving money from this account to another account at the end of the day that it

[21:40] all balances and it doesn't transfer out to somewhere that we're not aware of.

[21:44] so that's one reason. And the other one is accountability.

[21:50] uh, we wanna know where the money is going from and to, and

[21:54] it gets to dave's point about we have all these special revenue funds.

[21:58] a lot of them have restrictions. So we collect a lot of

[22:02] beach re uh, beach preservation fee. We can only use that

[22:06] on beach related projects. So even though we collect a lot of money, we can't

[22:10] use that fund balance to do road projects. That's not allowed. And so there

[22:14] has to be, um, you know, an accounting of that. And what,

[22:18] uh, we are doing here is making it more transparent so that we can

[22:23] see exactly how funds are used and that they're used appropriately.

[22:28] um, so I hope that helps put some perspective on,

[22:32] on what it is that we're doing here, because I don't want the

[22:36] public to feel like we're actually spending

[22:41] in cash $233 million. Um,

[22:45] we have to go and look at it from a net income perspective. And I also

[22:49] appreciate you laying it out. Um, I know we do a lot of comparisons to budget,

[22:54] uh, but the public and I like to look at

[22:58] things compared to prior years. And so thank you so much for laying out,

[23:03] um, these comparisons of these different pieces of operating

[23:07] revenue, et cetera, for a couple of years as well as a projection,

[23:11] which we didn't normally see as well of, of, uh, the current year.

[23:16] so I think it makes the, um, it makes it much clearer

[23:20] what is happening in regards to our finances in the town.

[23:24] so I just wanted the opportunity to say that . Yeah. Thank, thank you for that. 'cause I think that

[23:28] provides a great explanation. Um, you know, not only does it provide the

[23:32] explanation, but also with the change in format, which is gonna make it more clear

[23:36] down the road because it'll be a standardized procedural aspect, um,

[23:41] really offers that transparency. So thank you.

[23:46] may I ask a question? Not sure if you can. Yes,

[23:50] we can hear you before you hear. Okay, good. Um,

[23:54] so thank you for the explanation. I appreciate it. I do understand

[23:58] what you're saying. I do have a simple question. Um,

[24:03] with regard to this year's budget, however,

[24:08] compared to previous budgets that we've had, this

[24:12] is, um, this is a different type of accounting that we're now using

[24:16] this year. No, no, I, all right. So I think,

[24:20] I think this year the only change we do have is

[24:25] we are balancing special revenues, which

[24:29] had not been done in the past. In the past we transferred money

[24:33] into the six major funds for a lot of that came from

[24:37] special revenues. Um, but we didn't really budget special

[24:42] revenues. And um, but this year we are, but

[24:46] as far as the government accounting standards, we're not changing from that.

[24:51] okay. So I guess the question that I can imagine a

[24:55] someone who's not with an accounting background, and I listened to the

[25:00] dialogue between you and, and councilwoman, uh, turner, and

[25:04] I can follow it, it makes sense, but I don't have an accounting background.

[25:08] so a simple question is then how do we compare

[25:12] last year's budget at $174 million versus $233 million

[25:18] this year with the same practices and not, at

[25:22] least since, did not understand the significant difference between

[25:27] the two. Does that mean, is that a, did I phrase that

[25:31] in a way that it's easy to answer? Yeah, I mean,

[25:35] I, I think the next slide gimme one.

[25:40] yeah, the next slide, we'll come back to this one. This slide kind

[25:44] of gives an overview and we have a subtotal

[25:48] for the six major funds. Um, and then we have,

[25:53] um, and this is, this is all in, but this

[25:57] is revenues. And you might be asking about expenditures.

[26:02] they're right here as well. They're the same. But from a,

[26:06] from a perspective, we did a six major funds of last year,

[26:11] um, to what it is this year in the budget, as well as,

[26:15] um, added in the special revenues on top of that. I'm not sure if that answers

[26:20] the question she's asking or not. No, I think the question I'm asking

[26:24] is, is a little bit more simple. And if this isn't the right time to, to get an

[26:28] answer for, um, mark, what I would request is a meeting

[26:33] so that I could sit down with you and dave so I can have a better

[26:37] explanation. My question is just simple. If we're using the

[26:41] practice, this nothing new here and, and the transfers,

[26:46] ins and outs and bank from savings to checking, et cetera,

[26:50] has always been consistent. I, I still need to explain to someone

[26:55] why the number jumped from 174 to 233.

[27:00] it's still the bottom line. So it now may not be

[27:04] the right time to answer the question so I can get a simplified answer. Um, and

[27:08] I would just like to schedule a meeting to be able to sit down with y'all so I can receive that

[27:12] information. So I can offer that to anyone who might ask me,

[27:18] didn't hear all of it. There was some, some I didn't miss the last

[27:23] part. Please help. I, it's, I'm just asking

[27:27] if what I wanna be able to do is take the simple

[27:31] number from last year, uh, 'cause I too look at the bottom line.

[27:35] I think that's the first place everyone goes to. And in

[27:40] cs that you have 174 million roughly from

[27:44] last year and 230

[27:49] understanding. But if nothing has changed in the accounting practice from

[27:54] last year to this year, I still need

[27:58] a more detailed explanation that I can simplify to answer

[28:02] that question for other people who like, hey,

[28:06] look at the bottom lines and are not accountants. So I'm requesting just a

[28:10] moment of time to sit with you and dave to, to have a meeting, um,

[28:14] for that purpose. Ms. Becker, I, I think, I think dave's about to address,

[28:18] address it for you. Alright, I understand your question now. First,

[28:22] first and foremost, I understood, yes, absolutely. We can meet, uh,

[28:26] you, me and dave whenever you're available,

[28:30] we're available. Absolutely. I think the, the one thing and to, to try to get

[28:35] to the bottom of, of your core question is, you know, why, why this year, why

[28:39] is this year different than last year? I would say one dave, dave is here in

[28:43] a, in a, and what dave and I have talked a lot about is a full accounting

[28:47] on the front end, not just that time of audit. And so in the past,

[28:52] the, the practice here, right, that I've picked up with and, and, and

[28:56] improved year over year, we can see, and I think this is important to,

[29:00] to look at, we had in fy 24, what we showed you were

[29:05] actuals, not budgets. We showed you real dollars. And I would say every year

[29:09] we've grown our fund balance and it shows we had in 24

[29:14] total operating one 30, we had

[29:18] 85 operating in 26 capital.

[29:23] and we grew the fund balance by 18, right?

[29:27] this is wonky. Then we had 142

[29:32] revenue and 118 expense. And last year

[29:36] actual, or 25 actual fiscal year 25 actual,

[29:41] we grew the fund balance by 23, almost $24 million.

[29:45] that wasn't just underestimated expenditures, but what

[29:50] we didn't do is fund, or I should say budget

[29:54] all we, we, we put the revenues and the transfers

[29:58] towards the expenditures and grew the fund balance and,

[30:02] and showed that in the audit, correct? That that was the practice. It's been the practice

[30:07] what, what you're seeing here. And, and this is a good year to just simply

[30:11] push forward and move forward and budget all revenues

[30:15] with all expenditures and show on the front end

[30:20] a positive or negative use in fund balance. This

[30:24] year, the $19 million in change, almost whatever is

[30:28] up there, forgive my eyes, I can't see it. 19.9,

[30:34] that growth or reduction in fund balance this year, that's

[30:38] capital projects. At the end of the day, that's capital projects. We're not using it. So

[30:42] you see this all on the front end through the entire

[30:46] complete budget. And, and hence the difference in transfers. It was one of the first

[30:50] questions I've asked as I arrived is, you know, what about these additional revs

[30:55] that are coming into our accounts that aren't

[31:00] matching with expenditures? It was an off, it was an off balance budget.

[31:04] so what dave has done is infused them into the full budget and

[31:08] balanced it. So I hope that makes sense. Yeah. So if, if I might no, it does,

[31:12] it does make sense. And what, when I wanted to stop and thank you is because

[31:17] what you did identify was the answer to my first question. This

[31:21] is, well, maybe not a full sail, different way of doing

[31:26] the accounting. It is a different way of presenting it. And

[31:30] that's, that's been the initial question that I asked. Okay. And, and

[31:34] you answered it. Yes, sir. So there are variances from last year's reporting to

[31:38] this year's and, and the numbers are being reflected and that's why

[31:42] you see the difference of 1 74 to 2 33. It makes sense to me. I

[31:46] just need a simple explanation that I can transfer to other

[31:50] people who may ask me. So thank you. I appreciate that.

[31:55] I do have one other question, and this may not be the right time for it, but

[31:59] we took a $35 million bond and where

[32:03] are those dollars that are left? Where are those reflected

[32:08] in this budget? When we, um, when we go through the

[32:12] fund balances on, uh, at the end of tuesday,

[32:17] you'll see a kind of a fund balance walk by, by fund.

[32:21] and, um, in the capital fund, you'll

[32:26] see, um, doing it by memory, let's say it's $32 million, give or

[32:30] take, um, you'll, there's 24 million roughly

[32:35] of money left over from the

[32:39] go bond that has not been spent in this budget.

[32:45] so we have 24 million that, um, is in the bank,

[32:49] as we said before, that, um, uh, we don't have any expense

[32:53] in this budget related to that. Okay.

[32:58] becker, I I think also too, it's in here on this sheet.

[33:02] it is, yeah. It's in the 2 54. Yes. Yeah. Yep. And the

[33:06] 2 34. Right? Absolutely. Correct me if I'm wrong, but a another simple

[33:10] way of looking at this is with the 27 proposed budget

[33:15] we are looking at, and I'll

[33:19] convert the word fund balance to savings. We're looking to

[33:24] see what we're gonna be able to put into savings or need to take out of savings to, to accomplish

[33:28] the work that's done. Yes. Done. Yeah. Just a, just a simpler aspect

[33:32] of it. Yep. Okay. Well, I appreciate those answers

[33:36] and thank you for the giving me the time and I look forward to meeting with you guys so that I

[33:41] can have a simplified answer to give to other people,

[33:45] ms. Bryson. Yes. Um, my question has to do, and and

[33:49] I apologize mr. Bird, if I misunderstood what you said. Um, I, I see

[33:53] our total expense a little over 145 million for the proposed budget.

[33:58] and I thought you said that we didn't spend any more than we did

[34:02] in 2025. And I compare 2025, it's about 119 million.

[34:06] so I must have misunderstood you because it looks like we are spending more money.

[34:12] um, I I don't recall if I said 2025, forgive

[34:16] me, but, um, I was, I I was, if I did,

[34:20] I meant to say in 2026. 26, okay. Yeah. Alright. And so,

[34:24] um, but we are, um, we are spending less

[34:29] than 2026 from a total town perspective. Yes. And I, I think a

[34:33] large part of that is our capital expense, especially the beach renourishment, which

[34:37] came from two sources, the bond as well as, um, yeah. And also in 26

[34:42] and the operating, um, we are coming down because we had the big

[34:46] go bond payment that we're making, right. Which is, uh,

[34:50] not gonna be repeated in 27, right? Right. And we'll see that when we get to the debt service

[34:55] fund. But I, I just wanna make sure, so maybe you said 25 or maybe I

[34:59] heard 25. I probably misspoke , forgive me. Okay. And I, I see the difference in expenditures

[35:03] there, and I had an asterisk beside of, uh, the two numbers in 2026

[35:08] relating back to what we just talked about. And that is the renourishment

[35:12] expenditures. Um, and, and I was wondering exactly where we were using

[35:16] the 19.9 million of fund balance. And I heard mr. Orlando say

[35:20] it's primarily in capital projects. That's yes, it is. I'll see that

[35:24] when we get to the capital fund, which we discuss next tuesday.

[35:29] and the way to look at it on that schedule, you've got

[35:33] 125 million in revenue and

[35:37] we're spending 90 million in operating, but we have

[35:41] 55 million in capital. Okay. So that's driving the,

[35:46] because we're using the surplus from revenue

[35:50] less operating, we're using more than that for

[35:54] the capital expenditures of the 55 million cip.

[35:58] and, and, and I think it's two slides over, so I'll save my question for the end, but it has to do

[36:03] with the, uh, the difference in, uh, transferring in and out comparing,

[36:07] uh, fy 27 to, uh, 26 projection

[36:11] and 24 and 25, primarily 24 and 25. But I'll wait two slides over for

[36:15] that question. Okay.

[36:22] okay. So, um, now we're kind of looking at a consolidated

[36:27] budget, which you saw this slide, uh, tuesday night.

[36:31] um, but we, we did a subtotal for the six major funds. So

[36:35] that's where you see the 1 74 in the original budget.

[36:40] and then one thing is, you know, we did our budget amendment this year.

[36:44] it was a big budget amendment. So, uh, we went from 1 74

[36:48] to 2 35, and then our six major fund

[36:53] number is 1 47, um, in 2027.

[36:57] and then we have the special revenues below that, which is showing as something

[37:01] that we're doing new. We did have actuals in 24 and 25 because

[37:06] that's what actually got booked on the general ledger, but we didn't budget

[37:12] those funds and we haven't in the past, so that's why it's zero in 2026.

[37:19] and the same logic on the expenditures. Um, and,

[37:24] but we will go through the funds specifically to walk through the

[37:28] changes that we've got and the funds themselves.

[37:34] and you want me to keep going? Sorry, that's where my questions are. If we could back up to those two

[37:38] previous slides. Go first go to revenues. So, um,

[37:44] where we have an fy 24, the actual special revenues fund a

[37:48] a little over 63,000,025, um, 71.5 million.

[37:53] and then if you look at expenditures, the numbers don't match. Um, so

[37:58] I'm, I'm not saying explain what happened in 24 and 25, but

[38:02] what I was trying to do when I saw those numbers appear, uh, before, uh,

[38:06] tuesday's meeting, um, I thought, well, can we compare those

[38:10] years to the proposed budget showing special revenues

[38:14] in and out? And, um, I, I don't think we can do that. I,

[38:18] I, I don't know why perhaps it was just a way of the way that the budget

[38:22] was handled in those years. Um, well, I would say that on the

[38:27] actuals, those are the actuals. So if

[38:31] we, in this regard, 63,000,024

[38:35] special revenues, we spent 59 million

[38:40] in expense, uh, sorry, right here.

[38:44] so we had a, let's say a surplus of 7 million. The reason why

[38:49] it balances in the budget is because

[38:53] we have to show a balanced budget, but the actuals are

[38:57] what the actuals are. So it, that's kind of how I would,

[39:01] I would say it from that perspective. So it

[39:06] showed in the budgets balance, but when the actuals came in,

[39:10] they were not balanced. And so what do we do then when it doesn't

[39:14] balance when the actuals come in? Well, we have the actuals

[39:18] flow through and we'll either have a fund balance or

[39:23] a fund balance surplus or a fund balance deficit that just, it

[39:27] will either increase or decrease the fund balance. Okay? As you

[39:31] look in 24, we were 18 million better in

[39:35] fund balance. And in 25 we were better by 20, almost

[39:40] 24 million in fund balance. So that just flows through

[39:44] with what actually happens. But when we budget, we have to have a balance budget.

[39:49] so we have the sources and uses of funds to make that happen, right?

[39:53] so if I compare the, the numbers of the revenues on and, and

[39:57] ms. Hunter, I do have numbers on my pages now. Uh, 26. If

[40:01] I compare revenues to expenditures on 27, pardon me, then

[40:06] for just taking fy 24 for an example, 184,

[40:10] uh, point almost four, but the expenditures were 166.

[40:15] so hence the increase in the fund balance of about 18 million.

[40:20] yes. Okay. Yep. So what what happens is when the actuals come in, that

[40:24] adds to the fund balance or, or decreases depending upon that's right. And

[40:28] we either had more revenue than the budget. 'cause when we would've done the 24 budget,

[40:32] it would've been balanced. So what happened in 24? We either spent

[40:37] less or we had more revenue come in, or more revenue. Probably both.

[40:41] yep. In that case, we can increase the fund balance. Okay, thank you.

[40:47] um, so we went through this on tuesday, just a example,

[40:52] illustration of our mills, excuse me. Um, and we're

[40:56] leaving those flat at 5.1 and 27. We just

[41:00] have a kind of historical view of coming from 5.9

[41:05] and 23 down to 5.5 and 24 from

[41:09] a debt perspective. And then also, um, on operating

[41:14] 17.2 to 15.9. But, um, and then from a total perspective,

[41:18] we're leaving those flat in this year's budget. And then our millage

[41:22] values, we spoke before on tuesday, the increase based

[41:26] upon the continued assessed valuation increases that happen.

[41:30] so we're projecting just under 1.4 million per mil. Okay. Ms.

[41:35] dunner? Yes. Um, if you could go back to the millage rate.

[41:40] so you have a footnote there that talks about why the millage rate

[41:44] went from 28 10 to 2310. And that was because you had an extra

[41:48] five for disaster recovery after matthew to collect some more funds

[41:53] to build up our fund reserves. Um, you should also,

[41:57] um, I think put footnotes as to the other reasons why in out years.

[42:01] so in 2024, it went from 2310 to 21 4.

[42:05] and that was because, um, we went through a property, uh, I'm

[42:09] sorry, um, uh, assessment of our homes. So beaufort

[42:13] county came out and reassessed all our homes. And with that,

[42:18] that meant the, as the assessed values went up and

[42:22] the, uh, property tax, uh, millage rate came down to help

[42:27] offset that increase. Now you also see

[42:31] that the, on the next slide where the, um,

[42:35] if you go to the next slide, uh, the millage values

[42:40] go up, but that's not what we is used for your property tax.

[42:44] and here's what I mean by that. When we went through the as reassessment,

[42:50] they cap it at 15%. So

[42:54] I, I went and looked at my bill, you

[42:58] know, and when I looked at the difference between my, uh, capped

[43:02] value and my appraised value, it was a lot of money. It was,

[43:07] it was a lot of money. And so what the county does is they cap it

[43:11] at 15% so that you're not overwhelmed by

[43:15] a large increase in your property taxes. And that stays flat for five years.

[43:20] so in my personal, uh, example, my

[43:25] property tax assessment for the town of hilton head has

[43:29] remained flat the last two years. And it will continue to stay flat

[43:33] unless I do two things. I sell my house and then the

[43:37] new person gets to pay the full value of the assessment assessment.

[43:41] or if I make a major renovation in my house, then the

[43:46] beaufort county will come out and reassess. I'm not sure exactly how that works if they

[43:50] take it all the way up or if it's the increase in what you renovated,

[43:54] but there is an impact there. So, um, I just wanna make that point

[43:58] 'cause I know there've been some questions about it. I would venture

[44:03] to guess that the majority of people are not, um, renovating

[44:07] their homes. I mean, I know people renovate their homes, but it's probably not the majority of people.

[44:12] and, um, and then those that sell end up, uh, picking up the full

[44:16] assessment amount. So I just thought that was important as we

[44:20] go through this. Um, for clarity purposes. Yeah, thank

[44:24] you. Oh,

[44:28] property tax bill example, um, which we went through the other night, but,

[44:33] and what we have highlighted here is what, uh, the town gets on a

[44:37] typical property tax bill for 4% and then 6%

[44:41] and on the 4% it's around 20% of that bill. Most

[44:45] of it goes to the county. Okay.

[44:50] general fund, we went through kind

[44:54] of a highlight of this on um, tuesday.

[44:59] um, I'm gonna, we've got a couple of changes we

[45:03] made here. Um, we, we have now

[45:08] to kind of be consistent with what we spoke about before on

[45:12] our categories. We have our operating revenues as a subtotal

[45:17] and then we have any use of unbalance and then we have transfers

[45:21] in to go with the flow we had before

[45:25] and of the definitions. And then we added in a

[45:30] column here for a variance to 26

[45:35] oh uh, a variance to

[45:39] the 26 projection. And the reason why is

[45:43] the prior schedule showed that variance percentage

[45:48] to the amended budget, which made it look like it was growing quite

[45:52] a bit. But when we look at our, how we projected

[45:56] revenues for the 27 budget, we based that based upon

[46:01] what we are seeing happen in 26 from a projection perspective.

[46:06] so if you look at our growth rates here on the right, um,

[46:10] you know, property taxes, we have a two, well it's 1.9,

[46:15] but we, we factored in around 2% valuation growth in

[46:19] property taxes. We took a conservative view on that local accommodation

[46:23] tax, 1.5 business licenses at one.

[46:28] we reset permit fees down to what we

[46:32] had budgeted in the past, which is 1.8 million we're having this

[46:36] year we're almost $3 million. So we are not budgeting

[46:42] that level in 2027. Um, 'cause that's really related

[46:46] to construction activity. So we kind of set that back down from

[46:50] a conservative perspective. Um, and the other major item

[46:54] there is related to ems, it's hard to kind

[46:59] go through. I did it again, it's kind of hard to

[47:03] kind of looked at a historical trend of ems. So we, we took it,

[47:08] you know, it's 2.7 million this year. It's 2.2 5,000,024

[47:13] and 2.6 and 25. So we kind of took an average of that.

[47:17] it's kind of hard to predict. Hopefully that doesn't really increase. Um,

[47:22] and then our investment income and just across the funds you

[47:26] will see our investment income coming down. Um, it, you know, it

[47:30] we're projecting 2 million, oh, 16 to 69

[47:34] we budgeted one five. So it looks really like a high increase

[47:38] from the budget from a year ago. But from what's actually happening today,

[47:43] um, we are projecting a slow decrease in

[47:47] interest rates as well as well, we're using some of our money, so we're not

[47:51] gonna have as much money that we're getting a return on. So that was something to

[47:55] highlight from a change from what you saw the other night regarding the general

[48:00] fund. And then the transfers in. Um, we have our beach

[48:04] preservation, which we spoke about. That's the big change in transfers.

[48:08] then for the general as well as the str coming through at 1.3 million.

[48:13] we did talk about state a tax as well, um, that is coming

[48:17] down that that's set by the state and they, this year they're taking 15%,

[48:23] uh, off of what we that's collected and

[48:28] distributing that to other counties in the states. So, um,

[48:32] we are seeing that trend come down. So we are budgeting continued

[48:37] decreases in that number. If you look at, sorry, I did it again, but if you look

[48:41] at 24 or 4.6 million, three and a half,

[48:45] three, I mean it, you know, we, we are seeing continued

[48:50] reductions in this number that the state is using in other, in municipalities,

[48:55] right? And I think that's an important part because the question was asked, the question was asked

[49:00] why is sc at tax going down when local was going up? And it's

[49:04] the state law that allows that distribution based upon the formula they

[49:08] set at the beginning of their year. So, um, hence our

[49:12] dollars are, are not a hundred percent received back in that regard.

[49:19] so what you're saying is basically the state changed it and that

[49:23] resulted in us getting less. Right. Okay. Right.

[49:27] may I, may I ask another question on that form of the page before?

[49:31] yes. Okay. So one of the things that stands out to me

[49:36] that I find bothersome with regard to revenues

[49:40] is on the left hand side line, all of those great sources that we have

[49:45] and you move across and everything makes sense.

[49:49] you get to the grants portion and there's

[49:53] nothing, it's a zero. I'm bothered by that and it

[49:58] kind of give me some background on why it is we have no grant revenue coming

[50:02] in. A lot of it's due to where we book grants

[50:06] that do come in. They usually don't get booked to the general fund

[50:10] and they might go to the capital fund or special revenues fund under special revenues.

[50:15] so it's really where they're located, not necessarily,

[50:19] um, where they're booked based upon the grant. That's why.

[50:24] okay. So that makes sense. So if someone's looking at that, that I can simply

[50:28] say, go to the fund and look, I can show you where there's

[50:32] been grant activity and grant dollars that have been received are,

[50:37] uh, are documented in these places and I'd be able to show them

[50:41] that and we'll see that as we're moving forward. Correct. But I would,

[50:45] yes, ma'am. But I would say that in general we don't really

[50:49] budget unknown grants. So we, we try to take a conservative

[50:54] view when budgeting grants because I always say unless we have it in

[50:58] writing, um, I would hate to base the year based upon that

[51:02] unknown. Doesn't mean we're not chasing grants. But as far

[51:06] as that goes, it's just a matter of taking a more conservative view from

[51:10] a budgeting perspective. So where would I be able to see what

[51:14] grants that we have received that the grant writer and the efforts that

[51:18] are being made? And I know that there're considerable or where would

[51:23] I be able to see the re awards that we've, that we see? We'll, we'll

[51:27] see some in the capital fund on tuesday and then we'll see some

[51:31] in the special revenues today. And I will say, um,

[51:35] our grants team, um, you know, has spent a lot of time with

[51:39] fema working through getting the fema reimbursement. You know,

[51:43] we've, we projected 6 million of fema that's not in the general fund

[51:47] here, but we did project 6 million in fema, uh, in our budget

[51:51] for this year, or actually seven. And then we reforecasted 6 million this year,

[51:56] 1 million in 27. We think we're gonna have upside of

[52:00] probably 4 million related to that. And there's been a lot of work done

[52:04] with our cip team and with the state on getting those

[52:09] fema reimbursed, a lot of calories spent. And so I would just say

[52:13] that there, there has been, um, success, very

[52:17] much success on that one big project to help out with our beach

[52:21] renourishment that I, I would say our grants team has been doing a great job on.

[52:26] so, so are those grants fema then, are those those go all the way back

[52:30] to irma and matthew irma. Matthew and dorian. Dorian

[52:34] and dorian, yes. So not that, so I guess what I'm trying to get

[52:38] at is what is I, I'd like to see what the current, um, activity

[52:43] is for something more recent that the team has been working

[52:47] on that's productive to adding to the grants. Um,

[52:51] line revenue line. I'll, I'll jump in here. Um, when

[52:55] dave says grant team, he means grant administrator, um, a person, right?

[53:00] and yes, their time is spent with the cdbg administration

[53:04] of the grants, um, as well as the fema. I wouldn't call it so

[53:08] much reimbursement, but the fema agreement we have. And then as we

[53:12] know, in past years the grants were, were elevated from arpa, from

[53:16] fema and, and that's not shown on the books. What I will do between now

[53:20] and in a few days is send to town council, um, the recent

[53:25] grant report that shows the grants that we're administrating. Because I always say this,

[53:29] getting a grant is a lot easier than administrating the grant and especially when we're trying

[53:34] to get how much is the total fema that we're chasing $12 million. You broke it down a lot.

[53:38] but I will say that that to me is, is more important as chasing money.

[53:42] we don't know we'll get versus the money we believe were deserved. That $12 million,

[53:47] um, has taken a lot more time on this beach renourishment and on

[53:51] this storm, um, on this storm agreement we have in place. So I understand what you're

[53:55] asking for. Um, I want to provide that clarity. Um, we're pushing,

[54:00] but not always on new, but on administrating and taking care of the ones we

[54:04] have. So we don't lose some of those dollars we think we, we we deserve.

[54:08] so, um, I'll send a report. Um, we've also, we're pretty close

[54:12] to fulfilling another grant, um, on some roads and some other projects

[54:16] pathways. So I think that's a, a good question. I'll share that report.

[54:21] yeah. Okay. So one of, to just make two, two comments. One,

[54:25] I I understand how difficult it is. At one time I was the, uh,

[54:30] director of, uh, grants for large university and writing them

[54:34] and then managing them and reporting on them to the federal government

[54:39] is very time consuming and very detail oriented and you cannot make mistakes. So

[54:43] I understand the level of work and I do know also it's not a team, it's one

[54:47] person. But, um, I wanted to follow the lead of our, our finance director in

[54:51] his, in his language. So I understand that that is time consuming

[54:56] and, and the rest I do have and I also want to,

[55:00] uh, acknowledge that our grants administrator worked

[55:04] with me and others, um, to make sure that we support,

[55:08] uh, secured the opioid, um, grant money

[55:12] that was made available and that we now are able to use in a very

[55:16] highly productive way right here on hilton a. And that is the

[55:21] significance achievement across the board. And she was instrumental in

[55:25] making that happen. I'm just moving forward,

[55:29] it's a source of revenue that I would like to see

[55:33] more activity. So that's all. And if there is activity that

[55:37] I'm not aware of, I just wanna know what it is and where it's been documented. That's

[55:41] all. Absolutely. And in that I'll show that, I'll show how we're playing offense as well as administrating,

[55:46] uh, affiliated agency and atac and all that stuff. So I think that comprehensive look at that's

[55:50] a a great question. Thank you. Thanks for bringing that up. 'cause the, the atex administration

[55:55] from grants is a lot as well. Yes. So it is

[55:59] correct. It's alright ms. Bryson. Yes. So just

[56:03] a couple things. I think it's been said before, but it bears repeating under transfers in beach

[56:07] preservation fee. The numbers for, or the number 4 26

[56:12] shows it was a lot lower and now it's a lot higher for 27 and that's

[56:16] the beach renourishment. That's where that money went in 2026.

[56:20] but we have more funds now to do other things for um, our beaches,

[56:24] our beach parks. And that's shown up in the great increase, uh, during

[56:29] fy 27. The other thing I would note is when you compare

[56:33] what's proposed for fy 27 to fy 26,

[56:37] there's about a $2 million increase in that, um, in revenues.

[56:42] um, right. And so when we look at this slide here, we kind

[56:46] of did an accounting of where we're spending money to

[56:50] support, um, our beaches in a town perspective. And

[56:55] that nu negative number there is what we're adjusting

[56:59] down, just to show you how much we're spending now on beach that we're not recovering.

[57:04] 'cause the budget's 2 48. Um, so if I took a,

[57:08] I don't know, the projection of 2397, um, I, it's

[57:13] kind of more in line with what the 24 66 is, I would say. Yeah.

[57:17] I'm glad I could lead you to the next slide. Oh, , thank you.

[57:25] it goes to all the funds. It's an investment income,

[57:31] uh, back here. An investment income.

[57:36] yeah,

[57:41] fluctuates. Um, you know, if you look at 24

[57:45] and 25, we were around 2 million, two and a half million.

[57:49] it was really budgeted conservatively for this year, but we're ending up to be about

[57:53] 2.2 million. And so, um, you know, we,

[57:57] we work with our treasury to make sure we're getting the returns on our

[58:02] capital that we can invest. And so, um, it does

[58:06] fluctuate, but I think it's more normalized now when you look at

[58:10] 26 projection versus 27 versus the 26

[58:14] budget to 27, if that makes 'cause we're we're

[58:19] showing a minor decrease of 108,000 from 26

[58:23] to 27 from a projection perspective, which

[58:28] that's just in the general fund. If you look for the town, you're gonna look at

[58:32] like $9 million or the number. Yeah.

[58:39] okay.

[58:47] okay. We're gonna keep moving on the general fund. And we went through

[58:51] these on tuesday night. The different categories,

[58:55] um, just for the property taxes we talked about, the millage is remaining

[58:59] the same. Local accommodation taxes, 1.5%

[59:03] growth business licenses, 1% growth, beach services

[59:07] and parking 650,000. We didn't book any,

[59:12] we, we booked six 50, we spent six 50. So it's about a

[59:16] net to the town perspective, but we didn't really book any changes up

[59:20] or down for beach parking and the budget. Um, and then ems

[59:24] really the one change there we do have outside of the average we took

[59:28] from the prior years is the change in the, uh, billing based upon the

[59:33] medicaid fee schedule that we're doing and transfers in.

[59:37] we just talked about beach preservation, which uh, is two and a half million

[59:41] and this year, um, hospitality tax 6.5 million,

[59:45] that's consistent with what we did in 2026.

[59:49] our state accommodation tax is a formula as

[59:53] we show the, uh, 25,000 and then 5%

[59:58] of the remaining revenue. Um, and then the town's atex

[1:00:02] po policy of 20% from there. And um, and then our

[1:00:06] short term rental, which is our, our new str be

[1:00:10] coming through in the calendar fiscal year 2027.

[1:00:21] uh, from a total state perspective, no. Yeah,

[1:00:25] but for us it's coming down.

[1:00:33] yeah.

[1:00:38] from an expenditure perspective, um, we kept this consistent

[1:00:42] from an expense side. We are looking at budgeted

[1:00:47] amended budget expense to the 2027 budget

[1:00:51] expense. Um, not the projection. 'cause I, that's more important

[1:00:55] from a budget expense pers perspective. And so we've

[1:01:00] got a schedule that breaks out the $7.3 million

[1:01:04] growth year over year. Um, I'm gonna jump to that right now.

[1:01:08] so this is a, I call it a walk, but it's uh, our

[1:01:12] variance schedule to show the

[1:01:16] buckets that are really driving the change. Um, the first thing I would say,

[1:01:21] I guess I could start from the bottom up. We are going up 7.3 million,

[1:01:25] but 2.9 million of that's going into fund balance. That's the

[1:01:30] proposal, that's the surplus that we have in our general fund

[1:01:34] that's being booked as an expense. So, but that's really,

[1:01:38] um, it's a good thing. It's booked as expense, but it's a good thing.

[1:01:42] so really from a total expense perspective, we are,

[1:01:46] uh, going up $4.3 million here

[1:01:50] and 2.8 million of that is in personnel. Um, we

[1:01:54] talked the other day, we've got our 4% in for performance

[1:01:59] merit, uh, up to 4%, uh, performance based merit

[1:02:03] class in comp study implementation, and then we have

[1:02:07] a full year of the str positions, um, for

[1:02:11] the fiscal year. 27 better?

[1:02:16] yes. Oh, okay. Lots of people. Okay.

[1:02:20] . Um, I wanna talk about the class and comp study.

[1:02:24] so, um, I'm familiar with this. We did this,

[1:02:29] uh, routinely. Uh, it is really a best practice to go in

[1:02:33] and, uh, do a study in regards to your compensation program

[1:02:37] to make sure that you are, are not overpaying and conversely

[1:02:42] that you're not underpaying. And so I appreciate that we do this.

[1:02:46] it is a common practice in in business to do that. Um, I

[1:02:50] know that you, um, had said that you would be coming to us,

[1:02:54] uh, the finance committee, I believe you said, uh, to share,

[1:02:59] uh, what that study looks like, what it means, uh, what the impacts are,

[1:03:03] et cetera. Uh, and I know that beaufort county has also recently completed

[1:03:08] one. Um, they called it a step program. Um,

[1:03:12] I'm not sure exactly. I mean, steps in regards to,

[1:03:17] uh, being able to move up in regards to compensation. So it'll be interesting to

[1:03:21] see what approach was taken, how the study was done, and,

[1:03:25] and all of the details associated with that. So I look forward to seeing that

[1:03:30] ms. Becker. So along, along those same

[1:03:34] lines, um, yes, we had done one of these in just a

[1:03:38] few years ago, and, and it was helpful. We do have, um,

[1:03:43] we do wanna be competitive, making sure that we're hiring, um, and

[1:03:47] attracting the most qualified and professional, um,

[1:03:52] employees out there. And, and I always say that the best place to work is hilton

[1:03:56] head island. And this is one of the reasons why, because we do try to stay

[1:04:01] competitive like that. Um, I do have a, another question,

[1:04:05] though. Um, it has to do with another study or

[1:04:09] consultant that I, I think I had heard about previously.

[1:04:13] um, and it is that listed in here, the leadership development.

[1:04:18] I see it. Um, can you tell us a little bit about

[1:04:22] that and how often that will be included in budgets

[1:04:26] moving forward, or,

[1:04:33] yeah. Yes, ma'am. That's something I put in the budget this year. It's

[1:04:38] not a, it's not an annual recurring, uh, amount. Uh, I've, I've put

[1:04:42] it in the budget. I have not of course, procured or hired any leadership

[1:04:46] development, but I, but I would like to, and I believe it's time that we

[1:04:50] put some sort of leadership program in place, not just for the senior leadership team,

[1:04:55] uh, that, that is, uh, works closely with me, but our managers

[1:04:59] and supervisors throughout the entire organization, including fire rescue and including

[1:05:03] the non-fire rescue employees. So while, while the program's not scoped,

[1:05:07] the, the estimated amount is, is, and it's,

[1:05:12] it's clearly asked for in the budget. And I wouldn't say it's a one time,

[1:05:16] but it's, uh, not a recurring every year amount.

[1:05:21] okay. So I wanted to, uh, so in that regard, congratulate

[1:05:25] you on the fact that mark, you're looking forward to developing

[1:05:29] a very highly skilled and, um, uh, collaborative,

[1:05:34] uh, cohesive team of leaders there. You

[1:05:38] have a great team as it is. And one might think, well, my gosh, they're the best

[1:05:42] bet there that exists, but we can always, um, learn and do more.

[1:05:46] staying within the, um, pillar of excellence that hi had has,

[1:05:50] um, set for itself. I wanted to make sure that it was highlighted and

[1:05:55] that, um, everyone knows the commitment we have to our staff

[1:05:59] and to providing excellence, um, through our leadership and through

[1:06:03] throughout the organization. And I also wanted to confirm that it wasn't a,

[1:06:08] a year to year expense. So thank you for both of those things. Thank you,

[1:06:12] ms. Becker. Okay. Jumping down to

[1:06:16] the other operating expense items that are driving, uh,

[1:06:20] our change in 2027, we called out the

[1:06:24] one-time items here that are, um,

[1:06:28] uh, I'll call it significant changes from 26.

[1:06:32] um, first one being commercial insurance. Uh, this is the quote for

[1:06:37] this next fiscal year. So this is the real number. It's going up 8.5%

[1:06:42] to $1,167,000. Um, our

[1:06:47] heritage, we are increasing for the banner, banner hanging

[1:06:51] and removal. Uh, for that, for that function, for that, uh, event,

[1:06:55] our public safety consultant, we put in a hundred thousand dollars

[1:06:59] in the budget for 2027. Legal, legal

[1:07:04] is going up in this category, but we're, all we're

[1:07:08] doing is consolidating legal from other areas of the town

[1:07:13] into one, uh, into one department in the general fund. Um,

[1:07:17] so that's, that's really driving the change in this area. Uh,

[1:07:21] we have our election in november. Uh, we are looking to bring on an

[1:07:25] a da consultant, um, to do an evaluation of our,

[1:07:29] all of our a da, uh, all of our facilities, uh, public facilities

[1:07:33] for a da compliance, um, which is something that, uh, is planned for

[1:07:37] the next year. We just spoke about the leadership development. There are some technology

[1:07:42] investments being made for gis, um, and for fire

[1:07:46] rescue, well actually, uh, dispatch for radio software

[1:07:50] upgrade. Those were the big changes. If you look at everything else,

[1:07:54] it's flat. And, and that's really what we wanted to show there.

[1:07:59] what was really driving that change. Um, when you look at

[1:08:03] contracted public safety, it's actually going down, but some

[1:08:07] of that's just due to trash and recycling that is coming from

[1:08:11] the current contract for shore beach to I

[1:08:15] two recycling I two. Okay. And so that

[1:08:19] I think is gonna go up into the facilities, uh, organization.

[1:08:24] and then on grants, well, we have our affiliated agencies, which

[1:08:28] that was, uh, approved, um, for $373,000

[1:08:33] increase from 2026. And then last, we have

[1:08:37] our transfers. And so one is our, uh,

[1:08:41] gullah geechee transfer for salaries and benefits for,

[1:08:46] uh, 3 59. Um, we were taking a reduction of a

[1:08:50] transfer we did in housing, um, of 1 97. And

[1:08:54] then we are transferring money to special revenue for

[1:08:58] some grants expenditures that we're gonna have to, to true

[1:09:03] all that up. So at the end of the day, we just wanted to do a one pager to kind

[1:09:07] of break out what's happening within the general fund expense change

[1:09:11] from 26.

[1:09:15] um, mayor, if no one else, can I jump in? Go ahead.

[1:09:19] go ahead. Okay. Thank you. Uh, okay. Thank you. Probably should have waited on

[1:09:23] the other one as well. And I apologize if I had interrupted when, while you were going through

[1:09:28] the list, but, um, starting at, at the top, the heritage classic

[1:09:32] foundation, which I fully support, um, the additional funds

[1:09:36] that we gave them, uh, in the past as they've

[1:09:40] become a signature event, event, the amount of,

[1:09:45] uh, publicity, the amount of worldwide, uh,

[1:09:50] views that we get from that event is well worth the $400,000.

[1:09:55] what I'm bothered by here is that it looks like to me

[1:09:59] that this has become something. And, and when we, it's come in the past, it's been a special

[1:10:03] request and the ta sitting town council evaluates

[1:10:07] it and makes the decision, and it provides those additional

[1:10:12] dollars. What it looks like here, to me is it's a predetermined

[1:10:16] decision. And I'm very uncomfortable with it. And I know I've highlighted another

[1:10:21] instance, and unfortunately, if that's space, if I'm correct,

[1:10:25] and this is an , the council

[1:10:29] is going to pre-approve those dollars. It's another reason I'm

[1:10:33] gonna have to vote. No. Um, that is, that should not, that should not be.

[1:10:38] so that's one. And as we move down, um,

[1:10:42] I'm glad that we're doing the a da, um, we have, uh,

[1:10:46] been improving the ability for those who are moving,

[1:10:50] have some mobility issues, hearing issues, whatever the case

[1:10:54] may be across the island. And that's been a very good thing. But

[1:10:58] we've been doing it piecemeal. And I think that looking at island as a whole

[1:11:03] in terms of that is, is a very good idea. Um,

[1:11:07] so there's that. The, um, let's

[1:11:11] see. I'm trying to see is the spiritual thing. Um,

[1:11:16] the other one I'm, and I hope I'm not missing one, but if I am, I'll talk about it some other point.

[1:11:20] affiliated agencies is where I'm gonna go to at this moment when affiliated

[1:11:25] agencies come flow, or it's always interesting

[1:11:29] to read through their paperwork, to listen to their presentations and the discussion

[1:11:34] that fna has with, with those applicants.

[1:11:39] and then there's a yes or no made by

[1:11:43] the finance and administrative committee, which is a subcommittee of

[1:11:47] the full town council, but I'm bothered by is that doesn't come

[1:11:51] back through the full town council for a vote of, of the seven of us.

[1:11:56] and it shows up instead, um, as part

[1:12:00] of our budget. And I think that the process is off.

[1:12:05] I think that this needs to come forward as

[1:12:09] a separate issue after it hits f and a. They are not full town council,

[1:12:14] and it should come to the full town council for a vote before it

[1:12:18] shows up in our budget. Whether we agree with it or not. I'm not saying that I

[1:12:22] have an issue with it per se, although a discussion might be interesting

[1:12:26] to have, but I would like to see that process changed and not an assumption

[1:12:31] made. So, so there's

[1:12:35] that. If you go back to the other screen for me,

[1:12:43] um, and I don't think maybe I missed it, the transfers.

[1:12:48] um, I will have, when we get to, um, the transfers below, I assume

[1:12:52] you would rather I wait until we get to those areas to discuss those items.

[1:13:00] uh, we can, or if, if there's comments you would, I mean, these are the ones that

[1:13:04] we're doing from the general fund to other funds, so I,

[1:13:09] I think if you would wanna talk about 'em, that's fine. Okay.

[1:13:13] so, um, I have, um, some

[1:13:18] concerns with regard to the transfers

[1:13:22] from the top, um, with the gullah geechee historic, uh, neighborhood

[1:13:26] community, uh, development corporation, um, there

[1:13:30] is a almost $400,000 transfer

[1:13:35] in that covers salaries and benefits for two employees. Um,

[1:13:39] I'd like to hear a little bit more about that if you wanna discuss it. I know

[1:13:43] what I'm asking because I've asked it before, and, um,

[1:13:48] I think it's worthy of a conversation, uh,

[1:13:52] doubt or when we get to that, um, that fund, however

[1:13:56] you wanna do it.

[1:14:00] I can answer that one. I, I would prefer that, and I'm taking some, some notes

[1:14:05] that we just park the cdc conversation until we get to the cdc

[1:14:09] account, but we just earmark that there is a transfer

[1:14:13] from general fund for salaries into,

[1:14:18] in, in, into the cdc, and you'll see that show up there and we can talk about that good

[1:14:22] with that. And so I'll, I'll, I'll hold off on that and the same will be true

[1:14:26] then for housing. So, um, I just, we'll make a note here

[1:14:30] and we'll talk about it in a bit. Thank you. Okay.

[1:14:35] um, hang, hang on. Um, uh, ms. Hunter? Yes. I just had a

[1:14:39] question about the a da. So in, in regards to facilities,

[1:14:43] so we do have some affiliated agencies where, uh, we,

[1:14:47] we own the property. Um, is it gonna extend

[1:14:51] to those pieces as well? Okay. Yes, ma'am. All right. Just wanted to

[1:14:56] make sure. Thank you. Absolutely. Mr. Brown. Yeah. So, um,

[1:15:01] couple things. One, I I, I just wanna remind us all that, that this

[1:15:05] is a workshop. I think this is an opportunity for us to work

[1:15:09] okay. All here collectively. So if, if we

[1:15:14] want to make changes, because my understanding this is still

[1:15:19] draft form, although we've had first reading, we have opportunity to change. Alright?

[1:15:23] so I'm make sure that we understand that. Um, the, the,

[1:15:27] the line item that, that I wanted to bring some attention to was the

[1:15:31] heritage foundation as well. Um, I'm, I'm understanding the additional

[1:15:36] 65,000 is something that we will be administering internally.

[1:15:40] am I correct on that? Okay. Yes, sir. And the other part of it is,

[1:15:44] um, you know, maybe they haven't closed their books out yet.

[1:15:49] all right. And we, we heard when they, uh, when they came to see us this

[1:15:53] year, that things have changed, um, from one year to another. Okay.

[1:15:57] and this is a budget, so there's a good chance that they could come back

[1:16:01] and ask for less, or they come back and ask for more. We, we, we don't know

[1:16:06] until they figure things out. But what I would like to do, mr. Mayor,

[1:16:10] uh, is appropriate that sooner than later

[1:16:14] they come to us with sort of an after action report,

[1:16:19] just to help us understand what went well and what

[1:16:23] did not go so well. Um, they are responsible for

[1:16:27] this event, but I mean, I can tell you for sure that I've heard some

[1:16:31] comments about the event. Okay. Um, positive, but there's some negatives.

[1:16:35] okay. And I wanna make sure that we have the opportunity to hear

[1:16:39] from them what they heard, what they understand, and us share the same, particularly since we are

[1:16:43] contributing to 400 k at this moment. Um, but if there

[1:16:47] needs to be adjustments, at least prepare us now to start thinking

[1:16:52] about what that may or may not be. So that was my request. Okay. Thank

[1:16:56] you. Well, if, if, if, if no one else is

[1:17:00] jumping in to alex's point, which I guess kind of speaks

[1:17:04] to what I was asking, um, I

[1:17:09] would like to hear other people's opinion as to whether or not it's appropriate that we are just

[1:17:13] now budgeting into our, or putting into our budget

[1:17:17] an assumption of a, the dollar amount that might be requested

[1:17:22] and whether or not collectively the town council would

[1:17:26] feel it appropriate to, to provide that or perhaps more,

[1:17:30] or whatever the case may be. But I'm very uncomfortable with

[1:17:35] building it into our budget. I would rather have a, a request made to us so

[1:17:39] that we can hear the information as alex just described it, and, and

[1:17:43] make an evaluation, um, at that time.

[1:17:49] so I, I would like to hear what other people think. I mean, I, I know I talk in a d speak

[1:17:54] in a different way, and I present ideas. And if I don't stop, I guess, and,

[1:17:58] and make you make a point of saying, you know, these are things not just me.

[1:18:02] I wanna hear what other people are talking about. It is a workshop. And, and I'm not

[1:18:06] just here to, to hear myself speak. I would really wanna hear what other people have to,

[1:18:10] to say about these things as well, because it is our budget. And this budget,

[1:18:15] we are as a, as a council, as a government, we are

[1:18:19] the 38,000 plus thereabouts rep, uh, con

[1:18:24] residents of the island. And so we should be having a conversation,

[1:18:28] not just talking to yourselves, talking. And sometimes that's what I feel like happens.

[1:18:34] ms. Becker, mr. Orlando is gonna address this real quick. Thank you.

[1:18:38] uh, I, I would just say there's an option. I, I completely understand what, what ms. Becker

[1:18:43] is asking for it. It is, and again, this is, this has been trying to be a shift

[1:18:47] this year in the budget to show clarity in what we're contemplating,

[1:18:52] right? And so your options are this, leave the 400 as is,

[1:18:57] or don't show the 400 night, right now, take the $400,000

[1:19:01] and put it in the general fund fund balance, and that when the rbc,

[1:19:05] when they come back to ask, you can make a decision. And then the then, but,

[1:19:09] but in, in addition to the agreement, we would need a budget amendment, right? Two readings.

[1:19:13] and, and, and I'm actually fine with that because I, I don't like the idea of, um,

[1:19:18] even cutting them short, right? By putting 400,000 in the budget

[1:19:22] would maybe, you know, and I know that we've, we've, we have done this for years. Um,

[1:19:27] so I, you know, it's not taking you out, it's just real, it's journal entry within the

[1:19:31] system to move it out of there into the general fund. Yes, sir. We've done it different ways in, in

[1:19:35] past here, so I'm fine, I'm fine with that. Le leave the 65,000

[1:19:40] because that's, those are the banners and the posts and the, and the labor.

[1:19:45] so just weigh okay with that. Oh, I'm comfortable with that approach. That's,

[1:19:49] that's fine. You can do it either way. You could leave the 400 in and then always add a budget

[1:19:53] amendment for more. Uh, I don't know that we'd be paying less, but I, I'm comfortable

[1:19:58] removing it. The 65,000. I did have a question because the banners have been hung

[1:20:02] before, or at least the last couple of years that I can remember. 'cause I remember seeing them and going

[1:20:06] and telling you how wonderful they look. Um, so is this something

[1:20:10] that we have paid for in the last couple of years? It's how many years have

[1:20:15] we done? So it, so is this just a matter of taking it out

[1:20:19] of one area and assigning it to, uh,

[1:20:23] heritage? Yes. So I call that a shift. We call that a shift in lift. Uh, yes. You

[1:20:28] know, so we're just moving it, it is to show the transparency of what we are supporting.

[1:20:32] yes. I believe it was in the facilities department, under, under events

[1:20:36] or, or or wherever it was like that. And we just wanted to be be clear since,

[1:20:41] since, you know, because here here's a little bit of my philosophy. In past

[1:20:45] years, we have now, we go to first reading, we have a couple workshops,

[1:20:49] we have public hearings, and then in the middle of the year when we do

[1:20:54] a budget amendment for the things that we know are going to happen, we don't have public

[1:20:58] hearings and we don't have workshops, and we don't have that full disclosure and

[1:21:02] transparency of where the dollars are going. So when, when we put the

[1:21:06] 400 in the, in the budget placeholder for this year, knowing

[1:21:10] it would come to town council with an agreement. 'cause that is, that is the, the way the agreement's

[1:21:14] structured year to year. We just said, let's just put the 60 5k

[1:21:18] for banners in there so people do see you included. And the

[1:21:23] community knows the investment we're making from a tax use

[1:21:27] and whatnot into that rbc fund. So that, that,

[1:21:31] that hence the shift, hence it all in one place. Mr. Brown. Yeah.

[1:21:36] so I, I don't wanna ultra complicate this,

[1:21:40] but I guess I, I, I am struggling a little bit with

[1:21:44] only showing 60 5k under the heritage classic foundation line. I

[1:21:48] mean, I, again, it's a budget pick any line up here,

[1:21:53] we're gonna put a number there, and at some point we may have to amend

[1:21:57] it. Um, but I, I don't want to give the public impression right, that we are

[1:22:01] cutting it. Right. So I, I struggle with that a little bit.

[1:22:06] I'd agree with that. And I dunno, we've ever, we've never actually budgeted for it though.

[1:22:10] correct. Mark, it's never been a light item. It's gonna request and we respond to it.

[1:22:14] and I hear what you're saying with regard to this may

[1:22:19] be a more transparent way of doing it, but I also don't think that we

[1:22:23] have the level of, and I'm not by any means saying that

[1:22:27] it's not a worthy, a worthy cause and good

[1:22:31] amount of money and maybe more money, but it's

[1:22:35] the commitment to it without having the request for it.

[1:22:39] and then as alex had correctly pointed out some of the,

[1:22:43] um, the look back, you know, the day after, uh,

[1:22:48] what was good, what was bad, what'll change, and some of those metrics that I think that

[1:22:52] we should know about before we commit ourselves to 400 or 500

[1:22:57] or a million dollars or 300 million, it's just,

[1:23:01] it's just for me, putting ourselves on the line

[1:23:05] saying we're gonna do something without knowing what it is that we're

[1:23:10] committing other people to. I, I'm not comfortable with it. And I've heard other people suggest

[1:23:14] that as well. Yeah. So if I might mark, suggest that, um, maybe

[1:23:18] we change the verbiage from heritage classic foundation, because that's indicating

[1:23:22] the actual foundation for funding, and that's not what we're really talking about

[1:23:26] on this at this point in time with the 65,000,

[1:23:33] how do you feel about that?

[1:23:38] I'm, I'm interested in what, I'm interested in what others have to say, because again,

[1:23:45] if we put in a zero, it's gotta come back to town council

[1:23:49] to have a discussion about what it's going to be. If you put it at 400,

[1:23:53] you still have to have a conversation down the road about what it's actually going to be. Again,

[1:23:57] it's just a budget. Um, it's a, it is a placeholder hold to

[1:24:01] some degree. Um, and, you know, I, I'd welcome the rest of council

[1:24:06] to, to sort of weigh in on this. Again, I'm okay with the 60 5k,

[1:24:10] particularly since we've already been spending it. And I'm also comfortable

[1:24:14] with saying out loud to the public that we are going to support this event. I'm

[1:24:18] just asking that the folks show up at fna

[1:24:22] sooner than later to give, give us a after action report. Okay. That's, that's all.

[1:24:27] we can work, we can work on that. I I, I do know they're still counting the money probably. So, yeah. And

[1:24:31] the bills, any ms. Bryson? Yeah, sure. Um,

[1:24:36] I, I just looked at our ordinance. I don't see it as a line item in our ordinance. Um, so

[1:24:40] if we're talking about a line item, it's not in the ordinance itself. Um, and, and

[1:24:44] what I was curious about is what's been our practice? Have we included this somewhere

[1:24:48] in, in the budget materials, or has it not been included, or

[1:24:52] is it included in our budget amendment? At some point, I

[1:24:56] believe la forgive me, I don't have what, what you're looking at right there in front of

[1:25:00] me, but last year, I believe it was in the original budget, because it doesn't show up to you in

[1:25:05] the, uh, in the amended, but it, but years prior, it wasn't in the budget.

[1:25:09] and coming on board here, I would always ask the question, well, if we're

[1:25:13] have this agreement, and the agreement reads that if the rbc

[1:25:18] heritage has a title sponsor that the town will provide

[1:25:22] a sponsorship, why aren't we budgeting it? Why are we pretending it's a mid-year?

[1:25:27] but, and so we had those philosophical budget structure questions last year,

[1:25:31] I believe it was in the original and

[1:25:35] after years prior, it was a budget amendment. Yeah. And, and for instance, my

[1:25:39] island recreation, we have a number that we put in there in our budget, but it

[1:25:43] could change based on the request. So we do put a number in there to show

[1:25:48] that there, we, we anticipate some expenditure for certain organizations,

[1:25:52] and that shows, uh, what we plan and think we're going to spend.

[1:25:57] so it, it seems as though it, if if we have the others in there,

[1:26:01] then this belongs in there as well. Mr. Al alfred,

[1:26:05] just to add on, on the heritage, I, I think it's fine. The way it's,

[1:26:10] the only downside would be in a situation where heritage came in,

[1:26:14] uh, looking for a lot less money. That's not gonna happen.

[1:26:19] well, you, you answered the question because there's an agreement,

[1:26:23] and if there's an agreement, then why wouldn't we have the dollar amount in there? And,

[1:26:27] you know, using the previous year's allocation,

[1:26:31] you know, obviously if they come in and ask for more, then that's gonna be a, an amendment to it.

[1:26:36] so, but, but to your point, mr. Brown, having them come back and do that

[1:26:40] is, is ideal. So

[1:26:45] any other comments? Are you thinking ms. Donner? I am. You

[1:26:49] can see the wheels going . I can , yes.

[1:26:53] um, well, it's about the comment about affiliated agencies. So, um,

[1:26:58] those numbers aren't theoretical. That's what they came and asked us for. And it,

[1:27:02] and it was reviewed at two finance and administrative

[1:27:06] meetings, and there were other council members in attendance

[1:27:11] and, and some came up and provided feedback or not, but

[1:27:15] I acknowledge it was just finance that voted three

[1:27:20] zero, uh, to approve, and now it's in the budget. So I guess

[1:27:24] the question is, we can always change the process and have a, have

[1:27:28] this be a standalone item, just like, uh, we do with atex.

[1:27:33] um, so that we can do that moving forward. I guess the question would be, what do we wanna do

[1:27:37] for this year? Um, you know, do we wanna add it as a

[1:27:41] discussion item at one of the workshops or, or not? I'm just throwing that

[1:27:45] out there. Good question. Yep. Just to add on

[1:27:49] to ms. Thomas' comments, I mean, we all here right now,

[1:27:54] so I, I think any item that's in this proposed budget,

[1:27:58] we're the policy makers. We have the luxury to have a discussion and change

[1:28:03] it if we think we need to change it. So, um, I, I, I think

[1:28:07] at this point, if there's, if there's something that's, you know, tickling one of us with the affiliated

[1:28:11] agency, uh, now's the time to talk about it. So

[1:28:15] I'll ask a question. Is there anything tickling you on the affiliated

[1:28:19] agencies, and mayor council? Just, I, I skipped

[1:28:23] a couple slides up. I put the slide, it's about three, it was four slides ahead to

[1:28:27] go through these with you today to talk through them. So they're right up here. Thank you.

[1:28:31] and, and I appreciate the comments on improving processes.

[1:28:36] we always try to try to improve the process. Um, in the past,

[1:28:40] what, what we did agree with, what I think together was if,

[1:28:45] if whatever the ask is go to just for everybody, finance, administrative, if

[1:28:49] finance administrative is making that recommendation, it's making the recommendation

[1:28:53] to me, and I'm putting it in the budget for your consideration. Um, but

[1:28:58] maybe a great point, a process improvement where that gets, gets approved and

[1:29:02] full counsel and recommended individually, or we can do it like this and go through this

[1:29:06] today.

[1:29:11] and I can help walk us through this if you'd like. I could go one at a time and, and go through it.

[1:29:15] well, again, I asked the question, does anybody have any, any issues with, with what

[1:29:19] f and a, uh, approved? I've already been tickled.

[1:29:23] I'm, I'm good. I, I, I don't have any questions about, about it. 'cause I,

[1:29:28] 'cause I appreciate the process that it went through. So I, I'm not here to, to discuss

[1:29:32] the process tonight, but even the funding amounts, the requests and the allocations I'm fine

[1:29:36] with. So I'm not sure

[1:29:40] if anyone else is jumping in 'cause they can't see. So if I'm interrupting

[1:29:44] anyone, I apologize. Um, I'm not necessarily bothered

[1:29:49] by the money, per se, as it was recommended

[1:29:55] to, the recommendation is to the town council, is that the recommendation

[1:29:59] to, uh, the town manager? So I would be interesting

[1:30:03] to be reminded of that, but I would, what I do want to say

[1:30:08] is with regard to the affiliate agency, I think the process needs

[1:30:12] to be improved. But secondly, it's growing.

[1:30:17] the amount of money that gets allocated to

[1:30:21] affiliated agencies is growing. And I think we

[1:30:25] need to have a, another discussion about what that

[1:30:29] means in terms of organizations and their reliance

[1:30:34] on public funds, um, their nonprofits, these nonprofits

[1:30:38] and, and the, the public funds. I know that it's for public,

[1:30:42] uh, use. I know that it's beneficial to our, uh, community.

[1:30:46] I'm not questioning that at all. What I'm asking or thinking

[1:30:51] about is the increased reliance perhaps,

[1:30:55] um, and the increased dollars

[1:30:59] year over year that are being allocated to this. And so when people look at

[1:31:03] our budgets, these are the types of things that, that they should be aware

[1:31:08] of that's costing us more money, um, to provide these

[1:31:12] types of services to provide these types of, um,

[1:31:16] opportunities on the island for the residents and the visitors.

[1:31:20] so it's a bigger picture that I wanna make sure that we drill down on so that the

[1:31:24] public understands fully well. Ms. Ms. Becker,

[1:31:28] I, if I, if I might, um, you know, I, I would, I think that, that this

[1:31:32] conversation about the process needs to go to f and a down the road, um,

[1:31:37] because that's outside of this budget conversation. Now if the money's, if the dollars are fine and

[1:31:41] we're good with that, well, I'm not sure if

[1:31:46] it's outside of, uh, the budget because of the process.

[1:31:50] the piece where town council and we

[1:31:54] either approve the affiliated agencies by virtue of

[1:31:58] approving the budget. And so it all goes hand

[1:32:02] in hand. Or we don't approve the budget 'cause we don't approve the affiliate

[1:32:06] aid agencies and everything else gets left behind. And it's a, it's just

[1:32:11] not a good situation to put an individual council

[1:32:15] member in who yes, did likely attend

[1:32:19] the f and a meeting, yes, did have an opportunity to speak,

[1:32:24] um, at that meeting, but did not have an opportunity to

[1:32:28] vote on the outcome. And so the only vote on the outcome

[1:32:32] is to approve or not approve the budget. And so we're talking about

[1:32:37] budgets, I think it's appropriate. If you don't, I would like to see it be brought up

[1:32:41] again, um, in the future. I, I I, I think that we are, you

[1:32:45] know, I think we're splitting hairs a little bit because this is, um, an item

[1:32:49] that's been improved by f and a to go into the budget, not the actual allocation of the

[1:32:53] funds. And that's where the difference is. So, you know, I think that

[1:32:57] procedurally that's one conversation that we need to have offline. But if there's anybody else that

[1:33:01] feels that the funding is not appropriate, speak now, mr. Alfred? Uh,

[1:33:06] I wanted to repeat a comment. I made it a finance committee with respect to the

[1:33:10] allocation of, uh, of a tax money to the, uh,

[1:33:14] sea turtle patrol. Um, I mentioned it at the finance

[1:33:19] committee that spr the sea turtle

[1:33:23] patrol application shows a number of figures that

[1:33:27] are quite out of line with the other applicants. One

[1:33:31] of which is that the town is providing about

[1:33:35] 42% of the operating expenses of sea turtle

[1:33:39] patrol, which is substantially higher than the portion for any of the

[1:33:44] other funded agency. Second, uh, their balance

[1:33:48] sheet shows a great deal of, of cash on hand. Uh,

[1:33:52] so there's a question as to whether the amounts are really needed. And

[1:33:56] the third thing that concerned me was how they fit in with, with the

[1:34:00] public purpose, other than this year when

[1:34:04] there's a beach renourishment going on and they are, uh,

[1:34:09] required to provide services in that respect, but in subsequent

[1:34:13] years, we will not have beach renourishment. So, um,

[1:34:17] my, my, uh, position essentially is that I would like to see

[1:34:21] this particular item more carefully considered next year.

[1:34:27] thank you. Can

[1:34:31] I just make one more comment? I apologize to evan. It's me talking a lot,

[1:34:35] but these are . Well, I'll be quick, but you know, if this

[1:34:39] is a workshop and, and I don't know where else we can talk about these things. We had discussed

[1:34:44] what I'm gonna point out next. Previously, um,

[1:34:48] the, and I don't have a problem with what it is that's being done with

[1:34:52] regards to the oysters and that aspect. I

[1:34:56] think there should be a of the agency

[1:35:00] with regard to the foundation that indicates clearly

[1:35:05] that the dollars that we are contributing, uh, to them,

[1:35:09] those what it's going to specifically with the oysters and the oyster

[1:35:13] reefs and, and that work that they're doing. And that is not a donation

[1:35:17] or a grant to every

[1:35:22] aspect of what the outside foundation does. And so I'm not, I don't

[1:35:26] have a problem with it being in here, but I would like it to be really clear what it is that this

[1:35:30] money is going towards. Thank you.

[1:35:36] alright, mr. Bur.

[1:35:41] okay. Um, so

[1:35:45] we hold on a second here.

[1:35:51] all right. We had, outside of the summary, we had departmental

[1:35:57] reviews as well. In here. They, you know, there's a,

[1:36:01] there's a lot of, uh, if you go back, we broke

[1:36:05] out into different areas for executive,

[1:36:09] um, and we broke out town council, town attorney, town manager, deputy

[1:36:14] town manager, a lot of reclass between town manager and deputy town manager.

[1:36:18] we talked about legal and um, the election, which is driving the

[1:36:22] change in town council. Um, and the finance administration,

[1:36:27] um, reclass in it. We created the,

[1:36:32] uh, cio so there were dollars moved from it to the

[1:36:36] cio. So you see that change happening in, in human resources.

[1:36:40] we had the consultant, uh, for the comp study this year, which is not

[1:36:45] repeating. Um, there's a lot of movement and

[1:36:49] planning. It's a lot of re you're gonna hear a word reclass 'cause we,

[1:36:53] we just reclassed a lot between the different departments. So I think

[1:36:57] we can just keep ball moving from that. But you do have that. So from a expenditure

[1:37:02] highlight, um, we went through these the other day. Uh, from

[1:37:06] a staffing side, there's 2 82 folks in the general fund, 153

[1:37:10] or fire rescue. Um, and we also have

[1:37:14] the folks that we've put in the budget for the str program listed here,

[1:37:19] the positions, uh, that we've added. And then, um, keep

[1:37:23] on going our salaries and benefits. We have our

[1:37:28] performance base pay increase plus class and comp,

[1:37:32] our 401k and now going into our

[1:37:37] operating expenses of 18 million. Just the different breakouts. We

[1:37:41] talked about quite a few of these already. So we'll keep moving. Public safety,

[1:37:46] we talked about that already in the variance as well as affiliated, as well as

[1:37:50] transfers out. And, um, from other side

[1:37:54] of this, from fire rescue, their budget's 24.8 million, which we

[1:37:58] have discussed. And also public safety at 2.4 million.

[1:38:02] those were in the departmental reviews already. So I'm gonna keep moving,

[1:38:07] um, unless there's any questions and we'll jump to death service.

[1:38:13] okay. Alright. So our debt service fund, uh, this is the

[1:38:17] revenues for 2027 and,

[1:38:21] uh, one of the things that you can see is our

[1:38:25] original budget was 18.8 million. The amended is 31. Um,

[1:38:30] and our projections back down to 11.5 million.

[1:38:34] I would say. Uh, looking at this from a go forward perspective,

[1:38:39] we get our property taxes that come in from the, uh, for the, uh,

[1:38:43] uh, millage for the debt service, about 6.7 million.

[1:38:47] a little bit of investment income. That number does fluctuate. So it is

[1:38:51] coming down primarily 'cause we are removing some of the fund balance

[1:38:56] that we did have in the past. Uh, we do have beach preservation fees

[1:39:00] coming in to pay for the, uh, beach bond that was done at the end of 25.

[1:39:05] and then our hospitality is being transferred in to help pay

[1:39:09] for some of the go bond h tax, hh tax, sorry. So

[1:39:14] from that perspective, we've got 11.53 million. It is down quite

[1:39:18] a bit from 26, but that is really based upon

[1:39:22] the use of fund balance that we needed to do from the go bond that we did in the

[1:39:26] payment made. Okay. And on the expenditure

[1:39:30] side, the same, the same flow. Um, this is a more normal

[1:39:35] year, I would say from going forward from a debt perspective, 8.6 million

[1:39:40] in principal, 2.9 million in interest, 11.5 million

[1:39:44] total. So a lot of movement in 26 between the,

[1:39:48] uh, two borrows we did and the payments that we made. But now we're more in a, we're

[1:39:53] not repeating the go bond payment or the callable beach bond payment.

[1:39:57] so those are coming down. And, um, just

[1:40:01] some highlights here. I, I like to go to this schedule. This kind of gives

[1:40:05] a kind of an overview of the history from 2018 through,

[1:40:10] uh, 20, I can't see the last year, but 2030 probably. Um,

[1:40:15] but it does show a, a gradual decline, a quite remarkable decline

[1:40:19] from 2018 to 2025. We did take a step up in

[1:40:23] 26 and then are coming back down in 27. We did a

[1:40:27] little recon up here, which I think is important to call out. You know, at the end

[1:40:31] of 25 we were at $64 million that we owed. Um,

[1:40:36] we took on 54 million in new debt in 2026.

[1:40:40] um, we did pay off the 27 beach bond of 7.5 million,

[1:40:45] 15.7 million for the go bond and our scheduled debt

[1:40:49] payments. So our 2026 ending balance is 86 million.

[1:40:55] and then with our scheduled debt payments in 27, we're ending the

[1:40:59] year at 77.8 million. So we, the way I see it is

[1:41:03] we took on 54 million and we, at the end of 27, we

[1:41:07] only owed 13.3 million more on that. So I think that's a pretty compelling

[1:41:11] story from that perspective. Um, mark,

[1:41:15] I'm jumping over to nicola. Yes sir.

[1:41:20] keep moving. Keep moving. Alright, keep moving. That's great. Um,

[1:41:25] thank you dave. So the, and, and I'll,

[1:41:29] and I'll pause when I, I get to a, a certain point to help answer ms.

[1:41:33] becker's, uh, earlier or prior question. Um,

[1:41:37] our cdc as we call it, um, led by mr. Thomas boxley

[1:41:41] as the exec director and just, uh, really more for the public listening

[1:41:46] and the folks here, it is a single source

[1:41:52] town of hilton head island nonprofit corporation

[1:41:56] put in place by the town of hilton head island, or the

[1:42:00] town of hilton head island by the town council appointed to the seats, right? So it's

[1:42:04] a, it's a, it's a functioning in, in legal nonprofit. There

[1:42:09] are board of directors that you have put in place and mr. Brown

[1:42:13] and mr. Perry, you, you on the, you on the board, um, as

[1:42:17] part of the bylaws, uh, requirement, town council member to

[1:42:21] are on that board, other members of the board are members of the community.

[1:42:26] mr. Boxley runs the, the corporation. Mr. Boxleys also part

[1:42:30] of our senior team, right? And so every time I have a senior staff meeting

[1:42:34] or something's going on, mr. Boxley is part of the culture and

[1:42:38] part of the operations of the town. So I just think that that's important to

[1:42:42] just simply get into, and not just jump into the budget, but

[1:42:47] the fund. What we've done is, instead of keeping the cdc in the general

[1:42:51] operating fund, similar to how we've looked at stormwater utility

[1:42:56] fund, it's, I'll call it for argument's sake, dave will probably tell

[1:43:00] me I'm wrong, but almost its own enterprise fund, where you can show money in

[1:43:04] money out and it not be a line item in general fund. And that way

[1:43:08] we've always said that as a nonprofit with our own reporting on the nonprofit,

[1:43:12] at the end of the year, its own audit at the end of the year, we've, we've chosen

[1:43:16] some years ago to make it its own fund. So in the past we say we have six

[1:43:21] funds, we used to have four. It was much easier to take a look at from a community

[1:43:25] perspective. But with these six now, including c, d, c, it's much

[1:43:29] clearer where you're spending your time, your energy,

[1:43:34] the dollars, right, where you're making those investments. So with that being said,

[1:43:38] being said, this fund is used to account for and report the costs associated with

[1:43:42] the corporation. And the corporation is put in place with a set of

[1:43:46] bylaws adopted by an ordinance, by town council. So I always really

[1:43:51] wanna make a a case to say it is the town's nonprofit,

[1:43:55] the focus of the corporation is right here. I won't read it. Um,

[1:44:00] but those come outta the bylaws, right? Uh, encourage

[1:44:04] entrepreneurialism, prevent gentrification in business, attraction,

[1:44:09] expansion, retention, provide land planning and development,

[1:44:13] um, assistance for

[1:44:18] gullah neighborhoods. Not, not not only

[1:44:22] some, but, but every property in the neighborhood. Um,

[1:44:26] pursue affordable housing opportunities, identify infrastructure needs,

[1:44:30] and provide critical financial opportunities. I think it's important and maybe some

[1:44:34] years, I, I think that, that, that a flaw were me. If

[1:44:38] I could look back and say maybe I go through this page too fast, because it's

[1:44:42] really important to show what we're funding. And the primary sources of

[1:44:47] revenue have traditionally been a grant from the

[1:44:51] department of commerce that you all, um, as, as a council

[1:44:55] collective body, uh, asked us to go find. And,

[1:44:59] and senator davis and, and some of the delegation and up, up in columbia for

[1:45:03] us and with us, have provided a, an initial $5 million

[1:45:07] grant. And on top of that, we have made a separate request.

[1:45:12] back in the back, in the good old arpa days, when we had those stimulus dollars,

[1:45:17] we had made a request to bufort county to receive some

[1:45:21] of their american rescue plan grant dollars, where the

[1:45:25] county set aside certain amount of dollars out of their grant

[1:45:29] arpa proceeds for municipalities as a good neighbor fund. And so we asked for

[1:45:34] those and we could use them in certain areas and we pledged

[1:45:38] them here. And so hence the beginning of, of, of the cdc, um,

[1:45:43] when it, when it was originated, uh, the cdc board was put

[1:45:47] in place. We recruited and hired mr. Boxley and mr.

[1:45:51] boxley came in and with the board and community members, uh,

[1:45:55] put in place a strategic plan. It's, it's v one, right? We,

[1:46:00] I think the, the version of a strategic plan I have with you all

[1:46:04] right now is v three of a strategic plan in the five years I've been here. So

[1:46:08] he has v one of his strategic plan. What

[1:46:13] what you have here is, is, is a, is much simpler budget than

[1:46:17] what we were just looking at. It's, it's a schedule of revenues.

[1:46:21] and you can see the, the trend, right? Prior

[1:46:25] year, south carolina use of funds, that was the south carolina

[1:46:30] department of commerce grant. And we've over time used those

[1:46:34] funds as a source, the primary lift, the primary source

[1:46:38] of revenue for the budget this year, the, the, the request

[1:46:43] is $1.123 million. And

[1:46:47] we say it's prior use because it's a grant and, and all the,

[1:46:51] the, the, the funds in and funds out the way they're, they're recorded and tracked is

[1:46:55] just in fund balance right now. So the revenue stream

[1:46:59] is a fund balance account savings, right? And pulling out of there and putting it into,

[1:47:04] um, the, the revenue account here. In

[1:47:08] addition, some investment income. In addition, this is projected

[1:47:13] a hundred thousand dollars as a fundraising and or donations.

[1:47:17] um, so there, the source of those revenues are, are exactly

[1:47:21] that. Those are not through town dollars. There's also,

[1:47:25] uh, a recent acquisition of, and we, we will stop calling

[1:47:29] it memory matters sooner than later, but just for clarity in the budget, it

[1:47:33] is that building right now. They have not yet moved out in the town.

[1:47:38] and, and the towns cdc,

[1:47:42] I'll say jv, joint ventured and acquisition of that building.

[1:47:46] um, and in part of the acquisition, there was a lease back

[1:47:51] by the current tenant, which is our tenant. Now, the, the current

[1:47:55] owner, the past owner and current tenant is, is memory matters. The

[1:47:59] nonprofit. They're moving out soon, but the, the part of the acquisition

[1:48:04] was they would lease the building back. We understand they're moving

[1:48:08] out soon-ish. We, we

[1:48:12] are not in a hurry for them to move out. We want them to move out when they're ready. They're getting their

[1:48:16] permits in place, but there's revenue from that, a revenue stream,

[1:48:20] right? So there was a joint venture, the acquisition was portion of town,

[1:48:24] a portion of them. But we've pledged the entire projected,

[1:48:29] I don't even know if we'll get to the full 60 a projected revenue

[1:48:34] from the acquisition into this as a revenue stream.

[1:48:38] and then here, the $359,026

[1:48:43] a transfer from the general fund operating account, which are property taxes,

[1:48:47] business licensing, those, those dollars we saw in general fund a

[1:48:52] transfer into the cdc

[1:48:56] as a stream of revenue. And that is for two, two

[1:49:01] members of, of staff, mr. Boxley. In past years,

[1:49:05] you, you don't see that. And I will share that in past years,

[1:49:09] um, those revenues weren't transferred in. And I'll explain that.

[1:49:14] so very few sun funding sources

[1:49:18] general fund for the town employees. Um,

[1:49:23] and they, thomas and veronica are both employees

[1:49:27] of the town and assigned to the community development

[1:49:31] corporation. And the rest of it, the majority of it is that prior south carolina

[1:49:36] grant, the

[1:49:40] planned expenditures requested expenditures, very clear,

[1:49:44] salary benefits, operating professional

[1:49:49] services,

[1:49:53] grants and incentive loans, land acquisition

[1:49:58] and, and some contingency for a balanced 1.694

[1:50:03] of revenue and a balanced 1.694 of expenditure.

[1:50:08] um, I can, I can help answer ms. Becker's question

[1:50:12] in the, in the past and, and we received some public comment last year, um,

[1:50:17] asking why we as a town weren't

[1:50:22] helping to fund. And my words, nobody else is, my understanding

[1:50:26] of it was the salaries of the employees and the people that work for

[1:50:30] the town that work on behalf of the cdc. And

[1:50:34] this year, as the board made the recommendation, the recommendation was the full

[1:50:39] support. As, as, as I've talked with mr. Boxley as well, the full support of

[1:50:43] the full salaries for those two employees. The board shared that,

[1:50:47] um, as well. And the board made that recommendation for their budget. What

[1:50:51] you see on here is the full recommendation of the board and, and mr. Brown,

[1:50:55] mr. Perry, not to put you on the spot, but I just want to make sure the rest of the council and

[1:50:59] the community know I'm respecting the recommendation of the board, but

[1:51:03] I also support what the board asked for. Um,

[1:51:08] I'll go through this. Uh, salaries and benefits. There was that increase. I,

[1:51:12] I think I explained that. And in addition to that, it's, it's the performance

[1:51:17] based, uh, compensation. Uh, it's not a step plan, but it's performance

[1:51:21] based up to 4% operating. There's a

[1:51:25] $76,000. And that's coming out of the grant more or less because this

[1:51:29] is the only general fund. This is coming from grant. And the

[1:51:33] rest of it, I would say below that line is either grant interest earned,

[1:51:38] uh, rent, everything other than general fund. General fund

[1:51:43] is precisely for the, the, the people, um,

[1:51:47] professional services, their plan this year for the professional

[1:51:51] services. Again, grant money or interest or whatnot,

[1:51:56] way finding experience, gullah and, and, and extension

[1:52:00] legal services, community support for legal matters and appraisals.

[1:52:04] there have been times where they have helped folks with their property appraisal

[1:52:08] heirs, property clearing consulting services,

[1:52:14] a pitch competition, uh, stony community improvement grant

[1:52:18] program, and then an earmark of a million dollars

[1:52:22] for additional land acquisition, um, for economic development.

[1:52:27] and, and I say that because as we read the,

[1:52:31] the opening paragraph, this is as much if not more of a, of a real

[1:52:35] gullah geechee economic development corporation than it is, uh, only a community

[1:52:40] development corporation as, as, as we know it. And then

[1:52:44] some contingency. What what I, what I will also

[1:52:48] share though, as well is that what, what doesn't jump out on the budget. And I think this,

[1:52:52] this may help if, if nothing else, it helps my philosophy of,

[1:52:57] of town employees when, when I say a senior staff

[1:53:01] team, mr. Boxley is with us in our capital improvement project

[1:53:05] meetings. He is with me in my senior, our senior staff meetings.

[1:53:10] um, we've been working on capital projects, dirt roads, mitchellville road,

[1:53:14] um, muddy creek, uh, bryant patterson, uh,

[1:53:18] I should say, um, taylor family park, excuse me. And all of those things.

[1:53:22] um, I know that they've also helped folks with business

[1:53:27] licensed technical assistance when we had our small minority, uh, disadvantaged

[1:53:31] business enterprise program. Our c our cdc is very

[1:53:35] involved with that, helping full, helping identify, uh, folks and, and helping them,

[1:53:40] um, qualify and register. Uh,

[1:53:44] they've provided, uh, this is their third year providing financial

[1:53:48] education. Um, and that's, that's with our, our, our town finance

[1:53:52] team as well. Um, there's

[1:53:57] dollars in here this year for the, the upfit

[1:54:01] at some point. It's a capital project. It is the town's asset. We have to manage it

[1:54:05] properly and, and, and manage the asset properly. But I know that there'll

[1:54:09] be some future earmarking of grant as well as some discussion with town council

[1:54:14] about improvements to that building. Um, but mr. Boxley shares with

[1:54:18] me, as I believe he's been talking with the board, that, that when memory

[1:54:22] matters, moves out that there'll be some programmatic and some

[1:54:26] physical improvement. But, but also to align with the program and at what I would call a

[1:54:31] business plan, a business model as, as, uh,

[1:54:35] incubator and community development space in what we now call the memory matters.

[1:54:39] building design studio, um, public meeting space,

[1:54:44] business incubator, and, and community support space. Um, and, and

[1:54:48] I could go on and on, and they also are,

[1:54:52] are close to, and, and I'm, I'm explaining the salary

[1:54:57] and this is what I'm finding myself doing. Mr. Boxley

[1:55:01] is also, um, very close with and working with

[1:55:05] thomas tom dunn, thomas boxley and tom dunn is what I'm trying to say. Um,

[1:55:09] with, uh, other community organizations helping, uh,

[1:55:14] prepare for on the front end of any, any disasters. And so our,

[1:55:18] our emergency operations center includes our community development

[1:55:22] corporation, um, wide range of community partners, faith-based

[1:55:26] organizations, um, so on so forth. Uh,

[1:55:33] thomas has also with the team, and I'm sure the board

[1:55:38] more thomas with me though, helped talk with residents

[1:55:42] and neighbors as it re as, as the, as our work

[1:55:46] pertains to the william hilton parkway gateway corridor master plan

[1:55:51] property impacts. What about the unknowns? How do we

[1:55:56] continue to, I would say, heal from and build future trust with the

[1:56:00] residents, especially after, um, what, what

[1:56:04] I would say some of us inherited with some property

[1:56:08] right of way plans, um, on the original projects. I, I won't

[1:56:13] let us forget about that. Those, those right of ways were well outside the colored

[1:56:17] lines of, of the current right of way well into front yards. Mr.

[1:56:21] boxley has helped folks understand,

[1:56:25] um, what the town's initiatives are not what they aren't.

[1:56:29] um, wildhorse road, they acquired one in five wildhorse

[1:56:34] road. Um, and I know that, that mr. Boxley and the board is

[1:56:38] working with you on, on some plans there. I think at some point it's

[1:56:42] going to be very healthy to have those conversations, board and council,

[1:56:46] mr. Boxley and I participating together, but definitely the board

[1:56:51] and the town council together. Um, 'cause the way I look at it every day,

[1:56:55] it's in the budget. It's not separate. It's, it's a, it's a community development corporation

[1:57:00] as a department arm of, of what I'm, what I'm overseeing.

[1:57:04] um, but it's a lot, right? I, I think it's time for an updated strategic plan. And I think

[1:57:08] the board and, and thomas are the ones that were saying that, not me. I think that's healthy.

[1:57:12] um, they're also working on ongoing, ongoing fundraising

[1:57:16] efforts, events grant writing, and I do know that they're working on it. Private foundations

[1:57:21] included. Um, looking at the state, some of those grants that

[1:57:25] were there some years ago aren't there right now. Um,

[1:57:30] just different, different time. And then we also

[1:57:34] had a, a planning department member,

[1:57:38] veronica stewart, but, but the fte that we've always known, that was as part of the

[1:57:42] planning department, um,

[1:57:46] helping with, forgive me,

[1:57:50] design studio 26 cases in 25 and 15

[1:57:55] thus far. Veronica leads that veronica

[1:57:59] also helped lead the home repair and the lateral sewer connection,

[1:58:03] I'd call more business development on the front end, helping people qualify, helping

[1:58:07] people understand the parameters and helping our, what at the time, our

[1:58:11] building safety department implements. So home repair dollars have, have dried up

[1:58:15] lateral sewer connection dollars, I believe we found a little bit. But all

[1:58:19] part of that as well as the historic neighborhood design studio

[1:58:23] shifted out of the planning department, which we're working on site plans

[1:58:28] and zoning and other development projects, and shifted

[1:58:32] veronica more alignment with thomas, because all those things that I just mentioned,

[1:58:36] I think thomas needs some help with not just one person. I,

[1:58:41] if I were thomas, I, I couldn't get to all of that and be successful.

[1:58:45] and so the shift with veronica, I believe helps thomas and I believe

[1:58:49] thomas and veronica are helping the cdc and then gullah geechee

[1:58:53] land cultural preservation, uh, task force meetings, veronica as

[1:58:57] point, but coordination and management and then heirs, property support, tax

[1:59:01] record review, support with the goal, land loss

[1:59:06] prevention and so on, so forth. Veronica has been working on a lot of that

[1:59:10] in the planning department. But I do think that the alignment in the cdc has paid

[1:59:14] dividends. And, um, uh, I share that

[1:59:18] because I think in past years I've gone over that too fast and I don't

[1:59:22] want to take for granted. Um, I don't want us to take for granted

[1:59:26] and just fly through the fact that the salaries and

[1:59:31] benefits at that amount and the rest, uh, understood as

[1:59:35] expenditures. But most of which comes from a grant, um,

[1:59:39] is, is overlooked

[1:59:44] questions, housing funds, questions, or I did say, well, I'd

[1:59:48] like to go back to what we were just talking about instead of skipping over. I

[1:59:52] had questions. I don't know if anyone else raised their hand.

[1:59:59] go ahead. Well, okay,

[2:00:03] so I, I maybe I, I just can't hear from, we're on our way home

[2:00:08] and it's, it's hard. But, um, so I appreciate

[2:00:12] the, um, description. It, I'm not sure if people are fully

[2:00:17] aware of exactly what the, uh, cdc

[2:00:21] is, how it got started, and that was a really great history on

[2:00:26] it. Um, one of the pieces that the

[2:00:30] corporation, as I understood it, is that it should be

[2:00:34] self-sustaining. So kind of a recurrent theme for me today

[2:00:39] is folks reliance on the town and how

[2:00:44] it impacts our budget, grows our town government, um,

[2:00:48] neither, which I'm in favor of. So

[2:00:53] am I accurate in the fact that the corporation should be

[2:00:58] reaching out and becoming a business entity that has

[2:01:02] a self sustaining, self-sustaining revenue source to

[2:01:06] offset all of these wonderful things that they were put in place to do

[2:01:10] for the native island community.

[2:01:20] I, I, I, I, I lost the end of it. Oh, I, I

[2:01:24] just wanna know if it, if there's an aspect to the cdc where they

[2:01:28] are to be working towards a self sustain, becoming a self-sustaining

[2:01:33] entity.

[2:01:37] well, I, I, I would dare say, I mean, I'm not gonna speak for the, for the cdc, but

[2:01:41] I would dare say that's the ultimate goal. Well, I think within

[2:01:45] the documents and the, the intention that that was definitely the goal. Otherwise,

[2:01:50] the intention would seem to have been, uh, misunderstood

[2:01:54] that it somehow became a branch or another department of

[2:01:58] town government. Um, and so that is

[2:02:03] where I, I guess my concerns begin is that over,

[2:02:07] whatever it has been, three and a half, four years that it's been in existence, the,

[2:02:11] the amount of movement towards

[2:02:15] self-sustaining itself and, and getting these,

[2:02:20] the dollars flowing in, I see the a hundred thousand dollars. Um,

[2:02:24] I'd be, as one of the grants that I'd be interested in knowing about. One

[2:02:28] of the things that have to

[2:02:32] say knowing, because this is an

[2:02:36] in a budget that was prepared by the corporation

[2:02:41] and never flowed through, as I understand it, f and a or through town council.

[2:02:45] so this is our first look at it in a budget where we're supposed

[2:02:49] to just approve it. And there are elements of it that I'm not comfortable

[2:02:53] with, um, because it does feel as

[2:02:57] though it is a branch, a department of

[2:03:02] the, um, the, the government

[2:03:06] that we are now funding. And I don't believe that was the intention. So clarity on

[2:03:10] that, if I'm wrong, um, as helpful, certainly, um,

[2:03:14] I see the good work, but I don't see anything within what they showed in

[2:03:18] the strategic plan, um, as being driven

[2:03:23] towards finding those streams of revenue on their own.

[2:03:27] and that's, that's something I, I have to question. Um,

[2:03:34] is there any discussion or, you know, on the strategic plan that

[2:03:38] is forth that'll be forthcoming, uh, with the board? Um,

[2:03:43] so before we approve a budget or after,

[2:03:47] because it, it'll be, it'll be after. Again, you know, I'll state this again. You know, the budget

[2:03:51] is not a, a, a actual promise of allocation. Um, but

[2:03:55] it's, uh, what we expect to, to expend. Um, but no, that'll be

[2:03:59] forthcoming in after the, uh, in the new physical year.

[2:04:04] right. And again, I guess I'll point to to process, because if that's the case,

[2:04:09] how can we agree to something that we're not informed on?

[2:04:15] it's, it's, it's not in the, in the

[2:04:19] proper sequence. And I'm uncomfortable with that,

[2:04:24] having it here in a budget that I'm going to approve or not. However,

[2:04:29] that works out. And there's a couple

[2:04:33] of other elements that the, that are in there.

[2:04:37] $60,000, which is a lease, um, income

[2:04:42] for a building that's partly owned by the cdc and partly

[2:04:46] owned, uh, you know, or money contributed towards it, is a town owned building.

[2:04:51] so I'm curious and

[2:04:55] wondering why the full lease amount, if any of it

[2:04:59] is being put in as a stream of, um, revenue

[2:05:04] for the corporation instead of coming into the town,

[2:05:08] um, since it's a town asset. There's

[2:05:12] also a question for me. Um, I understand clearly,

[2:05:17] um, tom boxleys role and why he was hired, and

[2:05:21] he's phenomenal. No one is, um, second guessing any of that. Just

[2:05:25] so you know, my battery's about to die and I'm trying to switch to my phone. It's

[2:05:29] been plugged in. But in any case,

[2:05:33] the battery may need to be changed at some point. Um,

[2:05:38] and I understand all of that, and I would assume that in time his salary will

[2:05:43] be taken over by whatever revenue that the cdc

[2:05:47] starts to create on its own. Um,

[2:05:52] but in terms of the staff member, the way I understood

[2:05:56] it, maybe I can be corrected or informed on this,

[2:06:00] is in the community development department, there was a

[2:06:05] designated person who, who was to

[2:06:10] be available when anyone from the native islander community

[2:06:14] would come in with specific requests with regard to their property.

[2:06:19] and that is, that was done. And, and that, and

[2:06:23] I asked at the time, so what would this person do with the rest of their time?

[2:06:28] and they're like, oh, no, no, this is for anybody can come in and get these services.

[2:06:32] this is just that, that there's a, the relationship that's being built totally

[2:06:36] appropriate. Completely agree, that's fine. But the rest

[2:06:41] of the time was to be spent, um, as a planner within

[2:06:45] the community development department. What concerns me is that now

[2:06:49] person is being taken away and being given another job,

[2:06:53] uh, responsibilities. And

[2:06:57] I think, um, unless it's changed and I'm

[2:07:01] not aware that we are, we could use additional help,

[2:07:05] um, in the, in the, in community development with plans

[2:07:10] and that sort of thing. And so, are we now down one person with

[2:07:14] more, uh, stress and birth on the rest of the department

[2:07:19] as this person moves out completely and is being funded

[2:07:23] by the town, again, goes back to

[2:07:29] seemingly that this is becoming a branch and department of under

[2:07:34] ms. Becker, you don't like my questions? Yes, go ahead. No, no, no. We're you're,

[2:07:39] we're having a real hard time understanding everything that you're trying to say.

[2:07:43] um, it's, it's, well, that's unfortunate. What, alright,

[2:07:47] well, perhaps, um, I'll have to bring it up at the next, um,

[2:07:52] workshop. Um, but these are, these are

[2:07:56] questions that have to be answered. Um, I think that they're serious and

[2:08:00] important and they may be easy, and that's fine. I'd like easy answers

[2:08:05] and, and that's good. But until I get them, I

[2:08:09] am bothered by everything I've said. Okay,

[2:08:13] thank you. Any other comments from counsel? Well,

[2:08:17] when can we discuss this again? Will it be appropriate for me to bring it up at the next workshop?

[2:08:23] uh, I, I, I don't think that would be an issue.

[2:08:28] okay. But as long as you say that, then we all said that time. Thank you. I would definitely ask those

[2:08:33] answers again. Again, it's, it's, you sometimes you break in and out, so

[2:08:37] it's very difficult and we're all strained to really hear and understand. And if

[2:08:41] we're going to, you know, ask mark those questions because we wanna get 'em, he wants to get 'em right. We wanna get

[2:08:45] 'em right. So, yeah, no, I, I agree. And so I will,

[2:08:49] um, again, put them out there so he has, so everyone has

[2:08:53] them ahead of time, but I would like to have another set aside discussion

[2:08:58] at the next workshop. Thank you. Okay, ms. Bryson. Sure.

[2:09:02] um, as we look at our budget, we always look back at our strategic action

[2:09:06] plan. That's what drives our budget. Um, and so it's

[2:09:10] great that, um, mr. Orlando and his staff keep putting the

[2:09:15] strategic plan before us when we look at our budget. So I just wanna remind

[2:09:19] the council of number seven in our strategic action plan,

[2:09:23] which says, preserve, protect and celebrate gullah geechee culture and

[2:09:27] heritage. And the paragraph says, preserve, protect and celebrate the

[2:09:31] cultural, heritage, historic neighborhoods and contributions of the gullah geechee

[2:09:35] community through intentional policy development, targeted investment,

[2:09:41] intergovernmental collaboration, and community driven planning and implementation.

[2:09:46] and I wanna thank mr. Orlando for going through, um, all of the,

[2:09:50] uh, work that, uh, mr. Boxing and his team have done

[2:09:54] to help out with other projects that we have, like muddy

[2:09:59] creek. Um, and, and like, um, uh, helping out with the

[2:10:03] corridor plan, um, there's a number of different things that mr. Boxley

[2:10:07] helps out with. And, and this says that we're gonna have targeted investment.

[2:10:12] um, I have every confidence in the board of directors of the cdc,

[2:10:16] um, and I do not have any questions about the budget because I have that confidence

[2:10:20] and I think we ought to move on. Thank you, mr. Donner. Well, I appreciate

[2:10:24] that pat. Ms. Becker. Ms. Becker, hang on. Ms. Turner was

[2:10:28] getting ready to speak. Yeah, sorry, go ahead. No

[2:10:32] problem. I just had a question. So, uh, when you were mentioning the grants,

[2:10:36] you said one of them was from arpa, uh,

[2:10:41] arpa related, and I was wondering if there was a timeframe on that of when you have

[2:10:45] to spend it and if we've met that timeframe? Yes, thank you. Yes.

[2:10:50] and yes, it was from arpa, from bufort county's arpa. Right. So when we

[2:10:54] received 5.1 or $2 million of arpa, bufort county received more,

[2:10:58] they transferred that. We've already spent that and closed it out. So I

[2:11:02] just reminded us that there was some seed money both from bufort county through the fed

[2:11:06] stimulus from arpa as well as department of commerce. And those were the only

[2:11:10] two funding sources that started the towns cdc.

[2:11:15] is there any limit on timeframe for the, uh, department of commerce?

[2:11:19] no, ma'am. Okay. Thank you. Any other questions

[2:11:23] or comments? Well, I just wanted to follow up

[2:11:27] if I can. Hopefully you can. Um,

[2:11:32] I don't want what I said to be misinterpreted, and I think ms. Bryson may have done just that.

[2:11:36] no one's questioning the good work. That's not what's being questioned. What I'm questioning

[2:11:41] is whether or not the corporation is becoming

[2:11:45] a self-sustaining entity, or is it becoming an arm,

[2:11:49] a department, um, that's funded through the town of

[2:11:53] hilton head, because there is a difference there. And that's

[2:11:57] what I want clarify. Thank you. Okay. Thank you

[2:12:03] mayor perry. I, and I'm, I'm glad we heard it that question, that clear? I, I did take some

[2:12:07] notes, the self-sustaining question, I think I heard some comments to ask

[2:12:11] me. I I do think that's a conversation that town council needs to have in

[2:12:15] the budget workshop or in a separate workshop, including amongst yourselves

[2:12:19] and or at some point appropriate, uh, time with the community

[2:12:24] development corporation board of directors that you appointed. Uh, I,

[2:12:28] I do and, and I will talk with thomas and the board to

[2:12:32] update the strategic plan. I believe that work is planned and there have been some conversations about

[2:12:37] it, and that will be in-house, so you won't see that as an expenditure, but that's an in-house

[2:12:41] update. Um, lease

[2:12:45] proceeds, uh, that was a decision that, that frankly some of us talked

[2:12:50] about. Just for, for clarity, the lease proceeds of 30 to

[2:12:54] the town and, and 30 to the cdc as we started to try

[2:12:58] to balance dollars and, and look at fund balances and, and look at revenues

[2:13:02] and realize that that grant's only going to go so far. And ms.

[2:13:07] becker's asking the really good question, is it a self-sustaining department? I,

[2:13:11] I mentioned all the ways thomas helps me and it's, it's, it's clear

[2:13:15] that I've, I've moved some general fund dollars into it.

[2:13:20] I just wanna make it a little clear. Veronica's salary

[2:13:24] was always as part of the general fund, she was in the planning department. She

[2:13:28] still does the same thing she does in the planning department. I would say that she does more

[2:13:33] now supporting thomas supporting corporation board meetings,

[2:13:37] and she has a little less time that, that we're going to the gullah

[2:13:41] geechee task force and more time going to the cdc. Right? I think that's just a

[2:13:45] natural for progression. But still, veronica is point on

[2:13:49] the neighborhood design studio. She just doesn't sit up on the second story, the planning department,

[2:13:53] she's down the hall next to, uh, thomas and, and

[2:13:57] building d the fourth building and, and still in the planning department

[2:14:02] still did heirs property support and research and helping

[2:14:06] with business licensing. But I, I would say the, the difference,

[2:14:10] and, and I appreciate the question, I just wanna make sure I answer it

[2:14:15] with the cdc, it's proactive, not reactive. I

[2:14:19] would say it's as much as I, as my terms, uh, playing as much offense

[2:14:23] as, as as defense, right. As much trying to business development and

[2:14:27] help people as opposed to waiting for the doorbell or the non knock on the door.

[2:14:31] and so, yeah, I, I just wanna make it a point, the, it was always funded

[2:14:35] there, at least the one salary. This, the difference this year

[2:14:40] is just, rather than keep that in the general fund, I

[2:14:44] wanted to be very clear. I, I don't, I wanna be very clear in where

[2:14:48] the dollars are are coming in and, and where they're being used. And that's

[2:14:52] the difference. One salary, not two. And same, same portfolio

[2:14:56] of work by the, the assistant director. Forgive

[2:15:01] me for not having your job title right here, but the veronica.

[2:15:05] um, and there's, there's a lot of, a lot of work to do. And

[2:15:09] it's not only cdc centric. Um, that's why I wanted to explain how,

[2:15:13] how much more thomas helps me and this senior team than just

[2:15:18] the cdc board. Thank you.

[2:15:30] I'll be right. Okay. ,

[2:15:37] move on to the next item. ,

[2:15:42] are you gonna see,

[2:16:05] I gotta turn that on. Sorry. Um,

[2:16:10] the housing fund was created when the town,

[2:16:16] the housing fund was created when the town established finding home. And

[2:16:20] as part of the finding home document and approval by town council, it had

[2:16:25] in there to create a staff member to add a staff member, right. As part, part of

[2:16:29] the strategy and recommendations coming from finding home.

[2:16:35] angela. Um, just a moment. If, if we can check in with mr.

[2:16:39] sunday to see if we have lost ms. Becca. Oh,

[2:16:43] she's texting. I'm working. Oh, okay. Alright,

[2:16:59] so she's waiting for

[2:17:06] new link. Alright. Um, so with that being

[2:17:10] said, the, the budget, the revenues are derived

[2:17:14] from transfer from state at tax. That is a town council policy of $619,000.

[2:17:20] it's a 5% state at tax collection amount.

[2:17:24] the south carolina code was changed recently a couple years ago to allow

[2:17:28] and provide for it didn't require it, but you opted to approve that.

[2:17:33] um, that is, is the town policy. Um, and then the other is from

[2:17:37] the use of fund balance prior year, unused dollars in

[2:17:41] the housing account. We have not used a lot of these dollars over time.

[2:17:46] um, the budget proposed this year, 3.2, uh, million dollars.

[2:17:52] you can see this the prior year unspent as well as the at tax

[2:17:56] collection, the use of funds, uh, very clear,

[2:18:00] the muddy creek neighborhood stabilization. We have been slow, I'll admit it. It

[2:18:05] is not, uh, easy to say, but it, it's, it's the truth. We

[2:18:09] have been slow out there to figure out what to do with the $1.5 million.

[2:18:13] the reason that this isn't in the capital improvement program is because, again, we wanted

[2:18:18] to be very clear that it was going to support the acquisition that the town

[2:18:22] made, not just the, I'll call it subdivision for bryant road.

[2:18:26] we weren't just trying to walk in and subdivide property and improve it.

[2:18:30] it may cause gentrification, it may cause, uh, a neighborhood

[2:18:34] to change overnight with several, a whole, whole bunch of new homes.

[2:18:39] what we did is we earmarked as part of the housing fund, uh, I will call

[2:18:43] it a front end capital improvement program account, $1.5 million.

[2:18:48] we have a great cip team. They're here. I'm very proud of them. They have

[2:18:53] taken the input from the neighborhood meeting that we've had some time ago.

[2:18:57] um, and they have now scoped and, and I would say scheduled

[2:19:02] some work out there. And we went over that at first reading sidewalks,

[2:19:06] crosswalks, stop signs, low level lighting, landscape cleanup,

[2:19:11] driveway end and, and curb cut improvements, um,

[2:19:16] for $1.5 million. We also have earmarked a million dollars.

[2:19:20] and that, um, is for the bryant road public-private

[2:19:25] partnership. The rfq request for qualification came in, remember, I

[2:19:29] I mentioned that we extended it. We have seven great bids from seven

[2:19:34] very interested teams, and we are just now starting to score that.

[2:19:38] um, what we will do is talk a a lot about this between now

[2:19:42] and when we submit a request or release, a request

[2:19:46] for proposal to start looking for our partner. We have a, a,

[2:19:51] a base dollar in there that may help incentivize and entice the appropriate

[2:19:56] developer. But the town council at the time will direct

[2:20:00] where and how those, that million dollars is used in the exact same

[2:20:04] way you did with the north point agreement. You, you won't just earmark

[2:20:08] it and, and, and I decide, or we decide you will in an agreement

[2:20:12] determine where and really if that's needed, um,

[2:20:18] lateral or excuse me, and then bufort, jasper housing trust due. Those are

[2:20:22] per an agreement we have with bufort jasper housing trust. And then, because,

[2:20:27] because there's no other source of dollars right now, brian rhodes

[2:20:31] a big lift we've just earmarked in the fund balance surplus future

[2:20:35] use $619,000 fund balance.

[2:20:40] pretty much everything I just said is on these, highlight that highlight page right there.

[2:20:48] any note? Yep. Excuse me. No, just any, any comments or questions?

[2:20:54] yes. Thank you, sir. I, I think the only comment I've got is that we're still looking for more

[2:20:58] funding for lateral sewer connections. Um, and I see

[2:21:02] that, um, the at tax funds 619,000, I'm glad we're

[2:21:06] putting that money in there. And my question is, can any of those funds be used

[2:21:10] for lateral sewer connection? I'm seeing mr. Orlando shake his head no. Okay.

[2:21:14] always have to ask. I know ms. Turner and I are both hoping that we can find more money.

[2:21:19] I I don't believe aax is, is, is a, is a good source or easy source

[2:21:23] to use on that because those, those investments or improvements are on private

[2:21:27] property. Um, which is why we're seeking some grants. We do have some word

[2:21:31] from, um, beaufort jasper saying that,

[2:21:35] right? Bufort jasper housing trust. Um, and I will bring that, that opportunity

[2:21:39] to town council as a potential grant, uh, agreement in,

[2:21:43] in the, in the coming weeks. Mr. Brown.

[2:21:47] yeah. Um, to, to pick up on, uh, where ms. Bryson was going. Um,

[2:21:54] just to, to give context. The, the town received

[2:21:58] those opera funds years ago and, um, it,

[2:22:02] it gave us enough latitude where we could use those monies for lateral

[2:22:07] sewer, uh, connections and went through that money almost

[2:22:11] overnight. I would, I would say, okay. Um, and

[2:22:17] I, I remember very distinctly, um, me and mr. Orlando having this

[2:22:21] conversation around that will then

[2:22:25] show the demand. Okay? And there's still money

[2:22:29] left over at the community foundation in low country in the safe program.

[2:22:34] the requirements to receive those money don't necessarily

[2:22:38] line up with today's conditions. Okay. Um,

[2:22:42] I for one have, um, made an appointment to

[2:22:48] have the new, uh, ceo, uh, mr.

[2:22:52] falk, um, to ride along with me on a, on a little tour so we can look

[2:22:56] at some areas that still are in need of sewer with the hope

[2:23:01] that if we take a look back at the demand and how quickly we went through

[2:23:06] the money and the stall that they have had over time and not allocating

[2:23:10] theirs, that we can regenerate a conversation around

[2:23:15] rethinking the current funds and if not so

[2:23:19] re-energizing folks that were committed to donating

[2:23:23] to help build a new fund. Okay. So, um, I I wanted to, to

[2:23:28] publicly say that, okay. And then ask, um, you know, my colleagues

[2:23:32] that, um, you, you assist with some type of, uh, conversational

[2:23:37] influence in that direction because it keeps coming up. We keep

[2:23:41] waiting for grants and it's not happening, but the demand

[2:23:45] is still there and we need to address it. Do we know

[2:23:49] brown? Do we know what the number is?

[2:23:57] septic versus I, I think that's something that we can

[2:24:01] quickly get from psd. I thought we may have a

[2:24:05] number. You have one mark.

[2:24:10] we know that, but not, not here, but I, I can get that. Septic, septic,

[2:24:14] what's left for septic, what's on on sewer. It's not easy to always obtain from,

[2:24:18] from psd and real time,

[2:24:26] lemme just add this mr. Decimal since you asked that question. Um, and this, this

[2:24:30] really relates to the, the housing initiative, right?

[2:24:34] um, obviously there a lot of cost in,

[2:24:38] in development here on hilton head and, um, you know, and most times

[2:24:43] when you, when you, when you put a unit on the ground, if you seeking market

[2:24:47] rate, you can absorb all of those costs. Okay? I, I,

[2:24:51] I know for a fact that, uh, psd, um, has a very,

[2:24:55] very high expenditure when you want to do just one

[2:24:59] unit when it comes to capacity, fees and so on. So all of that

[2:25:04] in my mind is a discouragement for folks to put affordable housing

[2:25:08] on the ground. So to me, the lateral sewer conversation is a little deeper dive

[2:25:13] as it relates to us putting housing that is affordable on

[2:25:17] the ground. So, um, it's a deeper discussion. Um, but I think

[2:25:22] leveraging our partners is something that we need to, to

[2:25:26] do at this moment. Alright, thank you for that.

[2:25:31] any others? Okay.

[2:25:37] okay, now we'll jump to special revenues. As we've discussed before, there's

[2:25:41] multiple funds that make up special revenues that I kind of

[2:25:45] call it the hub of a lot of fees that we get. Beach preservation hospitality.

[2:25:49] um, hello? Just second. I gotta, he's

[2:25:54] gotta let miss oh,

[2:26:15] we'll take a quick five minute break and yeah, yeah, while they,

[2:26:30] but we need to get the screen back up.

[2:26:46] okay, now we're back to special revenue funds. I'm just going to skip real

[2:26:50] quick to the income statement 'cause this has the overview

[2:26:54] of the revenues that we generate. Uh, inside the funds are different

[2:26:59] beach, pre beach preservation, hospitality, tiff, road usage, data

[2:27:04] tax, real estate, palmetto, electric, short term rental, license fi

[2:27:08] grants and investment income. So we are projecting around 55 million

[2:27:13] in 27 coming from all of these, uh, uh, separate

[2:27:17] funds. Um, the one couple of changes that you'll see there,

[2:27:21] um, we, as we mentioned, we're not budgeting any grants that are not signed.

[2:27:26] so that's zero up in operating grants and on the federal grants

[2:27:30] it's zero. Uh, the 1 million we had in the projection for 26

[2:27:35] was the, um, arpa arpa grants that came through. If you look at,

[2:27:40] uh, the budget there, there, this fund was not

[2:27:44] budgeted, so you don't see any dollars there. So the comparison

[2:27:48] we did for 26 to 27 was to the projected numbers.

[2:27:53] and, um, so that's really modest growth in the, as we

[2:27:57] talked about before, for beach preservation fees and hospitality taxes.

[2:28:02] and, uh, we did come down on, uh, the state a tax, which

[2:28:06] we talked about. And then our real estate transfer fee we came down as well,

[2:28:10] primarily based upon just taking a more conservative view. As

[2:28:14] we can tell, we did about 4.9 million in 24, 5 0.2

[2:28:19] and 25. We're having a really, really strong year this year, but we scaled it back.

[2:28:23] it's hard to predict that. So we took a conservative view on that. Um, use of

[2:28:27] fund balances, we do this fund, the special revenues

[2:28:31] fund a lot of our other funds in the town. So, um,

[2:28:35] you know, that's what you see here and what funds that they're coming out of. But

[2:28:39] we are using $27 million of fund balance

[2:28:44] in the special revenue funds. And at the end here we have the firetruck lease proceeds

[2:28:48] coming through as well, uh, for four and a half million dollars. And that totals

[2:28:53] the 86 million when you look over at expense.

[2:28:57] um, the most of the direct expenses are really at

[2:29:01] tax grants. So we've got just under four 4.1 million

[2:29:06] in 2027 for at tax. And their dmo is around

[2:29:10] 3.7 million. And then we do have $50,000 for the

[2:29:14] bufort county, uh, deed processing fees that were accessed from them. And,

[2:29:19] uh, beach consulting services, uh, getting down to, uh,

[2:29:23] our transfers out. As we mentioned before, these are

[2:29:27] dollars that we're transferring to the general fund, our debt service,

[2:29:32] cip and for our housing fund. And that's,

[2:29:36] uh, $67 million. Um, we have a

[2:29:40] total fund balance surplus of $10.5 million.

[2:29:44] and this is in our natural disasters fund. That's really investment

[2:29:48] income that's being added to the fund balance as well as

[2:29:53] monies in beach preservation. So we collect that 15 million,

[2:29:57] we allocate out, uh, money for capital for debt, and now to the

[2:30:01] general funds. So we've got about 4 million left over there. And then our real estate

[2:30:06] transfer, we don't budget any land other than 250,000.

[2:30:10] so, um, we have, uh, real estate transfer continuing

[2:30:14] out to the fund balance. Uh, we

[2:30:18] talked a little bit about this on monday, um, or tuesday,

[2:30:22] sorry, but this is just an overview of the state accommodation

[2:30:26] tax and I think the really the highlight there is that we are using

[2:30:31] more dollars for capital than we have in prior years. We're using $5.4 million

[2:30:36] and then we're also transferring 600,000 to housing as well. So that

[2:30:41] fund balance is roughly gonna end up at about 6 million next tuesday.

[2:30:45] when we close out the session after cip review, we do

[2:30:49] have a fund balance walk that we'll go through to kind of show you what we're looking at for all of the

[2:30:53] different funds, including these special revenue funds. And this is just

[2:30:57] a highlight that we talked about on tuesday of the state accommodation taxes,

[2:31:02] um, where they go and the, and the allocation logic for them.

[2:31:07] and then I'm gonna jump in, oh, here's an eye chart, but I'm

[2:31:11] gonna jump into the, um, fund, ba fund balance sheet,

[2:31:16] excuse me, proposed reserve policies for

[2:31:20] our funds. And so we've got this broken out into

[2:31:24] operating capital special revenues and

[2:31:28] um, sorry about that. Am I

[2:31:35] okay, there we are. So trying to go to the end. So,

[2:31:39] um, when we spoke on, uh,

[2:31:44] tuesday, we talked about the methodology changes

[2:31:48] to some of these. One of those is on the general fund. Uh,

[2:31:52] we are changing the minimum

[2:31:56] fund balance from 50 or to,

[2:32:01] excuse me, from changing that, growing that to 50%

[2:32:05] of the spend, the expenditures for the general fund,

[2:32:09] for the minimum reserve of the fund to

[2:32:13] a maximum of 55%. Okay? And so

[2:32:18] right now that 50% minimum in 2027

[2:32:23] will be 32 3 72. And

[2:32:27] um, we are just a shade above that in our proposal for

[2:32:31] the end of 27 in this budget, any amount

[2:32:35] over the 55% will be transferred to the natural

[2:32:40] disasters fund. However, if there's encumbered dollars

[2:32:44] that were not spent during that year that are causing

[2:32:48] us to be over the 55% that would be, has been spent

[2:32:53] in the following year, we will not use

[2:32:57] those dollars to transfer to the natural disasters fund.

[2:33:01] I think I said all of that right? Got it. So, um,

[2:33:05] it's a lot. So, um, on storm water we talked about,

[2:33:10] uh, changing that minimum to $3 million and

[2:33:14] um, and then this year we are proposing $10 million to

[2:33:18] accommodate for the, um, fixed asset, uh, re reserve

[2:33:23] as well, which we can talk about more in the review next tuesday for storm

[2:33:27] water on the capital fund we have the capital improvements program

[2:33:31] fund reserve of $4.341 million.

[2:33:37] uh, that's the town council designating that amount for economic development

[2:33:41] opportunities getting down to real estate

[2:33:45] transfer fee. We are not changing the million dollars that we have currently

[2:33:50] on the books today on beach preservation.

[2:33:54] uh, we are at $20 million currently. Um,

[2:33:59] now we're looking to change the amount to have a

[2:34:03] fund balance of 40 million minimum, but to

[2:34:07] be adjusted as available each fiscal year

[2:34:12] to that fund balance that's available not to exceed

[2:34:16] $60 million at the end of 2033. And so

[2:34:21] there will be more than likely, hang, hang on, hang on. It's,

[2:34:25] it's, it's not, not to exceed, correct? It's the

[2:34:29] minimum would be 60 million. Well, they target reserve balance of 60 million. Right,

[2:34:33] but not, I mean, because I thought that there

[2:34:37] was an opportunity to have actually more than that in there. There is,

[2:34:41] but let me look at how I can, let me, let me help, yeah, I'm trying

[2:34:46] to read this. Yeah, I know. I can read it from right here. And we apologize. The town shall

[2:34:50] maintain a minimum beach preservation fee balance of 40 million to support the long-term

[2:34:54] shoreline protection beach re nourishment and coastal resiliency initiatives.

[2:34:58] each fiscal year, the town shall reserve available

[2:35:02] fund balance amounts exceeding the established minimum exceeding,

[2:35:07] right? So exceeding the 40 with a target reserve balance of 60 million

[2:35:11] by the end of fiscal year 2033 to prepare to prepare for

[2:35:15] the next major beach renourishment project. Reserved funds

[2:35:20] shall only, or excuse me, shall solely shall

[2:35:24] be used solely for beach preservation, renourishment shoreline

[2:35:28] stabilization and related coastal resiliency expenditures approved by town

[2:35:33] council. By the town council. So that's what that says. And so the, the story

[2:35:37] there though is it was 12 upper moons ago,

[2:35:42] we moved it, you moved it to 20, and right now in

[2:35:46] this budget, that 20 is shifting to 42 8. And on the next

[2:35:50] slide, and I don't want to go to the next slide yet, you'll see the projection to a hundred million

[2:35:55] dollars, um, with a little bit of use, I would say, I shouldn't

[2:35:59] say a little, but, uh, minimal use, um, over time.

[2:36:03] but, but the point being is that right? We don't have to stop at 60,

[2:36:07] there's no, no sir, that's, I just wanna clarify that aspect of it. No sir. But we proposed a,

[2:36:11] we, we proposed this where that anything over 60 that you start making

[2:36:17] decisions right on maybe, maybe the next beach improvement

[2:36:21] project past islanders from a resilience standpoint, a parking, a usability,

[2:36:25] uh, an upkeep is fish hall beach park, right? There's, there's some opportunity there.

[2:36:29] I would also say that dreesen is a very, uh, important, uh, opportunity as

[2:36:34] well. So we don't just wanna move it up to a hundred and then have no dollars

[2:36:38] to improve our assets where, where folks are visiting a da

[2:36:42] got it. Act, everything. So, alright. Okay. On

[2:36:46] the next one is, uh, hospitality tax and there's no change recommended

[2:36:50] from the current $5 million minimum current policy. And the

[2:36:55] last one we have is natural disasters fund. So now I can read this.

[2:36:59] um, the minimum shall the, the, the

[2:37:03] minimum required fund balance shall increase annually by the amount of assigned general

[2:37:08] fund balance transferred above the 55% general fund

[2:37:12] threshold. And by investment income earned within the fund, the natural

[2:37:17] disasters fund shall have no maximum fund balance limitation. So

[2:37:21] it will grow slowly over time based upon those two opportunities

[2:37:25] for additional funding and, and a, a reminder, right? How did, how did we get here? It,

[2:37:29] I believe it was 20 and it remained 20 for a long time. And town council

[2:37:34] would ask me every year to do some assessment on what would it cost

[2:37:38] if right, based upon inflation, based upon added so

[2:37:42] and so, where it was 20, we moved it to 36 in

[2:37:46] this year, just because of what dave is saying, um, it increased as

[2:37:51] and policy at least to 39 7 45.

[2:37:55] so again, a, a little bit, but we made that 20 million to 36 million

[2:37:59] jump based upon our recommendation. And then the 36 million

[2:38:03] current to 30 39, almost $40 million.

[2:38:09] so if you look at the roll up of all of them under the current policy, we're at 91,000,003

[2:38:14] 70, the proposed minimum is gonna be 1 23 9 63.

[2:38:20] and based upon what we're looking at for 27, it would go up

[2:38:25] to 1 3 5 7 67. So if you look at our ending fund

[2:38:29] balance of just under 235 million will be at 58%

[2:38:33] reserved. Go ahead. Um, I think you need a title

[2:38:38] change over that last column because it says

[2:38:42] projected reserve fund balance, it's 6 30 20 27

[2:38:47] and that's not, that's the project, that's the minimum

[2:38:51] amount.

[2:38:55] the, so we're starting at $254 million

[2:39:01] in our fund balance. And then you talk about our

[2:39:05] current reserve policy ties up

[2:39:09] 91 million, right? And that the proposed minimum

[2:39:14] for is 124 million, and then you've got 136 million.

[2:39:19] but it says that's the projected reserve fund balance.

[2:39:24] that's the, the, the 1 35 divided by the 2 35, the

[2:39:29] percentage that would be reserved, but the,

[2:39:33] the third, but with the title, it makes it look like that's all the money that we have in total.

[2:39:40] oh, that one. I was asking if that column header is the right terminology. Right.

[2:39:44] what, what should it be? What what would you prefer? It should be the proposed minimum

[2:39:49] balance policy as of 6 30 20 27.

[2:39:53] okay. I don't want people to think that we we're

[2:39:57] going from 254 million to 2027. We're

[2:40:01] going to 136 million in our total fund

[2:40:05] balance. Right. I think. Okay. So it's just a, it's

[2:40:09] just a titling on the top. Okay.

[2:40:15] all right. I do have a quick question. Pardon me. Um,

[2:40:20] only because I had to try to make a motion on tuesday night because we had a revised,

[2:40:24] uh, page on the reserve policy. Um, and I

[2:40:28] think I'm looking at the one that I was looking at on the screen on um, tuesday

[2:40:32] night. But just looking at those, uh, and comparing them,

[2:40:36] and I apologize if, if, if what we have before us tonight is

[2:40:40] what you showed on the screen tuesday night, then we're, we're good. But my only

[2:40:45] question is, um, and maybe we take care of this at second reading, um,

[2:40:49] is that there's some numbers that are different. Um, and, and

[2:40:53] I would call out the ones I can quickly compare each preservation

[2:40:57] fee. The last revision I saw was 40,000

[2:41:01] proposed minimum balance policy, and this shows a little over 42 8.

[2:41:06] um, the other number that's different is the natural disasters fund.

[2:41:11] the last number I saw was 36,000 and this is 39,745

[2:41:16] et cetera. Um, and then that changes the subtotal and the total.

[2:41:20] um, so if, if these are the ones you wanna revise, then I guess, and

[2:41:24] I, I know mr. Coltrane is sitting behind me, , um, then will

[2:41:28] it be okay if we make the further amendment to this page at second

[2:41:32] reading? Right. And that, as I understand your question, you're

[2:41:37] asking if it's a material change because the town council already voted first reading, we

[2:41:41] talked a lot about it or a little bit about it in terms of terminology, but then we

[2:41:45] also saw some opportunity to calibrate based upon your expectations.

[2:41:49] and so we moved the, a couple of those numbers upward.

[2:41:54] it's, it's still, at the end of the day, the same amount of

[2:41:58] dollars in the budget, just a different reserve policy. Is that

[2:42:02] a material change to the budget? Especially because you've already had first reading,

[2:42:06] I believe that is what you're getting to. Yes. And I'm looking at the total,

[2:42:11] it's a little over $6 million, uh, almost $6.6 million difference

[2:42:16] in the total down at the bottom. Um, ,

[2:42:22] you know what I'm talking about? Maybe we don't have these, and I, I'll help curtis with this. We, we, the town council

[2:42:26] in the past has adopted the reserve policy

[2:42:30] as a policy, but attached as an attachment to

[2:42:35] the ordinance. I think it was, it might be exhibit ei can't

[2:42:39] remember, right? Yeah, it was page, it was page four exhibit, but

[2:42:43] it was page four of exhibit e and we went through, um,

[2:42:47] well actually spoke to, to mr. Burr about that a couple of times.

[2:42:51] no, I don't think that what you are proposing to do by the,

[2:42:56] uh, recalibration of the numbers on this amounts to a

[2:43:00] material change between what you have adopted

[2:43:04] on first reading and what will be adopted on second reading.

[2:43:08] I mean the, the gross

[2:43:13] numbers, if I understand mr. Orlando correctly, are actually not changing what

[2:43:17] is changing. There's, uh, the internal calibration of how you get there.

[2:43:22] okay, great. But we'll need to make sure that second reading has

[2:43:27] these new numbers in front of us, okay? Mm-hmm . Thank you for clarity. You will have this,

[2:43:31] but we also have, uh, what, what I would call the guiding policy document,

[2:43:35] which isn't this, you, you've seen that and you've adopted it and it's part of your first reading

[2:43:39] package that will be changed and that's what you're adopting as well.

[2:43:43] so both will be changed. Would it make sense to have that changed

[2:43:47] document for the next workshop? Because,

[2:43:52] and if I understand it correctly, this is in fact still gonna be

[2:43:56] page four of exhibit e. Okay,

[2:44:05] then you, okay. As we were just talking a little bit about

[2:44:09] beach, this is, um, what we are looking at

[2:44:13] between now and 2033 with our revenue streams

[2:44:17] for the beach preservation fee and investment income, less our

[2:44:22] operating expenses, our transfer to the general fund, cip,

[2:44:26] which we have highlighted. 'cause uh, that's still could be

[2:44:30] modified as we go through the time. And then our debt service, which, uh, the

[2:44:34] last payment of that will be in 2033. So there'll be three more million additional

[2:44:39] dollars after that, but it gets us to a very strong fund balance

[2:44:43] position of over a hundred million dollars by 2033. We have

[2:44:47] a step up of what that projected reserve, that's what I was trying to say before to get to 60.

[2:44:52] um, it could go higher than that, but that was just the minimum with other dollars available

[2:44:56] as needed based upon direction for any other capital projects.

[2:45:03] yeah, because one of the reasons why we

[2:45:07] move up to that much is that you don't have any capital projects associated,

[2:45:12] uh, with this. You have our regular maintenance

[2:45:16] and support that we provide, but uh, there's no

[2:45:21] large projects associated in here, so it

[2:45:25] does provide an opportunity to your point, right? Yes, ma'am.

[2:45:29] right. We, we just projected low of 470 of 1.9

[2:45:34] of four 70 and, and I can't see the screen, but I believe it's up, up close

[2:45:38] to $2 million over there. So to your point, there's a little bit of money, but most

[2:45:42] of that would be maintenance, not, uh, a major lift. Like

[2:45:46] we're looking at islanders beach park

[2:45:52] and this is just, uh, the rollup at the end.

[2:45:58] that, that concludes our, our presentation. Okay. Awesome.

[2:46:02] any, uh, last comments, questions from council?

[2:46:10] all right, well, seeing none, um, ms. Becker, do

[2:46:14] you have any comments?

[2:46:19] no, I'm good. I finally got back on and was able to, and I'll

[2:46:23] go back and watch the portion of the meeting that I missed. So I'm good for now,

[2:46:27] but I'll have questions. Okay. Alright. Thank you.

[2:46:31] so, uh, kim, do we have anybody sign up to speak?

[2:46:36] we have two people. Okay. Timer up. Um,

[2:46:40] skip poland.

[2:46:46] he, he actually, we've got, they're, they're both signed up for

[2:46:50] the budget and non agenda items.

[2:46:56] well, this is, this is on the, the, uh, the agenda items. I'm sorry,

[2:47:00] I don't, this is on the agenda item and then we'll do a clock. I, I'll

[2:47:04] just hit my clock. I'll do my clock. Give us just a second, just

[2:47:08] just one moment. Okay, go ahead.

[2:47:12] okay. Alan, do you understand all this?

[2:47:17] and please don't interrupt me again. I'm here today because the taxpayers of

[2:47:21] this town are not getting answers and that needs to change. Let's get straight

[2:47:25] to it. Court and city doge audits are coming.

[2:47:29] who gave the legal opinion that a tax funds can be used the way they are? Name the lawyers

[2:47:34] produce a written opinion or admit it doesn't exist. Who told

[2:47:38] this council it was legal to spend taxpayers money on 600,000 or dr. Harbortown

[2:47:43] 500,000 for heritage golf sponsorship. Millions of the chamber

[2:47:47] of commerce and taxpayer funded legal fees for private lawsuits by

[2:47:51] lawyer alfred and terry finger's criminal dmo contract.

[2:47:55] because if there's no valid legal opinion, there are no mistakes. These

[2:47:59] are just knowing violations. While we're multi, multi-year

[2:48:04] multimillion dollar dmo chamber contracts have proved that violate 5 0 1

[2:48:08] dash c six tax laws, south carolina, a tax code south carolina

[2:48:13] constitutional law that prohibits the use of public money for private benefit

[2:48:17] and profits. Why is a tax funded chamber and other non-profits

[2:48:21] operating like private businesses, selling ads, no business business license

[2:48:26] generating revenue, committing tax evasion, and refusing to disclose where

[2:48:30] the money goes? Where are the full financial reports? Where are the profit reports?

[2:48:34] where's the transparency required by law? Why do town officials

[2:48:38] use taxpayer money to join the chamber, attend the chamber ball party? There's

[2:48:43] a direct conflict of interest. Public funds should not be used for private memberships.

[2:48:48] why are the foer requests violated, denied and incomplete? Transparency is

[2:48:52] not optional. It's a law. Why are town lawyers drafting approving

[2:48:57] illegal contracts that benefit private entities? Why taxpayers pay for

[2:49:01] it? Who was overseeing them? Why are the legal fees outta control

[2:49:05] lawyer malpractice and criminal contract fraud by coltrane? Who should

[2:49:09] be sued? This is simple to stop. Follow the

[2:49:13] money, show the documents, name the people responsible. If you cannot do

[2:49:18] that, then you're not governing your protecting. A system is broken. I'm calling

[2:49:22] for immediate action. Full public disclosure of all financial records, all legal

[2:49:26] opinions released to the public independent cpa, uh,

[2:49:30] uh, city doge audits and budgets and year end year-end audits,

[2:49:34] a complete review of a tax and dmo contracts and lawyers law laws,

[2:49:39] the taxpayers are watching and this is not going away. Last perry,

[2:49:43] you said you saw millions of tax receipts and invoices with the chamber and bill miles, including

[2:49:48] canada. Where are they? This is criminal fraud. Alex brown

[2:49:52] must be removed from finance committee and replaced by cpa. How

[2:49:56] will you all respond under oath? In your deposition of risk of perjury?

[2:50:02] sue coltrane and replace him with a free ai lawyer robot

[2:50:06] to sit in his seat. That's free and honest. No one escapes

[2:50:10] forensic audits by the fbi and many are handcuffed and y'all need to prepare for this episode.

[2:50:14] thank you very much, mr. Busy.

[2:50:25] good evening, richard. Busy indigo run. I want to begin today where I left off

[2:50:29] on tuesday, uh, before the mayor abruptly cut me off. I

[2:50:33] had clearly stated that I had one final comment, but the mayor chose to bang his gavel

[2:50:37] and order me to sit down. What I was trying to say was this, while

[2:50:41] it's commendable that the proposed budget does not increase the millage rate, that's

[2:50:46] only half the equation. I heard what ms. Tanner said. But

[2:50:50] if the millage rate remains at 19.4 and your

[2:50:54] property capped value increases, your taxes would increase.

[2:50:58] and keep in mind the next assessment, which I believe is two years down the road,

[2:51:02] uh, your taxes would increase by as much as 15% with no

[2:51:07] mill rate increase. The goal of the town council

[2:51:11] should be to decrease taxes. Remember in 1983, we were

[2:51:15] set up as a limited government. A statement from

[2:51:19] tuesday's meeting, uh, got my attention. Alex brown talked about

[2:51:23] how the budget process had changed and he proudly stated that there's

[2:51:27] no more horse trading at the dais. But perhaps that's because

[2:51:32] this town council conducts business behind closed doors through what

[2:51:36] I believe are illegal. Two by two meetings, the town manager

[2:51:40] and the mayor meet privately with two council members at a time to discuss the

[2:51:44] budget, followed by additional meetings with different council members. These

[2:51:48] rolling quorums are designed to avoid public scrutiny.

[2:51:53] I know that these secret backdoor meetings, they've been going on for years and in

[2:51:57] fact, my rep tammy becker, believes they're legal and anyone who

[2:52:01] questions them is just plain wrong. In fact, she's openly participated

[2:52:05] in these secret meetings as all of you have, becker believes

[2:52:09] they're normal, and that way you can advocate for the things you want and fight

[2:52:13] things you don't agree with. But all of this takes place in private, out of

[2:52:18] the public view. So while some believe horse trading of the past

[2:52:22] is ended, I suspect it has simply moved behind closed doors.

[2:52:26] and many of you have praised the budget process as transparent.

[2:52:32] I believe the opposite is true. All of the questions I raised tuesday

[2:52:36] night, that to me, one of the most important remains unanswered.

[2:52:40] does the town used zero based budgeting or does it simply

[2:52:44] add to the previous year's budget? I've sent all my questions to mr. Orlando

[2:52:49] and the town council tuesday night as I promised, but no responses so far.

[2:52:54] and the issue of government is spending at the federal level, the state level,

[2:52:58] and the town level. This town council should explore any

[2:53:03] and all ways to decrease spending. Thank you.

[2:53:07] thank you, kim. That's all we have on the budget. Okay,

[2:53:12] so now we move on to non agenda items. Mr. Hoagland,

[2:53:22] uh, skip hoagland, windmill harbor, running for honest watchdog mayor for

[2:53:26] all taxpayers. The town lawyers for the last 40 years has severely

[2:53:30] violated our community. They have committed criminal dmo contract fraud and malpractice

[2:53:35] approved the illegal use of millions of tax funds like the 600,000 to dredge harbor town

[2:53:40] and worse criminal used tax funds for their private pockets and clients. They also

[2:53:44] use a job to profit their private practices and lawyer friends. The town

[2:53:48] has violated procurement laws for the last 40 years. No opportunity for local lawyers

[2:53:52] who pay taxes here and allowing the same corrupt lawyers to control our legal

[2:53:56] services with our compromised town managers, internal cpas

[2:54:01] and outside audit firms. Also, legal fees buried in the public

[2:54:05] view in our budgets as as as mayor with a city doge.

[2:54:09] all legal services and contracts will be reviewed by independent local volunteer

[2:54:14] cpas serving on the city doge finance committee. And this will end all the

[2:54:18] legal abuse. No more illegal contracts, no more malpractice

[2:54:23] and no more illegal funding by the lawyers of this town council abusing

[2:54:27] taxpayers. You serve ms. Becker. Mr. Perry, you understand this.

[2:54:31] please stop your illegal votes. New lawyer you choose.

[2:54:36] must be foremost honest. Take a town oath to follow all laws including state

[2:54:40] and federal that prevail over local, especially when outside lawyers present

[2:54:44] hard evidence to stop the new hired lawyer using this town job to profit

[2:54:48] his private practice and his law per partners and friends, we need to hire a young

[2:54:52] in-house lawyer, paid an ai recommended salary. This needs to

[2:54:56] be a hilton head resident lawyer that has his community best interest in mind

[2:55:01] and pays taxes here with ai. Legal answers, legal fees will be

[2:55:05] reduced. I don't even use lawyers that much myself. 90%

[2:55:09] of the time I use ai. So we all have to, we so we will have

[2:55:13] an honest ai robot lawyer sitting in curtis coltrane's chair

[2:55:18] that will answer every legal question this counsel wants to know for free

[2:55:22] soon. Ai will eliminate both lawyers needs for judges, juries, and

[2:55:26] decide most cases in a few minutes based on laws and facts, not emotions,

[2:55:31] assumptions or failed weaponized legal, judicial, and political system.

[2:55:35] curtis coltrane should be sued for his legal advice and his malpractice insurance

[2:55:39] company paid the 600,000, the overcharged legal fees and ex

[2:55:44] and explained these in the island packets explained these in the island packet

[2:55:48] provided. This includes lawyer albert and, uh, coltrane's firm law partner

[2:55:52] who robbed this community blind of 200,000 and fraud. Terry fingers'

[2:55:57] firm, uh, drafted the illegal dmo contract. He is

[2:56:01] corrupt and he is not qualified to apply to be the new town lawyer. If you do it,

[2:56:05] I'm gonna get on you hard, harder than you've ever seen. Stop the corruption.

[2:56:10] stop it, richard. Fizzy.

[2:56:15] that's all we have. Alright, thank you. So we are adjourned.

[2:56:19] thanks for everybody being here tonight.

[2:56:48] thanks for watching bc tv.

[2:57:02] I am memory campbell and this is beauford county moments. I want

[2:57:06] to talk a little bit about food today. The food

[2:57:10] has been a great part of our life in terms of gathering

[2:57:15] food and preparing them. Our food is

[2:57:19] based on the land and the sea. The land food

[2:57:23] has always been rice. We don't feel we have eaten dinner unless we've

[2:57:27] had rice. Rice was mixed with

[2:57:31] various items from the sea, like oysters or shrimp.

[2:57:36] and when they're cooked with rice in one pot, we call it a rice or

[2:57:40] shrimp or an oyster perlow. And then we have

[2:57:44] the watermelons and the sweet potatoes. Sweet

[2:57:49] potatoes was always eaten with fish and fresh

[2:57:53] fish with gravy and a sweet potato. There is nothing better.

[2:57:59] okra has always been a very important part of our food ways.

[2:58:04] we, we, we raise them as well as we prepare them

[2:58:09] with shrimp and tomatoes. And some people would call that

[2:58:13] a gumbo. And that's what exactly what it is. Okra,

[2:58:17] gumbo. And so

[2:58:21] enjoy the food of the low country because it's been

[2:58:25] very much a part of our history. This is emery

[2:58:30] campbell. This has been your beaufort county moment.

[2:58:36] to see more beaufort county moments go to the beaufort county library homepage and click

[2:58:40] on the local history tab.

May 14, 2026 Hilton Head Town Council Budget Workshop

Transcript