involved the entire time
Hello. Good evening, everybody.
Thank you so much for coming
out to our 2027 budget meeting.
>> I appreciate you being here.
It's more important this year
than any year that I've been on
city council to have public
engagement in our budget
process because it is such a
tough budget year and councils
really wrestling with what we
cut and what we keep too to bad
thread that needle of providing
you the level of service you
deserve while also minimizing
any potential ad rate increases
to their tax bill. So know that
we are still wrestling with
this budget. So if there's
something in it, you see the
night that you have concerns
about our questions now is your
opportunity to voice that to us
because we are still in the
process of mold in this budget.
Again, thank you all so much
for coming out. We really are
depending on the feedback we
get this year more so than ever
to make sure we're providing
that adequate budget for the
city. And we give you what you
want in this tough year.
And so with that, the man who's
made it all happen, MR. Jay
Chapa, thank you.
Thank you. Council woman.
>> Good evening. Thank you all
for being here. Really
appreciate you all taking the
time out of your day.
To come to this meeting.
And we've had years in the past
where we have these meetings,
we have like 25 staffers and
like 2 people show up. So it's
really good to a good crowd
I'm gonna turn it over here in
a minute to Kristin Simmons.
Our street chief's trip
strategy. Officer she's over
are what we call a forward lab.
It's a lot of data and numbers
the cut. They had no budget and
data analytics. All those type
of things and children through
a presentation. But I want to
start off by just a little
protection as was mentioned.
This is a tough this year.
And from a budget perspective
for the city and and probably
about. 13 or 14 years. I was
here when we had to deal with
the downturn of the economy
did too 2008 and the whole
mortgage issues and those kind
of things and those are pretty
pretty tough budget years as
well.
This year's not as drastic.
And I think we've come up with
a hopefully you'll see with a
happy medium. What's being
proposed, what you're going to
see tonight is the proposed
budget to the city council from
the city manager. And of
course, my staff that's
involved.
It is. We have to balance the
budget in Texas. We can't do
the deficit budgets that they
do at the federal level rights
and local government. We have
to come up with a balanced
budget. So you'll see that all
of the budget to balance the
city is basically a
conglomerate. A whole lot of
different businesses.
And one of the things that
happens, people especially
talking about the general fund.
People. Look at the issue with
the general Fund and
they see that and they say will
like like you to take some of
that other money. And move it
and pay for police or pay for
fire pay for.
Community centers. And it's
because you can't it's it's
legal issues. So the aviation,
for instance, their revenues
have to stay with aviation
golf, their revenue. Stay with
golf. The water Department
utility water stays that
revenue stays with the the
utilities. We don't have any
issues really in those areas.
The general fund where we have
the issues and it's really tied
to a property tax values, our
property values overall.
With that in mind, I'm gonna
turn it over to Christine and
she does a great job of of kind
of breaking it down going
through the whole process.
The majority, the discussions
on the general fund because
that's usually what folks want
to talk about. But as you go
along, if you have a question
that she's going to slide to
raise your hand, we'll bring
you a bike. So you can ask your
question. This is being live
streamed and it's also being
recorded so that anybody can
go back and look at it. This
is the 4th. 4th of our 10
public meetings. We're having
one in each district. And so
if you if you
MISS It and come back, you can
tell folks that, you know, that
could make when they can look
online and looking at any of
those as well. So I'm gonna
turn over to Kristen and thank
you again for being a.
>> I don't need that. I used to
going her own because I'm so
short and that's why I can
stand behind the podium either.
I can be back there. You can
even see me. I'll be like this
talking to you.
I know. Yeah, like hello.
I'm from
the government. Okay. So I but
I do have to like sort of refer
to my my thing here.
All right. So I'm like I said,
my name is Christine Simmons
and the director of the Fort
Worth Lab Data, Budget
performance for the city.
And it's my pleasure to present
the budget to yutan. I'll try
to keep it interesting week
night budget. Thank you so much
for coming.
>> Like the council member and
Jay both mentioned your
engagement in this process is
really valued and important in
the budget is not totally
fully, you know, done. We've
proposed it. And now it's in
kind of council deliberations
stage. So your feedback is very
welcome. And if any of you
participated in our earlier a
budget priority survey or any
of the bond stuff. We always
appreciate your engagement
through the city's engagement
processes. So thank you for
being here in week night and
for listening to our
presentation.
So we've kind of start with
like high-level themes and
every budget years, a little
different. This year's kind of
theme that emerges really about
the fact that the city's growth
in population and all the
businesses that are coming
here, people moving here is not
necessarily translating to
growth in property values in
property tax revenue. And
that's primarily because of
the tear an appraisal district
in the activities that that are
under way there. So the city
sits in 4 different appraisal
districts. But by and large,
you know, most of our revenue
comes from Tehran about 92%.
And some of you MAY know that
they adopted a reappraisal plan
a couple of years ago where
they're only appraising
residential property every
other year. And we knew that
and we're kind of planning for
that in our expenses. Don't
follow like in every other year
cycle that way. But, you know,
we can sort of project how that
will go. But the situation was
worse than we anticipated this
year. We're in our second year
of frozen values. And we're
just seeing historic levels
of mid-year value. Lawson
protests being granted at that
had level. And so we've
projected for a 49 million
dollar gap. And then when we
got our certified values from
Tad, which happened at the end
of JULY, we're up to like a
78 million dollar Israeli were
sent or worse case scenario.
Historic value lost between
APRIL and JULY and really all
the taxing entities in Tarrant
County are looking at are
similar patterns. And so we
kind of had to we had the
budget pretty well balanced and
had to go back to the drawing
board a bit. So really looking
at reductions that we feel are
equitable and prioritize the
things that are important to us
residents and to city council.
And you'll see a lot of focus
on public safety in this budget
because, you know, every time
we do a priority Surveyor
community survey, public
safety, police and fire is
always at the top. And so this
budget does prioritize those
services and other key city
services. So we'll walk through
a little bit of what we're
adding and what we had to
reduce to balance the revenue
and expenditures.
One graph that we added that
MAY help you see kind of what
Terrence doing compared to
Dallas and Collin County.
This is average taxable home
value over the last few years.
So you can see Terrence on the
bottom and then you'll see
Dallas and Collin. Let's see.
Dallas is the light blue line
Collins,
the yellow. So he'll see that
we're just kind of in a
different situation here in
Tarrant County. Has the value
falls from this clear? 26 to
27. And so that's what you'll
see later in the presentation
that even with the proposed tax
rate increase, actually the tax
bill for the average home goes
down because as the value
falls, even when you apply a
tax rate increase, you're still
coming out slightly on top.
So just a unique situation.
But you can see Dallas and
Collin County, they're growing
just like parent, but their
values are reflecting the hours
are not necessarily reflecting
that on the residential side.
All right. We'll get into some
numbers. So the total operating
budget for the city of Fort
Worth is 3.3, 2 billion dollars
for fiscal year. 27. That
includes all operating not just
the general fund. We will focus
a bit on the general fund here
in a moment.
But here's kind of a car like a
nerdy finance table of the
budget. So current year fiscal
year, 26, you'll see 3.1
billion dollars growing by
about 7.5% to fiscal year.
20 Seven's 3.3, 2 billion
dollars. And you see the kind
of different, you know,
grossing a little bit of
reductions here and there.
But general Fund is the biggest
of the operating funds, a
growing its are taking up about
a 3rd of the operating budget.
The next category. That's the
biggest operating as is
enterprise funds. And we'll
talk about in a little bit.
But enterprise funds are fun to
operate more like a business.
So they're not funded by
property taxes. They're funded
by rates and fees of those who
use the Think of like water,
solid waste, those kinds of
things. And then the 3rd
biggest operating category, a
special revenue funds so that
when you might be most familiar
with is ccpd so special revenue
funds are funds that have like
a dedicated revenue sources
restricted for a specific
purpose. So ccpd funded by a
half-cent sales tax restricted
to crime control and prevention
activities. And we'll get some
more examples later. But those
are kind of the big 3 of the
operating funds.
So when we walked through
counsel, well, that the
recommended budget with council
on the 11th and you're more
than welcome to go and watch
that. If you'd like, we talked
about sort of the whole budget
process and we looked like
thing by thing by thing.
So this is a summary of that
story. But I wanted to share it
just because I think it can be
helpful knowing what the city
did to get to what you're
seeing today. So we knew like
I mentioned because of a
property tax issues that we
were facing a gap between our
revenues and expenditures.
And so from the beginning, when
we start the budget process in
MARCH and APRIL, we asked
departments to reduce their
budgets by one percent.
So we actually deliver them a
target budget. That was already
one percent reduced from the
current year. That got us about
7.8 million dollars in savings.
So just some initial belt
tightening there. And then that
continued because we asked them
also to submit an additional
3% reduction for their
department. That came in a
number of packages and ideas.
Unlike program reductions in
all kinds of things,
departments do a lot of
different things to get there.
And so we did take a lot of
those 3% reductions in that
garnered us about 14 and a half
million more dollars in
savings. So those things
happened early in the APRIL MAY
and JUNE and then we're getting
pretty close to balancing the
budget with some other
strategies along the way.
But then, like I mentioned at
the end of JULY, we got those
tad values and we had to go
back to the drawing board for
some even deeper cuts. So some
of the 3% reductions that we
didn't, you know, feel like
we're the best idea. We then
did take those ideas and and
continue to look at other
strategies like reducing
employee pay for performance
and looking at revenue
increases that we had maybe
looked at yet. And then at the
end of the day, we were still
facing nearly a 40 million
dollar gap. 36.9 million.
And that's when the city
manager made the decision to
propose a tax rate increase
to sort of better reflect the
need with all these kind of
tad issues that we're having.
The tax rate increases. 3.2
cents, not percent to keep
saying percent a sense. So
current year, 67 dot us nc per
$100 valuation. And then next
year, be 70.0, $0.02 And we'll
show you in a bit kind of how
that stacks up on the the bill.
And for those of you who MAY
have been at budget
presentations before you might
be familiar with kind of how
the property tax rate breaks
down deluxe plane. So this
70.0, $0.02 kind of splits into
2. The first is operating on
the top. There. And then in
Fort Worth, we further split
that amount into just
operations on the top. $0.48
That is what funds the general
fund so think about like the
city's main operating fund for
police and fire parks and
libraries. Transportation.
And then that part that says
Capital is 7 and a quarter cent
for capital maintenance.
We use cash or pay go pay as
you go capital to fund some
of that capital maintenance
rather than doing in debt.
And in the bottom portion of
the tax rate to 14, 75 is the
actual debt, a portion of the
tax rate. And so like if you
came to any of the bond
meetings, that was the right
guy. We said we're not going to
increase that. That rate with
the 2026 bonds. You can see
it remains the same. But we do
have to keep it because we have
to support her. Our current
debt to that includes the end
of the 2018 2022 bond programs.
And then the 2026 bond payment
go program going forward.
So City Council has 5 strategic
priority. So we kind of like to
talk about the budget in terms
of those. So first being
community safety. Again, this
is where a lot of the budget
focuses because this is the
number one priority of most
residents when we when we
survey and certainly councils
a priority as well. And so
police and fire get the lion's
share of the growth in this
budget. You'll see that in a
moment as well. The one kind
of out calling an elimination.
But it's really like a pivot
of services. There's a 4 person
team right now in the fire
department that does homeless
outreach and prevention and
education. Those our those are
dual role, firefighters.
So they're actually
firefighters who are trained in
fire suppression, but they're
not doing those duties. They're
doing the hope duties full
time. So this budget proposes
moving those people back to
fire suppression and then
continuing the hope activities
through a mobile integrated
health team that the city
acquired when we started and
working with MedStar when we
acquired ems. And so it doesn't
stop the services. But it
returns the firefighters to
firefighting and therefore
saves the overtime. That's cars
when they're not doing that and
still have to like staff a fire
truck. So that's one thing
that's a little different in
the fire budget. We also added
funding for fire overtime in
fleet to better reflect their
actual spending in their
contractual obligations.
On the police side, we added
76 patrol officers. So we
continually look at police
staffing to make sure that
they're keeping up with a
growing, you know, growing need
growing city. And so when we
revamped their staffing study
this year, we determined that
in order to continue the
meeting response, time goals
and pro activity goals that
they did need some additional
support in patrol. This budget
also changes 30 patrol officers
to corporals, which is like the
next rank up out in the
community. That's because in
the city of Fort Worth right
now, if you're a patrol officer
and you want to be promoted,
you actually have to leave
patrol and go be a detective
or like a corporal in a
specialized unit. And so a lot
of times people don't like
really go back to patroller
takes a long time for them to
go back and do this. Allows for
a good promotional path in
patrol and allows us corporate
also to train new officers in a
more consistent way. So we're
excited about that opportunity
and police.
And then emergency management
and communications. This budget
fully funds the Axon 9-1-1,
program which we piloted this
year. That is assistive called
taking technology for
non-emergency calls. So if you
call with a non-emergency, your
call gets triage short of with
the help of technology. And
so it saves some workload on
the like human called takers to
deal with some of the more
complex 9-1-1, emergency calls.
So they've been really happy
with that program. And so this
budget, fully funds that one.
All right. Moving right along
here on the infrastructure
side. I mentioned that pago
portion of the tax rate being
7 in a quarter cents. So we
did maintain that investment.
We certainly don't want to
decrease our investment in
capital and maintenance.
However, remember that as our
values full 7 and a quarter
since doesn't produce the same
revenue that it produced this
year. So we see a corresponding
reduction in the pay go budget.
2.8 million dollars is what we
see. And so that's a little
bit of a decrease. But keeping
the tax rate static.
Reduction spread across a lot
of the different peco bucket.
So it's not necessarily in in
one spot, but there is there is
one program that it's sort of
like you can you'll be able
to see it. It's a neighborhood
services, but I'm going to
explain kind of why that's not
a reduction in service, but it
it really maintains the
investment in transportation
and public works there pretty
much flat actually growing a
tad and same with parks are
kind of pretty much flat.
So when you think about capital
maintenance for transportation
and parks, those aren't really
affected by that reduction.
This budget also authorizes
the pavement management fee.
You might have heard this
called the street maintenance
fee. We're sort of updating
that nomenclature as we go
forward to better reflect that.
The point of the program, is it
really just to maintain streets
and go fix things? Reactive
Lee, but who managed the full
life cycle of pavement like
from start to finish and sold
more proactive naming there.
You won't start to see that
fee in fiscal year 27, but it
just enables us to continue to
work toward that
implementation.
And then this budget also
continues water significant
capital program. So with water
being a regional utility, they
have tons of capital investment
going on a cast iron
replacement in the Marias Creek
facility. And so this budget
also continues that work.
Community investment. So here's
where some of our addictions
come in that have been
particularly sort of painful to
talk about. And the council has
certainly have questions on.
Remember that a lot of our
general fund budget is tied to
public safety. And so when you
talk about community
investment, you still see
public-facing activities like
code and libraries and parks.
But those are also the areas
that have sustained some
reductions in this budget
because of that prioritization
of public safety. And so our
attempts here really to
minimize service level impacts
but still have to balance the
budget. So our original
recommended budget recommended
closing the Alliance PetSmart
Adoption Center, which son the
northern part of Fort Worth.
It's a off-site adoption center
and council. I'll tell you on
Tuesday if you didn't tune in,
they they most of them said
like We don't we don't love
that. And so we're looking at
some other options so that we
don't lose associate grant
funding or affect our live
release rate, which was really
high this year. And so that one
is being kind a reworked now.
Neighborhood services has a
priority repair program.
It's a 2 and a half million
dollar program. And then as
another 2 million dollars in
grant funding. So this is a
75,000 read Dollar Reduction,
which is a 3% reduction in the
in the peco portion of that
program. It's not great to
reduce that program. It's
highly used for repairs.
People kind of apply and then
they can have home repairs done
to keep them in their home.
But it's not an elimination by
any means either.
The mobile tool shed program
comes out of code compliance
in. We actually piloted that
last year and invested more in
it this year. So therefore,
people working that program
right now they deliver tools
like lawn mowers and weed
eaters and those kinds of
things out to neighborhoods in
order to help people comply
with the code issues. And so
again, we don't want to
eliminate that program, but we
are reducing it by one person
in order to balance the budget.
Let's see the neighborhood
improvement program. This is a
program. I mention that it's
going to look like we're
reducing, but it's a little
tricky. So in a neighborhood
improvement program costs about
4 million dollars to do one
neighborhood. And it takes 3
years to sort of implement the
whole program. So the first
year is usually planning with
the neighborhood, all the
activities
that will be underway over the
delivery of the program.
So the neighborhood comes
together and with the city
staff and they say, you know,
we need sidewalks here. We need
cameras here and a light MAY be
a signal or like a street light
or something. And and then
here's 2, 3 are like doing the
plan. And so what we've done
in in help helping to balance
the budget and also to kind
of phase the delivery of those
programs. Better and is instead
of funding the whole 4 million
right up front. We're funding
that 1 million dollars of
planning activities in year.
One knowing that in years, 2,
3 will then match the budget to
the activities for those years.
And so it's more right-sizing.
What's really It also help
happens to help balance peco
this year, too. What c?
Economic development is the
other read a second to last
year to chick priority. So
right now, the general fund
trance for years about
5 million dollars a year to an
economic development
initiatives fund. And so that
fund does have a balance in it.
The strategy behind that fund
is to be able to it, you know,
attract business and we don't
have a 4 year for be sales tax
and Fort Worth like some of our
competitor cities, our
dedicated sales tax goes to
ccpd. So this is sort of the
cities like hybrid solution
for having cash on hand and
that way. But that fund does
have a balance in it. So we
thought will reduce that
transfer from the General fund
this year. It helps to balance
the budget. Keep a little bit
of a transfer going out to its
going from 5 million to just
500,000. We didn't want to
reduce it all together. So
hopefully that can grow again
in the future.
But in economic development, we
do continue our partnership
with the local chambers and
continued to implement the
small business program that's
really under way this year.
It also transitions management
of the Will Rogers Memorial
complex system of you MAY know
that's moving to a 3rd party
management agreement and then
an economic development we do
at a position to support
neighborhood revitalization in
our targeted areas for those
those efforts.
And then responsible growth.
This is one of those categories
like a lot of things can fall
under responsible Grosso tried
to highlight a couple of things
here. And so we will continue
to replace vehicles and
equipment that will just using
a bit of a different funding
strategy for those rather than
doing them in the general fund.
We'll do them in available debt
capacity through tax notes.
Also, we've experienced as a
city rising cost of health
claims. As I mean, I think
that's happening all over the
place. And so we did not want
to pass that cost on to our
employees. So the employer
contributions to the group
Health Fund for the city have
grown. So when you see
departments budgets growing a
bit, it's because we're having
to right-size some of that
fund. We continue to provide
support for public information
process is that are state
required. We see our open
records request growing and so
this budget continues to
provide support for that
function. We talked a little
bit about the inflationary
increases, including vehicles
and maintenance and fuel.
So the city experiences that
just like Holmes do. And so I
think I mentioned we added some
funds to fire fleet for those,
but that's kind of a theme
across a lot of departments.
We'll talk a bit more about
fee structures and then for
this building in the attached
parking lot and garage, we
reduced our maintenance budgets
for for that.
All right. So those are the
highlights. And the general
fund is where will focus for
just a few more sides. 1.1,
5 billion dollars here is
revenue and expenditures you
can see on the bottom were
presenting a balanced budget
and the general fund as
required revenue. We've talked
a little bit about the property
tax issues that we're having.
Sales tax is the other big
revenue source. So property and
sales tax together about 80%
of the general fund. So we are
seeing good growth in sales
tax. About 5% growth projected
for next year, which helps a
little bit with the property
tax issues. And so we'll
continue to watch in forecast
that carefully. And then on
the expenditure side about 70%
of the general fund to salary
and benefits. And a lot of
that, of course, is police and
fire. But about 4.6% growth
there in the general fund.
And here's a view of the
departments that are in the
general fund. And so these are
in alphabetical order and you
can see the growth like not
growth. The increases and
decreases are kind of all over
the place across the general
fund. And so I'm going to show
you a different graphic here in
a moment. But again, we're
growing about 4.6%, very
similar growth to last year.
Actually, I was surprised when
I saw that because it feels
like such a different budget
year. It's just that the growth
in revenue you're like very,
very differently spread than
last year. I think so. We have
some modest growth in many
departments and some pretty
big reductions and others.
This is a I think, a helpful
graphic for some that
communications created. And
this just sort of re emphasizes
what Jay was talking about.
And what I mentioned a couple
times about our total budget
and then how we kind of narrow
it to where the reductions can
really come from. So on the
left-hand side is the total
operating budget. 3.3 billion
dollars. The general fund being
about a 3rd of that and most of
those other funds on the left
are restricted to certain
purposes. So like Jay
mentioned, you know, water, you
can use water for like a police
short fall in the general fund.
And you can't, you know, use
aviation for anything that's on
aviation or faa. You know,
approved in that kind of thing.
So in the middle, you have the
actual general fund and that's
57% public safety. So police
fire emergency management and
communications. So when you
talk about budget reductions
and you are prioritizing public
safety and you can't reduce
their budgets because of their
contractual, you know, labor
agreements and obligations.
Then where can your reductions
come from? And that's what's on
the right hand side. So every
other general fund department.
And so that's why you see some
of those reductions in
community investment, right
when we saw that priority.
Here's another view of
department increases and
decreases in next year's
budget.
Cc Fire, a gun fire police kind
of taking the lion's share of
where where we are growing and
most of these are contractual
obligations again, with fire in
police's labor agreements.
And they're scheduled pay
raises on the fireside. This
also includes the subsidy to
ems. So some of you remember,
we took over ems services,
JULY, first of 2025, that fund
and and function is not fully
self supporting at this time.
We would love for it to be.
I think we have staff working
on that and trying to close the
gap. But right now General Fund
is still supporting the ems
function by about 30 million
dollars. So that growth was,
but in a fire department's
budget this year.
And we have a place holder for
their new labor agreement which
is under negotiation. And
again, we added some funding
to for fleet and over time.
Police is almost all growth
from just their scheduled pay
raises. They they have a big
budget. And so those pay raises
out up year over year, they're
in active labor contract right
now.
And then the 3rd kind of
growing department is the other
public safety department, which
is emergency management and
communications and part of
their growth is that acts on
pilot that I mentioned. That's
assistive called taking.
Go through the bottom 3, 2, So
very bottom is property
management and that reduction
is really just the movement of
vehicles and equipment
replacement out of the general
fund into tax notes. So it
looks like a big reduction, but
it's just a different funding
strategy. There.
Economic development, that
reduction is pretty much all
tied to the reduction in that
transfer out to the
initiatives. Fund kind were
mentioned. We're taking a pause
on that transfer this year.
And and then the other one is
neighborhood services and
that's tied to that phased
delivery of the neighborhood
improvement program where we're
doing, you know, just the
million dollars in year one for
all the planning and then bump
up in your 2. So this reflects
that sort of phasing of that
program.
So almost kind of done. We're
going to go to enterprise funds
that we have a question.
Yes, no, yes. You know,
grandfathers are pretty
special.
>> Well, I have a friend who's
passed away. Retired Fort Worth
police officer. He told his
grandson who want to be a Fort
Worth go away because they
don't pay us anything. Okay.
Right here in this. Well,
there's people that read to
kindergarteners. We used to,
but who's responsible for the
lousy school system? Tuchman.
>> That's not the city.
Defense. What school system we
have 14 different school
systems within the city of Fort
Worth.
Its schools. The school system
has its own board right?
The state provides the funding
most of the funding schools.
>> Good questions and e-mails
for now. Thank you.
Should be too.
Where most of our money goes
to it. We need that. We need
the police and
>> fire and our safety. But
I just don't understand why we
have a reduction and the parks
budget.
>> We talked about the
appraisal, the values going
down. Balance the budget and
one of the press and the
priorities been public safety
and not impacting public
safety. Also to make sure that
we're keeping up with our
growth and public safety.
Needs to keep up with that.
So it's the rest of those.
He put it back on that slide.
It's all the other departments.
The only place you can go to
reduce costs and
you know, basically all the
costs associated with those
departments, our personnel.
And so if you're going to
reduce costs, that's really.
Whenever we do. Our surveys
parks is always high, but it's
always. Public safety. First
responders, police fire MS.
And then transportation streets
is always next. And then you
have the rest of the usually at
parks and libraries next.
And so the reductions really
come out. Where we had the area
where you could cut really come
out of there. When you go, that
next slide that shows the
reductions.
You see, it's mostly the
administrative.
Departments there at the bottom
that took the biggest cuts.
They're going negative.
That are the go up every to
put. We also had a big bump
and health care costs. We just
had a lot of. Large claims our
health care some of those
departments that are actually
positive like Environmental
Services, human.
Resources. I really pushed over
that line by the health care
costs that we had to include
for employees. But that's
you know, we have 2 choices.
We only have one lever to pull
and that's increased the tax
rate. And so we're trying to
balance how much we increase
the tax rate to not impact
taxpayers as much.
That's one of the questions
that came from the city Council
is.
You know, the reductions and
library reductions in the end
of the Alliance, Animal Control
Peas Productions in code
compliance and reductions in
parks. And so tomorrow we
actually have a workshop where
we're coming back to the city
Council with. With options on
on what they'd like to see if
you want to put back into it
and what we can or can't do.
Thanks for the feedback.
Hello, everybody. My question
is about senior living.
>> There's no cap for all the
people that are coming into
Fort Worth building apartment
is no cap on the rent. We had
to seniors. There's a cap on
our income. So how can we keep
up with living in different
diss in neighborhoods when they
can get there's no cap on the
rent for up with the city.
Unfortunately in Texas, we
can't. And New York City and
other places where they put
caps on rents. It's not allowed
in Texas. So it's just that.
Something that the city can
do at the local level. To do
rent caps. There are the city
does participate through our
neighborhood Services
department with developers to.
To develop senior affordable
housing apartments. Those kind
of things.
You know, most of the rents are
set by market. And so the
developers or Senate. To the
market. To make their returns
like most places and Texas and
North Texas, especially with
all the growth. We do need more
affordable.
Units and not necessarily real
deep units. It's more on that
80 to 120%.
Income levels that were trying
to target. And so the city that
the voters did pass for for the
first time.
A bond with some affordable
housing dollars. And and what
we're targeting is that 8220%
with those dollars to try to
develop more of that type of
housing because it's at missing
what they call the missing
middle. And the market. There's
a lot of higher-end and then
there's a
probably not enough. But
there's more of the lower end
and not necessarily in the
middle there.
>> I noticed you said no
widespread cuts and libraries.
And to the gentleman's point,
I'm concerned about the
literacy of our children in
Fort Worth. Also our library
system provides wonderful
programs for toddlers to
prepare kids to start
kindergarten, full speed.
And so I urge you not to cut
their budget, their staffing
or their hours because kids
need those places to go study.
They need the Internet, the new
computers to do homework.
I take my granddaughter down to
Vivian Lincoln for toddler
reading our were participating
in 1000 books before
kindergarten. And I think so,
please. I urge you not to cut
libraries and you're when
you're considering things.
You know.
That program out and fired the
lady. We had some respect.
They fired lady that was
responsible for an imminent,
I think part of the school
system.
>> When will the Terra
Appraisal District price
property values? And will that
make a difference?
>> This coming JANUARY, there
is the year they're supposed
to reappraisal JANUARY. Yes,
next year. If you own a home
and you have a homestead
exemption or if you don't.
They're going to re appraise.
And so it's going to go way up.
So everybody is going to
protest to think again, it just
thought. A big issue is is how
much do they what what ends up
happening is once we have a
10% capsule can't go more than
10%. On the year for the tax
rules. But the question is, how
much will they accept the
protests? Because that's what
actually surprised this this
year. That didn't happen last
year as they received a lot
protests and you would think if
they hadn't appraised in 2
years and most of the market's
going up that they would left
alone. But people people
protested and they dropped the
values. And so that's what
caught us off guard this year.
I saw the Exxon assist of fund
that's being directed for the
ems services. Yes, is it
projected to possibly save on
labor? That would be yes.
So basically what it does, a
triage is non 9-1-1, calls to
the non-emergency side before
it even gets. So we're we're
projecting that we're not going
to have to continue that call
takers as the city continues to
grow and get more phone calls.
So it's initially like a
something will have to take on
initially. And then eventually
it'll kind of pay for it.
It's an it's an investment so
that we save dollars going
forward every every call taker
with benefits and everything.
Probably 80, 90,000 a year.
I mean, a person. So once you
you continue that folks.
And that's a really tough job
to. We always have vacancies in
that area because people get
burned out so quickly. And so
that's allowed us to and a deal
with some of that turnover.
You mentioned that the average
home price was about $250,000.
Is that correct to 50?
>> And the average the praise
value with the Homestead and
all the exemptions on okay.
>> So the proposed increases
$0.70 per 100.
>> It's the proposed increases.
3.2 cents on top of the
current. Rate, which is $0.67
So the new rate is 70 point.
>> So for a $250,000 a tree
priced home. What does that
look like?
>> She's going to show that we
actually it's a reduction when
you when he sits in at about
$21 too much. Yeah, we're going
to she's going to get that in
a minute.
>> There it is right. There it
is. If you want a sneak peek.
Yeah, we'll go over it. But
on the top section there you'll
see because the value that
average home taxable values
dropping from current year to
next year, the annual variances
a savings of 16. 69.
Okay. I'll get through the rest
of these and then we can keep
going. Is that sound good?
So enterprise funds are the
group of funds that I mentioned
that operate more like a
business. So again, not tax
funded, but funded by rates and
fees that the users pay.
And so the biggest of these
is water and wastewater coc
their growth there. And just
as a general note, when you
see percentage growth in in
these funds, that doesn't mean
that's what translates to like
a radar fee increase. That's
just there. Overall budget
growth. So water and wastewater
continuing to invest in capital
as well contractual costs,
solid waste. Same thing.
14.8 5%, not necessarily
translating directly to a rate
increase, but they do show some
fee increases which I'll show
you in a minute, kind of how
those stock up, but solid waste
continues to fund their
relationship with waste
management, which is our
collection vendor as well as
more long-term planning.
So think about like replacement
of the landfill eventually in
some other capital needs that
are more short term than that.
The storm water utility is also
an enterprise fund. And so
they're continuing on with
their capital plan for flood
mitigation projects, midsize
flood mitigation projects also
participating in some
partnership projects and
increasing the amount of
channel inspections they're
doing. That's all life safety
work. When it comes the risk
for flooding. And then we have
2 others municipal airport.
So that's the 3 city airports
that are self-sustaining and
their budget kind of looks like
it's growing a lot. And that's
actually because they're
helping the general fund by
reimbursing us in the General
Fund Fire Department for the
2 different fire stations and
actually like coincide with
the airport, which is allowable
and that was a great balancing
strategy that we use there at
the end because aviation was
able to pick up that cost and
then parking at city owned
parking garages, parking lots
and meters and they are also
a self-sustaining sort of
enterprise and they're just
investing in some additional
parking technology and
maintenance.
The other kind of of the of the
big 3 that we talked about, a
special revenue funds. And so
these are funds again with a
restricted purpose and a
dedicated revenue source.
So ccpd, it's primarily police
in ccpd and they're funded by
the half-cent sales tax that
voters authorized last in 2020
for a 10 year period. And so
the the main source of their
revenue is that sales tax.
So they're growing by about
that much 5%, which is it?
What are sales tax is projected
to grow? They have some other
revenue in there to like they
get reimbursed from the school
districts for school resource
officers. They are adding 2 of
those in this year's budget
and they're also taking on a
couple of officers that used to
be in the general fund in a
relief to in a relief to the
general Fund for eligible
costin ccpd. There's some bike
officers that I think are
moving over.
Public events is kind of a
grouping of funds or the
culture and tourism fund.
So they're dedicated revenue
source is the hotel occupancy
tax and the likes of those are
restricted to tourism related
activities. So think about the
convention center and the Will
Rogers Centre, which I
mentioned is kind of moving
out of the city's management
this year. The budget reflects
that. Ems is our newest, I
think, of the Special Revenue
Fund. So this is like going to
be their second full year of
being budgeted and they are
also growing by projected
contractual increases in
overtime and fleet. This does
include that 30 million dollars
subsidy that comes from the
General Fund Fire Department's
budget.
Environmental protection.
This is a fee that you see on
your water bill. I believe it's
raising from 2.25 To 2.50, this
fun citywide litter abatement
to think about street sweepers.
If you ever see this street
sweepers around illegal camp,
cleanup nuisance abatement,
some of those
services and see what am I
missing? Gulf municipal golf.
So again, this came up more
last year than this year, but
municipal golf, not funded by
taxes. It's not subsidized by
the general fund funded by the
people who play golf
and so we continue to see
growth in the number of
golfers, which is great.
So they're adding a couple of
food and beverage positions and
maintenance position to
continue to keep up with demand
at the city's golf courses.
And finally, a community tree
planting is a small but mighty
Special
Revenue fund and their somebody
asked last night, why are we
why do we have a street in the
budget that's out. It is.
It's just that in this year
they bought some equipment next
year. They won't need to buy
that equipment until it looks
like a budget reduction.
But it's actually was just like
a a onetime bump there.
Fee increases as part of the
budget development process
departments always look at
fees. And so there are 9
departments that are
recommending fee changes for
fiscal year. 27. I keep telling
people if you really want to
read all about these, we did a
long budget response for
council earlier this week.
That's online. It's quite long
I think 170 pages or something
because it's just a big, long
table full of fees. But that's
not to say that all those fees
affect every resident. In fact,
very few of them will affect
you will look at the ones that
do. But just think about, like,
if you, you know, I don't know
like used to pay for a city
program or your participate in
maybe an athletic league or you
pay a fine or you can pull a
permit like just all those
different kinds of scenarios in
which a person or a business
might interact with the city.
It kind of details all of that
but will go over kind of the
ones that your most used to
seeing. I'll remind you about
the 3.2 cents here for the
property tax rate and then
we'll get back to this, which
we spoiler alert it earlier.
But this is kind of the impact
on the average taxpayer of the
different fee increases and the
property tax rate increase.
So at the top, you'll because
the average home taxable value
is falling from this year to
next year. The property tax
bill, even with the 3.2 cent
increase also falls by 16.
69 a year again for this like
average hypothetical resident.
And then you'll see the
different charges that appear
on the water bill sort of
stacked up beneath those with
this year's and next year's
rate. So total of those for
this average person with
typical usage is about $7 and
$0.09 a month in different.
And so, you know, I know that
you pay your tax bill
differently than your water
bill. But if it was sort of
offsetting against each other,
then you'd be paying about $5
more a month next year. Then
you're paying this year for
the summary of all of the
things we've talked about
today.
This is a graph to kind of show
that we're counter intuitive
thing about how values are
dropping in the tax rates,
increasing. And so you see on
the left side of the scale,
this year's values times, this
year's tax rate in the bill.
That's the city's portion of
the tax bill. Because remember
on your tax bill, you pay it up
a bunch of different taxing
entities, the school district
and maybe a hospital district
in the county. And so this is
just the city's portion.
And then next year with your
taxable value decreasing and
then the rate increase, you'll
see you're you're coming out
a little ahead there as a as
the average person here does.
C okay, I'm I'm landing the
plane here. So in the eu summit
in with him in the front.
I know. So we update the ci
peer the capital plan every
year when
we did the budgets, a rolling
five-year plan. So everybody,
every department that has
capital needs to some, it's
those 2. So that's kind of
going into the overall budget
picture. So for fiscal year
27, the total plan is 1.0, 0
3 billion dollars. The large
majority of that Waters capital
plan. And you can kind of see
like the protected capital that
will happen over the next 5
years. A big growing city, 3.8
billion dollars over the next 5
years.
And then a little against a
small but mighty portion of the
the capital is pay go, which I
think for the 3rd or 4th time
is that 7.2 $0.05 of the tax
rate. Remember, there's a
little bit of a decrease
because we've left that rate
flat. And since Soyuz fall, the
rates flat not creating as much
revenue the revenue we are
creating, which is 85.7 million
dollars. This is how it breaks
out. So you see about 82% of
that goes to transportation and
public works for things like
streets and sidewalks and
bridges in all of those kinds
of things. And then parks has
a portion neighborhood services
has a portion. It looks like
it's getting reduced. But
again, that's because of that
kind of phase delivery of the
neighborhood improvement
program where the year one
spends a little less see
property management which
manages the city's facilities
has a small bucket there for
managing all the different
facilities across the city and
maintaining those. And I guess
those are the the Maine people.
So tp w still growing a bit
parks very flat and some others
are sustaining some flatness
in small reductions as we
decrease.
So total budget year-over-year
operating plus capital front.
Share 4.3, 5 billion dollars
for fiscal year. 27.
This is the budget engagement
schedule, which you
clearly saw somewhere because
you're here and we're glad.
So I'm glad that you're here.
I hope that you have the
ability that you do have the
ability to go in and watch it
back. If you just really want
to alright, joked last night,
like I think I've done a better
job in some of these others.
You can like go and see me
doing it in a different way and
maybe learn something new since
I just like don't say the same
thing. Every dime. But all of
them are livestreamed. They're
all on the city's YouTube page.
We have a budget public hearing
on SEPTEMBER first. So that's
here at City Hall in front of
council. Just another way to
sign up and speak and let the
whole council here. You have
a council member here tonight,
of course. But then the whole
council can hear your comments.
And then council is projected
to adopt a budget and the tax
rate on SEPTEMBER. 15th, sort
of like the legal state
required timeline. There.
And and then our next budget
public hearing just getting
community engagement meeting
is Saturday. If you looked at
an earlier version of the
schedule, just want to point
out that the Saturday meeting,
which is districts Eleven's was
at 10, it's been moved to the
afternoon. So it at 01:00pm now
which I think this does
accurately say that. And this
is my last slide and I'll just
leave it here unless we need to
pull up any of our other
detail. But on the left-hand
side is. Connect Fort Worth,
which is all things city
engagement and Ty. Yeah, I just
wanted to advocate for our
libraries. So I'm concerned
that.
>> That they might be reduced
in some way.
Ice travel
7 miles, too. The video Lincoln
Library with my granddaughter.
And on a
weekly basis. And now it's
becoming cost prohibitive
because of the cost. The
Fortunately it sometime in the
future, hopefully in the near
future are some of the South
Branch Library will be
reopening and that'll cut my
travel time and my travel
distance to less than 2 miles.
So I'm really excited about
that. But I just want to and
the size how important it is
that the library system is
still one of the last places
that a family can go to for
free and take your whole
family. And and every every
age group, you can find
something at our libraries.
And so I really think that in
the east difficult times budget
times because all families are
strained right now that the
libraries are not are not cut
in any way. And in fact, they
need to be enhanced. I have
visited most of the inner city
libraries and they were their
aging and they all need some
kind of improvement in their
facilities. So I hope in your
preventive maintenance budget
that you consider that as well.
Thank you. Thank you so much.
Thank you for your calm.
I see library staff nodding
your your comment.
>> We're getting a new downtown
library.
>> Yes, we can talk about that
downtown library timing.
You won't see it as part of
you won't see the impacts
really in this budget. But go
ahead.
>> We should be we should be
closing on the land for the
downtown library. Fairly soon.
We'd be moving forward with.
To put out for design in the
spring.
>> Okay. She's gonna bring in
Mike, but I interrupted my I
interrupted myself on this last
night. Time literally. Just
going to tell you the last part
on the right hand side is the
4 budget page and it has every
video that we've like every
council meeting where we talked
about budget since APRIL and
below that every written
response that we've given to
counsel about their various
questions. So don't hesitate
to use that as a resource to
and actually in my
presentation. Okay.
>> We still have a few
questions. Hello, friends on
>> Up could you tell me that
the it's a street fee, but it's
not street beat the pavement
management fee. Got it. How
much money with that generate
and how what impact will it
have on the backlog of streets
to be read?
>> Last year lands here is lane
here. Yeah. So I'll mention as
she comes up that I think the
maintenance gap, that funding
gap that we were facing with
6 66 million dollars a year
between what we have budgeted
for streets and what we needed
for streets and by the fee is
not intended to close that hole
gap and you won't see that fee
in the fiscal year, 27 budget
just as a reminder about that.
Okay. Can. Has a good question.
So our gap to 66 Million.
Fee is we're proposing it which
would start in 2028. Would
generate about 27.4 million.
That's our estimate right now.
>> The impact of that, the
benefits of that will be
widespread.
It continues to be a very high
priority for all of our
residents. And we've grown a
lot in our sophistication.
So how we are planning now to
use that 27.0 4 million dollars
is too
proactive 5 year preservation
cycle on all of our good
streets. Okay. You have to keep
those good streets. Good while
you repair the bat.
The other thing we're going to
do is increase our contracted
heavy maintenance by 50%.
And so. These are the projects
that we really want to keep.
Maintain a bull before they go
to the bonds and they get.
Exceedingly more expensive.
And the last thing that we
really want to do is
increase our in-house at
Milling and overlaying. All
right. So will be able to like
triple that. So through all
of these things, the
impact us that we will slow
the deterioration of our
network. And we will also so
it'll it'll be for all the good
streets, all the fair streets
and all the poor streets
because as we maintain the good
and fair streets. What's
happening is that the backlog
for the bonds? There's less
demand for the bot, right.
And so the un amount of time
that the streets have to wait
for their bond project to be
delivered, gets reduced by
about 34% is what we
calculated.
If you want to do at the
follow-up.
>> Is there a way to me
generate more revenue for
preserving or are building
new roads.
>> Through transportation
impact, fee increases so that.
Developers of people, the
benefit from the new Roads.
I contribute more. So that we
do it have to do this. You're
probably more of an expert on
transportation.
>> Currently the city does
collect transportation impact
fees that can only be that can
only be collected on you.
New developments in use streets
and I think we can occur and
collect 68% of the potential.
Fyi. So they're very few street
cities or do 100% because it
end up costing so much that
project to move forward.
But we do collect.
But yet the one thing about
the impact, these it's you have
to use them. In the area where
the impact is happening.
So around the new development
and it's for Arterials only for
major streets, Arterials and
collectors now for the streets
within the neighborhoods.
So we do collect on the
transportation, impact the side
and then also on the water
wastewater to try to get.
To have new development pay for
the cost of that
infrastructure.
>> All right. I would like to
advocate. You increase the tax
rate. Not just the 3.2 cents.
You have the ability to go up
to what is known as the voter
approved tax rate. Plus, the
unused increment. The
legislature makes us calculate
and no new tax rate, which
means that you collect the same
amount of tax on the same
properties year-over-year.
So we're looking at it, which
currently we're below the no
new tax rate. You've asked for
an increase above the no new
tax rate.
The no new tax rate basically
says you can keep the same
services if those services
don't cost any more. We know
costs for everything are going
up. If you want to give raises,
that has to be from you.
Increasing your tax rate during
a time when property values are
going down. The voter approved
tax rate is put in place by
the Legislature to say.
You can take the no new tax
rate, increase it by 3 and a
half percent. You're looking
at raises for fire at 8 and a
half percent. You're looking
at raises for police a 6%.
You're looking at your staff at
only one and a half percent
this year. And it's and it's
because you're asking for
you've done a tremendous job,
putting this budget together.
But as I've gone to both the
first meeting and listen to
the other meetings. Everybody
here has said, please don't
cut this service.
The vast majority of phone
calls that you're councilmen
the received and your staff
receives is never you know what
could you cut the library
hours? No one is ever asking
for services to decline.
We all want to live in a city
that is doing well for itself
doing well for its employees
doing well for its citizens.
We have that ability to go up.
The fact that you're going up
at all is all the pressure that
anyone on council in anyone
on staff is going to see
whether you go up. You know,
the tiniest bit.
Or whether you go up the entire
amount, you're legally allowed
to go up. They're gonna say the
same thing. So you'll always
have your people that say you
need to cut my tax rate.
Cutting tax rates is not just
about financial cutting tax
rates means cutting services.
I'm advocating that we in this
city one to our services and we
want to expand our services.
We protect our seniors already.
Our seniors have had a cap on
their property tax since 2004.
They pay no matter what maximum
amount of their taxes that does
not go up. It can go down if
their property value goes down.
But their value was capped.
The rest of us are here and
want to see the improvements
made in this city.
Yes, I want to also thank
everybody about the nuisance
abatement programs that we've
been having. We need to keep
that up to keep that funded.
>> Because in district 9, it's
helped out in Carter Park and
over there, Rockies. Those
businesses that were affecting
the neighborhood. Those will
also help. But I want to tie or
buy. So I actually had to hike
Mount Area. And then I notice
differences. And I said the
reason is education. So on the
thing with the libraries, with
education going on, probably we
had 4 dies d we need to help
out with the library's we stem.
We need a stem lab there.
We also need to do we actually
increase the funding because we
also have problem with the
after school programs that the
kids are not being able to go
somewhere where they can be
safe.
And also have a 2 two's being
there. Also to meet their needs
because the difference in the
West side and other
neighborhoods that any side
is education. So we need to
focus on education as and when
you put those are dollars
toward that. So I don't want
I want we're going to look for
other ways, despite not just a
raise in taxes and it's going
to be the
tough things such as data
centers and other things there
that and bring it.
>> Taxes to it because outing I
think we still have a
shortfall. Even if we raise
taxes. That's thank you.
>> All right. I just wanted
to compliment City staff and
your judicious effort to reduce
the budget without trimmings,
significant city services.
It's clear that you've looked
for every opportunity. I do
want to echo your sentiments.
Many of the property owners I
talked to expect a high
standard. We talk a lot about a
world class city and a high
standard of service and all
of the services that are listed
are ones that are regularly.
There's a hopeful wait list of
>> projects and efforts that
they expect services from the
city related to those. So I do
think that there is support.
I would ask just so that we
understand as a community what
action can be taken if we're
concerned about reductions to
libraries, parks and kind of
the core public spaces, what
actions could the business
community lead or get involved
with to help reduce some of
the burden. If there are going
to be impacts is are there
adopt a park programs or
anything that would maybe
preserve those services through
partnership from citizens
adopting Parks or business
community advocating or
supporting some of the core
services you're concerned
about.
>> So, yes, there's those
programs exist. Dave Lewis
Reserve, and really there is
parks directors here. We have
adopted part programs. We have
opportunities to partner, you
know, but business wants to
take over in the median in
front of their, you know,
reducing the causes city mo
in median system of the parks
Department. The library side of
the library foundation that
provides raises dollars and
so businesses can partner with
them. So there's a lot of those
opportunities.
I agree with you.
>> He said this is the best,
the best city in the work you
lived here, you'd live to the
heaven. And I mean, that.
>> Side a quick like what kind
of maybe macro level question.
But I know that some people
have mentioned that police and
fire. We're seeing a huge
increase relative in the
general fund, maybe like
79 million dollars. I think
roughly is what's on the
screen.
So can you expand a little bit
on the relationship between the
contractual obligation that we
have with police and fire?
To raise to give them salary
increases. Things like that
and how that relates to the
survey that we take with
citizens. The indicator that
public safety is a big
priority. And what kind of like
the way there actually is in
like is that I think a 6 in
8.5% are those fully
contractually obligated?
Are those above something
that's been previously
negotiated its its contractual
>> Both of them, both police
and fire. Have it have
associations basic like a
union? And so we do for your
contracts.
And so the four-year contract
spells out each year. What
there are across the board
increase will be and you have a
negotiation to go on.
Within that parameter just
based on their tenure. They
also have step increases.
So like.
The percent. That's a
combination of the across the
board. Plus, the step increases
that certain firefighters will
get based on what the year that
they're hitting. So that's the
average across. But those are
our contractual.
And, you know, the the fire and
the fire contract we're
negotiating right now. But
police was done 2 years ago.
And so those are contractual
straight across. A big increase
in what you saw there are not
just tied to the wages. They're
also, you know, we the city
council made the decision the
city made the decision based on
feedback from the citizens of
that. We didn't have our
ambulance service wasn't
meeting. What we need to
happen. Right? Response times
were 12, 13, 14 minutes.
And so the city brought that
system n and basically in order
to improve that the system
wasn't working is because that
a lot of deferred maintenance,
that a lot of turnover, they
were paying their folks enough,
their lives in the market.
So in order to get that up and
going and get it down.
And the weave, the city's had
it for about a year. So as of
this past JUNE, those response
times are down to like 8 and
half minutes. And it's because
but the city had invest a lot
of money in.
Ambulances in personnel
increases those kind of things.
The new fire contract, by the
way, part of that is that the
ambulance service folks, the
ems folks became part of the
fired department and became
firefighters. So she mentioned
dual role. Firefighters are the
ones that are trained to fight
fires and everything else.
Then we have single role
firefighters, which is the ems
side. So part of that contract,
the reason it goes up is
because we have added about
500 people to that area.
So that's one of the big costs
that's tied to that. And then
really one of the things when
I came as city manager is.
You know, says we need as a
city manager, his assistant
city manager over department.
You need to hold the
department. Accountable for
meeting their budget.
That means you need to make
sure that their budget is is
right. You write it if you
don't provide enough dollars to
actually provide the service
that's expected and they go
over budget. It's kind of hard
called somebody accountable
because you never given the
amount of money. And so one
of the things that we're doing
with the fire budget this year
and and Kristan mentioned is
right-sizing the overtime
because in the last few years
have gone over budget. But it's
really because they needed over
time is needed in order to have
the firefighters are available
to fight, fire, invite, you
know, get the response times
and then on the fleet services
side, just the cost of
everything has gone up big time
and their vehicles are more
expensive than the most.
And so, you know, they their
vehicles get and what?
Chief Orton of a mile a gallon
or something like 2 miles a
gallon. So fuel costs are way
up. Yeah, you know, just since
covid in order to get parts
and all those things along
order times. So a lot of the
costs are just up over on.
So one of the things that we
needed to do and I wanted to do
as city manager is right-sized
the budget so we can. Have a
real conversation during the
year with the fire department
is why are you going over on
this line item? What's you
know, causing those things that
happen as we go forward.
So those some of the cost of
kind of drove that. Above just
the contractual. Wage side of
things.
>> My name is Liz Padilla with
the Town Forest Neighborhood
Association. So I'm here to
advocate for Uptown Rock
Island, Samuels Avenue. These
are more specific questions
tonight. Jay, I spoke to you a
little bit off microphone.
Sure, but I'm gonna ask again
to make sure that I'm clear.
So one of the things that's
costly brought up at the
monthly meetings is our street
lighting.
And there are multiple streets
that have been approved for
lighting because it does not
meet city coat.
In addition, also a pedestrian
walkway, et cetera, which has
been approved. So how do we
advocate as a neighborhood
association for those items?
Well,
>> I'm gonna ask you to raise
your hand so you can see that's
Lauren Prayer right there.
Director Transportation public
works. They probably have a
list that has your streets and
sidewalks and they maybe have a
schedule when that potentially
happens and it's not funded.
Then how can we get it on the
schedule? So I think the the
that's the first step, right.
And then ultimately when staff
tells you. Where we or you're
on the list and how we can.
Then that advocate advocacy
becomes talking to your elected
officials about how we can move
up the list potentially.
But but first, I and have you
work with staff to see where
that he's okay?
>> What what Laura also be a
person of 4. There is about
2 acres north of Part that is
not part of the park and it's
not particularly meat
maintained because the park
doesn't have what, because it's
not part of park.
>> So what more would be coach
Brian? Brian?
So, yeah, so but if you like
I said, he sent me an e-mail
with those issues because it's
2 acres of open space that's
just north of the park. We
might be interested in making
that part of
the park. It's for self.
So if you can send us and you
can send me an email and and
Dave Lewis and our open spaces
can look at that. Thank you.
I'd like to.
>> I'm Allan Cejka. I live on
Samuels Avenue and
I moved here in 1979 and some
of the street.
We're not having anything done
with since 1985. This year are
getting done. Show your whole
process of working with.
>> Old.
>> To finally getting something
done. I thank you for finding
making.
>> The old the new and the
already as part of a process.
Thank you. And that's what lane
mention.
>> You know, the pavement
management. It nearly doubles
what we have in Pago.
And so what they're going to
put into place is to keep your
streets and fair streets from
falling into that condition
is one of the things so that
you stop. We stopped digging
the hole, right? At least stop
digging the hole.
By having more streets, find
fall into that so that
ultimately we can get to those
streets and fill in the hole
with bond because the last
thing you want to do it, I
mean, think about it. You don't
want to use your 30 year
mortgage. To buy.
We walker that's going to last
for years, right? Because
you're paying interest for 30
years. So we do want to use
that.
Do maintenance on the street
the last 4 years. We want to
ease cash if we can. And that's
what that fee will help us to.
>> Because it took from 19 93.
Until.
Hampton Road to not be
washboard way.
And it's the only 4 blocks at
that street that have never
been touched.
It hasn't been done yet, but
it's part of the program.
They're working on it. That's
where I'm happy. Again. Going
back to Creech of traders.
So part that nobody seems to
know who owns it.
The the issue about that is
in 18. 49, when Traders Oak
Park had a trading building
on it, the military, the
Indians and the settlers went
there to get water.
That water system that they
used is in that create that
right now. We apparently don't
know who owns and the city is
taking care of. We can find out
who owns it. You can just see
me as we can do. That thing is
when the railroad put the spur
line in on the side of traders
show park to go to Cargill or
whatever it is. Well, that is
all been removed to Snell, void
land.
Does the railroad maintain the
ownership of that land? Does it
go back to who owned it prior
to the railroad taking it or
does it belong to the people
that use the railroad track to
move their product out of
there, commercial building,
either one set on it. So that's
my question. Is because that's
a road of unused.
Property that MAY or MAY not be
a part of your original
traders. Oak property.
>> All good questions. I've
never known a railroad to give
anything away. So.
Line. Yeah, I know what by the
road. I've never known the
beginning. I had one question
back there.
>> So I know this is a bit of a
hot topic recently, that's
first of my knowledge and I
wish him more informed as I try
to be informed when I come to
meetings like this. But I know
the police department has
recently signed a new or
contract with Flock. With the
drones that have been. That
have been developed recently.
And I was just curious as snow
when that contract and if you
would have to turn around and
has to if it's possible to look
at that contract been cut
because I know a lot of people.
And Fort Worth have concerns
suffer. Who is accessing those
cameras and for what purpose
they have. For accessing.
And it's just very
I just I feel very distrustful
as many others, too.
>> So I would suggest that you
maybe have a meeting with with
the folks in the police
department. They use them so
you can get clarity on how
those those are used and and
wider use and the policies
around their use. I don't know
the dates how long the contract
isn't anything off the top.
My head. Is there a p d anybody
from?
Maybe we can have. Have you
have a ham have a meeting with
g for it? 2 car ball.
Then you can answer your
questions and provide details.
I think there's a lot of stuff
on the Internet that. That's
not necessarily.
Not necessarily.
People say, well, you face
facial recognition flock
cameras in the city don't have.
You know, facial recognition.
So there's a lot of stuff out
there that's out there. That's
misinformation. The people get
excited about. I can tell you
this. It. Those cameras have
been highly effective in
solving crime and catching bad
guys. Like really bad, bad
guys. A lot quicker than
otherwise would happen.
>> j I got so caught up in my
compliments to your staff that
I forgot my actual question to
you. But I did mean those
compliments and sincerely.
So, Christiane, earlier you had
that kind of barbell scale.
Slide, which showed that there
were was an improvement.
There is still sort of money
on the table.
Between our current tax
estimated tax value for an
average. Taxpayer. Here it was
over. The scale. One.
It's near the end.
This witness.
>> The scandal got Gates and I
understanding it's quite
nominal. We're not talking
about $1000, but there seems to
be some money for Fy 2027 still
on the table. And I just wonder
what was the decision that led
to leaving that small gap for
each taxpayer on average.
>> We then I'd in was an
attempt to actually it was how
much we thought.
Reduce the budget without
having huge impacts of the
citizens on the services right.
And then the difference was
what I decided to increase the
tax rate by okay.
We hadn't even checked to see
what the actual impact was
until after the fact. And so as
more of where we feel
comfortable reductions that
and there were still wearing a
of y'all don't want some of the
reductions right? But if we let
we went further would've been a
lot more people, right? So
that's that's really. How we
got to this number was a
purposeful, pretty close.
Yeah, it is pretty clear it
wasn't possible.
>> And the tax rate change that
would bring these 2 things in
perfect alignment is fairly
nominal, but really the every
every 100 of the penny. So you
know that.
>> The right to 0, you make it
to one. It's at $110,000.
Got it. So to the budget.
So every 100 is about 110 is
110,000. Okay. Thank you, Jay.
We got one back here. First.
Okay. As a two-part question
I know is on the boards back
there. Some of the information
is general.
>> It's kind of like I don't
want to put the sticker on
there because I don't later on.
I don't know. Specifics.
So like I say, oh, I want the
neighborhood to be transformed
to me for partnership with the
a private company that set out
there on the border on the comp
plan. Yes, so I was thinking as
they I say might be a
partnership with something I
don't like. But I was which
leads me to the next part.
Well, is there something on
this on the city website are
some that we can look to the
What gets cut that way? We know
what the fight for. I was on
the year. The city's priority
to cut on the paygo money.
So the this presentation and
also the presentation to
provide the city council is on.
>> On our website, the
itemized, if they're all
listed, all the cuts are listed
on there. Okay, ok, thank you.
So question.
i'm just a simple resident
here. So
>> I you know, this MAY be.
Really simple how much of this?
Revenue is from residential
property taxes and how much the
companies and corporations.
Hey, how much of that is is
that they're contributing and
I'd like to know that.
>> On the property tax about
60% of our revenue. Is
residential, but that includes
apartments as well. Right?
Multi-family is part of the
residential. Yes. So I would
say about 53 to 54%.
The city's tax base, it's
probably less now. We have to
recalculate it. It was 53.
54 from just single-family
residential.
But that was before the values
have gone down some so it might
be close to 50, 50. Then you
have the apartment with row
apartments because the
residential but into the
residential calculation.
It's we've the city for the
last 10 years has been trying
to more right-size that we were
at sick almost 65% about.
Together about 15 years ago.
And so we brought it down 5%.
But as as I mentioned last
night, we had it.
2 billion dollars and net
growth last year and the on the
commercial side and the
residential reduction kind of
took that off the books because
it's we're a large city.
So it takes a look. Takes a
while to get enough values on
the business side to start
balancing that out.
From a long-term perspective
for us as a citizen as a
taxpayer, you just thought of
yourself as a taxpayer.
You want to have more
commercial and business paying
taxes to keep our. Taxes low.
And so that's the Ying and Yang
of.
Everybody wants their taxes
lower. But lots of times they
don't want a business located
in close to where they live.
So it's that back and forth.
>> And everyone said earlier, I
heard you say that hope is get
hopes team is getting cut.
And I was asking. If you can
provide some more information,
but worth of services are going
to go and what the city
apartment will be for our ice
caps this population. Sure.
So the.
>> The actual services not
being eliminated just can be
done by a different group that
can be done by folks on the ems
side.
>> Versus the dual role.
Firefighters who are. We'll go
back to the stations and can
fight fires. Because currently
there doing that work and we
have to pay somebody else over
time to be in the in the
firehouse. So we get him back
in the firehouse will reduce
the cost of the overtime.
That's what the savings is and
ems folks will continue to
deliver that service.
>> I just want
to support the man over there
said we need to go for hire
tax rate.
>> Just one where you
can vote.
>> I mean, I think we can do
that. And Ed, I must say, as
we've advocated for libraries,
but I'm going to advocate for
the front-facing Parks and
Rec Department, the co
compliance folks, developmental
Services.
>> I deal with them as a
neighborhood later every day,
every day. So I really think
that if we can. This is not a
final product under. It's not a
final product, but if that is
on possible, an incremental
increase that could help.
Those departments would be
beneficial.
>> You sound like are council
members yesterday and the day
before yesterday.
I would suggest you tune in
tomorrow's budget meeting.
Calming myself.
>> I get excited very easily
I'm now thinking about parks
and recreation. There was a
bond issue. We voted for.
We supposedly increase some of
those dollar amounts. But yet.
In reference to our
neighborhood, we're not seeing
any benefits from it.
Again, I'm dealing with Park.
And the other question I have
is. The coordination of
the people that read black top
our streets and when they re
blacktop them because I waited
20 years for Samuels Avenue to
get a new blacktop.
One week after it was
completely done. They started
digging up for a
water line that ruined
everything that they did.
>> So now you go.
In front of my house because
they transfer the water line
from the odd side of the street
to the even side of the street
at my property. And when they
filled in the black top, they
didn't They created the ditch
and it took 2 years before the
ditch became a only a little
from come help. So a
coordination of where the city
works on road repair and road
construction and road
resurfacing. Nice to have a
little more coordination show.
We don't pay to have a brand
new road and a week later get
something worse than what we
had.
>> I agree with you that we try
to coordinate our
transportation public works and
the water to the water
Department tries to coordinate
one of the things that you
can't coordinate or you can't.
Can't time is one of the water
line breaks.
So the water line break, Sarah
and bright. This was a new
water line that was larger
because of the Kelly apartment
com.
>> So those development and
it was for the development that
was put in a billion. That's
that's what is more tied to
the development. Any other
questions?
Well, thank you all. Thank you
for coming out this Council
Mbeki want to close the show.
Are you good? Okay.
>> Well, thank you all. Thanks
for being here. Appreciate it.