[0:09] Yeah, I mean, it's. Yeah, sure. Sure. How are you? Well, yeah. That's true. Is that one. What

[1:01] do you think? No, not. Not necessarily. Yeah. So we give them we tell them what needs to

[1:19] be. And in ten days. Right. Okay. I agree with. You. Good evening everyone, and thank you

[2:19] so much for being here. Welcome to our first budget hearing for 501. Okay. We have one minute.

[2:27] This is your one minute warning. There you go. All right. Once again, good evening and thank

[3:01] you for attending our first budget public hearing. We are going to call this meeting to

[3:06] order. Please turn your cell phones to vibrate silence or off setting. First on our

[3:11] agenda is the Pledge of Allegiance. Commissioner Sternberger, if you'll lead us

[3:14] in the pledge, please. Yes, please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance

[3:20] to the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands. One nation under God,

[3:28] indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Was this meeting properly advertised,

[3:38] madam chair? The 501 first public hearing for consideration of the tentative

[3:43] budget for fiscal year 2026 2027, was advertised in the board's weekly meeting schedule

[3:49] and the Escambia Sun Press on September 3rd, 2026, as required by Florida Statute

[3:56] 197.363. The 5:02 p.m. public hearing for consideration of adopting the fiscal year 2026

[4:02] 2027. First year assessment rolls for street lighting, pond maintenance, Perdido Key, beach

[4:07] mouse and nuisance abatement. Miss bus was advertised in the Escambia Sun Press on August

[4:12] 13th, 2026. First class notices were mailed to all property owners in the affected

[4:19] districts. A notice of Street Lighting Msrp adjustment was also published in the Escambia

[4:23] Sun Press on August 13th, 2026. Wonderful. Thank you so much. Do we have anything to add to

[4:30] the agenda, Commissioner Kohler, Commissioner Berry, Commissioner. Commissioner

[4:36] Sternberger no, ma'am. Do I have a motion to adopt the agenda? So moved. All in favor?

[4:44] Five zero. Thank you. The first is a public hearing for the consideration of the tentative

[4:49] budget for fiscal year 2026 2027, and I believe you have a presentation. Yes, madam Chair.

[4:58] Commissioners, this is the first of two required public hearings for the board to adopt

[5:02] the fiscal year 2627 budget. The board, later in this meeting will set the second

[5:07] public hearing date. The Escambia County Board of County Commissioners approved the 2627

[5:14] tentative millage rates for trim notification purposes at the BCC meeting held on July

[5:19] 23rd, 2026. The law requires that prior to consideration of the tentative budget and

[5:24] explanation of the rollback rate be provided and entered into the records, the rollback

[5:28] rate is a computed millage rate that will generate the same amount of ad valorem tax

[5:32] dollars as the prior fiscal year, based on the proposed year's tax roll. Excluding new

[5:37] construction, the millage rates tentatively approved by the board for trim notification are

[5:43] 6.600 for the countywide millage rate, 0.3590 for the library, municipal services

[5:50] taxing unit and 0.6850 for the Sheriff's Law Enforcement Municipal Services Taxing unit.

[5:56] The aggregate of these millage rates proposed for fiscal year 2627 is 2.32%, above the

[6:03] rollback rate of 7.2897 certified by the property appraiser. This represents the

[6:10] percentage increase in property taxes tentatively adopted by the board. For information and

[6:15] to avoid any misunderstanding concerning the process of this meeting. This public hearing is

[6:19] convened tonight to discuss the county's fiscal year 2627 budget. Because of time

[6:24] constraints, we will need to confine our discussion to this subject. Increases in property

[6:28] assessments, remarks or questions concerning individual property appraisals should be

[6:32] addressed to the county property appraiser at his office during normal business

[6:37] hours. That is my presentation. Now we can move to questions and discussion from the board.

[6:45] Or do we have questions or discussions? Commissioner Snowberger. Yeah, I'm curious

[6:58] about the. TT. I'm sorry, the community partners. So that went up. $0.03. TT funding

[7:17] increased by 396,000 and the fourth cent went up by another 343. So it's another $740,000.

[7:30] While the what was it other community partners and theirs went down by about $10,000 from

[7:46] 1,000,039 to 1,000,028. Is that right? Lakeview is essentially it's the same about 397. And

[7:57] community health is at 447. Is that a question for Stefan? Yeah, yes it is. So we had.

[8:17] Well, we'll just open up for discussion. There's no motion. There is no motion. So the

[8:22] agenda is a discussion on the item above. The next topic on the agenda is the community

[8:28] partners discussion. Wes does have a spot for presentation before that. Commissioner. Let

[8:36] me just say, you know, because we got a budget in anticipation that we have a budget amendment,

[8:43] I'm going to be very supportive, you know, of whatever the number is 2%, 5%, 10% across

[8:50] the board. However we want to cut. And, you know, I'm probably not the conservative

[8:55] on the board. So to me, let's figure out how we cut. But when we cut, let's figure out how we

[9:00] cut completely across the board and find cost savings for all of the citizens. And so if we

[9:05] if we figure that out, you'll certainly have my support, how we cut it completely across the

[9:09] board for everybody. So, I mean, we can go line by line. I mean, obviously this is probably not

[9:15] the meeting. The next meeting is that. But you'll find my support if, you know, I've said

[9:19] forever we can cut it by 10%, 20%. So figure out how much we're going to cut and figure

[9:24] out where you're going to cut. But we're not going to I'm not going to support singling out

[9:29] individual organizations to cut. So I'm not necessarily in favor of across the board cuts. I'd

[9:37] rather be more targeted. Instead of saying, everybody reduce it by 10% or 5% or

[9:42] whatever the number is. And that's where we disagree. And it's more targeted. And

[9:46] unfortunate thing is we decide who we're going to target, who we're not going to target. So

[9:49] if we're all going to take a haircut, if we all are going to become more fiscally

[9:54] conservative, if we all are, are going to recognize that we need to do more with less, you

[9:58] know, everybody has to be cut. So, I mean, you'll find my support, but you won't find my

[10:05] support targeting organizations. Commissioner or, or, or departments. Thank you, Madam

[10:14] Chair. I mean, this is the this is the this is spot for discussion amongst board

[10:18] members. If there's not discussion among board members, then I would make a motion that

[10:22] the board adopt the millage rates that were sent in the trim notifications, so that

[10:29] that is later on the agenda. Right now we have the discussion for the budget

[10:36] excluding community partners, the. So we have that. And then we would have the community

[10:42] partner presentation from county administrator. Then we have public forum, and then we

[10:49] have the board action. Stefan, what, what, what percentage of our budget goes to outside

[10:56] agencies? A percentage do we want to have Wes present on outside agencies? No, no, I

[11:02] have a question for Stefan. And then, I mean, I would appreciate you allowing me to

[11:06] do that. What what percentage? I apologize, commissioners, for your general fund, your general

[11:39] fund, community partners is 0.29% of your general fund budget. Thank you. And I'm move

[11:46] the item as you wish. But we got less than 1% of what we're going to argue about. And we're

[11:51] going to pass a millage rate that represents 99% of our budget to have a conversation

[11:57] about things that's less than 0.29 of the budget. And so if that's what we want to argue

[12:02] about, to cut is less than 1% of the budget just on the record. I mean, we can do that.

[12:08] So as we pass this millage rate, we are passing and moving forward with 99% of what our

[12:14] budget function is. So thank you. And I'm good. Let's move that way. But I mean, let's not

[12:20] spend all day arguing over less than 1% of a budget. All right, Madam Chair, if the if the item

[12:25] to be to be discussed right now is adopting of the of the budget for the year, I move

[12:30] that item. Okay. Noted. Thank you. And I second that, noting that that's 99% of the budget.

[12:36] Well, can I make a did you guys want to follow the agenda or is it just a free for all because

[12:41] the board action is after number seven. So if you following agenda, it's a

[12:46] millage rate. That's what we're following. You're voting on. Are we going to accept the

[12:50] tentative millage rate. That's what we're voting on. So this we're that's not until later on

[12:54] the agenda. So let's let's do the. So if we're if we're taking all this just as. Are we

[13:03] taking all of this, Madam Chair, as just one item. That's what you're saying. I was the 501

[13:09] goes through goes through seven parts. Is that I mean, it's in the way that the agenda is

[13:14] normally adopted in the budget hearing. But you're saying that 501 is is going to be all seven

[13:19] items, and you don't want a motion until after that. That is the way it's written up. I

[13:24] am a recommendation. There's been no discussion among the board on a. So are we moving on

[13:28] then to be. Yes. Let's. Correct. Madam Chair commissioners, we're requesting that the board

[13:38] make a final determination tonight regarding the funding amount to be allocated to each

[13:42] of our community partners. The funding determination is necessary to prepare the fiscal

[13:46] year 2627 community partner funding agreements and to issue the associated purchase orders

[13:51] in a timely fashion. These purchase orders will come before the board for formal

[13:54] approval in October of 26. I will say that most of your community partners were cut by

[14:00] 10% of what they were allocated last year, with the exception of the hospitals. Thank you.

[14:07] And we do have public forum at this time. Is there anyone signed up for public forum? We

[14:13] have no public forum. Now we do move into the board action portion. The first one is for

[14:20] the millage rate. So do we want to have a conversation around that or does someone want to

[14:29] make a motion? Yeah, I essentially want to have the same conversation. We've

[14:33] already had me and you and Stefan about that millage rate. And I asked you if you could

[14:39] give me the millage rate for. Roughly either 1.5, the 1.75. Million in reduction. And I

[14:51] think you said it was for the one, was it, Commissioner? 1.7 is roughly 6.549 mills. That

[15:02] was for about a million, right. No, that's for 1.7 a million. Yeah. 6.4549 right. 6.571 would

[15:12] decrease a million. Now for the 1.7 it was about 6.549 I think is what it was. Stefan. Right.

[15:20] Yes sir. That is correct. Steve. I think we can get to a $2 million reduction without the

[15:27] reduction of the. Well, with $2 million be for 2 million, the millage rate would be 6.542.

[15:40] Stefan, can't we can't we get to the reduction without reducing the millage rate and

[15:44] locking ourselves in? Excuse me, Commissioner Koehler. In anticipation. We don't know

[15:52] what's going to happen with the amendment three. I mean, so I mean, obviously we're in the

[15:58] last meeting with my colleague and suddenly we want to to meet him as close as we can. And I

[16:03] mean, can we get to those reductions without reducing the millage rate, or is the only

[16:07] way that we can get these reductions without millage rate? I mean, can we cut can we

[16:11] eliminate can we find other items in which we can, you know, at least get to 1 or $2 million

[16:16] of reductions without reducing the millage rate? Commissioner. What I would what I would say I

[16:22] would certainly caution the board to do a $2 million reduction. What I can tell you

[16:29] is myself and the county administrator worked very hard with our general fund

[16:36] departments this year to to decrease many of those budgets. Certainly there are going to be

[16:43] certain things that, again, you are required to do, and those things are going to increase

[16:47] every year. You have little to no control over that. So within within what we could control,

[16:54] we did reduce our departmental budgets. Now, certainly we do not know how the referendum is

[17:04] going to go in November. So again, I would certainly caution the board. However, I

[17:10] know we have had quite a few discussions, you know, around maybe $1 million reduction. I

[17:15] do think that we can absorb $1 million reduction and reduce the millage to, again, give

[17:23] additional property tax relief, similar to what we did last year. But ultimately, this is

[17:28] the board's decision. Commissioner Sternberger, I think without if we're if we're

[17:38] going to save, if we're talking about reducing the budget, then it's meaningless if we don't

[17:44] also reduce the millage rate. I think they go hand in hand for taxpayers. Commissioner,

[17:53] Commissioner patiently waiting. You could I mean, you could reduce expenses without

[17:59] reducing the millage rate because once you reduce the millage rate, you get locked

[18:02] into the millage rate and you don't know what the tax is going to be. I know, I

[18:06] understand, I totally understand you being fiscally responsible and conservative

[18:09] and, and I could support, you know, figuring out, you know, and it may not be in this

[18:15] meeting, it may be in the next meeting. And trust me, I've gone through these books and

[18:20] can figure out some ways in which we can reduce finding those numbers because we don't

[18:25] know what's going to happen. I mean, it may pass, it may not pass, but reducing the millage

[18:29] rate could have long term effect. You're the one who suggested 2 million. Well, well,

[18:36] we think we can take it out without reducing the millage rate though. Yeah. I mean, it's

[18:41] just like taking your time and combing through it. I mean, I don't see why you can't find $2

[18:46] million in, you know, almost $800 million budget without reducing millage rate. So just

[18:50] my opinion, Commissioner, but I do I do support your. Okay. No one's actually put a proposal

[18:59] up that says what you want to take out of district one or district four. District two you

[19:07] say $1 million. That's about 15 FTEs. You want less FTEs in your district for code, you

[19:12] want to give up a park, you want to cut your library services. What do you want to

[19:16] put on the table? Anything? Or are we just talking fuzzy talk? Here's the problem. If no, I

[19:24] literally I went through all the other constitutional budgets. Again, all of them

[19:29] have been bloated. Stefan. We sat down and talked about every single one of them. We're not

[19:34] the not one constitutional is going to look bad about this budget. We are. We're going to

[19:38] be crooks. We didn't cut enough. Every single thing I can go through, every single one of

[19:44] them and show you cuts that that they should be cutting. And you want to say, let's just

[19:48] cut $2 million out of the budget. If any of you were attending some of the stuff at

[19:53] Florida Association of Counties, you'd know what the talking guidance is right now with

[19:57] ballot three. But I'm the only one that does that. So you don't know because we don't

[20:02] know what's going to happen. You would cut $2 million. That would be $43 million up on next

[20:07] year. So then you'd have $45 million and you'd cut about 30 personnel. Tell me where you

[20:14] want to cut them. Do you want to cut your staff? Because if I'm going to come to the table,

[20:19] I'm going to put my skin in the game. I'm not just going to go to Wes or to Stefan or Director

[20:25] and say, go cut it. No, I'm going to put my skin in the game and say which park, which

[20:30] library, which personnel, which road isn't going to get resurfaced. And that's not what

[20:35] we're talking about here. So I think we need to be honest with ourselves. And Commissioner,

[20:41] listen, I and I concur throughout listen, I'm not interested in cutting just the

[20:47] board of county commissioners because, as you said, the headlines will be on the board

[20:51] of county commissioners tomorrow. If we can't find $2 million across all

[20:55] Constitutionals. I mean, we got to do more with less. We got an affordability crisis going on

[21:00] in this state, in this country. We don't know who's going to be in the governor's mansion. We

[21:04] don't know anything. So you know what, across the board. I mean, it's not coming and

[21:08] cutting. I mean, I'm not going to play games about cutting, you know, $50,000 out of

[21:12] discretion and all those things. If we want to have a serious conversation about looking at a

[21:17] budget and giving direction to them to cut $2 million, do it with parity and do it across

[21:22] the board throughout all of the constitutionals. And then then that's fair because we can do

[21:28] it. I mean, so there's a there's yeah, there can always be ways. And I, and I can

[21:33] support it. I don't think I can support reducing the millage rate because I tell you what we,

[21:37] we have not increased since Commissioner Berry and I've been on this board. We have not

[21:42] increased the millage rate. Matter of fact, it's been rolled back. Commissioner

[21:45] Whitehead, Commissioner Robinson all rolled it back. We have not increased the millage

[21:50] rate at all. It's since before Commissioner Berry. We have not increased the millage rate, but

[21:57] the cost of goods, the cost of services continue to go up. The cost of minimum wage, the cost

[22:05] of in your employees, the cost of insurance has gone up. And so I mean, we can't reduce I

[22:10] mean, it's politically conservative. Whatever y'all want to say, it's fine. But if

[22:13] we can't find $2 million, then shame on us. We we can give a directive without telling

[22:19] someone to cut the millage rate. Because the unknown is the unpredictable. Because many of

[22:24] your friends have ran Tallahassee for the last 33 years, and we see how that

[22:28] affordability is working. We can cut $2 million across the board. Commissioner Cole, in my

[22:35] opinion, without directly affecting services because taxes pay for services. And so

[22:41] that's what citizens need. So, you know, Commissioner Berger, you know, I can be I'm not

[22:46] going to be supportive of cutting millage rate. I'll be supportive of cutting $2

[22:49] million out of the budget and finding finding that money in the budget, but across the

[22:53] board. But I'm not going to be supportive of cutting the millage rate. Okay, so

[22:57] Pensacola Sports Association asked for 1.6 million and we're giving them 1.8. Why are we

[23:03] doing that? Why it's another 204,000. What's that? Why is that accounted for Commissioner.

[23:12] So this is your TDC Tourist Development Council recommended budget amounts for the tourist.

[23:18] The tourism portion of the community partners. And you are correct. It is additional

[23:25] dollars over last year. So the tourist tax budget is about $740,000 more than your 26

[23:34] tourism budget. But again, this is what was recommended to the BCC by the Tourist Development

[23:41] Council. Yeah, but they're only asking for 1.6. Why are we giving them another 204,000? I

[23:47] don't get it. Why don't we give them what they asked for? Mr. Schoenberger, why does the the

[23:56] tax collector have 1.8 or the clerk have 1.1 or 1.7 million over budget? And you're not

[24:03] asking her to give back a million? I'm not asking anybody to give any money back. I'm

[24:07] asking you just ask. I'm saying let's give them what they asked for. If I'm remembering the

[24:12] meeting correctly, if I'm remembering the meeting correctly, there was their

[24:16] initial budget, and then there was some additional advertising that went into that for some

[24:22] big sports package. And so I think those are a combination of the initial budget. There's

[24:27] a reason I'm okay with it. I just need to know what the reason is. That's a valid

[24:31] question. It's a valid question. But I mean, here's the real conversation. I mean, you can

[24:35] have that. It has nothing to do with the millage rate. Those are tourist development tax

[24:39] dollars. That has nothing to do with the military. And I get it. If we if we if we are going to

[24:45] make a cut across the board, maybe people that get tourist development tax need to cut, I

[24:49] can concur with that. But that has nothing to do with the agenda item at hand, which is

[24:54] simply the millage rate. Commissioner. So he just asked me, he said, what are you going

[24:58] to start cutting? So why don't we stop giving more than what the request for is? I think

[25:04] millage rate, like you're still who decided to give them more? You're still decided to give

[25:08] more than they asked for. Stefan, who decided that? I'm sorry. So to answer

[25:13] Commissioner Berger's question, so the difference in the 1.6 million versus the 1.8 million

[25:19] is we have a previously approved SESEC championship. Advertisement. That's a multi

[25:27] year, which adds an additional 204,000 to your Pensacola Sports Association budget. The

[25:33] board has already approved that. The TDC has already approved that. So that is why that one

[25:38] is a little more than you see as as directly requested as part of the unified budget.

[25:43] This is an additional advertising and promotion item. Again, the board has already

[25:47] approved this and the TDC has already approved that. It's I believe it's a five year

[25:52] agreement with the SEC Championships. Okay. So nobody is in favor of millage rate

[26:04] rollback at all. I am I absolutely am speaking of rollback what is just so it's

[26:10] on the record. What is the rollback rate for the county portion. And I think the best

[26:21] way to get to the rollback rate is to have a actual discussion about what needs to be cut, not

[26:26] just putting less money in reserves. That's not how I would run my household budget.

[26:31] That's not how I run my business. When we need to make cuts, we look at how we can be

[26:36] more efficient. We don't look at saving less. So, Madam Chair, what's the impact of rollback,

[26:41] Commissioner? What is the impact? I mean and so you have you have to talk to directors

[26:48] administration. So if you were to do the rollback, I mean what would be the impact to services.

[26:53] And are we going to do it across the board? I mean we've already made commitments. I so

[26:58] the rollback rate is 6.3807. So that would reduce roughly $7.5 million to the budget.

[27:07] Conversely, you would have no recurring or very little recurring revenue in your

[27:13] general fund to cover recurring expenditures. Your recurring expenditures in the general

[27:18] fund are just under 12 million. So you would be using one time money to cover those

[27:23] expenditures, which you can do that for maybe a year. But then after that, you will have a

[27:29] financial issue. Okay. And I understand that seven and a half might be extremely

[27:36] difficult to get to, if not impossible. But I do think that we can get closer than $1

[27:41] million. And I agree with Commissioner Schoenberger when he says reducing the budget but

[27:45] not reducing the millage rate, that's not the relief that the people are asking for. And so

[27:51] what would be the difference? I mean, I mean, we're because we have unknowns. We're going to

[27:56] reduce the budget. What the I, I agree with you. The citizens are asking for good stewardship

[28:01] there. And we're going to reduce the budget. I mean, in a economic crisis and

[28:07] affordability crisis without reducing the millage, locking ourselves into the unknown. So

[28:14] I can be very supportive of reducing it. I mean, I want to be fiscally conservative on the

[28:21] dollars that we spend. So I can be this year. I mean, I don't know why we would there's

[28:27] probably no I mean, I know what they did in Santa Rosa. There's probably no other county in all

[28:32] the 67 counties that would reduce their millage, not knowing what the amendment is

[28:36] going to do. So if we want to reduce dollars and show taxpayers that we are being

[28:40] good stewards, I'm supportive of reducing the amount. I'm not supportive of reducing and

[28:45] locking myself in to a fixed revenue stream, that I don't know what the expenses are

[28:52] going to be or what's going to be cut out, because if we look at the bottom line number and

[28:57] the reason I can support Steve, I mean, 7 million to me is just way too much, but I can

[29:02] compromise on 2 million. But if we lock ourselves into a millage rate and then we reduce

[29:07] and get rid of homestead and property taxes, that 7 million could be 15 million. It could

[29:11] be 30 million. And so that's I mean, that's my conversation. So listen, I, I can be

[29:17] supportive, Steve, of cutting, I mean, reducing the millage rate is, is going to be a tough

[29:22] hill to climb for me. I'm sorry, Commissioner Berry, I guess I interrupted you. Yeah that's

[29:27] fine. So Steve, what do you what are you saying? What are you asking, buddy? What do you

[29:31] want to do? You don't want. Yeah. What? What are you asking? I was asking for a millage rate

[29:36] back to 6.549, which was going to be about 1.7. Okay. What? What else can you live with? I

[29:44] didn't hear that. Would you say? What else can you live with? What? What else can you what

[29:48] what can you live with? That's not that I don't have to decide this by myself. I'm just

[29:53] telling you, that's what we what we're asking. If you're asking for 2 million in

[29:57] reduction. I don't see the point. And I'm trying to see the budget. I'm not asking for

[30:01] anything. I want to meet you as a colleague. I'm trying to meet you where you are. Less than 2

[30:06] million. I'm just telling you, it doesn't make any sense. We're still asking the public

[30:10] to absorb the taxes. Still, they're still going to they're going to have an increased tax

[30:14] this year, right? They're not going to be $7.5 million more than last name. They're not

[30:18] going to have an increased tax rate, Steve. Okay. It's not. So no, it's not a rate increase,

[30:24] but it is an increase because. Yes. Right. Steve. Steve, just interact with me for a minute,

[30:30] if you will. Okay. So what, what did we do last year? We reduced it and we got by half

[30:36] $1 million last year. 600. It was commissioner. It was half a million last year. Okay. So

[30:42] that's that's still a success. I mean, other counties in the state are not reducing millage.

[30:46] But that's I mean, that's fine. That's we're only we're only working with our county. But I

[30:51] do believe Commissioner I do believe commissioner is right. That's not what's happening

[30:54] throughout the state. But. Okay. And you know, Madam Chair, we've not had a clamoring for

[30:58] property tax reduction that's not been that's never filled these chambers in 15 budgets.

[31:04] That's not been what's happened here. This is something that's been pushed by the legislature

[31:08] that's been pushed as a top down approach, not a bottoms up approach. But, you know, that

[31:13] doesn't matter either. What we've got to do is somehow we got to cobble together four

[31:19] votes. So Steve, what I'm what I'm asking you is we did a half $1 million last year if you

[31:25] want, you know, and that's, that's a success. If you want to say, look, I can't live with

[31:31] less than $1 million. That's what numbers that 6.61, 6.0, 6.571, 6.571 would be $1

[31:41] million reduction. So that's $1 million in in millage rate decrease in. That's twice as

[31:48] much as you did last year. You kind of led the charge last year. That's fine. I'm we got

[31:54] we got to cobble together four votes. I mean, that's what that's what we're that's what

[31:58] we're working towards. Commissioner. I don't mean to cut you off, but that's. I knew

[32:02] that he was looking for a million. And I've met Steve, not seven. I met at 2 million.

[32:06] So I've gone to 2 million. And Steve, I'm willing to support you in cutting $2 million. We

[32:11] can't. I don't think we got to get four votes. Well, the millage I'm not going to

[32:17] support cutting the mill. I'm not going to support cutting the millage rates to. I mean,

[32:21] we can just we can stay here all night. I'm not going to support cutting the mill,

[32:25] cutting the millage rate, $2 million impact. I will Steve, if you can live with it, I will

[32:30] support cutting the millage rate where it produces $1 million decrease going down to

[32:33] 6.571. And then anything that y'all can come up with, specifically internal to cut,

[32:41] to cut other functions, to cut, you know, to cut jobs, to cut whatever services you don't

[32:48] want. If you want to arrive, try to arrive at another million through through

[32:53] reductions in services, which is what that that's what the second million is going to be.

[32:57] They can, in my opinion, based on conversations with staff and they can absorb $1 million into

[33:01] the budget through the millage rate decrease. And if you're if you can live with that, I can

[33:06] live with that. And then if what you're saying is you want to bring you've got ideas about

[33:11] how to cut another million. Okay. That's I mean, that's, that's a different discussion.

[33:15] I don't, but I'm not going to support cutting the, the millage rate that produces 2

[33:19] million. I will support cutting the millage rate that produces a million. You did have that

[33:23] last year. It's twice as much as you did last year. That's a pretty big success. We're still

[33:29] I mean, it's all it's it's all just a very. Small issue. If amendment three passes and you

[33:42] start to get over. In my opinion, based on my discussions with Stefan and

[33:45] with Wes, you start to get over $1 million. And, you know, the constitutions have been

[33:50] mentioned, but the biggest constitutional is the sheriff. You get over $1 million, you're

[33:54] going to start affecting the sheriff's budget. And I don't know that that's I don't know

[33:59] that that's the appetite that this that this board has nor nor myself. So if what you're

[34:04] saying is a million, I can live with that as a millage rate. We got to cobble together four

[34:09] votes. If Commissioner. And listen, there's probably never a you know, probably 90% of the

[34:15] time, Commissioner Berry and I and I respect his ability to decipher budgets and and I

[34:21] always lean to him, but I'm not going to support reducing the millage rate. I'll support

[34:27] funding cuts 2 million, you know, 3 million, whatever you want to find to direct staff.

[34:32] But to cut the millage rate to me would not be good stewardship for me. We have not

[34:36] increased the millage rate since 2006. We've reduced it. And so that's listen, I mean,

[34:43] politically, whatever side of the aisle you're on, you can do it. It doesn't make sense. I

[34:47] mean, the price of eggs, the price of goods, the price of everything has gone up. I mean,

[34:52] reducing the millage rate, not knowing what's going to happen to me is not good stewardship.

[34:57] Steve, I do. You are the most conservative guy on this board and I respect that. I can

[35:02] support you cutting and I can support directing people to cut. I'm not going to support the

[35:06] millage rate and that's. I respect Commissioner Berry and and that's his position. I will

[35:10] tell you, I will support I will not vote for a budget that doesn't cut. Find $2 million,

[35:15] but I'm not going to find it. By reducing the millage rate. We have to find it in other

[35:20] cost saving measures for me. So I mean, we can go everybody vote how they want to vote.

[35:24] That's fine with me. But that's my position. So I'm going to throw my where I stand on this.

[35:30] If we could cut it by 1.2 million and that other 200,000 come from discretionary funds

[35:36] being eliminated, I would support this budget. Madam Chair. I knew that was going to

[35:41] come up, so I'm going to help out. If you feel compelled to do this. This is a team sport.

[35:46] I'll be more than happy to cut yours and Steve's. I also am willing to cut the clerk's 100

[35:51] 000 legal slush fund and the one that Bubba has, because I don't think they have two

[35:55] lawyers. That's that's extra money that could come back to the county. But I have no

[35:59] problem. I voted for Steve to have a special contract and then the rest to have of that,

[36:04] I let him do it. But if we're going to start cutting independently, let's do it. So,

[36:09] I mean, I'm not going to give up my right. When the sheriff gets $500,000 in law

[36:16] enforcement trust funds, and not one person on this board voted against it, and not one

[36:20] is asked to write the attorney general or the CFO. So it's kind of a little bit ridiculous.

[36:27] We're talking about discretionary funds, but if you want me to put a motion to get

[36:32] rid of your tooth, I will do that for you. I would just like to know where I stand. But but

[36:37] but but but but point of clarification, there's no such thing because by statute we

[36:41] voted. There's no such thing as discretionary funds. So I don't know why. Because it's

[36:45] politically correct to say discretionary funds. It doesn't exist. It's community impact

[36:48] funds for feeding people and helping people. So, I mean, I wish people would stop 200,000.

[36:52] We just cut 100,000 from the clerk and all vote for it. But there's no such thing as

[36:56] discretionary funds. People like to say that because it's a buzz word, and maybe some

[37:00] reporter will report it. There's no such thing as discretionary funds that was

[37:03] gotten rid of. When did we get rid of that, Mr. Attorney? When we change it to community

[37:08] impact funds from discretionary. How long ago was that? I believe it was March last March.

[37:12] So I don't know why we keep bringing up discretionary. There's no such thing. And and

[37:16] we're in litigation. I mean, I'll tell you, there's a lot of ways that we can cut. So you

[37:21] know what I mean? I like my fiscal conservative friends who are not willing to take a cut

[37:25] and look at the budget, cut the fireworks show on the beach. Why do we pay for two? Let's

[37:30] cut it off. Yeah. I'm willing to cut the fireworks show on the beach. I'm willing to cut

[37:35] Mardi Gras. I'm ready to cut. I'm really ready to cut. If you want to talk about

[37:39] discretionary funds, I am really ready to show you cut. But you're not really ready to

[37:43] do that. No, I'm ready for political. Very happy. And I'm sick of it. Because for the 1.2

[37:47] is a game. Don't nobody really want to cut. I don't care if you're talking. I'm responding

[37:52] to him. But 1.2 is a game. But they're doing tourism tax cut. Make a motion. I actually made

[37:56] a recommendation to the TDC board that we only pay those after they're able to prove

[38:00] that they actually put heads in beds. So I'm all for that. And I also made a motion to have

[38:05] wine on the wall. I'm happy to bring that to this board. I do think we give away too much in

[38:11] tourism tax dollars, and I think they should have to prove that they put those heads in

[38:15] beds. I presented it to the TDC board and it did not go over well. If there's an appetite on

[38:20] this board to take that up, I would love to do that. It's what Orlando does and it's what

[38:25] several other municipalities do. Orlando does what Mickey Mouse tell them to do. And so I mean,

[38:29] so while we confusing Avalon tax dollars with TDC dollars that are coming in by bed tax,

[38:37] that has nothing to do with property tax dollars in our general fund. It has nothing to

[38:41] do with our general fund. So we're mixing it because there's sound bites. And so but if we

[38:45] sit here all night and have sound bites, I'm willing. Look, I just think this mean girl

[38:53] that you're doing, Mike, is not it's not working well with me. Okay? I don't care. Me girl.

[38:59] I'm not a mean girl. That's what you're doing. I mean, you're bringing up garbage is

[39:03] what you're doing. Mike. Really? Yes you are. You don't know about these legal funds. Maybe

[39:07] you ought to read the budget. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about furniture. I'm

[39:11] talking about ten hours for another person in my office that no one else has it. No one

[39:16] else. Steve, when you come to the table and you want to be tough on the budget, the same

[39:21] thing I learned in the Navy, you come with a solution. What you're going to cut, you don't

[39:26] throw it out and say, hey, I want to keep all of my stuff, but you guys go do all the hard

[39:31] work. These are real people, man. I don't want to, I don't I don't want to keep the

[39:36] discretionary funds. If we got rid of the discretionary funds and I'd be losing ten hours,

[39:40] that's what I would do. That's where it's coming from. But Steve, stop playing letting him

[39:44] play games on this damn discretionary funds. It's a game, you know. I mean, we're

[39:49] in litigation. It's less than it might sound like. We can cut mileage. Look, I wasn't the

[39:55] only one we can cut leave time. At least three people who wanted to get rid of it once

[39:59] upon a time. And then it's turned into this contest is what it's turned into. Cut

[40:04] feeding people after our board meetings. I mean, it's way more waste than that. So, you know,

[40:08] listen, if we want to cut waste and if we're serious, my dear conservative Republican friends,

[40:13] let's really cut it. Nobody really wants to do that. Oh, we going to cut 1.2. You ain't

[40:18] gonna cut nothing. Cut it. Let's go through it and take a whole look at the budget and

[40:22] really cut things. Y'all. Y'all know y'all don't really want to cut. I just said 2 million. You

[40:27] said 1.20. Then we're gonna cut the millage rate because it sounds good. Because it's a

[40:31] sound bite. Commissioner Berry hit it on the head. You're going to get to the point where

[40:35] you have to cut the Constitutionals. You ready to cut budget by a million? She's

[40:39] over budgeted by a million. You ready to do it? That's one. There's one. There's 1 million.

[40:43] Don't worry, I got some more. I got more than a lot more than discretionary funds, buddy, I

[40:47] came prepared and that's the cut. I'm willing to do enough of the political. Let's do the

[40:53] cuts. That's a million. You found a million. And now we can find another million. Let's go.

[40:58] Now that's 2 million. Now the taxpayers are happy. I'm ready. Make the motion, Mike. All

[41:02] right, Steve, back to back to what I was talking about. We've got buddy. We've got to cobble

[41:07] together four votes this evening. And it's not I mean it's not an opportunity to put

[41:13] it off to the next budget hearing. We've we've got to leave tonight. Steve you look

[41:20] you look engage with me. Okay. All right. I'm just I'm just making sure that you noticed I

[41:25] was talking to you, but but we've got to leave tonight with a with a millage rate and we've

[41:32] got to we got to cobble together four votes and leave tonight with the millage rate.

[41:35] So I mean I, I you know, I'm you know, the interactions you know that's unfortunate on the

[41:41] dice. But but we've got to we've we've got to leave with a with a adopted millage rate.

[41:46] All right, then I'll make a motion that we reduce the millage rate to 6.571. I second

[41:56] that and just and I'm sure all the board knows this, but you know, we've you know, we've got

[42:03] to cobble together four votes tonight or we end up potentially at the rollback

[42:09] rate or having, you know, getting some getting some advice from Tallahassee about

[42:15] how to run, how to run our about how to run our budget. And Stefan, that's not a miss.

[42:22] That's not a miscommunication. So that's a 1.2. Steve. That's one, that's one. That's one. So

[42:29] 1 million cut across the board or it's just a reduction in millage rate. It's not changing

[42:33] anybody's department. Stefan can absorb the. Stefan can absorb this million into the

[42:37] current budget that we have. The board at any point in time, has the opportunity to come in

[42:42] and cut a department, cut, you know, cut budgeted positions that are unfilled. I mean,

[42:47] there's there's there are things that we can do, but we've but we have to leave

[42:51] tonight with a millage rate. And in my opinion, we can't leave with the rollback rate.

[42:55] We've got to figure out what for folks can for folks can live with. Okay. Jose is also

[43:01] telling me that the motion will need to include the millage rate for the library and the

[43:07] sheriff's department, as well as part of the motion. So just to make that clear, I think

[43:12] there was a motion on the floor. If you can amend that motion to include those millage rates. So,

[43:18] Steve, that was .359 for the libraries and .685 for the sheriff. That was your that was

[43:24] the motion. Everybody's been reduced. Those those those two are millage rates are the same.

[43:30] Was that your motion. Are you you asking for the the rollback rate for the miss MSTU and for

[43:37] law enforcement. You're not asking for that. Okay. All right, I got it. We just needed

[43:42] to include those in the motion. And I thought that's what your motion said. I was just making

[43:46] sure that's what I seconded. Yeah, it was 6.571 for the countywide library is 359. And

[43:53] law enforcement 685. And my second stood for that. So there's a motion, Madam Chair,

[43:59] for discussion. So Commissioner Cole, I like your idea better, candidly. So we're rolling back

[44:06] the millage rate. And I guess, Commissioner Schoenberger, your intent is to look at where we

[44:11] cut later once we roll back the millage rate. I mean, what how I think there can always be

[44:16] some cuts. There definitely can be. I don't have to make those decisions. Nobody gets any cuts.

[44:20] So you're just rolling back the military. We're rolling back the military. We're just $1

[44:24] million. So we're not putting as much in reserves is that's what's going on here,

[44:27] Commissioner. Yes. So what will happen is it just means that those dollars will not go into

[44:32] our budgeted reserve, but it is going to directly affect taxpayers when they receive

[44:36] their actual their actual tax bill notice in November. It is going to reduce every every one

[44:41] of those is going to be reduced, you know, by that by that margin, Steve. And that's, you

[44:47] know, what? You end up in these positions. I mean, you know, you might have and this might

[44:52] not be my idea, but, you know, my my overwhelming idea is that we've got to leave with a

[44:58] millage rate tonight. That's not the rollback rate. So that's, that's, that's really

[45:02] all I'm trying to get to. I mean, this is not, you know, to speak to my friend Commissioner

[45:07] Mays point. I would rather not as well. But I can, you know, often you count to three. I

[45:14] gotta count four. So we gotta count four and I can I can be supportive of that because it's

[45:19] it, it accomplishes twice what you were able to do last year, Steve. It doubles what the

[45:24] reduction was last year. We can, you know, seemingly, you know, reasonably absorb it and wait

[45:31] and see what happens with the ballot initiative. And, you know, and, and, you know, this

[45:36] doesn't have to do with the motion, but the thought that anyone is going to escape a

[45:40] huge impact if that passes. Anyone being all of our constitutionals, you know, is,

[45:46] is very, very naive to think that's not going to affect tremendously every, every

[45:51] person in this county Commissioner. And I respect, genuinely respect you. If we're

[45:57] just taking off $1 million, Commissioner Koehler made a recommendation that we can cut

[46:01] the clerk $1 million right now without rolling back the millage rate. I mean, that

[46:05] that's simple. That doesn't really impact, you know, direct services to the citizens and

[46:10] roads and bridges. And so to me, we could figure out how to cut that. Rolling back the millage

[46:16] rate for me, knowing the critical needs that I have in our district and where I am, I

[46:22] mean, that's probably, you know, if there's four votes, that's great. I'm I said it and I've

[46:27] told too many people, I'm not going to vote to roll back the millage rate. I'm not going to

[46:32] vote to roll back the rate. You know, we can get 1 million, we can get 2 million. But for me

[46:37] to vote to roll back the millage rate, when we have ways in which we can pull $1 million,

[46:42] as Commissioner, Koehler said, it's just not what I'm going to do. So, I mean, you can call

[46:47] the vote as far as I'm concerned. Okay. We do have a motion from Commissioner

[46:53] Sternberger and then a second from Commissioner Berry. Is is that all still standing? You're

[47:00] saying you're not going to support this? Well, then, I mean, then don't then don't

[47:06] call the question. We've I mean, we have to come out of here with a millage rate that you

[47:12] may have for. I'm just not I don't think we have four. We gotta come. We gotta come out

[47:16] of here with the millage rate that we have, or we end up at a. Or we end up at a $7 million

[47:22] decrease. So, I mean, I'm willing to vote for the million dollars, but I will tell you,

[47:26] like it or not like it, we got to get four votes. You got to vote no. I'll vote for it.

[47:32] Steve. But here's the thing. We we got to come to the next meeting next year and be

[47:36] serious about what we're going to cut. But no, because here's here's the thing. We're going

[47:40] to take heat from this. Like I said before, we have not raised the millage since 2006. On this

[47:46] board, the school board has raised it. The A fuel costs more. We had to change order

[47:52] last meeting on it. It's like we don't do anything. We're not raising the millage. Now. I

[47:56] know we're not we're not raising what I'm saying. But we still have to pay for. People

[48:00] still want pay raises. People do want people to want to work in the county. I don't know

[48:05] that Nikki told us the mean salary was like $52,000. So we got targeted people who make

[48:12] money and target people who don't make money. So we're going to be the one that looked

[48:16] bad. But I'll tell you, if this bout three comes heads up, constitutionals, because I'm

[48:20] going through everything through a fine tooth comb, everyone's going to put in some

[48:24] flesh, but I'll do the million. I'll do the million because Steve wants to do it and no

[48:29] one's recommend this. We haven't raised the millage since 2006. But no, no, I know,

[48:34] but that's like 15 FTEs. So that's do whatever you play, whatever game y'all want to

[48:38] play in this political season. We're not really giving any impact to the citizens.

[48:42] Whatever game y'all want to play, that's fine. I'm not voting. You know what you tell

[48:45] everybody else to cut back, cut back. And I'm I'm the Democrat on the board. So it's great.

[48:50] You know what? Nobody wants to cut go right, Madam Chair, so we can still make cuts. I don't

[48:55] care if you don't make cuts. Don't confuse everyone with the. We haven't raised the millage

[48:59] rate. That's not a confusion. We have not raised the millage rates. It's still a tax. We

[49:03] have not raised the millage rate. It's still a tax increase. I made a motion. We got a you

[49:08] got a second vote on it Madam Chair. Withdraw my second. We can't we can't bring this to a

[49:12] vote. Understood? Yes, sir. Let's keep discussing. So the motion falls flat based on the

[49:16] second withdrawal. Well, I'll make a motion. I'll make a motion because the clerk has

[49:21] routinely had over $1 million to cut hers by million this year. So here's my motion. Cut

[49:26] the clerk's budget by 1 million. Five a second. Second. Okay, there is a motion and there is

[49:33] a second. So I will call for a vote. All in favor of Commissioner Koehler's motion,

[49:39] please raise your hand. That would be three. All who are not in favor, please raise your

[49:44] hand. That would be two. I'll make a second motion. I want to make a motion that the clerk's

[49:53] legal funds and or personal service for $100,000 no longer exists. Second. Counsel, can we

[50:04] legally do this? I think that I think the board has great flexibility to go through the

[50:11] budget and to make these types of decisions. At this point, of course, this is an open

[50:17] conversation, and this board has to, we would hope, come out of this meeting with some kind

[50:22] of an arrangement. I think the board is aware that by pushing this into the next meeting on

[50:27] the 24th, that that puts enormous strain on staff and management. So if it's possible

[50:33] to have something come out, I think that probably is in the best interest of the board. Yes,

[50:37] we can vote for it. Okay. Thank you. Commissioner Koehler, could you please repeat? Yeah,

[50:42] we have a lot of lawyers. The clerk has two. I want to decrease our personal service

[50:47] legal slush fund. That's $100,000. That's my motion for legal. For legal, I second it.

[50:53] Okay. All in favor? That would be four. I am not voting for that. So that would be four one.

[51:01] May I have the floor, Madam Chair? Indeed. I hear your animosity, Commissioner Kohler.

[51:08] It is apparent you are the one that contacted the two not for profits. You are the one that

[51:16] lobbied them to file a lawsuit. You are the one that told them to go to Alexandra as their

[51:25] counsel. I understand your animosity. It is noted. And when you personally talk about

[51:33] going after me personally for 1.5 million, two weeks before Alexandra even sent a demand

[51:41] letter, it is you, Commissioner Kohler, and maybe we need to look towards personal liability

[51:49] of commissioners because your behavior is abhorrent and I have the right to defend myself.

[51:56] And I do have two attorneys. My other attorney is not paid for by the commission. It is a

[52:04] court side attorney. My one attorney is Cody Lee that handles every lawsuit for the

[52:11] clerk's office, because we get a lot of them because of tax deed sales and what have you.

[52:17] So I hear your animosity. It is noted. And if this governor was not leaving, we would be having

[52:25] a conversation. But I will certainly have one with Donalds if he is elected or with jolly.

[52:33] Thank you. We still don't have a millage rate, so we probably need to have a conversation

[52:46] about that. Well, I can make the same motion again. That's what I do. I don't think we're

[52:57] going to get any further than that with that millage rate. Steve. I don't I would just say

[53:01] just there's not a I mean, if, you know, if we're if we're going by proper decorum, if you

[53:07] make a motion and it fails, it's more difficult to bring it back. So just. Well, what I'm

[53:12] saying is let's just try to see if we can get to some chart. If we see if we can get to some

[53:18] commonality before we before we try to make another motion. I don't know if it's possible or

[53:23] not, but I I'm willing to vote for the 1 million. So if you make the motion against Steve,

[53:27] I'll second it. If Commissioner Berry won't. Mike, it's got to have four votes. That's my

[53:33] point. It's got to have four votes. And if it fails without four votes, then it's more

[53:37] difficult to then then I mean, if we know it's not Commissioner May, I would just

[53:43] I don't know where the chair's going to vote, but I would plead with you to do the 1

[53:48] million if that's where Steve. Steve, Commissioner Berger will land. There's 2.1 million that

[53:51] we've cut. Steve. I mean, Mike, here's the deal. I've never told citizens that I'm going to

[54:00] vote one way and vote in another way. That's just not what I'm going to do. I'm not

[54:05] going to play games with this millage rate. I'm you know, in playing if we want to make cuts,

[54:09] just make cuts. I mean, you know listen you go I mean, I probably I may be for a higher

[54:18] reduction. I believe that you know my seat and and Commissioner Berry has done a

[54:22] great job. I've probably been the most fiscally conservative guy on this board. But I'm not

[54:26] going to let people paint someone into, you know, trying to cut social programs, trying

[54:30] to not feed the hungry, trying not to feed the poor, and then play games about taking money

[54:34] out of reserves and cutting the millage rate, that really has no real impact on citizens. I

[54:39] mean, you know, that's great. I mean, people can see the smoke screen and so cut that millage

[54:43] rate for a million. That's fine. If that's where you want to go, go go go, go and do it. But I'm

[54:49] telling you, Commissioner, if if why don't we look, we we should be looking at everything.

[54:55] We beat people up on these TDC dollars. They want to do 7 million. I got what I'll cut,

[55:00] but I'll recommend. But Commissioner Berger, I mean, it's a no animosity, I really

[55:05] did. I sit down and went through all these and the. Can you live with a million coming

[55:11] out of the general fund? If we could get four votes there. Can you live with that,

[55:15] Commissioner Sternberger? Yeah, that's what we're doing. No, he doesn't want to do the millage,

[55:19] but it'd be a million that you would cut out of the general. I'll tell you what. I'll tell

[55:23] you what. Here's here's how I'm going to leave this county. And certainly I think most of you

[55:28] will will be here long after I'm gone. And Commissioner Berry and I both have left it.

[55:32] I'll support your reduction, and I'm not going to support taking it out of reserves. So

[55:36] if you want to make a motion to not take it out of reserves and then put elbow grease to the

[55:41] ground, then I'll support it. But no taking it out of reserve. That's the easy thing to do.

[55:46] The hard thing in leadership is, you know, reduce your millage rate, take it out of general

[55:50] fund, keep our reserves strong because everyone needs the savings, because the citizens

[55:53] of Escambia County don't even have a savings. They're living from paycheck to paycheck to

[55:57] payday to payday. And so, you know, take it out of that and then cut it and, you know, hold

[56:02] on, Mike. And the only thing I'm not going to support, I'm not going to support giving

[56:06] across the board raises to people who make six figures. When we got people that make

[56:10] $32,000, you know what? I'll vote. Do whatever you want to do. We have people who are

[56:14] making $32,000, $28,000 in our district. They can't eat. They're running out of gas at

[56:19] Brownsville to get food. But then we say across the board, because it's fair, because

[56:24] somebody makes 150, $200,000, we're going to give them the same thing that we give

[56:28] somebody that makes $25,000. That's unfair, that's wrong. And so we should be looking at

[56:34] the budget in that perspective. So listen, you can cut it, keep it, we can increase it, but

[56:39] take care of our citizens, take care of the people that actually go into your washroom

[56:43] and grabbing quarters of things to pay to wash their clothes, because that's all they got.

[56:48] And so, I mean, we say, oh, let's just do it. Let's do a broad sweep for all the

[56:52] citizens. That's unfair. Let's do what's right by the citizens, the least of them. That's what

[56:58] we were elected to do, Mike. We were elected to take care of the least of them. And so we

[57:03] should be doing that. Our budget conversation should be about the lady that's sitting

[57:07] out there underneath the awning right now that can't buy her kids toys for Christmas because

[57:12] she's saving right now. Fine. Figure out a way to take care of the least of them, stabilize

[57:18] those. I'm not saying people shouldn't make six figures, shouldn't make 70, 80, $90,000.

[57:22] But we are unfair and we worry about our morale and we worry about people. Don't answer the

[57:27] phone. I mean, because they're making, you know, $20,000 to answer the phone when their

[57:31] boss is taking Three hour breaks and making six figures. I'm fine Mike. I could be

[57:36] supportive. The point is, it has to be a real conversation about the budget. Mr. Berry

[57:40] said if I don't have it tonight, I'll never have it. So I'm good. We can do whatever millage rate

[57:45] you want. What if we give 6% to everybody that makes less than $50,000? I'm all on board.

[57:53] Whatever millage rate you want, give every. And you can cut everybody else if you want to.

[57:57] Anybody in this county that's making less than $50,000 to get a house at Malcolm Young where

[58:03] they told the house. It's 120% above the median income, meaning that to get a habitat

[58:09] house on public land at Malcolm Young, you can make $87,000. Look at what our citizens make

[58:15] that work for us. All of them make less than $87,000. They can't afford a house. Let's.

[58:21] It's chopping time. Do something like that. You got me. I don't care what the millage

[58:25] rate is. Let's just give an increase to these citizens who are around here. Cleaning our

[58:29] building, cutting our grass, driving our trucks, and they're going home, having to work 2 or

[58:34] 3 jobs in there. Hungry? Now. That's right. Now, if that's included in the motion that

[58:38] we're going to give these people 6%, you can cut the rest of them out. I will vote for

[58:43] whatever millage rate you want, Commissioner. Commissioner. Stephan, can you can you just

[58:47] pencil what that impact is like? What the what the impact of that would be? We're not

[58:51] talking bargaining employees. We're talking about board direct, direct board employees

[58:54] that are under 50,000, you know, under under 50,000. Yeah. I mean, I mean, we're already

[59:02] budget. We already budgeted 2%. Stefan. Right. So it's a four. It's a 4% delta for employees

[59:09] under 50,000 that are direct board employees not bargained. So it's probably not. It's

[59:18] probably not that big of an impact. No it's not. And I can I think that's great. You know

[59:24] I think that's a I think that's a good idea. I can I can be on board with that as well. Thank

[59:29] you, Mr. Mayor. And I'll be happy to support your motion, because we're taking care of

[59:33] the least of them. And Commissioner Berry, if that's what we're going to do, you'll

[59:37] find my full support. So what we're. And it's something we've. So it's something that we've

[59:41] talked about before and we've, you know, it's may have been before y'all were elected, but

[59:45] there's been different times where we've asked, you know, Wes or previous administrators

[59:48] to, you know, for employees. Well, just really trying to I, I think one of the discussions

[59:55] might have been even employees, this is years ago, but that made 35,000 or less that we

[1:00:00] tried to increase more. I think it might have been with Jack Brown was administrator. But,

[1:00:04] you know, we tried to increase the lower end. You know, the the, the lower tiered employees,

[1:00:08] which, you know, which I know Jack did, I guess I don't know that we've done this with since

[1:00:14] you've been administrator, but it's, you know, the premise is to is to try to, you know, to

[1:00:19] try to get, you know, everybody's getting 2%. Okay. But if they can get an

[1:00:23] additional four. I don't think the impact of that is tremendous. Well, and I, I

[1:00:29] don't know what that number is. I guess you got to tell Stefan, but I'll tell you the other

[1:00:33] thing is gas. Was it you or did you bring this up before? Was it Stefan that we talked about

[1:00:38] the disparity and certain people getting gas? Everyone has to drive to work here, man.

[1:00:43] Dude, all we gotta do is go across the board and give everybody $200 for gas welding,

[1:00:47] 4 or $500. That would satisfy all the people that are less than $50,000. It's a real

[1:00:51] mathematical, easy equation. I have a problem with it. Just because the people on the lower

[1:00:55] spectrum of the pay scale still have to come to work, and they're not getting a gas

[1:00:59] supplement. And we got people that get gas that don't leave their office. And so, I mean,

[1:01:03] these people are catching the bus, they're catching flex. You can move those numbers. There

[1:01:07] is an opportunity to help guys. And that's what I'm saying. If we want let me just tell you,

[1:01:12] quite frankly, if you want to talk about amendment three, the people that are going to vote,

[1:01:16] it ain't the people that's making six figures. It's the average everyday citizen that's

[1:01:20] going to say, what is your government doing for them? That's the vote. So if we want

[1:01:24] to talk about how people are going to vote, we got to take care of the people. It's a lot

[1:01:29] more people making less than $50,000 than people making more than a hundred thousand. At

[1:01:33] some point, we got to let those people know that we care about them, and we can work those

[1:01:38] numbers out. Like Steve said, it's not that much money, Mike. I mean, it is whatever it is.

[1:01:42] But we should not say that we we are this bold city and we have citizens, man, you know,

[1:01:48] that can't afford. And they gotta decide, you know, whether they're going to buy eggs or

[1:01:53] whether they're going to pay for their kids, you know, sports or whether they're going

[1:01:57] to come to work. I mean, it's a real economic crisis. I mean, the affordability is real for

[1:02:03] people that we represent. I mean, Steve represents them in the rural county. I mean, we

[1:02:07] got people that can't get on a bus in the north end of the county. I was in century. Today,

[1:02:12] people are hurting and we have our citizens that can't. I have people who can't afford to live

[1:02:16] in district three anymore. And they're making $40,000. They're making $28,000. You know, I and

[1:02:23] so let's help them a little bit. I mean, giving them 6% is not going to drastically change

[1:02:28] their life. But you know what it may be where they don't have to, you know, beg for their

[1:02:34] kids, you know, to get, you know, a free book bag in the summer that we can't even pay

[1:02:38] for, which is ridiculous. Commissioner Berry, I believe it's, it's around $1 million

[1:02:45] for the general fund, certainly to do the 6% that Commissioner May is proposing. It is a

[1:02:54] little more complicated than that Union. Certain unions are also included with some some of

[1:02:59] the folks that may be unionized. Well, correct. But again, so it is a little more complicated

[1:03:05] than that. But for general fund purposes. So we're only going to give raises to the people

[1:03:10] who are non-unionized making under 50,000. And if they're unionized, it's just SOL. So I

[1:03:17] did not say that, Commissioner. Well, no, I'm asking. Commissioner, may I. I would

[1:03:22] certainly support giving people who are unionized, but I know that there's bargaining that

[1:03:26] has to happen between. We just can't bargain for those who are represented in bargaining. So I

[1:03:34] would support that, Madam Chair, if we could do that. You cannot unilaterally give pay raises to

[1:03:41] unions without bargaining it. So that's my point. You could budget it, but you have to

[1:03:45] bargain it. And then they could come back to the table and ask for it their next go round.

[1:03:50] Correct. Okay. Yeah. Sorry. I just wanted to. So no, Madam Chair, just for point of

[1:03:54] clarification, in no way was I saying that we would not want to take care of people because

[1:03:59] they're in a union. I actually support unions and believe in unions, but I know that legally

[1:04:03] we can't bargain with them. And but I mean, I would tell you, if they came, I would be

[1:04:08] disappointed in any union that would come back and not want to bring their employee to allow

[1:04:12] for their employees to get a raise. And I'm not saying raise everybody to 50,000, I'm just

[1:04:16] saying give them a 6% pay increase instead of the four. I mean, I mean, instead of the

[1:04:23] two, it's a 4% delta. That's what we're I'm willing to go for. Steve. I just don't think

[1:04:29] that it's fair, Steve, to to have more. Yeah. I mean, I'm with you to give people that

[1:04:33] make six figures. I mean, yeah, the people that people that are making, you know, 150,000,

[1:04:38] 100,000, 90,000, they're not hurting like people that are making 28,000. So, I mean, I'm

[1:04:43] willing to compromise it and say, we've had this and we've done this before. So, I mean,

[1:04:47] this is nothing new to the position that I had. And so this is not the poor man

[1:04:51] crusade, but it is the advocacy of people who don't have a voice, because those people who

[1:04:56] are making that money, they're not in the end, and they don't have anybody advocating for

[1:05:00] them. And most times they don't have direct relationships with people who are giving them, you

[1:05:04] know, mirrored raises and opportunity. And so for me, I appreciate the people that

[1:05:10] cleaned the bathroom in my office. I appreciate the people that pressure wash this

[1:05:14] business, this building. I appreciate those people who are around here, who are starting,

[1:05:19] who are working the midnight shift from 11 to to 11:00 at night, cleaning our building.

[1:05:23] And I don't think that they should live in poverty if they want to walk out of here and go

[1:05:28] buy a cold Coke and a cold beer, they should be able to afford it. Well, I mean, you look and

[1:05:33] you look at the job that gets done now that their employees are not contracted out like

[1:05:37] they were years ago. You know, the service that we had when when things were contracted out

[1:05:42] was, was, you know, a much, much lower level than it is now. You know, I mean, that's been

[1:05:47] that's been a several years ago. But so, Stefan, you can we can figure that out. I'm trying to

[1:05:51] figure out tonight, Steve. I mean, I just mean, we can't if we. We can, Commissioner. We

[1:05:56] can certainly figure that out. If if that's what the board is supporting. Stefan. That's what

[1:06:00] I'm supporting. And this is no offense to the people who are making the decision to bring

[1:06:04] recommendations. They all make six figures and I love them all. I love them, love them all them.

[1:06:08] So they will have a higher voice. It's up to us to advocate for those people that

[1:06:13] don't have a voice. And so, you know, I'm going to advocate for those people at the same time,

[1:06:17] appreciating those people who are doing a great job. But it's it's tough time. It's an

[1:06:21] affordability crisis. I think if you talk to people, I mean, I bet you if you talk to Stefan

[1:06:26] or have you talked to Allison, have you talked to people? They say, you know what? I'd much

[1:06:30] rather see a young lady with two kids be able to take her kids to school and go rather

[1:06:35] than me to get, you know, another increase. Because I know all of our six figure

[1:06:39] people like Claire Joy, I know Wes, I know that their heart of service wants to help the least

[1:06:44] of them. And so for me, you know, I'm going to continue to advocate for this. And that's

[1:06:49] the, you know, like you said, we got to get to four. I'll never be a part if we don't

[1:06:53] take care of those people. Because I get it. Those people, you know, rent from me, you

[1:06:58] know, they get the clothes washed with, with with Ashley. You know, maybe one day they'll

[1:07:02] make enough to invest with you. I mean, but we see them each and every day and it breaks my

[1:07:07] heart. It breaks my heart when I see somebody walking down the street and said, I'd love to go

[1:07:11] get a sandwich at O'Reilly's commissioner, but I just can't afford it. And they have on the

[1:07:16] Escambia County badge that breaks my heart. They deserve to be able to go eat at the

[1:07:20] same places that I go eat, you know? And because they work hard. And here's the good thing

[1:07:25] about it, those people that are making less than $50,000, they work eight hours a day. They

[1:07:29] can't leave early. They can't leave on Fridays. They can't have extended holidays because

[1:07:32] someone's always watching them. The people that are that are salary, that's making the money,

[1:07:36] you know, they may work five hours, they may work six hours, they may do whatever. And

[1:07:41] there's nobody that's scrutinizing them. We deserve to take care of them. And if we

[1:07:45] don't take care of them, then Steve LOST tax reform. These people provide these essential

[1:07:51] services that the citizens see every day. Those of us that are not doing direct contact with

[1:07:57] citizens, although, you know, we make policies and there's value, there's a lot of value

[1:08:02] in those people who are the first point of contact for our county. So that's enough of my

[1:08:09] position. Steve. I made this position every budget. So I mean, it's nothing different. I

[1:08:14] mean, I think it's a good outcome. Steve. Steve, you can live with that. Steve. Yeah, I

[1:08:22] guess. No, I'm good with that. Y'all do. What do you think Steve you can live with it.

[1:08:32] Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Okay, so I'm clear. I just want to make sure that I have my pots of money

[1:08:39] correct. We're voting to reduce the millage to 6.571, which is going to drop the collections

[1:08:46] by $1 million. We're going to subsidize that by putting $1 million less in reserve. And

[1:08:52] then we are planning to provide additional pay raises at the cost of $1 million. So no, no,

[1:08:59] no, the item, if conversationally, the board, I think as a whole can give or as

[1:09:06] a majority can give that feedback to the administrator and to the to our chief budget

[1:09:10] officer. But I mean, I think Commissioner Berger's motion for the millage needs to stand

[1:09:14] by itself. Okay. If he and Steve, if you'd remake the motion you made earlier, then I

[1:09:19] will second it again. And hopefully we can. Commissioner beer, if you're trying to get

[1:09:22] to four is what I would say. Steve, if you're looking for Commissioner Cola made some

[1:09:27] good recommendations. Commissioner Berry, I would just ask if we direct Steven

[1:09:32] and Wes to figure out how we find that million without going into our reserves. I mean,

[1:09:36] because one thing I think you and I both can go home with being proud is how we've

[1:09:41] increased the reserves. So no matter what they will say about us, the reserves is a lot more

[1:09:45] healthier than it was when we got here. And I think that we just we tasked staff with going

[1:09:50] and figuring it out. I mean, whether it's gas allowance, whether it's leave time,

[1:09:55] whatever it is. I think Steven brings that back without touching the reserve. And if we

[1:09:59] do that, then you got my support. Okay. All right. I'll make a motion. Motion is to for

[1:10:12] the countywide millage rate to be reduced to 6.571, the library Mstu remains at 0.359.

[1:10:22] Law enforcement Mstu at 6850. Second, just a friendly amendment, Commissioner that

[1:10:30] the. When they find those savings, they won't come out of reserve. It's a friendly

[1:10:37] amendment to you. If you would accept that amendment that he will. Stefan will bring

[1:10:41] something back. And if he brings it back and he can't find it, we'll go out of

[1:10:45] reserves. But right now that he'd be directed to find those funds without going into

[1:10:49] reserves. So if we couldn't find him to cut them, how are we finding them? If he's never

[1:10:53] been directed to go find them? I know, but we said earlier that cutting it by 2 million

[1:10:58] would be detrimental. But essentially, we're still we're spending an extra million and

[1:11:03] cutting a million. So we're still at that 2 million mark. And earlier he said it would

[1:11:07] come out of reserve. So I you know, I earlier said I wasn't going to support my reserves

[1:11:11] unless he comes back at the next budget hearing and said, I just can't find it in reserves.

[1:11:16] I think I think Commissioner Reserve, it wouldn't go into reserve. It wouldn't go into

[1:11:20] reserves. No, it would have to come out of reserves. So typically the way that OMB

[1:11:24] handles the the financial the financial transaction. So you have any number of plus ups,

[1:11:29] you have any number of subtractions. So typically we add to our reserve and we take

[1:11:33] from our reserve as we move through changes that happen after July, such as certain

[1:11:40] state mandates and things like Medicaid and Department of Juvenile Justice, various other

[1:11:45] things that we get information or revenue sharing or half cent sales tax. Those types of

[1:11:49] things typically happen after the fact. So reserves are adjusted to accommodate for

[1:11:54] that. So if if this board is directing $1 million reduction. So I would typically again, it

[1:12:03] flows through the reserve allocation, whether it's a plus or a minus. If we are going to

[1:12:08] spend roughly $1 million on additional pay raises. So that will come out of reserves as

[1:12:13] well. So that that is typically how, how those things are handled between July and your

[1:12:21] final budget. Okay. But that's not the motion. This is a standalone motion, the millage

[1:12:26] rate. So I ask for a friendly amendment. I think if you want to get my support and and maybe

[1:12:32] I'll have four votes, but I simply, you know, fiscal management, good stewardship to

[1:12:37] simply allow for them to go back and figure out if there's other ways in which we cut

[1:12:42] without taking out of our savings account. And that's simply a friendly amendment,

[1:12:46] Commissioner. Well, what is and we always have and here's the great thing we have the ability.

[1:12:52] If you can't find it, even if we pass the budget, we have the ability to always take money

[1:12:56] out of reserves if we need it to. We have that ability every day and we take money out of

[1:13:01] reserve every day. So we have the ability to take it out of reserves if we want. So. Well,

[1:13:06] what all can we put in this motion legally? Because I know the budget meeting is very

[1:13:10] scripted. So can we add that amendment in or. No. I would recommend that we have the

[1:13:16] cleanest that we can have, which would be to set the military aid and to note the

[1:13:21] percentages. I think that this is a structured process, and if we deviate too far from that

[1:13:26] process, that may create some problems, then take up a second motion that only needs three

[1:13:30] votes to have to have the intent for the reduction be thank you be found in another

[1:13:35] way other than just cutting reserves, if that's what. If that's what count. I thank

[1:13:38] Commissioner Berry. I'm good with that. Okay, so we had Commissioner Sternberger made

[1:13:43] the motion, who second, Commissioner Berry second. All in favor? Okay. Four. Oh. All

[1:13:50] opposed? I'm not voting for that. So it passes. Four one and then I believe there was a

[1:13:56] second motion you wanted to make, Madam Chair, and recognizing the reduction of

[1:14:03] the millage rate. And there's going to have to be some savings. I make a motion that

[1:14:08] our first option would be to not take the money out of reserves and find other cost

[1:14:13] saving measures. Okay. All in favor. Okay. That is five. Oh thank you. Oh, I got five.

[1:14:20] Wonderful like that. Danny, we also need a motion to adopt the tentative budget resolution for

[1:14:28] 2026 2027. So at this time, I would like to ask somebody to make a motion to do so. So move

[1:14:34] second. All in favor. Okay. Five. Oh thank you. Okay. And then we have a public hearing

[1:14:45] for the consideration of adopting the non ad valorem special assessment role. Do we

[1:14:51] have any public speakers? Okay. Was the presentation of that please. The non ad valorem

[1:15:10] special assessment role. I think it's like street lights and things like that.

[1:15:19] Commissioners. There is a list of all non ad valorem districts and rates provided in your

[1:15:24] agenda back up. We do have a public forum. I don't believe we have any speakers.

[1:15:31] Commissioner. Commissioner did did you set the date and time of the second budget public

[1:15:38] hearing, which is item three? No we haven't. I would ask that the board set the second public

[1:15:48] hearing for September 24th, 2026 at 501 in the board chambers, so moved second. Okay.

[1:15:57] All in favor for oh with Commissioner May off the dais. Thank you. Stefan. Do we need

[1:16:10] to make a motion to we do that the board adopt the fiscal year 2026 2027 non ad valorem

[1:16:17] special assessment roll. So moved. Second. All in favor for oh with Commissioner May off

[1:16:22] the dais. Okay. And that is all. Is there anything else to be discussed hearing? Nothing.

[1:16:32] Meeting adjourned. Thank you

First Budget Public Hearing

Agenda

Transcript