[This transcript was generated automatically from audio using AI and hasn't been reviewed by a person -- it can contain mistakes, including plausible-sounding sentences that were never actually said. Treat it as a starting point, not a verbatim record.]

[1:04] I ask with you if you could make sure that it's on silence so it doesn't disrupt the proceedings here today. If you'll please stand for those of you who are able and join us for the Pledge of Allegiance. I
[1:17] pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible.
[1:31] You did great.
[1:38] Council, if we'll get approval of tonight's agenda.
[1:41] Mayor, I'm going to amend the agenda by removing 5.1, 5.2, 5.3 from the agenda and postponing
[1:50] them indefinitely.
[1:52] From
[1:55] motion to approve tonight's agenda with the amendments of removing items 5.1, 5.2
[2:02] and 5.3 is that correct?
[2:04] Yes, sir.
[2:05] Any further explanation or discussion?
[2:08] No, sir.
[2:10] Anyone else?
[2:11] Councilman Schmidt.
[2:15] This part of the budget process, I would entertain any
[2:18] conversation about any action being taken.
[2:23] So I will support the motion to remove these.
[2:26] I think it will be good for us to have some educational experience
[2:30] on hearing from the people and us sharing some information to
[2:34] so that we support this motion.
[2:36] Thank you, sir.
[2:36] Councilman Walper.
[2:37] Yeah, sure.
[2:38] I appreciate that.
[2:39] I have requested my two items.
[2:42] Make it on to the agenda for discussion several times.
[2:44] And then thanks for Mr. Barnes and Mr. Davis in the conversation.
[2:48] We all had by email.
[2:49] You guys agreed that it should finally be put on there up for discussion.
[2:53] So I don't need any input.
[2:56] I don't need any votes.
[2:58] I won't be making a motion.
[3:00] If I at this point, I don't plan on making any motions.
[3:04] I wanted the discussion and like Mr. Schmidt said, I think public discussion of these items are important.
[3:10] And furthermore, if it is removed by this body by a majority vote, when it's my time to speak, I will speak on these topics.
[3:17] So you can get rid of it if you want to, but I'll not be supporting it.
[3:21] Thank you, Mr. Mayor.
[3:22] Thank you, Councilman Walker or anyone else, Councilman Peter.
[3:28] I will surprisingly expect in that, but I will support the motion.
[3:35] As Mr. Walker said, he still plans on elaborating on his, as Councilman Schmidt said, this is
[3:40] definitely an education time for all of us sort of about stuff, but educationally what
[3:45] I have learned through this process is I wish we would have said restructure the library months
[3:52] back when we had a chance to maybe not vote on this cap.
[3:56] Everybody would have turned out and we'd have a different outcome with that being said
[4:01] I was going to present it at my time on there
[4:03] But I guess now the time since we're removing it
[4:06] Did you make it aggressive?
[4:07] I don't know if you'd like to address it
[4:08] We can obviously I don't know how the vote's going to turn out
[4:11] But if you'd like to do that green this will work. You may wait to see a support center at this point
[4:17] I think we've got to say go for it
[4:20] Is it it's the current budget are we going to be able to fund the library this?
[4:26] We've not removed it from the budget with the library.
[4:29] We are funding the library this year for the disaster over the next month or so.
[4:36] This has got minding the status, so I feel I'll be able to speak about it, but the quote
[4:40] unquote restructuring the library has been talked about for many, many, many years since it
[4:45] was downtown.
[4:46] And sometimes the worst restructure doesn't always have to be clothes or bulldoze.
[4:53] I think I'm looking at the word is restructuring the library kind of like we said last night kind of like when I got up here four years ago
[4:59] The the mayor said it's a hundred thousand dollars a year in utilities
[5:03] So maybe we should go to a solar route. I think all of us in this community need to start looking at things like that
[5:09] The word restructuring means how do we efficiently spin the money we have because our budget is cat and our revenues are
[5:16] Shrinking so restructuring means how can we efficiently spend money so
[5:28] If we could just get everybody in there, that can get in, I know that we do have a limit here.
[5:40] We're going to need it to be quiet though. Everybody's got to be quiet in here. It's very
[5:44] hard to hear. It's a round room, there's a lot of weird echoes. The thing was built in the 50s,
[5:48] so it's all be as quiet as we can and we'll all get our turn to speak.
[5:51] And I'll try to be quick, but I thought this was going to be a long process, but since
[5:55] it's removed from the agenda, and we're able to fund it this year, I'll do my best
[5:58] to make it short and sweet.
[5:59] But first off, I want to say thank you to every citizen who has provided input on the coming
[6:02] year's budget.
[6:04] Please, live rare, have a way to express yourself.
[6:06] It's surely a process to listen to our community input, work with staff, and improve a large
[6:11] $65 million dollar budget.
[6:12] It's not easy, and we're a volunteer board working for free, because as many as you now know,
[6:16] based on the hundreds of email responses I got, I'm sure a lot of you in this room, I reply
[6:20] to all of you.
[6:21] and I tried my best to explain to you why we have to make the decisions that we do. I got a lot of positive feedback.
[6:29] I got a lot of ladies that don't like me, and that's okay. But I got a lot of positive people who actually said,
[6:34] wow, I didn't know that, so it ended up being really good. We rolled back our millage rate three out of the last four years.
[6:41] It's amazing to me I'm a people I spoke to that didn't know what the rollback rate was.
[6:44] So what that is is when property values go up and the city will actually get bring in more money
[6:49] And they might be able to fund more projects or put money in the reserve account. We do what's called the rollback rate
[6:57] We roll back our millage
[6:59] To go off the previous year's income and that's great when you can do it
[7:03] Unfortunately, I feel like we might have done it three or four years during the worst time right after COVID
[7:08] When inflation went crazy and we went backwards, so that's why as I replied to a lot of you guys
[7:13] We don't have a lot of money in fun balance
[7:17] We all know about the 3% cap and I replied to all you guys. I didn't go to the rollback rate
[7:21] I didn't go for a 3% cap. We were very instrumental in trying to repeal the cap
[7:25] They didn't pass so eventually we have to look in the mirror and go we got to abide by these rules
[7:30] There's that's where we are
[7:32] After those two things him
[7:34] with
[7:37] everything coming up in November so I hope everybody keeps the same passion and
[7:41] energy in November when it's time to vote and I hope everybody keeps the same
[7:45] passion energy next budget season when other people are here I won't be up
[7:49] here but I thank your question to the new electees running I have questions for them
[7:54] I'll vote for four of them thanks some of your questions to them should be if this
[8:00] passes rip this passes what's your what are you going to cut because it's in
[8:04] the day we have x amount of money so if we want to continue to fund the library that does lose
[8:09] upwards of we don't really know because he's seven five hundred but with utilities in there
[8:15] at six hundred okay if the county gives us a hundred thousand dollars a year and they don't give
[8:20] us co-op you know then it goes and then we're close to seven hundred we could very quickly be a
[8:25] million dollar loss a year and not have the money to pay it so now's the time to wake up and start
[8:31] realizing where we're going to get the money from. And I agree with everybody. He said, a library is an essential service.
[8:37] I agree with you. I got five kids and they all read.
[8:41] But if we continue to fund it without the money, we have to, we tried to sub out this batch and everybody said,
[8:47] heck no, don't do that. We tried to sell the go-to building. Everybody said, heck no, don't do that.
[8:52] We're trying to sell parks. I've already had people say, heck no, don't do that.
[8:57] eventually you have to have money to do stuff so ask your new elected people
[9:01] but they're telling you I'm going to lower your taxes and I'm going to make
[9:05] things better.
[9:08] I want to bother about the same rabbit hat they got because you
[9:10] can't do it. So that's how we got in this position. So I'm going to leave some
[9:15] lost stuff out because I think I emailed a lot of the most people but I just want
[9:19] to say that I've enjoyed speaking to people and explaining what capital
[9:23] improvements are, what half-cent is, what PDD we even asked last night on a
[9:28] We have funds called CRA and we're like, can we use that on our library?
[9:32] No, we can't. Can we use TDD money on our library? No, we can't. Can we use
[9:36] absolutely on our library? No, we can't. So even though that 65 million dollar
[9:39] budget looks big, and a lot of people have said, it's less than 1% of your budget.
[9:43] There's a bunch of money in there that we can't use on the library.
[9:46] So it's actually a large chunk of our loss. It's worth it, but it's a large chunk.
[9:52] So I also want to share with everybody, email me again if you don't, but I was leaving my house today and something just happened for a reason, call it odd, call it God, call it whatever, but I got a box of books, mail to my house.
[10:12] Again, I've got five kids, I've homeschooled before, I've sent my kids to public schools,
[10:16] I do the same thing, I didn't even, I bought my white ball of books from our house.
[10:20] This whole box is full of books, and I've asked my wife, but she goes, oh, those are
[10:23] jets.
[10:24] We have a first grader, kindergartener, third grader, kind of fifth grader right now.
[10:29] These are his for third grade.
[10:30] You can go online and the University of Florida will mail you every month a free box of books
[10:35] to your elementary child.
[10:38] Some of you guys may already do it.
[10:39] If you don't email me, I'll let you know, but I thought that was really cool and special
[10:43] to be the day.
[10:44] And did a little girl come here and spoke last night and cried.
[10:47] This is the part that makes this job even harder for free, as the last time I'm going to
[10:50] promise you, but seeing people come to that volume and cry when things affect them, it gets
[10:55] all of us.
[10:56] I've taken my kids to county commission meetings and made them wear their bike helmets and
[10:59] go talk to them so the wing can get a side bolt feel.
[11:02] So I love the civic engagement, I love the public input, but I want you guys to realize
[11:06] How close we are could be or still might be to be unlike the school board because I've watched people up two years ago
[11:14] Generations of people cry
[11:16] Teachers students they lost their school. Why they lose their school is
[11:21] The county didn't have the funding and the budget to continue to maintain them. It's just that simple
[11:26] We don't have the money their services. We can't maintain so hope it's in the budget now
[11:31] Hopefully it stays in there the river meets the road the next two or three meetings if we get revenues back in their
[11:36] low and we get it's been something else crazy has to happen but as of now it's
[11:40] in there it's safe keep the same passion in November, keep the same passion
[11:43] next year and look forward to the continued educational debate over the next
[11:47] five weeks. I will support the motion. Thank you sir. Anyone else wish to speak on
[11:52] the motion in particular? Councilman Merrill and the Councilman Smith. We have talked
[11:57] about a lot of these things. One the restructuring, moving, closing the library.
[12:04] One
[12:05] snowballed way more than what it began.
[12:08] Well, I don't support it, so I'll support the motion.
[12:10] It removes it from us discussing it
[12:12] or making decisions on it, so it stays as is.
[12:16] We have talked about privatizing the golf course.
[12:19] We have, we've talked about, we look at it,
[12:21] which can become an enterprise fund
[12:23] to continue on about that.
[12:25] I think I don't think that the council
[12:27] has been to change its mind.
[12:29] We'll find out if this passes.
[12:31] And there's not any part of me
[12:33] That wants to talk consolidating our police force moving into the county. So I will be supporting the motion so that those three things as they are
[12:42] You sir councilman Smith. Yeah, I'm in the past six months to a year, you know
[12:48] Chai bring a different things to the board
[12:51] Brife's alluded to it of different things that we can look at to consolidate to cut
[12:57] while still having a quality of life.
[12:59] I mean, to take the emotions out of it,
[13:02] whether it's the police department consolidation,
[13:04] a restruction of the library,
[13:05] we got to abide by the different local legislation
[13:07] with the cap and what's coming to November.
[13:11] What could come in November is a huge pay cut
[13:14] to a lot of disabilities in campus.
[13:17] And to me, that's what a lot of this conversation is about,
[13:20] not just overall the budget,
[13:21] but more specifically the library and the police department
[13:24] is if amendment 3 passes in November governing boards and some of those people out there that are
[13:30] running to get up here this time next year and have to figure out where to find the money and
[13:36] what to do with things because a lot of it got cut because of the home state exemption in passing in
[13:40] November as well as the local legislation with with the cap you can only spend so much so all the
[13:47] things that we're probably about to hear I'm probably going to support and agree on and all the
[13:52] great things at libraries and the police do for us and all the great things that we have
[13:58] to discuss in the budget, but it's still a math problem and we've got to figure some
[14:02] things out.
[14:03] Thank you, Mr. Mayor.
[14:04] Thank you, sir.
[14:05] Anyone else?
[14:06] My councilman Walker?
[14:07] Sure.
[14:08] I'll take this time.
[14:09] Thanks, Mr. Jeter, for leading the way there on that.
[14:14] A couple of things, past at last night's meeting, Mr. Davis, who was responsible for restructuring
[14:21] the library and you owned up to it and said it was an operational decision on your behalf is that correct?
[14:29] Okay, can you explain as part of this education process to the public?
[14:33] The voters passed three charter and that's the one that's often in question is the 3% cap.
[14:40] And that 3% cap is an increase in spending on two categories, personnel and operations.
[14:45] You're 100% control and operations and you're 100% control and personnel.
[14:49] We, as a body, as individuals cannot hire, we cannot hire, and we cannot direct you on operations.
[14:56] You do all of that, is that correct?
[15:00] So, you haven't been in charge of this budget and going through it since I think January, February, I think you've often referenced. You've been starting. So, the two categories of personnel and operations having a 3% increase allowable in both of those two separate categories share with us the increased spending limits that you're working with. How much additional money did you have to spend in personnel this year over last year?
[15:33] I'm sorry, I don't give dollars. You don't know the dollars? How long have you been working
[15:39] on this budget? I'm going to push on this because you've been pushing the narrative.
[15:45] You've been pushing a narrative over there that this body is responsible for your decisions
[15:50] and we're not. We set the millage rate for you. We're about to have a millage rate discussion.
[15:56] When that comes, we're going to send it back with you and you're going to go back to your
[15:59] office and you're gonna come up with a balanced budget you're gonna present it to us and we're gonna
[16:03] approve it or we might pick through it but that's the way it works. So you should know the number
[16:08] on your personnel last year and the call how much was personnel expenses last year that would be
[16:13] the 3% applied to in total. She's running against the paper right now. I think it's about 42 million
[16:18] dollars. I thought I think so. I got the number and I talked to Kelsey and Peter because he's coming in
[16:23] and visiting but that's a little over 40 million total across personnel and operations and we can
[16:30] So I'll thank you I'm sorry 40 that makes a easy math there on 3% is a 1.2 million dollars correct so this
[16:43] this budget process that we're going through this the claim is is that we Mr. Davis and his
[16:50] experience of putting budgets together has been unable to find out how to bring together a budget
[16:57] with a $1.2 million increase in personnel.
[17:01] Sir, that's not my problem.
[17:02] That's your problem.
[17:04] We're volunteers up here.
[17:05] You're the $300,000 man now I've seen in tonight's budget
[17:10] for the proposal.
[17:11] You're the one who's supposed to be solving these problems.
[17:13] Not putting us up here, we're elected officials
[17:16] to protect these people's money.
[17:18] And our village rate is what we're going to send.
[17:21] And we're going to send you back within.
[17:23] You're going to come back with a balanced budget.
[17:24] So that being said, I want to take just a minute to go over the timeline here from I just put one together on the agenda narratives that I've mentioned.
[17:34] May the 19th regular City Council meeting, you wrote on the topic of you wanted information from Council on outsourcing of certain city services.
[17:46] That was your idea and suggestion, not ours. We didn't say outsource. We didn't say cut. You did.
[17:52] The minutes from the May 19th members should advise manager of topics in advance so that
[17:58] it can be published for the public awareness.
[18:01] Now tonight's agenda has our names on it but when we go and look at that agenda, the minutes
[18:08] from the June 16th meeting you have provided to us a Department of Services requested for consolidation
[18:15] or elimination.
[18:16] That's your words, not ours.
[18:18] sports providers, daycare, aftercare, senior programming, fireworks, concerts,
[18:24] parades, chamber, EDC pool, online billing and library. Now, these apparently
[18:31] according to you on this request came from members of this body, I submitted none
[18:36] of those. Can you share with us which of these members have put those items on
[18:42] the agenda? Because we can own up to them. We don't have to discuss them. But does
[18:46] Any member up here, did you submit Lockery, Mr. Dieter?
[18:50] At that time, I submitted a library, I submitted every day of my name.
[18:54] This is from the June 16th, there are no names beside it.
[18:57] I was looking for it, because my name's not on there.
[18:59] I think those are mine.
[19:01] You submitted them all.
[19:02] I'm not repeating, I said, thank you.
[19:04] I'll absorb them, I see everything.
[19:05] So I'll take credit.
[19:06] I think I did on there.
[19:07] I submit.
[19:07] My recommendation wasn't long.
[19:09] Your, your minutes are in here as well.
[19:11] Our recommendations to him was to review everything, all departments
[19:15] And I specifically mentioned the police department, and I mentioned the golf course.
[19:21] Everybody else has made it on to the list, but mine did not.
[19:26] So that being the case, I'm going to take just a minute, and I'll be done, Mr. Brown.
[19:35] The golf course we spoke about last night at length, I'm pretty much okay with that.
[19:39] I understand this body's not interested in looking at the benefits to taxpayers by privatizing
[19:46] that so we get rid of the debt, we get rid of the expense, and we bring revenue into
[19:51] us in the form of leasing that property out and we turn the benefits to the taxpayers.
[19:54] I understand we don't have an appetite up there for this now.
[19:59] Maybe after November we will, I'm not sure.
[20:02] But the police department, I can summarize my discussion all that I wanted, I brought it up
[20:06] here several times.
[20:08] And after I make these comments, Mr. Davis, I'll have a couple of questions for you and maybe
[20:12] for the chief.
[20:13] Is the chief here?
[20:18] I did a little bit of research and time and I'll share it publicly a few times and I'll
[20:23] share it again.
[20:24] When we compare our police department to the nearby neighboring town of Destin, Florida,
[20:30] I'd like to share some numbers.
[20:32] In 2025, the city of Destin and its seven squared miles received 36,000 calls for service.
[20:39] They service those calls where they staff of 17 at a cost of $3 million and then we come
[20:49] over to the City of Fortwald Beach and it's seven square miles.
[20:53] It receives 31,000 calls with a staff of 78, not 17 and it cost of $10 million, not three.
[21:05] receiving 5,000 less calls than the City of Destin with a $7 million increase.
[21:10] I thought it was worthy of public discussion up here about how taxpayers might benefit
[21:16] from at least considering how the City of Fort Walton Beach residents can receive
[21:21] their law enforcement from the same body that Destin received it from at a $7 million savings.
[21:27] That would be said, Mr. Davis, when I brought those subjects up previously,
[21:31] when Chief and I have discussed it several times publicly in these, he's offered to have
[21:37] the discussion publicly and debate if you will outside of these chambers. I'm fine
[21:42] with it being backed up here if need be, but when I had those conversations and you were
[21:47] going through your budget process, did you go to the chief and ask him if there was anywhere
[21:51] he could pinch any dollars? I sent it to everybody. I'm sorry? I sent it to all the directors.
[21:56] Okay chief base you haven't been at it's the mayor's meeting okay do you allow would you allow the chief up to talk I would thank you
[22:06] Because it's directly related to this much that councilman Browning made to remove this item that does focus on the police department
[22:13] Well, I use a lot of to Mr
[22:15] Sure, thank you. Please be as brief as you can so yeah, and you know
[22:19] I would just like to hear from you with those numbers that I just cited and I've cited them previously
[22:25] And I got the numbers on the calls from Miss Barnes by email and then so after I talked about it
[22:32] I mean I've been in a CEO position. I've had directors and I've directed budgets and I know generally in the private sector
[22:38] how it works but when I when when we finished up that meeting and your conversations with Mr. Davis were there discussions before you might be able to save some money compared to
[22:48] Destin, was there any ideas or thoughts you had that we marked up a site that money?
[22:52] So, I wanted to thank you, Councilman Walker, because you have to really look at this issue
[22:59] holistically, and you do push the bounds and really make us better and more job.
[23:05] So, I'd like to thank you for that.
[23:06] Thank you.
[23:07] So, one of the things when I was doing my research was that if you look at her officer cost,
[23:14] the city of Fort Walton Beach, when you divide the number of officers we have,
[23:18] by total cost and it's not 10 million, it's 9 million, 9.6 or something, it comes
[23:24] out to $172,000 per position. When you look at the state average, the state
[23:32] average for police department is $238,000. A sheriff's office is $239,000 on a state
[23:40] average, Oklahoma loses at $198,000. We come in at 20% below the statewide average per
[23:49] position. The sheriff's office comes in at 20% below the average. You also
[23:55] throw out the number 21 all the time. And if you remember back 21 officers, 21
[24:00] depots from say 17 as a 21 or so. The total contract is 21. He's an
[24:05] and a desk office serving room,
[24:07] control officer, community policing officer.
[24:08] And what I would like for you to check me on is,
[24:11] I say 17, you say 21.
[24:13] I say that the Fort Law Means Police Department,
[24:16] while they either have 17 or 21 serving
[24:18] those 36,000 calls, we have a staff of 78 serving,
[24:23] those 31,000 calls is at 78.
[24:25] That's back staff, just back to everybody.
[24:27] We're always going with my explanation of destiny.
[24:30] If we go on the way back machine and we go back to 2012,
[24:34] In 2012 we were in a very similar situation and at the time Larry actually was
[24:39] sheriff. Larry actually very respectable sheriff. I just wrote him a letter of
[24:43] recommendation to get in the hall of fame for law enforcement. Very knowledgeable.
[24:47] Eric Aiden was at the time he wrote a senior leadership paper on the same
[24:52] exact topic. The two of them came out with a number not of 21 back then or 17
[24:58] your number, do you want number that you used in 2012?
[25:02] I would remember that study, and it's safe.
[25:05] Yes, I do remember.
[25:06] And what was that number?
[25:07] I don't remember.
[25:08] So that was 43.
[25:10] Because calls for service alone does not dictate the number of officers you have
[25:16] within the police department.
[25:17] Every city has a different makeup, a different complexity, different demographics.
[25:23] Every city is unique.
[25:24] And if you looked at the 43 number, that is a number that would be the base.
[25:31] But through not the police department and not the city manager, but through the city council,
[25:38] there have been officers added to that base.
[25:40] We added an extra zone for Kenwood, which not only benefited Kenwood, but the city is a
[25:46] hole by making the other zones smaller.
[25:48] We've added community policing, we've added code enforcement to the police department, we've
[25:53] traffic units so yes we have grown above that 56 number and if the city council is a
[26:00] whole came to us and says we want to reduce the level of service within the police department
[26:05] could we go to the drawing board and say yes we can take somebody out of community policing
[26:09] yes we can take somebody out of traffic yes we can pull somebody out of special investigations
[26:15] but we have not gotten that direction from the city council as a whole and I think at our number
[26:20] at 56 especially when I use the sheriff's number from 2012 at 43 and when we look at our
[26:29] cost savings that were 28% below the statewide average is reported in the CJAP study, not
[26:36] our numbers but from the state of Florida and when you go back and you look at articles
[26:40] that have been written they will tell you the destined contract is subsidized.
[26:44] There is easily about $2 million to stock you there for just a minute because you brought up two things.
[26:49] 56 is the uniform officer's grant for it. And then you have a backstab that equals the 78 correct.
[26:55] And now you've gotten into the word subsidized which you and I had an email exchange and you mentioned subsidized and I appreciated that because it made me really think about
[27:04] what is it you're just talking about and I've mentioned it up here to this bottom before but us city tax payers we pay our property tax including the county
[27:13] up to the county and from that from our property tax is total goes and lands in
[27:19] the Oklahoma Lucy County's budget up there from our money they pay the
[27:23] sheriff's department and so when I got that email from you I'm like well
[27:27] isn't that interesting he's talking about subsidizing the back office they do it
[27:31] with 17 uniform officers and then we city tax twenty one we city tax payers or the
[27:37] The one's doing the subsidizing for the residents of Destin and their seventh square miles.
[27:43] So we're like paying three times.
[27:46] I said it's worthy of discussion and I don't believe this body is interested in having
[27:53] discussions about levels of service.
[27:55] The number of calls, as you mentioned, the ones Ms. Barnes provided me, robberies, murders,
[28:01] drugs, car grandkins, suicides.
[28:05] They're all going on out there and their seventh square miles.
[28:07] And we have seven square miles so forgive me for my shot face when we talk about three million and ten million
[28:14] And and that we can't do it better. We can't do it more. So there's been no cuts allowed in your budget
[28:20] And then for that we're so that on when you say no cuts if you look at our operating budget and
[28:26] Nicole or Jason could probably correct me our operating budget actually came back
[28:32] slightly less than it was last year. It wasn't by a lot, it was a few dollars less
[28:36] on the operation side. So we do look at everything we do and we see what is
[28:42] effective, what is inefficient, where can we leverage technology and where can we
[28:47] negotiate contracts to get the best effective service for the four-wall beach
[28:54] community. Have you met with a share from me? Now I just keep saying it, I'll keep
[29:00] said it seven square miles in destined and seven square miles and four
[29:05] what makes that's the coverage areas of law enforcement they perform the
[29:09] services on 36,000 calls with 21 officers if that's what you say it is with
[29:14] 21 officers at a cost of $3 million we've got seven square miles we have
[29:20] a staff of 78 for $10 million there has to be something there that you can
[29:27] learned from the sheriff's department about how they're able to do that.
[29:30] Come back to us and tell us what it is. Well, it turns out we've got more murders.
[29:34] We've got more drugs. I don't know what it is. They're investigating.
[29:38] They're suspecting the sheriff. I do speak with the sheriff all the time. I collaborate with
[29:42] air gate and all the time and we work as true partners within the law enforcement community.
[29:48] So there's a lot of collaboration that goes on where I didn't finish my point was in articles
[29:54] that have been published, you will see that the sheriff's contract at 21 does not include
[29:59] supervision.
[30:00] The school board recently at the county commission had a very long discussion, and the county pushed back to say, we're no longer subsidizing the school resource deputies as much anymore. In the school board had to kick up another $500,000. You will see more and more pushback, I believe, in contracts that are signed, and I don't disagree with you, Mr. Walker, that you may subsidize at some level what goes on indebted. I may subsidize at some level what goes on indebted as a county resident.
[30:28] and that's a choice between the county and destined.
[30:33] Today you asked me about the budget,
[30:36] and I talked about the budget, and we looked at our budget,
[30:39] and we did come back slightly under our operational budget,
[30:42] so the things that we could control over in our budget,
[30:45] we've adjusted and we look for efficiencies and effectiveness.
[30:49] When it comes to level of service,
[30:51] I listen to the city manager who takes direction from the council,
[30:56] and if we are told to change our level of service,
[30:58] is either up or down, we will adjust our level of service.
[31:02] Thank you.
[31:02] Speaking of that, adjusting the level of service, and it's
[31:05] definitely, I'm smart enough to know that the votes have
[31:08] gotten to be there.
[31:09] And recently, I believe it was Councilman Schmitt
[31:11] that made a recommendation that we go out just for bids,
[31:14] just for bids to see if taxpayers could save money by having
[31:18] the Sheriff's Department, who already
[31:20] answers the non-1-1 calls before they
[31:22] transfer them to our dispatch.
[31:24] If we could have them bid for the service and it got shot down up here because I think generally speaking
[31:31] It was because it would hurt feelings in the dispatch room. Is that fair or accurate or morale? No, I'm sorry
[31:36] It was morale not feelings. I mean that may be your perspective on
[31:41] I believe there's a lot of other things that go into that and maybe a much more lengthy
[31:46] Conversation and I don't know how much leeway the mayor will give me to continue
[31:50] I'll call point order because we're having the discussion
[31:54] Not at the amendment, but of the, we're just having the discussion now, which might be removed.
[32:00] So I would argue that we've gone further than what's on the table right now.
[32:05] And again, I really, Councilwoman, I wanted to offer Councilman Walker the same roughly ten minutes of a stop speech here at Councilman G.
[32:14] And I think we've had a lot of good though.
[32:21] I appreciate it, Mr. Mayor. I appreciate it. I will conclude my comments now. I know that we are going to have additional opportunities during these motions and other and secondary motions, because I've got a lot more questions.
[32:34] We're in the biggest day, you know, one of the biggest days of the year for us is the body and the budget for taxpayers out there that decisions we make up here are very impactful.
[32:43] So I'll look forward to continuing conversations with you and the rest of the body.
[32:47] So thank you for your time.
[32:48] Thank you.
[32:49] Thank you.
[32:49] Thank you, sir.
[32:50] All right.
[32:51] Just I know Ms. Riley, you came in after the motion was originally made, but just to remind everyone
[32:56] of the original motion, the motion was made by Councilman Brown, seconded by Councilwoman
[33:00] DeBerry to remove items 5.1, 5.2, and 5.3, and then approve the agenda of other walks.
[33:08] Everyone's having an opportunity to speak.
[33:11] Council, please vote.
[33:13] I'm not on a proving date.
[33:15] I don't know.
[33:15] Cool.
[33:16] I just still learned a lot.
[33:17] It's all good, buddy.
[33:18] Yeah.
[33:19] The
[33:24] motion does carry five to two.
[33:26] So, this moves us on to item four.
[33:30] And specifically item 4.1, a library presentation from this Savannah Cole, the library manager.
[33:50] And when I reached out to all the departments, we're still getting into the cap.
[33:55] The request was, what can you offer to help us?
[33:59] Everybody gave up something, right?
[34:01] So the conversation I had with all the departments,
[34:04] the fire department is no more important than the sanitation dudes
[34:09] and the library is no more important than the police.
[34:11] We're all city employees, right?
[34:12] So everybody had to give something up.
[34:14] So Savannah did a great job of tracking,
[34:17] and to qualify my statement earlier,
[34:19] but the library is funded next year
[34:21] based on the current operating structure.
[34:25] So, and that was a recommendation from her team
[34:28] after they crunched the numbers to see what they could possibly offer to the cap.
[34:34] All right.
[34:35] Thank you.
[34:36] While I want to introduce myself, I haven't met a lot of you.
[34:39] My name is Savannah Cole, I'm the Library Manager, so thank you for your time.
[34:42] If there's one thing that I really love doing, it's talking about the library, most of you guys
[34:46] know.
[34:47] So I'm excited to share some info with you all and with the public.
[34:52] So of course, jumping in right after Mr. Davis, we did an 11-hour reduction in our services.
[34:59] the reason for this is we wanted to make sure that the experience in our
[35:03] library, our resources, our services, what people experience when they come in
[35:08] stays exactly the same. So doing this 11-hour reduction allowed us to get rid of
[35:14] three staff members and it still allowed us to provide the same level of service.
[35:19] So as far as programs go and what you expect when you come in those have not
[35:23] changed for the public which is very important. I know it was brought up in a
[35:27] discussion about whether or not we would be able to apply for grants. So we get
[35:33] state aid through the co-op. State aid is pretty much how we make operating
[35:38] operating budget funds through grant. It's the only one available and for the
[35:43] statute does say you have to be open 40 hours a week for state aid. We work with
[35:48] the cooperative which is a wonderful resource for us so as long as one
[35:51] library in the cooperative does four hours a week we can apply for state aid.
[35:56] So that funding will not cut us.
[35:58] It does not cut us from any other funding.
[36:00] I reached out to the Division of Library Services
[36:03] with the state.
[36:04] It doesn't change anything for us.
[36:05] There are some big federal and state grants
[36:07] that we can apply for, like construction grants
[36:10] and the LSA-T grant, which is a literacy-based grant.
[36:13] And some of those require us to run through the co-op,
[36:17] but they allow us to specify for a long beach.
[36:20] As most of you know, we have 100% success rate
[36:23] right now in applying for grants.
[36:25] We got a wildflower grant. We recently got a dollar general grant, which is allowing us to do multi-generation
[36:32] book clubs and bilingual book clubs that we are excited to introduce. Those are privatized grants.
[36:38] They have different allocations, the corporation funding, different things like that.
[36:43] We can still apply for as many of those as we want. It's not operating budget grants, right?
[36:48] It doesn't support our operating budget but it allows us to bring resources in.
[36:52] the construction grant would allow us to build onto our library, build a new library,
[36:56] those kinds of things.
[36:57] So as far as grants go, we are still very secure, and that was the reason why kind of chose
[37:02] the avenue that we did.
[37:04] We operate about 69 service desk hours.
[37:08] So I know when people look at this, they say, oh, you got five full-time staff, and really
[37:12] I have four part-time staff.
[37:13] We have a custodian, but we run two people on a desk at a time, and our children service
[37:21] librarians who are both full-time do not sit those desks. They run their areas
[37:25] independently. So when you're really looking at it, my staff are working four to
[37:29] five hours on a desk every single day. If you look at a full-time staff
[37:32] member, that's a huge chunk. So you know you may look at this and say you're not
[37:36] open 40 hours a week but we do come in. We have to pull hold. We have to do a lot of things.
[37:41] And we also have to collaborate with our community. We're looking at what our
[37:45] community needs are. We're looking at how we can access those. That time is not time
[37:49] that we can do on the desk with our customers and our patrons.
[37:54] So I just wanted to throw this up here with this is what we're all talking about, but
[37:58] I really wanted to shoot in those co-op funds.
[38:00] So for the next fiscal year we've been allocated $109,000, the more that we submit correct
[38:07] statistics, the more we submit and pay for library services, the more state eight we get.
[38:14] So this is our chunk going into the next fiscal year which is very nice.
[38:18] We hope to continue to increase that and I'll talk about that a little bit when we get into stacks and reference in the sack
[38:23] I put revenue on here 24 to 25 is the best kind of
[38:30] Number for this the reason is a lot of this is passport funds
[38:33] We don't charge late fees if people lose books. They can pay for it or they can bring us a new one
[38:39] We try to keep the library, you know as accessible for everyone as it can be
[38:44] So this is mainly passport funds in that year we were full on passport agents, meaning
[38:50] we had three to four that could jump in in this last year due to a personal situation
[38:56] with one staff member and in the loss of staff now we are running off one person.
[39:02] So where we could usually do passports six times a week, we have one staff member that's
[39:07] just trying to get them as she can.
[39:09] So if you've called the library and they told you three weeks, that's what it is.
[39:13] The city gets a $35 char or payment every time someone gets a passport.
[39:18] So you bring in a family before, it's 35 times four.
[39:21] That's what goes to the city.
[39:23] So I just threw that up there.
[39:25] I've talked to you, Mr. Davis about ways to increase that.
[39:28] I think passport finds people come in, they want to get their passport.
[39:31] They want to do that stuff with us and we can make it happen.
[39:34] you know, as long as we work within the hours that we've been given, we can, we can
[39:38] increase those funds.
[39:41] These are our library service levels, and this is where I love to brag.
[39:44] Those positive numbers for a library are exceptional.
[39:48] When I came here, I only started in November, but I really started in December.
[39:53] One of the parts that drew me, what drew me in is the resources we actually have here.
[39:58] 3D printers, maker spaces, media labs, there's metropolitan libraries that don't even have
[40:03] those.
[40:03] There's metropolitan libraries that have multiple branches that will never get to have those because they cannot give it to every single
[40:09] Different group of individuals around that branch. So we do our library skills well
[40:15] You'll see our visits have increased to 9%
[40:19] Items borrow is 11% increased
[40:23] Programs offered I'm gonna come back to this because I think that's an important topic
[40:27] But program attendees you'll see an increased library cards huge increase
[40:33] It was kind of cool to watch Jacob, Jacob and I have spoken, he got to share his number
[40:38] of members of the golf course and I was like, oh yeah, that's how many library card
[40:41] users we have, so just a fun thing, you know, comparison, it's fun.
[40:48] Internet usage is that we've talked about digital divide in this room a lot and then
[40:51] importance in digital divide.
[40:53] Seeing a 10% is a crazy number, y'all, that is people that have to walk into our library,
[40:58] either get on our computers or use Wi-Fi so that's a huge number. I know we
[41:06] talk a lot about people in the area but during summer we see tourists mainly
[41:11] are using those Wi-Fi services but you're steadily increasing which is
[41:15] incredible and then digital check-up is up 4.5 percent so we know that ebooks
[41:20] audiobooks, those are popular, people want them, we're trending up in them, popping
[41:25] back to programs offered. A metric we use in the library world is that you don't want
[41:30] to offer programs that people don't want, right? So having high program numbers doesn't
[41:35] mean that you're getting people that are interested in those topics, doesn't mean you're getting
[41:39] attendance for those programs, doesn't mean that it represents your community. So public
[41:44] libraries are built in on the idea that we represent the community. So myself and my staff
[41:50] We're constantly looking at community needs.
[41:53] What do they ask for?
[41:54] What do they come in for?
[41:56] What do they think would be really cool, right?
[41:58] We have a 3D printer, not because we're like,
[42:00] let's spend all day learning 3D printing,
[42:02] it's because people want to learn that, right?
[42:05] So I want to make note here.
[42:07] When I came in, the main thing I wanted to do
[42:09] was do well-planned intentional programming.
[42:12] You can see that with our numbers.
[42:14] They are lower as far as programs go,
[42:16] but our attendee numbers are up.
[42:18] And there's a reason for that.
[42:18] That is because we're choosing the programs intentionally.
[42:22] We're making sure that the community is interested and we're making sure that we're partnering
[42:25] with people that can bring services in that us as librarians just can't do.
[42:31] These are just some other numbers.
[42:33] We do a monthly year to date, so this is for July.
[42:38] We pull these numbers all the time so we just threw them up there for you guys.
[42:42] You all probably saw this and thought why do you have a 3,000% increase in educational
[42:47] reference. The reason is when I came in we were not tracking our statistics on a
[42:52] day-to-day basis in order to get the proper state aid you need to follow specific
[42:57] reference statistics. Reference transactions or anything where you teach
[43:02] someone new something new. It can't be directional right to come in and say I need to
[43:07] use the bathroom yeah now you know where the bathroom is but that isn't
[43:10] count. So it has to be something where you're engaging with the person you're
[43:14] researching something they know. There are state regulations for this. There's
[43:19] certain state requirements that you have to go through. When I came and I changed
[43:24] it so that we met that. We actually didn't track Statsl Day. So you see 86
[43:29] here because we have one librarian that if she answered a research question, which is
[43:33] a reference question, but it's not the whole thing. She would get, she would tally
[43:38] what she asked, but I saw very quickly and this has always been something in
[43:43] libraries is that people ask questions all the time, right?
[43:46] I always make a joke with staff on how to, how to cook kale chips because the first reference
[43:51] question I ever answered was someone on the phone that said, how do you cook kale chips?
[43:56] So we can do something as simple as that as and as far as referring out.
[44:00] So that number is really large on here and that's for a reason.
[44:05] And then you can see down there account assistance.
[44:07] I like to throw that in.
[44:09] It gives you a better metric for what our staff actually do all day.
[44:11] these are more things like place a hold for a patron, update their account, issue their library card, renew it.
[44:20] So on month averages, those are pretty high, I think.
[44:24] And then of course, just to highlight our golf course locker, we've only been tracking this June and July.
[44:30] So 131 people placing holds for the locker is wonderful. So we're excited about that too.
[44:36] I wanted to throw on here other services and resources.
[44:41] These are primarily ones that we have responded to the community regarding.
[44:46] So for example, the ballet school, we fill the role of their school library.
[44:51] So they go by the metric for a media, a school media lab, or media center.
[44:58] So there's-
[45:00] There are certain requirements into what they can and cannot check out. They come once a week, so that's why you heard them share yesterday that they come monthly. So we have, I believe, three third grade classes, a fourth, a fifth grade class in the middle school. These kids are issued a specific valley school card, but they can also get a normal public library card and most of them do have it. We have 125 active this year for valley school. Library partners, we have 56 established and active.
[45:29] We're constantly looking to grow that library partner. We consider anyone who has done a program with a library
[45:36] Groups and organizations 67 you guys have read through this
[45:39] I want to highlight the art exhibit space. We allow free art exhibit space. So if you're an artist in the community
[45:45] We can show up to three at a time. We have a hundred percent capacity for this past year to date
[45:50] Which is really impressive
[45:52] We have active volunteers more to explore collection
[45:55] which is going to be all those things that patrons ask about, photography equipment, cookware, board games, telescopes,
[46:03] birdwatching, backpacks, all that stuff.
[46:05] And then we have a media lab in a maker space which is really, I think, a huge draw to this community,
[46:10] not all of the libraries in the co-op even have a space for that.
[46:14] And we have looked to work to improve those policies and make sure that equipment's being used in ways that we can continue to use it for the future.
[46:23] And then I like to put on here the donation community driven library services.
[46:26] We don't do anything for those, we don't pay any money for those, those are all chosen
[46:30] by the community.
[46:31] It's all donation-based.
[46:32] We have a seed library, bring your seeds, drop your seeds, you know, it's all through
[46:38] our community because you're just places we've given space to do what they would like.
[46:44] So just more programs to highlight, I think we talk a lot about kid stuff.
[46:48] And if you saw me at Coffee Club, I shared we do kid's stuff extremely well.
[46:53] It's bread and butter for a library.
[46:55] We do so much more than that.
[46:57] That's the important stuff too.
[46:59] So we do lawyers in the library.
[47:02] Medicare 101, shelter house.
[47:04] They host domestic violence education workshops.
[47:06] These are just a few examples.
[47:09] We have Garden Club that needs regularly.
[47:11] They maintain our garden.
[47:13] Then we have the Language and Cultural Center,
[47:16] which is Russian language classes,
[47:18] from all over the area.
[47:20] Local schools do field trips, we do community outreach.
[47:24] And of course, the most important part,
[47:26] I think, for our area specifically,
[47:28] is the multi-generational programming we offer.
[47:31] So you have successful communities
[47:35] when you have people that interact with one another.
[47:38] They say multi-generational programming
[47:39] programming actually has more benefits to all the attendees than if you had a kids program
[47:44] or a senior program and the reason for that is it builds that connection, that education
[47:48] exchange, which is what the library is about. We're about exchanging information, access
[47:53] to information, the ability to educate. And so I just threw in here some awesome senior
[47:59] programs. Those are, I mean, people come for the senior programs and we want to increase
[48:04] that's tenfold. Our teen programming is incredibly impressive. I come from
[48:09] telehacking and if I can tell you anything the teen programming there, we worked
[48:13] really hard out. It's so organic here. We are right next to the Valley School. They
[48:17] are in, they attend programs. We just did a family picture day the other day. We
[48:21] had a bunch of teen girls come in and they just wanted their picture in the
[48:24] library. That's incredible to see. Big, big metropolitan areas really struggle with
[48:31] getting teens to care about the library.
[48:33] So this is a huge asset to what we do.
[48:35] And of course, children's programming,
[48:37] but clubs, that kind of stuff.
[48:40] So where do we go next?
[48:42] I asked you this presentation, and I am still new to the role.
[48:46] But I thought, let's give a vision statement.
[48:48] Let's give something we're working towards.
[48:50] We are really good at being a community center.
[48:53] If we do anything well, it's bringing people in.
[48:55] You can see it by the numbers, by the attendance.
[48:58] But what I want to do is provide services that create the space connections and opportunities
[49:04] for the community to grow beyond, right?
[49:07] Libraries would often think, oh, you come in, you give your books, you walk away.
[49:10] But really, their hubs, their consistent places for people to get access to social services,
[49:17] to create their own groups, to meet people, to be inspired, to get tutored.
[49:22] I mean, we're talking about third places, you guys know the term third place, but it's
[49:28] not to just bring in a bunch of programs and be like, hey, we have offer all this stuff.
[49:33] We do what we do so that the community can build and grow and we can support that.
[49:38] That's the vision for our library.
[49:40] We already do a lot of things well.
[49:42] We can keep doing those things well, and we can listen to our community needs.
[49:47] Some things we're working on, obviously we want to expand community use.
[49:51] right now we're transitioning our media lab into a maker space. Media labs a
[49:55] little bit of an outdated term. It just has photography and podcast equipment. We
[49:59] do have quite a few people that use it but we're working to change that into a
[50:03] maker space. Crafts, 3D printing, STEM kits, those kinds of things. We have a lot
[50:08] of them already in the library but just not in one room where people can come in
[50:12] and enjoy that space. I want to focus on career and workforce development and
[50:17] veteran resources. Our adult programming, our senior programming, it needs an
[50:22] uptick. I mean we hear a lot from the families that love the library and I
[50:28] love that. But when I walk in the library every day the people that are
[50:31] consistently there that meet us consistently on a day-to-day basis are usually
[50:36] individuals that need career and workforce help veterans or seniors. And then we
[50:43] We did, we want to maximize our existing resources.
[50:46] We put study room policies in place,
[50:49] and media lab policies in place to allow people to reserve
[50:52] our spaces before they get to the library.
[50:55] So it secures them to spot a place to study,
[50:57] do what they need, tutor.
[50:59] Some people use these rooms for things
[51:02] like physical therapy for kiddos and different stuff like that.
[51:05] So we offer that option so they can book in advance,
[51:08] which is really nice.
[51:10] And we moved to back to that meeting room fee.
[51:11] I know it was something predates me. We do have a meeting room fee, but if anything it has reduced
[51:17] monopoly in that room. That room has been monopolized by some local groups for a long time,
[51:24] and it really put a strain on our ability to offer programs and bring in partners.
[51:29] And we want to support all community groups, and we want people to use our space, but we want
[51:34] do it on an equitable basis.
[51:38] Okay, do we have questions? Questions for Ms. Cole? Council
[51:43] management? You can get this information to me. I might not have it on the top of your head
[51:49] but even tomorrow. I believe we have a restricted library account. The Harvey Trust Fund and what that
[51:55] balance is. All some presentation, all some stuff what you do. I've got a couple micro questions
[52:01] It's pun intended.
[52:02] Do we still have access to the microfilm?
[52:06] Yes, we do.
[52:06] We actually, I was looking at purchasing a new microfilm
[52:09] reader.
[52:09] We really need a digital one.
[52:11] We have the old school ones.
[52:13] It really, man, when people use it, the whole library
[52:16] can hear.
[52:17] A digital scanner would allow us to actually screen shot
[52:21] the screens and email them, print them off, things like that.
[52:24] The people that are going through microfilm are really
[52:26] doing it in an old school way.
[52:28] So whatever we can do to authorize, whatever's
[52:31] and that Harvey Trust Fund, I believe it has to be restricted to only spend at the library.
[52:36] Yes.
[52:37] I don't know what that cost is to get a vendor to transition those because that's some
[52:43] of the most valuable content that we have in the library because when that's gone, it's
[52:50] gone.
[52:51] You know what I mean?
[52:51] So, whatever we can do if it's available, once we find out what that balance is and I
[52:58] I don't want to play in the library's future because right now we don't know what the future is.
[53:02] But as far as, you know, looking at that balance of that fun and transferring that information
[53:08] I'd love to hear your vision on that.
[53:09] Yeah, I do think I asked Marcus the other day for that number.
[53:13] It's about 100% of what it's excelled on.
[53:15] Yes, and we do have to come to council for approval on that.
[53:18] If you, I mean, microfilm is something we desperately need.
[53:21] Co-op sometimes gives us extra funds each year.
[53:24] And so I was hoping to spend that on microfilm a new microfilm reader
[53:28] It's about 10 grand you can get them as low as 8 grand
[53:31] But if we want the one that comes with them on it turn everything of already talk to county IT about being able to do that
[53:36] So I'm more than happy to look into that because you do definitely need a new one
[53:44] Mayor so moved to get with mr. Davis to miss coal
[53:48] After checking in with what our balance is and seeing what the impacts would be as far as call
[53:56] Restricted just to that Harvey Trust Fund that can only be spent in a library to get
[54:01] a quote to transition the micro-historic films into whatever Savannah's vision is.
[54:07] Second.
[54:08] Okay.
[54:09] Motion clearly explained by Councilman Schmidt and Seconded by Councilman Walker and the
[54:13] Additional Commons Councilman.
[54:15] We just need to get it done.
[54:17] Okay.
[54:18] We'll do the motion and we'll go back because I do not have a couple of words.
[54:20] Yeah, yeah.
[54:20] The House not yet?
[54:22] I appreciate.
[54:23] Now, I just, I'll say my question seems good.
[54:26] Any other comments on the motion?
[54:28] Council, please vote.
[54:30] Mayor.
[54:30] Or a by?
[54:31] Anyone from the public would like to speak on this particular
[54:34] motion about microfilms.
[54:39] Council, please vote.
[54:46] Thank you.
[54:47] It does pass unanimously.
[54:48] Councilman Schmidt any additional questions, or comments?
[54:50] Thanks for having me.
[54:51] Yeah, thank you, Board, and regarding the presentation.
[54:54] Good stuff.
[54:55] Like Jason said, we got a jacket.
[54:57] about the golf course. We got a Savannah library and what you're doing is amazing.
[55:01] What she beige is doing is amazing. As we go through this budget process, I know you'll see,
[55:06] you probably hear a lot around the coffee pot and a lot in the community comes through between your
[55:11] doors and Tom Tone's doors next door and in between, you know, back and forth. But just know that
[55:16] the decisions that I can speak for myself that I'm trying to make is these are very challenging,
[55:22] whether it's police, library, anything it's just there's a chance that the
[55:29] investor or the voters in the state of Florida may pass something that gives
[55:33] us a huge pay cut and looking to try to fund everything from police to
[55:38] library what it looks like to fund the library what it looks like to fund the
[55:41] police and what y'all do over there matters it it means a lot I know it impacts
[55:46] the community a lot so whatever's decided on here to the next month and a half
[55:49] Thank you.
[55:51] Thank you.
[55:54] Concert with Councilman Schmidt there excellent presentation.
[55:58] I think not surprised that a library in the director of the library is a great communicator.
[56:04] I think that that is a testament to the value of libraries not only to adults but our children.
[56:11] I grew up in a library down the street out of the block from a lot of various many hot summers in there
[56:17] and some cool winners too and there it was a place that I could go for hours and read and
[56:21] imagine and just loved it and loved to love the value of that in there. I was looking here because
[56:28] as councilman Schmidt said we are going through a budget cycle and there's narratives,
[56:34] their sides that go on out in the community and around the coffee pots and kitchen and so I was
[56:40] looking here. Thank you for the numbers Nicole and for you that you actually provided them there.
[56:48] See that your personnel calls one of the two categories that has a 3% increase allowable
[56:55] every year. Yours your budget on personnel has been reduced by $63,000. When in fact you had a $12,000
[57:05] dollar increase available to you on the 3% increase.
[57:09] So we're talking about priorities here and as you might have heard earlier in the conversation,
[57:14] none of the council members gave direction to him to cut personnel expenses.
[57:21] So I'm interested later on in finding out the other departments that received priorities
[57:26] because we've got personnel in all departments heard from the chief he mentioned, the operations
[57:31] are down there so in my mind that gives him opportunities to increase further in all
[57:37] the other departments on operations. So now you've been reduced on personnel so that
[57:43] means other departments and or people positions have received an increase and it came from
[57:49] your department. So I'm interested in digging in a little bit more as we go through here looking
[57:54] at all of the departments but you did have 12,000 dollars available to you and instead you took
[58:00] a $63,000 cut, that's about a $70,000, $75,000 swing for you.
[58:05] One last question you may or may not know, and I, Ms. Neighbors, I heard you mentioned
[58:11] it earlier.
[58:12] At last night's meeting I had requested three years budgets over actuals on the utilities.
[58:19] I looked in my email late today before coming in here didn't see it, were you able to get
[58:23] those numbers?
[58:24] No, I have not been able to get that.
[58:25] Okay.
[58:26] Do you know what your allowance or your budget numbers
[58:29] are for your utilities on a monthly basis?
[58:32] I did ask for utility bill to be hold just the other day.
[58:38] We're averaging about 5,000 right now,
[58:41] a month in a utility bill.
[58:44] So I believe so far this year we have spent,
[58:51] I think I gave it up for a week.
[58:53] Yeah, you did $52,000.
[58:56] So yeah, that's an interesting number because one of the first times I ever looked at the library budget over there
[59:01] One of the things that stood out was an $8800 a month ago on here. Yeah, what year was that?
[59:07] 88 was 2022
[59:10] 2023 24 which 80,000 25 is 83,000
[59:15] And that's the budget. Do you have the actual
[59:17] Those are the actual those are the actual and what did you say you would give them a total annual number?
[59:23] This year's so far we're at 52,573 dollars and 74 cents.
[59:28] Yeah, okay.
[59:29] I'm looking for that budgeted to actual because that's really important.
[59:33] Tax payers.
[59:34] If we budget $10,000, spend $6,000, that $4,000 comes back into the general fund.
[59:42] Tax payers just paid $4,000 a month over, so all of us curious to meet you.
[59:46] Thank you for that.
[59:47] Thank you for your presentation and look forward to seeing all the great things you do down there.
[59:51] Thank you so much.
[59:52] Thank you so much.
[1:00:02] Councilman Gita. Yes, Mr. Davis. You do very well and compared you to Jacob. And you present very well. And the presentation was awesome. And I couldn't help but think how blessed we are as a board and as a community to have people like you and Jacob too young. I know we had a few people win under 40 order. I think Councilman Brown you want to do. But we have young professionals managing and directing parts of our city. They're awesome. And we got to figure out what to keep you guys.
[1:00:33] Does the one thing stood out to me, though, and I want to try to help us solve, this is
[1:00:38] the whole reason we're having this discussion, to solve this problem, because we're math
[1:00:41] problems.
[1:00:43] You and Jacob have the same amount of members, and the word restructuring, we've got a lot
[1:00:47] of restructuring over the last year at the golf course, we've actually got calls, texts,
[1:00:51] and emails, he's raised prices, he's made changes, so you don't have the same amount of
[1:00:59] members.
[1:00:59] but he makes $500,000 here, and I'm speaking on a math problem.
[1:01:04] I've got five kids that read to the playground.
[1:01:06] So I like books more than I like golf in this conversation.
[1:01:09] We're going to have.
[1:01:11] We lose $500,000 here over here.
[1:01:14] Absolutely.
[1:01:15] We make $500,000 here over here.
[1:01:16] How do we fix that going forward?
[1:01:18] So the next counsel sitting up here having to do a major restructure.
[1:01:22] And there's two things that stood out to me.
[1:01:26] The school.
[1:01:27] Do they pay to go to that school, or are they funded by Oklahoma's accounting?
[1:01:31] I don't know how the ballet school works.
[1:01:34] I think they're funded by the school board, so I'm just saying.
[1:01:37] Yep.
[1:01:38] Does the school board give us any money to use our library?
[1:01:42] Could we...
[1:01:43] I asked the history of it.
[1:01:45] We only have a staff member that kind of remembers I don't know how it started,
[1:01:50] but no, they didn't have space for their libraries.
[1:01:53] It's not cool to go ask, I'll go ask.
[1:01:55] Here's why, our budget is 40 million in cash.
[1:01:59] Their budget is hundreds of millions of dollars.
[1:02:01] They're losing some revenue,
[1:02:02] but they got more money than us,
[1:02:04] maybe we can get some.
[1:02:05] The other one that really stood out to me,
[1:02:06] I don't know how we'll fix it,
[1:02:07] but we always talk about user fees, user fees.
[1:02:09] We're talking about charging for parking,
[1:02:10] we're talking about, it's cheaper at the golf course.
[1:02:13] If you live in the city to be a member,
[1:02:14] it's more if you're not.
[1:02:16] I was very shocked.
[1:02:17] It's very close to about half of the people.
[1:02:19] Some really don't know.
[1:02:21] and some do of all the emails that I got people on Oculus Island saying don't
[1:02:27] close my free library I'm like you realize that you don't even pay city taxes
[1:02:32] and you're using our library for free it's great I love it we can keep doing it
[1:02:35] I have people from Cinco by you they don't pay the same tax we do they don't they
[1:02:38] add the alarm tax the funds are library shallow more nice bill the more press you
[1:02:43] I love it I love everybody using our library and coming through our account and
[1:02:47] spending money I hope we can afford it but going forward that might be one
[1:02:50] area that we do like the golf course. It's not free to everybody. It should be free to the
[1:02:55] tax plane residents that fund it. We might have to explore other. And I think that's where the
[1:03:00] co-op and understanding how the co-op works change that because if you have like a county run system
[1:03:05] that has branch locations, then your tax payers are all essentially the same. For the co-op, the
[1:03:12] reason it functions and why you have cooperatives is because you have smaller communities that can't
[1:03:17] find libraries in their small areas, right?
[1:03:20] I hate to say that we're a world community,
[1:03:22] if you compare to the rest of Florida.
[1:03:24] So the reason the cooperative exists,
[1:03:26] and the reason the reason cooperative
[1:03:28] exists all over the United States,
[1:03:30] is to bring resources to smaller areas,
[1:03:35] so that people can have access to information,
[1:03:38] to make the county better.
[1:03:41] So it gets a little funny there,
[1:03:42] and that's where we can educate better.
[1:03:44] I mean, someone came to me the other day,
[1:03:45] that I'm going to your council meeting because I'm mad about Nintendo switches and I said,
[1:03:49] but we don't have Nintendo switches. We don't have those games. Are you talking about?
[1:03:52] They're like, well, you're part of the co-ops, so you don't even have the same policies, right?
[1:03:56] But the co-op, you have to decide if that is a value to you. If a co-op is a value to you and sharing
[1:04:04] resources in that way, and this is the same topic that nice bills, you know, mayor is talking about
[1:04:09] and councilors are talking about, this is nothing new. And it's because of the specific
[1:04:14] system were in. If we were just running as Oculus County Library, we wouldn't have to have these discussions, but it's all about opportunity and resource.
[1:04:22] So you have to decide as counsel, as supporters of the community, do you value sharing resources in free and equitable ways?
[1:04:30] Because the people actually paying to get those stuff moved around is the county, the county does pay our courier service.
[1:04:37] But yeah, it gets, it monies it up.
[1:04:39] I mean, I, that woman came to me.
[1:04:40] One of the women came to me, she said,
[1:04:42] my money doesn't support the Fort Walton Beach Library said,
[1:04:45] well, you have a card because of the cooperative.
[1:04:47] But yeah, you're not, you're not a taxpayer.
[1:04:48] And so I think that's where Council has to decide
[1:04:51] what they want to do.
[1:04:52] The cooperative is a huge benefit,
[1:04:53] but it comes at a sacrifice.
[1:04:54] And you have to decide if that's the route.
[1:04:57] You want to take, but that is why the cooperative works.
[1:05:00] That's why we have the resources.
[1:05:02] That's why we're able to support some of the things
[1:05:05] that we do is because we have that cooperative umbrella. I mean 100,000 is a lot when we're
[1:05:10] talking about 500,000 so but that is the way that that works and it's one of those weird things
[1:05:16] but cooperatives are created because you have smaller cities that can afford libraries so you just
[1:05:21] have to wave that value. And maybe this is this is petty but just maybe my wife is told me she goes
[1:05:26] to the splash pad and I still hand the library at the same time they have a donation box she
[1:05:30] donates every time. I know Councilman Schmidt has brought up just put a QR code on our pickable
[1:05:35] course. It just user fees. You might get 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 thousand dollars in donations.
[1:05:41] I don't know. You might only get five, but five over five years, 25,000 dollars goes a long
[1:05:45] way. It's, we just got to think outside the box to get more money. That's the math problem
[1:05:50] I'm trying to solve.
[1:05:51] Hey, libraries are all about resilience for all about change and adapting where we need
[1:05:54] to. If there is an institution here that is about resilience, change, it's a library.
[1:06:00] So I mean all the stuff you're bringing I'm happy to find ways and work with council to make sure that we can do that
[1:06:05] Can we find that number?
[1:06:07] Stat we're just a nice people and see like what their donation box at the splash pad they get
[1:06:10] Would they give that to us maybe?
[1:06:12] Half of it's a dollar or ten thousand if we can ask them
[1:06:17] Nice though. I still splash that out of the nation
[1:06:23] Councilwoman DeBerry
[1:06:24] The library is one of my favorite offerings that we have here in the Walton Beach and I was
[1:06:33] here whenever the city built the library there years and years ago and I was sitting
[1:06:41] out there in the audience and I know this is a small space and then the way they built it
[1:06:47] all that air of their air conditioning, the heat and all that, how many parking spaces
[1:06:51] to be here at the library.
[1:06:53] I don't know the number off the top of my head,
[1:06:56] but it's not nearly enough.
[1:06:58] Yes, and most of those are used by Tom Tonan
[1:07:01] next door.
[1:07:02] If people can find it to that parking lot.
[1:07:04] Well, the reason I stayed this,
[1:07:06] the reason I stayed this,
[1:07:08] and we're talking about money.
[1:07:11] I have five schools in my area, my walking area.
[1:07:15] I know you guys have one.
[1:07:19] I would like to move the library functions
[1:07:23] from where they said that they wanted to build a library there to put the people downtown.
[1:07:30] But there's no parking spaces, there's no visit in the building.
[1:07:33] I want to continue the library functions in an area that you can grow and hear this splash pan.
[1:07:43] And other things in the area I'm looking at is I'm whole school apart next to the tennis center.
[1:07:50] We have huge areas there that we can build the library.
[1:07:56] I would like to, Mr. Davis to entertain the idea of reaching out to see if we could sell the library building,
[1:08:04] not the library function, the library building.
[1:08:11] And I'm not a good painter like you are, Mr. Davis.
[1:08:19] And in that contract, whenever we sell it,
[1:08:22] have them build our library as part of the contract.
[1:08:28] And all the things that on your wish list,
[1:08:33] but for people there, I've been here since 1970.
[1:08:37] I have to say that.
[1:08:39] And we had the library here at the Annex building over here for a minute, but they are.
[1:08:46] Again, do we decimal system? I have to say that again, too, George.
[1:08:51] And the work with the co-op so that we would share.
[1:08:56] I had to do this here to get that in.
[1:08:59] Thank you, thank you, thank you.
[1:09:01] We have so much here to offer.
[1:09:06] Is this the time that I should make a motion to see Mr. Davis?
[1:09:08] We'll teach out to see what we can do.
[1:09:12] If you would like to, man, you can make a move.
[1:09:14] Okay.
[1:09:17] Yeah, we have time to still have time.
[1:09:21] So, what helped me with this?
[1:09:24] I'd like to make a motion to have our city manager,
[1:09:26] Mr. Davis, reach out, see what our options are.
[1:09:30] It's finding someone, a contractor, a builder,
[1:09:33] a business, or whatever, that would take on
[1:09:36] this library project.
[1:09:40] And he built a library over on Holmes Boulevard.
[1:09:46] Matter of fact, man, I'm paying over there now too.
[1:09:49] And there's a lot that we have to offer.
[1:09:52] That's very much your money.
[1:09:54] That's my own money.
[1:09:55] Do we have a second from the war on that motion?
[1:09:59] Oh, come on.
[1:10:01] I'll second through.
[1:10:02] Discussion.
[1:10:03] All right.
[1:10:04] Motion made by Councilwoman DeBerry.
[1:10:05] Seconded by Councilwoman DeBerry.
[1:10:07] here as she stated. Any additional comments? Anyone on the motion? Councilman Brown? Is
[1:10:15] this not considered restructuring of the library that was postponed indefinitely?
[1:10:22] I wouldn't say it's restructuring of the library. No, not indefinitely. I want it done.
[1:10:45] Yeah, I would just say if we can have a load on it, I don't think you can do it, but yeah we can have a load on it.
[1:10:52] Everybody wants to make a statement.
[1:10:54] I second the discussion I respect because of the thought process and we're all trying to think outside the box.
[1:10:59] I won't support the motion, but I did let's say the first discussion.
[1:11:02] Anyone else comments?
[1:11:04] Consumption?
[1:11:05] I'll always entertain proposals. We may be going to a huge cut after November.
[1:11:09] Not saying I'm going to support what's inside the proposal.
[1:11:12] But what I just heard is it gives an option, it gives information for us to bring back
[1:11:17] especially contingent on how November goes, some of that supports motion.
[1:11:21] That's my order.
[1:11:24] Yes, it's a team up from Mr. Brown and brought up my question.
[1:11:27] I don't want to make sure I'm clear of his understanding that his first motion
[1:11:32] to squash the conversations that were all decked for me and for Mr. Jeater
[1:11:37] those were squashed and removed from those moments at our times to speak.
[1:11:42] They're not permanently banned from discussing.
[1:11:44] I mean, tomorrow, I mean, we can have you see the motion then to paint the whole blue side.
[1:11:52] Got you.
[1:11:55] Specifically, I was talking about those two, my two particular items, the police department
[1:12:02] and the golf course.
[1:12:04] Mr. Jeater had the library and I'm glad we're here talking about it again.
[1:12:09] I just want to make sure that Mr. Browning's motion didn't have any long term effect other than
[1:12:13] and removing it from that moment in time.
[1:12:15] We can have it in the future, correct?
[1:12:18] Again, if it's related to whatever topic
[1:12:20] we're talking about it,
[1:12:21] because tonight I'm talking about the question.
[1:12:23] Okay, and you're absolutely allowed to ask the question.
[1:12:25] Right.
[1:12:26] And now this means you don't get a separate platform
[1:12:28] to perfect, which you do.
[1:12:30] Perfect.
[1:12:31] You've got that clear.
[1:12:32] So on to the motion now, Mr. Barry's motion
[1:12:35] was not expecting that.
[1:12:37] As I mentioned at last night's meeting,
[1:12:40] and you've addressed quite from your perspectives on the around the mound drawings, the around the mound plant.
[1:12:49] The only one I've seen that has been presented to the state that has been approved has a rendering and a drawing and it does not include the library there.
[1:12:58] It shows a central green and it's not come up before I fly them.
[1:13:02] I guess everybody's okay with this because that's what got approved and then it's come out that it might be just a rendering or whatever.
[1:13:08] But during the time of the master plan, the downtown master plan,
[1:13:14] the study was being put together in 17, I believe.
[1:13:18] There was, as a part of that, a study done for other locations.
[1:13:23] How many of were identified?
[1:13:25] How many are still available?
[1:13:26] I don't know, but there was preliminary work done back then as part of around the mail and planning.
[1:13:32] If this happens and if the plan is selected to move it,
[1:13:35] The library would be moved somewhere.
[1:13:39] Now, the good news I think for everybody here is it seems as though we all up here really
[1:13:44] appreciate, I know we do, I know how many down we all appreciate the value of the locker.
[1:13:49] We never wanted to go away, we always wanted to be funded and we wanted in our community
[1:13:54] for our children and the benefits it provides.
[1:13:57] So I wanted to be clear on that because my support of this motion will be that that building
[1:14:03] always states that operation is fully funded to the needs that we have and that this council
[1:14:10] provides, tax payers and provides, so I'll be supporting the motion, but it's understanding
[1:14:16] that your building, your operation, is like fully functional, and if another building,
[1:14:21] another site is located in a building and a building is a bit smooth and good transition,
[1:14:25] it'll be good for the community, it'll be good for the children, it'll be good for the
[1:14:28] for the library, so I'll support the motion.
[1:14:31] Thank you, sir.
[1:14:32] Anyone else who has not yet come to the Board of Commerce?
[1:14:35] I'm not sure.
[1:14:35] All right.
[1:14:36] Thank you, Mayor.
[1:14:38] First and foremost, I do want to thank you, Savannah,
[1:14:41] for all the words that you do.
[1:14:42] And it's just an honor for me to settle the co-op with you
[1:14:44] and to see you perform and how you present the city
[1:14:47] for what wants to be sort of the library.
[1:14:50] So thank you so much for all of that.
[1:14:52] And we really do appreciate the co-op.
[1:14:54] $109,000 was awarded.
[1:14:58] to the city for Washington B.
[1:15:00] And, you know, I didn't think that was too bad of a theme because we kind of fit in with the neighborhood cities being the third on the list. So we were almost at the top together for the, you know, for the money that the county was going to get. So we are blessed that we were able to get the money. So my thing is, I'm going to say very quickly. I'm going to be very straight up in block with it. I cannot support the motion. I will not support the motion. I fully support the library and I fully understand that the library is an essential emphasis
[1:15:29] structure of our city in any city and I love the location where it said it's
[1:15:35] but in a perfect location you got to call for you there already at the
[1:15:38] standards down there pushing you know all the good things that she pushed
[1:15:41] here and it's just a very very enlightening building to be able to go to the
[1:15:46] library and then come out and then share and and patronize some of our local
[1:15:50] business in the area so I cannot cannot support motion thank you ma'am Mr.
[1:15:57] Is this an item, Mr. Burns, that would require a supermajority?
[1:16:00] It was a post on international planes.
[1:16:03] Yes, more to the majority of that.
[1:16:08] That was my question.
[1:16:09] That was my question.
[1:16:10] That was kind of an evidence of that on your supermajority.
[1:16:13] Now the majority of that is correct.
[1:16:14] Correct.
[1:16:15] I understand him.
[1:16:16] I get back on support, but definitely support
[1:16:19] thinking outside the box and to let everyone know
[1:16:21] if this property tax passes or if we in it
[1:16:24] That passes everyone away and November, I think you'll see a lot more emotions like this, a beer and a lot more of them are going to have to be supported, so we'll keep that amount of support tonight, but we'll see how no bit of her goes this council meeting is there.
[1:16:37] That's what we got from the law.
[1:16:40] Mr.
[1:16:44] Browning's motion was to remove that conversation from my time to speak, and that was specific to that.
[1:16:51] I'm not sure how another councilman person bringing it up.
[1:16:56] Not under the agenda items, as a matter of fact, Mr. Barry, your agenda item, which was specifically identified by the motion,
[1:17:04] or 5.1, 5.2, and 5.3, you were none of those.
[1:17:08] We were.
[1:17:09] So the items that were removed permanently
[1:17:12] were those items only.
[1:17:14] It didn't restrict Mr. Schmid or Mr. Merrill
[1:17:17] or Ms. Rodley or anybody from making emotions.
[1:17:19] So I would contend that it's not one of the big parts
[1:17:23] of a majority, I think that's wrong
[1:17:28] that a council member can restrict other council members
[1:17:31] from speaking on a matter and making
[1:17:33] an emotion on the matter because he doesn't want to hear it the majority vote
[1:17:37] the second that not just one council majority vote the item is not going
[1:17:42] once in a three that was all that was remembered not that she can ever talk
[1:17:45] about it again mr. Barry brought about again she was not under the premise of
[1:17:50] pop one two and three you could have said to move everybody's ability to speak
[1:17:55] anybody's ability to speak on the subject you did you said remove mr. walkers
[1:18:00] ability to speak on these matters that this meeting it's it'll be in the
[1:18:04] minutes I never said remove Mr. Walker's ability to speak all those matters
[1:18:09] we're speaking on them now you've already spoke on it so they were removed or
[1:18:13] not removed the agenda item was removed I removed them from the agenda that's
[1:18:18] five the mayor already clarified that you can still speak on 5.1 2 and 3 that's
[1:18:23] correct her motion is not a part of 5.1 2 or 3 her motion is not even on the
[1:18:29] agenda, so either way it takes you for majority vote, according to Robert's rules.
[1:18:33] Right, you're arguing about a different one.
[1:18:35] So, but calls it's not on the agenda to be voted on, it has to have a super majority.
[1:18:41] Because of the red staff, which has been their time and energy effort and tax pay for money.
[1:18:46] Mr. Browning, all the...
[1:18:48] There you go.
[1:18:48] That's what it is about, not about, because it was taken off to the agenda.
[1:18:52] He's got it.
[1:18:53] All right, so council please go ahead on the motion from Mr. Vary.
[1:19:02] Someone else will have a second.
[1:19:04] Let's go into the paper and I would have had them.
[1:19:07] Oh, come on.
[1:19:09] Last second.
[1:19:10] That's your first discussion.
[1:19:11] I can change it.
[1:19:14] We'll have a second first question.
[1:19:15] It's a second.
[1:19:16] Give it a second.
[1:19:17] We'll not put it out for two seconds.
[1:19:20] I think you still will.
[1:19:22] Yeah.
[1:19:34] You said you're going to need somebody else to take a second, and he's still in jail.
[1:19:38] He's going to have a fire see for majority, so whether you want to go back, let's go.
[1:19:42] We'll just give it as it is.
[1:19:49] All right, so we're still on questions for the very patient, Ms. Cole.
[1:19:55] Does anyone else have questions I know, Ms. Riley does have some questions or comments
[1:20:01] about the presentation that this call made to the Board?
[1:20:04] I'm just giving our praise and all our, maybe in our love hearing.
[1:20:11] Thank you so much for all that you do and I'm willing to explain any kind of way that I can and I think we shine at the co-op meetings.
[1:20:20] Thank you, man. Anyone else who has an idea had a comment on your question from his school?
[1:20:25] I want to ask one more question, Mr. Walker, is there another opportunity and my question is probably not necessarily toward you.
[1:20:33] Mr. Chan, Champlain, Champlain, yeah, brought it up again last night, it's something I brought up.
[1:20:40] We've got this eight years ago plus about putting solar panels on the roof of that big old giant building down there that sits right in the hot sun.
[1:20:48] We always have these discussions in here about why is the library cost so much to eat and cool.
[1:20:53] We got this great big beautiful space in there and it costs so much money.
[1:20:57] Like, I think that one of the things that this board could certainly do is make some type of motion to move forward with studying this type of situation.
[1:21:08] I know Mr.
[1:21:11] Payne is not in the room. Oh, there he is in the room. He was in the room last night as well, but I think we've kind of looked into this once before, but now that it's becoming a greater issue.
[1:21:20] My question here is brought probably for Mr. Davis or Miss neighbors. What sort of funds would be available since that's more of a capital expenditure?
[1:21:30] To ultimately purchase solar panels for the roof of the library
[1:21:39] And again not the current budget but just going forward in the future say if we were looking at that for the following fiscal year
[1:21:47] Yeah, I was going to say we're probably going to go out to our grant guy and try to see
[1:21:50] me get some grants to cover and I'm sure they're solar panels.
[1:21:53] Grant's on the line.
[1:21:53] It's on the general fund.
[1:21:54] Okay.
[1:21:55] So, I'm going to get motion for staff to bring us back the option if we can use CDVG funds.
[1:22:03] Can we get me?
[1:22:05] It's not a project.
[1:22:07] I've got a public facility.
[1:22:09] It's a public facility.
[1:22:10] Okay.
[1:22:10] It's a good one.
[1:22:11] It's a good one.
[1:22:11] It's a good one.
[1:22:12] Okay, we have some growth management director, so CDBG has to be specifically used for that
[1:22:17] load of moderate income as the library and the solar panel on there would just be benefiting
[1:22:21] the community at whole.
[1:22:24] It would not be targeted just for that load of moderate income and that would make it
[1:22:27] ineligible for the CDBG funds.
[1:22:30] So you can't scan CBG funds on that site?
[1:22:36] I think it's possible, I've had to do a little bit more research on there because that
[1:22:42] that is taking it up off and beyond,
[1:22:44] increasing what would be normally done on there,
[1:22:46] so that is the possibility
[1:22:47] that the CRE funds could be used for that.
[1:22:49] Mr. Burns, yes.
[1:22:51] Yeah, I was gonna say, I think it's possible.
[1:22:54] I need to give it to him.
[1:22:55] It's not the CDBJ thing, I knew it was definite,
[1:22:58] but it's possible.
[1:23:00] It's possible.
[1:23:01] It's I'm not saying it's definite,
[1:23:02] but it's possible today.
[1:23:04] Yeah, for sure.
[1:23:05] I'm emotional to say, staff brings back what account,
[1:23:07] we have a fine balance in that we could
[1:23:10] Can a product on putting solar panels on the battery? What does it leave us? Blanket is that. I don't know if that's under restructuring or required, but I have to, what, let's try just a lot of it.
[1:23:20] It will still be a super majority because it's not on the thing. It requires stuff, time, energy.
[1:23:25] It will put some effort into it. I mean, that part's easy. I think it's a good point depending on how the number goes.
[1:23:32] I think, say, managers, I don't look into it for you anyway.
[1:23:35] That's right, so the number is in there.
[1:23:37] The number is in there.
[1:23:37] Okay, perfect.
[1:23:38] Now, Councilman Walker, additional comments,
[1:23:40] your questions for Ms. Kuhl?
[1:23:42] Yes.
[1:23:44] A word they're tourists.
[1:23:46] Do you guys track tours when they come in?
[1:23:48] Do you know?
[1:23:49] So we have an option where someone, if they're visiting,
[1:23:52] can get a card they can pay for it.
[1:23:54] So we do track that.
[1:23:55] We really don't track tourism
[1:23:56] because you can use our resources in the library for free.
[1:24:01] But we do see a lot of people that come in.
[1:24:03] Great.
[1:24:04] The reason I asked is, and it might be something Mr. Barnes can look into, Mr. Degas can look
[1:24:08] into last night, yesterday we learned, some of us learned, that TDD money is available
[1:24:16] for tourist development by things, and we spent $300,000 of the golf course of TDD money
[1:24:22] for some fun things to do up there.
[1:24:25] And I'm just thinking it'd be nice if you have tourists, I'm not sure how we can't get
[1:24:30] some TDD money into use. So put that on your list if you would. In my last just
[1:24:36] little thought, I guess, because I know you're always having conversations with
[1:24:39] the manager and others. A lot of people are in your ear and stuff. I won't. Then
[1:24:43] the Mr. Jeter had mentioned a math problem. Kind of is, but not the way I see it.
[1:24:51] Regardless of your revenue generated has nothing to do with the 3% increase that
[1:24:57] that you were entitled to this year of that $12,000.
[1:25:00] Instead, you got the $63 cut.
[1:25:02] You could generate $1 million.
[1:25:05] You can count limits you to that $12,000 increase
[1:25:08] in personnel this year.
[1:25:10] So it works.
[1:25:11] I want you to know there's a difference in the revenue
[1:25:13] and the expense of, it's more of a priority problem
[1:25:17] than a math problem.
[1:25:18] That's just something I want you to share with you
[1:25:20] and the public.
[1:25:21] So we'd like the priorities to definitely stay
[1:25:23] with the law firm.
[1:25:24] So thank you for that.
[1:25:25] Thank you, Mr. Mayor.
[1:25:25] Thank you, sir. Anyone else is consul and jeeter? Just to clarify, I have asked CDD. You can't use
[1:25:30] tourist dollars there. We had asked last line to CR-8 meeting when the standards here were told by CR-8
[1:25:35] record. We can't use CR-8 dollars. We just asked CDBG. You can't use CDBG to have sent sales tax. So I
[1:25:41] just want to let you know I'm traveling to a shop and everywhere I can't. That's why I brought up the
[1:25:44] way through earlier during free space. We've asked all of those and been jumped down every time.
[1:25:49] Otherwise, I'd go for any of those funds to support them. Thank you, sir. All right.
[1:25:54] Good, everybody's good.
[1:25:55] Thank you, Ms. Gold for being here.
[1:25:57] I sincerely appreciate it.
[1:25:59] So just to let everybody in the public know,
[1:26:01] we're now moving on to the comprehensive budget,
[1:26:03] which is the entire city's budget.
[1:26:05] So during after that presentation,
[1:26:07] we'll have a council discussion,
[1:26:08] then we'll give everyone in the public an opportunity
[1:26:11] to speak on anything budget related.
[1:26:13] So that could be library,
[1:26:15] that could be roads, that could be police,
[1:26:17] that could be Garrett Sterns,
[1:26:19] that could be anybody.
[1:26:22] He could speak on any of the budget-related items, so we'll do that right after this presentation.
[1:26:27] And for those who need to go, please do.
[1:26:33] You should probably wait a minute or so.
[1:26:37] You should probably wait a minute.
[1:26:39] A lot of commotion.
[1:26:41] A lot of commotion.
[1:26:42] I mean, whenever you're comfortable, you can do it.
[1:26:44] But I don't think anybody can hear it.
[1:26:55] I may believe with them as well, it sounds like we
[1:27:11] could
[1:27:17] shut in next
[1:27:28] agenda item I guess this is more of a bit of a burn so well some motions that are including the budget but are not on tonight's agenda.
[1:27:39] Do we need a super majority to take action on tonight's budget items?
[1:27:45] That's going off of the budget line.
[1:27:49] Okay, so long as it's not like the thing that we removed that had to do with privatizing
[1:27:54] the golf course, police department and the library.
[1:27:56] But anything outside of that tonight, motions can be made over the budget with the simple
[1:28:00] majority.
[1:28:01] All right.
[1:28:02] Thank you, Ms. Mayor.
[1:28:04] All right.
[1:28:05] Now move this on to Mr. Davis and he proposed fiscal year 2627 Comprehensive Budget with
[1:28:12] The city manager, Jason Davis.
[1:28:15] All right.
[1:28:15] Good stuff.
[1:28:16] Just two more things in the library.
[1:28:18] And we're kind of done with it.
[1:28:19] But we do still owe $92,000 on the loan from the original.
[1:28:23] So I'm just going to show that was out in Ether.
[1:28:26] And the library.
[1:28:28] The current existing library right.
[1:28:31] And again, credit to Savannah.
[1:28:33] She gave me three flavors to pick from.
[1:28:35] Right.
[1:28:35] One was a lot of work.
[1:28:36] Not a lot of ROI.
[1:28:38] One was way too restrictive.
[1:28:40] So that might be phased through depending on next year's budget, right?
[1:28:43] So we set up on that middle ground that had no impact to the users.
[1:28:48] So good stuff there.
[1:28:49] Before we start the spicy stuff, I think I owe the staff and apology because one of my rules is
[1:28:58] we don't allow weak people to upset us because that makes us weak people right.
[1:29:01] So I started getting a little frustrated there so that's on me.
[1:29:04] I can wear that.
[1:29:07] But before we dive into the budget, I did invite the Doge people to look at our stuff
[1:29:13] and kind of scoff because we're pretty slick there, right?
[1:29:18] Carol has rearranged her entire life several times, taking her daughter to somewhere so I'm
[1:29:23] hoping our schedule stays as it is because she has come in, I don't even know how many
[1:29:29] Saturdays in a row, Marcus has postponed his eye surgery, so we can get this done.
[1:29:35] So we are now at the 11th hour, and we are ready to go, I guess you have to look on
[1:29:39] for it in front of you.
[1:29:40] Good thing it wasn't a cover.
[1:29:45] All right, same stuff from last time, right, just so people reading at home have the out
[1:29:50] works, same thing with the military comparison over the last several years.
[1:29:57] The
[1:30:00] This slide shows what the selections were over the last several years and ultimately going that route. It was $3 million less for the city to use towards whatever projects, right? So that $3 million over the course of time is kind of a lot more money than that because of inflation. So all of that $3 million that's been cut over the years, right?
[1:30:30] that we wanted this year, but whatever.
[1:30:32] Just want to explain that map there.
[1:30:35] Oh, what do you have in question?
[1:30:37] I would have been one man no more.
[1:30:39] Kill it.
[1:30:40] All right.
[1:30:40] So in that $2.9 million loss at that period of time,
[1:30:44] do you know how much we've received
[1:30:45] because of that county-wide TNC expansion,
[1:30:48] where we got terms of revenue as well as sales tax revenue?
[1:30:54] Don't know that it would be relevant.
[1:30:56] This is the general fund hit.
[1:30:57] Right.
[1:30:57] So we get we get to use some general fund capital improvement projects with self-tax dollars.
[1:31:09] Yeah, right
[1:31:10] 2.9 million dollars to revenue
[1:31:11] Some of that cut some of that as a loan money goes to pay for capital improvement projects
[1:31:16] So for example tonight we're presenting on the IT stuff that should have been done several years ago for a lot less money
[1:31:23] We're doing more I work. Yeah, I get that part the more we defer things the more
[1:31:28] I was just making a comment or asking a question of do we know because again over principle we were sold on expanding the tourism development department and sales tax so that
[1:31:39] as we take more burden off of the property owner we use those dollars to fill back that 2.9.
[1:31:46] I would ask the previous council people what their decisions were when they were building contracts I don't know.
[1:31:56] So, unassigned fund balance history, again balancing the budget over the years using
[1:32:03] that unassigned balance is down almost $6.3 million, so that's just I guess over the
[1:32:12] course of time that's how the city has balanced their budget is pulling from that unassigned
[1:32:19] fun balance, not something that I've accustomed to but that's just been normal practice here and
[1:32:25] I think we're right back in the same boat this year.
[1:32:30] Shilling right now,
[1:32:34] $156,000 less than
[1:32:36] the last year but I mean there's still a lot of work to be done. Last slide this was $800,000 so
[1:32:41] again it's moving target every day. I literally got two updates today that are going to change this
[1:32:46] entire presentation, you know it's been a living breathing document for quite some time.
[1:32:51] So this one is one of the examples that changed as of like three o'clock today, TDC said
[1:32:57] they will not fund a couple of those projects but they will fund a hundred percent of those
[1:33:02] a couple of them.
[1:33:03] So it's it's off by like a hundred thousand, difference, a hundred thousand in total,
[1:33:08] don't you remember?
[1:33:10] Yeah, overall, right.
[1:33:11] So that's going to change our strategy on where we move the the military just to account for that
[1:33:18] But the first two are the IT infrastructure projects that are long overdue. We had it at a disc fail last week
[1:33:27] We were able to get them out here to a contract and replace it, but they're into life
[1:33:33] And you'll see whatever that says
[1:33:35] 8.1% increase that 46801. So that's
[1:33:39] going to require supermajority.
[1:33:44] Supermajority is it the state-and-aid
[1:33:49] that the CNTS? Is that supermajority? The 4.6?
[1:33:55] No, the 7% you know the union.
[1:33:59] Supermajority for above rollback.
[1:34:01] Yeah, okay, okay, first go ahead.
[1:34:04] So $1.45 a month.
[1:34:06] All right, so some of the things that we might have found out of the fund balance in addition
[1:34:14] to the other stuff, so last year I was asked to put a lobbyist in the budget, they
[1:34:20] got yoked this year, got yoked, I mean Destin's lobbyist killed it, so good for them.
[1:34:29] Let's see. Fireworks, parades, you know, 120,000 there. The fire department, you know, the lady came last week with the baby that did CPR, or the baby, she did the CPR with the baby.
[1:34:42] That's the 25 K program employee morale. The people have turned out here for the fire department. We're kind of waiting on the cutoff date for that. I could use certain tax money next year for that potentially.
[1:34:55] Ashley Lane, that's a special assessment, right, that we're still waiting on that contract
[1:35:00] to provide us to scope the work and gross budget.
[1:35:09] But then I'd have to come back to Council, and we'd have to pull from fund balance to
[1:35:12] fund that even though they're going to pay for it over the course of time on the trend
[1:35:15] notice.
[1:35:17] Council training, see-click fix, it's 16,000 a year, I mean you can call email me or text
[1:35:22] So if we're trying to find some coupons, that's for consideration, and then we chop that
[1:35:27] a bunch of vehicles that we can live with, I wouldn't recommend moving those vehicles
[1:35:32] forward.
[1:35:35] TDC again, the slide changed as of 3 o'clock today, they're fun.
[1:35:38] All of some and half of others, so we'll massage that by the time we come back on the knife.
[1:35:45] Some of our half-cent sales tax, I did try to get a little creative here, but I had a
[1:35:51] verification we got to pull out the grass for park improvements they didn't
[1:35:55] agree with my logic on that one so the rest of them are approved conceptually
[1:36:01] right and
[1:36:05] it's probably fun so get through COVID that was in last year get
[1:36:11] the out trying to put it back in this year just to help the flooding in that
[1:36:16] neighborhood, the rest of them are pretty straightforward. Well rehabs and sewer system
[1:36:24] lining, which just extends the life of your infrastructure right.
[1:36:33] So the question
[1:36:34] starts coming is, a lot of moving parts, like I said, have changed as of today.
[1:36:45] If it's possible for either one of you chiefs to just kind of step out the door or somebody
[1:36:50] But to just say, hey, you have a great lively discussion
[1:36:54] and conversation, but maybe not right by the door.
[1:36:56] It's just so hard to hear anything in this room.
[1:37:00] Councilman Smith.
[1:37:01] A
[1:37:04] lot of people are changing their schedules to do this.
[1:37:07] There's much luck, the car team, and you
[1:37:09] that are sneering the ship during this process.
[1:37:14] It might have been on that side, and I couldn't see it.
[1:37:17] But as of today, like you said, even today,
[1:37:20] some things may have changed.
[1:37:21] Yeah, but roughly been in 2027s proposed budgets since today, how much would we be pulling from the
[1:37:29] unrestricted savings account? It's calling plus or minus 3 million. Is that the last one?
[1:37:33] No, it's unrestricted. Oh, I'm like, what's that? Sorry, yeah, that's all right.
[1:37:38] We're on the road for e-mailing. It was at the number still. It's going to be a little different right now.
[1:37:41] We're about 3 million. And when my consular pulled over the President in expenses, and obviously one balance, it's liquid, right?
[1:37:48] this changes every day was about 4.5 to 5.5.
[1:37:51] We still don't even have the revenues from say that's 3 out of 8 or something.
[1:37:55] Yeah, it's 3 out of 8, I think I checked it in the morning.
[1:37:57] But as far as I think I heard what you say is this 2027 proposed budget, we don't have all
[1:38:02] the revenues and years out of it with, but as the budget sits today, you said we're using
[1:38:08] how much to pull from the unrestricted savings account, 3 million to fund this year's budget.
[1:38:14] and we roughly pulled out much last year's budget five million roughly last year.
[1:38:22] That's my question, Mr. Mayor. Thank you. Thank you, sir.
[1:38:26] Dr. Walton. Sure. I was earlier, I've noticed it with the director of the library about that
[1:38:34] personnel that brought it up to my attention. Once again, the three percent
[1:38:51] that we're looking at using the actual operations that Mr. Davis has been struggling with to find out how a 3% increase is creating difficulties.
[1:39:04] I want to know what that number is.
[1:39:05] The personnel was $40 million.
[1:39:08] The personnel was about $32 million.
[1:39:11] The operational is around $8 million.
[1:39:13] That means that the operation was $8 million.
[1:39:17] That's the baseline number.
[1:39:18] That's about 3%.
[1:39:19] That total $40 million between us two.
[1:39:21] So $32 million in personnel, $8 million in operations,
[1:39:26] and that's $40.
[1:39:28] If I get my math right there, $40.
[1:39:30] And last year's budget total of actuals were how much?
[1:39:48] So, Mr. Burns does not use the actuals, even though apparently council has given direction, does that conflict with the charter amendment to use actuals?
[1:40:04] The, that's kind of like where they turn it in general, beside that.
[1:40:07] So, great. So, right now we're using budgeted numbers, not actual.
[1:40:12] Yeah, we're using federal amendment that passed by voters said to use.
[1:40:16] Because council told you not to use actuals, but to use budgeted. Is that correct?
[1:40:21] That's correct. Basically, you're 26.
[1:40:23] Right, that explains a lot of this. Well, put. So, 8 million in operations.
[1:40:28] and I'm just doing the math here.
[1:40:30] Last year a total budget was about 65 pre-eminments, right?
[1:40:36] I think we were somewhere around 65 million.
[1:40:38] And mama, that leaves about,
[1:40:39] we had about 20 some odd million in capital,
[1:40:43] because what other, we got personnel operating
[1:40:45] in capital expenditures.
[1:40:47] Right, and then we have all the enterprise funds,
[1:40:49] especially revenue funds.
[1:40:50] Okay, so that makes up the balance of their $8 million
[1:40:53] $20,000 in operation. That's $240,000 increase. That's what Mr. Davis is working with.
[1:41:03] $240,000 increase is what he's been trying to figure out how to work.
[1:41:08] And we heard from Chief Bage, his operations were actually down.
[1:41:12] So I'm interested in hearing just Mr. Davis, how many department directors do we have?
[1:41:22] I mean, nine, nine ish, are they all here?
[1:41:26] Oh, let's see.
[1:41:35] What's that?
[1:41:36] Okay, good.
[1:41:37] I'm just curious with Chief Oninger's.
[1:41:40] Thank you, sir, for sharing his operations or down.
[1:41:44] Just whether you can provide it or the directors need to step up and do it.
[1:41:49] I got a question.
[1:41:49] One question with two parts.
[1:41:52] Are you up in operations or down in operations?
[1:41:56] and are you up in personnel or down in personnel, trying to figure out where the money is going.
[1:42:01] Where are the expenses going that are creating these problems that the library personnel has to get cut?
[1:42:06] And it's really identifying the priorities that are being set.
[1:42:10] So I'd like to know if you know what I can answer that.
[1:42:14] I'm trying to find a spreadsheet Carol made me a couple of weeks ago
[1:42:18] where it shows the library's way down, right?
[1:42:21] Because what's 60% is in?
[1:42:24] I can't remember.
[1:42:26] 16% reduction.
[1:42:28] Okay.
[1:42:29] I was looking at the people that they gave up.
[1:42:31] So there's one down.
[1:42:33] I moved one from the police department.
[1:42:38] Sorry, one to the police department from utility billing.
[1:42:40] So there's been down.
[1:42:41] Police went up because that's the table that travels personnel.
[1:42:45] So we're talking personnel and operations.
[1:42:48] So yeah.
[1:42:48] So as you go here, the big piece of pie, we're under the cap.
[1:42:53] We're good.
[1:42:54] We've got folks to have some work to do, but we're under the cap, but we're balanced.
[1:43:00] But some of them went way up because we transferred people, Gull, for example.
[1:43:04] Some of them went down because they gave up bodies.
[1:43:07] So utility billing gave up one, Daniel gave up two,
[1:43:13] I'll talk my head off my word but
[1:43:14] he got shifted from, but I did send that to you guys in one of the weekly reports I could
[1:43:19] probably dig that up.
[1:43:21] I've got another obligation, so I've got probably two more questions here.
[1:43:30] That's $1.2 million in personnel increase in $240,000 in operations.
[1:43:37] I've looked back through the minutes.
[1:43:38] I won't bore everyone else with the timeline.
[1:43:41] But through about four meetings and maybe three or four emails,
[1:43:44] I was off-shared with you, and the rest of council, how I believe the system is to work.
[1:43:52] You handle operations as you clearly demonstrated that you did with the log ring ring.
[1:43:57] As you did with the golf course, you control operational costs.
[1:44:03] You've received input from all of us at least once or twice.
[1:44:07] It's my belief, and I'll be leaving it with you, that our obligation as a councilist
[1:44:14] to provide you the millage rate to be set and you're to provide us a balanced budget.
[1:44:21] We've all shared with you.
[1:44:22] If these guys and ladies need to stay around and participate in telling you what to cut,
[1:44:28] they can do it.
[1:44:29] I won't be staying around because I have another obligation, so I'll be exiting here
[1:44:33] You're just a moment, but that's all I've got at this time, so thank you.
[1:44:40] Thank you, sir.
[1:44:43] Yeah, absolutely.
[1:44:45] Yeah, go right in.
[1:44:50] Oh, you've got a question for me.
[1:44:52] So, the cat was introduced to the...
[1:45:02] Can you answer or can you tell me? Was there any type of strategic or comprehensive plan in mind on how do we work this budget out with a 3% cap? Because normally when you make a decision to restrict your here of your budget like that, you've got to have a plan in place on how do I move forward to make sure that the services continue to grow, the services continue to be quality services? So how do you do that?
[1:45:29] And if you put a 3% cap in there like that, and it sounds to me like you're being a little harsh on Mr. Davies and his style, because one, I think that has just been planned out, or 3% cap was going to come out.
[1:45:43] There may be something could have been planned on how do we move our city forward and tackle the issues of keeping the services that we have there, or enhancing those services, or making a very, very common sense decision on how to move.
[1:45:59] How do we keep our divisions afloat?
[1:46:02] How do we keep the city going?
[1:46:04] For me, when you make a decision like that,
[1:46:06] I would think that somebody had set it around table,
[1:46:10] come up with a comprehensive plan,
[1:46:12] come up with a strategic plan
[1:46:13] on how do I move the city forward?
[1:46:16] That's if you carry anything about your citizens
[1:46:17] and your city, you come to the round table
[1:46:20] and then you put it out there and vote for the three percent
[1:46:23] because guess what?
[1:46:24] You got an answer on how you're going to be able
[1:46:26] to manage that budget.
[1:46:27] That's all I've got to say.
[1:46:35] And it gives me an opportunity to bring you back to a period of time and history that many
[1:46:41] of us were at direct part of upstanding right up there asking the council bodies to do certain
[1:46:46] things and we packed the house just like so many of them did not.
[1:46:49] We did it so much.
[1:46:50] I remember on two of the occasions, we had people outside, we had a speaker out in the
[1:46:55] yard and we had a room filled over here that had a speaker in it.
[1:46:59] I sat over there in that one and then they would call and they'd say okay come up and come up here and speak
[1:47:04] And then then we brought that group that you talked about which I'm only going to speak for myself
[1:47:09] But that group brought up of petitions of your son by 1,400 registered voters that asked this body
[1:47:16] Not these people this body to do something about the out of control spending and this body at that time told them
[1:47:23] You don't know what you're talking about you're a ignorant citizen and we're gonna do it and one day in the future
[1:47:29] You'll like it. That's what they told the voters. I think there were 165 members
[1:47:35] spoken opposition one night. There were two who spoke in favor of it. So that
[1:47:39] generated a fire in a group of people in the community that said, we're not
[1:47:43] going to tolerate that. So what they did is they put together the charter amendments
[1:47:48] they got the petition sign. They took it to the clerk of court and arts of
[1:47:52] supervisor of elections and then brought it back here to this body. This body
[1:47:56] sued over the matter, took it to courts to prevent people from telling Council what to
[1:48:03] do with their money so they got fired up and they said, you know what, we're going to
[1:48:06] pass a charter amendment that limits your spending to 3% increases on two categories.
[1:48:13] Personnel, which we now know is somewhere around 1.2 million for this year, that there
[1:48:18] have trouble making it out or cutting lottery staff and they have a $240,000 operational increase
[1:48:26] available to them and the only reason capital is limited is because the general fund has been
[1:48:32] depleted by spending so that's how it happened and so the people have demanded that the strategic plan
[1:48:40] was operate within the 3% spending and that's it because for the last 10 years
[1:48:47] those people had been receiving tax increases in the 15-20 30% increases and
[1:48:56] now they were assured it was really needed but the people didn't buy it and the
[1:49:01] people showed up in force November of 24 told this body how to operate since then
[1:49:07] this body has taken steps and measures to try to overturn the will of the
[1:49:10] people. They spread narratives to overturn the will of the people and tell the
[1:49:15] narrative to these many fine people here and now watching that the problem is the
[1:49:20] cap. No, but the problem is not the cap. The problem is a spending problem.
[1:49:26] Sir, if I'm even fine, Mayor. When you're dealing with a budget, you just don't,
[1:49:34] and I don't need to know the process how I came about. That's not what I was
[1:49:37] asking. What I was asking is, when you bring something to the table like that, you
[1:49:42] pay the 3% cap, whether it's a 4% 5% cap. That's not something that you just
[1:49:47] step out and just do it overnight. Wake up in the morning. I'm gonna put a
[1:49:51] 3% cap on something. You've got to go through, pull historical data. You've got to
[1:49:55] pull future data, current data. You've got to set at the table and strategically
[1:49:59] put a plan together on how do I move the city forward. How do I move it forward?
[1:50:06] How do I pay this? How do I pay that? How do I keep missing the public works apartment going?
[1:50:11] How do I keep the
[1:50:13] Administrative part going? How do I keep Rex and then we are
[1:50:17] Rex and recreation how to keep the PD? How do I keep the fire department? You've got so many different departments in there
[1:50:22] You just don't make a knee-jerk reaction
[1:50:26] Turn it into a reality like that when you put a three percent
[1:50:29] regardless of how it came to the point my mindset is show me the strategic
[1:50:36] plan show me a comprehensive plan that was put together to come to the
[1:50:40] decision that the city needs to be kept at 3% because we wouldn't be have we
[1:50:44] wouldn't be right here today going through what we're going through right now
[1:50:48] because and then you're getting frustrated a little bit with what our city
[1:50:52] manager you're asking things and putting them on a spot which I think is you know
[1:50:55] just totally inappropriate. So you were one of the masterminds behind a 3% and I'm simply asking,
[1:51:05] let me give you something that we can go back. What got you to the 3%, why did you choose
[1:51:11] the 3%, and did you strategically look at how do we move these wheels, how do we pick them,
[1:51:16] that's all I'm asking. Thank you. I'm thrilled.
[1:51:25] members. I think that in fact, well, it's, no, I think it's a good
[1:51:28] discussion. I, I, I, everyone's allowed to have a state and, and all that, but
[1:51:33] right now what we're trying to do is work out a bunch of city managers
[1:51:36] presented a budget. Let's ask questions about it. Let's make statements to the
[1:51:40] city manager. Let's find out how we're crafting this and then let's allow the public
[1:51:44] to speak. Let's not get into these types of things. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And
[1:51:48] before I leave, I'd like to make a comment to Mr. Davis. I appreciate his
[1:51:51] straight forward and there's always a tough guy. He knows where I'm coming from. We have
[1:51:57] these changes. But in tying in Ms. Riley's statement, here I have one strategic plan to follow.
[1:52:05] One, it's really simple. Operate under the mandate. The voters placed on us 3%. We're going to pass
[1:52:13] a military as a body. I'll probably be in the minority on it. You're going to be sent back to your
[1:52:18] office with a middle-age rate determination and you're going to come back with a you're
[1:52:23] going to come back with a balanced budget. Again, if these people want to sit up here with
[1:52:26] you and tell you things to cut, they can have at it. I can't. I have to leave. So thank you.
[1:52:32] Thank you, Miss Raleigh. I did appreciate that. Thank you to Councillor Neill.
[1:52:35] A lot of questions,
[1:52:43] concerns and thoughts on the budget.
[1:52:45] Yes, question on the budget. More on the revenue side and it was brought up throughout the year.
[1:52:49] But last night we talked a little bit about parking at Liza Jackson, as well as the Liza Jackson boat launch
[1:52:59] parking as well. We've discussed some things about
[1:53:02] some boat launch parking
[1:53:04] Revenue streams as well as there was a concept. I want to say we signed an agreement back in 2024 with the vendors to start
[1:53:12] charging for parking here, but has there been any from a revenue side concepts entertained
[1:53:19] during this budget process to try to move forward with that.
[1:53:23] I mean, we've discussed it and the consensus was we're going to follow the county's
[1:53:28] suit. I talked to Jeff Peters again today about the ferry.
[1:53:33] I'm not very part of the ferry concept that popped up yesterday and he's interested in that
[1:53:41] and tying it into the paper parking approach that the county's working on.
[1:53:46] And so it's progress, but I can't give you an answer to your question.
[1:53:51] I love it.
[1:53:51] And while you're having the staff of discussions, I'd like to entertain a motion to try to give
[1:53:57] you clarity or whatever y'all are continuing to have in these conversations with the county
[1:54:01] of ballot.
[1:54:01] They're synced by your project and we have a lot of the Jackson project going on, but can
[1:54:06] I entertain a motion to do that?
[1:54:08] All right.
[1:54:08] Mr. Mayor so moved before the end of county or 2026 bring back a recommended
[1:54:17] vendor to charge only out of county parking and boat launch parking at
[1:54:24] Liza Jackson Park as well as at City Hall that uses the license plate reader
[1:54:31] and no staff. Any revenue created from this, half of it goes back into the City Hall Fund to either redevelop or build City Hall.
[1:54:44] And the other half of the revenue goes back into that cemetery fund that was used to purchase. That's my motion.
[1:54:50] Thank you.
[1:54:51] I think it's a broke with.
[1:54:52] Yeah.
[1:54:52] Bishop.
[1:54:53] The secretary is going to be able to allow him.
[1:54:56] Okay.
[1:54:56] Like it does actually be structured.
[1:54:58] So that will complicate that.
[1:55:00] So it needs to go back to general.
[1:55:03] Because it's already going to be once again.
[1:55:04] So in the motion, just to go back to the any revenue created from this parking, go back
[1:55:09] to general for you.
[1:55:10] You can get down that road.
[1:55:11] All of these that I've ever done, the parking revenue have to go back into that lot.
[1:55:17] It's restricted to maintain a lot where it came from, so I don't know if that's a state ball or if that's true.
[1:55:22] You don't have to, because if you've had a parking, if you'll start parking around the entire city, then it would just be a fun to collect some money.
[1:55:32] So you can direct the money to the spot, now there's an aspect of that one lock in the CRA district.
[1:55:41] I don't think that makes it easy.
[1:55:45] That's my motion.
[1:55:46] Second.
[1:55:47] Motion made by Councilman Schmidt.
[1:55:48] It's clearly explained and seconded by Councilman Jeter.
[1:55:51] Additional comments, Councilman.
[1:55:53] No, sir, Mr. Mayor.
[1:55:54] Anyone with additional comments on this motion?
[1:55:56] Yes.
[1:55:57] Just a good act.
[1:55:58] We need to do it.
[1:55:59] Bring it back to that.
[1:56:00] Let's see if we can agree to use the fees and agreed to approve it.
[1:56:03] Let's see that.
[1:56:05] Councilman Mayor.
[1:56:05] Just a good question.
[1:56:06] You talked about the decision. You included city hall in there. I know we talked about behind the revertile clause. We should we had city hall in that at the moment.
[1:56:14] Like Jeff said, we're going to want this within the series of political work.
[1:56:18] Correct. That doesn't matter.
[1:56:20] Including city hall that still currently has a revertile clause.
[1:56:23] Once we own it.
[1:56:24] So that would also act.
[1:56:26] This motion, it could just bringing Mac a recommended vendor before the end of the calendar year.
[1:56:31] We'll see that proposal and then I just want to clarify on that because I want to step in it.
[1:56:36] I don't really get it. There's one thing. Yes. I'll recommend we all to do in that school.
[1:56:42] The river cost has actually been purchased. That's awesome.
[1:56:45] And I would expect these kind of things to be ironed out, you know, what you'll bring us back, you know.
[1:56:50] It doesn't matter where we play right, so if we come back with the vendor, Eliza Jackson,
[1:56:54] we can add others as we so fit when the time comes, right?
[1:56:59] I still think it's more probably to follow the county, and then we can just pick that right up their contract,
[1:57:09] I think what I've sensitive to as well as I believe is what Mr. Merrill brought up as well.
[1:57:14] I think what you just brought up Mr. Burns is y'all iron out those logistics of obviously
[1:57:18] we're coordinating with the closing of this property which is the lawsuit and litigation
[1:57:23] that started this whole thing but obviously in timing with conjunction with that.
[1:57:28] Yeah, that's it.
[1:57:29] Dr. McBrowney and Peter.
[1:57:31] This is my right.
[1:57:32] You dissed it into the calendar.
[1:57:34] You're right.
[1:57:34] Yes.
[1:57:35] I'm going to calendar it for December 20th.
[1:57:36] I'll bring it back.
[1:57:37] That's recommended.
[1:57:39] That's what you do.
[1:57:40] Hey, Peter, how are you getting to work?
[1:57:41] Counting through the same time apart of the calendar.
[1:57:43] Sounds good.
[1:57:44] Anyone from the public wishes to speak on this?
[1:57:47] Exactly.
[1:57:47] No.
[1:57:49] Yes, ma'am.
[1:57:55] Hello.
[1:57:56] Hello there.
[1:57:57] Hello.
[1:57:58] Thank you so much for having me.
[1:58:00] I have a question.
[1:58:02] You're wanting to use surveillance to, I can't, sorry, is this better?
[1:58:08] Yeah.
[1:58:08] You're wanting to use surveillance to see who's not from the county and then charge them fees for parking.
[1:58:14] You're similar upwards out there like on the mid-bay bridge that charges by toll.
[1:58:19] Okay.
[1:58:19] Where there's no overhead that's collecting tolls so that when people that are outside of the county
[1:58:25] go and launch their boat and impact our infrastructure that we're getting funding
[1:58:32] from people outside of the county that don't pay out of Alorum taxes inside
[1:58:37] the county that are impacting the infrastructure for the people that do pay
[1:58:42] the capital. So yes ma'am. Okay I love the idea of adding to to the funds in that
[1:58:49] way. I would just question if everybody would also support when we're collecting
[1:58:54] collecting data such as license plate numbers or anybody's personal data or anybody's public
[1:58:59] data that we also make that available publicly what was collected so as a city if you could
[1:59:05] also include in your motion that any information is that is collected would also be made available
[1:59:10] to those individuals or to the public at large so they would know what information was collected
[1:59:15] about them.
[1:59:16] And I think going forward it's just important on all points with data concerned that anybody
[1:59:21] who's data is collected is allowed to know if her data was collected and when and where and how it was used.
[1:59:27] Sure, absolutely. That's a great suggestion.
[1:59:30] That's all. Thank you, ma'am. Mr. Burns, could you come and speak to that for just a second?
[1:59:35] I know that in this situation, we'd be using a third party then.
[1:59:39] I think that's in what's the natural vendor response.
[1:59:42] Then that would be the appropriate time to be concerned about the data because I don't think on the front end,
[1:59:47] that's going to be anything and all the vendors are going to say they're yet
[1:59:51] sure you're in charge of the data and there are limits first off to what you can
[1:59:56] request from the vendor like for example you can't get a license.
[2:00:00] Information, because that's protected from being at all times. Even if they do like it, they will not give it back out, because it's exempt. But I think that other information has a system that would be in contract. I'm going to negotiate with the vendor.
[2:00:15] that's the last one.
[2:00:15] That's what I saw on those,
[2:00:17] the ones that you were calling.
[2:00:20] And then,
[2:00:22] it doesn't, it's a delineate,
[2:00:24] it's a delineate where you live, right?
[2:00:26] So it might say outside of the county,
[2:00:28] 27,
[2:00:29] but it doesn't have the license plate,
[2:00:31] it doesn't have anything more than...
[2:00:33] And I think her point was just to say,
[2:00:35] what did they take from
[2:00:38] what information did they collect?
[2:00:39] I want all that information.
[2:00:41] Yes, so all right anyone else from the public wish to fly it mr. Black
[2:00:46] Sky would like 128 for more mr. Schmidt. Where did you propose the revenue generated would go with this motion?
[2:00:56] Originally back to the city hall general fund as well as the cemetery fund, but we heard back from our city attorney there in that
[2:01:03] I mean recommended
[2:01:05] We just pushed it back to the general fund which finds the city hall renovated perfect
[2:01:09] Thank you, sir. Anyone else from the pub would speak on this item?
[2:01:15] Seeing none, Council please vote.
[2:01:28] Okay.
[2:01:30] The vote is six, nothing.
[2:01:32] You name this?
[2:01:33] Yes.
[2:01:34] Councilman Smith, great.
[2:01:35] Any additional questions, concerns on the budget?
[2:01:38] We're still in your concern.
[2:01:42] The concern that it was a conversation brought up about the terms of money today as well
[2:01:47] as last night but not.
[2:01:48] But I just want to just show clearly a command and support council administrator on my understanding is there's a request from a director
[2:01:57] March, April, May, June, some government that are needed for the golf course.
[2:02:03] Also some needs for the library and other areas found out what can be qualified to use that fund.
[2:02:09] And as of I think last night we heard that there's going to be a lot of funding that
[2:02:14] that subsidizes and helps us from having to pull from our general revenue.
[2:02:20] And I understand there's conversations about how we're going to improve that process moving forward.
[2:02:25] But again, in the past, we haven't always had the TVD funding that we're getting now.
[2:02:31] And we may agree or disagree on the projects, but we do have directors that are requesting projects.
[2:02:37] and we have a council member representative that sits on a county board that helps us get funding for
[2:02:42] certain qualified projects that keeps us from having to use the general funds. I completely support
[2:02:49] the tourism funding for, not only the golf course, but I just want to use this time to thank Mr. Davis,
[2:02:56] Mr. Geter, and finance, it sounds like they're cooking up something with tourism money regularly and
[2:03:02] And that directly impacts this budget and these requests and those kind of things.
[2:03:06] So I do want to address that concern Mr. Mayor.
[2:03:08] Thank you sir.
[2:03:09] Anyone else from the board here with thoughts, comments, questions for Mr. David's, his
[2:03:15] neighbors, Mr. Burns, myself or the others on the budget presentation?
[2:03:22] Councilman Gierri.
[2:03:23] What do we expect the actual revenues will it be?
[2:03:26] I will talk to you in the morning and I will be getting a general finalized estimations tomorrow.
[2:03:31] So we can start doing all of this.
[2:03:32] Any day?
[2:03:33] Any day?
[2:03:35] I have to have done it in a second.
[2:03:36] The website says August.
[2:03:38] I know, I just checked.
[2:03:39] We keep getting pressed with, we have three weeks worth of work, and two weeks worth of work.
[2:03:43] We'll talk to you and have to understand that, but it's hard to approve budget.
[2:03:48] We don't know how much money.
[2:03:49] Well the one that comes to you guys on the 9th will be the final revenue.
[2:03:53] Yeah, it won't change without anyone else on the board.
[2:03:57] Oh, good.
[2:03:58] Yeah.
[2:04:00] I have a number.
[2:04:02] Oh.
[2:04:02] We need a number.
[2:04:04] She got a positive one there.
[2:04:06] On a birthday book.
[2:04:07] Yeah.
[2:04:08] Pretty much.
[2:04:09] Anyone else from the board wish to make any comments, questions on the book?
[2:04:14] Yeah, last comment.
[2:04:15] I think it's as we get closer to the September meeting, not right now, not sure exactly what it looks like.
[2:04:21] just so that we're all clear on knowing where each other's heads are at.
[2:04:26] Not going to support a budget when it gets brought back to us that includes
[2:04:29] that roughly $3 million,
[2:04:31] pulling out of the undershifted funding. I'm really concerned about
[2:04:35] what may happen in November with the
[2:04:39] additional homestead exemption, which I completely, I'm supporting as a resident.
[2:04:45] But what I'm saying is we're going to have some challenging
[2:04:47] things to do and to govern and move things around
[2:04:56] I don't want to start a budget that has that amount of money that's being pulled from our unrestricted account, especially at $3 million.
[2:05:04] We did $5 million last year and then next year, if this amendment passes, it's effective January 1, 2027.
[2:05:13] So a lot of next year's budget is going to make an impact if it passes.
[2:05:17] and future counsel this time next year if we keep depleting our savings and
[2:05:23] we need to use it because we took a big pay cut that's the concern I got
[2:05:27] that's it Mr. Mayor. Thank you sir. Did you know Councilman Smith and this is
[2:05:31] just a little sidebar what he said what he's saying we enough that if you move
[2:05:35] to the state of Florida and that passes you're not eligible to get that
[2:05:40] homestead exemption for five four years. Isn't that a strange little part of
[2:05:50] I think that's probably going to get some severe challenges in the court, but anyway, we'll see.
[2:05:59] That moves us on to the presentation of the thing I want to hear from the public here,
[2:06:04] so anyone from the public that wishes to speak on anything that was presented here tonight regarding our comprehensive 2026-27 fiscal year budget
[2:06:12] just come on up to the front and state your name and address, and we'll let you speak, and I did say name and address, not name and address.
[2:06:22] I have James Patterson, I live in the 37th Prawer Road. When I got my proposed budget, I was really kind of shocked because I was under the assumption that Mr. Walker said it was a three-step-safe cap.
[2:06:36] If you took last year's and the proposed budget, it was like 32.5% increase.
[2:06:43] A lot of us are on fixed incomes, and with increases like that, it would be hard for
[2:06:52] retired people to live in the city of Fort Walton Beach.
[2:06:55] Well, Mr. Walker was going on about the police budget.
[2:07:02] I lived in Destin when they originally incorporated and they had a problem that started a police
[2:07:11] department and it got kind of out of control because they had to have their own 9-1-1 and
[2:07:18] dispatchers and everything and they went back to the sheriff's department.
[2:07:23] Now what I understand now they have their own police department again but the math has
[2:07:30] Mr. Walker presented it, it doesn't add up and that is something that maybe City Council
[2:07:38] should look at in that respect.
[2:07:41] And that may be a way that we can keep our budget intact, but when Mr. Riley was talking
[2:07:51] about the cap, that cap is there to protect people that are on fixed incomes.
[2:08:00] and we just can't as a retired person can't just automatically go and kick out
[2:08:08] 30% or 20%. We have to live within that 3% or cost of living, so the city
[2:08:16] should have to live under those same restraints. And I thank you for your
[2:08:21] attendance. Thank you, Mr. Patterson. Do you want to ask from the public
[2:08:26] I have a quick question to speak on the fiscal year budget.
[2:08:32] Mr. Chamberlain, did I say I read this time?
[2:08:34] Yeah.
[2:08:35] Do I need to reintroduce?
[2:08:37] Yeah, please.
[2:08:37] My name's Adam Chamberlain.
[2:08:38] I live on a 700-clock drive.
[2:08:44] Something that I see here, I just want to reiterate,
[2:08:48] Councilman Jeter keeps saying that we need to operate this
[2:08:50] as a business, and the government isn't a business,
[2:08:54] especially when it comes to services like the library.
[2:08:57] There's a lot of comparisons to the math that's necessary
[2:09:01] to cut the library or cut chain move between a building
[2:09:05] to save money.
[2:09:07] But then at the same time, the golf course
[2:09:09] is getting a significant increase that, yes,
[2:09:14] can make more money but isn't providing a service.
[2:09:18] So I think if there's ways to reallocate
[2:09:23] the funds in the budget to make it so that the library doesn't need the cuts or
[2:09:27] need to be restructured at all and take some of the funds from the golf course
[2:09:33] to do that and then make it so the golf course maybe has a two-year or three-year
[2:09:37] timeline or doing some of those upgrades instead of trying to do everything at
[2:09:41] once, not trying to replace all the equipment at once, not trying to replace all the
[2:09:43] golf carts at once, maybe trying to stretch out that timeline so it opens up new
[2:09:47] funds for the more core services of our city like the library. When it comes to the solar
[2:09:57] I've done a little more reading on that and options that are available.
[2:10:05] Florida has a
[2:10:06] statute of 49.145 for Guaranteed Energy Performance Savings Contracting Act. It specifically
[2:10:13] includes municipality which I think is what we are and what that is is it allows you to find a
[2:10:21] contractor who finances the solar and the work and then the city pays zero dollars upfront and
[2:10:27] the contractor is repaid from the energy savings that are guaranteed during the audit that they do to make
[2:10:34] sure that it does have a return on investment. So that makes it so that the solar would be implemented
[2:10:39] without having any upfront cost, and it would immediately start having savings on the library
[2:10:46] cooling cost and actually properly generate more money based off of a rough estimate that the
[2:10:52] library is about 28,000 square feet and granted some very general numbers about the solar production
[2:10:57] that we could get. We would be looking at anywhere from 30 to 50,000 dollars a year in production
[2:11:03] from the solar panels on the roof of the library, which would be almost 10% of the library's budget
[2:11:09] right there, just in earnings. Along with that, this is a time sensitive thing due to national
[2:11:17] laws that have changed. The IRS has an elective pay, I think it's 67-14, that allows tax
[2:11:26] exempt entities, including cities, to receive the solar tax credit, the 30% refund, but
[2:11:33] But it is directly cash payment.
[2:11:36] So it is a 30% cash payment to the city for implementing those solar incentives.
[2:11:43] I could not find it that payment would need to go directly towards the debt that's owed
[2:11:49] to the solar, but it definitely something to look into as you guys voted on, looking into
[2:11:55] solar on the library, into those specific aspects to see if that would make it a lot more financially
[2:12:00] feasible to make it a lot easier to generate money for the library.
[2:12:05] Even if you aren't able to utilize those resources, I feel like
[2:12:10] since it is for generating electricity for our library, it should fall under
[2:12:15] the infrastructure half-cent sales tax. And there should be a way that it can be
[2:12:19] qualified under that. I mean, especially since the police department is
[2:12:23] shooting a kitchen remodel in there, the fire department is getting a bay door,
[2:12:26] or the auditorium's getting a re-brew.
[2:12:28] I mean solar is infrastructure.
[2:12:30] That's not a service that the library is providing.
[2:12:32] You would be infrastructure for the library.
[2:12:34] So I feel like even if we can't get it out there,
[2:12:36] it should be able to come out of the infrastructure sales tax.
[2:12:39] And it does come out of the infrastructure sales tax.
[2:12:42] We'd be looking at a return on investment
[2:12:45] and about 10 to 12 years to where it's like we'd be net gaming.
[2:12:50] And since the building is only I think 24 years old
[2:12:53] and we've got what 50 years on most commercial buildings, a lifespan that gives plenty of
[2:12:59] light for the solar to give plenty of return on investment into the future, so that's all
[2:13:07] we have.
[2:13:07] I appreciate it, sir.
[2:13:08] You're welcome.
[2:13:09] Thank you very much.
[2:13:15] Anyone else from the public wish to speak?
[2:13:18] Hi, Mr. Pounder's 21 Comments Street.
[2:13:21] I just had a question.
[2:13:23] First a comment.
[2:13:23] I wanted to reiterate, too, about the running the library or running a lot of the services
[2:13:27] that a government does as a business, it's actually a government is solving more complex problems
[2:13:32] that businesses don't solve, can't bankrupt and start over with a government.
[2:13:37] But I feel like, I don't know if the rest of folks feel like this, but there's these political
[2:13:42] jobs that are going on about specifically the library instead of focusing on like, can you tell me,
[2:13:49] and I'm sorry, I've been out of town, what is the cost per taxpayer per year for library use?
[2:13:56] Does anyone have that number?
[2:14:00] It's around $23 per year.
[2:14:02] So $23 a year?
[2:14:04] A per person.
[2:14:05] A per person, right?
[2:14:06] And this is a service that's equitable to anybody in the
[2:14:09] socioeconomic class.
[2:14:11] And here, a lot of folks on here are talking about how they
[2:14:13] benefited.
[2:14:14] And they feel like you're turning around and you're pulling
[2:14:16] that ladder up.
[2:14:17] And there's so many people that benefit from the library
[2:14:21] beyond a business-making adventure.
[2:14:23] And so I just think when we're talking about these things and presenting them, people aren't
[2:14:27] seeing the real amounts of what it's actually costing $23 a year, I mean that's unbelievable
[2:14:32] to the service that are provided.
[2:14:34] And understand we have to make difficult budget decisions and we've got more coming in the
[2:14:39] pipeline potentially.
[2:14:41] I completely understand that, but I just feel like it's got to move away from the political
[2:14:46] arguments and get into the nitty-gritty of what are you providing the citizens as a service
[2:14:51] that we appreciate and we want to see and we understand it clearly when we come up here to talk about it.
[2:14:56] Thank you.
[2:14:56] Thank you, Mr. County.
[2:15:02] Yes, ma'am.
[2:15:06] Mayor and the council members. I understand that I live at 216, Flea and Fort Walton Beach for the past 30 plus some odd years. I don't know. Okay. So I understand the city is in a difficult financial position. I understand the pressure on the general fund and that the difficult decisions may be necessary.
[2:15:31] But a difficult budget should not become an opportunity for a fire sale of city services and properties.
[2:15:38] Before we restructure, outsource, consolidate, privatize, or currently reduce services.
[2:15:44] I think the city should follow a basic budgeting principle.
[2:15:48] Cut the discretionary spending first, defer optional spending second, touch core services last.
[2:15:56] And this budget shows that there is still room to do that.
[2:15:58] I would start with travel.
[2:16:01] The proposed general fund contains $99,235 in travel and per DM last year was $99,960.
[2:16:11] That means travel was reduced by only $725, which is less than 1%, it's actually 0.7%.
[2:16:20] In a year series enough that we're discussing restructuring city services, not suggesting eliminating
[2:16:26] necessary travel. If attendance is required for a license, a certification or an
[2:16:32] essential operational purpose spend it. I work on the base. We've gone through
[2:16:37] 18 months of what you guys are faced with now. Travel was the first. Travel was
[2:16:44] absolutely the first that we started. No non-essential travel was allowed.
[2:16:53] Optional conferences and discretionary trials should be reduced much more aggressively before residents lose services.
[2:17:01] Second, look at the proposed use of the fund balance.
[2:17:04] I'm still going to come back to that $150,000 for the lobbyist.
[2:17:10] Half of that would have kept the library where it needed to be open Monday through Saturday.
[2:17:17] today. If our financial condition is serious enough to justify permanently restructuring
[2:17:24] public services, then it's serious enough to defer $150,000 lobbying contract. Thirdly,
[2:17:32] public relations and promotional spending should be examined before core services. The city
[2:17:38] managers proposed general fund budget includes $10,000 for promotional activities. All of that
[2:17:44] adds up, it sounds like a little bit, but all of it adds up.
[2:17:48] The public information office includes spending for municipal communicators, conference,
[2:17:53] marketing, branding, video, royalty-free audio.
[2:17:57] All of those are nice things to have, not have to have.
[2:18:02] Individually, those individual numbers that I mentioned may not solve the city's financial
[2:18:07] problem, but that's not the point, but the point is the order in which we make the cuts.
[2:18:10] If we're asking residents to accept fewer services, smaller departments, outsourcing, consolidation, or permanent restructuring, then Council should first demonstrate that discretionary travel, optional conferences, lobbying, promotion, public relations spending have already been reduced as far as reasonably possible.
[2:18:29] And this has not happened when nearly $100,000 travel budget was reduced but only $725.
[2:18:38] I'm not asking you to pretend that the financial problem doesn't exist.
[2:18:42] I'm asking you not to use a financial problem as justification for permanent changes before exhausting temporary and discretionary reductions first.
[2:18:53] Cut travel harder, eliminate optional conferences, defer the lobbyist, reduce promotional and PR spending, then show the public what shortfall remains.
[2:19:02] physical responsibilities, not simply cutting services.
[2:19:06] It's having discipline to cut the least essential things first.
[2:19:10] Thank you very much.
[2:19:11] Thank you, Ms. Erington.
[2:19:15] Anyone else want to speak on the proposed comprehensive 2026-27 budgets?
[2:19:24] Mr. Azaretto?
[2:19:26] Good afternoon, Councilor.
[2:19:27] Jay Azaretto, 13th Annastasia Drive.
[2:19:29] Just a couple of questions in relation to Mr. Berry's motion to move the library
[2:19:36] from downtown. I'm for one against that. I feel like a lot of people in this
[2:19:40] room are as well. So I just want to post a couple of questions in regards to
[2:19:45] that. What would happen? What would the loss of roughly 81,000 annualized
[2:19:52] library visits mean for downtown foot traffic? That would make a big impact in my
[2:19:58] world. How much business activity is generated by patrons before and after
[2:20:03] library visits. I know when I go and visit the library I spend a lot of money down town.
[2:20:08] How is removing a heavily used public downtown destination aligned with the goals of the community
[2:20:13] redevelopment agency? I don't think it does. So these are just questions that we need
[2:20:18] to answer when we have that discussion and I just wanted to bring that to your attention.
[2:20:22] I think the discussion of solar panels to help offset some of the power at the library is
[2:20:28] an excellent idea, and I wish that you guys would explore that a little bit more, but just keep our library downtown, please.
[2:20:35] Thank you, Mr. Brown.
[2:20:41] Anyone else wish to speak? Mr. Leibowitz.
[2:20:45] A little bit, just kind of a very circle following the beach. I want to try and hit on both the golf course and the library if I have time.
[2:20:52] The golf course, if that does get privatized, we still own it. It just gets leased out, is that correct?
[2:21:00] The Air Force Base Center's Aegean Air Force Base Center is the land they've allowed the city to use it as long as it's far away.
[2:21:07] But we would lease it and then whenever the lease is up however long it's for we would get the golf course back, is that correct?
[2:21:13] It kind of remains in legal jeopardy as far as we've ever asked.
[2:21:19] Okay.
[2:21:20] You know how you work in the DOD sector, correct?
[2:21:24] You know how it can be totally fine until you go and ask them,
[2:21:29] hey, remember that thing you did hundred years ago
[2:21:33] and you let us use that piece of land?
[2:21:35] Is it cool if we, you know, lease it out to somebody else?
[2:21:38] Well, if we, okay.
[2:21:39] So, you know what I mean?
[2:21:41] Like, right now it's fine.
[2:21:43] And it could be fine.
[2:21:45] But you just never know until you ask that question.
[2:21:46] With regards to the library, I'm finding parallels to what happened last night and all the people
[2:21:54] that were outside this, this is a Donald Pact here, it was packed in the con question earlier.
[2:21:58] I'm finding parallels to what's going on right now and some previous meetings that we had.
[2:22:03] One of them he ironically referenced and that was the meeting when he was trying to talk to
[2:22:07] you about the people outside.
[2:22:08] That was October of 2019, the second passage of the fire assessment fee would set all the
[2:22:14] petitions in motion which got this.
[2:22:16] And on that night all the people came to this podium and they said we don't want it. We don't want it. We don't want it and
[2:22:21] Councilman Nick Eligret will sit in right over there said, you know, this is great for the city
[2:22:26] but I represent the citizen not the city and
[2:22:31] I paraphrase and but with all these people that come into this podium saying they don't want. I can't I have to change my vote
[2:22:37] I can't vote for it. Two months later came the Lake Drive project the
[2:22:42] the development and the people that live on Lake Drive in December 2019 came to
[2:22:47] this podium and they said we don't want it we don't want it we don't want it and
[2:22:51] Dave Schmidt said you know there's no doubt this is great for the city but I
[2:22:55] represent the citizens not the city and they're telling me they don't want it it's
[2:23:00] in the best interest of the citizens not to do it regardless of the city and so
[2:23:04] it all reverts back to in fact in March of 21 I came to this podium calling out
[2:23:07] those uh those for the four people that voted and gave us the fire assessment fee and in my comments there
[2:23:12] I went back to the very basics that I'm going to right now that I've said a hundred times you can have the city without the citizen
[2:23:18] but not the the citizen you can have a citizen without a city but you cannot have a city without citizens as those are not my word
[2:23:25] I just love those words but they're not mine but then you take that and you roll it into when there's a conflict of interest
[2:23:31] between what is best for the city and what is best for the citizen the citizen has to win every time
[2:23:36] and that's what I'm seeing with this library and so you had you realized that in
[2:23:41] October 2019 you realized that in December of 2019 I've been saying it I'm
[2:23:46] realizing it right now I would have gone but fine if the library went away it
[2:23:50] took me three years to notice the only time I go there is what he gives away free
[2:23:54] coffee so if the library went three years or not be shopping and all the I'd come to
[2:23:59] the coffee aisle and I'd say didn't this used to be the library and that's how I've
[2:24:03] notice. But so I'm not saying this for me, but I'm saying this because I'm seeing the
[2:24:07] citizen speak. Now, with regards to the citizens, we're not going to get everything we want.
[2:24:13] They might have to move it from downtown. You keep talking about the tough, the math
[2:24:19] problem and the math problem might lead it out of town. But the citizens, it's in the
[2:24:25] best interest of the city to get rid of that library. It's in the best interest of the
[2:24:29] citizens to keep it. The citizens have to win. If it's not downtown, it's not downtown.
[2:24:35] And by the way, we have one thing that no other city in Florida has. We have Jason Davis
[2:24:39] as our city manager. And with her without a library, he's going to get us below 3%. That's
[2:24:44] all I got. Thank you, sir.
[2:24:53] Very well done. Anybody want to follow that?
[2:24:59] So I do need to circle back on some of those comments just so we're all playing on the same
[2:25:03] Sure, so the lobbyist is not in the budget.
[2:25:06] No, I know, that's a good idea.
[2:25:08] I'm talking to the people that are telling me
[2:25:10] to get to the lobbyist.
[2:25:14] So it's not in.
[2:25:15] I was told to put it in last year, pulled it out,
[2:25:18] because it just didn't fit.
[2:25:20] When you track it for this year, it doesn't fit.
[2:25:23] Travel, right?
[2:25:26] I have had it.
[2:25:27] You know, I got to give credit to six of the seven.
[2:25:29] They've worked very hand in hand with me
[2:25:32] trying to navigate some of this and I'm not here to say yes to everything that
[2:25:36] bring to me, right? One of the concepts was cut the travel and the training and
[2:25:41] I am not okay with that because we have guys making $17 an hour and they're
[2:25:46] trying to build a career and move up and they have to go to these extra training so
[2:25:51] their their knowledge base grows, right? And I'm not going to make a $17 an hour
[2:25:55] dude go pay for his water license, that's a party felt. He has to have it to touch
[2:26:00] the pipe. Anybody in this city that works for the city, they can do my job. I can't do any
[2:26:06] other jobs. I'm not an engineer. I'm not a CPA. So it's important for me to keep that
[2:26:11] training in there because that's how they build their career and do whatever they want.
[2:26:15] I love the library. Maybe had I spent more time in the library, I wouldn't have grown
[2:26:20] up to be a city manager there as an over-gain qualified, right?
[2:26:25] I don't want to cut any positions
[2:26:27] These are ours, but if we add those back to the library,
[2:26:31] somebody else is going to lose somewhere.
[2:26:33] Everybody gave up a little bit.
[2:26:35] Police gave up some.
[2:26:36] Water gave up some.
[2:26:39] Utilities gave up some.
[2:26:41] Everybody contributed to get us under that cap, right?
[2:26:44] So, again, I don't want it, but that's where we're at.
[2:26:47] It's just not cutting the libraries.
[2:26:50] That was presented to me as an option to help us
[2:26:53] and with everybody contributing,
[2:26:54] that got us on a loud carol to do with carol things, you know, carol things, and balanced it,
[2:27:00] we still got some work to do, but that the slide in there that shows all the fun-bound stuff,
[2:27:05] those are not in the budget. That's for council to consider, hey, they can, they do have the authority
[2:27:11] to tell me you cut the training budget. I want to get a lobbyist and I don't care if these people
[2:27:16] get trained or not. I don't give it that, but they have the authority to tell me that, right?
[2:27:21] So I just want to circle back on that. I totally dig the idea of solar. I've done a lot of projects with that
[2:27:26] It
[2:27:27] Open up for some other things that I need to get and navigate and I'll bring it back
[2:27:31] But our insurance on the property could be
[2:27:34] Adjusted, you know because we've
[2:27:37] Damaged the wind or the roof layers. So there's there's a lot going on with that dig the idea
[2:27:42] But I mean just to think it's enough automatic 30 grand a year. It's it's not not that easy. So
[2:27:47] We'll do the homework
[2:27:49] But I mean, I just want to make sure we're all talking about the same thing.
[2:27:52] So that's all I got for that.
[2:27:54] Thank you, sir.
[2:27:55] All right.
[2:27:55] Anyone else from the public that wishes to speak on the proposed fiscal year, 26, 27,
[2:28:00] and comprehensive budget?
[2:28:02] Again, unless we're going to have some other discussions here as a council, but unless there's another motion made,
[2:28:08] there's not going to be another opportunity for the public to speak tonight.
[2:28:12] So do you want to make sure that everybody gets an opportunity to speak, at least one time?
[2:28:18] Yes, ma'am.
[2:28:24] 46 very road. Very close to here. So I had a whole thing prepared and then
[2:28:31] y'all threw us for a loop here like removing it from the agenda, but I still just want
[2:28:37] to go with my gut and say some of what I had planned. So there are lots of public institutions
[2:28:42] like police, fire, schools, health departments, and libraries and parks.
[2:28:49] None of those things are designed to make money for the city.
[2:28:55] They provide structures, stability, security, and services for
[2:28:58] everyone, not just those who can afford it.
[2:29:01] And I'm just kind of piggybacking off of the concern that a lot of residents have,
[2:29:06] with the treat the city like a business talk, because the city is, it's not.
[2:29:11] I, yes, the financial perspective that you have as business owners, I think is important
[2:29:16] and can be valuable, but saying treat it like a business, we associate business with
[2:29:21] a profit-driven perspective, and if your perspective is profit-driven, then that's concerning
[2:29:27] to the residents who are worried about their services being cut.
[2:29:33] And I hear a lot of people saying I don't want to cut the library, I don't want to do it,
[2:29:38] And then Mr. Jeater in the last meeting, you did say maybe we don't save all $550,000 from the library.
[2:29:46] Maybe we save $450,000 and give another $50,000 to the rec center.
[2:29:50] So that kind of talk, what I heard was, whoa, we're now considering a $500,000 cut from a $550,000 budget.
[2:30:00] So maybe a little more clarity, a little more transparency in the things that we're proposing
[2:30:05] or thinking about. Maybe I misunderstood, I don't know. But I do hear people saying we're
[2:30:11] just concerned about the perspective of treated like a business because it was not designed
[2:30:17] to be that way. Yes, we do have to generate revenue and I get that as well and I support coming
[2:30:23] up with creative ways to join the right revenue because we do for the things that we value,
[2:30:27] the things that we really want to keep around will figure it out and also I
[2:30:34] just want to speak to mainly this is for the citizens from my understanding of
[2:30:38] the property tax amendment. Anybody wants to you know correct me on this but
[2:30:44] if anybody has a better understanding than I do but this property tax amendment
[2:30:48] does not cut all your taxes all the school ones remain and when I looked at my
[2:30:53] property tax bill that was probably roughly a third of my property
[2:30:57] taxes. And it also reduces the assessed value of like second homes, non-home
[2:31:04] studies, exemptions, and commercial properties from 10% down to 5%, right? So
[2:31:10] that's going to lessen the amount of money that cities can charge to
[2:31:16] businesses, second homes, vacation homes, all those kinds of things. Am I right? And
[2:31:22] And also, there are a number of organizations that have spoken out about this, and I'm just
[2:31:29] going to name them Florida State Fraternal Order of Police, Florida Fire Chiefs Association,
[2:31:35] Florida Sheriff's Association, Florida Association of Professional Firefighters, 100 Friends of
[2:31:40] Florida, Florida Recreation of Parks Association, I mean the list goes on, there is a library
[2:31:47] organization within the state of Florida that has as well.
[2:31:49] So, these are my personal opinions and concerns about the amendment.
[2:31:54] I do understand, you know, people are wanting to see less costs.
[2:31:59] But I think it says something when a lot of these organizations are coming out and saying
[2:32:03] this might not be the best pathway right now to try to save money because
[2:32:08] it is going to result in loss of parks, loss of libraries, loss of rec centers, those kinds of things.
[2:32:13] So I just wanted to just share that information because I think sometimes putting it in
[2:32:22] layman's terms can be helpful.
[2:32:24] And I think it's easy to criticize something if we're not using it ourselves or going to it.
[2:32:30] And it's easy to say it's not valuable if our mindset is we need to prioritize money over our people.
[2:32:38] but when we invest in our people, that is saving us the money in the long run, much like I might go to the doctor for preventative health care services so that I don't go to the emergency room later because I ignored something, you know, a health concern that came up.
[2:32:54] So I would just ask that you maybe kind of rethink the way that it's being communicated to the city when we talk about treating the city like a business because we're people.
[2:33:07] and people matter when it comes to city services.
[2:33:12] So thank you so much.
[2:33:13] It's good feedback, right?
[2:33:14] I just want you to have the number that's tied
[2:33:16] with that property tax environment.
[2:33:18] If it passes, I mean, the safest thing we kind of hope it does
[2:33:21] so if people see what actually happens, right?
[2:33:24] Two and a half million, I gotta find a little two
[2:33:26] and a half million.
[2:33:27] I can't cut sanitation, we gotta take up trash.
[2:33:30] I can't cut police and fire.
[2:33:32] Yep.
[2:33:33] I can't cut water and sewer.
[2:33:37] You see the things that are left over?
[2:33:39] No, I understand.
[2:33:40] I do.
[2:33:40] I understand it.
[2:33:41] And that's why I wanted to make that statement about this is like exactly what it means
[2:33:45] because I do think it was pushed out that you're going to save lots of money.
[2:33:48] You're going to save lots of money.
[2:33:49] And you might not save as much, but also are you willing to give up some of the things that
[2:33:53] you enjoy.
[2:33:56] And then it's different.
[2:33:56] You can discuss a whole different tax.
[2:33:59] But also I mean, I found it interesting when I saw that police departments and fire departments and all of them were saying we don't support this and we can
[2:34:06] Look that up
[2:34:08] But yeah, I mean a math in my head just you know shaved a map. Yeah, it's probably be 10% of the workforce. So probably about 30 people
[2:34:18] There's 67 counters in the state for on a municipality's if
[2:34:23] They follow suit with that 10% you can see you're unemployment rates gonna go up you should lock stuff to crime rate, right?
[2:34:29] So there's a lot going on. You've got to digest all those those those come to the numbers. Yeah
[2:34:34] So I really appreciate that. I appreciate bringing that up as well
[2:34:38] And there's a lot of really good information that's out there that's very non-partisan. Yeah
[2:34:42] That just shares how that will affect not only be disabilities but counties. Right. Yeah, and it's a really big deal
[2:34:49] And you know as mr. Coffee from the counties in here last night and kind of talking about
[2:34:54] What the counties plan would be and that for us in this county sounds great
[2:34:59] We hope they had extra at once in sales tax some of us, you know, get our property taxes reduced
[2:35:04] Those that don't own home that matter then they're just paying we're now out of the pockets
[2:35:08] But you know to those counties that are in those super rural areas that people don't take vacations to
[2:35:16] That's tough and and you know what what is the plan going to be for them?
[2:35:20] So there's a lot of questions and I appreciate bringing it up.
[2:35:24] It's a lot of counselling to you.
[2:35:27] Oh, and you could sit.
[2:35:28] I don't need those.
[2:35:29] I don't need those.
[2:35:29] I've been sitting there.
[2:35:29] Since you've spoken to me directly, I just want to say thank you for coming to speak.
[2:35:33] This type of civic engagement with the red light on is no different than us having civic engagement
[2:35:37] and very important.
[2:35:39] VMI, I see you all in there almost every day working out.
[2:35:43] The same people that we may not agree or disagree with on other roads.
[2:35:47] We see in publics.
[2:35:48] We see on the road.
[2:35:48] So, we had a, how long did we talk, very far back to the library being there in 30 minutes?
[2:35:55] Very lengthy discussion. So, a lot of, I want to re-crawon out there and run it like a business.
[2:36:00] I want to let you know me and for me and you talk, and I explained to you what the rollback rate was.
[2:36:04] You didn't really know what that was, right?
[2:36:07] And I'm trying to show you how that's completed on fund balance, the money we had to spend.
[2:36:12] So, I really thought we had to engage in talk and educate you.
[2:36:15] I wasn't still standing on got around like a business and cut also you know we actually have to have money to pay for stuff
[2:36:22] It's simply that simple. That's why I keep saying math wrong. I love the library
[2:36:28] The Navar Beach Fire Department right now if you go look at the news is asking the county to borrow money because they're broke
[2:36:35] We're we have as the goals that are there four and a half million dollars of unrestricted
[2:36:40] We're going to spend three million of it this year, so Mr. Davis is just saying,
[2:36:45] if this passes in November and I understand what you're saying, you listed all these organizations
[2:36:50] that are against it. And you go back and read them all, look at them, all those are government
[2:36:55] organizations. Of course they're against it because it affects them. I don't know if it'll pass or not,
[2:37:01] but if you remember our 3% cap that passed, every government organization in this community,
[2:37:07] were they for it or against it? They were against it. No, I know. And it passed. So up here,
[2:37:15] our packet, very easily, say, you know, a pack goes back to the golf course, or the gentleman
[2:37:21] said, the golf course is making money. So you kind of got to eat, but he also said, we should
[2:37:27] use the golf course money to fund other stuff. We do. But if we don't give the golf course
[2:37:33] what it needs to make more money eventually the golf course goes our maintenance equipment
[2:37:37] is broken we can't cut our grass no one plays golf.
[2:37:40] And then a year from now we go we did the rollback rate we spent all of our money we're
[2:37:46] going to go for going to have to do the airship now we could be in a situation where we got
[2:37:50] to pass another car fee about to pass a library fee to be able to pay for it.
[2:37:55] This is not a price once they're on the city like a business no and some people have even
[2:38:01] said, well, think about your legacy when you get all counsel. I do. I own more than
[2:38:08] one property in this town. So it affects me about more than $22 a year as people
[2:38:13] can use that analogy. And I'm still fine. I've voted every year not to roll back the
[2:38:16] rate. I have voluntarily raised my hand in this seat and voted to pay more indexes.
[2:38:23] Me personally didn't pass. But that doesn't mean that I didn't vote for it. So what I mean
[2:38:29] But as you get to a situation where if you just don't have the money, I'd love to point and kick it
[2:38:35] I mean I'll make a motion right now to put all four of these things and fund balance considerations from a lobbyist
[2:38:40] Maybe the lobbyist can get his library money concerts and fireworks put it all in there
[2:38:47] Good luck the next counsel you're coming in with zero dollars
[2:38:52] So when all your people leave and say you didn't even give us a raise last year we have no money
[2:38:58] But that's harassing math problem.
[2:38:59] I'm not trying to scare people and say the county's going to take this over.
[2:39:02] But ask staff.
[2:39:04] Everybody is concerned right now using the word restructuring.
[2:39:08] It's almost like we can, I guess we can just keep swiping our credit cards.
[2:39:13] But that's where we're at.
[2:39:14] I mean, you had a great talk in the park.
[2:39:16] I don't mean any of that negative backwards you.
[2:39:17] It's just that's where we are.
[2:39:19] Yeah.
[2:39:19] I can, I mean, you got to see the budget.
[2:39:23] Tell us what the cut.
[2:39:24] We've tried to steal both people to kill to cut stuff. We've tried to eliminate dispatch
[2:39:29] Well, I'll cut travel, but then we don't have trained people. I'll cut whatever y'all tell me to cut
[2:39:35] I mean, I'll donate my entire salary that I make up here.
[2:39:41] I don't get paid
[2:39:42] I mean that's sincerely tall y'all like y'all. Yeah, but you keep using it as like I'm a victim. I don't get paid
[2:39:50] You ran
[2:39:59] I'm not running again, I don't blame you because me being up here is a math problem.
[2:40:06] I don't equal my pay and the city is going to have a math problem.
[2:40:10] Our revenue and our account balance is going to equal our expenses.
[2:40:15] We can chop it up out of y'all's life.
[2:40:19] Sometimes when my kids want to stay, they get angry over it.
[2:40:22] That's where we're headed, I'll each take every night, you don't have to buy it, but I mean that sincerely, we had a great talk.
[2:40:29] You all have a good education campaign for everybody.
[2:40:32] Yes, you all have a very, you have been put in a very difficult position with the cap and now this amendment coming up.
[2:40:39] And so, yeah, I think people are just very concerned about the possibility of losing something that they love because once the if or when the library budget is cut,
[2:40:50] We know that that is not coming back
[2:40:54] That's not a we're cutting it temporarily, and then we'll bring it back that
[2:40:59] I mean it or if there was a pathway for that we would want to know, but once that service once we start losing and cutting
[2:41:06] Is there even a pathway to ever bring it back?
[2:41:09] It all depends on the money. I mean I begin when I ran a list of awesome things
[2:41:14] I want to do I got five kids I want to grow up here. I want to be soft
[2:41:17] be as awesome as every single person in this room. Yeah. It takes money. Period.
[2:41:23] True. Thank you, ma'am. Thanks.
[2:41:29] Mr. Schmidt and then anybody else from the public.
[2:41:33] In back off of that, I want to directly kind of respond as well. You're right. The education
[2:41:38] information between what you hear or what residents hear and sometimes what comes out of here
[2:41:44] is there's a gap in communication and the education piece. Completely agree whether it's
[2:41:49] information that my wife gets and we have to digest what's going on compared to
[2:41:54] what she hears or other you know close friends of the family. We have these
[2:41:58] agreements and disagreements but I guess more specifically the narrative
[2:42:03] about you know golf gets a lot and the life rares get done. The path that we're
[2:42:09] strategically trying to make is is where every single revenue and every single
[2:42:14] expense that comes from golf is just from people who want to play golf and allowing
[2:42:19] that to go fly and to go cook and whatever golf can do to maximize that as well as
[2:42:26] too there's some legislation with this most recent cap that some of those purchases and
[2:42:33] some of those expenses when the golf makes it to the enterprise fund that those expenses
[2:42:39] This is that are just paid for by golfers will be exempt from the overall cap.
[2:42:45] And that cap space can hopefully be, you know, used and operated.
[2:42:50] So there's a lot of energy and conversation about golf compared to the library and as
[2:42:58] well as to treating like a business.
[2:43:01] If we don't comply with the recent legislation of the cap, if we don't comply like a
[2:43:08] A judge's designate could be inside of our finance department, making sure we're running
[2:43:14] it a certain way.
[2:43:15] You know what I mean?
[2:43:16] So, my context of the math problem as well, back since June, things like that, and like
[2:43:21] I kicked off at the beginning of this meeting, none of the emotions, whether it's talking
[2:43:25] about police department consolidation, library, golf, whatever it is, finding how to get the
[2:43:32] math rights so that we don't have a judge's designate inside of our finance department trying
[2:43:36] to figure out why we may or may not be breaking the law in the future if we don't maintain our
[2:43:43] expenses and what the legislation says. I don't want that judges to designate inside of our
[2:43:47] finance department. They already are doing so much as it is and those kind of things. So that's my
[2:43:52] context of the math problem and and running it a certain way so that you know we don't break the law.
[2:43:59] I do think that when you set when the comparing the golf course and the library they are completely
[2:44:06] different things. And the comparisons came from City Council, not the citizens.
[2:44:12] The citizens, I believe, began speaking about the library versus the golf course
[2:44:17] because there was significant talk in the budget workshop about the golf course.
[2:44:22] And it's doing so great, and it's making so much money. I don't hate the golf course.
[2:44:27] I don't golf, but go golf if you love golfing. But it was the, we'll look at this.
[2:44:34] it's making money and the library loss, loss, loss, loss, loss is how it was described.
[2:44:39] And they have different purposes.
[2:44:42] The golf course serves people who like to play golf, people who can afford to play golf,
[2:44:48] but the library services everyone in the community regardless of anything.
[2:44:54] Complainly different
[2:45:00] What are they're on with the county and the school district? They both want school safety. It's a conversation about who's paying for it and getting the agreement back to where it was the 50-50 split. So nobody's discussing about wanting to remove the safety. It's who's paying for it. Completely different purposes between the golf and the library, as we address this math problem and the legislation that we don't want to break the law, we're having to continue to gauge the operating laws that the library's having.
[2:45:30] And other things as well to make sure we're just staying within that map and not breaking
[2:45:34] the wall.
[2:45:35] Thank you, sir.
[2:45:37] I would just also like to thank you for being here both nights and speaking about something
[2:45:43] you're passionate about.
[2:45:44] And just as a general thing that I've wanted to say since we've had this discussion and
[2:45:48] I don't typically get to say a lot of opinions.
[2:45:51] We lose a lot of money at Fairy Park, and I think we should really look at that.
[2:45:58] say
[2:46:03] we should look at Barry Park's budget. I'm just saying I would have been sitting over there.
[2:46:08] I don't know what I'm saying. I've got parks on the list. That's part of the
[2:46:12] construction. There's parks that we don't use that we might have to sell to make money.
[2:46:16] If the voters want to sell Barry Park I mean what I'm saying. No that's why I bought my
[2:46:21] house where it is. So you want to sell Barry Park's paper library? No, she does not.
[2:46:26] Okay, I don't need it. But there are. I want them both and I'm willing to pay my
[2:46:42] I just want to finish my one thought because you guys get so many thoughts.
[2:46:48] My one thought is only that you could compare the library to any service that the city offers
[2:46:54] It's a service to the citizens with their money that everybody chooses to say we want this service
[2:47:02] So we said hey, what do you think about the library?
[2:47:06] We might have got some money from it because it sure does lose a lot of money
[2:47:09] It could have been hey, what do you think about these parks?
[2:47:12] They lose a lot of money. It could have been any number of different things
[2:47:15] But when people come down and come to these meetings and people send emails all day every day
[2:47:21] saying don't do this, we love the library, we support the library. That stuff
[2:47:26] matters more than any because in April of 2027 there's going to be four
[2:47:31] different people sitting up here and they might have different priorities and
[2:47:35] they might want to close the library, I don't know, they might want to sell
[2:47:38] Fairy Park. Again I don't know, but I mean it's serious like we have to have
[2:47:43] these kind of discussions to make sure that everybody's tax dollars work and
[2:47:47] And right now is a really tough and strange time.
[2:47:50] David and I, Mr. Councilman Schmidt and I have been up here for God knows how long, eleven
[2:47:55] years, ten years, something like that.
[2:47:58] This is the most, I can't speak for him, but this is the strangest budget cycle I've ever
[2:48:04] seen.
[2:48:04] And the most complicated, and it's the most challenging, and it's only going to continue
[2:48:09] to get more challenging.
[2:48:10] So I would just defend everybody that's been up here, whether they've said it the right
[2:48:16] way or not.
[2:48:16] Nobody has ill intention toward our city, toward our library, toward parks, or really anything.
[2:48:23] Everybody up here has just tried to offer items for discussion.
[2:48:27] And what can we do?
[2:48:29] How can we get to this number that we've got to get to?
[2:48:32] Ms. Gerenton brought up a great point.
[2:48:34] I thought earlier about what are the priorities, right?
[2:48:37] And that's what the discussion has to be.
[2:48:38] And when you kick the hornet's nest of saying maybe the library might not be a priority,
[2:48:44] You find out how many hornets will come out and say that's all hornets and that's don't mess with them, right?
[2:48:51] So would the same amount of people come out, we would have said hey, we might want to sell a very park to J.O.
[2:48:56] Because I bet he could build some really awesome townhouses there, you know what I'm saying?
[2:49:01] And then so how many people would come down here to this and say are you out of your mind?
[2:49:05] I can't hear that. The whole, everybody loves this park, it's a big park in the city, and then you find out what people are actually passionate about.
[2:49:12] When this discussion began originally, it was Councilman Peter saying, where were all these people when we talked about this 3% cap?
[2:49:20] Where was all that discussion?
[2:49:22] Where were all the people on the second year after the fire fee passed?
[2:49:27] And after Mr. Readwoods congratulated me on voting no against fire fee?
[2:49:31] Where were all the people that year on the second year when the fire fee passed?
[2:49:35] There was no one.
[2:49:37] Where was all the people when we lowered the military?
[2:49:40] Nobody came down here and said, don't do that, that's a bad move for the future.
[2:49:44] Nobody emailed us and said thank you for keeping my property tax as the same as everyone.
[2:49:49] Okay, thank you.
[2:49:49] Right, so I'm just saying, there's only certain moments in this city government's history where
[2:49:55] people actually care about it.
[2:49:57] And this is one of those moments and I'm thankful to see the amount of people in the community
[2:50:02] that cared about this particular importance.
[2:50:05] So thank you.
[2:50:06] It has been beautiful to see everyone come together and come and support something and I do think in general civic engagement is
[2:50:13] is lower than it used to be and hard and a lot of people just don't always know.
[2:50:19] And I don't know that it's even lower than it used to be. I don't know what it is. I only know my own experience because I'm sure a lot of people
[2:50:26] also are beautiful. I never came to a city council meeting before deciding for city council for the mayor.
[2:50:33] And I'll have done a phenomenal job with Harry Park as watched it for 11, 12 years and I saw what it was when I moved by it and went through that tornado near it and see where it has come in.
[2:50:46] With your baseball field.
[2:50:48] And yep, yep, I saw it when the dugouts got destroyed with that tornado and it is a beautiful park.
[2:50:54] I believe it's one of the best city parks anywhere.
[2:50:57] And our library is one of the best libraries here.
[2:51:00] Thank you very much.
[2:51:02] So
[2:51:08] now from the public which to speak on any item that has not spoken.
[2:51:14] I don't think you've spoken on my regular list.
[2:51:17] So you're good, go ahead.
[2:51:18] Thank you, my name again.
[2:51:19] Yes.
[2:51:20] Bobby Roe from Shalomar.
[2:51:21] Thank you.
[2:51:22] I would thank you all for allowing us to make public comments tonight.
[2:51:27] And also on the Communication Secretary for the World Mutual Library friends.
[2:51:32] and I want to take a moment to just let everybody know that we're a 501c3 nonprofit that does raise money in fundraisers and we spend all that money to help the library, but we need more people to come to those meetings, which are on the first Monday's usually of the month at 6 p.m. at the library.
[2:51:53] But I also want to address the topic of moving a library, Mr. Berry, Councilwoman DeBerry.
[2:51:59] Sorry.
[2:52:00] You did mention that you were interested in moving it into the neighborhood where I
[2:52:05] think it is Holmes and Jet Drive intersect, is that correct, or is it by the tennis center?
[2:52:08] The tennis center.
[2:52:09] The tennis center.
[2:52:10] The park.
[2:52:11] The tennis center.
[2:52:12] Okay.
[2:52:13] All right.
[2:52:14] Well, I love the idea of a bigger library, as you said, and I love the idea of more people
[2:52:20] being able to access it.
[2:52:21] Those are things that I think are all on board, making it bigger, making it more accessible.
[2:52:27] But I don't love the idea of moving it from downtown.
[2:52:29] And my reason is, the same I think as anybody else here, it's a great location, it's an
[2:52:35] icon for Fort Wong Beach, the Fort Wong Beach Library.
[2:52:38] You recognize that big tower, you know what it is, and people love going there.
[2:52:44] It makes a big difference in the community, and people come from very far away because
[2:52:48] it's easy to get to and it's easy to see on 98. They know where they're going and they're
[2:52:53] not afraid to go there. I also love the idea of solar so I would love to see more support
[2:52:59] on that and maybe a great opportunity for us is to instead of considering only solar
[2:53:05] on the roof would be considering a solar pathway to help guide people there and maybe make
[2:53:11] get a little bit safer for people to get there.
[2:53:15] And then my last point that I want to make is I really appreciate the time that you guys
[2:53:20] all took to read through all those emails.
[2:53:22] I'm super proud of for while I'm really showing out and saying, we love this library and
[2:53:28] we need it.
[2:53:29] And I recognize that you guys all did, saying many times that you support the library.
[2:53:34] And I hope that you continue too, and that when those tough cuts do come down the line
[2:53:38] that you do consider other things before that and keeping that library open where it is and
[2:53:45] funded enough to run those programs that make such a vital difference for the community.
[2:54:24] Well, just letting you know that we have more than just a glass of Jackson and ferry and
[2:54:30] art and…
[2:54:32] Art of town.
[2:54:34] Yeah, I just mentioned on the biggest.
[2:54:36] We're going in.
[2:54:38] Other way.
[2:54:39] All right, we're moving on to item 5.4.
[2:54:45] Outdoors and Sport providers.
[2:54:47] Mr. Davis.
[2:54:48] As we talked about this, we'll have the previous workshops and council.
[2:54:52] So, I wanted to keep it in the budget.
[2:54:56] I was under the assumption that I would not be able to find a third-party provider with
[2:55:02] that would not charge exorbitant amounts.
[2:55:09] PSO has stepped up and said they will do it for the exact same, no charge, it's the same
[2:55:14] vendors we use, and I did take some liberties with this one thinking it would help.
[2:55:19] I've already cut this out of the budget, but I am bringing you back for counsel to say no, keep it in, whatever.
[2:55:26] But if that 160 isn't, I can't, I'm going to hurry to 60.
[2:55:32] So the fact that we have a local sports provider that's offered me to do it for zero profit.
[2:55:38] I think that solves everybody's issue and it helps with our spending cap, right?
[2:55:43] That's what we've done with the senior program, so that's going to be going fine.
[2:55:48] And that is what we are going to do with the daycare, African child care.
[2:55:53] So Dana doesn't punch me in the mouth, even if you're calling it daycare, child care.
[2:55:59] So I just want to bring that forward.
[2:56:01] And they are here to speak, because I thought I was super cool that somebody would step up.
[2:56:04] I didn't tell them under the scenario since we would have to go live on October 1.
[2:56:11] I'm okay with not putting out the bid for the first year, but next year we'll go out for a
[2:56:15] competitive bid of zero profit. So, the claims that I'm hearing, oh dear God, you're doing something
[2:56:22] that benefits being in windy rigs, they already have the contract. They're just expanding the
[2:56:29] services they provide. So, nobody's benefiting in any capacity, but questions, thoughts, comments,
[2:56:36] and I can see there here some questions for Mr. Davis from the board.
[2:56:45] He and Sir Comrade Washington were going to be able to be here for the next year,
[2:56:49] we'll be up time.
[2:56:51] Anyone actually, I mean, do we need to take any action on this?
[2:56:59] Probably because he told me to take it out last time, or to leave it in, asking me to take it out.
[2:57:04] Make sure the group take out a budget check. Motion by Councilman Geter, seconded by Councilman Schmidt to remove it from the vote.
[2:57:13] Thank you for stepping up and helping the city out.
[2:57:18] I'm sure it will be just as professional as it has in the facts.
[2:57:21] We'll move forward for the guests and we'll get next year.
[2:57:24] So operations wise, nothing's going to change as well. Sean's going to oversee all those programs. They're just basically going to be a pass through for the bills.
[2:57:31] Super nice, right?
[2:57:32] Thank you.
[2:57:34] Yeah, I appreciate it.
[2:57:35] Yeah, Danny and Sean working together on this.
[2:57:37] I mean, very seamless transition for the end user,
[2:57:39] which is the kid, which also buys some time for Sean
[2:57:43] and Danny and Jason and company to collaborate
[2:57:46] as we prepare each year in each budget process
[2:57:49] and what the future of Brexport, as well as,
[2:57:52] in this case, specifically, is this, like, baseball
[2:57:57] or all outsourcing, all sports providers,
[2:57:59] All those awards providers, and we're talking you, soccer, everything?
[2:58:04] Yeah.
[2:58:05] Okay.
[2:58:06] Everything that we currently offer, they're going to buy the T-shirt, they're going to
[2:58:11] buy the trophy.
[2:58:12] They're going to buy the trophy, and whatever is right, the same coaches.
[2:58:17] Only difference will be the fingerprint.
[2:58:21] Right?
[2:58:21] So that's just a pass.
[2:58:22] But there's no mark up there.
[2:58:24] Again, thank you.
[2:58:25] Dan and John for stepping up and doing this.
[2:58:27] I don't know where else he's pointing at.
[2:58:29] Yeah, there's somebody else I can...
[2:58:30] Oh, thank you.
[2:58:32] I didn't see her behind there as well.
[2:58:34] Mr. Riggs, thank you, too.
[2:58:36] Anyone from a public who's just speaking on this much?
[2:58:40] Mr. Lee Lewis.
[2:58:44] James Lee Lewis, kind of a circle for one beach.
[2:58:47] I know a guy that has an affiliation
[2:58:50] with a little league tackle football team,
[2:58:54] asking for a friend here, but is there any path
[2:58:58] to where this team could be, you guys know who I'm talking about.
[2:59:03] You know, you get two flavors, right?
[2:59:05] So, if you came into the city, we need to run the numbers
[2:59:08] because now that it's outsourced, it's not an issue.
[2:59:12] So, you have to go through that program for them to pay the sports providers
[2:59:17] or, last year, you were in the field whether it was Chester Crew
[2:59:20] and I can't remember.
[2:59:21] Oh, we had it on Fridays, but we were using the field that's not there
[2:59:24] anymore.
[2:59:25] or the Ed Browns, the Ed Brown Homes, or what do you call it?
[2:59:29] Yeah.
[2:59:29] Where did we, what did he use it over the last year or something?
[2:59:33] No.
[2:59:33] Yeah, this is our first year at Oakland.
[2:59:35] I think he was Chester.
[2:59:37] So he was Chester on Fridays and the Ed Brown
[2:59:39] feels the rest of the week.
[2:59:40] I think when he came back to me and said,
[2:59:42] your business model was better for you to remain the way you were.
[2:59:47] So if we want to sit down and figure out a way to work with this other program,
[2:59:51] I mean, I'm down for anything.
[2:59:53] But you see how it's like it's our current sports providers, so anything new was not introduced.
[3:00:01] I have a company that I don't want to teach sailboats or competitive rolling or something, I don't know, I don't know anything about boats, but I promise you since I live in the water.
[3:00:32] If they're feeling you all are using this near Herbert field, isn't it?
[3:00:38] We're at Oakland.
[3:00:39] We're by the...
[3:00:40] I know you saw him plays.
[3:00:41] I thought he played for you all, but he had mentioned that because he had mentioned
[3:00:44] about a field of practice, and they were using something near Herbert.
[3:00:51] That would be us.
[3:00:52] We're behind Home Depot.
[3:00:54] I don't think he's confusing behind Home Depot.
[3:00:57] I know.
[3:00:57] Yeah.
[3:00:58] I'm going to see you at the Battle of the Bridge, right?
[3:01:01] But yes sir.
[3:01:01] Okay.
[3:01:03] September 26th.
[3:01:04] Mayor Frank's is a great guy, 364 days a year.
[3:01:08] But circle your calendar.
[3:01:09] September 26th.
[3:01:10] He's me.
[3:01:11] All right.
[3:01:14] Let me know that.
[3:01:16] If there's a field somewhere near the curve field, wait.
[3:01:21] I can't think of one of the teams in the process in that.
[3:01:24] I look into it.
[3:01:25] I can't think of what it is.
[3:01:26] You know, you know, Reverend William Lovejoy is that he was trying to convert the area behind
[3:01:31] his church to a park, is that what you might be thinking of?
[3:01:35] First behalf of the church, that's a lot of field.
[3:01:37] He has a big field behind his church, Trade Goodwin was actually looking at it because it was
[3:01:41] going to be a county project, but he was trying to make that into a park.
[3:01:46] I'm wondering if that's what you're thinking of.
[3:01:48] I don't know.
[3:01:48] That's closer to Herbert, but I was thinking about the practicing for the kids, football.
[3:01:55] I don't know if you can find out what team you're going to want to play for the bucks.
[3:02:04] I'll ask Randy because Randy knows my last word.
[3:02:14] I pretend to know what Randy does now so I'll ask you three days.
[3:02:19] Thank you Mr. Lee Woods.
[3:02:21] If anyone else in public wishes to speak on this issue, do you have a sticker?
[3:02:25] Nice sticker.
[3:02:27] So just for a little clarification, so the first year, there is someone that's willing
[3:02:31] to do it for no profit, price stays the same for families.
[3:02:35] After the first year, it goes out for bid.
[3:02:37] If no one's willing to do it for no profit next year, then either prices go up for families
[3:02:45] or we are out of the sports business altogether.
[3:02:54] And I just want to clarify one thing, you said there's no markup on their costs, right?
[3:03:00] So there is going to be a slight change because we're not paying for the print of the
[3:03:04] coaches.
[3:03:07] But hopefully they'll like to do it again and they'll bid.
[3:03:11] Who knows, maybe you just did a giant apple that you might hate next year.
[3:03:23] I tried to talk him into a 20-year contract, so the only reason why we even came up is because
[3:03:30] the state now needs a class 2 background check, which is quite a bit more money than
[3:03:37] the class 1.
[3:03:38] That was the only reason why we should go up a little bit, and that's not only reason.
[3:03:44] It would have been our cost anyway. It's a class to where they got
[3:03:51] So that's just one thing that's why
[3:03:55] Thank you sir
[3:03:58] So you're just saying that the price is going to be relatively low but next year if they're like when we want to do this
[3:04:05] We're not making enough money
[3:04:07] next year
[3:04:14] Yes, we want to cut it, and then we're done.
[3:04:17] I'm done.
[3:04:17] Next year, we don't have it.
[3:04:19] It's clarifying right now.
[3:04:21] Don't thank you for the library.
[3:04:23] That's a problem.
[3:04:23] I'm going to come and thank you next year.
[3:04:25] That's a next year problem on the structure of this year.
[3:04:27] This was my coupon for your 100% right.
[3:04:31] I mean, it could be whatever next year.
[3:04:33] And I would also like to add, as well, my thanks
[3:04:36] to the Danny and Wendy and Tiffany
[3:04:40] for bringing this forward and being willing to do this.
[3:04:43] just because I just put out when you brought this up before as being very against anything
[3:04:47] that was going to cause more money out of the pocket of the residents for their kids
[3:04:52] at place for it's I think it's just so important, youth sports are so important and you know
[3:04:56] city leagues are so affordable and it does have so many kids out there and we do our staff
[3:05:03] does such a great job of running all of those programs and there's so many people involved
[3:05:08] the map. So this is the best case scenario. Again, I don't live in a magic world where I think that
[3:05:14] you guys are going to live forever and want to do that forever. So we and the City Council are
[3:05:20] going to have to figure out some things to do that's going for. Hopefully you might be a part of that
[3:05:25] if it all goes well. We'll see. But I appreciate you all stepping up and doing what you do.
[3:05:32] Anyone else in the public wants to comment on this motion?
[3:05:36] see none counsel you you wanted up yes we got to move motion in a second then
[3:05:43] do it we're trying to find a way to say center miss branch up to tell us he's
[3:05:52] councilman Walker abandoned people for wall beach and left the budget being
[3:05:58] Oh, it's unanimous. All right. Six. Five. Oh, Mr. Browning also abandoned his constituents, I see.
[3:06:13] All right. Seven and five PM that brings us to item 5.5, CPR training for citizens as presented by Mr. Jeater.
[3:06:23] I didn't do disgusted and unbalanced. That's already in there, but if you have something more out of it.
[3:06:28] Now, kind of like I said earlier, we'll put as much stuff in there as we can through everything through the next two meetings.
[3:06:34] And they actually got to balance out, but I would put that up there with, we had to get away from here and cry.
[3:06:38] I was like, well, I really don't get rid of it. It's your heartstrings.
[3:06:41] Two weeks ago, we had some like, I'm in here crying, saying I'm maybe almost out of it.
[3:06:45] I didn't have this training from the fire department, and then it's the accident.
[3:06:48] True.
[3:06:48] We gain importance.
[3:06:54] So Mr. Davis, where, like, with this last motion, the Councilman, G2M, Councilman Schmidt seconded to remove that 160,000, that kind of put things like this back in the party.
[3:07:06] I assume that this made logic.
[3:07:09] Okay, I would have to add that back in.
[3:07:13] Now that means, again, I don't have to recognize, so I think we'll see where it plays,
[3:07:17] but, and again, the watch group specifically said, get rid of it, but that's the political
[3:07:25] action committee that you are going to ask us to agree to it, okay, got you.
[3:07:30] Just want to make sure everybody knows the terms we were talking about, a lot of people
[3:07:39] All right, so that brings us to item 5.6,
[3:07:42] the parking lot at 164 Miracle Strip Parkway Southeast.
[3:07:46] Mr. Jeter, one of this for discussion.
[3:07:48] Yes, sir, as we restructure the golf course of race fees,
[3:07:51] as we've talked about restructure
[3:07:52] and put the solar panel roofs on the library
[3:07:54] to save utilities, we may need to restructure parks
[3:07:57] and rigs and excel parks, very far.
[3:08:00] Now this is yet, but we do have 164 Miracle Strip Parkway.
[3:08:05] brought it up because it is working down down that we have paid over the years in the past
[3:08:11] to pay and it can be expensive and it's a maintenance budget. So just trying to bring in some
[3:08:20] additional into our fund balance, I think. The best way to do the next three of these,
[3:08:24] I know there should be over the years to be on some other ones, but I don't know what we need
[3:08:29] to do in the next two meetings if we're going to be that far at the red, what would be your
[3:08:38] I don't want to make a vote tonight with not a full council to circle us a property of just yet so how do you this for me is a revenue issue
[3:08:47] It's not going to help me balance the budget or address the cap. I did want to have a whole workshop just the parking lot just makes sense
[3:08:55] right? I don't need to maintain that. If you get asked me to get the broker's opinion
[3:09:00] and reached out to Mr. Bethlehem who said between 420 and 450 for that parking lot, but
[3:09:06] he couldn't have also said there's really no comps to compare it to. So I have to get some
[3:09:09] praisels at the other side at Holmes Boulevard where the tennis courts are. That was just under
[3:09:15] a million like 960, which is best guess. And Councilman Schmidt asked for Elder Services
[3:09:21] and the quote I had from the county was five, you know, five sixty-two ish.
[3:09:26] I think so.
[3:09:27] And it doesn't matter.
[3:09:28] Just in case I've been able to serve closely with the property,
[3:09:31] it's down on the bottom of the square.
[3:09:32] Oh, got enough.
[3:09:32] Yeah.
[3:09:33] So that's, we can go through the two readings, the whole thing.
[3:09:35] Yeah.
[3:09:35] It's by the whole thing.
[3:09:36] Yeah.
[3:09:37] I just brought up the long year because there had been a bad,
[3:09:40] as we used that we could maybe lower our maintenance budget.
[3:09:43] For sure.
[3:09:43] We should increase our current balance and also put things on the patch
[3:09:47] We increase our risk every single year and doing that much like the library
[3:09:52] There's people I've had some people talk about the genocide over there
[3:09:56] Whether it can be developed or hybrid
[3:09:58] People in the community tell me a community garden is in that
[3:10:02] So I don't want to rush any decisions tonight.
[3:10:04] I think we do make that surplus property workshop in October
[3:10:08] I remember maybe we have to have that one here.
[3:10:11] No rushes.
[3:10:12] I don't know if it's really going on.
[3:10:14] Hell, this year's the first one.
[3:10:16] But it would go a long way towards paying back
[3:10:18] a cemetery, etc.
[3:10:20] Yeah, and I want to all be grouped together
[3:10:21] so that people can understand.
[3:10:23] We get, it's all like, y'all got to think outside the box.
[3:10:27] Here up there, balance the budget.
[3:10:29] So it's like, we're thinking outside the box
[3:10:30] in a million different ways.
[3:10:32] We do part of the ways.
[3:10:33] How does the community have to promise you
[3:10:35] if we request an agenda.
[3:10:37] I don't think we can park it.
[3:10:39] We sit there or the landing.
[3:10:40] I mean, here will be five out of people here to speak.
[3:10:46] So, after a budget season, can we put it on that?
[3:10:48] I don't want to, I don't want to,
[3:10:52] yeah, I think you think we've discussed it.
[3:10:54] Any better after November's opening?
[3:10:56] Yeah, after the election, that would, cause I wouldn't.
[3:11:00] So, with November's out, the election goes, maybe in November,
[3:11:02] I will bring up the possible sale or, or non-nation,
[3:11:06] the circle's probably, will that give us time?
[3:11:08] We bring up in November and we can do a workshop
[3:11:11] or bring it to council, whatever properties we all have in it.
[3:11:14] that I can disemper what we have to have to go through the surplus property process and
[3:11:20] make a decision.
[3:11:20] And this bore, you put them all in the chopping block, get the vote before the last meeting
[3:11:25] in March.
[3:11:25] Yes.
[3:11:26] I don't want to put them all in here to be gone.
[3:11:27] Yes.
[3:11:28] Okay.
[3:11:29] So we'll wait for the river, just find my wife's just thinking the land swap we just did.
[3:11:32] We had the surplus left.
[3:11:34] And then, yeah.
[3:11:35] I do.
[3:11:35] So I don't want to be more uncertain of someone else vote on the demand far away, do this
[3:11:39] And we don't have to sell it if we put it in surplus, right?
[3:11:42] So that's also the process.
[3:11:46] You'd actually have to find the price surplus a couple of months ago.
[3:11:50] I'm not trying to have the surplus in place, but there's a lot of times.
[3:11:54] I want to ask some questions.
[3:11:56] Well, I mean, it would be fair to say that while none of these properties could,
[3:12:00] you know, account for a budget like that of recurrent costs,
[3:12:06] They would raise money that could potentially defer recurring costs, so they have solar panels on it.
[3:12:14] You are correct, sir.
[3:12:15] Councilman Schmidt.
[3:12:17] I think we can, we've been 5.8 as well in this conversation, because it's very similar concept.
[3:12:24] Because we technically haven't closed on that property.
[3:12:27] Correct, correct.
[3:12:28] So we got the contract signed with the land swap with county from a work flow standpoint
[3:12:33] It's still in the closing process
[3:12:37] What's the next step to begin that long-due process of
[3:12:42] surplusing
[3:12:44] Any of these three properties, what would be next?
[3:12:47] You have to direct the base. He surpluses and then move with that. How is it?
[3:12:53] Inordinates do that and that way there's how I'm in front of me right now
[3:12:56] there's a mark actually you have to direct us to do it then actually a 30-day period
[3:13:04] where market day as the city's contracted broker will survey the market you know test
[3:13:12] the market for properties and then it comes back and we can present over a few ordinances the
[3:13:17] There's a whole thing with signage to it, there is.
[3:13:20] You're welcome.
[3:13:21] I don't know, there's no signage.
[3:13:23] No signage, you know.
[3:13:24] If there is, then I violated some law.
[3:13:27] No, there was.
[3:13:28] Yeah, there was.
[3:13:30] Not the ordinance was.
[3:13:32] Are you thinking that the notice of development sign, the news?
[3:13:35] No, obviously.
[3:13:36] There's process last time.
[3:13:37] I asked where we answered signage before I think there is.
[3:13:42] So with the Mr. Davis mentioned in his work, Mr. Barnes,
[3:13:45] terms, the lengthy surplus due process, right? I mean, there's so many public meetings
[3:13:50] we would have if we were to take the next step in surplus in these three properties,
[3:13:56] at least two, three, four type of opportunities to discuss either the usage or what possibly
[3:14:02] could be done with these properties, but also sensitive to going through that long process
[3:14:09] and maybe making a selection of proposals based off of different applicants that made one
[3:14:14] different things with the property. I want to be a part of that process to possibly awarding
[3:14:21] the applicant on the different proposals. So there's a window of time between now and
[3:14:29] April 1. I know Mr. Judy mentioned 5.6 and 5.7 but the elderly services I'll just own, you know,
[3:14:37] I went with City Manager and met with the Commission and County Administrator or Mr.
[3:14:45] Coffee and tried to discuss, you know, what a land swap and those kind of things brought
[3:14:51] it back in front of the board, and here we are now.
[3:14:53] I think it's really important, and again, I can't speak for leaders from the 5.6 and 5.7,
[3:14:59] but I really...
[3:15:00] So we want to be a part of the process on what happens at that Illinois services. Partial. So with that being said, I'm going to enter, I'm going to throw out a motion. Let's, let's start.
[3:15:12] I'm going to ask your question, please, put your motion in.
[3:15:14] Yeah, absolutely.
[3:15:15] Do you have a property that you have it by swapping with the county?
[3:15:20] So we actually have already swapped with the county.
[3:15:22] Oh, I thought you were saying you swapped with the county.
[3:15:24] You heard about it.
[3:15:25] The Incas dried.
[3:15:26] We swapped some property by the fairgrounds that the county wanted.
[3:15:31] That's right.
[3:15:31] Okay.
[3:15:32] That's got to go.
[3:15:33] So now that's up there on 5.8 former elderly services building.
[3:15:37] We haven't closed on it.
[3:15:39] That was a question I was asking Mr. Burns.
[3:15:40] We haven't closed on the property, but we've signed the contract with the county to do the land swap.
[3:15:47] Now from a growth management standpoint, there's no data restrictions,
[3:15:50] reverted causes, or nothing. The county said we can do what we want with that piece of property.
[3:15:55] To sell it, whether it's to go to redevelop and fund the city hall expense,
[3:16:00] whether it's to have some growth management control of what's going inside of Midtown.
[3:16:05] Do we want town homes?
[3:16:07] Yes, no. You know, it's inside the CRA district.
[3:16:10] There's a lot of things we can do with this former
[3:16:13] elderly services building, so I'm going to start that process.
[3:16:17] I just want to get into it too.
[3:16:18] Do you want to make a motion?
[3:16:20] I do, but there's some questions.
[3:16:21] I'll entertain questions that Debbie had as well as it
[3:16:23] looks like Bryce has some of them.
[3:16:25] I was just going to close the gate on it.
[3:16:27] It'll be up.
[3:16:27] It's going through the process.
[3:16:29] I can tell you right now, that every contact with their
[3:16:31] current, they're working in the final title commitment.
[3:16:35] Initially, it's you saying we might have been able to do it
[3:16:37] and the month would change it this month, and this month it is all we've done everything
[3:16:42] on our end, we have to do, they would play them in the final.
[3:16:46] So would we be better just to put it, since it has nothing to do with the village or the
[3:16:50] budget also on here, but would it be better to put it, say can we put it on the council meeting,
[3:16:58] immediately after closing, once we know it's our whether we close next week and it's
[3:17:02] on the first meeting in September.
[3:17:04] We've closed in September.
[3:17:05] It's not the makeup option to do that.
[3:17:06] What, I'm happy to say that when we attack you
[3:17:08] or when we just, we go every morning.
[3:17:10] They didn't do it.
[3:17:10] So, Jason, what are you doing?
[3:17:12] I'm saying that when you turn,
[3:17:13] I personally don't care what the public care is.
[3:17:16] We're still not getting it.
[3:17:18] Yeah, we have to do it.
[3:17:18] We've got to just stop it, yeah.
[3:17:20] And if we spend that on the LVC already meeting,
[3:17:22] so before we get that one,
[3:17:23] I'm going to prove it so it'd be better to say
[3:17:24] maybe I don't need to do this
[3:17:25] if we have a full council and then say,
[3:17:28] we've been doing it.
[3:17:28] It's our property here, so we choose to do it at best.
[3:17:30] So you want to be close to the next house meeting that would be discontent of the elderly service
[3:17:45] We can but a lot of things can be moved around in the agenda a lot of other parties come up
[3:18:04] No, I'm still working on that but I should know the path next week but definitely before
[3:18:11] next meeting.
[3:18:12] And these are great questions because you know kind of put that more into it as we go
[3:18:15] through this surplus process and like Mr. Jr. mentioned you know after we close on it bring
[3:18:20] it up on the agenda and I got confidence it sounds like staff is going to put it on
[3:18:23] the agenda right after it closes but like I'd like to see some proposals possibly from
[3:18:30] an applicant where we may not have to put the cost into demo. We don't know until we
[3:18:35] find out what's inside the proposals. But that kind of stuff where if we get a
[3:18:40] quota or if we get cost back or the cost of the bay or the cost of to clean it up is a lot
[3:18:46] much a lot more than what we budget or expected. Let's see what possibly a new buyer could
[3:18:52] do to avoid us from having to pay the cost of the demo. It is a great question.
[3:18:56] Well, we need to do that. I've got to do it to pay cheaper and to take a do than all that as
[3:19:02] best of stuff. If you're down, then you need to know it actually probably to press the price quite a bit,
[3:19:07] marketing it and going in there, then knowing that there's actually the best of stairs,
[3:19:11] I think no one has a level. Well, yeah, I would imagine they would want it. For sure.
[3:19:15] I could not sell a government owned property that had, maybe that was a local ordinance or whatever,
[3:19:21] I had to do the abatement before I could sell it. So I don't know if that's a state thing or
[3:19:25] I don't think that's not stated, they know that it's a liability.
[3:19:28] And we may need to do that.
[3:19:30] So these are the kind of good questions
[3:19:31] that hopefully we can chew on these.
[3:19:33] But I want to go through this long surplus due process
[3:19:36] so that ultimately we can hear feedback from the community,
[3:19:39] we can hear feedback from applicants
[3:19:41] that may want to do something with the land
[3:19:42] and ultimately make a decision before it.
[3:19:45] And from one thing, too, it's maybe, I wonder if we could
[3:19:49] have maybe staff be able to do a little research on that building
[3:19:54] because of the injustice and we don't know what's really
[3:19:56] aimed at it.
[3:19:57] You know, once you start having things around there,
[3:20:00] that's what I mean.
[3:20:01] Where I'm going with that is, I'm wondering if it could be possibly
[3:20:05] a designated Brownsfield area where you can have money
[3:20:10] available to help clean it up because the city is not
[3:20:13] would not be involved in the county owned.
[3:20:15] So, you can probably get some Brownsfield revenue
[3:20:20] of the county.
[3:20:24] So I'll look at it, but some of the feedback that I've got is when you do that, it might
[3:20:29] impact the property values of the surrounding areas, so they can, their property values
[3:20:34] could lower, but I'll look at it.
[3:20:36] And then here we can increase it too, and they can also help with your business as you get involved.
[3:20:42] But ultimately, we get a lot of investment.
[3:20:44] Yeah, I agree.
[3:20:45] We got to do something.
[3:20:46] I think it's now large and it's got its best.
[3:20:48] So, yeah, and there's some in the community as well that express interest in, you know,
[3:20:54] looking at building a city hall on that property, as it's very centrally located right
[3:21:00] in the middle of our city, you know, if the city were to own this lock here, the city
[3:21:05] all current sits on that lock would obviously be a lock more valuable to somebody in the
[3:21:11] open market place, so, you know, the cost of building an actual city hall building on a
[3:21:16] lesser expensive law could be offset by a property that's a property that's
[3:21:22] right here so some people in the community suggest something that's gonna be
[3:21:31] discussed. I'm looking forward to more discussions on that. Absolutely. Any additional
[3:21:35] discussions from the council on 9 and 5.6, 5.7 or 5.9.
[3:21:42] See you tomorrow.
[3:21:44] A journey.