[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.]

[4:00] It's a workshop agenda, special session of the City Commission, City of Kissimmee. On today's day, August 25, starting now at 5.30.
[4:13] Thank you Madam Mayor. Commissioner is good evening and thank you again for your time today. Good news is we, in having our first two budget workshops, we were able to narrow down the things that we needed to do in order to balance the budget. I'm pleased to present to you today a
[4:34] the balance budget request that does very minimal damage in terms of significant cuts in order to balance,
[4:41] and does not ask the commission to increase any revenue streams in order to balance either.
[4:47] The theme of the budget is propel.
[4:50] Originally, I was going to call it survival, because I really didn't think that we were going to be able to do much in this budget to balance it.
[4:59] But the good news is is through the hard work of the departments and the finance and budget team we were able to get to a place that we're able to propel the city forward and meeting your objectives as a commission and pursuing those initiatives and projects that are important to move the city forward while at the same time ensuring that the city budget is well within the means of our revenue streams that are before us.
[5:28] This year we proposed a budget that maintains a millage of 4.653 for the 18th year in a row.
[5:37] What you will see is that the total proposed budget is almost $322 million.
[5:42] And what we had adopted last year was $310 million.
[5:47] But the real story lies in the general fund, and that's where we see the biggest issues.
[5:51] General fund, as you know, is funded about a third in by property taxes, about 50% through utility revenues from KUA into a water authority.
[6:03] And then the remainder of funding comes from various sources, including service charges, state distributions, utility taxes, franchise fees.
[6:13] And what you'll see with the General Fund is that we actually are decreasing the total General Fund from last year by around a percent.
[6:22] The good news is as we project at the end of this upcoming budget year at the end of 2027 we'll be able to maintain a 31% reserve
[6:34] even though we are projecting to dip into those reserves by about $5 million for this upcoming budget year in order to help us balance.
[6:42] So it's actually less, I think the last workshop, we had proposed around an $8 million dip into reserves.
[6:49] And we were able to reduce that through a number of measures.
[6:53] And as well, we saw revenues that looked like they were a little bit better than we originally had forecasted.
[7:00] So this budget, where it does become a little painful, is that we do not propose any new positions for fiscal year 2027.
[7:10] And in lieu of, to the best that we can, we can afford to do this, in lieu of doing
[7:17] any position elimination, we're going to try our best to carry forward with the hiring
[7:24] freeze through the fiscal year, say for those positions that are critical in nature.
[7:30] And if we can keep approximately 20 to 25 of those positions vacant from general fund for
[7:38] the year we should be able to avoid dipping into the reserve any further.
[7:44] In addition, we have what we've done with this budget is with regard to personnel as we
[7:50] have proposed a 3% raise for our workforce.
[7:53] That does not include the police collective bargaining team, which were in the process of negotiating
[8:00] and likely that will be a higher increase in order to keep pace with the salaries that
[8:05] the sheriff and St. Cloud are negotiating at this time.
[8:09] This budget also takes all of our capital expenditures out of general fund and places it within
[8:17] the sales tax fund.
[8:20] That was necessary because of the flat revenues that we're seeing that are feeding the general
[8:26] fund itself.
[8:28] Because of that, there will be several projects that we won't be able to pursue this upcoming
[8:33] year.
[8:34] But the good news is, is those projects that were part of the commission's priorities will continue to move forward as well as those critical projects that we feel are necessary in order to mitigate things like storm order issues and flooding as well as traffic signal and safety issues and resurfacing for the city, which we've been able to do a real good job over the last year and a half in Paving 49 miles of repaving 49 miles of streets.
[9:02] With that, I'm going to turn over the floor to Finance Director,
[9:10] Xavier Richie, who will give you a little bit more in depth overview of the budget.
[9:15] And then following that, we will go through each of the department's pages at the pleasure of the commission.
[9:23] It's
[9:27] a good evening, Madam Mayor, commissioners.
[9:30] So the GFOA did a survey of over 1,100 finance professionals across the nation on the biggest
[9:37] challenges facing governments that they foresee and what you see on the screen are the top
[9:42] answers that they selected.
[9:44] So you'll see funding revenue pressures that's related to revenue on being less than expenditures
[9:51] lagging behind. Technology and cyber security came in second on the list.
[9:56] Just think ERPs and cyber threats, federal and state uncertainty.
[10:00] Just think mandates coming down from federal and the state level as well as unstable funding stream.
[10:08] So those grants that we've been pursuing, it's unsure whether or not they'll keep coming into what level.
[10:14] Staffing and retention, just think turnover, staff retirements and
[10:18] talent shortages and then inflation and cost and that's pretty much what we're seeing here and that's why we chose the theme propel
[10:26] Partly driven by a lot of the drivers that you've you've seen on that that previous screen
[10:30] But we wanted to make sure this budget represented our commitment to turn uncertainty into momentum and to continue moving the city forward
[10:39] So the city's overall budget for fiscal year 2027 proposed is just under 322 million
[10:48] That's a 3.6% increase over last year's budget.
[10:53] So keep in mind as the budget grows, it may mean that reserves are growing with the budget.
[10:57] So our $322 million budget does include just over $92 million of reserves.
[11:03] That's up from the $74 million in reserves that we saw last year.
[11:07] However, this is spread out across all funds.
[11:10] So general fund actually stayed flat with our amount of reserves.
[11:13] the reserve increases, they're actually concentrated in our mobility fee fund,
[11:19] stormwater and the building fund.
[11:24] So you've seen this slide before but
[11:26] repetition makes for familiarity. A couple weeks ago we certified the proposed
[11:31] millage at 4.6253 as Mike said. That rate is what appeared on trim notices that
[11:37] went out to property owners a couple of weeks ago as well. So that rate will still
[11:42] keep us in the low percentile of the state, but it'll also now bring in just over $33
[11:47] million in property taxes for next year. Now, that amount, although it is a 7.7% increase
[11:53] over what we saw in values last year, it still isn't enough to cover the police and fire budgets.
[12:00] Both of those budgets combined are $70 million. It would be just enough to cover a fire.
[12:08] And so with our recommended operating mileage rate being 4.6253,
[12:13] the calculation for a rollback rate is boils down to actually 4.5144.
[12:19] So if we were to adopt that, that would be roughly $800,000 less that we would see.
[12:24] For fiscal year 2027, we saw a net new taxable value of just over $255 million throughout the city.
[12:33] We also saw reassessments in new taxable value for a total of almost $542 million,
[12:39] dollars bringing us to an overall assessed value of $7.5 billion
[12:45] citywide. And so if you look at the chart on the screen, you'll see from 2022 to
[12:48] 2027, we averaged about $193 million in net new taxable values throughout the
[12:55] city. 2026 was really an outlier with that $355 million jump. We had a so
[13:01] $355 million in net new taxable value. And then if you compare that to the
[13:05] reassessments, we had $763 million in reassessments last year compared to the $541 this year, but the average being about $193 million since 2022, that equates over to $897,000.
[13:22] So if you put that in terms of the budget of an increase, it would be like a 2% increase for police personnel.
[13:27] So although it is a majority of our budget, it doesn't substantially cover increases in costs.
[13:33] So our overall budget for the general fund,
[13:39] I just need to say proposed, our overall proposed budget for the general fund for fiscal year of 2027 is 159,559,219 that does include $38 million of reserves.
[13:55] And so on the revenue side, we anticipate $116.4 million, that's a 4.9% increase from last fiscal year.
[14:04] And a lot of that increase is made up of our core revenues.
[14:07] So think Avallorum, KUA, Toho, and our newly implemented fire assessment fee.
[14:13] Our projected expenditures are, as Mike said, 1% less than what we adopted last year.
[14:19] That's $887,000 less than what we adopted last year for $121.5 million.
[14:26] Now, the map is a little bit unforgiving because you'll see that we are drawing on reserves
[14:30] as Mike said, as evidenced by the $5.1 million being in red.
[14:35] So there is a $5.1 million reliance on fund balance for fiscal year 2027,
[14:41] which is not a sustainable approach as we are leaving out capital and no
[14:47] additional personnel being added to the budget.
[14:53] So fiscal year 27 cost drivers, we show this slide on all of our workshops that we've
[15:00] The story remains the same with a lot of the cost drivers being concentrated in that personnel category with pension coming in second at the 15% increase for next year and then health care is seeing a 12.9% increase jumping up to about $20,000 per employee for next year. And so on the previous slide I showed that our revenue was increasing about 4.9% from last year. That equates over to about a $5.4 million increase in revenue.
[15:29] to fund last year. However, if you break it out, there's $1.4 million going where the
[15:35] values increase in the CRAs. So that has to be transferred over to the trust funds.
[15:40] And then in the pension realm, there's $1.8 million increase related to the general fund.
[15:46] And on the healthcare side, there's $1.8 million of an increase related to the general fund.
[15:52] So that right there eats up that revenue increase that we saw of the $5 million. And so that's
[15:58] That's why you see a stipend into reserves because if you just concentrate it to those categories right there, you'll see why there's no funding left really for capital or operating increases.
[16:12] And so we'll shift away from our general fund and talk a little bit about our utility funds.
[16:18] A lot of this has not changed from a couple of weeks ago when we presented.
[16:24] So our utility funds, the city has three of them.
[16:26] They operate much like a business.
[16:27] And so that's why we charge fees.
[16:30] So our storm water fund, we are projected to generate approximately $8.1 million next fiscal
[16:35] year.
[16:35] That's an increase from last fiscal year of $7.6 million.
[16:40] The current ERU per month is now $11.39, that's 30 cents higher than what it was last year
[16:46] due to CPI increases.
[16:48] And there are no new positions planned for this fund.
[16:52] The biggest capital improvements plan for this fund are mill run and North Kiss and
[16:56] and we drainage improvements as well as a street sweeper for fiscal year 27.
[17:00] So our Solid Waste Fund is projected to generate approximately $8.25 million in fiscal year 27.
[17:06] That's up from the $8 million that we saw last year with the current rate per month for
[17:12] residential at $2,503 per month that's up from the $24.92 that we charge this current year.
[17:19] And so this fund is using reserves to balance but it's to fund one time capital purchases.
[17:23] There's a dump truck and a garbage truck and that fund, however, no new positions are
[17:29] planned for this fund either.
[17:31] And lastly, the smallest of our enterprise funds, the airport fund, small but mighty.
[17:37] It is projected to generate approximately $3.1 million in fiscal year 27.
[17:42] I mean, it's heavily supported by grant matches and landing fees and no new positions are
[17:47] planned for this fund as well.
[17:48] with the biggest capital program in this fund,
[17:51] being our airport tower and taxiway rehab project.
[17:57] So aside from the general fund, three enterprise funds,
[18:01] the city has a good number of special revenue funds.
[18:05] The biggest ones are presented here on the screen.
[18:08] So our local option gas tax funds,
[18:10] those funds are restricted to transportation,
[18:12] related maintenance and construction.
[18:15] That fund is projected to have $3.1 million
[18:17] dollars in revenue generated next year. The revenue is trending flat from what we are projected
[18:24] to collect this year. However, we did have to revise what we anticipated collecting from the
[18:29] budget last year. We anticipated collecting $3.5 million. However, we revised that down $400,000
[18:36] to $3.1. So the biggest project and local option gas tax fund is going to be armed signal construction
[18:43] at Bypass Road and Oaks Boulevard and then continued roadway maintenance.
[18:48] Our local option sales tax fund is in the same predicament where the decline in revenues
[18:53] has affected the level of projects that we are able to fund.
[18:57] Funding from this fund, it supports infrastructure and capital priorities identified in the interlocal
[19:02] agreement.
[19:03] We typically can see anywhere from up to $12 million in this fund.
[19:07] However, for fiscal year 2026, our collections aren't even hitting $11 million.
[19:12] and so that has, as I said before,
[19:15] it's affected the level of projects.
[19:17] We do have $5.4 million of debt programmed in this fund.
[19:22] And then the remainder of that is covering capital projects.
[19:25] As Mike said, the general fund is not funding capital.
[19:28] Most of that capital has been shifted over
[19:30] into the local option sales tax.
[19:33] And this fund has historically funded
[19:36] most of the capital for the city anyway.
[19:38] So our building fund is still sitting healthy.
[19:42] It supports building safety operations through fee revenue from permitting and inspections.
[19:48] Its revenue is projected to be $4.4 million next year.
[19:52] That's pretty flat from the previous years, which is actually healthy in terms of a building
[19:56] fund for revenue to be flat as long as it's not decreasing.
[20:00] Most notably, the overall budget for the building fund is $9.1 million compared to $6.6 million
[20:07] dollars that it was last year and that jump is just due to an increase in reserves.
[20:12] So lastly, our community redevelopment special revenue fund.
[20:16] So that revenue is restricted to reinvestment inside the designated redevelopment districts.
[20:22] The city has two CRAs.
[20:24] We saw an overall increase of 15% in valuations between the two CRAs for an overall revenue
[20:30] generation of over $10 million between the two tips.
[20:35] So for downtown, we saw 12% increase and for
[20:40] Vine Street, we saw a 19% increase and so that
[20:43] translates over to $547,000 for downtown and $789,000
[20:50] for Vine Street.
[20:52] And that increase typically is flip-flop,
[20:54] usually downtown increases more than Vine Street,
[20:57] but we saw the reverse issue with more growth in Vine Street.
[21:02] And so I'll hit on just a couple of our other major funds.
[21:06] Our Central Services Fund is an internal service fund.
[21:10] It includes our IT facilities and our fleet maintenance department.
[21:15] It is supported by transfers mostly from the general fund.
[21:19] The fleet does have some charges that it charges outside vendors, but
[21:22] it's mostly supported by transfers from the general fund.
[21:26] We are projected to receive approximately $14.1 million in transfers from
[21:31] a general fund next fiscal year that is down from the $14.6 million that we budgeted
[21:37] this current fiscal year and that's just keeping in line with the general fund as a transfer
[21:41] is coming from the general fund. We didn't fund as much capital and so there also are no new
[21:47] positions planned within this fund. Our mobility fee fund is projected to generate approximately
[21:53] one million dollars in fiscal year 27 revenue to be available for roadway projects and capacity
[21:58] improvements and the same with our impact fee funds. Fundings available for
[22:03] capacity improvements. The city has three impact fee funds. Police, fire, and
[22:08] recreation impact fees with our police and fire being newly most newly
[22:12] implemented. So we are projected to generate approximately $1.25 million
[22:16] across those funds with 500 being programmed for recreation impact fees and
[22:21] then 350 apiece for police and fire.
[22:27] And so typically when I do the budget work
[22:30] I like to think of it like an annual physical, so we kind of go over high level over all of the funds, and then we hit on some of the other major areas of which I call our vital signs.
[22:41] And so the first vital sign that we'll look at is the city's capital investment.
[22:45] So you'll see by the chart on the screen that we've averaged over $20 million of capital investment since fiscal year 2023.
[22:53] that that's the central amount of capital and it is well above our peers which which puts us in a good light and you'll see the drop off though for fiscal year 27
[23:04] of us only funding about $12 million in capital and that's due to the drop off of general fund funding capital.
[23:14] So our next slide our next vital sign as I should say is our debt service and so we've been able to we've been able to fund a lot of those capital investments
[23:24] that you saw on the previous side because we have optimized debt service and so that optimization
[23:29] has has helped us propel commission priorities by leveraging the city's ability to borrow.
[23:36] And because we've maintained that second highest bond rating of AA plus that has helped us be able
[23:42] to optimize that. And so our last borrowing was Series 2024 AMB that was for CRA projects, a couple
[23:50] of fire stations and some transportation improvements so previously our debt service was around 6.6 but
[23:57] we had some retirements of debt and then with the addition of the series 2024 we are now sitting
[24:03] at 8.7 million dollars in debt service annually and that is spread across our sales tax gas tax
[24:09] in our CRA funds.
[24:14] So our next vital sign is going to be our intergovernmental revenue. So the cities
[24:19] this is really where we really shine we sit in a unique spot to where we get
[24:23] revenue from KUA in Toho and then we really aggressively pursue grants and
[24:29] so this is why I believe the city really maximizes its internal or its
[24:34] intergovernmental revenue and you'll see by the chart on the screen that we have
[24:40] for last fiscal year we brought in just over $22 million in grant revenue that's
[24:45] significant amount. The majority of that was for transportation projects. About 72% of that
[24:52] with the biggest agency funding us being the U.S. Department of Transportation. And so a lot
[24:56] of that can be attributed to our airport.
[25:02] So our next vital sign will be our pensions. The city
[25:05] has three separate pension funds, well yeah, they're pension funds and plans. But we have police
[25:12] These fire in general, each year we are required to have an actuarial evaluation to look at our funding contributions and to set those levels each year.
[25:22] But the notable thing here is the increase that we've seen over the years, if you look back to fiscal year, 2023.
[25:30] Police has increased 171% and this is our required amount and so this is why I listed out the pension plans as one of our cost drivers.
[25:39] So you can kind of see the amounts that they've jumped over the past five years.
[25:43] So our fire plan has increased about 57% in what we've been required to contribute.
[25:48] And then our general plans up 46% over the three plans.
[25:52] However, we do have an overall funded ratio between all three plans of 84%.
[25:57] That average has been about the same for the past five years and it is in line with our peers and with state averages.
[26:05] So, lastly, our last vital sign is our reserves.
[26:08] So, as Mike mentioned, our reserves are projected to be 31% at the end of fiscal year 27.
[26:15] GFOA does recommend a minimum of 17%.
[26:18] And so, the reserves that are available right now to absorb a bad ear, they are shrinking,
[26:23] but that's something that's a trend that we'll look at to see if we can alter.
[26:27] here and so that concludes my slides.
[26:33] I will sit for any questions and turn it back over to Mike.
[26:38] Thank you.
[26:39] Any questions?
[26:39] Any questions?
[26:41] Any questions?
[26:42] Any questions?
[26:43] I have a question, Madam Mayor.
[26:44] May I be recognized?
[26:45] Yes.
[26:46] Thank you.
[26:47] In the beginning, when we spoke about the plan to eliminate the, um,
[26:52] Well, actually the gap that we have with a 5.126 million from the general fund gap, do we have a strategy on how we're going to, for the next, you know, a three year plan, five year plan on how we're going to minimize that gap so we don't keep tapping into the general fund.
[27:20] We've been traditionally tapping into the general fund reserve pretty much for probably
[27:27] 30 years, maybe longer, and it does tend to get replenished because what we have to
[27:33] do with regard to positions is budget as if 100% of the positions were full, 100% of the
[27:42] time. Now what we're going to find this year with hiring freeze is that we'll have a less
[27:48] of that extra funding that will return to the reserves at the end of this fiscal year.
[27:55] And so that's something that we've got to continue to look at making efficiency improvements
[28:02] and cutting back in areas that we reasonably can in order to eliminate our reliance upon
[28:09] and all that, as a mechanism to balance the budget.
[28:14] Because I know as a right now,
[28:15] you've done a magnificent job, all of you.
[28:17] And, you know, we're very in a very good and healthy position.
[28:21] But as, you know, time goes by with everything that's happening,
[28:23] which is all uncertain, you know,
[28:25] if we keep putting our hand in the cookie jar,
[28:28] then we're going to end up with not enough cookies in there.
[28:30] Yeah, and the reality is this year,
[28:33] we've seen dipping revenues and flat revenues.
[28:38] use. And that's indicative of the economic conditions nationwide, hopeful that at some
[28:46] point in the future we'll see recovery. And those days will then hopefully return
[28:52] upon us. And when that does, then our reliance on the reserves shouldn't be as much of an
[28:59] issue as it is right now. But with amendment 3 looming, that's a major, major hit
[29:08] to our budget if it does pass, that's going to require additional measures that we're going to have to look at.
[29:14] And as I did this, let's
[29:20] try this again. Thank you for that, Mike.
[29:23] Another question that I have also on the solid waste based on the numbers that I found.
[29:29] It says that the reserve will be ending in about 148, 229.
[29:33] Is that something that is good for solid waste with the amount of budget that they have for the reserves?
[29:43] page 194 now it could be different in your book because you know I did this off
[29:48] the pdf on the side the reserves are so always fun they are dipping into the
[29:52] reserves I think it was about 800,000 however they still have healthy reserves and
[29:58] and they're five year, they're...
[30:00] They're above 20%. Okay, so they should be safe. Yes. Okay, so the waste fund is healthy. All right. Thank you for that. I don't have any further questions right now. Thank you. I appreciate that. Thank you. So now we'll move on to the review of departments. Yes, and Madam Mayor commissioners, it's really a pleasure how you want to do that. I'm sorry. I wanted to ask a question with regards to the reserve so that the public is informed of this.
[30:29] Yes, we are required to have a reserve.
[30:33] Yes, yes, we are required by the feds to have a reserve.
[30:38] But we're not required by the feds to have a reserve and we're not necessarily required
[30:44] by the state either.
[30:46] If you do not have a reserve, your auditors will flag you and then you will be considered
[30:51] like a physically constrained community and then the state may come in if you don't have
[30:57] a plan.
[30:57] Most places if they dip below a certain amount they'll set an ordinance and say if they dip below a certain amount
[31:02] Right, and they have to put a plan in place to to bring their reserves back up. Is it a flat rate that you're required or a percentage of what the
[31:11] Budget is purse most entities do a percentage
[31:16] 17% or two and a half months of reserves
[31:20] Because I don't I don't want anybody to go out and say they got all this millions of dollars in the bank
[31:24] and they should be able to do this, that, and the third, but in reality, that money is required to be there.
[31:32] Correct, okay.
[31:33] In the city commission, I'm sorry, the city commission established a 20% reserve policy back in the early 2000s.
[31:41] Right, and we've held to that, we're in the 30%-30-ish mid-30s right now arranged by the end of this upcoming budget.
[31:51] But at the end of 2027, we anticipate we'll still be around 30 to 31 percent.
[31:56] Okay.
[31:57] So while it is an unsustainable path, we're not at the point where we'll go below 20 percent next year.
[32:09] Unless and then the three passes, then it'll happen much quicker.
[32:13] Okay.
[32:14] Gotcha.
[32:15] Thank you for clarification.
[32:18] Thank you.
[32:20] I don't know how you want to do this, what we've done in the past is we just, I'll call out each department and the pages and ask if the commission has any questions and we certainly have our department heads or department representatives here if there's any questions that the commission has directly of those individuals.
[32:37] If that's your pleasure, I'd be happy to get a roll up.
[32:40] Okay, so first department is the city commission department, which is pages 59 through 63 and we've largely kept this fund intact, given the commission's desires last year to have the ability to do additional training to do travel for economic development purposes and as well to have the outside contracts, particularly the outside contract for the commission.
[33:10] commission's assistant and so we have kept that funding intact in the budget and
[33:21] we also budgeted
[33:22] for what we anticipate will be an increase in the commission's salary based on the population
[33:27] numbers that we will get from the University of Florida which usually are out by now but hoping
[33:34] we'll see the many any day now. Commissioners, any questions on this item? No questions?
[33:44] Okay, our next department is the city managers department and that starts on page 64 and
[33:59] we've
[34:00] tried to keep that as relatively flat as we could as well factoring in the increase
[34:05] in workforce compensation increase as well as the increases in pension and health care.
[34:16] Thank you.
[34:16] Any questions?
[34:17] Any questions, Commissioner?
[34:19] No questions, Madam Mayor.
[34:23] Okay.
[34:23] Our next division or department, I'm sorry, is economic development that starts on page 79.
[34:41] And again, this is another department that we've tried to keep relatively flat.
[34:45] It's mostly personnel expenses.
[34:48] They do have funding budgeted as well for external partners that provide business assistant services,
[34:54] as, for instance, as well as events that we sponsor with various chambers and business
[35:01] organizations, and we have not proposed any cuts there.
[35:07] However, what we built into the budget for external funding cuts was $150,000.
[35:15] And that was primarily based on the commission.
[35:17] The last workshop there was some discussion about the commission wanting to explore
[35:21] We're ending our partnership with the UCF incubator, which is an annual $150,000 contract.
[35:28] But we do have other options to get to that $150,000.
[35:32] I don't necessarily need feedback today because I anticipate what we would do is come back to the commission with individual discussion items at a future commission meeting agenda to determine what you guys would like to consider cutting.
[35:45] And if anything, one of the things that David has done is reached out to the University of Central Florida and
[35:52] said, you know, what other options would we have to reduce the funding there?
[35:57] They said they actually could live with a 50% cut and fund the other 75,000 through their budget.
[36:05] And then we've also anticipated that the commission might want not to fund the Osceola legislative effort,
[36:11] which I believe even though the contract was reduced, the 35,000 that we still have 40,000 in the budget for that.
[36:20] Is that negotiable?
[36:23] Is that negotiable?
[36:26] The expenses for OLA?
[36:29] Yes.
[36:31] I don't believe so because we have discussed that in the past.
[36:34] They have contracts with lobbyists and that sort of line share of the funding for that contract goes.
[36:41] It's something that we could we could broach with the chamber and see if they're interested in doing that
[36:46] And then the other thing of no commissioners is and I'm going to get to this a little bit later
[36:53] Although we can talk about it now if you'd like
[36:55] We also have the social services quality of life funding that you all put
[36:59] $400,000 in and that actually comes out of your budget
[37:04] So some of that funding could come out of that fund as well and
[37:08] And I can, and I'll pass some information out to you that take home so that you can consider it in the future.
[37:14] We will come back to you for that as well, but there's $55,000 in funding that you all approved.
[37:21] For three different agencies that never came forward to claim that funding.
[37:25] They never submitted their invoices and their quarterly reports.
[37:29] And so that's essentially left $55,000 on the table.
[37:34] that's funding that you can consider, just not funding next year, to help us get to that 150 if you so choose.
[37:42] And then with regard to Kissimmee Main Street, I know that was a top of a good discussion at the last meeting as well.
[37:47] And we've determined that fully, Main Street can be fully funded through the downtown CRA fund.
[37:54] It's legal to do so, we check the law on that, and we also check the revenues and
[38:00] and determine that it's reasonable that it could be absorbed without a hit to the budget.
[38:08] Commissioner, are there any questions or comments?
[38:11] No questions.
[38:12] Thank you.
[38:13] Just open that along.
[38:15] This next department is City Attorney's Budget, which is page 85.
[38:27] And that one is almost flat.
[38:30] The actual, for 2025 was $592,000, the adjusted budget actually it's a decrease in my apologies.
[38:38] is 619 and what's being proposed is $602,000 for the upcoming year.
[38:47] Did we hire these other deputy attorney yet?
[38:52] Is it still posted out there for?
[38:54] It's okay, it's still available.
[38:57] Thank you.
[38:59] Yeah, it's a assistance city attorney.
[39:00] It is posted and it is not a position that is frozen.
[39:04] Okay.
[39:05] Okay.
[39:06] Thank you.
[39:12] All right.
[39:13] Page 93 is our next department, which is Finance, and I don't know if you want to handle this.
[39:21] But as you can see, it's pretty flat as well,
[39:27] almost all personnel in order to increase fees.
[39:30] Yes, and then there's also the charges by other funds that get lumped into ours.
[39:38] There's also the charges by other funds that get lumped into the Finance budget.
[39:43] So I think the transfer is like I talked about the Central Services funds.
[39:46] Those get charged under finance and then transferred out.
[39:50] Okay, thank you.
[39:57] Good idea.
[39:58] Okay, there's no questions on development services.
[40:01] Our next department is, I'm sorry, finance.
[40:04] Our next department is development services, which starts on page 102.
[40:07] And it actually jumps to different areas besides the general fund.
[40:13] There is the building division fund.
[40:15] There is our CDBG fund, there's the home fund.
[40:19] There is the ship funds, so there's various funds as well as mobility funds that are managed by that department.
[40:29] And the general fund side of that department has also largely remained flat as well.
[40:36] I have a question, going back to the finance director, sorry, on page 103, the contract services.
[40:45] You went from 516 to 195, what ended, or like what was rebated, or what services were removed?
[40:55] 103?
[40:56] 103?
[40:57] Yeah.
[40:59] And that was under other contract services?
[41:02] No, give me one.
[41:03] This was,
[41:10] yeah, contract services.
[41:14] So that's probably 96?
[41:16] 96?
[41:17] Yeah.
[41:18] Yeah, my pages are a little bit different, sorry.
[41:21] Are you comparing it to the estimate possibly?
[41:25] Yeah.
[41:26] Okay, that's where funding might have been rolled forward if we have gas B contracts or auditing stuff additional fees that come up.
[41:36] Okay, but it's projected out at 5.16, but if it's not spin it, it's return the fund back.
[41:43] I understand it's a proposed budget, but I just wanted to see what things are being shifted in, but thank you, I appreciate that.
[41:53] Okay, so development services were on, which is 102 to 106.
[42:02] And again, we're not adding any positions, so a lot of this is status quo, I guess you call it.
[42:14] There's no questions on development services.
[42:16] Our next fund is the police department, pages 107 to 127.
[42:25] And you will see there a pretty significant increase in the total budget.
[42:30] And that's a product of the fact that we've added a fair amount of officers as well as what TAVI had talked about earlier with regard to pension costs and health care costs as well.
[42:44] And the good news, if there's any, anybody expresses any concerns with regard to the fact that we're not adding any personnel this year, but yet we're surely going to see an increase of our city population when the estimate comes out.
[42:57] My guess is around 2000 and maybe 2500 population.
[43:00] We did get a grant from the federal government
[43:03] in order to hire six officers in the current fiscal year.
[43:08] And some of those positions that were added
[43:10] this current fiscal year as a result of that grant
[43:13] were actually scheduled to be hired
[43:16] in this upcoming fiscal year.
[43:18] And so more or less we're able to add those positions
[43:21] a year earlier.
[43:23] So more or less we're ahead of the game in that regard.
[43:29] Commissioner, just stop us whenever you have a question so that Mike can just continue.
[43:34] No, I don't ask after each one, so I'll just proceed.
[43:38] All right, commissioners, if you have no questions on police, our next department is the fire department.
[43:44] It starts on page 128 and
[43:50] you will see there, they're relatively flat from this current fiscal year.
[43:55] And that's because the big jump we made was in the current fiscal year with the additional
[43:59] of the force shift as well as the revenue that was introduced by the fire fee or the fire assessment that was added.
[44:16] Any questions on fire?
[44:22] Okay, our next department is Public Works.
[44:26] The general fund portion of the Public Works Department starts on page 136,
[44:37] and they've got various divisions.
[44:43] You'll see it's relatively flat here as well.
[44:48] There's been some decreases, for instance, in the engineering division.
[44:52] It's actually a decrease from the current year budget by almost $100,000.
[44:57] But then you'll see you're corresponding in.
[45:01] That was due to internal reorganization.
[45:08] But that team is pretty well loaded for all of the capital projects that are underway that they're managing.
[45:18] And that's the good news to, when we talk about capital projects that, you know, as KVM mentioned, we usually spend about 20 million dollars in capital projects annually. And this next year, we're only proposing 12. But the good news is, we've got to
[45:35] We've got probably way more than $20 million in projects that are already underway in the current year that will transition over into the next year.
[45:45] Two fire stations that we're constructing, the convention center that will be under construction here shortly, the air traffic control tower, the paving program that will continue to do.
[45:57] So this is a number of projects that are underway at the Brilinski House is funded.
[46:01] So we'll, even though those amounts are not reflected in next year's budget,
[46:08] that funding is already reflected in the current year budget.
[46:10] So we're not, we're not slowing down at all with regard to capital projects.
[46:19] Is there any questions on public works?
[46:23] And if not, we can go to page 151, which is parks and recreation.
[46:37] And again, with the general fund, Parks and Recreation has taken some hits, particularly in the parks division, and that's where we've got some positions frozen.
[46:48] We've eliminated some positions in the current year, and that, of course, is also the area where that has seen probably the biggest hit in regards to capital expenditures for the future, because with our projections, we just didn't see a sustainable way to fund a major,
[47:05] major project in the Lancaster Ranch construction.
[47:09] I did forward with you today the draft of the study that was done for the siding of the
[47:15] field house with that being a P3 partnership.
[47:19] It's a unique, we have a good opportunity there to have, perhaps, some of the, if you
[47:23] choose to locate it on Lancaster, we have an opportunity to fund some of the improvements
[47:28] for Lancaster through that public private partnership.
[47:36] Is there any questions on Parks and Recreation that goes through to one page 171?
[47:46] And if not, our next department is Human Resources and that starts on page 172.
[47:55] And they're also very heavily weighted and expense-wise in personnel.
[48:02] And you'll see a reduction in their budget there as well.
[48:05] Well,
[48:10] one of the, they've actually had two positions that were eliminated through the freeze this year.
[48:21] So I have a question with regards to MHR.
[48:25] That's where the determination of what the percentages for the raise for the next fiscal years decided.
[48:32] Am I correct?
[48:33] We actually do that as a budget committee.
[48:36] It's part of the main, one of the main components we build into the budget and trying to balance.
[48:42] And what we typically do is benchmark with other governments, i.e. our competitors and hiring.
[48:49] And so, typically, as you're, I think you're aware, we do the four local governments in
[48:57] Osceola County as well as the three utilities to get together monthly and we meet.
[49:03] And we basically share notes and try to keep consistent with the raises we each give.
[49:09] I've always tried to beat them by a percent, if I can this year was tough to justify that but we're all in about the same fall park.
[49:17] I think the county in St. Cloud are at 3% the utilities, I believe are 3.5% before, so they're a little bit more, but they're a different market than we are in terms of the personnel market.
[49:30] And of course the school district is a completely different animal with regard to the workforce compensation.
[49:35] Here's what I'd like to see because I believe in reality this 3% raise technically speaking.
[49:45] They're not going to see this.
[49:47] It's so small.
[49:49] And I know that it has to be like that, but I think we can divert to another option.
[49:55] 3% is probably what maybe over the course of a year, maybe next year.
[50:00] And I'm speaking hypothetically that might not be the exact figure.
[50:04] It may be an extra grand.
[50:07] It could be less than that.
[50:08] It could be a little bit more.
[50:09] Why not just give them a one-time payout and then freeze their salary.
[50:14] At least they'll be able to see the one-time payout.
[50:17] And we're in a situation right now and I'm talking about a country where people are really
[50:22] struggling.
[50:23] And I think that could ease a burden if we did that as opposed to telling them we're giving
[50:29] you a 3% raise and you're going to see what four bucks on in each pay period probably.
[50:34] Does that make sense commissioners?
[50:37] May I?
[50:39] Does that make sense?
[50:41] I guess it just really depends, um, 3% of what, you know, everyone is different, you know,
[50:52] what I mean?
[50:53] So it's hard to just say like a flat dollar amount.
[50:56] It just, it'll affect some more than others.
[50:59] Exactly.
[50:59] So I don't know what the right answer is.
[51:02] I'll leave that to the experts, so.
[51:04] The problem with doing the one time is once you give that raise
[51:09] for that fiscal year, the next year you're starting back
[51:11] to where you were at the beginning of the fiscal year gave
[51:14] that $1,000 raise.
[51:17] And so the actual pay range doesn't go up.
[51:24] And so part of the problem we have if we were to do a one time,
[51:27] And their pay range isn't going to go up.
[51:30] So now we have a compression problem because say you've been here a year, you've got a $1,000 increase.
[51:39] And then somebody gets hired, when you're towards the end of that year, a new person gets hired.
[51:44] They're making the same exact as you are.
[51:46] And we have compression problem, particularly in the police department in that regard.
[51:51] And so-
[51:51] I think you've had a compression issue in the past.
[51:54] Yes.
[51:54] And so that's what I would caution.
[51:56] and compression is an issue if we don't follow a trend.
[52:00] So that would be my biggest concern on that, but, you know,
[52:02] I guess that's the biggest concern.
[52:05] And so what we've done in the past
[52:07] when we've faced financial limitations,
[52:10] if, say for instance, you were arguing, hey,
[52:13] 3% isn't very much.
[52:15] Couldn't we do 4%, then what I would say to you
[52:18] is with the uncertainty of the economy
[52:21] and the amendment 3 issue, I would say, well,
[52:24] How, maybe we could do a 3% and then do one-time bonus that is equivalent to an additional percent.
[52:31] The school district does that, for instance, because it doesn't, once you give the percentages,
[52:37] we have to calculate that 3% for the next-
[52:40] That's a slippery slope, though.
[52:41] You've got to be real careful with that.
[52:43] I mean, it's a percentage, or, I mean, again, the commissioners can all have a different opinion,
[52:50] but I always worry about compression because I saw when the recession happened that-
[52:54] And in a period of recession, compression is an issue.
[52:58] So I just, I look at it a little different.
[53:00] I understand your point where $1,000 might benefit
[53:04] a certain level of pay, but doesn't benefit other positions.
[53:08] It's just very, very tricky to do it that way.
[53:10] I mean, if you want it to do an analysis
[53:14] and see how that would look at that,
[53:16] perhaps that's a great way of looking at it.
[53:18] But always bear in mind that compression can become an issue
[53:23] as we journey, right?
[53:25] Because today might not be an issue.
[53:27] 20, 20, 8, 20, 30 might be an issue, so we're not around.
[53:31] So it's just important to keep that in mind.
[53:32] And that's the issue we ran into during the Great Recession.
[53:35] It was five years we gave zero raises,
[53:37] but we did give one-time bonuses in those years
[53:40] to help people get by, and the problem we had
[53:43] is exactly what the mayor's talking about.
[53:46] We had significant compression issues,
[53:47] and it took us a good decade to dig out of those compression
[53:50] issues.
[53:51] And then we had to catch up with just the overall pay range issue we were having and it was hard to attract,
[53:58] particularly some of those higher demand positions, engineers, and the county.
[54:03] New hires sometimes end up taking more money than the old hires, and we've seen that.
[54:07] We just felt brick and even at this point, so what am I understanding, but we'll take a look at.
[54:12] Again, yeah, if you do an analysis, when we did the last budget workshop, sorry, Madam Mayor,
[54:18] maybe recognize. When we did the last budget workshop, we talked about that there are possibilities
[54:25] that we have to, instead of cutting jobs, we would freeze the rates that they're at. I can't
[54:31] remember if it was on the record or off the record, the conversation where we talk about what we
[54:37] can do now that we're in a good position rather than to wait and then we can't actually do anything
[54:43] because we're in a situation where so that I think that analysis is a great idea to see what we
[54:48] can do since we're in a good position now for the staff. Yeah we'll do that. Thank you.
[54:54] Any other questions on human resources?
[54:59] Yeah one of the things that always comes up and I hear
[55:01] other governments do this is and it does impact the raises and the impacts to the individuals
[55:10] particularly our lower paid employees is that a lot of other governments are now starting
[55:17] to charge their employees for a portion of their health care coverage, which we provide
[55:22] as a benefit free to the employee. Employee only has to pay for the dependence.
[55:29] And it's something that we've talked about very briefly, but came to the conclusion that
[55:35] When you do that, the criticism you hear and real impact you see is that it completely wipes away or for a large part wipes away whatever increase that you budgeted.
[55:47] So what's the point in doing that? But it's at some level if the amendment three passes and we face really difficult times in the future.
[55:54] It's something we may need to look at. Let's not something we're proposing at this point.
[56:02] Any other questions on human resources?
[56:07] And our next department then is the airport, page 195 through 199.
[56:14] And as the commission is aware, this is wholly funded by its revenues.
[56:20] And pound for pound, they're probably doing the most capital improvements out of any of
[56:25] the departments.
[56:28] And we're very excited that we're going to move forward with the tower trying to get for
[56:33] in almost two decades, and customs is also really proven.
[56:38] Just the announcement of customs has proven to be a major source of excitement
[56:44] for investors and different companies that are now looking at to
[56:48] semi-gateway airport as a real viable option for their businesses.
[56:52] So I think that's only going to help our colleagues.
[56:53] I agree, I agree.
[56:57] Any questions on airport?
[57:00] Yes, I have a question.
[57:02] We have a ground breaking on July, 2025, last year, for the higher studio hotel.
[57:11] That was supposed to be expected delivery this year, at the end of the year.
[57:15] What is the status of the hotel right now?
[57:20] So, the last update that we got was they had hoped to be under construction this month,
[57:26] and that has not happened. I can call Sean up to see if he's got any further updates.
[57:40] Mayor, commissioners, the last update I received from the group, they are in permitting.
[57:48] They are working on a bigger project right now, they're looking at that whole MLK corridor.
[57:53] They've been talking to another airport tenant there, which has the large aircraft simulators.
[57:59] They're interested in moving out of that hanger into their own facility and expanding those services.
[58:05] So they're in negotiations with them and with a financing group.
[58:09] They're looking at over $116 million build-out project and so it's kind of delayed the hotel is what they've told me because they want to incorporate all that as one package.
[58:21] Now, I've encouraged them to concentrate on that hotel to keep moving forward making sure the permitting gets through so that when they're ready they can construct everything at one time.
[58:32] But I've also asked them then to give us what we consider an unsolicited proposal for that whole build out.
[58:40] They're having these conversations, but I've asked them to bring that to the city to show us what that full package looks like in the progress of that so that we're confident that they're moving forward with those projects.
[58:53] That is a good answer, but let me ask you something, if we have any penalty they don't deliver
[59:01] on time in the contract, because everything looks like a nice, good word, but we need a
[59:12] project to be finished ASP. We don't have time to be waiting.
[59:16] I have the finance, we have to move forward with something else.
[59:21] I understand, and that's the conversation that we had earlier this week with them is that they have to cure and perform on that because come June 1st of 2027.
[59:33] We have a minimum guaranteed revenue amount that they're going to start paying the airport, whether there's a hotel there or not.
[59:40] And so they're on the hook to pay the bills because we're budgeting for it.
[59:44] It is very important to accomplish with all the plans.
[59:51] You remember when we had the issue with the landing phase?
[59:54] Nothing was happening and now we have a revenue of 3.1 million.
[59:58] That is something like that.
[1:00:00] We've accomplished our work as a commissional because we work hard to get that approval. We have too many issues with pilots and everybody. But one question, it is possible in the future to increase a little bit. The landing fees as well. Yes, and actually we're looking at increasing the landing fees possibly from $3.75. This round in order to assist with some additional
[1:00:30] technology that we've had to put in place because of legislation that says we
[1:00:33] can't use the ADSB technology and aircraft. And so we've had to put in
[1:00:38] a camera system much similar to what we have in our toll roads to physically
[1:00:43] take pictures and get data in order to keep the revenue coming in. That
[1:00:48] revenue is very important for us right now. We're really in a transitional
[1:00:52] period at the airport. We have a lot of property you know that we're aggressively
[1:00:56] developing it now with our economic development plan, but with these large projects like the tower,
[1:01:02] $22 million tax-way renovation, customs, it's really important that we stay disciplined and keep
[1:01:10] the revenue in place with those landing fees.
[1:01:13] Another question I want to have for you, you received the email, the invitation from Mexico that
[1:01:24] where the governor of Harisco and Guadalajara, the director of the airport, they want to make a
[1:01:34] friendship with us, like a good relation. Do you have any
[1:01:41] position on that? Are you planning to go or are you not going to go?
[1:01:45] I guess I don't know enough about that. That trip and with the out-of-state travel policy,
[1:01:51] I'm a little concerned.
[1:01:54] I think we need to know a little bit more about the trip and what the expectations are,
[1:01:59] what economic development trade off that are looking for.
[1:02:04] We're just now announcing customs and so the customs facility won't be in place for
[1:02:09] a good year.
[1:02:10] So to even accept flights from Mexico directly here is going to take some time.
[1:02:15] So I just need to understand a little more what this trip would all involve and what the,
[1:02:20] I guess the benefits and outcomes would be of that.
[1:02:23] And he was only invited to the Morelia,
[1:02:26] did I say it right?
[1:02:27] Yeah, Morelia.
[1:02:29] Yeah, Morelia, a portion of not the HALISCO,
[1:02:32] a portion of it.
[1:02:34] Because I do believe our airport has the potential
[1:02:37] to increase the return up to much our accomplishments
[1:02:43] with everything, hotel, custom.
[1:02:47] We had to move forward.
[1:02:48] We need money in the city. This is one of the opportunities. I heard that other countries
[1:02:54] that have interest as well.
[1:03:00] Thank you. Okay. But listen, I would like to have something
[1:03:07] strong steady. Finally, with the project for the hotel, with the 122 rooms,
[1:03:14] And they cannot afford a list for one with something else.
[1:03:19] I will convey that message.
[1:03:20] Will they have to amend their lease in order to pursue that second portion of the project?
[1:03:26] No, I would like to treat it separately and separately.
[1:03:29] And I think it makes more sense per parcel that we have a lease, like we have a lease for
[1:03:34] the hotel, if they do a training center, separate lease for that, separate lease for the next
[1:03:40] hotel student housing that they're looking at.
[1:03:42] That way in the future if you have for some reason, you know, the company wants to sell or do something differently
[1:03:49] They can it won't affect the whole the whole campus as as one
[1:03:54] Thank you. I do have a question on that. I mean it seems like they were going to build a hotel
[1:04:00] everything
[1:04:02] Just kind of froze and now the excuses that they're going to add more to this when they haven't even done part a
[1:04:08] I just feel that maybe that's something you should probably
[1:04:12] make a dress and I mean I mean on you because honestly
[1:04:18] that you go from doing a groundbreaking to where we're going to start
[1:04:23] then let's not do groundbreakings that make us look like we're not doing the right thing
[1:04:27] it's embarrassing you know that is embarrassing to do a groundbreaking
[1:04:30] and everyone's excited we're shoveling dirt
[1:04:32] and now we're renegotiating or adding or
[1:04:37] or how did this happen?
[1:04:38] I mean, the contract is the contract.
[1:04:41] And now you're gonna add,
[1:04:42] is that should it be treated as a separate contract,
[1:04:45] or should it be treated as an addendum to this contract?
[1:04:48] I mean, I'm not sure, but that project has been going on
[1:04:53] way before I was a mayor, and it just seems like
[1:04:57] it's just gonna continue going on.
[1:04:59] And I mean, who's responsible for answers?
[1:05:01] They came, they submitted the same time,
[1:05:05] formally submitted the same time that Azure and Skyview did.
[1:05:09] And Azure's getting ready to go, Skyview
[1:05:12] were in the final weeks of negotiation
[1:05:14] and should be coming to you in September for approval.
[1:05:18] And the personnel has changed.
[1:05:20] Juan Lopez is no longer there.
[1:05:21] Is my understanding?
[1:05:23] I'm sorry I didn't hear that possible.
[1:05:25] Their personnel has changed.
[1:05:26] Like the person that was always reaching out,
[1:05:29] he's not even with that company anymore.
[1:05:31] Not that it matters,
[1:05:31] because I'm sure they've got some other personnel.
[1:05:33] Now, you know, leading the way, but I just feel that if we had a contract to build one thing, and it continues getting pushed back and push back and we just keep allowing these changes, maybe that should be handled as a separate item all in itself, as you said.
[1:05:50] I will. I made it very clear to them that we will not move forward with anything additional until we have some performance results with the first one.
[1:05:58] I'm still dealing with the same people.
[1:06:01] They've actually added a couple other people.
[1:06:03] They have a COO now who has a good business background.
[1:06:08] And I met with him last week and I said, this is the person that I need.
[1:06:12] A project manager, somebody who can start structuring this with the design team,
[1:06:17] start having progress meetings and get this on track and start meeting some milestones.
[1:06:23] Madam Mayor, may I be recognized?
[1:06:25] Sure, thank you.
[1:06:28] Mike, this question is for you.
[1:06:30] Can we get them back in here?
[1:06:31] We couldn't, absolutely.
[1:06:33] Yeah, because I want to know what's going on.
[1:06:34] Yeah, we could do that.
[1:06:35] I miss the groundbreaking.
[1:06:37] Thank God.
[1:06:39] But, yeah, because I feel like the mayor said it's embarrassing.
[1:06:42] Yeah.
[1:06:43] I mean, everything else is moving.
[1:06:45] And I got to give credit to the mayor.
[1:06:47] This is day one that she got in here.
[1:06:48] We've been pushing, and I've been saying that behind closed doors
[1:06:51] and I'll say it in public.
[1:06:52] We've been pushing, we're getting things done.
[1:06:54] And now we're playing procrastination, so I would like to see as soon as possible since they already have all this already basically concrete we would like to know what's going on as well.
[1:07:05] They can come back in here with some little billboards and stuff like the first time shows what it is that they're planning to do and also explain where we are with the projects that we have at hand that we have a contract that there's groundbreaking that there's construction that should have started by now.
[1:07:20] So I kind of get a feeling I can't speak for all the board but based on the filling that I'm getting up here
[1:07:25] You know, we want answers and the sooner we can get them in here the better so we can have those we can do that
[1:07:31] And we can schedule a discussion item to bring them in here have them do a presentation to you as with an update and
[1:07:36] Give you an opportunity to ask questions on their progress and
[1:07:40] I think that'd be reasonable. I know from the beginning that project is going to fail with that group
[1:07:47] Yeah, it's full faith. It's going to fail. I know that
[1:07:50] Well, that's why I never both for them to deliver the product here in Monument what I want to avoid part of me is
[1:07:58] I don't want to do this one-on-one with these developers. I'd rather have them come here and speak to all of us
[1:08:04] I don't I didn't meet with the zoo because I don't want to meet one-on-one with them because
[1:08:09] So much has said I'd much rather have it right here in front of everyone if anyone else questions
[1:08:15] It should be asked right here as opposed to five different meetings.
[1:08:18] When you present on the record, it's usually more accurate statements are made.
[1:08:24] Yeah, there's now five different stories being told to this commissioner.
[1:08:27] Yeah, I agree.
[1:08:28] All right, so I guess that was our soapbox for that development.
[1:08:31] So thank you.
[1:08:32] Okay, we'll get it scheduled.
[1:08:34] Thank you.
[1:08:35] Thank you.
[1:08:36] Thank you.
[1:08:36] Say a message.
[1:08:37] Don't play with our welcome assignment.
[1:08:42] Okay, the last, is there any other questions on the airport?
[1:08:45] Now we're good. The smallest budget got the most questions.
[1:08:49] All but mighty. Yeah. All right, so that's the biggest economic impact I guess.
[1:08:55] The last department is Central Services Fund is the information technology
[1:09:02] department that begins on page 201.
[1:09:08] There you can see their proposed budget is just
[1:09:13] moderately higher than last year or the current year. I'm sorry.
[1:09:21] There's no
[1:09:22] questions on information technology, then we can move on to the next segment of the agenda, which is Section 5, which is general discussion.
[1:09:33] And as I mentioned earlier, we programmed in the modest 1.5, I'm sorry, not 1.5, $150,000 decrease in the non-profit, I know, which it was 1.5, we don't give that much money out.
[1:09:49] About a modest $150,000 decrease in nonprofit funding, which basically between economic development funds approximately $260,000 worth of external agencies, the commission funds approximately $400,000 in external entities.
[1:10:13] And so you're talking about $650,000 and total.
[1:10:17] And that doesn't not include, as we talked about a little earlier, as well, OLA, which is an additional 30, or 40,000 is what we have in the budget.
[1:10:28] So what I'd like to do, Commissioner, is unless you have specific feedback tonight, is just give you,
[1:10:34] I should have done this earlier so you can look at it.
[1:10:36] is give you copies of,
[1:10:41] you know,
[1:10:42] so you can see you can take a look
[1:10:45] and then what will we use to come back?
[1:10:47] The schedule for the discussion.
[1:10:49] I am on a computer mission agenda
[1:10:51] and that
[1:10:55] will be able to come in
[1:10:59] and please note transition house,
[1:11:02] home partnership,
[1:11:04] and church and community assistance program.
[1:11:07] None of them have claimed their funding.
[1:11:10] So at least $55,000 of that budget,
[1:11:12] that has not been expended.
[1:11:15] Well, thank you.
[1:11:18] Transition House, 15,000 CCAP, which is 15,000,
[1:11:25] and that's higher up on the list.
[1:11:29] Our church and community assistance program.
[1:11:32] And then just above that is hope partnership.
[1:11:34] They did not claim their funding either.
[1:11:36] Matter of fact, I think they told Desiree
[1:11:38] that we're not intending to utilize our funding.
[1:11:40] The second sheet I'm going to hand you
[1:11:42] He was the funding that is budgeted, economic development department for external business
[1:11:48] assistance programs, sponsorships that we do for callas and things like that.
[1:11:54] And so, that funding is also something we can look at.
[1:12:00] I do have our goal is to put together an agenda item to talk about that under discussion,
[1:12:06] a commission meeting because we do have cost benefit analysis that was done by economic
[1:12:11] development, particularly on the business assistance programs that shows a rate of return that we get
[1:12:17] for funding some of the business assistance programs. For instance, the Small Business Development
[1:12:23] Center at 30,000 in Prospera at 20,000 give us some of the biggest bang for our buck in terms of
[1:12:31] the amount that we fund versus the number of businesses that they assist each and every year
[1:12:36] while you see a think-a-bater, which does have a more comprehensive program A to Z to get a business started is the least at 150,000.
[1:12:49] I think they have 11 businesses in there now that they're starting up.
[1:12:53] So just for thought unless the commission has any specific direction you'd like to provide tonight, we'd be glad to.
[1:13:01] I don't see the NAACP event on here.
[1:13:07] That is funded through, I think, the commission budget.
[1:13:12] So it's, I haven't given you guys any of your funding.
[1:13:17] We've kept all of your funding the same.
[1:13:19] I haven't proposed any cuts to the commission funding, other than the OCEO legislative effort
[1:13:25] based on our prior discussion at the prior workshops.
[1:13:28] So that's in our budget?
[1:13:30] That's in your budget.
[1:13:31] So how many events is in our budget then?
[1:13:37] Quite a bit.
[1:13:38] We can go back to.
[1:13:46] And just to let you guys know,
[1:13:49] Desiree cannot be here tonight due to a family emergency.
[1:13:53] But she was going to handle this.
[1:13:56] Maybe a little flat footer down there.
[1:14:01] But let's see.
[1:14:24] Okay, and memberships of $77,000, so what we could do is we could break out the commission line items under the do's and subscriptions, and the special functions, and I think other contract services may also have some some line items in there that the commission can look at as well if you want to consider that funding.
[1:14:48] Madam Mayor of every recognize please thank you so I have don't want to make
[1:14:56] that noise when you just push it
[1:15:00] I still feel like before we make any determination, I know we're coming back with the social services funding. I still think there is a lot of value in allowing this organizations to come and give a short presentation so that way we can kind of see which services are duplicated, who can partner with who, instead of us making a decision without allowing that process. I know we spoke about it in the past, but do you think that's something that we can still do?
[1:15:28] And we can, actually, I'm remiss in probably the biggest point that Desiree wanted me to make sure to make today.
[1:15:37] And that was, do you all want to go back to opening up the process like we have in years past?
[1:15:44] Or do you want to replicate what we did this current fiscal year, which was basically direct all the funding that's in here that's already been budgeted to these individual agencies to be handled through the haven?
[1:15:57] But because that's what you all decided last year and you gave deserated discretion to
[1:16:03] work with these entities and try to tie them into the services that we provide through
[1:16:07] the Haven.
[1:16:08] And that may be why some of these entities decided not to pursue funding.
[1:16:14] That's exactly what my train thought was because our baby right now is the Haven on Vine.
[1:16:20] And we provide basically a wraparound services from employment to education, whatever it is
[1:16:26] that they need, we have it all there.
[1:16:28] So at least if we fund agencies,
[1:16:30] we can fund agencies that are directly involved
[1:16:32] and that they can help, you know,
[1:16:34] our constituents that are living inside haven on vine,
[1:16:38] but also the surrounding, you know,
[1:16:41] the city, other people as well.
[1:16:42] So that's why I was trying to figure out which one is which
[1:16:45] to see what resources we can actually allocate
[1:16:48] that are gonna continue as well,
[1:16:50] helping our haven on vine.
[1:16:55] What we could do is schedule, as we're planning to do this anyway, is with our discussion item,
[1:17:02] give you a little bit more detail as to how we would integrate these services into the Haven
[1:17:07] on Byne. And we can come up with a game plan for giving the organizations an opportunity to come
[1:17:14] before the board. And we can do a workshop of some sort even if we needed to.
[1:17:20] Okay. The essential for the hotel larger association and you event. We buy tables for that.
[1:17:31] We budget for it. I'm not sure if we have in recent past.
[1:17:36] I see that. David, do you have a minute to come up or the ability to address those questions?
[1:17:46] It's budgeted, not always. Not always are purchased as far as tables. Sometimes it's individual
[1:17:53] will take it, but it's budgeted.
[1:17:55] Okay, but I've never even seen that line item on a budget.
[1:18:00] Is there something new is what I'm asking.
[1:18:03] Yeah, this is funding that you also had in the budget
[1:18:05] this current year.
[1:18:07] Yes, it's in bulk.
[1:18:09] It's in a line item.
[1:18:11] It's in a line item like for table events and stuff like that.
[1:18:15] That's like the what is it like $38,000 or something like that?
[1:18:19] That is allocated for that funding.
[1:18:21] Yes, it's in special functions.
[1:18:24] The line item should be here for those particular events.
[1:18:33] Okay.
[1:18:34] And I also don't see one here for the Caribbean Association.
[1:18:40] That also would be in the commission's line items.
[1:18:44] Because these completely confuse what.
[1:18:47] It's all in a pot.
[1:18:48] It's like in one pot.
[1:18:49] Instead of every single name showing up or something.
[1:18:53] So the difference is, is city commission, the entities that are funded in the city commission are different than the entities that are funded in economic development, the only entities that are funded in economic development are those entities that are chambers of commerce, are business associations, or those types, anything to do with business economic growth, that sort of thing, whereas what's in the commission budget is more civic groups, community organizations, those types of things.
[1:19:21] Thanks.
[1:19:21] Okay.
[1:19:27] Thank you.
[1:19:34] Any other questions, commissioners?
[1:19:36] So what we'll do with regard to the nonprofit funding is at one of the meetings in September
[1:19:42] or possibly one of the first meetings after the new budget is in place, in October, although
[1:19:49] I think we'd like to try to do it earlier just so I can get to that $150,000 cut number
[1:19:54] or is at least do the economic development ones
[1:19:57] in September, and then we can come to you
[1:20:02] either in September or in October for the social services
[1:20:05] discussion, because that'll probably take
[1:20:07] a little more time to get the outside groups in here anyway.
[1:20:12] Okay.
[1:20:13] Any other questions or thoughts?
[1:20:15] And of course, as you have this paperwork
[1:20:16] in your possession, if you have any follow-up questions,
[1:20:19] feel free to call me or David or whoever.
[1:20:22] I have a question for Mr. Rodriguez, too many people approached me like they are receiving
[1:20:33] a survey where they had to explain how they spend the money for the food program.
[1:20:41] No one knows, everybody is confused, that is something like it's going to be any penalty,
[1:20:46] they don't answer, that's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's gonna be some, some
[1:21:01] penalties or anything. No one knows about that. That is something never was written to
[1:21:06] the Commission. No one knows about that. So, do you have an explanation for that?
[1:21:11] But that is part of closing the program and the guidelines for the source of the funding for this grants require the city to report back and to gather information on how funds were used.
[1:21:26] At this time, grant recipients are not being required to provide documentation is just to answer how funds were used and what the impact was in their businesses, which is something that the federal government expects us to report.
[1:21:42] So, in essence, it's more of a survey than it is, and it is a provision of documentation.
[1:21:49] Exactly.
[1:21:51] I do believe like, we have to be more clear with the constituents who received that money.
[1:21:58] I let her know because some people they are afraid, some of them they are thinking, well,
[1:22:02] you guys run me that money while you had to give the next presentation while you give me
[1:22:06] already.
[1:22:08] So many have responded and has provided the certifications and the information so I think if we did advise survey monkey or something that would have been a little friendly.
[1:22:21] But we did have to put there was a line in there that we had to put from the federal guidelines that seemed a little threatening because it did say under the guidelines.
[1:22:29] We could take the money back if you don't respond and the way I understand it from Desiree's research, it's not mandatory that everybody respond.
[1:22:37] That's true, but I do believe that is something that was supposed to let us know from the beginning before they apply for the grant.
[1:22:46] Yeah, and that's something that with this grant program, you know, it's something that we did not anticipate needing to do until we got into it.
[1:22:55] But I think this attempt is basically to try to gather as much information as we can post awards so that we can report back as reasonably as we can to the federal government.
[1:23:05] Thank you. Is there a deadline that they have to submit the information back to you? Is there a deadline?
[1:23:14] We don't have a deadline to report, but there was a deadline provided to the grant recipients of the 24th.
[1:23:23] It can be extended. It's not that we have a hard deadline, but we have to administer a deadline, at least, you know, give some reasonable time.
[1:23:34] And there are other questions on nonprofit funding, economic development.
[1:23:44] The next topic point under Section 5 that I wanted to ask the commission for feedback on is regarding travel and training.
[1:23:52] Citywide, we've instituted a out-of-state travel ban for the departments with exceptions for issues that are critical in nature,
[1:24:01] IE, the police department has specialized training that they have to do that may only be offered out of state.
[1:24:08] And so we do have the exception in place.
[1:24:11] What I wasn't sure, because I am starting to get requests from the commissioners, is the whether or not the commission intends to do an out of state travel ban?
[1:24:19] Or do you want to make exceptions for certain types of trainings that are aligned and imbudgeted as well as maybe economic development trips or just not have a travel ban for the commission outside of the state?
[1:24:38] I don't have an issue with the out of state travel for the commissioners, but I think that every item should be brought to the board so that we can evaluate and make sure that it is something that is going to benefit the city and if it's something that's going to benefit the city and we all agree it upon, I wouldn't see an issue with it.
[1:24:59] But it has to be, you know,
[1:25:04] a good trip, something that's worth it, something that's going to bring business back.
[1:25:10] Not the should have could have would have.
[1:25:13] So I don't think it should be banned completely because there are trainings and other things like the Florida League of Cities, the National Florida League of Cities,
[1:25:22] that some of the commissioners might be able to
[1:25:28] attend and these are courses and things that
[1:25:32] help us gather information and also educate ourselves on our new things that other cities are
[1:25:38] doing that are implemented and are working for them and they can help us when we go around to do
[1:25:43] our priorities for the year. Thank you.
[1:25:52] We have budgeted for the same travel as you all had budget
[1:25:56] in the current fiscal year, so that really doesn't matter.
[1:26:02] As a matter of fact, I think your year today is only about half of what we budgeted for travel.
[1:26:08] That's a budget at $38,000.
[1:26:10] I'm sorry, you just spent $17, maybe.
[1:26:17] Okay.
[1:26:19] Any other questions on that or a direction on that?
[1:26:22] We'll keep it status quo, which means the policy is well unless there's any changes in that directed
[1:26:29] by the commission. The last item on the agenda is the limited
[1:26:36] hiring freeze and again this is just a recap because I know there was a lot of
[1:26:41] concernation about the game plan that we had discussed at the earlier workshops
[1:26:47] particularly I think there was some I don't want to say confusion but just
[1:26:52] concerned that there might be layoffs and that is not something we are
[1:26:56] proposing for this upcoming fiscal year in order to balance the budget.
[1:27:02] Our goal at this point is to carry forward the hiring freeze that we have in place,
[1:27:09] that hiring freeze is not absolute.
[1:27:13] It does give us the ability to make exceptions, particularly for
[1:27:17] frontline public safety employees, as well as critical positions in each of the departments that are necessary to carry out tasks.
[1:27:25] And as, for instance, you know, we might only have one arborist in parks and recreation
[1:27:31] or we might only have two herbicide specialists or one or two traffic signal texts in traffic.
[1:27:40] And so in those situations, we can't freeze positions when we only have one or two people
[1:27:45] in those positions.
[1:27:46] And so the goal is to try to get to, we had penciled into the budget of $1.5 million cut
[1:27:54] but in personnel costs and the goal is the defrease as many non-essential positions as we
[1:28:01] can throughout the fiscal year to get to that magic number.
[1:28:04] Of course, if amendment three passes, we're going to have to have a whole new discussion
[1:28:08] on how we balance the budget going forward and that's going to take a very, very long and
[1:28:14] hard discussion.
[1:28:15] But, you know, we're going to be putting together an inter-departmental committee to look at various positions, look at ways that we can recommend efficiencies within the different departments.
[1:28:31] I'll give you an example of an effort that's already underway. The public works department has traditionally handled what's called the downtown clean team.
[1:28:39] Parks and Recreation has their maintenance folks have handled landscape
[1:28:44] maintenance for not just Lakefront Park, but all of the city landscape streets
[1:28:51] between the railroad tracks and the Lakefront Park.
[1:28:55] And so why do we have two different departments, two different crews with two different sets
[1:29:00] of equipment managing areas that are adjacent to each other.
[1:29:04] And so the inner departmental effort between public works and parks and
[1:29:07] recreation has been to combine that team into one, let parks take it over, that frees
[1:29:14] up some folks to go over to public works to bolster other areas that are shorthanded
[1:29:19] in, which allows us to essentially get the same amount of work or more work out of essentially
[1:29:27] less people, and that's the goal.
[1:29:30] So those are the types of things we're going to be looking at over the next month or so.
[1:29:33] So, if we hit any point at which we feel like we might need to do some reorganizations
[1:29:39] to make efficiency improvements, i.e., meaning transferring people to different positions,
[1:29:46] we'll certainly bring that back to the commission as it would require an amendment to the budget.
[1:29:51] But at this time, our goal is hiring freeze and hopefully that gets us to where we need to go.
[1:29:57] Any questions or comments from the Commissioner?
[1:30:00] I would like to see a list of all vacant positions at the city, with the position control number,
[1:30:09] position, title, total $1 a month for salaries and benefit that we can put in hold. List of those
[1:30:19] positions, those vacant positions. We can provide that and
[1:30:31] also break it out by funds as
[1:30:32] as well because the positions that are in non-general fund departments are not positions we necessarily have to freeze because really the general fund is the only fund that we're concerned about and so it's primarily, I'll give you an example we have 51 full time positions that are currently vacant and of those 51 I think about half will little more than half for general fund positions.
[1:31:01] And so those are positions that would be subject to the freeze less those critical positions that know I've already given approval to the departments to fill so we'll provide that information to you.
[1:31:15] Thank you.
[1:31:17] Any other questions or comments from the commissioners?
[1:31:23] I don't think so.
[1:31:24] Thank you Madam Mayor and commissioners.
[1:31:26] We appreciate your feedback today.
[1:31:28] I think this has been very productive, and we look forward to coming back at the hearings on Wednesday to September 9th.
[1:31:37] And Tuesday, September 22 will be our two budget hearings.
[1:31:42] And under the new state law, we need four of the five commissioners present to vote, yes, for the current military.
[1:31:51] because even keeping the current military requires a four-fist vote under the new state statute.
[1:31:57] So do we make a motion to approve the current military, or is it just?
[1:32:00] You did that at the last workshop, so we don't need any action tonight.
[1:32:04] Okay, all righty, well thank you.
[1:32:06] I will call our motion to adjourn this meeting.
[1:32:09] Motion to adjourn.
[1:32:11] Second, thank you, all the federal members.
[1:32:12] Thank you, commissioners.
[1:32:13] Thank you, everybody.
[1:32:14] Thank you.