Good afternoon. Welcome to the board of commissioners bud budget workshop number
five. Today is Wednesday, August 26, 2026 and it is 2 p.m. City clerk, would
you call the role, please? >> Yes.
» Mayor Brooks >> here. Vice Mayor McGee
» here. >> Commissioner Tagarini
» here. >> Commissioner Dylan
» here. >> Commissioner Gavay
» here. >> All are present.
» With no public in attendance, we will move on to discussion items. Fiscal year
2027 budget workshop number five. And I will hand this over to our finance
director. >> Great. Thank you. Okay. Okay, this is
our last workshop before our our uh first reading of the approval of the
millage rate and the and the proposed budget book. And we'll do two readings
in September. So, this is the last workshop. So, if
there's any concerns, questions, issues, things we need to update or change, um
now is the time um to voice those. This is still a live document that is can
certainly be subject to change if there's anything that you um feel that
needs amending. But this is the the the tenative budget book. So the full
deliverable, it's 163 page uh document. We're going to go over every single page
in great detail. Just kidding. I've got just a few things. Uh and there's a lot
of there's a lot of content here. And so a lot of what we've presented thus far
that I presented has been a lot of numbers throwing numbers at you. here
has a lot of narrative from our strategic goals and objectives. Um
reasons for changes in in bud in in budget from one year to the next. Um a
summary of our revenue sources and where those come from and by fund. Uh our
capital improvement plan, some narrative around that. Just community statistics.
We've got a lot of narrative in various parts and sections of the the budget.
It's a departure from previous year's budget documents. There's what's called
the uh GFOA distinguished budget award present uh uh the GFOA distinguished
budget award. Uh the GFO is the government finance officers association.
They we are uh annual what we call our ACER our annual comprehensive financial
report. That's our annual audited financial statements. We present th that
annually to the GFOA and they give us an award for excellence um or certificate
of achievement and excellence in financial reporting. We've never
submitted our budget because it never qualified because it's got to have
certain sections and and content. And so this is the first year I said, "Well,
let's prepare the budget book a little bit differently this year." Um and in
accordance with the GFO requirements. So you'll see a lot at the top of various
sections it'll say like GFO O2 department fund relationship because
that's what it wants you to cover. Not to say we're going to submit this for an
award. We certainly could now now that we're presenting a more GFO compliant
budget book. So if you try to look at the budget book last year and the budget
book this year the the the table of contents and the
underlying content within is is definitely different. But um I think
this tells a good story and what I just want to do is kind of focus on maybe
certain certain areas where we just really kind of get into the highlevel
numbers and what they mean. And then um so I've got kind of a prepared
presentation for I don't know 30 45 minutes to an hour tops and then turn it
over to you all if you all have any specific areas that you want to cover in
in greater depth. So, I figured we can start with my presentation and walk you
through certain pages that I want to highlight and then at the end and
certainly we'll go through dialogue and do some Q&A as we talk through that and
then at the end if there's any section out of this 163page document that you
want to dig into further um because I'm sure you all read it cover to cover uh
then we can certainly uh cover that uh and if if there are none then this will
adjourn early. Okay. Okay. So, are we ready to explore
then? Let's go to uh what I first just want to start is let's look at just
again the the the financial structure of the city, its funds and its departments.
So, that's in the department and fund relationship section and that is on page
25 of your packet which is page 23 of the budget book.
So this shows our our general fund and all the uh departments within the
general fund and then we go into the other funds. And so if we just start
with general fund, this just gives us a quick overview of okay, what are all the
departments that we have within the general fund? Um what do they do? What
are their goals and objectives? We've got all that information and in um
departmental goals and objectives summary. Um, but if we're just focusing
on that and all that's great reading to understand like, okay, what are what are
accomplishments of the community development department and what are
their initiatives, you know, going forward. We have all that narrative
explained throughout the uh within the budget document. But if we just focus on
the numbers here, uh, let's look at general fund and the
department. So, we're about 20,611,965. That's what we have budgeted in expenses
uh, for the general fund. Now, if you wanted to dig into that and say, okay,
well, geez, what's comprising most of that? Well, looks like fire EMS is
7,371,940. That's 35.8%
of of the general fund. So, what does that consist of? So, I just want to show
you like how to navigate through this and look at some highle information and
then be able to uh drill into specific accounts and and understand what ma what
comprises um certain of these department expenses. And maybe we can just hit the
just for an example just kind of hit the two uh the two or three largest ones
like fire and um non-EP departmental and maybe recreation. So, if you look at
fire, so that's about a $7.3 million budget. And if you look at fire, that's
on going to be on page 134 um of your or I think it's maybe 13 page
136 of your packet 134 of the document.
So, this is towards the end. This gives you all the departmental detail. And so
in all these budget table presentations, we've got the first two columns are
actuals that were those are actuals audited. So audited 2024, actual audited
2025. And then the next is your fiscal year budget minus one. So that's your
current budget of 2026. And then your last column, we have a header legend at
the top there that shows that is your 2027 proposed budget.
So we start with revenues. So the fire department does generate revenues. Um so
it has uh
most of that revenue is $3 million. So I want to be clear on a $7 million fire
budget and $4 million revenue. Let's take 3 million out of that because that
is the cons the remaining budgeted cost of construction of the Readington fire
station. Um that is just an in-n-out. It's not our asset. So, it's being
treated as an operating expense and other current charges. Um, and the
revenue, it's still our expense because we're incurring it. We're um managing
the project. Obviously, we're receiving the invoices. We're paying the vendor.
Then, we're getting reimbursed by Panelis County. So, it's an in-n-out
from that standpoint, but on grossed out basis, it's 3 million of revenue, 3
million expense. So, the true operating budget of the fire EMS,
not necessarily that 7.3 million. I would reduce that by 3 million to uh
about 4.3. And then you can see the sources of
revenue on from our main sources are going to be the Readington Beach fire
contract and the and the Penllis County EMS to help support our our that
Readington Beach EMS station.
And then you can just look and compare and say, okay, yeah, you know, what do
expenses look like uh in the fire department? And it is our largest
expense in any single department in the city operationally. If you add capital
like storm water that's more but those are big capital storm water drainage
improvement projects. So a fire EMS is the is the largest um expense of the
city operationally uh and most of that is personnel. So you
can see we've also had headcount increases. If you just look on the
bottom of page 136, 134 of the document of the of the budget
book, salaries and wages, you can see from 2024 actual of 1.35 million, now
we're at 2.28. So, we have had some increases in headcount uh more recently
um uh which we've already talked about as a
group of of hiring more um uh firefighters um to go out on calls. So
we have had year-over-year increases in costs in in fire. So that's been a a
contributor a larger contributor to the 20 million. Then the next would be
non-EP departmental. So uh that's the next largest expense of the general
fund. So if you want to dig into the numbers within non-EP departmental
and let me stop and take a breath.
So we can go well we can go right to the non-dep departmental section. So what I
did I showed you these are all your in your department fund relationships. Your
first table there is all your expenses in total budgeted for all your general
fund departments that comprises a $20 million um roughly $20 million expense
budget. I've already showed you. Well, take away three of million of that
because that's not a recurring operating because that was just that's going to be
a one-time um expense to build out finish building out the um the
Readington Beach fire station. So, we're kind of looking at 17 million
and change in just in what's the operating um budget for the general
fund. There's hardly any capital in the general fund as well, but I'm going to
add a separate table to show you operating versus capital on a fund by
fund basis. I'll show you that momentarily. I just want to finish this
analysis so you can see departmental costs in total and then how you can see
that breakdown to prior years of actual current year budget and next year
proposed budget.
before I dig into non-dep departmental any questions on what I presented thus
far or >> so I'd like to just for and I I'll do it
now instead of waiting just for clarification where in the public uh
there have been comments made that we our budget is blown out of sight we're
spending over $40 million a year and all this page shows the actual cost of doing
business in MadiRaa Beach at about $17 million a year and Everything above that
when you look at our overall budget is capital improvement projects or projects
purchasing the land doing things like that. Would that be a fair assessment
Andrew? >> It would. Yeah. And we have a table that
that expresses that explicitly. So that's just the on page um 26 of your
packet 24 of the book. There's an what's called aggregate view across all funds
operating and capital analysis governmental funds. So that'll show you
what we have budgeted for revenues, fund over fund, then what we have budgeted
for expenditures, less capital outlay, and then we have a line for capital
outlay. So, I bring it up because um when you're having a conversation with
someone and they talk about us spending $48 million this year in a budget,
although that is what the number is, that's not really a factual statement in
that if you looked at everything over the 17 million, the 17 million is the
cost to do in business, keeping the lights on, paying the staff, maintaining
the day-to-day days and everything else is road projects, building something,
doing something. And if we wanted to reduce our budget to a $20 million a
year budget, we would no longer be paving roads or doing storm water
repairs or any of the other various things that we do that are
projects, maintenance projects.
» Exactly. So when you see something in past budget documents, let's say we have
a 40ome million budget, we would show an ambitious capital improvement plan that
might be 20 plus million with all our storm water projects, some recreation
things, some you know um you know public works projects. when you
add them all up, yeah, there could have been a 20 plus million dollar capital
alone of which we often only, you know, actually
incurred a small subset of those kind of proposed projects. The true operating
budget is, as you see here on page 24 is more in that uh for the general fund
about 17 million across all your governmental funds about 2021 million.
» Thank you.
And so that's the that's the governmental funds. We also have our
proprietary funds. And our proprietary funds are are more intended to be
self-sufficient. So we've got marina parking, sanitation,
and storm water. And the first three are definitely
self-sufficient. Marina parking have been operating at a at a at a positive
profitable clip uh for a number of years.
And you can see what those both revenues, expenditures, and then capital
outlay, which again is not s is not significant for any of the funds or
departments except for storm water with a $4.9 million proposed capital outlay.
And I know we've had strategic planning, we've talked about projects, you're
like, well, wait a minute, shouldn't we have a lot more in projected capital
outlay costs? We'll I'll cover that when we get into the capital improvement plan
section of the book because it's specifically I'll I'll point you to a
paragraph where we talk about kind of that the the uh plan around development
and and um and future plans.
So that's so that's a good distinction. you know, expenditures operating and
operating consists of mostly personnel within just your operating expenses,
maintenance, repairs, contractual services, professional services,
um you know, accounting and auditing, um uh
department supplies, office supplies, those kind of things. are operating.
Capital means I'm uh either buying an asset of something that's greater than
$5,000 and has a useful life of more than one year that I will the city will
own. Uh so that's like equipment and vehicles or projects. So improving
infrastructure or improvements to a building or to a park um that has a
multi-year value. So that's those are what we call capital nature. That's the
distinction between operating and capital.
So going back to just those that general fund and those um departments and their
expenditures, the highest was fire. So the next highest is 2.86 million is
non-EP departmental. I'm not going to go through every department and go through
every line item. We'll be here forever. But I just want to show you like if you
feel like, geez, I'm lost in this 163 page document. I want to be able to just
understand better how much is, you know, what are we paying? What is non-EP
departmental 2.8 million? What does that consist of? City manager 914,000. What
does that consist of? Finance 787,000. So we have all that detail at the
departmental level um towards the back of the book. So if we look at non-EP
departmental, that's going to be on page uh 148 of your agenda packet 146 of the
book.
So the expenses for non-EP departmental start kind of lower towards the end of
the page. So for the first year in non-EP
departmental, we are having a uh a budgeted position. Um we've never had
personnel in non-EP departmental, but that's the facilities and project
coordinator um that your city manager um as we he and I discussed is going to be
allocated to a number of different projects for a number of different funds
and departments. So instead of trying to allocate his time 72 different ways,
we're just placing that individual as in our non-EP departmental and then through
an overhead allocation process, we'll be charging out the other uh participating
funds using that individual's time. So that's the fir our first personnel um
uh related budget um for that position. But far and away the largest expense is
going to be towards the end and that's on page
150 of your packet 148 of your book. And there's two large uh transfers.
There's a transfer to debt service fund and there's a transfer to the stormwater
fund. Below that was a transfer to the
Archabald fund and that happened back in 2024 for 2.2 million. that was to help
uh fund and provide funding to the Archabald Park Fund for the beach
growing renourishment project. Um because we did get some grant money for
that, but we had um our own uh expenditures incurred by the city far in
excess of what we re received in grant money. So we needed that general fund
infusion of 2.2 million, but nothing budgeted since the consistent budgeted
transfers out of the general fund. So that's included now in our operating
that's 17 million technically you know 20 million but you minus out the 3
million from the um from the Readington station that's offset by 3 million of
revenue about 17 million of that general fund expense. So, we got about 1.5
million 1,495,000 that's going to debt service to the
stormwater fund to pay debt service from that uh 2019
um $15 million debt um issuance that's being paid over a multi-year
period. Also, uh about 300,000 to the debt service
fund. That's for the the city center construction and everything you see here
that occurred back in 2013 I believe is when that was issued. So we have about a
$1.7 million debt service requirement on top of our other operating obligations
personnel and operating cost supplies maintenance etc.
So that's why that those debt service requirements are that's being borne by
the general fund are included in non-EP departmental. So that's why it ranks
number two in our largest um uh departments in terms of spend.
And then number three is recreation. And so that one's going to be on page 155 of
your book of your packet 153 of your document.
So you can see we start with just with just I I wanted to just show you revenue
so you can see what a department might be individually generating in addition
to its expenses. I know we I we we I report this in a number of different
places but I thought it's good to also have here so you can see revenues
compared to expenses. So you can see all the uh special event fees, recreation
program, after school program, summer program, etc.
the uh totaling 1438,500 in revenues. And then the cost of the
recreation is going to be at the the total at the bottom of your budget
expenses, which is 1,715,500.
And we can compare that over a multi-year period. So we can compare the
far left column. So, I'm on the bottom of uh page 157 of your packet 155 of the
book. That's 2024 actual is 1.46 million. 25 actual is 1.47 million. And
then we budgeted 1.58 uh million in 26 and then 1.715
and 27. So a lot of that increase is mostly in personnel and we didn't add a
lot of positions but towards the end of fiscal year 25 beginning of 26 we went
through a salary study if you all recall and the one department that had I
believe the most um uh uh pay rate changes
um were was in recreation. So a lot of those lower wage positions that that
increased uh more substantially. So recreation saw the big had the biggest
impact on that salary study. Um so if you look at the first expense
in
from 468 uh salaries and wages I'm at page 155 of
the packet 153 of the book. that first line salaries and wages 468,000 actual
493 actual and it's bumped up to 633,000 um budgeted
and those reflected the the newer pay rates that went into effect um and I
believe the beginning of 2026.
So that's just the blueprint for you to be able to go and if you have any
questions, you know, at the end of this or even if you want to ask me
individually, I'm digging into your finance department, buddy boy, I'm going
in all your line items. I want to and so you have that basis of comparison to see
two years of actual history, what we budget in 26 and what we budget in 27.
And then you get the macro view like I showed you on page 20 um five of your
packet what all those departments and their budgeted expenses are for fiscal
year 27 within the general fund. And after that we go into the um
the different funds. So, like I showed you on page 24/26,
if we go back up there, that operating versus capital analysis.
» Sorry, page 26 of your packet. Page 24. So, that
» is
uh 24 is the booklet, 26 is the packet. Yeah.
» Whatever I say, it's always going to be a two-page difference, which is which is
at least good. were consistent. >> Gotcha.
» Andrew, I have a question for you. >> How do you figure out
how to budget
a a certain cost? I mean we we look at let's say the past
three years of the expenditures and then it's like
let's say 400 some odd,000 and then the budget is 600 and plus. So
how do you how do you drive from what we have been spending versus the budget?
How do you figure that out? So for for budgeted expenses,
we've got either kind of one of two methods. One's either what I would call
like specific identification and what that we generally budget all of
our personnel and capital under that specific identification method. What
does that mean? We have in our our budgeting module within our ERP system,
we have what's called budget position control management. That's a basically a
roster of all of our filled and vacant positions and we assign them a pay rate,
whatever their pay rate is. Now we also include a coal increase, merit increase,
so projected increases for the next year. We assign them to their respective
fund department combination. And then we also have what's called budget benefits
that will say okay well they're also entitled to health insurance and which
employees get health insurance and how much how much retirement FRS um and then
we have you know workers comp rates as well um that fluctuate depending on the
nature of work they do. So those are all like specific employees either filled or
vacant. It could be vacant positions or their actual employee with their real
information and that develops our personnel budget. So that's not just a
well shoot. We spent this department had 342,000 of salaries last year. Let's
just do 360,000 this year. Let's just do a little bit of a bump. Um no, it's very
specific. We go employee by employee. Have all that information into our
budgeting module. And that's and so then and then that's where I'm generating
these reports and the system's calculating all of the actual budgeted
salaries and wages. It's based on actual calculated um figures.
Same with capital. Capital is not like well we spent 3 million last year in the
Archabald fund or in the Sorar fund. Let's maybe spend four million this year
and and you know it's kind of a field. No, we identify specific projects and
then we have a multi-year capital plan. Here's what in 20 um well spent in 27 28
29 30 and you project it on a project by project basis and the sum of all those
projects for a particular fund department then translate to my capital
budget you know on a highly summarized level. operating is where we've got a
couple options and some diff different um department heads do it a little
differently. Some look at what we've budgeted what they budget in the past.
They look at some of their past expenses and then they make their best estimate
of the next year's budget. Others an other option could be again specific
identification for the finance department accounting and auditing. I
know we've got our audit firm and our fees. So I identify that in the system
and here's our project projected audit fees. we pay our
our um uh FA, our municipal advisor, we pay them this amount. And I'm
specifically going through line item by line item what those are. And so those
are a couple different ways that we can then create um a budget for operating
costs. um either by looking at past year trends
and saying here's what we budgeted last year, let's do a 5% increase or maybe a
decrease depending on what I what I think is going to incur in the next year
or specifically identifying um expenses that you know are going to uh occur next
year. So that's for personnel and capital. It's very specific to the
employee and to the project. for operating it's a bit more of an estimate
since that can occur from a number of different vendors and different types of
expenses and then revenues is more of the projection how you know my advalorum
taxes that's a pretty good calculation here's my you know what the property
appraiser is saying is our our taxable values here's our millage rate um times
a percent you know 95 96% for collection rate and here's our proposed um
advalorum tax revenue For other revenues, it's more looking at
historical trend information. What have we been collecting in prior years? Do we
is there any environmental factors that might change as a result of that that we
put our best estimates forward for revenues?
» So, if if the expenditure is less than the budgeted cost at the end of the uh
budget year uh fiscal year, you can put that funds back into like general
funds. >> Good question. That's next thing I'm
going to go on go is we're going to look at fund balance analysis. So I want to
go through uh a page of called that's called fund balance analysis. So and
that's exactly what happens. You have your actual fund balance then you have
your year's results and then that fund balance either increases or decreases.
You increase your reserve or you decrease them. Then you have your
budgeted results and then here's our budgeted ending fund balance at the next
year. And that I'll show you a schedule that'll depict all that. And I kind of
want that's my next great segue. That's what I want to talk about next. And
going through on a fund by fund basis what reserves, beginning reserves,
ending reserves look like, ending budget reserves look like fund by fund and some
that um um that merit some additional explanation. I'll go through that.
Any other questions or do you want to walk through that now?
Okay, good. You haven't lost me completely yet. We're we're still
hanging on by a thread. All right, good. Let's go to page uh 60 of your agenda
packet, page 58 of your budget book,
fund balance. And this isn't in this is not in prior year's books, our budget
books, because again, we this is a newly prepared budget book that I I created.
um to be more aligned with the government finance officers association
GFOA distinguished budget award program. And so they have a whole section fund
balance that that shows this information and I like it because I think it it
presents very valuable information on well gez we're our expense our budget
expenses are higher than our budget revenues. Can we afford that? Well yes
if we have sufficient reserves to capture it. Um so this goes through you
know um if we look at this table here on this in this page let's kind of just
take this fund by fund. So in the Archabald Park fund we'll
start we'll start first um we have 2025 ending fund balance net
position. So this is based on audited figures. So that's this is done 2025
already done audited. So these you could agree to your audited financial
statements uh fund by fund this is the are basically ending fund balance right
it's the difference between assets and liabilities
um and what either increases fund balance every year or decreases it it's
called change in fund balance that's revenues minus expenses
so starting in 2026 end of 2025 we're at 663,000
so thus far in 26 we had some um some beautifification projects, park pocket
park improvement projects. We have been spending some capital
had had some capital expenditure in the arch ball park fund and that's um you
can see this is year to date as of like early August when I kind of put the
finishing touches on this. So these are near actual numbers to date. um maybe
just a few weeks outdated, but otherwise this is capturing actual activity year
to date in fiscal year 2026, which started October 1st to early August.
So, you can see we do have a a a pretty wide gap there from 539,000 revenues
to 1.1 million in expenses. So, that's now we're that's depleting
our fund balance. Then in 2027, more of the same thing. We're at 577,000
of budget revenues to 1.45 or 1.46 million expenses. So budgetarily, the
math isn't going to work. It's not working long term, right? We're
expending, we're proposing to expend much more than what we're generating in
revenue. So let's go take a little deeper dive and to see what what's
causing that. What does that look like? So, let's go down to page uh 35 of your
packet, page 33 of your book.
Okay. So, start it starts. So this is all this
is shows you revenues and expenses by by fund for all of your other funds outside
of the general fund. So starting with Archabald Park, Archabald Park,
Archabald fund is fund 110 and then the first table is all of your
revenues. The next table is all your expenses.
So the main primary source of revenues in the uh for Archabald Park is your
parking meters. So, we have that modestly budgeted at uh
550,000.
Um
I think 2024 is probably a better estimate of what your true revenue
potential is and that was almost 600,000.
You see in 2025 it went down to 383,000. But remember, we had a giant mound of
sand for a period of multiple months before we even opened up that lot. So
that ate into a lot of our revenue potential
in 2025. I'm impressed that we had the recovery that we did and got 383,000.
So I think 550,000 for 27 and 26 and 27 budget is even a little conservative.
Uh, if you want to give me a moment, I can even pull up
um what our actual revenue is thus far in just that one account
because I'm curious myself.
So, we're at f $515,95 just on the Archabald uh beach parking
meters. So, I think we'll definitely meet or
exceed the 550,000 budgeted um by the end of September.
So, it probably maybe get closer to about 600,000,
more in line with what we were at in 2024.
And then we've got the beach walkover chair rentals. That's a $12,000
um annual. And then some interest. We also, if you see above that was a
concession snack shack. So that was a good $102,000 and then that frigin
hurricane hit and now we're at nothing. Right? We budgeted in 26 I think at the
time when we went through the budget process in 2025. We thought we could
slap some repairs together and and rent it out, but realistically no. We've got
um more work to do on that. So conservatively, we haven't budgeted any
revenue for Snack Shack. That's not to say we can't um
um make the the the needed repairs and actually have the tenant in and and rent
that out and actually generate some revenue in 2027. So revenue is possible.
At baseline, it was about $100,000 a year. So hopefully we can get back to
that at some point. >> So Andrew, the FEMA fund, did that is
that included anything in in in anything in here?
the FEMA.
So, our our FEMA reimbursements I think were uh at least thus far have just
recorded all in the general fund even though I know some of it is maybe
general fund related and some you can maybe carve out to other funds. I think
when we got the check we have a a a FEMA grant revenue account in the general
fund and that's what we parked it. We can certainly dig into that number more
and and and allocate it to to different funds
» because you can only spend that money in a certain way, right, for construction.
» Well, so those those FEMA funds is that's a reimbursement. So we've already
already incurred the um the damage and the costs. Um and so
essentially that's just a reimbursement for the cost that we've already
incurred. We've had to show FEMA. It's a pretty arduous process pulling up all
the the the documentation that they want. That includes evidence of of of
damage, pictures, and costs, rehabilitation costs incurred. So, we've
already incurred those costs. We're just looking to we're looking to get
reimbursed. So, we're keeping that out of the out of
the um we don't I don't believe we have any FEMA revenues
um budgeted, but that's not to say we cannot we won't be getting FEMA revenues
trickling in over the next fiscal year or two years, but it's just a little
unpredictable based on what they reimburse and the timing that I think we
excluded from from the budget.
Um so then getting back so realistically if everything's operating normally we'd
have about 600,000 and 100,000 from the uh parking meters and the snack shack
respectively. So that puts us at about, you know, 800 uh, excuse me, 700,000
plus interest and the chair rentals 7 maybe 750,000.
And that can as long as we're just doing pure, you know, or in our personnel
costs, we're allocating um, either part uh, part of maybe public
works and maybe one one or so dedicated employees that handle parks. that's
that's getting absorbed into the salaries and wages expense. So some
those are the personnel costs that are pretty fixed year-over-year.
Uh we do have a large if you look at the bottom of page 36 of your packet 34 of
the book maintenance building DAV I believe those are the budgeted costs for
the um for the snack shack um uh repair.
So that would be nonrecurring. So, if you take out that, that's non-recurring.
Um, and then you look at the end of the the last page, we don't really have we
have $60,000 in capital. So, you take out five $560ish,000.
Just the pure operating expenses can be more like $800,000. So, we can maybe ek
out close to break even if we're not incurring any capital costs or we don't
have any large um maintenance work that we have to do.
And then our biggest maintenance expense is maintenance grounds parks. That's at
150,000 um budgeted that that's on that last page that I'm I went over page 37
of your packet 35 of the book. That's your besides the maintenance to that to
the snack shack which was more one-time hurricane induced um your ongoing
maintenance expenses is more on the um maintenance grounds parks. So we have
budget 150,000. So it's not barely probably not breaking
even uh on an annual recurring basis as as long as we don't have any capital
needs. But as soon as we do, then we know that this Archabal park fund is not
self-sufficient. And I'm not sure that's exactly the
desire that we need that that fund to be self-sufficient because we care about
our parks. Um just presenting the reality that periodically we might need
to like we had that $2.2 $.2 million general fund transfer into the Archabald
Park to help fund the beach groin reconstruction project based on just
these operating needs, the lack of revenue on the snack shack. Now, um and
the the maintenance or repairs and maintenance costs to to u renovate
damaged areas. um we'll need another another infusion from the general fund
and then hopefully on a long-term basis we can be at or close near near break
even but that one's that one's tight. >> So you said it's non self-sufficient
correct? Well, currently right now in this in
this we have some one time I'm saying what's in the long-term horizon on the
Archabald Park Fund if we wanted to fund those those personnel costs and fund all
the the maintenance around all the parks around the entire city. Um those two
revenue sources are barely sufficient to do that. Well, I'm not sure that this is
the exact time to bring this up, but I do believe one of our residents or
commercial people was talking about doing a long-term lease on the building
if and he would be responsible for the interior
um building things and if there would be
another hurricane or storm, he would make it such that it could be removed.
And once again, like I say, as we're talking budget, you know, it's kind of
putting the cart before the horse, but um is that something that it could
become, you know, a revenue if we had a
long-term lease, I believe, and that's why I'm just
bringing this up at this point.
» Open form if anyone wants to address I mean, anything that's at least that
we're >> So, I will. So, Archabald, the snack
shack, has always had a long-term lease up until the hurricane when the it
became uninhabitable and needs repair. So, once we repair it, it will go back
out to bid for a new lease on it and that person would be responsible in a
triple net lease to maintain it and take care of it.
So, that will happen again. That revenue will come back, but it won't come back
until we repair the building and make it where someone else can come in. When
they go in, the building will be white boxed. They will be responsible to bring
in all the equipment for it to be a restaurant and to be a retail
establishment. That's required by the lease. So, that'll happen.
» Thank you. >> Yeah.
» Hopefully sooner than later.
» Okay. Okay. So then back to page 60 of your packet. Oh no, sorry. Uh yes, page
60 of your packet 58 of the document. So that's the Archabald Park fund. I
just wanted to give you kind of a realistic overview of where it's at
currently. Um and kind of long longer term projections.
Um building fund next. That one um we've
already talked about to a degree. uh the 2025 ending fund balance of almost
$70,000. It had a much higher fund balance before um but then we had the
hurricane hit and we had uh the um waving of the permit fees as you know.
Um some of that bled in a little bit in 2026. Um but um overall our permit
revenues definitely increased. I think it was maybe 400 something,25
26 is already trending to 700,000 plus. Um but we have incurred a lot of
expenses 1.1 year to date on expenses in the building fund
and a lot of that because we had you know uh turnover and we had uh
outsourced positions that were full-time in terms of the role that were uh
outsourced to an external uh third party. And so that by by nature is a
more expensive proposition um when you have a third a third party
doing a full-time role within your organization. So we're making strides on
on hiring and filling positions internally. So that is going to reduce
our professional services expenses and get us more um into a better position in
terms of personnel costs both contractually and uh internal FTEEs.
But then the other thing that we need to do is is and we've already talked about
this so I don't want to belabor it is just reevaluate the permit fees that are
being charged. They were at 2% of um of of of total permit value. that got
reduced down to 1% and currently that's not sufficient to meet the operating
needs of this department. Um plus the state has now come out with regulations
that make our our require compliance over time to be more
of a um service model like looking at our actual um time and materials and
expenses that go into the work to generate the permit. So, that's all in
progress and Marcy's here if you have any other specific questions on that.
Ultimately, the long-term trend is that this is uh a a break even proposition.
And so, it it's not currently, but that's that's the goal of the future.
And so, we've got a team in place that'll be working on that. But um where
you see this the fund balance and projected negative 1.57 million. Yes,
that's concerning, but that's something we'll be coming back to you all with
with proposed fees changes on our on our um permitting and all of our community
development fees. Uh I'll skip over debt service fund and
the gas tax fund. Those are um gas tax fund is largely kind of break even.
There's not a lot of expenses running through that. We have some gas tax fees
and then we've got some um kind of lighting and and street maintenance
expenses that go into that. Debt service is just taking that general fund
transfer. It's increasing its fund balance because it's earning interest um
on its on its pulled cash balance. Um but ultimately it's taking in the the
the transfer in and then making the debt service payment for the the 2013 bonds
that were issued. So then you've got the general fund
where we were at end of 2025 almost $19 million pretty healthy fund balance. Um
and so then as you're aware that did get um
uh largely depleted if you look at your 2026 revenues year to date and 2026
expenses year to date. And I walked through this if you all recall from last
Friday our strategic plan meeting. We talked about this a little like where
does general fund sit currently. So if you just look at those two numbers
32,223,791.
So if I actually take those two numbers and I'll just do the little math on my
own and let's pull that up and and run it through. So we've got some
reconciling items to contend with. So you've got 32 million
223791 in expenses minus 18 million488
uh 287 in revenues. That's a 13,735
um,000 difference. And then you add back in $18
million or or back that out $18 million 120,000 the closing cost included.
That's the purchase of the 555 property. Now you're at plus 4.3 million.
And we received that emergency from that emergency bridge loan program.
Uh we received
I'm drawing a blank on on how much we got. I believe it was 3.
Pulling that up now. Give me one second.
3 million48,500.
So, if I add back 3,148 um 5,3148500,
I'm at 1.2 million ahead. So, what did I just do? I took basically
our our our results thus far year to date in the general fund across all
departments, all of our revenues, taxes, charges for services, everything, minus
all of our expenses in the general fund. and we were at a $13 million deficit.
Why were we at a $13 million deficit? Well, we spent $18.12 million on buying
a property, but then we also received $348
million resulting from the hurricane damage um when you all approved this
emergency bridge loan program, which is great for us, right? No repayment terms,
no interest acrewing, keep the money, pay us back over 10 years. maybe they
won't even make us pay it back. Um, so you factor in taking those two rec those
two reconciling items into account, you're at about a one $1.2 million on
the profit side. Now, what I want to see is the general fund operating at at
around break even. Um, and so where we're at then in 2027, we
are at about a a 3 million or so. um deficit budgetarily, right? Budgetarily
a deficit and and most of that's just personnel costs. Um there's not a whole
lot of capital in the general fund that we're um that we're budgeting for. So a
lot of just operating expenses exceeding our budgeted revenues. Um but like I
said, actual results typically always fall in less than
budget. and then so we'll see as as the actual plays out. But if you look at
that and you're concerned, I totally understand. Um there's just not much to
cut out of the general fund unless you want to cut um positions. Um
so that's the that's the stark reality. Even with that budgeted 3 million
deficit, we're still at 1.7, you know, million remaining of of budgeted fund
balance. If if actual plays out exactly the way budget does.
So again, I'm not I'm not sounding alarm bells like, okay, we got 17 million
budget revenue, 20.6 budget expenses. Um because I know our our actuals always
come in lower. We budget very conservatively on health insurance. Um,
so our actual health insurance costs are always typically lower than budgeted. We
have vacant positions that don't get filled. So invariably we don't incur all
the costs that we budget in the general fund. Nevertheless, I always like to
budget actual revenues to be at least somewhat in line with expenses. So I
just want to keep an eye on that. Um, nothing I want to sound the alarm bells.
Um, but we want we want budgeted inflows and the general fund to be at least
somewhat in line with budget outflows.
Okay, moving on. Impact fee fund.
And remember, there used to not be a parking fund. We
used to have parking parking all parking revenues in the general fund. So, if I
just did that, general fund would look a lot different. Instead, and I'm going to
get to that at the end. Well, geez, we also have two very profitable
uh operations at marina and parking that if we just said, well, let's just put
all the revenue Oops, excuse me. In the general fund, then we wouldn't be seeing
a three, we would have 3 million or so higher of revenues and we would show um
even budgeted profit in the general fund. So, the sky is not falling. I just
want to I'm just presenting factual numbers here to you of actual results as
well as what we're budgeting next year on a fund by fund basis so you can see
what our budget reserves are at the end of the next year. I just think this is a
very helpful table to kind of go through this fund by fund
impact fee fund. We just keep increasing our our reserves and impact fees in the
impact fee fund. So this is one that we can if the project qualifies we can
designate it. We don't have any budgeted expenses in the impact fee fund. But
that's not to say we cannot spend out of the impact fee fund. We would just need
to put forth in a budget amendment to you all to say we've got a great
eligible project that we want to pay with impact fee dollars. Um whether
that's a a future um recreation project and close a basketball court or um
anything that can be um that would apply that um based on the statutory
requirements on how we can spend impact fees. We've got money there to the point
where it's getting to about 1.4 million of of available funding. So that's not
pocket change. >> Andrew, um yeah, the impact fee fund is
that because I know there's always impact fees for water and sewer and
water and sewer we don't own. County does. So that portion of the impact fees
we still collect, but then we have to pass it on to Penelis County.
So the impact fee fund that we have is basically the net
amount that is paid to us. Is that correct?
» Yeah. To a degree, yes. So we have uh three types of impact fees. And Marcy,
you know better than this, so if I misspe, throw something at me. Uh we
have a a public safety impact fee, a recreation impact fee, and a
transportation impact fee. That was uh only within the last I think three to
four years when we put forth an impact fee ordinance that the commission at the
time approved and so there's a calculation methodology to that. What
has been under scrutiny more recently that we rescended was the transportation
impact fee the county already charges and within that transportation impact
fee there's a penelis county portion and a city madiraa beach portion and then we
were charging another transportation impact fee on top of that. So, um I
believe that that transportation impact fee, um we're no longer charging, but
the county when we are, we do have to send the county that portion that the
the county's portion of that that belongs to them. We do that annually in
October every year. That's report that as a liability in our in our accounting
system. So, we know this is not a revenue, this is a liability. But all
the other impact fees that we collect, recreation, public safety, and then the
transportation related impact fee that we can keep, um, that is available, uh,
for the city to spend. >> Yeah.
» And that's that number I showed you is the true revenue.
» Okay. So then even better, again, we have capital needs in the future. What
are funding sources? Impact fee fund definitely is a funding source. A couple
years ago, it wasn't as much because we're just collecting, you know, a few
hundred,000, but now it's it's adding up to where we've got budgeted about 1.4
million. Another one that we have budgeted rather aggressively in the
past, but never really it's have spent as much as we've uh planned has been the
local option sales tax fund. That's like the penelli penny for panelis. So, you
can see that fund balance, that actual fund balance is 3.2 2 million as of
fiscal year ended September 30, 2025. That's that's not projected. That is
actual remaining fund balance. Assets minus liabilities.
Uh and then we've got revenues in 2026. That's the discretionary sir tax that
penalty penny for penalis money that we do collect. I believe we get that on a
monthly basis. Um, and then we've got some small
capital related expenses, 182,000 year to date in the lost fund.
Then we've got budgeted next year for 27,765.
And we did not have a long laundry list of projects. We just have $100,000
budgeted in 27 for expenses. So now we're at budgeted of almost $4.4 $4
million available for future projects in the lost fund
of which many or most capital projects um do apply. So there are some minor
restrictions um but for the most part infrastructure improvements, government
building improvements, public safety vehicles, those are the main things that
we can spend with lost fund dollars. And so that fund balance has been increasing
over time. >> Andrew, I'm sorry. I I was trying to
follow you and I I Could you tell me what
» page I'm on? >> Yeah, sorry.
» No problem. Page 60 of your uh packet >> 60 of your packet, 58 of your um
» Thank you. Sorry. >> of your document.
» So, this is this fund budget year fund balance. I really like this. It shows
you where we were historically. How much money do we have in each of these funds?
You can kind of say that's kind of your fund balance like how much you know
reserves um you know what's available in it. You know what's available in it is
whatever the balance was last year plus revenues minus expenses this year and
revenues minus expenses each year after that.
So those are those are positive attributes and those capital
intensive funds impact fee fund and the lost fund that we do keep increasing our
available fund balance in those funds. Then we've got Marina fund another big
winner thanks to Krabby and his team. Uh that's been increasing 4.5 million.
That's where uh fund balance net position was in 2025 actual audit
results and then we just keep the marina fund
keeps making money. So 1.5 million yeartoate actual revenues 820,000
yeartoate as of a couple weeks ago expenses and then we're budgeting for
more profit. We're budgeting 1.725 million of revenues and 1.379 million of
expenses. Why are those we expenses so high? We do
have I believe the budgeted um capital project. We'll dig into that in the
capital improvement plan. I think that's for the um the seaw wall or the the the
docks uh the city hall docks. Yeah. So now we're at 5.5 million um available
in the marina fund. Then uh then parking fund again um
that's been that the parking fund only began its existence I think three years
ago in 2022 or three. It was all a part of the general fund. Then we pulled it
out to to uh report it separately in its own fund. 5 million was available fund
balance. Then we're adding 3.2 million revenues to 1.5 expenses. That's actual
year-to- date results. 3 point almost 3.2 2 3.3 million in um projected
revenues, which looks conservative since we're already at 3.2 million actual in
26. So, barring another unforeseen storm or incident that drives people away from
the city of Mader Beach, um that's probably a very um conservative estimate
on the revenues for 2027. And then only one and then 1.8 8 million
of expenses um out of the parking fund. So now we're at 8 million in fund
balance net position in the parking fund.
So a 3 million deficit in the general fund feels a lot better when I see those
results in the parking fund, the marina fund of which those are not restricted
monies that are that we have to restrict. I mean, those can be um
transferred to the general fund to help to help offset general fund expenses,
but ideally, we want to build those marina and parking fund reserves because
we've got an ambitious long-term capital improvement plan with various
projects that those funds can help um support ongoing debt service payments in
the future if if and when we issue debt for for various development efforts.
So money is there to that extent certainly
in those two funds. And then the last two um sanitation
fund. So again sanitation fund um since we're
charging charging residents we don't want to overcharge to help fund
non-sanitation related expenses. Um that is intended to be a bit of a break even
analysis. We've actually been building up our reserves in the sanitation fund
more recently when we had enacted a fee increase in I think fiscal year 22 um
because we were operating at break even or a deficit um previously. So we're at
2.8 million actual net position and then revenues and expenses 1.6 and 1.4 so
far. Um which at 1.4 4 includes any capital related out outlay. And then in
27, we've got 2 million revenues and 2.4 million expenses. But that 2.4 and we
can dig into the sanitation uh revenue and expense detail if you
like, but I we'll look into what what comprises that number out of capital. So
there are some vehicle replacements, I believe, that that um contribute to that
2.4 million expenses. But overall, we're we've been trending nicely in sanitation
fund and continue to do so. And then storm water fund, 5.4 million
ending fund balance. Um, a lot of that is just is kind of your your your uh
project costs that were capitalized. So that's not like true cash. That's that's
capitalized project costs. um 26 revenues so far, 578 million thousand,
excuse me, compared to 4.3 million of actual expenses. And that's a lot of the
the storm water projects we've been working on. And so again, this one is is
more of the same 5.7 million budget and revenues. And a lot of that revenue
uptick is is um as uh grant funded revenues. So getting different funding
sources for some of our project our storm water projects we're anticipating
in fiscal year 27 and then there's your 7.5 million in expenses. Most of that is
your project cost that we'll cover in capital.
» Andrew question um as far as consultant fees how does that
fit in this budget? How do you designate consultant fees that we pay for design
of let's say storm water? >> Sure. So it depends on the nature of the
consultant fee. If it's like to do a study to in um evaluate options or
alternatives that's typically an operating expense that we would put in
like professional services because it's not tied to a specific project like a
design or engineering plan. It's more like an evaluation. Um it's so it's not
capital, it's a piece of it's a document. So it's not a fixed asset and
it's not tied to a specific project versus design and engineering work on a
particular project. So that's going to be like an infrastructure asset or a
building improvement asset. Um that will that will be would be capitalized and
those particular consulting costs would be a part of if you look at our account
your account level detail would be a part of capital improvement. And so
you'd see that in your in your capital costs as part of your capital
improvement plan. And we would embed those engineer professional engineer
architectural design work. That's all part of the the the capital project
» and the grants that we receive is somehow associated with that.
» Yeah. And very important to know we don't we wouldn't offset. So we would
never reduce our expenses. We would gross up whatever that grant revenue is.
That's your revenues um compared to the the uh expenses and those would be
displayed separately. And that's a good point. Why don't we actually go to this
the storm water fund and we can look at that
just real quick. And that's going to be on page
57 of your packet 55 of your book.
So um you can see some of the the the non-recurring
revenues. So the first two lines, one storm water grant, the next Panelis is
Penelis County. So I imagine the Penllis County one for 1.485 million is like a
JPA joint participation agreement that we have with Penllis County. Megan Web
could share with the details of the actual project for that. So that's their
involvement um in that for you know whatever reason and we would get the we
would get we would invoice Panelis County for their share of the project
work and we would absorb the entire project cost pay those invoices and all
those would go to a particular that capital improvement we call it in the
storm water fund most of that goes to what's called the drainage and roadway
improvement capital um related expense that's on page 5 uh8 of your
packet. Oh, sorry. It's at the way end there. Page 59 of your packet. Page 57
of the book. You can see an expense here called
404920056305 drainage and roadway improvement.
And that's where we generally um budget our capital related expenses in that one
in that one account. And then when you say, "Well, geez, how
does if it all just goes to that account, how do we know how much we're
spending on area 3 versus area 5 versus area 7?" We have a separate projects and
grants module in our ERP, in our accounting system that we tag those
transactions that hit that GL account and say, "Hey, it also relates to this
project." So, we can run an annual or a multi-year project report. And so we can
see by project. Hey, show me for area three. How much have we spent in 2024,
2025, 2026, how much revenue have we generated on a on a project by project
basis, but we keep the accounting simple uh for budgeting purposes. This that one
account is inclusive of all of those project costs.
I just want to bring up at this time originally when we were talking this I
did not want to look at raising the storm water storm water prices because I
was not going to come into office and say okay well yes let's raise this but I
got an article and I just want to you know from the paper on August 6 that
city sewer bills in St. beat Beach Beach could jump 64%. And I thought, well, big
deal. But yet what they're paying right now is $11059 a month and it's going to
128. So for us going from 10 to $20 is minimal. I mean, you know, so seeing all
this information, um, you know, it it's Madera Beach is
still very cheap for their storm water and let's kind of get back in line of
getting this back in place.
Yeah, we certainly in incur incur costs in our storm water fund and
storm water cannot be neglected given just the the basic geography of
where we're at. So >> most of the increase in the funds are so
that we can pay the debt service and take that out of a debt service that the
general fund has been paying for. Is that correct?
It helps and even with that we went through the math together previously
with our existing debt service and our and our operating costs which included
personnel and maintenance on the storm drains and everything irrespective of
capital. We're still not projected to be quite there. I'll be curious when this
when it the fee increase goes into effect and and run analysis as we go
through fiscal year 27 actual results just how close we are. But we're not
we're getting better. So we're certainly closer to that. Um, but we're not quite
covering all of our operating and debt service costs even with this increase.
More reason I feel it's necessary. >> Oh, please join.
» You are doing such a great job. >> I mean, I need a break. So, thank you.
» Good afternoon, everyone. I think um, Commissioner Kavahi, I think what you
were asking about was the professional services in the storm water. That
$235,000 is for the VA and the AP grant that we
received from FT. So, as Andrew stated, the revenue is shown on the revenue and
outflow, but then we have to show the cost
on on the professional services side. So, we have $250,000 budgeted for 26.
The whole project was $485,000 which is a complete 100% reimbursement
but it's going to flow into 27. >> So when you budget
for a professional fee for a professional services
all the consultants know what the budget is, right?
» So we received a full 100% grant for this. So I think we're talking about two
separate things. It depends on the project.
Yeah,
the the only concern I have is I mean I understand what you just said, but one
of my concerns with budgeting certain professional fees is that all the
consultants are going to look at the budget. and say, "Oh, you know, they've
budgeted this much money for these services, so let's just reduce our fees
by 10% and, you know, 10% less than the budget and um propose that to you and,
you know, there's just just really not a uh
in my opinion, not the best way to to get competitive fees,
» professional services, and I can speak only for my department. Um, typically in
that budget, I have just money just in case I need engineering on a failed
storm drain or something along those lines. So, often times I don't 100% have
a set budget for design fees. Um, it's built in within a whole entire project.
So for we talked about the pocket parks and and the Bokea neighborhood. I did
not have a plan to have a consultant engineering fee for that. That just came
out of my complete overall budget. >> Yeah. Small things I don't worry about.
It's the big big ticketed items that I worry about like couple hundred,000 or
half or whatever for you know whatever project. That's that's what I am
concerned with. So >> I think where the challenge comes in in
that, if I may, is that we are a government agency and so we have to be
transparent and everything has to be in the sunshine. So before Megan can take
something out to bid, she has to bring it to us and she has to ask for
approval. So there's really not a way to not tell it. However, um I also don't
think that that would be my experience just thinking about bids in general that
we've gotten and they come in all over the place.
» The Valve grant is a great we they asked during the bid process before the bids
were due what my budget was. My budget was $200,000. I received one bid out of
seven, I believe, that was within $6,000 of my my project. Everything else was
well over $100,000 more. So, I think sometimes people do ask because
obviously if we don't have the budget for it, then they're not going to waste
their time nor waste our time or even bid because that process is quite
lengthy. So it it totally is dependent on the project on what you're looking to
do. I understand what you're saying, >> but it is hard to not have a budget if
they ask for it. >> Well, can that be a part of let's say
general fund budget? In other words, can we not draw consultant fees out of a
general fund fund budget
and not have to say, "All right, we're going to be building this road.
Let's budget $300,000 for the consultant fees."
and then let everybody know that we're ready to spend $300,000 on the
consultant fees. Um if if we can just say, "All right, let's just put this
much money in the budget and then in in a general general fund and then let the
consultants have that competitive fee, whatever that may be, to present to us."
Are you are you talking about the actual construction cost? Are you look No,
you're talking about just the consultants. Well, consultant uh
contracts are not based upon price. They're based upon qualifications. Once
you get that qualifications in and we select the top one, then we go into a
negotiation for unit pricing. So what we would do is we would we would um
negotiate what the you the rates are for the professionals. Once the rates of the
professionals are then set, we go into an effort-based analysis. Meaning here's
the five scope of work or five tasks we need you to do. I'll give us a price on
that. Once we get to that price, we negotiate again. Maybe they have it too
much in one area or not. So then we try to get down to where we feel is the best
price. If we can't, we throw them out and we go to the next one.
» But we also have contracts with many different consultants so that we do not
have to go out to bid dependent on the size of the project. So same same
process as Mike just stated, but we don't have to go out to bid again. We
already have them under contract. We also know what their disciplines are.
Not all cons consulting firms specialize in transportation or specialize in road
projects or or storm drain or or Marcy needs, you know, many different planning
studies or whatever it may be. So, it's all there's a lot of different factors
when it comes into selecting a consultant for a project. We have many
different projects. >> I think I know exactly what you're
talking about. having the public know exactly how much money we are and I
think it would be a great idea to discuss it but not at this point. I
mean, you know, I think like you say, all of our projects if we have a fund
and it maybe say put a million dollars in for work related to projects that
need to be come up and that would be I think a different discussion. You know
that Yeah. I because just like uh Crystal Island project, we said we got
$15 million for that project. Well, of course, all your bids are going to be
coming in around $15 million. So that's what I believe you're trying to
keep. But but it's like we still have to be
open book. So we have Yes. So >> we have a budget.
» It's listed. Everyone asks. We can't not give them the information that they
asked for. >> And this is because this is becoming a
greater conversation today. We're talking about budgets. If you want to
drill down on how we go about getting a bid, that's a completely different
conversation than today because that would be a conversation when we get
ready to take something out to bid to try to scrutinize it. Today, we just
need to try to get through the budget because the budget's the budget. How
they bid is is not budgetary related. >> Yeah. Thank you. No, it definitely will
be eventually, but I think you know down the line and where potentially a
workshop or Yeah. How not today. Yeah. If we can indeed kind of keep the money
that we have closer to the >> No, I I wasn't trying to solve problems
today. I was just trying to really understand, you know, the mechanism
as to how we get competitive. So, can I recommend that you make an appointment
to sit with Megan and the city manager and have that discussion because you
could really dig into a discussion with the two of them and I think that would
be helpful for you and for them. >> Yeah, more than happy to.
» Okay. >> There's there's state state statutes
that we have to abide by when you start to to procure uh professional services
and that's really what is running it. >> Yeah.
» Yeah. >> Thank you. Any
other questions on anything I covered? If not, I'm just going to finish with
our five-year capital improvement plan. We can just walk through that uh real
quick and then go ahead.
» Um it just I probably just need to be explained in the on page in the P not
the packet the the documents page 58. uh going into 59 maybe the budget year
fund balance uh we have the 20 27 ending budgeted
fund balances for those different departments but then when I look down at
the narrative uh there's there's a couple that aren't
that don't line up that they're not the same like on page 58 shows the general
fund has a million737904 but in the narrative it says million7282
288. Uh, and is that supposed to be the same number? And the same thing with the
marina fund, parking fund, and building fund. They have discrepancies in the
narrative compared to the chart. Am I meeting am I
reading that wrong? I must just >> um So, let's talk. So, general fund, it
says the FY27 budgeted ending fund balance declines from the FY25 ending
balance of 18,987 389. that sentence that that paragraph.
» Yes. >> Okay. So, the 18987 389
is the 2025 fund balance. >> Wait, sorry. The 18
I'm not I'm not I'm not I'm not saying I don't think we're on the same place.
Okay. Yeah. The 18. It's the
» You look at it. >> I Yeah, I've got it. I got it right
here. So in in the chart get the G is it did I say general fund general fund uh
the 2027 ending budgeted fund balance. >> Mhm.
» Says it's 1 1,737904.
Am I reading? Is it right? >> No. Yeah. But then in the narrative
which is the next page it says significant changes general fund uh 1
million728 288. It's close here.
» So your question that $6,000 difference that could be an actual result that
maybe came in. I had the narrative there and then it didn't get updated for
something. I can check on that. >> Oh okay. So it's all right. Would you
would you check also marina fund, parking fund and building fund? bills
have the other ones line up but I just was desperately trying
» the 1 million in the narrative the 1 million728
288 compared to the 1,737
» 904 so about 9,000 that $9,000 difference
» and then Marina is 5 there's a big one in the marina 5 million 590 544 and in
the narrative it says 8 million in uh 804714.
So that's a bigger >> Yep. I'll check on that.
» And I just was noticing as we're going
through here, parking fund is uh 8,94 387 and then it's just less of a
difference there. 8,93 767 and same with the building fund. Not
that much difference. The biggest one is the marina. And I just those should be
the same, shouldn't they? >> Yeah, in theory. Yes. So I might have
rerun the because the analysis the act the 26 actuals are continually changing.
» Okay. All right. >> So maybe the last time I updated that
table the significant changes narrative didn't update.
» I got you. Okay. I just I'm struggling to hang on here. So I want to make sure
I understand. >> That's I love I love the attention to
detail. I'm proud of you. >> Thank you.
I've got >> I've got one little one.
» Okay. >> The backend parking fee. Did we get rid
of that? >> Yes, we did.
» Okay. >> That is I mean,
» as I see all of this in here, you know, it's it's just like we have it, then we
lose it, and then >> But that's not in the budget. That's in
the fee schedule. >> Yeah.
» But that's part of the budget. >> We did not budget for back in back-end
parking. I think the parking manager could attest. It's only if we see Chuck
Dylan's car backed in, we're going to take it.
» All All others are exempt.
» Yeah, we don't we don't budget for uh fines.
» But isn't that in the fee schedule? The fee schedule, there is a fine in that
fee schedule. But when we look at revenue, we're not estimating what the
revenue from uh tickets are.
» Okay. We're just take Yeah, we have if you look at the parking fund,
we have we're just looking at it's on page 49 of the book 51 of the packet
just all the revenues and the parking. We just have one line item called
parking fines that includes a variety of different things and we basically budget
that just based on looking at trends and we can might take in effect take into
account some increases around that but we just look at you can see it was
budgeted 550,000 in um 2026
and budget now at 525,000. So modestly in line with what we had in in 206
budget 206 actual year to date. Let's take a look.
Let's pull that up.
See how hard Jamal and his team have been working.
» That is not I don't think that that is the proper verbiage we should be using.
Strike that from the record. >> That's a terrible mindset in my view.
» Strike that from the record. Let's see the results of the infractions in fiscal
year 2026 thus far. And that is at $672,287
year to date in 26. So, I'd say 525,000 as an estimate for budget revenue in 27
is conservative to say the least. >> So, if our parking fines keep going up,
then we might need to spend some time in discussion on how to better educate our
visitors before we're writing so many tickets. Because to see an increase of
that large of a number in parking fines to me says, are you really a friendly
community or are you a community that's looking to write a ticket the minute I
walk away from my car or if I'm 10 minutes late to my car? So, I think that
is definitely a discussion for a workshop in the future to decide what's
more important to us. >> Yep.
» Perfect. Any other questions on anything we've covered or am I you would you
going to good with me wrapping up on capital?
Perfect. And we will I will look at those good catch on the um fluctuation
analysis and I'll I'll look at those numbers for sure.
Okay. Then capital is going to be on page
um shoot I just had it. Okay. Okay. It's on
page 79 of the book, 81 of your packet.
So, we it's just starts with a a the five-year capital improvement plan. Just
some narrative overview of the program. What is a capital expenditure? We talked
about that. an an any asset with an initial cost of $5,000 or more and
useful life of two or more years. It could be a physical piece of equipment
or vehicle or it could be a infrastructure improvement to an
existing asset. And then just gives you some narrative
highlights. Storm water infrastructure, marine and waterfront, we talked about
that. City Hall dock construction budget $400,000 through the Marina Fund will
improve waterfront access and support the city's marine operations and public
use of the city hall waterfront.
Then sanitation. We talked about some of the costs that we saw in the fund
balance net position analysis for sanitation. So we've got 400,000 for
replacement of unit 26, the 2020 Kenworth T880 solid waste vehicle.
Maintaining a reliable fleet is essential to un uninterrupted solid
waste collection service for residents. Then we do some highlights of future
fiscal years 28, 29, 30, and 31. So when you do highlights, Andrew, um
that's just for somebody to read because the 2028 highlights are not that's not
something we're going to do. Um we talked about that in a previous meeting
because until we do something with parking, we're not building anything
else at Rock Park. It would be there' just be no way. They're struggling now
with parking for the events that they have. I'm only saying that because I
don't want anybody to say that we agreed to do what these highlights are for 2028
because I think they're very inaccurate. >> We can go through those before the um
» final >> before the final.
» I think we should I think that >> we'll do a better idea. Yeah, I think it
should align more with what we discussed in the strategic planning um for for
anyone who's reading it to have a vision of what the commission is thinking and
what the city's working towards. >> Yes. And it's also a good place if we're
looking at grants. We need to have those in our future. Uh
» I'm not saying I want it to go away because I know that if we were going to
do something like this, if we were going to build these projects, you would want
to have them so that they could be shown to the grant, you know, that we were
applying for that we've we've been talking about it. But there's no way
that we would start this in 2028 because we need parking to be addressed prior to
being able to start the idea of building um a new structure. And if something ma
miraculous happened and we were able to build a parking garage or or or
reimagine parking or whatever we do for parking at Rock Park for, you know, we
could do that in the next year and then you could do that in 2028. That'd be
fantastic. But it seems highly unlikely that we would be able to fund that.
» And it says that it was going to be funded from the loss fund. And the loss
fund is going to not have any money in it in 28.
» It'll be broke. >> Yeah. We'll we'll go through those
before the next meeting. And then on the next page 81 of the
book, 83 of the packet, there could be questions either from you
all or from residents or both like, well, we bought the $18 million
property. What why is or no development plans? And so we have a specific
paragraph that addresses that that 555 avenue vacant waterfront property. I'll
just read it. City's 5-year capital improvement plan does not include any
capital expenditures relating to the development of the 4.6 6 acre vacant
waterfront property acquired at 555th Avenue. City is still in the early
stages of its planning process and has not yet developed concrete conceptual
design plans or realistic estimate of development costs. Given the scope and
significance of the property, it would be premature to budget capital
expenditures at this time without a well- definfined and costed plan. Should
any capital expenditures relating to the development of this property become
necessary during FY2027, a budget amendment can be formally
approved and adopted by the board of commissioners at that time.
Any concerns with that disclaimer?
Perfect. Okay. And then this just kind of goes through
your your capital year improvement plan schedule.
with 24 actual, 25 actual, 27 budget, 26 budget, current year CIP by fund. You
see very light except for the storm water on a fund by fund basis. Just a
couple, you know, projects here and there and then mostly vehicle and
equipment purchases. And then the five-year capital plan
shows the fund and then the project and then what year it's hitting. And
obviously there's nothing of form as we discussed formally budgeted in 2029
30331. That's just plan that doesn't it's not binding or in any way or you're
not appropriating money for those future fiscal years. That's done annually
through the adoption of the budget. So that's justformational only. But to the
city manager's point, we can look at some projects that
at least if they're under question or scrutiny, then we can remove to dis, you
know, remove any potential confusion or or
um concern from the public.
And I we've been through this before. we had a a a capital specific
budget workshop, but I know it's been a few months. So, um
just wanted you all to be able to see that again.
And that's all I have officially planned is if there's any questions on capital,
I'll take them or any other section of the document. I know, like I said, we've
got a lot of different a lot of added material on
fund descriptions, strategic priorities, um, community profile,
all of our main policies, all our financial policies,
what's a budget balance, our purchasing ordinance, our investment policy, cash
receiping, handling policy, capital assets policy,
grant management policy, our budget process, goes through all the different
workshops and what we covered. Um and then the the um the budget calendar with
the two public um public hearings
detail on FTEES, personnel costs, and then a whole section on department
program goals and objectives broken out by departments. all your general fund
departments showing accomplishments, goals, and
objectives. A whole section on that.
So, happy reading on on something reading something other than numbers.
We've got a lot of narrative descriptions on
things as well and even performance measures.
Commissioners, do you have any questions or comments?
» Very well put together, nicely, very detailed. Thank you.
» Thank you. >> I've got one. I believe we've got two
more. So, are we going to do it be two more discussions on this and the final
votes going to be September 18th, I believe.
So that'll be Yeah, let's actually go to that page just so you can see
that's going to be on page I just passed it. The the budget process is on page 97
of the book 99 of the packet. This just gives you an overview of how
the budget works. What's the process? Gives you a budget calendar. So those
are your two dates.
Clara, hopefully I'm not inaccurate on that. We got September 9, 2026 at 5:45
p.m. >> Correct.
» And then September 18, 2026 at 5:05 p.m. Those will be the two um
» budget meetings, >> the two special meetings where you'll
approve the adoption of the millage rate at 2.75 mills, the same it's been for
the last 6 plus years, and then the approval of this uh tenative budget
book, and then the final will be the adopted budget book.
I expect that to be um a very uneventful evening that
» right after >> it's just going to be a quick two to
five minutes but please so if there's anything that you might suggest you want
to bring up concerns >> I'm trying to clarify that because
everybody just got their tax statements or if they haven't gotten them they
should be getting them so the millage rate is not planning on changing
» not planning on changing correct if we wanted to increase the miller rate at
this time. It would be a huge administrative undertaking of resending
out trim notices and that that's not good. Anyways, but
» just some some comments I've I wrote down as we're going on. Appreci I I do
like the narratives at the end of the charts. I respond I just respond a
little better to words than numbers. I guess
» the analysis. Yep. Nice. So, uh I I appreciate the uh
that this budget is starting to look more normal with the exception of a
couple of uh departments after the hurricane. We're looking at something
that's uh normal operations somewhat. We're getting back to that. That was
nice to see. And that we're acknowledging future risks rather than
ignoring them, including the 555 property uh and the storm water. I I
know we're putting a big push towards that, but that seems to be
it seems to be a concern of the residents that we have long-term
drainage and resilience. And I appreciate the the community
conversation we've had over the last year uh that we reflects those
conversations that we've had with the community. So overall, I I've see some
positive things coming out of this report. So, thank you for your attention
to all the detail.
» Is that all, Andrew? >> Nothing further.
» Then it is 3:39. We're adjourned.