[31:24] All right, break a leg. So. Thank you for allowing me to leave early last week. Drake
[31:40] won his game. Good evening and welcome to the Monroe County Board of County commissioners.
[32:02] Budget hearing for September 14th if we could please stand and salute the flag, and
[32:07] Commissioner Cates, why don't you lead us off? Uh, regions of the United States of America
[32:15] and to the republic nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all.
[32:24] You are a little matchy, by the way. Well, we can't help it. Yeah, you did. Mm. Oh. Good
[32:34] evening. Crystal, would you like to read the any additions or deletions or corrections,
[32:40] please. Good evening. We have one add-on. Going to be on page 3 of your agenda. I H1,
[32:48] libraries. Approval to exempt the use of property policy at Harvey Government Center for
[32:54] Patrons of the Library, while the Key West Library is closed, as long as the use is
[32:58] consistent with regularly scheduled library uses that have historically occurred at
[33:03] the library and library staff will be present for such events That completes it. I would like
[33:09] to insert the Between exempt and the. Exempt from the use of property? duly noted, that's a
[33:21] big, do I have a motion to accept the agenda, so moved to a 2nd motion back, commissioner
[33:28] Rashine, seconded by Commissioner Cates all in favor motion carries. All right,
[33:35] let's get to it today, Liz. 3rd time's a charm, Madam Mayor. Here we go. Your first item is
[33:41] item B1, county administrator's fiscal year 2027, final budget presentation and discussion. Mr
[33:48] Quinn, the floor is yours. Good evening, Madam Mayor and Commissioners. Good evening. Uh
[33:53] tonight is our 2nd and final public hearing, and tonight we will adopt a final budget for
[33:59] fiscal year 2027. The budget that I have for you tonight is identical to what was presented
[34:04] to you and tentatively approved by the BOCC last Wednesday in Key Largo, uh, but with us
[34:08] being in Key West tonight, I will go through the presentation one more time
[34:13] before the board votes to approve. OK. This is our fiscal year 2027 budget process, the
[34:24] first budget-related hearing was held on July 14th in Marathon. This was our special
[34:28] budget meeting. Uh, this was an introduction to the proposed fiscal year 2027 budget and
[34:36] certification of those proposed millage rates to the property appraiser. And then as I
[34:40] mentioned last Wednesday, we met on September 9th in Key Largo. This was the first of
[34:43] our two public hearings, and this, at this meeting, the board adopted the tentative
[34:47] budget and tentative millage rates. And then finally tonight September 14th here in Key
[34:53] Largo. This is the 2nd of our two statutorily required public hearings, and tonight we will
[34:58] adopt the final budget and final military rates. Uh. Commissioners, this is your
[35:04] fiscal year 2027 budget summary The total proposed final budget is 690.2 million. The revenues
[35:14] are summarized above in the blue box and the expenditures are summarized below in gray.
[35:19] Within the blue revenue section uh, there is a white box that shows the total proposed ad
[35:23] valorum property tax levy at approximately 180.6 million of this 180.6, about $2 million
[35:32] goes directly to the Florida Department of Health as a local contribution to the Monroe
[35:36] County Health Unit. This is a summary of the budget changes that have taken place since the
[35:45] initial budget presentation back on July 14th, uh, the budget that was presented to
[35:49] the board in Marathon that day was 695.8 million. Since then, uh, staff has made budget
[35:57] changes that have totaled overall reduction of about $5.5 million. Now down to a final
[36:03] fiscal year 2027, final proposed budget of 6690.2 million. Uh, these changes are
[36:08] broken out into a few major categories. The top section there is the board of county
[36:12] commissioners operating portion of the budget. This includes staff's recommendation of the
[36:17] elimination of 6 additional, uh 3 of which are in the building department and the other 3 are
[36:24] in the emergency services department as firefighter EMT positions. A staffing analysis
[36:30] was performed and it was determined that we could eliminate those 3 EMS positions
[36:36] without making any compromises to public safety. Those 3 emergency services positions
[36:42] were able to reduce the budget by approximately 400,000, which then allowed for us to reduce
[36:48] the millage rate within the District 1 Lower Middle Keys Fire and Ambulance back We had
[36:53] a proposed millage rate for this taxing unit of 2.1895. We have now reduced that down to
[37:00] 2.1538. Under our constitutional officers section of the budget. This is
[37:06] specifically the tax collector, uh, because we were able to reduce the overall property tax
[37:12] levy, the tax collector is compensated based upon 3% of the Advilorum tax levy, and so
[37:20] therefore lower tax levy we were able to reduce the tax collector's budget. In the
[37:25] capital projects section, this is specifically about timing changes and carry forwards from
[37:29] the current year, fiscal year 2026, when our project managers uh, work on preparing next
[37:36] year's budget, submitting their requests to us. They make estimates on what they believe
[37:38] they will accomplish in the current year, uh, but then by September we received some
[37:45] updated estimates, and they determined that they need some of these funds rolled forward.
[37:49] It is not an overall fiscal impact change to the county. It is merely just a timing
[37:54] difference between fiscal year to the next, um, however, with the Affordable housing line
[37:59] there, that negative $10 million. This is for the tourist development tax, DC 1,
[38:06] affordable housing project at Poincia Plaza. The funds were originally budgeted in fiscal
[38:12] year 2026, and when we were preparing the proposed budget, we were unsure if we would be
[38:17] able to utilize them in the current year, so we went ahead and budgeted them for next year
[38:21] However, we do believe we will be able to. Distribute those $10 million by the end of this
[38:26] month and therefore it is not needed in next year. And then finally under the tourist
[38:30] Development Council section. This is essentially the same situation as with the county
[38:35] capital projects. It's a timing difference between fiscal years and it is a carry forward of
[38:41] current year budget. Commissioners, this is a summary of the fiscal year 2027
[38:49] total appropriations. The Board of County commissioners operating. Budget is 228.2
[38:54] million or 33.1% of the total budget. And then our constitutional officers are at
[39:00] 149.1 million or 21.6% of the total budget combined BOCC operating and constitutional
[39:08] officers operating 377.3 million or approximately 54% of the total budget. This slide
[39:17] shows the operational revenues that fund the Border county commissioners and
[39:22] constitutional officers operating budgets, uh, as you'll see there in the center,
[39:26] the total Avalorm property tax levy 178.6 million. That is a main funding source for these
[39:33] portions of the budget. Additionally, under the state shared revenues, we have our
[39:38] $0.5 sales tax, approximately 6 $16 million per year. This is a return of a portion of the 6
[39:44] cent state sales tax that is. turned back to the counties. We also have local sales taxes,
[39:50] charges for services, license and permits, fines and forfeitures, and various other
[39:54] miscellaneous revenues that total that 377.3 million. Commissioners, this is a year
[40:03] over year budget comparison between the fiscal year 2027 proposed final budget and the
[40:10] fiscal year 2026 adopted budget Uh, when comparing year over year, the total budget
[40:16] increased by approximately 18 million or 2.7%. Uh, when looking at the border of county
[40:22] commissioner's portion specifically the operating capital projects and budgeted
[40:27] transfers, the main year over year reduction there at about 17 million. due to a reduction
[40:32] in interfund transfers. This is specifically due to the retirement of the 2016 revenue
[40:38] bond as well as completion or substantial completion of passenger facility charge,
[40:45] funded capital projects at the Key West International Airport, and because of that retirement
[40:49] of the debt and the completion of projects, less money needs to be transferred in between
[40:57] county funds The other major item on this list here is down at the tourist Development
[41:00] Council. We're seeing a year over year. increase of about 29 million. This year, the tourist
[41:05] Development Council decided they would like to utilize a crude, unappropriated fund
[41:08] balance so that they could make additional community investment additional funding for capital
[41:14] projects, events, as well as additional advertising. And then naturally because these
[41:20] are not new revenues, these are accrued fund balances once they are they are, we can expect the
[41:26] budget to be reduced in future years. Hey commissioners, this is a continuation of the year
[41:35] over year summary. This is the fiscal year 2027 proposed final budget versus fiscal year 2026,
[41:41] adopted budget but specifically for the Board of County commissioners operating portion
[41:44] of the budget. Uh, and so we'll see year over year the budget did increase by about 1.2
[41:51] million, but less than 1%, about 0.6% increase year over year. And as we've mentioned
[41:58] before, this budget absorbs certain unavoidable cost increases such as the
[42:04] compensation increases for our firefighter and EMS employees per their collective bargaining
[42:09] agreement. This budget also includes some unavoidable cost increases such as CPI increases
[42:15] per the contracts. That we have with certain vendors such as our solid waste collection and
[42:20] haul out. The items here that increased year over year are notated in red, and those that
[42:25] decreased are notated in black, and so although we see quite a few that increased year over
[42:29] year. We also see a significant number of departments that were able to reduce their budgets
[42:35] year over year and help make those budget reductions that compensated for some of these
[42:40] increases and that we were able to bring in a BOCC operating budget that is less than 1%
[42:47] increase year over year. Commissioners, this budget includes cost of living
[42:54] adjustments for Border county commissioners and constitutional officer
[42:58] employees for the Board of County commissioner's regular class and Teamster employees,
[43:01] there's a 2.7% cost of living adjustment for the Monroe County Fire Rescue employees
[43:07] per their collective bargaining agreement. It comes out to 8.3%. Then moving down to our
[43:13] sheriffs, our bargaining unit, sheriff employees, 10% for their CBA and then 2.7% for
[43:19] their regular class employees and the same for our clerk of court property appraiser,
[43:25] supervisor of elections and the tax collector, and all in all, the cost of living adjustments
[43:30] for our our personnel is about $9.5 million and of that 9.5 million, 7.1% of that is or 75%
[43:39] is contractually obligated. Per those collective bargaining agreements for our public
[43:45] safety workers. Commissioners, this is the countywide taxable value history. The property
[43:54] appraiser certified a July 1, 2026, uh, certified value of $53.2 billion. This is up 6.5%
[44:03] over last year at 49.9 billion. Uh, however, what we'd like to note on this slide is that
[44:10] although we've seen year over year increases in the overall countywide taxable value that
[44:15] year over year increase is slowly stepping down each year. going from 15 to 13 to 10 to 8
[44:22] and 6, and so this is an item that we've been watching for the past few years, and we will
[44:27] continue to keep an eye on this especially with the proposed property tax reform. Here's the
[44:35] 2026 countywide taxable values. This is the total countywide taxable values broken down by
[44:42] property types, so we have our homesteaded residential or non-homesteaded residential,
[44:47] commercial, and vacant land. And as we'll see there of, of the total value homesteaded
[44:53] properties make up about 19.64% and the remaining 80% of the total taxable value. This is
[45:00] just for clarification, is not number of units, but of the total taxable value, just under
[45:06] 20% is homesteaded and the remaining 80% is made up of those non-homesteaded
[45:11] residentials, commercial, and vacant land. This is our fiscal year 2027 Ad Vorum distribution
[45:21] slide. This is how those Advalorum property tax dollars are utilized at the bottom
[45:26] there you'll see the total proposed levy of 180.6 million, and the left hand side in the
[45:32] gray box 126.2 million or 69.8% of that total levy is going directly towards funding the
[45:40] function of public safety. And then on the right hand side in the blue box we can see that
[45:45] when we include our constitutional officers' funding in addition to that
[45:49] public safety, the total amount rises to 164.2 million or 90.9% of the total tax levy, uh, and
[45:58] then down there at the bottom we can see that that leaves left over about 16.5 million or
[46:05] 9.1%. The remainder of this amount is used to fund state mandated costs that the county
[46:11] is items that the county is. Required by state law to provide, which include the
[46:15] state mandated Medicaid cost share our substance abuse, mental health, Baker Act
[46:21] transportation, and then the remainder of these funds go to funding the Board of county
[46:25] commissioners' operations. This is a comparison with how Monroe County stacks up against our
[46:33] local South Florida neighboring counties in countywide millage. The total or the proposed
[46:40] millage rate countywide for fiscal year 2027 is 2.6929. This is the same millage rate
[46:46] that was adopted for fiscal year 2026, as well as for fiscal year 2025, uh, and then
[46:51] when we compare ourselves to our neighboring counties you can see that we have a
[46:57] significantly lower countywide millage rate. So what this equates to is this is $269.29
[47:04] of property tax per $100,000 of taxable value. And so we added this chart there on the right
[47:11] hand side that shows what the comparison would be against our neighboring counties on a
[47:15] property that has a taxable value of a million dollars. This is just the countywide tax
[47:22] levy portion. So in Monroe, that property owner would pay just under $2700 but then if we
[47:28] skip down to say, Palm Beach, that property owner would be about $4500 and then down at
[47:34] Broward would be as much as $5600. We are generally the Loest countywide millage rate
[47:40] in the state and we believe we will achieve that again this year. Commissioners, this is
[47:48] how the average homeowner would be affected by keeping the countywide millage rate the
[47:54] same, so what we did here is we used those average taxable values per property type that
[47:58] the property appraiser had provided to us and we had listed on one of those previous
[48:03] slides, the blue section there is for a homesteaded residential property. Uh, this
[48:07] average homeowner with a taxable value of about 665,000 with keeping the same millage
[48:15] rate the same, uh, would have a total countywide levy of about just under $1800 and would see
[48:19] a year over year increase of about $51 or $4.22 per month. Then in the gray box, this is
[48:28] the non-homesteaded residential with an average taxable value of about 1.1 million. They
[48:34] would see a year over year increase of about $270 or $22.55 per month. And then
[48:41] finally the orange box represents the average taxable value of a commercial property
[48:46] at about 1.6, 1.7 million. This property owner would see a year over year increase of about 400
[48:53] $400 or about $34 per month. This is a historical ad valorum levy comparison, so the orange
[49:04] box there shows the total, uh, adopted tax levy for fiscal year 2025, the green section
[49:11] shows the total adopted levy for fiscal year 2026, and then finally on the right in blue is
[49:15] what we are proposing for fiscal year 2027 as we can see from fiscal 25 to 26, we had an
[49:24] overall tax increase of about 12.8 million and then from fiscal year 26 to what we're
[49:28] proposing for fiscal 2027 an increase of about 11.9 million. And what we'd like to point out
[49:35] here is as we'll recall from last year when we were preparing the fiscal year 2026
[49:40] budget. The county administrator led budget roundtable meetings which
[49:44] yielded about $13.5 million in budget reductions, which did include the elimination of 38
[49:53] full-time positions. And so if it had not been for that $13.5 million of budget reductions
[50:00] that 12.8 million would have needed to be more like 26 million year over year in order
[50:05] to be able to continue to fund the operations at the same level. The next 4 slides look
[50:14] at each individual taxing unit. This first slide here is the Monroe County BOCC operating.
[50:19] This is that countywide tax levy that 2.6929 millage rate. From fiscal year 2025 to
[50:27] 2020206, the total levy went up by about 11 million and then from 26 to now proposed for 27,
[50:34] about 7.8 million. Uh, this taxing unit provides funding for countywide services in
[50:41] unincorporated Monroe and the municipalities and those services include that local
[50:46] contribution to the Monroe County Health Department, uh, countywide sheriffs, law
[50:50] enforcement services, correction services, and court security funding for the BOCC
[50:56] to maintain the corrections facilities, supplementary funding for the trauma Star Air
[51:01] Ambulance Program, our constitutional officers are funded through this tax levy,
[51:05] so our clerk. Of court, supervisor of elections, property appraiser, and tax
[51:09] collector, as well as the local funding for state agencies, the public defender, 16 judicial
[51:15] administration and the state attorney and then additionally we fund our fire academy from
[51:19] this taxing unit, emergency management department, our medical examiner, Veterans
[51:23] Affairs, and libraries. The next taxing unit is the general purpose MSTU. This taxing unit
[51:34] provides funding for services in unincorporated Monroe and Key Largo, and those services
[51:39] include maintenance of county parks and beaches. Our county recreation department funding
[51:44] for the Jacobs Aquatic Center, supplementary funding for our fire marshal and our fire
[51:50] rescue administration, the planning and environmental Resources Department, as well
[51:53] as code compliance from fiscal 25 to 26, this levy increased by about 30. 91,000 and then
[52:00] from fiscal 26 to 27, it is increasing by about 280. 7000. The next taxing unit is the
[52:10] local road patrol law enforcement. This taxing unit provides funding for Monroe
[52:15] County Sheriff's Office, local road patrol services in unincorporated Monroe and Key
[52:22] Largo. The levee here from 2025 to fiscal 2026 increased by about 644,000 and then from 26
[52:29] to what we are proposing for 2027, about 666,000. This differs from the last two
[52:36] slides. On the last 2 slides, we are recommending village maintenance for those, keeping
[52:40] the millage rate the same as it was adopted by the Commission for Fiscal 26, same for 27.
[52:47] However, here, because of the compensation increases for those Monroe County Sheriff's
[52:52] Office uniformed deputies, it was necessary to increase the millage rate within this taxing
[52:56] unit. We went from 2 0.2889 in fiscal year 2026 to 0.2963 for fiscal year 2027. And then our
[53:10] final taxing unit is the District 1 Lower Middle Keys Fire and Ambulance. This taxi
[53:14] unit provides funding for fire suppression, ground ambulance, emergency medical services in
[53:21] unincorporated Monroe and Leighton, but does exclude Ocean Reef. Uh, fiscal year
[53:26] 2025 to 2020206, the total tax levy went up by about 3.2 million and then from fiscal 26
[53:32] to 2027, the proposed millage rate will increase by about 3.9 million. And similar to the
[53:39] local road patrol law. enforcement taxing unit, uh, because of those compensation
[53:43] increases for our Monroe County Fire Rescue employees, we, it was necessary for us to
[53:50] increase the proposed millage rate within this taxing unit. fiscal year 2026, we're at
[53:56] 1.9076, and in order to balance the budget for fiscal year 2027 it's being increased to 2.1538.
[54:06] And then the last slide before we move into our capital projects section of the
[54:10] presentation. This is our general reserves as a reminder, the board policy is a minimum
[54:15] of 4 months and a maximum of 6 months of general fund operating reserves, in addition
[54:21] to a $10 million emergency disaster reserve. Last year when we were preparing the
[54:26] fiscal year 2026 budget, the board directed staff to make additional expenditure cuts to
[54:33] be able to increase the emergency disaster reserve. By an additional 2 million. So now
[54:37] it is at 12 million and I will have a resolution for you later on this agenda to formally set
[54:44] that fund balance level at 12 million. In addition, uh, as we've discussed at previous
[54:51] budget meetings, we are seeing the need for working capital for our large grant funded
[54:55] capital projects. It's, uh, we're very fortunate to receive such large grant awards and to
[55:02] be able to bring in outside funding to help with infrastructure projects.
[55:06] However, this does require significant upfront capital in order to be able to pay our
[55:12] contractors and be able to complete the work before we can submit for subsequent
[55:16] reimbursement and payment from the grantors, and so we are recommending the establishment
[55:21] of a general fund working capital grant funded projects, reserved specifically for that.
[55:28] That purpose. And now we move into the fiscal year 2027 capital plan. Uh, the county is
[55:36] working on many different capital projects, uh, so I won't touch on every single one
[55:42] but I'll just go section by section, so the first up there is the physical environment,
[55:48] most notable are the projects going on at our transfer stations for solid waste. We
[55:52] have transfer station buildings tipping floors, and waste sheds our general government section
[55:57] here are mainly our government buildings. We have projects here that benefit our
[56:03] constitutional officers such as the Ellis Building renovation for. Our property appraiser, as
[56:08] well as the supervisor of elections based your manner renovations. Then moving down
[56:12] to our culture and recreation section, the most notable item in here is going to be that Key
[56:18] West library roof replacement. Then moving on to our economic environment section, these are
[56:26] those uh surplus tourist development tax dollars that will be used for private sector
[56:32] affordable housing projects. We are carrying forward the balances of these funds to be
[56:38] made available for projects in the upcoming fiscal year. Then in our public safety section we
[56:43] have quite a few projects over at the Monroe County Detention Center, which include roof,
[56:49] window, door replacements, sprawling kitchen, uh, fire exhaust, uh, electrical, and as
[56:55] well as a vehicle vehicle system for Monroe County Fire Rescue, and ambulance remount,
[57:00] and then the generator platform at the Monroe County Detention Center. Then in our
[57:08] transportation section we have various road and bridge type projects, uh, as well as
[57:13] projects going on at Card Sound Road. We have the Tubby's Creek Bridge and the Mosquito Creek
[57:18] Bridge, and we want to note that these items are not, do not utilize any Avalorm
[57:23] property taxes. They also do not utilize any one set infrastructure sales tax, the
[57:28] Cart Sound Road bridge replacement projects use Cart Sound Road toll revenue as a
[57:34] grant match for the outside grand final. funding that we're receiving and then below that
[57:39] we have our marathon Airport, Key West Airport, grant match funding for the upcoming fiscal
[57:44] year and the Key West Airport rental car facility and then remaining work to be completed
[57:49] regarding Concourse A. Then under our administrative and miscellaneous section, the most
[57:56] notable item here would be the old 7 Mile Bridge maintenance payment. This is an annual
[58:01] payment to Florida Department of Transportation for maintenance as well as a
[58:05] sinking fund contribution, the tourist Development Council has agreed for the 2nd year in a
[58:10] row to fund this county contribution, and so therefore we have excluded it from this
[58:16] portion of the capital plan for fiscal 27. However, we've kept it in for future years, and
[58:21] we'll reevaluate next year. As we do. Next year's budget. And then finally we have our debt
[58:27] service section for a total capital and debt service final proposed budget of $139.5
[58:33] million. And commissioners, these are our summer study items we discussed these at the
[58:41] July 14th budget meeting and these were items that county staff would work on in between
[58:46] that initial introduction to the budget and then the adoption in September. The
[58:52] first item was to continue to evaluate positions in departments with revenue
[58:56] shortfalls and anticipated impacts from potential tax reform for fiscal year 2028, we
[59:01] would evaluate each vacant position to determine whether to freeze or eliminate, uh, as
[59:06] I mentioned, Previously, we have included the elimination of 6 FTEs in this final budget,
[59:13] 3 within the emergency services department, and 3 within the building department. The next
[59:17] item was the Parks and recreation camp analysis to determine whether new fees
[59:23] covered expenditures as was announced last week by the Parks and Recreation director
[59:28] John Allen, the summer camp broke even for fiscal year 2026 Um, however, the parks will be
[59:33] proposing additional fee adjustments. Facilities and park recreation elimination of
[59:38] fee waivers for use of property This item is pending the tax reform results, so we will
[59:43] revisit this after the November election. The planning department evaluation of
[59:50] development approval fees to cover operational costs. The board adopted new fees for this
[59:54] department, which will significantly address revenue shortfalls, which are currently
[59:59] being supplemented with a $0.5 sales tax revenue. The building department fire marshal,
[1:00:03] planning and environmental Resources Department fee study to cover operational costs and
[1:00:09] meet new Florida statute requirements. The board will be asked to enter into a contract
[1:00:15] to restructure fees for. Determining on the September 14th agenda. Fire marshal
[1:00:21] operation to evaluate fees and allocation of expenses used for safety inspections in order to
[1:00:27] cover operational costs. After studying the fees and the fee collection, staff will not
[1:00:32] recommend a fee increase, but however, we'll instead work towards a better collection
[1:00:37] rate. The trauma Star Building, uh, Trauma Star billing rates and collections, our emergency
[1:00:43] services are recommending a retention of a consultant to provide an operational
[1:00:48] assessment and make recommendations to approve efficiencies and increased
[1:00:52] collections. Uh, and then finally to continue to analyze expenditures which could be
[1:00:57] eligible for tourist development tax funds, uh, staff will be recommending a
[1:01:01] legislative priority to adjust statutory language related to eligible expenditures using
[1:01:08] tourist development tax funds. And then here are our fiscal year 2027, uh, proposed budget
[1:01:15] key points, so the total fiscal year 2027 proposed final budget of 690.2 million. This reflects
[1:01:22] a year over year increase of about 18.1 million from the fiscal year 2026 adopted budget
[1:01:30] of 672 million this year over year increases primarily due to the tourist Development
[1:01:35] council's utilization of accrued fund balance for additional community investment
[1:01:39] capital projects, events, and ads. Advertising, we have maintained the countywide
[1:01:45] millage rate for fiscal year 2027 at 2.6929, as I mentioned, is likely to be the lowest
[1:01:50] millage rate in Florida again, $269.29 per $100,000 of taxable value, we did increase the
[1:01:59] fiscal year 2027, aggregate millage rate to 3.3975, which is 1.2% above the fiscal year
[1:02:08] 2026 aggregate rate of 3.3. 567 However, we were able to lower the aggregate millage rate
[1:02:16] since initially introduced in July from 3.4054 down to 3.3975 uh, and as a reminder, the
[1:02:24] aggregate millage rate increase was needed in order to accommodate the fire rescue and
[1:02:30] unincorporated local road patrol salary increases, which we had always projected would
[1:02:35] require a millage increase. And for informational purposes to reduce the aggregate millage
[1:02:41] rate to match fiscal year 2026, it would require about $2.1 million in additional cuts.
[1:02:47] This budget absorbs certain unavoidable cost increases in operations such as
[1:02:53] contractually obligated CPI increases for vendors as well as those compensation increases
[1:02:58] for our collective bargaining unit public safety employees. Um, however, additional
[1:03:03] department cuts were made to compensate against these increases and help reduce the
[1:03:07] overall year over year budget increase. And then finally there's a continued investment
[1:03:14] in public safety, compensation increases for fire, EMS, and law enforcement personnel so
[1:03:19] that we can attract and retain a qualified workforce. We've included in this budget
[1:03:23] replacement of fire apparatus, ambulance remounts, as well as various EMS operational
[1:03:29] equipment purchases, and then finally there are various maintenance and improvement
[1:03:32] projects to our Monroe County Detention Center on Stock Island, which includes Spawing
[1:03:37] window, kitchen, and plumbing repairs. And commissioners, this concludes my presentation.
[1:03:44] I'm here if you have any questions for me. Very good job Mr. Quinn, Commissioners, any
[1:03:51] comments from up here before I open it up to the public. Hearing none, um, we'll open it
[1:03:56] to the public. Do we have anyone signed up, Liz, to speak on this? I have no one signed
[1:04:01] up in the public. Do you have anybody online? See no raised hands, however, you're calling
[1:04:06] in via telephone, please dial 9 There are no race hands. If you're in the public and you
[1:04:13] wish to make a comment, you need to fill out a blue card so that we can call your name so
[1:04:20] because we're not that busy right now, why don't you run on up here and tell us your name
[1:04:26] and then Liz will have you fill out the card afterwards and you can. When you get up here, just
[1:04:33] please state your name and Who you're with, no, right here by the microphone so we can have
[1:04:37] you on a podium. So Madam Mayor I just have a couple of comments later when we get to
[1:04:42] it. Do you want to do yours now or after we hear public comment ? OK, thank you. I apologize.
[1:04:47] It's my first meeting. Uh, my name is Jackie Curl, and I am the current CEO of the domestic
[1:04:53] abuse shelter for Monroe County You're the new I'm new in the position. Congratul chain of
[1:04:58] command. Oh, thank you and congratulations to you all on your recent election. Um, I'm
[1:05:02] just here to represent the domestic abuse shelter and just share the impact of the loss of
[1:05:13] funding 2 years ago we had 2 positions, one in Key Largo and one in Key West for outreach
[1:05:20] for domestic violence. Um, when we lost the 50% funding last year, we had to eliminate one
[1:05:26] of those positions, which was the Key West position, and our shelter advocates in Key West
[1:05:32] were trying to do outreach as well as Working at the shelter and advocating with the
[1:05:38] domestic abuse clients. Um, this year with the loss of funding or the, you know, no
[1:05:47] funding yet and the um Health Services Advisory Board being um sunset, um, we are
[1:05:57] anticipating the loss of our Key Largo um outreach advocate at the end of this month. So
[1:06:03] these are really significant impacts to our already really small um organization. This
[1:06:10] organization has been, it's 45 years old this year, so it's a longstanding. organization in
[1:06:17] Monroe County. They worked very hard. Everyone who works there, to meet the needs of the people
[1:06:22] in this community who are victims of either intimate partner violence or domestic
[1:06:28] violence, and I know that this meeting is not to discuss the funding for these health
[1:06:33] services, but I just wanted to say that I understand that the The, from what I've read that
[1:06:42] the idea to um sunset, the, the Health Services Advisory board and kind of streamline funding
[1:06:50] was to decrease any duplicate services and to really focus on the core services in this
[1:06:56] community, and I'm just here to say that this organization is a core service for Monroe County,
[1:07:02] so I hope that that is taken into consideration when the decisions are made about
[1:07:08] funding. We would love to be. able to go back to our full funding that we had 2 years ago
[1:07:13] so that we can have outreach in Key West as well as outreach in Key Largo. So thank you for
[1:07:20] taking my comments. I appreciate it. Yeah, Madam Mayor, I actually have a couple
[1:07:24] of comments and questions and welcome. Thank you. Yes, thank you for the wonderful work that
[1:07:29] you do, and I know that you're new and your organization has gone through some struggles
[1:07:33] over the years. I actually was on the board, I think, under Vanita Garvin Valdez. Yeah,
[1:07:40] dates me and um and so if there's opportunities to either work through the sheriff's
[1:07:45] office or the county and our new revamped community services where there can actually be
[1:07:51] tangible contract where you can provide. in writing what you know, the taxpayer resources
[1:07:56] that we're going to provide you in that contract process would deliver because I believe
[1:08:02] domestic abuse was in one of the buckets. I can't remember how we broke them down, but I
[1:08:06] feel like it would fall and electricity. So when the new shelters open for sure. Yeah, I
[1:08:12] feel like there's a bucket that we can work within while we don't have the HSAB anymore.
[1:08:17] There are still other opportunities to provide these core services whether it's in
[1:08:21] Key West, Key Largo, or Marathon. We would welcome that I welcome that. You're drinking
[1:08:25] through a fire hose right now, I'm sure, and I know that you guys have been successful every
[1:08:31] now and then when the governor doesn't veto things at obtaining state funding. I know
[1:08:36] that's probably for the building and not necessarily your services, but I would like
[1:08:41] to talk about that with our with our community services division and and see what other
[1:08:48] formal contracts that we can enter in that aren't just again these random grants. we hand
[1:08:52] out that we actually can see on paper what services they're delivering. Thank you so much.
[1:08:57] I would love to be a part of that if you need my input, we would definitely welcome uh and
[1:09:03] in fact, many of the funding sources, we don't have that many, but the ones that we do
[1:09:09] have, they're very structured, so that's kind of why we're not able to move money around and
[1:09:15] support the Key Largo outreach or the Key West outreach because the funding that we do
[1:09:21] receive is very structured for, for the purposes that it is given to the organization so
[1:09:26] that's something that we're used to doing and we'd be, we'd be happy to do it. We'd be
[1:09:30] happy to receive the funds and be able to provide this core service to the community,
[1:09:35] Monroe County. And thank you, thank you and welcome aboard. Thank you so much. I'm glad to
[1:09:39] be here, Madam Mayor. There was a gentleman here before the meeting started who was asking
[1:09:46] about speaking and we gave him instructions and he is inexplicably left. Yes, he
[1:09:51] wished to speak and he also wanted to make it to the Key West meeting which started at
[1:09:57] 5:30, which virtually made it impossible can't be in two places at one time yet, so he
[1:10:03] did come up and we all assured him that if he wishes to reach out to us individually, he can,
[1:10:08] and that he can watch this video at his leisure tomorrow and then give us any input that
[1:10:15] he might have. All right, thank you. You're welcome. Madam Mayer, just a follow up, uh,
[1:10:20] Christine, could you maybe direct, um, would it be Jen? I know maybe not Kathy right now,
[1:10:25] but Jen, to reach out to the domestic abuse shelters so that we can talk about options. So
[1:10:31] we're going to be issuing a request for funding, probably around January. That's our plan
[1:10:40] um, and I think what we will do Tina can reach out to her and let her. Find the meeting where
[1:10:47] we presented how it's going to work. And watch it on our online um portal, that way she
[1:10:52] could get familiar with, you know, the new program and how we're gonna roll that out.
[1:10:56] Excellent. I knew there was a plan in place, but I don't want to just sit there, we were
[1:11:01] waiting until January till after we saw what happened with the referendum and what type of
[1:11:07] funding we might have and might not have. Right now there is 602,000 budgeted. Thank you.
[1:11:13] Thank you. And if there's any opportunity for any interim emergency funding to keep this
[1:11:18] outreach position in Key Largo, I would be welcome to show up and talk about that. Thank you
[1:11:25] so much. Thank you. Thank you, commissioners, any other comments on Mr. Quinn's
[1:11:30] presentation. And well done. Yes, Commissioner Rosine, did you wish to do. I just have a
[1:11:36] couple of things that I wanted to rattle off because I know that Mr. Quinn. Have you been
[1:11:43] dreaming about this presentation you've given it so eloquently so many times to all
[1:11:46] of us and and you're probably so excited to never see it again, but I know you'll break
[1:11:52] it out from us from time to time. Um, I know Kristen's not here tonight, Christine, but
[1:11:57] Madam Mayor, if we could maybe uh reduce this down to a digestible version so that when
[1:12:04] we read the headline tomorrow in the weekly and it says county's raising your taxes,
[1:12:09] that is it actually tells our Our constituents and our property owners why and our
[1:12:15] business owners why, and I'm not willing to skimp on the possibilities of lives being
[1:12:20] lost because we haven't properly funded public safety, and that is the crux of it,
[1:12:26] right? We are making sure that we are paying our men and women in law enforcement and fire
[1:12:32] rescue properly so that we can keep them here and so I just thought it would be a good idea
[1:12:35] that we have again easily digestible version on, on our socials or In a press release
[1:12:43] so that people understand it's, this is an amazing county. We are providing the highest level
[1:12:49] of public safety and we're going to ensure that, that, you know, one of my favorite
[1:12:55] sayings is the juice is where's the squeeze on this item, so maybe just something to share.
[1:13:00] It's easy to understand, not that your presentation isn't, but I've heard it 5 times. But
[1:13:05] for the public, you know, sharing this good information. Absolutely. Commissioner
[1:13:11] Raschein, it was similar to what Commissioner Kate said at our last budget hearing where
[1:13:17] we have prioritized our public safety, and we won't skimp on it, so to all the um newspapers
[1:13:23] out there, why, why can't you make the headline BOCC prioritizes public safety. Amen
[1:13:31] Mhm. Good job. Thank you, Mayor Thank you, Commissioners, any other comments? OK, well, with
[1:13:38] that, we will move on then I will adjourn the county commission meeting so that we
[1:13:45] can reopen the fire and ambulance District 1 Board of Governors. So, You're not on
[1:13:52] the fire and ambulance. You can go in the back, but there are no breakfast doughnuts. Yeah,
[1:13:58] not that I checked no power rings and no pizzas. No. Hand you the gavel. Thank you, Mayor
[1:14:14] Thank you, Chair. Would you please conduct Raoul. You got it, Mayor Lincoln. Here,
[1:14:21] Commissioner Rasha, here, Commissioner Rice, here, Councilman Lewis here and Mayor
[1:14:25] Halley here. Hi John, we have 2 items. We do to approve. Yes, item C1, District 1 Board of
[1:14:32] Governors, resolution adopting the final millage rate for fiscal year 2027, and I'll go
[1:14:40] ahead and read that information for you. This is the taxing authority District 1, Lower and
[1:14:44] Middle Keys Fire and Ambulance. He rolled back village rate is 1.8091, the final millage rate
[1:14:52] is 2.1538. The final millage rate is 19.05% above the rollback rate. Thank you. Do I
[1:14:59] have a motion to approve? So moved. 2nd, we have a motion in a second. Hearing no objection,
[1:15:07] we're approved. John, the 2nd item, please. Yes, item C2, District 1 Board of Governors
[1:15:13] resolution adopting the final budget for fiscal year 2027. And that final budget number.
[1:15:22] is $27,403,0728. Thank you. Do I have a motion to approve? You do. Second, we have a motion in
[1:15:32] the 2nd hearing, no objection. We are approved. Do I have a motion to adjourn? So moved.
[1:15:39] 2nd, we have a motion to 2nd. We adjourn. Thank you. Thank you, gents, for making it all
[1:15:45] the way down, it's important. I know it is. Thank you. Thank you. Well that was And with
[1:15:55] that, I will reconvene the county budget hearing moving on to the budget resolutions and
[1:16:03] announcements. You got it. That's your item D1 on page 2 of your agenda, your
[1:16:07] announcement of final millage rates. All right, hey, Mr. Quinn, the floor is yours. OK,
[1:16:12] you got it. Mayor and commissioners. This is the reading of the rollback rate,
[1:16:18] the final millage rate, and the percentage above or below the rollback rate for the taxing
[1:16:23] authority, Monroe County Board of County Commissioners, you're rolled back millage rate is
[1:16:29] 2.5427, your final millage rate is 2.6929. Your final millage rate is 5.91% above the
[1:16:38] rollback rate for the taxing authority general purpose municipal service taxing unit,
[1:16:43] your rolled back millage rate is 0.1645. Your final millage rate is 0.1756, your final
[1:16:53] millage rate is 6.75% above the rollback rate. For the taxing authority, local road patrol,
[1:17:00] law enforcement district, your rolled back millilage rate is 0.2706. Your final millage rate
[1:17:08] is 0.2963. Your final mileage rate is 9.50% above the rollback rate for the taxing
[1:17:16] authority lower and Middle Keys fire and ambulance, you rolled back mileage rate is 1.8091.
[1:17:23] Your final millage rate is 2.1538. Your final millage rate is 19.05% above the rollback
[1:17:32] rate. And then finally for the aggregate, the aggregate rolled back millage rate is 3.1618.
[1:17:41] The aggregate final millage rate is 3.3975 and the aggregate final millage rate is
[1:17:48] 7.45% above the rollback rate. Thank you. At this point, do we need a motion? Yes, Mayor. May
[1:17:57] I have a motion? That the same as B2? Oh, I'm sorry, no, we will need to move on to D2
[1:18:04] first. OK, that's item D2 on page 2 of your agenda. Approval of county commission resolution
[1:18:11] adopting the final millage rates for fiscal year 2027. So moved 2, I have a motion by
[1:18:20] Commissioner Rashine seconded by Commissioner Shull Carl Rowe please. You got it,
[1:18:24] Commissioner Cates. Yes, Commissioner Raschein, yes. Commissioner Rice, yes.
[1:18:31] Commissioner Shoal, yes. And Mayor Lincoln, yes. Motion carries millage rate has been
[1:18:38] set. Next item, please. OK, that's your item D3 also on page 2 of your agenda. Approval
[1:18:44] of the county commission resolution adopting the final budget for fiscal year 2027. So
[1:18:49] moved. 2nd, I have a motion by Commissioner Rashine, seconded by Commissionerho. Call Roe,
[1:18:56] please. You got it, Commissioner Gates. Yes, Commissioner Rosine, yes.
[1:19:01] Commissioner Rice, yeah, yeah, yeah, Commissioner Shull, yes, and Mayor Lincoln, yes, we've
[1:19:11] got proof. Nothing. Thank you, and we are going to go out of order now and do land authority
[1:19:20] so I will adjourn the county commission meeting and I will hand the gavel to Mayor Pro Tem
[1:19:28] Rice so that he can open up our land authority meeting. You usually don't give it to me
[1:19:33] that easily. Well, you know, I'm in a good mood today. Don't let it be like me and Kate's in
[1:19:38] that picture, jeez, I know. Yeah. Yeah, you ready for roll call? Yes. All right, Chairman
[1:19:48] Rice, yes, vice chair is Shane. Here, Commissioner Gates here, Commissioner Lincoln, here,
[1:19:55] Commissioner Schul, here. We only have one agenda item for you, a public hearing and
[1:19:59] approval of a resolution of the Monroe County Comprehensive Plan Land Authority adoption of
[1:20:05] a final budget for fiscal year 2027. There's been no changes to the budget since I presented
[1:20:10] it last week, so I just need a motion, a second, and a roll call vote. Do we have a motion
[1:20:16] so moved. I'll second. We have a motion on the 2nd caller roll please. Chairman Rice, yes.
[1:20:24] Vice Chair shine, yes, Commissioner Cates, yes, Lincoln, yes, Commissioner
[1:20:28] Scholl, yes. Thank you very much. Thank you. We are adjourned and we can go back to
[1:20:37] the commission meeting. OK, I reconvene the county commission meeting. OK, let's go on to
[1:20:44] item E1, also on page 2 of your agenda, approval of resolution, adopting fiscal year 2027,
[1:20:51] Monroe County organizational chart as the official organizational structure of
[1:20:54] Monroe County government, effective October 1st, 2026. The resolution also, also
[1:21:00] authorizes the county administrator to make routine administrative revisions and
[1:21:04] the incorporation of the organizational chart into the County A administrative code
[1:21:07] upon creation. So moved. Second Do we need to ask if there's anyone signed up for these
[1:21:15] individual items, Mr. Attorney, or are we? We're good here. I'm sorry, what was the question we
[1:21:20] were multitasking. That's quite all right. Do we need to ask if anyone has signed up for any of
[1:21:26] these additional items on the agenda, or is this just a homework for us right now. You
[1:21:31] can ask right now. Has anybody signed up I would like to demote some people, just
[1:21:37] kidding. Move them down. Has anybody online? Yeah. There are no great chance hands. Is
[1:21:44] anybody raising hands as we've been talking about it right now thinking that they're gonna get
[1:21:49] cut off later on. I don't think so, but Mr. Attorney, my question is, do you wish for me
[1:21:53] to ask this for each of these items or are these now I think this is routine in nature. No,
[1:21:58] they, they are substantive matters that can be voted on, that that people have a right
[1:22:03] to speak on. So, but you can have a call for speakers. At the beginning That's OK. Let's
[1:22:11] do that. If anyone is signed up to speak on any of the county administrator E. Adams. And
[1:22:16] would you like to enco consider them in a bulk commotion. If we could do that, I most
[1:22:25] definitely would. Madame Clerk, is that something that we can just have to read them all,
[1:22:29] right? Yes, would you like me to read them all? You can read the comment on one. Yes, read
[1:22:36] them. You said you wanted to comment on. After she reads them, OK, I mean, traditionally
[1:22:43] with our bulk, we don't read the entire item out, we read the item number as part. I just
[1:22:49] wanted to compliment the staff for adding $2 million to our reserves. That was it. OK, that
[1:22:55] was very good. So you just want to thank you for adding the $2 million to the reserves. So you
[1:23:03] could entertain a motion to do items E 123456, and 7 if someone wanted to. Make that
[1:23:12] motion. Is that sufficiently clear to the clerk? That is, what about 8? Is there an 8?
[1:23:17] Yes, yes, there is an 8. So moved 2nd. So we have a motion to bulk E1 through 8 and by
[1:23:26] Commissioner Rashine and seconded by Commissioner Scholl any opposition? Seeing none,
[1:23:33] the motion carries. OK, that was very efficient. And just to clarify for the record, I
[1:23:41] didn't have anybody signed up for either of those. Dean, did you have anybody for any of the
[1:23:44] E items? There were no raisings for any of the E items. Perfect Thank you. Sounded like a For
[1:23:51] in the Dale song E I E I O. OK, so your next item will be item F1, also on page 3 of your
[1:23:57] agenda, building department summer study presentation regarding proposed building
[1:24:01] permit fee study and update of building permit fee schedule necessary to comply with the
[1:24:06] new statutory requirements for building permit fees, House Bill 803, and to balanceBu
[1:24:11] building department revenue and expenses, including approval for the county administrator to
[1:24:15] execute an agreement for building and permit fee schedule study with JRD and
[1:24:20] Associates Inc. once finalized. with the total cost not to exceed $78,527. Good evening.
[1:24:29] As you know, the building department budget is funded through a separate segregated
[1:24:34] fund, Fund 180, so all revenue that comes in for permitting inspections, things to enforce
[1:24:42] the Florida Building Code is used then to pay for those services as well. Uh, the.
[1:24:49] Current Fee schedule for the building department for building permits was the
[1:24:54] structure of that was adopted back in 2014, and it was a value-based structure. I put it
[1:25:00] into a tiered system where depending on the value of the work being done, you pay a
[1:25:05] certain amount. That's been updated over the years for things like CPIU and other
[1:25:10] small changes, but that is still the current structure of our building permit fee
[1:25:14] schedule. In this year's legislative session, House Bill 803 was passed with many
[1:25:21] provisions related to the, to building permits and and the Florida Building code, but one
[1:25:26] of those provisions changed how you can and cannot charge fees, and I'll get to more detail on
[1:25:33] that later, um, but in part because of that and in part because of development of the
[1:25:38] fiscal year 27 budget, we have been looking at the trends of permitting and whether the
[1:25:43] building department is covering its costs. And how to address that. So I have a few slides
[1:25:48] that just show you some of the trends. This is starting in fiscal year 21. This this is
[1:25:53] the total number of building permits being issued by a fiscal year. So this slide, the
[1:25:59] fiscal year to date is through August, but the next slide here we have a sort of an estimate
[1:26:04] of what we think it will be at the end of this month, September, this estimate is a
[1:26:10] couple of months old, but it's probably about right. So you'll see it it has been trending
[1:26:13] down for the number of overall number of permits issued. B fiscal year. This shows you the
[1:26:23] number of plan reviews by fiscal year, and you will see fiscal year 23, you see this
[1:26:29] jump up. That is when we implemented the online permitting system and because
[1:26:35] of the new system and the limited number of permit types that we could have. We did have
[1:26:42] to increase the number of reviewers on some building permits that previously we
[1:26:45] could say, oh no, the environmental resources doesn't have to review that, but since
[1:26:52] Those permits were now lumped into a common permit type. We had to put the reviewers back
[1:26:58] on. We have now over the last few years tried to parse some of that out, combine some
[1:27:03] reviews, eliminate some reviews so that the customers are not seeing. Unnecessary permit
[1:27:12] reviews, uh, but it has been a good system overall. The whole point of that online system was
[1:27:16] to do concurrent permit review with multiple reviewers reviewing at once. So that
[1:27:21] still has been good in terms of timing, but the overall number of plan reviews, it jumped up,
[1:27:25] but now you can see it's trending downwards again. And then this slide shows you the
[1:27:32] number of completed inspections by fiscal year. Those have been trending downward and at the
[1:27:37] bottom of the slide is uh very important information. Private provider inspections have gone
[1:27:44] up quite a bit. So in fiscal year 23, 29% of all inspections were private provider, and that
[1:27:52] now in fiscal year 26 is up to 34%. So we do anticipate that to continue. Lots of private
[1:27:59] provider inspection. It's mostly inspections, not plan reviews, but that has made a
[1:28:06] difference in the revenue taken in because we have to give a discount, of course, when
[1:28:08] they're using private providers for inspections. Here you see the comparison of revenue to
[1:28:17] expenditures since fiscal year 15, the green bars on the left for each fiscal year are
[1:28:22] revenue, and you can see that the building department pretty well kept up or exceeded just a
[1:28:29] bit the expenditures over the years the last several years, however, we did know that the
[1:28:35] permitting trends were going downward, but we had several very large projects, things
[1:28:40] like the airports, for example, where one permit. or one set of permits brought in a lot of
[1:28:46] revenue to the building department, so that helped us balance the budget for those
[1:28:52] years. This year, fiscal, fiscal year twenty26. In June when we reviewed the 1st 3
[1:28:58] quarters or end of June, beginning of July, uh, what we found was that the revenue was
[1:29:06] about 14.5% less than last year fiscal year 25, so the estimated shortfall in that
[1:29:12] moment in the summer was $961,000. What we did was we eliminated several positions
[1:29:20] that became vacant, and now in the proposed budget, there are several more positions being
[1:29:25] eliminated. That did become vacant, so we were able to avoid having to do any layoffs
[1:29:31] of actual current employees, but we've eliminated some vacant positions, and we are
[1:29:38] reevaluating other vacancies that come up. I will be honest, staff feels that they are,
[1:29:42] they're kind of at their limit at the moment. They're, they're feeling it. They're definitely
[1:29:45] feeling it, um, but even with those eliminated FTEs, the expected shortfall for the, for
[1:29:53] this fiscal year that we're currently in is still a little A little over $200,000 and the
[1:29:58] projected shortfall for next fiscal year is $570,000. So, back to that House bill, which
[1:30:06] requires us to look at our fee schedule, the House Bill 803. is now the statute is now
[1:30:13] stating that inspection fees based on the total cost of a project and may not exceed the
[1:30:19] actual inspection costs incurred by the local enforcement agency. So the
[1:30:26] immediate need is to redo our fee structure so that inspections are not based on
[1:30:30] the job value which our entire fee schedule currently is, but with the added problem that
[1:30:37] we're not balancing our budget anymore. We're going to look at the entire Or we would like to
[1:30:42] if you approve, look at the entire fee schedule, go over. Everything from staffing
[1:30:50] workload, permitting trends. We do also have to include the fees for planning,
[1:30:58] environmental, and fire marshal those fees do not go into fund 180. They, but they pay for the
[1:31:04] the plan reviews for the building permits, so it has to be incorporated into the same
[1:31:09] fee schedule, even though it's not part of that fund 180. It, it, it's charged at the same
[1:31:14] time but then gets separated into the different funds. Um, so we We have sent proposals to
[1:31:22] For professional services out for a scope of work that's in your backup. It does include
[1:31:28] restructuring the building permit fee schedule and it includes analysis of all the
[1:31:31] costs, staffing, workload, permit volumes. It's for the building department overall and
[1:31:38] then for planning, environmental, and fire marshal just for their work on actual
[1:31:43] permits and inspections for those permits. We did receive bids from 2 companies. Staff is
[1:31:49] recommending a contract with JRD and Associates. They are doing the fee schedules for uh
[1:31:56] uh Miami Beach, I believe, Miami-Dade County. They have several others. They have
[1:32:03] actually now I know in my backup I said that they had not signed the contract yet, so
[1:32:07] we're requesting approval for the county administrator to execute the agreement once it's
[1:32:12] finalized. They did late Friday send back the signed contract on their end. So what is in
[1:32:17] your backup is the version that they have signed. The total is 78,527. They are able to Get
[1:32:27] the work done about 1 to 2 months quicker than the other company, so they're, their fee
[1:32:34] is actually higher, but we're requesting to go with this company because it will be done
[1:32:39] sooner, and technically the deadline for the inspection fee change was July 1. I would have
[1:32:44] to say what we heard this summer was that no county or municipality in Florida who
[1:32:50] have this issue was meeting that deadline, so we're on the same path as everyone else.
[1:32:55] We're doing what we can as quickly as we can to To fix the issue. So that is our request
[1:33:01] for approval for Christine to sign the Agreement once everything is finalized, I
[1:33:08] think we're waiting on one insurance certificate. Thank you for that report,
[1:33:13] Commissioner. Any questions? None. Anyone signed up in the audience? I don't have
[1:33:19] questions, comments, OK. I have no one signed up here. Dean, do you have anybody online for
[1:33:24] item F1? See no raised hands for item F1 Commissioner Raine, the, the floor is yours for
[1:33:32] comments. Thank you, Madam Mayor, and I just want to make sure that we're being sensitive
[1:33:35] to the fact that, you know, whatever the increase will be, will be kind of ripping the
[1:33:41] band-aid off if we're not going to plan to do a glide path so that can be a little painful to
[1:33:45] people who are hoping to develop and things like that, especially this just single
[1:33:49] family homes and things like that, big developers, I'm not super worried about that, and
[1:33:56] have we Do you feel like 78,000 is a fair price because of the accelerated. Work rate, I, I
[1:34:02] believe so. OK, I just want to make sure we built that in and then um have we run this by the
[1:34:09] contractor's board, the licensing board, so I, I gave them almost the same
[1:34:13] presentation a couple of months ago to let them know what was going on, that we would be
[1:34:18] pursuing a fee study and that it is likely that fees could go up. We don't know for sure, but
[1:34:22] it's, you know, highly likely, um. I, we also have worked into the contract that they, the
[1:34:30] consultant will present to the CEB one time and to the Border county commissioners twice. So
[1:34:36] they will see it where the timeline, the they're supposed to finish the work by the end
[1:34:42] of December. But we all know with commission meetings, CEB meetings with the timing of
[1:34:47] that, we may have to adjust the schedule a bit, but um they will see it probably before it
[1:34:52] even comes to the board for the fir your first time. I'm interested in their feedback
[1:34:58] and then, um, Madam Mayor, one more time, follow up. I just had a point. Um. Yeah, OK,
[1:35:05] excited about that. Obviously we don't want to be running out of deficit, so. Yeah. Thank you
[1:35:10] Commissioner Cates. The floor is yours. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Uh, obviously the fees
[1:35:15] are going to have to go up because you're gonna have $200,000 you're projecting in
[1:35:22] uh and continue with. The directory of amount of permits going down, my concern is the
[1:35:31] small permits. If they increased A large amount that a lot of people will start doing
[1:35:39] more work without permits, and so there's a double-edged sword here. We got to be very careful
[1:35:44] but I know that everything that you set the stage there can't help but go up. So I think we
[1:35:51] need to look close at our expenses at the same time, OK? Understood. Thank you. Oh,
[1:35:58] Madame Mayor, I thought of it what I meant to say is I wouldn't be, sorry, half-timers
[1:36:02] right? Um, I, I wouldn't be, I wouldn't be worried about the July 1. It's probably effective
[1:36:08] date of the law and things like that, so we're. Very timely. Thank you, Emily. And with that
[1:36:15] um, we do need a motion for this. Second. We have a motion by Mayor Pro Tem Rice and a
[1:36:22] second by Commissioner Cates. Any objections? Hearing none, motion carries. Thank you. And
[1:36:32] that takes us to our add-ons. Our item H1, also on page 3 of your agenda. Approval to exempt
[1:36:38] from the use of property policy at Harvey Government Center for Patrons of the library, while
[1:36:43] the Key West Library is closed, as long as the use is consistent with the regular,
[1:36:49] regularly scheduled library uses that have historically occurred at the library and
[1:36:51] library staff will be present for such events. I have no one signed up in the public toha,
[1:36:56] do you have anybody sign up for item H1? No raisins for item H1 So moved. So, I have a motion
[1:37:05] by Commissioner Rashaine seconded by Mayor Pro Tem Rice. Seeing no objections, the
[1:37:13] motion carries. And that my friends is the end of our budget season and I'm just very
[1:37:24] appreciative of our staff, as always. You all are so thorough and conscientious in in
[1:37:32] presenting our budget this spring and then doing the summer studies and really
[1:37:36] listening to the needs of the community and acknowledging from us the prioritizing of our
[1:37:43] safety safety and um Really appreciate you all, so thank you. With that. Meeting is