[0:00] Item 22, fiscal year 2026, 2027
budget discussions,
[0:03] preliminary five-year capital
improvement plan
[0:06] and fleet replacement.
[0:10] So Robin's going to get the
PowerPoint set up.
[0:12] Perfect.
[0:14] And nothing like starting after 9:00
on a budget
[0:17] conversation. You can feel the energy
in the room from
[0:20] the department heads. Here, everybody
can't wait to get into this.
[0:23] This just to start while she's
getting it set up.
[0:25] So this is the traditional start of
the budget process
[0:28] for us. So we always start with
capital.
[0:34] And then we bring capital to you
first, and then
[0:36] in July we come back with the
operating, with all the
[0:39] departments, the total budget when we
set the Max Millage.
[0:41] One of the reasons that we do that is
that we don't
[0:43] have all the revenue sources known
yet at this point.
[0:45] We do have a preliminary tax roll
information,
[0:48] but we don't get final until July.
[0:50] And then state revenues, in addition
to that,
[0:52] account for a good bit of our
funding.
[0:54] More than half the general fund
actually comes from other state
[0:56] revenue sources
[0:58] and we generally don't know those
until later in July.
[1:01] But it's important to bring capital
to you. It is the
[1:03] largest chunk of your budget outside
of your personnel cost.
[1:06] And it's one where you probably have
the most ability to
[1:09] to really control and shape your
budget.
[1:11] So you make decisions on either
construction projects
[1:13] or large pieces of equipment that are
being bought.
[1:17] And this this gives you the chance to
do that.
[1:19] Tonight we're not asking for a vote
or any formal decisions.
[1:22] It's a presentation of a lot of
information.
[1:25] And then we'd like you to give us
some feedback and direction
[1:27] to help us do a better job coming
back in July with
[1:30] specific recommendations.
[1:31] You're going to see the CIP presented
in a five-year format,
[1:34] that is the best practice to do so.
[1:37] Just like you would want to do at
your house when you're
[1:38] looking at large-scale purchases and
projects.
[1:42] What you don't want to do is have a
year where you've got
[1:44] to change the roof on your house, buy
a new car and have
[1:46] a kids' wedding in the same year.
[1:49] Same thing here. You don't want to go
into one of your funds
[1:51] and have all these huge things.
[1:53] Having spikes in the budget is a bad
way to do it.
[1:55] You're trying to keep it smoother.
[1:57] We haven't really done the best job
of five-year planning
[2:00] in the past. We with the transition
and finance that
[2:02] we are going to go down that path
now.
[2:05] So we're we're in the prior years, if
somebody came up
[2:08] with a good idea today, they just
throw it into the next
[2:10] year's budget.
[2:12] And the discipline of a five- year
plan is you go into out
[2:15] year number five and work your way
up.
[2:18] So Council knows through a full
five-year window what your
[2:20] costs are going to be and what your
projects are going to be
[2:23] going forward.
[2:25] And having said that, what's
currently showing in year one,
[2:27] the fiscal year 2027, which is the
upcoming budget,
[2:31] is what's funded. The other four
years are planned,
[2:33] but not actually funded.
[2:36] And what you're seeing in there are
not formal recommendations.
[2:39] It's we sat down as a as all the
staff and came up with
[2:41] these are ideas of what will help the
city run, do better
[2:43] for the citizens and the community,
[2:44] but at this point they're not all
recommendations. I can
[2:47] tell you we don't have enough money
[2:49] in the general fund based on the
current millage to pay
[2:52] for all that. So some of those things
are going to have to
[2:54] get done in later years.
[3:00] So right now I just wanted you to be
able to see them
[3:02] and get your thoughts on them.
[3:04] And then when we come back, we'll
decide what we can and
[3:05] cannot afford, but at the current
millage we can't get
[3:07] there.
[3:11] One of the things, so at the end,
there's a bunch of slides
[3:14] we go through, typically the way this
works and
[3:17] go to the next.
[3:18] So the table of contents shows the
order.
[3:20] So normally there's a little opening
I give, and then
[3:22] we go through each one of these
categories with all the
[3:24] projects in there.
[3:26] But it's important at the end one of
the things we put is a
[3:29] summary sheet of all the general fund
project,
[3:31] because instead of trying to go back
through 14 or 15 slides
[3:33] and go, can you go back to slide six
and look at that
[3:35] one thing,
[3:37] I grouped them all on one slide to
help facilitate the
[3:40] discussion, because that's really
where the challenge
[3:42] and the funding is, is the general
fund.
[3:44] And so you can stop me as I go
through if you've got
[3:46] questions, but
[3:48] probably the detailed discussion on
what we might
[3:51] prioritize and not will be at the end
when I get there.
[3:55] Moving forward,
[3:58] I don't. A lot of times people will
spend a whole bunch of
[4:00] time talking about the economy and
how it affects your budget.
[4:03] Whether you want to talk about
inflation or or mortgage
[4:05] interest rates or anything like that.
[4:08] I just wanted to hit a few key points
here for us tonight.
[4:12] We know we're nearing build out.
[4:13] When we had that conversation, even
when I went when I was
[4:15] hired five years ago, we talked about
the fact that we expect
[4:18] flattening revenues.
[4:19] A lot of cities live off of telling
people they didn't raise
[4:21] their millage rates,
[4:22] but that's because they're getting a
ton of growth,
[4:24] and they're living off new
development paying for it.
[4:27] So you get 16 new apartment
complexes, you got a whole
[4:28] bunch more money.
[4:30] You don't have any growth, you don't
have any more money.
[4:33] So we have not had. And I know we've
heard conversations about
[4:35] growth, but we have been really low.
[4:37] In fact, the last, almost 17 to 20
years, we've had
[4:39] just about 10,000 people total move
here.
[4:41] So it's like 400 people a year.
[4:44] That that's close to stagnant growth.
That that is, you know,
[4:48] fast-moving cities are 2,000 plus
people a year.
[4:52] 400 people a year is not.
[4:54] But looking back at the trends that
are shown here, the tax
[4:57] base is the one column.
[5:00] we used to get double digits.
[5:01] when I years ago we were when we
would have these meetings with all
[5:04] the other cities, Port Orange was
routinely in the upper half
[5:06] of the cities with the most growth
and the most tax-based growth.
[5:09] That's that's pretty well done now.
[5:11] You can see that number at 12%.
[5:13] when we got that high, that was
mostly inflation driven.
[5:16] Though those were the years when
inflation was like 7 and 8%.
[5:17] So when we got the property
appraiser's information,
[5:21] we had as much growth based on an
existing house being taxed at a
[5:23] higher level than we did from new
development.
[5:27] But what what it resulted in is if
you look on the far right column,
[5:29] that's how much extra money we took
going into each budget year to run
[5:33] the city.
[5:34] So the higher number there, the first
year at $3 million,
[5:36] that was the year we we adjusted the
police department's wages.
[5:41] And so that covered all of that
[5:44] in that year and then that number has
steadily decreased since then.
[5:46] And and there's always that
conversation about going to roll
back.
[5:49] What is the roll back? What is the
percent over roll back the
[5:51] state law requires you to state that
when you do your budget adoptions?
[5:55] So last year that one little over
$1.6 million, it was higher than
[5:58] the year before, was about a 4% over
roll back number.
[6:01] This year, the preliminary number
came out, $800,000 is all the new
[6:06] money we have to run the city with.
[6:10] And that is less than a percent over
roll back.
[6:13] So you're you're almost at roll back
with with what we've got.
[6:16] So we have to go into next year with
$800,000 more dollars
[6:18] to address wage contracts that range
from 4 to 8%, we anticipate
[6:22] an 8% insurance increase, we have
other contractual obligations
[6:26] and just general inflationary
impacts.
[6:30] And that is that is a hard target
right there.
[6:33] Inflation that dropped down closer to
two, then it went back
[6:35] up a little bit, then it came down,
then it went back over four
[6:38] as part of the war, if the war ends,
it may come back down.
[6:42] I don't think it's going to go
anywhere near the sevens of the past.
[6:44] But we're we're trying to deal with
funding the general fund
[6:47] projects with very little new money
going into this year.
[6:51] So that's that's just an an overall
start to what we're facing.
[6:54] And before I got into the new ones,
we did want to take a little
[6:59] bit of time to thank the people who
put together the projects this year.
[7:03] So we did complete a large number,
over 40 projects.
[7:06] Now, some of them aren't finished
today, but they'll finish in this
[7:09] fiscal year.
[7:11] So a couple of highlight projects in
there, we talked about that
[7:12] earlier with utilities, that North
Commonwealth water upgrade.
[7:16] That was we did that whole
Commonwealth area in the last few
[7:19] years, went from two-inch water pipes
to 6-inch,
[7:22] now they've got fire hydrants,
they've got better flow, better
[7:24] safety, better quality water in that
area.
[7:27] Very big positive project to be done
in that area.
[7:29] The Jackson project is completed.
[7:33] Another big positive.
[7:35] You can see things for parks and
public works has gotten a few
[7:36] things done as well.
[7:39] So I'll just
[7:43] start going through the categories of
this is the showing the five-year
[7:43] plan on a pie, you can see the total
number on the left.
[7:47] It's into what would be funded, the
$57 million is what we would
[7:49] have to fund.
[7:51] The 284 is all the other years.
[7:53] So it's it's a little bit more like
the other out years are like
[7:57] 70 or 80 million where this one's $57
million.
[8:00] The pie is showing you how they're
broken out. Water and waste water
[8:04] is almost always going to be the
bigger one, just because the utility
[8:07] is the most expensive thing we have.
[8:10] This pie though includes the $170
million sewer plan upgrade that
[8:11] I'll show you later and it also has a
big wedge for the parks bond.
[8:15] Uh in the future when the parks bond
projects are done and the
[8:19] utility major upgrade is done, that
the pie itself will shrink.
[8:23] It won't be a pie of $284 million,
but it'll still be probably similar
[8:26] ratios.
[8:29] It will usually be dominated by water
sewer.
[8:32] So the first category is park bonds
and we did give you the uh
[8:36] the a hard copy to look at.
[8:38] For people trying to look on the
monitor, I'd suggest looking at the
[8:41] higher density ones because the
resolution's better.
[8:44] The the outer ones are kind of light
and hard to read.
[8:45] Uh
[8:48] So on the positive side, the park
staff has done an outstanding job,
[8:49] the the bond got approved and they
have moved really fast to get these
[8:53] projects out there to the community.
[8:57] One of the last things you want to do
is is have the voters agree
[8:59] to give themselves amenities and tax
themselves
[9:02] and then take forever to give it to
them.
[9:04] So Fort Lauderdale is currently
getting beat up pretty bad because
[9:05] they did a bond about a decade ago
and they haven't even gotten
[9:09] halfway through their projects.
[9:11] So so they are moving along as you
can see everything on here but
[9:12] the Karasi Park expansion and the
trails
[9:15] is ready for construction in the next
fiscal year.
[9:18] Uh the Karasi park we don't own the
land yet, so we've got to own
[9:21] the land, design the park and then go
forward.
[9:23] And the trails we're holding on
because we're using the TPO project
[9:25] process where we can leverage some
money from the TPO in order
[9:29] to get there.
[9:32] And so when we get that feasibility,
we'll start working
[9:33] towards some of those projects.
[9:36] Understanding what's out there for
the public to vote on considering
[9:39] uh property taxes,
[9:42] we may want to talk about this as we
go forward throughout the summer
[9:43] on what we do with request and Karasi
[9:47] because if you build them, they will
have ongoing operational costs.
[9:49] They they will the bond will cover
the cost of construction, but there
[9:52] will be staff, there will be
electricity, there will be mower,
[9:55] they will be fertilizer.
[10:00] You know, those projects are going to
cost us money to run
[10:03] when we move forward, but
congratulations to the staff.
[10:05] This is one of the most effective
one-year movements of a bunch
[10:08] of bond projects that I think I've
ever seen in all the bonds I've done.
[10:12] They're also out there leveraging
with echo funds.
[10:14] Uh so we we already you've already
authorized us to apply for
[10:17] echo grants to try to add to it.
[10:19] So it would give us the ability to
build more than we have.
[10:22] The idea that they've switched land,
we came up with the idea
[10:24] to switch land with the schools to
build a park here.
[10:27] A lot of positives coming out of the
staff to make the most
[10:29] of that bond.
[10:32] I'm not going to go through all of
these because you've seen them,
[10:35] but they're concept plans and where
they're at at this point
[10:36] and then for each category we also
have a map that helps for
[10:38] when you're looking at it between now
and then.
[10:41] The next category, the regular parks
projects. So whether or not
[10:44] we build bonds or not, we own a bunch
of parks facilities
[10:46] and they have to be taken care of.
[10:48] So this is their regular stuff.
[10:50] Typically, every year, you see them
somewhere between a half a million
[10:52] and a million dollars of request.
[10:54] This is probably one of the ones
where I was talking about how we
[10:57] haven't fully disciplined ourselves
on the five-year budget.
[11:00] Everything is in year two. So there's
a giant spike in year two.
[11:03] Normally you'd like to see this a
little more spread out
[11:05] over a five-year pattern.
[11:07] but the notable projects coming up in
the funded year would be the
[11:10] wreck sound barrier, which is being
designed now and then the North
[11:13] Causeway Park Councilman Green and I
were talking about this
[11:15] earlier today. It's pretty beat up
over there on the north side.
[11:18] And that project would come in to to
new improvements in that area.
[11:22] The Y project is being funded out of
that Rec facilities fund,
[11:25] so there is basically a savings
account to do improvements
[11:28] to the Y. That's not a general fund
project.
[11:32] Parks has got ongoing maintenance.
This is going to be a theme
[11:34] throughout as well. It was the things
we haven't emphasized,
[11:36] I don't think enough in the past.
[11:39] Everything we do, we have to take
care of when we get it.
[11:42] And so parks isn't always thought of
as that department like
[11:45] people are used to us paving roads
and fixing sidewalks, but
[11:47] not necessarily this.
[11:49] But we own if you look at the bottom,
we have like 32 facilities.
[11:52] So we probably don't go more than a
year or two without at least
[11:55] one park being redone or one field
being redone.
[11:58] So there is a non-stop maintenance
cost as well.
[12:03] And deferred maintenance comes back
to haunt you. I think the mayor
[12:05] mentioned that earlier. What happens
if you don't do your job
[12:08] on maintenance, you pay more for it
later.
[12:10] So I'll I'll show that with all the
other categories.
[12:14] Facilities is our buildings that are
non-parks. The the highlight
[12:17] of our facilities here are the
generator replacements and oddly
[12:21] enough a couple of things at City
Hall, the air conditioner here
[12:23] is is kind of junk.
[12:25] Uh the thermostats don't work. You
have to go up on the roof
[12:27] and make adjustments up there to
change the temperature.
[12:29] And you've all can see the high
quality AV system that we have here
[12:32] from the 1980s.
[12:34] Uh so those though may end up being
the things you decide not to
[12:37] do. But it it's there to see we've
had those conversations about what
[12:40] what's coming up with our facilities.
[12:43] Ongoing maintenance from the
facilities division, they're also
[12:46] responsible for making sure all the
parking lots that we have
[12:48] are paved and taken care of.
[12:51] Fire doesn't normally have projects
like this.
[12:54] They they're they're typically fleet,
you see them when we when we replace
[12:57] fire trucks and and ambulances.
[13:01] Once in a while you build a station,
what's unique about this year is so
[13:04] Uh the public utilities department,
we're building their operation
[13:07] center. We're consolidating three or
four different sets of people
[13:10] over into one facility by the police
station.
[13:12] And they will be leaving the building
that they're currently in on the
[13:15] north side of the public works
property over by Oak Street.
[13:18] And right now fire trains at the
tower and they train at that
[13:21] small building up there by the annex.
[13:24] And the idea had been as part this is
like a long-term out multi-year
[13:27] project that this was planned, was
fire will then leave that small
[13:30] building, allow either parks or
public works or somebody
[13:33] engineering to use that facility and
then they would move over to
[13:36] this facility and use it for full
training in that one area.
[13:41] So the request here is to upgrade
that building because it would be
[13:44] a building used by utilities field
crews to something fire can
[13:47] train in.
[13:50] And then the pavilion is basically a
shade structure.
[13:52] So if you've been out there, I think
all of you've had the chance to go
[13:55] out there and see the training tower
is not real they're wearing
[13:57] heavy equipment. There's nowhere to
be in the shade, so it's a
[13:59] little hot.
[14:01] So that was the request for that.
[14:03] And then fire's got a couple out year
capital, we're we're coming up
[14:06] on having to replace radios in the
future and some of the breathing
[14:08] apparatus.
[14:11] Transportation projects are our TPO
funded, uh and good years,
[14:15] these are 90% money from federal
state funds and 10% hours.
[14:20] Occasionally some of them are a
little different.
[14:22] Uh in this upcoming year, the two big
highlights are the Dunlop and
[14:25] Yorktown bundle. That's construction.
[14:27] That's why it's a higher number.
[14:30] That is the total cost down at the
bottom. You'll see the note.
[14:32] Our cost next year is $1 and a half
million.
[14:35] And then the Clyde Morris project
will go into design with construction
[14:38] a couple of years out.
[14:40] This is pretty well spread out.
[14:42] Now, some of this because it's not in
our control, we have to follow
[14:44] the TPO process for the funding, but
it's it's a pretty good job of
[14:47] spreading out the projects over the
years.
[14:49] We do get heavy in the outer years
[14:52] because you you put them in the plans
and one of the things
[14:54] that's required in order to get fair
share money to get basically
[14:57] get money from developers when
they're building
[15:00] to help them pay for it, you have to
have them in your plan.
[15:02] If you don't put them in the plan,
you're not allowed to get money.
[15:05] So we show them in here so that that
qualifies.
[15:08] But we recognize that when you get
out to the out years,
[15:11] it's not really going to, they may
they may keep moving.
[15:13] They may show in year five,
[15:14] but they may stay in year five for
six or seven years.
[15:19] We go on to maintenance and
transportation.
[15:21] This shifts over to public works.
[15:23] So public works handles all this
stuff.
[15:24] If you look at the funding source,
it's all local option gas tax.
[15:28] So historically, the city has not
funded
[15:30] these, this maintenance beyond what
we get out of gas tax.
[15:35] The gas tax is not sufficient.
[15:37] To give you an idea that the
everything that we put in this,
[15:40] if you give that money to public
works on October 1,
[15:42] they will spend it all well before
the end of the fiscal year.
[15:45] And not finish everything out there
that needs to get done.
[15:48] To council's credit, you've asked me
in the past,
[15:50] well, how much money do you need to
do it right?
[15:52] And I can't answer that question
[15:53] because we didn't do asset management
very well in the past.
[15:56] But when we switched over to Tyler,
[15:58] we have asset management software
[15:59] and we are on the way to being able
to answer the question.
[16:02] We still may not be able to afford
it,
[16:04] but we can at least give you the
answer of what it would take to catch
up.
[16:07] Uh, we have it the last couple years,
[16:09] Council has actually taken some money
out of fund balance
[16:11] and and supplemented this to allow us
to catch up.
[16:14] So this is that's the first council
[16:16] I think that's actually added to
[16:17] that money to help catch up in that
area.
[16:19] But our objective is to get you data
[16:22] on what it will take to be caught up
[16:24] and take care of those as we go
forward.
[16:26] I think we've talked about this
before.
[16:27] The striping budget's like two, two
[16:29] little areas when you're out of
money.
[16:31] Paving gets you a couple of roads.
[16:33] Uh, one of the things that they do
though
[16:34] is that we don't spend it all,
[16:36] we have planned up to about 70,
probably about 80%, maybe 85%,
[16:41] they hold a little bit back till the
summer
[16:43] in order to pick up an emergency or
something comes up.
[16:45] because what you don't want to do is
be completely out of money
[16:48] and unable to fix something that's
bad.
[16:51] I'm sorry, wait. Let me so you can
grab a quick drink of water
[16:53] while I interject something.
[16:56] Um, perhaps on this particular slide
[16:59] your transportation bond project.
[17:01] As we update this moving forward
[17:03] in the project description, if it's
possible,
[17:06] this is just something that came to
my mind.
[17:09] If you could put a notation in there
[17:11] on what the anticipated,
[17:13] like I know with roadways,
[17:14] there's an anticipated cost per
linear mile.
[17:17] Same thing with sidewalks per foot or
something like that.
[17:20] Just so when we see the number, okay,
$800,000,
[17:23] well how far is that?
[17:24] How, you know, how far does that get
us?
[17:26] So that might be helpful if if that's
possible.
[17:28] I know TPO talks about that.
[17:31] Uh, you know, in their meetings and
stuff like that.
[17:33] I don't know where that number comes
from,
[17:35] but I know that some of those numbers
for paving and
[17:38] concrete has gone up.
[17:40] And they have to have a reduced cost
estimation
[17:42] because that's how engineers bid the
projects for us.
[17:44] So and or the contractors bid them
[17:46] and and we'd be able to say it would
be different
[17:48] like cost of Herbert Street
[17:49] is going to be a little cheaper
[17:50] than than doing something that's a
four lane with a median.
[17:52] but we can give you those basic
costs.
[17:54] Just might be a good reference to
have on that slide.
[17:55] Thank you. Thanks.
[17:59] The downtown project didn't really
fit a specific category,
[18:02] so I put it in here separately.
[18:04] Uh, it was originally envisioned
[18:05] in the ballpark of $5 million to be
used to be basically funded
[18:08] when we sold Riverwalk.
[18:10] So part of the assets of the
Riverwalk sale would pay off debt
[18:12] to the Town Center CRA,
[18:14] the other half would would go to
this.
[18:16] When that project didn't close last
year and we went back,
[18:19] staff came up with a really good idea
of trying to split it
[18:22] because they knew we don't have $5
million
[18:23] just to put into this project.
[18:25] So what they did is come up with a
phase one idea,
[18:28] because we've been working with the
business owners down there
[18:30] and they've been really good partners
and very positive
[18:33] and they're really hoping for
something to come out of this
[18:34] to to grow that momentum.
[18:36] And so the phase one would would
focus on this turn lane,
[18:39] which is the the road out to
Peninsula
[18:42] from the south of the bridge,
[18:44] so it's where the coway comes in the
signalize.
[18:45] If you've been down there,
[18:47] basically people down there created
their own
[18:49] right turn lane in the dirt.
[18:50] So this would formalize that and put
in a sign.
[18:53] So it it's a an affordable phase one
[18:55] that shows goodwill
[18:57] and progress to the business owners
down there
[18:59] and probably makes a good safety
impact going forward.
[19:02] So I thought that was that was very
creative of them when I said,
[19:05] I don't know that I can go ask for $5
million
[19:07] and they said, well, how about we do
this instead?
[19:11] Stormwater projects,
[19:12] we've got a couple different ways to
look at this,
[19:14] we we've started off with a stack bar
showing five projects
[19:17] with the colors are by who where the
funding is coming from.
[19:20] The the one on the far left is
Cambridge,
[19:22] that's a hurricane repair from the
damage in the coal.
[19:26] Uh and and then the other four
[19:28] are master plan projects that are
coming up in current years.
[19:31] There there's another large project
Nixon,
[19:34] that's in out years, you'll see in
one of the other charts,
[19:36] but it isn't isn't far enough along
to show here.
[19:39] Uh, this is 62 plus million dollars
worth of drainage projects.
[19:43] It is incredibly expensive
[19:44] to go into the old part of town
[19:46] and retrofit the old part of town to
stop them from flooding.
[19:49] That's a lot of money.
[19:50] It's more than twice what we have in
the parks fund for five projects.
[19:54] So that that's a a a big hit
[19:56] and we don't have all the money for
the pink part right now.
[20:00] Uh, you can see the couple grants on
the bottom.
[20:05] We really hope resilient Florida will
work for us. We're going to continue
trying to transform 386 to see when
their next phase come out.
[20:10] Brick is a federal program through
FEMA that the current administration
doesn't really like.
[20:15] So last year, President's office
stopped it, but then a court
reinstated it.
[20:20] Uh, so I don't really know. They they
were valuable. Fun people got a lot
of good projects out of Brick, but
then the money went away.
[20:26] So some cities are reluctant to touch
it because you don't you go to all
that effort and then you don't get
the money.
[20:31] So, I I think it's still worth trying
because it's a it's a pot of money we
need to have.
[20:37] On this slide, we put it in a pie.
[20:39] Uh, the reason for this is I think
it's really important.
[20:41] So it's been less than four years. We
got hit by Ian in September of of
'22.
[20:46] And in less than four years for $62
million of projects, we have almost
[20:51] $40 million of other people's money
in less than four years to do these
projects.
[20:56] And we still have $20 million to
fill.
[20:58] But $40 million in 10 years is a huge
amount of outside money.
[21:02] So the the people who go out and get
other people's money to do this have
done a heck of a job.
[21:07] Because that that's a that is more
than we have in the park bond in four
years they went out and got that from
somebody else's source.
[21:14] Uh, so again, it's going to require
some work.
[21:16] We we have the ability to borrow
parts of that and pay debt on it.
[21:20] If we get to the point where that's a
decision Council wants to, or we can
continue working until we get the
grants to fill it in.
[21:27] Uh, we I I put them here in the this
is your standard five-year plan
version that we were showing from the
others with the sources.
[21:33] And then we add this one adds the
Nixon project in there so you can see
it in the out years.
[21:39] It's a little less expensive because
it tags on to the sugar forest one,
so it's not as much money as that
one.
[21:44] But this also adds the the generator
at Virginia Monroe,
[21:48] which is one of the smaller pump
areas we have on the east side of
town
[21:51] and the two smaller projects you
authorized for design last summer.
[21:55] The Devon Street one and the sweet
water project are both shown there.
[22:00] Uh, so that's what's going forward.
[22:02] And moving on to their ongoing
projects and the maintenance.
[22:05] Uh, so you can see a couple things
with with drainage pipe.
[22:09] We've talked about this. It's an
ongoing project to basically replace
all the corrugated metal pipes that
rust and rot
[22:14] going through that. Uh, they they're
down in the bottom right, it shows
how many miles that we're responsible
for maintaining with that.
[22:20] On the left side I put in a little
summary of the storm water fund,
[22:24] so if $160 per dwelling unit, it
generates a little over almost $6.5
million.
[22:30] The expenses we have exceed that, so
we've been using storm water fund
balance to kind of chip away at those
things.
[22:37] Uh, that fund balance at $1.7 million
for a this much work is is small,
it's way too small.
[22:42] Uh, the the point of showing that is
that is that that this fund is not
designed for $62 million of capital
projects.
[22:48] Two-thirds of it or more than half is
used up by the the people and the
machines
[22:53] that maintain the stuff that we have.
[22:56] There's a little bit of money in
there. We're still paying debt on
some old stuff related to the '04
storms.
[23:02] That debt will eventually retire, but
it's still got like I think it's 2035
when that retires.
[23:07] And then we have money set aside for
debt service on future.
[23:11] Uh, and I've probably got some of
this wrong that Sue will have to
correct at some point for me in the
future.
[23:15] But we've been chipping away at it
using fund balance.
[23:17] So the the point of that just at the
$160 per dwelling unit, we can't we
can't build $62 million with a
project.
[23:24] We definitely need other people's
help and we need we we probably
either have to borrow or or find some
other revenue source to build all of
those projects.
[23:34] Water and sewers, the last of the
major categories of these.
[23:37] Uh, I we talked about this earlier
when the fee all this is down in the
bottom left corner
[23:41] is the uh all the the accomplishments
of that that group of people.
[23:45] To say they have done an outstanding
job of making sure that it costs as
little as possible to give you
high-quality water
[23:51] and and reliable infrastructure for
water and sewer.
[23:54] They they do this constantly.
[23:56] They they're coming in to see me
regularly with ideas about how to do
things better.
[24:00] Uh the highlights on this budget, uh
the highlights on this budget, uh the
the upcoming $175 plus million sewer
plant upgrade.
[24:07] That will probably be, it will be the
most expensive project we do, maybe
the most expensive one ever because
who knows what technology when this
thing's out of date
[24:14] exists, but 170 million is a gigantic
project.
[24:17] Uh, it is mandated by the federal
government, the treatment standards
are going up. We aren't going to be
able to treat at the level we
currently treat
[24:23] and we do pretty good. We we send
quite a bit out.
[24:26] We we do reclaim and that's why we
get credit through the consumption
use permit
[24:31] because we don't draw as much, we use
reclaim for irrigation.
[24:34] We have a very good system and we
still have to make it better.
[24:37] Uh, that number is big.
[24:39] There are loans out there that are
forgivable.
[24:42] If you remember we had to do a master
plan before we did this project.
[24:45] And then we also did the first phase
where we talked about the generators
and redoing the electric and we were
able to get forgivable loans for
portions of that.
[24:52] So we're going to go after forgivable
loans for this as well.
[24:55] What we don't get in forgivable loan,
the state revolving loan fund is
really low interest.
[25:00] like 1 to 2%.
[25:02] So you're paying mostly principal.
[25:04] So the fund is healthy enough.
[25:06] Toby and our financial advisors came
in here when we talked about the fees
last time.
[25:09] He came in and did two or three
different presentations.
[25:12] Our debt levels are such that this is
something we can afford.
[25:16] It's in the system, it's planned for.
[25:17] and we're going to be able to do
that. But it is a huge project going
forward.
[25:22] Now that's why we also purchased that
land in the area around it.
[25:26] because we talked about how that's
going to actually save us money as
well.
[25:28] Because we're going to be able to
move some of the operation center out
of that,
[25:32] keep it running up here. That was
another several hundred thousand
dollars of savings
[25:35] on this project just by acquiring
that additional land.
[25:38] And then down at the bottom, I should
draw attention to the meters coming
up.
[25:42] So some people have been around long
enough to remember
[25:44] the last time we went through a full
meter replacement.
[25:46] Uh, they're they're reaching the end
of their life.
[25:48] So we're going to be trading out the
meters coming up in a few years.
[25:50] Technology's improved quite a bit
since then.
[25:52] The benefit of that is that these
things have much fewer moving parts.
[25:56] So they break less and they provide
much more accurate readings.
[25:58] So you get better revenue because
you're getting more accurate readings
going forward.
[26:03] Same thing as all the others, they've
got a fairly large ongoing
maintenance
[26:06] budget as well.
[26:09] Uh, so you avoid deferred
maintenance.
[26:11] When I got here, we we've kind of got
picked on for being duct tape
[26:14] and and uh WD40 kind of maintenance
program.
[26:18] And we are not doing that now, we are
taking care of our infrastructure.
[26:22] Uh, and then they have something a
little bit unique.
[26:25] They do have a lot of capital
requests.
[26:27] which is one off things like whether
it's a
[26:28] In this case there's different parts
of the water plant.
[26:30] So most of these are water plant
parts, whether it's a a pump or
[26:34] various gearbox units of
[26:36] that these things are more out of
water.
[26:38] because the sewer plant's going to
pick up that kind of stuff
[26:40] when we do the full plant.
[26:41] So in the upcoming years, you'll see
capital being a lot of water stuff
[26:44] as we go forward.
[26:49] And then fleet. So this is a typical
year of fleet. This is replacement.
[26:52] So all these are things we already
have, it's being paid through by a
fleet
[26:54] replacement fund.
[26:57] So as so you buy a truck today for
$50,000.
[27:01] And then you, the department that
owns the truck, pays.
[27:03] You think it's got an eight-year
life, so they pay 1/8 of that cost
[27:06] over the next eight years. So when
the truck's due,
[27:08] you have the money there for it.
[27:09] You don't do it at the 50,000 today's
cost, you anticipate the inflation,
[27:13] so they may be paying 1/8 of $60,000.
[27:17] So that that fund is there in the
future.
[27:18] So you're not, this is not new money,
it's it's it's replacing itself
[27:21] like we do with computers and things
like that.
[27:25] Uh, so and one of the things that
we're doing is it's not just if you
think
[27:28] it's going to be eight years, they
don't just replace it at year eight.
[27:31] So year six, they'll start looking at
the vehicle and go, is it been heavy
use?
[27:33] Is it light use? Can we get two more
years out of it?
[27:37] You know, so it it you stretch it as
far as you can to to to where it
[27:40] doesn't cost more money to keep it
than it does to replace it.
[27:45] A couple of other things they've done
pretty nice with this is occasionally
[27:48] we'll have a vehicle.
[27:49] Like public works had a bucket truck.
[27:51] And the bucket truck was done for
them.
[27:53] They they couldn't take it out daily
to get out there and work in the
trees.
[27:56] But parks was paying people to use
bucket trucks to replace all the
banners
[27:59] around City Hall and help with the
lights.
[28:02] So parks was like, we don't you need
to use it weekly or daily,
[28:05] we can use it four or five times a
year.
[28:07] So they took the the truck that was
going to be surplus out of public
works,
[28:10] put it into parks.
[28:12] And let them use it for a while.
[28:14] And they show up as a now they're on
one of the new replacements
[28:17] or new requests because they've
determined by having it
[28:19] that it's cheaper for them to own the
truck and do it themselves
[28:23] than us to pay somebody to come in
and do it for us.
[28:26] But that's the benefit of having
somebody in fleet paying attention to
[28:30] instead of we just auction this thing
off, can somebody else use it for
[28:32] a couple of years and figure out
maybe it helps you run your operation
[28:36] before we buy something going
forward.
[28:40] Service enhancement.
[28:41] So this is people basically saying, I
would like to up the level of service
[28:44] beyond what we have.
[28:47] So there's an ongoing continuation
budget
[28:49] which is do what we do now at the
same level, whatever it costs going
forward.
[28:54] Service enhancements, three
departments have requested more than
what we do now.
[28:59] Stepping up to something else.
[29:01] Uh, these are going to be challenges
to find.
[29:03] Uh I just want to go over them so you
can see them.
[29:06] Now that'll be part of the
conversation as to what we do with
them going forward.
[29:09] Starting with parks.
[29:10] So the out years, we knew that we
were looking at park staff that would
be
[29:13] necessary to staff all the bond
projects going forward.
[29:17] As they were looking at how they
maintain the structures and we own 25
different
[29:21] park structures that are not part of
what's maintained by the engineering
[29:23] building maintenance team.
[29:27] Uh, they currently maintain these
buildings through either contracts or
with people
[29:31] who work there now or working on the
field, go check the toilets or
something.
[29:36] Uh, their request is to build a parks
maintenance team like like we have
[29:39] in building maintenance.
[29:41] I've had a couple conversations with
council members as we were
[29:43] going over the draft of this.
[29:45] that maybe there's a value in
creating a unified citywide
maintenance and put
[29:49] it all under engineering and have
them maintain every single building
[29:52] and maybe there would be a way to
make this work with fewer total
people.
[29:57] But but they're they're pointing, I
think all three of these are
[30:00] valid business request
[30:02] is that we don't have the people
right now to maintain the parks
[30:04] building the way they should,
[30:06] they're not going to get the right
life out of them
[30:07] the way we're currently maintaining
them.
[30:09] So we need to do better.
[30:10] Uh and this was a this was a good
idea from them to start the process
[30:13] of thinking through how do we
maintain them better.
[30:16] It came out of our our process
improvements when we started looking
at asset management
[30:21] and where where are we not getting
things where we want to.
[30:23] So, I think it was a it was a good
idea whether we whether we go down
that path or not,
[30:27] we'll see what you think as we talk
about it.
[30:30] The public works request, so they in
addition to fleet and solid waste,
[30:33] they have these four key divisions.
[30:36] This is kind of what they're known
for.
[30:37] Like this is the go out and take care
of everything we own section.
[30:41] And when I first got here as a
manager, we had a bunch of vacancies
in public works.
[30:45] They over 10 people were vacant.
[30:46] They couldn't staff the four key
divisions,
[30:49] so we just kind of pushed them
together and then they would hit
projects based on what what was most
important.
[30:55] But there's a different skill set in
a different skill set in a guy that
can run a a machine like a can get in
there and dredge
[30:59] versus a mowing guy versus a guy
who's an expert at paving,
[31:03] versus the people who were good at
climbing in trees and cutting them
down.
[31:06] So, we have operators at both the
high level, in the middle level,
[31:10] and we have different types of
machines, and then we also have
maintenance worker levels that don't
operate the machines at the higher
level.
[31:17] Uh when we started re-staffing and
rebuilding public works after
Christmas this year,
[31:21] we put them back into their specified
areas,
[31:24] and what was happening is the storm
water and grounds don't have enough
people to fully get out and do their
job,
[31:29] so they were having to cannibalize by
grabbing people from streets or signs
and help them out on busy days,
[31:34] which then gets in the way of these
people doing their job.
[32:37] Uh so what they've requested is to
these two maintenance workers, which
are pure boots on the ground. These
are their our entry level maintenance
people that get out and help.
[33:46] With those two people and those two
divisions, you fully staff all four
components of public works
[34:51] going forward and they don't have to
cannibalize unless there's a really
good reason to do that.
[35:00] I hope that council meeting doesn't
have a giant zoning hearing on it.
[35:03] Uh so we can get through it sooner.
[35:04] If we if if you prefer not to do
that,
[35:07] or if that meeting we end up talking
about tall fences or zoning,
[35:10] uh we can we have the 28th as well.
[35:12] set in there. We wouldn't need to set
Maxge by then
[35:15] because the trim notices are due in
early August to submit that out.
[35:19] Uh there's a unique thing with the
budget hearings this year.
[35:22] There's a statute that requires a
certain amount of days
[35:24] between when we get the tax money
from the from the appraiser
[35:27] and when you can hold first reading.
[35:30] And because the oddity of September
with the first being a Tuesday,
[35:33] it threw everything out of whack with
Labor Day.
[35:35] So these are the two dates we are
hoping to get all of you together
[35:39] to vote on first and second reading.
[35:41] Uh it doesn't have to be decided
tonight, but feel free to give
[35:44] any feedback on it if if it doesn't
work.
[35:47] And then what I said here, we
summarize.
[35:50] So what I put in here is these are
all the general fund in 27.
[35:54] Uh so they're not recommendations
from us at this point,
[35:57] they are good ideas from people that
we want to get your feedback on.
[36:00] You can see the total over on the
right down at the bottom says total
[36:03] general fund 5.7 million.
[36:05] Uh and then the enhancements that hit
the general fund are the
[36:10] additional 5 1.5, so you're a little
over $7 million
[36:12] of request in this year that hit the
general fund.
[36:15] Uh what I put down at the bottom,
when we lowered the reserve to
[36:19] 23 to 28%, we dropped that number to
19 million.
[36:23] So what happened is we had extra
money in fund balance. Some of it
[36:27] was from selling Allen Green Center.
[36:29] Some of it not the main.
[36:33] And some of it was from FEMA
reimbursements, and then some of it
[36:36] was the excess funds that was in fund
balance.
[36:38] So that ended up being your $10
million.
[36:40] We don't fund general fund capital.
[36:43] I've worked in cities where you take
a millage rate and part of your
[36:47] millage is set aside specifically for
general fund capital.
[36:50] So you will say if our millage is
5.1, five of it runs operating,
[36:54] 0.1 runs capital.
[36:56] And that way you constantly have
money to you don't end up deferring
[36:58] maintenance. We've never done that.
[37:00] Port Orange has always tried to
squeeze it all out of there.
[37:03] And basically what we did years back
is we just took
[37:06] leftover money and fund balance and
went, hey,
[37:09] we got 2.2 million, which one of
these 10 projects do you want to do?
[37:12] And and that leads to deferred
maintenance.
[37:14] That's what got us in trouble, that's
why we have duct tape and
[37:17] and WD40 reputation in the past.
[37:20] is that there's no reliable funding
source for general fund under that
[37:24] method.
[37:25] If you have a year, which if your
mando is a bad year because you get
[37:29] 20 vacancies in the police
department,
[37:30] it creates a bunch of money in the
general fund to pay for
[37:32] general fund projects.
[37:34] So, but he's done an outstanding job
and so has Joe. We don't
[37:37] have those vacancies.
[37:38] And even with the turnover, they're
immediately filling them back.
[37:41] So I don't see us taking that $10
million savings account and
[37:44] growing it a whole lot.
[37:46] We have a property off Reed Canal to
sell that maybe get us $750,000.
[37:51] It's got a pond in the middle. It's
making it a challenge to sell.
[37:54] Uh we may I think there's a small
piece of FEMA money we don't have
[37:57] back yet.
[37:59] But what I don't see that that's not
going to just keep growing.
[38:01] So if you spent 7.2 million of it,
you're going to have two and a half
[38:04] left and not a whole lot more coming
in the future.
[38:08] So I'm pretty sure some of these
things are going to be hard decisions
[38:11] that we just can't do now.
[38:12] uh going forward.
[38:14] But we wanted you to at least see
them and be able to comment on them
[38:16] before we started making decisions.
[38:18] And I was the one telling you what
not to do.
[38:20] Uh but at least we got that out there
so you can you can see that
[38:23] as a whole.
[38:24] And then the last slide is the
maintenance.
[38:26] Cuz I I still want to stress that if
we own it, we need to take
[38:30] care of it.
[38:31] We shouldn't have stuff and not take
care of it.
[38:33] Uh we have seen that with the
generator at the police department
[38:36] where we lost a decade of used on it.
[38:38] We've had the the one one wreck got
built, uh nobody added a generator
[38:42] big enough to actually handle the
additional wreck,
[38:46] So there there's things like that
roofs that didn't last as long.
[38:49] Uh we really need to make sure that
we take care of what we have going
[38:51] forward.
[38:52] So we don't want to lose the
maintenance as well going forward.
[38:55] So those are the two key decision
points.
[38:57] I'd be happy to answer any questions.
I'll look back over here to see what
[39:00] I got wrong. Staff can correct me
with their corrections text when I
get
[39:04] stuff wrong.
[39:06] But other than that, I'm done talking
if you guys have other comments.
[39:11] Wow. Well, that's uh, that's a lot of
information.
[39:15] And and as the city manager talked
about, this is kind of a first step
[39:18] in the annual budget process.
[39:20] Pay attention, Stan.
[39:22] [laughter]
[39:23] And um, I know he's a numbers guy.
He's already over there. He's his
[39:25] head spinning.
[39:26] [laughter]
[39:27] Um, you know, this is this is
[39:31] without question the most unique
budget session that we're going to
[39:35] go into since I've been on the
council,
[39:39] only to probably be surpassed next
possibly next year.
[39:44] [laughter]
[39:45] So, uh former Mayor Green used to say
all the time,
[39:49] it is not about that initial purchase
for buildings, equipment,
[39:53] or whatever, it will always be about
the maintenance.
[39:57] That's the cost that really is going
to need to
[40:00] something and you you wrestle with
and come to terms with
[40:03] and you and you plan for.
[40:04] And and and I will
[40:07] Like I said earlier in the meeting
tonight.
[40:09] You know, kicking cans and kicking
maintenance
[40:12] is going to catch you.
[40:14] It is going to catch you.
[40:16] and it's probably going to
[40:17] catch you when you're not
[40:19] prepared to compensate for it.
[40:21] Um we've we've we have seen
[40:23] really important infrastructure
[40:26] in the past unexpectedly
[40:29] break, burst, you know, what
[40:31] whatever, um and you got to
[40:32] be able to respond to that stuff.
[40:34] You got to have the funds and you got
to be able to deal with that
[40:37] and um so kicking the can cost you a
lot more.
[40:40] All that just to say my my comments
are pretty simple tonight.
[40:44] I one of the fears that I have and
this probably comes from
[40:47] not only being a past employee of the
city,
[40:50] but sitting up here on the city
council.
[40:53] One of the hardest things that I
think an elected official on this
[40:57] dais could potentially ever have to
do is cut services
[41:00] and or cut personnel.
[41:05] When you know that it's not good for
the community.
[41:09] But if you don't have a way to pay
for it,
[41:11] something's going to have to give.
[41:14] So, um this is this is the city
manager's job,
[41:18] and this is the staff's job to make
these recommendations to
[41:23] to forecast for us where we need to
be,
[41:25] what we're going to need to have to
maintain the quality of life
[41:29] and the services in the city of Port
Orange that our
[41:31] residents have come to expect.
[41:33] Um the reality of it is is that we
know coming November the
[41:36] residents are going to get an
opportunity to speak as to
[41:39] whether or not that is still what
they want from us.
[41:45] Um, so as we work through this year's
budget,
[41:48] it's going to be very difficult for
us not to have in the
[41:50] back of our mind that
[41:53] there is a significant risk that if
we start adding more
[41:56] new things to this budget
[42:00] and to what we do as a city, there's
a very strong possibility
[42:06] that the following year you're going
to have to remove them.
[42:10] So just keep keep that in mind.
[42:12] I know that's not anything any of us
want to have to do. Um,
[42:15] but it will definitely be something
that we will have
[42:18] to be considering.
[42:20] So, um I I think that if the city
manager said this is this
[42:23] is just the first step to lay this
out for us.
[42:26] I do like the five-year increment
look, when I think that's um
[42:30] that's the only way to focus and look
at this.
[42:34] Some of those project numbers are
huge when you set
[42:36] when you set $170 million.
[42:40] I'm like, man, I I missed that. I'm
I'm looking back at that.
[42:43] I'm like, holy that is a $170 million
project.
[42:46] That's amazing that we're talking
about that.
[42:49] But here again, you know, that's part
of I guess you would argue
[42:53] unfunded mandates, right?
[42:56] These are these are mandates that are
being made upon
[42:59] municipalities that higher levels of
government to do
[43:01] where you have to do it.
[43:04] And it's easy to say, well, we might
get a forgivable loan.
[43:06] That'd be great.
[43:08] We're not the only city that are
going to be looking for those
[43:11] unforgivable loans to meet these
higher level government mandates
[43:14] and then even if you have like you
said, maybe you just get
[43:17] an interest and it's favorable at 1%.
[43:20] That's great.
[43:21] You still got to pay it back. You got
to have a plan and a
[43:23] funding mechanism that pays it back.
[43:27] Um, so anyway, all all that just to
say that that's what's on my mind
[43:32] Um, is, you know, I I really want to
see us work hard to
[43:35] continue maintaining what we already
have in this city.
[43:39] Um, and that in and of itself is a
challenge, not knowing what,
[43:43] you know, the next whatever four
months may may may dictate to us.
[43:50] Lance, we'll start with you.
[43:51] Oh, I'm good. I've been through this
thing already. I rolled
[43:55] through it several hours last night
and again,
[43:58] I'm just I'm worried and I'm worried
about what's going to
[44:01] happen in November, honestly. I'm
just
[44:04] I'm worried.
[44:06] So, but other than that, I will we'll
keep progressing with
[44:09] with what we got.
[44:11] John?
[44:13] I want to say thank you very much.
Your presentation was incredibly
[44:18] very well to understand. I've always
felt like when you talk
[44:23] to me, I understand what you're
saying.
[44:25] I hope that our our our citizens can
see this.
[44:31] And unfortunately, there's 1, 2, 3,
4, 5, 6, 7, 8 in the
[44:34] audience right now.
[44:37] The absolute most important thing we
do as an elected
[44:40] official is this budget.
[44:43] And no one shows up for it.
[44:45] It blows my mind that I've had more
people in front of us
[44:49] for fluoride in our water than the
most important thing
[44:53] that's paying the operating costs of
this city.
[44:57] And what it tells me is
[45:00] that the people trust us.
[45:03] And they trust us because we provide
the information.
[45:07] And you did a great job doing that,
and I really appreciate that.
[45:10] And we need to get this information
out to everybody.
[45:13] So they understand the importance of
where the money
[45:15] comes from and what we spend it on.
[45:17] And it's quality of life.
[45:19] And it services, it's firefighters
and police
[45:21] officers and parks and wreck.
[45:23] Everything everybody wants and why
they live here.
[45:25] It's the streets, it's the setbacks,
it's the everything,
[45:29] the trees.
[45:30] All cost money.
[45:32] I didn't see anything in here, Robin,
in here, Robin, in reference to the
lights on Taylor Road.
[45:36] It's all I got.
[45:38] It needs to be in there.
[45:40] Tracy.
[45:42] Wayne, thank you for the five-year
plan, um, and thank you to all your
staff for putting this together.
[45:48] I know it takes an army of
individuals to do this.
[45:53] Um, previous budgets over the last
couple of years, me sitting up here
and reviewing,
[46:00] this was a way easier process.
[46:04] So, thank you staff for that and
putting this together.
[46:07] It's always about a five-year plan.
We've we've talked about build out uh
coming and how that's going to affect
the city.
[46:13] We have to have a plan in in motion,
[46:16] and by seeing this now come into
fruition, it shows me that you and
your staff is planning for that.
[46:23] So, thank you because the future's
going to be hard.
[46:27] November's going to put a kink in
things, I believe.
[46:33] And that makes it even harder.
[46:34] But for right now, what this is is if
we go forward, we have a plan in
place
[46:40] to be able to take care of the
citizens, the infrastructure, but
also the staff.
[46:47] You know, a lot people don't think
about, you know, you got 500 people
that we we answer to.
[46:55] But 65,000 people that we definitely
answer to.
[46:58] So these plans and budgets have to be
spot on.
[47:02] So, thank you for this.
[47:08] Yeah, Wayne, I uh, I feel like these
presentations have gotten easier to
digest each year.
[47:14] And and I appreciate you and and
staff and and staff tonight. I know
it's not fun for y'all to sit here
for a three and a half hour meeting.
[47:21] Appreciate all the hard work you guys
do,
[47:23] you know, 24/7. So.
[47:26] Um, I think Scott said it best.
[47:28] Yeah, I think we all know, you know,
[47:29] the elephant in the room with with,
[47:31] you know, whatever's going to happen
[47:33] with uh this this voter
[47:34] opportunity.
[47:37] Um, with the state suggestions and
and this piece of legislation.
[47:41] So, it's it's going to be a a very
interesting thing to watch.
[47:45] I think we have to be very careful,
[47:48] um, because Scott's right,
[47:50] the last thing you want to do is
[47:52] is have to peel back
[47:53] and and start making cuts.
[47:55] So, um, you know, there's there's a
time to spend, there's a time to save
and there's there's a time to stand
pat.
[48:02] And um, this year might be one of
[48:04] those times that we we want to be
[48:05] a little more on the cautious side
[48:08] because um, we don't know what
[48:10] is going to happen come, you know,
[48:12] after November.
[48:16] Wayne, I I think um,
[48:19] I'm going to give you a a chance
[48:21] to close out the conversation,
[48:21] but I think you're going to need
more,
[48:23] you know, obviously direction from
[48:25] council, not necessarily tonight.
[48:27] But I I I think that what I would
[48:30] encourage and challenge council
[48:32] to be having the one-on-one
[48:33] discussions with Wayne and his team
[48:35] is is provide the direction that
[48:38] they need from us.
[48:39] Look at some of these projects
[48:41] specifically, you know, right right
[48:43] off the bat for me, the the Parks
[48:45] and Rec bond projects.
[48:48] and how quickly and fast do we want
to advance those, knowing they could
get hung out to dry.
[48:54] And and and that that sucks, for lack
of a better way, because our voters
have already spoke to that.
[49:00] Mhm. But our our voters won't have
complete control.
[49:03] The state voters will have complete
control.
[49:05] And so we, you know, I I've already
[49:08] talked to Wayne that, you know, no
[49:10] matter how the vote shakes out,
[49:12] sometime, and this will come later
[49:14] after the vote in November,
[49:15] that we will be able to go in by
precincts and look specifically at
what their our voters say.
[49:22] So we will do that, you know, we will
be able to do that.
[49:24] And and so you'll be able to see
[49:26] obviously whatever happens with the
[49:28] statewide vote, that's going to
[49:30] dictate state uh constitutional
[49:31] changes, or not.
[49:33] But we'll still be able to look and
see what did our voters want.
[49:36] And and um, so we'll we'll be doing
that.
[49:38] All that to say, that's well after
the next budget gets passed. Mhm.
[49:43] So we've got work to do trying to
[49:45] to to forecast what we think the
[49:47] future may hold.
[49:48] We just need to approach that
[49:50] with caution.
[49:52] Um, but but keeping what we do know
[49:54] about our community is that our
[49:56] residents look for a high quality
[49:57] of life and they do expect high
[50:00] all these services. She's going to
have to figure out how
[50:03] where that line is exactly and how to
provide that. So
[50:06] just be be mindful of that. Have
these conversations with Wayne
[50:10] and his staff and then
[50:13] Wayne you let us know, hey, I got to
know this.
[50:16] Where do you guys want to be on this,
you know?
[50:18] And and I think you can feel it. I
mean,
[50:20] you know, you're a resident taxpayer
of the City of Port Orange, too.
[50:22] So yes, you're the city manager, but
you also can see what's going on
[50:26] right now in our state and our
community. So
[50:28] just keep us in the loop what you
need.
[50:30] Any other comments you want to make
on this tonight?
[50:32] Just to make sure to thank the staff
that dealt with me.
[50:35] We met twice a day for the last
couple of weeks.
[50:38] with several meetings going after
5:00.
[50:41] And Sue and Petra were at a at a
conference learning about the tax
stuff.
[50:45] And drove all the way over here from
Orlando to do it just to go back
again.
[50:49] So the staff has been very patient. I
don't know.
[50:51] We're on revision 30, 35 or
something.
[50:55] just but all the questions on what is
this, why is this, help me with
[50:59] that information.
[51:01] they've been there for the answers.
[51:02] If you guys if you see a project you
want to know more about, let me know.
[51:05] If it's something you want to go
physically see, if you want to walk
[51:07] in the building and look at it.
[51:09] that it helps understand it. Let us
know what we need to do to help you
[51:12] understand it, to help with direction
to us going forward.
[51:15] Yeah, and I Mr. Mayor,
[51:16] I'd like to just go through every
page one more time.
[51:18] One more time!
[51:20] [laughter] said some caffeine.
[51:22] I know, I know it's getting to be a
late meeting and we're running along.
[51:25] But I just want to say this to staff.
[51:27] And I mean this to not only the staff
that's here tonight but your staff,
[51:30] you know, all the way down.
[51:32] There is absolutely in my mind
nothing in this presentation tonight
[51:37] that I look at and go, that's utterly
ridiculous.
[51:41] So I I I think all of this is
[51:43] is stuff that is
[51:45] holds a lot of merit.
[51:46] It it holds true to what the vision
and the focus of our city and our
[51:50] residents have looked for and and
asked for.
[51:53] And so I I appreciate that.
[51:56] I also appreciate that the staff is
well aware of this discussion we're
[52:00] trying to beat around the bush a
little bit with.
[52:02] Because we just don't know what
November's bringing.
[52:04] And and I know that all of you are
very experienced and very seasoned.
[52:08] And you understand exactly what we're
trying to say.
[52:12] We just got to have your way to pay
for it, right?
[52:14] There has to the the the investors of
our city have to be able to pay
[52:20] for it. What does that mechanism look
like?
[52:23] If this is what they want, how does
that occur?
[52:25] And the complexity of the budget,
[52:28] thank you for what you do.
[52:30] The complexity of the budget because
I'm going to promise you this,
[52:33] Facebook doesn't have a clue how
stuff gets funded in municipal
[52:36] government.
[52:38] Not a clue.
[52:39] I have yet to see one single person,
[52:41] a lot with opinions, but none of them
have a clue what money comes from
[52:45] where and what restrictions and
certain money is is is
[52:48] and how that plays out in municipal
government.
[52:50] It's it's very complex, so we
appreciate what you guys do.
[52:54] All right, now from that item, um,
moving on to item 23, Council
[52:58] Committee reports.